Chapter 181: The Secret Alliance

Dumbledore opened the briefing by asking whether anyone wished to leave.

The guarded classroom held the formal alliance members, Hermione as outside observer, Sirius as Edward's guardian, and McGonagall as school representative. No one would be punished for declining information that might increase personal risk.

Astoria asked the practical question. "If we leave now, will we still receive immediate safety warnings?"

"Yes," Edward said. "Membership and protection are separate."

No one left, but the answer mattered.

Dumbledore explained the limits first. The group would hear confirmed facts about Voldemort's return and the unidentified servant. They would not hear the locations of soul fragments, methods used to destroy them, or private memories belonging to witnesses.

"Knowing less can protect you from interrogation," Sirius said. "It can also protect other people from a secret you never agreed to carry."

He described Albania without spectacle. Peter had kidnapped and murdered Bertha Jorkins during a ritual that produced a rudimentary body for Voldemort. An unknown dark-haired servant assisted. Edward and Kreacher witnessed the act after a rescue search went wrong. Dumbledore and Ministry investigators preserved evidence.

Voldemort remained physically weak at that time. No one knew his present condition.

Daphne looked at Edward's healed fingers. "You fought them?"

"I tried to reach Bertha, then retreated when she died and we were attacked. Dumbledore stopped the pursuit."

That version gave her the truth without creating a triumph.

Dumbledore connected the later evidence. Bertha had access to tournament files. A copied order from her old office helped trap people at the World Cup. Someone used Harry's wand to cast the Dark Mark. The Goblet was altered through a binding technique related to restricted material in the same Ministry branch.

Crouch was now missing. His home showed signs of a concealed resident. Moody knew details of the inquiry he might or might not have learned legitimately. Messages in the west tower pointed toward him, perhaps deliberately.

"We suspect a connection inside Hogwarts," McGonagall said. "We do not know that Professor Moody is the servant."

Draco leaned forward. "What do we do around him?"

"Attend class under the current supervision rules," Dumbledore said. "Do not meet him alone. Report unexplained instructions, invitations, gifts, or attempts to isolate Harry or Edward."

"Can we search his office?" Pansy asked.

"No."

The school and Aurors lacked grounds for an invasive search after the flask sample and identity checks. Moody's patrol access had been narrowed. His office door and known movements were monitored under legal authority.

Theodore asked whether they should tell their families.

Each member received a one-page warning stripped of restricted details. They could share it. They could also disclose that the school had identified a credible internal threat and imposed precautions. They could not name Moody as culprit.

Lucius would dislike the uncertainty. Draco accepted the page.

Hermione raised the hardest concern. "If the servant is using Polyjuice, a person may be imprisoned somewhere. Waiting could leave them there."

Bones was searching for evidence of missing persons connected to Hogwarts. Dumbledore had checked staff quarters for hidden expansion and human presence using school wards. Nothing appeared. Moody's magical trunk had legal concealment protections and could not be opened without cause or consent.

"Can a trunk hide a person from the castle?" Blaise asked.

"A sufficiently old one might," Dumbledore said.

Silence followed.

The investigation was not inactive. It was constrained by evidence, privacy, and the risk of warning the suspect. Edward knew how unsatisfying that sounded. He also knew what secret searches by powerful groups could become.

They turned to alliance conduct.

No member would tail Moody. No one would use another student as bait. No one would provoke a curse to compare casting style. If a whistle sounded, members would gather at the nearest staffed point, not a private room.

They wrote three reporting categories. Odd behaviour without immediate danger went into the log. A request for secrecy, isolation, or restricted access went to a professor the same day. A weapon, coercive spell, confined person, or direct threat triggered the whistle and emergency response.

The categories kept every strange glance from becoming an alarm while preventing members from minimizing a serious sign. No student had to decide whether an incident proved the whole conspiracy before asking for help.

McGonagall distributed sealed contact cards. Each listed several adults, ensuring that suspicion involving one professor did not leave a student with no safe reporting route.

Pansy proposed rotating pairs. Adeline, still an observer, pointed out that a predictable schedule could help an attacker. McGonagall kept the pairings and changed them without a fixed pattern.

Daphne asked to join the monitoring team.

"There is no student monitoring team," Edward said. "There are students noticing what happens around them."

"That sounds like the same thing."

"It is the difference between recording an event you witness and creating contact to produce one."

Dumbledore approved the distinction.

After the security briefing, he left the alliance to discuss whether Adeline should receive membership. Edward recused himself from chairing because they now served on the same tournament team. Pansy led.

Adeline disclosed that her older cousin worked for the Ministry and might receive related information. She promised to separate official knowledge from alliance discussion. She also challenged the rule allowing founders to hold permanent archive keys.

"If a founder becomes compromised, permanence becomes a weakness."

Theodore proposed annual key rotation and immediate suspension on evidence of coercion. The charter changed.

Adeline accepted membership only after the change passed. Her first act was to request the full minutes from votes she had observed.

The alliance grew by one person, not a wave of handpicked elites.

Sirius remained after the others left. "You told them enough."

"I wanted to tell them the servant might be Barty Crouch Junior."

"You do not know that."

"Crouch's reaction, the concealed room in his house, Bertha's files."

"A plausible theory. Not a name to put in ten frightened heads."

Edward knew he was right.

They reviewed the next day's wand inspection. Edward's walnut wand used phoenix feather. It had no modifications and no attachment from the ruined Crest. Ollivander would inspect it in front of the full group.

Sirius also wanted the judges to inspect every champion, not only the famous five. The notice did list all twelve, but press schedules allocated photographs to Cedric, Fleur, Krum, Harry, and Edward.

"Visibility should not determine whether safety checks happen," Edward said.

They sent a written objection. Madame Maxime and Karkaroff added their signatures. The schedule changed before midnight.

All twelve champions would receive the same inspection time. Interviews remained optional.

Before leaving, Dumbledore returned with one update. A comparison of the tower shoe print and Moody's prosthetic gait was inconclusive. The uneven edge faced the wrong direction for his known boot, but a disguised person could alter a step.

"Concern remains," he said. "Certainty does not."

Edward put away the alliance minutes.

The first task was two days away. The dragons could be seen, measured, and planned around. The enemy inside Hogwarts remained a shape defined by absences.

Both dangers required limits, but only the danger in the arena would announce itself with fire and wings.

The briefing ended with each member repeating their nearest reporting adult. Confidential knowledge had value only if it came with a safe route for action.