Christmas Holidays, at Grimmauld
"Harry, may I speak with you for a moment?" Remus asked while Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were at the table working on their homework (at Hermione's insistence).
Harry had a confused look on his face but nodded and got up, following Remus into up the stairs, into the drawing room. Harry watched silently as Remus put up several spells to ensure that their conversation would indeed be private.
"Alright," Remus started, sitting in one of the arm chairs, motioning for Harry to do the same. "I think it is time you and I had a talk."
"About what?" Harry asked, still confused.
"About what you've been doing," Remus said, frowning, "First of all I want to tell you that I agree with the reasons you have for what you are doing, but I don't think you are going about it in the right way."
Harry looked at Remus, "So you think I shouldn't be trying to fix all the corruption and all-around incompetence in the Wizarding World?" Harry could not stop himself from giving Remus an incredulous look.
Remus looked at Harry and said, "That right there is exactly why we need to have this discussion. I agree with you completely that the Daily Prophet shouldn't be able to harass and slander people simply because the Ministry lets them get away with it. The Ministry shouldn't be in the pocket of several wealthy clients and death eaters shouldn't be able to buy their way out of Azkaban.
"But, and this is where I think you have started to go wrong, you can't do things so quickly. Right now you have thrown the Ministry into chaos, which considering Voldemort's return, is the very worst thing that could have happened. You are also planning to go after the Headmaster which would throw the entire Wizarding world into chaos. You have to understand that the people will panic; you have already caused many people to panic. You are not helping as much as you think you are—"
Harry cut Remus off here, "So you think I should let them get away with it? After everything the Ministry and Dumbledore have done—and that's just to me!—I should let them get away with it because they are important?"
Remus looked at Harry with a slightly pitying look, "Harry this is why Molly and I said you weren't ready to join the Order. It is true that you have faced a great deal more than many of the members and maybe you deserve to know what Voldemort has planned, but you do not have the maturity to be objective." When Harry looked about to object, Remus raised his hand, "Let me finish, you are a great deal more mature than your yearmates, even more so than the twins, but you are still young. You are still influenced too much by your emotions. You need to distance yourself from what you are fighting. I agree that Fudge needs to go, but now our world has been left without a leader, and when Voldemort makes his move the public won't have enough faith in our new Minister and that could lead to disaster."
Harry swallowed thickly, "I—I didn't think of that," he admitted.
"I know you didn't," Remus said gently, "And there really isn't a whole lot you can do about that now. All I am saying is that you need to start thinking about the consequences of your actions. You need to plan things ahead to ensure that something like this doesn't happen."
Harry looked at Remus consideringly, "I'm glad you told me this. I guess I haven't been thinking everything through as well as I thought. I still don't think they should just not have to answer for what they've done though."
"And nobody says that they shouldn't answer for their crimes. I'm just saying that you need to think your plans out more and maybe wait until the world has had time to stabilize itself and maybe wait until Voldemort is gone for good."
Harry smiled at Remus, "I think I will call you Juno Moneta."
It was Remus' turn to be confused, "Er…what?"
Harry snickered to himself before asking, "How well do you know Greek mythology?"
Remus, looking confused at the apparent shift in topic, said, "Not very well. I admit I never really had an interest. Why?"
"When I was younger, I didn't have any friends. In fact my cousin and his friends made it their mission to make me as miserable as possible. My only escape was in the library. I never took any books home because I know the Dursley's would destroy them. My favorite stories were Greek mythology.
"I would never claim to be an expert, but I know quite a bit about them. See, when Ron, Hermione, and I became friends, I wanted to use nicknames for them and we used the myths to do it. Neither Ron not Hermione know the stories they also didn't have an interest. We made sure we picked the absolute best names for each other.
"Ron and I named Hermione Athena after the Goddess of Wisdom. Part of it is because of how smart she is, but I also had another reason. Hermione is very competitive, and she is a bad loser. I have only ever beaten her at one test and I know she is upset about it. I honestly think that if she ever became just a little more arrogant she would curse the people that beat her. Kind of like the story where Arachne challenges Athena to a weaving contest and as punishment for winning, Arachne is turned into a spider. It is almost too easy to imagine Hermione doing that someday. I hope that day never comes.
"Ron was a little harder but we ended up calling him Aeneas. See, Aeneas was a son of Aphrodite, the goddess of love. And even though people are always going on about how powerful love is, nobody seems to think much of Aphrodite, and in the myths, nobody thinks much of her children either. But, that one man ended up surviving the fall of one empire, faces many challenges and hardships and ended up founding Rome. I think Ron could easily have the same great destiny, he just needs to find the courage to face it head on.
"It bugs me that my friends names me after the goddess of chaos and discord," At this point Harry ignored Remus' snort of amusement, "but I can't say the name doesn't fit. No matter that my intentions are much more pure than Eris' ever were I do seem to cause a fair amount of chaos. And apparently even more than I imagined.
"If people are important to me, eventually I try to assign them a nickname corresponding with Greek and Roman mythology. Ginny, I haven't been able to assign yet. She's never really talked a lot around me and so I really don't know very much about her. Neville I think will be Caerus, the god of opportunity. I don't know for sure yet, but mostly I just think he has a great opportunity, he just needs to have the courage to move forward. And there is this girl I'm just starting to get to know called Luna Lovegood. I call her Hestia, after the goddess of the hearth. She gave up her throne on Olympus in order to give Dionysus a seat. She did so in order to prevent a war among the gods and because Dionysus grew up a mortal and the gods needed the perspective of a mortal within their counsel. I think Luna has the same potential."
Remus looked slightly impressed on how detailed Harry's descriptions were and said, "I agree with your names but you still haven't explained what 'Juno Moneta' means."
Harry flushed a little, "Well I hope you don't mind but you're also getting named after a goddess. In Roman mythology Juno—Hera—the queen god and goddess of marriage and family would sometimes appear to them. She would warn them of trouble ahead which is how she got the name "Juno the Warner." I thought it appropriate considering the fact that you're always looking out for everybody's best interest."
Remus had an amused look on his face, "Well I am certainly flattered that you think so highly of me. Tell me, does Sirius have a name as well?"
Harry thought to himself, "No I actually don't. I don't know the two of you all that well yet and so I don't really have a good grasp of your personalities. Don't worry, if I can I'll name him after a goddess too."
The two laughed as the left the drawing room intending to find out when Mrs. Weasley would be done with dinner.