I swear I'm not stealing. I'm just borrowing. Without asking permission.
Hey, Jo, can I borrow your characters? Just to play with so I don't go nuts trying to guess what happens next?
Having showered and packed, Harry, Ron, and Hermione moved downstairs before lunch. The Dursleys were in the living room. Harry considered for a moment, then decided not to say goodbye again. Ron moved over by the stairs for a moment, and Harry opened the door. He could have sworn he heard Ron mutter something. Sadly, at this point, Dudley swaggered into the room.
"Leaving, are you?" he asked, "Why'd you wait so long?"
Harry slowly turned to Dudley. "Dud, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time." And he punched Dudley in the nose, grabbed his trunk, and walked out of Privet Drive forever, Ron and Hermione following him. Dudley's howls could be heard from inside the house. Harry walked to the curb and held out his right hand. The Knight Bus appeared. Ron groaned.
"Hogwarts, please," he told the conductor. They loaded their bags and were off to the school.
An hour later, the bus stopped at the gate of Hogwarts. Ron looked slightly sick. They walked up the path to the school and arrived at the front doors.
They were locked.
Hermione sighed. "I suppose we could wander down to Hagrid's? We haven't seen him since…the funeral. He said he'd stay here no matter what."
They could hear Fang, the dog, barking as they approached the hut. Ron knocked and they could hear Hagrid cursing inside, and the sounds of him stumbling toward the door.
"Wuzzit?" Hagrid called blearily through the door. "Wazzamadder? Yeh need me? I'll beare righ' quick."
The door opened. "Ron? 'Arry? Herminny?" Hagrid blinked drunkenly. A few empty wine barrels were scattered around the hut.
"Erm…Sorry to bug you, Hagrid, but we couldn't get into the school."
"Of cours' nah, 'Arry, M'Gonagall kips it locked," Hagrid replied. "I'll let you in, I know th' passwor'." He set off across the grass.
As they returned to the castle, however, Harry was startled to see Minerva McGonagall, the new headmistress of Hogwarts, running across the grass. "Potter!" she yelled, "Weasley! Granger! Get inside, quickly! I need to talk to you, and I'm very busy at the moment. Hagrid, get up to the school, please, the meeting's about to start. Potter, I'll meet the three of you in Gryffindor Tower. The password is unchanged."
They walked up to the Tower silently and entered the Common Room. Harry scowled. "I really didn't plan on coming back here," he muttered. It was hard to be here, where he had so many happy memories from the only real home he had ever known. He desperately wanted to return to Hogwarts, but he knew he could not: he needed to be out in the world, looking for Horcruxes, and he wouldn't be able to get the information he needed in order to do that here. He wouldn't be able to leave the school easily if he stayed here longer. He turned to Ron. "What do you suppose is up with Hagrid?"
Ron shrugged. "He's probably upset about Dumbledore. I mean, it always seemed almost like Dumbledore was his father. He's just upset."
Hermione looked like she was going to cry. Ron put an arm around her. "We should go see him soon," she sniffed.
They sat there for what seemed like hours. Finally, Harry began to get up and pace. He paced for a while and then flung himself back down on his chair.
The portrait hole reopened, and McGonagall returned. She took a chair next to Hermione and asked, "How have you been?"
Harry decided on total honesty – up to a point. "Lousy. We need the library; I have some doubts about what I saw on the Tower; Dumbledore, once again, didn't tell me the whole story about something that directly impacts my life; I officially have nowhere to live; and I can't return to school next year because of…because I can't," Harry finished dully.
McGonagall sighed. "I will give you access to the library. Tell me why you doubt what you saw on the Tower and I swear we'll get to the bottom of it eventually. You can live here for the rest of the summer, and the school will reopen next year with a much – altered program of studies. If you have to leave, I will accept that, but…I need you here, Harry."
Harry was floored. "Why?"
"Because instead of classes and assignments, we're going to have a more individualized approach. If you want to learn something here, and it's not Dark Magic, we'll find a way to teach it. There will be no real classes. It's more work, but we're going to have to get the students trained in the best way possible. Only a quarter of the students are returning this year, and we're going to use the decreased population to have each of them teaching each other, individually. We want to have a faculty member supervising each of their subjects, but we have a very noticeable vacancy in the staff."
"Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Quite right. We thought having you here would allow the students to have their own leader for the coming battles. Basically, we want you to reform the D.A. as a training ground for the Order of the Phoenix, and to help the students who don't want to join you with their Defense anyway."
Harry blinked. "You want me to WHAT?"
McGonagall sighed. "The D.A, Potter! You are a leader to the students! You can prepare them for the coming war better than anyone else can! There are not going to be any more O.W.Ls or N.E.W.Ts until the war is over, it was decided yesterday, because they can't count on an unbiased testing environment. The school will be new and improved, and we will be running the Order straight out of the school. We are opening membership to all students over seventeen – which will soon include you. I am prepared to offer you, Weasley, and Granger membership in the Order as soon as you turn seventeen, Potter. I know you can't reveal your mission, but you can be a help to us, and we can help you. Please, let us help you."
It was the please that threw Harry. He smiled. He felt like laughing. "You're offering me the Defense Against the Dark Arts job, aren't you, Professor? This new method of running the school you're talking about…with all of us running around teaching each other skills…do you realize what a disaster this could be?"
"Yes," replied the headmistress. "But I believe it to be the right thing to do. We need less predictability in school as the world outside it becomes less predictable. Continuing as normal is pointless: there will be no Ministry-improved tests to study for. You will all be teaching each other. We aren't really offering you a teaching job, but we can't find anyone who's willing to take it, and if you're here working with the students, it should appease many of the people who are worried that their children will not be trained in Defense."
"Harry…" whispered Hermione. It was the first thing she had said since McGonagall had started talking. Harry looked over at Ron, who merely shrugged. He turned back to McGonagall.
"Will you give us a minute, Professor?" McGonagall nodded and headed to the portrait. "I'll be back later." She disappeared.
Harry looked at the other two. They looked as shocked as he felt.