Okay guys, this isn't one of my favorite chapters, but I think you guys will still enjoy it all the same. I'm sorry, I thought I would have this chapter up this morning but it didn't work out that way. I can't think of much else to say at the moment, my brain kind of crapped out on me. So, without further ado, the next chapter, enjoy.
CHAPTER START
"Yep, there they are, two of them trying to hide themselves." Harry said to himself, looking out the window of the upstairs study down onto the street in front of Grimauld Place. "And I'm sure there are plenty more of them." he was the only person in the room. Hermione and Ron were elsewhere in the house with everyone else, most likely helping plan the ambush of their ambushers. "Well they'll be sorry they messed with the Order soon enough." Harry was furious with the Malfoys, the Death Eaters waiting outside, Voldemort, and especially himself.
How could he have been so stupid as to fall for Malfoy's ridiculous ploy? He should have been able to see right through it. It was so obvious when he looked back on it how stupid he had been. Malfoy would have never come to him for help, not even if his life was in danger; he had too much pride for that. But Voldemort had known that he wouldn't turn Malfoy down in a request for help to save not only his life, but his mother's as well. And because Voldemort knew this he used Malfoy to exploit the fact and infiltrate the Order, and all of it was his fault. Though for the first time in Harry's memory, he was not letting his fury show or get the best of him. He was just watching the Death Eaters he could see and waiting for somebody to come tell him that they were ready patiently with a calm demeanor that he was rarely able to accomplish, if ever.
"Keeping an eye on our friends I see Harry." Lupin said, walking up behind him and to the window. "I suppose that's a good idea. Have you figured out how many of them are out there?"
"No, I haven't, all but two are keeping themselves really well hidden." Harry said, pointing to the corner of a building near the end of the street and an alley a couple houses from number 12. "I bet the rest of the lot are Disillusioning themselves or something of that sort."
"Yes, you're probably right." Said Lupin, peering around carefully "Well come on Harry, we have everything all planned out and are about ready to get this over with."
Harry didn't say anything or even acknowledge that he had heard Lupin. He simply turned about and walked out of the room keeping in toe with Lupin.
As the two made their way down the long staircase they first passed the room Harry had been in not so long ago with Ginny, Luna, Ernie, and the unconscious Neville. Mrs. Weasley had moved them all to a different room that still had its door intact and had more places for them to rest. Then they passed the room the Malfoys had been staying in since their arrival and had been moved back to since their failed attempt at escaping to freedom outside the confines of the house. Though to Harry's great displeasure, they had been returned to their room minus the ropes Wulfric had previously put around them. However Harry did get some amusement even in such a dark time as this that Malfoy was still burping up slugs the last time he had seen him.
When Harry and Lupin arrived at the bottom of the stairs they saw Professor McGonagall, Ron, Hermione, Tonks, who had apparently only recently returned, and Wulfric standing just before the front door. All had their wands already drawn and in most cases hanging to their side.
"Are we ready then?" Ron asked with the acquisitions of Harry and Lupin, eyeing the others in the small group with anticipation.
"We will be once I fill Harry in on what we're about to do." Said Tonks "Harry, I'm sure I don't have to tell you to watch yourself out there, but all the same, do it. As we don't know how many adversaries we're abouts to be facing we've decided to go for what we hope will be the over-kill approach. They'll be plenty of people out there that aren't Death Eaters and once we get out there it will probably be a mad house, so be careful. Now in about two minutes we'll be having some bait wondering out into the street to hopefully draw some of the Death Eaters out, that's when we'll be getting our arses out there, along with everyone else. Aside from what I've already told you I have only one thing to say, aim true."
Tonks gave Harry a small wink before turning towards the door. Harry smiled to himself and drew his wand. He wasn't going to tell anyone, as he never did, but he was more nervous than he had been in a long while. In fact as the seven readied themselves for the forthcoming peril that awaited them outside and their time to act drew closer Harry found himself becoming more nervous with every passing moment. He did not like this having to wait to fight. He didn't like having time to think about what he was about to do in detail, it gave him too much of an opportunity to think of all the possible ways the fight could go, and all the ways he was thinking of were where it went as wrong as it could go. He much preferred to be thrust into a fight without warning or reason where he could act on instinct alone and not have to worry about what had been planned out beforehand.
Harry watched with bated breath as Wulfric retrieved a pocket watch similar to the ones he had given him, Ron, and Hermione for Christmas from a fold in his robes, clicked it open, studied its face for an instant, then closed it and gave Tonks a silent nod; returning the watch back to his robes. Tonks gave Wulfric a silent nod back in understanding and reached for the door's knob.
Tonks's hand was no farther than two inches from the doorknob when quite suddenly it turned and the door began rattling as it always did when being opened. Harry, as he was sure everyone else was as well, was startled more than he could explain. He had no idea what so ever as to what could be going on. The Death Eaters couldn't possibly have found a way in, not without Lupin having told them and he never would have done that. But it couldn't be a member of the Order either; they wouldn't just be waltzing in with invisible Death Eaters littering the street, nor would they have even been able to make it to the door. They would have been killed as soon as they were caught sight of.
The door swung open gently and it seemed to Harry that it had taken an eternity to do so and he prepared himself as if he were about to see Voldemort on the other side; he was the only one that even remotely made sense.
Once the door was more than halfway open Harry was relieved and a little confused when he saw Mad-Eye Moody and another Order member standing on the front stoop with rather puzzled looks on their faces that matched the ones on the faces of those in the Headquarters.
"I think you lot might want ta' join us out here." Mad-Eye said in his usual growl of a voice as several people began apparating into the street behind him; all with their wands held abroad of them and instantly sharing puzzled looks when they arrived. There was no sign of any Death Eaters in the street what so ever.
"So what exactly is going on here Mad-Eye?" Tonks asked curiously, voicing everyone's thoughts as she and the rest exited Grimauld place and put away their wands. "I mean, the Death Eaters were here at one point, weren't they?"
"Yes, they were, I saw two of them from the upstairs window." Harry said
"As did I." Lupin said, crossing his arms as many of the newly arrived people started nearing the house.
"Those two couldn't have been the only ones could they? And Malfoy was bluffing as to how many there really were?" Hermione said "If that is the case, maybe they got spooked waiting so long without being able to see the house and not knowing how many Order members could come filing out of it at any time."
"Well I suspect it might be something like that." Mad-Eye said with a grunt. "From what I've been told the Malfoy boy said he was supposed to receive some sort of signal from You-Know-Who and then he and his mother were going to leave. I'm bettin' that when he didn't return on his lord's command that he called back the rest of the lot assuming that the two had failed."
"Would You-Know-Who really do that? He's never seemed to care about the well being of his cronies before." Ron said skeptically
"He very well might." Squeaked Professor Flitwick, having walked up to the group without anyone noticing. "He's stretched himself very thin with the attack on Hogwarts, even by his standards. And once the news breaks on a larger scale what's happened he'll have to stretch even further if he wishes to keep it."
"Which he does, believe me." Said Harry
"Yes, meaning that he'll need to keep as many of his Death Eaters alive as possible." Said Lupin "And since he's assuming the Malfoys have failed he knows we'll be able to contact more members and he doesn't want all the Death Eaters he sent here to just get killed fighting overwhelming odds."
"No matter what happened I don't like it, him getting us to expose ourselves so openly like this." Said an older man
"No, I don't either." Lupin said
"Yes, well, this is for another time. I think it might be better if we were off." Said Mad-Eye "No use us lollygagging about here at five in the morning if there's no threat, I'm sure we all have better things to do. What's more we might draw some unwanted attention if we stay around here much longer."
Mad-Eye gave a little shrug of his shoulders, turned on the spot and disaparated; others quickly following suit. One by one the mess of people started to disaparate and in no time at all the large group had dwindled to only Harry, Ron, Hermione, Wulfric, and Professor McGonagall. Tonks and Lupin had also gone, both having things, as Lupin put it, that required their attention.
Harry felt weak and depleted of all energy as he made his way to the kitchen with the others. After all he hadn't slept in almost a whole length of a day, unless one qualified his dream with Voldemort as sleep, which he didn't. Also he hadn't eaten in a great many hours and the adrenalin was finally ceasing to have an affect on him so that he felt as if he might fall over at any moment.
Needless to say, Harry was more than a little grateful when Wulfric offered to make them all some breakfast since they all looked "terribly hungry" in his words.
"I'm sure Molly would have been more than happy to do this, but she's still upstairs, and I dare say that sometimes it seems like she's the cook for the whole Order." Wulfric said, pointing his wand downward to the stovetop and making several circular motions, conjuring many different ingredients.
Wulfric then conjured a medium sized pot and proceeded to fill it with various amounts of the ingredients and a sizable amount of water. Once he had done so he opened the front of the stove and with an airy flick of his wand set alight the logs that were already present within the stove.
"I think we should just let that simmer for a bit and then there should be plenty for all of us, as long as we don't get too many unexpected participants for this meal." Said Wulfric, conjuring his usual black leather armchair and seating himself gently on it not too far from the stove and facing the table where the others sat.
"Really Wulfric, must you always transfigure your own chair even when there are plenty of perfectly good ones present?" McGonagall asked in a slightly irritated voice as if it were not the first time she had mentioned this.
"Yes, I do." Wulfric said plainly "I find it much more comfortable to have my own specialized chair even when others are about. And, I suppose I have quite a bit of my father in me. I'm sure I remember you asking him this very same question more than a few times, Mother."
"What!" Was all Harry, Ron, and Hermione could say, McGonagall looked utterly taken aback.
"Wulfric!" McGonagall said, giving him a look that he returned with one of his own
"It's all in order, Mother, I assure you. They are well aware of who I am the son of already. Or half of the pair I am the son of that is. Now I have just merely supplied them with knowledge of the other half." Said Wulfric
"Wulfric Dumbledore!" McGonagall said with a tone Harry had never heard her use before. Her lips growing dangerously small with her look of great displeasure directed at Wulfric. "You should have at the very least consulted me first about revealing the secret we have been keeping since well before any of them were born, particularly before you actually did it."
"Perhaps, but I thought it would have been far more interesting this way, and given the present situation I thought it might prove to lighten the mood, even if just a bit." Wulfric said and McGonagall sighed, closed her eyes and shook her head; and Harry was pretty sure he heard her say something to the effect of "Entirely too much like Albus." under her breath.
"Now wait just one bloody minute!" Ron said, looking like he was trying to wrap his head around what he had just heard "You can't be… I mean…. It just doesn't…"
"I think what Ron's trying to say, is that Professor McGonagall can't possibly be your mother, she's, not old enough." Hermione said as if trying to find some reason for it not to be true, glancing to Professor McGonagall and then to Wulfric.
"Thank you Ms. Granger, however," Professor McGonagall paused, looking sideways at Wulfric for a moment; the great displeasure having not completely left her face. "I am indeed Wulfric's mother."
What Hermione said had at least some air of truth to it. McGonagall looked no older than Wulfric and could very possibly be thought to be younger than he was.
"Yes, well, she's a fair bit older than she looks, if I may say so." Wulfric said, giving McGonagall a small smirk which she did not return.
"I do believe that will be quite enough Wulfric." McGonagall said as Wulfric stood and went to check on whatever it was he was cooking.
Harry was just as surprised by this new news as the other two were but he didn't feel much like saying anything on the matter. He had honestly never expected Professor McGonagall to be the one who Wulfric had mentioned being involved with Dumbledore when he had first told them about his lineage. Looking back on it he guessed there always did seem to be something between the two that transcended being mere colleagues working at the same school. And in some sort of odd way, the pairing of two of the people he respected most made perfect sense.
Harry paid no mind to Ron and Hermione as they tried, Hermione especially, to delve deeper into Wulfric's, McGonagall's, and Dumbledore's past. It wasn't that he didn't care or wasn't interested; he just didn't find it to be a pressing matter on his mind at the present moment. And soon he didn't find anything to be that way as he fell blissfully into slumber where he sat; unable to keep himself awake any longer than he already had.
