Chapter Twelve ~ Arthur's Ascension
**************************************************************************************************************************
Later that night, all the students and staff were seated in the Great Hall waiting for dinner. Dumbledore rose from his seat to gravely address the school.
"Earlier this evening I received reports that a disastrous event occurred earlier today. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has declared his true allegiance to the Dark Side and released Voldemort and all the incarcerated Death Eaters from Azkaban. The Dementors have left the prison and joined Voldemort."
Harry had started trembling before Dumbledore finished speaking. Voldemort free could only mean one thing. It was only a matter of time before he came after Harry. Fudge's defection was surprising but not truly shocking to Harry. Fudge had always seemed strange in a way that Harry hadn't been able to put his finger on. Now he realised what it was, he was a lot like Peter Pettigrew.
Draco clutched Harry's hand tightly. He'd only just started to feel safe again after the last time. Now Harry was in danger again and Draco could feel himself start to panic. He breathed deeply, trying to push the terror away. Harry would be okay, he would. He was a big boy and Voldemort hadn't been able to kill him yet.
After the furore had died down, Dumbledore continued speaking.
"Therefore, we are instituting new safety measures here at Hogwart's. No one will be allowed out of the castle for any reason night or day. That goes triple for anyone with the surname Potter or Malfoy. All students should move around in groups of at least four. Do not walk around the castle alone."
Everyone except those present for the last attack looked surprised at the specific mention of Harry and Draco.
"Care of Magical Creatures classes will be held in the spare classroom on the fifth floor in the west wing and I'm sorry to say they will be theoretical lessons from now on. I would also ask all of you to keep your eyes open. If you see any people you don't know please inform the head of your house immediately. The portraits will also be on the lookout for strange people and strange behaviour."
Dumbledore paused.
"I'm sure you are all well aware of the actions of Miss Parkinson and the consequences for those actions. If there is anyone here who is contemplating a similar action please rest assured that you too will be expelled. In two days the train will be leaving to take students home early for Christmas break. If you choose to leave, you will be allowed to leave without fear of reprisal however you will not be permitted to return."
Dumbledore sat down and the meal appeared on the table.
It was a few minutes before anyone started eating. Everyone was too stunned by Dumbledore's announcement.
"What do you think he meant 'you will not be permitted to return'? Does that mean I can't go home for Christmas?" Ron asked, confused.
"I think he means that if you are on Voldemort's side, you should leave, but if you're on Dumbledore's side, you should stay here," Harry explained.
"It is the safest place to be," added Hermione.
"What? But Voldemort just waltzed in here last week, so what's to stop him doing it again any time he wants?" Draco sounded scandalised. "Where was Dumbledore's precious security then?"
"The only reason he was allowed to 'waltz in' as you put it, was because Dumbledore knew he was coming and he allowed him to enter. If Dumbledore didn't want him to enter, then he would not have been able to," Hermione explained.
"O-kay," Draco replied, not sounding entirely convinced.
"Mr Malfoy, Mr Potter, Mr Weasley and Ms Granger, Professor Dumbledore would like to see you all after dinner in his office," Professor McGonagall said gravely. The four students nodded and she left the hall.
"Wonder what that's all about," Ron mused, his fork hovering over his mashed potatoes.
Hermione sighed, "Honestly Ron, how dense can you be? Obviously Dumbledore wants to talk about Voldemort and Fudge."
Ron looked sheepish, "Oh yeah."
As Hermione started to lecture Ron about the importance of listening carefully, Harry turned to Draco.
"You need to eat something, love," Harry said gently. Draco had a sad, worried look on his face and his hands were twisting his napkin in his lap.
"I'm not hungry," Draco replied stubbornly, staring straight ahead. Harry moved so he was straddling the bench and he could face Draco without twisting around. He raised his hand and softly caressed Draco's cheek, oblivious to the fact that most of the school were watching them.
Harry knew what was making Draco so upset – the thought of losing Harry.
"I know what you're feeling," Harry whispered to Draco, still caressing his cheek. "I feel the same way whenever I think about losing you."
Draco looked surprised by this as he turned to look at Harry. "How did you know that was what I was thinking?"
"I love you. It would kill me if anything ever happened to you," replied Harry by way of explanation but Draco knew what he meant. They both loved each other more than they'd ever thought was possible and to lose the other was unthinkable. Harry pulled Draco's head towards him and kissed him slowly and thoroughly.
"It will be okay," he said as he pulled back from Draco. "Have faith in us and everything will work out."
Draco nodded. He wasn't as sure as Harry obviously was but he was willing to drop it for now.
Harry turned back to the table and started eating. Draco managed a few mouthfuls to appease Harry but his heart wasn't in it. He ended up moving his food around his plate, pretending to eat more than he actually did. His stomach was a churning mess and he didn't think he could hold down anything substantial.
**************************************************************************************************************************
Later that evening, in Dumbledore's office, the four Gryffindor students were surprised to see Sirius and Remus there as well. There were hugs all around as Dumbledore explained that they were going to meet some other people in a part of the castle that was off limits to students. Sirius transformed into his animagus form and the group left Dumbledore's office.
After winding through various corridors and up and down different staircases, the group finally found themselves in front of a door with a crest that the students had never seen before painted on it.
"Order of the Phoenix," Hermione read out loud as Dumbledore opened the door and ushered them inside. Sirius transformed back to his human form and he and Remus greeted the people inside the room like the old friends they obviously were.
Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione stared around them in awe. It was a huge room with a large round table in the centre surrounded by comfortable swivel chairs. The wall to their left was covered with mirrors of all sizes, each depicting a different scene, much like a closed circuit television security set up. At the far end of the room was a fireplace and next to it, a counter with a house elf standing behind it serving coffee and pastries. The wall to their right was covered with maps that looked like the Marauder's Map.
Harry stepped over to take a closer look. Yep, the maps on the wall were the same as the Marauder's Map but as well as a map of Hogwart's, there were maps of the Ministry, Malfoy Manor, the Burrow, Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, Hogsmeade, and the homes of various other Death Eaters. Harry was stunned to see there was even one of Privet Drive. He watched in fascination as a dot labelled Dudley moved from the living room, to the kitchen and back to the living room. No doubt getting a snack to eat while he sat in front of the television.
Ron, meanwhile, was fascinated by the mirrors on the opposing wall. One of them showed an office in the Ministry and Arthur Weasley was seated behind a desk writing furiously on a piece of parchment.
"Take seat please, everyone," Dumbledore requested firmly, halting all conversations.
There were triangle-shaped name plates on the table with names printed on both sides, so everyone could see who was who. Harry and Draco were relieved to find they were seated next to each other and Sirius and Remus were on the other side of Harry. Ron and Hermione were next to Draco and Ron's brother, Percy, was seated on the other side of Ron.
Harry glanced around at the group and recognised a few faces – Snape, Mad Eye Moody (the real one, Harry hoped), and Lucius Malfoy. He read the names of the people he did not recognise – Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, and Gilbert Whimple.
"Unfortunately, the new Minister of Magic will not be able to make it to this meeting due to understandable chaos at the Ministry. Arthur sends his apologies and promises he will be here for the next meeting," Dumbledore said gravely.
Ron gasped and his head snapped over to the mirror revealing his father. He was now talking sternly to Ludo Bagman (apparently they could only see him, not hear him).
"Yes, Mr Weasley, your father is the new Minister of Magic by the vast majority of the vote," Dumbledore said before clapping his hands once, "Back to business. The four students we have seated here with us tonight are to be inducted into the Order of the Phoenix tomorrow. All four of them have been deeply involved in the war against Voldemort. Since recent events directly affect them, I felt it was imperative for them to understand that we are all in this together and we have all of this (Dumbledore waved his hands around to indicate the surveillance devices adorning the walls) to help us. I know what you're about to ask, Miss Granger – why didn't I tell you all of this before Voldemort struck a few weeks ago. I didn't think it was necessary then, but times have changed and I feel now that I have no choice but to accelerate your induction into the Order. I was going to wait until you had graduated but obviously that may be too late. This room is at your disposal at any time. There is always a house elf here should you require anything. Don't worry, they are completely loyal to the cause and would never disclose anything discussed in this room. You will each have a mentor who will tell you everything you need to know and will be the person you contact should you have any queries. Harry, naturally your mentor will be Sirius."
Harry grinned at Sirius, who gave him a mischievous grin in return.
"Ron, as much as your father would love to be your mentor, unfortunately his new position means that he will not have the time so Percy will be your mentor," Dumbledore continued.
Ron smiled appreciatively at his brother, grateful that he didn't have a stranger as a mentor.
"Hermione, your mentor will be Arabella Figg," Dumbledore said, smiling at the young blonde woman seated to his left.
Hermione smiled nervously at her, she hoped this would work out.
"And Draco, your mentor will be Remus Lupin, as your father will also be busy at the Ministry since he is the new Deputy Minister."
Draco beamed at his father. Things were looking up for the Malfoy family, since they had seen the light, so to speak. He just hoped they'd be safe out there, with Voldemort back on the loose.
"First on the agenda for tonight, Azkaban," Dumbledore said almost gently.
Sirius looked pained at the mention of the prison. Remus reached for Sirius's hand under the table and squeezed it reassuringly.
"Arthur has some guards in place at the moment, but he will be needing more once the people remaining inside realise that they are unguarded. It will take a few days for this to happen so we still have time to find an alternative to the Dementors. Mundungus and Mad-Eye, can I delegate that to the two of you?" Dumbledore asked.
The two men nodded and scribbled notes on the parchment in front of them. Harry looked down and realised he had a stack of parchment in front of him too. He wondered if he would be required to take note. That was more Hermione's thing really, he'd never been too good at it. Hermione already had three pages of notes and was halfway through her fourth.
"Second on the agenda, we have a vacancy on the staff here at Hogwart's. Professor Sinistra has a family crisis and unfortunately will not be available to teach Astronomy until the next school year. And since Sirius and Remus team teaching Defence Against The Dark Arts is working so well, I thought we might try the same thing with Astronomy. Percy and Arabella, if you are willing, I'd like to offer the two of you the job. That way you will be on hand to mentor Ron and Hermione, and you both are young enough to be able to relate to your students on a level that Professor McGonagall or Professor Snape can't," Dumbledore said with an amused twinkle in his eye.
Snape was scowling as Harry, Draco, Ron, Hermione, Sirius and Remus tried to hold back their laughter. Snape had never been able to relate to his students, on any level.
Percy and Arabella exchanged shy smiles and nodded to Professor Dumbledore.
"Excellent," Dumbledore said, rubbing his hands together. "That's one thing out of the way. Now on to the more serious problem. Fudge's defection. Remus?"
"Arthur has the Ministry under control. Soon Azkaban will be back under control. So for now, we're okay," Remus replied, his voice calm and controlled. The perfect lecturer. "The main problem is Voldemort. He has the Dementors now and Fudge, who has an intimate knowledge of the Ministry, has joined him. Intelligence reports suggest that he is planning to hit the Ministry pretty hard and fast. Luckily Arthur was expecting this and he has totally rearranged the entire Ministry, even down to moving the rooms in the building. Security has been tightened in all magical areas, such as Diagon Alley and Platform 9 ¾."
Remus paused for a moment, considering his words.
"One good thing that has come out of this mess is that Fudge is no longer sugar coating the information the Ministry gives to the Daily Prophet. Arthur staged a press conference with reporters from the Daily Prophet, Witch Weekly and the Wizarding Wireless a matter of hours after he was elected Minister for Magic. He gave them the plain, unvarnished truth and the press have been broadcasting it for about eight hours now. After the initial panic died down, people have been increasing their personal security and a network for reporting suspicious activity has been activated. We should know within a matter of an hour or less what Voldemort is planning. For the moment, that is about the best that we can do."
Hermione was frowning. Harry could tell that she wasn't pleased by this announcement that they had to sit and wait. Harry wasn't too pleased either, but he wasn't sure what else they could do. Ron was staring proudly at the mirror showing his father (currently talking earnestly on a telephone, probably to the muggle Prime Minister), completely oblivious to the meeting. It didn't really matter, Hermione now had seven pages of notes in front of her that they could 'borrow' from her later.
"Miss Granger? Do you have something to say?" Dumbledore asked, smiling across the table at her.
"Uh," she looked thrown by Dumbledore's perceptiveness but quickly pushed it aside. "There has to be something more that we can do. So many people are in danger, but more specifically, people in this room are in danger – Harry and Draco particularly. Are we just going to sit here and do nothing?"
"What do you have in mind?" Dumbledore asked.
"Ever since Voldemort attacked here at school, I've been looking into how we can predict the next attack-"
She was cut off by the loud raucous sound of Harry, Draco and Ron laughing uproariously. Even Dumbledore was chuckling.
"I know I've been sceptical of divination in the past but that was mainly due to Professor Trelawney. Divination can be quite useful and I think in this case it would be beneficial if we could look into it more, to see what we can find out, rather than wait for someone to dream about it. That really is terribly imprecise." Hermione was quite adamant and Harry bit back a groan, knowing that they were going to be stuck in the library again.
"How about the four of you look into divination to see what you can find out? Let us know if you come across anything useful, but steer clear of the Restricted Section," Dumbledore said indulgently.
The four students nodded. Ron's father had finally gone home for the night and he had returned his attention to the meeting.
"If there is nothing further, meeting adjourned," Dumbledore said, standing up. He called Percy and Arabella over to talk about their new job.
Harry and Draco stood up. It was quite late and they were both tired. Harry draped his arm around Draco's waist and Draco leaned gratefully against him.
Harry kissed his hair and said, "Let's go to bed."
"Mmmm, sounds good," Draco replied. They said goodnight to everyone and left the room. Ron and Hermione were walking a few feet behind them.
As soon as they entered Gryffindor Tower, Ron and Hermione raced up to the sixth year girls room to tell Ginny that Arthur was the new Minister while Harry and Draco went up to bed.
**************************************************************************************************************************
Later the next day, Harry, Ron, Draco and Hermione were in the library surrounded by books about divination. Luckily they had no classes that afternoon so they didn't have to rush.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" Draco asked, wrinkling his brow, quite fetchingly Harry thought with smile.
"Weren't you listening?" Hermione asked with a frustrated sigh.
"Yeah, but that was hours ago," Draco complained.
"It was ten minutes ago!" she exclaimed irritably.
"So? Harry was distracting me," Draco said plaintively.
"Hey! I didn't do anything!" Harry said, holding up his hands in self-defence.
Draco leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on Harry's lips. "You distract me just by being you."
"Awww," Ron cooed, but quickly shut up when he noticed Hermione glaring at him.
"We are looking," Hermione said, in her very best 'I am not amused' voice. "For information about different forms of divination. Ones we…well…you haven't studied in Divination. The more accurate it is, the better."
"I don't know if this means anything," Harry said, glancing down at the dusty book lying open in front of him. "But I was reading this before Draco started whining."
"Hey!" Draco whined.
"And it says here," Harry continued, "That there is an accurate form of divination but…oh… it's inherited. So that's probably no good."
"No, that's probably no good," Hermione said briskly.
"Hey, no need to get all…you know…Hermione on us," Draco teased. Even Hermione managed a smile at that one.
"Sorry, but this is really important. The only reason you two are still alive is because your mother had that dream. We need to be able to recreate that so we know what is going to happen and we can protect you," she explained.
"Can I have a look at that book, Harry?" Ron asked.
"Sure," Harry replied, passing it over. He pulled a book called 'Changing the Future…Today' towards him.
"I've been reading about the usual methods of divination – crystal ball, tarot, palmistry, etc but none of those are particularly accurate, as I am sure we are all aware," Hermione shot a pointed look at Ron and Harry.
"What? Is it my fault that I can't work in a smelly dark old room? Trelawney's an old bat anyway," Ron grumbled, still reading the book he got from Harry.
"Anyway," Hermione continued. "I can't find anything other methods of divination that you guys haven't studied already. Unless…."
Hermione's eyes drifted over towards the Restricted Section.
"Oh no," Harry said firmly. "We are not going in there."
Draco draped his arm protectively around Harry's shoulders.
"I'm sure there's nothing sinister in there now," Hermione said calmly.
"It's the Restricted Section, it's all sinister!" Harry said indignantly.
"It is just information, Harry. It can't hurt you," Hermione tried to explain.
"It did the last time we went in there," he countered. None of them noticed Ron slipping out of the library.
"Dumbledore will have made sure that it is clear of anything really harmful," Hermione tried fruitlessly to reason with Harry. He'd made up his mind and nothing was going to convince him that the dark books housed in the Restricted Section were okay to use.
"We will do this without resorting to consulting dark magic books, Hermione. There must be a way, we just have to find it and I'm sure that the solution does not lie in there," Harry said firmly.
"Hey, where's Ron?" Draco asked curiously.
"I didn't notice him get up. He must be over getting more books. I'll go see," Hermione said, getting up and walking over to the divination books.
"I thought she'd never leave," Draco whispered in Harry's ear. Harry shivered as he felt Draco's hot breath on his skin. Draco licked Harry's jaw line, from his chin to his ear and nibbled on Harry's earlobe.
"How much longer until we can get out of here?" Draco whispered as Harry's eyes glazed over.
"He's not….oh come on, you two. This is a public place," Hermione complained good-naturedly. "Ron's not here. He must have left when we were arguing."
"We might as well leave too then," Draco said with a sly grin.
"Fine, you two leave. I'm going to stay here a bit longer," Hermione said, burying her nose in a book, not even noticing them leaving.
Harry and Draco ran all the way back to Gryffindor Tower. Luckily the other boys were off doing other things that afternoon and they had the bedroom to themselves….
**************************************************************************************************************************
Meanwhile, Ron was in the Order of the Phoenix room with his mentor, Percy.
"I really don't understand what you want to do, Ron," Percy said, exasperatedly.
"I need to talk to Mum or Dad but an owl will take too long. I need answers now," Ron said earnestly.
"Why?" Percy asked suspiciously.
"It's….personal," Ron said, biting his lip.
"Okay, fine. There's Floo Powder over at that fireplace, we'll go talk to Mum," Percy said finally.
"We?" Ron queried.
"We. I'm going with you," Percy said firmly.
"Fine. Let's go," Ron said, walking determinedly over to the fireplace and throwing some Floo Powder into the flames.
He stepped into the fire and shouted, "The Burrow."
Percy followed, shouting the same name.
Molly Weasley was so startled to see two of her sons suddenly standing before her that she dropped the socks she was darning.
"Ron? Percy? What on earth are you doing here?" She asked as she hugged them both tightly. "Is everything alright? How're Harry and Hermione?"
"Everyone's fine. Don't worry. Ron just had something important to talk to you about," Percy replied, sitting down in a nearby armchair.
Molly sat back down and stared expectantly up at her youngest son.
Ron stared at Percy and eventually he got the hint and left the room on the pretext of making tea for the three of them.
"What is it, Ron?" Molly asked kindly.
Ron stared back at her, wondering where on earth to start…
**************************************************************************************************************************
~to be continued~