Chapter 9
On the morning of September 2, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Edward were in a street adjacent to the official entrance to the Ministry of Magic, waiting for their first victim. They had decided, after many reflections, to stupefy them all (except the collaborator) and to tie them up with ropes so that they would not be believed guilty and that it would be known that they had only been victims in this case. They started with Mafalda Hopkirk, then with Reg Cattermole, then Bode was their third victim, and finally they sent Runcorn home so that he would not have an alibi thanks to Nosebleed Nougat.
Then, once they were dressed in their respective uniforms and each given a Ministry token, they headed to the filthy public restrooms that were the official entrance to the Ministry of Magic. There, everyone played their role: Hermione, that of a frightened assistant, Ron, that of an employee worried about his wife but appreciated by his colleagues, Edward, that of a laconic Unspeakable and finally Harry that of a collaborator of the arrogant regime and proud to be on the side of the strongest.
Nevertheless, once in their respective stalls, the boys lost their temper a little until they realized that they had to set foot in the toilet bowl and flush the toilet. According to Edward, that perfectly described the mess that the Ministry had become… They went down a toboggan and quickly moved out of way of the next arrivals. For a moment they stared at the arrogant 'MAGIC IS POWER' statue showing a haughty couple of wizards and witches seated in thrones supported by masses of Muggles, men, women and children all naked and ugly. It was monstrous to see the way the regime viewed Muggles: only good enough to serve as slaves. But they couldn't do much about it. The only good news, if anything, was that less than one in ten Muggle-born children had turned up for their blood status audition, proof that Remus and the Order had done some good.
While searching for Umbridge, however, a small problem arose when Yaxley, one of the Death Eaters who witnessed Dumbledore's death, called on Ron in disguise as a Cattermole to fix the rain problem in his office (joke no doubt played by an anti-Death Eater). The Death Eater in the gold and black robe shouted at him violently, threatening the wife of the poor guy who must always be stunned in the old theater. Harry pretended to approve of the poor man's treatment with a smirk.
Ron, on the other hand, recited aloud all the spells that could help him solve the Death Eater problem. The young boy was completely lost in his role, muttering that his wife might not get away with it if he made a wrong move. Everyone in the elevator was looking at him with commiseration which made things worse. But at least no one doubted his role. Harry, for his part, gave a mischievous smile to Dirk Cresswell's replacement from the Goblin liaison office who had a chance of getting his job thanks to the collaborator. The young boy made a mental note to do everything so that the so-called Dirk would receive several promotions if he made it out alive after his fight against Voldemort was over. He also decided to do everything so that the collaborator whose place he had taken would face a just punishment.
When the elevator arrived at the first floor of the Minister's office, Hermione couldn't suppress a gasp when she realized that she had Umbridge in front of her. The latter obviously was only waiting for one thing, an easily terrorized assistant to serve as clerk during the Muggle-born hearings. Harry went down to this floor, while Edward went down to the Department of Mysteries with Umbridge, Hermione, and two other wizards. Once his surroundings were quiet, Harry calmed himself down and hid under the cover of his invisibility cloak and walked through the corridors in the form of a maze impossible for a newcomer to solve. Harry thought he would have liked a Marauder's Map for a place like this.
They should have made a reconnaissance visit before coming here, except that it would be impossible for them to return, knowing that security measures would certainly be increased next time. So if he had to find the locket, it was now or never. Harry passed no one until he found himself in an open place where wizards and witches, seated at polished wooden school desks, were making pamphlets visibly designed by Umbridge about the dangers of Mudbloods in pureblood societies. The regime had obviously moved to a higher stage in its fight against "vermin".
Harry saw that the door to Umbridge's office, now promoted to Muggleborn Registration Board Director, had Moody's eye on it. Knowing that eye could spot him under his cloak, Harry slipped into his blind spot and cast an explosive decoy that caused enough panic in the room that he was able to enter Umbridge's office- which was exactly like the one he had seen during the time of her professorship at Hogwarts: the kitschy décor, the pink the kittens, everything. The first thing Harry did, in an impulsive move, was to gouge out Moody's fake eye and then he tried to pull the locket to himself with all his might. But unfortunately, even searching the desk from top to bottom, it wasn't there, which meant she had to have it on her. So he had to join Hermione in the interrogation rooms downstairs.
But before then, he went to get some information on the members of the Order: all were in the line of fire, their security status marked them all as closely watched. He himself was known as Undesirable No. 1, in the form of a research poster, and Edward had the dubious privilege of being Undesirable No. 2. Their respective files bore the words "to be punished" for the two. In the course of his search, Harry came across the preview of Dumbledore's biography by Rita Skeeter (who had apparently been delighted to shoot the headmaster who preceded the venerable old man. Opening it, he came across a photo of a young Dumbledore with a cheerful young man in the manner of the Weasley twins. As he glanced at the picture, Harry wondered who it was- he did not imagine it was a young Doge as he didn't look like him.
At the same moment, Pius Thicknesse entered the room but Harry had just had time to re-hide himself under his invisibility cloak and, with the greatest caution, leave the office in the direction of the elevators where he rushed after hiding his invisibility cloak. When the doors opened, it was a haggard, soaked Ron who entered the cabin. He whispered that after his studies, he could always retrain in magic maintenance since he had managed to solve the problem despite his nervousness. Now, he wanted to go save Cattermole's wife- or at least comfort her- and above all, find Hermione who was there as a clerk.
But on the way down they passed Mr.Weasley. If he seemed to like Mr.Cattermole, he also seemed, on the contrary, to hate Runcorn- likely for having betrayed Dirk Cresswell. Harry perfectly played the role of the bastard he embodied even if he wished with all his heart that Mr.Weasley would shut up and remain discreet as it was obvious that the latter was against the current policy of the Ministry. But Arthur was a true Gryffindor, true to his beliefs and brave enough to risk incurring dismissal at best, death at worst. Harry, playing Runcorn, then pretended to write something very important while making veiled threats to Mr.Weasley that he and his family might be next, which seemed to make Ron's father think a little. He had a family and many other people to protect. Harry and Ron stayed in the cabin while Mr.Weasley exited the elevator shaft and once they got back down, they sighed in a chorus of relief.
Meanwhile, Edward had arrived at the Department of Mysteries. It was not by chance that he had decided to take on the identity of a Unspeakable: his goal was to find the maximum knowledge that could help him rid Harry of the Horcrux implanted in him. There had to be something, anything that could save his friend's life! He had decided to start with the library which, by chance, he had found on the first try and he had quickly started to defuse the protections and the enchantments preventing the books from being taken.
He thinks for a moment before placing as many books as possible in his bottomless little bag. It wasn't a matter of just saving Harry either, even though that was the main reason. If they had fewer books of reference, the Unspeakables would be less able to help the Ministry and thus Voldemort rise to power more than he already had. Unfortunately, the Dark Mage seemed to already have the one book he wanted and he couldn't figure out what it was. But apparently, according to the prophecy, all magic might be affected… Ed shook his head, he would have plenty of time to think about it another time.
As he left the library with much of it contained in the bag inside his pocket, he trusted his instincts and tried to open the famous closed door. He didn't know what secret the room behind held but something inside him wanted to know. It wasn't his scientific mind, for once, that drove him to it. If he had to define that, it would be like an ardent desire to see what was inside, the same desire that had driven him to tirelessly seek a solution to Alphonse's problem and today focused on the friend he wanted to save. To his utter surprise, he managed to turn the handle and open the door just slightly. A white, almost unbearable glow escaped from it and Edward managed to take a quick look at it before slamming it shut, tears in his eyes. What he had just seen was indescribable and unfortunately, he couldn't dwell on it despite the conflicting emotions swirling in his mind.
He wiped his face, which was streaming with tears, with his sleeve and checked the time. He took a sip of Polyjuice, hoping it would last as long as it took. He now had to find the exit quickly and search for his friends scattered throughout the Ministry. None of them had an unlimited supply of Polyjuice and if they didn't want to get caught, they had better get their hands on that damn medallion as soon as possible and set sail. Just as he was about to step into a door, at random, the door leading to the Ministry lobby opened, which was good news, because Edward didn't have to search for it anymore. The problem is, it was Rockwood who opened said door. Edward couldn't help but freeze like a rabbit caught in the headlights of a car. Luckily, that must have been a common reaction among Ministry employees, as the Death Eater didn't comment.
Edward was extremely nervous, a normal reaction to suddenly finding yourself in front of your torturer, but luckily Bode's face showed little emotion. However, now Ed had to leave without attracting more than that the Death Eater's attention and for that he chooses the excuse of insanity. After all, it was well known within the Ministry that Bode, ever since touching Harry's prophecy under the Imperium, had gone a little crazy and sometimes relapsed. Edward began to mumble nonsense words. Rockwood, seeing Bode begin to stammer and actively drooling, had a movement of disgust and ordered him to return home while lamenting aloud and in an ironic tone of the loss of a once so brilliant spirit. Edward rushed out of the Department of Mysteries and, seeing no one in the hallway, he applied all sorts of different locking spells to the door in order to slow the Death Eater down in case he ever suspected an infiltration.
He had barely finished when already Harry and Ron in the form of Runcorn and Cattermole came out of the elevator. There was a brief moment when they didn't recognize each other and looked suspicious but eventually they came to their senses and headed up the flight of stairs leading to the courtroom. The three boys descended the stairs and came across a horrifying vision: in a waiting room, Muggle-borns were sitting and waiting, overwhelmed, for their interrogation, surrounded by Dementors who feasted on their joys and their hopes. Knowing they couldn't conjure Patronuses here, they used Legilimency to suppress their most painful memories so they wouldn't fall prey to the horrid creatures. Nevertheless, Harry and Edward, who had a lot of bad memories, often felt on the verge of fainting and only their extraordinary wills allowed them to move forward in the corridor. They heard the cries of protest of the interrogated who tried to convince their tormentors that they were indeed pure sorcerers.
The three boys divided up the roles: Ron in the guise of Mr.Cattermole, would accompany the latter's wife into the interrogation room while Harry and Edward, camouflaged under the invisibility cloak, would approach the accusers. Edward being still... small enough to be hidden under the cloak, accompanied by another person. As for Umbridge, she had to have the medallion on her, it was the only possible explanation. Or maybe he was at her house; none of them wanted to even consider that possibility.
Such jewelry would necessarily be worn ostentatiously, according to Edward. So Ron accompanied Mrs. Cattermole, doing his best to comfort her. Yaxley, who was among the interrogators, asked him if the rain problem was fixed and the fake Mr. Cattermole nodded in agreement, looking shaky. Meanwhile, as carefully as possible, Harry and Edward climbed the steps leading to the dais where Umbridge, Yaxley and a terrified Hermione were standing. The fake Mafalda was so nervous that she nearly knocked over the bottle of ink when she heard Harry quietly whispering to her that they were behind her.
Meanwhile, Umbridge continued her cruel interrogation, seeming to relish terrorizing and overwhelming her victim, which she certainly did. Edward was sure that the cat-shaped Patronus that patrolled the railing was Yaxley's and that he was basking in the unhealthy joy the obnoxious woman enjoyed by psychologically torturing her prey. It was a horrible sight to behold and the two boys could not understand how one could experience so much joy in martyring one's neighbor. But it at least allowed them to discover the medallion hanging around Umbridge's neck as she bent down to insult her victim. The woman told Mafalda in her usual simpering tone that he belonged to a certain Selwyn family. Edward thought that for her to have to justify herself so much to the point of confiscating a jewel from a petty thief, her origins must not be as pure as she would like.
As for Harry, upon hearing the lousy little lie, he had decided there was no better time to intervene. He and Edward silently stunned Yaxley and Umbridge, causing the cat Patronus to disappear and be replaced by a terrier conjured by Ron. The latter delivered Mrs. Cattermole while calmly revealing to her that he was not her husband but someone on Polyjuice and that they were going to save her and the other Muggleborns. He explained to her slowly, so that she understood well, that she had to take her children, to disguise herself and hide or better still, to leave the country. The woman nodded and said that a man named Romulus had offered to hide her and her children and the young men understood that Remus was investing in his new role of protector.
Meanwhile, Edward summoned a second medallion exactly like the one they had ripped from Umbridge's neck and hung it around the obnoxious woman's neck. Then summoning his serpent Patronus, Edward chased the Dementors out of the waiting room and in a loud voice called the attention of all Muggle-borns, “We are members of the Order of the Phoenix under Polyjuice: listen to our instructions and you will have hope of getting out of this. First of all, let those who have a wand get together with those who don't and always stay together. Once that's done, follow us. We'll try to leave before they close the exits."
Everyone took the elevators, some with Harry and Hermione, others with Ron and Edward. They continued to give instructions as the cabins ascended to the atrium, “If you have any Muggle-born friends or acquaintances, be sure to warn them not to attend these summons. Encourage them to go underground, either in the Muggle world or abroad. If they find you, save yourself, protect your children and loved ones and above all keep hope."
"Who are you?" Someone asked, still stunned by the turn of events.
“Simply someone who does what is right," Edward replied.
In the Atrium, Harry, through his incarnation of Runcorn, managed to keep the exits open while the rest of the Ministry employees ran around like headless chickens. Apparently some workers had noticed that Moody's eye was no longer in its usual place and had warned the Death Eaters. While there was panic Mr. Cattermole, the real one, arrived and Ron immediately put his wife in his arms and ordered them to flee as quickly as possible through the Chimney- which they did, despite their amazement. At the same time, Yaxley, who had come to realize the truth upon seeing the two Cattermoles, sought to seize one of them. The group of four managed to exit through the chimney but not before the Death Eater arrived and grabbed Hermione just as they Apparated to 12 Grimmauld Square.
Seeing that they had taken a Death Eater with them, Hermione had the prodigious reflex to cast a spell to make Yaxley let go of her, then, grabbing her three friends, she Apparated them back into a forest. Catching their breaths, Hermione realized that she had two cases of disarticulation: Ron who was missing a large part of his arm and Edward who was bleeding profusely from the stomach. The two boys who transformed back into themselves were deathly pale. The young witch took matters into her own hands and ordered Harry to pass the essence of Dittany in her bag that Harry had to draw out of it as quickly as possible. During Apparition practice, he'd seen Edward stumble enough to know it wasn't a funny thing. He quickly passed the potion to Hermione who treated the two boys and soon new, freshly healed skin replaced the holes in their flesh and color returning to their skin.
Hermione then explained what had happened: how Yaxley had followed them to 12 Grimmauld Square which meant he had become the Secret Keeper of the house. By now the house must be crawling with Death Eaters and Harry appealed to Kreacher not to harm the poor elf. In any case, it was a very hard blow because they had just lost their HQ and a kind of almost warm and pleasant home thanks to the presence of the house-elf. But now it was over and they would have to resort to camping in the woods in the middle of autumn. Not the most pleasant prospect to say the least. Edward managed to scramble to his feet so that he and Hermione were back to back and together they invoked the strongest protection and concealment charms they knew. Edward would often be called upon as they all knew in the small group that he was the most powerful spell-wise. While the two teenagers showed off their magical skills, Harry fumbled around with the tent, until he remembered that he was a wizard and could erect the tent with the Erecto spell.
When they were done, Edward collapsed shaking in all his limbs and Harry thought it was a miracle that their friend had held on for so long. Kreacher, still shocked by the Death Eaters' intrusion into his ancestral home, gave them a hand to deposit Ed and Ron on the lower bunks of the bunk beds. Then the house-elf offered to make them some strong tea, which they all gratefully accepted. Finally he proposed with Hermione to go and get something to eat in the forest and they brought back wild mushrooms, hazelnuts and a rabbit that Kreacher had killed under the horrified eyes of the young witch. The house-elf had apologized saying that his masters shouldn't see such a job. Then he simmered everything in a pot and everyone enjoyed themselves thanks to Kreacher's cooking skills. The latter simply seemed saddened by the loss of his cookware.
It was Harry's turn to survey the surroundings and he peered into the Sneakoscope as midnight passed. He suppressed a groan when he felt twinges in his scar and summoned all the images of his mother to try to keep the vision out of his mind, but to no avail. He was soon at Voldemort's side and thankfully not in his head even though he felt the dark mage's negative emotions. The latter was interrogating a terrified man with a bushy white beard hanging upside down, bound by invisible bonds. The latter shouted that he didn't have what Voldemort was looking for, that it had been stolen from him a long time ago. Voldemort then used Legilimency and Harry found himself this time in a memory where he saw a young Gregorovitch being stunned by a handsome young man with blond hair who stood on the windowsill like a bird of prey. Then he escaped with a loud, wild laugh, his gleeful look sinking into Harry's mind. The young boy barely had time to withdraw from Voldemort's mind before he murdered the wand merchant.
Edward, Hermione and Ron were staring at him worriedly, asking if he was okay. The young witch looked disapproving and Harry had to swear to her time and time again that he had done everything to prevent this vision, including Occlumency, but he couldn't escape it. Ron received a glare from Hermione when he asked him what exactly he had seen and when Harry wanted to tell him what he had seen, the girl said in a cold tone that she was just going to take her turn on watch since Harry was too tired to stay awake. Ron and Edward asked him, when he was lying on his bunk, what he had seen and he explained to them his vision which they began to discuss.
“In my opinion, what was stolen was a wand," Ron commented first, "It seems logical to me since Gregorovitch is or rather was a magic wand maker. Maybe he's looking for a more powerful wand than Harry's?"
“I agree with you, Ron. But I thought chopsticks were equal in theory," Edward said, wielding his own wand to make stars appear on the tent's walls, occupying his hands.
“Not really, but there have always been legends about wands being stronger than others like the Elder Wand. But usually everyone brags that it's their most powerful wand, so I wouldn't be surprised if such a wand doesn't exist," Ron answered, "And about the thief... I feel like I've seen him before. It's strange."
"If this was years ago maybe you saw it in a picture…" Edward muttered.
"What if it wasn't a wand but some other object You-Know-Who would want to make a Horcrux?" Supposed Ron.
“It's not stupid, as an assumption, but I believe that now it is impossible and too dangerous for him to do more. In theory, he already has seven, right?" asked Harry before realizing that he had made a mistake but luckily Ron hadn't noticed, even if he corrected Harry by saying: "Six, you mean, plus his body. But if he has set himself the number seven, there is little chance that he will do more, right?"
" Without a doubt," Harry answered without compromising himself.
Early the next day, Harry looked for the gnarliest old tree he could find and buried Moody's eye under it, thinking that's what the devious old auror might have wanted. Shortly after breakfast (consisting of a quail egg omelet prepared by Kreacher), once satisfied, the group of four teenagers went to pay homage in front of the small cross engraved in the wood with the date of death of Alastor and her name. Then they took down the tent, erased the magical and human traces, then Apparated to the outskirts of a small town in the hope of finding an open store there. When Harry approached the town, he nearly fainted when he saw Dementors lurking in the streets and was unable to conjure a Patronus. He had to turn around as quickly as possible. He didn't know the reason for his sudden incapacitation, and the rest of the group questioned him, amazed that he, the Patronus specialist, had failed.
It was Hermione who discovered the solution by ordering Harry to remove the locket/Horcrux he had been wearing since the day before. Edward then cast the Oculo Magicorum spell and let out a cry of horror and removed it himself from Harry's neck, groaning in disgust. Then, after making sure that his friend had not been seriously bewitched, the young alchemist flew into a rage, yelling, "No, but you're not good to wear this thing on you?! It stinks so literally of black magic that I'm surprised I didn't smell it on you! It's out of the question, you hear me, that only one of us wears it, do you understand? Imagine the wearer coming face to face with Dementors? He can't even defend himself!"
"We still can't store it in the tent," Harry objected, "Imagine if we lose it or have it stolen?"
"In that case, we put it in Hermione's bottomless bag and we place all the counter-curses and enchantments against dark magic that we know of and if there aren't any strong enough, then we will invent some. Its that simple," Edward counterattacked in an unanswerable tone.
“And how do we know if they are effective?" Ron asked.
“With Oculo Magicorum, I could see the filaments of dark magic dyeing your magic. It's repulsive. In the bag, at least, its action will be filtered," Edward said.
"Okay, let's do it that way then," Hermione said stuffing the locket into her bag.
In the evening, after Hermione had gone shopping in a store in the heart of a small isolated village, they asked Kreacher again if he could do them a favor by preparing some food, which the elf did, delighted. However, after that, Harry asked Kreacher to work at Hogwarts to keep them updated on what was going on, especially within the Circle. Thanks to him, they received valuable information about the students who followed Voldemort's new policy and those who rebelled against it, with Neville, Ginny and Luna as leaders. The latter had immediately taken as their HQ the Room of Requirement, which they never left empty, and they sometimes took refuge in the Chamber of Secrets, the passage of which they always knew how to open following their training last year. Their next move would be to steal the Sword of Gryffindor: although they knew of Severus Snape's role as a spy loyal to Harry's cause, they felt that it should belong to their leader. The four felt uncomfortable putting them in danger in case they got caught by the Carrows but if the sword was mentioned in Dumbledore's will, it had to play an important role... Only , they did not yet know which one.
But suddenly, with the absence of Kreacher, the question of meals became much more complicated. Harry knew how to cook breakfast better than Hermione since it had been one of his many chores at the Dursleys but Ron was absolutely incapable of cooking at all except when it came to sandwiches. It was therefore he who prepared the lunchtime picnics so that he could participate in household chores and not feel useless.
However, the bulk of the work fell to Edward: to save Muggle money, they just bought the bare necessities, forcing the latter to hunt with traps, fish, and especially prepare food so that it is edible, even good. He knew which mushrooms, berries, and nuts were poisonous and which were edible. He knew how to pluck a chicken, carve a rabbit and find eggs in the nests. And as the mood of the group depended largely on the food, his role quickly became indispensable and Harry wondered what they would have become without him to supply them or to make them work.
As the discussions around the possible location of the Horcruxes tended to turn in circles, Edward insisted that they work to occupy the ideas so that they do not brood on sterile thoughts. For the moment, Harry was convinced that Voldemort had concealed a Horcrux at Hogwarts, but the problem was that only Edward believed him. The others' argument was that Dumbledore would have found him if he had been hidden there but the Boy Who Lived countered by saying that even Dumbledore didn't claim to know all the secrets of the school. Harry had asked the other Circle members to search the Chamber of Secrets for a valuable item. They had wondered at one point if they would not have to leave the country to go to Albania in case Voldemort had hidden one of his Horcruxes there but they had come to the conclusion that it was impossible. . When Harry once again broached the idea that the Unknown Horcrux was at Hogwarts, the couple again dismissed his hypothesis pointing out that Voldemort certainly hadn't had time to steal anything. But then Edward remarked that perhaps the dark mage hadn't come to take, but to conceal the infamous object. The discussion stopped there.
During their time in hiding they discovered Britain in all its aspects: dense forests, deep and dark crevices near cliffs, mountains of Scotland with flanks covered with gorse, crimson moors because of the wild heather and even coves of pebbles. The weather kept changing, going from sunny late summer days at best to torrential downpours at worst. And between these two extremes, we found the mists, the drizzle, the increasingly constant cold. It didn't improve their mood, especially when they found that, like in fifth year, Voldemort's obsession with the mysterious thief haunted Harry's days.
They usually walked in the morning and a small part of the afternoon and the rest of the day was spent studying in the tent under the strict tutelage of Edward and Hermione who insisted on having them review their seventh year syllabus. During the morning, Ed questioned them because the young boy already knew everything about the seventh year curriculum. Usually, in the evening, he would read one of the Unspeakables research memoirs he had stolen from the Department of Mysteries and sometimes he would discuss it with Hermione, or even with Harry. Their notions of alchemy made their understanding of magical theories much easier. Harry mused that if he ever became an Auror, at least he wouldn't be a stupid Auror, moreover, it deservedly took his thoughts away from Voldemort's obsessions. Hermione, meanwhile, increasingly considered spending part of her life in the Department of Mysteries working on these fascinating theories. Ron was the only one who found this boring and repeated it countless times, much to the annoyance of the other three.
Their isolation, not knowing anything about what was going on in the world, had led Edward to conduct a risky business. Every morning he would dress up Muggle-style: colored contact lenses and alchemy-dyed hair, and he would pick up the Daily Prophet on Diagon Alley. The news was depressing but at least they were informed. However, Ron soon began to regret his complaints, thinking that the saying "no news is good news" might have held true in their case: reading Voldemort's regime propaganda was not a good way to cheer himself up.
But indirectly, they had news of the Order, especially when they learned that "terrorists (The Order of the Phoenix, therefore) had removed children on prolonged wait of their blood status (therefore certainly Muggle-borns) from the rooms of 'interrogation (i.e. jails) of the Ministry." This proved that the Order of the Phoenix continued to act, even in hiding, which was good news. One day, in November, Edward had even bought a radio with magic transmission and had even started fiddling with it with his wand, even taking it apart. When Ron asked him if he wanted to fly it like his father had done with the Flying Car, Edward gave him a round look, then seeing that the others didn't understand, he explained the principle of clandestine radios which broadcast illegal broadcasts like Radio London at the time of the Second World War. He was pretty sure the Order would soon come up with a similar idea. He had found what appeared to be a coded radio channel but unfortunately he couldn't find the password to access its broadcast properly. It was Ron who provided the solution by calling Harry one day when Ed was fiddling with the radio. Miraculously, the sound cleared up and a voice was heard:
“Welcome to Potterville, the first radio without pro propaganda You-Know-Who. Today's password was Harry. For those who don't know me, my name is River. Some of our listeners may be wondering why we use this farcical nickname when we have been taught that fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself? This is because the name of the Dark Lord, as he is called by his followers, is struck by a Taboo which automatically denounces these people to the Snatchers. Regarding the Scavengers, I will let Royal tell you a little more about this subject. Over to you Royal!
“Thank you, River. I tell you that the information given by the latter is absolutely true and forced me to go into hiding. Snatchers are followers of You Know Who who, without being part of their evil circle, still spread terror among Muggleborns by tracking and pursuing them in exchange for a reward in galleons. These jackals are ready to do anything to achieve their end and would be led by Fenrir Greyback, well known for his cruelty. Among them are men named Scabior, Stanley Shunpike, Edwin…” Followed a list of various names seeking to warn the wizard population of the regime's collaborators.
“Thank you Royal. This is the end of this show which is only in its infancy, as you can see. As the weeks go by, other resistance fighters will come to support your hopes. So good evening and keep hope."