Owls

Harry rarely sat at his desk in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but right now he needed to be visible. He was organising the watch around Malfoy Manor, and the general coverage of security and that was easiest to accomplish if people knew where to find him. He had groups of Aurors and hitwizards ready in almost all areas of Britain, but it seemed Dark Wizards were active everywhere, not just the group at Malfoy Manor. It was a troubling development.

An owl landed on Harry's desk. He took the note, looked at it briefly, then threw it to the side. The same happened to the next three letters to arrive by owl and several paper plane letters.

There is nothing here, Harry thought to himself. Nothing about what they are after, or how they gathered. Nothing useful. Not that I can see anyway. He threw one of the pieces of parchment into the fireplace in frustration.

Albus' owl flew in and landed. At the same time, Ron and Ginny walked into the office. They narrowly avoided being hit by another piece of parchment headed for the fireplace.

"I've just come back from St. Mungo's. They say that James will probably be fine in a few days, though some memory loss may be expected. I brought lunch," Ginny said.

"I'm not hungry," Harry said, distractedly. "Good to hear he will be fine. You should be with him. I'll come by later."

"You need to eat," Ginny said, shoving the box of food in his face. "You are no good to anyone if you starve yourself."

Harry reluctantly took a piece of sausage.

Ron looked over at the table. "What is all this?"

"It is intelligence," Harry explained while eating another sausage. "All the previous interviews done with the Death Eaters that escaped, all the deeds they did last time etc. Normally, Hermione is the one who finds patterns in these things, but…" He wasn't even able to complete the sentence.

"It was not your fault," Ginny said sternly. "You did all you could."

"It was mere seconds. Had I attacked right away instead of wasting time shouting, I would have gotten them," Harry argued.

"You can't think like that, Harry. It is not helpful to keep blaming yourself," Ginny said more sternly.

More owls flew in, demanding attention.

"I requested the papers from all departments concerning former Death Eaters or sightings of Dark Magic. I didn't realise there would be so much of it," Harry explained. He started unloading the owls, barely looking at the content. He had started with a sort of system, but it was all chaos by now.

"Hey, isn't that Albus' owl?" Ron asked as he saw the poor owl emerging from the pack that had arrived just after it.

Harry and Ginny looked up as Ron quickly rescued the owl from the mass of others, and took the letter attached to it.

"Yes, it is!" Harry said. "Open it, quickly!"

Ron opened it. "It's Rose's handwriting!" He read it. "This is just gibberish. What has happened to her that she writes a letter with nonsense?"

"It's a code. She is worried that the owl may be intercepted, so she can't write plainly," Harry said. "But how did she manage to send this?"

"Probably with help from Albus. It is his owl, anyway. What does it say?" Ginny asked.

They all read the letter together.

"Once the sun sets, we will see.

Just what is in store for she.

The woman will be where witches died.

On the pendling hill in lancs up north.

The woman will soon be no more.

Beware, beware of movement two. Act quickly, if you want her too.

All the lord's men will get to see the event. Will you be there as well?

Please excuse the number two. Will need to be left behind for true.

Then again, she will not see. If you are not there with me.

Come one, come all, bring all you see. We will win for all to be."

"Well, that makes it all clear as a Demiguise," Ginny said.

"It does?" Ron asked.

"Of course. Rose and Albus warn us that they are going to execute Hermione tonight, after sunset. That fourth line is the location just in case the trackers don't work. We need to watch for when two of the Tracked people move to another location. Once they do, we must act quickly if we want to save them. All the Death Eaters will be there, so we need a strong team. The second person who was tracked will probably be left behind at the manor. We don't know if that is Rose or Scorpius, but it sounds like it may be Rose. It makes little sense that Scorpius needs to be left behind, if "all the lord's men will get to see" the execution. And the next line says she."

Ron and Harry looked at her, astounded.

"What? Do you have a better idea?" Ginny asked, defensively.

"How did you get that so fast?" Harry asked. "We've only read this letter once…"

"Well, there are only so many things that Albus would think is important enough to risk sending a message. Hermione is one of those things. The rest can be read from there." How could Harry not see that? This was supposed to be his job!

Harry kissed her. "You are brilliant, Ginny. Truly. Now we just need to find out what "On the pendling hill in lancs up north." means."

"Lancs can be a shortening of Lancashire," Ron suggested.

"We need to look up places where the Muggles killed witches in Lancashire." Harry said as he ran to Hermione's extensive bookshelf and retrieved "A History of Magic" from the shelf. He started flipping through it. Finally, he found what he was looking for.

"Here! Pendle Hill, Lancashire, where both the Pendle witches and the Samlesbury witches were hanged. Pendling hill. It fits!"

"We need to be prepared! We need to get there ahead of them, to be ready to strike at a moment's notice," Ginny shouted.

"On it!" Harry said, on his feet in a moment. "Wait, we?"

"I am not staying behind this time Harry. It is my son out there, and I am going."

"I'm coming too," Ron said. "My wife and my daughter are in danger! I need to get them back!"

"Fine. But please stick with your assigned team, and don't do anything stupid. Remember what Albus said. They want revenge. That makes the two of you just as much targets as me, or any of our children."

Harry ran off to prepare the Aurors and other Ministry workers that could be counted upon in a time like this.

"As if he is one to talk about not doing something stupid," Ginny said with a smile. But then she was all serious and started preparing herself for the evening.