Forgive me for my lateness. Apparently the MicrosoftWord I was using on my new laptop was a trial version that ran out sometime in February. For some reason that put me into a severe writing block for this story and I instead focused my attenton on my college career. And when I say college career, I don't mean classwork; I mean partying. However, another semester has ended and although I'm taking summer classes, the absurd always having a party to go to that you usually have during the semester, is not so during summer in the town of my college. Therefor I should have more time to work on this story. This chapter is a little rough. I just want to get it published so I can move on. Chapter 5 is where it is at. I just need to get there!
Just some facts from the last story people might not remember:
Aurors are detectives. They investigate crimes, track down criminals and the like. While they are skilled fighters, they aren't the Ministry's main fighting force. Current numbers are 49 Aurors with 13 more in training.
Hit-Wizards are like S.W.A.T. (CO19 in the United Kingdom). They are (currently) the best fighters the Ministry has and are the ones who primarily deal with Death Eater attacks and other dangerous, dark wizards. Current numbers are 66 with 6 more in training.
Auxiliaries (formerly Magical Law Enforcement Squad members) are like the police. They normally handle petty criminals like Mundungus Fletcher. They are the ones typically assigned guard duty at places like Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. Current numbers are 74 with 20 more in training.
Chapter 3 Summer
Two weeks later and Harry was feeling pretty good about himself. He had visited fifteen other people and had gotten seven of them to join the Order. Angelina Johnson, Andrew Kirke and Patricia Stimpson had only taken a moment to convince. Jill Dorny and Steve Capper were a little harder to convince and he felt bad having to use Cedric to guilt them into signing the contract. Both of them were former Hufflepuffs and good friends of Cedric, and Harry had spoken to them a few times when he and Cedric had bonded over the stress of the tournament during his fourth year.
Bryan Dunston was a Ravenclaw from Wood's class who had joined the dueling circuit. Harry had never spoken to the bloke before but Oliver had insisted he was a good fighter. Harry was pretty sure Bryan joined because he thought battling Death Eaters would improve his dueling. Kasey Bundy was a Slytherin who graduated a year ago. He was a muggle-born who had been constantly picked on his entire time at Hogwarts by his fellow housemates. He wanted to show the purebloods that muggle-borns were just as good.
Harry was having Moody and McGonagall over to hand over the contracts and discuss other recruits he was looking into. Several of them were from other countries, and he didn't know if Moody wanted to expand the Order into the mainland, or keep it in the United Kingdom. McGonagall was coming because she was second in command in the Order and if Mad-Eye wanted to keep the Order national, he might need her help getting the foreigners to the United Kingdom.
The knock on the door alerted him to the arrival of the two Order members. Ron and Neville were at boxing lessons, Neville having signed up for all three fighting classes. Harry knew Ron wanted to join the Order, and having the teen around when a meeting between several Order members was going on, and excluding him, might not have been a good idea.
Harry opened the door with his wand drawn. "Prove who you are."
Mad-Eye laughed. "Constant Vigilance! I helped teach you tactics and strategy at the insistence of Dumbledore."
Harry nodded his head before turning toward McGonagall. She looked around for a second before changing into her cat form. No one could replicate an animagus form; polyjuice let you look like the person, not inherit their magical abilities.
"I formerly invite Professor McGonagall and Mad-Eye Moody into my flat," Harry stated.
He stepped back and allowed the two to enter; Professor McGonagall changing back into her human form upon entering. Moody's magical eye was going crazy as it spun wildly in his socket. Harry moved over to the sitting area and sat in an arm chair. McGonagall sat on one of the couches while Moody just stood, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Alright Potter, what's your reason for inviting us here?" Moody asked gruffly.
Harry grabbed the stack of contracts on the coffee table in front of him and held them out. McGonagall reached out and took them, examining the signatures. "Wood, Jordan, Johnson, Stimpson and Kirke," the Professor muttered, looking at the names of her former Gryffindors.
"So you already have me new members. How many?"
"Ten," Harry stated. "I asked eighteen but the rest of them are trying to avoid the war now and nothing I could say would convince them they couldn't. I still have at least one more in the United Kingdom and several on the continent I want to ask. Do you want to expand the Order or keep it national?"
Moody and McGonagall shared a look. "We think it best if we just focus on the United Kingdom. So far Voldemort hasn't expanded to other countries and we want to focus on our own homes before worrying about others," McGonagall explained.
"Not to mention I don't think I would be able to run that large of an organization. The threat is here, so let us deal with it here."
Harry nodded his head. He could understand their logic. "Alright that makes sense. With Kingsley being recalled to the Ministry, do you have a new dueling professor?"
"I was giving the post to Alastor here."
Harry looked at Mad-Eye in a little surprise. He figured after the last time the ex-Auror was suppose to be a professor, he wouldn't accept the role of teacher again. "Some of the people I was going to ask were friends and opponents from the Junior Dueling Tournament. If I could offer them a job and a place to stay, it would be easier to convince them to come here."
"Like the dueling professor at Hogwarts," McGonagall stated, understanding where Harry was going with this.
"Exactly. Not only would you have the class being taught by professional duelist, you would have Order members and good fighters for extra security in the school."
McGonagall looked at Alastor who merely shrugged his shoulders. "I was only doing the job as a favor to you Minerva."
"Well I have been looking to increase the security around the school. Hired security and trained animals were being looked into already."
Harry perked up at that. "Trained animals? Who would be looking after them?"
"I was going to have Hagrid do it," the Professor explained.
"One of my friends from the dueling tournament is a magizoologist who works with the more dangerous animals."
"It looks like you'll have your hands full for a while Potter. Tell these friends of yours to get in contact with me if they are interested. If they will join the Order I'm more than willing to offer them jobs."
McGonagall stood up, nodding to Harry as she did so. Moody walked up to Harry and held out his hand.
"Good job Potter. Thanks to you we're quickly approaching the numbers we had last war."
Harry shook the ex-Auror's hand. "No problem Mad-Eye."
As the two Order members left the flat his two roommates came back from their boxing lesson.
"What was that about?" Ron asked, nodding to the door.
"Just handing Mad-Eye the contracts for the new members. I also talked to McGonagall about offering jobs to some foreign witches and wizards so they have a reason to come to the United Kingdom and help in the fight."
"Did you talk to them about me joining?"
Harry rolled his eyes, having had this discussion with Ron on multiple occasions. Ron had taken the Animagus potion and had discovered he had the ability to change into an animal. Ron had been ecstatic of course, but the new found ability had also given the red-head an ego boost. Ron was thinking pretty highly of himself the past few days and his increase in dueling skill wasn't helping matters.
Harry rented out the largest practice chamber in the Gryffindor Arena every Monday and Thursday. He invited everyone he used to train during the school year to join him, as well as the Order members he had just recruited; to help them brush up on their fighting.
Alicia and Jeff were too busy going through the extensive training needed to be Hit-Wizards. Fred and George were hard at work coming up with ideas to help in the fight for the Ministry. Parvati and Padma were visiting relatives in India. Oliver made it whenever Quidditch practice didn't interfere. Bryan Dunston trained almost every day with a personal trainer. Other than that everyone else showed up, ready to train.
Ron, who used to be around the middle of the pack when it came to dueling, had gotten a lot better. Harry assumed that before, though Ron took the training seriously, he never realized the true necessity of it until the incident in the Forbidden Forest. That incident had added fuel to the fire burning in Ron and he had become even more dedicated to improving. What Ron failed to realize was that he would still get bested by someone like Adrian Pucey in a duel, let alone an inner circle member. Hell Harry couldn't even take on an inner circle member and if he was being honest with himself, he was much better than Ron.
Harry leaned casually against the lamppost, hands shoved into his pockets and his hood drawn over his head. Hogsmeade may not have been as populated as Diagon Alley, especially this late in the evening, but that didn't mean he wanted anyone recognizing him. It wasn't that he was trying to be stealthy; it was just that he didn't want to be mobbed by reporters or flocked by the public since he was a 'hero' again.
He stared intently at the public apparition spot where he was expecting someone to arrive any minute. Problem was the person wasn't expecting him and he knew it must look suspicious for him to be standing there with his hood up in such dark times.
"Turn around, slowly."
Harry frowned. He hadn't even realized someone had approached him. That wasn't acceptable. He was supposed to be more aware of his surroundings. He glanced over his shoulder and saw one of the patrolling Auxiliaries, his wand drawn, standing behind him.
Harry turned slowly, not wanting to get in a confrontation. He supposed he could try to take on the law enforcement official but not over something as stupid as loitering.
"Lower your hood."
Harry grimaced but brought his hands up and slowly lowered the cloth from around his head. The Auxiliary's face went from hostile to shock as he took in the sight of the Boy-Who-Lived.
"Lord Potter," the man stuttered.
Harry grimaced at the title of Lord. Most people didn't use it unless in a formal setting, like Ministry held balls and Wizengamot sessions, but pureblood aristocrats used it almost all the time. The man must have been a pureblood. "Sorry about the hood but I had hoped to go unnoticed."
"Understandable Lord Potter. Please, forgive me for the mix up but you can never be too sure now a days."
"It's alright. Better to be safe than sorry."
The man nodded his head before walking off quickly, muttering to himself as he did so. Harry shook his head and turned back toward the apparition point. There was a loud 'crack' as a female appeared out of nowhere. Harry immediately recognized her as the woman he was seeking. The same woman he had bested in the second round of the dueling tournament. She lived in Hogsmeade and was coming home from her job, where she worked as a Spell Crafter at a private company.
An Auxiliary checked the woman over, making sure she wasn't a threat. Once it was clear she wasn't one, they allowed her to pass.
"Ms. Joyce, if I could have a moment of your time."
Helen Joyce turned in surprise, finally noticing Harry. "Harry Potter? If you're here on behalf of Dumbledore the answer is still no."
Harry blinked, wondering if Dumbledore had approached her about joining the Order back when he still ran it.
"I like where I work and I'm not going to quit so I can join the Ministry at a lower salary."
"No, I'm not here on behalf of Dumbledore, though I find it odd you'd think I'd be working for him."
Helen shrugged her shoulders. "Everyone knows your Dumbledore's man."
Harry frowned a little at that. While it was true he would consider Dumbledore his mentor, he didn't consider himself Dumbledore's man. "I'm here to ask you to join something else. It will only take a minute; I assure you. Plus you won't have to quit your job."
"You can walk me to my house then and tell me your offer on the way."
"Are you sure that's him?"
"Did you even look? Of course it's him! Everyone knows what Potter looks like. And he's with a Weasley and the Longbottom heir; known associates of Potter."
The two Death Eaters peered out from the alley, squinting through their white mask. Behind them another five Death Eaters waited anxiously. This had been a sudden idea of theirs, after one of them had spotted Harry Potter entering a muggle gym a little over an hour ago. They had tried to get in contact with their Lord or one of the higher ranking Death Eaters but none were available. So they decided to take matters into their own hands, hoping to capture Potter and present him as a gift to the Dark Lord.
It was another fifteen minutes before the three Gryffindors exited the gym. Each wore a pair of shorts and a sweat-soaked t-shirt, bottles of water clutched in their hands. None of them appeared to have their wands on them but looks could be misleading. The more expensive wand holsters had invisibility charms on them.
"We have to move quickly. Too much magic in a muggle area will draw the attention of the Ministry. If they block the first attacks, spread out. Hit them from different angles."
"It's like for Merlin's sake why even bother wearing shorts at all if they don't even cover anymore of your arse then your underwear does?" Ron asked.
"You didn't seem to mind when she was bending over in front of you Ron," Harry pointed out, grinning.
The tip of Ron's ears turned pink. "That's beside the point mate!"
Neville gave Ron a shove and chuckled. "Muggles sure do wear less clothes then wizards do. I mean if my gran saw someone wearing that, she'd have a heart attack."
"I just think wizards are stuck in..." Harry trailed off and frowned.
"What's wrong?"
Harry shook his head, his shoulders tensing. He pushed Ron and Neville to the ground and jumped backwards. A wave of spells slammed into the storefront they were walking by, shattering glass. Shards of glass cut into Harry's exposed skin, making him wince in pain. Harry flicked his wrist, his wand jumping from its invisible holster into his hand. He could hear muggles screaming all around him, a handful of them in the shop and the rest fleeing in terror down the streets.
He got into a crouch, his wand out in front of him. Seven Death Eaters came out of an alley and began spreading out in front of him. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he could see Ron and Neville had their wands out and were in defensive positions, cuts littering their arms, legs and face from the broken glass.
"I'm the sword, you guys are the shield."
Ron and Neville nodded at his words. Being the sword meant Harry was the offense. Being the shield meant Ron and Neville were the defense. A series of curses started flying at the three teens. Harry twirled his wand, deflecting a handful of them back at their casters. As Ron and Neville took care of the rest of the spells Harry jabbed his wand at the Death Eater on the left.
A spear of light rocketed from his wand but was dodged by his opponent. The spell slammed into a glass door, shattering it. As Ron and Neville defended him from a barrage of hexes, Harry twisted his wand. The shattered glass rose into the air and flew at the nearest Death Eater. The robed wizard wasn't expecting the attack and got imbedded by several dozen pieces of glass of various sizes. With a short scream, the Death Eater collapsed to the ground, blood leaking from the many puncture wounds.
"Duck!" Neville shouted.
Harry and Ron both crouched as low as possible. The green light of the Killing Curse rocketed over their heads, the smell of decay filling their noses. The curse slammed into the store behind them, sending bricks flying.
"We need cover!" Harry shouted, glancing around the street which was devoid of cars. "Into the store!"
As one, the three friends threw themselves through the blown out storefront window. They landed in a heap on a tile floor covered in broken glass, which cut into their already scratched up skin. Harry glanced around and saw about half a dozen muggles huddled in the back corner. Curses started pouring into the shop from the Death Eaters, slamming into shelves and sending debris everywhere. Harry waved his wand and a small marble wall erected in front of the muggles, causing them to scream in terror.
"Stay behind the wall!" Harry shouted as one muggle tried to get up and run.
Ron poked his wand out and fired several curses blind. "We need to reevaluate our situation. Obviously the choice of this cover wasn't the best tactic as all the spell fire is keeping us from fighting back properly."
"We're in the middle of muggle London with Death Eaters flinging curses around." Harry pointed out. "I'm just waiting for the Hit Wizards to show."
Neville chanced a glance over the cover, ducking back down quickly. "Looks like they are thinking the same thing. They're moving in."
Harry blindly shoved his wand over the cover and fired off a few spells, hoping to slow down the Death Eaters. Ron and Neville followed his example.
"I don't think we should stay by the window. Let's move back some, to give us more room to move."
Harry followed Ron's advice and crawled backwards along the floor, ignoring the pain as rubble on the ground dug into his hands and knees. He ducked behind a knocked over shelf and moved into a crouch, easily able to see out the window and toward the advancing Death Eaters. Neville moved next, as Harry and Ron made sure no stray spells clipped their friend.
"It's been almost five minutes. I'm pretty sure it would take that long to walk to the Ministry from here. Where the hell are they?" Harry demanded.
Eight loud 'pops' filled the air, accompanied by a chorus of yells.
"Stupefy!"
"Expulso!"
"Crucio!"
"Sectumsempra!"
"Sanders is hit!"
"Diffindo!"
"Ampeto!"
Five more 'pops' echoed throughout the area as the yells stopped. Harry looked out from his cover and saw eight Hit Wizards, one of them wounded badly. Two unconscious Death Eaters lay on the ground, including the one Harry had stuck with glass. The Hit Wizard that was obvious the leader of the group moved forward and examined the area.
"Jackson, get Sanders to St. Mungo's. Kendall, contact the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. I want at least three Obliviator teams and a Repair squad on the scene as soon as possible. And tell the Muggle-Worthy Excuse Committee to start thinking of something. Samson, get some squad members to take these two Death Eaters to St. Mungo's. I want them under heavy restraints and a guard."
The only female member of the grabbed the wounded man by the arm and they both disappeared with a loud 'crack!' A short, burly man with a bald head and a tall, lanky fellow with a thick beard, both disappeared as well.
Harry, Ron and Neville stood from their cover and started to make their way out of the shop.
"What the hell compelled Death Eaters to attack muggle London in broad daylight?" a Hit-Wizard asked.
"That would be because of me," Harry stated, holding his hands up as five wands became trained on him.
"Harry Potter," the leader breathed out. "What are you doing out in muggle London?"
"I was at the muggle gym down the road. I live a few blocks from here," Harry explained.
"Ruddy slow getting here, don't you think?" Ron asked.
One of the Hit-Wizards gave an apologetic shrug. "We're still working out the kinks in the new headquarters. Information is delayed in getting to us. Our usual response time is a minute, not six."
"Can you tell me exactly what happened?" the leader of the Hit-Wizards asked.
Harry let Ron and Neville tell the man everything he needed to know. Instead, he stood there in thought; it was obvious the Death Eaters knew where he went to workout. It would be irresponsible of him to keep going there. Unless he could somehow work it where no one magical would know he still went there. Maybe a disguise or if he could get a portkey that went straight into the locker room. It would be a shame to abandon the gym after only one month.
"A glamour that works on witches and wizards but not muggles."
Ron, Neville and the Hit-Wizard turned toward Harry with looks of confusion on their faces. The Boy-Who-Lived had remained quiet during the entire retelling of events until his seemingly random comment.
"What are you talking about mate?" Ron asked.
Harry scratched the back of his head and gave the three a sheepish look. "Just a thought I had."
The Hit-Wizard looked as if he wished to continue the conversation but various witches and wizards began appearing out of no-where. Obliviators, Auxiliaries and clean up crews all began to perform their duties with speed and precision. The Auxiliaries, six in total, grabbed the two immobile Death Eaters and disappeared with them. The Obliviators, five teams of two, spread out and started altering the minds of the muggles that had gathered in the area. The repair squad started fixing the damage done by all the spell fire.
"If our names could be left out of the Daily Prophet, that would be greatly appreciated," Harry murmured, eying the magical people who shuffled around him.
"I'll see what I can do."
Harry tried to look it up but he couldn't find a glamour charm that would hide their true faces from magical persons but not from muggles. It had been two days since the attack and neither he nor Ron and Neville had been back to the gym. He supposed they could just find a new gym or even go to the same one in disguises but it was the principle of the matter. He didn't want to change his entire life because of some stupid Death Eaters. He had become friends with several of the other patrons, as well as several of the workers and wanted to continue with his friendships.
The Daily Prophet ran several articles on the attack, since it was the first one since the battles in Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest. Their names had been left out of the paper, which meant Mrs. Weasley didn't know of the attack. Harry felt guilty not telling the Weasley matriarch of the attack but it wasn't like they were exactly lying; they were just not volunteering information they knew she would probably want to know.
It was his birthday today, as well as Neville's. A joint party was being thrown at Longbottom Manor for them in celebration. Sirius and Remus, who he had only seen on a few occasions over the past month, assured him they would both be there. Sirius, as a Senior Hit-Wizard was busy chasing down leads on Death Eaters, most of which turned out to be false information given to the Department by a jumpy housewife. Remus, being the new head of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, was always busy trying to revoke former laws discriminating against werewolves, goblins, centaurs and veelas and replace them with newer laws that demonstrated more tolerance. Harry had attended half a dozen Wizengamot meetings, trying his best to use his political might to help pass the laws Remus was pushing. While a good amount of the newer, lenient laws were vetoed, most of the harsher ones passed under Fudge and Umbridge had been revoked.
After his birthday Harry had plans to visit Spain and Belgium. He had mailed several of the duelist in the tournament he participated in to see if any of them might be interested in helping out against Voldemort. Only three of them had answered back positively. One of them lived in Spain and two of them lived in Belgium.
However, all plans involving the Order would have to wait. Today was suppose to be a day of celebration. The three males walked quickly to the Leaky Cauldron, looking around as they walked the streets. No point in being unprepared for another attack on them. They arrived at the grimy pub with no problems and floo'd to Longbottom Manor.
Five hours later, Harry twiddled with the Potter family ring and the Kingston family ring, both of which sat on his right hand. He supposed he could have also adorned the Black and Gryffindor heir rings but two rings was already enough for him. He surveyed the group of people that had made it to his and Neville's party. Almost everyone he had trained during the school year was present, as well as Michael Patterson and Oliver Wood. Hermione was still on vacation, which was just as well because dealing with one ex-girlfriend in Parvati was enough for him today. Anthony Golstein was still in St. Mungo's from being hit with the giant's club back in the Forbidden Forest. Wayne was still dead.
"What are you doing off in the corner by yourself?" Sirius asked, handing a butterbeer to his godson.
All the teens had played several games of Quidditch. They had talked each others ears off over anything that came to mind. They had gone swimming, and put on music to dance to. They had eaten enough food to feed a small army and enjoyed a cake that was almost as big as Harry was. The two birthday boys had opened their presents, thanking those who were kind enough to get them gifts.
"Just need some time away from everyone else," Harry stated, nodding his head to the various groups of teens that stood around talking. "I'm so use to being on my own, or just having Ron and Hermione at my side. Sometimes it still takes me by surprise that I have so many friends and allies."
"You got the Potter charm Harry, same as your father and your grandfather. It draws people to you. You'll just have to get use to the fact that you're not alone."
A few days later, before he would depart for the continent, Harry would learn that Voldemort had left him a birthday present. Sixteen muggles throughout the United Kingdom had been killed. They were of various age, race, ethnicity and gender. There were only two things each person had in common. They were all killed on their birthday, July 31st and all of them had a lightning bolt carved into their foreheads before their deaths. That was the second time Voldemort had "celebrated" a major event in Harry's life.
The first one was Halloween during the last school year. Voldemort had murdered fifteen people. Seven of them were males with dark hair and seven of them were females with red hair; all fourteen had the name 'Potter' carved into their chest. The fifteenth was a teenager around Harry's age who looked vaguely similar to the Boy-Who-Lived; a teenager who had a lightning bolt scar carved into his forehead and was hung from a tree.
The first one meant that it had been fourteen years since Voldemort had killed Harry's parents and failed to kill Harry, and that Voldemort wouldn't fail again; that Harry would end up dead. He wasn't sure what the second one meant, besides the death threat implications. Maybe it was an assurance that there wouldn't be a seventeenth birthday in Harry Potter's life. Either way, Harry knew he would never approach Voldemort about throwing anyone a surprise party.
