Chapter Six: Ordo Obscurum
Author's Note: This one's at the end.
Knowing Harry Potter had meant that for the Weasley's, life was never that of just the average Wizard. Even from the first year they knew him, he'd dragged their family into some events that had literally become Wizarding History. Harry was himself, Wizarding History too. Though in all of those years there had never been a dinner that featured people who were supposed to be years dead.
Molly Weasley remembered a young James Potter from when she was finishing up at Hogwarts, she was a few years older than him as was Arthur. Still, even in their school days there was a Potter attracting attention at Hogwarts. When the war intensified and the fighting grew more taxing, Molly had a few more run ins with James and Lily Potter outside of school. The boy she had seen enter Hogwarts all of those years ago had grown.
When she heard he had died the idea of someone younger than herself, someone newly married and with a child, just dying had really set the fear in her like nothing else. She didn't know of a prophecy. She didn't know why it had happened or that Harry was supposed to be special. In her eyes, the deaths of the Potters was just one more proof of the cruelty of Voldemort.
Now she was sitting with them again and they hadn't aged a day. And not just them but Sirius Black and Severus Snape—men that she knew to be dead. Somehow she knew that Harry had to be to blame for this, the boy could really work some miracles.
Part of her wondered if anyone from her family that had died would turn back up.
"Would you like anything else…I can't believe that we're sitting here talking like this all over again," Molly said as she came around the table with a bowl of mashed potatoes and stopped next to Sirius.
He waved his hand. "God no, if I didn't know better Molly I would think you were trying to feed me till my heart burst and put me back in the grave," Sirius chuckled.
Lily's green eyes aimed up toward Molly across the table and in an instant she realized how ridiculously close to Harry's her eyes were. "Everything's so good Molly," she said. "Thanks for having us."
"Yes. There are not many who would invite the living dead to sit at their table for dinner," Snape said.
"Ron and Hermione really should be here," Harry said. "I really want you to meet them," he regarded his parents. "Hermione seemed to remind everyone of you…Mum," Harry still said the words like they were new, like they weren't meant for him. Molly found it heart breaking.
"You're letting those two off on their own without leashes now?" Sirius said. "What happened?"
"They've been seeing each other," Ginny said. "Since the end of the war—I never really got Ron to tell me how it happened."
Harry laughed. "I guess I know because I witnessed it. Basically Ron took up for House Elves rights and Hermione was so excited she jumped him, it's a good thing I was there to stop it from going further."
There were chuckles all around the table before Molly sighed. "Now Harry, I don't think Hermione would have done anything unladylike."
"Course not," said George. "She couldn't let Ron have too much fun. She keeps him on a tight leash really."
As the night wore on, more of the Weasleys were forced to head back to their own homes. They had tried to wait for Ron and Hermione but there was no word from them and no sign they were coming. Molly went out to check the hands on the old clock in the living room and both of their hands were pointed to Home. She took that to mean one of their homes.
Arthur Weasley had left an hour previously because he had work in the morning. When Molly finally climbed out of her chair to go to bed Sirius was trying to goad Snape into drinking with them. "Come on, you can have a few you greasy git!" Sirius shouted perhaps too loudly.
"I don't really drink much," Snape said.
"Come on, are we going to have to check your knickers or are you going to man up an show us what you're made of!" Sirius said.
James laughed. Ginny and Lily looked slightly indignant. "What is with men and trying to prove the existence of their genitals?" asked Ginny.
Lily shrugged. "No idea, I never found the things all that appealing looking in the first place…" she said with a stifled laugh.
"Mum!"
"Sorry, Harry," Ginny and Lily said in unison.
Harry slapped his hand down on the table. "I guess it's okay, I don't think Ron and Hermione are going to show up, though," he said.
"I don't know why they wouldn't contact anyone for this long," Ginny said.
"Tomorrow," Sirius said. "We can see them then."
James sighed. "Yeah, we wouldn't want them to see your mother in this state," he poked Lily in the side and she giggled loudly.
"Potter, it is getting late—where would we all be sleeping?" asked Snape.
"I guess at Grimmauld Place—I cleaned it up a lot and its pretty respectable looking again," Harry said, he slurred the word respectable badly and Ginny nudged him in the ribs.
"We cleaned it up," she corrected him.
Lily pinched her cheek. "Oh I like you," she said. "You keep Harry in line."
"I'm not out of the lines—whatever they may be," Harry said.
"I think we're all too drunk to be of much more use tonight," James said. "We might need to pack it in and stop disturbing these lovely people," he waves his hand up as if to acknowledge the Weasleys.
Ginny scoffed. "I'm sure my parents miss the noise," she said as she took a large gulp of Firewhiskey.
Sirius pointed. "See that…that right there, lass knows how to handle her Firewhiskey, that's sexy," he elbowed Snape. "That's we need to find, ones who drink like that…hey Lily when are you going to show us how to pick up the Muggle birds?"
Snape sniffed a shot of some unknown liquor and downed it. "I think I'm going to need this just to take the edge of Black's breath," he said.
"That's the way! See I knew you had it in you!" Sirius said as he flopped his limbs about.
There was a chorus of laughter from everyone at the table, including Snape. Ginny's head came to a rest on Harry's shoulder and she glanced up at him with her big brown eyes. "Harry, will you Apparate me home?" she asked.
Harry glanced around at the others at the table. "We still need to be cautious, I don't want you being alone for too long because…well because of what happened to Hermione."
"Fair doos."
"Come to Grimmuald place and stay there with us?" asked Harry.
"You're going to have to take me to my place anyway to get some clothes and things," she said. "I'm not going to just come stay with others without at least grabbing some of my things, Harry, you're being silly if you think I want you to see me in the same shirt day in and day out or something like that," she was rambling.
Harry pushed up away from the table. "Then that's what we'll do," he chuckled. He offered her his hand and helped her up from the table. "Are you ready?"
"Yeah."
"Alright, I guess we'll see everyone back at Grimmuald Place," said Harry.
"See you soon, Harry."
"You can borrow some of my old clothes if they're around, James," Sirius said.
"It was nice meeting all of you," Ginny said as she gave a lopsided wave of her hand and with that the two of them twisted in place and Disapparated.
CRACK!
The pair reappeared in the darkness of Ginny's flat in London. Harry bumped her table and stumbled into her, almost causing both of them to fall to the ground. Harry caught hold of the arm of the couch before they could tumble over. "Sorry," he said.
"It's fine, really," Ginny chuckled. "I guess you're a little too drunk for Apparation, too?"
"We should really use the Floo next time," Harry said.
Ginny stumbled away from him and headed for her bedroom and he realized very suddenly that they were alone for the second time in as many days. They just hadn't been alone like this in so long and he didn't know what to make of it. He watched as the bits of light leaking in through the window etched the hard curves of her figure into the air. She didn't bother to turn on a light until she was in her bedroom.
Dumbfounded, Harry stood there as she moved around inside of the room gathering things. Something told him it was in his best interest to stay out of that room and just wait for her to be done. For several minutes she moved around inside of the room, stumbling slightly here and there but Harry was too scared of what might happen if he crossed that threshold—in more ways than one.
"Harry, which dress was it you said you liked?" she asked. Her voice sounded more slurred than ever and Harry couldn't even remember what she might have looked like dressed in his head right now.
"Harry?"
"Yeah, I'm coming," he said as he grasped the couch and moved his hand up the arm to the doorframe to steady himself. He stepped through the door and collided with Ginny just as she turned to walk back out and before he could catch himself or her they tumbled into her bedside chair with him pinning her down and his face pressed into her neck.
They both erupted into laughter. "Sorry again," Harry said.
"It's quite alright," she was running her fingers up and down his shoulder blade and he could feel the tips of her nails through his clothes, they were like electricity on his back.
He pushed up and stared down at her and a smile overtook his face as he noticed his own reflection in her eyes. "I can me in your eyes," Harry said in a low voice like it was a secret only they should hear.
For a moment everything was still, neither of them moved as their gazes remained locked together. Then Ginny squirmed beneath him, lifting her weight against his and bringing her lips up to meet his with a force and hunger that rivaled that of their last kiss. Their lips parted and Ginny pulled back until he could gazes met again. "I can see you in my bed," she said.
That was all it took.
Harry pulled her up from the chair dropped her back into the bed, he was still slightly disoriented and very inebriated. Part of him was screaming in the back of his head as each action occurred. Ginny Weasley's undressing you. Now she's practically naked herself.
Once it started, there was only one outcome and it was as Harry feared when he was standing at the door. He couldn't just back down and leave her there because on some raw level he had missed the closeness with her emotionally and physically. There didn't seem to be a difference between the two at the present time.
He pushed her further back onto the bed as she fumbled with the clasp of her bra, she furrowed her brow and bit down on her lip slightly in frustration as she worked at it. Though Harry knew that she was struggling with it, something in her facial expression and demeanor looked so seductive that the second the lacey garment was dropped onto the bed he was on her. In the feverish fit of kissing and touching and rough motions she draws herself up against the leg of his boxers and draws him down into her.
Harry's eyes blurred from the drunkenness and his skin stinging in the chilled night air, he looked down at her and the last thoughts of regret melted away. For the first time in years he felt like he had gained something. In one day he would get everything near and dear he'd lost back.
Perhaps his staring went on too long. "Harry…" Ginny said in a small voice, he wasn't used to her sounding so subdued and yet somehow she seemed more than sure. "Harry…it's okay," she said, her brown eyes searched his face in the dim light.
For all of the build up and waiting it didn't last long and when the tinge of pain had passed from her face and it was over Harry could have sworn she was glowing pale blue. Her freckles and the red marks where he gripped her arms more apparent now.
"I'm…sorry Ginny…" Harry said. "I shouldn't have stayed away so long," he said out of breath.
"It's okay," she turned to the side and looked toward the window. "Harry look!"
Harry rolled his weight off of her to look. A shimmering blue mare stood by the bedside—the glow on Ginny's body. "Did you cast your Patronus wandless?" he asked.
She shook her head vigorously. "It's mum's," she said.
"The Burrow's attacked…no time…we don't know who…" it was Molly Weasley's worried voice.
Harry clambered over Ginny for his pants and tumbled to the floor. "You've got to stay here Ginny, I have to go. This is my fault…"
"The Hell I do. I'm going," she said as she slipped back into the bra.
"It's too dangerous, really. They're looking for you," he said. "I know it."
"They're my family…"
"Mine is probably still there too." Harry didn't think that he could have dressed any faster if Molly had burst in to deliver the news herself. Please don't let anyone be hurt. Please. "Come with me then, stay close," Harry said.
The attack had come just as they were preparing to use the Floo. They were everywhere. Men on brooms flipping and diving around the Burrow in loops and spirals and flinging curses as they did. James hadn't wasted time. "I need a broom!" he shouted.
It must have been instinct, when they had died there was a war going on, even though some of them had died over a decade apart. Molly and Arthur were down the stairs seconds later with their wands drawn. The whole house rocked again and wide eyed Molly stared from Lily to Snape. "Who is it? What's happening?"
"I'd claim Death Eaters but that would seem not to be possible," Snape said. "Get word to Potter and Miss Weasley."
Arthur tossed a broom to James as Molly sent her Patronus. "Here, it was all I could find!"
"It'll do, we're going to need to fend them off until we can pick them off one by one." James said.
"Aye, we'll be in the air right behind you," Sirius said as he examined a broom that was handed to him.
The amplified voice of someone using a Sonorus Charm echoed through the Burrow. "This is in retaliation for the deaths of our kin at the hands of Harry Potter! Send him out and no one gets hurt!"
"What are they talking about?" asked James.
The curses and commotion stopped for a moment and everyone stood in silence. "It's to be figured that some enemies were made with the Dark Lord's destruction," Snape said.
"We're giving you five minutes to comply!" the voice boomed through the house again.
"They've set up an Anti-Apparation field," said Arthur.
Lily pointed to the fireplace. "They even caved the fireplace in so there's no chance to access the Floo…we've got to fight."
"It can't be," gasped Molly from the window.
"What is it?" Arthur asked as he and Snape pushed toward the window next to her.
With the Floo down and Apparation blocked off Harry and Ginny were left to use an illegal Portkey to reach the Burrow. Harry had made them a few times, but usually Hermione had to help him as the targeting was somewhat tricky. The two of them spun into being atop a hill overlooking the field that led to the Burrow.
"Shit," Harry said.
"How?" Ginny grasped his sleeve as her eyes widened in fear. In the sky above the burrow the eerie green glow of the Dark Mark was etched into the clouds. The spectral image of a twisted snake protruding from the mouth of a skull hung in the air. As the implication of the symbol sunk in, Ginny's grip on his arm tightened until she tore away through the darkness and into the fields of crops that separated them from the house.
"Ginny wait!"
There was a great booming voice that Harry couldn't make out over the sound of the leaves of corn brushing past his body and the wind tearing through the tall crop stalks. He pushed himself harder, running headlong toward the house—toward where Ginny had to be headed. She was in great shape, somewhere far out head of him he heard her frantic cry.
"Mum! Dad!"
Harry ran until the blood thundered through his veins and his vision trembled. The last remnants of his inebriation burning off in the panic. If they've hurt them…if they hurt Ginny…
His wand was clutched tight and he reached the edge of one field and checked his bearings. There was smoke coming from the sides of the Burrow and dark shapes were circling the house on brooms. The shimmer of the Anti-Apparation field hung in the air around the house. He searched the field ahead of himself for light from Ginny's wand or any sign she was near but there was none.
There was no time to scream her name, he didn't have the energy to waste and just to stop take that breath could have been disastrous. He hit the edge of the small river that ran along the Burrow's Quidditch Pitch and didn't even bother to step over the water.
"Two minutes! Bring us Potter or everyone inside dies!" a booming voice filled the air around him and made him shudder. The voice was one he didn't recognize but the dark tone carried good news. They were still alive.
All at once there was a flutter of activity ahead and he spotted Ginny making a break for the door. One of the broom riders above dove down behind her and swung his wand and the familiar incantation seemed to echo forever. "Avada Kedavra!" all other sound was drained from the air as Harry froze in view of the door to the Burrow. Ginny lay face down in the threshold of the house and unmoving.
He turned on the man on the broom cutting him down with a silent curse and causing him to drop onto his back in the grass. His body felt too hot and too cold at the same time and all that he kept seeing in his mind was Ginny's face. This was his fault, all of this.
Another broomstick carrying the form of someone in a cloak swooped down from his side and with a flick of his wand Harry transfigured a wall out of the earth, there was nothing the broom rider could do as he smacked full force into the wall and flattened out. Around him the ground came alive, his mother and father were slinging hexes and curses at his sides and Molly and Snape had covered the other flank. There were too many of them, Death Eaters—who ever these were.
But they were dropping at an alarming rate and the Potters and Weaselys along with Sirius and Snape fought like there was nothing left to lose. It was like Armageddon for a brief few moments. James took to the air on his broomstick and pursued one of them, dodging curses by swinging side to side in the air and even rolling upside down. He bought the assailant down with a bludgeoning spell to the back of the neck.
Sirius was behind James and they cut a swath through the men in the sky and Snape and Molly were working their way through the men that landed. Harry pushed away from his mother to deflect a curse. "Does it take all of this to get me!" he yelled. "Cowards! Come down here and face me!" his voice was hoarse as he screamed the incantation for his next spell.
One of them was rushing toward him and flung a killing curse through the grass and he deflected it with a disarming spell. A beam, like arcing, wild lightning, extended from his wand locked to the wand of the other caster. In the connection between the two wands, where the opposing spells met, there was a glowing slime like plasma sputtering down out of the beams. Straightening his free hand, Harry popped the spare wand he kept inside his shirt down into his grasp. With the beams still locked he slung stunner overhead and hit the man in the chest. Before he could fall his own killing curse and the disarm slammed into him ending his life.
Harry let out a sound that was like a growl as he disregarded Molly's cries and the silence of everyone else. All of the attackers were dead or disabled now and he could see the first man he had it moving against the ground—the same man that had killed Ginny. In his blind rage he aimed the two wands he carried at the man. "You want to run already? I'm not through with you. Turn around and face me!"
The man struggled against the ground.
"Imperio!" Harry shouted and the man rolled over to face him. The second Harry could see his eyes he took aim with the other wand and a blinding red flash was emitted from it. "Crucio!" the man writhed against the ground shouting in bone splitting pain. He twisted and contorted so violently that he dislodged his arm from socket in the movement and his torment continued. "You murdered Ginny! Who sent you here?" acknowledging it made it worse, the tears were running fully down his cheeks.
"Harry!" Sirius said.
"Who sent you?" Harry asked and the torture continued.
"Sweetheart, she's alive…" Lily grabbed him around the shoulders and he didn't lower the two wands as his gaze shifted to where Ginny stirred near the door. Molly was already by her daughter's side and by the time Harry reached them she was mopping the blood away from Ginny's cheek and muttering a soft healing incantation. Bits of exploded wood and brick had peppered the side of her freckled cheek and Harry could see now where the spell had caught the door's archway near her head.
Harry stooped down and touched the side of Ginny's face with the back of his hand. "You're going to be fine, we'll get you help soon," Harry said.
"I don't think that's a wise choice to make," Snape's voice came from somewhere behind Harry and he turned in time to see Snape extending his wand out at the man Harry had been torturing on the ground. He was making a move for his wand. "Expelliarmus!" there was a flash of blue and the wand shot out of the man's hand. Snape smirked down at him. "Now who sent you? Or do you want me to turn Potter loose on you again?"
"Don't talk about him that way," Lily said.
But Snape smiled at Harry, not in a cruel or jesting way, but as if he were somewhat proud. He glanced back to the man on the ground. "Who sent you? If you haven't noticed—the Dark Lord is dead…any remnants of his would be best off going into hiding and acting as if the war never happened lest they end up incarcerated."
"Voldemort? That bastard never appealed to us…he was nothing. I suppose you think because of the mark in the sky that we're his?" asked the man in a raspy voice. He spit out blood.
"Yes. The Dark Mark was a creation of Voldemort to invoke fear and…"
"The Dark Mark was a spell he stole from some old grimoire somewhere. The Dark Mark belongs to us! Ordo Obscurum! It is our symbol!" he said proudly.
Snape's lips curled into a sneer. "Ordo Obscurum? There is no such thing, a secret society that large, old and powerful would leave signs somewhere."
"Is my presence not sign enough?"
"What's the Ordo Obscurum?" asked Harry as he walked to Snape's side.
"A secret order said to be founded on the principal they serve some sort of demonic prince and are aiding him in regaining his place in the world; it's a scary story to make children fear the unknown or a group that drunkards can blame for fixing the outcome of Quidditch matches…" Snape said. "They're not real."
"He seems to think they are," Harry said.
Lily glanced at Snape and then to Harry. "I'm going to go and help get some place ready for Ginny to lay down. As she went to help Molly carry Ginny into the house Arthur watched from by the door. There was a silence between Sirius, James, and Snape for a second as if they knew what Harry was about to ask.
"We need to brew a potion," Snape started, "I need to question this man further."
"Snape?" Harry started, "Why did you look at me like that…when my mum said to stop?"
"Because, I never got to get any of the bastards back for what they did to the woman I love," he said as he swept past Harry, James and Sirius. Without being asked the three of them restrained the man and dragged him back into the house.
Harry eyed his father, knowing the weight of Snape's statement wasn't lost on him. "I'm going to have to get in touch with the Minister, he's going to need to know what happened here," Harry said to change the subject. "We need to reach Ron and Hermione too…"
"If you need to go we can stay and watch Ginny," said James.
"No, I'm not leaving her side, I can just send a Patronus," said Harry. The prisoner was deposited into a chair near the front door and restrained with ropes and Harry went over to the couch where Ginny lay still unconscious. "I'm so sorry, Ginny," he kissed the side of her face. "This is why I didn't want to bring you into this mess."
"The potion will take hours to brew…and I've been drinking it might not be a good idea," Snape said.
What Snape said floated around in Harry's head…except he had all these people he loved…all of these people being put in danger. And now there was talk of demons again, with this revelation hot on the heels of the talk of Angels it was too much to ignore. "There's no time, Snape. I'm going to Imperius this bastard and you're going to make the unbreakable vow with him, if he lies, he dies. I'm done playing games with the lives of my loved ones," his eyes flicked to Ginny's form on the couch.
"Harry, are you sure?" asked Arthur.
"I care about all of you too much to risk you on the life of this garbage. I hate to think what would have happened if I lost Ginny and suddenly I have all of you back after so much was taken from me," he aimed his wand at the prisoners head. "This isn't selfish; this is what needs to be done."
Authors Note: A small disclaimer, the lines "I can see me in your eyes/I can see you in my bed" are from the song by the Strokes I'll Try Anything Once. Its close to my heart, check it out. I just had to include it in that scene but I don't want to steal from a good band. I'm still looking for a beta and I'm slowly working my way through this story as you can see. Hope everyone is enjoying the ride.
