Chapter 4: Back to Headquarters
As they were spinning towards the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, Harry was having a conversation inside his head with the Council.
I didn't use too much power to take them out, I mean I could have easily killed all of them before anyone had time to react, I don't know what the big deal is, he was saying.
*The Big Deal Harry is the fact that you let a Death Eater see you easily deal with nineteen other men, and don't give me all that blather about you only taking on ten of them. As you said, you could have killed all of them before they could even react.* said Merlin.
The point Old Man, is that I didn't kill them all, Harry countered. As soon as she saw me Bellatrix knew that there was something different about me, so I supplied her with an idea as to how powerful I have become. I took a risk, but I know that that is nowhere as powerful as Voldemort's power, so I should be fine. As long as I didn't do something that Voldemort couldn't do I should be fine.
*That may be true Harry* came a quiet, feminine voice, *But it would be better if you restrain from doing anything TOO impressive from here on out. I mean getting by in classes with ease is one thing, knocking out five Death Eaters with one simple spell is something totally different.*
O.K. Circe, I get the point. But you really have to tell me this. What is the point of being an Arch-Mage, with nearly limitless power, knowledge, and experience, when I can't even use said power, knowledge, and experience to protect my family and friends? He asked.
*We are not arguing with the action of protecting them Harry dear* said the soothing voice of Morgana le Fey. *We are just asking you to use more caution with your powers next time. We ARE on your side; we just want to see the look on Voldemort's face when you finally show him your true self. It should be amusing*
On that We agree, thought Harry as he landed in the kitchen of #12 Grummand Place, everyone other than himself and Mrs. Weasley falling down from the impact. As soon as they got up, everyone was advancing on Harry as if HE were a Death Eater.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!?" screamed half a dozen people, most of them Weasleys and all of them with identical expressions of anger and horror mixed together. "YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED!!!!" Then they began to all talk at once.
"Harry, I've just found out your feelings—" said Ginny.
"Harry, I thought my heart stopped-" said Hermione and Mrs. Weasley.
"Harry why didn't you tell us what you were doing so we could have thumped you good on the-," said Ron, Fred, and George together.
"If all of you would quiet down, and listen for a second, I could explain everything to you," Harry broke in, appearing to the entire world to be as calm as if he had just come in from a stroll around the garden instead of foiling a Death Eater attack. At his words, everyone quickly became silent sat down and looked at him expectantly. Harry was saved from explaining anything, however, when Professor Dumbledore Apparated in, right next to Harry in the middle of the kitchen.
"Ah I see that all of you have arrived here safely," said Dumbledore looking around, his signature twinkle in his eyes as he surveyed the group of angry and scared faces around him. Then his eyes fell on Harry and he suddenly looked serious. "I'm sorry to say, but before Mr. Potter tells any of you anything I have a few things that I must talk to him about." At that he waited a moment, and since no one seemed to be moving he added, "Alone," firmly. When no one STILL moved from where they were sitting, he looked at Harry, a bit worried, and Harry shrugged, and motioned the old wizard into the hallway.
After casting a quick silencing charm around them both so that no one could hear what he and Dumbledore were discussing, Harry asked, "What did you want to talk to me about Professor?"
For a moment, Dumbledore was silent, surveying the changes that had come over Harry in the past two months, then. "I wanted to ask you if you had anything to tell me Harry," said Dumbledore, and for a few moments, Harry felt as if he were in his second year all over again. Again, Harry answered, "No sir." But then he went on. "I know that I have changed a bit, and that my magical abilities have grown. But besides that I don't have anything that I know of that you need to know." As of yet he added to himself.
Dumbledore looked at Harry for a moment, and then said, "Ok then, well let's go back into the living room and talk with the rest of the group." After he had broken the charm, Harry and Dumbledore went back into the kitchen where everyone seemed to have come out of their surprised stupor and were actually looking O.K. As soon as they saw Harry and Professor Dumbledore, however, they looked at Harry expectantly. Harry noticed this, sighed, and began his explanation.
"As you know, Sirius Black, the escaped convict who everyone thought was trying to kill me two years ago is my Godfather," he said. "I know I don't have to repeat it, but I will anyway. Sirius was innocent of all the crimes that he supposedly committed, and the real culprit was Peter Pettigrew, the man that Sirius supposedly killed. Again as some of you know, but others of you do not, Pettigrew lived in the Burrow for thirteen years disguised as Scabbers." Here Fred, George, and Ginny gasped in surprise. "Pettigrew was the Death Eater who captured me last year and performed the ceremony that brought Voldemort back to life. So as you might imagine, I have a bit of a grudge when it comes to him. When all the Death Eaters apparated into Diagon Alley today, I had two reasons for going out there: One, I knew that if I didn't, people would die, and Two I knew that Pettigrew was out there, and I wanted to capture him. Oh and I did not want any of you to get hurt," he added softly at the end.
"But Harry, you still could have been killed," said Ginny, almost sobbing at the thought.
Harry looked at Ginny and smiled softly at her. "I am quite sure that they all had orders to subdue me and not kill me from their Master," he said to her.
"But it was still a bit of a risk, wasn't it?" asked Ron.
"It was a risk I was willing to take," replied Harry firmly, still looking at Ginny. "I knew that all of you would help out, and I was confident that I could take out at least a few of them. I just wanted all of them to focus on me, so that the Ministry could take them by surprise. I really didn't intend for us to all take them out by ourselves, it came as a bit of a surprise how powerful I've become in these past few months," Harry lied smoothly.
"Yeah, I bet you surprised the Death Eaters more though," said Fred with a grin.
"Yeah I wish I could have seen Bellatrix's face when you stunned those five Death Eaters with one stunner," added George.
"You know what this means don't you Harry?" Ginny asked, and mischievous expression now on her face.
"No, what does it mean Gin?" Harry asked, even though his eyes spoke differently, they were alight with mischief as well.
"This means that you could easily handle all my brothers at the same time, and probably take care of them all with one spell," replied Ginny with an impish grin on her face. "Now you don't have any excuse to hide behind"
"Excuse, excuse for what Gin?" asked Harry feigning confusion.
"Why snogging me senseless of course," answered Ginny a grin on her face. And with those words as warning, Ginny jumped up, grabbed Harry's head and pulled him down into a long, deep kiss. Everyone, well everyone except for Dumbledore who just looked highly amused, was so stunned that no one knew what to say or do, and by the time they had regained enough control of themselves to do anything, Ginny and Harry had broken apart, breathless. Wow they both thought at the same time. That was a… a.. a.. bit of something, wasn't it?
Mrs. Weasley was the first to find her voice. "Oh dear, Ginny, Harry dear, I am overjoyed that the two of you have decided to start a relationship, but don't you think you're moving a bit… well a bit fast?"
Amusingly enough it was Dumbledore who came to the two teenager's defence. "Come now Molly, I remember when you and Arthur first got together, I believe that these two have known each other for, what four or five years now, you and Arthur both just introduced yourselves, and you were kissing! Just like that! You can't blame the girl, after all, she has been waiting for that kiss for a good long while now, hasn't she?"
While all her children were trying to digest this new bit of information and Mrs. Weasley was busy blushing, Harry, still not quite out of the daze that Ginny's kiss had put him in put in, "she's not the only one who's been waiting for that kiss."
At this statement, several things happened. Ginny blushed from head to toe an amazing shade of red, while Harry, seeing this just thought that she really looked fetching in that colour and wondered how to best get her into that colour more often. Fred, George, and Ron all raised their wands at Harry, and shouted out curses, Hermoine bit her lip, and Dumbledore's twinkle went into overdrive. A second later nothing had changed, except Fred, George, and Ron were now lying on the ground, unconscious, and then Harry flushed red.
"I probably should have warned them that before I walked outside, I put an extremely strong shielding charm on myself, and haven't had the chance to take it off yet," he said, as he waved his wand at them and said, "Enervate." As soon as he said this they all got up, looked at Harry for a second then at themselves.
They collectively moaned.
"Harry's the worst boyfriend that Ginny could possibly get," said Ron after a second. As he saw Harry's hurt expression, he added, "We can't even hex him if he tries to do anything with our baby sister."
At this Ginny, still blushing, said, "Ron, you don't have to worry, Harry's not going to do anything with me that I don't want him to do. He's too much of a gentleman for that."
Ron muttered something that sounded like, "That's what I'm afraid of."
Finally, Mrs. Weasley ended the semi-argument with: "Enough boys, I trust Harry as well, and I couldn't think of a finer boy for Ginny to get involved with." Then to Dumbledore, "Albus, Alastor Moody said that he would be coming over, I thought to invite him to dinner with us, would you like to stay as well?"
"I would love to Molly, I have some things that I must talk to Arthur about, and tonight would be the perfect time. Oh and Harry I thought that you and every one would like to know that You will be receiving the Order of Merlin First Class at Hogwarts at the Start of Term Feast for capturing nineteen death eaters. In addition, the rest of you will be receiving the Order of Merlin Third Class for assisting him. Miss Weasley, you are the exception to this." When he saw that Harry was about to protest, he held up his hand to silence the young wizard and continued. "For your capture of Peter Pettigrew you, Miss Weasley, will be earning the Order of Merlin Second Class. You are all also going to be made Honorary Members of the Dark Force Defence League, and those of you not of age," at this Dumbledore looked at Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, "will be receiving special vouchers from the Ministry to waive the age restriction on performing magic. From now on, the Ministry will treat you four as adult witches and wizards. And in light of all of this, I believe that I will be awarding Miss Weasley, Prefect status for the coming year." With these words, Dumbledore reached into his pocket, and pulled out a gleaming Prefect badge, and handed it to Ginny. "Miss Weasley, I know that you did not receive a badge, but I believe that you will be a wonderful addition to the school prefects, especially since you are the top witch of your year," Dumbledore informed her with a smile on his weathered face.
Mrs. Weasley was gazing at the group of young witches and wizards with a look pride on her face. Harry, when he heard that Ginny was to be a prefect along with the rest of them, quickly gathered her in a tight hug, which she readily returned. Ron and Hermione, both of whom had probably had one too many surprises for the day, and could not think straight, both looked from one face to another, finally rested on each other's face, and drew each other into a long, passionate kiss. Finally, Fred and George had looks of utter and complete horror on their faces, and after everyone had settled down and had a chance to look at them, they all burst out laughing. After a few moments of this, Fred and George looked at their expressions, which were the exact same, and began laughing as well. Overall, the mood at the #12 Grummand Place was extremely light and happy when Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, and Mad Eye Moody all apparated in together carrying all the students Hogwarts belongings between them.
Dinner was a loud and joyous affair. Everyone, even Mad Eye Moody, seemed to enjoy it. When Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Charlie had been fully informed of the day's surprises, they took it quite well. Bill and Charlie had grinned at Harry when they found out about their little sister's suitor, and Mr. Weasley beamed at the young couple and merely restated the fact that he and his wife were very happy for them. When the story came to the point of Lily, however, Harry asked Dumbledore where she was.
"Ah, yes, well you see I took the liberty of borrowing her Harry," answered Dumbledore. "Fawkes is delivering a message to one of my other agents, and I sent her to Remus to tell him to meet us here tomorrow morning so that we can all go to the Death Eater's trials together. I thought he would want to be at Peter's trial, since he IS the last of the Marauders would have asked you, but I needed to send her as soon as possible and there was no way I could ask you in time. I hope you don't mind."
"No I don't mind at all Professor," replied Harry. "I didn't know that they trials were tomorrow."
"There was no other time for them to be," said Mr. Weasley. "All of you have to give your testimonies at the trials, and since school starts in a week, it was decided that the sooner they were started, the sooner they could be finished."
Here Moody broke in and said, "And you lot don't have to worry about those Death Eaters being set free or anything like that. I've got all of my Auror contacts who are on our side guarding them."
"Our side?" asked Hermione. "What do you mean by 'Our side'?"
"Well Miss Granger, as you know Minister Fudge did not believe us for a very long time about Voldemort's return." At her nod, Dumbledore continued. "Well we have been getting together as many witches and wizards as we can who we know we can trust, and who would not side with the Dark Lord how that he has returned, and putting them in the key positions in the Ministry so that we can better oppose him when he makes his move, as he did today. You might not have noticed, but Alastor here was following all of you today in Diagon Alley, so that he would be on hand to offer his aid if he were needed." At this Dumbledore smiled, "Of course everyone here knows that Alastor was NOT needed, but since he was the ranking Auror on the scene at the time, he was able to have our supporters in the Dark Force Defence League secure the captured Death Eaters."
After that, the dinner conversations turned to lighter subjects, like the fact that not only one, but also two new couples sat at the dinner table. Since they were unable to tease Harry and Ginny (the twins didn't know how this new and improved Harry would react, and they were as always terrified of Ginny's temper) they started teasing Ron and Hermione, making both extremely red, before Mrs. Weasley told them to quit. Towards the end of the dinner, Dumbledore informed everyone that they were to be in dress robes tomorrow which made all the boys groan, and the girls look a bit panicked.
"B-But we don't have dress robes that fit!" exclaimed Ginny, her eyes filling with horror. "The death eaters attacked before we could pick them out!?!?!"
"Did you by any chance buy any of the young ones Dress Robes Alastor? Arthur?" asked Dumbledore. When both shook their heads no, both girls looked like they were going to start having fits, and the Weasley boys were all starting to look uncomfortable as well.
Then, unexpectedly, Harry said, "Don't worry about dress robes, any of you. I'll take care of it before tomorrow." At everyone's dubious looks, he grinned in challenge and asked, "What? Don't you trust me? When everyone comes downstairs tomorrow, they will each have a package, which will have a perfect set of dress robes. If I'm lying, I'll let all six of the Weasley boys hex me for the rest of the day without using any shield charm, and without retaliation." At this, all six boys were quick to agree, much to Harry's amusement, while Ginny looked extremely worried and grabbed his arm tightly, as if afraid that if she let go, he would disappear.
After a few moments of staring into Harry's eyes, Dumbledore nodded and said, "I believe that we can all agree that Harry has our best interests at heart. I for one believe him." At this, the rest of the group agreed, then Dumbledore had another thought. "Harry, Remus probably won't be able to get any dress robes before tomorrow; do you think you can handle his as well?" When Harry nodded, Dumbledore nodded in understanding, got up and bid everyone good evening. As he was Disapperating away, Harry heard him think, Astonishing, for some reason I believe him, even though I know that it would be impossible for him to obtain that many dress robes before tomorrow morning, especially considering the lateness of the hour. And yet I still believe that he will be able to keep his word.
After Dumbledore left, Mad Eye Moody soon left as well, and everyone went into the den. Harry and Ginny quickly took possession of a comfortable chair near the fire, and started talking quietly. Even though both loved each other deeply, there was still a lot that they did not know about each other. Harry told Ginny everything he could about what had happened in his first four years at Hogwarts, including all the details of his, Ron's and Hermione's adventures during their third year, and what truly happened during the Third Task of the TriWizard tournament last year. He knew that she had already read the article from last year, but he still wanted to tell her himself. He also talked to her about Sirius. It was the first time he had talked about his Godfather since his conversation with Dumbledore. Surprisingly he felt better talking to someone about what had happened, and as he poured out his soul to the petite redhead sitting on his lap, he only felt himself getting closer to her. Ginny, in turn, told Harry about her first three years at Hogwarts, telling HIM the truth about her first year not withholding any details. When Harry found out that Ginny hardly had any friends due to what happened with Tom Riddle's Diary, he angrily declared that all the Hogwarts students who held her responsible for what happened were idiots. Harry learned that one of the reasons Ginny had such good grades was because she had had nothing better to do except study during the school years, due to her lack of friends. He was also delighted to find out that Ginny had a passion for Quidditch. When she reiterated her hope to become a Chaser on the team, Harry had laughed and agreed that she would make a superb Chaser. She HAD chased HIM for four years after all.
When Mrs. Weasley came into the room to tell them that it was time to go to bed, she found them both stretched out on the couch in each other's arms, asleep. Not wanting to wake them, she quietly transfigured Harry's shirt and pants into pajamas, and Ginny's robes into a nightdress. She then put a blanket over them both, kissed both goodnight, and with a wave of her wand, put out all the candles and the fire, and went to her own room.