Harry's Future

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

With his usual efficiency, Kreacher had the door to the Black house open before Harry had a chance to finish knocking. Harry was fine with that, especially this evening. He was tired and couldn't wait to drop into his comfortable chair in the study. 

"Thanks, Kreacher. Something simple for dinner tonight will be fine." 

"Kreacher will have Master Harry's dinner to him in a few moments," Kreacher replied as he took Harry's cloak and hat. 

Harry trudged to his study and dropped into the upholstered chair. He closed his eyes and thought back over the events of the day. After spending the weekend with Ginny in Holyhead he started the day by seeing Ginny and the rest of the Harpies off on their trip to France for the Quidditch tournament. Depending on their success they could be gone for as much as two weeks. When he got to the office he found Maxwell and Milligan waiting for him. Using the information they had gathered so far they suggested to Harry that the raid should be early in the morning on Thursday. Based on the schedule for deliveries they should be able to bottle up everyone they had identified as being part of the operation. 

After Milligan had left, Maxwell and Harry discussed the make up of the team they would need. Maxwell's recommendation for the leader of the new Special Tactical Squad was going to be Evelyn Muntab, the witch Harry had first met when they made the raid that resulted in the arrest of the 'source'. Maxwell was going to remain as the head of the squad still pursuing the last of Voldemort's followers. Muntab had been called up to Harry's office and after being informed of her elevation the three sat down and went through the plan. It was going to take a full dozen Aurors to do the job. There would be three to fly cover over the warehouse, four more to cover the outside of the building on the ground and five to go through the Knockturn Alley storefront and enter the warehouse from the portal. 

Harry announced that he would be going along with the portal strike team and that Maxwell was going to be outside with the ground team. Both Maxwell and Muntab raised serious objections to this. Harry gave them both time to vent all their arguments and overrode them by simply stating, 

"Based on my observations so far, I believe I'm safe in saying that there isn't an Auror in this department that is a powerful or as good with a wand as I am. It's not a boast, just a statement of fact. This is too important and dangerous a situation to leave that kind of advantage back here. We are going to be splitting the strike team once inside so I want maximum firepower in there and I want you, Maxwell, outside if something goes wrong and we need to change plans. Understood?" 

The two older Aurors looked at Harry and as his bespectacled green eyes bore into them they just nodded their agreement. 

"Good. Get your team together and start drilling them on their stealthy movement and forced entry skills. Meet me here Wednesday morning at nine o'clock for a status report. I'll be at Hogwart's tomorrow but I'll be available if you need to reach me." 

By the time they were done it was time for lunch and Harry grabbed his now usual quick sandwich and tea. When he returned he found a message on his desk from the Public Relations Officer from the Minister's Office indicating that there was a significant response to the first run of the ad he placed. While there were a few negative comments, along the lines that Harry was undermining the fine institution of the Aurors, the vast majority were complimentary and many including the sentiment that this was long overdue. Harry could only smile and hope that this boded well for the turn out. The afternoon consisted of documenting the assignments that had been made for the various new teams he was establishing and finalizing the number of new recruits that he was looking for. It was not an insignificant number. The Patrollers needed two Patrol Officers per shift for Diagon Alley, three shifts each day, seven days a week. Knockturn Alley was getting the same number but one Auror was to be matched with each Patroller for that duty. Hogsmeade would get one Patroller per shift and then there were those needed for the Azkaban Guard staff. The Minister had authorized a head count of forty for the new recruits and he would need every one of them.