Author's note: It's come to my attention from gallandro83(thanks for the review, by the way), that there could be some confusion as to the timeline of this fic. I turn it AU towards the end of Harry and Co.'s Fifth year, during Order of the Phoenix. Harry was imprisoned before the Department of Mysteries happened, so Sirius is still alive, and Harry doesn't know about the prophecy...at least not yet. The complete backstory of what happened, and when it happened, will be told when I have the Order of the Lion convene for their first high level meeting in the coming chapters.
I fancy myself to be a bit of a graphics buff, so very soon, if not by the time this chapter is posted, I shall have 3d and 2d graphics of the Castle, the Island, Harry's tattoos, and maybe more, depending on if there's anything else that I had trouble describing...after all, a picture is worth a thousand words.
Also, a few of gallandro83's questions about Harry caught me unawares...didn't realize I was backing myself into a corner there, with the goblins and all :P But nevertheless, I had already given it a little bit of thought...Harry's not immortal, and he doesn't have all the powers of the god...I'll explain it further in the next couple chapters. Order meeting and all, people will be asking questions :P
Harry and his companions appeared amidst a whirlwind of magic and energy in the Dining Hall of the castle. Harry had thrown up a shield surrounding the group before they portkeyed out of Hogwarts, so they were safe from the magical elements.
"Stay where you are, the storm should subside in a few seconds." Harry warned.
"What's happening?" Remus asked, awe evident in his voice. The magical energy storm was creating some very pretty colors, and when protected under a strong enough shield, was a beautiful site to behold.
"The wards on the inside of the castle are very strong, I've already told you of them. By coming directly inside with this portkey, we tore through some of them. They're rebuilding themselves, hence the energy storm." Harry replied, while looking out of the spherical shield that protected them all from certain death.
The storm finally slowed to a halt, and all looked normal again. The only evidence of it having occurred, was a large circular shaped burn spot on the otherwise spotless stone floor. Harry lowered the shield, and motioned for everyone to disperse.
"Harry," Hermione spoke up, "I thought you said that you modified the wards to allow portkeys created by you, to work in the castle?"
Harry nodded, "I should've clarified it. The grounds outside of the castle have had their wards lifted, but I've not done it yet for the inside. I was wanting you all to see first hand just how strong the defenses are. I could probably apparate through them if I focus enough energy into it, but it would still be very dangerous. Luckily for all of you, the wards designed to keep portkeys out are very outdated. Back then, travelling via portkeys was very risky, because the designs were flawed and the wizards and witches who created them, were not yet used to the magic that they needed to put into them. So all of that just means the anti- portkey wards are weak enough to break through, but the defensive measures put in place cause a magical backlash if it happens, which will more than likely incinerate anyone who does make it through. Unless of course, that person had a very strong shield up capable of withstanding the backlash, like I did."
Hermione nodded in understanding, "Are you going to keep the wards like this?" She asked, while looking around the dining hall, which Tonks and Sirius were both already at the far end of, exploring. Remus and Snape both held back around Harry, choosing to examine the things closer to them.
"I'm going to change them so that they're the same as the wards on the castle grounds; They'll let through portkeys created by me." Harry replied.
"That's a good idea."
"So how did you get Tonks into this Order?" Harry asked, while watching the currently black haired Metamorphagus argue with Sirius over who was going to get to try out one of the swords from the armory first.
Remus spoke up from the table he was at nearby, "Those two are cousins, and grew very close after you were imprisoned. Sirius withdrew himself from everyone and spent whatever time he had when he wasn't yelling at Dumbledore, up in the attic of Grimmauld Place, talking with Buckbeak. We thought that we were going to lose him completely, until Tonks took things into her own hands. We don't know what happened, or what was said, but after a few days of her talking to him, he slowly started to snap out of it. They've been inseperable ever since, so it wasn't that hard for Sirius to convince her of your innocence, and then recruit her into the cause."
"And some of us think she's infatuated with you." Snape added, slightly disdainfully.
Harry raised his eyebrows at this, which was followed by laughter from Hermione and Remus. "Speaking of infatuations," Harry began, "Whatever happened to Cho Chang?"
Hermione and Remus lowered their heads, and allowed Snape to answer. "Miss Chang was killed in a Death Eater attack shortly after her year's graduation ceremony. The day has gone down as one of the darkest in Hogwarts history. Voldemort sent all of his forces, and killed thirteen graduating students, seven of which were accepted and ready to go into Auror training. A substantial number of guests were killed as well, including twenty other younger students, and two professors."
Harry sighed. The silence was overbearing for the next few seconds, until Harry broke them out of it by suggesting that they take a look at the rest of the rooms in the castle.
After spending an hour showing them through the castle, going from the highest room in the central turret, down to the bottom dungeon level, and unfortunately coming across several sets of skeletal remains still shackled to the wall, Harry decided to show them his own personal additions to the lower levels. "If you would step this way," He said, while motioning for the group to follow him. He bent down and lifted a trap door, revealing a staircase going down into the island core. "I found a cave system hidden under here yesterday...probably used by the former occupants to store treasure. I found it fitting for its current use." They followed him into a large cavern, that was about the size of the dining hall in the castle.
"This is where you're putting the new vaults?" Hermione guessed.
Harry nodded, "Yes," He walked to an opening in the cave wall, just barely higher than him. "There's seven of these smaller caverns. Mine and Sirius' vaults will take up about three caverns each, leaving one more for Order money and valuables." Harry stepped further into the cavern, and took out the chest containing the contents from his family's vault. He returned it to its former size, and opened the top. He set it on the floor, and stood over it, concentrating. A blue light shone out from the body, and slowly after a few seconds time, items began flowing out, arranging themselves in order along the walls, and then in the middle of the cavern. After it was filled to capacity, though still allowing room to move between the stacks of items, he moved onto the next cavern and repeated the process, and again after that one was finished. He then did the same for Sirius, until six of the seven caverns were filled with millions of galleons, thousands of books and scrolls, an armory of ancient weapons and armor, and hundreds of other artifacts.
Sirius was quick to enter his vault and levitate a trio of galleon and gem filled chests, and move them into the Order's cavern. Harry followed suit and levitated several chests of galleons and sickles, then added part of the stacks of gold and silver bars as well.
"Hermione," Harry began, breaking her from her thoughts. "My vault has a library of old books and scrolls in it. Can you help me move some of them up into the castle library?"
Hermione's eyes lit up, and you could practically feel the excitement bubbling around her. "Of course! The library up there needs to be filled, there's no telling how much knowledge you have down here." She began mentally sorting through which types of books would go where, and other ways to sort of them.
"Take my library as well." Sirius said. "It's probably all books on the dark arts, but some of it could probably come in use at some point in time."
Hermione's joy doubled, and she looked as if she'd just won the biggest lottery jackpot ever.
Harry took Hermione by the arm and lead her up the stairs, back into the lower levels of the castle. "Hermione," He began, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't want to say anything in front of anyone else, but if you ever need or want anything from my vault, take it. Any amount of money you want, as long as you leave me enough to retire with and live comfortably on." He said, looking at her with a sincere expression.
"Harry, that's very generous of you, and I'm grateful for the offer...but you know I won't take anything." Hermione replied, resting a hand on his forearm.
Harry smiled, "I know, but the offer stands. I'll be setting the barriers to allow you unlimited access to it all. You've believed in me and been my best friend for thirteen years. I won't ever forget it, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you." He took her hand that was on his forearm and gave it a soft squeeze, then continued up the stairs to the first floor.
Hermione followed, with a smile of her own.
About an hour later, Harry and Hermione were sitting in the library sorting books onto the shelves. Boxes had been conjured to hold them by topic until they could get around to being placed on shelves. Three rows of shelves had already been filled, but there seemed to be no decrease of the ancient tomes still left unsorted. Tonks and Sirius had taken to running between the library assisting with the sorting, to being kicked out by Hermione for being more of a nuisance than a help, to examining the castle grounds, looking for any possible ways up from the ocean. Remus and Snape, being much more conservative than the other two, were busy trying to decipher the ancient charms placed on the weapons that remained in the castle armory.
"I think this has a version of the Reducto charm on it," Remus remarked, as he slowly moved his wand up and down the edge of a battle axe. He stood and picked the axe up, then conjured a small table. He drew back the axe and swung it towards the table, connecting with a loud crunching noise, followed instantly with an explosion as the table was propelled backwards and reduced to smoldering debris. Hermione ran out of the library with a terrified expression on her face, followed by Harry who was grinning widely, having already figured out what the explosion was.
"What was that?" Hermione screeched, as she saw Remus holding the axe with a triumphant grin on his face.
"This axe has an impact triggered Reducto charm on it. Quite ingenius..." Remus responded, while rubbing his hand over the axe-head.
Hermione rolled her eyes and stalked back into the library. Harry continued grinning. "Wait until you find the sword that has Victus Corripio woven into it. I guarantee you'll love that when you're injured in battle." Harry winked and followed Hermione back into the library.
Remus looked confused, and turned to Snape who was watching Harry's back with a look of surprise. "What is Victus Corripio?" Remus asked.
Snape turned to him and raised his eyebrows, "It's an ancient dark arts curse that steals the victim's life energy and pulls it into your own. If you're injured, as Potter suggested, it will heal you just as fast as any medical potions. Due to the nature of it, it was banned by every wizarding government in the world, and had anyone that used it executed." He turned back to the rack of swords in front of him and began searching for the sword. Remus looked back to the entrance of the library for a moment, then joined Snape in the search.
Harry was still grinning when he kneeled back down next to Hermione, and pulled another box of books in front of him. Hermioned looked at him and frowned. "Honestly, it's just an axe with a charm on it. Not the greatest thing in the world." She muttered.
Harry laughed, "But it's brilliant." He laughed harder as she shook her head, focusing her attention once more on the books.
"Okay, here's how they're organized," Hermione began, after pulling everyone into the library an hour later. "Books on the Dark Arts take up the back seven rows of shelves," She looked at Sirius, "That's almost a quarter of the library." Sirius looked abashed and muttered a curse at his ancestors. Hermione smiled slightly and continued. "Hexes and curses take up the following four rows, charms and transfiguration take up the next six. Potions..." She trailed off as she saw Snape already taking several potions books off the shelves and sitting down at a table with them. She shook her head and continued. "Potions take up an additional four, then history and miscelleneous take up the remaining ten. Everything is organized in alphabetical order, and I'll place a searching charm over everything so people can find something by thinking of a topic."
Everyone looked quite pleased, except for Snape, who likely didn't hear her as he was engrossed in a dictionary sized potion book. "Hermione, Sirius, Remus, Snape, you should probably all be getting back to Hogwarts before Dumbledore starts to get suspicious." Harry spoke up.
Hermione had a look of horror pass over her face, "You're right, we've been gone for three hours. Dumbledore is sure to be wondering where Snape is by now."
Harry nodded and turned a plate from a nearby table into a portkey. "This will take you back to the Shrieking Shack. I'll join you back at Hogwarts in a couple of hours after I modify these wards." He handed the plate to Hermione. Snape grudgingly left the books and came over, as well as Sirius, Remus, and Tonks. "Tonks," Harry said. "Can you stay behind for awhile so we can discuss some Ministry things?"
She looked at her watch for a moment, then nodded. "I've got about a half hour until my shift at Azkaban begins.
Hermione looked slightly disgruntled for a moment, then said to Harry, "Just come to my room when you get back. If I'm not there, the password is Marauders. Just make yourself at home until I get back." Harry smiled and nodded, then activated the portkey, sending the five back to Hogwarts.
Tonks turned to Harry, "So what do you want to know?"
"Why did you join this order?" Harry asked her.
"What?" Tonks looked confused.
"Why did you join the Order of the Lion? Why do you think I'm innocent?"
"Because Sirius does, and from my little experiance with you, you didn't seem like the mass murdering type."
Harry searched her eyes for a moment, the nodded. "I believe you."
Tonks smiled. "I'm glad."
"So how many Aurors does the Ministry have?" Harry asked, changing the subject.
Tonks looked thoughtful for a few seconds, drumming her fingers against her thigh. "Just over two thousand, I think."
Harry processed this and sat down at one of the many tables occupying the dining hall. Tonks sat next to him and looked at him.
"How many people are in the Order of the Phoenix?"
"The entire membership is kept hidden from everyone, so that potential traitors or spies can't doom everyone to a hit list. I'm in the inner circle, so I know more than most...the circle has thirteen members, counting Dumbledore. General membership is over seventy people, that's all I know." She said.
Harry rose to his feet, and motioned to Tonks to follow him. He walked to the stairs that lead to the upper levels of the castle, and climbed them. He didn't stop climbing until they were in the turret on the roof of the castle. They had stopped in the upper most room, which likely belonged to a Seer when it was in use, and Harry stood at a large open window, looking at the surrounding ocean. "I like the view up here. I discovered it yesterday, and immediately decided to set this room off as my own."
Tonks stood next to him, her much smaller frame all but dwarfed by Harry. "How did you survive Azkaban, without being completely insane right now?" She quietly asked, looking up at him.
"Who says I'm not?" Harry grinned and winked at her, then stepped away from the window into the middle of the room.
Tonks finally took a good look around the room; It was medium sized, and circular. The floor was some form of dark wood, and the walls all sloped inwards as they rose, as they were essentially the same cone shaped roof that all the turrets had. The room, at eye level she noticed, was a good six meters across. The ceiling came together at the top several meters above her head, and there were windows all around, spaced evenly a foot apart. Each window was set three foot off the floor, and were about three feet wide, and four feet high.
She was interrupted from her subtle examination of the room when Harry began speaking again, "I'm not going back to Hogwarts tonight. Whenever you're able to, inform Hermione and the others that I want to call a full meeting with every member of the order here, as soon as concievably possible. The more time we waste, the closer the Ministry comes to stamping out the rights and freedoms of the populace, and the closer Voldemort comes to bringing the world into his grasp. I have a war to fight, and I need to know who will stand beside me."
Tonks looked slightly afraid of the prospect of a war on four different fronts for her -- being an Auror and fighting for the Ministry, as well as being in the Order of the Phoenix and fighting for them, and now the Order of the Lion fighting for them against the Ministry as well as Voldemort -- but stood up straighter nonetheless. "I'll stand beside you, as I know Hermione, Sirius and Remus will as well." She said with conviction, "Snape isn't much good for fighting though, the sneaky bastard is too good at spying for that." She added in a far lighter tone.
Harry grinned, "I know that you would be risking more than most, so I have my own plans for you." He said.
"And what are those?" Tonks asked, raising her eyebrows.
"That would spoil the secret, my dear Tonks." Harry cheerfully replied, while walking back towards the stairs.
Tonks let out an indignant growl and followed him, starting a rant about how keeping secrets is bad.
Several hours later, Harry was perched at the top of the roof of the turret. He had climbed it by hand, and now sat at the top, an arm and a leg curled around the point to keep from falling off. He was watching the sun set over the ocean, and marvelled at the simple beauty of nature. Under that setting sun at the horizon, was Ireland. The nation that was home to the Quidditch team that he watched before his fourth year at Hogwarts, when the Weasley's had invited him along to the World Cup with them. It was one of the highlights of his youth, and he still fondly remembered the game. Not the company, aside from Hermione, but the game itself. He rarely thought about Ron or the other Weasley's, outside of perverse fantasies focused around the graphic and vengeful genocide he had planned for the family, down to the smallest detail, for the past seven years. He had spent the first year in Azkaban trying to think of ways that Ron could've been coerced into 'witnessing' the murders that Harry supposedly committed. It was a sad, and even more bitter day when he finally accepted that Ron sold him out. It took many ranting letters from Hermione and the others to convince him of it, but he finally started to believe them. Sold out by his surrogate brother. Harry still didn't know why, or for what reason, but his blood boiled whenever he thought of it. His eyes had darkened tremendously with this line of thought, but not in their magical way, with a bottomless sea of black surrounded by a flicking, electric blue...his eyes were darkening from their former vivid, bright green color, to a dark forest green...his jaw was clinched and his eyes narrowed in rage. He felt the power building up in him, and he let out a furious, growling yell at the sky and thrusted his free hand in the general direction of the castle grounds below him. A radiant fireball of red and orange shot from his hand and hit the ground in the blink of an eye, causing a bright, and very audible explosion. Harry was pushed back slightly from the shockwave, and had to tighten his grip on the roof to keep from falling. After righting himself, he saw the dust clear, a very handy effect of a visibility ward, and a rather large crater in the ground from the explosion. Harry looked slightly surprised, and examined his hand. 'Huh. I'm pyrokenetic.' He thought.
Harry awoke the following morning, feeling rather stiff, which was quite a normal occurance, having woken up stiff every morning for the past eight years. Light filtered into his newly declared bedroom/lounge, and he sat up from the rather hard and unforgiving wood floor. The sun was rising over the barely visible coast of the Isle of Man, and gave off some rather fascinating reflections on the ocean.
He felt slightly fatigued from the previous nights' magical activities, where he spent a good six hours modifying the wards inside and outside of the castle to suit his needs, placing dozens of security charms, wards and barriers protecting the vaults, and discovering, then destroying a hidden series of boat docks at the bottom of the island. He came across those merely by chance, but felt very lucky that he had. Along with the possible beach head enemies could exploit, he found a hidden stairway leading up from the docks to the castle grounds. He supposed that it was only logical, as the Celts and the Vikings needed someway to get from their boats to the castle, and then back. Harry did well to fix that security flaw, mainly by destroying the foundations of the docks and sending them underwater, then starting a controlled landslide to wipe out the stairway, and then retired for the night. It took a lot of patience and careful precision to deconstruct the wards protecting the docks and stairway in order to destroy them, but the payoff was a fortress that was now much safer.
Harry liesurly took his time down the long set of stairs to the dining hall, and entered the kitchen. The kitchen was a somewhat large room that was completely empty. It was located at the NorthWest end of the castle, behind the curved wall of the dining hall. Harry looked around, and scratched his head, realizing, obviously, that there would be no food or ingrediants left in the kitchen. Even perishables protected by magic couldn't last several centuries. He grumbled, and conjured a new set of clothing to don, then walked out of the kitchen and made his way to the castle armory.
Harry exitted the castle several minutes wearing a pair of black cargo pants, loaded with various weapons in the many pockets, and a simple plain black tshirt. The bottom of his shirt covered a belt that wound its way around his waist, that bore many bladed instruments sure to cause much pain and suffering if unleashed in a violent way. He stood for a moment, enjoying the fresh morning air that had the slight smell of salt from the ocean, then disapparated away.
Harry arrived at Number 4 Privet Drive to a very strange site. His aunt and uncle were willingly conversing with a pair of obvious wizards. He had apparated into his aunt Petunia's garden, directly under the living room window, and immediately caught wind of the conversation.
"As you are Mister Potter's only living relatives, you are entitled to one quarter of the contents of his vault, due to his death." One of the wizards said.
Harry heard a sob, obviously fake, and then his aunt spoke up. "My dear little nephew...I can't believe he's dead..." She trailed off, faking more sobs. Obviously, the wizards believed her grief to be real and Harry could hear one of them, a woman, speaking of soft soothing words to the seemingly distressed woman.
"How much money is in that vault, and why do we only get a quarter of it?" Uncle Vernon's rough voice cut in. He sounded as if he were faking sobs as well, but doing a far worse job of it.
"The Potter's were one of the oldest families in the wizarding world, and their wealth was great because of it. The Potter vault, at last inventory which took place a year ago next month, consisted of roughly thirty-seven million galleons, or in your muggle money, around two hundred and twenty million pounds," At this, Petunia and Vernon broke into louder howls of 'misery', as their nephews death hit them harder. The wizard lowered his eyes, as if in remorse for the grieving family, and continued. "You are only entitled to a quarter of the money because, due to wizarding law, the victim's families will get one quarter each, and the Ministry of Magic will also get a quarter."
Harry grimaced as his aunt let out enough loud sob. Just then, Harry heard a popping sound, associated with someone apparating or disapparating nearby. The former was true this time, and Harry saw a blue robed wizard running up the drive, and into the house. This unexpected entry caused a shriek of surprise from Petunia, and Vernon nearly fell over.
"McIllian, Rogers, you're needed back in Diagon Alley right away." The new wizard panted out. The other two wizards nodded, and thanked the Dursley's for their time, then apologized for their loss, before leaving the house. Harry cast an invisibility charm over himself and followed the wizards, listening into their conversation.
"What's this about?" The woman asked.
"Gringotts was broken into yesterday, the Potter and Black vaults were completely emptied. Weasley is recalling all Ministry personnel around London, to Diagon Alley. I heard that the goblins are furious that the Ministry allowed someone with that much power, free reign to walk around without being tagged for watch. They're threatening to revolt."
The other two wizards gaped, not unlike a fish, as the newcomer finished. Without another word, the three disapparated, presumably, to Diagon Alley.
Harry chuckled to himself, and returned to the living room window, where he overheard Petunia and Vernon talking.
"Why did that boy never tell us how much he was worth? We could've moved to Majorca years ago!" Vernon growled.
"Now now, Vernon, he probably didn't even know. His parents probably didn't even know either, the fools that they were. Nobody that had access to that money could be so...foolish." Petunia haughtily declared.
"Right you are, right you are." Vernon agreed.
"Oh wait until my little Dudley gets home, he'll be so pleased to hear that we're getting a new house!" Petunia gushed.
"A house? Not with that kind of money...over fifty million pounds, we can get a castle!" Vernon exclaimed, not even trying to hide his glee, making him sound eerily similar to a squealing pig.
Harry decided now would be a good time to step in, as his stomach was beginning to rumble. He hadn't missed the very delicious smelling breakfast that was currently sitting half eaten on the kitchen table.
Wordlessly, he crawled in through the window, and dropped his invisibility charm, causing Petunia to scream, and Vernon to faint dead away.
Harry sighed and shook his head, then walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, helping himself to a large helping of everything. Petunia recovered from her shock and advanced into the kitchen herself, weilding a vase as a weapon.
"Who are you?" She screeched.
Harry turned around and faced her, glaring coldly.
"I asked you a question!" She screeched louder, causing several birds outside to chirp in response.
Harry sighed again and raised his hand, lifting the fringe of his hair up, revealing a lightning bolt shaped scar.
Petunia fainted.
Harry grinned and went back to enjoying his breakfast.
A/N: I was tempted to keep going with this chapter, as I'm in a writing mood, but decided that since it was at a good stopping point, that I'd just...well, stop. And then post it. Immediately after this is posted, I'll begin work on Chapter 6, and according to plan, have it out within the next few days. Contrary to my previous beliefs that I had when starting Chapter 1, I'm actually still having fun while writing...I figured I'd last a couple chapters, then bomb out and add this to the Hall of Unfinished Fics, of which I'm an honorary member. :P To everyone, thanks for the reviews...they're flattering, though a couple were merely...confusing. I'm sure you know who you are. Until next time!(eta: Monday)
P.S. My apologies if there's any typoes...I wrote almost all of the last three quarters of this chapter in the past couple hours(in which I took several breaks...eating, researching the Isle of Man, reading a couple chapters of Acceptance of Fate by Arya(you should read it, if you aren't already.)), and I'm impatient to upload it, as I have to go watch a Tour de France special...three minutes ago. 'Tis all.