Chapter Three; Chapter 3
"Wow," a bruised and battered Harry collapsed against the wall, "and I thought I was good-" he groaned, "I supposed I needed that, thanks Bill."
"No problem," Bill smirked, "always happy to beat you in a duel… want to go again?" Harry; immensely tired and bleeding from multiple wounds, looked up at the older man and shook his head vigorously, before stopping abruptly when it hurt.
"No thanks, I'll wait until tomorrow," he said, his throat sounding rough and raw.
"Well, I'm glad you beat him, Bill, he was getting too overconfident in his duelling abilities… he needed to be taken down a peg or two," came Hermione's voice from the corner of the duelling room. Bill whistled through his teeth.
"Well, then Hermione, this probably won't help you. The power behind each spell is incredible and I was struggling to hold a shield up for each of his spells, he could have easily overpowered me. You need to learn more spells, though, and your speed could use a lot of work. Then, you need to start learning to link your spells." Seeing that Harry was too exhausted to ask the questions, Hermione stepped in.
"What do you mean by linking the spells? And how do we increase our casting speed? Obviously, we know how to learn new spells." Bill frowned for a second.
"You know how to learn spells out of books- don't get me wrong, that's a good skill to have, but a teacher is better- I can help you there now, though. Pretty much the only way you can increase your casting speed is to practice. We'll work on that in a minute. Now, linking your spells is difficult to do as it means you will need to think quite a few spells ahead. Some spells finish in a way that makes it easy to flow into a new one. Sometimes it's the ending of the spell, sometimes it's the wand movements but if the spells flow from one to the other, you can hit them off much closer together and make them more difficult to deal with," Bill finished.
"That's what you were doing," said Hermione, frowning, "I wondered. But," she said slowly, "we found out this holidays that wand movements are unnecessary."
"Really?" Bill was intrigued.
"Yeah," said Harry, "the wand movements are taught because they help you to focus… and they also help to guide your magic into the wand, so if you have really low magic levels, the wand movements can make the spells easier to learn. They're unnecessary, though, and they actually make it slower to cast."
"Wow," said Bill, "that's pretty valuable information…" he trailed off, thinking. "That means," he finally continued, sounding thoughtful, "that in theory, you could use any movements… so a quick jab could be used for the 'wingardium leviosa,' for example. Or you could use different movements that suit the spell more… or confuse and opponent by doing the wand movement for one spell and actually using another." Harry and Hermione both looked at each other.
"We never thought of that," said Hermione, "but that's a really good idea." Bill smiled slightly before turning back to them.
"Now, Harry- if you're recovered, we can work on your casting speed. And yours, Hermione." Harry nodded and got slowly to his feet, sending a quick spell into the potions lab to summon a PepperUp potion that he drank quickly.
"I'm fine," said Harry, "let's do this!" Bill nodded his approval.
"The quickest way to do this… what's the slowest spell that the two of you know?" Hermione gulped.
"Impedimunus," she said softly, making sure her wand was nowhere near her. Bill whistled through his teeth again.
"Dangerous," he said softly, "and I'm definitely surprised the two of you know it… I only do because some Ancient Egyptian wizard decided to weave it into the wards surrounding his tomb… we didn't know what it was and one guy walked into it." All three winced at the thought, and Bill continued, "We just watched as all of his organs shut down slowly… that was not a pleasant way to die, that's for sure… I'll never forget his screams." He sighed, before bringing himself back to the present, "anyway, just don't direct it at me. Use the target over there, and shoot the spells at the target for as long as you can. Each time you try, the spell should move a little faster; though you need to try and put a little bit of extra magic into it for your first few tries. Harry, you go first." Harry nodded and pulled his wand out, looking determined.
"Impedimunus," he said, his voice set and the spell started to move towards the target. Harry gritted his teeth as the spell moved more slowly than any other spell he had ever seen- even though that was the point, even a cripple would have time to get out of its path at close-range! It was infuriating. He shot another one at the target before the first one made contact, and to his relief it moved a little faster than the one before- still frustratingly slow, but the fact that there was an improvement was heartening as it meant it was possible.
"Impedimunus! Impedimunus! Impedimunus!" The spells became regular and the speed increased little by little with every incantation. An hour later, a magically exhausted but determined Harry was sending the spells at the target with the speed of a stupefy- one of the faster spells invented, and Bill was impressed with his work.
"Well done, Harry," said Bill happily when the spell looked little more than a blur, "that is really impressive! It will have affected the rest of your spells as well, they should all move a lot faster as they are relative to the Impedimunus."
"Do you mean to say," said Hermione keenly, "that no matter how much work you put into this spell, it will always be slow in comparison to your other spells?"
"Yes," said Bill proudly, "I do. And Harry's got it going bloody fast!"
"I'm glad you think so," Harry panted, "as I can't go any longer!"
"Stop, Harry, you really are finished here. I never expected you to get it anywhere near that speed. Give poor Hermione a chance!" he teased. Harry nodded tiredly, and collapsed back against the wall before partially closing his eyes, and letting Hermione take his place in front of the battered target.
The girl started off, and her spells were going just as frustratingly slow as Harry's had been. Soon, however, her speed was picking up but the fatigue was obvious.
"Hermione, stop," said Bill after three quarters of an hour, "stop. You're just exhausting yourself now and not getting anywhere. That's still incredibly fast and you can work on it again late. This isn't the only chance you're going to get to work on your casting speed, Merlin girl!" Hermione blushed.
"You're right, I forgot that. I just wanted to get to the same speed as Harry." Bill shook his head.
"Don't exhaust yourself," he said, "Harry has more power so he can work for longer. He'll probably always be able to cast faster than you, but you're still going to be incredible!" Hermione nodded.
"Thanks, Bill," she said, "I just hate knowing that someone is better than me if I'm not working at my hardest… as long as I'm better than others my age, I guess I can let Harry take top spot in this." Harry rolled his eyes.
"Hermione, you're never going to have anything less than one of the top spots at Hogwarts, even if you did none of the study that you do know. Don't forget that your Occlumency helps you retain information, and you understand things much faster than others even if you do just pretend to recite the textbook." Hermione blushed.
"How- how did you know?" Harry rolled his eyes.
"Hermione, I've been working with you all holidays. I know very well that you don't just memorise the textbook, so the only explanation is that you are trying to make yourself seem like less of a threat." The girl nodded, looking slightly embarrassed but pleased nonetheless.
"Harry, I've been meaning to ask you," Bill interrupted, "how did you know that the world entrusted the entire supply of time-turners to the British DOM?" Harry's face froze.
"Merlin," he said softly, "I'm so naïve! That was just a rumour… and it's so likely that it's not true…" Bill nodded gravely.
"I thought so," he said, "I just wanted to check. That sort of rumour would benefit everyone. By the way, I got the Prophet while I was at Headquarters during your gym day, Harry; it seems our little adventure made it into the papers!"
"Really?" asked Harry, sounding as though he was not sure if he should be proud or annoyed. Bill nodded.
"Have a look," said the cursebreaker, handing over the newspaper, "I'm going to bed, it's 9 now." Harry nodded and took the parchment.
'FUDGE DENIES CLAIMS OF YOU-KNO-WHO'S RETURN- DUMBLEDORE ATTEMPTING TO OVERTHROWMINISTRY?'
Harry smirked a little at seeing Dumbledore's name there and not his own, but it was tempered when he realised that it meant that no-one would be preparing themselves for a war- either way, it was not what he was looking for. Finally, he saw the small caption near the bottom of the page.
'BREAK-INTOMINISTRYOFMAGIC'
Late Thursday night, a break-in to the heart of the Ministry of Magic was recorded. Harassed ministry officials claim that nothing was taken. However, a harried-looking DOM worker seemed to believe otherwise. When asked for his opinion on the break in Minister Fudge said 'The break-in is believed to have been made by a small group of Dark Wizards. We believe that they rallied behind Black who, thankfully, is not in possetion of a wand. We are doing allowed can to catch them, and remind the magical community to remain vigilant, though the threat is minimal.' When questioned further, he admitted that raids were being administered on the homes and other places frequented by suspects as well as auror questioning. We, at the Daily Prophet sincerely hope that these criminals are soon brought to justice.
Harry hadn't noticed Hermione reading over his shoulder until she exploded.
"They just told us what they're doing to try and catch the criminals! How thick-headed can you possibly be?" Harry stared at her.
"I can't believe I never thought of that," he said, "but they really did just advertise their methods. They really do need to work on their intelligence… and the Daily Prophet need to work on theirs as well."
"Harry, we are the major shareholders of them… we have controlling shares- we can tell them things like that!"
"You're right," said Harry, "we'll send them a letter. We just have to make sure that we don't send the letter before the article comes out."
"True," said Hermione, "so we'll send the letter next duelling session. I'll write it now, and between the three of us we should be able to come up with the 6 signatures." Harry nodded.
"Good," he said, "but I'm going to bed now… Gym tomorrow and I'm going to step it up a level. The portraits think I'm ready for it. Those portraits really have got the art of torture worked out." Hermione smirked at him.
"You could always stop going to that session," she said sweetly, "I've managed to go without it." Harry looked offended.
"You think my brilliant body isn't worth it?"
"Brilliant body? Oh, I see, sorry Bill; I never realised that you were possessing Harry." Harry sniffed.
Dumbledore paced his study, thinking. There was more to the break in to the ministry than the Prophet had indicated… much more. It was linked to his missing time-turner, he was sure of it; though he couldn't be certain… he wasn't on the best terms with the workers in the Department of Mysteries at the moment. He would have to find out through other means.
That was another problem- his time-turner. Or rather, the fact he had no idea of what happened to it, despite what he told the Order members. He could get another one easily enough, but he didn't like the idea that a thief could get into Grimmauld Place… didn't like it at all. He was the secret-keeper, after all… he would have to ask Poppy; she always seemed to have the best Occlumency shields, though he could never work out how she had managed it. Must be a healer trait. Dumbledore frowned suddenly. There had been something strange- wrong- about that day. The Prophet had come, as usual, through Kingsley. There had been nothing special about it- the usual, Fudge calling him a liar and saying that he was trying to destabilise the Ministry… trying to discredit him, as usual. Briefly he wondered how Potter had managed to keep his name out of it; but cast it aside to look at later. The only part of interest was the small section on the Ministry break-in, but that had told him little more than Arthur, Tonks and Kingsley. Granger had come in afterwards, and taken the paper. There was something… different about that girl, he would have to keep a closer eye on her… perhaps Weasley would do it for him. That boy had never had much loyalty towards his friends. He had gone back to his office for a few hours to search for the time-turner… there was he possibility that he had misplaced it, but he didn't think so. He never found it. They had had an Order meeting later on. Charlie had gotten too suspicious; Dumbledore had needed to Obliviate the man again. Honestly, why couldn't they just trust him? He was the 'Leader of the Light,' after all! Bill had mentioned some new shareholders in the Prophet. 6 of them, and together they had controlling shares. He would have to look into that, perhaps they were friends of Potter? Other than that, the cursebreaker had no news… and Dumbledore had not had the chance to ask him about the large, purple scar that went the length of his arm. A problem with wards, perhaps? An oversight? Somehow, the old man didn't think so. Severus had mentioned Voldemort lying low, and guard duty was uninterrupted… as was Potter's watch. There was nothing seriously wrong, so why was he feeling so worried?
Despite his attempts to convince himself otherwise, Dumbledore remained worried for the rest of the week. That niggling feeling that something was wrong refused to leave him, so the man resigned himself to ignoring it, in the hope that it would go away soon. Soon, though, something happened that pushed the niggling feeling far into the back of his mind.
"Dumbledore, this has gone on for long enough!" The portly man raved at Dumbledore who merely plastered a pleasant expression on his face- though inside, he was raging.
"The ministry has given you a lot of free reign over the years, but the education standard is slipping! You'd best toe the line, now, or there will be some serious changes at Hogwarts!"
"Indeed?" asked Dumbledore, hoping that the Minister couldn't hear the rage that tinged his voice behind the grandfatherly-persona.
"Yes!" replied the oblivious man, "including the next Educational decree!"
"I must admit I have yet to find the time to familiarise myself with the latest one," said Dumbledore. The Minister for Magic drew himself up pompously.
"In the event that the Headmaster is unable to find a suitable candidate for a teaching position, the Minister has the right to appoint someone into the position themselves." Dumbledore nodded.
"Ah," he said, "Yes… I will have to find a new Defence professor, then," he said calmly, not betraying the panic he was feeling. He couldn't let a ministry official into the school! That would ruin his plans!
"See that you do," the Minister all but sneered, "you've got a month… if you don't manage to find someone by then, my friend Dolores Umbridge will be joining you come September First." The head disappeared dramatically, and Dumbledore was left staring at the crackling fire in the grate as the Minister ended the Floo call. He shook his head nervously before summoning a piece of parchment and a quill.
Are you good at Defence Against the Dark Arts?
Would you like a steady income?
Can you pass your knowledge onto the next generation?
If you answered 'YES' to one or more of these questions, please contact Albus Dumbledore at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry by owl.
The Defence Against the Dark Arts Professorship could be for you!
Dumbledore sighed as he rolled the parchment up. The ads he was giving to the Prophet were looking worse and worse every year, but he couldn't help it. No one wanted the job, and he suspected that it would be even less popular than usual this year, thanks to the bad reputation he was currently gaining… he soon realised just how wrong he was. The day dawned clear and warm. It was picturesque summer morning in Scotland, and Dumbledore was sitting at his desk by the window, amidst piles of paperwork enjoying the sunlight streaming in. A cup of tea was steaming beside him and a plate of scones kept it company as he worked his way through the piles of parchment. A tap on his window made him look up. A small, unremarkable owl sat politely on the windowsill, asking his permission to come in. Dumbledore waved his wand and the window sprang open, letting the mall owl glide to a landing in front of him and hold up its' left leg. A small roll of parchment was attached and Dumbledore untied it curiously. The contents amazed him. Headmaster,My name is Chantelle Paige, and I have just read the advertisement you placed in the Prophet this morning. I will admit to my curiosity of obtaining the position.
You would not know me; however I received an 'Outstanding' in my NEWTs after completing my schooling at home with private tutors as my mother was ill and I wasn't able to attend a school for fear of leaving her. I have spent all of my working life in various jobs relating to Defence and I have spent years getting 'hands-on experience' as I believe one of your earlier Professors called it.
Although I have no children, I have been watching the students going through your school for years now, and I believe I know the syllabus well enough. Currently, I hold a Ministry job, though I do not feel any loyalty to them or the Minister.
I hope this is enough to satisfy your curiosity and if you wish to meet with me, any owl addressed to Chantelle Paige will find me.
Thank you in advance,
Chantelle Paige.
Yes, Dumbledore was shocked. His first thought was 'Death Eater,' but he pushed it away quickly. He knew Tom Riddle, and that sort of plan was foolish and Tom Riddle would never attempt it. What would this 'Chantelle Paige' gain from the position then? He wasn't sure. Now, normally, the 'Outstanding' would have erased her from the list of possible candidates. But he was getting quite desperate… and no one wanted the job as he was a raving lunatic and the position was cursed. Even worse, he only had a month to fill the position lest a Ministry supporter get the job. Then again, this Chantelle Paige might support the ministry… but Fudge wasn't clever enough to devise a plan like this… was he? He didn't quite think so as he summoned a spare scrap of parchment.
Chantelle Paige,
You've got the job.
Please send word of the textbook you would like your students to purchase.
Term begins September 1st, please arrive a day before for the first staff meeting and to inspect your teaching quarters, office and classroom.
Albus Dumbledore.
There. No point meeting her, he wouldn't change his mind anyway and he really needed to get this over and done with. Hopefully she wouldn't be a spectacular professor. Now he just needed to let Fudge know that he had found someone…
A few hours later, a relatively cheerful Albus Dumbledore was standing in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, discussing plans.
"I'll go," said Bill cheerfully.
"Me too," added Charlie Weasley and Dumbledore was glad the man was showing a little more loyalty to the cause.
"Pick up Potter," sneered Snape, "you all go and… enjoy yourselves. I will not submit myself to his presence any longer than I have to." Dumbledore shook his head but otherwise remained silent. There was no point arguing with Severus Snape when he was in one of his moods.
"I'll do it," grumbled Moody, "the rest of you wouldn't stand a chance." Dumbledore thought he saw the two elder Weasley boys smirk at that, but decided it was a trick of the light when nothing further happened. Dumbledore watched as that set off a chain reaction. Kingsley, Tonks, Remus, Deadlus, Hestia… even Sirius volunteered to escort Potter to Headquarters, though Dumbledore was able to draw the line there.
"Alright, here's what's happening," he said in his most authorative voice, "Alastor, Bill, Charlie, Kingsley, Nymphadora-" the young auror's hair turned red- "Remus, Deadlus and Hestia… you will all fly to Potter's residence. You will get him to take out his broom and assemble on the front lawn- with his belongings at 9pm. Sirius will shoot up green sparks to warn you that there is almost a minute to go. Red sparks will indicate that it is time to go. You will get into formation defending Potter and head towards here. Land, give him the parchment and bring him inside. Debrief will be immediately after you get back, so don't let him see you come in here. Any questions?"
"Don't you think his relatives will wonder why and where he's going?" asked a curious-sounding Tonks.
"You can deal with that," said Dumbledore dismissively, turning away from Tonks and therefore missing the gleam of anticipation in her eyes. She had heard the stories of Harry's treatment there; that was for sure.
"Death Eaters," grunted Moody, "they could follow us."
"That's your job, then, Alastor," said Dumbledore sounding almost annoyed, "make sure that you're not followed."
"Why can't I go," whined Sirius, "he's my godson!"
"Because, Black," snarled Snape before Dumbledore could say anything, "your precious godson would not thank you for getting yourself caught by the Ministry and kissed by the Dementors… though personally I don't see why he has a problem with that, but then again he is a Potter… and Potter's are not known for their intelligence."
"You shut up about my godson! He's twice the man you could ever be, Snivellus!" Sirius fired up.
"Is that so, Black?" sneered Snape, "I'm sure the others will all agree with you… the one that is too frightened to leave his mother's house."
"I'm not frightened!" yelled Sirius, "You're the one banning me from leaving here! It's not my fault that I'm stuck in here!"
"Really," said Snape sarcastically, "then I suppose it wasn't you that was foolish enough to chase after Pettigrew and get himself caught and thrown into Azkaban."
"I suppose you would know all about Pettigrew wouldn't you, Snivellus," Sirius sneered, "you kiss the robes of the same master, after all…"
"Sirius! Severus! Stop quarrelling like a pair of schoolchildren; you're both giving me a headache. Now, behave!" said Dumbledore finally, rubbing his temples. The two men threw each other death glares, but nevertheless remained silent, Sirius looking slightly ashamed of himself. Unfortunately, Snape looked almost the opposite.
"Right," said Bill, breaking the uncomfortable silence, "if we're going to be ready in time, we'd best be off now," he said and the other protectors nodded their agreement, looking more than happy to get out of the oppressive house that they had named headquarters. Sirius watched them go, looking rather forlorn.
Dumbledore spent the evening pacing irritably around the house, barely refraining himself from snapping at the other inhabitants as he thought about all of his problems- and the mysterious Chantelle Paige. Who on earth was she? It was almost a relief at 10 to 9 to accompany Sirius outside to get ready to send the signals to the Order members at the Dursley household. He wondered how the boy would react when he got back to Headquarters… hopefully very thankful for his 'rescue,' though you could never count on a teenager to be grateful… and Potter had a notoriously short temper. He watched as the sparks were sent up into the air and then reluctantly turned back inside, his emotions reflected on the animagus' face.
It was agony for Dumbledore, waiting for the 'rescuers' to arrive back with Potter. He wanted to make sure that he had not gone backwards with the boy he had to be receptive to his 'advice.' And the Weasley boy's, too… that was essential for when the boy truly reached his 'teenage rebellion' stage, which, he was sure, was going to be quite soon.
Dumbledore also, knew, though that they would take quite a while as Alastor Moody was with them… that man would detour around Greenland to make sure that they were not tracked by Voldemort's henchmen. He was pleasantly surprised, then, when a mere half an hour after the signals had been sent into the air, a proximity ward was tripped, signalling their return.
A few minutes later, the door was opened, and Dumbledore was momentarily confused. A tall man, with firm muscles under his tanned skin was staring at him, bright green eyes surveying him from behind a mop of relatively tame jet-black hair.
"Hello, Headmaster," he said, coolly stepping aside to let the other Order members through and Dumbledore was suddenly caught wondering what he had done wrong.
"Harry, m'boy," he continued on, undeterred, "it's nice to see you again. How are you?" he asked, feeling the words try to choke him as he spoke. The young boy in front of him fixed him with a cool stare.
"Fine," he said, "and I was fine before you brought me here."
"Yes, well," said Dumbledore nervously, "It was unsafe to leave you there any longer. Voldemort is attempting to find you and he will most certainly look at your relatives." This was not going to plan. The cold glare did not abate as Harry spoke again.
"If it is unsafe for me to be there, why did you send me there in the first place? If Voldemort is going to check at my relatives, then surely it would be better for them if a trained wizard is living with them- never mind that I have only been learning for four years, the Dursleys would stand no chance. Get your story together, old man," he sneered.
"Harry, you see, you are not capable to hold off the Death Eaters just yet, and you are too important to let you be captured."
"I see," said Harry, "so you are willing to send me to the Dursleys, safe behind your apparent 'blood wards' until you feel that you want me here. Then you claim it is unsafe for me to live there and the Dursleys would be better off without me there… never mind that the Death Eaters won't care about that and the fact that they are muggles. Then, you say that I am leaving because I can't hold off the death Eaters, meaning that you believe the same three muggles are more capable than I am at completing that task, either that or you feel that their lives don't matter in the long run."
"Harry," chastised a shocked Molly Weasley, "Don't say such things to the Headmaster! He only has your best interests at heart." To Dumbledore's shock, Harry hung his head and muttered an apology before shuffling out of the way and allowing Molly to direct him up the stairs to his room for the rest of the holidays. A few minutes later, they heard the shouting break out before he threw a quick silencing charm up and the shouts were muffled out as he headed into the kitchen to debrief the members of the 'rescue' party.
Upstairs, Harry was staging an argument with Ron and was feeling incredibly embarrassed about it. He had learnt to calm his temper over the holidays, and not blow up at everyone and everything so this current argument that he was staging felt incredibly childish and time-consuming- but he knew that the changes had to be slow and subtle to begin with, though he could begin to speed up soon. Apart from that, he was expected to be still grieving after Cedric, and a little traumatised after watching him die and then thrown into the isolation of the Dursley's home like a piece of used trash. So, sighing mentally, he resumed yelling.
"How could you do that to me? How could you just leave me there and not send me any letters? Don't you think I deserve to know what's been going on? Who was it that saved the stone? Me! Who saved your sister from the Basilisk? Saved you both from hundreds of Dementors? Who had to get past sphinxes and dragons and every other foul creature last year? Who saw him come back last year? ME! But why should I know what's going on? YOU SHOULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING, RON; YOU COULD HAVE SENT ME A LETTER!"
"WHY AREN'T YOU YELLING AT HERMIONE, THEN?" Ron yelled back, equally heated.
"Hermione actually had the guts to write and tell me that the letters were unsafe," said Harry coldly, "and she was able to communicate as much as possible without endangering her letters. She wrote every second day. Hermione is a true friend," he said finally, "and I can see that you aren't, Ron," with that, he stalked away to the other side of the room to 'fume' in silence as he had done many times in previous years. What was worse is he knew that he would have thrown a similar tantrum for real if it weren't for the time-turners and the Occlumency, and other lessons he had had with his temper.
"Absolutely mental, that one," he heard Ron grumble in the background and Harry couldn't resist shooting back,
"I heard that, Ronald," even though he knew it was exceptionally childish. It only took a few minutes until Ron couldn't stand the tension in the room anymore, and he left, mumbling something about 'Ginny' and 'Chess.' It was the first, and probably last time Harry would ever see that boy willingly spent time with his younger sister, unless they were playing Quidditch.
"Wow," said Harry, "that felt so childish," he complained to Hermione.
"And even a month ago you wouldn't have said that," she said, "but you did well. It was really convincing, I had a lot of trouble keeping myself from Defending Ron!"
"Really?"
"Well… no," she admitted, "but if I didn't know what he was doing to the two of us, I wouldn't have had a second thought about jumping in between you and doing a bit of yelling. You were really scary." Harry blushed.
"I wasn't trying to be scary… just look and behave like I used to."
"Well, you succeeded," she said, "almost too well."
"Sorry about that," said Harry, "hey, when the meeting's over, do you want to go talk to Charlie? I really want to talk about that move he showed us in the outdoor-" he was cut off when a hand slapped over his mouth.
"Are you insane?" Hermione hissed, "Anyone could be listening here!" Harry flushed and began to mumble an apology, but it was unnecessary as at that moment, Molly Weasley's voice floated through the halls announcing dinner. Harry grinned apologetically at Hermione and raced towards the voice in the most dignified manner he could manage on his empty, teenage stomach.
The meal was delicious, though there was an obvious air of tension surrounding the room as Tonks entertained the girls by morphing her nose into different shapes, the pig nose being the one that was most frequented.
"You know, I'm surprised at you, Harry," said Sirius within ten minutes of the beginning of the meal, "I thought you'd come in here and start asking questions about Voldemort straight away."
"I did," said Harry indignantly, "I asked Hermione, but she said that the kids don't know anything. Well… Fred and George do, but not that much." The tension rolling off Dumbledore was palpable, but surprisingly it was Molly that exploded first.
"Sirius! Absolutely not, he's a child!"
"A child that, without whom, we would have no clue of Voldemort's return! And, I might add, I not a child anymore."
"He's not an adult!" said Molly, conveniently ignoring his first argument, "He's not James, Sirius!"
"I am perfectly clear on who he is, Molly," said Sirius, "I don't need you to remind me. But Harry has a right to know what's going on!" Harry risked a glance at the two eldest Weasley boys and saw them both hiding smirks behind their hands. He quickly turned back to Sirius before he lost control.
"What?!" Molly exploded, "He has absolutely no right to know-"
"Not everything," Sirius hastily amended, "Just the general picture. From us, rather than… others." Molly breathed out loudly through her nose, and Harry was reminded forcibly of a cornered bull.
"Fine," she ground out after a while, "fine. But my sons will not be part of this discussion, and neither will Ginny."
"But-"
"What!"
"We're of age!"
"No!" she cried fiercely, "You are children, and have no right to this information. Leave the fighting to the more experienced adults!"
"Molly," Arthur interrupted finally, "You can't stop Fred and George; they are of age." The boys cheered, and a visibly annoyed and frustrated Molly Weasley was almost spitting as she relented. Ron was about to protest, until he saw the look that he was receiving from Harry and groaned, frustrated as he turned to Ginny, defeated. There was something about his behaviour, though, that had Harry on edge. Almost as if he didn't really care if he was in the meeting or not… as if he would get the information anyway regardless. Harry shivered slightly.
"I knew it," said Tonks triumphantly, "we should never have gone through the clouds." Harry decided that he wasn't all that bothered by the misinterpretation of his shiver.
Dinner passed slowly after that, and Molly was not disguising her attempts to delay the meeting for as long as possible. Finally, though, she grudgingly sent all of the plates and cutlery flying towards the sink and dinner was over.
"Right," she said quickly, "Ron, Hermione, Ginny- BED!"
"Mum, you can't stop Hermione; you are neither he parent nor her guardian." Molly shot her eldest son a poisonous glare, but released the older girl from her clutches as she began to chivvy her two youngest up the stairs into bed. Harry was slightly put out by Ron's half-hearted struggle as he turned to Sirius.
"So, what has been happening?" he asked casually.
"Nothing much, actually," said Sirius, "we've been keeping tabs on known Death Eaters, trying to stop him from gaining support and raising awareness as much as we can."
"So how are you doing that?" asked Harry, trying to sound innocently curious.
"Well, I can hardly wander around handing out flyers, can I?" asked Sirius sadly.
"No one wants to have me over for dinner, the term 'werewolf' turns most people away incredibly quickly," said Lupin, mimicking the sadness that Sirius had used.
"Kingsley and Tonks can't start talking, they'll lose their jobs at the Ministry, and Arthur will as well. He's already being watched extremely closely," Sirius continued, "and Dumbledore's not the most popular man in the Wizarding World at the moment, thanks to the Prophet."
"So you're not doing anything?" asked Harry, inwardly congratulating himself on his acting skills.
"Of course not!" said Sirius, sounding offended and missing the amused snickers that were quickly muffled from Bill and Charlie, "How do you think we got Tonks? She was too young to be in the Order during the last war."
"What?" asked Tonks sounding offended, "Seven is a perfectly acceptable age to join the Order." Sirius rolled his eyes and continued, "but apart from that, most of us are taking most of our time on guard duty-"
"Sirius!" a warning voice came from near the doorway, "That's quite enough," said a suddenly visible Molly Weasley.
"Guard duty?" Harry mouthed at Sirius.
"Voldemort is after something," he said, "like a weapon. It's something that he didn't have last time, something that could mean the end of the way either way-"
"Sirius!" The warning voice was harder to pinpoint this time, as it had come from many people at once. Harry shot Hermione a significant look and noticed that she was returning the favour as Sirius backed down.
"So what's the weapon?" asked an unimpressed Fred.
"Something incredibly dangerous that you are going nowhere near," said Molly sharply, "now go! You have learnt more than enough now!" The four of them stood up slowly, looking disappointed, but complied anyway. Molly lead them up the stairs, looking back constantly to check that they were following her, and not trying to sneak back down into the kitchen. Harry barely kept from rolling his eyes- he had no need to eavesdrop- after they had got Charlie to work with them, they now had two sets of ears in each Order meeting. Molly dropped Harry off at his new room- he had refused to sleep with Ron, though that was what had been planned- and led Hermione and the twins upstairs to their rooms- but not before locking the door after him. Harry rolled his eyes again and started counting. They weren't time-turning today, as the timing was terrible, but he was betting on the fact that Hermione would be apparating down to talk to him. Sure enough, only 30 seconds later, a bushy-haired girl was standing at the foot of the bed. A few silencing charms later, the explosion occurred.
"They weren't just trying to keep information from us; they were downright lying to us! Those little-" She was cut off as a sharp CRACK permeated the room.
"Fred, George, what are you doing here?" Harry hissed, alarmed.
"Whoa, calm down Harrikins, they'll hear you," said George.
"No they won't," said Harry, "I've got more than enough silencing charms on this room. But that's beside the point!"
"We just wanted to talk to you about what we just heard," said Fred,
"Yeah, we never heard about-" continued George
"This weapon that they're talking about-"
"Over the old-"
"Extendable ears!" they finished together. Harry narrowed his eyes at the boys.
"I'm sorry, but I have to do this," he said apologetically, and without warning, he dove into Fred's mind.
It was surprisingly neat for what he was expecting, and Harry was shocked. What shocked him the most, though, were the memories and feelings of loyalty that they possessed. There was a memory of Charlie being obliviated. By Dumbledore. They had deep feelings of suspicion towards Dumbledore, but they were afraid to show it in front of anyone. They did make sure, though, that they were never alone in a room with him. The loyalty they felt was towards Harry himself, and their elder brothers, minus Percy. Harry smiled, and was just about to retreat when he noticed the thin connection between Fred's mind and another. Alarmed, he checked it, only to find it leading towards George. It was weak, though, and they would have to work hard to project thoughts and feelings through it. It was there, though, and Harry found it incredibly interesting as he withdrew from Fred's mind. Harry grinned.
"Sorry about that Fred, I just had to check," he said apologetically.
"Check what?" he asked, sounding suspicious.
"That you wouldn't run and tell Dumbledore… or your mother." Both twins looked shocked.
"We thought that you liked Dumbledore!"
"Oh, n," said Harry grimly, "no I don't."
"Harry rates him just below Voldemort," said Hermione from her corner.
"Hermione!" exclaimed Fred.
"So young," said George, shaking his head, "so young."
"Oi!" Harry said indignantly, hitting them over the head with a pillow, "that's bad. Get your small mind out of the gutter! Anyway, no, we don't support Dumbledore… and we have spies in his order."
"Really?" asked George, excited.
"Who?" Fred added, sounding equally excited.
"You ought to talk to your two eldest brothers a little more," said Harry mildly. The twins gaped at him.
"But… Charlie was obliviated!" said Fred, shocked.
"I can do a lot of things," said Harry, "including undoing an Obliviate. Charlie joined us a week ago; Bill's been working with us for a month."
"That's not possible," said George, "'Cause you've been at your Aunt and Uncles all summer." Harry shook his head mournfully.
"You're losing your touch, boys, the great pranksters are losing their spot on the top rung. No, I have not been at my relative's house… I spent one night there."
"Harry…" said Fred.
"We're not worthy!" George piped up, and Fred joined the chant.
"Yes, yes, that's nice," said Harry, "but before I tell you anymore, I will have to enter your mind again."
"So that's what you were doing!" said Fred and the same time George said, suspiciously,
"Why do you need to do that?"
"Well," said Hermione, and the boys turned to look at her, "Dumbledore and a few other people are Legilimens, which means they can enter your mind and interpret what they find- much the same as Harry did with Fred just then. That means if Dumbledore does that to you, we lose our secrets… everything we tell you, he will be able to find and we will lose our advantage."
"Exactly," Harry picked up, "but I can set up your minds so that he can't find any of this information in your minds and so he won't be able to take the information with you. It also stops him from Obliviating you when he thinks that you are suspicious of him. Another thing I can do is stop an Obliviate working on you. I did this to both Bill and Charlie when they both came to work with us. Once I protect your minds, we can tell you what we've been doing… and we have been doing a lot more than the Order has, trust me."
"Action-packed holiday," Hermione agreed.
"Okay," said Fred apprehensively,
"You can do that, Harry," George continued.
"We trust you," Fred finished. Harry nodded gratefully, and entered Fred's mind again. He quickly placed an automatic gathering spell and set it to collect suspicions of Dumbledore, any information on Harry, Hermione, Bill or Charlie and anything he might do in relation to the war, and sent it all to the corner of Fred's mind. He set it so that there were mild repelling charms and an Obliviate there, warded it so that no one apart from Fred could use magic there and placed several other spells to deter wizards without them realising what was happening. Finally, he warded the whole mind against summoning, though he modified it to allow Fred to circumvent it to remove memories if he wanted to. Satisfied, he withdrew and turned to George to repeat the process.
"You do know that the two of you have a mild mental connection, don't you" he said mildly when he was done.
"That explains that," said Fred amusedly, "Whenever George here feels a particularly strong emotion, or thinks too loudly, I can hear it. We never told anyone, though."
"Yeah," said George, "people might think that we're going crazy!"
"You're not," Harry assured him, "but that could be really useful! Now, what we've been doing…" he sat down, and the four of them sat on the bed for over an hour going over the major point of the holidays, though they skimmed over the point about the time-turners. They weren't sure yet if the twins were going to be major players in this war, or just background, and they preferred to leave the number of people knowing about the time-turners as low as possible.
"So essentially," said Fred keenly when they were finished, "our first mission is to wreak as much havoc as possible, draining the school's resources."
"Yep," said Harry cheerfully, "pretty much!"
"Awesome," said George, "I think we're going to like working with you lot."
"Yeah," Fred agreed, "we've just invented these brilliant things…"
"You see, we took the idea of a muggle time-bomb, and filled them with itching powder…"
"Thought they'd be amusing to set off in Ron's room," Fred admitted.
"But we could set them off in a tower at night when there's no-one around…"
"and make the effects bigger."
"Nah, we won't set them off in a tower," George amended himself; "we'll set them off in old Snape's dungeons."
"Brilliant, oh brother-of-mine," said Fred.
"I have no idea how the pair of you only managed 3 OWLs each," said Harry admiringly, "you're incredible at magic!"
"Why, thank you, ickle Harrikins," said George, taking a mock bow.
"Glad you appreciate our service," said Fred.
"Why don't you set off more than one? Between the four of us, we can get them all set up… or even one of us can do it, since you can apparate within Hogwarts," said Harry absent-mindedly. Fred and George looked shocked.
"You mean," said George.
"That we can just apparate in and out, with no chance of the teachers spotting us… especially with the Marauders Map?" finished Fred.
"Yep," said Harry proudly, "though not many people know that, and you will not be telling anyone… even your girlfriends. Though, Hermione and I should do it as we apparate silently."
"You can do that?"
"Wow," the twins expressed their sentiments.
"Yes," said Hermione, "though it's better that we don't teach you yet as we don't want it to become our signature move."
"They'll need it when Voldemort comes out into the open and we go on proper raids," Harry objected.
"Fine," Hermione sniffed, "when Voldemort comes out into the open, we will teach you how to apparate silently."
"thanks," said Fred distractedly, "but I was wondering- how did you put the silencing charms up when you're not of age?" Harry smirked at him.
"You know, the Fidelius Charm really is an amazing thing," he said casually. Fred and George just gaped at him. Amused, Harry continued, "of course, it's not the only one. Any heavy wards…"
"We're not worthy, we're not worthy!" The twins restarted their chant.
"Fred, George, I hate to break this up," said Hermione, "but we really should get to bed now if we're going to get up in time tomorrow morning." The twins sighed and shook their heads, obviously disappointed, but with two loud 'pops,' they were gone from the room.
"We should tell Bill and Charlie," said Hermione, "and then I should get back in case Ginny wakes up and notices that we're gone." Harry nodded.
"I'll tell Charlie, you go to Bill," he said, and suddenly Harry's room was empty.