"He knows where the hideout is?"

"I-I think so, according to his letter," Alexandra nodded, looking down at the fireplace, where the shape of her mother's face was sitting amongst the firewood in the Room of Requirements fireplace.

"And he knows that Gillyweed will render the Morantim useless?" Claridina frowned.

"Yes," Alexandra said. "He thinks that you're making some Death Blood potion."

For the first time during their conversation, Claridina smiled. "Does he?"

"Are-Are you not?" Alexandra asked, confused.

"Never you mind," Claridina said quickly. "What else did the letter say?"

"Nothing much," Alexandra said. "Just that the Order is going to be putting protections around the school's supply of Gillyweed."

"I see…" Claridina said slowly. "Yes, I see…"

"I haven't broken my vow then," Alexandra said. "I told you what you wanted to know."

"Yes you have, my daughter," Claridina said, her voice sending shivers up Alexandra's spine. "Very good, very good. I will be in contact with you soon, my dear."

And with that, Claridina had vanished. Alexandra got to her feet, still trembling, as she always did after talking to her mother.

….

"I've got news," Hermione said, apperating into the Potter's house.

"I don't know why I'm going to bother asking, but good or bad?" Ginny asked, looking up from the pot of stew she was stirring on the stove.

"I think that Claridina is trying to make an alliance with the muggle Prime Minister," Hermione sighed.

"What?" Harry exclaimed. "Why would she want to make any sort of agreement with a muggle?"

"We've been over this, Harry," Hermione said. "As Dark as Claridina may be, she is not Voldemort. She may not welcome muggles and muggle-borns in with open arms, but they're not the only ones in her line of fire. If she thinks that having a relationship with a muggle can help her, she wouldn't pass that up."

"But how would being in cahoots with the muggle Prime Minister help her?" Ginny asked.

"She'd be able to have him cover up her activity," Hermione suggested. "Meaning she could do anything she wanted and not have to worry about the muggle population finding about her. Though I think soon she won't even care about the Statue of Secrecy; if she keeps up, she'll be out in the open among the muggles as well."

"But what if we can persuade the muggle minister to come over to our side?" Ginny asked. "That may at least slow her down a bit."

"She'll probably have him bewitched," Harry said. "That's got to be the reason he's with her in the first place. And I'll bet she's got a group of her followers surrounding him around the clock now."

"That's what it looks like," Hermione sighed. She turned to Harry. "We've got to get into her hideout. As quickly as possible."

"But I thought you said that your defensive spells would take longer to work through her protections," Harry said. He thought back to the glitch that he had found and still hadn't told anyone about…

"We've got to find a way," Hermione said. "I'll start looking, and maybe if I go through enough books, then I can find something."

"I'll help you," Ginny said at once. "And we'll have other members of the Order look too."

"Don't bother," Harry said.

Hermione and Ginny frowned at him.

"Don't bother?" Hermione repeated. "Harry, we've got to, or else-"

"I mean don't bother because I've already found a section of her protection that's down," Harry said heavily.

Ginny stared at him, agape, and Harry stared, determined, away from her gaze.

"You-You've already found a way to get into her hideout then?" Hermione said softly. "W-When?"

"About a month ago," Harry replied, still feeling his wife's hard stare. "It's not a big enough glitch to get into the hideout, but I've-I've been working on getting through while I've had guard duty. I can show you; you-you'll probably be able to make far more progress than I've managed."

"And why, may I ask," Ginny finally spoke up, her voice level, but anger still very evident in it. "Did you not think to share this information with anybody else?"

"Because I-I knew that you'd all obviously want to storm the hideout!" Harry said. "And then who knows what would happen?"

"What would happen?" Ginny snapped. "We're in the Order, Harry! We know bloody well what could happen! You're doing this damn hero thing again! You can't protect everyone, Harry! You want to sacrifice yourself in everyway, and leave the rest of us sitting, "safe and sound"! You did the same thing when you were seventeen, and you're doing it again!"

Hermione backed away from the couple, very uncomfortable in the situation.

"I'm not just trying to keep everyone "safe and sound"!" Harry retorted.

"Yes you are!" Ginny cried, exasperated. "And you know what? Do you even stop and think that it's not just you who worries about all of us? We worry about you! Especially me! What if you had gone off into her hideout and Claridina got to you and you wound up dead? What do you think would happen to me then? Or the kids? Or the other dozens of members in the Order who care about you? You think you're being the martyr, but you're really just being selfish!"

Harry stared at her, her face red and her fists shaking.

"You'd better go with Hermione, show her the spot where the protection's down," Ginny said, her voice now dangerously quiet.

"Ginny, I-" Harry started, but she had already turned and was heading upstairs. He looked over at Hermione, who gave him a sympathetic look, though Harry knew very well she was most likely on her side in this.

Without a word, Harry followed Hermione to the fireplace.