a/n: giddiness is over 1500 reviews. i would thank each and every one of you right here if i didn't think the list would end up longer than the chapter. thank you, thank you and thank you for the wonderful reviews. i hope you enjoy this chapter, i loved it. as always your thoughts and views and greatly appreciated.

Chapter 45

The reason Ron hadn't joined his friends in visiting Hagrid was quite simple. The ADADA had outgrown the classroom they were using and he and the twins were using the time to knock out a few walls—magically of course. Given that the corridor where there classroom was located was rarely used they had a decent bit of space to work with. Knocking out a few walls connected three classrooms, one on either side of the corridor and the one at the end they had been using up until then. It gave them a U shaped space to work with and it took a good part of two hours and half the ADADA members to get it all sorted before McGonagall was due to arrive.

The map of Britain stayed where it was and the new map of Europe was added onto the wall beside it. It was smaller in scale so the map of Britain took up the left side of the wall while the one of Europe and Hogwarts shared the right hand side with detailed maps of Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. The map of Europe went on top, the one of Hogwarts on the bottom and the maps of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley shared the space in between. There was also a list of ADADA members (students of Hogwarts only) attached to the bottom left hand corner acting as a key to determine which colour represented which student.

They removed the doors from the two classrooms along the corridor, giving them just the one door in and walled the spaces wards were added to the single door with a list of people who were allowed entrance and a secondary list of people who could enter if accompanied by a member. The original classroom was left as an open space for training purposes and Steven cast an odd spell he'd found that made the floor softer and almost rubbery to the touch. The portion of a tower that the twins' lab occupied was left as it was for the safety of everyone.

The two new classrooms were converted into workspaces, with a sizable desk for each of the ADADA members. The idea of putting in a few cubicles was bandied about but ultimately shot down. Instead they used waist high book cases to create individual spaces. They looked rather bare but it wouldn't be long before each desk took on the characteristics of its owner. Luna already had a small glass fishbowl on her desk that contained a single small goldfish she'd named, for reasons unknown, Anthony.

Most of the time was spent moving peoples belongings to their respective desks. Harry, Daphne, Emmy, Abby and Ron got one of the classrooms while Jesse, Steven, Luna, Ginny and Susan got the other. Stephanie was given free reign of Harry's desk as he spent very little time sitting and they didn't quite have the room for another. A notion proved to be a good idea when they finished moving everything and found Stephanie had twice as many notes and papers as Harry did. Being in charge seemed to leave him surprisingly paper free while needing to be up on everything Ron was doing gave Stephanie a small forest.

They also finally got around to moving the trunk that contained the Martin Library into the main room. It had more wards placed on it than Hogwarts itself probably had but there was a lot of sensitive information in that place and a lot that could cause great harm. They put the trunk in the back corner of the main room to the side of a soft couch and cradle they had moved for Ally's comfort. Bizarrely, the not-so-little-any-longer room took on the feeling of a well loved work space. It would certainly be well frequented.


Professor McGonagall would not admit to the fact that until the moment Professor Snape knocked on her office door she'd been tapping her fingers nervously on her desk. She didn't bother to invite him in, preferring to walk out and meet him in the corridor. Though she was doing her best, she wasn't quite managing to appear in no way eager. Snape wisely didn't mention it but he saw the signs and wasn't a little irked that Harry Potter had somehow gathered such influence as to make McGonagall twitchy with need to find out what was going on. Calm facade she did not possess.

'Do you know much of what they're doing?' she questioned Snape as he guided her along corridors and staircases to the ADADA room.

'I think you can be certain only Potter and Martin know the full extent of their actions.'

That didn't give her any comfort. The idea that the best chance of resistance the wizarding world had was a fifteen year old boy and his who-knew-how-old DADA professor was not comforting in the slightest. What was alarmingly comforting was the site that greeted her when Snape opened the door and gestured her inside the three rooms the ADADA had commandeered. She tried not to let her mouth drop open.

They were prepared. That much was glaringly obvious from the moment she stepped inside. These weren't the disorganised students she expected to see. They weren't playing at being adults in a game far too big for them. They were adults, fighting on equal standing and far better prepared than the Order frequently seemed to be. And that was what she could glean from a first look. Abby and Emmy were training on a mat in the middle of the room, dancing back and forth with well practiced ease. As she watched Emmy pinned Abby to the mat but she didn't stay down long, performing a difficult twist and bringing Emmy down as well.

Ron stood in front of a large map of Hogwarts gesticulating wildly to Stephanie who stepped forward every now and then to tap a certain place on the map with her wand. One such tap set the map an ugly green colour and she shook her head, clearing the map of dots and arguing with Ron. McGonagall couldn't hear the words being spoken and she didn't know what exactly they were doing but she got the impression it wasn't just a simple squabble.

Behind her and to the left Luna and Steven were bent over a mess of papers discussing possible translations of several different languages and texts at once. Luna was constantly writing down possible translations and crossing them out while the two bounced ideas back and forth. McGonagall knew just enough to recognise one series of texts as a very old form of the runic alphabet. Anything more than that was beyond her level of expertise.

Behind the duo, Susan was sitting behind a desk working steadily through a huge stack of papers in an in-tray. Every now and then an owl would swoop in through the window and deposit another envelope on her desk. Occasionally, small owl stuffed toys would burst into existence with a puff of feathers and drop yet more paperwork on her desk. She never once complained and, though she frowned in annoyance over one or two things, she went at her work with the kind of focus you'd only expect of an accountant looking for that missing three million.

Jesse was sitting on the floor in the aisle between his desk and Steven's sorting through packages that bore the insignia of a number of shops in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. As she watched he stood and began to distribute the packages to certain desks. He wandered passed and offered her a small smile in greeting and she followed him with her eyes as he left the classroom on the left and moved to that on the right.

Harry was sitting at one of the desks, peering down at an object on his desk through a magnifying glass. Fred and George stood on either side of him also holding magnifying glasses and looking at the object. Whatever it was, to McGonagall it looked like nothing more than an ordinary gobstone but she wouldn't put it passed the Weasley twins to have turned an innocent children's game into something nasty. They had, of course, she just wouldn't find out how nasty until after Christmas.

It was Daphne who actually approached her, as everyone else seemed to be deeply involved in whatever task they were doing. Martin was conspicuously absent.

'Hello Professor McGonagall, welcome to the ADADA.'

Words failed her and all she could do was flashback to the last Order meeting. To a dingy kitchen in a house protected by a Fidelius Charm and nine people all waiting impatiently for their leader to arrive. They'd spent thirty precious minutes of Order time discussing the complete lack of progress being made and a further ten discussing the very group she now found herself observing. She could see clearly in her mind a group so secretive that it was almost damaging to their ability to make progress. A leader determined to win a war with patience and understanding. A leader adamant that love could concur all.

Then she looked around at the students before her. At the obvious signs of plans being made, objects being studied and actions being taken. She looked at the wall of maps, at the coloured dots on them and the key that denoted a certain one to the location of a fallen Azkaban. She remembered the anger of a young man who had scolded his failed mentor for allowing so much to happen through inaction. She took in the wall of accomplishments, the map of article, names, places, that covered another wall.

And she knew.

Harry Potter would win this war and he would do it without Albus Dumbledore.


If it were anyone else he might have cause to be jealous. As it was, Remus Lupin watched as Tonks ducked upstairs and into Sirius' bedroom with all the stealth of a clumsy elephant wearing tap shoes. It wasn't like she was making a point to hide all of the time she spent in there with him and it wasn't like she didn't have twelve years of family time to catch up on, there was just something about the way the lock snapped into place each time that set his teeth on edge.

They were most definitely up to something. Concerned that Sirius was going to get himself captured—whether by Ministry Aurors or Death Eaters at this point was inconsequential—and Tonks fired he decided to use some of his much abhorred werewolf abilities to spy on them. A subtle sniff now and again proved that Sirius was leaving Grimmauld Place regularly as only the outdoors could create just that combination of smoggy air and a myriad of other unpleasant things. With confirmation that he was at the least going out when he shouldn't Lupin resorted to tracking charms. He started with the simple ones parents often put on their wayward children and then moved up to the extra nasty ones used on Death Eaters when it turned out Sirius was checking for trackers and then disabling them.

He'd found every damn one so far and placing them on Tonks was pointless. She may have been a little clumsy but she could spot a tracking charm at ten yards. He'd tried every means of spying he could think of and was now down to his last resort. Tonight he would attempt to hear them talking using a pair of the twins wireless Extendable Ears. A product he'd had to purchase through their mail order business instead of just borrowing off Mrs Weasley who had confiscated almost the entire batch of the original version.

He'd planted one end in Sirius' room earlier and once he was sure Tonks was in there behind a locked and heavily spelled door, he placed the receiver in his ear.

'—late,' Sirius was saying.

'Would you hurry up, Padfoot,' Tonks reprimanded

'Don't get your knickers in a twist; I'm not going to miss the damn portkey.'

'You did last week.'

'That was your fault!'

'Was not,' Tonks retorted, sounding incredibly childish in that one moment.

'Was too,' Sirius insisted. 'I distinctly remember having to lunge and grab you at the last minute.'

'I dropped the file!'

Remus rolled his eyes, wondering at the fact that two grown adults were squabbling like children. Given the age gap between the two it was unlikely they'd argued like this while Tonks was growing up. Not that he'd put it passed his friend, Sirius had always been a little childlike in his behaviour. He just couldn't remember Sirius ever spending that much time with his much younger relative or her mother for that matter.

'You're fault then!' Sirius concluded triumphantly.

'You dropped the portkey.'

Remus could almost hear Sirius roll his eyes as he said, 'Because I thought catching you was a little more important.'

'I don't like liking you.'

Sirius' bark like laugh filled the room and, had the twins finally perfected their Extendable Eyes, Remus would have witnessed Sirius giving his favourite family member (by a very, very long margin) an amused hug. Then all sound cut out, Sirius' laugh mid bark, and Remus had to assume they'd left by one of the portkeys they'd been discussing.

On the one hand Remus was happy for his friend, he'd never had much family and he deserved to get to know what little of it was both alive and decent. On the other hand, he was really curious, was unlikely to get any answers and just about ready to tie them both to a chair to question them. With no further chance of getting answers, Remus wandered back down to the kitchen where he found Bill and Arthur Weasley playing a game of cards with Kingsley Shacklebott. He joined the fun and tried not to think on what dangerous misadventure his wayward friends were involved in.


Sirius was still laughing when the portkey deposited them both on the mat in the middle of the room. Abby and Emmy were forced to leap aside at the last moment to avoid getting squished. Sirius looked around and the first person he spotted (after helping Abby to her feet and remarking that a different arrival location was becoming necessary) was McGonagall.

'Minnie!' he called out in delight. 'Fancy seeing you here.'

Her lips pursed at the nickname and she would have scolded him if Tonks hadn't walloped him across the back of the head just moments before he was flattened by an incoming Ruby. Sirius gazed up from his position, said position being his head currently stuck between Ruby's knees, and grinned cheekily.

'Evening, luv.'

Rather than being annoyed, Ruby just laughed. 'Hello Sirius.'

'Help a man out?'

'My fiancé might get ideas.'

'Let him,' he joked with a roguish wink.

'Ugh,' Harry groaned announcing his presence as he moved forward to separate his godfather and his girlfriend's—Mate's? Wife's?—best friend. 'Flirt later, I've got Charlie coming in from Romania in thirty seconds and he'll flatten the both of you.'

Ruby rose fluidly to her feet and hauled Sirius up. She spent a little more time "dusting" him off than was strictly necessary (completely missing Charlie's arrival) and then glanced around.

'Where's Als?' she questioned at the same time Sirius questioned Ginny's whereabouts.

They glanced at each other and Harry covered his eyes with one hand and made a disgusted noise half way between a grunt and the sound one makes while choking down vomit. 'Did they just poke their tongues out?' he asked Tonks from behind his hand.

'Yeah,' answered the Auror who sounded just as revolted. 'I'll just put them in separate rooms.'

Harry nodded gratefully and gave it a good minute before removing his hand. He looked around and smiled at McGonagall who was looking almost amused, in a way that suggested, like most people, she'd just had the absolutely terrifying thought of what Ruby Reid and Sirius Black could get up to were that left alone for too long.

'You don't let them near Fred and George, do you?'

'Merlin no,' Harry assured her. 'We'd lose the castle in half a minute.'

McGonagall exhaled sharply at that little miracle and was suddenly all business again. 'Right then, Mister Potter, tell me about the ADADA.'

Matching her all business tone he directed everyone back to their original tasks and started to give her the small spiel he'd secretly been planning earlier. Snape drifted away from them in the direction of the twins' lab and slipped inside—not before knocking and casting a shield charm around him.

'We're everything the Order of the Phoenix isn't,' was how Harry began. 'We're well trained, highly active and we're not afraid to get our hands dirty. Between us we've eliminated the threat posed by no less than forty one Death Eaters in the last four months. Each person working within the ADADA has a set task or area they specialise in and they in turn coordinate with people outside of Hogwarts in that same field.

'Ron knows the layout of this castle like the back of his hand and can have the entire student body ready to defend it in less than twenty minutes. Daphne can tell you anything you need to know about every student within this school, who they have ties to, whether they can they be trusted. Susan is our liaison to the Ministry, Abby and Emmy can track Death Eaters with the best of them and Luna points them in the right direction. Jesse can get you anything you want and Steven can tell you which students need to be placed where to maximise the potential of a student army.

'We know what we're doing and we're doing it well. I know you're not here to stop us but I also know that you're not here to let us continue either. You need to make a choice; are you against Voldemort? What we are doing here is not acting against Dumbledore, its acting where he won't or can't. We're not hiding what we're about; we've made no secret of where we stand. There are a great number of people within the Ministry who have been shown numerous accounts, the various types of proof Dumbledore was too afraid to assemble. We've got their backing, Professor, do we have yours?'

Silence fell over the room, every member of the ADADA having been attuned to Harry's words. They'd continue with or without McGonagall's support but they wanted it. Either way they needed an answer. Would she join them? Would she rat them out to Dumbledore or would she refrain from making a judgement and remain in the background pretending she knew nothing of what went on outside of what the Order could discover. She took in the determined stance of the ADADA students, the way a highly trained Auror, one of the Ministry's best Unspeakables and an escape convict with plenty of reason to hide, stood tall beside those students and slightly charred dragon keeper. She saw the way Snape aligned himself with the Weasley twins and it was that, ultimately that made her decision.

'You have it.'