Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or his world. I am writing this for my own mere enjoyment and for others to hopefully like as well.
The Uprising
Chapter Four: Preminitions
"Oh, you don't know?" George asked with an amused expression on his face. "We're in the Order too!"
"Wh-What?" Harry asked with a dazed and somewhat horrified expression on his face. "Y-You guys are in the Order too?"
"Why, yes, we are. I guess Lupin is losing his minds if he didn't tell you that we joined too. I always did say he was somewhat of a nutter, don't you agree George?" Fred said with a smirk on his face.
George said with a mirrored expression to Fred's, "Yes, indeed, dear brother. Don't look at us like that Harry! Didn't our mum ever tell you that if you keep your expression like that for a long time, it will stay that way?" George chided merrily at Harry's still confused expression.
"Well, anyway, young Harry, we joined the Order against our dear mum's wishes. But both Dumbledore and her agreed that we "were too young" and only let us try to experiment with making things for them, with our shop. The Death Eaters won't suspect two young drop-out twins to be helping out to make certain devices for them, now will they?" Fred pointed out to Harry, and explaining a lot.
Harry merely nodded. He wondered about how they would get into the Order without their mother preventing them, but then after Fred's explanation, it all came to make sense.
"So, do you actually go on missions at all, or….?"
"Oh, no, mum would absolutely murder us before we ever would be able to go on missions! She says that we are a tad bit too irresponsible and Bill and Charlie are enough to worry about, never mind us," George said with a scowl on his face. "So, we have business to attend to, if you know what we mean, so ta-ta, young blokes. Oh, and we wanted to present you with," George paused to reach into his pocket and grab something that looked like a envelope with a card inside it, "this," and with that they left with a crack.
"Is it me or are they a bit—"
"Cheerful? Yes, well, you can never judge with them. I'll reckon that they've created something that will make them total nutters, and are testing it. But anyway, Hermione and Ginny told me to tell you that they have decided to go to bed early, and are happy that you are back, and are sorry that they didn't spend more time with you. There's another bunch. They're probably up to girl stuff, and don't want us intruding. I'm not even going to try to understand them. They've been like that for the past week."
Harry nodded. He and Ron had a mutual understanding about girls and their mysteries. It reminded him of last year when he went to Hermione for advice on girls when he and Cho had gotten in a fight. He was confused then, and both of the boys had agreed to not even try to go into more deep thought.
"Hey, open your gift," Ron said with a new smile on his face. Harry turned the envelope over so that the flap side was facing him and saw a crest that said, "Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" in weird letters with a small picture of fake wands transforming into fake chickens. He let out a small chuckle and then opened the rest of it. He pulled out a slip of paper that said:
Us, Fredrick and George Weasley, present Harry J. Potter with this certificate of authenticity. He will be allowed full access to this shop, and has unlimited supply of whatever he may need at our shop.
Fredrick H. Weasley
George W. Weasley
Harry smiled at it, and looked to Ron, who laughed back. Ron then said, "They thought that you could do with a bit of a laugh and with how you helped fund them, you needed to be reminded of what rights you had with it."
"Well, I bet that I'll make good use of this," Harry said, forcing another chuckle out. He was happy that he got a good present and all, and was grateful for it. He just couldn't help thinking back to what they had said earlier about them being in the Order. He would probably see them at meetings, and they would see him, and then tell Ron and Hermione about him. He also couldn't help but wonder if they knew about the prophecy with their new membership.
"Um, Harry? I hope you don't my asking, but what did you and Lupin talk about? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, I just feel like I am missing something. You seem a bit more distant."
Harry was afraid that Ron would ask this. And Ron suspected that Harry wasn't telling him something. He didn't want to lie to Ron, and although a year ago he would have been more than happy to not say anything, he now felt very guilty. He knew what it felt like to be left out of something, and didn't want to do that to his best friends. But he knew that with certain powers, comes certain responsibility.
"Nothing really, I had a good talk about Sirius with him, and he told me what to expect to do for the rest of the summer. That's all, really." Harry said with a tone of uncertainty in his voice, but luckily Ron didn't notice because he said, "Okay, mate. I'll bet you're tired after coming to be raided by everyone today. I am too, I had to actually help clean out the drawing room again, and we had to feed Buckbeak, which isn't the most fun of things to do, I'll tell you that. I guess we'll talk more tomorrow, right?" Ron asked with a sleepy yawn.
"Right, sure," and with that they started to change into the nightclothes. They then said their "goodnights" and a moment later Ron drifted into a soft snore. But unfortunately for Harry, sleep wouldn't come. He had been having a bit better time with sleeping that past summer, but it was still very hard with past events haunting him. And especially tonight, having had a very heartfelt conversation about Sirius, he was lost in many thoughts about what was going to be in store for him this year. What was Voldemort's next step going to be? What exactly was Harry going to be trained in? Would his being in the Order cloud some of his friendships?
All of a sudden, his thoughts were interrupted by a thunk! that had come from what he thought was outside the window in their room that was covered by a muggle set of blinds that were closed. He got up as quietly as he could, went over to the window while looking furtively at Ron between moves, opened it, and saw nothing in the backyard, which was rather large. Funny, he thought, it never does that. He decided that it was probably the muggles next door and got back into bed quietly.
Draco woke up at 5:30 with a start. He had just had a dream that he had joined the Death Eaters to avenge his father, and Voldemort had personally given him the Dark Mark.
But wait, he thought to himself, it wasn't a dream. This was reality. He was now initiated into the most feared army in the wizarding world. There was no turning back.
He decided that there was no more sleep that he could get; he got out of bed with an aching pain flowing through him. It wasn't the usual ache that you have when you have gone through a lot of physical activity the day before. No, this was post-Cruciatus Curse ache. It was almost as bad as the actual curse itself. He would have to ask his mother for some of that Pain-Relieving Draught. It was horrible, the pain. He thought it was amazing that he had gotten into bed that night being able to handle the hurt.
He got dressed as best he could, and made his way down the stairs to where the kitchen was. He saw their new house elf that they had gotten three years ago when his mother couldn't stand keeping the mansion on her own, Hundy. He was rather large for a house elf, but kept a good house and wasn't as nonsense-prone as their old one, Dobby, was.
"Hundy, I need some Pain-Relieving Draught. I believe that you can also manage to get me some breakfast along with that."
"Yes, of course, sir, I was just getting to that, sir," Hundy scurried into the pantry that was at the other corner of the kitchen from where he was standing over a stove, frying eggs and bacon. He came back as fast as he could with a fancy green-stained glass vial filled with what made that glass look like a dark blue thick substance. He put it in front of Draco, who had just sat down at an old seat at the kitchen table, and went back to the pan on the stove. He put the eggs and bacon in a nice display on the plate and put it in front of Draco. He then walked away slowly to not disturb his master.
Draco ate the food rather fast. He thought he had never had something as delicious as these eggs. They were fluffy and heavenly with each bite. But they're always like this, he thought. It must be after affects of the curse. He then took his potion. It immediately started to affect him, and also made him rather sleepy. Maybe I took too much. But he snapped out of his sleepiness when he saw MacNair's head appear in the kitchen fireplace.
"Oh, I see you're up. Now, we are going to start your training today, so hurry up and finish your breakfast. I don't have much time for nonsense," the bulky man said rather rudely. Draco did as he was told, and left the table. His head felt very light and each step he took was rather off.
"Boy, what did you do? You're walking very abnormally. Did you take too much potion? Never mind," MacNair was now out of the fire and in front of Draco placing him to the right position. "We're going to go outside and practice the Openius Curse. It is a Dark curse that is used to slash people. We are going to tear bark off of trees to practice. Come along." They both walked silently out of the back door in the pantry and out side to the acres and acres of land that was made up of the Malfoy Manor.
It was almost like a field with a lot of trees, and a large and elegant gazebo at the left edge of the field. There were all kinds of trees; from Evergreens to Sycamores were strewn at every corner of the lot. And although it the sun was just coming up, it was still a beautiful sight to see. MacNair walked over to the nearest Sycamore, and said quietly, "Opendio!" with a slashing motion at the bark, and the bark instantly was slashed off from the tree with a thin ribbon on the ground as a souvenir.
"So, what you need to do is imagine that you are trying to open this tree's flesh and say the incantation along with it. And as you are doing those things, you make a slashing motion with your wand like so," MacNair demonstrated, "Now, try it."
Draco walked closer to the tree, and did exactly as he was instructed. "O-Opendio!" he stumbled. The tree did nothing. He looked to MacNair who just nodded to him to try again. He took a breath, and then said, "Opendio!" to the bark while imagining that another strand of bark would land on the ground. It worked.
"Now there is no counter-curse to this, so try to use it wisely on your victim. Now, I am going to teach you the Cruciatus Curse. I know that you think it is a little fast, but you will need to know it, trust me. I will perform it on this beetle on the ground here. Now, you have to actually want to hurt this person, so think revenge when you do it. You want this person to suffer very much, and be serious when you do it. Maybe think about someone who you hate when you are performing it on someone you don't know. Now observe. Crucio!" and with that the beetle on the ground started to twitch uncontrollably. Draco started to ache just watching it. He knew what that beetle was feeling.
After another moment, it had finally stopped. It just stayed still where it was, absolutely motionless. "Now you try it," was the next command out of MacNair. Draco tried to locate the nearest insect, and finally found an ant about a couple of feet away from where the beetle lay. He walked up to it, tried to imagine that it was Harry Potter bowing down to him, and said as clearly and confidently as he could, "Crucio!"
It immediately started to move epileptically. He couldn't help but feel sorry for the innocent creature; it didn't do anything to him except exist. But he then chided himself for thinking such stupid thoughts and told himself that this was the way he chose to go, and there was no way out. This was the way his side worked, and would always work.
"Good, I wouldn't expect you to get it on the first try. It is a very complex curse, and should also be used wisely on who you may choose to use it on. You will be tested by the Dark Lord himself on some of these curses, and I suggest that you do as good as you did with me just now if not better; who knows what he will do as a result either way."
It was a dim-lighted room with a small fire that was dying out, and he could hear screaming in the background. It was piercing the peace that would have been otherwise observed. And then, it finally ceased with small wimpers of what sounded like a young man being tortured. Next thing he heard was, "That is a proper Cruciatus Curse. You do not work toward it, you get punishment, but the Dark Lord will always reward those who commit to their destiny. I am exhausted by your poor excuse of a curse. You may go; and if I were you, MacNair, I would work that boy harder."
Harry woke with a start. He had just had a horrible dream. It was so vivid with the screaming, not any like the other dreams he had had when a Cruciatus Curse was performed. He then remembered that he didn't clear his mind last night. If he didn't want to have a dream as horrible as that one, he would still have to clear himself of emotion. It's my fault; I did that to myself, he mused. He would have to keep up with Occlumency, regardless of how much instruction he was getting in it. But he would still have to recapitulate those events to someone.
He decided to not even try to go back to sleep, as he was way too anxious as it was. He got out of his bed, walked over to his trunk which wasn't yet unpacked, and dug out his watch. It read 6:30. Awfully early as it was, he decided to go downstairs and maybe get some fresh air. He trudged down the stairs, and tip-toed into the kitchen to find none other than Dumbledore looking up from his cup of tea, smiling widely.
A/N: Wow, a one-shot and a new chapter, all in a three-day weekend! Whoo-hoo! I am on fire! Okay, anyway, to all of you who have a Labor Day, HAPPY LABOR DAY!!! I hope that you all enjoyed it to the fullest. Oh, and I am dedicating this chapter to Sabrina-05 for being the only one to review the last few chapters of my story, and Libby3 for betaing and encouraging me to write. I wouldn't be writing this story with as much energy if it wasn't for them.
Sabrina-05: Thank you yet again for reviewing so loyally and specifically! You don't know how much I appreciate it. I also wanted to answer your question that you asked in my other fic regarding the Secret Keepers. You are right; I just looked through the third book, and you are right. I interpreted it both ways; that it was a bluff (I didn't put it in the fic though), and that he thought that he would betray them. I guess I read the second theory somewhere else and developed it my own way, but you are right.