Disclaimer: The characters that look familiar to you belong to J. K. Rowling. The ones you cannot find in any of her books are mine. I don't intend to make any money out of this. I'm just having some fun.

The Meeting of the Order

The Volunteers went downstairs together, some of them stopping in the upper floors to go on with their assigned tasks, others going further down, like Hermione and Anastasia, who were working in the lowest floor.

When they opened the door, they spotted Professor Snape at once. Pansy Parkinson was with him too. She looked very tired. She hadn't joined them upstairs, so she was probably the only volunteer who hadn't eaten a thing for hours.

Both girls approached the man, who had his back turned on them and was checking a cauldron.

"Professor?" Hermione finally said.

Severus Snape turned with his familiar sneer in place. "Oh! What an honour! I see you have finally decided to come back!" He spat.

Hermione and Anastasia swallowed, but didn't dare say a thing.

"Miss Parkinson! Have you added all the daphoidel to your cauldrons?" The girl nodded. "Right then, come with me." Then he turned to the two girls again and said: "Miss Parkinson and myself are going to eat something. Miss Zucchini, you will keep an eye on these cauldrons. We were preparing three different potions. You'll find three parchments on your table with the instructions for each one of them. The phase in which each potion is now will appear underlined in red on the parchment. When the phase changes, the red line will move accordingly, so that you know when you have to add another ingredient or stir the potions. If you spoil any of the potions, I'll have you cleaning cauldron bottoms for a week without magic, and I don't care that you are no longer my student. Did I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Sir," the girl answered.

"Very well. Miss Granger," he went on saying, "You'll work now on Rasputin's Potion. It's very dangerous, so for your own wellbeing, be careful. You can use those cauldrons there. I've left the parchment with the instructions on the table next to them. Understood?"

"Yes, Professor," Hermione said, and went straight to her table.

When Snape and Pansy Parkinson left, Anastasia and Hermione didn't have much time for talking and just concentrated in their work, but they were both wondering what was the Slytherin girl doing there and why she hadn't joined the other volunteers in the refectory.

***

Ginny and Cho didn't have much chance to talk either. The people injured during the Death Eater attacks were almost all back home or in another floor, attended by healers, but there were still many people coming to the Hospital with lesser injuries they had tried to cure themselves. In most cases, it was more difficult to repair the damage done by the wrong healing spell than it would have been healing the original wound.

Benjamin was still working frantically, but he managed to smile all of the time so his patients would relax a bit. As far as the girls knew, he hadn't had a break yet.

***

Penelope didn't have much to do. It had been hell trying to calm the children, but now they were all soundly asleep, some of them whimpering a bit in their slumber. Anyway, most of them had been taken away by their parents or other relatives, so there weren't many left.

The boys weren't very busy either. The entrance hall was empty for the first time in many hours, and the few people that came in could walk by themselves or just wanted to visit someone.

Many of the volunteers started to go home, Neville Longbottom and Susan Bones between them, but the Weasleys didn't want to leave without Ginny, Hermione and Penelope, so Madam Pomfrey sent them all to different floors so that they could help there.

When the morning broke, all the volunteers looked exhausted, although not as much as St. Mungo's staff. Around seven, Madam Pomfrey finally congregated them all in the entrance hall to thank them for their efforts and to tell them they could go home now to get a most deserved rest. Some of the staff members joined them, and applauded them for their work. Then Sabella Santos, the Head Healer at St. Mungo's, thanked them once more in the name of all the injured and all the staff, and said that she would make sure Headmaster Dumbledore knew how much his students had helped save lives. It was strangely gratifying.

***

The next morning Harry couldn't stop yawning, it didn't matter that he had been under the cool water of the shower for almost half an hour nor that he was on his second white coffee. He had been talking with Professor Lupin until late at night, and though it had been very interesting, he was exhausted. He didn't mind the exhaustion, though, he was going to be able to help. Really help. Remus had been very much interested in what he had to say, and had asked him to help him plan the classes. Harry felt useful to the Order for the first time.

Professor Lupin looked wide awake, but a little bit tired too. For him, a night without sleep could never be worse than the night of the full moon. If he was in his human form, he could work for hours without end.

Sirius was full of energy. He had had a good rest and was busy once more cleaning the house. There were many rooms they hadn't even dared to open yet, and now that the house was so crowded, they were probably going to need them.

The Dursleys still moved in a pack around the house. It was as if they were scared someone would attack them if they dared split. They rarely talked to a wizard or a witch, unless expressly addressed by one of them, and only Aunt Petunia had been bold enough to ask Professor Lupin how long did he think they should stay.

The Grangers, for their part, had made themselves quite comfortable. Mr. Granger had found some interesting books on natural remedies in the Blacks' vast library and Mrs. Granger had gone to the garden of the house and was enjoying the warm July sun. They wanted to help, but they knew there was little they could do for these people, so they just tried to keep out of their way.

Mrs. Weasley was the happiest of women that morning. Her kids were all safe and sound, and even Percy had come back to them. Her husband hadn't been able to forgive Percy so soon, but still he managed to talk to him politely, and Molly was sure that in time they would be back to how things used to be while Percy was still at school.

Dumbledore and the aurors hadn't stayed for the night, and Mrs. Figg had left early in the morning, because she was worried about her cats.

Harry was on his second helping of bacon when the wards on the house went down, but this time he didn't even bother to go and see who it was. He was too sleepy, and there were people enough in the house to defend it in case they were attacked.

Sirius went to open the door, and a minute afterwards a very tired-looking Hermione, Ron, George and Ginny came in.

"My life for a cup of coffee!" George said dramatically before letting himself fall into a chair.

Ron and the girls didn't greet them either. They were glad to see them all, specially Harry, but they were just too tired.

Mrs. Weasley immediately busied herself serving her kids and Hermione the most copious breakfast they had ever had in their life, hugging them in turn and telling them how proud she was of them all for being so brave and good.

When they finished eating, they felt a little bit better, but not really up to much talking. Harry took them to their rooms, the same ones they had stayed in the previous summer, and then went back downstairs to meet Professor Lupin. There would be a lot of time to talk with his friends, but now they needed to rest and he and Lupin had to go on working on the lesson plans.

*****

Four hours later, Harry and Remus were still sitting at a table in what had been Sirius' grandfather favourite room: his study. They had so many piles of books in front of them, that Mrs. Weasley couldn't see them when she entered the room, and at first thought they had gone somewhere else. Harry opened just then a very dusty volume and sneezed. Mrs. Weasley, who had almost closed the door, walked inside again and called:

"Harry? Professor Lupin? Are you there?"

Both Harry and Lupin jumped. They had been so immersed in their respective readings that they hadn't heard Mrs. Weasley.

"We are here, Molly," Lupin said, inclining his body to the right, so that his head could be seen next to the pile of books in front of him.

"Professor, the Headmaster is here. There will be a meeting of the Order in ten minutes or so. We are still waiting for Professor Snape, but he is supposed to be here soon."

"I don't remember there was a meeting scheduled for today," Remus said, putting a spell on the page of the book he was reading to mark it so that he could go on reading it afterwards.

"No," Molly said, "there was none, but I guess the Headmaster wants to analyse what happened yesterday and tell us how things stand now."

Remus stood and nodded. "I'm not sure I want to know how many attacks there were yesterday nor how many people died," he said grimly.

"Me neither," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "Let's hope he has some good news too, although I can't imagine what."

"Professor?" Harry interrupted. "Can I come too?" He asked hopefully. Harry felt he had a right to know what was going on.

"I'm afraid you cannot, Harry," Remus said. "I'll ask the Headmaster though, maybe you could be there when we discuss certain subjects." Harry smiled at him, that would be a good start. "We'll go on with this after the meeting," Lupin went on saying.

"Oh, no, you won't," Molly said, "after the meeting you are both going to have lunch. You haven't eaten a thing for hours, and you both look as if you could do with a little more weight."

Lupin smiled, he always enjoyed having Molly Weasley bossing him around, it was almost like having back his own mother. "Ok, then, after lunch it is."

Harry agreed, and went downstairs with them, hoping to be let into the meeting. He wasn't the only one though, Fred and George Weasley had cornered their father behind a sofa and were begging him to let them in.

"We are already adults, Dad," George was saying.

"Yeah, and we've finished school..." Fred added.

"NO, you have NOT," their mother said, still descending the last steps. She hadn't been pleased with the twins' decision of leaving Hogwarts before the usual time. Both boys groaned, now that their mother had joined the discussion, they knew they didn't stand a chance. Mr. Weasley, on the other hand, looked very relieved to see his wife.

The wards went down once more and Professor Snape entered the house. He looked around the room and spotted the person he had been looking for:

"Why, Black. I see there is no way of getting rid of you."

Both Sirius and Harry tensed, but the Headmaster interceded, choosing to ignore the tension between the two men.

"Severus! Excellent! Now that we are all here, the meeting can begin," he said, and started for the kitchen. The rest of the members of the Order followed the old wizard. Snape and Sirius lagged behind, but Lupin saw their intentions and stayed too, stepping between the two of them.

"Wizards first," he said, and bowed to them both in an attempt to lighten the mood. It didn't exactly work, but at least both men stopped staring daggers at each other and walked into the kitchen, none of them wanted the usually mild werewolf mad at them. Lupin went in last and closed the door behind him.

Sleepy voices could be heard coming downstairs. Harry turned, and saw Ron and Hermione smiling at him with puffed eyes.

"I'm starving," Ron said.

"Bad luck, little bro," Fred said, "a meeting of the Order has just started, and I'm sure it's gonna be pretty long."

"I have some chocolate frogs upstairs, Ron," Harry said.

Ron thought for a moment. "Well, better than nothing I guess."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but turned mid-step and started going back upstairs. Harry followed and they made themselves comfortable in his and Ron's room. The twins went to their room to see if they could still find an extendable ear they had left there the previous summer.

Hermione and Ron both told Harry how they had been attacked, and then Harry started telling them all about his escape from Privet Drive and Sirius' resurrection.

***

Dumbledore cleared his throat and looked at all the men and women congregated there. For a moment, he wondered dejectedly how many of them would survive the war, but then shook his black thoughts out of his mind, there were more pressing matters at hand.

"As you may suppose, the reason I asked you all to be here today is because yesterday's attacks change a lot of things. And I mean a lot." Nobody said a thing, so the Headmaster just went on talking. "As I had feared, Fudge's blindness has allowed Voldemort to recover his strength and also to get back his old Death Eaters and even win over some more. Moody, please, tell them your conclusions about yesterday's attacks."

Moody fixed his normal eye on the table, but with his magical one he looked in turn at each of the members of the Order. "New Death Eaters, lots of them. Snape had already warned us about it, but still we didn't think there would be so many. We think yesterday was a kind of test for many of them, their first attack, they had to kill people to show they were loyal to their new master. There were old Death Eaters directing every attack, but most of the attackers were young boys, some of them fresh from Hogwarts, others hadn't even finished school yet. They weren't so powerful nor so skilled, and we must be thankful for that, because otherwise we are sure the death toll would have been at least twice as high, and there were fourteen deaths yesterday, which is bad enough." Moody paused for a moment. Everybody was looking at the table, it seemed to be very interesting. "Shacklebolt, maybe you can tell us about the attack at the Weasleys."

Shacklebolt nodded. "We got thirty-three Death Eaters around the house. Ten were dead, the rest were mostly stunned or in a full body binding."

"I killed two of them," Snape said, "I thought about stunning them, but I couldn't run the risk they would escape the aurors afterwards and went back to the Dark Lord. It would be very suspicious that someone had attacked them from behind, so Voldemort would probably suspect a traitor in his rows, and I would have had all the numbers then. As I told you, he doesn't trust me yet as he used to. When we went back yesterday after the attack on the Weasleys, he seemed to be happy with how things had gone. He knew most of the Death Eaters weren't very skilled, and he was glad that more of them escaped the aurors than he had dared to hope. He was putting his new followers to the test, and they passed it with honours." He said with a grim look in his face, and then added, looking at Dumbledore: "I really had to kill those kids, Headmaster, I really had to."

The Headmaster just nodded sadly. "How many went there, Severus?"

Snape took a deep breath: "Fifty."

There was a general murmur of surprise at that.

"The Dark Lord seems to have the Weasleys in a very high esteem." Snape went on saying. "They are a pureblood family, two powerful parents and six grownup boys. I bet his opinion of them is even better now."

"What about the other eight dead Death Eaters?" McGonagall asked.

"Five of them were found behind the house. They all had been hit by the fireworks the Weasleys threw through the windows." Shacklebolt went on explaining. "The other three were in the front part. One of them was an old 'friend' of us, Rabastan Lestrange, he died in hitting his head with a rock when he was stunned. We analysed his wand, he was the one who almost killed Bill. We think the other two were killed by other Death Eaters who missed when attacking the Weasleys and hit their companions instead."

During all of this speech, Arthur and Molly had remained silent, holding hands under the table, thinking how lucky they had been to survive.

"Very well," Albus said, "what about the other attacks?"

"Three new Death Eaters went to the Grangers," Moody said, "I bet they thought it would be easy, because only Hermione is a witch, and there would be three of them. They didn't expect Tonks to be there, nor the Grangers to defend themselves as well as they could." At this, he and Shacklebolt couldn't help a chuckle.

"Mrs. Granger got a Death Eater hitting him with a frying pan," Shacklebolt said, and they all laughed a bit, which did them good.

"Something similar happened in other muggleborns' homes. The Death Eaters didn't worry much about the parents and just went for the kids first. I bet they've learned their lesson by now. Next time, they will be ready to attack the parents as well." Moody went on saying. "Privet Drive was a different matter, though. It is obvious Voldemort has a high opinion of Harry's abilities, so he sent fourteen Death Eaters to get him, some of them new, but all of them grown up wizards and witches, no kids this time. Of course, it was lucky Lupin was there. He took seven down on his own before we even moved." All the eyes in the room turned with admiration to Lupin, who concentrated himself on a parchment lying on the table. "Harry must have taken the three we found between the Dursleys' home and Mrs. Figg's. We only had to take care of the rest."

"Anything of interest apart from that?" Albus asked him.

"Well..." Moody said, scratching his chin, "we thought it was significant that the Death Eaters concentrated themselves in muggleborns' houses and also in Ministry workers. Apart from Arthur here, eleven other Ministry employees were attacked. Only one of them is still in St. Mungo's, Selena Zucchini, but she is recovering very fast. When we got there, her daughter had cornered three Death Eaters on her own and had stunned two more before that. There was a dead Death Eater too. One of your students Snape, Marcus Flint."

"Flint?" McGonagall inquired. "But wasn't he...?" She asked looking at Snape.

He knew perfectly well what she meant. "Her boyfriend, yes."

"What?" Tonks couldn't believe her ears. "Her boyfriend attacked her and her mother?"

"He did," Shacklebolt said, "he was the one who cursed Selena with a very powerful freezing spell. No wonder the girl reacted like that, although I must admit I find it a little disturbing that such a young girl was able to use the Avada Kedavra curse effectively."

"Well, imagine the hate she must have felt," Bill Weasley said. The others didn't comment, but Lupin wrote something on the parchment in front of him.

"Anything else?" Albus asked once more.

"No," Moody said, and Shacklebolt nodded his agreement, "I think that's all we had to say."

"Ok, then, Dumbledore said, next subject: Sirius Black and Harry Potter."

Sirius' head shot up at this.

"I have informed you all of what happened to Sirius, so no need to go back to that subject again. I just wanted to welcome him back once more to our rows. I wanted also to inform you that Sirius is going to be working on the house during the summer. We think Voldemort doesn't know yet that he is alive, so I'd rather keep him hidden for now. He is going to train himself with Lupin, because he hasn't had much chance to practice his skills since before Azkaban, and when the school year starts, I want him to come to Hogwarts to reinforce the security of the castle. I'm not sure yet how we are going to go about that, if we are going to have Sirius as himself or disguised and under a false name, but we still have almost two months to worry about the details."

Everyone seemed content with these arrangements but Snape, of course, who glared at Sirius as if wanting him to melt on the spot. Sirius ignored his nemesis this time, though, and looked at Lupin instead, who gave him the thumbs up to congratulate him for his new job.

"Harry will be training himself with Lupin too, and we've also thought to include in this little training sessions a group of outstanding Hogwarts students. Lupin, would you please explain who do you intend to ask to join your classes?"

Lupin nodded and stood: "Well, first of all, let me tell you that last year some students, seeing how little they were going to learn with Dolores Umbridge, decided to train themselves as well as they could. Harry was the teacher, because he had already encountered Voldemort several times, fought Dementors and survived many other threats. This little group called themselves 'Dumbledore's Army'...". Some people smiled at this and they all looked at the Headmaster, who looked very proud of his students. "I've talked it over with Harry, and it seems they learned a lot by themselves. I've decided to ask all of those students to join our training sessions, I have the names here," Lupin said, and then started to read the names from a parchment: "Neville Longbottom..." Snape snorted at this, but Lupin ignored him and just went on reading, "Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnigan..." McGonagall was beyond herself with joy, those were all Gryffindors, and Lupin went on, "Cho Chang, Zacharias Smith, Anthony Goldstein, Michael Corner, Ernie McMillan, Susan Bones, Luna Lovegood, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Colin and Dennis Creevey, Terry Boot, Alicia Spinet, Katie Bell, Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan..." Mrs. Weasley groaned, she dreaded the moment the twins and Lee would get together, but Lupin was already going on, "Hannah Abbott, and of course, Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and the Weasleys, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny."

"Not Ginny!" Mrs. Weasley complained, "She is too young."

A discussion followed on whether there should be an age limit or not, but it was quickly put an end to by Snape:

"Mrs. Weasley, I was in the back of your house when Rastaban Lestrange cursed Bill, but I could see it from where I was standing, because I was trying to know what was going on in both fronts. That's how I saw Ginny stun four Death Eaters at once."

Everybody was awed at this news and looked at the Weasleys with admiration. The Weasleys weren't less surprised than them. Their little girl? Did she really take four Death Eaters with one spell?

"I insist on her joining the group," Snape said.

When Molly didn't speak, Lupin said: "Agreed then," and ticked Ginny's name on the list. Then said: "Well, after listening to what have been said about the attacks, I thought maybe we should include Anastasia Zucchini too. She seems to be very good, and if I'm not mistaken, her mother would have to stay some time in St. Mungo's, so otherwise she will be alone at home."

"Oh, no!" Molly's motherly instincts rebelled against the very thought of a young girl alone at home on these days. "Headmaster, she must stay with us, at least until her mother recovers."

"I think that's an excellent idea, Molly," Dumbledore agreed.

"Headmaster, she used an Unforgivable, won't she be sent to Azkaban?" Charlie asked.

"No," Shacklebolt answered. "It was an obvious case of self-defence. She will have to attend an inquiry, but she'll be left out. Your brothers too."

"What?" Arthur Weasley asked at once.

"It's procedure Arthur. Although nobody used the Avada Kedavra curse at the Burrow, well, nobody save Snape I mean, those fireworks killed five people. It was self-defence and they will be back home right after the inquiry, but Fred and George will have to attend it anyway. You know they have to, Arthur."

Mr. Weasley nodded silently. The other Weasleys didn't comment either. They knew everything would be ok.

Moody didn't look too happy either, "Albus, this place is turning out to be more a hotel than a hiding place. We can't have so many people coming and going, and even less staying."

Albus nodded tiredly, but then said: "I agree with you Alastor, but I'm afraid we are going to have to move headquarters to another place anyway. The Malfoys know we are staying here, because Kreacher told them. The place is unplottable, but it's only a matter of time until Voldemort finds it anyway. We cannot take such a risk, so we'll have to move. I'm just waiting for a certain meeting I want to conduct here before moving, and that takes us to the last point on our agenda today." He looked at them all intently. "In six days we will receive here some very important guests, and I must admit I've put a lot of hope in that meeting." He paused here, nobody dared to breath. "Ashanriis," the Headmaster announced with his eyes twinkling.

At once almost everyone in the room started talking and expressing their wonder. When they calmed themselves a bit, Dumbledore went on:

"Before I explain much further, I think it's time to call the kids."

"But Albus..." Mrs. Weasley started to complain. The old wizard lifted a hand to make her listen to him.

"Molly, the ashanriis have a very strict code of conduct. Etiquette is very important for them, and we must observe it while they are here. We must all observe it, the kids included, so I'd rather they join us now so that I don't have to repeat everything twice." Mrs. Weasley didn't look happy, but she didn't object either, so the Headmaster nodded to Remus and he left the kitchen to search for the kids."

"And where are we going to move to, Albus?" Shacklebolt said.

"I'm not sure yet," the Headmaster said. "I have different options in mind, but I'm hoping the ashanriis will let us stay at a place protected by them, a place the Death Eaters cannot get into."

The members of the Order looked at each other at this. Did such a place exist? Would the ashanriis let them stay there?

Lupin came back, all the kids behind him, looking both apprehensive and very curious. Harry took a sit by Sirius, Hermione sat next to Tonks, and the Weasleys sat behind their parents, Bill and Charlie.

"Welcome all," the Headmaster said, smiling at them. "There is something I wanted you all to know, so I asked Remus to bring you down." Dumbledore looked at all the kids, and then went on explaining: "I'm glad to announce that in six days time we'll be receiving some very honourable guests in this house, a committee of very distinguished fuocciris. I'm sure most of you had never heard of the ashanriis before or, if you had, you thought they were nothing more than a legend, but the truth is that they exist, and there are so many of them that they even divide themselves in different castes. I won't go now into detail, because I'm sure you'll find information enough on them in books..." Harry and Ron chanced a glance at Hermione, who was listening rapturously to every single word the Headmaster was saying, "so I'll just tell you that our visitors belong to the fuocciri caste. Now, this caste is the most numerous and powerful of them all, because they are warriors and, unlike other castes, the fuocciris have remained together through the years, no internal battles nor treacheries, and that has made them much more stronger than any other ashanriis. I must admit I had little hope of being able to contact them, because they are very strict regarding rules, and there is a very important ashanrii rule that says that they shouldn't interfere in wizards' business, which is the way they see Voldemort's threat. Now, the circumstances brought two of them yesterday to this very house. They came to heal Bill Weasley from an otherwise deadly curse, and then I took the chance to ask them to deliver a message from us to their Princess, requesting an interview. They were kind enough to honour my request and this morning an eagle awoke me at Hogwarts to deliver a message from the fuocciri Princess herself, saying that she would gladly meet me and 'my friends', as she called you." The Headmaster smiled at this, but everybody was so excited about this news, that it was some time before anybody talked. It was Mrs. Weasley:

"I knew those girls would help us. They came here to save my son when they had nothing to do with what was going on. What did they care if a wizard died or not? But they still saved him, and they didn't even want to be thanked for it!" Mrs. Weasley's voice trembled when remembering the previous day and how close to death his oldest son had been. Everybody looked astounded at Bill and then at Mrs. Weasley. Only those present in the room where Bill had been cured knew what had happened, but they hadn't told them about it yet.

"As I was saying before," Dumbledore went on speaking, "the ashanriis have a very strict code of conduct. We must observe the etiquette, dress properly and bow when due. I'm sure you're gonna find it a little bit annoying at first, but it's a necessary evil. We need the fuocciris support in this war, and I'll kiss their feet if I have to to get it." Some eyebrows rose in hearing the last comment, but nobody dared interrupt. "Of course, you don't need to be here. The fewer we are, the better. But the people who are usually staying here will have to meet them. And any of you curious to meet them, can join us too." Tonks moved nervously in her chair. "Severus and Minerva are both familiar with the ashanriis customs and traditions, and they will be teaching you how to behave in their presence. Severus has been kind enough to make a list of the most important things to be taken into account, and Minerva will stay here and help you practice, or meet you at Hogwarts, to give you some lessons too." Harry and Ron couldn't avoid a sigh of relieve in hearing that Professor McGonagall would stay and not Snape, better the strict cat-woman than the greasy git.

"Any questions?" The Headmaster inquired after letting them chew the news for a while.

Hermione raised her hand promptly. Snape and Ron both rolled their eyes.

"Yes, Hermione?" Dumbledore said amused.

"Professor, what about my parents and the Dursleys?" The girl asked.

They all turned to her. They had completely forgotten about them.

"Well, the fuocciris won't be staying long, although I hope the meeting won't be too short either. If they just stay in their rooms while they are here, there is no reason to trouble them about it."

Sirius was the next to ask:

"What about Fudge? Is he co-operating now or does he still put obstacles in our way?"

Dumbledore sighed. "Well, he has finally accepted that Voldemort is back. Pity it took him so long," the Headmaster added with a note of disgust none of the others where used to hear in his voice. "Now he is so scared that he doesn't know what decision to take and is only saying 'yes' to anything people ask him. That's dangerous as well, because some requests might come from people allied to Voldemort who haven't been found out yet. The positive part, though, is that he is accepting as well everything I propose to him. That reminds me I should have told you before that the Legislation for Underage Use of Magic is being revised and it's probably going to be modified." Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny all stopped breathing at this, listening intently to what the old wizard had to say. "Until Voldemort is finally defeated, underage wizards and witches will be able to use magic as adults do. Yesterday's attacks made the people in the Ministry see that it's very dangerous to leave the children defenceless, because the Death Eaters are gonna stop at nothing. The high rate of injured children says so. Of course, very small children won't be able to defend themselves, but still, boys and girls attending Hogwarts, even first years, would have a better possibility of escaping with a wand than without it."

"That's why I didn't receive this time a letter from the Ministry when I used my wand to defend myself and the Dursleys from the Death Eaters following us?" Harry asked.

"I didn't get one either," Ron said, and Ginny nodded to show that she hadn't either.

The Headmaster smiled benignly at them all. "Yes, and you weren't the only ones. The Ministry is going to overlook all the spells cast yesterday by underage wizards and witches, as they were mostly for self-defence. You shouldn't use your wands very often, though, at least until the law is revised. I don't think it will take more than one or two days. Mrs. Bones is working on it night and day, and many people support her. Everybody has children of their own or have friends or relatives who have children. They all realise this change in the legislation is for the best."

At this, Hermione said in a shocked voice: "Oh, Professor! I had promised Mrs. Bones I would write a report for her about the Death Eaters' attack on my house, as an example of how I had to use magic to defend myself and my parents. I forgot, what with the attack on the Weasleys and then staying at St. Mungo's to work as a volunteer..."

Dumbledore smiled at her. "Don't worry, Miss Granger, I'm sure Mrs. Bones won't mind it if your report takes a little bit longer to be written. I'm sure you'll offer her plenty of details she will find very useful. Just take your time."

"Ok, thanks," Hermione muttered, her cheeks a little bit red because of the implied compliment.

After that, the meeting ended and most of the members of the Order left again. Professor Snape stayed behind talking with Professor McGonagall, and the Weasleys took the opportunity to thank him for his help during the attack on the Burrow. Then everybody stayed in the kitchen to have lunch, and Professor Snape left. Before he opened the door of the house, though, George called him:

"Professor?"

Snape turned, a little bit annoyed. He wanted to go back to Hogwarts and have some rest. He had come straight from St. Mungo's, where he had been working until then.

"Yes, Weasley?" He inquired, his left eyebrow arched in annoyance.

George stuttered a bit: "I... I..."

Snape sighed and rolled his eyes in exasperation before fixing them again on George.

"I just wanted to thank you again for everything," the boy finally said. "And... to tell you... that I understand... you had to kill those people," he added awkwardly. "Thanks!" He said, and offered his hand to his old Professor.

Snape looked intently at the boy, without annoyance on his face this time, just mild surprise. "You're welcome, Weasley," he finally said in his smooth silky voice, and shook George's hand. Then turned and left.

*****

Thanks for the reviews!

Thanks all for reading and reviewing!

I got some problems getting the reviews this time. The review alert function didn't work. If you sent me a review and I don't mention you now, I didn't get it. Sorry about that.

Sorry I didn't update sooner, work got in the way.

I'm having a lot of trouble with Chapter 14, so the next update might take a while too, though I definitely want to finish Chapter 14 today, if the characters in this story don't go on strike again, of course. ;-)

I got some reviews complaining that I would be pairing Cho and Harry. It's not a definitive thing yet, but I probably will, because I have other plans for Ginny, and I'm gonna pair Hermione and Ron. Of course I could choose another girl for Harry, but I happen to like Cho, so she has many points. I don't think Harry will end up with Cho in Rowling's books, but that's precisely the fun of writing fan fiction, to explore what could happen and probably won't, so don't get too upset, ok? This fic is about much more than just romance, and although there will be certainly some, the chapters will deal more with the fight against Voldemort and the search for allies.

hermionegreen: Thank you very much. I hope you liked this chapter too.

Sammie Tonks: Thanks! I hope you go on reading.

Nitte iz: I hope there will be many unexpected things in this fic. ;-)

Iniysa: Thanks! I hope you liked this chapter too.

angelwings6117: Ok, maybe Rowling's Cho doesn't deserve Harry, but my Cho is gonna be a little bit different, give her a chance, ok? ;-)

hermionita: I'm glad to see I'm not the only Spanish-speaking HP-fan crazy enough to read -and write- fan fiction in English. ;-) I'm very happy you liked Ginny and Cho's conversation. It's the part I like the most in that chapter.

Lily Skylo: Thanks for your two reviews! :-) Good guess! I'm afraid I can't confirm your suspicions just yet, you'll have to wait until Edvard comes back into the story, probably in Chapter 16 or something like that.

Cho Sucks! and dumb: I'm sorry you don't like my fic. I'm sure you'll find soon enough another one you really like. ;-)