CHAPTER 16: Dumbledore's Army

Harry sat in front of the DA, surveying each one of them. He didn't speak for almost five minutes, causing a few murmurs.

"Er-I guess you are all wondering why I've called you hear."

"Good guess."

"Shut up Zacharias"

"Thanks, Ron. Like I was saying, the reason I wanted you all to meet me hear was that-"

BANG

"Sorry we're late"

"Took us some time to get into the passage under Honeydukes." Fred and George had just walked in, making a grand entrance as always. "Carry on, Harry."

"Well, the reason I wanted to speak with you is that-"

"Why didn't you call us earlier, anyway?" Interrupted Sheamus.

"Because we have a real DADA teacher now!" Yelled Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Because Harry's been busy!" Snapped Ginny.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU! I CALLED YOU HEAR BECAUSE I WANTED TO TELL YOU THAT YESTERDAY I CAPTURED PETER PETTIGREW AND KILLED HIM AFTER HE WAS QUESTIONED." Harry finally snapped, he couldn't handle anymore interruptions.

"You-you what?" Hermione asked him quietly after a few moments silence.

"You mean you didn't know about this?" Zacharias asked her harshly.

"Again, Shut up Zacharias." Ron said with a cold stare, taking a step towards the Hufflepuff. Zacharias looked around the room, realized nobody would step in to help him, and sat back down.

"Why?" Ginny asked Harry, she was barely audible.

Harry explained his plan, leaving out the part referring to the prophesy.

"Harry, that's not such a good idea! You're just going to make Voldemort angry! He doesn't care about these people, even if he thinks they are his family. The man, if you can call him that, is incapable of love!" Hermione finished strongly, making the same point that Harry had already heard from countless people.

"He may not care if they live or die, but he will care how they die. If he realizes that I am the one killing them, then yes he will care."

"You speak of murder like its nothing." This time it was Ernie Macmillan.

"No, its something I have considered very closely. I have lost my whole family, and I will make sure Voldemort is incapable of taking you guys away from me as well."

"I'm in, mate." Ron said quietly, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Hermione, and Parvati stepped up and stood behind the boy who lived.

"I hate to say it people, but you can't have anything to do with this. It's my responsibility."

"Shut it, you prat." Harry was surprised to hear Neville Longbottom talk like this. "We've all lost people to those monsters, besides, someone needs to look out for you."

"Count me in too." Susan Bones stood. "They murdered my whole family, My Auntie is all I have left because of them. It's time to pay them back."

"Look, I'm not happy that you guys are going to be joining me in this, as a matter of fact I won't allow any of you to kill as long as it can be helped, I don't want any of you to become murderers on my account. That said, anyone who does not wish to be a part of this, you can say so now and I will think no less of you. You can still be a part of the DA if you'd like as well. There is another order of business that you can help me with."

"What's that?" Zacharias Smith asked quickly, obviously not wanting to have to announce that he refused to back Harry.

"I need to find out who, in this school, knows that I carry a sword."

"What sword?"

"Exactly. It shouldn't be an easy job, but I'm sure it can be done. If nobody has anything to ask than this meeting is adjourned."

"Harry, we have someone from each house looking into who knows about the sword, but what about the Slytherins?" Hermione asked him when they got back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Maybe we can use Polyjuice potion?" Ron suggested, remembering how they became Crabbe and Goyle in their second year.

"No, that won't work. It takes too long, besides the only thing we learned from Malfoy last time was that he had a-" Harry stopped and looked up at Ron, who stared back blankly. His eyes suddenly went wide with shock.

"How could we have forgotten that?"

"Forgotten what, you two?" Hermione pushed.

"Malfoy was telling us how the Ministry had raided his house, later I found out that Fudge never actually approved of it, but that's not the point. He told us that it was lucky the Ministry didn't know about the secret chamber underneath the drawing room floor!"

The trio ran out of the Gryffindor common room, knocking over a group of startled first years on their way. Harry led to Dumbledore's office, where the Gargoyles sprang aside at the sight of him.

"Ah, Harry, to what do I owe this pleasure?" Dumbledore said lightly from behind his desk.

"Sir, we know that the ministry conducted a raid on Malfoy Manner, it as in the papers, but they didn't find much of anything." Harry panted, Dumbledore simply waited for him to continue. "Well in our second year Malfoy -er- told us that there was a secret compartment under his drawing room floor. Did the Ministry find it?"

"No, Harry I don't believe they did. If you will excuse me for a moment I will send word to the Minister." Dumbledore said, a smile spreading over his face as he saw the teenager's confused looks. "Well you didn't expect us to stay without a Minister for long, did you? You will read all about it in the paper tomorrow, along with some other, ah, interesting news."

"It's ok, Professor, I already told them."

"I had no doubt you would, Harry. I was surprised, however, that you told my whole army." He said, his mustache twitching at the thought.

"Your…OH! The DA, but how'd you know?" Dumbledore simply smiled and turned back to his desk.

"Sir?" Hermione asked uncertainly. "Who is the new Minister?"

"Well, I guess it won't hurt for you to know. Amelia Bones, Susan Bones' aunt will be taking the job. You may also be interested to know that Arthur Weasley will become Senior Undersecretary, now that Dolores Umbridge is serving a sentence in Azkaban."

"AZKABAN? Why?"

"It seems you had forgotten to mention your incident with her last year when she threatened you with the cruciatus curse, however this information recently reached my ears, and I passed it along."

"My-my dad got a promotion?" Ron asked, Harry had almost forgotten he was there.

"Indeed he did, Mr. Weasley. It includes quite a bit of power, not to mention a substantial raise. However, I caution you not to let this newfound wealth go to your head." But Ron didn't hear him.

"SIR!" piped a portrait on Dumbledore's right.

"Yes, Armando?"

"The Minister says she will act on that information straight away, she wishes me to ask you if there is anyway she can repay the favor."

Dumbledore stared straight at Harry. "Is there anything the minister can do for you, Harry?"

"N-Yes there is something, Professor. I was wondering if she could get me into the Department of Mysteries, I wanted to take a look at the room we were discussing before." Dumbledore looked piercingly at him.

"Are you sure, Harry? The door will not open unless the power chooses to allot it to, no amount of physical force or magic can open that door."

"I'm sure, Professor. Just ask her to get me in there, preferably after hours so I can have some space. If she has any problems with that tell her that if I am caught then she doesn't have to own up to anything."

"You heard that, Armando?" Dumbledore asked, turning back to the portrait.

"Yes, Headmaster, I'll be back shortly with the reply." He said before walking out of his portrait. The four waited in silence until the portrait of Armando Dippet returned, announcing that Madame Bones had consented to the idea, and wanted to warn Harry that if he got caught she would make sure he wasn't charged with anything, but she would still rather him not get caught."

"Quite understandable, Armando. Thank you."

"Not quite finished yet, Headmaster. You will use a portkey to travel their tonight, Headmaster she gives you authorization to set that up."

Harry and the others waited until 8 o'clock before departing Gryffindor tower. On the way out they ran into Neville Longbottom, who was very interested in where they could be going.

"Neville, you really shouldn't know." Said Harry quietly, hoping that Neville would just leave it alone.

"Harry! How many times am I going to have to say this, you're not leaving me behind anymore, you need people you can trust, and while I may not be a great fighter, you can trust me." Harry was about to say something when Hermione touched his shoulder.

"We need to get going, Harry." Harry nodded and stared ad Neville for a moment.

"Right, you can come. But don't tell anyone about this, ok?" When Neville nodded in agreement they set off for Dumbledore's office.

The four arrived shortly after that, and grabbed the small cup that would transport them to the Ministry of Magic and back again. Harry felt the sensation of a hook behind his navel before being lifted off the ground. It didn't take long for the four friends to crash down in the Ministry of Magic, just outside the door to the Department of Mysteries.

"What the- Eric, you hear that?"

"Yea, let's go check it out." Harry recognized Eric's surly voice as the watch wizard when he came to the Ministry for his hearing.

"We've gotta get out of here!" Harry whispered urgently. He pushed open a door and rushed inside, the others followed suit. Harry closed the door as quickly and as quietly as he could, just in time.

"I dunno, I coulda sworn I heard something." Eric said, Harry pressed his ear against the door and heard footsteps moving away from them.

"Ok, guys, I think it's safe." Harry said, turning around to see that his friends weren't standing beside him anymore. He realized that they had entered the room with all of the prophecies, and his three friends were now standing beside a shelf full of them.

"Harry, I think you should see this." Hermione said quietly, Harry could hear the tension in her voice. Harry walked over to see what they were staring at.

S.P.T to L.E.P.

Dark Lord

and (?)

"Guys, I don't know about this." Harry said nervously, remembering what happened the last time he picked up a prophesy.

"Don't worry, Harry. It'll be fine." Neville said, reaching his hands out before anyone could stop him.

"NO! Neville you can't you'll-" But Hermione stopped, Neville was holding the prophesy in his hands. "go crazy…" she finished weakly.

"Guess it's about me, then?" Neville asked, wide-eyed, realizing the implications of what he had just done.

"We should get out of here." Said Ron quickly.

"I have to see if I can get into that room first. Stay here, I'll be back in a minute." He turned to set off down the corridor but stopped. "Neville, hold onto that. I think we should show Dumbledore." He ran off down the corridor to try to find the door that melted Siruis' knife. When he got back to the circular room he saw that two of the doors had an X burnt into them, Harry made a mental note to thank Hermione for doing it last year. He tried the first door, which opened at his touch. He looked inside to see a room full of brains.

"Not that one" Harry said to himself, closing the door. He turned to the second one, his heart racing. He was going to get through the door, he was going to find out how to defeat Voldemort. He ran towards the door.

SMACK

Harry got up, rubbing his head. He had been so sure the door would open that he hit it at a run. He lay their on the floor staring at the locked door. How could this be, he was supposed to be able to open the door, walk in, and find and harness the power inside. But the door wouldn't open for him, did that mean he wasn't meant to open the door, that maybe it wasn't the power in that room that he had so much of, was Dumbledore wrong?

"HARRY!" He snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing Ron call for him. He got up and sprinted back to where they were standing, fearing that they had been caught.

"Are you guys ok?" Harry asked, looking around for any signs of trouble.

"Course we are, we were worried about you mate. You've been gone nearly half an hour!" Ron told him. Harry didn't know what to say, he just stood their with his mouth wide open. "What you didn't know you were gone that long?" His best friend asked incredulously.

"Shut up, Ron." Scolded Hermione. Harry felt a rush of gratitude towards her. "We need to get out of here, Harry grab hold of the cup. Harry did as he was told and within seconds he was standing in Dumbledore's office, the headmaster staring at the dusty orb in Neville's hands from behind his desk.