In the silence that followed as each of the Order members was lost in individual thought, processing the information and new light that had been shed on their previously esteemed Headmaster. Arielle sat regally in her own recently conjured ornate ebony chair, her back straight as she regarded the room with quiet anger and determination. Sirius himself was sat to her right with Remus on his other side trying to calm the furious were-wolf down from tearing the old puppeteers throat out.
"Now that we are all sufficiently calm and we have gotten the business of Dumbledore's manipulative nature out of the way I believe I can finally get down to the business I invaded your little meeting for, which I assure you was utterly unintentional as I was merely looking for Sirius. However, as you are all here and I highly doubt you will leave without me forcing you to, I will inform all of you as well. Harry as you know is now under my care and I will be bringing him up-to-date on all of the things that had he been placed where he should have been to grow up or at the very least somewhere where he was actually cared for he would have known from birth. I have fifteen years of muggle and Dumbledore induced ignorance and neglect to contend with so if you do not hear from Harry very often in the coming weeks it is for this reason. I will also be discussing with him, if he so chooses, other options he may choose for the continuation of his magical education as I in no way feel he is safe or well taught at Hogwarts." Arielle spoke clearly in cold clipped words that screamed that she was not to be disagreed with however, as always, our dear delusional Dumbledore ignored it and began to protest loudly along with one or two others.
"My dear you cannot be serious! Hogwarts is only marginally less safe than Gringotts and is one of the best schools for magic in the world. You cannot remove Harry from Hogwarts, I will not allow it!" He protested earing an agreeing 'hmmph' from Mrs Weasley. Arielle narrowed her eyes at the twinkle eyes old fool and glared at him.
"Allow? You will allow nothing you obtuse old man. If Hogwarts is so safe why is it that Harry has almost died every year he has attended school there? If it is so safe how is it that Tom Riddle or his peons have managed to infiltrate it every single year? And as for 'one of the best magic school in the world' it doesn't even break the top 5. The Keep in Ireland, The Academy Arcanum in Italy and the Omoikane Institute in Japan take the top three spots with Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Salem Witches Institute taking four and five respectively." Arielle snapped back.
"What about his friends? You can't take him away from them." Mrs Weasley persisted angrily, her red hair frizzing slightly as she got more and more agitated as it was wont to do.
"As I said, if you had bothered to listen, it will be Harry's choice as to where he goes. Though personally I will be hoping he chooses to leave and perhaps attend The Keep or Arcanum come September as they outstrip Hogwarts in all aspects by miles." She replied, violet eyes narrowed on the Weasley matriarch in extreme dislike. This woman irritated her. Bossy and bullying she was everything Arielle despised in mother-type figures, she had never had a mother herself or a father for that matter but she knew exactly what a parent shouldn't be. She'd lived it. Wrinkling her nose in disgust she turned away from the annoying ginger woman and met the bright blue eyes of the man who had destroyed her and her God-son's lives. In her eyes she showed him the twenty three years of torment he had put her through and how little mercy was left in her hardened heart. He had built on the upbringing her guardians had given her, taken the raw burning steel they had created and fashioned it into a weapon so deadly that all who challenged it fell into the dark abyss of death. Thanks to him there was enough blood on her hands to fill an ocean and she regretted none of it because she knew that it had always been kill or be killed for her, he had forced her into those positions where the only way out was to do what he wanted her to do. With one hand he preached and he preached about peace and mercy and second chances and with the other he used her as his executioner to take down his enemies. But no more. There were only a handful of people she would fight and kill for now and not one of them was Albus bloody Dumbledore.
In a voice so quiet they had to strain their ears to hear her Arielle continued in an eerily deadly calm tone. "Harry is a boy whose life has been controlled and dictated to him since the day his parents died. He is a boy with a destiny thrust upon him that he has thus far been forced to adhere to but no more. I know fate and I know destiny better than any other living creature, I know the complexity of prophecy and predictions and I know that not all of them come true. Not everyone must follow the path that destiny has laid at their feet. I did not and my destiny was very nearly set in stone. Harry's future, his life, is in his own hands now. He decides what he does with: not me, not fate and certainly not any of you."
There was true and complete silence for the first time that evening as she finished speaking. They took in her quiet words, felt them to the depths of their souls and began to understand what they had been doing to a boy of no more than fifteen, putting the weight of the world on his shoulders when he was not even yet a man. They had allowed themselves to see nothing but the boy-hero, the one they believed could save them all when what they should have been seeing was the boy himself. Some pushed aside this revelation, those who were stout believers in the agendas of Albus Dumbledore, but others began for the first time to shake off the shackles of their misconceptions and question their leaders motives.