Chapter nine

Harry stared at Neville for a few minutes, 'He believes the power is love. Okay, at first I didn't believe love could be powerful, but I have seen that it can be. The trouble with this is I have never loved anyone, nor have I felt love from anyone. There is no chance it's love, if it means me.'

'I heard my uncle talk about a room in the department of mysteries. It's where they study the magic of love.'

'Right, dumbledore told me the same thing. But because of my life and how many times people turned on me, including my friends, I became more wary of people. I began to care for Sirius, but I hardly got any time with him. If I got to live with him like he wanted then yes, maybe I could have learned to love him, like I would a parent, but I didn't. I did like him, a lot which could have grown but as I said I never got to spend any time with him, we mainly wrote to each other. I've had too many betray me for me to allow myself to care for anyone.'

'I get it mate, I noticed how differently you acted with Ron after your name came out of the goblet of fire. Only a few weeks ago we all heard Hermione call you a cheat and we all know that Hermione was the reason you had your Firebolt confiscated. If it was me, I wouldn't have been that concerned since I don't like to fly, but we all saw how upset you were.'

'Hedwig was the first gift I ever received. When Ron and Hermione found out that I never got birthday or Christmas gifts, they made sure to get me something. Ron might not have a lot, but he always got me stuff like chocolate frogs. With the broom, it was a gift and since I didn't own a lot, it meant a lot to me. But it was a gift from my godfather. It wasn't just the fact that I had a gift taken from me, it was that she went behind my back to tell McGonagall. If she would have spoken to me about her concerns, then I'm sure I would have allowed the teachers to examine the broom. She didn't give me the option, just went straight to McGonagall.'

'And if anyone knows you like Hermione should, then she should have realised you were big on honesty and trust, you also like loyalty. You know Harry, it's a wonder you didn't end up in Hufflepuff.'

'I'm just lucky I could talk the hat out of placing me in Slytherin.'

'What?!

Harry laughed at the look on Neville's face, 'Yep, it wanted to put me in Slytherin. I had met Malfoy when I went to get my things in Diagon alley. So, there I am sitting on the stool and I kept repeating, not Slytherin, not Slytherin. Finally, it said Gryffindor.'

'If you ended up in Slytherin I think every person in that castle would have been shocked. But you know it would have been dangerous for you if you did end up there. Almost all their parent's are death eaters and some were in Azkaban until he broke them out.'

'I worked that out when I found out what death eaters are. That was when the death eaters attacked at the quidditch world cup. I had no idea about the dark mark or why those people were wearing strange masks. Hermione explained a bit about it, she probably read it in some book. When we returned to Hogwarts, I did a bit of research. I skipped the pages that mentioned my parent's and just read about the war with Voldemort and what his death eaters did and were like. It was then that I thought your parent's must have been killed, the same with Susan Bones.'

'Susan lost not only her parent's, but her grandparents and uncle. Amelia Bones was the only one to survive, she took in Susan.'

'Amelia Bones is head of the DMLE, isn't she?'

'Yep, and lucky to survive that attack on her home that happened last week. Susan had been staying at Hannah Abbotts place when the death eaters attacked. But Madam Bones was having a secret meeting at her home, with a bunch of aurors and hit wizards who she trusted.'

'Damn, she was lucky. How do you know all this Neville?'

'I'm close to both Susan and Hannah, we spent a lot of time together growing up. And to be honest with you Harry, I sort of fancy Hannah.'

'Then if you get a chance, tell her. Look at the situation we're all in. We know we could die. She may or may not return your feelings, but at least she would know, and you would know if anything would come out of it. We have to fight, and we have to believe there is a chance we could survive. So, having a girl that you might get to shag eventually just might give you something to make you fight harder.'

'Harry,' Neville's eyes widened as he blushed brightly making Harry laugh.

Harry hadn't really laughed in a long time. He would give a small chuckle, but not laugh, not like now.

Over the next couple of days, when Tonks wasn't at the house, Remus, Harry and Neville would practice using the guns. They would also practice using grenades. They figured if they could set off a couple, it would either take out some death eaters which would give everyone a chance at surviving, or it will at least cause a distraction. It took a lot of work, but they were able to work on summoning the pin without having the grenade come to them. Remus had worked on fake grenades so they would have something to practice on without putting themselves in danger. They were trying to work on plans on how to pick the battle ground so they could place a bunch of grenades and cover them, so they were hidden.

The Weasley family, along with Hermione and Ron were now staying at Grimmauld place. Arthur Weasley had helped Hermione with her parent's. Hermione thought of using a memory charm on her parent's so they would not know they had a daughter. Arthur came up with another plan. He simply confunded them then made them believe they wanted to move to Australia, and their daughter would join them during the holidays then move over there after she finished her last year at Hogwarts. Hermione was relieved that her parent's were safe, but also that they would remember her. If anything happened to her, a letter she had written would find it's way to her parent's.

Tonks arrived with her parent's, she sent her patronus into the house so Harry could add them to the wards.

'There was an attack, we were able to get away, just,' Tonks said.

'I'm glad you're all safe, and you are welcome to stay here as long as you need.'

'Thank you, Mr Potter,' Ted said giving him a smile.

'It's Harry,' Harry smiled then spelled them into the manor, 'You both know Remus, this is my friend, Neville Longbottom. Neville, this is Andromeda and Ted Tonks.'

'It's a pleasure to meet you Mr Longbottom,' ted shook his hand before andromeda stepped in front of Neville.

'I have to apologise for what my family did to your parent's Neville.'

'No ma'am, you don't, you had nothing to do with it, that was all your sister's doing.'

'You're too kind.'

'Mipsy, can you show Mr and Mrs Tonks to one of the suits please?'

'Yes Master Harry, if you would follow Mipsy.'

'Go settle in,' Tonks said.

'Are you okay Tonks?' Remus asked.

'Yes, well, physically, I'm fine. The house was damaged, but luckily mum and dad had packed up most of the things they didn't want destroyed. They were all stored in their vaults. They had bags packed ready to go in case this happened. Okay, there fine, I'm fine, now tell me what you three have been up to. I know you're keeping something from me, so spill it.'

'We trust you Tonks, we're just worried about the oath you had to take when you became an auror,' Harry said quickly.

'We didn't want to put you in that type of situation where they will make you tell them what we did, or plan to do,' Remus said.

'Okay, first is I officially resigned as an auror, so the oath is no longer in affect. Second, and this is just as a precaution, place the information under the fidelius charm that way I, nor anyone else can communicate in any way about it. They only can with the people who know about it.'

'I'm fine with that,' Harry said as he looked at Remus.

'So am I, alright, let's go into the office where I will cast the charm on the information we want to keep quiet.'

It only took a few minutes before they were able to tell Tonks exactly what they have been doing and what they plan to do to take care of Voldemort and his death eaters.

'Okay, I get why, they would push to have you lot sent straight to Azkaban, unless we could take care of all of them in one go. And we know they would kill Remus straight away. Alright, idea, we are planning on taking out the snake, you-know-who will probably turn up with his death eaters. Why don't we get more people there and try to take him out along with his death eaters?'

'Harry has to be the one to take care of Voldemort, but we can concentrate on the rest.'

'Neville and I plan to do it together, because of the prophecy.'

'So, you believe the prophecy is real, about you and…him?' Tonks asked.

'Dumbledore believed it is about me, Remus and I both think it's me, but there is a slight chance that it could mean Neville. If I die, but the prophecy isn't fulfilled then Neville has a chance. If I die and it's fulfilled then it meant me. We can't take the chance that he could get away, so we're both going to aim at him. We just need you lot to keep the death eaters away from us, so we have time to shoot him. But you have to remember that Voldemort believes it, and he blames me for losing his body for thirteen years, so whether it's true or not he believes it is so he'll keep coming after me. First is the snake, that has to be quick and can be anyone. I saw through the snake's eyes when it attacked Mr Weasley, I'm sure Voldemort was somehow communicating with it. The moment we go to kill it, Voldemort will know.'

'Yes, so he will arrive with his death eaters. Alright, we get the entire order, apart from Snape and work on some plans. But we have to wait until you are both seventeen,' Remus said.

'Even though we still need a lot more practice, with magic and guns, at least we can work on plans. One I thought of was the twins and their stuff. Using the twins things could make them move to the area we want them to go. We need to sneak the grenades there then hide them, but we'll also need to know exactly where they are so none of us end up being hurt by them. We can summon the pins when the death eaters are in place.'

'The twins were working on shield hats, but I doubt they will be of much use against death eaters who only use things like the killing curse and the cruciatus curse,' Remus said.

'They mentioned decoy detonators and they do have that peruvian instant darkness powder. Malfoy used it to sneak the death eaters through the castle,' Harry said, 'They have the portable swamp and I know they were working on a portable quick sand. I'm sure they have other things that can distract the death eaters long enough for us to pull the pins but also direct them to where we want them to go.'

'You and Neville concentrate on Voldemort, the rest of us will concentrate on the death eaters and the grenades,' Tonks said.

'No one else can know of the grenades Tonks. We can't take the chance that they could mention it to the wrong person. We know the order are trustworthy, but they sometimes forget the portraits can relay messages. Also, we know the twins came up with extendable ears, how hard would it be for someone in the ministry could do the same and listen in on conversations. Then you have Skeeter who uses her beetle animagus to learn things for her stories. No, only the four of us will know about the grenades and guns, so you two will need to summon the pins. One of you could keep shielding while the other does the summoning charm, then switch.'

'Good idea, now let's get stuck into these plans properly so we can set up to kill the snake and hopefully Voldemort and his death eaters,' Remus said. 'Since we're putting this information under the charm then if we tell others, like Tonks's parent's they can't tell anyone.'

The group sat down and began to talk about their plans. They knew they would change things around, probably a lot, but they had the basics, it was a start.