Harry took his empty seat back at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore strode up to the teachers table where he resumed his place in the centre. As he stood and stared down at the students a silence spread across the hall.
"Greetings," He began. "It would seem that although the hour is late we still have business to take care of. I know you are all quite tired and would greatly care to retire to your dormitories for the night. However, some of you can not do so since you don't currently have a dormitory. I am referring to the first years, who have not yet been assigned to a school house." Harry looked to the side of Dumbledore and saw Professor McGonagall holding the sorting hat and the three-legged stool. "We shall therefore begin the sorting." The stool was placed on the floor and the hat sitting on it. Harry watched eagerly as the hat sat in silence. What would the sorting hats song be like this year? He watched carefully as the hat looked at the students and opened up at a seam to resemble a face. It spoke in a gruff voice, which several new students seemed quite alarmed by. Harry listened carefully to the sorting hats new song.
Welcome students in first year
To start your magical career,
You will have to try me on
And I will tell where you belong
In Gryffindor are those so brave
For their friends they face the grave
They are also strong of heart
Is this where you will find your start?
The Hufflepuff will always build
On friendly allies, and those strong willed.
They are righteous, good and true
Is Hufflepuff the one for you?
In Ravenclaw you will find
Those quick of wit and smart of mind
That clever lot is what you see
Is this where you're destined to be?
In Slytherin may be your fate
They long for power of first rate
They're power hungry, sly of mind
If you are so you'll find your kind
What will suit you, you'll soon know
As I will tell you where to go
So try me on, I shall decided
Where your future shall reside
Cheers erupted from around the hall. Harry was relieved that the sorting hats song wasn't so dark as last year. The last thing the students needed was an ominous warning. He watched as the first timed student was called forward.
"Adaldoh, Teo." Professor McGonagall called as a very small boy made his way over to the stool. The hat took its time before finally shouting out
"Hufflepuff!" A chorus of cheers was heard as the boy made his way over to the table. Harry sat there and cheered as the first student of Gryffindor was called out. It was a girl called Cameron Bailie. She was short and had long brown hair. At the front she had blond highlights.
As the sorting hat yelled out Gryffindor she jumped up and walked over to the table smiling. As they went through the names and got to around the letter m, Harry felt exhaustion taking hold of him. As he looked around the hall the cheers were now quiet and unenthusiastic. Several people had actually fallen asleep in their seats. "Mariko, Dani." He watched as the girl was sorted into Gryffindor. She had shoulder length light brown hair. And blue eyes. She looked excited as she made her way to sit with a group of first year girls at the far end of the table. The names continued and still the people were being sorted. Finally they neared the end as only a few people remained. "Weatherlight, Maximillian." Professor McGonagall called out. A confident looking boy with steely blonde hair walked forwards. The hat had only just touched him when it shouted Gryffindor. He walked over and took one of the empty seats at the Gryffindor table. The sorting finally finished with someone called "Alex Zadah" being sorted into Ravenclaw. Dumbledore rose stiffly.
"I know how it is so very late and you can't wait to get to sleep. In some cases this seems to literally be the case." He said as he glanced at some Slytherins who were snoring exceptionally loudly in their seats. "So I shall test your patience no further. You may now return to your dormitories. Prefects shall be leading the way." Harry got up proudly and gave his eyes a rub as he tried to stave off sleep for just a little longer. He made sure his shiny prefect badge was clearly visible for the new students. The rest of the Gryffindor table got up. Hermione and Ron looked pretty bored. The fifth year prefects were hovering aimlessly next to them.
He looked and saw the head boy, Adam, making his way over towards them. Harry only just noticed that he had in fact been sitting on the same table as them, and was therefore a Gryffindor. Harry supposed it was his entirely unremarkable appearance which prevented him from being committed to memory.
"Hey" he said to no one in particular. "You don't mind if I rush back to you? I want to check out my new room, and well, it doesn't take all of us to show the way does it." Harry shook his head. Adam the turned away and made a dash for the exit of the hall.
"Excuse me, first years can you please come over here?" asked Hermione politely as she tried to be heard over the tired grumblings. The first year Gryffindors just stood around like a bunch of lost sheep.
"That doesn't work. You can't be polite with them." Ron sighed. "Oy! Get over here now!" He bellowed. Harry smiled at Ron's lack of subtlety, but none the less it seemed to work, as the students came traipsing over towards them.
"You're Harry Potter?" Asked one of the students as he stared up at Harry. About half the first year students turned to look at Harry with wide eyes. Probably the half form wizarding families. Harry didn't like where this conversation could be headed, and was thankful when Hermione started speaking.
"My names Hermione Granger." She said in a way that sounded awfully rehearsed. "And this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. We are the sixth year prefects," Before he could continue he felt a sharp punch in his kidneys. He turned round angrily. He wasn't sure what to expect but it certainly wasn't to find the Slytherin prefect in his year glaring up at him. "Zabeezee or something?" He thought as he tried to remember the name.
"You are a Slytherin prefect!" She snapped, hating every word she had to speak to him. Harry gave a groan as he remembered what Dumbledore had said. He had hoped he had simply imagined it, but it seemed that the fact was very real.
"I'm supposed to help you?" He asked as he hazarded a guess at what she might want. He was also trying to act like he wasn't in pain. There might be some internal bleeding; he didn't want to rule it out. "Should probably get it checked on later." He thought.
"What about all the other prefects? You have them in fifth and seventh year don't you?" He asked. Whilst Dumbledore might have hopes that Harry could ensure the Slytherin students behaved, there were still four other prefects. Hopefully he should be able to coast along with minimal effort, Weasley style.
"They ran off. I don't deal with kids." She spat. They stared off for a moment, before Harry felt unable to hold her gaze. He turned to Hermione to give her one more bewildered look before he was dragged away.
Harry found the herd of first year Slytherin students waiting by the entrance to the hall. Some had already gone ahead, deciding to follow other students. Of course they would probably get lost and not be seen for three days, but then this was Hogwarts. If students didn't go missing then you knew something was wrong.
"Hey guys, are you ready to get to the dorm?" He said as he tried to stir up some excitement. That's what you did with kids wasn't it? Being an only child, and the Weasley's having no children younger than Ginny, he had very little experience with someone five or six years younger than he.
"Why is he talking to us?" One of the students asked with a confused expression. "He isn't a Slytherin." Harry gritted his teeth. They weren't as bad as the older students. It seems it got worse as they went along. Still, it wasn't a promising start.
"I'm meant to help you out since Slytherin only have one prefect from the sixth year."
"Why?"
"Because the previous ones broke the rules, and there weren't two new people who were suitable."
"Why?"
"How do I know, maybe they were all badly behaved." He growled impatiently. He knew this to be the case. There wasn't a single person he could think of who hadn't joined in with Draco's childish games in previous years. "Anyway, I'm sure you are tired, let's not stand about chatting. I'm sure you want to see the common room, and where you will be sleeping." He continued as he walked out of the hall. The students and the prefect girl who had punched him followed.
"You killed you-know-who didn't you? That's what I was told." Asked one of the students eagerly. "That's what my parents told me."
"Well I don't know." Harry replied humbly. "It looks to me like he is still alive so I guess I didn't really do anything." He didn't want to go into the whole dead again alive again thing. It was confusing even to him sometimes.
"But what…" A boy began before he was interrupted.
"Don't talk to him. Slytherins don't talk to Harry Potter." Blaise said as she made an effort to look straight ahead. It seemed they heeded her warning, for no further small talk was made. Harry was actually grateful for this.
The rest of the walk past in relative silence.
"You should be careful not to fall off the stairs!" He said to the group as they got to the moving staircases. He felt he should say something informative. As they started walking up some stairs another set swung round over their head. He did a good job of remembering the way, and only made one wrong turn. The Slytherin prefect made an angry coughing sound to draw his attention. He got the distinct impression she wouldn't have signalled at all that he was going the wrong way, had half the students not been following him.
Eventually, and none too soon for Harry's liking, they reached the entrance to the Slytherin common room located in the dungeon. The hidden passage revealed itself, and everyone excluding himself filed in, without so much as a thanks.
"Ungrateful lot." He grumbled, as he got the impression that somehow, he had gotten the short end of the straw. "Anyway, time to get going. Wouldn't want to be late." He thought as he took on a brisk walk. Wanting to arrive promptly was only part of the reason for his expedience. It was also generally understood, amongst three of the houses at least, that spending too long near the Slytherin dungeon affected ones brain. It was the only logical explanation.
As he walked he found himself deep in contemplation. It was the first time he had been alone since he had heard about Cho, and so he finally allowed himself to consider the situation, without the fear that the inner pain might show through the mere veneer of sanity. He hoped she would be alright. Dumbledore was seldom wrong, so it stood to reason that on this occasion too, his suppositions would be correct. If not then his hands would only serve to be further stained with blood of those whose demise had been quickened because of his existence. Cho: Soulless. His parents: Dead. Sirius: Dead.
He felt anger within him as he remembered How Sirius had died trying to save him. His heart ached to think that he had lost the closet thing he would probably have to a father. Then there was Cho. "She must be so lonely. Floating round not knowing what has happened to her. I bet they will go after Ron next, or maybe Hermione or Ginny." He contemplated with anger. And he knew there would be a next time, with a certainty he wished he could question. He was deep in thought to the extent that his arrival before the statue of the gargoyle was inducing of suprise.
"Humbug," He said. The gargoyle sprang to life and hopped to the side. Harry watched as it stood there. "No chance of a bow then." He muttered under his breath without any real expectation. The gargoyle put a hand behind its back and did a graceful bow which caught him unexpectedly. "Cool, thanks" He said as he stepped past it towards the spiral staircase. He made his way to the top of the stairs before reaching out to knock on the door. Just as he went to slam his knuckle against it, the door swung open.
A quick inspection would have told Harry that Moody had been watching through the door with his magical eye. He had therefore reached out and opened the door for Harry. It just happened however that Harry wasn't paying much attention to the door when it opened. The result was thus: Harry raised his hand, the door was opened, and he then proceeded to give a quick hard knock on Moody's already bent nose. "
Ow! Watch it lad!" Said Moody in pain. Harry's eyes widened as he stared at what he had just done. People had been sent to Azkaban for less. "You don't want to go conking me noggin"
Trying his best to pretend the last fine seconds had not transpired, he looked round the office to see several members of the Order were apparently already there waiting.
"Glad you could make it Potter." Said the oily voice of Snape, as he leant against one wall. "Don't rush on out account."
"Very well," Began Dumbledore "Now that all those who will be attending are here, if we shall start then that would be good. After all I know some of you are tired and would like to be getting to bed." Dumbledore flicked his wand and a dozen squashy chairs appeared round the room. Harry sat down gratefully in the chair that appeared directly behind him. It was comfortable and soft, but not as soft as the prefect carriage chairs.
It seemed Arthur was able to attend, but not Molly. He was presently in pyjamas, which was perhaps a sign that he had been sleeping, and given the hour this would be entirely possible. Alternatively it could be viewed as a bold statement of the undisputable truth, that pyjamas are better than clothes.
"For the first matter, I would like to report that Harry has now officially past the initiation test. Nymphadora and I performed the test on Harry after the previous meeting, and by the evidence that he is still alive, the test was a success." Harry cast a glance at Remus who looked happily at Harry.
"We shall therefore be talking about the regrettable events which have transpired today. As I'm sure you all know, The Hogwarts Express was ambushed by what we assume to be Voldemort's entire Dementor army which we established to be as many as one thousand. Luckily Harry was saved thanks to some good timing on my behalf and the hard work of Kingsley, Alastor, Remus and Nymphadora." Tonks seemed slightly annoyed as Dumbledore kept calling her by her first name. Nothing was said however.
Harry was surprised by the wording Dumbledore had used. He made it sound as if the only thing that mattered was the fact Harry was ok. Did he not care about the other students?
"Most of the Dementors fled but we did manage to kill about one hundred of them. This is good news for us as Voldemort's forces are now weakened. I do however fear that the failure of the attack may drive Voldemort to make more attacks on the wizarding and muggle world, in order to firmly establish that failure is a rare occurrence.
"We shall therefore have to be using the time turners to prevent his attacks as was mentioned in last months briefing. I trust those of you who were not in attendance, received the minutes? In order to protect the ones we care for we must remain anonymous to Voldemort. As we know the Deaths Eaters strength is in their anonymity. Together they can strike as one, but when they are divided they are all but invisible. If we wish to match this strength then we must do the same. Of course Voldemort will have suspicions about some of us, especially Alastor and I, but there is no reason to confirm this belief, less some of us become more serious targets. We shall therefore be carrying out our rescue missions in disguise."
As he said this he glanced at Harry, who was relieved to hear that Voldemort wouldn't know it was him. He didn't need his friends attracting attention. Outside of their annual confrontation, which normally coincided with the end of the school year, Voldemort wouldn't have any reason to suspect him. Harry had often speculated that Voldemort had a holiday home he frequented in the summer, and so liked to get his evil rampaging out of the way just before he left for the beach. Professor McGonagall held up a mask that was a dark black colour. "These are the masks we shall be using to hide our identity." In Harry's Opinion the looked quiet sinister, but then he supposed anything less than a clown smile painted on it would come across as such.
"You may choose what to wear with the mask. We do not wish for you to have a set uniform as this would suggest that we work in complete secrecy as does Voldemort. We are individuals, and we value the collective opinion, so should dress as such." Harry imagined wearing the mask with his t shirt and old jeans, and decided it would be nicer if his clothes were a little grander. The teachers continued to talk as Harry sat and listened, in the warm office and the comfortable chair.
He felt his eyelids closing and though in a distant part of his brain he knew sleeping during Order meetings was something of a faux pas, he could not relay this to his eyes. He fought the loosing battle and subsequently drifted into a sleep as they spoke. Harry dreamt of the Order rescuing a family. He dreamt of how Voldemort was standing there laughing at him. He dreamt about how his parents had been murdered. He then dreamt of how he was facing Voldemort. Harry saw himself raising his wand. He saw himself pointing it straight at Voldemort.
He heard his voice echoing inside his head as he yelled the Avada Kedavra curse. He saw the skeletal figure of Voldemort fall to the ground, followed by a maniac laugh he recognised as his own. Following this the images changed, Whilst until now it seemed his dreams told of events to come, he didn't understand what he was seeing now. There were burning buildings and screaming families. He saw Hermione crying on the floor and heard her begging him to stop. "Harry, please stop. Harry please! It doesn't need to be this way."
"It does Hermione." He replied, though his voice sounded different. "I am free from weakness now. I am not afraid to do what must be done. Death is a part of war. Until you embrace this you cannot hope to win the battle."
He jumped as the dream disappeared from before him and he realised he had fallen asleep. Later, when he had chance to reflect he would suppose the nature of his dream was due to the Dementors, draining away his hope, and painting a dark future in his mind.
"Harry please, it won't be much longer." Said Dumbledore. He realised it was this which had woken him up. He could feel people staring at him as he sat there. Unsure what to do he gave a chesty cough.
"Sorry I must have fallen asleep."
"There is no need to apologise, it is quiet understandable given the hour. Anyway we are nearly finished so should not be much longer. As I was about to say we shall be continuing with your Occlumency lessons. Professor Snape shall continue to tutor you but I am sure Remus will also be more than willing to help you should you require it."
Harry remembered the horrible evening lessons he had spent with Snape. Perhaps he hadn't awoken at all. Maybe this was simply a continuation of the unpleasant visions he had had a moment ago. The remaining minutes of the meeting seemed to pass quickly as he sat there in a tired stupor, staring intently and sitting in a decidedly uncomfortable manner, set on not embarrassing himself again. As the meeting was called to an end they rose.
"Harry I have a few small details to discuss with you. They aren't urgent so we shall leave them till tomorrow, or should I say later today, if you are willing to accept my company on one further occasion." Harry was thankful for being allowed to go to bed rather than stay up discussing boring details, probably relating to his occlumency lessons. He gave a nod, before making his way down the spiral staircase. He found himself walking through the portrait hole a minute later and up to his dormitory. He took off his glasses and pulled on his pyjamas. He made his way into the bathroom where he hastily washed. He trudged over to his bed where he collapsed. He fell asleep instantly, without even pulling the covers over him. He had more vivid dreams that night, like those earlier, but what Harry didn't know is that while he had slept in Dumbledore's office, He had been sleep talking.
