Disclaimer: Harry Potter and associated characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I only own the plot.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter 25: New Orders
A few days passed and Hermione hadn't said anything about Parvati getting up at night. In fact, Parvati started appearing to her classes again and acted normally though her skin was pale as ever and her clothes almost covered every part of her body except for a small part of her face.
One morning two days before the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Harry was eating breakfast with Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall when an owl came swooping down and dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of them.
Hermione immediately picked it up and read it while Ron and Harry looked over her shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Daily Prophet January 10, 1995
Hogwarts Headmaster to be Tried for Treason By: Rita Skeeter
Today is a happy day in the wizarding world for justice will be served once again. Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts, will be tried for treasonous activity in attempting to free the Death Eaters of Azkaban and for the murder of nine of our best aurors. They will be remembered with honour for serving their country well.
Our very own heroic Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge will be present at his trial as a witness to the crime since he was there to prevent the treacherous headmaster from succeeding.
The trial is set to take place sometime in February and the sentence will be carried out accordingly should he be found guilty. The Minister himself assures us that "Albus Dumbledore will be brought to justice for the crimes he has committed and I will be there to ensure that justice is done."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione dropped the Daily Prophet on the table with an unsettling look upon her face.
Harry couldn't believe it either. Their headmaster was going to be tried for the very crime he was trying to prevent from happening.
The three of them sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Hermione broke the silence.
"How could this happen?" she asked. "He was innocent."
"Malfoy's father probably had something to do with this," Ron said angrily. "He's the one who arrested Dumbledore so I'd be willing to bet that he pushed for this to happen and bribed everyone who disagreed with him."
"Ron, you don't have any proof of that," Harry pointed out. "Besides, I'm sure that the other teachers will not allow this to happen and they'll find a way to prove Dumbledore innocent."
"That's provided that Sepet doesn't kill them all first."
"Oh Ron, don't be so pessimistic," said Hermione, gathering up her books and getting up.
"I'm not being pessimistic," Ron insisted. "It's the truth and you know it."
"Hey you two," Harry interrupted as he too got up from his seat. "Let's not get into another argument."
Hermione let out a sigh. "Let's go. We don't want to be late for class."
"It's the Dark Arts class, I'm sure Walter will cut you some slack. I mean he's been helping you and Harry out ever since he's gotten here," said Ron, getting up and following Hermione as she walked at a brisk pace out the door with Harry.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they arrived at their Dark Arts class, they were surprised to find that they were the first ones to arrive with the exception of Parvati who hadn't appeared to breakfast. Parvati was just sitting at her desk playing around with her quill and didn't seem to notice them coming in.
"Hullo Parvati," Hermione said as she sat down in the seat behind her with Harry and Ron on either side of her.
"Oh hi Hermione, Harry and Ron," Parvati said, turning around to face them. Parvati didn't have her white hood up but she was completely covered in from head to toe otherwise by her school robes. "How are you? Sorry I've been worrying you guys too much with my illness."
"It's perfectly all right Parvati," Harry said, smiling uneasily at her as he hid his glowing ring under the desk.
The door opened and Percy walked pompously into the classroom with the rest of the students filing in behind him.
"Good morning class, please take your seats so that we can begin" Percy said airily as he grandiosely walked to the front of the classroom.
The students noisily took their seats and continued to chat amongst themselves much to Percy's annoyance.
"If you would please settle down, we can begin," Percy growled.
"Hey, where's professor Laikov?" a student asked. "He's supposed to teach us all about dragons."
"Professor Laikov is attending to some business and I will be running this class," Percy explained over the clamour of voices in the room.
"Now, if you're all finished, SETTLE DOWN!" Percy barked.
The students finally conceded and gave him their attention though some of them were still idly doodling on pieces of parchment.
"Today I will be teaching you how to set up portkeys."
"Really? I didn't know you could set one up," a Slytherin student commented, receiving some sniggers around the room.
"That will be enough of your misbehaviour," Percy ordered.
"Oh come on Percy," Ron whined. "Could you cut us some slack here? I'm your brother after all."
"No Ronald Weasley. You may be my brother but in my classroom, there will be no playing favourites."
"Aw, you're no fun," Ron pouted, leaning on one arm.
"Ron, be nice to your brother," Hermione scolded. "Learning about portkeys could be fun."
"Only to you," Ron said sarcastically.
Hermione's face twisted in anger. "RONALD WEASLEY! ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I'M BORING!?"
Hermione's outburst caught the attention of the students in the room, some of them with amusement.
"That's enough you two," Percy said sternly. "That'll be 10 points each from Gryffindor for disrupting the class. Now everyone take out a piece of parchment and start taking notes."
For the remainder of class, Harry was forced to sit in between his two friends who were just glaring at each other, ignoring Percy's boring lecture on the history of portkeys.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once class was over, Hermione quickly gathered up her things and stormed out of the room. Harry made an attempt to follow her but was stopped by Ron who was looking very guilty.
"I don't know what came over me Harry. Now she'll never want to go to the ball with me."
Harry shot him a look of annoyance. "What do you want me to do Ron? Try to fix things between you two? Not this time. It's you that has to earn Hermione's forgiveness, not me. Come on, we're going to be late for Divination."
Ron sighed and gathered his things then the two of them made their way over to the North Tower where the Divination classroom was.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Divination was relatively uneventful and Harry was still ticked off at Ron for having treated Hermione so badly. All they did that period was make up more means by which they could possibly be killed sometime in the next week at which Trelawney commented, "I'm glad that you two are accepting your fates very well."
After leaving Divination, Harry and Ron went to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron made every attempt to look for Hermione but to his dismay, she avoided him the entire time. Only when it was time to go to class did she bother to approach them.
"Common Harry," said Hermione, still ignoring Ron. "It's time to go to our duelling class."
Harry bid goodbye to Ron and followed Hermione out to the Quidditch pitch for their duelling class.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Upon arriving at the Quidditch pitch, Harry was surprised to find Moody there instead of Sepet.
"Hullo Mr. Potter," Moody growled. "Glad you could make it. Professor Sepet is away on business with Professor Laikov so I will be teaching the class today."
"What will we be learning?" Hermione asked enthusiastically. "I hear you're the best auror around."
Moody gave her an awkward smile. "Yes, that's true but one can never be too careful around here."
Harry nodded knowingly and moved to draw his sword.
"Your weapons won't be necessary today Mr. Potter. You'll only need your wand for this session."
Harry and Hermione took out their wands and waited in silence for the rest of the students to arrive.
Eventually the other six students arrived, Viktor Krum among them but Malfoy wasn't since he was still in the hospital wing.
"Now we will begin," Moody growled, his magical eye looking from student to student, making them feel uneasy. "First I'd like you to pair off and face each other. This time you'll be fighting each other one on one."
"No hard feelings if I beat you ok Harry?" Hermione teased him as she walked a distance and faced Harry.
"No hard feelings Hermione. I'll finally get to teach you not to be a know it all," Harry replied with a playful smile.
Hermione laughed. "Not today you won't. Maybe we'll see how good you look as a sheep."
They bowed and drew their wands. There was a tense moment as they stared at each other waiting to see who would make the first move.
Eventually Harry was the one to do so and fired a stunning spell at Hermione who rolled on the ground and countered with an ice-bolt.
Harry raised an air shield to defend himself and the ice bolts dispersed around him upon hitting the shield. However the bolts continued on their paths and both Terry Boot and Hannah Abbot were hit by the stray ice bolts. The two students fell to the ground frozen solid but neither Harry nor Hermione noticed what had happened.
Harry returned with a tickling charm which hit Hermione directly in the chest. Hermione burst into laughter as she fell to the floor but she quickly cast dispel magic upon herself and returned fire with a fireball this time.
Harry dodged out of the way by rolling on the ground just in time to avoid the fireball which hit the ground and melted the snow where he was standing.
"Nice to see you running," Hermione taunted.
"You haven't won yet," Harry replied and fired a paralysis spell at Hermione but missed.
Hermione fired several fireballs followed by a jelly-legs jinx. Harry managed to block the fireballs with his air shield but was hit straight on by the jelly-legs jinx. His legs wobbled uncontrollably under him and he collapsed to the ground.
Hermione gave him a look of triumph and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry raised his wand and cast a shield which deflected the spell towards Cho Chang. Her wand flew out of her hand and she was thrown to the ground.
"HEY!" she exclaimed. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING!"
Now that three students had been hit, the remaining three students decided to stop duelling and turned their attention to Harry and Hermione.
Seeing that his partner had been hit, Justin Finch-Fletchley shot the impedimenta curse at Hermione but Harry saw it coming and cast a force field to block the incoming spell.
The spell rebounded and hit Blaise who, in anger at being hit, cast an engorgio curse on Justin. Justin's body swelled up and he collapsed to the ground from the pain.
Although Moody was watching the duel in amusement, he saw that it was getting out of control and pulled out his wand to undo the injuries inflicted upon the other students.
In the meantime, Harry had undone the jelly-legs jinx and ran at Hermione firing several ice bolts at the same time.
Hermione countered with her own force field and the spells reflected back at Harry who dodged all but one bolt. The bolt hit his leg and froze it solid.
On the ground, Harry cast a dispel magic on Hermione's force field and followed up by casting a paralyzing spell on her but she pointed her wand at the ground and raised an ice shield to absorb the spell.
The ice shield was not exactly transparent and an idea hit Harry. He fired several fireballs at the ice shield followed up by the blinding spell.
As expected the fireballs melted the ice shield though Hermione was quick to use the fire shield which absorbed the fireballs. However that didn't block the blinding spell and it hit her straight on.
Hermione screamed at the sudden darkness that engulfed her vision and fell to the ground. Seeing this, Harry quickly fired a fireball at his frozen leg which melted the ice and ran to Hermione's side.
"Hermione," Harry called as he cast dispel magic on her to undo the blinding spell. "Are you all right?"
Hermione nodded gave him a playful smile. "That's the one thing I like about you, you're so predictable."
Harry finally noticed Hermione's wand pointed at him and heard her mutter "Expelliarmus" once again.
Harry's wand shot out of his hand and flew into Hermione's at which she declared victory. "I win."
"Hey, that wasn't fair," Harry complained and was going to tickle Hermione senseless but was refrained from doing so at the sound of Moody's voice.
"Interesting elemental magic you two," Moody commented, focusing both his normal and magical eye on Harry. "One question, how long have you been using it?"
Hermione looked a bit uneasy. "Since summer."
"That's very interesting since the ministry was keeping an eye on all the Order members and what spells they used during that time. Only use of a transfiguration spell was recorded all summer by Mr. Potter here.. Still. I'm surprised you haven't caused havoc seeing as you've been hitting every other student here."
"What?" Harry said, giving Moody a look of confusion. "I thought you were able to detect all kinds of magic."
"That's true but apparently we couldn't detect your elemental magic. I suggest you be more careful with that because it's not easy to control."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After class, Harry and Hermione made their way over to the Great Hall with the rest of the students. During the entire time, Hermione noticed that Cho was staring at Harry and blushing and she pointed it out to Harry.
"Cho is staring at you Harry. Maybe you should ask her to the ball," Hermione suggested. "Then you won't have to go alone, besides.I heard that you asked her last year so you must fancy her."
Harry shook his head. "I don't think I could do that. I'd be disgracing Cedric's memory and it'd take a very strong argument to convince me otherwise."
"Oh come off it Harry," Hermione said as they entered the Great Hall. "She's one of the best looking girls in the school. Surely that has to interest you."
Harry blushed slightly. "But there are always other girls."
"Would you rather go with Parvati? You didn't look too happy on the dance floor last year with her."
"Good point," Harry agreed as Ron approached them from behind.
"Uh hi Hermione," Ron said nervously and Harry noticed that Ron had his hands behind his back.
"What do you want?" Hermione said hotly. "I don't have anything to say to you."
"I, uh," Ron stuttered. "I wanted to apologize to you for being such a stupid git earlier today."
"Hmph, you'll have to do better than that if you want me to forgive you," Hermione said, turning around to face Ron.
A small smile broke out on Ron's face. "I think I can."
Ron brought his hands out in front of him and Harry saw that there was a single rose in it.
"For you," Ron said. "Please forgive me?"
Hermione's face brightened and she took the rose in her hands. "Thank you Ron."
Ron breathed a sigh of relief but was later surprised to find Hermione throwing her arms around him. "I forgive you."
At that moment, a thought dawned on Harry and it made him want to whack himself.
*Why didn't you see it before? Hermione likes Ron, not you. * Harry thought. * Why can't you just accept it and stop chasing after Hermione?*
*Because you like her and you want her for yourself, * another voice said.
*Shut up * he thought to himself.
*I'm right and you know it. But hey, it's just a simple crush. You'll get over it in time, * said the other voice.
*Oh great, I must be going insane if I'm having an argument with myself *
Harry let out a small sigh and got up from the table.
"Where are you going Harry?" Hermione asked.
"For a walk. I need to think."
"Oh, all right," Hermione said, sounding slightly disappointed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As Harry walked through the halls, the only sound being that of his shoes echoing on the stone floor, he was still pondering how this revelation would affect him and who he could ask to the ball.
Since Ron had asked Hermione to the ball already, she was out of the picture and his two best friends would probably start ignoring him too. that thought was a little less pleasant.
The water guardian's voice echoed through his mind at that thought. *Well, if you're not willing to date Hermione, you could always date me. *
"Maybe that's not such a bad idea, at least I won't be without a date," Harry whispered to himself. He smiled slightly at the thought of the looks on everyone's faces if he came with a girl who wasn't even human yet was probably better looking than any other girl at the school with the exception of Hermione and Cho.
The torches along the walls flickered for a moment and Harry thought he heard something whoosh quickly behind him that sounded like someone wearing robes or a cape. However when he turned around, there wasn't anyone in sight.
Taking a look at his ring, he saw that it was pulsing a blood red colour, meaning that danger was near. Drawing his sword and his wand, he moved along slowly, keeping his wits about him.
There was another whooshing sound, above him this time but upon looking up he still saw nothing.
He continued on towards the Gryffindor tower walking at a much quicker pace and glancing behind his back every now and then. Hopefully whatever it was wouldn't follow him there.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After climbing up several flights of stairs at a brisk pace, making sure to jump over the gaps in some of the staircases, the portrait of the Fat Lady finally came into view.
Glancing once more at his ring, he saw that it was still glowing, causing him to quicken his pace. Two torches went out behind him and Harry turned about quickly to see what had blown them out.
"Hi Harry."
Harry jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and wheeled about quickly to meet the threat.
Cho let out a small scream as Harry did so since he was armed, however her own reflexes made her draw her dagger and wand in one swift motion in response to his sudden movement.
"Oh, sorry Cho," Harry apologized, dropping both arms to his side.
"Harry, you scared me," she breathed, putting her weapons away. "Why do you have your sword and wand drawn?"
"I thought I heard something following me," Harry explained, glancing once more behind him to see if anything was there before putting away his sword and wand.
"I think you're just being paranoid Harry," she said, smiling slightly at the thought of his actions. "It's probably just the wind."
"I guess," said Harry, though he wasn't convinced that whatever was out there had gone since his ring was still glowing. "Though with the rise of You-Know-Who, it's probably best that I don't take any chances."
Cho's face fell that that thought. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."
"It's ok Cho - so why are you here?" Harry asked.
Cho blushed slightly. "Um, I saw you walk out of the Great Hall during dinner and didn't come back; I thought that you might come here. I was also wondering if you had a date to the ball yet."
"No I don't," he answered truthfully, watching Cho's face turn redder by the moment.
"Would you come to the ball with me?"
Harry thought about it for a moment, he could do go with Cho and that would solve the problem with having to find a date but wouldn't be insulting Cedric's memory?
"What about Cedric? I don't think I could do that out of respect for him, Cho."
"That's really honourable of you Harry," said Cho, giving him a smile that made him get butterflies in his stomach. "But we can't just linger on his death; we all need to move on. In the short time that I've gone with Cedric, I know that he puts everyone's happiness over his own just like you. So I don't think he'd have much of an objection to you coming with me for just one dance. Besides, I couldn't think of anyone better to go with than you seeing that you had asked me last year and I had to turn you down because I was going with Cedric already."
"All right Cho," he said, a tad flattered by what Cho had said. "I'll come with you."
Cho's face brightened up, "Really?"
"Yes," he confirmed.
Suddenly Cho ran up to Harry and enveloped him in a tight hug, knocking him back in the process.
"Thank you so much Harry. This means a lot to me," said Cho, hugging him even tighter.
"Cho," Harry wheezed, putting the hand with his ring on her shoulder. "I can't breathe, could you please let go."
"Sorry," she apologised, slowly pulling out of the hug and taking his hand in hers. "That's a nice ring, where did you get it from?"
"It was a gift from someone for Christmas."
Cho seemed to cringe that the mention of a gift from someone but she didn't ask who it was, "Why is it glowing? It looks pretty."
*Should I tell her? * Harry thought to himself, *could the ring be warning about her? *
Harry just settled for a relatively safe answer, "It's enchanted to glow like that at different times. Sometimes it glows, sometimes it doesn't."
"Oh," said Cho, avoiding Harry's eyes for a moment, "Say - there's another trip to Hogsmeade sometime after your Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, and uh, I was wondering if maybe we could go together and pick out our outfits for the ball."
"Sure," Harry said, "That'd be a good idea."
*Maybe this will keep my mind off Hermione and Ron won't have a reason to get mad at me over her* Harry thought. *I'll need to ask the water elemental to teach me how to dance. I don't need to act like an idiot on the dance floor in front of everyone like last year. *
Footsteps were heard coming up the stairs around the corner and Harry turned around to see who it was. The footsteps drew nearer and eventually the figure of Sepet came into view. "Mr. Potter - Miss Chang, good to see you two are still well. Come, there's a meeting and you're both needed."
Harry noticed Sepet glancing at his ring as he and Cho made their way towards the Count. As if under a spell, Harry's ring immediately stopped glowing. This caused Harry to become more cautious and as they followed the Count, he kept his hand ready near his wand and sword.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they arrived at Dumbledore's office, Harry found Hermione waiting there talking with some of the other students. Malfoy was not in sight.
"HARRY!" she exclaimed, running up to him. "Where did you go? I was worried that you went off by yourself. Ron and I were looking for you until Terry found me and told me that we were meeting. Ron went back to the common room."
Harry grinned. "I'm sorry, I was just tired so I was going back to the common room to take a nap and I ran into Cho along the way."
"Oh - Hullo Cho," Hermione said, looking slightly vexed. "How are you?"
"I'm doing fine," Cho replied cheerfully. "And you?"
"Couldn't be better though I wonder what this meeting is about," she said.
"Hey Harry - Hermione," said a voice that turned out to be Sirius. "How are you both doing?"
"We're doing well, where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked.
"He's with Snape taking his potion," Sirius explained.
"Oh I see - we missed you for Christmas, the Weasleys are staying here, did you know?" Hermione asked enthusiastically.
"Yes, I saw Molly earlier today," said Sirius. "She'll be joining us too this evening."
At that moment, Professor McGonagall came around the corner laughing merrily with Walter but what was very surprising was the fact that she appeared to be blushing. However upon arriving at the stone gargoyle, she regained her composure and directed everyone upstairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The chairs were arranged in the normal circular fashion Harry noted upon entering the room and each member took their normal seat, Harry sitting in between Cho and Hermione.
Professor McGonagall took her usual seat next to Dumbledore's empty one however Walter seemed to disagree when he walked up to her and took her hand.
"As headmistress, you should take your seat as our leader. The headmaster would have preferred it that way if he were here," Walter said gently as he led Professor McGonagall to Dumbledore's seat and sat her down in it.
Mundungus Fletcher and Arabella Figg nodded their heads in approval when McGonagall gave them a look of uncertainty.
The door opened and Hagrid, followed by Arthur, Bill, Percy, and Molly Weasley, entered the room. They took their usual seats though Molly sat in the seat that was usually reserved for McGonagall.
"Hullo Molly," said Arabella Figg with a warm smile. "I'm glad you could finally join us. The old crowd wouldn't be complete without you."
"Thank you Arabella," said Mrs. Weasley returning the smile.
Finally the door opened once more and Snape, Remus, and Flitwick entered the room. Remus looked a bit pale and he gave Harry a weak smile as he sat down next to Sirius.
At that point, McGonagall stood up and addressed the group, "I apologize to everyone for the sudden notice but Mr. Percy Weasley has just come to me with some information regarding our headmaster - if you please Percy."
Percy stood up and walked pompously to the centre of the room, receiving some glares from Justin, Blaise, and Hannah.
"As Mr. Fudge's personal assistant," Percy began as he looked around the room through his glasses. "I am usually sent to carry out special tasks and fill out paperwork for him."
"Despite the Order's failed mission to Azkaban, Mr. Fudge does not suspect that I am part of this Order and as such, I still have access to high level executive orders that he wishes to carry out," continued Percy in his usual lofty tone.
"Time is short Mr. Weasley. Disperse with your pompousness and get to the point," Sepet ordered.
"I was just getting to that your highness," said Percy, irritated that he was interrupted for a brief moment in his moment in the spotlight. "- The point is that I had recently come across an executive order regarding the headmaster."
There were several gasps around the room and Hagrid stood up quickly, knocking his chair over in the process.
"What do ye mean?" he demanded as Molly and Arabella ran over to calm him down. "If they did anythin' to him, I'm gonna -"
"Please calm down Rubeus," Molly pleaded "Hear Percy out and we can decide what to do."
"Oh all right," Hagrid conceded huffily and he picked up his chair and sat in it. Molly and Arabella stood behind him just in case Hagrid decided to have another outburst.
Percy was now scowling since he had been interrupted twice, at which Walter was smiling in amusement, but he forced himself to continue on, "The order was regarding his trial which is to take place some time in February."
"However there is a slight problem with this," Percy continued. "Mr. Fudge will be serving as the key witness and since there are no other witnesses, it will be difficult for the headmaster to win the case."
"That's old news. Anyone could have gotten that in the Daily Prophet," Sepet pointed out, holding up a copy of the Daily Prophet and smirking evilly at Percy's miffed look.
Hermione couldn't contain herself any longer. "Shouldn't we do something and try to represent the headmaster at the trial?"
"I know what you mean Hermione," Percy agreed, "However the public is under the impression that Dumbledore and his followers were intending to free the Death Eaters in Azkaban. Therefore if any of us attempted to serve as witnesses in his defense, it would appear to the public as if we had helped him."
Hermione's face fell at this. "So what can we do?"
"I will take over from here since it is clear that you have no useful information for us," said Snape sarcastically as he got up from his seat. "Thank you Mr. Weasley."
Percy frowned as he walked back towards his seat, letting Snape take the center.
"There are two possibilities at the moment. Either the headmaster will win his case and will be freed or he will be found guilty and imprisoned," Snape explained. "The latter is looking more likely by the moment based on what information Mr. Weasley has given us. However if he is imprisoned, it is likely that he will be placed in Azkaban."
"Over the holidays, I was called to a meeting with the Death Eaters. During that meeting, the Dark Lord laid out his plans for us which includes the disposal of the headmaster."
"The first part will be getting Lucius Malfoy to bribe the jury so that they will unanimously declare the headmaster guilty."
Several gasps were heard around the room but Snape ignored them and continued on, "He will then transfer him to another unknown location before transferring him to Azkaban for execution. It is during this transfer that will provide us with the best opportunity to rescue him."
"So how do you propose we go about this?" McGonagall asked.
"I was getting to that Minerva," Snape replied, pulling out his wand and creating an illusion of a man with a shrewd and calculating look and a pointed nose in a blue suit, white dress shirt, scarlet tie, black pointed shoes, a black cloak, and a black top hat. To Harry, he looked almost like a member of the board of directors at a bank. "This is Avery. He's a death eater spy within the Ministry of Magic and works for the department of Magical Transportation. If anyone would know where they would be taking the headmaster, it would be him."
"How do you know whether or not he would know about the headmaster?" Sepet asked. "I would think Lucius would be a better choice."
"The dark lord must keep an eye on the Fudge somehow and since Avery was acquitted of being a Death Eater due to insufficient evidence against him, he would still have the means through which he can collect information and pass it to the Dark Lord. Especially prisoner information seeing as his department handles prisoner transport as well. Lucius on the other hand wouldn't be able to pass any information on prisoners with the department he works for." Sepet nodded his head slowly and whispered something inaudible to Walter.
"Our objective will be to abduct Avery and question him under Veritaserum. However first we must follow him and learn about his habits. Sirius and Arabella, you will take care of that."
Sirius and Arabella nodded their heads in acknowledgement.
"Once that's done we can then commence this operation. How long do you think you two can have the information we need?"
"I'd expect about a month and a half from now," Arabella replied.
"That should be perfect."
Snape then returned to his seat and McGonagall stood up to address them. "If there are no further questions, this meeting is adjourned."
Everyone stood up and filed out of the room though Sirius pulled Harry aside.
"I probably won't see you for a while so take good care of yourself ok?" Sirius said.
Harry grinned. "Sure thing. Take care of yourself too Sirius and don't get caught."
Sirius beamed back at Harry. "They haven't caught me ever since I've escaped and I will keep it that way."
Sirius then left the room and Harry joined Hermione and Cho who were waiting by the door.
"What was that about?" Cho asked.
"Oh, Sirius is my godfather. He just wanted me to be careful while he's away," Harry explained.
"We should be getting back to the common room Harry, I need to go on my rounds with Ron later tonight," Hermione said.
"All right, I'll see you later Cho."
Cho gave Harry a quick hug and said good night before running out the door.
Harry gave Hermione a confused look and the two of them made their exit and returned to the common room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: All right! I'm on vacation now! Starting today, I'm going to work hard to finish this story. Hopefully by Christmas. One question though: Does anyone know what would happen if you used the Avada Kedavra curse on a vampire? I mean they're already dead so would it work and "kill them" or would they just absorb it and nothing would happen?
Phoenix of Light: Thanks for reviewing. Hope to bring you the best story ever.
Desert Hacker: Good idea for the flames. I'll do that and I hope that you keep reading.
" ": Hermione will end up with Harry, though I dunno if I'll do it in this book cuz I'm not entirely sure if Harry is ready for that yet.
GryffinndorGirl: Glad you like the drama. There's more to come.
Darkest-Knight88: Wow, Thanks for the great review and for pointing out the error in the chapter. It's been fixed. As for the Necromancer, if you want to use it, go ahead cuz I'm not the first to put a Necromancer in a fanfic and it wouldn't be fair if I didn't let you use it though I think I'm the only one who put a vampire and a Necromancer in the same story. The Mirror's prediction, hmm you may or may not be correct. There are two possible outcomes with that one but I may leave it to the readers to decide when the time comes. You are the first to bring that up. The only other people though the Armageddon spell was overkill but hey, I like it. Best way to go if you want to go in a blaze of glory.
Marba50: If Harry doesn't get with Hermione this book, he'll be paired up with someone that'll at least be acceptable by Rowling's standards. As for the amulets the 3rd party can listen in when Harry and Hermione are talking. Otherwise the 3rd party couldn't have interrupted when they did and know exactly what they were looking for.
BayBee05: Thanks for reviewing though I'm not entirely sure if Harry/Hermione will get together in this book cuz I don't think Hermione realizes who she loves yet and I prefer to build it up very slowly. Please keep reading though.
Eleya Hynin: Thanks for reviewing. Keep reading and I will keep writing.
Dark Golo: Short review or long review, doesn't matter. Glad you like the chapter and I hope that you'll keep reading until I finish this book.
Blackdragoneye: Thanks for the review and for reminding me about the Basilisk transformation. I still hadn't thought of something useful for it though but I'll see what I can come up with sometime before the end of this book and Hermione's form will play a large part later. That I've already thought of.
Jimbob the Cucumber Man: Patience buddy. The summary says H/hr and it is H/hr in the sense that I've been leaving Ron out for the most part. Besides, I think it'd be interesting to see what happens if Harry's competition for Hermione's affection is his best friend and how he'd deal with it. Also the relationships that build up slowly tend to last longer.
Kal_23: Wow, you'd be the 2nd person to say that they thought that my fanfic was the real copy. Its good to know that I'm doing a good job if its that convincing. Thank you. I dunno about Rowling reading this and getting some ideas from it though. Its very unlikely that she would since this is one out of 100,000+ fanfics so the odds aren't in my favour at all. As for H/Hr getting together, you'll have to read the rest of the story for that. However if they don't get together in this book, they will get together later and Harry will be put with someone who'll be worth having.
Gravier: Ron replacing Malfoy as a member hmm, not a bad idea.. I think I'll put that in at some point. Thanks for the suggestions.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter 25: New Orders
A few days passed and Hermione hadn't said anything about Parvati getting up at night. In fact, Parvati started appearing to her classes again and acted normally though her skin was pale as ever and her clothes almost covered every part of her body except for a small part of her face.
One morning two days before the next Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, Harry was eating breakfast with Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall when an owl came swooping down and dropped a copy of the Daily Prophet in front of them.
Hermione immediately picked it up and read it while Ron and Harry looked over her shoulder.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Daily Prophet January 10, 1995
Hogwarts Headmaster to be Tried for Treason By: Rita Skeeter
Today is a happy day in the wizarding world for justice will be served once again. Albus Dumbledore, former headmaster of Hogwarts, will be tried for treasonous activity in attempting to free the Death Eaters of Azkaban and for the murder of nine of our best aurors. They will be remembered with honour for serving their country well.
Our very own heroic Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge will be present at his trial as a witness to the crime since he was there to prevent the treacherous headmaster from succeeding.
The trial is set to take place sometime in February and the sentence will be carried out accordingly should he be found guilty. The Minister himself assures us that "Albus Dumbledore will be brought to justice for the crimes he has committed and I will be there to ensure that justice is done."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Hermione dropped the Daily Prophet on the table with an unsettling look upon her face.
Harry couldn't believe it either. Their headmaster was going to be tried for the very crime he was trying to prevent from happening.
The three of them sat there in silence for what seemed like an eternity before Hermione broke the silence.
"How could this happen?" she asked. "He was innocent."
"Malfoy's father probably had something to do with this," Ron said angrily. "He's the one who arrested Dumbledore so I'd be willing to bet that he pushed for this to happen and bribed everyone who disagreed with him."
"Ron, you don't have any proof of that," Harry pointed out. "Besides, I'm sure that the other teachers will not allow this to happen and they'll find a way to prove Dumbledore innocent."
"That's provided that Sepet doesn't kill them all first."
"Oh Ron, don't be so pessimistic," said Hermione, gathering up her books and getting up.
"I'm not being pessimistic," Ron insisted. "It's the truth and you know it."
"Hey you two," Harry interrupted as he too got up from his seat. "Let's not get into another argument."
Hermione let out a sigh. "Let's go. We don't want to be late for class."
"It's the Dark Arts class, I'm sure Walter will cut you some slack. I mean he's been helping you and Harry out ever since he's gotten here," said Ron, getting up and following Hermione as she walked at a brisk pace out the door with Harry.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they arrived at their Dark Arts class, they were surprised to find that they were the first ones to arrive with the exception of Parvati who hadn't appeared to breakfast. Parvati was just sitting at her desk playing around with her quill and didn't seem to notice them coming in.
"Hullo Parvati," Hermione said as she sat down in the seat behind her with Harry and Ron on either side of her.
"Oh hi Hermione, Harry and Ron," Parvati said, turning around to face them. Parvati didn't have her white hood up but she was completely covered in from head to toe otherwise by her school robes. "How are you? Sorry I've been worrying you guys too much with my illness."
"It's perfectly all right Parvati," Harry said, smiling uneasily at her as he hid his glowing ring under the desk.
The door opened and Percy walked pompously into the classroom with the rest of the students filing in behind him.
"Good morning class, please take your seats so that we can begin" Percy said airily as he grandiosely walked to the front of the classroom.
The students noisily took their seats and continued to chat amongst themselves much to Percy's annoyance.
"If you would please settle down, we can begin," Percy growled.
"Hey, where's professor Laikov?" a student asked. "He's supposed to teach us all about dragons."
"Professor Laikov is attending to some business and I will be running this class," Percy explained over the clamour of voices in the room.
"Now, if you're all finished, SETTLE DOWN!" Percy barked.
The students finally conceded and gave him their attention though some of them were still idly doodling on pieces of parchment.
"Today I will be teaching you how to set up portkeys."
"Really? I didn't know you could set one up," a Slytherin student commented, receiving some sniggers around the room.
"That will be enough of your misbehaviour," Percy ordered.
"Oh come on Percy," Ron whined. "Could you cut us some slack here? I'm your brother after all."
"No Ronald Weasley. You may be my brother but in my classroom, there will be no playing favourites."
"Aw, you're no fun," Ron pouted, leaning on one arm.
"Ron, be nice to your brother," Hermione scolded. "Learning about portkeys could be fun."
"Only to you," Ron said sarcastically.
Hermione's face twisted in anger. "RONALD WEASLEY! ARE YOU IMPLYING THAT I'M BORING!?"
Hermione's outburst caught the attention of the students in the room, some of them with amusement.
"That's enough you two," Percy said sternly. "That'll be 10 points each from Gryffindor for disrupting the class. Now everyone take out a piece of parchment and start taking notes."
For the remainder of class, Harry was forced to sit in between his two friends who were just glaring at each other, ignoring Percy's boring lecture on the history of portkeys.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once class was over, Hermione quickly gathered up her things and stormed out of the room. Harry made an attempt to follow her but was stopped by Ron who was looking very guilty.
"I don't know what came over me Harry. Now she'll never want to go to the ball with me."
Harry shot him a look of annoyance. "What do you want me to do Ron? Try to fix things between you two? Not this time. It's you that has to earn Hermione's forgiveness, not me. Come on, we're going to be late for Divination."
Ron sighed and gathered his things then the two of them made their way over to the North Tower where the Divination classroom was.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Divination was relatively uneventful and Harry was still ticked off at Ron for having treated Hermione so badly. All they did that period was make up more means by which they could possibly be killed sometime in the next week at which Trelawney commented, "I'm glad that you two are accepting your fates very well."
After leaving Divination, Harry and Ron went to the Great Hall for lunch. Ron made every attempt to look for Hermione but to his dismay, she avoided him the entire time. Only when it was time to go to class did she bother to approach them.
"Common Harry," said Hermione, still ignoring Ron. "It's time to go to our duelling class."
Harry bid goodbye to Ron and followed Hermione out to the Quidditch pitch for their duelling class.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Upon arriving at the Quidditch pitch, Harry was surprised to find Moody there instead of Sepet.
"Hullo Mr. Potter," Moody growled. "Glad you could make it. Professor Sepet is away on business with Professor Laikov so I will be teaching the class today."
"What will we be learning?" Hermione asked enthusiastically. "I hear you're the best auror around."
Moody gave her an awkward smile. "Yes, that's true but one can never be too careful around here."
Harry nodded knowingly and moved to draw his sword.
"Your weapons won't be necessary today Mr. Potter. You'll only need your wand for this session."
Harry and Hermione took out their wands and waited in silence for the rest of the students to arrive.
Eventually the other six students arrived, Viktor Krum among them but Malfoy wasn't since he was still in the hospital wing.
"Now we will begin," Moody growled, his magical eye looking from student to student, making them feel uneasy. "First I'd like you to pair off and face each other. This time you'll be fighting each other one on one."
"No hard feelings if I beat you ok Harry?" Hermione teased him as she walked a distance and faced Harry.
"No hard feelings Hermione. I'll finally get to teach you not to be a know it all," Harry replied with a playful smile.
Hermione laughed. "Not today you won't. Maybe we'll see how good you look as a sheep."
They bowed and drew their wands. There was a tense moment as they stared at each other waiting to see who would make the first move.
Eventually Harry was the one to do so and fired a stunning spell at Hermione who rolled on the ground and countered with an ice-bolt.
Harry raised an air shield to defend himself and the ice bolts dispersed around him upon hitting the shield. However the bolts continued on their paths and both Terry Boot and Hannah Abbot were hit by the stray ice bolts. The two students fell to the ground frozen solid but neither Harry nor Hermione noticed what had happened.
Harry returned with a tickling charm which hit Hermione directly in the chest. Hermione burst into laughter as she fell to the floor but she quickly cast dispel magic upon herself and returned fire with a fireball this time.
Harry dodged out of the way by rolling on the ground just in time to avoid the fireball which hit the ground and melted the snow where he was standing.
"Nice to see you running," Hermione taunted.
"You haven't won yet," Harry replied and fired a paralysis spell at Hermione but missed.
Hermione fired several fireballs followed by a jelly-legs jinx. Harry managed to block the fireballs with his air shield but was hit straight on by the jelly-legs jinx. His legs wobbled uncontrollably under him and he collapsed to the ground.
Hermione gave him a look of triumph and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"
Harry raised his wand and cast a shield which deflected the spell towards Cho Chang. Her wand flew out of her hand and she was thrown to the ground.
"HEY!" she exclaimed. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE AIMING!"
Now that three students had been hit, the remaining three students decided to stop duelling and turned their attention to Harry and Hermione.
Seeing that his partner had been hit, Justin Finch-Fletchley shot the impedimenta curse at Hermione but Harry saw it coming and cast a force field to block the incoming spell.
The spell rebounded and hit Blaise who, in anger at being hit, cast an engorgio curse on Justin. Justin's body swelled up and he collapsed to the ground from the pain.
Although Moody was watching the duel in amusement, he saw that it was getting out of control and pulled out his wand to undo the injuries inflicted upon the other students.
In the meantime, Harry had undone the jelly-legs jinx and ran at Hermione firing several ice bolts at the same time.
Hermione countered with her own force field and the spells reflected back at Harry who dodged all but one bolt. The bolt hit his leg and froze it solid.
On the ground, Harry cast a dispel magic on Hermione's force field and followed up by casting a paralyzing spell on her but she pointed her wand at the ground and raised an ice shield to absorb the spell.
The ice shield was not exactly transparent and an idea hit Harry. He fired several fireballs at the ice shield followed up by the blinding spell.
As expected the fireballs melted the ice shield though Hermione was quick to use the fire shield which absorbed the fireballs. However that didn't block the blinding spell and it hit her straight on.
Hermione screamed at the sudden darkness that engulfed her vision and fell to the ground. Seeing this, Harry quickly fired a fireball at his frozen leg which melted the ice and ran to Hermione's side.
"Hermione," Harry called as he cast dispel magic on her to undo the blinding spell. "Are you all right?"
Hermione nodded gave him a playful smile. "That's the one thing I like about you, you're so predictable."
Harry finally noticed Hermione's wand pointed at him and heard her mutter "Expelliarmus" once again.
Harry's wand shot out of his hand and flew into Hermione's at which she declared victory. "I win."
"Hey, that wasn't fair," Harry complained and was going to tickle Hermione senseless but was refrained from doing so at the sound of Moody's voice.
"Interesting elemental magic you two," Moody commented, focusing both his normal and magical eye on Harry. "One question, how long have you been using it?"
Hermione looked a bit uneasy. "Since summer."
"That's very interesting since the ministry was keeping an eye on all the Order members and what spells they used during that time. Only use of a transfiguration spell was recorded all summer by Mr. Potter here.. Still. I'm surprised you haven't caused havoc seeing as you've been hitting every other student here."
"What?" Harry said, giving Moody a look of confusion. "I thought you were able to detect all kinds of magic."
"That's true but apparently we couldn't detect your elemental magic. I suggest you be more careful with that because it's not easy to control."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After class, Harry and Hermione made their way over to the Great Hall with the rest of the students. During the entire time, Hermione noticed that Cho was staring at Harry and blushing and she pointed it out to Harry.
"Cho is staring at you Harry. Maybe you should ask her to the ball," Hermione suggested. "Then you won't have to go alone, besides.I heard that you asked her last year so you must fancy her."
Harry shook his head. "I don't think I could do that. I'd be disgracing Cedric's memory and it'd take a very strong argument to convince me otherwise."
"Oh come off it Harry," Hermione said as they entered the Great Hall. "She's one of the best looking girls in the school. Surely that has to interest you."
Harry blushed slightly. "But there are always other girls."
"Would you rather go with Parvati? You didn't look too happy on the dance floor last year with her."
"Good point," Harry agreed as Ron approached them from behind.
"Uh hi Hermione," Ron said nervously and Harry noticed that Ron had his hands behind his back.
"What do you want?" Hermione said hotly. "I don't have anything to say to you."
"I, uh," Ron stuttered. "I wanted to apologize to you for being such a stupid git earlier today."
"Hmph, you'll have to do better than that if you want me to forgive you," Hermione said, turning around to face Ron.
A small smile broke out on Ron's face. "I think I can."
Ron brought his hands out in front of him and Harry saw that there was a single rose in it.
"For you," Ron said. "Please forgive me?"
Hermione's face brightened and she took the rose in her hands. "Thank you Ron."
Ron breathed a sigh of relief but was later surprised to find Hermione throwing her arms around him. "I forgive you."
At that moment, a thought dawned on Harry and it made him want to whack himself.
*Why didn't you see it before? Hermione likes Ron, not you. * Harry thought. * Why can't you just accept it and stop chasing after Hermione?*
*Because you like her and you want her for yourself, * another voice said.
*Shut up * he thought to himself.
*I'm right and you know it. But hey, it's just a simple crush. You'll get over it in time, * said the other voice.
*Oh great, I must be going insane if I'm having an argument with myself *
Harry let out a small sigh and got up from the table.
"Where are you going Harry?" Hermione asked.
"For a walk. I need to think."
"Oh, all right," Hermione said, sounding slightly disappointed.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As Harry walked through the halls, the only sound being that of his shoes echoing on the stone floor, he was still pondering how this revelation would affect him and who he could ask to the ball.
Since Ron had asked Hermione to the ball already, she was out of the picture and his two best friends would probably start ignoring him too. that thought was a little less pleasant.
The water guardian's voice echoed through his mind at that thought. *Well, if you're not willing to date Hermione, you could always date me. *
"Maybe that's not such a bad idea, at least I won't be without a date," Harry whispered to himself. He smiled slightly at the thought of the looks on everyone's faces if he came with a girl who wasn't even human yet was probably better looking than any other girl at the school with the exception of Hermione and Cho.
The torches along the walls flickered for a moment and Harry thought he heard something whoosh quickly behind him that sounded like someone wearing robes or a cape. However when he turned around, there wasn't anyone in sight.
Taking a look at his ring, he saw that it was pulsing a blood red colour, meaning that danger was near. Drawing his sword and his wand, he moved along slowly, keeping his wits about him.
There was another whooshing sound, above him this time but upon looking up he still saw nothing.
He continued on towards the Gryffindor tower walking at a much quicker pace and glancing behind his back every now and then. Hopefully whatever it was wouldn't follow him there.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After climbing up several flights of stairs at a brisk pace, making sure to jump over the gaps in some of the staircases, the portrait of the Fat Lady finally came into view.
Glancing once more at his ring, he saw that it was still glowing, causing him to quicken his pace. Two torches went out behind him and Harry turned about quickly to see what had blown them out.
"Hi Harry."
Harry jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and wheeled about quickly to meet the threat.
Cho let out a small scream as Harry did so since he was armed, however her own reflexes made her draw her dagger and wand in one swift motion in response to his sudden movement.
"Oh, sorry Cho," Harry apologized, dropping both arms to his side.
"Harry, you scared me," she breathed, putting her weapons away. "Why do you have your sword and wand drawn?"
"I thought I heard something following me," Harry explained, glancing once more behind him to see if anything was there before putting away his sword and wand.
"I think you're just being paranoid Harry," she said, smiling slightly at the thought of his actions. "It's probably just the wind."
"I guess," said Harry, though he wasn't convinced that whatever was out there had gone since his ring was still glowing. "Though with the rise of You-Know-Who, it's probably best that I don't take any chances."
Cho's face fell that that thought. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything."
"It's ok Cho - so why are you here?" Harry asked.
Cho blushed slightly. "Um, I saw you walk out of the Great Hall during dinner and didn't come back; I thought that you might come here. I was also wondering if you had a date to the ball yet."
"No I don't," he answered truthfully, watching Cho's face turn redder by the moment.
"Would you come to the ball with me?"
Harry thought about it for a moment, he could do go with Cho and that would solve the problem with having to find a date but wouldn't be insulting Cedric's memory?
"What about Cedric? I don't think I could do that out of respect for him, Cho."
"That's really honourable of you Harry," said Cho, giving him a smile that made him get butterflies in his stomach. "But we can't just linger on his death; we all need to move on. In the short time that I've gone with Cedric, I know that he puts everyone's happiness over his own just like you. So I don't think he'd have much of an objection to you coming with me for just one dance. Besides, I couldn't think of anyone better to go with than you seeing that you had asked me last year and I had to turn you down because I was going with Cedric already."
"All right Cho," he said, a tad flattered by what Cho had said. "I'll come with you."
Cho's face brightened up, "Really?"
"Yes," he confirmed.
Suddenly Cho ran up to Harry and enveloped him in a tight hug, knocking him back in the process.
"Thank you so much Harry. This means a lot to me," said Cho, hugging him even tighter.
"Cho," Harry wheezed, putting the hand with his ring on her shoulder. "I can't breathe, could you please let go."
"Sorry," she apologised, slowly pulling out of the hug and taking his hand in hers. "That's a nice ring, where did you get it from?"
"It was a gift from someone for Christmas."
Cho seemed to cringe that the mention of a gift from someone but she didn't ask who it was, "Why is it glowing? It looks pretty."
*Should I tell her? * Harry thought to himself, *could the ring be warning about her? *
Harry just settled for a relatively safe answer, "It's enchanted to glow like that at different times. Sometimes it glows, sometimes it doesn't."
"Oh," said Cho, avoiding Harry's eyes for a moment, "Say - there's another trip to Hogsmeade sometime after your Quidditch match against Hufflepuff, and uh, I was wondering if maybe we could go together and pick out our outfits for the ball."
"Sure," Harry said, "That'd be a good idea."
*Maybe this will keep my mind off Hermione and Ron won't have a reason to get mad at me over her* Harry thought. *I'll need to ask the water elemental to teach me how to dance. I don't need to act like an idiot on the dance floor in front of everyone like last year. *
Footsteps were heard coming up the stairs around the corner and Harry turned around to see who it was. The footsteps drew nearer and eventually the figure of Sepet came into view. "Mr. Potter - Miss Chang, good to see you two are still well. Come, there's a meeting and you're both needed."
Harry noticed Sepet glancing at his ring as he and Cho made their way towards the Count. As if under a spell, Harry's ring immediately stopped glowing. This caused Harry to become more cautious and as they followed the Count, he kept his hand ready near his wand and sword.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When they arrived at Dumbledore's office, Harry found Hermione waiting there talking with some of the other students. Malfoy was not in sight.
"HARRY!" she exclaimed, running up to him. "Where did you go? I was worried that you went off by yourself. Ron and I were looking for you until Terry found me and told me that we were meeting. Ron went back to the common room."
Harry grinned. "I'm sorry, I was just tired so I was going back to the common room to take a nap and I ran into Cho along the way."
"Oh - Hullo Cho," Hermione said, looking slightly vexed. "How are you?"
"I'm doing fine," Cho replied cheerfully. "And you?"
"Couldn't be better though I wonder what this meeting is about," she said.
"Hey Harry - Hermione," said a voice that turned out to be Sirius. "How are you both doing?"
"We're doing well, where's Professor Lupin?" Harry asked.
"He's with Snape taking his potion," Sirius explained.
"Oh I see - we missed you for Christmas, the Weasleys are staying here, did you know?" Hermione asked enthusiastically.
"Yes, I saw Molly earlier today," said Sirius. "She'll be joining us too this evening."
At that moment, Professor McGonagall came around the corner laughing merrily with Walter but what was very surprising was the fact that she appeared to be blushing. However upon arriving at the stone gargoyle, she regained her composure and directed everyone upstairs.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The chairs were arranged in the normal circular fashion Harry noted upon entering the room and each member took their normal seat, Harry sitting in between Cho and Hermione.
Professor McGonagall took her usual seat next to Dumbledore's empty one however Walter seemed to disagree when he walked up to her and took her hand.
"As headmistress, you should take your seat as our leader. The headmaster would have preferred it that way if he were here," Walter said gently as he led Professor McGonagall to Dumbledore's seat and sat her down in it.
Mundungus Fletcher and Arabella Figg nodded their heads in approval when McGonagall gave them a look of uncertainty.
The door opened and Hagrid, followed by Arthur, Bill, Percy, and Molly Weasley, entered the room. They took their usual seats though Molly sat in the seat that was usually reserved for McGonagall.
"Hullo Molly," said Arabella Figg with a warm smile. "I'm glad you could finally join us. The old crowd wouldn't be complete without you."
"Thank you Arabella," said Mrs. Weasley returning the smile.
Finally the door opened once more and Snape, Remus, and Flitwick entered the room. Remus looked a bit pale and he gave Harry a weak smile as he sat down next to Sirius.
At that point, McGonagall stood up and addressed the group, "I apologize to everyone for the sudden notice but Mr. Percy Weasley has just come to me with some information regarding our headmaster - if you please Percy."
Percy stood up and walked pompously to the centre of the room, receiving some glares from Justin, Blaise, and Hannah.
"As Mr. Fudge's personal assistant," Percy began as he looked around the room through his glasses. "I am usually sent to carry out special tasks and fill out paperwork for him."
"Despite the Order's failed mission to Azkaban, Mr. Fudge does not suspect that I am part of this Order and as such, I still have access to high level executive orders that he wishes to carry out," continued Percy in his usual lofty tone.
"Time is short Mr. Weasley. Disperse with your pompousness and get to the point," Sepet ordered.
"I was just getting to that your highness," said Percy, irritated that he was interrupted for a brief moment in his moment in the spotlight. "- The point is that I had recently come across an executive order regarding the headmaster."
There were several gasps around the room and Hagrid stood up quickly, knocking his chair over in the process.
"What do ye mean?" he demanded as Molly and Arabella ran over to calm him down. "If they did anythin' to him, I'm gonna -"
"Please calm down Rubeus," Molly pleaded "Hear Percy out and we can decide what to do."
"Oh all right," Hagrid conceded huffily and he picked up his chair and sat in it. Molly and Arabella stood behind him just in case Hagrid decided to have another outburst.
Percy was now scowling since he had been interrupted twice, at which Walter was smiling in amusement, but he forced himself to continue on, "The order was regarding his trial which is to take place some time in February."
"However there is a slight problem with this," Percy continued. "Mr. Fudge will be serving as the key witness and since there are no other witnesses, it will be difficult for the headmaster to win the case."
"That's old news. Anyone could have gotten that in the Daily Prophet," Sepet pointed out, holding up a copy of the Daily Prophet and smirking evilly at Percy's miffed look.
Hermione couldn't contain herself any longer. "Shouldn't we do something and try to represent the headmaster at the trial?"
"I know what you mean Hermione," Percy agreed, "However the public is under the impression that Dumbledore and his followers were intending to free the Death Eaters in Azkaban. Therefore if any of us attempted to serve as witnesses in his defense, it would appear to the public as if we had helped him."
Hermione's face fell at this. "So what can we do?"
"I will take over from here since it is clear that you have no useful information for us," said Snape sarcastically as he got up from his seat. "Thank you Mr. Weasley."
Percy frowned as he walked back towards his seat, letting Snape take the center.
"There are two possibilities at the moment. Either the headmaster will win his case and will be freed or he will be found guilty and imprisoned," Snape explained. "The latter is looking more likely by the moment based on what information Mr. Weasley has given us. However if he is imprisoned, it is likely that he will be placed in Azkaban."
"Over the holidays, I was called to a meeting with the Death Eaters. During that meeting, the Dark Lord laid out his plans for us which includes the disposal of the headmaster."
"The first part will be getting Lucius Malfoy to bribe the jury so that they will unanimously declare the headmaster guilty."
Several gasps were heard around the room but Snape ignored them and continued on, "He will then transfer him to another unknown location before transferring him to Azkaban for execution. It is during this transfer that will provide us with the best opportunity to rescue him."
"So how do you propose we go about this?" McGonagall asked.
"I was getting to that Minerva," Snape replied, pulling out his wand and creating an illusion of a man with a shrewd and calculating look and a pointed nose in a blue suit, white dress shirt, scarlet tie, black pointed shoes, a black cloak, and a black top hat. To Harry, he looked almost like a member of the board of directors at a bank. "This is Avery. He's a death eater spy within the Ministry of Magic and works for the department of Magical Transportation. If anyone would know where they would be taking the headmaster, it would be him."
"How do you know whether or not he would know about the headmaster?" Sepet asked. "I would think Lucius would be a better choice."
"The dark lord must keep an eye on the Fudge somehow and since Avery was acquitted of being a Death Eater due to insufficient evidence against him, he would still have the means through which he can collect information and pass it to the Dark Lord. Especially prisoner information seeing as his department handles prisoner transport as well. Lucius on the other hand wouldn't be able to pass any information on prisoners with the department he works for." Sepet nodded his head slowly and whispered something inaudible to Walter.
"Our objective will be to abduct Avery and question him under Veritaserum. However first we must follow him and learn about his habits. Sirius and Arabella, you will take care of that."
Sirius and Arabella nodded their heads in acknowledgement.
"Once that's done we can then commence this operation. How long do you think you two can have the information we need?"
"I'd expect about a month and a half from now," Arabella replied.
"That should be perfect."
Snape then returned to his seat and McGonagall stood up to address them. "If there are no further questions, this meeting is adjourned."
Everyone stood up and filed out of the room though Sirius pulled Harry aside.
"I probably won't see you for a while so take good care of yourself ok?" Sirius said.
Harry grinned. "Sure thing. Take care of yourself too Sirius and don't get caught."
Sirius beamed back at Harry. "They haven't caught me ever since I've escaped and I will keep it that way."
Sirius then left the room and Harry joined Hermione and Cho who were waiting by the door.
"What was that about?" Cho asked.
"Oh, Sirius is my godfather. He just wanted me to be careful while he's away," Harry explained.
"We should be getting back to the common room Harry, I need to go on my rounds with Ron later tonight," Hermione said.
"All right, I'll see you later Cho."
Cho gave Harry a quick hug and said good night before running out the door.
Harry gave Hermione a confused look and the two of them made their exit and returned to the common room.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: All right! I'm on vacation now! Starting today, I'm going to work hard to finish this story. Hopefully by Christmas. One question though: Does anyone know what would happen if you used the Avada Kedavra curse on a vampire? I mean they're already dead so would it work and "kill them" or would they just absorb it and nothing would happen?
Phoenix of Light: Thanks for reviewing. Hope to bring you the best story ever.
Desert Hacker: Good idea for the flames. I'll do that and I hope that you keep reading.
" ": Hermione will end up with Harry, though I dunno if I'll do it in this book cuz I'm not entirely sure if Harry is ready for that yet.
GryffinndorGirl: Glad you like the drama. There's more to come.
Darkest-Knight88: Wow, Thanks for the great review and for pointing out the error in the chapter. It's been fixed. As for the Necromancer, if you want to use it, go ahead cuz I'm not the first to put a Necromancer in a fanfic and it wouldn't be fair if I didn't let you use it though I think I'm the only one who put a vampire and a Necromancer in the same story. The Mirror's prediction, hmm you may or may not be correct. There are two possible outcomes with that one but I may leave it to the readers to decide when the time comes. You are the first to bring that up. The only other people though the Armageddon spell was overkill but hey, I like it. Best way to go if you want to go in a blaze of glory.
Marba50: If Harry doesn't get with Hermione this book, he'll be paired up with someone that'll at least be acceptable by Rowling's standards. As for the amulets the 3rd party can listen in when Harry and Hermione are talking. Otherwise the 3rd party couldn't have interrupted when they did and know exactly what they were looking for.
BayBee05: Thanks for reviewing though I'm not entirely sure if Harry/Hermione will get together in this book cuz I don't think Hermione realizes who she loves yet and I prefer to build it up very slowly. Please keep reading though.
Eleya Hynin: Thanks for reviewing. Keep reading and I will keep writing.
Dark Golo: Short review or long review, doesn't matter. Glad you like the chapter and I hope that you'll keep reading until I finish this book.
Blackdragoneye: Thanks for the review and for reminding me about the Basilisk transformation. I still hadn't thought of something useful for it though but I'll see what I can come up with sometime before the end of this book and Hermione's form will play a large part later. That I've already thought of.
Jimbob the Cucumber Man: Patience buddy. The summary says H/hr and it is H/hr in the sense that I've been leaving Ron out for the most part. Besides, I think it'd be interesting to see what happens if Harry's competition for Hermione's affection is his best friend and how he'd deal with it. Also the relationships that build up slowly tend to last longer.
Kal_23: Wow, you'd be the 2nd person to say that they thought that my fanfic was the real copy. Its good to know that I'm doing a good job if its that convincing. Thank you. I dunno about Rowling reading this and getting some ideas from it though. Its very unlikely that she would since this is one out of 100,000+ fanfics so the odds aren't in my favour at all. As for H/Hr getting together, you'll have to read the rest of the story for that. However if they don't get together in this book, they will get together later and Harry will be put with someone who'll be worth having.
Gravier: Ron replacing Malfoy as a member hmm, not a bad idea.. I think I'll put that in at some point. Thanks for the suggestions.