"I'm six feet from the edge and I'm thinkin', maybe six feet ain't so far down." – Creed, One Last Breath
The Wolf At Bay, Leigh, and Freckles, Proudly Present Chapter 26:
FUBAR
Harry awoke with a bright sun shining in his eyes, which was odd, and the distinct sound of a camera flash going off repeatedly, which was even odder. His bedroom windows didn't face anywhere even close to east, and his door was charmed to wake him if anyone was opening the door, so what was going on? And it really didn't feel like he was in his bed, which was a lot softer than this, and he wasn't normally so stiff and sore…
Harry groaned in realization, as everything clicked, including the camera that Sirius was obviously using to take more blackmail photos of him and Ginny asleep in each others arms. Harry tried moving to confirm, and once again found that he couldn't, due to the very pretty redhead with a death grip on him. It was, in retrospect, not a bad way to wake up, if Sirius wasn't there that was. With his godfather present, Harry found the experience to be very vexing.
"You know Paddy, with all that blackmail, you'll eventually have to actually blackmail me." Said Harry.
"I know, I'm saving up for when you become a highly influential member of society." Answered Sirius.
"Oh. Why?" asked Harry.
"I'm thinking of running for Minister one day, though I'm still not sure why, I mean between the two of us we probably have more power than the Minister right now."
"Go away Paddy, let me get five more minutes while you plan world domination." Said Harry, Ginny nodding in agreement.
"Yeah sure, I'll start breakfast."
This got the two teens attentions, as they both raced to make it to the kitchen before Sirius could destroy anything, like the house. Sirius was bad with a stove; Voldemort with a wand was less likely to get you killed.
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At around the same time that Sirius woke up Harry and Ginny, or 9:30 in the morning for the rest of Britain, a contingent from the American Magical Combat Force was arriving at the Ministry for a special
meeting with Fudge and Dumbledore about aid for the Aurors and The Order of the Phoenix. The theoretical model called for one hundred and fifty of the best trained witches and wizards from America to be matched with Aurors and senior Order members, ready to deploy with their American counter-parts in tow. This would effectively double the Anti-Voldemort combat power, without having to reroute intelligence channels.
The leader of the AMCF delegations was a very dangerous looking man, who only identified himself as The General. The General was a large man, maybe six and a half feet tall, and well over two hundred pounds, none of which would be fat. He had extremely short grey hair, and bright blue eyes that seemed to see everything at once. Even Dumbledore was wary of The General, who was as magically competent as he was physically intimidating.
The General had two other officers from his direct command with him, the rest were experts and consultants from other branches. Major Harris and Colonial Bonderenko were both of a similar mold from their commander, both physically dominating, and both magically powerful. It was easy to tell that the three field officers were the lions in the room, and everyone else was the potential gazelle. Dumbledore had distinctly noticed all three men sizing him up immediately upon meeting him, and they were arrayed in a semi-circle in front of him, ready to attack should the need arise.
Negotiations were stereotypically boring, even the theoretical combat doctrines didn't hold much interest for anyone, and after over two hours, the only conclusion that had been reached was that everyone needed a lunch break. There had been a special cafeteria set up to service the negotiations teams from both sides, the theory being that they could probably get more done over an un-interrupted lunch than in a stuffy conference room.
Cornelius and the rest of the Ministry drones all chose to eat together, effectively ignoring the implied theory. Dumbledore, on the other hand, chose to sit down with the General and his men, and from that lunch he gleaned more information than from the entire morning. The two hours in conference had been dominated by a briefing on current conditions for the benefit of the Americans. When asked how they felt about the situation in general, it was Major Harris who answered.
"Excuse me, I don't think I heard that right." Said Dumbledore.
"No, you heard right, I said FUBAR, it's a little known technical term, an anagram actually, stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Repair, see, first letter of each word, and a very accurate description of the British theater of operations. Don't you people have any kind of a service force?"
"No, we rely on the Aurors to maintain the peace, we've never actually had all-out war, even during Voldemort's rise, no such action was taken, and then of course Minister Fudge was elected…"
"Yes, and we all know how, shall we say, effective, the current Minister is." Colonial Bonderanko surprised Dumbledore, the man had one of the heaviest Russian accents he had ever heard, and yet he was a ranking officer in the American Special Forces.
"We would like to start running a counter-espionage operation over here as soon as possible, we are not going to ally ourselves with the Ministry, there are far too many spies for us to accomplish anything. However we are willing to allocate some manpower on the combat side and any resources that we can spare in Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence, which I think you will find to be more useful than any combat power."
"Thank you Colonial, I have always felt that information is more valuable in this war than fighting, and I'm sure that working together, we will be able to make a much more significant difference. "
The General remained completely silent throughout the agreement.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Harry and Ginny had managed to prevent Sirius from burning the house down, which was something of a feat all in itself, and then Ginny had treated the boys to pancakes that rivaled her mothers. Harry and Sirius had long since learned not to expect Ginny to do the housework, but she ended up cooking most of the time anyway, since Sirius would probably destroy the world if left in the kitchen, and she just plain liked taking care of Harry.
Sadly today was there last day of rest before they had to return to Hogwarts not that that was a particularly bad thing for any of them, just you never really could enjoy the end of a vacation. Sirius had had several owls from Dumbledore, making him aware of the progress of the negotiations, and of the back channel agreement that had been made. Sirius knew the value of good Intel, during the First War, he and Remus had set up a nice little shop within the Ministry, which had probably saved fifty or sixty lives. Unfortunately it had also cost two lives, since Peter Pettigrew had been one of the better informed stringers.
The thought of having and AMCF Intel team working for him though, was like Christmas come early. The Americans had written the book on espionage, during the Cold War they had nearly perfected it, and high ranking Ministry people were always going to the states to take courses in counter-espionage. The Russians were almost as good at it as the Americans, and Sirius had heard that the AMCF number two man was a Russian, and a highly experienced one. These men could probably make Snape look like an armature.
Sirius had told Harry and Ginny the general content of the letters, not going into detail, they didn't need to be in on everything just yet, but it was inevitable that Harry would meet the Americans at some point, and Sirius knew that Harry would get on very well with Major Harris, who had been a member of the team that he and James had once been a part of, along with Jake. Harris had been a Captain back then, and had been the second in command of their little training camp.
Harry and Ginny had finally finished using illegal under-age magic to build a pool in the backyard of Potter Place. And to say that they had gone a little overboard was probably an understatement. The pool alone was the size of Number 4, Privet Drive, then there was an extensive patio around the pool, which housed Sirius' new and improved grill, or doomsday device, depending on whether you had ever
tasted Sirius' cooking. This was the first time that they were going to get to use it, and also the last for a while. A quick Water-Heating Charm might be fine in early October, but there was no way that it would work in December or January.
Harry was waiting by the pool in his trunks, already having tested out the spring board, Jacuzzi jets, and miniature whirlpool. When Ginny came out of the house though, all thoughts of the pool promptly left his head, and his jaw hit the floor with an audible 'thump'.
Ginny just giggled as her bikini had exactly the desired effect on her boyfriend. It had already been a little small when she bought it, and she had shrunk certain parts down even more, meaning that she was leaving very little to Harry's imagination. Then there were the charms, taught to her by Hermione's dorm-mates, which had much the same effect as a push-up bra, making her chest look at least a size bigger than it really was. The last conscious thought either of them had for the afternoon was, 'damn, it's good to be me right now'. And in both of their cases it was true.
Harry was having the time of his life, Ginny's swimsuit allowing him to explore every inch of her body that he wasn't already familiar with, and his lips hadn't been off her in nearly an hour. There was only one thing that could ruin this afternoon, and unfortunately Sirius ended up doing just that.
Harry and Ginny both came up gasping for air when they heard Sirius yelling, as they had been engaged at the mouth for a long while. While they caught their breath, they could still here Sirius yelling in the house, and, not bothering to remember how little Ginny was wearing, ran into the house, expecting Death Eaters at the very least.
What they did see was a smashed jar of Floo Powder, a nearly hysterical Sirius standing on a chair, and a very amused looking mouse. It seemed as though Sirius had been about to make a Floo call, had seen the mouse, then panicked, dropped to jar, and jumped up onto the nearest chair.
"Sirius what-" began Harry, but he was almost immediately cut-off.
"Ginervra Molly Weasley! What in the name of Merlin are you wearing?!"
All three other occupants of the room flinched hard, and turned slowly to face a screaming Mrs. Weasley. It seemed that Sirius had in face made his Floo call before the mouse showed up.