12 Grimmauld Place was just as sinister and depressing as Marina remembered.
The hallway was dark and covered in cobwebs, despite Kreacher still living here. What was that house-elf doing all day, since he obviously wasn't cleaning the home he loved so much?
Most of the wallpaper was peeling off, the carpet had been trampled thin.
All the non-members of the Order, namely the underage ones, had just arrived with Marina to attend the meeting.
"Looks worse than a mausoleum," Ron commented dryly. Unfortunately, this caused the whole lot to either giggle – the girls – or chuckle in amusement.
The combined noise was enough.
Across the hall, opposite the front door, curtains suddenly opened themselves to reveal a portrait.
"Filth! Scum! By-products of dirt and vileness!" the very irate old witch screeched her outrage, at a volume that made everyone cover their ears.
The screams were obviously audible throughout the entire house, because her father and Remus came running. Marina joined them hastily, all of them pulling at the curtains to get them closed.
"Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place!"
"Shut up!" her Dad growled while wrestling with his curtain. The miserable old crone took one look at him and wailed even more.
"How dare you befoul the house of my fathers-"
"He said, SHUT UP!" Marina snapped.
With their combined effort, they got the curtains closed again. As soon as the portrait was covered, the witch fell silent.
"Sorry, Dad. I forgot."
He slung an arm around her, pulled her close, and turned to the teenagers.
"Hello, kids, I see you've met my mother."
They all gaped. Marina had told them the stories she'd heard from Dromeda, Cissa, and even grandpa Arcturus. She'd recounted that her actual grandparents had been pure-blood fanatics and abusive towards her father – even if no one had ever said the latter out loud.
But Walburga's portrait was another league.
"Everyone's already here," Remus told them and led them towards the dining room on the ride side of the hallway. The old dresser with the family crest was still in there.
She didn't want to know what the inside looked like after twelve years of abandonment.
The long wooden dining table was fully occupied.
There were the Notts, Jonathan and Violet Abbott (Hannah's parents), Narcissa, the Weasleys, Kingsley, Mad-Eye, Amelia, the Whitmores and the Advance Guard – the ones who'd gotten everyone here safely from their respective homes; Emmeline Vance, Elphias Doge, Dedalus Diggle, Sturgis Podmore, Dora and Hestia. To Marina's great surprise, Victor and Gloria Greengrass were also in attendance. Daphne and Astoria positively burst with pride at the sight.
Theo and Draco, who'd arrived with their respective parent, joined their friends immediately.
"I'm surprised you managed to fit everyone in here," she mumbled as they joined the assembly.
"The more the merrier," her Dad said cheerfully. Nobody was fooled.
They needed all the help they could get. But her father loathed being back in this house, even temporarily; he was just masking it.
"It is none of her concern," a cold voice spoke up. Everyone froze.
Marina had missed one person, hiding in the corner as he was. Unbelievable.
The oversized bat was a member of the Order? Really?
"Don't forget whose house you're standing in," Remus replied coolly.
She couldn't wait until she graduated and could call the menace whatever she wanted.
No matter what Dumbledore said, there was not a single person in the room who really trusted Snape, despite what they kept telling Harry and the others.
Everyone resolved to just ignore Snape as they filled the teenagers in on the Order's non-existent progress.
Voldemort was recruiting actively, and the Order was struggling to do what had to be done while having to fight the Ministry along the way.
Pallas had convinced another pair of Wizengamot members to vote their way, but the next full assembly was in six weeks. Then it would take at least another month to process the Vote of No Confidence and get Fudge out of office.
Not to mention, they had to find a replacement until then.
"So what aren't you telling us?" Harry asked when they'd finished, a determined look on his face.
"Something you don't need to know, Potter," Mad-Eye growled in reply.
Even though the grouch had been rather busy this summer, he'd stopped by once a week to tutor Harry. Amelia had processed the magic permission behind Fudge's back.
Marina just looked at her father. He'd promised full disclosure.
"Voldemort is also after something else, that we're taking turns to guard," her Dad promptly said, ignoring any and all protest. "Something he didn't have last time."
"What more could he possibly need?" Susan questioned, rather frustrated. "He has his fanatic sycophants back, he has his power back. What else is there?"
"A way to win," Hermione suggested hesitantly. "He thought he was unstoppable before."
"Marina's tears took care of that," Ron butted in. "Black blood is widely spread. There won't be any more blood protection."
The adults watched with amused expressions as the teenagers tried to puzzle it out.
Harry stewed on the information in silence, as usual. Then he looked up with dawning understanding.
"A way to kill me," he said. "That's what he wants more than anything right now."
Everyone froze in horror – because it made too much sense.
"What could he be after to help with that?" Carmen asked. "It's not like he needs practice murdering people."
The Order members stayed suspiciously silent.
"You promised to tell them everything," Marina reminded them. It had been the only way to keep them from arguing about membership. Or getting into trouble trying to find stuff out on their own.
"Sirius, no," Mad-Eye grumbled from his corner. But it was no use.
Her father produced a piece of parchment, wrote on it for a while, and then handed it to Marina and Harry, reading over her shoulder.
The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...
A chill ran down her spine as her instincts recognised the words of prophecy. It wasn't one of hers, obviously, since it had been made before she'd started seeing, but her Sight reacted nonetheless.
She was vaguely aware that Harry was passing it along to their friends, and every single one of them gasped in surprise.
"I think now we know why he targeted the Potters," Susan stated sedately, clearly worried how Harry would take that information.
"I never would have taken Voldemort for the type to believe in prophecy," Carmen ventured and passed it along to her brother.
"But he did," Remus said quietly, never taking his eyes off of Harry.
Marina had another issue though.
"You knew he came after them because of a prophecy, and none of you bothered to tell your resident Seer about it?" she said calmly – but they still winced. "You didn't think Harry had a right to know?"
"Albus only told us this June," Arthur almost apologized.
Of course. Dumbledore.
Marina had a hard time by now, reconciling the man she'd idolised for years with everything she'd learned since then.
"It really was my fault they died," Harry mumbled next to her.
She spun on her seat and took his hand – not all that surprised when Hermione took the other. Her Dad joined them, a hand on Harry's shoulder.
"No, Harry. It's nobody's fault but Voldemort's. He chose to hunt them – he chose to go after you. Don't blame yourself for that maniac."
"But is said-"
"Prophecies are never literal, Harry," she cut him off. "Just look at the one about me. Cryptical nonsense."
"Any ideas what it really means?" Elias asked her, completely ignoring the parents too.
Marina closed her eyes and let the words circle through her mind.
"Roughly? The person able to defeat Voldemort would be born at the end of July, to parents that faced him three times and lived to tell about it. And Voldemort himself would mark him. Other than that? Not a clue."
"Mum and Dad faced him three times?" Harry asked with something resembling awe in his voice. He was a starved for information about James and Lily as ever.
"Yes. They were on Order missions," her father confirmed.
"What is the power I'm supposed to have?" Sarcasm coloured his voice, clearly doubting that part of the prophecy.
"That's probably what he wants to know," Hermione said, in thought. "If he knows how you're supposed to beat him, he can prevent it."
"But the prophecy doesn't say what it is," Draco stated, his annoyance making him sound like his old self.
"Voldemort doesn't know that," Theo muttered distractedly.
Everyone was listening as they thought out loud, trying to make sense of something that didn't have a lot of it.
"You're on guard duty so he'll keep coming," Carmen suddenly announced, staring at her parents in shock. "If they are preoccupied, trying to get that prophecy – believing there is more to it than there actually is because you're guarding it – they can't be busy doing too much else."
Not even Mad-Eye had a smart-ass answer to refute it.
"That's insane," Daphne finally managed to get out, appalled. "Risking your life for essentially nothing."
"It buys us time we need," Jupiter deigned to reply.
"And if one of you dies to protect a prophecy with no use to Him, what then?" Astoria asked, clearly worried about her parents.
"Worst case:," Neville spoke up, "He gets his hands on it. So what? There is nothing there to help him kill Harry."
"As long as he is attempting to get it, he is not murdering people," Amelia said – effectively stifling all protest.
Much as no one in the room wanted to lose any loved ones, they couldn't very well wish it on others. Everyone here knew what they had signed up for.
"What I want to know is who told him that prophecy," Marina said rather grimly. "What kind of moron conveys a Seeing like that to the monster?"
Uncomfortable silence spread.
"It was given to Albus. Someone overheard," Kingsley eventually said.
"Well, whatever Death Eater warned his master was in inconceivable idiot."
They all stared at her in surprise.
"What do you mean, love?" David asked from across the room, the only one brave enough apparently.
"The second part. … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal… it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If that moron hadn't gone after Harry, he wouldn't have killed James and Lily. And if he hadn't murdered his parents, would Harry be this determined to fight him? Would he have faced him three times by now? And would people care this much that he keeps surviving?"
"He created his own worst enemy," Bianca said with understanding.
"It also says I have to kill him," Harry interrupted. "Or he'll kill me."
"But you knew that already," Hermione told him gently. "We all knew he was going to keep coming for you."
What in the world was going on with those two? They'd always had less fights than Ron and Hermione, and less bickering than Harry and Susan, but holding hands?
Marina focused elsewhere. That way lay dragons.
"How can he even get the prophecy?" Hannah asked the, belated, question.
"There's a recording of every prophecy in the Ministry," Jonathan answered.
"Are they actually stupid enough to try and get it from the Department of Mysteries?" Marina asked into the room. "Anyone but the subjects of prophecy that tries to remove it will get hexed. Badly."
"They don't seem to know that," Dora replied rather smugly.
"That's quite enough," Laura suddenly stated before Tyler could ask whatever he'd been gearing up for. "It will get us nowhere to keep talking about this in circles."
"She is right," her Dad, of all people, agreed. "Let it sink in. But whatever you do, don't tell anyone else."
"I have to tell Ange," Marina said, simultaneously to Carmen's, "I'm telling Trish."
"All our friends deserve to know," Harry nodded. "They've always helped us."
"If this leaks to the Death Eaters-"
"What's there to leak? They already know about the prophecy, and they know you're guarding it."
Her father raised his hands in surrender, well aware that he couldn't really stop them.
"But not Rookwood," Mad-Eye growled, even grimmer than usual.
Marina snapped.
"Yes, Elvira too. I'm not shutting her out, Mad-Eye."
"She's a risk."
"She's our friend and it wasn't her fault!"
"It would be easy to subjugate her again."
"You were imperius-ed too," she accused, furious. "No one's arguing to keep you in the dark."
Much awkwardness ensued.
She didn't think there was anyone but her who would have dared bring that up. She detested hypocrisy.
"Why don't you go upstairs," Molly suggested carefully. "We'll call you kids down for dinner."
And so, everyone from age 14 to 17 fled the room.
They all bounded up the very creepy staircase, decorated with shrunken house-elf heads. Kreacher's ancestors.
Despite overall curiosity, Marina led them all past the drawing room and the infernal Black family tree tapestry. Walburga had made sure that no sane family members remained on it, so she really didn't need to see it again.
Instead she led them to the second floor, to the largest bedroom, where they all spread out on the beds, sofas and floor. Thankfully, Phineas wasn't in his portrait right now, probably occupying the one in Hogwarts instead.
She figured that the Order members stayed in the bedrooms on the third floor when they decided to stay the night. The fourth floor, and her Dad's old room, was off limits.
"What are you thinking?" the twins asked in unison.
"I'm thinking it gives me a headache," Susan muttered. "All this time, they've been on a nonsensical mission."
"We have to tell Anthony," Hannah said. "His father is an unofficial member. Unofficial only because he doesn't want the Ministry to make trouble for his clients." Mr. Goldstein was an advocate.
"We have to tell everyone. As soon as anyone hears anything about the Death Eaters making bigger moves, we have to convince our parents to stop guarding nonsense," Carmen huffed, none too happy with what was going on.
Fear was a powerful thing. Otherwise her friend would never have suggested ordering her parents around.
"We'll be safe at the castle," Ron said. "So why don't they go on the offensive?"
"Because they want to stop all-out war before it even starts," she answered. "Except the way things are going… all-out war is what we're going to get." 1
1 A/N: That last line isn't mine either! But I always liked it, so I borrowed it from The Two Towers (Lord of the Rings 2) - the movie.