Chapter 9: The Order of the Phoenix
Harry wasn't able to talk to anyone about his meeting with the Headmaster, due to the fact that it lasted for several hours. He had just enough time to go back to his room and change into his dress robes, which Ginny had thoughtfully laid out for him on the bed. As soon as he had finished dressing, he took Ginny's hand in his, and walked with her to the Gryffindor Commons room. Waiting for them was Ron and Hermione. Hermione had thoughtfully cleared the Commons Room early tonight with threats of detention to anyone who argued. The teenagers all quickly left the Commons Room and made their way silently down to the Great Hall. Professor McGonnagall was waiting for them.
"Each of you must take hold of this portkey, upon which we will be transported to the Chamber of the Phoenix," she informed them. Upon hearing this, Harry snorted and muttered something about 'Grandfather's wacky sense of humor.' Besides Harry, no one made a sound, and after a moment, everyone nervously grabbed the small statue of a phoenix that McGonnagall was holding. As soon as they touched it, the portkey activated and they were transported to a large room with a circular table. Sitting before them was a surprisingly large group of people. The ones that they knew were: Professors Dumbledore, McGonnagall, Black, Lupin, Figg, Stormcloud, Snape, Hooch, and Flitwick, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Mr. and Mrs. Diggory, Nymphadora Tonks, and Mad Eye Moody. There were several that they didn't know. They also noticed that there was a chair for each of them that was empty. After studying the golden and red room, which had phoenix statues all over the place, and pictures of phoenixes in flight, and what not around it, they all approached the table.
"Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix," said Dumbledore, his voice reaching to all corners of the room. "Once you have been formally inducted, you will all be able to enter and exit the room without the use of a portkey. However, before you are inducted, we must insist that you swear to fight Lord Voldemort and his followers, sacrificing your very lives to the cause if need be," this was said with an extremely serious look on his face that made everyone except Harry glance nervously at each other. Harry, squeezing Ginny's hand in reassurance, merely looked at Dumbledore, his otherworldly calm radiating from him in waves. He was the first to speak.
"I have already sworn to fight Lord Voldemort, and any other threat to the wizarding world, no matter the price. I reiterate that vow now," he declared, though his voice was quiet, it reached all corners of the room as well as Dumbledore's had. "I so swear."
Hearing his calm, reassuring voice, everyone else relaxed and echoed him. "I so swear," rang out around the room from all of them.
As soon as they had made their promise, Dumbledore walked around the table, and pulled out his wand, stopping in front of Harry. "Please hold out your right arm, and pull your sleeves back to the elbow," he asked them all. Everyone did so with the exception of Harry, causing a stir of whispered voices to break out around the room. Dumbledore silenced them all with a glance, and looked back at Harry calmly. "Harry, this must be done so that you can enter and exit this room, as well as communicate with the members of the Order whenever it is needed," he calmly informed the young man.
"I understand that Professor," Harry replied respectfully. "I sensed the spells around you and the rest of the members of the Order that I know as soon as I saw the lot of you, whenever that may be," he informed them, earning gasps of surprise from several of the members. "But the spells you wish to perform will not work on me or anyone else in this group, not if you cast them."
Ignoring the muttering that started again, Dumbledore asked, "And why is that Harry?"
"Because of the protective spells I placed on myself and all the rest of these people Professor," answered Harry.
This, it seemed, was too much for certain members of the Order, namely Snape. "Oh come off it Potter, not even YOU can be arrogant enough to believe that you are more powerful that Dumbledore, five stunned Death Eaters or not."
"On the contrary Severus," Dumbledore said, coming to Harry's aid. "If Harry has placed protective spells upon this group of individuals, I COULD NOT break through them, even if I wanted to. In fact, I doubt anyone could do so." Turning back to Harry, he asked, "What do you propose that we do Harry, would you be willing to lower your protection?"
Eying Snape, and a few others that were setting off warnings in his head, Harry shook his head. "No sir," he stated firmly. "I will, however, cast the spells myself if it is imperative that they be cast," he informed the Headmaster before anyone could protest.
Not acknowledging the sounds of disbelief and anger coming from behind him, Dumbledore merely nodded, and motioned Harry to continue. Harry, pulled out his wand, and pointed it to his left forearm. Immediately, without him having to say a word, a golden phoenix tattoo appeared on the inside of his forearm, under his elbow. Waving his wand at the rest of the students, all of them received identical tattoos in the same place. Snape, along with most of the rest of the order, looked dumbstruck. Dumbledore merely smiled at Harry proudly, and motioned the group to take their seats.
After he had sat down, he spoke again. "Now then, on to business," he said. "The first order of business is a group of about thirty Death Eaters who are currently hiding out within the Dark Forest, near the Hogwarts grounds. They were present at the attack on Hogwarts, and are currently trying to regroup, for what we can only assume is another strike at the castle. Since Mr. Potter here," as he said Harry's name, he gestured towards him, "has alerted us to their presence, I have decided that he should have the deciding vote what we do about them. Mr. Potter, what do you think?"
"I want to take them out," replied Harry bluntly.
"Be serious Potter," snapped Snape immediately. "A group that size is too large for us to contend with at this time, people could be killed. I suggest we observe them, gather information so that we can repel the attack that they are planning."
"Perhaps you didn't understand me Severus," replied Harry, refusing to call the man a Professor now that he was no longer an active member of the Hogwarts' staff. "I said that I, as in ME SINGULAR, would take them out. This is not up for discussion."
Looking around at the surprised looks on the faces of the Order, even Mr. and Mrs. Weasley was surprised at his statement, he went on. "We are never going to get rid of Voldemort by simply REACTING to HIS plans. Instead, we must attack HIM. That is the only way that we will ever make the world safe from him. I am going to go and show all of you that it can be done, and I am going NOW." With this, Harry stood up, and began walking away from the table, stopping when Ginny called out to him.
"How will we know what happens?" she asked, then more quietly, "What if you never come back?"
Harry turned and pointed his wand at the table, and a crystal clear sphere appeared in the middle of the table. "Use this Viewing Globe to watch what happens," he said. Then he looked into Ginny's eyes and opened his mind out to her, pouring all of his love for her into his gaze. "I promise I will return to you," he said, then turned, breaking his gaze, and walked out of the now silent room.
"What now," asked one of the members, clearly taken aback by the Boy Who Lived.
"We do as he says and watch," replied Ginny firmly. Everyone looked at her in surprise, and she said, "Harry promised me that he would return, and I believe him. Watch and see what he can do," she challenged them.
Everyone turned to the globe and watched as Harry quickly walked out onto the grounds, and into the Dark Forest. He did not light his wand at all, but seemed to be able to see where he was going without the use of light. The viewing globe was somehow able to show everyone what was going on, regardless of the darkness. They all watched Harry quickly and calmly walk through the forest, pausing in places, where he looked to be concentrating on the darkness ahead of him, and then starting again. He quickly made his way to the edge of the clearing where the Death Eaters were gathered and crouched low, watching them for a few minutes, obviously studying them, and quickly planning out his attack. Then, to the gasps and shrieks around the room, Harry got up, and calmly strode into the Death Eater's camp. Immediately he started firing off curses, moving quicker than anyone had thought was possible. Before anyone could react, he had knocked out ten of the Death Eaters. Then, dogging spells and curses from the remaining twenty, Harry quickly dispatched with another five with a casual wave of his wand. The remaining sixteen men, seeing who they were fighting against for the first time, resorted to the Unforgivable curses. Three of them cast Killing spells, which Harry dodged, and the rest of them cast the Cruciatus Curse. Surprisingly, Harry did not dodge, this, but met the curse head on. Then, the most impressive thing occurred. The twelve curses hit Harry at the exact same time, which caused every witch in the room to cry out in horror, but Harry merely stood there, the curse not affecting him in the slightest. Waiting just enough time for this to sink in, Harry raised his wand again, and cast another spell, this somehow making the curses rebound onto the attacker, all twelve people dropped screaming in pain. The remaining three, obviously scared, tried to Disappearate, but it did not work. Harry quickly dispatched them with a waved Stunning Spell, and then quickly went to each of the twelve screaming person and hit them each with a spell. This made each man stop screaming and drift into unconsciousness. The entire battle had taken under a minute. Harry quickly levitated all thirty men, and looked directly at the viewing globe. "I'm coming back now," they heard. Harry had somehow projected his voice through the globe, so that they could all hear him. He then disappeared from their view, all the floating Death Eaters disappearing as well. He then appeared in the Chamber of the Phoenix with the thirty floating bodies and, with a wave of his wand, calmly set them all down in a corner of the huge room.
The room was silent, almost everyone too shocked to say anything. Then Ginny, with a smile of relief on her face, jumped out of her chair, ran, and hugged her boyfriend tightly.
"P-Potter, h-how d-did you d-do that?" asked Snape, his face paler than usual, staring in horror at the young sixteen year old who had casually dispatched with thirty powerful Dark Wizards with ease. "N-No one can take on THIRTY opponents at once, OR block the Cruciatus curse."
"Actually Severus, I didn't block the curse," replied Harry, pulling Ginny towards the table, sinking into his seat again, and pulling her into his lap, hugging her tightly. Even though he was staring at his one time Potions Professor, he noticed that Bill, Charlie, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were grinning at him and Ginny's casual displays of affection. "Those curses hit, and I felt the full effects."
This made everyone look at him in disbelief and in horror. Ginny shuddered in his embrace and looked up at him with concern in her eyes. "However, I am no stranger to pain. I've found that I can block pain from my mind, and think and react normally regardless of what my body feels," he said, turning his gaze from Snape to Ginny, and saying directly to her, even though he was talking to the rest of the Order as well, "I'm ok, no side effects, nothing." He then, to prove his point, kissed his girlfriend and at the same time sent her a whispered thought I love you.
Breaking the kiss, Harry turned back to Snape, enjoying the dazed look on Ginny's face from the combination of the kiss and his message. "To answer you're first question, well, as I said before, I am a lot more powerful now than I was before, and I have trained extensively during the summer so that I could be ready to defeat anyone or anything that threatens me or the ones that I love." This was said with Harry looking directly into Snape's eyes, and the man paled even more and shuddered and the veiled threat in his simple words.
Turning back to Dumbledore, who had calmed himself by this time, Harry asked, "Now that we have taken care of the threat to Hogwarts, what do we need to go over?"
Dumbledore smiled at this, and then said, "Actually Harry, I think we have covered all we will be able to take in tonight thanks to you. Alastor and the rest of the Aurors will be taking all of these Death Eaters into custody, interrogate them, then make sure that they are tried and sent to Azkaban."
"Actually Professor, that might not be a good idea," said Harry after a moment's thought. "Since Voldemort has obviously won the Dementors, well at least a large amount of Dementors, to his side, I don't think that Azkaban is safe any longer. I propose that the Aurors press the Ministry to convict them and sentence them to death."
Dumbledore looked alarmed and surprised at this statement, and then looked to Moody, who was eyeing Harry shrewdly. Turning to the Headmaster, Moody spoke, "Potter's right Albus," he said. "Putting them to death would be the better way to go, in fact, we can insist on the death penalty due to the fact that they were leading Dementors against the school." Then Mad Eye Moody looked over at Harry again. "At the rate you're going Potter, you're going to be the richest wizard in the world soon." At Harry's look of surprise, Moody went on. "After the attack on Diagon Alley, the Minister of Magic put out a bounty on the heads of anyone who dressed or acted like a Death Eater," he informed the Order. "Said he thought that if the penalty was high enough the Death Eaters might not side with the Dark Lord, personally I think it's foolishness but he did it anyway. He set the bounty for 10,000,000 galleons a head, thinking that this would stop Death Eater activity."
Harry was dumbstruck for a moment, then said, "D-do you mean to tell me that I'm…"
"Yup," replied Moody cheerfully, "THREE HUNDRED MILLION galleons richer!"
After that pronouncement, most of the Order, obviously shaken by the night's events, left. The twenty Aurors of the group all quickly bound the still unconscious Death Eaters and took them to the Ministry for processing. Now, only the Professors, including Snape, the students, and the Weasleys were left in the room. Dumbledore waived his wand, and the empty chairs disappeared, and the table became much smaller. All the occupied chairs moved of their own accord until everyone was situated around the table once more. Ginny, who had recovered from her dazed state, started tickling Harry, making him squirm. Then she started teasing him. "You know what Harry?" she asked playfully. "You're probably going to have to start fighting witches off with a stick, what with four hundred million galleons and all."
"Yeah mate," added Ron. "You'd probably better keep Ginny with you all the time, or they'll start mobbing you."
Harry muttered something under his breath that probably would have gotten him in trouble with his best friend AND his girlfriend, but they did not hear what he said.
Dumbledore, amused with the way this conversation was going, grinned at Harry and added, "My Harry is THAT why you came to me with your request regarding Miss Weasley?"
Harry, looking around the table for support and not finding any, groaned. "I think I'm getting a headache," he stated, taking his arms from around Ginny and clutching his head in his hands.
Ginny, always one to pay her boyfriend back, quickly said, "Here let me kiss it
and make it better." She then proceeded
to grab Harry's dress robes at the neck and roughly pull his face down to hers
and kissed him soundly. Now it was
Harry's turn to look dazed. As everyone
around the table, even Snape, laughed at the look on his face, Harry stared
around the room in confusion uttering a, "MERHERWIZ?" which of course made
everyone laugh even harder.
Finally, after Harry's mind had finally begun to work again, Dumbledore became serious again. "Molly, Arthur, Harry has approached me with a request to allow young Virginia here to skip her fifth year and start classes with the sixth years. After he and I discussed this for a while, in which he assured me that your daughter would be caught up by the time classes start tomorrow, and that she would take and pass the O.W.L Equivalency exams in all of her classes, I agreed on the condition that the two of you give your consent."
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked at Harry for a moment, and then looked at each other. After a moment, Mrs. Weasley nodded to her husband, and he looked at Dumbledore and said, "We trust both Harry and Ginny. We know that Harry would not make this request lightly, and that his reasons for doing this are good ones. We agree."
Dumbledore nodded in acknowledgement, and turned to Professor McGonnagall. "Minerva do you have the O.W.L Equivelency tests?" he asked.
"Yes Albus, I do," came her reply. "I will say, however, that even given Mr. Potter's… special circumstances… I do not think it possible for Miss Weasley to pass those tests before tomorrow morning." With those words, she produced a thick folder, which Ginny eyed nervously, and passed it over to Harry.
"Now Harry," said Dumbledore. "I believe that a few of our number deserve the truth about what is going on. Since you cast the spells of initiation, you know the spells that bind us together as an Order. Those of us that are here, including all of you new members, are to make up my Inner Circle, and I will NOT have secrets as big as yours standing between us. I have said it before, and I will say it again we must be united to face this threat. If we do not put our past differences aside and take up arms together, then darkness will sweep over the world and blot out everything that is right and good."
Harry looked around the room. The only person who did not know the truth was Professor Snape, the other Professors having left with all the others. Harry knew that, despite Dumbledore's words, it WAS INDEED possible to betray the Order. He did not have to be an Arch-Mage to know that. Peter Pettigrew had betrayed the Order the night that Harry's parents were killed. Harry gazed into Snape's eyes, and trained every single sense that he had on the man. He felt Snape's fear and uncertainty, which was surprising. Harry had assumed that Snape only held contempt for him, but as he gazed into the man's very soul, he saw the truth. The anger, the contempt, all of it was a smoke screen that Snape had created to cover up his true feelings. Underneath it all, Snape was a hurt, battered soul, who had very little in the way of friends or comfort. He desperately wanted to belong, and Harry could sense all that and more. "Can I trust you?" he asked the man in a soft, searching voice.
"Yes Harry," came Snape's response, just as soft, but tinged with uncertainty and longing, longing to belong, "you can." Harry finally felt all of the dark emotions that he felt towards the man melt away and, after a quick conversation with the Council, which secured their approval of this man knowing of their existence, Harry nodded in acceptance.
Harry tapped Ginny on the arm, who immediately understood and immediately got out of his lap, allowing Harry to stand before sitting back down in the chair. For the second time today, Harry revealed himself as an Arch-mage, and showed a bit of his true power and his Staff to the stunned wizard. Harry also informed everyone about his lineage, and the three forgotten Spell Levels that he was able to cast. Finally, after demonstrating several of his abilities for Snape's sake, he sat down again, Ginny again sitting comfortably in his lap.
"How did you become an Arch-mage?" asked Snape, once he could find his voice. Everyone, thinking that he would refuse to answer, was pleasantly surprised when he did.
"Well, after I as taken to the Council Chamber inside Avalon, Merlin had me touch a large glowing Sphere which, put simply, unlocked my abilities, and infused me with power," he said.
"So can any of us become Arch-mages as well," asked Ginny excited at the idea.
"Well… no actually," replied Harry, looking embarassed for some reason.
"What, are we not good enough?" asked Ginny, her temper flaring slightly.
"No, it's not that Gin," said Harry blushing suddenly. "It's… well it's… just that I sort of broke the Sphere when I touched it."
"You WHAT?" asked Ron, looking at his friend half in irritation, half in amusement.
"I broke the Sphere," Harry repeated. "See it was created to unlock any dormant abilities that you may have, and infuse you with an amount of power that is exponentially greater than the power that you already possess. Well… apparently I had a bit too many abilities, and a bit too much power to start off with, and it was too much for the globe to handle, so it broke." Harry looked a bit sheepish at this, and then added, "So it's not anything against any of you or anything, it's just impossible to create Arch-mages any more, I'm the last.
"Well can't they create another one of those… globe thingy?" asked Hermione. "I mean, SOMEONE had to create it, and since they are obviously on the Council, couldn't they create it again?"
"No," answered Harry. "The materials and processes to create the Sphere are so complex that it was a one time thing. The stars, planets, galaxies, and everything else has to be in a PRECISE alignment, and all the materials have to be found at a certain time, in a certain place, under a certain set of conditions. There's no possible way to create another one."
So what happened then," asked Fred and George together. Everyone leaned towards him in anticipation, and Harry sighed. "Fine, Let me just start from the beginning…"