Disclaimer:
I don't own anything in relation to Harry Potter except for my own copies of the books. This was written just for the enjoyment of writing and i make no money off it.
Author's Notes:
I would like to thank 'Completely Indecisive' for being my beta for this story. (today, 20th November, just happens to be his birthday as well so I dedicate this chapter to him).
I would also like to tell you that chapter one has been edited. I finally have a solid story line with actual developed OC so some of the details in the original chapter one are obsolete. The changes were made to keep the plot consistent. Apart from that enjoy this chapter. It took me so long to finish it.
Chapter Summery:
The Order Of The Phoenix have an emergency meeting to discuss what happened to Harry and what they are going to do about it. This however is interrupted by the arrival of three mysterious figures.
Chapter Three
Ira Gardner
Remus Lupin was fuming as he stormed down the street from Privet Drive towards Arabella Figg's house: he would be flooing with her to Grimmaud Place for an emergency Order of the Phoenix meeting (matters along the line of Harry Potter disappearing were more important than waiting for a new leader).
He had just come from the Dursley's to tell them the bad news about Harry disappearing and they did not seem to care at all. 'I never thought thing were actually this bad for Harry. I knew they didn't care for Harry but I didn't think that they were that heartless. Harry is missing for Merlin's sake, and Voldemort could be torturing him at this very moment. Didn't they know that Harry was their best chance at stopping Voldemort who wouldn't skip a beat killing all of the Dursley's just because they were muggles? I can't believe that Dumbledore would leave Harry at that place every year' thought Remus.
He had arrived at the house just as the sun had set. He and Mrs. Figg then threw floo powder on the fireplace speaking 'Number twelve, Grimmaud Place.' Soon the house was empty and the general area of Surrey was devoid of wizards. Unfortunately, this did not last long.
About ten minutes after Remus and Mrs. Figg had left a group of twenty wizards and witches appeared in front of the fourth house on Privet Drive. They were wearing long flowing black robe that obscured their entire features.
The one nearest the house was obviously the leader and with a silent hand motion signalled for the rest to move into the house, only he and another robed man remained outside. There were some screams from inside but they were quickly silenced. The leader motioned to the only one outside. He pointed his wand towards the sky and said, "Morsmordre."
A formation of emerald stars shot into the air and formed a colossal skull with a snake protruding from its mouth; the Dark Mark. The house was set aflame and the group disappeared as quickly as they appeared. This would definitely make the papers tomorrow.
I O >> >> >> I
The whole of the Order of the Phoenix or what was left of it, were all gathered together in the main sitting room of their headquarters at Sirius Black's last place of residence, Number Twelve Grimmaud Place. They were chatting among themselves while they waited for all the members of the Order to arrive.
There was a level of urgency to the crowd as the reason for the meeting was Harry and not only that, but the safety of the house had been compromised by the death of Dumbledore, meaning that the Fidilus charm that had been placed to hide the house had stopped working. Not only that but since Snape had defected he could now reveal the location of the Order of the Phoenix to Voldemort.
Finally however, the last member's had arrived; Remus and Mrs Figg. Tonks walked up top Remus and kissed him on the cheek and asked "So, how did his relatives take it?"
"Those sorry excuses for human beings didn't give a damn. They were even happy that they may never see him again. I never knew it was that bad for Harry at the Dursley's. I'm surprised that he turned out a good a person that he is now" replied Remus, running a hand through his greying hair. He looked a lot older than he actually was. This was a side effect of being a werewolf.
"Oh, poor Harry" exclaimed Molly Weasley, Ron's mother who had always treated Harry like he was one of her children. "It must have been so hard to grow up in a house like that and to have to return there every year. What was Albus thinking when he sent him there?"
"There's no time for that now. We have his safety to worry about first" interrupted Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody. Turning towards Hermione and Ron who were allowed to be at this meeting because they were the only witnesses to Harry's disappearance, Moody said "Now, tell us everything you remember about what happened."
Ron was first to speak "It happened like this." Ron however was interrupted by a loud 'thump' being heard from the entrance hall of the house which promptly set off the portrait of Mrs Black into one of her rants of how they were all 'filth' and 'scum' again. What worried the members of the Order however was that someone else was speaking in the hall as well.
"Ow. Oh god. My face, ow. Who put this floor here?" they heard the voice say.
"Um, sir. I believe that you fell over this troll leg umbrella stand" said a different voice.
"Why is it that whenever I use wizarding means of travel I always end up hurt or on the floor in some way? The only time that doesn't happen is when I'm travelling with Jimmy. Are you OK Jimmy?" asked the first voice. A noise that sounded oddly like a yawn answered. "Great. Now, Frederick, do you think you can get her to shut up?"
"Yes, sir" said a third voice in a thick Russian accent. There was the distinct sound of footsteps which was followed by the third voice again, "Shut up!" Immediately, the portrait fell silent but only after it let out a quiet whimper.
"Much better" said the first voice. "Now let's go and meet this Order of the Phoenix then." The door knob on the door that connected the main sitting room to the entrance hall started to turn and all of the members had their wands trained to the door as three black cloaked figures entered the room.
The one at the front had his hood over his face which must have been spelled because his face was hidden in shadows even though the room was brightly lit. The man on his left had silver coloured eyes, black hair and a grey bandana around his forehead. The man on the right had dark blue eyes, fiery red hair and a red bandana around his forehead. They each had a sword on their belts and all three men did not have their wands in their hands. The hooded one tilted his head a bit to the right as he saw that everyone was pointing their wands at them.
"Presents? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have" said the hooded man. He waved his hand and all the wands in the room left the hands of their unexpected owners and fell into a pile before his feet. That is all, except Moody's who had kept a close grip on his wand.
"Stupefy" said Moody as a beam of light shot towards the hooded man who had easily disarmed nearly the whole entire room with a wave of his hand. Before the spell hit however, the man seemed to disintegrate into a familiar cloud of black dust which settled like a shadow on the wall next to the door making the stunner miss. After it had missed the black cloud moved down the wall and slid across the floor to the spot the hooded man had been. The cloud then formed into the man again.
"Expelliarmus" said the man using his own wand that he had pulled from his sleeve. Moody was hit and his wand flew into the air only to be caught by the red headed man, who promptly dropped it into the pile with the other wands. "I must applaud you on your 'Constant Vigilance', Moody."
Remus recovered the quickest from seeing such a spectacle as someone disarming the whole of the Order of the Phoenix and finally defeating 'Mad Eye' Moody, one of the best aurors in all of Britain, and asked, "Who are you and why are you here?"
"Okay, as for why I am here. I was sitting in my office doing some work with my colleagues, Joel." He pointed at the man with the grey bandana, "And Frederick." He then pointed at the man in the red bandana.
"Well, we were about to finish when a phoenix came to me through my open window. It then used its magic and transported us here, where I promptly hit my face on the floor after tripping over the troll leg umbrella stand that was in the entrance hall. I now wonder why it brought me and my friends to the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix and I think you guys may know the answer."
"What phoenix?" said a suspicious Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"This one" replied the hooded man. He walked towards the door and started calling out, "Here boy. Here boy." A familiar red and gold phoenix flew to his outstretched arm.
"Fawkes?" said Ron and Hermione together. Indeed, it was Dumbledore's old phoenix that had flown away after its master was dead. It ruffled its feathers a bit and looked around the crowd of surprised faces.
"But, if that's Fawkes…" said Tonks.
"Then that means…" continued Remus
"That you're…" said a random voice from the crowd of people.
"The new leader…" said Mundungus.
"Of the Order of the Phoenix" finished Moody. Everyone in the room except for the three new arrivals were now looking in awe at their new leader, the one hand (talon?) picked by Fawkes himself. This was the person who was to lead them in fighting back against Voldemort.
"Really, well…" the hooded man's voice trailed off. He was looking intently at a spot in the crowd and pulled from his sleeve a knife which he promptly threw at Mundungus who became pinned to the wall. Blood was already seeping from the point the knife had impacted his shoulder. The hooded man ignored the looks of shock that plastered itself on everyone's faces and casually walked up to Mundungus.
"Avery, how good to see you again" said the hooded man. Nearly everyone in the room had a confused sense about what was going on. "What is this? Polyjuice? Self Transfiguration?"
"You!" spat Avery, who looked exactly like Mundungus did. "Snape was right about you."
"One of the only times I assure you. I'm afraid however that you cannot be allowed to escape or else my cover will be blown." He then pointed his wand at Avery whose eyes had widened in surprise and possibly fear. He muttered a spell and Avery was back to looking like his old self.
Then turning to Joel, the dark haired man who had accompanied him he said, "Take him to the one of the detention cells at headquarters. He'll be our first resident. He'll be held there indefinitely until he is no longer a security risk."
"Yes, sir" replied Joel. He strode up to Avery and putting a hand on his shoulder the two of them burst into a cloud of black dust which disappeared into the ground.
"Now that that's out of the way, why don't we get back to this thing about me being the new lord of the dance."
"Sir, dat's not vat dey sed" said Frederick.
"Really?"
"Dey sed dat you vere de new leader of de Order of de Phoenix" stated Frederick.
"Ah. O, well then. A man can dream, can't they?" Turning to the even more confused congregation of the room he continued, "I apologise but I already have my own secret society to manage and I don't think I have time to coordinate that as well as deal with whatever the leader of the Order of the Phoenix has to do."
"Your own secret society? Is that why you aren't showing your face? Is that why you haven't told us your name yet?" spurted Hermione, her huge curiosity about the unknown getting the best of her.
"Oh damn. I guess it isn't a secret society if everyone knows about it but I'll answer your questions anyways. We are called the Proeliator Umbra. We are a society that formed in the hopes of resisting evil in its highest forms. As for my identity, I can't tell you that for security purposes."
"Wait, the Proeliator Umbra? You're the leader? Then that makes you Ira Gardener, doesn't it?"
"How do you know that?"
"You signed the letter you sent to Harry" she stated.
"Damn" exclaimed Ira.
"Wait, you were the one who took Harry? Tell us where he is right now or there'll be hell to pay!" threatened Ron.
"Whoa, whoa. Calm down. Harry is perfectly safe, I told you that already. At the moment he is someone very safe where nobody can get to him. He will not be able to communicate to anyone while he is there, although he'll be a little too busy to do so anyways. I promise you however that he'll be back in time for the next school year."
"Well, he better. I don't trust you but Fawkes seems to so I'll give you the benefit of a doubt" cautioned Molly, moving into full mothering mode.
"Okay, I'll make sure of that. Oh, by the way, could you guy not spread around my name or the fact that I'm in anyway involved with the Order of the Phoenix. If the other death eaters find out, my cover will be blown."
"What?"
"Yeah, the other death eaters will not take too lightly if they knew that I was your leader." Ira pulled up the hem of his left sleeve to expose his left forearm which was bare except for the famous dark mark scored into his skin. There was a huge collective gasp from around the room at this new revelation; the last person who had a dark mark had ended up betraying them all.
"You're a death eater…"
"Yeah, how else is a spy to get information. The wards on Tom's new headquarters will not let anyone besides people with the dark mark get inside, which reminds me, I have some bad news for you all."
"What is it?"
"Mundungus was tortured and killed yesterday by me. It was a part of my final initiation. He told us about Fawkes choosing the new leader so Tom knows about that." The looks on the crowds face seemed grim. Mundungus may not have been overly popular but it was still saddening to hear about his death.
"But back to a lighter subject" continued Ira. "I guess we can come to a compromise about the whole me being the leader of both the Proeliator Umbra and the Order of the Phoenix. How about we join our efforts to fight Tom then? I'll send some of my people here tomorrow to help collaborate with you. The Order will be our public face always then. That will protect our capabilities; making the enemy underestimates us and it will save us a lot of explanations. The finer details will be explained by my people when they get here tomorrow, around one o'clock in the afternoon. I'll also send some of my other staff to make this house a little safer."
Ira gasped in pain and clutched his left arm. "I apologise but we must be off now. Frederick has to get back to the academy and Tom will be suspicious if I don't report in for the meeting." They were about to leave, someone spoke up and caught their attention.
"Before you go, could you tell us one thing?" asked Tonks.
"Yeah, of course" answered Ira.
"Who's this Tom you keep on mentioning?"
"Why, Voldemort of course." Nearly everyone in the room flinched at the name, but Ira ignored this and carried on, "I can't believe you don't realise what his name is. His name was Tom Marvalo Riddle. You know, that guy who attended Hogwarts around 50 years ago and unleashed the monster of Slytherin, framing Hagrid and eventually became the most feared dark wizard of his era only to be stopped by a one year old child. Yep, that was Voldemort."
There was just a bunch of confused and shocked faces. "Honestly, you make it seem like he just appeared out of thin air or something."
And with that Ira and Frederick burst into a cloud of black dust which promptly disappeared into thin air.
Author's Notes:
Firstly, I will like to apologise for the huge time gap between this and my last update. I had a lot of coursework deadlines and four science modular tests to do. I think that I can get this story updated in the next week up to a fortnight.
Secondly, to those who read the author's notes on the last chapter, I apologise as well. I didn't get around to actually explaining those points except for that ever bothersome 'who the hell are the Proeliator Umbra' question, but I promise that the next one will deal with it.
The next chapter will carry on straight from where we left off in chapter two and will concentrate on the training Harry will have to go through. This will also see the return of Joel and Frederick. Ira, however will not return until a few chapters later where he will show his true colours and start kick some ass (finally, an actual fight sequence). Hope you like it.