COMPLETE. Hermione convinces Draco to spy for the Order and she becomes his handler. But what are Draco's true motivations? Hard to say when he's still figuring that out himself.
WINNER: 2022 Top Dramione Fics on Reddit
4th Place Wartime
2nd Place...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
September 1997
"They have a network of officials and others with high standing in society that are being threatened, blackmailed, or outright Imperiused if they aren't loyal already. Each person in the Inner Circle, like Dolohov, is responsible for a piece of the network. Lower ranked Death Eaters like Bixley perform the actual Imperius Curse if necessary. This is how You-Know-Who implements his regime and quashes dissent." Tonks was reporting on the results of her interrogation. "The more strings they can pull, the more intricate their web and the more they control. The grip is getting tighter every day."
Seeing as the same tactic worked for Voldemort and his followers in the previous war, they were repeating the same strategy. The Order hadn't succeeded in stopping them back then, so why not? It certainly made sense.
"So just like last time," Hermione replied in aggravation, quill in hand. "How do we shut the web down?"
Remus eyed her and replied softly, "You kill the spider at the center."
She had the sneaking suspicion that he knew more than he was letting on. Kingsley shifted his curious gaze between her and Remus.
"Yes," she agreed slowly. "But seeing as we have no idea where You-Know-Who is, what else should we be doing?"
"For now we continue without change." Remus sat back in his chair and clasped Tonks' hand. "Ramp up efforts to bring in Death Eaters, Snatchers and the like, similar to how they've tried to bring in Muggle-borns. The larger holding facility at Pinner safe house is nearly ready." He rubbed his thumb along Tonks' knuckles. "Inner Circle would be preferable of course, but they are harder targets."
Hermione grumbled to herself. She had been arguing for their limited funds to be used for Portkeys and was overruled. The capture of Dolohov and Bixley, and the information they retrieved from them thus far, incentivized everyone except her to prioritize the expansion of Pinner.
Minerva took off her glasses, pointed her wand at the lenses and cleaned them with a nonverbal spell. After pushing her spectacles back up her nose she added, "Capturing Inner Circle Death Eaters like Dolohov would cripple their operations. Or, to continue the analogy, tear holes in the web. Ultimately, if we remove enough of them, we will eventually get to You-Know-Who. He'll be vulnerable and exposed. Even if we can't kill him, we can certainly contain him."
"Which brings us back to our interrogation problem," Tonks reminded them. "I'll do what needs to be done, but torture induced confessions are not always reliable." She leaned forward. "We need a Legilimens because Dolohov still won't talk. And even with one, assuming that some Death Eaters are halfway decent at Occlumency as I'm sure Dolohov is, we need to understand the problem with Veritaserum. Bixley didn't know how it worked, just that it would kill him."
Hermione looked up from the notes she was taking. "What about Mary Cattermole?"
"The Muggle-born Healer you rescued?" Tonks asked curiously.
