Dawn of the Phoenix: Cedric goes to Forks
Story and Characters owned by
Stephenie Meyer and JK Rowling
Story Adaptation by Erica K. Bailey
Chapter 14: The Advance Guard
It was time. Sirius and I had practiced the entire day previous and most of Friday. There was nothing more I could do to prepare for our mission.
Moody called us all together in the main floor. The entire advance guard, as it was being referred to consisted of Moody, Lupin, Tonks, Kinglsey, Elphais, Dedalus, Emmeline, Sturgis, Hestia and myself – ten in total.
"Like I said, first we'll apparate to the Dursley House on 4 Privet Drive and retrieve Harry. Once we have him, I'll notify Dumbledore. He'll have Alice check her vision for any changes. We'll give you fifteen minutes. Then, if it's all clear, you'll send up the muggle fireworks. Once we have the all-clear then we'll fly in standard formation back to London. I'll take the lead and they'll be no questioning my methods." Moody growled, his magical eye pausing on each of us as if to make his point.
"Here" Dumbledore said, "For Harry – so he'll see the location."
"Do you think its wise Dumbledore?" Moody said looking at the parchment, "In the wrong hands."
"It's either that or I come with you."
He growled in response, but didn't disagree.
"Oh and you might find this helpful," Dumbledore handed Moody a small silver box.
"One last check – Alice?" He called up the stairs.
"It's still clear" Alice replied, "No sign of trouble."
"And you'll be prepared to pick up if we should fail – as we've discussed." Moody looked Dumbledore in the eye. He simply nodded, faint amusement in his face.
"Okay, advance guard. Let's go." And with the sound of popping each disappeared in succession. I followed.
In an instant we found ourselves in a startling clean, but small kitchen. As we apparated, Tonks landed on Dedalus' foot. "Ouch" he whispered. She lurched forward and immediately tripped over one of the kitchen chairs and landed, face first into a cupboard with pots and pans on the bottom and plates up top. One fell over and smashed against the floor. The crash was deafening.
"Nice stealth, Tonks." Hestia smiled.
"Never did well in that class." Tonks grinned back.
"Where is he?" Kingsley asked, "Did they take him with them."
"I doubt it," I replied, recalling Mrs. Weasley's recollection of the Dursleys, and the impression Edward had of them from Harry's thoughts. "But he might be locked up in his room. I'll go let him out."
"We'll wait down here. Call for back up if you need it." Moody hissed after me. "And stand back after you open the door to see what comes out. You never know what might be lurking behind a closed door."
I quietly ascended the stairs. It wasn't hard to figure out which room was his. The others were all open while his was closed with an obvious lock on the outside and what looked like a small trap door on the bottom only large enough for a small animal.
"Alohomora" I whispered and the lock opened. Though I was certain none other then Harry was behind the door, I stood back as Moody had ordered and watched Harry approach the door, wand in hand. I silently moved to the side to avoid the path of the wand. Even in error, he could send a stream of magic to take out a limb. As he passed I glanced into the room. It was sparsely furnished. There wasn't much to see. There was one empty plate by the door near where the small trap door had been. Was this how they fed him? Did they keep him locked up here all the time and feed him through a trap door? How had Harry lived here all these years? I was livid at the treatment of my fellow former schoolmate.
Harry was now standing at the top of the steps, his wand still drawn, looking down at the Advanced Guard. "Lower your wand boy, before you take someone's eye out.' Moody's gravelly voice said.
His wand lowered only moderately as he replied, "Professor Moody?" he said in disbelief.
"I don't know so much about 'Professor'" he growled back, "never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here; we want to see you properly."
He lowered his wand a bit more and made his way down the steps.
"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away." Lupin said, seeing Harry's distress.
"P-Professor Lupin" Harry said shakily, "Is that you?"
"Why are we all standing in the dark?" asked Tonks, "Lumos." The light from her wand filled the hallway as Harry peered around at each of them. "Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would." Tonks exclaimed, "Wotcher, Harry!"
"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus." Kingsley said, while appraising Harry, "he looks exactly like James."
"Except the eyes," said Elphias said in his wheezy voice, "Lily's eyes."
I noticed that Moody was now appraising Harry, squinting suspiciously at him while his magical eye swiveled around madly. "Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin?" he growled, "It'd be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"
I hardly thought that was necessary. Harry looked and acted like Harry Potter – though I supposed we'd spent the entire year with a man who wasn't Moody. Still, it seemed a bit overboard.
"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" Lupin asked.
"A stag." Harry replied. He already had developed a fully formed petronum? He was two years behind me and it was advanced for my age. No wonder he beat he-who.. er Voldemort.
"That's him, Mad-Eye," said Lupin.
Harry looked around them nervously as he continued down the stairs, stowing his wand in the back pocket of his jeans.
"Don't put your wand there, boy!" Moody roared, "What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!"
"Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?" Tonk asked in amusement, eyeing the missing chuck of his nose and glancing down at his wooden leg. I wondered, myself, if there was a story there.
"Never you mind, you just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" Moody growled back, "Elementary wand-safety, nobody bothers about it any more!" Tonks rolled her eyes toward the ceiling as he stomped off toward the kitchen. "And I saw that." He added irritably.
"How are you?" Lupin held out his hand and shook Harry's.
"F-fine…" he said shakily. He didn't seem fine. "I'm – you're really lucky the Dursleys are out…" he mumbled.
"Lucky, ha!" Tonks exclaimed, "It was me who lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they'd been short-listed for the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They're heading off to the prize-giving right now… or they think they are." She grinned and Harry's face suddenly lit up.
"We are leaving, aren't we? Soon?"
"Almost at once" Lupin confirmed, "We're just waiting for the all-clear."
"Where are we going? The Burrow?" Harry asked hopefully.
"Not The Burrow, no." Lupin replied motioning Harry to follow him as we moved back to the kitchen. "Too risky. We've set up Headquarters somewhere undetectable. It's taken a while…"
Moody had made himself comfortable at one of the kitchen chairs, taking a swig from his hip flask. "This is Alastor Moody, Harry." Lupin took it upon himself to do the introductions.
"Yeah, I know." Harry replied uncomfortably.
"And this is Nymphadora-" he gestured to Tonks.
"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus." She said with a shudder, "it's Tonks."
Lupin eyed her with an amused expression, much like one I'd seen Edward use when he was humoring Bella. "Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be know by her surname only."
"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora." She muttered.
Lupin smiled and continued to introduce the rest of the guard to Harry's nodding response. "And, of course, you know Cedric."
Harry spun around noticed my presence for the first time. "Cedric, what are you doing here?"
"A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you." Lupin replied for me, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.
"I'm a member of the Order now." I explained.
He gave me a puzzled expression, but we hadn't time to discuss it further as Moody added, "Yeah, well, the more the better. We're your guard, Potter."
"We're just waiting for the signal to tell us it's safe to set off," said Lupin, glancing out of the kitchen window "We've got about fifteen minutes."
"Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" Tonks teased looking around the kitchen, "My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, just as it does with wizards?"
"Er-yeah," Harry replied, "Look" he turned to Lupin, "what's going on, I haven't heard anything from anyone, what's Vol-?"
A sea of shocked expressions matched my own as we hushed him to silence. Though I was getting used to the name in my thoughts, I wasn't ready for open dialogue. "Shut up!" growled Moody.
"What?" asked Harry.
"We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky." said Moody, turning his normal eye toward Harry as his magical eye remained fixed on the ceiling, "Damn it" he said angrily, putting a hand up to the magical eye, "it keeps getting stuck – ever since that scum wore it."
And with a nasty sucking sound he popped out the magical eye.
'Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" Tonks said casually.
"Get me a glass of water, would you, Harry." Moody requested. Harry quickly responded handing him a glace of water from the tap. Moody dropped his eye in and it swirled around looking at each of us, "I want three hundred and sixty degrees visibility on the return journey."
"How're we getting – wherever we're going?" Harry asked.
"Brooms." Lupin said, "Only way. You're too young to Apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network and it's more then our life's worth to set up an unauthorized Port Key."
I hadn't realized that. I had assumed Dumbledore simply had connections, but I felt more then a bit guilty for the obvious expense he must have gone through to set up a Port Key for Sirius and I in Forks.
Kingsley approached Harry, "Remus says you're a good flier."
"He's excellent." Lupin said.
"I can vouch for that," I added, "Last year he pulled of a Wronski Feint during an exhibition Quidditch match."
"Anyway," Lupin went on, checking his watch, "you'd better go and get packed, Harry, we want to be ready to go when the signal comes."
"I'll come help you." Tonks quickly offered and ran out behind him, Lupin watching her go. The rest of us stayed in the kitchen.
I'd never been in a muggle house before the Cullen house in Forks and that wasn't a true Muggle house as the kitchen was hardly used. I could see I wasn't the only one. Hestia was the first to really let her curiosity get the best of her has she casually tugged on one of the drawers and peering inside. "Heavens" she gasped as she pulled out a device that was a round piece of silver metal on a handle. She spun it with her index finger. "I can't imagine what they use this for." She put it back in the drawer and started rummaging around for more.
This broke the ice and soon everyone had a drawer or cupboard open. Kingsley and Sturgis had a cupboard with several medium sized items I recognized from the Cullen house though I couldn't have told them what each did. That was unfortunate for they launched into a heated discussion on the possible uses for each.
"No, it's got to be some sort of drying machine. See here." Sturgis plugged the cord into the wall, the machine began to make a rattling, blowing noise, before Kingsley yanked it out. "But what use would that be? It must be a heater."
I glance over at the machine. Oh, that one I actually recognized, "It makes popcorn." I said.
"It does?" Sturgis gaped at it, "but how?" he asked as he held it high in the air and looked at the bottom.
"I'm not sure." I admitted, "I've just seen it used by Muggles… Or sometimes they use that thing." I pointed to a larger rectangular box on the top of the cabinet. Kingsley yanked on the handle and opened the door peering inside.
Lupin had found a piece of muggle paper and an envelope in the desk by the hall. He was sitting beside Moody writing while Moody's eye continued to swivel around in the water.
"What in the world." Hestia giggled as she pulled out another implement. "Have you seen this, Cedric?"
"No" I admitted. The long thin device with a oval hole down the middle of the one end looked completely useless. I couldn't even imagine what it might be used for, even after my weeks of staying with the Cullens.
She shook it and then held it up to the light to see if it did anything. It just rattled a little. "Maybe it's a noise maker – you know – for a baby." She laughed.
Harry and Tonks returned then, Tonks with Harry's trunk on tow, Harry holding his broom and owl cage.
"A Firebolt!" Kingsley exclaimed, "You didn't tell me he had a Firebolt, Remus."
He smiled as he finished sealing the letter. "You still have it – Excellent! We've got about a minute, I think. We should probably get out into the garden so we're ready. Harry, I've left a letter telling your aunt and uncle not to worry-"
"They won't" Harry replied.
"-that you're safe-"
"That'll just depress them"
"-and you'll see them next summer."
"Do I have to?"
I shook my head, wondering at the childhood Harry must have had. It was almost laughable. I'd grown up hearing all about the boy who lived, the miracle, the one who defeated… Voldemort… I would have thought he'd live in a castle on a hill far away, having his every wish catered to and here, he'd been abused and dejected his entire life. How was that even possible?
"Come here, boy." Said Moody gruffly, "I need to Disillusion you."
"You need to what?" asked Harry nervously.
"Disillusionment Charm" he explained, "Lupin says you've got an Invisibility Cloak, but it won't stay on while we're flying; this'll disguise you better. Here you go-" He tapped him hard on the top of the head and Harry began to disappear beginning at his head. In a moment he appeared to be completely invisible but, in actual fact, he simply reflected the exact color and texture of whatever was behind him.
"Come on." Moody said, leading us out into the back yard, eyeing the sky, "Clear night. Could've done with a bit more cloud cover. Right, you." He barked at Harry, "we're going to be flying in close formation. Tonks'll be right in front of you, keep close on her tail. Lupin'll be covering you from below and Cedric," he looked at me, "how's be you cover from above. I'm going to be right behind you. The rest'll be circling us. We don't break ranks for anything, got me? If one of us is killed-"
I gulped as I remembered Edward's cold, blank, lifeless face only just over a month ago. Fortunately he lived – but would I? Could that have been me? Would it?
"Is that likely?" Harry asked apprehensively. Unfortunately, Moody ignored him. I would have liked to have heard the answer.
"-the others keep flying, don't stop, don't' break ranks. If they take out all of us and you survive, Harry, the rear guard are standing by to take over; keep flying east and they'll join you."
The rear guard? I hadn't even realized there was rear guard. Then I thought about Dumbledore, Sirius, the Weasley's – the conversation with Moody before we left. Of course, they were standing by with Alice, who would be watching our progression. They would pick up where we left off – if that happened. I gulped again and screwed up my courage. This is what I signed up for, I reminded myself. This was what I believed in. I wished Jasper was here to send a wave of calm over me.
"Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye, he'll think we're not taking this seriously." Tonks teased as she strapped Harry's trunk to her broom.
"I'm just telling the boy the plan." Moody growled, "Our job's to deliver him safely to Headquarters and if we die in the attempt-"
"No one's going to die." Kinsgley stated in his calm authoritative voice. For some reason it was almost as affective as Jasper.
"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Lupin said pointing out the red fireworks in the sky. I mounted my broom with the rest – again admiring Harry's Firebolt.
"Second signal, let's go!" said Lupin loudly as green fireworks crossed the sky.
We all kicked off and rose in the air through the cool night. It felt good after a month of being nearly land bound. Driving was becoming more and more exhilarating, but it would never be as amazing as flying. I wished I could take Edward and the rest of the Cullens for a ride so they could understand. There was just no comparison to the responsiveness of a broom at your control, reacting to every movement of your body, obeying every impulse of your mind…
"Hard left, hard left, there's a Muggle looking up!" Moody shouted from behind. Tonks swerved slightly in front and below me. I watched Harry follow and mirrored from above. "We need more height… give it another quarter mile!"
Tears smarted my eyes as we climbed into the thinner colder air high above the city. Below I could no longer making out the streets, houses or lamp posts as the light bleed into one the higher we rose. I was glad for Sirius's suggestion to wear several layers with long sleeves. In this hot summer weather it had seemed over-kill but tonight, as high as we were, it was very necessary.
"Bearing south!" shouted Mad-Eye, "Town ahead!"
We veered right to avoid flying directly over the settlement of Muggles below, though their ability to actually see us at this height was unlikely.
"Bear southeast and keep climbing, there's some low cloud ahead we can lose ourselves in!" called Moody.
"We're not going through clouds!" shouted Tonks angrily, "we'll get soaked, Mad-Eye!"
She was right and, as I checked on Harry, I was even more concerned at the suggestion. He was beginning to shake a little. He wasn't dressed for these altitudes. I should have thought to tell him to put something on. Maybe we could stop… No, Moody was unlikely to permit that until we were safely back at Headquarters. I would have to keep an eye on him. I remembered his fall during the Quidditch match two years ago – how he'd been attacked by the Dementors and fallen from the sky. It made me sick to think of him falling from this height. If we weren't able to impede his decent, he'd die for sure. I decided I would be prepared. I shifted my wand to be ready at a moments notice to slow his fall and to then dive. Moody said to not break ranks, but Harry was the reason we were here. Surely he'd understand.
We continued to fly through the night, altering course to Moody's instructions. I was normally good at remembering my location and directions, but I was now thoroughly confused as to which direction we were heading. We'd been in the air for at least an hour.
"Turning southwest!" Moody yelled. "We want to avoid the motorway!"
The other who were circling around closed in. I could tell we must be getting close as they were more alert, more on guard, their wands drawn, their heads moving from side to side to catch any movement, and sign of the enemy.
"We ought to double back for a bit, just to make sure we're not being followed." Moody shouted.
"ARE YOU MAD, MAD-EYE?" Tonks screamed at him, "We're all frozen to our brooms! If we keep going off-course we're not going to get there until next week! Besides, we're nearly there now!"
"Time to start the descent!" came Lupins voice, settling the matter, "Follow Tonks, Harry!"
We kept in close formation as we started our dive. It was a bit steeper then comfortable, given the closeness of our formation, but I maintained my position. The land below came into closer focus – the blur of lights became rows outlining streets and buildings. Rows of darkness became houses and parks and office buildings. Soon we could make out individual structures, trees and cars. Harry continued to cling to his broom, but I worried he wouldn't make it.
"Here we go!" called Tonks as she reached out with her legs and landed. A moment later Harry touched down and stiffly dismounted onto a patch of grass. I breathed a sigh of relief and landed just behind him, and noticed him shivering. We'd be inside soon enough.
"Where are we?" Harry asked. I understood. In front of us was the row of houses that, upon first inspection, skipped from 11 to 13, but now, to my eyes that had seen it, there was another house in between.
"In a minute" Lupin leaned over and whispered to Harry.
Moody rummaged around his cloak, pulling out the small silver box he'd obtained from Dumbledore, "got it" he said as he held it in the air clicking it. It looked like a Muggle lighter. I'd seen them from time to time at the Cullen house. As he clicked it the nearest streetlamp went out with a pop. On each of the following clicks another lamp was extinguished until we were standing on the street with only the moonlight and the faint glow from the surrounding houses.
"Borrowed it from Dumbledore" growled Moody, "That'll take care of any Muggles looking out of the window, see? Now come on, quick." He took Harry by the arm and led him toward the house. Lupin and Tonks followed beside him carrying the trunk between them. I followed directly behind and noticed the rest of the guard spread out in a half circle around them as protection.
"Here" Moody muttered, thrusting a piece of parchment towards Harry's Disillusioned hand. "lumius" he stated so as to provide a small light to read the paper. "Read it quickly and memorize." He growled at Harry as he peered down at the small piece of parchment in his hands. For a moment he was completely still and I could read the reflected notice through his back.
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place
NOTE: A large portion of this chapter was taken almost directly from the Order of the Phoenix chapter 3.