Disclaimer: I still do not own or profit. No harm was meant by this, honest JK!

QUICK REMINDER OF PEOPLE: John was Emma's chauffer turned ministry assistant (something like year 2-4), and Sean was Cedric's best friend and fellow member of the Irish society (hah! These people do have purpose when I create them! LOL). Jane is my American empath (and quite fun to write to contrast against Emma), and Enrique is her best friend and son of the Mexican ambassador to (wizarding) America. We will see more of most of these characters, and some other ones, later (hint, hint . . . I hope I didn't say to much)

Chapter 26: Prelude to a Storm

Seamus called for Emma early the next morning. "Emma!" Seamus said. "I have to be the one to tell you this! You will never believe it," Seamus said excitedly.

"What in Merlin's name are you talking about?"

"A major battle was held last night. Voldemort attacked a muggle neighborhood. They managed to capture some of the death eaters but Voldemort got away. BUT the important news is that the ministry knew about this before hand. Your father received numerous tips that this would happen, and the ministry did nothing," Seamus said.

That wasn't news to any of them since they were the ones who sent the tips. "Alright, but what does this have to do with me da?"

"The ministry did nothing about it. They didn't believe the tips," Seamus said. "Your da was the one to rally people to produce a counter-offensive. Scrimgoer did nothing! Everyone in the ministry is calling for his resignation! He is so bloody embarrassed over this, Em. He resigned this morning! Rita Skeeter had a field day with his blunder. Another in her long line of exposes. If it weren't for your da, the entire muggle neighborhood would have been demolished and dozens of people killed. The entire ministry practically coerced your dad into taking his place. Riley is the new minister!" Seamus said excitedly.

Emma's jaw dropped. "What on earth . . .does that sound like me da to you?" Emma asked Seamus. "You know he wouldn't do that!" Seamus had met Riley on several occasions at different dance and society things.

"I'm not making it up, Emma. If you send your OWL, I'll send you a copy of the paper. This is so awesome! To think that me mentor's da is now the Minister of Magic. Everyone in the society is really excited for him, you know. We all think Riley is awesome and that he is definitely going to be a smashing Minister," Seamus said. "Oh, I have a letter for you from Jane and Percy, believe it or not, so I'll send them with the pape. I just thought you would like to know, since you don't get the news there," he said with a grin. "Wherever there is."

Emma nodded. "Thanks Seamus." Seamus gave a wave and rushed off to his first class. Emma sat their shocked.

"Can you believe it? You know my da wouldn't . . .I asked him to, but last year he said no," Emma said.

"A lot has happened in the last year and a half, Em," Draco said.

"I think your dad is going to be great, Em," Harry said. "And this way he won't bug me over trying to improve the Ministry's appearance."

Athena arrived back that night with the paper and letters to Emma from Jane, Percy, and her father. She opened the one from her dad first.

Emma, I hope Seamus does have a way of getting this to you, although nothing short of Veritaserum will make him tell me how. Knowing you (you take after me and have a knack of discovering everything) you have probably heard about what happened. Your tips made it possible to save all those people, and for that I am so proud of you. Please be safe. You are probably wondering why I accepted the position.

Mostly, because of you. I know you believed me to be the best option over a year ago, and I told you no. Now, after Dumbledore's death, I confess to feeling like I have to catch up with my responsibilities. Dumbledore, as Remus reminded me, believed that this was a good opportunity for myself and for you and I have now begun to see it myself. It will be a tight balance between this and the order, but they all assured me of their confidence in me.

Now I am sure you are curious about the political side of things (seeing as how you are, after all, my daughter). I cleaned out Scrimgoer's department. The only person I kept was Mae seeing as how she has always been a loyal person to Dumbledore and his beliefs. That, and she has worked in the secretary's office since who knows how long and runs a tight ship. I appointed John as my replacement as the Foreign Affairs Minister. He is, as you said many years ago, quite a competent person and I need to keep my old department in tact. I believe you will know a lot of my new underlings. Percy has agreed to be my right-hand man (which took some convincing, I might add). I believe you also know my junior associate. I took Sean from his desk job in Gaming and moved him up here. He didn't take nearly as much convincing as Percy.

I hope you are well, my Irish Rose, and can let me know so I may have a moments peace.

Da.

"Percy is back at work?" Ron said surprised. "And they had to convince him? He must have had a screw loose after . . ."

Emma read Percy's letter and laughed. "No. He thought that might be your reaction and he wants me to assure you he is perfectly fine. He didn't think anyone would let him near the ministry office again, and was surprised to say the least that my father offered him a position. My da trusts him, though, and offered him the job. He is back to living at the Burrow, which we already knew thanks to Ginny, and has to remain with an order member at all times. It is usually either my father, your parents, or Lupin," Emma said.

She read Jane's letter next.

Em, my dear, dear Em.

Some reason that always makes me think of Auntie Em from Wizard of Oz. You are more like Glinda than a Kansas farmers' wife, though : ) How are you? War is probably doing completely wretched things for you, and I hope you find some outlet. Probably a handsome blonde one named Draco :). Emma looked up as Harry snorted. Let me catch you up on things here since my last letter was rushed. Enrique and Aimee are dating (but you probably could have guessed that from when you visited last summer. It was fairly obvious even back then—you couldn't see their auras, but believe me, it is there). Enrique is now a full-fledge junior member of the W.A.G.s (but only official personnel are suppose to know, so sshhs). We are ready to help whenever we can.

Seamus seems to be doing much better. He is a darling boy. To bad he is dating someone. Oh well, I will meet my Prince Charming one day, right? Remember when we met and we loved the muggle movies? The Princess ones? Those were the days (being 8 rocked!). I still have all my Disney DVD's. Muggles may not have quidditch, but I do love their movies. Merlin bless them for making DVDs.

I'll write longer the next time. I am off to my training (don't tell mom I want to join the W.A.G.s; she'll blow a gasket. She thinks Enrique is just giving me "self-defense" lessons). Hugs and Kisses, (your comrade in emotional wreckage ;) Jane.

Emma laughed. Jane's letters always had that effect on her. "Why didn't you tell me about Enrique and Aimee?" Draco teased. "It was obvious even then," Draco quoted.

Emma rolled her eyes and smacked his shoulder. "Is it an empath thing?" Ron asked and Emma nodded. She knew it had taken Ron the longest to come around to accepting her as an empath.

"Sort of. You can tell their feelings for each other, but Jane is different. She isn't as strong of an empath as I am, but she sees auras so she saw something in their auras that clued her in."

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That night, Harry woke up half way through the night in extreme pain. Emma felt it send a searing pain down her skull, too, bring tears to her eyes. "Voldemort is furious!" She told Luna who was staying up with her. 'Figures the one night I go to bed is the one night Voldemort decides to be a pain,' Draco muttered.

Luna saw emerald flood Emma's pupil. "Voldemort is trying to take over Harry. He is suspicious of us. Someone in the ministry has told him about us being gone for so long," Emma rasped out.

Draco took one look at Harry and stumbled downstairs through the blinding pain. Emma had collapsed on the floor with Luna kneeling with her, cradling her head. Hermione and Ginny had rushed out of their bedroom to see what the commotion was. They rushed into the boys room to see how Harry was.

Finally, Voldemort gave up trying to posses Harry. Emma gave a sigh of relief and just laid perfectly still on the floor. Exhaustion overtook her. 'No sleep for months, and now I have to fight off both a mental and emotional attack,' she muttered weakly. 'Are you . . .alright?'

'Yeah' Draco said. 'I will be fine in a moment. You will be fine too,' he said reassuringly. 'Just don't you dare go away, Em. Center yourself.'

'I know that Draco. I am just . . .so exhausted right now. Let me rest for a moment.'

"No, Emma. Come on. Just take some deep breaths and we'll get you some chocolate," Draco said and Luna heard the fear behind his loving tone.

Emma emitted a sound that was between a sigh of frustration and a moan of pain. Her voice was very soft which scared Luna a bit. Luna took a look at both of them and rushed off to the kitchen and brought back a big helping of chocolate for each of them. Draco nodded to show his appreciation.

"Here, Em. You'll feel better. Look at me," he said. He saw that her eyes were normal and let out a sigh of relief. At least her mom wasn't going to take over. He didn't know if he could handle that right now.

"I'm not a china doll, Draco. Nor an imbecile. I know what I need to do," Emma chided him darkly as Draco helped Emma sit up and sit with him on the sofa. She leaned against his chest as she ate some chocolate. "What happened?" Luna asked.

"Voldemort found Nagini," Emma said. "He wasn't happy. Furious doesn't even begin to describe his emotions. Raw anger and pain flooded him, and consequentially Harry. I think Nagini is the closest thing Voldemort has ever come to loving, besides power. Someone has told him we have all been missing for months now, and he is suspicious of us. He decided to try to take over Harry to see what information he could learn. See what we were up too but I managed to keep him from seeing anything."

'Barely,' Emma said miserably. 'What if next time I can't?'

'Em, I have confidence in you. You would die before you let Voldemort take control of Harry.'

Emma fell asleep a moment later from pure exhaustion. Draco just let her sleep there on the couch with him. Everyone else went up to bed and he stayed there, falling asleep a few minutes later.

Harry, who had woken up after everything, walked downstairs. Hermione had told him what Emma said be he already figured it out for himself. He sat in front of the fire in the parlor. He saw Draco and Emma passed out on the sofa and felt horrid that even now there was no rest for the three of them.

Another reason to finally defeat Voldemort– Let Emma and Draco have a full night's rest without worry, Harry thought.

Everyone was mellow the next morning as they all got up and around. "Hogwarts lets out in a week. Do you think it will be easier to find Voldemort or . . .or at least an opportunity to find Voldemort then?" Neville asked.

"I don't know if Hogwarts being in school or not is that important," Harry said.

"You always said Voldemort has a fascination and obsession with Hogwarts, so maybe Hogwarts is the key," Hermione said. "Maybe . . .I don't know."

"I can try again," Emma suggested. Everyone shook their head.

"Em, it is too taxing on you. I don't want you to go and get hurt or worse," Harry said. Emma smiled because he was one of the few besides Draco that called her by that nickname. Only Draco, Jane, Seamus, and Cedric had also used it.

Emma knew they were all against it, but she knew it was their best shot of getting any information short of finding a death eater who was high up on Voldemort's chain of command and trying to get information out of them, and even then there was no guarantee that they would learn anything productive.

"Do we know what the order is up to lately?" Ron asked.

"I think they are just trying to fight off Voldemort's attacks," Harry said, "and find out what his plans are like us."

"What do we do now?" Neville asked.

"I can try to find Bellatrix. Em could find out stuff that way," Draco volunteered.

"She would probably just avada kedavra you on the spot," Emma pointed out.

"No offense, but I don't want Em dropping dead," Harry said with a smirk. "I think we just need to see if we can figure out what his next move is, what his big plan is and when, and then intercept before he has the opportunity."

They spent the day about the house. Hermione was reading every book she could find again in the house while Ron and Harry played wizard chess (after Draco soundly beat Harry and his game with Ron ended in a draw, they stopped playing against him), Luna, Neville, and Ginny discussed the properties of Knoxblin bites, and Draco and Emma hung out in the kitchen as she baked.

'We are preparing for the world-altering encounter, and here we are baking,' Draco said. 'It all seems a bit odd.'

'What else should we do, then? I'm open to suggestions,' Emma said.

'I am so far from any ideas right now. I can't shake the feeling that whenever we do find Voldemort, it will be disastrous for us,' he said. Emma nodded. It was a feeling they both shared.

Soon, an owl arrived for Luna. Everyone thought it odd but realized that it had to be something important because no one would try to contact them unless it was. Luna read the first page of the Daily Prophet and sat in a stupor. Emma could feel her numbness and disbelief over what she read.

"You alright?" Emma asked quietly. Luna handed her the paper before rushing to her room. Neville looked at the headline and then rushed up after her.

"What does it say?" Ginny asked worriedly.

Draco shared a glance with Emma before he began reading. "It is by Rita Skeeter. It says. . . death eaters attacked the home of Louis Lovegood, 45, last evening. Aurors arrived at the scene and were able to apprehend one of the death eaters but were not in time to save Mr. Lovegood. Through extensive questioning and truth serums, the ministry has been able to determine that this was a personal attack on Mr. Lovegood. The Death Eaters had attempted to learn the whereabouts of his daughter, Luna Lovegood, 17, who has recently left Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry with Ginerva Weasley, 17. It is rumored that she is traveling with Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Emma O'Neill, who all left school after first term.

Every sat in stunned silence. "They killed him because of us," Harry said slowly. "He was the only parent unaware, unconnected to the Order." Guilt twisted his gut knowing it was his fault. He had no idea how to help Luna; she was always the one who was so confident in everything, and had even told him that death was not the end.

Emma could feel Harry's anger and confusion. The guilt twisting his stomach was making her stomach want to hurl. She walked up the stairs quietly. She could sense Neville and Luna inside and cracked the door open to peer inside. Luna was lying on her back on her bed and Neville was lying next to her with his arms wrapped around her whispering back and forth. She closed the door silently knowing Neville was already helping Luna.

That night Emma made a delicious dinner and everyone's favorite desserts. Afterwards everyone hung out in the den gabbing and joking around trying to not bring up Voldemort because they didn't want to upset Luna. They all reminisced about stuff that happened in school and practiced their seventh-year spells at the same time.

Harry went off to bed exhausted since he didn't sleep the night before after the episode. Voldemort was also feeling happy the last few hours and antsy for some reason, and Harry was sick of feeling his emotions. If Emma feels like this all the time, I feel even sorrier for her than I ever have, Harry thought.

One by one they all fell asleep, some in the den not bothering to get up to go to bed. Emma herself was about to fall asleep. She knew Voldemort was preoccupied that evening with something and wasn't really concerned with taking over Harry. Emma made sure that Luna slept soundlessly since it was the only thing she could do for her. As tempting as it was to take away that pain she knew she shouldn't.

Right as Emma was about to drift off, she felt Voldemort let his guard down for a moment which made her nervous. He wasn't trying to posses Harry, just make sure he was preoccupied so he wouldn't interfere with something. Why would Voldemort be worried about Harry finding something out? Emma wondered.

Against everyone's wishes she let the guard between Harry and Voldemort weaken so his thoughts would filter into Harry's a little. She wanted to see what was so important to him making him so giddy at 4:30 in the morning.

"Harry!" Emma hollered out the same time she mentally yelled for Draco. Both of them jarred awaked and rushed out of the bedroom and stumbled down the stairs. "Everyone!"

"What's going on?" Harry asked.

"You did it again?" Draco demanded.

"No, not really! We have to go! He's going to attack!" Emma said. They gave her weird looks and she quickly explained as she rushed back upstairs to throw on some clothes. A few minutes later all 8 of them were awake and dressed and apparated to Hogsmeade. They rushed towards the castle and up to McGonagall's headmistress office.

"What on bloody earth is the password?" Ron hollered as they all stood there flabbergasted.

"It used to be 'flitterbidget'.'" Ginny said.

"Well, it isn't working," Ron pointed out.

They all stood staring at the statue for what seemed like hours as the seconds dragged on when Emma had an epiphany. "Ooh!" She pulled out the two-way mirror. "Seamus!"

A few seconds later his faced appeared. "Huh?"

"What is the password into McGonagall's office?"

"Domus iunctus. Why?" (A/N: hopefully latin for Houses United)

"Thanks!" Emma said tucking the mirror away. Harry repeated the password and they all rushed up the staircase.

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Author's Note I feel like music going 'dun, dun, dun' should be playing right now :) Sorry for the delay. I was waiting for my beta to go over this, but the theater production she is in is taking up her life : (

and a HUGE, HUGE thank you to all of my readers! This story is over the 200 review mark! It is my second story to do so (besides Year 6 Truths Revealed) and is my most reviewed story. THANK YOU!! Special thanks to year1989 (Final battle with actual fighting starts next chapter!), Animecrazy (how to kill Voldemort . . . that does seem to be the question : ) and Cad2u (lol, it was a great idea Lion neville killing the giant snake! I wrote a scene of most of their animagous in the sequel. I'm glad you liked the tattoo idea, too. One of those odd moments of inspiration, lol)