Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the ideas below. Twilight belongs to Stephanie Meyer and Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.

Jack sighed. The Order meeting was not going well. There had been consistent arguments since he had arrived with Professor Dumbledore and he was starting to get very frustrated.

The first argument had been sparked by his very arrival. It was mainly between Sirius and Molly Weasley, although there were people pitching their own comments in support of either side.

Molly's main point was his youth. She argued that he had his whole life ahead of him and he shouldn't need to get involved with this. She thought he should leave everything to the adults. He guessed from her arguments that she had disagreed just as vehemently with the ritual that had pulled him back to 1997. Jack supposed he could see her point. She was desperately trying to keep her family safe, and he was the same age as her youngest two children. She viewed him as a child to be protected - not as the soldier that he was. Since most of the Order did not know that he had been a soldier for the Confederacy, Jack decided he would appreciate the sentiment, even if he didn't agree.

What Jack didn't appreciate was Sirius' argumentativeness. He had immediately started arguing with Molly about his age, only stopping when Dumbledore shut the argument down. When Jack had been allowed to explain what he knew about the attack after the holiday, Sirius argued about trusting "Slytherins and Death Eater spawn" which drew the potions professor into a new argument. Jack knew that Sirius was feeling trapped and trying to vent his anger without directly addressing the problem, but it took up time in meetings that could be used more productively. Jack saw Remus sigh for the fifth time in as many minutes and released another of his own. He wished Jasper was here.

Jasper had always been good at calming tempers. Whenever his father or Mr. Whitlock hosted parties for the other local Plantation owners, differing opinions and numerous bottles of brandy had led to sometimes explosive arguments. Jasper had always been able to calm tempers with barely a word, even Mr. Wilson's who caused arguments even without the brandy, and whom liquor frequently made violent.

Here Jack interrupted himself and smirked at his best friend. "Of course it also worked the other way. If Jasper felt particularly passionate about something the arguments would rage for hours." Jasper glared at him half-heartedly and Jack's smirk grew wider - at least until Emilia smacked his shoulder. His smirk dropped and he pouted at her but then he turned back to Jasper. "It did also make really good at inspirational speeches, though. All of the local children followed anything he said with just a few words."

Emmett laughed at the byplay between the siblings. "None of that has really changed much. He doesn't have much cause for inspirational speeches, but only Esme can calm him down when he gets really riled up." Jack stopped pouting and his smirk gained new life.

"Reaally." He drawled no question in his voice. "You were just the same with Mama Whitlock, weren't you Jas?" The smirk gentled into a soft smile even as Jasper looked ready to smack him himself. "I'm glad you found a new family here Jas."

Alice looked like she was barely able to contain her "Awwww" and a sharp sense of embarassment filled the room as Jasper noticed his mate's reaction. He abruptly clamped down on his own wayward emotions and tried to casually change the subject. "So how did you get them to listen to you Jack?"

Remus gave one more sigh, and saw Ha - no his name was Jack. Even after all the months since his return he still had to remind himself - saw Jack give one of his own. Great. Sirius seemed to be doing everything possible to alienate his godson. Remus desperately wanted to thump his head down on the table and nearly gave into the impulse, but just then Jack stood up.

"Enough." The seventeen-year-old stood back straight and feet shoulder-width apart, hands clasped behind his back and head held high. It reminded Remus of the old soldier who had lived down the street from his parents before he had started Hogwarts, who had been a Lt. Colonel in the 3rd Infantry Division in World War Two. It really made it sink in that Jack had been a soldier.

"Enough," Jack repeated. "Your prejudices does not matter." Sirius looked ready to interrupt and Severus looked smug and Jack glared at both of them. "Neither of your prejudices matter." Now they both looked mutinous. Great. "They don't matter because the very suggestion and possibility of an attack on the students who would be caught unaware and unable to defend themselves should be reason enough to plan countermeasures and contingency plans." Jack never lost his commanding air but he unclasped his hands and took out a map of Hogwarts grounds. Remus looked at it, wondering when he could have possibly had time to make a map like that given all of his classes and tutoring sessions. What Remus didn't know was that mapping like this had been an important skill in the army, and he frequently had to draw two maps in the time it would normally take to draw one so that he could send one to the Confederacy and given one to his CO in the Union. Jack had a good eye for maps and Hogwarts offered a convenient view of the entire grounds from the Astronomy Tower.

"Now. We expect that Volde..." Here he paused to wait out the flinches and gave another sigh. "Voldemort will attack after the express arrives in Hogsmeade because it is easier to attack a stationary target and the confusion of disembarkment and greeting friends who stayed at Hogwarts will just add to the chaos of his attack." Here he looked up at the gathered Order and gave them a steely look. Our most important job is to clear out the students who cannot defend themselves. Not to capture the Death Eaters, not to kill Voldemort," he ignored the flinches this time and kept speaking, "but to prevent as much loss of innocent lives as possible." The crowd was nodding at his words, and Remus found himself surprised in spite of himself at how good at controlling a crowd Ha-Jack was.

Dumbledore looked proud of Jack and Jack glared at him a little before conceding the floor. "We need to do this without causing panic as well. Having guards immediately visible would cause younger students to panic and some students who are not on our side to possibly warn our opposition and this could ultimately cause more deaths."

Moody spoke up. "Disillusionment charms. They would work to keep panic down and also allow us to take those damn Death Eaters by surprise when they arrive." Jack nodded at that and started jotting down ideas.

"Mrs. Weasley." The woman looked up at him, clearly not happy, but recognizing the same core of steel she had always seen in her brothers. She nodded at the boy to show she was listening. "We will need people to get the younger children out of the line of fire. Would you be willing to organize that effort?" She looked much happier at that, that someone recognized that children should not be involved even if that someone was a person she still considered a child.

"Of course. Portkeys should work, although we would need ways to get them to the students. Most of them won't be able to apparate. There will need to be people willing to help me get them to safety and help keep them calm once they've arrived as well."

Dumbledore beamed at the woman. "That is a good start Molly, we will leave the planning to you. I would suggest Mr. Diggle and Elphius stay with you, as they are both getting slower in their age?" Doge looked offended, and Remus almost laughed. Dumbledore was the same age as Doge, and he certainly wasn't suggesting that he stay out of the fight. He did have to acknowledge that Doge wasn't as fit or powerful as the old Headmaster, though. "Alastor, if you would be in charge of the attack/defense force at the station? Jack, I think it best if you coordinate the evacuation of your dormmates and their cohorts. You and the lovely Ms. Lovegood have a good plan developed already, and you need only develop it further. I am of course available to answer any questions, but for now, if everyone could either approach Alastor or Molly to join their groups, we will break this into smaller planning sessions for now." Remus got up and joined Sirius as he marched determinedly toward Moody. He supposed that the werewolf and the convict would not be the most reassuring to young scared children.

Alice smiled at her mate's brother. "It seems to me like you have a similar way with words to Jasper." She laughed at his blush. She had seen that she would eventually meet Jasper's closest friend, one of the only things he remembered from his human life, but something had blocked most of the details. She was delighted to find out that they got along really well, and it was so fun to have someone who blushed when she teased them! She pouted to herself. None of her family did. Edward glared at her for the thought, and she mentally stuck her tongue out at him.

Jack's sisters were laughing at him too. "He never wants to admit it, though." Jack pouted at them but his blush remained. "He is usually fun loving and carefree but sometimes his commander persona comes forward and everyone just wants to follow his every word."

Jasper looked happy to turn the tables on his brother. "It was like that as children too. He didn't have a commander persona until the army, but he was very charismatic." He looked at Jack who shook his head. "You made it sound like I led all of the children on our grand adventures, but you were always the one to talk them into it, and I swear most of them only actually followed me because you did."

Jack kept shaking his head. "Not true, they listened to you even when the two of us disagreed, rare though that was."

Jasper sighed but shot a smug look at his friend. "I guess we will have to disagree on that then. But your sisters agree with me." Sure enough, the two were nodding to every word the empath said, and firmly ignored their brother's pleading glance.

Carlisle had an exasperated look on his face, but even without his empathy, Jasper could tell that he was very amused by the group's interactions. More subtle was the thrill of joy that he felt about Jasper finding family again. Carlisle had always wanted that for his children. Jasper looked at his father figure, and the vampire gave him a soft smile before turning back to Jack. "How did the school handle the attack? I hope the children were mostly unharmed?"

Jack ducked under a flying purple spell shot at him and shot back in the direction it had come from. His face held a grim smile, and he turned away as he heard a shout of pain, and then its sudden end. He held his pistol in one hand and his wand in the other, with his second pistol and his officer's sword on his belt.

The evacuation had gone almost flawlessly. At the first crack of apparation, Molly's team had started grouping the children in each carriage and removing them from the station. Moody and his compatriots were firing spells back at the Death Eaters who had appeared, and Jack and many of the older students were shielding the younger children who had not been evacuated yet. As each group left, those students were freed to join Moody in fighting back.

The problem was that many on his side had not realized the benefit of making sure the enemy could not attack again, either by breaking their wands or taking them permanently out of the fight. The Death Eaters were shooting lethal curses at the much more inexperienced students, and already they had lost four students and many more were injured. He winced as another went down to a killing curse, and looked to Moody's squad. They were fairing better, but only because of experience. They were also allowing the enemy a chance to attack again.

A single scream rose above the sounds of spellfire, and Jack turned to look for its cause, even as more screams joined the first. A tall stranger, apparently human but with no nose and malicious red eyes stood at the end of the road and laughed. Jack ran towards the edge of the battle, even as Dumbledore confronted the man. "Do you think your pathetic defenders have a chance Old Man? You are losing. Your students are dying and I will stand victorious and in possession of the school by the end of the hour."

Despite his habit of grandstanding, Dumbledore stood ready and nearly silent as he faced his opponent, who Jack would guess was the wizard he had been brought here to face. "You will not, Tom". The old wizard started the duel with a sharp gout of fire, and the various combatants on the field turned to watch. "I will not let you."

Jack reached the edge of the battlefield and stood in front of the two fighting wizards, but did not know how to help. He holstered his mostly spent pistol and grabbed his sword. He could do nothing for now, but he would wait for an opening. A chance would come.

Throughout the battle and the small duels with Death Eaters, Sirius had tried to keep an eye on his godson. He knew that they were too different to really have the close relationship he had always hoped for, but he still cared about Harry. Who was fighting just as strongly as most of the adults. Sirius watched as he shot another one of the Death Eaters, and watched him fall to the ground with a hole in his forehead as Harry turned away. He winced. That was one of the biggest differences between him and Harry. Sirius had always hated the concept of killing. He knew that it was important to make sure that his downed opponents couldn't curse him in the back, and had been breaking their wands as he finished each duel, but the only one he had ever wanted to kill was Peter. Harry didn't seem to enjoy it but was killing his opponents seemingly without a second thought. Another shot, another death, and ... another opponent suddenly forced his thoughts to shift from his godson to his newest duel. At least until Voldemort's voice rang out over the battle.

The Death Eater he was dueling turned his back, trusting in the Order's so-called honor. Sirius stunned him and the turned as well. Harry was approaching the fight between Voldemort and Dumbledore with his sword in hand and a determined look on his face. Sirius ran. His godson was not ready to face Voldemort yet, he had only been learning magic for a few months.

Before Sirius reached him, Harry lunged, and nearly took out Voldemort's wand. His appearance startled both of the combatants, and Sirius skidded to a stop. He would keep others from interfering with this. He didn't turn his back on the fight but kept only half of his attention on it. He saw spellfire of varying colors and ducked as one came a little too close to his head. He kept up a steady stream of stunners, taking down Death Eaters who sought to help their Master, and gradually other Order members joined him. He heard a scream of rage and turned. Harry had scored a line down Voldemort's face, nearly taking his eye. The retaliating spell fire was wild as Harry dodged, and the ring of Order members ducked out of the way and gaped as half of the spells hit their opponents. Harry lunged forward once more and hit Voldemort's left hand as a sickly green spell hit Dumbledore. Another round of apparation sounded as the Death Eaters retreated after their wounded master. Sirius and his fellow Order members could only stare numbly as Dumbledore collapsed, and Harry dropped to his knees next to the fallen wizard.

In the living room of the Cullen house, the silence was near deafening until Cassandra took up her brother's tale. "Despite the fact that Voldemort lost his hand, and many of his followers, most consider the battle a victory for him. His greatest threat had been neutralized. He had magic to replace his hand with no obvious detriment, and he never considered his followers overly important anyway." The Cullens stayed quiet, recognizing how difficult it was to share the end of their story.

Emilia leaned into her twin who hugged her close to them. "We did protect the students. Only six students died, and all were seventh-years who chose to stand and fight. It was an unfortunate loss, but without planning it would have been worse." She smiled grimly and Jack leaned back into her support but stayed quiet. Jasper was worried. He had rarely seen his friend so subdued. "Despite that, the loss of Dumbledore was disastrous for the Order and they fractured. Jack had the idea to gather allies from other magical countries, and possibly the muggle world. The older members disagreed, saying it was Britain's problem."

Jack sat up, having drawn comfort and support from his siblings. "Many of the allies I had made in the short time I was in Hogwarts were willing to help. The purebloods generally had family connections in other countries and muggleborns and halfbloods had connections in the muggle world, some quite high in the government. One of my Hufflepuff allies connected me with leaders of the British military." Jasper shook his head, seeing where this was going. "I met with the Chiefs of Staff Committee and told them my story, and the history of the war. We made an agreement that in exchange for their help in ending the war some of our group would be willing to join the military as liaisons to the magical world. Since I had previous military experience, I volunteered."

Cassandra and Emilia glared at him, but even without Jasper's gift, the Cullens recognized the fondness in their gaze. Jack smiled innocently back at them and a smile grew on all three siblings' faces. "Even though Jack's experience was infantry and military intelligence, the Committee agreed that he could join the RAF after the end of our conflict because of his love of flying. They taught him how to fly their planes and gave him the rank of Flight Lieutenant.

Cassandra's smile flattened and her words were grim. And then, 6 months after we first contacted the muggles the faction of the Order that followed Jack met with our allies to plan the end of the war."

AN: I am so sorry this has taken so long. A combination of writer's block and the approaching end of my degree kept me from sitting down to write. I only have one more chapter planned, and it is likely to be a short one to wrap up everything. Looking back over the story, I decided I don't really like the flow of the story, So I am hoping to rewrite it, but don't expect the new story to be posted anytime soon because this time I plan to finish writing the whole story before I post it. I also have a few other plot bunnies that have bitten, so other stories are a possibility too. Please review and let me know if there are any plot changes you want in the new story. ConCrit is always welcome as well

~bookworm1016.