ON TWO LORDS AND A PRINCE
CHAPTER 17: RINGS OF ORDERLY PHOENIXES
The portkey, which Professor Dumbledore gave, Harry sent him to a small windowless room with bare stone walls. It wasn't just the fact that it reminded Harry of a prison cell that caused the raven-haired boy to leap to alert and nearly attack the man that entered the room from the plain wooden door at the far wall. It was just as well that he didn't as the newcomer turned out to be Remus.
"Careful Harry. I know I was a little angry with you the last time I saw you, but there's need to hex my head off," The werewolf said placatingly as Harry relaxed slightly after recognising that his former professor held no threat.
"I can't be too cautious now that Voldemort is back and Dumbledore's portkey did dump me into a bloody prison cell," Harry responded, sounding justly bitter about the destination of the enchanted phoenix pendant that the headmaster had given him.
Remus gave a ghost of a smile. Harry initially thought it was an expression of compassion before rejecting that explanation as him being cynical and resolving himself to not interpret his father's friend's actions in a more positive light. If there was one emotion that Harry had grown to hate more than anything it was sympathy, mainly because it normally disguised a lack of understanding and was a cover for inaction.
"'Mad-Eye' Moody designed the security system. So what would you expect other than complete paranoia?" Remus explained in a manner, which seemed to explain that his brief smile was one of mild amusement.
"But still he could at least treat me properly. As a new recruit I deserve some respect, not the abuse that Mad Eye calls security." Harry responded bitterly. Whilst he believed that caution was both necessary and a good idea, it was a distinct idea from paranoia. Whilst Dumbledore's judgement was extremely dodgy at times, the headmaster was sensible to check who he was handing a portkey to, before handing the said object out to whoever needed it.
"You'll have to wait a few moments for that while Campbell finishes making your Order Ring, which will allow you past the security system. You can't leave this room until you've got one," Remus replied sympathetically. He understood Harry's dislike of the distrust and suspicion that 'Mad-Eye' subjected all the new recruits to, not only had he undergone the same process but it hadn't affected him as much as it had Harry, he had expected it because of his condition. Harry however was the boy who lived and one of the figureheads of the light side and not a werewolf.
Fortunately Harry didn't have to wait too long for Campbell to appear through the plain wooden door, clutching a ring in his gloved hand. Marcus Campbell looked to be around retirement age, white was visibly beginning to peek through his brown hair, and wrinkles were starting to line his face. Age, however, had not made him particularly expressive. He may not have looked warm, but he did look cold or suspicious either.
"This is your Order Ring," He said in a deep and gruff voice that matched his stone cold demeanour, "Wear it all times, even when in bed. The moment you take it off the ring is destroyed and you leave the Order. It won't slip off accidentally, there are charms that prevent it." He held the ring out for Harry who took it, without hesitation and placed it on his finger. He felt it bite into his finger, drawing blood and then disappear as the blood spells that kept it hidden activated. There was no ceremony.
Nor was there any pomp as Marcus and Remus led upstairs to the meeting room. Most of the order members were already sitting around the table, his grandfather, Uncle 'Slinker' and three Weasleys among them. Dumbledore sat at the head of the table, Mad-Eye Moody to his left, Arabella Figg to his right. Harry spied an empty seat at the foot of the table in between his grandfather and Sirius.
"I see you accepted the offer then," Richard whispered to his grandson as Dumbledore opened the meeting, "Just as well as we need another ally to prevent Dumbledore and his penchant for adopting the moral high ground sabotaging the war effort."
"Does he have that many followers in the Order then?" Harry whispered in response, as he looked around the table at the twenty Order members, trying to assess who would vote unquestioningly with Dumbledore. He didn't know everybody, but he was pretty sure that some of the Order members would.
"Some, but not as many as he used to during the last war, when he always got his way. In between that and Harrison's incompetence at the Ministry the situation was pretty desperate until you came along," Richard replied quietly, ignoring a quiet glare that Sirius had sent his way after overhearing the criticisms of the headmaster. Harry didn't even notice as he was paying far too much attention to his grandfather and to the meeting that was in progress.
A meeting, which was currently discussing the current situation with Voldemort and reporting on his lack of visible action. What was most annoying was the lack of a person on the inside of the death eaters. Harry presumed that had been Snape's job, but with the Potions Master out of commission they were left without an operative. But still they did have some information that could be interpreted from the movements and words of the known death eaters.
Apparently, Ebenezer Nott's first action as the new head of the Department for International Co-operation was to make an official visit to Russia, which took in a stop over in the Ural Mountains and an unofficial meeting with the giants, without informing Fudge. Fortunately he managed to offend the giants within the first five minutes. Not that they were particularly keen on doing anything to help the light side either. Remus, who knew more about giants than the rest of the Order, believed there was still a chance that the giants would still join Voldemort, provided that Nott's head was presented to the giants by a different messenger. It was clear, therefore, that at least one death eater's days were numbered. There was little other news of consequence except for some suspicions on the part of the deputy minister, John Corey, that the Death Eaters were plotting to overthrow Fudge and replace him as minister with Julius Lacetter.
"They can't do it yet because they don't control the Wizengamot," Corey surmised, "But if Hamworthy and Malfoy manage to remove Albus, Ogden and Robinson and replace them with their allies, then they would only need two more members to have a majority." They were several grave faces around the Order table. Whilst Harry didn't know much about the twenty-four man body that was responsible for the appointment of the minister, he did know that any take-over of the Wizengamot by Death Eaters and their sympathizers would be disastrous.
"Why would Hamworthy ally himself with death eaters? He may be prejudiced but he's no friend of Voldemort," An old stern looking woman asked. She was sitting next to Arabella Figg so Harry presumed her to be one of Dumbledore's allies. A theory, which was, confirmed when Sirius told Harry that the woman was Shona McKlusky, Snape's rather incompetent predecessor as Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin.
Harry could almost feel Richard roll his eyes, "For the same reason why Malfoy is allying himself with Hamworthy: To control the Wizengamot. He wants to make sure that Fudge cannot be deposed by a no-confidence motion," he explained, the slight exasperation in his face belying his perfectly calm voice. "Not that it would work if both we and the death eaters wanted Fudge out."
"Then we should vote Fudge out!" A rather scruffy man roared. Sirius informed Harry that he was Mundungus Fletcher, their contact in the underworld, "The man's an incompetent fool."
"Things aren't as simple as that, Mundungus," Corey responded politely sounding like the consummate politician. He obviously didn't like Fletcher, "The death eaters can't afford to vote out Fudge, they'd lose Hanworthy's support and without them we'd never win a no-confidence vote. Whilst Jacob Nott's group would never allow a Lacetter to be elected minister, they're perfectly happy with Cornelius as minister."
"Then we have to force him out. Dig up some dirt on him and force him to resign." Fletcher growled in reply, sounding as though he disliked the Deputy Minister just as much as the other man disliked him. "The man's a crook with plenty of enemies. There must be something nasty that I could dig up on him."
"It wouldn't work," Richard said bluntly, "Even if you could dig something up the Prophet would never publish it, Hamworthy wouldn't let them. Flitterson may be the editor, but Hamworthy is the one who really calls the shots at the Prophet, that's the reason why it always loyally backs Fudge. Besides even if they did publish, Fudge wouldn't resign, he'd wait for it to blow over."
"There has to be something we can do! We can't just sit here and let a bloody death eater become minister. It would be a disaster," Sirius snapped with exasperation, his words echoing the sentiments of many of the Order members. Many of the concerned and worried looks had deepened as the conversation around the Order table had progressed. Whilst there was no hint of desperation but everyone knew that the situation was potentially not far off it. All except Harry that is, who thought that the Order had ignored the most obvious and workable option.
"We have to eliminate Fudge before Voldemort is ready to replace him with his lapdog, preferably by killing him. If we pre-empt the death eaters then the Hamworthy/Malfoy deal is void and Lacetter won't be elected minister" Harry stated curtly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. To a man the Order stared at him shocked and horrified by what they heard and above the casual tone in which it had been spoken. Even Slinker and Richard had been surprised by the tone, the latter later comparing it to that of the teenaged Tom Riddle when proposing a similar course of action.
"The young lad has a point," Mad-Eye Moody responded thoughtfully casting a sidelong glance at Slinker. There was no love in the look, merely suspicion and prejudice induced hatred, "We've got these bloodsuckers on our side so we might as well use them." There was no need to say what he would use them for: it was obvious.
Slinker looked positively livid and Harry was pretty annoyed by Moody's comments too. It was Dumbledore who commented though, phrasing a sharp rebuke to his old friend that was met without repentance. The object of the accusation was somewhat harsher in his reply.
"I am a Vampire, not an assassin," he hissed savagely, his eyes momentarily flashing the same shade of scarlet as Voldemort's. "I kill only to live, not to order. If you want a cold blooded murderer then I suggest you look among your precious aurors, you'll find plenty of willing candidates there."
"I will not countenance an attempt to assassinate Cornelius Fudge, for all his faults he is still an innocent in this war," Dumbledore intoned sternly, fixing a powerful, humourless gaze on both Moody and Harry that merely made Harry mentally roll his eyes in resigned amusement and frustration at the headmaster's stubborn moralism, after all in his mind Fudge was a major obstacle to the war effort which needed to be removed as soon as possible.
"Harry's right though," Another Order member said. It didn't take Sirius' words for Harry to identify the man as Romulus Lupin, Remus' elder brother, "If we can remove Fudge before the Wizengamot meets next Thursday, then there's no reason for Hamworthy to ally himself with Malfoy. I can't imagine that he seriously wants Lacetter to be minister."
"Before next Thursday!" Richard choked, looking at his friend strangely, "It would take far more than a week to arrange the removal of the Minister, besides there are other, simpler, ways to break the Hamworthy/Malfoy alliance. All we need is solid evidence that Malfoy intends to replace Fudge and given a few weeks I'm sure we could uncover some, even without our spy in Voldemort's inner circle."
Romulus jabbed his hand on the table as if he had remembered something vitally important, it soon became clear that he had. "Talking of spies. I've got an idea about where Severus might be," he said with a sense of urgency. Many of the people around the table gave him a curious look, although only Dumbledore and Campbell appeared genuinely relieved or concerned. "Slinker told me on Friday that his spies have learned that the Dracula Clan of Vampires are holding a human prisoner, who they are treating unusually well. It would certainly make sense for the prisoner to be him, he did disappear in Transylvania and he would make a good bargaining chip when dealing with Voldemort. Of course we don't know for certain that it's him, but I'm pretty confidant."
"I've asked my spies to find out more," Slinker continued, as the gazes of the assembled Order turned to the Vampire who had provided the information about the fate of a valued, if somewhat aloof, colleague and fellow member, "I hope to have a positive ID of the prisoner by the end of the month and if it is Snape I'll arrange a rescue mission for as soon as possible. I may still try and rescue the prisoner anyway, as whoever it is they must be pretty important to someone, as the security surrounding them is extremely tight and their treatment surprisingly good."
Deepest Apologies for taking so long with with this chapter, but I have had little time to write in recent weeks, a situation which will continue for a while longer.
Thank You to all those who reviewed Chapter 16. The reviews were much appreciated. If you want me to e-mail you when I update this fic leave your e-mail address in your review.