Tuesday, July 8th, 2014. 4:35 PM.

  Grimmauld Place, Borough of Islington, London, UK

  Kingsley said, "Luna, you have the update insert?" Luna nodded. Kingsley continued, "Harry, we need you to stand Witness." Harry straightened automatically.

  "Hey, don't I get any say in the business?" asked M.O.M. File.

  "No," said Luna. "Let's begin." She held the newly black folder in one hand, and a small sheet of silver filigree in the other. Harry supposed that was the 'update insert,' whatever that was.

  "I call the company to note," Luna said soberly, "...that I hold here a folder, imbued with the essence of the Ministry of Magic's dedicated D?mon of Order. This subset of the D?mon has no communication with the Master Spirit, nor it with them."

  "I am NOT liking the look of this."

  Harry thought, D?mon?

  "This Splinter of the Whole has had its Prime Loyalty transferred from the Ministry of Magic to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and its Acting Head, Harry James Potter, and henceforth shall be designated, D.M.L.E. File."

  "Yep. There it is. How are people supposed to pronounce DMLE?"

  "As an entity separate, D.M.L.E. File will not share any information outside the designate Core Group, and it shall receive updates from M.O.M. File only by way of Update Inserts."

  "DMLE? Dimly? Oh, HELL, no. Wait. What? Remote Updates ONLY? That's gonna play silly buggers with my real-time response rates!"

  "In recognition of these statements, I call on the assembled company to witness the first update, containing information unknown to M.O.M. File, and which may never be shared with them."

  "Really? I'm gonna know stuff M.O.M. doesn't? Sweet. Still not letting people call me 'Dimly.'"

  "Bear Ye Witness," Luna said, and put the filigree sheet inside the folder.

  "I Do So Witness." Kingsley's beautiful baritone made the words sound almost hierarchical.

  "I Do So Witness." Harry was no Kingsley, but his stern tone might have made one of his kids stop misbehaving, at least long enough to give him a puzzled glance.

  "OOO-Kay, what do we got here?" D.M.L.E. File's printing gave an impression of resignation. "Sorting. Storing. Sorting. Storing. Sorting. Stor... Oh. Oh, my. Wow." The print stopped and disappeared from the folder cover, then reappeared. "Yeah. Rare, Obscure, and Confounding Case Division. ROCC. Yeah, that's the ticket. I'm DEFINITELY getting mind-wiped when all this is over, right?"

  ***

  There was a shocked moment, then Kingsley burst out laughing.

  "No. No. Absolutely not, Demelli. May I call you Demelli?"

  "Sure, why not? Heck of a lot better than anything I came up with."

  "Demelli, regardless of anything, good or bad, that comes out of this investigation, ROCC's Cowboy Days are over!"

  Kingsley's voice was hard, harder than Harry had heard since the darkest days of the War.

  The Minister for Magic continued. "Part of that is that they will no longer have the privilege of keeping, or not keeping, as often seems to be the case, their own records. I'm not going to override their security protocols, especially the ones concerning sharing information. From here on in, though, you, and you alone, will have the responsibility of maintaining and securing those files. Especially securing."

  "'Scuse me," Harry said, actually raising his hand. "Muggins here still has a lot, a LOT of questions."

  Luna gave one of her sweet, but not entirely focused smiles. "Patience, Harry. We had to get all this out of the way before we start the briefing proper. We also had to get Demelli up and going, so she cannot only hear classified information about ROCC, but she can also provide briefing materials from the files they just absorbed.

  "Great. I'm going to be talking my ink dry." D.M.L.E. File groused.

  "Well, my goodness," Kingsley said. He spoke in the dry, pawky tone that Harry had learned to associate with his superior's most sarcastic statements. "It's a shame that you don't have access to some sort of printer, that could maybe use a Protean connection to make documents, or even booklets. They could be used to set out necessary, but tedious, background..."

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Harry started laughing before Kingsley was half through. Smiling, he shook his head, and said, "Nothing really gets past you, does it, boss?"

  Kingsley replied, "Something you might keep in mind for your later career moves, Harry. Seeing the wider picture often lets you spot the connections between smaller things." His voice became more serious. "And spot small things that might someday become big things. Did Ginny tell you about her foray into the Daily Prophet's lower levels?"

  Harry nodded, a little puzzled. Kingsley went on. "There's something building in those lower floors, and it is gnawing at my memories, as if there is a problem I need to remember. Once this is wrapped up, (Oshun Willing), We are going to have to send a strong scouting party to get some answers. It is just ridiculous that no one knows how deep the Prophet's basement goes." His tone went back to convivial. "Oh, and tell Ginny that Caspahr Wiggleswade got security staff beyond his wildest dreams. Barnabas and I agree that we need to stay on top of the issue, and not just literally."

  Luna returned to the original subject. "The briefing needs to continue with the whole team, Harry. And you are going to have to designate your Core Group, or Demelli won't be able to brief in front of them."

  "No upper limit on personnel?" Harry asked. Luna shook her head.

  Harry puffed out his cheeks momentarily. "Start with the people here. Perhaps Neville and Hannah, both quick and capable." He frowned. "Boss, I'm going to have to ask you to make a call, because I don't trust my own judgement where he is concerned."

  Luna and Kingsley spoke together. "Hagrid."

  Harry nodded, a little ashamed of himself.

  Luna said, softly, "Harry, he should be in. I'm not just saying that because he will know if we leave him out, and it would break his heart. After Rolf and me, he is the best qualified person to deal with Magical Creatures, especially from the emotional perspective. And we are going to need that."

  "Concur," said Kingsley. "For a different reason. You are going into danger, and half-giants are very good at dealing with danger. I saw a picture of him on that cage. I was amazed he pulled through that."

  "So was I," Harry said darkly.

  Luna sighed. "I have absolutely no idea how we are going to get those giant albino Nifflers back from him. Last I saw, they were running as a pack with Hagrid's pups. Direfang was hunting magical weeds and shrubs for them to eat."

  "Let's wrap this up," Kingsley said. "I've got someone here that is overdue for a long heart-to-heart chat. Oh, that's one less thing on your plate, Harry. I had Langarm picked up and bought in."

  "Oh, good," Harry started. "I was going to get right on that after..." Harry trailed off. There was something about Kingsley's choice of words...

  Luna was quicker on the uptake. Her eyebrows went up. "Is he still Petrified?" she asked, obviously delighted.

  The Minister for Magic didn't answer her directly, instead saying, "I'm not happy about having a magic user that strong on the other side. I'm hoping this is a case of them having one ridiculously strong spell, and the rest being average."

  "He's there, now?" Harry asked weakly. "Has he heard everything we've said?"

  Kingsley sounded offended. "Harry, I'm not an idiot. I'm under a Muffliato and I have my back to him. Incidentally, this spell of Snape's you found has become one of the best tools the Ministry has. Pity we couldn't keep it from spreading."

  Back to proper business-like, he went on, "Potter, define your Core Team and inform D.M.L.E. File. You can add or remove people at any time, as, for instance, you will have to do on your upcoming raid."

  Harry began to ask, but Luna shook her head and mouthed, Later.

  Kingsley was obviously winding up the meeting. "Oh, and Demelli? Given what your prior avatar had to say about Potter's almost legendary skills with paperwork, perhaps you should keep track of the Core Team's roster. Especially remind him when he needs to remove temporary members, or he'll have the entire magical population of the British Isles taking up your time."

  "Will do, Boss!" D.M.L.E. File replied, entirely too chipper for Harry's liking.

  Another sigh from Kingsley. "Next order of business, then. I don't know whether I'm going to love this or hate it. I'm quite sure, however, that it will be cathartic. Good evening, all."

  The Lynx sat silent for just a moment, then, "Say. Did you know Petrified people can sweat?"

  ***

  Tuesday, July 8th, 2014. 5:20 PM.

  Grimmauld Place, Borough of Islington, London, UK

  They returned to the interior of Number 12 by Apparating precisely onto the top step of the stoop. As they enter the kitchen, Harry was telling Luna about Ron's notorious ineptitude for precise Apparition.

  They found everyone gathered around the table. It had expanded even further to accommodate the giant spread of food it now held.

  Ginny, seeing Harry's puzzled expression, said, "Kreacher decided to serve dinner early, since we don't know how late we'll be going. The sprouts gobbled theirs down, and are back at work."

  Harry looked over. Sure enough, there was Lily, earnestly pointing the changes out to Hugo. Of Albus and Rose, there was no sign, save two feet in mismatched trainers protruding from a top flap. Rose's right foot was at a 90o angle to Al's left foot.

  "Al?" Harry called. "Can the P.P. be used to print as it is?"

  "Sure!" Al's voice echoed out weirdly. "We're not working on that function at all."

  "Great. I'm going to have Demelli print out some briefing files."

  "'Kay," said Al, distantly, then went on, apparently to Rose, "Where is the kaboom module? There was supposed to be..."

  Harry looked around to find everyone but Luna staring at him.

  "Oh," he said. "My fault." He held up the black folder. "Folks, this is Demelli, Department of Magical Law Enforcement File. Demelli is an independent subfolder of M.O.M. File, and is going to keep our secret records. Of which, I dare add, we are apparently going to have mass quantities. Say hi, Demelli."

  "You're holding me upside-down, you idiot!"

  "Whoops! There we go!"

  "That's better," D.M.L.E. File said. "And I am NOT going to say 'Hi!" because I've known all of you for years. Well, except for tall, dark and brooding over there. Pleased to meet you, Mr. Krum."

  "And I, you, Demelli," Krum replied politely. "Please to call me Viktor." In a low aside to Ginny, he said, "Vhat is 'broodink'?"

  Harry forged on, regardless. "Kids, I'm going to cast the Impertubable Charm including the output end of the P.P. Be aware." He sat at the table and scanned faces. "While we're eating, and Demelli is printing the first briefing, Luna and I will give you the quick and dirty on where we are, and then," He glanced over at Rolf and Luna, placidly eating, "...the Scamanders appear to be taking us even further."

  hear Kingsley at any rate...