"Mister Potter?" asked Madam Bones, as Dumbledore eagerly leaned in to listen.
Harry thought about his answer for a while before he replied, "Over Christmas I was discussing with family and friends..." and indicated those sitting with him, "... how I see the relationship between soul and body. This is yet another example of proving what I believe. "The reason why Riddle looks like the state his body was in when he died, with the ravages of previous dark rituals clearly having taken it's toll on his body once he was resurrected, is because his soul... his spirit... remembered that shape. That shape was, for want of a better term, imprinted on the soul at the time of his physical death in October 1981. I explained that this was why ghosts always appear as they did at the moment of their death. For example, Nearly-Headless Nick's near-headlessness, Moaning Myrtle's need to wear spectacles, the Bloody Baron's blood soaked robes, et cetera.
"So, when Riddle was resurrected, his body shape again matches that at the time of his original physical death; complete with red eyes, no nose or hair, and a lipless mouth. His soul remembered that shape, and forced the resurrection ritual to shape the body that was created into that same form.
"It also proves my hypothesis that a witch or wizard's magic has nothing or little to do with the physical body. It's the spirit... the soul... that has the magic. Otherwise, just resurrecting Riddle would have given him a body. However, it would not have given him magic."
"Ah!" said Dumbledore, cutting in. "But, that's why two of the ingredients used in the ritual were from living wizards, you and young Peter. You are magical; therefore, it passed to Riddle through the ritual."
"And maybe we are both right, Albus," Harry retorted. "Otherwise, how do you explain his form? Shouldn't it have taken the shape of his body without the effects of the ravages of the rituals he performed in his previous physical life?" "Hmmm..." mused Dumbledore, thinking about it. "Interesting. I'd like to know more about that."
"But, not now," said Madam Bones. "I still have an investigation to run. And I need to get my people ready to fight another war while they're ill-prepared to do so."
"You have a window, Madam Bones," said Daphne. "Many of Riddle's Death Eaters were locked away in Azkaban shortly after the events surrounding the death of... sorry... the Potters. Riddle needs to rebuild his forces before he could even think of prosecuting such a war. You have until he rebuilds his forces to destroy him, or his forces, or both."
"And you also know he'll target Azkaban to get out those who feel they're his most faithful," added Hermione. "That's however many of his inner-circle who are waiting to be freed currently residing in Azkaban.
"If you'll remember, he did the same thing in the first war. And, as with the previous war, the dementors will side with him. Having them at the prison only gives Riddle more forces to break out his most loyal."
Madam Bones allowed the monocle to fall from her eye as she raised a hand to pinch and massage the bridge of her nose. "Just what I need," she muttered. "I've not enough aurors as it is. Now I have to send more to protect Azkaban from an attack that's likely to occur we know not when."
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news," said Hermione.
"That's alright, dear," said Madam Bones, dropping her hand away and looking across at her. "You keep having those ideas and letting me know. At least, that way I might be able to do something about them."
"Riddle will gather to himself enough people that will allow him to attack and take Azkaban," said Harry. "That will then give him quite a few more forces to then make a start on taking either the Ministry or Hogwarts or Saint Mungo's. Once he has one of those, he'll then move to attack the others. With the Ministry, Saint Mungo's and Hogwarts in his possession, he's effectively taken everything. He wins."
"In the meantime he'll return to his terror tactics," said Daphne. "He'll target the families of those he sees as 'of the Light'. The attacks will be mainly at night, and on their homes. They will also employ hit and run tactics. They will not stand and fight. Instead, they will apparate or portkey into somewhere, hit hard and fast, and be gone before the aurors have a chance to mount a defence.
"That was their tactics in the first war," said Sirius.
"And they'll use the same tactics because it's both what they know and what they know to work," said Hermione. "And Riddle, from what I've read, is a man of habit in a lot of what he does. Hit and run by small groups of DEs works, so he'll stick with it. He only brings out larger concentrations of DEs when the target is much larger, or better protected."
"Then the aurors need to reconfigure into teams of ready reaction forces," said Harry. "There need to be teams ready to go at a moment's notice. Learning of a site being hit, forming a team to go, and then going takes too long. By the time the aurors arrive, the DEs will have already left again. So, response times need to be cut right down to under a minute. But, that takes manpower and training. Manpower, to have the teams sitting ready to go, and training in how to stay in that heightened state of readiness for long periods of idle time.
"If the Death Eaters usually spend up to five minutes in one spot, then the ready reaction teams need to get there in far less time than that. If the Death Eaters then react back by shortening their times to, say, three minutes, then the ready reaction teams need to shorten their own, again.
"Eventually, you get to a point where Riddle's forces cannot stay on a target long enough to inflict the damage they want to cause before the aurors turn up; so, they're left with no choice but to face the aurors. And, the first thing the teams need to establish is anti-portkey and anti-apparition wards or jinxes, just as the Death Eaters used. You cannot give them time to escape or you get nowhere.
"If I was a Death Eater I'd have portkeys on myself rigged to auto-portkey me out if I ended up on the ground or unconscious. So, just stunning me would only allow me to escape; even though I was effectively out of it at that time. At whatever bolthole I'd portkeyed to, someone would come along and renervate me sooner or later, and I'm back to being able to fight again."
When he finally wound down, he saw the expression on Madam Bones's face. It was one of horror. "Sorry," he sheepishly said.
After a moment, she blinked and said, "No, don't be. That's exactly the sort of tactics they'd use."
"I hope you're not advocating killing people, Harry," said a worried Dumbledore.
"You're damned right I am!" Harry shot right back. "In war, people die. To win a war you want the people on the other side to be the ones who do the dying, rather than those on your side. You used stun-only tactics in the last war, Albus. If it wasn't for a sheer fluke, you would have lost the last war in a matter of weeks! By the end of November Riddle would have taken full control, and you know it!
"Don't go making the same mistake again, because Lily Potter is not here to save your arses this time."
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