Disclaimer: All characters and elements of the world of Harry Potter belong to the great JK Rowling, we are not her.
Chapter Ten: Headlines
December 18, 1996
Indubitably, Tom had to suffer through Snape's inquisition as to why Tom felt the need to save Harry Potter's life. Tom told Snape that it was because if he had just sat by and did nothing, nobody would ever trust him and he would cease to be useful, besides, he added, it was better that he had saved Potter's life as now he could begin supplying actually useful information. Being in the Order was the only reason Tom was alive right now.
It was the first day of the Christmas holidays and for the first time in his Hogwarts career, Tom was leaving the school to spend the holidays with a family. Not his family, granted; but a family nonetheless. Tom strode out of the Malfoy Manor and apparated to the pre-determined meeting area. He saw Sirius leaning against a tree with a leather jacket and his wand dangling between his elegant fingers.
Tom was not fooled by the seemingly relaxed pose, he knew that at any second, for any given reason, Sirius could send a curse flying his way. "This way, kiddo," Black nodded towards the seemingly deserted mausoleum. Tom wove his way through the headstones that marked the dry grass. The pair reached a solid gray door. It was simple, Tom noticed, just a regular mausoleum door, although he did see that there were engravings along the sides, in Latin. Thankfully, Tom knew Latin and he was able to decipher that it was just an old quote about death. He glanced over the plain door once more and couldn't help but compare this meeting place to the extravagant hall that his first meeting with The Common Problem had been held in. Even though that was the "evil" group, this Order meeting felt more frowned upon.
Perhaps it was the late hour, or the fact that he was standing in a tomb, but Tom decided he preferred meetings with Snape over this cozy gathering of heroes.
As he walked further into the the room, he heard the door close and watched as Sirius waved his wand, sealing them in. Tom kept his cool facade as Sirius lit up his wand and beckoned for Tom to follow. Sirius led Tom over to the stone casket which he proceeded to pull open. Tom raised an eyebrow, was one of their initiation stunts grave-robbing?
He studied Sirius carefully, wondering what this was about. He couldn't see the bottom of the casket, so he wasn't sure what was happening. Then, Sirius put one leg over the edge and fell down. Tom was incredibly confused, the Order really goes to ridiculous lengths to make their meetings secure, he thought.
He cautiously walked to the edge and looked down at slide made of stone, not unlike the one at the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, though it was quite a bit shorter and illuminated at the end. The older man was standing at the bottom and waved his hand at Tom, "Hello!" he said from the other side, "Hurry up! The meeting's probably already begun."
Tom was stunned; going down a slide to release a beast was one thing, going down to join a bunch of adults in plotting to save the world was another. He elegantly landed at the bottom and followed the older man to where a cluster of chairs were arranged as if they were awaiting some big speaker. "He's just a boy!" cried the plump, ginger woman.
"And he lives with the Malfoys! Who knows what sort of information he could be feeding them! We all know Malfoy is close to that bat-like man," growled a rough voice that didn't come into view until Tom rounded the corner. The man was tall and had choppy hair and numerous, thick scars lining his face. But perhaps the most gruesome part was the bright blue eye that stuck out of his face and was three times the size of his other.
Everyone froze once they noticed Tom lurking in the doorway. Sirius pushed Tom's shoulder, encouraging him to go into the room. He stumbled a bit, but quickly recovered. "By all means, don't stop on my account," Tom said, he could tell it was probably a bit too sassy of a greeting to gain much approval, but he knew that the only acceptance he needed was from Dumbledore and the Potters.
James Potter, walked over to his best friend and Tom, with the usual bounce in his step. "Tom! Good to see you again," he beamed, "Let me introduce you to everyone." And so, Tom found himself being led around the room and introduced to a variety of witches and wizards; few of which were actually notable. Like Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, who was the gruff old man who had been speaking against Tom's induction at the beginning. He hadn't shaken Tom's hand. He'd merely looked at him, grumbled his name and hobbled off to speak to someone else. After Mad-Eye, came his official introduction to Mrs. Weasley, the plump ginger woman of whom he had heard much about. Her greeting had been cordial, but he could sense the icy reluctance underneath her motherly expression.
He was led to one of the many random chairs and told by James to stay until Dumbledore arrived. A few people came up to him, but mostly the members avoided Tom or looked at him with skeptical eyes. It seemed like quite a while before Dumbledore finally showed up, looking fantastic in robes of bright tangerine with teal embroidery. Although Tom hated the man,he found himself relieved that he had actually appeared. Dumbledore's eyes swept across the room the usual sparkle dimming when landing upon the Slytherin/Ravenclaw. "Ah, yes," he began, "As I'm sure you've all noticed, we have a new member of the Order. I hope you will all welcome Mr. Tom Slytherin - (At the announcement of his last name, someone in the back of the room yelled "Are you sure it's not Malfoy? Doesn't he live with them?!") - to our ranks with open arms." A mild round of applause, where only James and Lily seemed to really be the ones clapping, circulated the room.
"Now, on to our first topic of business. I'm sure many of you have heard about the recent attempt on Harry Potter's life." As he spoke these words, a solemn air fell over the group. James and Lily looked at each other and then back at Dumbledore who nodded to them. "This heartless attack would have succeeded if not for that young man right there." He directed his hand to Tom and a slightly shocked silence fell throughout the room. Apparently there were some people that didn't know about Tom's un-Slytherin-like rescue. This is a disaster of an organization, Tom thought.
Moody growled from his spot in the crowd, "You expect us to believe that this measly kid saved the life of Harry Potter against dark magic?" Tom couldn't believe his ears, MEASLY?! Measly?! He's calling me measly? He can't even walk! He doesn't even have two eyes! Does his brain even work? Is he even completely human? Tom contained his rage by clenching his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white and by grinding his teeth together so much he was sure they'd be gone by the time the meeting was over. Dumbledore kept his face impassive as he listened to the man talk. "I understand that you are wary, Alastor, but trust me when I say that Mr. Slytherin is most talented with magic and-" but before he could finish, a fiery red-head stood from her spot and climbed onto the seat of her chair.
"Excuse you, Alastor, but when it comes down to it, the only reason Harry is alive right now is because of this young man, right there. Not only this but, he's been nothing but kind and sweet since the moment I've first met him. We should all know that a name is nothing but a name and does not lend testament to a person's character. If anyone else has any problems with Mr. Slytherin please feel free to take it up with me. Thank you," Lily took her seat once more and her husband spoke up from beside her.
"Yeah! What she said!" He then waved his hand for Dumbledore to continue.
The old man chuckled fondly, before going over the details of the attack, as they were known. "Our prime suspect in this is a man, of perhaps 5 feet 8 inches in height. No details of his face were procured but his robes were of The Common Problem's signature plum coloring. Also, in line with The Common Problem's tendency to use nicknames on their robes, this particular set of robes read TFG, according to Mr. Potter." Tom thought about it, he himself hadn't been given a pair of The Common Problem robes - as it was too much of a liability, and for this he was grateful as he thought the matching robes with the nicknames was a little grade-school esque, nowhere near as cool as having masks would be. Not to mention, plum wasn't as nearly dashing on him as burgundy was - he, was however, familiar with several other members' nicknames. TFG, was not one of them.
While Tom contemplated who the mysterious (wannabe) assassin could be, Dumbledore continued on telling the rest of the Order the story of Harry's attack.He's making it sound much more extravagant than it really was, Tom decided.
The rest of the meeting was a blur, Tom didn't remember anything besides the end, where everyone agreed that Tom probably actually wasn't too completely horrible. One person, a woman with bright pink hair, actually smiled as he left the meeting, that was before she ran smack dab into the wall. Tom stopped walking for a second - these are Dumbledore's best fighters? Snape will be pleased hear that his gang of plum-adorned baboons are still more qualified than this old man's rag-tag team of ministry employees.
A/N: Hey guys! This is super awkward. We are REALLY REALLY sorry for not updating when we said we would. But you know, life goes on. We are finally getting back into the groove of things again and hopefully if all goes right more updates will follow. Again, very sorry and we have 43ish chapters completely outlined they just need to be written :).
I'd like to point out to anyone who hasn't noticed that this story is not 100% serious. It is pretty much a comedy at this point.
Further, we'd like to answer a few reviews :).
tneha: thanks for sticking with us! Hope you liked this intro to the ootp
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Fey: We are very aware of this, but Tom panicked and its not supposed to be 100% accurate. We took some liberties. Thanks for the review though and we hope that you don't let this dissuade you from our story :).
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Next chapter is… Christmas!