Chapter Eight

Turf War

The night of the meeting arrived and Alaw had offered to go out and get food from the take-away place around the corner, to save Mrs Weasley having to cook anything. Mrs Weasley had been reluctant but was also tempted by the thought of a night off kitchen duty, so had agreed. Alaw was looking at her phone as she came down the stairs with her handbag slung over one shoulder. The sound of the front door closing drew her attention and she froze. Professor Dumbledore had just entered. He didn't look in Alaw's direction, he just crossed the hall and disappeared into the kitchen. The only other person in the hall was Sirius and he glanced apologetically at Alaw.

"Sorry kiddo, looks like the meeting's starting early. You just get food for you and the others upstairs, we'll be fine."

Then he followed the headmaster and closed the kitchen door behind him quietly. Alaw glared after him, irritation flooding through her. Damn! She hadn't had time to set up their carefully arranged plan! She would have to improvise. She stood motionless on the stairs for a few moments, her mind whirring, and then she smiled and tiptoed down the last few steps and across the chequered tiles.

"Thank you all for coming," said Dumbledore to the gathered members of the Order. "I thought it important to have one last full meeting before the school year began again. Most of us will be too busy in the coming months for such a gathering."

It had taken them a while to get started as they'd been waiting on Alastor, who'd had guard duty that evening. Sturgis had taken over from him so he would unfortunately miss the proceedings, but Dumbledore trusted one the other members to fill him in. The headmaster glanced down at the list of subjects they needed to cover and was about to begin when the door of the kitchen opened once again.

"Sorry it took so long," Alaw sighed, setting a teetering pile of flat cardboard boxes on the sideboard. "But it's a Friday and the pizza place was packed. Anywhoo, who had the Chicken Supreme?"

There had been a great flurry of movement at the table when Alaw entered as people hurried to cover important documents, and Moody flipped his ledger shut with a snap.

"Alaw," said Dumbledore sternly. "You know you aren't allowed to attend these meetings. Kindly leave the room."

Alaw acted as if she hadn't heard him and began passing out boxes.

"Right, Sirius, that's a Meat Feast for you to share with Lupin. Mrs Weasley, there's your Margarita, I promise, it's the plainest thing on the menu. Mr Weasley, that's your Pepperoni."

Dumbledore shook his head in deep disapproval as Alaw moved around the table. Across from the headmaster, Sirius was trying his best to contain his laughter and even Lupin seemed to be hiding a smile.

"This is not amusing," Dumbledore said, injecting a little more anger into his voice but once again Alaw completely ignored him, not even glancing up from her boxes.

"Uh, who had the Vegetarian?"

"Mine," grunted Moody and Dumbledore looked at him in surprise. Moody just shrugged in a 'what can you do?' sort of way, and accepted his dinner.

"And I got you a Veggie option too Sir, cause I didn't know what you liked," said Alaw, handing the final box to Severus who accepted it without comment. "Ok people, have fun with your little meeting, us kids are having a board game night upstairs."

Alaw flounced to the door where she turned and gave Dumbledore the most spiteful look she could muster before disappearing up the stairs. She left the door open so Tonks, who was barely containing her giggles, had to get up and close it. Sirius opened his box and took a deep sniff before saying,

"You should be proud Snivellus, she's a Slytherin through and through that one."

Many hours later, when Grimmauld Place was quiet and all the oil lamps had been extinguished, Alaw stole back downstairs. Most of the Order members, including Dumbledore, had left at the end of the meeting. She and Neville had sat on the landing and jotted down each of their names as they passed through the front door. The Flames now had a decent list of Order members tucked into one of Alaw's many files.

Alaw did her best to tread lightly of the stairs to avoid any creaks, but it was an old house and some noise was unavoidable. She made it to the hall and crept past the portrait of Sirius' mother, which was snoring lightly behind its curtain. After easing open the kitchen door and stealing down the stairs, Alaw blinked in the near total darkness. The only light came from the single tiny window set near the ceiling, where the orange glare of streetlamp filtered through. Alaw groped around on the countertop, her fingers first encountering the coffee jar, and then her phone which she had planted behind it when she set the pizza boxes down.

"Ha, not so clever now," she muttered, thinking smugly about Dumbledore. In all his wisdom, he never suspected they'd turn to muggle technology for help.

"What is the mudblood doing?"

Alaw nearly had a heart attack and she let out a yelp like a dog, spinning around to look for the source of the voice.

"Who's there?" she asked, her voice slightly higher than usual.

"No one," croaked the voice again, now with a mocking tone. "No one important. Only poor Kreacher."

In the gloom, Alaw could now make out the small, stooped shape of the House Elf. He was standing by the cupboard which contained the boiler and he was glaring at Alaw shrewdly.

"The Mudblood is sneaking," he hissed. "Sneaking around in the dark. Kreacher knows what she and her filthy friends are up to, oh yes, Kreacher knows more than anyone thinks!"

That was probably true. The way Sirius spoke about Kreacher made Alaw sure that most witches and wizards didn't even notice when House Elves were around. He must know all the secrets of the Order.

"Please don't call me that," Alaw said quietly.

She felt great pity for Kreacher, he obviously had a miserable existence here and he was suffering from some sort of mental health issues. Sirius treated him with dirt, and everyone else acted as if he was just another household appliance, like a hoover, or a broom. But she still wasn't going let his casually sling racial slurs at her.

"Please don't call me that!" Kreacher repeated with a cackle and Alaw rolled her eyes. There was no reasoning with the House Elf, so she left the kitchen with her phone tucked safely into her dressing gown pocket.

"Got it!" Alaw said once she'd slipped back into her bedroom. Hermione, Neville and the Weasleys were all gathered there, perched on the beds or the windowsill.

"Nice one, I was worried someone would notice it," said Ron but Alaw shook her head.

"Nah, all they'd see is a phone. They don't know they can record things."

She sat down on the vacant chair and opened her phone. The recording app was of course still running so she stopped it.

"Five hours of material," she sighed, "But we only need the first hour or so."

They'd timed how long the meeting had lasted for this very reason, and Alaw scrolled back to the beginning of the recording, and pressed play. The first five minutes was just a lot of scraping as the microphone brushed against Alaw's hand, then there was thunk, indicating when she'd set down on the sideboard.

"Blimy that's crappy quality," Alaw muttered as they listened to snatches of the pizza debacle. "I knew all the magic in the air would interfere with it!"

"Well you can sort of work out what's being said," said Hermione optimistically. She cocked her head and leant closer to the phone, which Alaw held out so they could all listen.

"Proud - Slyth - through a- through," said a muffled voice.

"Is that Sirius?" Ginny mouthed and they all shrugged.

" - kind of stunt is more Gryff - Black," said another voice, which Alaw was fairly sure belonged to Snape.

" - nuff, let's get on with the meeting," said Dumbledore.

Alaw glanced up at Hermione and nodded, and her friend raised her notepad and pen, poised to jot down what was said. Over the next two hours, the Flames listened in on the Order's big meeting. It took twice as long as the actual meeting because they kept having to rewind parts to make out what was being said, or who was saying it.

They listened to Bill give a report about someone called Travers and his attempt to set up a meeting with one of the Goblins at Gringotts, Gornuk. There was lot of debate among the Order about what to do if the Goblins did join forces with Voldemort, though Bill thought it unlikely given that Gornuk had told Travers to suck it.

There was then a conversation about Godwin Avery's day in court. As expected, he'd been fined five hundred galleons and suspended from the Wizengamot for twelve months. He was still allowed to charge for legal advice but he couldn't represent anyone before the court. Most of the Order thought this an extremely light punishment for his crime of insider trading and leaking confidential Ministry documents to foreign investors, but Dumbledore was pleased that Voldemort's main source of information in the courts was gone.

Alaw was quite amused when the Order began to discuss how the Ministry had caught Avery. An anonymous tip off had been sent to the Daily Prophet and the subsequent investigation by the Wizengamot had thrown up much of the evidence. Moody thought the tip off might have been from a rival barrister, and several names were suggested. The Flames all grinned at each other.

Every time a spell was cast, even something as small as a summoning charm, the microphone registered it as a horrible, piercing shriek and everyone listening would wince and rub their ears.

"For god's sake!" Alaw snapped after this happened for the fifth time. "Just get up and get it yourself you lazy fucks! Do they have to use their wands for everything?!"

"Wait wait," Hermione cried. "Go back, that bit was about guard duty. Didn't you guys say they were always talking about guard duty when we were in France?"

Ginny and the twins nodded and Alaw dragged the recording back about thirty seconds and they all listened raptly.

"We'll need to s - out a new rota for guard duty once M - rva and Severus go back to wor -," said Mad-Eye.

"I'll take extra shifts," said Lupin.

"Good, Vol - mort will probably make another move on the Pro – sy soon," said Dumbledore gravely and whilst the Weasleys and Neville cringed at the sound of the name, Hermione and Alaw looked sharply at each other.

"What was that word? Everyone shut up! Listen," Alaw cried, rewinding and focusing on the distorted word. "Prophesy? Is that what he said?"

"It sounds like it," Hermione muttered uncertainly. "Let's keep listening and see if they say it again."

Moody was now speaking and his gruff voice was even harder to make out that anyone else's.

"Selwyn's been sn – ping around the corridor ag – in. – should think ab – ing more patrols do – there."

There were then a pause and a few mutterings that were simply too vague to riddle out. Then Sirius spoke, and his voice was much clearer as he had been sat closest to the phone.

"I still don't see why we can't just tell Alaw about the Prophesy."

"Sirius, we have been over this a hundred times before and my answer has not changed," said Dumbledore, and it was clear even with the bad audio quality that he was angry. Sirius however, didn't let it lie.

"Oh come on, Al has a right to know about the damn thing at the very least. She's a bright girl, she won't stop trying to find out. She's been asking me hundreds of questions for weeks."

"It was like two Sirius, don't be dramatic," Alaw murmured, resting her head in her hand and frowning at the phone.

"It is absolutely essential that Alaw not find out about the Prophesy," Dumbledore insisted. "It is more important than any of you realise."

"But it's about her, Albus, she has a right! And we don't even know what it says, and neither does Voldemort. Where's the harm in telling her?" Sirius argued. It was nice to hear her godfather standing up for her like that but Dumbledore shut him down.

"I don't want to hear any more about it, Sirius. Alaw is far safer not knowing anything. Trust me."

Trust you? I trust you about as far as I can chuck you, Alaw thought angrily. But Sirius didn't say anything else on the matter and the meeting soon wrapped up. Alaw stopping the recording and closed her phone, looking around at the others who were all watching her.

"Well, that was illuminating," she said. "I guess we now know what the 'object' Voldemort wants is."

"A Prophesy, a Prophesy about you, Al," said Neville quietly. "This is big."

Whatever Alaw had expected the object to turn out to be, it certainly hadn't been this. She had been imagining some kind of weapon, like a potion, or a magical artefact, something Voldemort would use in the war. But it was information he sought, information about Alaw.

"I don't know anything about Prophesies," she admitted. "I kind of assumed it was all a load of crap, like the stuff Trelawney comes out with. All star-signs and tea leaves and shit. Are we saying there are real Prophesies in the wizarding world?"

"Oh yeah, Seers are definitely real," George said, nodding fervently. "People used to take their kids to a Seer when they were born, to see what their futures would be like. But they were always quite vague and people got disappointed, so they became quite old fashioned."

Hermione and Alaw exchanged sceptical looks. Personally, Alaw wouldn't want to know the future of her child, that would just open up a whole can of worms.

"So, where are Prophesies kept?" Hermione asked. "Is there a library of some sorts for them? How does it work?"

"I don't know where they're kept," said Fred, frowning in thought. "All I know about Seers is that they go into a sort of trance when they make a Prophesy, and they always make it to someone specific, or a group of people. And then the Seer doesn't even remember it afterwards, it's like people who have funny turns but then carry on like nothing happened."

"There's got to be a library somewhere," said Ginny. "And that's what the Order are guarding! That's where You-Know-Who is trying to break into."

Alaw's brow creased and she rested her head in her hand again. This was a huge breakthrough, but as they knew next to nothing about Prophesies, they would have to research them as soon as possible. The Hogwarts library would surely have something on the subject. She was about to suggest this when they heard a creak outside the door and they all jumped, Hermione stuffing her notes under a pillow and Alaw hiding the phone from sight. They listened, all frozen in place, but there was no further sound.

"I hate this house," Ron muttered. "It's creepy!"

"We should all go to bed, before we get caught," Hermione sighed. "We'll talk more about this Prophesy stuff in the morning."

Having gone to sleep so late, Alaw was exhausted by the time morning rolled around, and she opted to stay in bed and skip breakfast. By the time she got up and dressed, everyone else had been awake for hours and were scattered around the house, pursuing their own activities. With only two days left before they went back to Hogwarts, Mrs Weasley had been nagging them all to have their things packed.

Mrs Weasley and Sirius were the only people in the kitchen when Alaw entered it, the former was busy making lunch – vegetable soup by the smell of it.

"Good afternoon," said Sirius from behind his Daily Prophet as Alaw pottered around, making herself a cup of tea.

"Shut up, it's not that late," Alaw grumbled, groping in a jar for a teabag. Mrs Weasley pointed her wand at a pile of potatoes that started peeling themselves and chopping into chunks.

"Lunch will be ready in about an hour dear, but I can make you a sandwich if you're really hungry," she offered.

"Thanks, but I'm ok with my tea," said Alaw, now putting the kettle on the hob. "Um, but can you light the oven for me please?"

Mrs Weasley flicked her wand at the hob which ignited and Alaw smiled gratefully. Sirius folded up the paper and threw it to one side.

"So, that was quite a stunt you pulled last night," he said and Alaw rolled her eyes.

"It wasn't a stunt, I was just bring you dinner. I didn't know the meeting had already started. Did everyone like their pizza?"

Mrs Weasley glanced anxiously at her.

"Yes dear, it was lovely. But you know you really shouldn't treat Professor Dumbledore like that. It was very rude."

"I treat him the way he's been treating me," said Alaw stubbornly. "I won't let him get away with it!"

Neither Sirius nor Mrs Weasley seemed to have an answer for this so Sirius sighed and changed the subject.

"Well, your Hogwarts letters arrived this morning, and about time too. Can you take them upstairs to the others?"

He picked up a pile of letters from the table next to him and offered them to Alaw. Hers' was at the top, her name and address written out in Snape's spidery scrawl.

"Arthur and I are going to go into town this afternoon to collect all your new books," Mrs Weasley explained. "It's far too dangerous for you youngsters to go yourselves."

For once, Alaw didn't argue with her. It was alright for her to wander around muggle London, hidden amongst millions of other people, but Diagon Alley was very exposed and exactly the sort of place Voldemort would have staked out. So Alaw finished making her tea and took her cup and the letters back upstairs. She found the twins and Ginny in the drawing room, playing exploding snap, and Neville and Ron were in their room on the first landing. Hermione was busy on the second floor, packing.

"Hogwarts letters," Alaw said, tossing Hermione's to her and sitting down on the bed to open her own. It felt oddly thick for some reason.

"I thought we would never get them!" said Hermione crossly. "We've only got two days to buy all our new books!"

"Mrs Weasley said she was going to go into Diagon Alley later for them. Got to remember to give her our Gringotts keys," said Alaw absently, slitting open the envelope and pulling out the letter.

It was the usual message about catching the train from Platform 9 ¾ and a short list of new books. But there was something else in the envelope and Alaw frowned. She tipped it upside down and something slid out into her open hand. Alaw stared at the object, dumbfounded. It was a badge, showing the Slytherin crest in green enamel, with a large P in the middle. A prefect badge.

"No fucking way," she murmered, turning the badge over and over, shaking her head.

No, there was no way in hell that Snape would have picked her to be a prefect. Even if he thought she was the right choice, he wasn't stupid, he knew how the other Slytherins would react, how their mummies and daddies would react!

"Oh my goodness!" Hermione squealed, breaking Alaw out of her reverie. Alaw's head snapped up and she saw that Hermione was holding a similar badge, only hers' was red, instead of green. Well, that wasn't exactly a surprise.

"Well done!" Alaw said, jumping up and hurrying across the room to have a look. "I knew you'd get that."

Hermione beamed at her and hugged her tightly.

"Mum and Dad'll be so pleased!" she said happily. "I mean, I was hoping, but I didn't want to assume I'd be picked."

"Oh come on, it was obviously going to be you," said Alaw, smiling. Hermione blushed a little and looked down, but in doing so she caught sight of the badge in Alaw's hand. She gasped.

"Oh! Al, well done! Why didn't you say anything?" she asked in surprise and Alaw grimaced, shoving her badge in her back pocket.

"I don't know what Snape is playing at," she said, shaking her head. "Why has he done this? Theodore Nott is going to have a fit when he finds out! Not to mention Lucius Malfoy and them lot."

Hermione pursed her lips in thought and then her eyes lit up.

"Maybe it was Dumbledore," she said and Alaw cocked her head in puzzlement. "It's not just the heads of house who choose the prefects, Dumbledore must have a say in it too. Maybe he chose you."

"Well why would he do that?" Alaw asked scornfully. "He's done nothing but fob me off all summer!"

"Maybe he's trying to make up for it?" Hermione suggested doubtfully and Alaw snorted. Somehow she didn't think Dumbledore would make her a prefect for such a superficial reason. He was playing some sort of game and she did not want to play.

"Come on," she said, trying to shake off her scowl and look happy for Hermione's sake. "Let's go and tell the boys."

Hermione still looked worried but the prospect of telling the others about her triumph perked her up considerably. The girls hurried down the stairs and entered the boys' bedroom in time to see Ron aim a punch at Fred who was laughing raucously. Fred dodged easily and he and George continued to guffaw.

"What's going on?" Alaw asked, glancing at Neville and Ginny who were watching the proceedings from the corner.

"Guess who's been made an ickle prefect!" Fred crowed and Alaw and Hermione looked at Ron, whose face was beetroot red, in surprise.

"Really?" Hermione asked, astonished. "Ron, that's wonderful! Me and Al too!"

She waved her badge and him and the twins stopped laughing. Everyone gaped at Alaw who took her own badge out with more reluctance.

"Yeah, it's just Dumbledore messing with us," she said quickly. "But it's great for these two! Let's just concentrate on that."

She didn't really want to discuss her badge, not when it meant so much more to Hermione. But the others continued to stare at her, making her feel uncomfortable and she was incredibly relieved when Mrs Weasley came in with a basket of clean laundry.

"Have you all had a look at your book lists?" she asked, putting the basket on Ron's bed and starting to sort through it. "If you could all just give them to me, I'll go into town after we've had some lunch. Ron, these pyjamas are getting quite old you know, would you like some new ones?"

"Get him ones with gold frills to match his badge," said George and Ron shot his brother a venomous look.

"What badge?" asked Mrs Weasley absently, removing some of Neville's clothes from the basket and placing them to one side.

"His prefect badge," Fred sighed, with a very resigned air. "His lovely new Gryffindor prefect badge."

Mrs Weasley stared at Fred for a moment before turning to Ron whose skin tone suggested he'd been swimming in a volcano.

"Ron – you're not – you don't have," Mrs Weasley said uncertainly. Then she saw the badge in his hand and let out a squeal of excitement. She hurried across the room to wrap her youngest son in a tight embrace. "Oh I don't believe it! Oh Ron this is wonderful, I'm so proud of you! Third prefect in the family! You wait until I tell your father about this!"

Behind her, Fred, George and Ginny were pretending to be sick and Neville seemed to be trying his best not to laugh. Ron was squirming.

"Mum, get off," he grumbled. "It's not that big a deal!"

"Oh yes it is!" said Mrs Weasley firmly. "Now then, we gave Percy an owl as his reward, what would you like?"

Whilst Ron's sullen expression vanished in an instant at the prospect of a present of his choice, Alaw glanced at Hermione and jerked her head towards the door. Hermione followed her, as did Neville.

"Why don't we find somewhere with decent signal?" she suggested once they were out on the landing. "Then you can message your parents the good news."

"And you can tell yours!" Hermione reminded her and Alaw grimaced. For some reason, she simply wasn't able to summon any excitement at the prospect.