Arohk – Chapters 1, 2 and 3: Glad you enjoyed 'em. Chapter 4: Actually, that's the effect I had been going for I was watching a lot of Jackie Chan at the time. XD Sorry about the news thingy… There's actually a Burger King in Waterloo Station, if you've ever been there its right next to the underground entrance to Jubilee/Victoria, you can't miss it. Chapter 5: I explain Lucius Malfoy in this chapter, he's out. I added OWL results to this chapter, too. Overall, thanks, I'll look over the convos, etc. and do my best to clear it all up and fix it as best as possible… Thanks for the help, man.

write-me: Cool, thanks, but yours is better, it actually has some sort of story…

Kal Sirius – Cool.

Chapter 17: Ronlius Weaslium

The first attack had happened. Voldemort had destroyed a building, killing 77 muggles. The building had been replaced by an ominous message that was written in purple fire at the site where the building had once stood:

THIS IS THE BEGINNING

The area had been closed off to all muggles as various wizards used charms to try to remove the words, but even Dumbledore was at a loss of how to put out the magical fire. Ministry defense squadrons were sent out by Lucius Malfoy (who was pardoned after the battle at the end of the previous school year by saying he was under the Imperius Curse, as were a great many of the Death Eaters that had been involved in the incident). They patrolled streets and attempted to discover Voldemort's plans, but were quite ineffective.

"What I don't get," growled Moody over breakfast on the first day of Christmas vacation, "is why he hasn't come out before now!"

Grimmauld Place, still being the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix, had become crazy with activity. If Mrs. Black's portrait had still been up (when Sirius had died, she committed suicide, having lost the last direct line of the Black family, and was quite easy to remove), she would have been screaming day and night. Kingsley Shacklebolt was still out trying to discover where the Forgotten had been kidnapped to, but the rest of the Order, which had swelled immensely in size, were a constant threat to any type of rational conversation or sleep.

Even if Order members hadn't been coming and going literally every few minutes, their sleep would still be in jeopardy: Fred and George Weasley had joined the order. Fred and George, who took shifts running their shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley and working for the order so they could have the shop open as much as possible, were excellent at artificiation. Artificiation was the creation of magical items of all types. Their skills extended beyond the joke shop, however, where their newest item, Blubbering Beeswax, was sold out in two days: they also helped create all sorts of items that helped the order keep track of it's members and Death Eaters (Warning: May Induce Turret's Syndrome), communicate easily ("Watch out," said Fred, grinning, as he presented what looked like a conch shell to Harry, "If you talk too loud, they have a tendency to spew out some nasty-smelling gas"), and a Swiss Army Knife that had lots of useful features, including the ability to grease any floor so that the first person who walks by slips. Other new additions to the order included Fleur Drecleur, Bill's new fiancée, who had a knack for making the male Death Eaters come quietly, and none other than the Professors Sprout, Flitwick, Hagrid, Artemis, Binns ("He…um…knows a lot of history," said Charlie unconvincingly) and Firenze (who could be heard, whenever he was around, complaining loudly about how "these foolish humans" had put his room on the second floor).

Harry, Ron and Hermione spent most of their days in the highest room, which Hermione had placed silencing charms around, saying little to one another. There was just so much to talk about that none of them wanted to even try to find out where to begin.

"Dinner's ready," said Mrs. Weasley, opening the door followed by a cacophony of sound from below – Fred and George were playing Seamus' drum set, which was excellent except for the unfortunate fact that neither knew how to play the drums.

"Thanks," said Ron, getting up.

"So," ventured Harry timidly, "Why do you think Snape wanted to get into the catacombs so much?"

"I don't know… I thought he wasn't a Death Eater anymore…" said Hermione.

"Yeah, well he was using the Imperius curse on Professor Artemis, so…"

"You're right, that's strange. I doubt it was on work from the order… after all Professor Artemis himself is in the Order."

"Well, we've always suspected Snape," said Hermione, "I mean, in our first year we thought he was trying to steal the stone."

"Yeah, but this time he was using an Unforgivable Curse."

"You're right, we should tell someone," agreed Hermione.

"But how does Professor Artemis know how to get in there anyway?" wondered Ron. "And why was it open when Harry went down with Amber and the Malfoy twins?"

"I think-"

And then all three of them stopped dead. They had just entered the dining room. Sitting at the dining room table was someone Harry was someone nobody expected to see there.

"Hey," said Amber, her voice dripping with fake cheerfulness.

"What are you doing here?" snarled Hermione.

"I should ask the same of you."

"I'm friends with the Weasleys and Harry."

"So what? Oh, I see little Ronnie-poo and Harry-berry are blushing. Ooh, do I embarrass you?"

That mock baby voice sounds exactly like Bellatrix Lestrange, thought Harry sourly.

"Shut up!" said Harry coolly.

"Oh, you're going to do something bad to me? Ooh, I'm so scared."

Harry remembered: it was the same voice Bellatrix had been using after she had killed Sirius. That mocking, goading sound…

"Don't do anything, Harry, this is my fight," Harry heard Hermione warning him distantly. It didn't matter. Harry could see the stretched, mocking face of Sirius' cousin on Amber's young, innocent face. Harry grabbed his wand and roughly pushed Ron and Hermione aside.

"Don't talk that way," said Harry dangerously.

"Ooh, Harry's mad."

Last time… last time Harry's Cructiaus curse hadn't worked, because he didn't truly want to cause pain. But this time… this time he did. This time, all his hatred was being siphoned into the tip of his wand.

"Stop," said a deathly silent voice.

Harry hovered, ready to cast the curse, but did not do so. Amber looked at him with a mocking smile.

"What's happening?" asked Lupin.

Behind him, stood four people Harry hadn't been happier to see: Benny, Zack, Amy and Sarah. Annette was missing.

"Harry, lowered your wand," barked Lupin.

Harry didn't respond in any way. Gall was rising in him and he had a rushing, powerful feeling he couldn't describe. Remus Lupin, the last member of the gang his father had been in… James was dead, Sirius was dead and Peter had betrayed them all. Would he let Lupin stop him? Lupin was the last living connection he had, the last person who could be a parent.

"Miss Dumbledore, kindly step aside," said Lupin.

"He saved your neck," Amber whispered fiercely as she stepped aside.

Harry finally lowered his wand, looking down. The hatred that had risen so strongly in him ebbed away. Why had he felt such a powerful feeling – he would have killed Amber if he had the chance. Was he no better than Wormtail or Voldemort?

There was silence in the kitchen for a moment. Well, not exactly silence as Fred had added random screaming to George's pitiful attempt at a jungle beat, but the tension in the room was thick enough to cut through. Finally, Lupin clapped his hands as if nothing had happened and bade them all to sit.

"Amber, why are you being this way?" asked Hermione, who was on the verge of crying.

"Because I can be. Because it's fun."

They stopped talking for a moment.

"Where's my Drakhen?" demanded Harry, using every muscle in his body to keep his cool.

"I have it in my care."

"Some of the top-ranking members of the Order are sitting right over there," Ron reminded her.

"I can see perfectly well, thank you."

"And you admit you stole it from Harry in front of them?"

"Yes, Professor McGonagall thought it might be safer in my care."

Harry looked over to Lupin who frowned as if he disagreed, but nodded.

"Where's Annette?"

"Well, she was captured on our mission…" began Lupin.

"I got a note that all five of you had been kidnapped."

"Nope, just Annette. We've sent people out after her… but…"

"My sister doesn't belong here," Amber said coldly.

"Miss Dumbledore, what have I warned you about?" asked Lupin dangerously.

Amber shut up for some time.

"You didn't answer my first question," said Hermione tonelessly, catching a brussel sprout that had been alluding her fork for two minutes and had finally taken refuge in Ginny's coffee.

"You mean what am I doing here? I happen to be the daughter of the founder of the order."

"And the one who is fated to kill him."

"First, the prophecy said could kill. And, secondly, I happen to have inherited certain skills from him that…others…do not have."

At this point, Amy and Zack stood up together, snarling.

"Why do you always need to be making digs at her, huh? What's she ever done to you?"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at each other, mystified. Obviously, she was talking about Annette, but what skills did Amber have that Annette couldn't… Annette could focus, and seemed to be considerably better at magic than Amber.

After that, the rest of the vacation was, more or less, awful. Amber made sure every mealtime was darkened by her presence and nasty remarks, and she took it upon herself to make sure everyone, especially Hermione, hated every minute they spent with her. Christmas Eve was worse than ever, as Hermione had eaten a cursed biscuit, and Amber denied having caused the green bumps that now covered her entire body.

Green bumps aside, however, even Amber couldn't ruin Christmas morning when Harry woke up to a pile of glittering presents. Mrs. Weasley gave her usual present of a sweater and food, Moody had given him a Enemy Eye, a marble that would change colors depending on how much danger you were in at the time, The Forgotten had given him a set of Gibbering Glassware that had smashed itself by the time Harry had finished unwrapping it, Ron and Hermione had given him a box of Honeydukes' chocolates and (to Harry's horror) some cockroach clusters, and Fred and George had given him Viscera Viagra. His most interesting present, however, was a letter from Mr. Bones, a probate lawyer, informing him that he had inherited a small fortune from his godfather and requesting his presence in Hogsmeade before his return to school.

The day before the end of break, Amber left early to go see her father in St. Mungo's, and Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in a park in London and sipped slowly on butterbeer. The sun was shining brightly, but clouds were creeping steadily towards it.

"So," Harry said, throwing a handful of crumbs from Ron's Cauldron Cake to some nearby pigeons, "what's Amber's problem, anyway?"

"I dunno…" Ron grunted.

"Well," Hermione said matter-of-factly, "I think she's jealous of me."

"Uh… Hermione…well, maybe…but she's mad at me as well."

"Well, she's jealous of you, too!"

For once, Harry thought Hermione might've been wrong. Just then, a cloud began to overshadow the sun.

"Now it's going to be freezing…" Hermione complained sourly.

"Or maybe not," Ron said with a broad smile and going particularly red in the face, "I've been wanting to try this for a while."

"What?" asked Harry, as Ron withdrew his wand and checked for muggles.

"Well, I was doing a bit of research…" Ron said, turning burgundy.

Ron pointed his wand directly at the cloud, and going one shade darker of red, said, "RONLIUS WEASLIUM!"

There was a pause, where Harry and Hermione tried to hide their laughter. And then a pillar of blue light extended upwards from Ron's wand and hit the cloud. Blue magic spread throughout the cloud, and they were drenched once again in sunlight. Harry's mouth dropped open, and Hermione's knees buckled, and she fell back to the bench.

"Did you create that spell?" asked Harry, awed.

"Well, sort of. I started off with a defogging charm and tried using it at long range, but it didn't work, so I…um…tweaked it a little bit."

Ron? Ron, of all people, the man who had gotten only one more OWL than his brothers Fred and George, who had been completely clueless about everything for five and a half years, had just created a spell. His jaw still refusing to rise, Harry pointed his own wand up at a different cloud.

"RONLIUS WEASLIUM!" yelled Harry.

Sure enough, he blasted the cloud out of the sky. Ron's spell had become part of magic.

"Hermione, are you okay?" asked Ron, looking over.

Hermione tried twice to speak and eventually ended by simply nodding.

Still awed at Ron's new spell, Harry called the Knight Bus and left to go to his conference with Mr. Bones. When Harry arrived, Hogsmeade was grayed over and snowy.

"RONLIUS WEASLIUM!" Harry said with a smile. The entire sky turned blue and the last few snowflakes settled on the ground. With a huge grin, he made his way to Mr. Bones' office.

"Harry! Welcome!" said Mr. Bones with a big smile as Harry kicked off his boots. He was a tall, skinny, bony man with a thick mustache, and looked nothing like his daughter, Susan. He was dressed in smart-looking black robes but wore a red muggle tie over them, which looked rather strange to Harry. He shook Harry's hand heartily, and bade Harry to sit.

"Can I get you anything? Tea?" Mr. Bones asked eagerly.

"No, thanks."

"Well, shall we get down to business then?"

He disappeared through a door on the left of the room and returned with a thin, blank envelope.

"This is your godfather's will," said Mr. Bones. "He attached a note saying that he wanted you to be the person to open it."

Harry stared at the envelope apprehensively. School had distracted Harry from Sirius, and even Grimmauld Place seemed more welcoming to Harry, but was he ready to face Sirius' last wishes. Slightly hesitantly, Harry picked up the envelope. He opened it slowly. Inside was a single, thin piece of parchment, folded.

"Well, go on, open it," said Mr. Bones, smiling.

His hand shaking slightly, Harry opened the letter. And his mouth dropped open on what was inside.

"What is it?"

Harry dropped the letter and collapsed faster than Hermione had after seeing Ron's new spell. Was what he just read true? Mr. Bones read it over, and was no longer smiling. Harry reached out for the letter again, and read the words he saw over and over, but still they didn't change. Harry repeated them to himself in a whisper:

            "I'm not dead."