Chapter Thirteen
A/N: His Sorry it took so long but I wanted to rest a bit and play some red Alert 2. I am having fun with these mass destructive muggle weaponry. Any way here it is and read. Thanx and nice to have you back Starlight (Kim). Pete thanx for the reviews. Helena you too and USABUNNY. Many more including Herm. See ya later with the next chapter.
Sirius gripped Harry's hand with a reassuring grip as if to make him fell safe. He truly did feel safe. Especially now. He was among Professor Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the time, Sirius Black, his godfather and the closest person he had to the father he never had, Professor Remus Lupin, one of the best Defence Against Dark Arts Teachers he had ever seen and finally last but not least a very powerful magical object in his finger. He smiled at Sirius to covey his appreciation to what he was doing but soon his full attention was on the meeting.
"Harry, as you must have found out from Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger that Voldemort has risen in power greatly, but I doubt that you have any more about the matter since I sad to censor their communication with the rest of the world for a short period of time" said Professor Dumbledore with his usual pleasant smile and the slight twinkle in his eyes.
Harry nodded. Sirius further tightened his grip on Harry's hand as if to prepare him for something bad and Professor Lupin sighed in an exhausted manner. Harry knew what he was going to hear next was going to be bad since even Dumbledore's usual cheerful smile was replaced by a rather concerned and worried face.
"Harry I want you to make sure that the information I am going to disclose to you now and in the future regarding this topic must be kept in the dark from anyone whom I do not give my consent to. I know this is going to be hard for you but it has to include Mr. Weasley and Ms. Granger"
Professor Dumbledore stared at him with a 'take you time and think' look. Harry had rarely if ever had kept any big secret from Ron and Hermione. It was a symbol of their trust for one another. Harry also knew how many times they had helped him in his adventures, especially in confronting life-threatening situations. Their trust for one another meant that they were one rather than three different personalities. He also knew hard it was going to be to hide something from them but by the sound of it, it had to be concerning Voldemort and he had no choice but to nod in agreement.
Professor Dumbledore smiled back and moved his stared onto a piece of long parchment that lay on his magnificent oak desk. He slowly pulled out a wand out of his navy blue gallant robes and touched the parchment. At once bright blue lights shot out of the parchment in lines towards the ceiling. There, the blue lights created a hovering image of object. It didn't take Harry too long to figure out what it was. It was a map made out of the blue line light that shot out of the parchment that was hovering, spinning in mid air over the desk. But Harry had no idea what the map was showing. He just sat there staring at the hovering map with a mixed expression of both amazement and curiosity. It was Sirius that broke the silence this time.
"Now that we know Harry hasn't been paying attention in Charms class the previous year, not that I blame you with all that happened" he said giving him a sly grin and holding one of his arms up to cease Harry from arguing back, he continued "We better get on with it."
"Good idea Sirius. But I think Harry went over quite a few charm books to help him in the Tri Wizarding Tournament" said Dumbledore with his twinkle back where it should be.
Professor Dumbledore cleared his thought and started to explain.
"Harry this is a map of the Wizarding world. It is tuned to display the progress of a specific group of people whom you'll get to know shortly. We have handed these to every person involved in the resistance and wouldn't mind providing you Harry with one as well since you are so closely involved with everything. It just might come handy," said Dumbledore picking up another large parchment, which lay, rolled up on a side table. Dumbledore held it out for him and Harry took it thanking him.
"Harry many things have happened during the last couple of weeks and the true reason I asked you to come up here is because I thought you had a right to know what was going on" said Dumbledore with a reassuring smile. "I think Sirius will do a better job than me from here"
It was Sirius turn to speak out but by the way he cleared his throat nervously, Harry knew that either something was seriously troubling Sirius or he didn't like to give public speeches.
"Uh…Harry, since you got
back after your ordeal on the night of the Tri Wizarding Tournament's final
challenge, Dumbledore took the first steps to organizing a resistance against
Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Several of us were given important branches of
this resistance. I was put in charge of reorganizing the old group who were
working against Voldemort before his downfall by you, Arabella and Mudungus to research in ways we can
battle the dark arts, Hagrid and Madam Maxime were sent on a mission to
negotiate on a alliance with the giants since they will be good allies and
dreadful enemies. Severus and Viktor are in charge of intelligence work and
finally but not least Professor McGonagall and Remus here are in charge of
Organization. We are growing rather rapidly but unfortunately Voldemort has
been more successful than us. He already has a miniature army of death eaters.
The days of several dozen death eaters working as a coven are over. Voldemort
has his own army with a figure around four to five hundred personnel."
Sirius
had said it all as if he had no intention of doing it, but was obliged to do
so. Harry knew that it had something to do with him knowing too much and
worrying over it too much but he himself had astounded himself by the amount of
stress he could cope and yet stay clam as a still sea.
"Sirius, who's Arabella and Mudungus?" asked
Harry.
He
had never heard of neither of them. He had heard about someone named Arabella
Figgs, but it was an old lady where the Dursley's kept him when they went out.
This Arabella Figgs was much more younger. It could well have been a
coincident. But something within Harry told him that he had heard both their
names.
"Arabella and Mudungus were a year younger than
us in our days at Hogwarts and both of them had helped us greatly once we
started to fight Voldemort back. Actually your mother was associated Arabella
rather closely and James too hanged out with Mudungus. They are very nice
people Harry and are also very talented. We need all the talent we can trust,"
said Sirius.
But Sirius's eyes glimmered with an odd
expression that made Harry think that he wasn't saying everything he knew. Sirius
had somehow or the other had read Harry's mind and swiftly changed the subject.
This made Harry even more suspicious.
"Professor Dumbledore? Shall we tell Harry here
who the new Defense Against Dark Arts teacher's going to be?" he sad with a sly
grin.
Harry immediately turned towards professor
Lupin but he too had obviously read his mind and shook his head a 'no'. Harry's
mind was now drifting into the immense possibilities. Was Hogwarts hiring a new
teacher? If so would he/she last for more than a year? None of the last four
professors had lasted for more than one year and from what Harry had heard
neither had anyone before that. No one knew how long it had been since someone
had lasted for more than a year in the position. Harry's curiosity stepped in
and he turned his head towards professor Dumbledore and pleaded with his eyes
to tell him. Dumbledore smiled and nodded a 'yes'.
"You'll find it out in few weeks anyway" he
said as he turned his gaze towards Sirius as if asking him to be the one to spill
the beans.
A/N: Now that's a good cliffhanger. I have been
having trouble with cliffhangers earlier in the story. Even though you guys say
they are awesome and cruel, I don't think they were that good. So tell me what
you think of them and who do you think the next DADA teacher will be? Are my
Cliffhangers good?
A/N: Sorry I wrote it on Friday but there was a problem with my Internet Connection and I went on a trip on the weekend so here I am. I'll try to post another chapter today, Thanx and Review