Chapter 6: The Order of the Phoenix.

The day passed and the aged school felt like home. Jovial chattering and laughter filled the halls, on might have thought that the school was once again filled to the brim with its magical students. But as the day slowly turned to night, a more sombre atmosphere engulfed the castle as a fairly large proportion of the castle's inhabitants made their way into a large octagonal room.

The room was fairly dark with no windows and only one set of doors. There was a large hearty fireplace to the left side of the room, desks were set in a semi-circular shape around it. It was a fairly blank room of black, and the lighting was quite dim. Indeed, the only light that really came was from the fireplace itself.

The Weasley's, Albus, Draco and Severus had all come to enter the room, and Minerva kindly agreed to wait outside for the other members of the Order to arrive. Cuthbert was a little disappointed to see that Archie hadn't agreed to come yet, and was silently cursing him. But, it really was Archie's decision and he wouldn't blab it out to the Order without his comrade's consent.

Albus too was looking at the door constantly, hoping that the man would burst through the doors any minute. But it did not seem too likely.

As the minutes passed, many others entered the room. Amos Diggory had come. Ever since his son's death, he had sworn to avenge him. It wasn't exactly too healthy as he was nearly sent into St Mungo's for becoming so obsessed with the Dark Lord's downfall, but Albus had managed to snake him out of their grasps and made sure that Amos managed to get a relaxant potion from Severus.

Arabella Figg had also come. The great thing about her was that she was a terrific spy. She had never been one to stand out in the crowd and she could mingle in easily. And since age was on her side, she could act like a crazy old coot and wrangle out information from people that thought she wouldn't remember it in the next second. She was indeed very valuable to the Order and she readily came to all the Order meetings as there was usually very little for people her age to do, and she felt important, which she was. 

Alastor Moody was also a regular at the meetings. Many though he was just an aged wizard, who was so paranoid that he didn't trust anyone and saw dark wizards everywhere – which was partly true, but that didn't mean that he didn't do anything useful. His vast knowledge on the Dark Arts and its practitioners was also very useful to the Order. He was always very wary of Draco, a Malfoy fighting against Voldemort was absurd to him, and they would often end up bawling at each other and having several people holding them back from cursing each other.   

Hermione had also come. She and Ron would often come to the meetings, even if they weren't actually part of the Order. They liked to receive information and see if they could help in anyway. Albus had of course asked them if they would like to become member of the Order, but they had refused. Albus just nodded knowingly. In their fifth year, when they and Harry had come to know about the Order, they had wanted to join, help out in anyway possible. But they were never allowed as the business that was discussed should never be heard by one so young. They had vowed to join the Order, together. But they weren't together. Harry had left, he could be dead, he could be a Death Eater, who knows? But both Ron and Hermione felt that it would only join if Harry was there, it didn't feel right without him.

Finally, Minerva entered with Hagrid and took a seat by a desk next to Mad-Eye. Albus cleared his throat to gather everyone's attention.

"Well, it seems like Mr Lupin and Mr Black will be unable to join us today. But we will make haste and carry on with tonight's meeting. First on the agenda, the giants." He said. Everyone turned to Hagrid

 "Sorry, Professor Dumbledore sir, I can' stay fer long. The giants are getting bit rowdy at the news I've jus' given 'em. I should probably go there some 'ime soon, ta check up on 'em" Hagrid said, looking at the fire.

"Bu' jus' ta say tha' they've been given the news." Hagrid replied.

"Very good Hagrid. Hopefully you won't have to stay up in the mountains too long over the holidays.

"No' a problem sir, glad to 'elp any time!" Hagrid said as cheerily as he could.  

That was the giants in order. During Voldemort's reign, they had been fierce creatures who killed everything their paths, and the deaths brought upon muggles were particularly gruesome. However, now that Hagrid had managed to seal them on the mountains and give them messages to stay put, they had become restless and their anger sometimes caused tremors in the Earth's crust.

"Now, that's the giants settled with. How are the dragon's coming along Charlie?" Albus asked him. The second eldest Weasley shook his head with a particularly grim look on his face.

"Not too good. It's hard enough to keep the wild dragons at rest. Another problem is that dragon eggs are being stolen at an alarming rate, and it's not just from the wild, it's from our actual centre. We also suspect that they've been stolen for one generally reason." Charlie said, frowning.

"What would that be?" Albus asked.

Charlie's whole expression darkened and he looked positively livid with what he was about to say.

"Genetic experimentation."

A stunned silence filled the room. Only the crackling of the fire broke the silence, and everyone in the room looked very disturbed at the news. Even Severus who usually showed as much expression as a brick wall. Charlie spoke again.

"If the Dark Lord is really is experimenting on the dragon eggs, who knows how what will happen. Muggles doing it is bad enough, but looking at what muggles are capable of, Voldemort can easily amplify it to be a thousand times worse." Charlie's voice croaked out.

"What has been done to stop the burglaries of the eggs?" Amos asked.

"We've had curses of all sorts put around the area, traps have been set up and we've even had Unspeakables guarding the centre twenty-four hours a day," Charlie paused and let out a breath, "There has been another way to stop the burglaries, given to me by one of the Unspeakables, but I have forbidden it in the centre."

"What is it? If it can stop the burglaries than surely it's worth it." Arabella commented.

"The sterilisation of the dragons." Charlie stated. "I will not let the dragons be sterilised. They're rare enough as it is, and they only reproduce once in their lifetime." Bill sat contemplating on his brother's words.

"I could try something." He said as everyone's head turned to his.

"What's that then?" Mrs Weasley asked her eldest son.

"I'm a curse-breaker; I have to deal with the oldest curses known to wizards since ancient times. Before I start breaking the curse, I would have to study it, and that often means actually learning how to do the curse. And some of the ancient curses are much more efficient than our modern day ones." Bill commented, as he stared at the flames, contemplating the idea.

"The only problem is that it can take as long as a fortnight for a single curse to be completed in full." Bill said again, his eyes looking into the fire, "And I doubt I can do it on my own for two weeks," Bill said, his eyes averting from the flickering flames.

"How is the situation in Egypt? Is it stable?" Draco asked. The red head turned to the albino.

"Yes, mostly. I'll be out of the job soon, I've been putting more curses on things then breaking them," Bill commented.

"Surely you can take someone with you to help your brother then?" Mad-Eye stated more than asked.

"It's not that simple. None of my co-workers know of the Order, and I have a few shady characters in the department watching me enough as it is. I'll need someone who can understand the basic theory of the spell and be able to take over from me once I tire out," Bill replied. Then something clicked.

"Percy! You're quick at picking things up, I'm sure you could handle this!" Bill said, trying to encourage is younger brother. Everyone waited in anticipation for Percy's reply.

"No harm in attempting it." Percy said under their gazes.

"Alright, we'll leave as soon as we can for Romania," Charlie finalised.

And so the dragons were sorted out.

***

Quiet footsteps and padding paws walked the slushy cobbled streets of Hogsmeade. The man with the amber eyes nodded to the friendly people of the village, easily passing by without any suspicion. His canine friend trotted by his side, his black coat once again gleaming and he had become once again larger in size, almost the size of a small bear. The two headed outside of the small village to the station, very inconspicuously. They passed the edge of the snow touched Forbidden Forest and were within the grounds of Hogwarts. The snow was deep, and both had a little difficulty getting through it.

Remus heard the dog growl in frustration and raised his eyebrow at the dog.

'This would be so much easier if I were on two legs, then I could actually see above the snow.'

Remus just chuckled at his friend.

'You'll have to wait Padfoot my friend,' he smiled sympathetically as they waded through the snow.

It seemed to take hours but the two finally made it to the Entrance Hall, completely soaked to the bone. Remus pulled out his wand. The dog saw and was about to stop him, but it was too late. They were both dry. And Padfoot now looked like a large ball of fluff. Remus took one look at the dog and burst out laughing, while his friend growled menacingly and looked ready to tear off a limb. Remus tried to recover and hold in his laugh, but it was increasingly difficult as all you could hear was growling coming from a big, found, fluffy black thing.

"I'm sorry Padfoot, but you'd be doing the same if it were me!" Remus said, ruffling the dog's fluffy head.

Then the two headed up the main staircase towards the big octagonal room they knew too well.    

***

A/N: Hi everyone! I was going to write this part of the fic as one long huge chapter, but I thought I'd just break it down a little so that you can take in all the info little by little! I'm sorry for the lack of H/H, but never fear, it will appear! And my new muse (Huw!) has given me an idea for a fluffy H/H moment, so aren't you all lucky!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Gary Skinner: I'm sorry! I meant to write faster, but, school got in the way, and then I had a wee bit of a block. Then I had an idea and now I have to research that idea so it all works out for this fic! So, it really will (hopefully) be worth the wait! ^-^! And about no one being able to recognise Harry, I'm sorry I didn't mention this earlier. You know in Philosopher's Stone, when Petunia cuts Harry's hair dreadfully and it grows back the next day? Well, I always thought Harry would be able to control his looks to a certain degree, and since he doesn't want to be recognised in his fic, he's managed to make himself look as un-Harry like as possible. With the long hair and beard and whatnot. As for the eyes, yes you would expect them to be a vibrant green colour that would make him easily recognisable, but, years in hiding and spying, seeing things that no one should see can do wonders to the eyes. So they'll now appear a murky dark green until he finally comes out as Harry to everyone! I hope that explained everything!