Chapter 15 - Unity of Opposites
"We'll see..." repeated Harry and a strange smile formed on his lips. He waved his hand ever slightly to his three companions who were currently too busy scaring themselves to notice what he was doing. Then he laid his weary back on the cushions and waited patiently.
He did not have to wait long. A rustling of movements was soon heard from behind the door then it opened so slowly that any unthinking person would blame it on a non-existent wind. He could only make out the outline of two forms though, both with their wands out and walking on their toes as if afraid to make the tiniest bit of sound. Chuckling softly to himself, he beckoned the two to disillusion themselves.
"My, my! I didn't know Moody has such an influence on you." he commented with a grin as the two showed themselves somewhat reluctantly.
"Harry?" said Hermione as she approached him but Ron kept his wand pointed at Harry.
"We need to be sure he's really Harry. This could be another trap." he said resolutely. Hermione nodded her head in assent.
Harry almost laughed out loud when he saw that. Hermione used to be the careful one and Ron used to be, well, a little impulsive. But he couldn't blame him for that since he was still sporting his punk disguise as of that moment.
"Umm --- Who is Grawp?" asked Hermione tentatively.
"He's Hagrid's 'little' brother." Harry replied promptly.
"What did I see when I looked into the Mirror of Erised?" asked Ron but his wand was not pointed at Harry anymore.
"You saw yourself as Head Boy and Quidditch --- "
Harry did not get to finish his sentence since an overzealous bestfriend immediately took it upon herself to give him a welcoming hug. "HARRY!!!!!! I knew it's you!" exclaimed Hermione, her eyes watering slightly at seeing her friend.
"MATE!!!! Am so glad to see ---- Where's Ginny?" Ron also gave him a brotherly embrace but did not waste time questioning him.
Harry's gaze darted to the three perplexed figures who were now wondering why the new arrivals had not reacted to their presence yet but he did not reply.
"Oh! Luna will be sooo thrilled!" Hermione looked around and a frown creased her face in an instant. "Where's Luna?"
"Here." a dreamy voice replied, her dirty blond, waist-length and straggly hair swaying softly as she strolled over to Harry's side. Harry smiled at the girl and held her hand tightly.
"You didn't seem surprised." commented Hermione at the look of pure serenity on the girl's face.
"Why would I be?" replied the younger girl nonchalantly as she became more preoccupied with Harry's hair. "You know, hon, I think this rainbow tresses of yours is quite fascinating on you. It doesn't look good on Draco, though. His face is too pale."
Both Hermione and Ron rolled their eyes at that but Harry could only hide his amusement as he noticed the look of utter indignation on Draco's face.
Neville soon followed Luna's arrival. He had his wand out and Harry was impressed at the way he handled himself upon seeing him. Gone was the eternally nervous boy who couldn't even manage to squeak during a delicate situation. The boy who stood before him had the markings of a person who had entered a battle and won and would win again if the need arises.
"Hello, Harry." said Neville calmly as they shook their hands vigorously like two comrades who had just found each other after a terrible war and in a way, they were. "I feel a bit apprehensive about the reason why you are revealing yourself to us right now. It's about Voldemort, isn't it?" he asked with a faint smile.
Harry looked at Hermione teasingly first before he replied. "Unfortunately, yes. I wondered how long it would take for someone to ask me that." Hermione blushed at the indirect reference to her failure to address the problem at hand but did not comment. Luna, on the other hand, looked nonplussed.
"See, Neville. You're really smarter than you give yourself credit for." she said and she gave him a warm smile before returning to her inspection of Harry's wonderful tresses.
Neville was later followed by the Weasley twins who came in as menacing death-eaters but couldn't stop themselves from hooting loudly when they saw Harry in Lander's getup. They quickly dispatched their hideous disguise upon seeing Ron and Hermione sitting quite comfortably on the sofa.
"Gee, Harry. I didn't know that when wizards die, they became reincarnated like that." said George, feigning a look of astonishment and innocence while hanging on to his own flame-colored locks for dear life.
"Remind me not to die, my beloved twin. That hideous hair! Better be dead than be mistaken for the ferret boy." agreed Fred, who was making a good show of staring at Harry's hair and squinting his eyes in disgust. "It would make a great prank, though."
At the corner of his eyes, Harry noticed Ginny was almost rolling to the floor with laughter while Draco was on the verge of strangling the Weasley twins. He decided that maybe now was not a good time for the twins to display their rather twisted sense of humor.
"Yeah, it would. Where are the others?" he asked, eager to get this over with. It has been a long night and he wanted to rest.
Within a few minutes, the rest of the DA members arrived with the exception of Lavander who was still at the hospital wing. Some also disillusioned themselves. Some decided to be clever and threw dung bombs inside before they entered much to the annoyance of the others who were already there. While some were too careless to go in without any means of protecting themselves in case it was a trap. Perhaps it was a good thing that the Weasley twins were too distracted to think of pranking those careless individuals by wearing their death-eater garb once more or they would have been scared senseless.
Harry motioned all of them to come closer. He cleared his throat and before anyone could start asking impertinent questions, he began his speech. "Please listen carefully. All of you. I'm not going to repeat what I have to say. I know that Luna had shown to some of you my latest encounter with Voldemort. Yes, he's still alive. That bastard was too power-hungry to die that easily. The person you all saw perish last year was actually Bellatrix Lestrange." He paused for a while and took a deep breath. What he was about to say next might be too nerve-wracking for everyone present. Hell, to be honest, it even scared him...a little.
"The evil git has somehow gotten stronger and is currently under the delusion that he is indestructible just because he thinks I'm dead. How naive! By the way, we found out that he is planning to announce his presence to the whole wizarding world by creating havoc during the celebration of his supposed defeat. We're not sure about the details yet but the general idea was that he and his thugs would start their terroristic acts a week before the feast to build the tension, then it would culminate on the part of the celebration where Voldemort's defeat would be reenacted. The blundering dark lord himself plans to make an explosive appearance on the stage, throw a few cruciatus and aveda kedavras on the ministry officials and proclaim himself as the new minister." He paused again to glance at his listener's reactions.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" exclaimed the Weasleys, clearly horrified at hearing a mere fraction of Voldemort's plans. The others were not doing any better as they digested the information that Harry had just given them.
Looking at their alarmed expressions, Harry was almost gratified that he had some irregular rendezvous with the Dark-Lord-who-refused-to-die and his lowly minions. Sometimes too much exposure to death-threats and undeniably evil dark lords had its good points too. It made one immune from shockingly mundane emotions such as terror and panic.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Neville once more.
Harry smiled at that. "Good question. Once again, you're showing the markings of a true warrior." Then, with a slight apprehensive look at Ginny, Draco and Wormtail, he continued. "If you can recall correctly, the sorting hat was very insistent about one thing - unity of all the houses. Sad to say, that's one of the things that we had 'forgotten' to do due to our personal biases and unfriendly feelings towards certain people from a nameless house..."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying, Harry?" asked Ron incredulously.
"You tell me, Ron. Just precisely what do you think I'm saying?" said Harry without revealing anything.
Ron sighed heavily. "You want us to be nice to the Slytherins." he closed his eyes as if the mere mention of the house was giving him severe headache. Then he added as an after thought. "It's okay, I guess. Some Slytherins are not that bad."
Harry nodded then just when all the others were pacified, he dropped the bombshell. "What about Draco and Wormtail?"
No one said a word.
Harry waited and twitched his brows slightly as he did so.
"I beg your pardon?" Parvati ventured to break the very uncomfortable silence.
"Draco? You call that bastard who corrupted our sister, Draco?" sputtered Ron furiously. "Since when did he become your bestfriend?"
The twins just looked at Harry with an unfathomable expression.
"You're crazy to even consider that idea." said Hermione, her eyes blazing with anger and disappointment.
"No, he's not. He's brilliant." commented Luna, her eyes gazing dreamily at Harry.
"It's not that we don't trust your judgment but don't you think involving Malfoy and Wormtail would be suicidal on our part?" stated Ernie evenly.
"Maybe we should just stick with the less demonic Slytherins." commented another.
Harry could see that Draco and Wormtail were wincing with every blow that the members were throwing at them.
"The less demonic Slytherins don't know enough about the Dark Arts to aid our cause." Harry casually replied and braced himself for more violent reactions.
"Is that enough reason to enlist the aid of the Prince of Darkness himself?" asked Ron heatedly.
Amazingly, Neville who had been silent throughout the exchange, answered the question for Harry. "Yes, it is."
More silence followed. The DA's indecision was unnerving and Harry struggled to end it before it became uncontrollable.
"Please trust me on this. Draco and Wormtail have changed and they're willing to help us. They would share with us useful information on how the Death-eaters think and fight." Harry could see that some were still unconvinced. Luna, sensing his temper rising, quickly took over.
"Please be reminded that this war is not about petty house rivalries. We have already lost several good wizards to the dark side because of that. Anyone who decides to help us should be regarded as a friend and not as an enemy." said Luna, her dreamy expression was replaced with a steely determination and a hint of annoyance.
"B-but Luna...Wormtail was the one who betrayed Harry's parents?" protested Hermione.
"Don't you think I know that? You're asking me the wrong questions." replied Harry impatiently. "You should have been asking me about the Lavender's prediction and how it could help us defeat Voldemort for the last time."
"Sorry." said Hermione and lowered her head in defeat.
"Do you all agree to letting Draco and Wormtail in on this?" Noticing the others' discomfort with the idea, he added. "Look, I'm not asking you to be chummy with them. I'm just requesting for a fair treatment befitting an ally. Alright?"
The others were still reluctant but nodded solemnly.
"That's good enough for now." said Harry and waved his hand to reveal the three figures who were nervously awaiting the DA's verdict.
Wormtail, stunned at being accepted, fainted on the spot. Draco stared directly at Ginny's brothers and mouthed a silent apology and murmured a soft 'Thanks' to everyone while trying to maintain a semblance of dignity to the Malfoy name. Ginny cried at being reunited with his brothers.
"Now that we have overcome that particular obstacle, let me tell you about the plan that we have come up so far. The prophesy tells about a terrible storm that will mark the final battle, then Voldemort would invoke the spirits. Maybe Hermione could head the research for that one. I think I'm supposed to trap their souls but as of now, I have absolutely no idea on how it could be done. I want us to be prepared just in case he raises his army from the dead." said Harry, speaking in a slow manner to allow the others to absorb everything.
"Raise his army from the dead?" asked a fearful Colin.
Harry grimly nodded his head.
"When will the storm be?" asked Cho.
"I don't know and I don't care. Let the storm adjust to our schedule." replied Harry somewhat irritably. He was tired of that 'terrible storm' thing. Draco grinned at his reaction.
"So what's the rest of the plan?" asked Lee.
Harry resumed his solemn expression. "The DA has to be divided. Some would stay to help the professors protect the castle against an attack while some would come with me, Ginny, Draco and Wormtail to prepare for Voldemort's takeover. Who would be brave enough to come with me?"
"I'm with you, mate." said Ron at once. "I'd better be there to ensure that a certain person would not be able to hex you when your back is turned."
"Now, why would I dream of doing that, Ron?" said Draco, hurt at being unfairly accused. Ron only glared at him in return.
Harry groaned inwardly but refused to acknowledge the mildly antagonistic exchange. "Who else?"
Several hands shoot up immediately but Harry only chose Luna, Hermione and Neville, the best fighters in the group. If they were going to stop Voldemort's plan for the feast, the light side needed the finest combatants for that.
"Hogwarts needs you more." he said then he turned to the four. "Pack some stuff. We're going tonight. Our house heads will provide an ample excuse for our absence."
"Where exactly are we going?" asked Ron.
"To Snape Mansion of course!" replied Harry and allowed himself a wicked grin at seeing their flabbergasted faces.
"We'll see..." repeated Harry and a strange smile formed on his lips. He waved his hand ever slightly to his three companions who were currently too busy scaring themselves to notice what he was doing. Then he laid his weary back on the cushions and waited patiently.
He did not have to wait long. A rustling of movements was soon heard from behind the door then it opened so slowly that any unthinking person would blame it on a non-existent wind. He could only make out the outline of two forms though, both with their wands out and walking on their toes as if afraid to make the tiniest bit of sound. Chuckling softly to himself, he beckoned the two to disillusion themselves.
"My, my! I didn't know Moody has such an influence on you." he commented with a grin as the two showed themselves somewhat reluctantly.
"Harry?" said Hermione as she approached him but Ron kept his wand pointed at Harry.
"We need to be sure he's really Harry. This could be another trap." he said resolutely. Hermione nodded her head in assent.
Harry almost laughed out loud when he saw that. Hermione used to be the careful one and Ron used to be, well, a little impulsive. But he couldn't blame him for that since he was still sporting his punk disguise as of that moment.
"Umm --- Who is Grawp?" asked Hermione tentatively.
"He's Hagrid's 'little' brother." Harry replied promptly.
"What did I see when I looked into the Mirror of Erised?" asked Ron but his wand was not pointed at Harry anymore.
"You saw yourself as Head Boy and Quidditch --- "
Harry did not get to finish his sentence since an overzealous bestfriend immediately took it upon herself to give him a welcoming hug. "HARRY!!!!!! I knew it's you!" exclaimed Hermione, her eyes watering slightly at seeing her friend.
"MATE!!!! Am so glad to see ---- Where's Ginny?" Ron also gave him a brotherly embrace but did not waste time questioning him.
Harry's gaze darted to the three perplexed figures who were now wondering why the new arrivals had not reacted to their presence yet but he did not reply.
"Oh! Luna will be sooo thrilled!" Hermione looked around and a frown creased her face in an instant. "Where's Luna?"
"Here." a dreamy voice replied, her dirty blond, waist-length and straggly hair swaying softly as she strolled over to Harry's side. Harry smiled at the girl and held her hand tightly.
"You didn't seem surprised." commented Hermione at the look of pure serenity on the girl's face.
"Why would I be?" replied the younger girl nonchalantly as she became more preoccupied with Harry's hair. "You know, hon, I think this rainbow tresses of yours is quite fascinating on you. It doesn't look good on Draco, though. His face is too pale."
Both Hermione and Ron rolled their eyes at that but Harry could only hide his amusement as he noticed the look of utter indignation on Draco's face.
Neville soon followed Luna's arrival. He had his wand out and Harry was impressed at the way he handled himself upon seeing him. Gone was the eternally nervous boy who couldn't even manage to squeak during a delicate situation. The boy who stood before him had the markings of a person who had entered a battle and won and would win again if the need arises.
"Hello, Harry." said Neville calmly as they shook their hands vigorously like two comrades who had just found each other after a terrible war and in a way, they were. "I feel a bit apprehensive about the reason why you are revealing yourself to us right now. It's about Voldemort, isn't it?" he asked with a faint smile.
Harry looked at Hermione teasingly first before he replied. "Unfortunately, yes. I wondered how long it would take for someone to ask me that." Hermione blushed at the indirect reference to her failure to address the problem at hand but did not comment. Luna, on the other hand, looked nonplussed.
"See, Neville. You're really smarter than you give yourself credit for." she said and she gave him a warm smile before returning to her inspection of Harry's wonderful tresses.
Neville was later followed by the Weasley twins who came in as menacing death-eaters but couldn't stop themselves from hooting loudly when they saw Harry in Lander's getup. They quickly dispatched their hideous disguise upon seeing Ron and Hermione sitting quite comfortably on the sofa.
"Gee, Harry. I didn't know that when wizards die, they became reincarnated like that." said George, feigning a look of astonishment and innocence while hanging on to his own flame-colored locks for dear life.
"Remind me not to die, my beloved twin. That hideous hair! Better be dead than be mistaken for the ferret boy." agreed Fred, who was making a good show of staring at Harry's hair and squinting his eyes in disgust. "It would make a great prank, though."
At the corner of his eyes, Harry noticed Ginny was almost rolling to the floor with laughter while Draco was on the verge of strangling the Weasley twins. He decided that maybe now was not a good time for the twins to display their rather twisted sense of humor.
"Yeah, it would. Where are the others?" he asked, eager to get this over with. It has been a long night and he wanted to rest.
Within a few minutes, the rest of the DA members arrived with the exception of Lavander who was still at the hospital wing. Some also disillusioned themselves. Some decided to be clever and threw dung bombs inside before they entered much to the annoyance of the others who were already there. While some were too careless to go in without any means of protecting themselves in case it was a trap. Perhaps it was a good thing that the Weasley twins were too distracted to think of pranking those careless individuals by wearing their death-eater garb once more or they would have been scared senseless.
Harry motioned all of them to come closer. He cleared his throat and before anyone could start asking impertinent questions, he began his speech. "Please listen carefully. All of you. I'm not going to repeat what I have to say. I know that Luna had shown to some of you my latest encounter with Voldemort. Yes, he's still alive. That bastard was too power-hungry to die that easily. The person you all saw perish last year was actually Bellatrix Lestrange." He paused for a while and took a deep breath. What he was about to say next might be too nerve-wracking for everyone present. Hell, to be honest, it even scared him...a little.
"The evil git has somehow gotten stronger and is currently under the delusion that he is indestructible just because he thinks I'm dead. How naive! By the way, we found out that he is planning to announce his presence to the whole wizarding world by creating havoc during the celebration of his supposed defeat. We're not sure about the details yet but the general idea was that he and his thugs would start their terroristic acts a week before the feast to build the tension, then it would culminate on the part of the celebration where Voldemort's defeat would be reenacted. The blundering dark lord himself plans to make an explosive appearance on the stage, throw a few cruciatus and aveda kedavras on the ministry officials and proclaim himself as the new minister." He paused again to glance at his listener's reactions.
"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" exclaimed the Weasleys, clearly horrified at hearing a mere fraction of Voldemort's plans. The others were not doing any better as they digested the information that Harry had just given them.
Looking at their alarmed expressions, Harry was almost gratified that he had some irregular rendezvous with the Dark-Lord-who-refused-to-die and his lowly minions. Sometimes too much exposure to death-threats and undeniably evil dark lords had its good points too. It made one immune from shockingly mundane emotions such as terror and panic.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Neville once more.
Harry smiled at that. "Good question. Once again, you're showing the markings of a true warrior." Then, with a slight apprehensive look at Ginny, Draco and Wormtail, he continued. "If you can recall correctly, the sorting hat was very insistent about one thing - unity of all the houses. Sad to say, that's one of the things that we had 'forgotten' to do due to our personal biases and unfriendly feelings towards certain people from a nameless house..."
"Are you saying what I think you're saying, Harry?" asked Ron incredulously.
"You tell me, Ron. Just precisely what do you think I'm saying?" said Harry without revealing anything.
Ron sighed heavily. "You want us to be nice to the Slytherins." he closed his eyes as if the mere mention of the house was giving him severe headache. Then he added as an after thought. "It's okay, I guess. Some Slytherins are not that bad."
Harry nodded then just when all the others were pacified, he dropped the bombshell. "What about Draco and Wormtail?"
No one said a word.
Harry waited and twitched his brows slightly as he did so.
"I beg your pardon?" Parvati ventured to break the very uncomfortable silence.
"Draco? You call that bastard who corrupted our sister, Draco?" sputtered Ron furiously. "Since when did he become your bestfriend?"
The twins just looked at Harry with an unfathomable expression.
"You're crazy to even consider that idea." said Hermione, her eyes blazing with anger and disappointment.
"No, he's not. He's brilliant." commented Luna, her eyes gazing dreamily at Harry.
"It's not that we don't trust your judgment but don't you think involving Malfoy and Wormtail would be suicidal on our part?" stated Ernie evenly.
"Maybe we should just stick with the less demonic Slytherins." commented another.
Harry could see that Draco and Wormtail were wincing with every blow that the members were throwing at them.
"The less demonic Slytherins don't know enough about the Dark Arts to aid our cause." Harry casually replied and braced himself for more violent reactions.
"Is that enough reason to enlist the aid of the Prince of Darkness himself?" asked Ron heatedly.
Amazingly, Neville who had been silent throughout the exchange, answered the question for Harry. "Yes, it is."
More silence followed. The DA's indecision was unnerving and Harry struggled to end it before it became uncontrollable.
"Please trust me on this. Draco and Wormtail have changed and they're willing to help us. They would share with us useful information on how the Death-eaters think and fight." Harry could see that some were still unconvinced. Luna, sensing his temper rising, quickly took over.
"Please be reminded that this war is not about petty house rivalries. We have already lost several good wizards to the dark side because of that. Anyone who decides to help us should be regarded as a friend and not as an enemy." said Luna, her dreamy expression was replaced with a steely determination and a hint of annoyance.
"B-but Luna...Wormtail was the one who betrayed Harry's parents?" protested Hermione.
"Don't you think I know that? You're asking me the wrong questions." replied Harry impatiently. "You should have been asking me about the Lavender's prediction and how it could help us defeat Voldemort for the last time."
"Sorry." said Hermione and lowered her head in defeat.
"Do you all agree to letting Draco and Wormtail in on this?" Noticing the others' discomfort with the idea, he added. "Look, I'm not asking you to be chummy with them. I'm just requesting for a fair treatment befitting an ally. Alright?"
The others were still reluctant but nodded solemnly.
"That's good enough for now." said Harry and waved his hand to reveal the three figures who were nervously awaiting the DA's verdict.
Wormtail, stunned at being accepted, fainted on the spot. Draco stared directly at Ginny's brothers and mouthed a silent apology and murmured a soft 'Thanks' to everyone while trying to maintain a semblance of dignity to the Malfoy name. Ginny cried at being reunited with his brothers.
"Now that we have overcome that particular obstacle, let me tell you about the plan that we have come up so far. The prophesy tells about a terrible storm that will mark the final battle, then Voldemort would invoke the spirits. Maybe Hermione could head the research for that one. I think I'm supposed to trap their souls but as of now, I have absolutely no idea on how it could be done. I want us to be prepared just in case he raises his army from the dead." said Harry, speaking in a slow manner to allow the others to absorb everything.
"Raise his army from the dead?" asked a fearful Colin.
Harry grimly nodded his head.
"When will the storm be?" asked Cho.
"I don't know and I don't care. Let the storm adjust to our schedule." replied Harry somewhat irritably. He was tired of that 'terrible storm' thing. Draco grinned at his reaction.
"So what's the rest of the plan?" asked Lee.
Harry resumed his solemn expression. "The DA has to be divided. Some would stay to help the professors protect the castle against an attack while some would come with me, Ginny, Draco and Wormtail to prepare for Voldemort's takeover. Who would be brave enough to come with me?"
"I'm with you, mate." said Ron at once. "I'd better be there to ensure that a certain person would not be able to hex you when your back is turned."
"Now, why would I dream of doing that, Ron?" said Draco, hurt at being unfairly accused. Ron only glared at him in return.
Harry groaned inwardly but refused to acknowledge the mildly antagonistic exchange. "Who else?"
Several hands shoot up immediately but Harry only chose Luna, Hermione and Neville, the best fighters in the group. If they were going to stop Voldemort's plan for the feast, the light side needed the finest combatants for that.
"Hogwarts needs you more." he said then he turned to the four. "Pack some stuff. We're going tonight. Our house heads will provide an ample excuse for our absence."
"Where exactly are we going?" asked Ron.
"To Snape Mansion of course!" replied Harry and allowed himself a wicked grin at seeing their flabbergasted faces.