Greetings, one and all and welcome to the next chapter of The Potter And Kent Chronicles. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I had writing it and now on to the reviews.
Ashzaroth: Thank you, happy to hear it. Maybe next chapter I will mention about the dementors, but you will find out what Clark was asked to do. I was actually debating if she would do something like an assistant-like role during this year or Year 6.
TheZombieWolf: Many thanks, glad you liked it. There will always remain some trust issues, but I'm not sure when Clark will get angry like that again. ...Maybe around Christmas...
And now on to the story.
"Very well.", Mrs Weasley said, her voice cracking, "Ron, Neville, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George. I want, you out of this kitchen, now."
This caused an instant uproar. "We're of age!", Fred and George bellowed together.
"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?", Ron shouted.
"Mum, I want to hear!" wailed Ginny.
"NO!", Mrs Weasley shouted, standing up, her eyes were blazing, "I absolutely forbid..."
"Molly you can't stop Fred and George.", Mr Weasley said wearily, "They are of age."
"They're still at school.'
"But they're legally adults now.", Mr Weasley said in the same tired voice. Mrs Weasley was now scarlet in the face, "I... oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron..."
"Harry, Clark and Kara will tell me, Neville and Hermione everything you say anyway!" Ron said hotly.
"Fine!", Mrs Weasley shouted, "Fine! Ginny, BED!"
Ginny did not go quietly. They could hear her raging and storming at her mother all the way up the stairs. "OK, Harry... What do you want to know?"
Harry took a deep breath and asked the question that had obsessed him for the last month, "Where's Voldemort?" he said, ignoring the shudders and winces at the name, "What's he doing? I've read the Daily Prophet and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."
"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet. Not as far as we know, anyway... and we know quite a lot.", Sirius said,
"More than he thinks we do, anyway.", Lupin said.
"How come he's stopped killing people?", Clark asked, he knew Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.
"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. It would be dangerous for him. His second coming didn't went off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up.", Elizabeth said with a satisfied smile, "Or rather, you and Harry messed it up for him."
"How?" Harry asked, perplexed.
"You weren't supposed to survive!", Sirius said, "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you, Clark and Cedric survived to bear witness."
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore, and you made sure Dumbledore knew at once.", Elizabeth said.
"How has that helped?", Clark asked.
"Are you kidding?", Bill said incredulously, "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!"
"Thanks to your efforts, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned." Sirius said.
"So, what's the Order been doing?", Kara asked, looking around at them all.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans.", Sirius said.
"How do you know what his plans are?", Harry asked quickly.
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea, and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate.", Lupin said.
"Firstly, Voldemort wants to build up his army again.", Elizabeth said, "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."
"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best.", Lupin said.
"How?", Clark asked.
"Well, the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned, to put them on their guard.", Bill said.
"It's proving tricky, though. Because of the Ministry's attitude.", Sirius said, "You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."
"But why? Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore...", Hary said desperate.
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem.", Mr Weasley said with a wry smile, "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see, frightened of what he's up to. Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic.", Elizabeth said, "Of course he doesn't. He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."
"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice.", Lupin said, "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for Magic and he managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."
"How can he think that?", Clark said angrily, "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up? That we make it all up?"
"Because accepting that Voldermort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen year's.", Sirius said bitterly, "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."
"You see the problem, while the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place.", Lupin said, "What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."
"But you're telling people, aren't you?", Harry said, looking around at Sirius, Elizabeth, Fleur, Lupin, Mr Weasley, Bill and Mundungus.
"You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smiled humorlessly. "Well, I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community.", Lupin said, "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off, and it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them.", Elizabeth said, "We've managed to convince a couple of people, though. Tonks for one, she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage. Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset, too."
"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back...", Kara began. "Who said none of us are putting the news out?', Sirius said, "Why do you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What do you mean?", Harry asked.
"They're trying to discredit him. Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true.", Lupin said, "He was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot, that's the Wizard High Court, and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."
"But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards.", Bill said grinning.
"It's no laughing matter. If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up.", Mr Weasley said sharply, "While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out of the way... Well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."
"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?", Harry asked desperately.
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry.", Elizabeth said, "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well-practiced at operating in secret. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in. He's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on those for the moment."
"What's he after apart from followers?", Clark asked swiftly. He thought he saw Sirius and Elizabeth exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius answered, "Stuff he can only get by stealth."
When they continued to look puzzled, Elizabeth added, "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."
"Like what kind of weapon? Something worse than the Avada Kedavra?", Clark asked.
"That's enough!", Mrs Weasley spoke from the shadows beside the door. Clark hadn't noticed her return from taking Ginny upstairs. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious. "I want you in bed, now. All of you.", she added, looking around at Ron, Neville, Hermione, Fred and George.
"You can't boss us..." Fred began.
"Watch me.", Mrs Weasley snarled. She was trembling slightly as she looked at Sirius and Elizabeth, "You've given them plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."
"Why not?", Harry said, with Clark adding, "We'll join, we want to join, we want to fight."
"No."
It was not Mrs Weasley who spoke this time, but Elizabeth. "The Order is comprised only of overage wizards who have left school. There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you... For now we said enough.", Sirius half-shrugged at his wife but did not argue. Mrs Weasley beckoned imperiously to her sons, Neville and Hermione. One by one they stood up and Harry, Clark and Kara followed suit.
Mrs Weasley followed them upstairs looking grim. "I want you all to go straight to bed, no talking.", she said as they reached the first landing, "I expect Ginny's asleep. So try not to wake her up."
"Asleep, yeah, right." Fred said in an undertone, after Hermione bade them goodnight and they were climbing to the next floor, "If Ginny's not lying awake waiting for Hermione to tell her everything they said downstairs then I'm a Flobberworm..."
Clark put on his pyjamas, and climbed into his bed, settled down under the covers then before he could fall asleep, a loud crack was heard.
Grabbing his wand from the nightstand, he found that it was Fleur who had Apparated to his room. "Keep your voice down, or Mrs Weasley will be back up here.", Fleur said as she sat down on his bed, "Something wrong?", she asked when she noticed the blush on his face.
"Well a beautiful girl wearing a light blue night gown just appeared in my room.", Clark pointed out much to her amusement, he was surprised again when Fleur crawled into bed with him.
"They didn't tell us much we couldn't have guessed, did they?", Clark said, trying to ignore the feeling of blood stream to his lower body, thinking of all that had been said earlier. "I mean, all they've really said is that the Order's trying to stop people from joining Voldemort... What do you think that weapon could be?"
"Could be anything.", Fleur said as she laid on her side, looking at her boyfriend with her sky deep blue eyes, "But there can't be anything worse than the Avada Kedavra Curse, can there? What's worse than death?"
"Lots of things... Maybe it's something that can kill loads of people at once...", Clark suggested, looking up at the ceiling of his fourposter bed. There was a pause and Clark knew that the others, like him, were wondering what horrors this weapon could perpetrate.
"So who do you think got it now? If it is on our side, Dumbledore's probably keeping it.", Clark asked.
"Where? Hogwarts?", Fleur asked.
"It's where he hid the Philosopher's Stone... Though a weapon is going to be a lot bigger than the Stone...", Clark said.
"Not necessarily. Size is no guarantee of power.", Fleur said, their eyes looking into each other, "Just look at yourself.", he couldn't keep his grin under control, placing a kiss on her lips. "So tell me... What is this challenge Elizabeth gave you?"
Standing up, he walked into the middle of his room, he gave Fleur one last wink before he doubled over, then in an instant he transformed into a black wolf.
Fleur was impressed that her boyfriend had managed to become an Animagus, but she couldn't help but giggle at how adorable her boyfriend looked. Even though his hair was shorter now, it was still unkempt at the front, his bangs covers his right eye. "Well aren't you a cute Wolfie.", Fleur said as Clark playfully on the bed, giving a playful hurt whine, "I can't help it, your just adorable in your wolf form.", she scratched behind his ear, before he turned back into his human form.
After he slips back into his bed, to his surprise, Fleur wraps her arms around him, and holds him tight, pressing her breasts against him. Clark was sure he would not be able to fall asleep; the evening had been so packed with things to think about that he fully expected to lie awake for hours mulling it all over.
The next thing he knew, he was curled into Fleur's arms under his bedclothes and Harry's amused voice was filling the room. "Elizabeth says get up, lunch is in the kitchen.", he then left with a noticeable smirk on his face.
During the afternoon, Harry, Clark, Ron, Neville, Hermione, Kara, Fleur, Ginny, Fred and George were sitting in the living room. All was quite until they heard the doorbell. At once, everyone dashed over to the window to look down on the doorstep. They could see the top of an unkempt gingery head and a suck of precariously balanced cauldrons. "Mundungus! What's he brought all those cauldrons for?", Hermione asked.
"Probably looking for a safe place to keep them.", Harry said.
"Yeah, you're right!", Fred said, as the front door opened; Mundungus heaved his cauldrons through it and disappeared from view. "Mundungus is talking to Sirius and Kingsley. Do you reckon we can risk the Extendable Ears?"
But at that precise moment there was an explosion of sound from downstairs that rendered Extendable Ears quite unnecessary. All of them could hear exactly what Mrs Weasley was shouting at the top of her voice. "We are not running a hideout for stolen goods!"
"I love hearing Mum shouting at someone else.", Fred said, with a satisfied smile on his face as he opened the door an inch or so to allow Mrs Weasley's voice to permeate the room better, "It makes such a nice change."
"Completely irresponsible, as if we haven't got enough to worry about without you dragging stolen cauldrons into the house!"
A little later, Clark was exploring the house until he came across a room with a tapestry hung the length of the room. The tapestry looked immensely old; a golden thread with which it was embroidered still glinted brightly enough to show them a sprawling family tree dating back as far as Clark could tell to the Middle Ages. Large words at the very top of the tapestry read:
The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black
"So you found the family tree?", the voice of Sirius said behind him, the man himself walking towards his son.
"You're not on it.", Clark said, after scanning the bottom of the tree closely, pointing at a small, round, charred hole in the tapestry, rather like a cigarette burn, two gold lines sprang from it, showing the names 'Clark Samuel Black-Kent' and 'Kara Martha Black-Kent'.
"My sweet old mother blasted me off after I ran away from home. Kreacher's quite fond of muttering the story under his breath.", Sirius said, as he continued to explain, "When I was about sixteen, I'd had enough."
"Where did you go?", Clark asked, staring at him.
"James place. Harry's grandparents were really good about it; they sort of adopted me as a second son. Yeah, I camped out at James in the school holidays, and when I was seventeen I got a place of my own. My Uncle Alphard had left me a decent bit of gold... He's been wiped off here, too, that's probably why... anyway, after that I looked after myself. I was always welcome at Mr and Mrs Potters for Sunday lunch, though."
"But why did you leave?", Clark asked.
Sirius smiled bitterly and ran his fingers through his long hair, "Because I hated the whole lot of them: my parents, with their pure-blood mania, convinced that to be a Black made you practically royal... My idiot brother, soft enough to believe them... that's him."
Sirius jabbed a finger at the very bottom of the tree, at the name 'Regulus Black'. A date of death, some fifteen years previously, followed the date of birth.
"He was younger than me.", Sirius said "and a much better son, as I was constantly reminded. But he died... Stupid idiot... he joined the Death Eaters."
"You're kidding!", Clark said surprised.
"Come on, Clark, haven't you seen enough of this house to tell what kind of wizards our family were?", Sirius said testily.
"Were... were your parents Death Eaters as well?"
"No, no, but believe me, they thought Voldemort had the right idea, they were all for the purification of the wizarding race, getting rid of Muggle-borns and having pure-bloods in charge. They weren't alone, either, there were quite a few people, before Voldemort showed his true colors, who thought he had the right idea about things... they got cold feet when they saw what he was prepared to do to get power, though. But I bet my parents thought Regulus was a right little hero for joining up at first."
"Was he killed by an Auror?", Clark asked tentatively.
"Oh, no, he was murdered by Voldemort. Or on Voldemort's orders, more likely; I doubt Regulus was ever important enough to be killed by Voldemort in person. From what I found out after he died, he got in so far, then panicked about what he was being asked to do and tried to back out. Well, you don't just hand in your resignation to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death."
"I haven't looked at this for years. There's Phineas Nigellu;... my great-great-grandfather, see? Least popular Headmaster Hogwarts ever had and Araminta Meliflua, cousin of my mother's, tried to force through a Ministry Bill to make Muggle-hunting legal, and dear Aunt Elladora, she started the family tradition of beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays... Of course, any time the family produced someone halfway decent they were disowned. I am surprised you and Kara are on it at all. I see Tonks isn't on here. Maybe that's why Kreacher won't take orders from her... He's supposed to do whatever anyone in the family asks him."
"We're related to Tonks?", Clark asked, surprised, remembering the cute pink haired Auror.
"Oh, yeah, her mother Andromeda was my favorite cousin.", Sirius said Sirius, examining the tapestry closely, "No, Andromeda's not on here either." he pointed to another small round burn mark between two names, Bellatrix and Narcissa. A double line of gold embroidery linked Narcissa Black with Lucius Malfoy and a single vertical gold line from their names led to the name Draco.
"We're related to the Malfoy's!?", Clark shouted horrified.
"The pure-blood families are all interrelated. If you're only going to let your sons and daughters marry pure-bloods our choice is very limited.", Sirius said, trying to not smile at his son's reaction, "There are hardly any of us left. Molly and I are cousins by marriage and Arthur's something like my second cousin once removed. But there's no point looking for then on here, if ever a family was a bunch of blood traitors it's the Weasley's."
Clark was now looking at the name to the left of Andromeda's burn: Bellatrix Black, which was connected by a double line to Rodolphus Lestrange.
"Lestrange...", Clark said aloud.
"They're in Azkaban, Bellatrix and her husband Rodolphus came in with Barty Crouch junior.", Sirius said in the same brusque voice, "Rodolphus's brother Rabastan was with them, too."
"Whoa... We have one messed up family...", Clark said and his father couldn't agree more with him. "Bellatrix is one of Voldemort's top lieutenants... She and Liz have an... Interesting history..."
This came to a great surprise to Clark as Sirius turned away from the tapestry, his hands deep in his pockets. "I don't like being back here...", he said, staring across the room, "I never thought I'd set a foot in this house again."
"It's ideal for Headquarters, of course.", Sirius continued, "My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It's unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call, as if they ever have wanted to, and now Dumbledore's added his protection, you'd be hard put to find a safer house anywhere. Dumbledore is Secret Keeper for the Order, you know. If my parents could see the use their house was being put to now... Well, my mothers portrait should have given you some idea."
"I can't believe you would hate your brother like that... I can hardly imagine hating Kara that much... I was only angry at her when... you know.", Clark muttered.
"I know... I can't believe you hate your mother like I use to do.", Sirius said back, earning a glare from his son. "I don't hate Elizabeth... It's just... I have trouble trusting her.", he said back.
Sirius gave his son a look over, before placing a hand on his shoulder, "Clark, if something is bothering you, you can talk to me."
"At times I feel she cares more about Harry and Kara than me...", Clark said before admitting to something that had been bothering him ever since they had returned from the graveyard, "Voldemort told me... Me and him were alike... What if he is right? I just feel so angry, all the time. What if after everything that I've been through, something's gone wrong inside me? What if I'm becoming bad?... or worse."
"I want you to listen to me very carefully, Clark.", Sirius said, his hand tightly gripping around his shoulder, "You're not a bad person. You're a very good person, who bad things have happened to. Besides, this world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."
There ya go another chapter, hope you liked it. I did an Animal Test in character to decide Clark's Animagus form... I had to do it twice, because his first animal was a dolphin. Anyways, many thanks to everyone who reads, reviews, favorite or follows this story, you beautiful bastards! For now I wish you all a fantastic day and I will see you ladies and gents, next time. Mischief Managed!
