Plan of Attack

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed. I'm behind on answering but hope to catch up soon. Also, thanks again to quaffswinegaily for the Britpick. I tweaked some things after she sent it back to me, so if any Americanisms snuck back in, I apologise.

The usual disclaimer applies – the characters and many of the concepts belong to JKR, and I'm not profiting except in the form of your enjoyment and (hopefully) reviews.

Chapter 2: Plan of Attack

When they were alone, Hermione braced herself for what she knew would happen, and sure enough, Ron and Harry did not disappoint. Apparently, their agreement had been only for so long as they would have to argue with more than just Hermione. "I don't know why Snape should be in charge," Ron said petulantly. "We're the professional Aurors. If anything, he should be taking direction from us. Think of all the time we're wasting sitting around while whoever did this is probably Apparating halfway around the planet."

"Be reasonable, Ron," Hermione began, but Harry interrupted before she could say more.

"Ron's right, Hermione. We are the professionals," Harry said, his tone so self-important that Hermione wondered for a moment whether she was really looking at a Polyjuiced Percy. "What's the point of us sitting around doing nothing? We're just giving the perpetrators more time to cover their tracks." He stood. "Come on, Ron. Hermione, you can just tell Snape –"

Hermione stood, too, losing her temper at their continued insistence on rushing headlong into action without formulating any sort of strategy. "I'm not telling Professor Snape anything other than that he was apparently right in thinking you're both arrogant prats who can be counted on for nothing so much as to muck things up because you refuse to take a minute to think them through." She pointed at the door. "Go ahead and go, then. Professor Snape and I will figure this out without your dubious assistance." They stared at her, apparently gobsmacked. "Well, what are you waiting for? I certainly don't need your help. After all, Professor Snape probably forgot more Dark Magic long before you were even born than either of you has ever learned. He's also likely spent more time with the perpetrators, whoever they are, than you've even spent thinking about them. Go do whatever you want to do while Professor Snape and I figure out what actually happened here. Just don't expect any assistance from us when you get into trouble. We'll be busy helping the headmaster, and we won't have time to save you from your own idiocy."

"Well, er ..." Ron said, exchanging a sheepish glance with Harry as he tried to placate Hermione. "Perhaps we spoke a bit hastily. It might not hurt to have some strategic assistance in the investigation, eh, Harry?"

"All right, fine," Harry conceded, though with less grace than Hermione would have hoped. "What do you have in mind?"

Slightly mollified by their acquiescence, Hermione sat down and replied with as much grace as she could manage. "It seems to me that the most obvious place to start would be to obtain Professor Dumbledore's memory of the event, but I'm sure Professor Snape has thought of that, so hopefully he'll bring it when he returns. After that, I would think that my best contribution would be to attempt to determine exactly what sort of spell was used, and to try to find or develop a countercurse." She paused. "Of course, once we have a better idea of who we're looking for, it makes sense for you and Ron to go and begin questioning people. I expect Professor Snape will have ideas about what role he should play, so we probably ought to wait for him before going any further."

The boys agreed, but still seemed restless, so she decided to distract them. "Perhaps a snack while we wait? You won't function well on an empty stomach."

"Good idea," Ron agreed, looking marginally happier, as usual, at the thought of food. Hermione quickly called a house-elf.

The key to the next several minutes was to keep the boys occupied, so Hermione forced herself to start a conversation she knew they wouldn't be able to resist. "So, how are the Cannons doing this season?"

In the hospital wing, Severus had already looked for traces of any sort of familiar Dark Magic, but found nothing, so whatever was affecting Albus must either be very esoteric or, hard as it was to believe, not truly Dark. They had agreed they should extract Albus's memory right away, though Poppy was waiting impatiently to have her turn to attempt diagnosis of the mystery ailment. Severus said, "All right, Albus, if you're sure you can't do it yourself, I shall have to do it. Call to mind the incident, if you please."

"All right," Albus said, and when he nodded, Severus put his wand to the older wizard's temple and withdrew a long strand of silver. He put it carefully in the flask Poppy was holding for that purpose. After confirming that he had the entire memory, he magically sealed the flask and stepped aside to allow Poppy to run her diagnostics with her wand. He watched closely, trying not to think about how disturbing it was to see Albus without the twinkle in his eye that was always there, even in the most serious of situations.

When she was done, Poppy looked worried, but all she said was, "Get some rest, Albus. I'm going to see what I have in the storage cupboard for you." Severus, in response to Poppy's silent demand, followed her into her office. She shut the door behind them. "I don't want to worry you, Severus, any more than you already are, but I must tell you that I think the situation is very dire, indeed. It appears that someone has rent his magic, which is slowly draining away. This would be serious at any age, but at his age, his magic is so entwined with his life force – his chi, if you will – that if the magic isn't returned, he will waste away and die."

"Can you at least stop the continuing drain?" Severus asked.

"Yes, but enough has been lost already that it is unlikely he'll recover if we don't return at least some of what's been lost." Poppy shook her head. "It won't do, Severus. I doubt he'll want to live without use of magic for very long, and I am about to put him on restriction – no use of magic at all – because the more he uses it, the more rapidly he'll drain his chi. In fact, now that you have his memory of the event, it's probably best that I put him into a magically induced coma, so that he won't use magic out of sheer habit. Meanwhile, I shall consult with St. Mungo's to see if they have any other ideas."

"All right," Severus agreed reluctantly. "What will you tell Albus?"

"The truth, I suppose," Poppy said, sounding unhappy. "Unlike some people I've treated, Albus will take my advice and allow me to treat him according to my best judgment."

Severus had no doubt she was referring to him; he had, throughout the war, frequently ignored her instructions in order to get on with his duties sooner. He didn't comment, however. He simply said, "All right. I must get back to Albus's office before Miss Granger loses whatever tenuous hold she has on Potter and Weasley and they run off to do something foolish."

When Professor Snape arrived in Albus's office, he looked surprised to find Granger sitting quietly, nibbling on sandwiches and sipping tea while her companions discussed the Chudley Cannons. Hermione spoke quickly lest he get the wrong impression. "We outlined a basic strategy, then thought it best to wait to see the Headmaster's memories before going any further. To save time, we decided to eat now – that way we'll be ready to go as soon as our plans are in place. I assume that's ready for the Pensieve?" She nodded toward the flask he held.

Professor Snape nodded, tapped his wand once on the flask to release the seal, and poured the silvery strands into the Pensieve. Then he turned to glare at them, snapping, "Well? Are you just going to sit there, or do you actually want to see what happened?" Hermione jumped up to join the professor; Harry and Ron did the same. Within moments, they found themselves observing the street outside Honeydukes.

Dumbledorecame into view, munching happily on what appeared to be cockroach clusters. He looked just as he always had, spry and fit and resplendent in purple robes with sparkly gold spangles and incongruous hot pink trim. Glancing around, Hermione saw a few people loitering here and there, but no one who appeared to be paying any particular attention to the headmaster. A middle-aged man was sweeping the walk outside the Apothecary down the street, while Rosmerta was levitating some rubbish to the alley behind the Three Broomsticks. At the bookshop, a wizard in his twenties was brandishing his wand, apparently rearranging the window display. In the other direction, toward the residential section of town, a child who looked to be a few years too young to go to Hogwarts was playing hopscotch in the street, while nearby, a toddler who looked enough like the older one that he must be a sibling was brandishing a wand and singing joyfully to himself, with sparks flying here and there. Suddenly, Harry gasped and grabbed Hermione's arm. "There! Did you see that?"

Hermione looked and saw Dumbledore righting himself as a pair of youngish-looking men hurried past, glowering over their shoulders at him. One said, sounding distinctly foreign, "Watch out, old man! You cannot just block the doorway like that!" The pair hurried off. Meanwhile, Hermione's eyes were drawn to a hard-looking woman loitering in the doorway of what looked to be a gentleman's club. She was smoking a cigarette and eying Dumbledore in a disturbing manner as he walked toward the path to Hogwarts. A man joined her, coming from inside the club, and she said something to him, then they both cackled. Before following Dumbledore to the path, Hermione heard a wail and glanced back at the children, only to see a harried-looking woman shepherding them both toward one of the cottages. The younger one appeared upset as he reached in vain for the wand that the woman had apparently taken from him.

Forcing her attention back to the relevant part of the scene, Hermione and her three companions followed Dumbledore up the path. Hearing a sound off to the left, she saw two nondescript men and a woman in a clearing. One of them smiled grimly and pointed his wand toward Dumbledore, sending a blue light in his direction. But just as the light might have hit, Dumbledore must have Apparated, because he disappeared from the path, and the memory ended.

By mutual agreement, Granger made comprehensive notes about what they had seen, then they all looked in the Pensieve several more times until everyone wassatisfied that nothing had been missed. Granger tapped the parchment three times, making identical copies for each of the men present. The younger men resumed eating as they perused their copies. Without any apparent thought or effort, Granger casually refilled their tea with a wave of her wand and conjured a cup and plate for Severus as she read through the notes once more. Severus was unwillingly impressed by her ability to do that while clearly focused on something else, but he supposed spending as much time with teenaged boys as she had in years past would have made that a highly useful skill. Eventually, Potter broke the silence. "Right, then, I suppose Ron and I ought to be off looking for all these people to question." He paused. "Did anyone recognize any of them? Aside from Rosmerta, I mean?"

"I've seen that man working at the bookshop on a number of occasions," Granger said.

"The man in front of the apothecary shop is also a long-time employee," Severus added. "The woman in front of the gentleman's club works there, I believe." Granger gave him an odd look, so Severus added, "She's been there for years, and she was a sympathizer of the Dark Lord. I believe Lucius Malfoy used to visit her frequently in the bad old days." Granger's expression cleared and she nodded.

"So she's someone to look into. Did you know the man with her, Professor?"

"Not that I can recall," he said. "But one of the men in the forest looked familiar. Not the one who threw the hex, but the other one."

Weasley spoke up. "The men who knocked into Dumbledore looked familiar to me, I think, but I can't place them at the moment. I'm sure I'll remember eventually, though."

"All right," Granger said, tapping her latest list three times and floating copies to each of the men again. "Here's what we know about the people. Harry, Ron, unless Professor Snape objects, I suppose you may as well go see what you can learn from them. Professor, I thought I'd go to the library and see what I can discover about that hex we saw, as well as learn what I can more generally about the sort of spell that might cause Professor Dumbledore's symptoms, so perhaps you'd take a moment to tell me what Madam Pomfrey said?" Severus nodded in agreement as she continued, "I'll leave it to you to decide where you can most efficiently direct your efforts."

Potter and Weasley stood. "We'll leave you to it, Hermione, Professor," Potter said.

"Be careful," Granger admonished them. "Good luck."

"Thanks. You, too," Weasley responded, and then they were gone, leaving Severus and Granger staring at one another.