Author's Note: Revised chapter 3.
the
initiation
Harry looked around to see if this meant anything. The Order of the Phoenix? It was all becoming rather unbearably odd; Dumbledore calling him to the school with Figg as his escort, and making him sit through this meeting without giving him a clue as to what was going on.
No one said anything for a long while. Harry ran his hand through his hair, then looked around again. Harry turned to Remus, who was seated next to him, and whispered, maybe a little too loudly, "What's the Order of the Phoenix?"
Remus shushed him with a look, and Harry frowned, looking back up at Dumbledore.
"Those of you here today have either been in the Order of the Phoenix before, or are being recruited," Dumbledore continued. "The Order is an organization of wizards and witches dedicated to eradicating dark wizards."
Oh.
Everything kind of fit into place after that—after all, Harry was the Boy Who Lived….
"The need to call upon this sacred order has returned," Dumbledore said, a twinge of sorrow in his deep voice. "Lord Voldemort has risen yet again, and we must not let him gain the power he had, not quite so long ago."
Dumbledore's eyes looked around the room, his gaze resting on each person seated around the round table. He paused when he looked at Harry last. Dumbledore peered at the boy, who was looking up at him—rapt with attention though…a bit lost, dark with memories.
There was another boy in the room with the same eyes…young, just about a half-year older than Harry; one not yet noticed by the other young boy. This blond-haired boy had had a difficult life, with his name being written down to serve the Dark Lord since his birth. This boy didn't want that life…didn't want to follow the life of a Death Eater. No matter how crude he could be, this boy did not want to bloody his hands with that of the innocent—the thing that set him apart from so many in his position.
The boy had come to Dumbledore over the first few weeks, confessing everything that he had been involved in, everything he had seen, heard, been told. He had asked for sanctuary. He agreed to help Dumbledore as much as he could, in return. And Dumbledore had trusted the boy, and agreed to help him. His name was Draco Malfoy.
Dumbledore reverted his attention back to the other people gathered around the table—Sirius Black (still in Padfoot disguise), Remus Lupin, Mundungus Fletcher, Arabella Figg, Alastor Moody, and a few more Aurors that were young and new to their work. There was Draco…and then there was Harry.
"It is your choice, of course," he continued, "if you want to join the Order. If you do not, it is understandable—this is dangerous. But," he paused, putting more faith into his words that ever before, "to shy away from stopping Lord Voldemort is to deny others the chance to live. If we can stop Voldemort, we can prevent him from killing innocent people. And give them a chance to live." He took a deep breath, and sighed. "If you do not wish to join the Order, you may leave now. Know that if you do not exit this room at this moment, you are bound by mind, body, and soul to the Order of the Phoenix—a solemn promise of faith in the light—and you, until the threat is over," Dumbledore paused, his face looking even graver in the firelight, "you can never escape it again."
Silence reigned supreme in the room after Dumbledore's speech. The elderly man had calmly seated himself in his chair.
No one made a move to get up. Nothing was said, and everyone was looking into his or her laps, deep in thought.
Harry frowned over this new information, and made up his mind incredibly quickly, not really having to think at all. Of course he was going to fight Voldemort! With a shrug to himself, he figured it wasn't any different from how things went anyway. Only now, he'd be joining a group of people who all fought and would fight Voldemort.
Draco Malfoy forcefully wiped the sneer off his face as he watched Harry Potter. I'm not my father's son anymore, he reminded himself sternly, I'm my own person. And I'm going to work with these people, fight with these people…I am one of these people. Draco thought back to what Dumbledore had said at the feast after the Third Task. Without unity, we will be destroyed, like we were before. I need to remember that. He unconsciously scowled at Harry again. He was too used to it.
He sighed to himself. It would take a while before he could get used to the idea of working with Potter—for Dumbledore had explained to him carefully before….
//"You must understand that this will be hard. You two will be the youngest members in the Order, and still attending Hogwarts. You will be partnered on all assignments. You must trust each other, and work together."
"But—" Draco sputtered.
Dumbledore hadn't given him a chance to disagree with that. "Mr. Malfoy," he said, kind but firm, "Draco. I understand that you and Mr. Potter haven't been on good terms during the years that you have known each other. But you must learn to get along. Your abilities compliment each other, Mr. Malfoy, and both of you must put aside your anger and do this for the good of the people. The time you will be spending together may not mean something to you, but the fact that the work you are doing will be saving innocents does, that I am sure of. And that's why you have to do this."//
Dumbledore's voice rang clearly. "We will begin the initiation. I will call each one of you forward and perform an incantation. It will bind you together, and to the oath you take upon joining the Order of the Phoenix."
Dumbledore stood, and walked towards the opposite side of the portrait entrance, where there was suitable space to perform the enchantment. "Arabella Figg."
Arabella stood, confidently, and stood a few feet across from her brother, standing tall and straight, her eyes shut tight. Dumbledore said an incantation in Latin.
"Mentis."
A golden symbol appeared under Arabella's feet—not a clear symbol at all. No one could see it; only a large blur of gold in shapes.
"Corpus."
From the edges of the circular symbol, red streams of light and mist rose, wrapping themselves around Arabella's legs, arms, and head. They faded suddenly.
"Animus."
An orange glow appeared around Arabella's skin, like the embers of a fire.
"Issutio Phoenix!"
The symbol began to fade away, and so did the glow. About two minutes later, all trace of it had disappeared.
Arabella opened her blue eyes, smiled knowingly at Dumbledore, and returned to her seat. Without being called up, Remus Lupin went forward, and the same process happened to him. Slowly, one by one, everyone was going and getting initiated. Draco wasn't sure when he felt ready enough to go and do it.
When the big, shaggy black dog walked forward towards Dumbledore, a few of the people started in surprise. Draco merely narrowed his eyes.
With a slight popping sound, the dog transformed into Sirius Black. Harry was pleased to see that his godfather had cut his hair, and had been taking good care of himself: he looked very handsome, presentable, and his skin was tanner and his face fuller. He didn't look like an ex- convict anymore.
Draco, along with quite a few of the people, blinked in surprise. Sirius Black was a murderer!
But, to their surprise and confusion, Dumbledore smiled at Black kindly, proudly, and performed the incantation. Black was now a part of the Order.
Draco stood and went towards Dumbledore, whose eyes twinkled as the he stepped forward. Draco didn't spare a glance at the other members—he didn't want to know what they started thinking when they saw him, and especially not Potter.
As the initiation was performed, Draco felt a tingling all over his body, and before the last word of the incantation, the felt something open up inside him. It was warm, very warm, and beckoned to him to listen to it. When he did, there was an immense flow of things coming from this warmth—he didn't know what it was, they were all foreign emotions, powers, to him. But they were there…and he liked them. Draco opened his eyes when the tingling stopped, and stepped back to his seat.
There was only one person left, and he stood and approached Dumbledore calmly, as if the whole thing didn't faze him one single bit. It probably doesn't faze him, after what had happened to him before, Draco thought as he watched.
But something was very different about Harry Potter's initiation. Very different indeed.
initiation
end
A/N: About the Phoenix Chant (the initiation spell): it's made up of four chants: Mentis, Corpis, Animus, and Issutio Phoenix. Mentis comes from the Latin Mens Mentis, which means 'mind.' Corpus comes from the Latin Corpis Corporis, which means 'body.' Animus means 'soul' in Latin. Issutio comes from Iussu, which means 'by order of.' So, I basically took some Latin, cut it short, and made it easier to pronounce ^^;; Cheers to those online English - Latin dictionaries!
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~Jedi Cosmos
