Albus Dumbledore set his half-moon glasses on top of the letter. "I find it hard to believe-" "Must be imagining things" and "Not right in the head" were just a few of the phrases that the letter contained.
Less than 24 hours ago Harry Potter had witnessed the death of a fellow student, Cedric Diggory, and the rebirth of the darkest wizard in centuries, Lord Voldemort.
Dumbledore pulled a fresh piece of parchment toward himself and began thinking of a response to the lovely letter he received from the Minister of Magic, tapping his quill on the side of the ink pot as he thought.
He sat for a time pondering ways to begin his reply, "You incompetent fool" being the most polite wording that he could come up with. Taking a break, Dumbledore dropped his quill and reached across the pile of papers and books that littered his usually organized desk to a small glass bowl. Carefully, he chose a light brown Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Bean. Popping it into his mouth he relaxed into his chair. "Ah, toffee," he thought closing his eyes.
As soon as he did so, a memory from three years prior flowed into his head.
Harry Potter was lying in a bed in the hospital wing, Dumbledore sitting by his side trying his best to give Harry the answers that he deserved without sharing too much. "I think I'll be safe with a nice toffee, don't you?" he said and bit into a bean. "Alas! Ear wax!"
The memory made Dumbledore smile, but things had changed drastically since then. His worst fears were coming true. Voldemort was back and the one person who can defeat him is only a boy. He hated to admit it but maybe just maybe there was nothing he could do. Even he had to admit defeat and let things play out on their own. What if he took a step back and let Voldemort and Harry do what they were destined to do, to let their fates take over.
No.
The only thing that would come of that would be death and destruction. He couldn't let the boy risk his life before it was time. He had to keep him safe, it was his duty, his promises to the wizarding world, his promise to James and Lily.
A new thought struck him then. The Order of the Phoenix. They hadn't meet in years but if Harry's account of what happened in the grave yard was true, then there was no better time to restart the Order. Surely the old members would support him and help recruit new members.
The wizard snatched up his discarded quill and began a list of the old members, Alastor Moody, Dedalus Diggle, Aberforth Dumbledore, Emmeline Vance, Arabella Figg, Severus Snape, Sturgis Podmore, Rebeus Hagrid, Elphias Doge, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin. Under those names he began a second list; Arthur Weasley, Molly Weasley, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and Hesta Joans. He made a note to ask the others if they know anyone else they could trust that may want to join the Order and began to pen a letter to them.
Dumbledore was thinking about a time for the Order to have its first meeting when he realized something, last time the meetings were held at Marlene McKinnon's home but she was killed by Death Eaters during the last war. He glanced over his list debating the most likely place for a new headquarters.
'Severus', no Voldemort might figure that out. Alastor's, no he is too paranoid about having people around. The Weasley's house has too many ears about. Diggle, no…' He continued through the names in front of him. 'Hagrid, no. Doge, no. Sirius, no. Remus, no.' He stopped suddenly and his eyes moved back up the list.
Sirius. The Blacks. Grimmauld Place.
It would be the perfect place for the Order to have its headquarters. Big and empty. Sure there is the risk of Bellatrix and Narcissa also being relatives of the Blacks, but Sirius was the heir to the house and just like there are ways to hide a person, there are ways to hide a house. So what if the family who owned it had been and still were some of the biggest Voldemort supporters, the house has tons of extra rooms incase an order member needed to go into hiding for a while.
Coming to a decision, Dumbledore rolled up his list and gave it a tap with the end of his wand to seal it from prying eyes. Standing up he slipped both the paper and his wand into the pocket of his robe and left the room.
He made his way to the hospital wing where he knew Sirius would be sitting next to Harry's bed. It took him slightly longer than expected because curious and frightened students who should have been at breakfast were stopping him in the corridors to ask him questions. He did his best to put their fears to rest but there were some things that even he did not have the answers too. When he finally reached the hospital wing Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape were waiting outside the door.
"What brings you here?" McGonagall asked as he neared them.
"Order business," he replied in a low tone continuing past them and into the room. Curious, the two professors followed him.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were saying good-bye having spent the night at Harry's side to make sure he was alright even though Dumbledore assured them repeatedly that he would be fine. Harry's friends were crowed around his bed but there was no sign of Black among them.
Molly Weasley looked up as he entered the room. "Good morning Professor," she greeted him.
"Hello Molly, Arthur. Have you seen Sirius?" He hoped that they knew where he was, this was a very important matter that could not wait any longer than necessary, besides, he doubted a suspected killer could go very long in the castle with out being recognized considering what happened the year before.
"The last time I saw him he was muttering to himself. Something about having to go visit 'her,' a little crazy if you ask me." It was Ron Weasley who answered. Dumbledore felt Snape stiffen behind him.
The headmaster bowed his head in thanks and promptly turned around and headed back the way that he had come, barely noticing that Snape was following him.
"Sir," Snape caught up to him three staircases and several corridors later. "He couldn't have been taking about her, could he?"
"There is only one way to find out Severus." Dumbledore answered without slowing his pace.
"He cannot be there! He has no right!" The students who had previously stopped Dumbledore were now rushing to get out of the way of their headmaster and the angry potions professor.
"Why not?" Dumbledore answered in a tone that makes most seventh years cower. "He knows her too."
"It's his fault! Him and his friends! If they had never-"
"Enough!" Dumbledore stopped and turned to face Snape. "If I remember correctly, Severus, you had something to do with it also. I need to speak to him. This is about more than an old sixth year rivalry. If you have an issue with this than you can take it up with Gwenica, I'm sure she would find your reasons for not visiting her fascinating."
"I-" Severus began but Dumbledore was already fifteen paces away.
Dumbledore continued on his way, but when he reached the portrait of a wizard in an overly large feathered hat he turned to the left instead of going to the right which would eventually lead him to the great hall. He continued in this direction until he reached the statue of Boris and Edwin, brothers who cut each others hands off during a duel. At the statue he turned once again to the left and continued. He was now in a corridor that was only used by students who were either very lost or were looking for a place to be alone, it was a school full of teenagers after all. Halfway down the hall he turned once again to the left and headed up a short, narrow set of steps that was almost hidden in the wall.
His foot steps slowed and then stopped as he neared another statue.
"Hello Gwen" he said to the statue of a winged boar as he placed his hand flat on its head.
The statue blinked, "Albus," it said with a slight bow. As the boar bowed the stones of the wall behind it began to shift revealing in entry way.
The wizard hesitated before entering. The last time he was here was years ago, nineteen to be exact, back when the accident happened. Several times he was tempted to come, but he chose not to because he knew the temptation to try to fix it would be too great.
He stepped into the common room. It looked as if it was still being used. A pair of discarded shoes lay beside the couch as if someone had kicked them off before sinking into one of the plum colored couches. On the table before the couch lay an open potions book, a half finished essay beside it, a quill resting on top, the ink pot still open and half full as if someone stopped mid-sentence to do something more important. It was a room stuck in time, spotless but untouched. He half expected a laughing student to come thought the door.
He made a mental note to thank the house-elves for keeping the room clean without disrupting anything. That's when he noticed it. On the wall on the right hand side of the room was the door that leads to the dormitory, and it was partially open.
Without hesitation he crossed the room and pushed it open the rest of the way. His eyes swept across an armchair in the corner, a cloak lying across one arm. Books littered the floor around a heavy wooden trunk with AJH written across the lock in silver letters like someone had forgotten to but them back. The bedside table held only a wand.
Dumbledore's eyes then rested on the form of a sixteen year old girl. She was lying in the bed, a blanket the same shade of purple as the couches in the other room covering her lower half. In a second armchair near the bed with his back to Dumbledore sat Sirius Black. He approached the two unmoving forms and placed his hand on Sirius' shoulder. He looked down at the girl, her black hair lying neatly against the pillow, eyes closed as if she was asleep. It was a girl frozen in time for all of these years.
"It was an accident. A joke gone wrong. We didn't mean for this to happen, not to her. God no, especially not to her."
"I know that this was not your intentions Sirius." He gave the younger man's shoulder a gentle squeeze.
"Then why haven't you done anything for her?" his voice was not accusing but instead he seemed to be pleading.
"There are some things that cannot be fixed and we have to adjust to living with out them. However, there are things that can be fixed but only if you know how they were broken." Dumbledore tore his gaze from the girl and fixed it on the top of Sirius' head.
The younger wizard sighed before asking, "What did James tell you?"
Dumbledore was quite for a minute, recalling the conversation he had had with James Potter years prior. "He came to me a few weeks after and told me that you and the others were distressed about the events so he decided to come forward and tell me what really happened that night."
Sirius stopped him before he could say any more. "When James went to you Remus and Peter were in detention and I was in the hospital wing."
Dumbledore nodded. "That is why I never tried the incantation with the information from him."
"What do you mean?" Sirius finally lifted his head to face the older man.
"You can never tell with events like this. If you want to undo a… lets call it a charm. If you want to undo a charm like this one, you have to know what spells where used to create it. And most importantly what order they were said in. If one is out of order or incorrect then the consequences could be more then anyone would expect."
Sirius returned his gazed to the girl. "None of us understood what was happening. We expected you would have Slughorn brew up a potion and everything would go back to how it was. By the time we found out that that wasn't possible we were afraid to tell you what really happened."
"I remember what it was like being young. Afraid of doing something because of the consequences. But in the end doing more harm by not doing it." Dumbledore turned to leave, all thoughts of Grimmauld Place pushed from his mind.
"Impedimenta." The professor half turned back to Sirius. "Impedimenta. It's the one that I used." When Dumbledore didn't respond he continued. "Peter was to frightened and ran to you to tell which he used, Snape would have told you his the night of the accident and made sure the other Slytherins told theirs too. I'm sure Moony gave you his last year when he was teaching. And James, well I know that he wrote it down and put it somewhere safe, which I am positive you have located by now. The only one that you needed was mine."
Dumbledore merely smiled to himself before continuing toward the door. Sirius' voice once again stopped him.
"Professor? You act as though you knew that this was going to happen to her. When it did I was torn apart, the others were hurt as well. It was like there was a spell cast on us, even the Slytherins. But you just nodded and got that all-knowing look on your face. Why?"
Dumbledore turned once again to find that Sirius was now standing and staring at him intensely, wanting answers. He knew that Sirius would not let him leave unless he got the information that he desired.
"There are some things in life that cannot be controlled. This is what we call fate." He laced his fingers together in front of himself.
"Fate?"
"Yes fate. It's a funny thing some times."
"Sorry, I don't follow." Sirius was gazing at him curiously.
"Do you remember back in your first year? During History of Magic, someone asked about the history of Hogwarts." Sirius nodded slowly, indicating that he remembered. "Do you remember that it mentioned a prophecy?"