Chapter 6
Not many students signed up to stay over the Holidays, but both Ron and Hermione did. On Christmas Eve all those staying gathered for a big dinner. Since there were only eight students staying everyone was sitting at one table, some of the Order had come to join in, the others were off with their families or working.
Harry, Ron and Hermione picked the three chairs at one end of the table. The students had arrived first and now waited for the staff, finally they all came, being chased by a snow man which was pelting them with blue snowballs that dyed your hair blue. They sat, giving Ron and Harry suspicious looks, still a few seats were empty. Professors. Flairgold and McGonagal came in talking with Dumbledore. Followed in a few moments by Sirius, Remus, and three other Order members.
"I seem to remember you once saying you'd never teach. What happened there?" A witch Harry recognized as Arabella asked, sitting down on Prof. Flairgold's left.
"Actually it took me three hours to convince her to leave her work on the Fortress." Sirius responded, taking a seat between Prof. Lupin and Prof. Flairgold.
"Ah, how is the Fortress going?" Mundungus asked curiously
"Well, it'll be ready in about a year, maybe a bit more. It's actually starting to function correctly, and not look like such a dump. We had to make a few passages and some more caves and entrances. And I didn't say I'd never teach, I said when the moon turns blue and pigs fly. What I don't understand is why you insist on calling it a Fortress Sirius, it's a meteor crater!" Prof. Flairgold said, flicking her fingers at a snowman, it blew apart, leaving a lump of snow on the ground. Sirius thought about his answer for a moment.
"A well renovated meteor crater that I must say looks more like a very large valley then a crater. Surrounded by mountains that look like the battlements of a Fortress. And I didn't name it." He finally replied, another snowman appeared near the door and he turned just as it flung a blue snowball, the snowball hit his cloak and was flung off…straight into Snape's face, there were chuckles all around as he brushed the snow off, leaving his face a brilliant shade of blue.
"Oh thanks, if I really wanted to have my face turned blue I'd do it myself!" Snape spat at Sirius, who grinned broadly.
"Or start acting biased again while my wife is in hearing. That was very amusing, had the whole patrol laughing themselves sick." He said, Snape flushed, but it was purple beneath the blue, causing more laughter.
"You're married? It wasn't on the sheet you filled out when you started teaching?" Flitwick said, surprised.
"Well we are, we were married about two weeks before I got sent to Azkaban." Sirius replied with a slight grimace.
"Excuse me, but why are you all here at Hogwarts if you have a, a, Fortress." Sam asked curiously.
"Well we're here because, one: the things needed the initiation ceremony are here and cannot be moved until a suitable place is made. Two: for the students protection. Three: Because the Fortress isn't done yet. Four: because we need a base that is already defended by enough enchantments to do an army in, a place we don't have to worry to much about defending. And lastly: Three of us are teaching here, one of us runs the school, and we are looking for students who might be good in the Order or students who will probably end up as death eaters." Sirius replied, ticking off them on his fingers. Sam nodded and went back to his food, Harry realized that Sirius had not named one thing, Hogwarts was well known, until the base was done and named it might be easier to have a base that was known as a strong place where the Order only made it more formidable.
At that moment Harry bit into something hard in his chocolate cake. He spat it out and something lay on his plate glittering. It was a beautiful chain necklace with alternating links of gold and diamond.
Harry left dinner that evening loaded with things from the magic crackers, he'd even found a lock pick in his goblet. Besides that he had a hat to go with his dress robes, a chocolate frog collectors book, with slots for different cards. He knew a whole set was worth about fifty Galleons because some cards were so rare. A small bag of owl treats, a prankster handbook, five Filibuster Wet-Start Fireworks, a small bag of Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, The Most Unusual Tastes Only. A Quill sharpening knife, a bottle of Glowing ink, and a new pet cat. The tiny silver kitten with black stripes had come from one of the crackers, Harry was trying to decide if that had anything to do with the fact he'd been thinking about how nice it would be to have a pet cat when he'd broken the cracker. The little thing sat on his shoulder, purring contentedly, Harry just hoped Hedwig wouldn't mind.
He Ron and Hermione spent a lot of the next day watching the Order of the Phoenix go through a training procedure, they were given a piece of ground to cover with obstacles on it and a target to stun, and they had to do it all without being seen. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spent sometime hidden around a corner of the building practicing with wandless fire. That evening they had a furious snowball/capture the flag fight with the other students, the snow was four and a half feet deep. They had two teams, you were trying to capture the other team's flag. Each team had a starting point with a flag, they could dig tunnels through the snow and try to get the other team's flag while keeping their own. You could throw snowballs around too, if one hit you or a member from another team tagged you you were in jail. Harry's team won when Ron and Harry dug a long tunnel around the main fighting and up behind the other team. They captured the flag, though Harry had to 'sacrifice' himself and get caught so Ron could get the flag back to their team. After five games of this Harry's team was declared winner, (they had won three games) and ended the day with a raging snowball fight.
The threesome spent the evening sitting in front of the fire roasting marshmallows and telling jokes.
"Yo! Harry old boy get up!" Ron's slightly worried voice came slowly through the pain. Harry sat up, his scar was bleeding freely, he vaguely remembered a dream, he flicked his hand and bandages appeared winding themselves around his forehead.
"I'm okay, just tired, that's all." He said in response to Ron's worried look.
"Maybe you should go see madam Pomfrey." Ron suggested, Harry shook his head, he could hardly remember the dream, but it must have been bad.
"No, I'm alright, just a slight headache." Ron clearly though that if Harry's scar was dripping blood he was not okay, but didn't argue.
Harry glanced at the foot of the bed, a small pile of presents lay there. He chuckled and happily picked up the first, from Ron and Hermione. It contained a miniature quidditch pitch complete with players that you could move about, designing almost entire games before hand.
"Oh wow, thanks guys, this is great!" He said enthusiastically. Sirius's present contained a box of chocolate frogs. A basic charm making set from Sam, and a package for him and Ron with one or two of all Fred and George's jokes in it, their letter explained that since Harry had helped finance it he should get something from it.
After breakfast Harry viewed his dream with Ron and Hermione, they spent nearly an hour discussing it.
"Well we know Voldemort will attack the school with dementors and death eaters to back him. Something bad will happen to you Harry. You'll save a bunch of lives, there will be injuries to students and staff. We should all prepare for a mass attack sometime in the next month or so." Ron finished with a sigh, Hermione looked skeptical. Harry sent the parchment with the dream to Sirius for him to see and spent the day doing homework in the library.
Wheeeeeewww! Harry heard Ron's soft whistle. He ducked into the shadows and ran down the hallway and around the corner. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him. They were right outside the Slytherin dungeon, it was the second night back after the holidays.
"You got it? You got it?" Ron asked eagerly, holding out his hand. Harry tossed him the Marauders Map and pulled a small bag out of his pocket.
"Alright, it's clear? Lets go. Arachnid." Hermione urged, looking around, they'd already had to escape Mrs. Noris twice. The doorway to Slytherin common room opened, Harry had come down after dinner and gotten the password as the Slytherins went in. They walked in, Ron stationed himself near the door with the map on guard while Harry and Hermione went to work. A simple trash bin spell covered the floor knee deep in garbage. Harry levitated the mess and attached it to the ceiling while Hermione put up an illusion to hide it. "Cameras in place, trigger spell ready, is the coast clear Ron?" She asked as Harry rearranged the bricks in the wall and placed in a camera. Ron nodded and they set off to the Potions room.
Yesterday they had been making a hairloss potion, Snape and been complementing Malfoy all class on his. And had taken away thirty points from Gryffindor because Malfoy had set off a firework on their side of the room. The three wanted revenge. Malfoy was going to present his potion in class tomorrow, and was going to test it on someone of his choice. Hermione charmed the floor and a tall shelf while Harry searched among the students potions until he found Malfoy's. The hairloss potion was in two parts, the potion, which was then mixed with a special tablet that was made from another potion. Harry switched Malfoy's tablet with one of his own design. His contained different chemicals, when mixed with mandrake siliva it exploded, dyeing anything it hit bright pink. It would also explode when mixed with any fruit juice. He took out the tablet Malfoy had made and threw it out, replacing it with the exploding one.
"Let's get out of hear before Filch comes." Ron whispered, Harry closed the bottle and put it back on the shelf.
"Alright, come on Hermione." They hurried back off to their common room.
The next day in Potions Malfoy sauntered in smirking. Harry, Ron and Hermione waited impatiently.
"Class be quiet! Now! I've asked Draco to show the class his potion and then demonstrate how it works on someone. Draco?" Snape handed Draco his two phials and a cup. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched eagerly as he poured the potion into the cup then opened the other phial and dumped in the tablet. Boom! The cup erupted, spewing orange smoke everywhere. When it had cleared Malfoy was standing there, his robes were pink, and so was Snape's face.
"MALFOY WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO??? DON'T YOU LISTEN TO ANYTHING I SAY??? I TOLD YOU THREE TIMES NOT TO PUT IN TO MUCH MANDRAKE SILIVA AND TO PUT IN THREE SPOONFULS OF POWDERED DRIED DRAGON EYE!!! DETENTION FOR YOU FOR A WEEK. YOU'RE GOING TO CLEAN THE ENTIRE FIRST FLOOR AND HOSPITALL WING AND TROPHY ROOM EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK!" Snape roared, Malfoy tried to move and stepped into Hermione's spells, he tripped into the shelf, potions bottles went spilling everywhere, Malfoy screamed as huge green warts appeared on his face and his eyes grew as big was dinner plates. He shrunk till he was as small as a first year. Snape was beside himself with rage. He grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his robes and dragged him from the room. They could hear him shouting all the way down the hall about getting Malfoy expelled. The Gryffindors collapsed laughing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Life in the castle continued normally for nearly three weeks, no sign of Voldemort anywhere in the world. And this was making Harry worry, something was wrong.
"Urgh! I can't believe her! Write a four foot long essay on the history of divination! That'll take all weekend! Ron growled. Harry scanned the forest, he was sure he'd heard something. They were at the forest's edge and the sun was setting. Tiger, his half-grown kitten, rubbed against his ankles and purred. Care of Magical Creatures had ended ten minutes ago and they were the only people left on the grounds. "Come on Harry, the sun'll be gone soon, and I don't want to be out here then." Ron said, Harry stared into the trees, not answering, near the end of CoMC he'd seen shapes moving about, he was sure of it. Ron tapped him on the shoulder, clearly impatient. Suddenly something moved, Harry knelt on the ground and peered into the bushes. Ron backed away hurriedly. A very large dog poked its head out. Not a dog Harry corrected himself as he rocked back onto his heels hurriedly, then he recognized it. Tiger ran forward and rubbed noses with it, Harry rubbed Tiger lightly, apparently that cat didn't see anything dangerous about this wolf. It was the Dire wolf pup he'd saved. Though it wasn't much of a pup anymore, from the looseness of its skin and the size of its paws in relation to the rest of it, it still had growing to do. It was already bigger then any regular wolf and most Dire wolves, the creature was going to be a complete monster for size once it was done growing.
"Hey there. Good to see you again." Harry said, holding out his hand for it to smell. It sniffed his hand lightly, slowly its tail began to wag, and it nuzzled his hand. Harry, nice to see you. Harry gasped, it had spoken to him. We dire wolves have some telepathic abilities, before I was to young to use them. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to speak with a human. Harry was shocked.
"Uh Harry? What's going on?" Ron asked, he had his wand out and looked like he was about to start panicking.
"It's alright Ron, he's a friend. He's the dire wolf I told you about from the test." How are you? And why are you here? Harry asked, hoping his telepathy would work right, he was very unpracticed at it. I'm fine, leader of my pack now. I was in the area and had never seen the castle before. And I met up with him, we decided to come see you. It flicked its tail as the war Unicorn emerged from the trees. Harry went over to it and petted its shoulder lightly. You know the only other person who can speak like you can is The Phoenix. How odd that another, not even in the Order, should have that ability. Harry was startled, though now that he thought about it that was odd. It was then he realized that it was the war unicorn who had spoken this time. Well it is nice to see you again, what are your names? He asked, wondering if they even had them. I am Flame, and this is Lightning. The dire wolf answered for both, Ron was clearly getting nervous. Well Flame, Lightning, I have to go now, see you around. Harry said, both vanished into the trees without a trace.
"Harry? What happened?" Ron asked, looking over his shoulder as they walked to the castle.
"They just wanted to say hi, some how I can communicate with them telepathically. Weird huh?"
"Uh Harry? Do you mean you're on telepathic speaking terms with those creatures?" Ron asked, looking a little disbelieving.
"Yes, they're friends, they're really nice."
"Harry, no one is supposed to be able to do that, it's just not possible, even the Phoenix can't without the Phoenix power he's given." Ron said, sounding just a little shocked.
"Well I can, kinda odd, oh well, I never said I was normal, just want to be. I wonder if they can talk to anyone? Do you want to come try it some time?" Ron nodded, and opened his mouth to reply, Hermione appeared at the door.
"Neville said you two were going into the forest. Really! You're PREFECTS!!!" She said angrily, glaring.
"Actually we were just, um, socializing with a few of Harry's friends, don't get your feathers in a tangle. Just cause were prefects doesn't mean we can't have fun." Ron replied, glaring back. Harry looked over his shoulder again as he went in, he could have sworn he heard a wolf howl.
"Harry, could I talk to you for a minute?" Harry turned, it was Dumbledore, he waved at Ron and Hermione to go on and walked over to the headmaster.
"Yes?" He asked, surely he wasn't in trouble for having some animal friends?
"You must know by now that the test you took, wasn't normal. Those animals weren't meant to be real. You obviously have a gift with magical creatures. Tell me, have you encountered any others?" Harry blinked, why would Dumbledore want to know that? And how did he know about Lightning and Flame? Sirius must have told him Harry realized, Sirius, with his connection to the Order animals would know about all those who lived around Hogwarts.
"No professor I haven't, unless you count Tiger and a basilisk in that test, and the Kraken in the lake wasn't really trying to kill me just scare me. Why?"
"It is unusual, such a mix of abilities." The headmaster seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. "Did you speak with the basilisk?"
"When I remembered I could, why? It's just a snake." Harry was getting nervous.
"Did it tell you anything unusual, odd, unexpected?" Now Harry wasn't just nervous, a tinge of anger showed in his voice, Dumbledore was keeping something from him.
"He told me that 99.8% of all snakes will side with me in the battles to come. However I know this is not new news to you, what were you expecting?" Dumbledore looked thoughtful at Harry's response.
"Nothing really, as you said, it's just a snake. Are you sure that's all?" Harry kept his temper in check; this was stupid, something was wrong.
"Professor could you please tell me what you were expecting it to say, I don't remember anything else, besides that it was grateful to me for showing it that way out of that cave."
"I wasn't really expecting anything. Did it call you by your name?" Harry nodded,
"What did it call you? Can you remember, I need to know. Think Harry, did it just call you by your name? No part of it that you couldn't understand or anything like that?" Harry went on guard, Dumbledore wanted information on what the snake had called him? Why? What was Dumbledore keeping from him? This, spaced-out extra thoughtful and suspicious attitude was most unlike the headmaster. Then he remembered, he hadn't been able to understand, but the snake had addressed him as more then Harry James Potter. In the back of his mind he sensed his anger affecting the weather, mentally he clamped down on the forming thunderstorm. It would do no good to make Dumbledore suspicious.
"He called me a speaker, a Parseltounge, and by my name." Knowing Dumbledore would use his eye power to see if Harry was telling the truth Harry brought up strong walls before looking the headmaster in the eye.
"He called you Harry James Potter? That's all?" He frowned a little as Harry nodded. "Oh, well I don't want to keep you from your homework, go on." Harry swallowed his anger and turned to leave, as he reached the top of the staircase Dumbledore spoke again.
"We are going to have a long conversation some day soon Harry, on what you're not telling me. That snake told you something else, but you're not telling me." Harry stopped, and with his back to Dumbledore grinned and said coolly, almost coldly.
"I will look forward to learning what you are keeping from me headmaster." And started the climb to Gryffindor tower. Leaving Albus Dumbledore standing by the front doors, watching the sky outside thoughtfully.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Harry sat upright gasping. The dream still vivid in his mind, he grabbed his glasses pulled on his robes and hurried down to the common room. Harry glanced around, everyone else was asleep, he summoned his wand, which he had forgotten and reached out mentally. Sirius? Sirius we've got a MAJOR problem! He waited, his telepathy skills weren't all that good, but he knew Sirius had heard. Harry? What's wrong? A confused voice asked, Harry located it as coming from the third floor corridor the Order lived in. Sirius was awake and working on plans in case Voldemort attacked. I just had another dream, Voldemort is going to attack tomorrow at six p.m. A sense of astonishment came to him from Sirius. Harry ran towards the corridor, he opened the door and hurried in. Remus beckoned him into a room to his left, Tiger bounded in after him.
Ten order members were gathered around a table, most looking through papers, Sirius was standing at one end. They were looking very worried. Dumbledore gave Harry a small reassuring attempt at a smile from his seat on Sirius's right. Maybe he'd forgotten their conversation two days before. The only others Harry recognized were Remus, Snape, Mundungus, and Arrabella Figg. Miranda had gone on a Patrol.
"Are you sure Harry?" Harry nodded, he could sense telepathic messages being sent out to everyone in the Order, they'd all be awake and ready shortly. "Tomorrow at six, with what followers?" Sirius asked.
"82 death eaters, 2,000 dementors, 20 snakes-of Nagini's species, and 700 Mesmerd." Harry reeled off, gulping at the Mesmerd, the gigantic furred and winged creatures spit fire, their long tails ended in a spiked, club-like bone, and had no arms or legs. Their average wingspan was about twenty feet. Their smell was enough to make people cower in fear, for that was the smell they continuously gave off. Tiger sat down on the table and rubbed against Harry's hand reassuringly. Sirius nodded at Harry to take a seat in the one remaining chair.
"We'll tell the students tomorrow morning, they can help prepare. We're going to have to come up with more plans of defense, quickly. Maybe-"
"I've already got them." Harry interrupted, everyone stared at him. "I've based them on what I've seen in my visions, when we won." Sirius mentally sent him a brief feeling of approval for him to continue. Pointedly ignoring Dumbledore's sharp stare. Harry flicked his wand at the table. The surface began to change, soon a to-scale model of a bird's eye view of Hogwarts and the surrounding forest rose.
"How about you explain what these defenses are." Sirius said, five more order members, leaders of the Patrols still at Hogwarts, came in and stood along the walls.
"Okay, throughout the forest we set traps for them. Pits, magical nooses, and sleep mist. Enchanted mist that they can't see through that will eventually cause them to fall asleep. We can also get all the creatures in there to attack trespassers. The entire operation can be overseen from broomstick. Illusions, hidden spikes with poisoned tips. Here at the castle all the defensive enchantments can be used, the students can fight as well if needed."
Harry continued for nearly half and hour, outlining his plans. The order listening with interest as he told them what each patrol (group of Order agents) should do. Finally he sat back, he could think of nothing he'd missed, now it was time to see what they made of it.
"And your part in this?" He was surprised at the only question, none of them had questioned his orders or disputed his plans. But Sirius's question set him a little off balance.
"I'll be up on top of the astronomy tower for most of it. I'll call up a thunderstorm, without rain, I can then electrocute them. From that I can build an Advanced Patronus which will kill the Dementors on impact, hundreds with one spell. I'll also summon up two tornadoes and enchant them only to harm the enemy. That's about the limit of my weather magic. It will also give me a good point from which to attack the Mesmerd, my lightning bolts should be able to easily get through any shields they form." Sirius regarded Harry for a moment, since he wasn't surprised Harry realized that Sirius had known about his ability to summon lightning and tornadoes already. The gasps from everyone else also told him Sirius hadn't shared that knowledge. Dumbledore, holding back his anger rather poorly, started to rise, but thought better of it and sat again.
"We'll only be able to fight with what's here. All communications besides owl post to the rest of the world are being cut off for about a month, some major problem at the Ministry or something. That also means we don't have the rest of the Order, they can't get here in time and there aren't that many Order animals in the area. Though I haven't gotten a chance to check recently." He murmured, he must have been giving orders mentally for suddenly everyone in the Order's wing was moving about preparing. Harry shifted, his War Unicorn friend was out their, now leader of the herd, they could help, as could Flame and his dire wolves. But Sirius knew about them. Sirius walked around the model, studying it intently. "Alright, Harry how about you get ready, Albus alert the students at breakfast, no classes today. Severus, you'll need to prepare for the next death eaters meeting, try not to do anything to alter Voldemort's plans…" He continued but Harry didn't hear, sensing he had been dismissed Harry left the room quickly, he had a lot to do. Tiger raced out behind him, the cat followed Harry everywhere, which was good when he was trying to pull pranks at night. Tiger had beaten Mrs. Noris in over a dozen cat fights so Mrs. Noris always avoided him.
"So let me get this straight, so far we are the only students who know about this. And, as prefects, we'll be called upon to keep the students safe and stop them from panicking. I'm starting to get a feeling of Armageddon here Harry." Ron said, he looked slightly frantic, Hermione appeared to be in shock. Harry had woken both of them and told them what was going on.
"Yes exactly, all the prefects are going to be needed. You shouldn't have too much trouble, Gryffindors are a hard bunch to scare, but I won't be able to help you much. Sorry, I've got to work on the schools defenses and battle plans, the order has to know exactly what needs to be done." Harry said, he was standing at the window with his eyes closed "testing" the wind, the conditions were perfect, he wouldn't have any trouble bringing up a thunderstorm.
"You, are giving instruction to the Order of the Phoenix Harry? Well good luck, you'll
end up being a member anyway you know. We'll do our part, and you do yours, don't worry about us. We're the best at dueling and any other form of fighting in the entire school excluding you. You just concentrate on your part. Come on Ron."
"Thanks guys, that takes a load off my mind." Harry smiled at them gratefully and grabbed his broom and leaped out the window. Hermione pulled Ron from the room, Harry could hear them gathering the house in the common room.
Not many students signed up to stay over the Holidays, but both Ron and Hermione did. On Christmas Eve all those staying gathered for a big dinner. Since there were only eight students staying everyone was sitting at one table, some of the Order had come to join in, the others were off with their families or working.
Harry, Ron and Hermione picked the three chairs at one end of the table. The students had arrived first and now waited for the staff, finally they all came, being chased by a snow man which was pelting them with blue snowballs that dyed your hair blue. They sat, giving Ron and Harry suspicious looks, still a few seats were empty. Professors. Flairgold and McGonagal came in talking with Dumbledore. Followed in a few moments by Sirius, Remus, and three other Order members.
"I seem to remember you once saying you'd never teach. What happened there?" A witch Harry recognized as Arabella asked, sitting down on Prof. Flairgold's left.
"Actually it took me three hours to convince her to leave her work on the Fortress." Sirius responded, taking a seat between Prof. Lupin and Prof. Flairgold.
"Ah, how is the Fortress going?" Mundungus asked curiously
"Well, it'll be ready in about a year, maybe a bit more. It's actually starting to function correctly, and not look like such a dump. We had to make a few passages and some more caves and entrances. And I didn't say I'd never teach, I said when the moon turns blue and pigs fly. What I don't understand is why you insist on calling it a Fortress Sirius, it's a meteor crater!" Prof. Flairgold said, flicking her fingers at a snowman, it blew apart, leaving a lump of snow on the ground. Sirius thought about his answer for a moment.
"A well renovated meteor crater that I must say looks more like a very large valley then a crater. Surrounded by mountains that look like the battlements of a Fortress. And I didn't name it." He finally replied, another snowman appeared near the door and he turned just as it flung a blue snowball, the snowball hit his cloak and was flung off…straight into Snape's face, there were chuckles all around as he brushed the snow off, leaving his face a brilliant shade of blue.
"Oh thanks, if I really wanted to have my face turned blue I'd do it myself!" Snape spat at Sirius, who grinned broadly.
"Or start acting biased again while my wife is in hearing. That was very amusing, had the whole patrol laughing themselves sick." He said, Snape flushed, but it was purple beneath the blue, causing more laughter.
"You're married? It wasn't on the sheet you filled out when you started teaching?" Flitwick said, surprised.
"Well we are, we were married about two weeks before I got sent to Azkaban." Sirius replied with a slight grimace.
"Excuse me, but why are you all here at Hogwarts if you have a, a, Fortress." Sam asked curiously.
"Well we're here because, one: the things needed the initiation ceremony are here and cannot be moved until a suitable place is made. Two: for the students protection. Three: Because the Fortress isn't done yet. Four: because we need a base that is already defended by enough enchantments to do an army in, a place we don't have to worry to much about defending. And lastly: Three of us are teaching here, one of us runs the school, and we are looking for students who might be good in the Order or students who will probably end up as death eaters." Sirius replied, ticking off them on his fingers. Sam nodded and went back to his food, Harry realized that Sirius had not named one thing, Hogwarts was well known, until the base was done and named it might be easier to have a base that was known as a strong place where the Order only made it more formidable.
At that moment Harry bit into something hard in his chocolate cake. He spat it out and something lay on his plate glittering. It was a beautiful chain necklace with alternating links of gold and diamond.
Harry left dinner that evening loaded with things from the magic crackers, he'd even found a lock pick in his goblet. Besides that he had a hat to go with his dress robes, a chocolate frog collectors book, with slots for different cards. He knew a whole set was worth about fifty Galleons because some cards were so rare. A small bag of owl treats, a prankster handbook, five Filibuster Wet-Start Fireworks, a small bag of Bertie Bots Every Flavor Beans, The Most Unusual Tastes Only. A Quill sharpening knife, a bottle of Glowing ink, and a new pet cat. The tiny silver kitten with black stripes had come from one of the crackers, Harry was trying to decide if that had anything to do with the fact he'd been thinking about how nice it would be to have a pet cat when he'd broken the cracker. The little thing sat on his shoulder, purring contentedly, Harry just hoped Hedwig wouldn't mind.
He Ron and Hermione spent a lot of the next day watching the Order of the Phoenix go through a training procedure, they were given a piece of ground to cover with obstacles on it and a target to stun, and they had to do it all without being seen. Harry, Ron, and Hermione spent sometime hidden around a corner of the building practicing with wandless fire. That evening they had a furious snowball/capture the flag fight with the other students, the snow was four and a half feet deep. They had two teams, you were trying to capture the other team's flag. Each team had a starting point with a flag, they could dig tunnels through the snow and try to get the other team's flag while keeping their own. You could throw snowballs around too, if one hit you or a member from another team tagged you you were in jail. Harry's team won when Ron and Harry dug a long tunnel around the main fighting and up behind the other team. They captured the flag, though Harry had to 'sacrifice' himself and get caught so Ron could get the flag back to their team. After five games of this Harry's team was declared winner, (they had won three games) and ended the day with a raging snowball fight.
The threesome spent the evening sitting in front of the fire roasting marshmallows and telling jokes.
"Yo! Harry old boy get up!" Ron's slightly worried voice came slowly through the pain. Harry sat up, his scar was bleeding freely, he vaguely remembered a dream, he flicked his hand and bandages appeared winding themselves around his forehead.
"I'm okay, just tired, that's all." He said in response to Ron's worried look.
"Maybe you should go see madam Pomfrey." Ron suggested, Harry shook his head, he could hardly remember the dream, but it must have been bad.
"No, I'm alright, just a slight headache." Ron clearly though that if Harry's scar was dripping blood he was not okay, but didn't argue.
Harry glanced at the foot of the bed, a small pile of presents lay there. He chuckled and happily picked up the first, from Ron and Hermione. It contained a miniature quidditch pitch complete with players that you could move about, designing almost entire games before hand.
"Oh wow, thanks guys, this is great!" He said enthusiastically. Sirius's present contained a box of chocolate frogs. A basic charm making set from Sam, and a package for him and Ron with one or two of all Fred and George's jokes in it, their letter explained that since Harry had helped finance it he should get something from it.
After breakfast Harry viewed his dream with Ron and Hermione, they spent nearly an hour discussing it.
"Well we know Voldemort will attack the school with dementors and death eaters to back him. Something bad will happen to you Harry. You'll save a bunch of lives, there will be injuries to students and staff. We should all prepare for a mass attack sometime in the next month or so." Ron finished with a sigh, Hermione looked skeptical. Harry sent the parchment with the dream to Sirius for him to see and spent the day doing homework in the library.
Wheeeeeewww! Harry heard Ron's soft whistle. He ducked into the shadows and ran down the hallway and around the corner. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him. They were right outside the Slytherin dungeon, it was the second night back after the holidays.
"You got it? You got it?" Ron asked eagerly, holding out his hand. Harry tossed him the Marauders Map and pulled a small bag out of his pocket.
"Alright, it's clear? Lets go. Arachnid." Hermione urged, looking around, they'd already had to escape Mrs. Noris twice. The doorway to Slytherin common room opened, Harry had come down after dinner and gotten the password as the Slytherins went in. They walked in, Ron stationed himself near the door with the map on guard while Harry and Hermione went to work. A simple trash bin spell covered the floor knee deep in garbage. Harry levitated the mess and attached it to the ceiling while Hermione put up an illusion to hide it. "Cameras in place, trigger spell ready, is the coast clear Ron?" She asked as Harry rearranged the bricks in the wall and placed in a camera. Ron nodded and they set off to the Potions room.
Yesterday they had been making a hairloss potion, Snape and been complementing Malfoy all class on his. And had taken away thirty points from Gryffindor because Malfoy had set off a firework on their side of the room. The three wanted revenge. Malfoy was going to present his potion in class tomorrow, and was going to test it on someone of his choice. Hermione charmed the floor and a tall shelf while Harry searched among the students potions until he found Malfoy's. The hairloss potion was in two parts, the potion, which was then mixed with a special tablet that was made from another potion. Harry switched Malfoy's tablet with one of his own design. His contained different chemicals, when mixed with mandrake siliva it exploded, dyeing anything it hit bright pink. It would also explode when mixed with any fruit juice. He took out the tablet Malfoy had made and threw it out, replacing it with the exploding one.
"Let's get out of hear before Filch comes." Ron whispered, Harry closed the bottle and put it back on the shelf.
"Alright, come on Hermione." They hurried back off to their common room.
The next day in Potions Malfoy sauntered in smirking. Harry, Ron and Hermione waited impatiently.
"Class be quiet! Now! I've asked Draco to show the class his potion and then demonstrate how it works on someone. Draco?" Snape handed Draco his two phials and a cup. Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched eagerly as he poured the potion into the cup then opened the other phial and dumped in the tablet. Boom! The cup erupted, spewing orange smoke everywhere. When it had cleared Malfoy was standing there, his robes were pink, and so was Snape's face.
"MALFOY WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO??? DON'T YOU LISTEN TO ANYTHING I SAY??? I TOLD YOU THREE TIMES NOT TO PUT IN TO MUCH MANDRAKE SILIVA AND TO PUT IN THREE SPOONFULS OF POWDERED DRIED DRAGON EYE!!! DETENTION FOR YOU FOR A WEEK. YOU'RE GOING TO CLEAN THE ENTIRE FIRST FLOOR AND HOSPITALL WING AND TROPHY ROOM EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK!" Snape roared, Malfoy tried to move and stepped into Hermione's spells, he tripped into the shelf, potions bottles went spilling everywhere, Malfoy screamed as huge green warts appeared on his face and his eyes grew as big was dinner plates. He shrunk till he was as small as a first year. Snape was beside himself with rage. He grabbed Malfoy by the collar of his robes and dragged him from the room. They could hear him shouting all the way down the hall about getting Malfoy expelled. The Gryffindors collapsed laughing.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Life in the castle continued normally for nearly three weeks, no sign of Voldemort anywhere in the world. And this was making Harry worry, something was wrong.
"Urgh! I can't believe her! Write a four foot long essay on the history of divination! That'll take all weekend! Ron growled. Harry scanned the forest, he was sure he'd heard something. They were at the forest's edge and the sun was setting. Tiger, his half-grown kitten, rubbed against his ankles and purred. Care of Magical Creatures had ended ten minutes ago and they were the only people left on the grounds. "Come on Harry, the sun'll be gone soon, and I don't want to be out here then." Ron said, Harry stared into the trees, not answering, near the end of CoMC he'd seen shapes moving about, he was sure of it. Ron tapped him on the shoulder, clearly impatient. Suddenly something moved, Harry knelt on the ground and peered into the bushes. Ron backed away hurriedly. A very large dog poked its head out. Not a dog Harry corrected himself as he rocked back onto his heels hurriedly, then he recognized it. Tiger ran forward and rubbed noses with it, Harry rubbed Tiger lightly, apparently that cat didn't see anything dangerous about this wolf. It was the Dire wolf pup he'd saved. Though it wasn't much of a pup anymore, from the looseness of its skin and the size of its paws in relation to the rest of it, it still had growing to do. It was already bigger then any regular wolf and most Dire wolves, the creature was going to be a complete monster for size once it was done growing.
"Hey there. Good to see you again." Harry said, holding out his hand for it to smell. It sniffed his hand lightly, slowly its tail began to wag, and it nuzzled his hand. Harry, nice to see you. Harry gasped, it had spoken to him. We dire wolves have some telepathic abilities, before I was to young to use them. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to speak with a human. Harry was shocked.
"Uh Harry? What's going on?" Ron asked, he had his wand out and looked like he was about to start panicking.
"It's alright Ron, he's a friend. He's the dire wolf I told you about from the test." How are you? And why are you here? Harry asked, hoping his telepathy would work right, he was very unpracticed at it. I'm fine, leader of my pack now. I was in the area and had never seen the castle before. And I met up with him, we decided to come see you. It flicked its tail as the war Unicorn emerged from the trees. Harry went over to it and petted its shoulder lightly. You know the only other person who can speak like you can is The Phoenix. How odd that another, not even in the Order, should have that ability. Harry was startled, though now that he thought about it that was odd. It was then he realized that it was the war unicorn who had spoken this time. Well it is nice to see you again, what are your names? He asked, wondering if they even had them. I am Flame, and this is Lightning. The dire wolf answered for both, Ron was clearly getting nervous. Well Flame, Lightning, I have to go now, see you around. Harry said, both vanished into the trees without a trace.
"Harry? What happened?" Ron asked, looking over his shoulder as they walked to the castle.
"They just wanted to say hi, some how I can communicate with them telepathically. Weird huh?"
"Uh Harry? Do you mean you're on telepathic speaking terms with those creatures?" Ron asked, looking a little disbelieving.
"Yes, they're friends, they're really nice."
"Harry, no one is supposed to be able to do that, it's just not possible, even the Phoenix can't without the Phoenix power he's given." Ron said, sounding just a little shocked.
"Well I can, kinda odd, oh well, I never said I was normal, just want to be. I wonder if they can talk to anyone? Do you want to come try it some time?" Ron nodded, and opened his mouth to reply, Hermione appeared at the door.
"Neville said you two were going into the forest. Really! You're PREFECTS!!!" She said angrily, glaring.
"Actually we were just, um, socializing with a few of Harry's friends, don't get your feathers in a tangle. Just cause were prefects doesn't mean we can't have fun." Ron replied, glaring back. Harry looked over his shoulder again as he went in, he could have sworn he heard a wolf howl.
"Harry, could I talk to you for a minute?" Harry turned, it was Dumbledore, he waved at Ron and Hermione to go on and walked over to the headmaster.
"Yes?" He asked, surely he wasn't in trouble for having some animal friends?
"You must know by now that the test you took, wasn't normal. Those animals weren't meant to be real. You obviously have a gift with magical creatures. Tell me, have you encountered any others?" Harry blinked, why would Dumbledore want to know that? And how did he know about Lightning and Flame? Sirius must have told him Harry realized, Sirius, with his connection to the Order animals would know about all those who lived around Hogwarts.
"No professor I haven't, unless you count Tiger and a basilisk in that test, and the Kraken in the lake wasn't really trying to kill me just scare me. Why?"
"It is unusual, such a mix of abilities." The headmaster seemed to be lost in thought for a moment. "Did you speak with the basilisk?"
"When I remembered I could, why? It's just a snake." Harry was getting nervous.
"Did it tell you anything unusual, odd, unexpected?" Now Harry wasn't just nervous, a tinge of anger showed in his voice, Dumbledore was keeping something from him.
"He told me that 99.8% of all snakes will side with me in the battles to come. However I know this is not new news to you, what were you expecting?" Dumbledore looked thoughtful at Harry's response.
"Nothing really, as you said, it's just a snake. Are you sure that's all?" Harry kept his temper in check; this was stupid, something was wrong.
"Professor could you please tell me what you were expecting it to say, I don't remember anything else, besides that it was grateful to me for showing it that way out of that cave."
"I wasn't really expecting anything. Did it call you by your name?" Harry nodded,
"What did it call you? Can you remember, I need to know. Think Harry, did it just call you by your name? No part of it that you couldn't understand or anything like that?" Harry went on guard, Dumbledore wanted information on what the snake had called him? Why? What was Dumbledore keeping from him? This, spaced-out extra thoughtful and suspicious attitude was most unlike the headmaster. Then he remembered, he hadn't been able to understand, but the snake had addressed him as more then Harry James Potter. In the back of his mind he sensed his anger affecting the weather, mentally he clamped down on the forming thunderstorm. It would do no good to make Dumbledore suspicious.
"He called me a speaker, a Parseltounge, and by my name." Knowing Dumbledore would use his eye power to see if Harry was telling the truth Harry brought up strong walls before looking the headmaster in the eye.
"He called you Harry James Potter? That's all?" He frowned a little as Harry nodded. "Oh, well I don't want to keep you from your homework, go on." Harry swallowed his anger and turned to leave, as he reached the top of the staircase Dumbledore spoke again.
"We are going to have a long conversation some day soon Harry, on what you're not telling me. That snake told you something else, but you're not telling me." Harry stopped, and with his back to Dumbledore grinned and said coolly, almost coldly.
"I will look forward to learning what you are keeping from me headmaster." And started the climb to Gryffindor tower. Leaving Albus Dumbledore standing by the front doors, watching the sky outside thoughtfully.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Harry sat upright gasping. The dream still vivid in his mind, he grabbed his glasses pulled on his robes and hurried down to the common room. Harry glanced around, everyone else was asleep, he summoned his wand, which he had forgotten and reached out mentally. Sirius? Sirius we've got a MAJOR problem! He waited, his telepathy skills weren't all that good, but he knew Sirius had heard. Harry? What's wrong? A confused voice asked, Harry located it as coming from the third floor corridor the Order lived in. Sirius was awake and working on plans in case Voldemort attacked. I just had another dream, Voldemort is going to attack tomorrow at six p.m. A sense of astonishment came to him from Sirius. Harry ran towards the corridor, he opened the door and hurried in. Remus beckoned him into a room to his left, Tiger bounded in after him.
Ten order members were gathered around a table, most looking through papers, Sirius was standing at one end. They were looking very worried. Dumbledore gave Harry a small reassuring attempt at a smile from his seat on Sirius's right. Maybe he'd forgotten their conversation two days before. The only others Harry recognized were Remus, Snape, Mundungus, and Arrabella Figg. Miranda had gone on a Patrol.
"Are you sure Harry?" Harry nodded, he could sense telepathic messages being sent out to everyone in the Order, they'd all be awake and ready shortly. "Tomorrow at six, with what followers?" Sirius asked.
"82 death eaters, 2,000 dementors, 20 snakes-of Nagini's species, and 700 Mesmerd." Harry reeled off, gulping at the Mesmerd, the gigantic furred and winged creatures spit fire, their long tails ended in a spiked, club-like bone, and had no arms or legs. Their average wingspan was about twenty feet. Their smell was enough to make people cower in fear, for that was the smell they continuously gave off. Tiger sat down on the table and rubbed against Harry's hand reassuringly. Sirius nodded at Harry to take a seat in the one remaining chair.
"We'll tell the students tomorrow morning, they can help prepare. We're going to have to come up with more plans of defense, quickly. Maybe-"
"I've already got them." Harry interrupted, everyone stared at him. "I've based them on what I've seen in my visions, when we won." Sirius mentally sent him a brief feeling of approval for him to continue. Pointedly ignoring Dumbledore's sharp stare. Harry flicked his wand at the table. The surface began to change, soon a to-scale model of a bird's eye view of Hogwarts and the surrounding forest rose.
"How about you explain what these defenses are." Sirius said, five more order members, leaders of the Patrols still at Hogwarts, came in and stood along the walls.
"Okay, throughout the forest we set traps for them. Pits, magical nooses, and sleep mist. Enchanted mist that they can't see through that will eventually cause them to fall asleep. We can also get all the creatures in there to attack trespassers. The entire operation can be overseen from broomstick. Illusions, hidden spikes with poisoned tips. Here at the castle all the defensive enchantments can be used, the students can fight as well if needed."
Harry continued for nearly half and hour, outlining his plans. The order listening with interest as he told them what each patrol (group of Order agents) should do. Finally he sat back, he could think of nothing he'd missed, now it was time to see what they made of it.
"And your part in this?" He was surprised at the only question, none of them had questioned his orders or disputed his plans. But Sirius's question set him a little off balance.
"I'll be up on top of the astronomy tower for most of it. I'll call up a thunderstorm, without rain, I can then electrocute them. From that I can build an Advanced Patronus which will kill the Dementors on impact, hundreds with one spell. I'll also summon up two tornadoes and enchant them only to harm the enemy. That's about the limit of my weather magic. It will also give me a good point from which to attack the Mesmerd, my lightning bolts should be able to easily get through any shields they form." Sirius regarded Harry for a moment, since he wasn't surprised Harry realized that Sirius had known about his ability to summon lightning and tornadoes already. The gasps from everyone else also told him Sirius hadn't shared that knowledge. Dumbledore, holding back his anger rather poorly, started to rise, but thought better of it and sat again.
"We'll only be able to fight with what's here. All communications besides owl post to the rest of the world are being cut off for about a month, some major problem at the Ministry or something. That also means we don't have the rest of the Order, they can't get here in time and there aren't that many Order animals in the area. Though I haven't gotten a chance to check recently." He murmured, he must have been giving orders mentally for suddenly everyone in the Order's wing was moving about preparing. Harry shifted, his War Unicorn friend was out their, now leader of the herd, they could help, as could Flame and his dire wolves. But Sirius knew about them. Sirius walked around the model, studying it intently. "Alright, Harry how about you get ready, Albus alert the students at breakfast, no classes today. Severus, you'll need to prepare for the next death eaters meeting, try not to do anything to alter Voldemort's plans…" He continued but Harry didn't hear, sensing he had been dismissed Harry left the room quickly, he had a lot to do. Tiger raced out behind him, the cat followed Harry everywhere, which was good when he was trying to pull pranks at night. Tiger had beaten Mrs. Noris in over a dozen cat fights so Mrs. Noris always avoided him.
"So let me get this straight, so far we are the only students who know about this. And, as prefects, we'll be called upon to keep the students safe and stop them from panicking. I'm starting to get a feeling of Armageddon here Harry." Ron said, he looked slightly frantic, Hermione appeared to be in shock. Harry had woken both of them and told them what was going on.
"Yes exactly, all the prefects are going to be needed. You shouldn't have too much trouble, Gryffindors are a hard bunch to scare, but I won't be able to help you much. Sorry, I've got to work on the schools defenses and battle plans, the order has to know exactly what needs to be done." Harry said, he was standing at the window with his eyes closed "testing" the wind, the conditions were perfect, he wouldn't have any trouble bringing up a thunderstorm.
"You, are giving instruction to the Order of the Phoenix Harry? Well good luck, you'll
end up being a member anyway you know. We'll do our part, and you do yours, don't worry about us. We're the best at dueling and any other form of fighting in the entire school excluding you. You just concentrate on your part. Come on Ron."
"Thanks guys, that takes a load off my mind." Harry smiled at them gratefully and grabbed his broom and leaped out the window. Hermione pulled Ron from the room, Harry could hear them gathering the house in the common room.