Chapter 4

Harry soon became tired of Ron's ridiculous attempts to impress Fleur at breakfast, he thought it was bad having people stare at him for being the boy-who-lived but at least they didn't drool. 'Well not all of them anyway.' He thought with a grimace.

The good news was Mrs. Weasley decided to interrupt breakfast to attempt to conscript everyone in the cleaning of Grimmauld Place. The bad news was that Harry knew this was just a ploy to get the 'kids' away from any order activities, and he was hardly going to spend the rest of summer cleaning.

Harry had snuck back up stairs before Mrs. Weasley could start on him. Upon entering his room he decided that it was time to bring in backup against her.

"Dobby! Winky!" Harry called.

The two elves popped into his room almost immediately.

"Yous is calling us Harry Potter." Dobby asked, his big ears flopping.

"Yes, Kreacher has finally decided to be a good house-elf but this house has decades of grime and abuse. I thought you two might appreciate working for a family again." Harry said.

Dobby's eyes went wide, and Winky's head snapped up.

"Mr. Harry Potter wants Dobby to be working for him." Dobby asked stuttering.

"Yes. Since I am now legal, you two can work for the Potter house, while Kreacher serves the Black line." Harry said.

"Winky is loving to be working for Harry Potter." Came Winky's small voice.

"Dobby is too."

"Excellent do you know what to do." Harry asked holding out his hands.

The two elves nodded and took Harry's hands. Harry felt a whoosh of magic through him as the elves bound themselves to him.

"What is Master Harry's orders." Winky asked, smiling for the first time in a year.

"Right well, you will work with Kreacher to remove all of the dark artefacts from the house into the attic. I want this place looking new." Harry told them.

"Wee's is fixing Master Harry Potter's house for him." They replied before disappearing.

Harry smiled to himself, with three house elves working on the job, Mrs Weasley wouldn't be complaining in a couple of days.

Harry walked over to the nightstand and picked up the book that Sirius had left out for him. It was a fairly thin book on how to become an animagus, it wasn't a new book and it had scribbling handwritten in the margins. Flicking through it Harry realised that it must have been the book that the Marauders used to become animagi during their time at Hogwarts.

Harry sat down in the chair and started to read it. Learning how to become an animagus wasn't on the vampires training schedule. They had said there were far more important things to learn. Harry had agreed at the time but now that he was proficient in other things he could afford to concentrate on releasing his inner animal. Besides while it might not be the most important skill it could certainly provide him with an edge in a fight.

The first couple of chapters were mostly on advanced meditation techniques needed to reach the state of mind to control the animal inside, this was the lengthiest part of the process. Then it explained how to brew the potion needed to change for the first time.

Since he already knew the meditation thanks to his occlumency, he sent Hedwig off with an order for the potion and decided he'd attempt it later.

Harry had stayed in his room for most of the day, after sending Hedwig away he read through his personal library and practiced a few spells. He decided to stay up in his room so he could practice magic without anyone seeing what he was doing.

Since Fleur had left earlier for St. Mungo's Harry had no good reason to venture downstairs and risk having Mrs. Weasley on his back about helping with the cleaning.

He had spent the last couple of hours meditating. He had reached and released his inner animal. It was a large black panther. Harry thought it was amazing. The fluid way that it moved in his mind's eye was breathtaking, and with its sharp claws and vicious teeth it looked menacing at the same time. Harry had decided that he would attempt the transformation at Hogwarts. The potion was required to induce the transformation for the first time, after that it was up to the wizard to practice. It took a long time for it to become seamless. Or so the book says anyway.

Checking his watch he realised that it was almost time for the order meeting. He was certain there were going to be some mixed reactions to the prophecy and his joining of the order.

Harry put the books away and made his way downstairs, he saw the two youngest Weasleys and Hermione, who were in the drawing room trying to de-doxy a pair of drapes. He quietly passed them and descended the remaining steps to the hall.

Opening the kitchen door he saw most of the Order members were already seated in the kitchen so Harry made his way in and sat down.

He glanced down the table at Dumbledore and saw that he had his pensieve out and was removing silver strands from his head.

Fred and George were sat opposite Harry and appeared to be in a deep conversation with Dung. Harry saw some, no doubt illegal goods, change hands, it seemed Mrs. Weasley had relented and finally let them join.

Fred looked up and grinned at Harry and winked before pocketing a handful of whatever Dung had given him.

"What are you doing here Harry?" asked Tonks dropping into the chair next to him.

"I'm here for the meeting Tonks. What about you?" Harry replied.

"Very funny, you know there is gonna be a riot before you'll be accepted." Tonks told him.

Harry just shrugged. He was actually looking forward to it. Harry looked up as Fleur walked in and smiled at her. She made her way over and sat on his other side expertly ignoring Bill's not so subtle attempts of making room for her to sit next to him.

He shot a mutinous glare at Harry as Fleur sat down which caused Harry to almost burst out laughing. Bill was in his late twenties and was reacting almost as bad as Ron.

Harry's smile left his face as Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen.

"Here we go." Harry whispered.

"What is eet 'Arry." Fleur asked.

Harry didn't need to answer as Mrs. Weasley caught sight of him.

"Harry dear, the meeting is almost starting, go on upstairs." Mrs. Weasley said motioning him out of the door.

"No I'm staying Mrs. Weasley, I'm joining the order tonight." Harry replied.

A few members gasped, both at Harry joining the order or him saying no to Mrs. Weasley.

Mrs. Weasley went red in the face almost immediately.

"NO, you're not, you are still underage and even worse still in school. You are too young Harry, the order are trained adult witches and wizards. We can't have school kids as members." Mrs Weasley ranted.

Perhaps sensing an oncoming disaster Dumbledore interrupted form the head of the table.

"There are many things to discuss tonight Molly, include Harry's future involvement with the order, if you please take a seat we will sort things out momentarily. " Dumbledore said.

"He's too young to join. I'll not sit here and watch you allow a child to join the order." She said glaring at Dumbledore.

"Then leave Mrs. Weasley." Harry said simply.

"What..." Mrs. Weasley said speechlessly.

"I'm not here to get your permission to join, I am joining. So anyone with a problem can either keep it to themselves or leave." Harry said shrugging.

"Molly perhaps if you sat down we can run through the sound reasoning behind Harry being here." Dumbledore said.

"Alastor, ward the door."

Mrs. Weasley sat down heavily and avoided looking at Harry.

"If I could draw everyone's attention to the pensieve for a moment we can see the reason why Harry is here. You will all no doubt remember the prophecy we tried to guard last year." Seeing their nods Dumbledore continued. "Whilst the prophecy was destroyed in the ministry it was just a copy. The original was made out to me by Sybil Trelawney some many years ago. The prophecy is the reason for Voldemort's interest in Harry and will also explain why he must join the order."

"Naturally the prophecy is highly sensitive information and if it were to get out it could mean the end of us all." Dumbledore said gravely.

"Because of this I must insist we all take an oath against revealing it. This parchment holds the oath, simply sign your names. Anyone who does not wish to partake may leave now." Dumbledore said passing the parchment to McGonagall who sat on his left.

Nobody left and after they had all signed the parchment, most of the Order were giving Harry curious glances.

Dumbledore tapped the pensieve and the ghostly image of the divination professor rose out of it.

"The one with the power to vanquish the – Dark Lord approaches…born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…"

There were several gasps and looks of horror filled the faces of the people gathered round the table. Fleur had grasped his hand tightly during the reading and had yet to let go. Harry found holding her hand quite a pleasant feeling and was at least one good thing to come from the prophecy.

"Does that mean..." McGonagall trailed off.

"Aye, what does it actually mean, all that cryptic bullshit." Moody muttered.

"It means that I am the only one who can kill Voldemort." Harry said rolling his eyes at the flinches at hearing the name.

"Yes, in essence that is what it means, that Harry and Voldemort are destined to fight and only one of them will survive." Dumbledore said fiddling with his beard.

Looking over at Mrs. Weasley he saw she was sobbing in her husband's arms. 'Get a grip.' Harry thought. 'So much for adult trained wizards can't even handle some dumb prophecy.'

"You 'ave to fight Voldemort, are you not scared 'Arry." Fleur whispered.

"Sure but I've had enough time to get over it, I've been training and I'll keep training until I'm strong enough beat him." Harry answered.

"You seem to accept it, not many would shoulder zees responsibility." Fleur said looking at him with a new respect.

"Well Voldemort has killed my parents, my godfather, ruined my childhood, attacked me and my friends multiple times and caused me heaps of other distress indirectly as well. So I'd be almost disappointed if someone else got to off him." Harry replied with a laugh.

"So how much does Voldemort know of this." Moody asked.

"Just the first part, he does not know that it depicts Harry who is the only one who can defeat him." Dumbledore answered.

"So you're telling me that all of our hopes of freedom are in Potter's hands." Snape asked with his head in his hands.

"That is correct." Dumbledore confirmed.

"Then we're fucked, there is no way Potter stands a chance against the Dark Lord, he is even more powerful than he was the last time around, possibly more powerful than you." Snape said nodding at Dumbledore.

"Well he's attacked me five times already and I'm still here." Harry said.

"Yes and you barely scraped yourself out each time Potter." Snape replied sneering.

"You can't possible fight him Harry, you'll get yourself killed." Tonks told him.

"He's just a child it's not fair, he shouldn't have to fight. Oh what are we going to do." Mrs. Weasley sobbed.

"No-one said this is fair Mrs. Weasley, we all know Harry has been dealt a rather bad hand during life so far, this seems to be the cherry on the top." Dumbledore said.

"Dealt a bad hand, that's one way of putting it, but let's not forget that what didn't come from Voldemort came from you and your bad decisions." Harry replied putting Dumbledore in his place.

"I acknowledge that Harry, and as I have said before I endeavour to do right by you in the future." Dumbledore said.

"Right well, that's great, we'll see how long it lasts. And as for the prophecy the rest of you can just calm down. The prophecy isn't a bad thing. Voldemort's been coming after me for years, it's not like he was going to stop, and I'd be fighting him either way." Harry said.

"Harry is correct, Voldemort has made it his mission to seek out Harry despite not knowing of the prophecy. Since we all know of this now we can move on." Dumbledore said.

"Some of you will be providing training for Harry for the remainder of the summer, I will let you know the schedule later on. I will also try to get this training to continue once he gets to Hogwarts." Dumbledore said.

"Actually I trained quite a bit during the summer." Harry said nonchalantly.

Moody snorted. "Well we'll see how much you've trained at our first session won't we." He growled.

"What about security at Hogwarts, won't we need people watching Harry for extra protection." Remus asked.

"Extra protection from what, Malfoy?" Harry asked incredulously.

"Well if you're the only one that can defeat Voldemort then you need to be kept safe." One of the new members said.

"The prophecy works both ways. If only I can kill Voldemort the only he can kill me. You could all shoot killing curses at me right now and I wouldn't die." Harry said.

Harry had thought this through. During his time with the vampires there had been several occasions where he should have died. Obviously the vampires knew this, which is why they were so hard on him the prophecy had been tested and it worked.

"Something that we won't be trying Harry." Dumbledore cut in. "Now that the prophecy is out of the way and we have established Harry joining us, perhaps we can move on."

"Severus what do you have to report." Dumbledore asked moving the meeting to its normal thread.

Harry learnt that the order knew little more than he did. Snape reported that Voldemort wasn't planning any attacks at the moment or at least if he was he wasn't letting Snape in on it. He was however on a major recruitment drive and was looking to install people he controlled into high places in the ministry.

"This is troubling news, the ministry is weak, and Cornelius's stunt last year has brought it to its knees. If Voldemort gains presence there as well..." Arthur trailed off.

"I have good news. Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE has agreed to join with the Order. She is also willing to put herself forward as minister when Fudge is ousted." Kingsley reported.

The members that worked at the ministry then reported on the various actions of Fudge as he struggled against the mounting pressure for his resignation.

It was a foregone conclusion that Fudge had only days left as minister before he was replaced. Dumbledore was pulling all of the strings he had to try and get a member of the order as minister and had Amos Diggory specifically in mind for this.

Harry however thought that while Diggory was a nice bloke and had lost his son to Voldemort, was a poor candidate for minister especially in the middle of a war.

"Amelia is a strong candidate, she is fair, honest and professional. But she and I rarely see eye to eye on certain matters." Dumbledore said thoughtfully stroking his chin.

"Diggory is a Goblin Liaison Officer, Bones is the Head of Law Enforcement. I think it's a pretty clear cut decision as to who we need in. Especially if she is willing to work with the Order. The fact that she doesn't listen to your every word professor is a good thing, Fudge did that in his early days and look what he ended up doing." Harry interrupted.

Dumbledore sighed, "True Harry, it would be too much of a stretch to get Amos in anyway, Amelia is well liked by the public and the Wizengamot."

After the discussion of the next minister the rest of the meeting was possible even more boring than one of Binn's lectures. If it had not been for the attractive veela sat next to him Harry would have probably fallen asleep or got up and left.

Listening to some old wizard blab on about Goblin relations and giant movements was dreary. Mundungus also piped up a few words about how the people in Knockturn Alley were acting suspicious.

'Honestly, great intel, when are they not acting suspiciously.' Harry thought.

After the meeting ended the members started to file out, Harry was one of the last one's out and he was still talking to Fleur when Bill tapped her on the shoulder and asked to speak with her.

Fleur shot Harry a glance clearly not wanting to be cornered with the eldest Weasley son. Harry smiled at Fleur in amusement and met Bill's eyes. Bill was obviously not impressed with Fleur being so close to Harry in the meeting and was now trying to show that he was the better man out of the two.

Obviously he was clearly out of his mind if he thought he was even near the same league as Harry. With a burst of leglimency Harry past Bill's shields and implanted a sudden need to go to the bathroom. Clearly confused at his situation Bill looked around no doubt searching for the likely culprits in Fred and George before hurrying away.

Fleur turned to face Harry and raised her eyebrows.

"And just 'ow did you do that 'Arry." She asked.

"Do what." He said innocently.

"I am sure 'zat mind arts weren't on 'ze fifth year course at 'Ogwarts. Was I mistaken or 'es their more to you than you would like people to think." She asked.

"Much, much more, but none of it I can speak of here." Harry replied glancing around at the remaining order members that were milling around in the entrance hall.

"Okay perhaps upstairs then, I would very much like to know ze secreets behind ze great 'Arry Potter." Fleur replied before making her way to the stairs swaying her hips for him.

'Bad, bad, bad.' Harry thought. He knew that technically he had more important things to be doing than pursuing girls, even especially beautiful ones, but the hero's in all the films Dudley watched got the girl so why shouldn't he.

'Besides Sirius did say to have fun' He thought.

With that he grinned and followed her.

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