Thanks for those who have reviewed, I'll put two chapters up in a row I think…

Chapter 9 - Approaching The Lair

Harry followed Dumbledore and Kingsley into the living room, which was full of people, so full in fact, that several people were sat on the floor. Mad-Eye Moody was sat in the armchair in the corner where, to Harry's slight revulsion, he was washing his eye in a glass of water; Aaron and Lucy were sat on the sofa with Minerva McGonagall; Charlie Holloway, Arthur, Bill and Charlie Weasley were sat on dining room chairs; the twins, Ron and Hermione were sat on the floor; and, dwarfing over them all, Hagrid was stood in the corner. As Harry and Dumbledore arrived, silence fell and Aaron offered his seat up to Dumbledore, which he declined with a wave of his hand.

"It seems we are the last ones here Harry," Dumbledore said quietly. Harry was momentarily distracted by Dobby, who had walked into the door frame and managed to drop his tray of drinks. Winky appeared and helped him up, whilst Dobby looked mortified, but before Harry could console him, Mad-Eye Moody had cleared his throat.

"Well Albus," he said, casually popping his eye back in his socket, (Ron made a face at Harry which thankfully Moody missed), "now that you're here, we can get started. Charlie, if you could repeat to everyone what you told me a few minutes ago."

Charlie Holloway cleared his throat, frowning slightly. "Well," he started, obviously dredging up from his memory with a bit of effort, "I was in the Leaky Cauldron after work, and there were some heavily robed wizards in the corner. I didn't think this was too unusual and I sat in the next booth to have my dinner. I was about to leave when I heard a name. "Andromidus"." There was a collective intake of breath around the room.

"What was said next?" asked Bill Weasley.

"His companion chided him for using his name aloud, and soon they left, but just before they did, they said they were heading back to the moor. They said that Number One had asked for them to reconvene and that it was safe to go back..." he trailed off, looking a bit wary. "That was all I heard."

"Is there any chance that they were saying this as a trap?" asked Aaron, his booming voice bearing more than a passing resemblance to his father's.

Charlie shook his head. "I don't think so. I mean, technically it's always possible, but neither of them saw me enter and they were speaking in very hushed voices; far too conspiratorial to be a trap."

"If they were speaking so quietly how could you over hear them?" The question was from Professor McGonagall, but Harry had been thinking the very same thing.

"The amplification charm," said Charlie simply.

"Err... what's the amplification charm?" Ron asked, looking a bit embarrassed to be asking such a question in the company they were in. "Does it make things louder?"

"Not exactly," answered Mr Weasley. "It means that the caster can hear what is being said as if it were being said by a person sat next to him, although to the outside world it doesn't sound any louder."

"It's sort of how our extendable ears work, although you can hear it a bit louder," George added, and Ron nodded comprehendingly.

"When're we going?" Hagrid asked, leaning on the edge of Bill's chair, which creaked ominously. Hagrid let go, an apologetic look on his face, and Bill looked somewhat relieved.

"Who said we were going?" Mad-Eye growled from the corner. "I don't like it one bit. I think it's a trap."

"What're you talkin' about?" Hagrid half-shouted, causing Ron to jump. "We can catch 'em off guard see! You heard Charlie, how could it be a trap?" There were murmurs of assent around the room, and Harry was surprised about how many people were agreeing with Hagrid over Mad-Eye.

"What do you think Harry?" Hermione asked, catching Harry completely off-guard. The group turned its attention to him.

"Err..." Harry started, considering what had been said whilst trying to ignore everyone's piercing looks, "I'm sorry Hagrid but I've got to agree with Ma- Alastor." Hagrid looked crestfallen, and Harry quickly tried to pass the buck and so he addressed Dumbledore. "Professor, what do you think?"

Dumbledore did not answer straight away. He took off his half-moon glasses and tapped them with his wand. They instantly became clean, and he put them back on, though he remained silent, evidently deep in thought. Harry had just got to the point where he was going to check if Dumbledore had heard him, when he addressed the group.

"You'll have to forgive me Alastor; Harry, but I must agree with Hagrid," Dumbledore stated simply, and Hagrid's chest swelled with pride. "I do not think they would know they had been overheard, nor would they have any idea as to when we would be arriving. This said, we must obviously be careful. I will bring Fawkes in case we need to apparate someone out quickly and they still have the apparition net up. Do not worry Alastor."

The look on Mad-Eye's face made it obvious that he was not content with the decision. "What about Potter?" he said, more than a trace of annoyance in his voice.

"What abou' him?" Hagrid asked angrily..

"If," Mad-Eye started, placing a lot of emphasis on the word, "we are to go to the moor, should Potter be coming with us?"

"I think that should be up to Harry," Mr Weasley intervened, sensing Hagrid firing up again. "Would you want to come?"

Harry looked anywhere but at Mad-Eye or Hagrid. "I'm still not sure we should be going at all. But if we are going, I want to come to." The last sentence came out a bit more defiantly than Harry intended, but he looked to Dumbledore for the final decision.

"If Harry wants to come, we can't really stop him Alastor," Dumbledore said calmly, "but if it would set your mind at ease you can plan how we will act." Harry sensed a note of pleading mixed in with the finality of this statement, which Alastor obviously noted too, for he assented a moment later.

"Okay," he growled, shooting an angry look at Hagrid, "if we're going to go, we need to scout out the place first. Now, the best way of doing that is from the air, so I want to send in four people on brooms: two to go around the outside together, and two to go across the centre."

"We'll go," said Fred straight away, indicating himself and George.

"Me too," said Harry, sharing a quick glance with Ron, who nodded. "And Ron."

Mad-Eye nodded. "Fair enough. I know you four are experienced with brooms, but don't get overconfident. You see any sign of something amiss you get back to the group. You two" [he indicated Fred and George] "can go across the middle, and you two" [he pointed at Harry and Ron] "can go around the outside. Once the scouting has been done, I suggest we all move rapidly. We can borrow some invisibility cloaks from the Auror department, and move straight across the middle, with Potter and the three Weasleys flying above to keep lookout. Once we're there, spells are to be to stun and capture: not kill. Understood?"

Harry nodded along with the others. He couldn't help but smile inwardly as he remembered his lessons in his fourth year. "CONSTANT VIGILLANCE!" Even though it had not been the real Mad-Eye who'd said it, the phrase fitted with Mad-Eye's personality and approach to life exactly.

"I'll go and get the cloaks and brooms," said Kingsley in his deep booming voice.

"I'll go with you," said Mr Weasley, getting to his feet. He and Kingsley left the room and a few moments later Harry heard two cracks from outside.

*

Within a few short minutes, everyone was ready. Kingsley had brought back enough cloaks for everyone, and Mr Weasley had collected brooms for Ron, Fred and George. Harry had summoned his from Hogwarts and it had appeared instantly, a feat Hermione had watch with a mixture of surprise and envy. She had never been happy with Harry's gaining magical power from the Chasm of Life, and when, in the process of writing Harry's autobiography, she had found out about the Golden Room, she had stormed out altogether, and hadn't returned until Ron threatened to suggest to Fred and George to use Hermione's bedroom as a testing space.

When he was satisfied about the preparation, Mad-Eye signalled for them to apparate. Exchanging a glance with Ron, Harry pictured the edge of the moor and apparated from Godric's Hollow. A moment later he found himself in a glade next to Fred, who gave him a wink.

"Potter; Weasley's," Mad-Eye addressed them, holding a Cleansweep out to Ron, who took it warily. "You know where you're going. Do not delay, come straight back." Harry nodded, mounting his broom. With a nod at Ron, Harry swept the invisibility cloak over the pair of them, and they took off.

"Let's go that way," said Ron gesturing off to the right. They took off, circling the edge of the moor. After a few minutes they found themselves on the furthest side of the moor from where they had started. Harry heard Fred's voice not far off. Checking the coast was clear, he pulled his wand out from under his cloak, and sent up some green sparks. A moment later, Fred and George emerged from under their cloak. Harry and Ron removed theirs and they alighted on the ground.

"Can you hear that?" Fred asked softly, straining his ears into the forest. There was a loud crunching noise.

"Back on the brooms," said George quickly, "here, tie our cloaks together." They quickly knotted the corners of the invisibility cloaks together so that they were able to fly as a group of four. Rising slowly off the ground, they gently moved over the top of the nearest tree. It was all Harry could do not to fall off his broom.

"Giants!" Ron hissed. There was one, at least twenty foot high, stood barely ten metres ahead. Behind him were four other giants, sat lazily around a large fire. Gesturing backwards, Harry led the four of them back down to the ground out of earshot.

"Listen, you two go back and warn the others, Ron and I will continue our circuit." Harry watched Fred and George mount their brooms and take off, pulling the invisibility cloak over them as they headed back over the moor. Harry and Ron did likewise, carrying on their tour around the edge of the moor.

"Well, I think that means they're still here," Ron said nervously, "Why else would the Giants be here?" Harry did not answer. The Giants presence had, if anything, doubled his suspicions. He couldn't help but agree with Mad-Eye: the chances of the Secret Elite returning to a hide-out they knew was compromised seemed to Harry to be slim at best. It was at this moment that Ron and Harry finished their loop of the moor, to find Fred and George had just finished their briefing on the Giants. Mad-Eye turned to Harry and Ron as they pulled off their invisibility cloaks.

"Did you see anything?" He said in his customary low growl. "Apart from the Giants?" Harry and Ron shook their heads, but Harry had another thought. He turned to face Charlie Holloway.

"Charlie," he said, doing his best to keep his tone level, "I was just wondering... what did you have for dinner at The Leaky Cauldron?"

"Why does that matter?" he said, his expression strangely blank. Mad-Eye cottoned on very quickly.

"Good thinking Potter," he nodded at Harry, before turning back to Charlie. "What did you eat? How many people were in the pub?"

Charlie paused for a moment. "I can't remember... but why does it matter?" Mad-Eye cursed under his breath.

"Damn you Holloway," he said in an undertone, "and well done Potter. Holloway, you're an Auror, and unless you didn't learn anything in training, the first thing you would have done is taken in your surroundings. The likelihood of you not knowing what was around you is not very high."

"What are you saying Alastor?" Mr Weasley asked concernedly.

"He is saying," Dumbledore answered, speaking up for the first time, "that either Charlie is under the imperious curse, or that he had a memory implanted in his head." Dumbledore pressed his wand to Charlie's head and closed his eyes. When he looked up, his expression was that of concern.

"His memories restart only a few minutes ago," he said, his brow furrowed. "Back in Godric's Hollow; just before speaking to you Alastor." Mad-Eye's face creased and he drew his wand.

"You are sure of this?" he growled, his hand gripped firmly on his wand. Dumbledore nodded, gesturing for Mad-Eye to lower his wand. He didn't.

"I'm sorry," Fred perked up, "but what exactly does that mean?"

"It means that the memory was implanted at Godric's Hollow..." Hermione answered, her voice shaking slightly.

"By someone here," Mad-Eye said softly. There was silence for a few moments. Harry's eyes, like everyone else's, swept around the group. His eyes connected very briefly with Ron's, and Harry could see his own expression matched in Ron's face.

"I trust everyone here." Harry said it plainly, with no embellishments. "I don't think anybody here is working against the Order."

"Well said," Dumbledore agreed, smiling.

"Fool," Mad-Eye murmured under his breath at the same time, his wand still raised. Of the rest of the group, no one else had their wands raised. "You are all fools... we have proof, gained by Dumbledore himself," [he nodded at Albus] "that the memory was implanted at Godric's Hollow. One of this group must have done it!"

"Be calm Alastor," Kingsley's soothing voice broke in as Hagrid looked like he might intervene. "There is always the chance that when the memory was implanted there was also a spell to cause brief amnesia in some way."

"So Dumbledore is mistaken?" Mad-Eye growled in response.

"I think that is enough, Alastor," Dumbledore's voice was calm yet firm. "I feel it is infinitely more likely that I have made a mistake then-"

Dumbledore was cut off as Harry transformed into a Phoenix and soared into the air. He had heard a crashing sound nearby, as indeed had most of the others, and he flew up to see the source of it. A moment later, he was zooming back towards the ground and he transformed back, fear etched on his face.

"Giants!" Harry yelled, snatching at his broomstick and his cloak, "Run!" Grabbing a hold of Ron and Hermione's robes, Harry ran helter-skelter through the trees, emerging onto the moor with the Order hot on his heels. They started to run across the moor but they were no match for the speed of a rampaging giant. The giants were emerging from all sides of the glade where they had just been stood, funnelling them onto the moor, forcing them out into the open. Harry found this strangely intelligent of giants, but this thought was driven out of his mind as Hermione launched herself into him; knocking Harry and Ron off their feet. Less than a second later a giant's foot was planted firmly into the ground where they had been stood. Harry had no time to thank Hermione.

"Impeditia!" he heard Hermione and Ron's voice yelling the same spell next to him as the Dumbledore and Kingsley attacked it from behind. The force of all five spells knocked the giant into the air, but as Dumbledore pulled Harry to his feet, they had no time to stop and take advantage of their fallen foe.

"Arthur!" the scream of terror was from Mrs Weasley off to his right, and Harry turned, horror-struck, to see Mr Weasley held aloft in one of the giant's hands. Harry wasted no time as the giant raised Mr Weasley towards his horrible, huge, gaping mouth.

"Hippogriff Aniservia!" Transforming into his largest flying form Harry flew at the giant, flapping his enormous wings into his face. Completely distracted, the giant dropped Mr Weasley and started swiping at Harry, who flew straight at the giant, clawing at his eyes with his vicious talons. The giant howled in pain and toppled backwards, knocking over another giant in the process. Swooping low, Harry picked up the prone form of Mr Weasley who had been stirring feebly on the floor twenty foot below, and flew towards where Dumbledore was stood, his wand raised, an enormous net flying out of his wand over the two fallen giants. He laid Mr Weasley down on the ground and transformed into a Phoenix. Gently, he laid his head onto Mr Weasley's bleeding leg, and forced a few tears out of his eyes. Seeing Mr Weasley's leg heal, Harry transformed back, just as the rest of the Order descended upon them.

"Get inside!" roared Mad-Eye, gesturing at the entrance to the lair which, Harry now noticed, was just behind Dumbledore. Helping Mr Weasley to his feet, Harry hurried into the lair, the rest of the Order right behind him.