DISCLAIMER: This story is based on characters and situations created and
owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to
Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros.,
Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is
intended.
((Not a lot of review last time, but here's the next chapter anyways.))
CHAPTER 12
"It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are."
-Roy Disney
Hermione woke up to the sound of thunder. Once she was awake she quickly realized there was no falling back asleep and she walked over to the window to watch the show of brilliant blue lightning filling the black sky and rain pelting down. Since the time she was a little girl she had always liked to watch a good storm. She looked over at the clock to see that it was 1:00 AM. She wondered if Harry was awake and she decided to go find out. She walked over to his door and knocked quietly.
"Come in" she heard, and she opened the door to see Harry sitting by the window watching the storm. He smiled at her and waved her over to the window with him. She went willingly and soon she was leaning back against him watching the storm. After 20 minutes she began to feel cold standing by the window and shivered a bit. Harry chuckled and rubbed her arms to keep her warm and she soon found it irresistible to turn around and kiss him. The kiss was short and appreciative and then they found themselves just standing there staring into one another's eyes.
"Chrome didn't seem so bad, not to mention the fact that he did in fact save my life that time he shot that man who was on my tail." Harry said breaking the silence.
Hermione sighed and walked over to Harry's bed which was Ron's just the day before. She flopped down on it and watched Harry at the window. He was a picture of darkness, the shadows of the room covering one half of his face, the lightening from outside showing the other half in an eerie blue light. "Well, you don't know that he saved your life, but the fact that he did take the time to kill your attacker is extraordinarily good for him."
"Well, compared to Dudley, Chrome's a walk in the park." Harry said sitting on the foot of the bed.
"No, you see, the difference between Chrome and Dudley is that Dudley was a spoilt bully. Chrome is tough and smart unfortunately. When he was a kid he didn't get in trouble for school fights and vandalism like Dudley probably did. He was already running errands for gangs, and was a member by age 11. He's always known who to make connections with, how to impress them, and then how to use them. In the long run, he's worse than Dudley. Gangs of buddies who beat up little kids is not the same as gangs of criminals who kill."
"Point taken!" Harry said in an exasperated voice, flopping on his back beside her. He turned his head to the side to watch her. She didn't seem to notice him looking so he took the opportunity to observe her features. She was so beautiful; he loved how every feature of her, from her bushy brown hair to her brown eyes. He loved the way she could express so many emotions to him just with her eyes. He had only met back up with her several days and their relationship had only developed into something new the previous night, and yet he could read every expression that flickered past those warm brown eyes. He could see when she was sad, scared, or frustrated, but he preferred to see when she was happy, excited, curious or his favorite look, when she was in love with him. He had only gotten the chance to see that look for a little over 24 hours now, and he prayed to whatever deity that may be listening that it wouldn't end in a month. He wanted to live, he wanted to defeat Voldemort and thereby end that overbearing stress he had grown up with, and then he wanted to live the rest of his life with Hermione. He had only been truly aware that he was in love with her for a bit over a day, and yet he couldn't imagine not being with her now. He knew what the lonely life was like, and he never wanted to go back to it, he wanted and needed her to be by his side, to watch out and care for him as she always had.
At this point Hermione realized that Harry was watching her and she felt her stomach do a little flip. She couldn't believe that he was in love with her. It wasn't as though she'd thought herself ugly or felt she had a repulsive manner about her. It was more like she had never imagined that someone she admired as much as Harry could have the same feelings for her as she had for him. He was everything to her, her rock (as clichéd as that may be), her best friend, her most trusted person, he was the love of her life and she didn't want to imagine a world where she couldn't watch him as he sat by the window brooding into the night, just as she had a moment ago. True, he could be sinister, but he could also be loving, and he did always have a tendency of playing hero, but that came from his good will, and fact of the matter was that he was a hero.
Hermione turned onto her side to get closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her, allowing her to relax against him.
~
As usual Chrome had not slept much that night, and thus it was good that Harry and Hermione let him be all the next morning. Hermione did not come wake him until noon while Harry was back at Gryffindor Manor getting some of his things for the day. She came into the living room and saw that her brother was sleeping on his stomach with the blankets all tangled about him. "Chrome?" She said from the doorway, and when no response came she walked closer. "Chrome!" She said louder, and he shifted a bit, and then quickly flipped onto his back as though he was about to be attacked.
Seeing that it was just Hermione he mumbled sleepily, "What time is it?"
"Noon." She said in a displeased tone. "I just came to see if you wanted some lunch."
Chrome noted the dislike in her voice and he wondered how he could possibly make it along in the house if she hated him so much. "Lunch sounds good." He finally got out, and she left quickly to go to the kitchen.
Eventually he followed her in, first dressing so he wasn't just in his boxers. "So. how's your parents?" He asked as he got into the kitchen.
"You mean how's dad?" She shot back.
"Sure" he replied shortly.
"Why should you care? You never write or visit."
"And that would bother you why? You don't seem as though you exactly like my visiting."
"I don't." She agreed, placing a sandwich in front of him.
He ran his fingers across his short cut hair in frustration. "So much for making polite conversation" he thought, though he wasn't really all that perturbed, it was just that it would make living at the flat a bit easier if she wasn't jumping down his throat every chance she got.
He cleared his throat and tried a more relevant question. "What time is the meeting with the order tonight?"
"6:00" she said shortly turning to leave the room.
"Oh yeah, and I have a few dead bodies to bring back here later tonight. I shot them up last night with some of my big bad jail buddies." He added nonchalantly, just for the sake of getting a rise out of her.
She spun around sharply. "Oh, and I suppose you think that's hilarious. You know something, I don't like you and you don't like me, and you've had enough chances to drive my family insane without bothering me more. In a month this whole mission could be a failure, and thus I'd like to spend the remainder of the time until then enjoying being alive."
"You don't like me? Really? There's a news flash!" He said sarcastically.
"And this is exactly why. You are so self centered, you don't care about your family, you don't care about anyone else but yourself. When you were a kid you wiped my father out with your little antics, half of my childhood he looked as though he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of you. But you don't care. You're a self obsessed cheat, liar, thief and probably murderer. Again, I don't like you and you don't like me, so let's just let it drop." She left the room in a hurry and Chrome slowly leaned back in his chair.
"I never said I didn't like you."
~
When Harry came back from the store he couldn't find Chrome or Hermione anywhere. He searched the kitchen and living room and finally headed up to her bedroom. Hearing her inside and knocked on the door. "Hermione, it's me, Harry."
"Oh, come in." She said. He opened the door to see her cleaning up around her room in a rather violent manner.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Chrome, that's what's wrong. Ugh, I don't know why I let him get to me! He doesn't even do anything, he doesn't have to do anything, its the mere fact that he's here that drives me insane."
"That doesn't seem like you Hermione." Harry said, confused. "I'd always taken you to be more forgiving than this."
"I know, but it's just so hard for me to get over a childhood of hating him. And it's not like he's ever even bothered me directly. When he visited our house as a child he basically ignored me, which was fine because I was afraid of him, but he made everything so hard on my parents. Maybe I should just try harder, but I don't really want to like him. He's not the type of person who deserves to be liked."
"Well, you don't have to like him." Harry said slowly. "We just need him to do this thing for us, I mean, I don't like Snape but I can get along with him when I must. It's the same thing here."
"You're right I suppose." Hermione said, calming down a bit.
"Of course I'm right! I'm Harry Potter, world hero, Quidditch phenomenon, savior of all those he knows, and boy who lived!" He joked.
"Big headed boy who lived!" Hermione teased back and it kept up until she had her room straightened out and they found something other than cleaning to do to preoccupy themselves for a while.
~
At 5:30 Harry and Hermione came inside from a walk to find Chrome playing with his lighter. Chrome had gotten some of his artifacts back from the prison, but he had left a lot of his stuff with his number one man, Rex Carlet, a member of the Northern Celts gang.
"It's time to go" Harry told Chrome. Chrome quickly got up and put his lighter in his pocket. He followed them out the door and they all headed for Hogwarts. Chrome had only seen the school once before and he smiled a bit as they walked up to the impressive castle. The scenery reminded him of a castle near his home in Ireland, and how he missed that home. He missed the smell, the people, the way the night felt, the mist of a new morning, everything that was home to him. Most people thought that a rough and dangerous man such as himself wouldn't care for such things, but few really knew Chrome. He was the best street fighter and also a gang leader, but he was also human and there were many things about life that money, power and violence could not get him. One of these was family.
They finally arrived in the meeting room where nearly everyone was already gathered. They took three of the remaining four seats as it seemed that Ron had not arrived yet either.
"Told you we should have picked Ron up" Hermoine hissed in Harry's ear.
Dumbledore rose to his feet and introduced the order to Chrome. He began to speak again when Ron suddenly burst through the door.
"Sorry I'm late!" He gasped and quickly sat next to Harry.
Dumbledore's eyes sparkled a bit and he nodded at Ron. "As I was about to say, today I think it would be prudent if we began to organize our attack squads. I have placed people into the following positions" at this point he passed out sheets of parchment with the following:
- Wizard Fighting Squad Leaders: North: Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks East: Arthur Weasley and Severus Snape South: Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley West: Bill Weasley and Charlie Weasley
- Muggle Fighting Squad Leader: Raymond Granger
-Spells Unit Leader: Molly Weasley and Minerva McGonagal
-Special Task Force: Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Mad Eye Moody, Altair Aquilla, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Everyone eyed over the arrangements until Dumbledore recalled their attention. "The only one written on this list who is not a member of the order is independent agent Altair Aquilla who is very powerful and indeed necessary for this operation. We will need all members to participate in one way or another, though many of you may be working in a squad under a leader. Each fighting squad except for the Special Task Force will need at least 25 people working under them. We can only supply 5 aurors to each group, they're keepers of the peace, not soldiers. The Spells Unit will be supplied with additional workers from the ministry, and are free to lay claim to any other people order members here and now who are not yet attached to another position. Molly? Minerva? Any requests?"
McGonagal slowly swept the table with her eyes. "Yes, we will need Olympus and Fleur."
"And Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley added hastily.
Everyone at the table, except Chrome perhaps, knew that Mrs. Weasley didn't just want Ginny for her skill with spells, she wanted to keep at least one of her children out of the direct line of fighting, however, not even Ginny protested, for no one could blame the poor mother. It wasn't as though being on the Spells Squad was extremely safe though. They would be expected to go right onto the "battle grounds" and take down any and all barrier spells and curses.
Dumbledore nodded in agreement and then continued, "Very well then. Our first line of action must be to recruit 20 additional members to your teams. We will meet 2 days from now and go over those lists of recruits, and then we will begin to perfect our plan of attack. Agreed?"
There was a murmur of agreement throughout the room and Dumbledore signaled for them all to depart.
"What a cheery thing we have going on here!" Ron said sarcastically, slowly rising to his feet. "Recruit 20 people who you want to sentence to death basically. In that case Hermione, I say we recruit Draco Malfoy!"
"I agree!" Fred said, sneaking up behind them, George trailing him. "You know what we all need George?"
"A party?" George asked feigning innocence.
"Why, what an idea brother!" Fred said back. "And what d'you know, we happen to have invitations right here!" He handed Hermione, Harry and Ron flyers to their party which was addressed to take place at their Hogsmede home and dated for right after the next order meeting.
"We're facing the biggest and most impossible mission of our lives and all you can think about is throwing a party?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Of course Hermione, it's Fred and George!" Ron answered as though it were obvious. Together they all headed for the door, but Chrome hung back. He quickly stopped Harry before he left.
"Listen, uh, James, I need to talk to Dumbledore. I'll get back to the flat later." Chrome said hurriedly.
Harry just nodded and left to join Ron, Ginny and Hermione out in the hallway.
"Why'd he call you James?" Ginny asked, confused.
"Oh, well, I told him my name was James Evans, it's one of my undercover names. I'm not sure if he's to be trusted yet."
Hermione looked ready to say something but bit her tongue and Ginny just nodded to show that she understood what Harry was saying.
"What do you say we head back to the flat for a few butter beers?" Harry suggested and everyone nodded eagerly in agreement.
~
"It is good to see you again Chrome. How are you?" Albus Dumbledore said cheerfully as the young, fit, brown eyed, brown haired boy approached.
"I've been better, I just got out of prison which was a real blast, my half sister who I'm stuck living with hates me, and you're asking me to do the impossible. You're calling for more explosives than I've ever dealt with, all which I have to arrange through a network of black marketers I haven't spoken with in over a year! Not to mention the fact that I'll be putting my boys in the line of suicide. Now, they're good fighters, the best, but this is crazy. It'll be night, the enemy will have the advantage, and they'll probably be well armed." Chrome slumped back on a chair and put his feet on the table. "Where's the profit?"
Dumbledore store sharply at him with his piercing blue eyes. "If you cannot see the profit in this than I have taught you nothing." He said plainly. "Not all things appear in the form of money. First of all, this war will effect you eventually, I am sure it is already cutting into the day to day activities of your gang members. Secondly, there is something great to be won here."
"Oh yeah? And what is that?" Chrome asked angrily, restraining himself from lashing out at the cryptic old maniac.
"Your family Chrome. I remember quite distinctly that when you were a child you told me if you could wish for one thing it would be to have someone close who cared."
"I never said that."
"Not in so many words, no. But when I asked you what you most wanted, you did in fact tell me that you wanted your mom to stop running off from you and to be free of the law so you could be back with your friends. Are you disagreeing that you are lonely?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at the young man.
"HA! Lonely?! Why would I be lonely?! I have a gang of boys who would just as soon put a round of bullets in a man than abandon me! My best man, Rex Carlet is like a brother."
"I know all that, I know all that." Dumbledore said, gently raising his hands to hush the angry boy. "However, you have not spoken to your mother in ten years, and for good reason. But your father and sister. they never did anything to you and yet you haven't spoken to them in even longer until recent. You commit to no relationships, and in fact rarely have them, why is that?"
Chrome stood up, furious. "Oh what, onto my love life now are we? I don't need your psycho analysis bull shit old man, you need me, but I'm out. I don't need this!" He prepared to storm off when a large hole suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Just wait one moment more, please Chrome." Dumbledore said gently.
"Doesn't look like I have a choice does it?!" Chrome spat back, gazing down into the black hole in the floor which had just been conjured before him.
"I have given you two good reasons to join this mission. You have until the next meeting to decide, but please do not be so brash with your actions. That is all."
With that the hole disappeared just as quickly as it had first come before him, and Chrome was on his way.
~
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the dining room table at their flat and were working out who to recruit for Hermione and Ron's fighting squad as Chrome played with the silverware. He was casually throwing the forks and knives into a make shift dart board. He still had not decided what he was going to do and the meeting was coming up the next day. He wanted to just forget what the old lunatic had said and return to the Northern Celts where they would undoubtedly celebrate his return with a real Irish party. Yet, he couldn't get himself to do it. He didn't know what was wrong. All that shit the old fraud had told him was sentimental trash thought up by overly sentimental writers. Besides, he was supposed to be tough and without conscience. He had killed many times before and had not felt guilt, yet now he could not leave these people off to suffer their own fate. He rubbed absently at his tattoos which spanned his muscled arms, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.
In the meantime, Harry, Ron and Hermione had composed the following list of recruits:
Viktor Krum (who agreed to join their squad without any persuasion), Cho Chang (who joined with some persuasion towards Ron), Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Michael Corner, Fred and George Weasley (it had been determined that Bill and Charlie's squad would take Percy so there'd be three brothers to each Weasley squad), Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, Rubeus Hagrid, Mundugus Fletcher, Justin Finch- Fletchly, Colin Creevy (who had actually turned out to be a pretty good dueler), Denis Creevy (they were on last pickings), Oliver Wood, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil, and Pavarti Patil (the two made a good team).
Much of the team was assembled from members of the DA, and others were old friends. Some were just good witches or wizards who were loyal. and the last un- recruited members left.
"Well, there's our team." Ron said finally. "Glad that's over. Speaking of over, are either of you two going over to Fred and George's party when the Order meeting is over tomorrow?"
Hermione glanced over at Harry who responded, "Well, if I cover my scar and put on my contacts. It just needs to be set straight that everyone calls me James. Understood?"
Everyone nodded, peaking over at Chrome to see that he hadn't heard. Feeling secure that he was in his own world of whipping sharp objects across the room they all emerged themselves in a more casual conversation, which continued on late into the night.
Chrome eventually stopped his monotonous activity, and sat down on the couch, away from everyone else. He leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. With the faint glow of the street lights as his only illumination, he looked like a truly desperate man. Hunched over, darkness surrounding, his face buried in his hands as though in disgrace. He remembered once hearing a quote that read something along the lines of "it's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. But what exactly were his values? That was what he had to determine, and he had until tomorrow night to do so.
Nobody seemed to notice Chrome leaving the room, it was like he was just a shadow moving about. He seemed to prefer it that way too, and something seemed to be bothering him suddenly. What it was that plagued him they had all silently agreed to leave alone. He'd figure it out for himself. They had troubling thoughts of their own. So many young lives had been recruited, and many would probably be lost. They had such a clear view of the horrors that lay before them, perhaps too clear of a view. They pretended to be more interested in Fred and George's upcoming party, but in reality they were far more concerned with the mission, but too afraid to talk about it. Yet it continued to creep up on them, an inevitable darkness that lurked closer and closer by the minute.
((Not a lot of review last time, but here's the next chapter anyways.))
CHAPTER 12
"It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are."
-Roy Disney
Hermione woke up to the sound of thunder. Once she was awake she quickly realized there was no falling back asleep and she walked over to the window to watch the show of brilliant blue lightning filling the black sky and rain pelting down. Since the time she was a little girl she had always liked to watch a good storm. She looked over at the clock to see that it was 1:00 AM. She wondered if Harry was awake and she decided to go find out. She walked over to his door and knocked quietly.
"Come in" she heard, and she opened the door to see Harry sitting by the window watching the storm. He smiled at her and waved her over to the window with him. She went willingly and soon she was leaning back against him watching the storm. After 20 minutes she began to feel cold standing by the window and shivered a bit. Harry chuckled and rubbed her arms to keep her warm and she soon found it irresistible to turn around and kiss him. The kiss was short and appreciative and then they found themselves just standing there staring into one another's eyes.
"Chrome didn't seem so bad, not to mention the fact that he did in fact save my life that time he shot that man who was on my tail." Harry said breaking the silence.
Hermione sighed and walked over to Harry's bed which was Ron's just the day before. She flopped down on it and watched Harry at the window. He was a picture of darkness, the shadows of the room covering one half of his face, the lightening from outside showing the other half in an eerie blue light. "Well, you don't know that he saved your life, but the fact that he did take the time to kill your attacker is extraordinarily good for him."
"Well, compared to Dudley, Chrome's a walk in the park." Harry said sitting on the foot of the bed.
"No, you see, the difference between Chrome and Dudley is that Dudley was a spoilt bully. Chrome is tough and smart unfortunately. When he was a kid he didn't get in trouble for school fights and vandalism like Dudley probably did. He was already running errands for gangs, and was a member by age 11. He's always known who to make connections with, how to impress them, and then how to use them. In the long run, he's worse than Dudley. Gangs of buddies who beat up little kids is not the same as gangs of criminals who kill."
"Point taken!" Harry said in an exasperated voice, flopping on his back beside her. He turned his head to the side to watch her. She didn't seem to notice him looking so he took the opportunity to observe her features. She was so beautiful; he loved how every feature of her, from her bushy brown hair to her brown eyes. He loved the way she could express so many emotions to him just with her eyes. He had only met back up with her several days and their relationship had only developed into something new the previous night, and yet he could read every expression that flickered past those warm brown eyes. He could see when she was sad, scared, or frustrated, but he preferred to see when she was happy, excited, curious or his favorite look, when she was in love with him. He had only gotten the chance to see that look for a little over 24 hours now, and he prayed to whatever deity that may be listening that it wouldn't end in a month. He wanted to live, he wanted to defeat Voldemort and thereby end that overbearing stress he had grown up with, and then he wanted to live the rest of his life with Hermione. He had only been truly aware that he was in love with her for a bit over a day, and yet he couldn't imagine not being with her now. He knew what the lonely life was like, and he never wanted to go back to it, he wanted and needed her to be by his side, to watch out and care for him as she always had.
At this point Hermione realized that Harry was watching her and she felt her stomach do a little flip. She couldn't believe that he was in love with her. It wasn't as though she'd thought herself ugly or felt she had a repulsive manner about her. It was more like she had never imagined that someone she admired as much as Harry could have the same feelings for her as she had for him. He was everything to her, her rock (as clichéd as that may be), her best friend, her most trusted person, he was the love of her life and she didn't want to imagine a world where she couldn't watch him as he sat by the window brooding into the night, just as she had a moment ago. True, he could be sinister, but he could also be loving, and he did always have a tendency of playing hero, but that came from his good will, and fact of the matter was that he was a hero.
Hermione turned onto her side to get closer to him and he wrapped his arm around her, allowing her to relax against him.
~
As usual Chrome had not slept much that night, and thus it was good that Harry and Hermione let him be all the next morning. Hermione did not come wake him until noon while Harry was back at Gryffindor Manor getting some of his things for the day. She came into the living room and saw that her brother was sleeping on his stomach with the blankets all tangled about him. "Chrome?" She said from the doorway, and when no response came she walked closer. "Chrome!" She said louder, and he shifted a bit, and then quickly flipped onto his back as though he was about to be attacked.
Seeing that it was just Hermione he mumbled sleepily, "What time is it?"
"Noon." She said in a displeased tone. "I just came to see if you wanted some lunch."
Chrome noted the dislike in her voice and he wondered how he could possibly make it along in the house if she hated him so much. "Lunch sounds good." He finally got out, and she left quickly to go to the kitchen.
Eventually he followed her in, first dressing so he wasn't just in his boxers. "So. how's your parents?" He asked as he got into the kitchen.
"You mean how's dad?" She shot back.
"Sure" he replied shortly.
"Why should you care? You never write or visit."
"And that would bother you why? You don't seem as though you exactly like my visiting."
"I don't." She agreed, placing a sandwich in front of him.
He ran his fingers across his short cut hair in frustration. "So much for making polite conversation" he thought, though he wasn't really all that perturbed, it was just that it would make living at the flat a bit easier if she wasn't jumping down his throat every chance she got.
He cleared his throat and tried a more relevant question. "What time is the meeting with the order tonight?"
"6:00" she said shortly turning to leave the room.
"Oh yeah, and I have a few dead bodies to bring back here later tonight. I shot them up last night with some of my big bad jail buddies." He added nonchalantly, just for the sake of getting a rise out of her.
She spun around sharply. "Oh, and I suppose you think that's hilarious. You know something, I don't like you and you don't like me, and you've had enough chances to drive my family insane without bothering me more. In a month this whole mission could be a failure, and thus I'd like to spend the remainder of the time until then enjoying being alive."
"You don't like me? Really? There's a news flash!" He said sarcastically.
"And this is exactly why. You are so self centered, you don't care about your family, you don't care about anyone else but yourself. When you were a kid you wiped my father out with your little antics, half of my childhood he looked as though he were on the verge of a nervous breakdown because of you. But you don't care. You're a self obsessed cheat, liar, thief and probably murderer. Again, I don't like you and you don't like me, so let's just let it drop." She left the room in a hurry and Chrome slowly leaned back in his chair.
"I never said I didn't like you."
~
When Harry came back from the store he couldn't find Chrome or Hermione anywhere. He searched the kitchen and living room and finally headed up to her bedroom. Hearing her inside and knocked on the door. "Hermione, it's me, Harry."
"Oh, come in." She said. He opened the door to see her cleaning up around her room in a rather violent manner.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Chrome, that's what's wrong. Ugh, I don't know why I let him get to me! He doesn't even do anything, he doesn't have to do anything, its the mere fact that he's here that drives me insane."
"That doesn't seem like you Hermione." Harry said, confused. "I'd always taken you to be more forgiving than this."
"I know, but it's just so hard for me to get over a childhood of hating him. And it's not like he's ever even bothered me directly. When he visited our house as a child he basically ignored me, which was fine because I was afraid of him, but he made everything so hard on my parents. Maybe I should just try harder, but I don't really want to like him. He's not the type of person who deserves to be liked."
"Well, you don't have to like him." Harry said slowly. "We just need him to do this thing for us, I mean, I don't like Snape but I can get along with him when I must. It's the same thing here."
"You're right I suppose." Hermione said, calming down a bit.
"Of course I'm right! I'm Harry Potter, world hero, Quidditch phenomenon, savior of all those he knows, and boy who lived!" He joked.
"Big headed boy who lived!" Hermione teased back and it kept up until she had her room straightened out and they found something other than cleaning to do to preoccupy themselves for a while.
~
At 5:30 Harry and Hermione came inside from a walk to find Chrome playing with his lighter. Chrome had gotten some of his artifacts back from the prison, but he had left a lot of his stuff with his number one man, Rex Carlet, a member of the Northern Celts gang.
"It's time to go" Harry told Chrome. Chrome quickly got up and put his lighter in his pocket. He followed them out the door and they all headed for Hogwarts. Chrome had only seen the school once before and he smiled a bit as they walked up to the impressive castle. The scenery reminded him of a castle near his home in Ireland, and how he missed that home. He missed the smell, the people, the way the night felt, the mist of a new morning, everything that was home to him. Most people thought that a rough and dangerous man such as himself wouldn't care for such things, but few really knew Chrome. He was the best street fighter and also a gang leader, but he was also human and there were many things about life that money, power and violence could not get him. One of these was family.
They finally arrived in the meeting room where nearly everyone was already gathered. They took three of the remaining four seats as it seemed that Ron had not arrived yet either.
"Told you we should have picked Ron up" Hermoine hissed in Harry's ear.
Dumbledore rose to his feet and introduced the order to Chrome. He began to speak again when Ron suddenly burst through the door.
"Sorry I'm late!" He gasped and quickly sat next to Harry.
Dumbledore's eyes sparkled a bit and he nodded at Ron. "As I was about to say, today I think it would be prudent if we began to organize our attack squads. I have placed people into the following positions" at this point he passed out sheets of parchment with the following:
- Wizard Fighting Squad Leaders: North: Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks East: Arthur Weasley and Severus Snape South: Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley West: Bill Weasley and Charlie Weasley
- Muggle Fighting Squad Leader: Raymond Granger
-Spells Unit Leader: Molly Weasley and Minerva McGonagal
-Special Task Force: Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter, Mad Eye Moody, Altair Aquilla, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.
Everyone eyed over the arrangements until Dumbledore recalled their attention. "The only one written on this list who is not a member of the order is independent agent Altair Aquilla who is very powerful and indeed necessary for this operation. We will need all members to participate in one way or another, though many of you may be working in a squad under a leader. Each fighting squad except for the Special Task Force will need at least 25 people working under them. We can only supply 5 aurors to each group, they're keepers of the peace, not soldiers. The Spells Unit will be supplied with additional workers from the ministry, and are free to lay claim to any other people order members here and now who are not yet attached to another position. Molly? Minerva? Any requests?"
McGonagal slowly swept the table with her eyes. "Yes, we will need Olympus and Fleur."
"And Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley added hastily.
Everyone at the table, except Chrome perhaps, knew that Mrs. Weasley didn't just want Ginny for her skill with spells, she wanted to keep at least one of her children out of the direct line of fighting, however, not even Ginny protested, for no one could blame the poor mother. It wasn't as though being on the Spells Squad was extremely safe though. They would be expected to go right onto the "battle grounds" and take down any and all barrier spells and curses.
Dumbledore nodded in agreement and then continued, "Very well then. Our first line of action must be to recruit 20 additional members to your teams. We will meet 2 days from now and go over those lists of recruits, and then we will begin to perfect our plan of attack. Agreed?"
There was a murmur of agreement throughout the room and Dumbledore signaled for them all to depart.
"What a cheery thing we have going on here!" Ron said sarcastically, slowly rising to his feet. "Recruit 20 people who you want to sentence to death basically. In that case Hermione, I say we recruit Draco Malfoy!"
"I agree!" Fred said, sneaking up behind them, George trailing him. "You know what we all need George?"
"A party?" George asked feigning innocence.
"Why, what an idea brother!" Fred said back. "And what d'you know, we happen to have invitations right here!" He handed Hermione, Harry and Ron flyers to their party which was addressed to take place at their Hogsmede home and dated for right after the next order meeting.
"We're facing the biggest and most impossible mission of our lives and all you can think about is throwing a party?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Of course Hermione, it's Fred and George!" Ron answered as though it were obvious. Together they all headed for the door, but Chrome hung back. He quickly stopped Harry before he left.
"Listen, uh, James, I need to talk to Dumbledore. I'll get back to the flat later." Chrome said hurriedly.
Harry just nodded and left to join Ron, Ginny and Hermione out in the hallway.
"Why'd he call you James?" Ginny asked, confused.
"Oh, well, I told him my name was James Evans, it's one of my undercover names. I'm not sure if he's to be trusted yet."
Hermione looked ready to say something but bit her tongue and Ginny just nodded to show that she understood what Harry was saying.
"What do you say we head back to the flat for a few butter beers?" Harry suggested and everyone nodded eagerly in agreement.
~
"It is good to see you again Chrome. How are you?" Albus Dumbledore said cheerfully as the young, fit, brown eyed, brown haired boy approached.
"I've been better, I just got out of prison which was a real blast, my half sister who I'm stuck living with hates me, and you're asking me to do the impossible. You're calling for more explosives than I've ever dealt with, all which I have to arrange through a network of black marketers I haven't spoken with in over a year! Not to mention the fact that I'll be putting my boys in the line of suicide. Now, they're good fighters, the best, but this is crazy. It'll be night, the enemy will have the advantage, and they'll probably be well armed." Chrome slumped back on a chair and put his feet on the table. "Where's the profit?"
Dumbledore store sharply at him with his piercing blue eyes. "If you cannot see the profit in this than I have taught you nothing." He said plainly. "Not all things appear in the form of money. First of all, this war will effect you eventually, I am sure it is already cutting into the day to day activities of your gang members. Secondly, there is something great to be won here."
"Oh yeah? And what is that?" Chrome asked angrily, restraining himself from lashing out at the cryptic old maniac.
"Your family Chrome. I remember quite distinctly that when you were a child you told me if you could wish for one thing it would be to have someone close who cared."
"I never said that."
"Not in so many words, no. But when I asked you what you most wanted, you did in fact tell me that you wanted your mom to stop running off from you and to be free of the law so you could be back with your friends. Are you disagreeing that you are lonely?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows at the young man.
"HA! Lonely?! Why would I be lonely?! I have a gang of boys who would just as soon put a round of bullets in a man than abandon me! My best man, Rex Carlet is like a brother."
"I know all that, I know all that." Dumbledore said, gently raising his hands to hush the angry boy. "However, you have not spoken to your mother in ten years, and for good reason. But your father and sister. they never did anything to you and yet you haven't spoken to them in even longer until recent. You commit to no relationships, and in fact rarely have them, why is that?"
Chrome stood up, furious. "Oh what, onto my love life now are we? I don't need your psycho analysis bull shit old man, you need me, but I'm out. I don't need this!" He prepared to storm off when a large hole suddenly appeared in front of him.
"Just wait one moment more, please Chrome." Dumbledore said gently.
"Doesn't look like I have a choice does it?!" Chrome spat back, gazing down into the black hole in the floor which had just been conjured before him.
"I have given you two good reasons to join this mission. You have until the next meeting to decide, but please do not be so brash with your actions. That is all."
With that the hole disappeared just as quickly as it had first come before him, and Chrome was on his way.
~
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat at the dining room table at their flat and were working out who to recruit for Hermione and Ron's fighting squad as Chrome played with the silverware. He was casually throwing the forks and knives into a make shift dart board. He still had not decided what he was going to do and the meeting was coming up the next day. He wanted to just forget what the old lunatic had said and return to the Northern Celts where they would undoubtedly celebrate his return with a real Irish party. Yet, he couldn't get himself to do it. He didn't know what was wrong. All that shit the old fraud had told him was sentimental trash thought up by overly sentimental writers. Besides, he was supposed to be tough and without conscience. He had killed many times before and had not felt guilt, yet now he could not leave these people off to suffer their own fate. He rubbed absently at his tattoos which spanned his muscled arms, trying to figure out what was wrong with him.
In the meantime, Harry, Ron and Hermione had composed the following list of recruits:
Viktor Krum (who agreed to join their squad without any persuasion), Cho Chang (who joined with some persuasion towards Ron), Seamus Finnigan, Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom, Michael Corner, Fred and George Weasley (it had been determined that Bill and Charlie's squad would take Percy so there'd be three brothers to each Weasley squad), Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Lee Jordan, Rubeus Hagrid, Mundugus Fletcher, Justin Finch- Fletchly, Colin Creevy (who had actually turned out to be a pretty good dueler), Denis Creevy (they were on last pickings), Oliver Wood, Luna Lovegood, Padma Patil, and Pavarti Patil (the two made a good team).
Much of the team was assembled from members of the DA, and others were old friends. Some were just good witches or wizards who were loyal. and the last un- recruited members left.
"Well, there's our team." Ron said finally. "Glad that's over. Speaking of over, are either of you two going over to Fred and George's party when the Order meeting is over tomorrow?"
Hermione glanced over at Harry who responded, "Well, if I cover my scar and put on my contacts. It just needs to be set straight that everyone calls me James. Understood?"
Everyone nodded, peaking over at Chrome to see that he hadn't heard. Feeling secure that he was in his own world of whipping sharp objects across the room they all emerged themselves in a more casual conversation, which continued on late into the night.
Chrome eventually stopped his monotonous activity, and sat down on the couch, away from everyone else. He leaned forward and placed his head in his hands. With the faint glow of the street lights as his only illumination, he looked like a truly desperate man. Hunched over, darkness surrounding, his face buried in his hands as though in disgrace. He remembered once hearing a quote that read something along the lines of "it's not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are. But what exactly were his values? That was what he had to determine, and he had until tomorrow night to do so.
Nobody seemed to notice Chrome leaving the room, it was like he was just a shadow moving about. He seemed to prefer it that way too, and something seemed to be bothering him suddenly. What it was that plagued him they had all silently agreed to leave alone. He'd figure it out for himself. They had troubling thoughts of their own. So many young lives had been recruited, and many would probably be lost. They had such a clear view of the horrors that lay before them, perhaps too clear of a view. They pretended to be more interested in Fred and George's upcoming party, but in reality they were far more concerned with the mission, but too afraid to talk about it. Yet it continued to creep up on them, an inevitable darkness that lurked closer and closer by the minute.