Got to be quick, but thanks again to all those that reviewed!!!! xxxx

Chapter 51:

The Order forced themselves to wait a tense 48 hours after Harry's abduction before calling themselves together for another meeting to discuss the best way forward.

Moody and Kingsley had kept their word to Harry, and called his closest friends to join the meeting as soon as the situation in Hogsmeade had been diffused. With a strong baritone, Kingsley had read Harry's letter aloud, pausing to allow for shouts of disbelief and tears, and with a heavy heart he had handed the other two letters to his three best friends.

The heated discussion that followed ended in an agreement to wait two days before initiating any search for Harry, to give him chance to do his self-set task and for Snape to get word back to them of his success. If they had not heard from either by that time, Kingsley and Moody agreed with the Weasleys to assume that Harry, for whatever reason, had been unable to kill the snake or that Snape had deceived them once again and was not going to send them word.

The day after the Hogsmeade incident had been spent grilling Malfoy for all he information he had. The Order had started with veritaserum, with Kingsley, Bill and Alastor Moody present. After the potion had worn off the Hogwarts based Order, now including Ron and Hermione, had say with him, asking him for all the intelligence he could give about Voldemort's plans and the identities of his followers in return for safe sanctuary at the school. He was surprisingly willing, and in return was shocked when Hermione and Ron had held out their hands in friendship at the end of the meeting, mindful of Harry's words that Malfoy was now alone and no longer heir to the Malfoy fortune.

By the second morning after Harry's disappearance his adopted family had become frantic, demanding the Order meeting should happen early in the day to address several pending issues and, most importantly, to initiate the search for the lost boy.

To start the meeting, Ron and Hermione stood before the long table in the magically expanded head mistress's office, surrounded by the leading members of the DA. Hermione, with Ron's help, explained the safety procedures they had already put into place in order to protect the students should the school come under attack, as well as how they had utilised the use of the House Elves extraordinary magic and the final steps they had planned should they need to evacuate the school.

"So, where is this safe place that can hide the students?" McGonagall asked. "The only room big enough for the whole student population is the Great Hall, and I'm sure you can understand my concerns about holding people there?"

"There is a room called the Room of Requirement." Hermione explained. "Also known as the Come-and-Go room. We stumbled across it a couple of years ago and used it for our DA lessons. We haven't used it in recent years, seeing we haven't had to hide our group, but it will provide us with exactly what we need. We believe that each of the four founders designed a special feature for the school, and that Helga Hufflepuff built this room for the sole purpose of providing a safe haven should her students need protecting."

"It's been a little misused over time." Ron said. "It's amazing how many people have asked for a place where something could be hidden and not be found, and not realised what a wonder the room is. It is filled with so much… well, if people have unknowingly been using it for centuries and no one has really found it so far except us, then we're pretty sure it will be safe enough. And if we are discovered, then it can always provide us with an escape route should we ask for it."

"If that's not enough," Hermione added. "Fred and George have been working hard to create enough portkeys for every student and then some."

"You really have thought this out." Remus said with admiration.

"Harry asked us to." Neville said. "He knew you would never let us go out and fight, no matter how much we would argue. He pointed out that we could use what we've learned in a different way to help, and figured that this way we could keep ourselves safe, help keep the other students safe and free up more adults to help out where they'll be needed."

McGonagall held her hand out for the plans and Hermione passed them over. "I'll go over these with the other teachers." she said. "But I don't see any problems at this time. If anything, I'm proud of your dedication to help. I'll come along to your next meeting and we can talk about this further."

"Thank you." various voices said from the teenage group as they turned to leave.

"Sorry, Professor, but has there been any word of Harry?" Neville asked hesitantly, just before he left the room.

The group froze at the partially opened door and held their breaths, each hoping that the answer would be a positive one.

"I'm sorry, Mister Longbottom." McGonagall said with a shake of her head. "We've had no word yet."

"Ginny said you weren't even looking." Seamus said accusingly.

The adults in the room glanced at each other. "We weren't." Kingsley admitted aloud, causing the DA to emit sounds of disbelief and shock. "Though we have had our reasons."

"You think he's dead!" Luna said, her voice a sharp contrast to her usual wispy voice.

"He is not dead!" Ron snarled at her. "We're starting the search for him this afternoon, right?" he asked the adults around the table.

"We're going to discuss his possible whereabouts, yes." McGonagall said in attempt to sooth the angry youths.

"Let us know if we can help." Neville said, one hand on Luna's arm. He indicated the door to his friends and the DA left, leaving Ron and Hermione to take their seats next to the twins.

Ginny, silent throughout the presentation, hovered in the doorway after her friends had left, looking forlornly at the group. She made eye contact with her youngest brother and his girlfriend. Ron shrugged slightly, both he and Hermione had tried to convince the Order to let Ginny sit in on the meetings, but the best they had been able to do is promise the youngest Weasley that they would let her know any news as soon as they heard it.

Ginny looked to her parents. Molly Weasley sent one of her "looks" towards her daughter, but her eye contact was broken when her husband placed a hand on her arm and whispered something into her ear. Molly glanced at him, her features softening before flicking her wand to create a chair in the space next to her.

With a grateful smile, Ginny rushed around the table, brushing her hand with gratitude across her father's shoulders and then giving her mother a hug.

"This is an act of good faith." her mother said quietly. "I know how much you mean to one another and he was right before, you do deserve to know what's going on. But that does not give you permission to go running off on some crusade, understood?"

Ginny nodded. "I promise." she said.

"Right." Moody said, leading the meeting. "Where do we start?"

The table looked to one another, each hoping an other would start the meeting off with a good idea, but the room remained silent fro sometime.

"Diagon Alley has been pretty quiet." Fred eventually said. "No gossip to speak of, but that is likely due to the lack of customers."

"A lot of people were shocked by both the Minister's death and Harry's disappearance." George continued. "But most are using the events positively, and taking action because of it."

"And we quote… "Potter was right, we've taken too long to realise that relying on the Ministry isn't going to help. We're stronger if we stand together. He may have only been a kid, but we owe it to him to prove that he was right…"." Fred said, reading from a small scrap of parchment in front of him.

"They speak as if he's already dead." Fleur said in a sober voice.

"They probably think he is." Remus said. "They have no idea that it was intentional. All they know is that Voldemort has tried to kill him several times in the past, and probably don't want to imagine what he could be going through right about now if he was still alive."

"At least they aren't thinking he's a coward, like before." Ron said. "I was almost expecting the Prophet to be reporting all sorts of stories about him."

"I've been keeping a close eye on the articles printed by the Prophet." Kingsley said. "I'm making sure that they are printing only the truth. Enough to rally the people up to the cause, but not too much to cause unnecessary panic."

"Well, it's certainly been working by the amount of people coming to the school and offering their services." Tonks said. "How are we handling that by the way?"

"Fred and George are giving them alert beacons." McGonagall said. "Should anything happen, I'll drop the wards on the Quidditch pitch, the beacons will be activated to indicate something is wrong and they can apparate in to help protect the school and the students.

"Much like the coins we use in the DA." Ron muttered to Hermione.

"Hey, we had to get the idea from somewhere!" Fred said.

"We're planning on offering you a research and design job once you graduate." George added to Hermione, who had the grace to blush slightly.

"And the families that are asking for protection?" Charlie asked.

"I think we can provide it." McGonagall responded. "The third floor can be opened for their use. Many parents have already requested the use of a classroom or two in which to keep the children occupied."

"Which brings us back to Harry." Ginny said, interrupting slightly with her impatience. "Has there really been no word from him?"

"Nothing." Remus confirmed sadly.

"Charlie, Fleur and I have been working on two possible lines of investigation." Bill said, reaching under the table and lifting a heavy box onto the table. Charlie mimicked his actions with another box of similar size.

"First we've been looking through maps." he said, pulling out a couple of rolled parchment maps out of the box. "It's a long job, and we haven't started with the muggle maps yet, but we figured that he's bound to have various unplottable charms in order to avoid detection. We've already found some obvious areas which may be hiding a building of sorts. We just need to survey each site and find out which one is his."

"How many sites?" Moody asked.

Fleur pulled out some sheets of parchment from her bag and passed them over. "There are many." she admitted. "But from this list we can work out which are most likely and start with those."

"And what's in this box?" Arthur asked.

"Muggle newspapers." Charlie replied. "Mostly local papers covering the past few weeks. We haven't had a chance to go through them yet but, even if Voldemort is lying low, then there are bound to be something amiss in their neighbourhood; disappearances, thefts, strange lights, that sort of thing. If we can find where a story in the paper matches an empty area of map, then we may be onto a winner."

"Do you want the DA to take the papers?" Hermione asked. "We have a lot of people who can make the investigation run quicker, and Ron and I can let you know if there are any stories that warrant further investigation."

"We can even take the maps and see if the stories and locations match up." Ron said.

"The DA would do that?" Kingsley asked.

"We're determined to help." Ginny assured him. "And if you won't let us go out and search, then we might as well be useful with this."

Moody nodded. "Let's get to work then." he said, quickly copying the list of locations Fleur had given up. "Everyone pair up and report in after every location. Spend enough time to confirm whether it is a civilian or Death Eater abode, and we'll keep a running report here. Should you see any supporting evidence for Death Eater activity, report back immediately and we'll gather reinforcements to return with. Understood?"

The group nodded, every member eager to make a start.

"Then let's go!"