Chapter Four

Hermione's letter was very straightforward, if not short. She had written at least two feet of parchment in her tiny but meticulous script. He hurried up the stairs after watching the taxi pull away and was unrolling it and skimming the first paragraph.

Hermione told him of the letter from Dumbledore, the hasty unplanned trip to the south of France she and her parents were taking. She told of the letters flying back and forth between her and Ron and then spoke of the articles in the Daily Prophet. Between Percy's visit and Hermione's letter, Harry was beginning to glean some idea of what had been happening out in the wizarding community since he'd left Hogwarts.

As always, there were two factions: those who believed that Voldemort had returned and those who had stuck their heads in the sand and were scoffing at everyone for their warmongering. What was clear to Harry, as he read, was that Dumbledore was keeping a low profile. Time and again Hermione wrote, but each time he had declined to comment or was not available. What had really been going on was that Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix seemed to be on the fast track.

Ron says that his father has been gone for days at a time, his mother has been leaving at unusual hours too and he and Ginny are left to themselves. Of course, that's fine with them, but they haven't heard from Fred and George, Bill, or even Charlie. No one knows where Percy has gotten himself off to. After the disastrous news article in the Daily Prophet about Fudge and the day of the attack at the Ministry, Percy's has gone missing. Of course we both know, Harry, that Mr. And Mrs. Weasley are doing the business of the Order. But what that business is about, I can't fathom.

Harry sat back for a moment to digest what she was saying, and what he had learned from Percy. Once Voldemort knew that the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries was destroyed, what would be his next step? Harry contemplated the question for a moment and dropped his eyes once again to the script.

What's clear is that Dumbledore seems to think that you, Ron, Ginny, Luna, Neville and I are all in imminent danger. He doesn't think that Azkaban can hold Malfoy and the others for long, and that until we return to Hogwarts in the Fall we have to be kept hidden. Other than that, he's being very secretive, Harry. I can only hope that his plans include you. I'm just so worried that we won't be together later in the summer and I don't like that one bit.

Harry nodded in agreement, he didn't like it either. What was more worrisome was that all of this seemed to have been going on in the past few weeks and yet he had not received a letter from Dumbledore or even Remus. He knew for a fact that Hermione would have refused to leave if she had known about the prophecy and he was glad that he had kept that information to himself. He was also growing angrier at Dumbledore; as always, he was being kept in the dark.

His concentration was broken by his uncle roaring for him again. He knew it was time to go down and clean up the remnants of the barbeque, and to eat whatever was left behind. With misgivings, he dropped Hermione's unfinished letter on top of the Percy's unfinished letter and left the room.

By mid-morning of the next day, Harry was doing his normal job of watering the azaleas and washing down the drive. If any of the neighbors were watching, it looked like a normal morning; his appearance and manner did not give away the turmoil of mixed feelings going on inside. Through the late hours of the night he had dug out both letters and finished reading them.

Two things stood out in Percy's letter. The first he would deal with in person. He ground his teeth together at the thought of it. The second, and possibly the item that Percy wanted to draw his attention to, was the issue of his parent's involvement in a secret society.

Harry knew what Percy did not know that his parents had been members of the Order of the Phoenix; their activities had been discovered, but not the whole purpose behind them. Members of the Order, like the Longbottoms, had been hunted down and interrogated by Voldemort, and his followers. That was documented in some detail. There were deaths and some other atrocities connected with Voldemort and these were also related to people who were thought by the Ministry to be members of this secret society.

It was also very clear to Percy and the Ministry that the group was a vigilante group fighting Voldemort, but the report revealed little else. Harry knew that the whole thing was well researched. If Percy had been doing a thorough job and Harry thought he probably had, it was clear that there had not been enough information available and that Ministry had known hardly anything about the Order. They didn't even know the name of it, nor had they mentioned Albus Dumbledore. There had even been some concern that this special society was acting outside the bounds of the Ministry.

Harry recalled that section of the report. Percy's neat handwriting was easy to read and Harry remembered it word-for-word. At that time, the Minister of Magic, Lionel Hornbuckle, was concerned that a group of citizens were acting outside the limits of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and were taking matters into their own hands. He became convinced that someone in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was assisting this vigilante group and that the Ministry would be held responsible if anything went wrong.

Harry knew what that meant; if Hornbuckle had been anything like Cornelius Fudge, he would have worried more about the Order getting recognition, or more possibly, bringing about Voldemort's end and getting all the credit.

Minister Hornbuckle and the Wizengamot immediately took steps to curtail the activities of this secret society and made plans to infiltrate and discover the identities of its members. It was his desire that these wizards and witches stop and desist in their tactics out of fear of aggravating the situation and bringing about an all-out war.

Harry smiled at that. Dumbledore had been on the Wizengamot and was also the head of the Order. The Ministry had failed in its attempts, and Harry decided that Dumbledore, no doubt, had a hand in that.

What Percy had wanted him to also know, he thought, was that the Ministry had an elaborate and well-detailed plan that concerned his parents. All known members of the Order had been interrogated by the Ministry. Someone had given his parent's names to the questioners. That had resulted in a flurry of investigations and reports from which Percy had strained his information.

Harry stopped in the middle of the drive, watching the water run down to the street and along the curb. He was thinking about what had happened to his parents next instead of the water and was shaken from his reverie by Aunt Petunia's shrill voice. "Shut off the water!" she screamed.

He turned the valve and began pulling the hosepipe to the back garden, feeling lucky that she had done nothing more than shout at him. Of course, her concern about neighbors prevented her from ranting at him about wasting water; but still, he was trying to keep a low profile and had been careless with his attention.

As he coiled the hosepipe he returned to the report. Percy had copied out verbatim an interrogation of his mother, and one of his father that was taken at the time. He read it with great interest; it felt almost like they were speaking aloud to him. But it gave no new information. They were very careful to not reveal anything to the Law Enforcement Wizards and, in fact, Percy noted that the interrogation was rather benign compared to others he had read. One session of questioning had even included Hagrid.

Harry nodded to himself. Percy had been astute. He'd written that he thought that the questioners had gone easy on his parents because someone- possibly one of the interrogators themselves- was also a member of the Order.

Whatever it amounted to, it was such a waste of time to put so much effort into dealing with the members of the Order instead of directing it at Voldemort, he decided

Percy also included some letters to the editor of the Daily Prophet that his mother had written before she married. They had been direct and well-written. She had talked about the controversy between the half-muggles and purebloods, about the misuse of dark magic, and about Voldemort in particular. Harry read the section and wished he could have seen the articles themselves. A watered-down Percy version wasn't nearly as satisfying.

Good for you, mother! he thought as he read. Someone needed to speak out..

It made him think about what it must have been like at the time and what it had lead to. It was sobering to think about it all and wished that he could have turned it all over to Hermione; with her shrewd intellect, she would have been able to pick the whole thing apart in no time. Harry felt sadness threaten to overwhelm him. He missed his friends even more.

Harry returned to thinking about the document to avoid the feelings generated by his thoughts. He had come to the end of the report and realized after seeing that Percy had underlined a section, what he had been trying to tell him all along. What had finally been revealed to the Ministry was the involvement of muggles in the whole issue. Voldemort had circumvented the efforts of the Ministry in capturing him and his followers, or being held accountable, by using muggles.

What Percy was trying to tell Harry was that there wasn't anyone to be trusted. In fact, the victims that Pettigrew killed, that day in the street, were not innocent victims as was thought by all. Sirius had been blamed for the massacre of Peter Pettigrew and a number of muggles. That had been widely believed. What few knew, except Hornbuckle and a few others, was the fact that these were Voldemort's muggles, acting under his orders.

What better way to rid the wizarding world of half-bloods but to take care of that business in the muggle world? Harry thought. Let muggles do the dirty work and be blamed for it.

Harry heard Vernon's car pull into the drive and he realized that it was too early in the day for his uncle to return home. He dropped the hose neatly into its receptacle and wandered out to the front of the house by the side fence. It wasn't his uncle's car. Instead, there was a sleek black sedan sitting in the drive. He wandered up to it until he could read the emblem emblazoned on its side in gold lettering. It read: Saint Brutus' School for Incurably Criminal Boys.

His first thought after reading and understanding the emblem was; I think I'm about to find out how Voldemort uses muggles. He didn't have a chance to think beyond that.