Tides of Fate | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀs ᴇʀᴀ

20 | A Seaside Cave

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-- HEADQUARTERS OF THE ORDER OF PHOENIX 

"Are you sure it's a good idea to split up like this?" Carina asked anxiously. 

They'd gone over the plan numerous times in the last month. What started off as a dangerous little secret among the six of them had become a monster of a burden. The first week was just research and surveillance. Carina read and learned more about horcruxes than she'd ever wanted to, through all of which Dumbledore smiled patiently and reminded her he would trust no one else for the job. Carina had to roll her eyes at that. Dumbledore was intelligent and powerful, but there were many brilliant members in the Order. She couldn't say she particularly liked his leadership style, especially when he expected to pay her a sincere compliment and for her to fall in line like the good soldier. But that's essentially what they were- soldiers. 

Dobby had taken Moody, the Prewetts, and Regulus back to the cave. From their trip, they were able to confirm some helpful things. While warded, there were no alarms around the cave to trip. It also became clear that the desolate spot among the jagged cliffs was the perfect place to destroy the locket. While she couldn't think of any way to get her hands on Basilisk venom, Fiendfyre was a plausible alternative, no matter how dangerous it may be. 

Then they began strategizing. They had no idea if Voldemort would be able to feel the destruction of the horcrux. Through Carina's own calculations, they determined it would be best to divert his attention during their mission to extract and destroy his horcrux. And so their initial team broke into two separate ones. 

Moody took on the task of organizing a tactical attack set to be executed at the same time as their extraction mission. Their part of the plan drew in the rest of the aurors and order members, who'd all been fed the cover that it was just a standard attack planned with good intel. It wasn't entirely a lie. Regulus had shared that the Greengrass family would be hosting a private gathering full of Death Eaters and sympathizers where much of the monetary funding for the Dark Lord was generated. 

Dumbledore had scheduled a meeting with the Minister of Magic for that exact time to create plausible deniability. Despite the Order being a secret society, there was much speculation behind Dumbledore's movements among those in the ministry who were afraid he'd make a grab for power. 

This left the matter of the actual extraction itself. Regulus insisted Carina be there because he was still hard-pressed to fully trust anyone but her. He'd recently been sworn into the Order as an official spy. Dumbledore and Moody had insisted that if we were making himself vulnerable by helping destroy a piece of Voldemort's soul, becoming an official spy wasn't any more dangerous. Carina had balked, knowing how important it was to Regulus that he has minimal involvement. He'd wanted to help with this one thing and then disappear. But the Prewetts had softly reassured her that this was for Regulus's own good. Being an official spy meant protective charms to make sure he couldn't betray sensitive knowledge unintentionally. It meant training, and more importantly, it meant purpose. But Regulus was still relatively new to it all, and thus, still distrustful that he wouldn't just be used as a scapegoat.  

Being the vigilant creature he was, Moody said he didn't have enough confidence in Carina's combat skills to allow her to go alone. Ultimately it was the Prewetts who solved the dilemma. Fabian would assist Moody with the tactical mission because, despite being a smokescreen, it was rather high-risk. Gideon would accompany Regulus and Carina to the caves, and Kreacher would take them there. 

"You're asking now?" Gideon huffed half in amusement and half in concern. "Aren't you the one who calculated all the projected outcomes?" 

"I am," Carina agreed sheepishly. "But there are so many moving parts, anything could go wrong.