Chapter 4

The Meeting

Okay, right, sort out this timeline business once and for all. This fic is AU by a year in that I've had the major row between Percy and the Weasleys happens before Half-Blood Prince, rather then OOP. And it's AU from there-on in.

The Prologue is set around March, before the summer of HBP. Chapter 1 is a flashback to Christmas (of OOP) before Sirius' death. Everything else is four months after and on from the Prologue (so around July forward).

Okay- sorry for not being clear about that before.

Extra note- looking through the books, it appears to say only that Harry's birthday is at the end of July so for this I've made it July 30th.

July 31

He was meeting the leader of the Order tonight.

He dressed with hands slightly shaking with emotions ranging from excitement to fear to fury. Percy stopped tying his bootlaces for an instant as he wondered how this was going to go. Thomas- he had finally introduced himself- had appeared late one July night and asked if Percy would be so kind as to visit a certain pub in Muggle London at nine o'clock on Friday to talk with the Preceptor of the Knights. Percy was no fool, however. Though a generally pleasant, chatty individual, Thomas had shown himself to be ruthless before in his dealings and Percy wasn't so sure that he might be seen as an obstacle- a wild card, who knew about them but was not fully loyal to them. He wasn't so sure that if he walked into that pub with no preparations he would walk out again.

It was becoming easier and easier to just disappear lately.

Which was why, concealed in his robes, he had an (entirely illegal) emergency portkey, his wand readily accessible in his sleeve and a small selection of prototypes- half-forgotten products of his brothers' inventive minds. He had found a stash of them when he was moving out, before any this had started. They were the ones he'd confiscated and then forgotten about. He didn't know why he'd decided to bring them, a whim, he supposed, but one he was now very thankful for. These ones wouldn't cause harm, the effects- bright lights, loud noises- would be explainable to Muggle bystanders, and they would give him a certain advantage if it came to making a run for it. That he'd made an illegal Portkey was a source of some worry to himself but he decided eventually that if he didn't need it that it need never be known and if he did need it, it would probably have saved his life. On top of all this, he'd placed a temporary hair- changing charm on the too-noticeable red mop and was planning on being there several hours early.

He sat in the Muggle pub and nervously sipped at the orange juice that he'd ordered to calm his nerves and give him something to do. He was seated in a corner, close enough to a group that at first glance he looked to be part of them, far enough that they didn't react curiously to his crowding them. He watched the patrons- loud Muggles, chatting, laughing and one group in a corner singing to the accompaniment of a man with a fiddle.

Several years ago, he had been given a gift for which he was now more grateful then ever. It had been almost a joke, this gift from Penelope after he'd told her about his dream to work in the Ministry. Since then what had once been a Foe- Concealer had lurked in a drawer in his desk and then in the shed at home while he worked on it. He had been working on it for a month or two- since he had started this spying business. Now it had several charms on it to make it even more sensitive. He tapped it with his wand and it glowed a soft blue. He frowned at it and placed it in his lap, hidden by the table. It wasn't quite ready yet -perhaps never would be- but this was it's trial run. It wasn't strong enough to pick up what wasn't actually directed at the person holding it, but if someone told a lie to Percy while he held the Detector, it would react. This was one good way to know if this mysterious Preceptor wanted to remove him from the picture or not. He just hoped all the glitches had been worked out…

By nine, his nerves were keyed up to the max as he covertly examined everybody who entered the small pub. He wondered if he was just being overly paranoid as he scrutinised a ten-year old who had come in with his parents. He decided that he probably was.

"No, keep looking- I know a certain Auror who would have hit that child with a Finite Incantatum by now."

Percy closed his eyes and groaned inwardly. Blast it! All his careful preparations! He opened them in time to see an elderly man sit down in the seat across from him. His jaw dropped.

"Lemon drop?" twinkled Professor Dumbledore.

He managed to haul his jaw back together before he dislocated it and examined the man in front of him more thoroughly.

"Wait…you're not…" he started as he noted some slight differences between this man and the one he'd known for all these years.

"Very good!" said this man. "My name is Aberforth Dumbledore. And, as you've probably gathered, Albus is my younger brother."

Aberforth Dumbledore really did bear a startling resemblance to his younger sibling. But now Percy came to really look at this man he noted slight disparities. Apart from the fact that Aberforth was wearing Muggle clothing -if golfing trousers and a fedora could be counted as such- this brother was taller and looked older, His eyes twinkled less and, although he looked good- humoured, his face bore more lines of weariness and even…pain? then did that of his brother. He also had a long white beard, although this one had two plaits in it, tied with multicoloured ribbons. Percy was prepared to bet that Aberforth was just as quirky and eccentric as the Professor.

"Likely so," agreed the other man with a smile. Percy wondered for a second if the man could read minds.

"No- only personalities. And I'm a good guesser," said the old wizard. "That's Albus' secret too," he added as an apparent afterthought. "Although I suppose I shouldn't give that away… I must commend you on your preparations by the way. You must always take care in such situations."

"It is not entirely my fault I'm in such a situation!" hissed Percy, fury reasserting over shock as the dominant emotion. He felt a tingling sensation on his arm and quickly damped down his emotions.

Aberforth looked at him gravely. "You're right," he said simply. "Thomas did you a bad deed when he did this to you- but you took on the Kindebts willingly- they cannot be forced. Now it up to you.

"You have been gathering information on us- I know you have!" -the last bit said with a certain amount of humour. Percy couldn't deny it. Once you knew what to look for, especially in the old filing rooms, deep under the Ministry. He had been spending a lot of lunch-breaks and overtime down in the dusty depths of the Ministry going through crumbling parchments, ancient reports and original drafts of laws, some of them no longer in use. He wanted to know what sort of people were using him.

"So what have you gleaned so far?" asked the old wizard with interest. Percy hesitated, eyes narrowing slightly. How much could he tell? Aberforth seemed to sense what was bothering Percy and he added "Don't worry, I ask merely to see how you've fared. I have no ulterior motives." The modified foe- glass/ lie-detector in Percy's hands protested the last comment by growing warm- as it should- and then letting out a beep- which it certainly shouldn't! Hell! He thought he'd sorted out that glitch! Talk about warning the man! Aberforth, nothing if not quick, flushed slightly.

"Don't you?" Percy asked as calmly as possible.

"I apologise," said the older man. "I didn't intentionally lead you astray. I meant, I did not ask you with the intention of injuring you- or worse- if you knew too much." The lie-detector stayed cool but Percy didn't let himself relax.

"Do you mean me or my family harm?"

Aberforth's eyes met Percy's unwaveringly. "I do not. Nor does any member of the Order as things stand at the present time." He held up a hand. "By that I mean that the Knights are soldiers, warriors. We are fighting Voldemort and those allied to him. If you or your family become allied with Voldemort then we are against you." The words were not said as a threat and Percy didn't bristle at the implications as much as his younger siblings might have.

"Alright." He paused to fully collect his thoughts and his voice unconsciously took on the rather preachy tone his brothers detested. "I've learned you are an ancient Order, dating from the time of the Pendragon. He set it up, of course- the Knights of the Round Table. Knights, protection and Round, equality. Two hundred and fifty Knights, divided into twelve Chapters. The names of the Preceptors are legend- Galahad, Lancelot, Bedivere, all of those. Then there were the Three- the joint leaders of the Order. Pendragon, the Queen and the Wizard- Merlin. Learned quite a lot about that time- all that in Muggle histories that can be proven by our own. They acted as…peacekeepers, lawgivers and were part of the Crown. The fifteen top posts stayed the same although the people to fill them changed of course. Five hundred years after the fall of the original Pendragon things were getting bad. The Ministry which had been set up by then, no longer used the Knights as they should do and there was only a Wizard to keep control over the Chapters instead of the full Three. The Wizard- Nore Damus, withdrew the Knights from under the Ministries' control and brought them underground. Since then they have remained undercover, their presence known of by only a few. The Minister of the time declared them outlawed and they remained so -including the most famous one- Robin Wood, whose descendents live in Britain today. A later Minister annulled their outlaw status after their part in the Goblin Wars and gave them special liberties outside the Law under some very strict rules."

Aberforth nodded slowly, removing his own glasses as Percy took a drink of orange to wet his throat again.

"Well researched indeed as for history. The Pendragon and Merlin you have right, but the 'Queen' was actually Morgana Le Fay rather then Ganhumara, Arthur's wife. Ganhumara, or Guinevere lead one of the chapters, called rather confusingly the Queen's Chapter. As you may have guessed I am the 'Wizard' of the Knights, now called simply the Preceptor. The line of the Pendragon and Guinevere and that of Morgana Le Fay is lost and the Three that should lead the Knight is down to one. Hopefully someday that can be changed, the lost bloodlines restored. But go on. What have you found under the Ministry regarding us?"

"Very cryptic. Rarely mentioned by name although you do crop up- usually as a military presence in times of national trouble, the Goblin Wars, the Giant Wars- last mention I found was about the Grindlewald era. Suggested as having helped Professor Dumbledore defeat him."

The older man nodded, looking with a certain amount of respect at the younger. "Very well done indeed. Especially as much of the information about us as possible as removed from the ministry vaults. You must have gone through there with a fine-tooth comb to get that information. But you always are very thorough- I have been reading your reports. It's been the only times I've been glad of Thomas'…less sympathetic streak. They've been invaluable to us. We suspected for long time that Fudge has been paying off some of the top newspapers. "Percy, we are going to discredit Fudge. We're going to remove him from office and get him replaced with someone competent. You know why this is imperative, don't you?"

Percy nodded slowly.

"Because he's seeking an alliance with V…him," he whispered quietly. Aberforth nodded.

"Yes. Through his own cowardliness and lust for power, he is prepared to make a deal with the devil. He will sell us all into Voldemort's hands. He must be stopped. But you have been invaluable to us already. I could not, in good conscience, ask you to do more. Discrediting Fudge will have to be done publicly and loudly- people must be left in no doubt as to his guilt. And it will be dangerous to those involved -make no mistake about it- if Fudge feels cornered he will bite. And his bite has proved fatal in the past, as I'm afraid, your colleague Bertha Jorkins found." At Percy's surprised look, he explained. "She knew even more then she told- some things that would have been dangerous to Fudge. Did you not think it strange that Fudge waited so long before sending anyone out? He knew there was no point and wanted to leave enough time fore her body to be hidden some place where it would never tell it's tale of treachery. But even past Fudge, if this attempt succeeds the people involved will become immediate targets for both Fudge's supporters and those on the Dark side." He sighed and glanced down at his drink before looking up at Percy again.

"We have one or two operatives in the ministry, but none as close to the Minister as you. We could really use you in this. I have no right to ask you, not after how we've treated you but I must. Will you help us, willingly? Will you join the Knights and help us defeat Voldemort and other magical threats to this country and outside?" Percy sat there, floored slightly.

"I don't really have a choice." he said slowly. "With these marks on my arm…I have to repay the debt."

Aberforth shook his head. "There are other, less-dangerous ways of repaying that debt. We are one of Wizard-kinds best known secrets, the Wizarding Army, and we are pledged to defend all people- muggle and wizard alike. We need volunteers, not the coerced. That's what Thomas didn't understand."

"Can I think about it? And also…" Here he looked at the wizard with something like pleading in his eyes. "Can I tell my family? My parents at least. The row I had to have…this estrangement…I understood the reasons but…this is a war. And my family, because of their name and Harry Potter are in the centre of it. Any of us…any of them could be hurt or …or worse at any time. If something was to happen…I couldn't bear it if they all thought I hated them…if they all hated me…I don't have to make a production out of it…I can still be estranged as far as the Ministry is concerned…"

Aberforth looked at him with pity and not a little sorrow in his eyes. "That was for your protection and theirs…but I fear it has caused more harm then good. I was going to release you from that burden anyway. Talk to your family." He paused. "You can't avoid talking about the Knights entirely, but be circumspect. I know about the Order of the Phoenix- your family obviously know how to keep a secret. And my brother knows -theoretically- about the Knights although we have little contact. But he should support you." Here his eyes clouded over slightly before he continued. "Contact me tomorrow and tell me if you want to join us. Make no mistake, we are a military order and you will have to go through rigorous training. You will have to be away from your family for long periods and you will not infrequently be ordered to do things which are dangerous and possibly verging on the illegal- such as going through secret files searching for information with which to discredit the Minister for Magic…" Here Percy blushed slightly. "Remember, Bertha Jorkins knew too much and died for it. Her fate could easily be any of ours. It could be yours. It is tough- but well worth it. Give me you answer tomorrow."

He got up to go but Percy called him back. "Wait! How can I contact you?"

"Your owl, Hermes, knows where to find me." With that, the man slipped between the crowds of people and…was gone. Percy sagged back on the bench, only realising now how keyed up he'd been through that. He felt like he'd just sat through the toughest interview conceived. He snorted quietly, wryly. In a way, he supposed he had. His left hand moved unconsciously to grip his right elbow. He was still Bonded- still had to repay the Kindebts and now this. If he joined, perhaps he could…what? Save Thomas' life or something? Or something, maybe. Also…he'd joined the Ministry for several reasons of which personal ambition was only one. An important one, yes, but still only one. He wanted to make a difference. Well, he'd joined and what had he found? A body of wizards too self-absorbed and cowardly to accept the danger to the whole of the wizarding world. Led by a man he's used to practically worship! And Cornelius Fudge was the worst of the lot. He'd set up several private meetings between Fudge and one Lucius Malfoy. The oh-so-respectable Death Eater that had tried to kill him and kidnap his siblings. He'd forced himself not to react the first time he'd met him after the attack beyond that polite greeting that had nearly choked him. Malfoy'd probably thought he'd escaped unrecognised. But that sneering voice and those ice-chip eyes had burned their way into Percy's mind along with every other detail of that night. He'd played the enthusiastic, but slightly dumb assistant to the hilt whenever Malfoy was around, all the while resisting the incredible urge to punch that aquiline nose. He was fairly sure he'd succeeded (and confirmed the snobbish man's impressions of his entire family while he was at it). Malfoy sneered at him automatically as he passed him but seemingly dismissed him as being beneath notice.

But meeting Lucius Malfoy, while suspicious, did not alone make Fudge an ally (or patsy, more like) of Voldemort. Percy had racked his brains for ways to find out the particulars of these meetings. Offers to take minutes unsurprisingly didn't go down too well, making Fudge look nervous enough to even put the dopey assistant Percy pretended to be on guard. If he'd cared at all about Malfoy's impression of him, he would have been embarrassed. Then he'd come up with the notion of using his brothers' (admittedly genius) Extendable Ears to listen to conversations. He'd felt a bit of a hypocrite using them after all the times he'd given out to the twins over them, but he shrugged philosophically.

If they could see me now... he'd thought once as he transcribed every word spoken next door in feverish shorthand. The first few times hadn't been too successful. Some phrases, such as 'have an understanding?' and 'must not get out, you understand Lucius? It could…ruin my career…people wouldn't understand…" while interesting, were not incriminating.

And then the one which had given him evidence, solid evidence.

"My Master is doing what's best for pure-blood wizardry all over the world. Institutions such as Hogwarts, while fine places, of course, place too much emphasis on the Muggle side of things- they teach Muggle Studies! And half-bloods…well, they happen even in the best of families, but for such families as you and I Minister… My Master is not necessarily working at cross-purposes to you, Minister. The… alliance between the Ministry…" Percy, sleeves rolled up to better write, barely breathing as he took down every word, was crouched down with the Ear extended into an air vent, conveniently hidden from the door by his desk. So he nearly had a heart-attack as the aforementioned door swung open.

He managed to sort out whoever it was- a lost intern apparently, who'd gotten the wrong office, more then irritated at missing possibly vital bits of the conversation next door.

Sure enough, by the time he'd returned the meeting next door was just wrapping up and Percy could have kicked himself for having missed it. Or kicked the intern.

But that was the first time he'd really believed his now tarnished idol was really up to something devious, he thought as he sat in the pub. Well, more serious then the run-of-the-mill deviousness that often seemed to be a requirement for working in public office. The notes were duplicated and a copy passed on to the Knights. After careful thought, he'd encrypted another copy and placed it in his Gringotts bank vault. He'd done some fairly complex enchantments to make it appear to be an old book of medium value- an heirloom, perhaps. If this should go horribly wrong and get him killed, the book, and all the proof it contained, would be sent to Albus Dumbledore.

Now, he stood up and walked out of the pub, still thinking about the offer but paying more attention to his surroundings. The Lie-detector had only beeped the once and Aberforth had explained his 'ulterior motives'- he wanted Percy in the Order proper, of his own will. He'd been very straight-forward about the risks and rewards. He'd made it perfectly clear that as a member Percy would be subject to the Preceptor as his leader and he would be taking part in, well, in a coup, basically. Removing Fudge from power. And if that went wrong...well, the punishment for treason in a time of war was straightforward. Life in Azkaban for relatively minor offences, Dementor's Kiss for major. He had no doubt which Fudge would go for considering how much information was gathered against him only Percy could prove- under Veritaserum for example. He shuddered slightly. No, this would bear definite thinking about. But first…he had to go see his family. He hoped they would at least hear him out.

Chapter 5

The Incident

"…just trying to protect us, Ron," finished Hermione. Ginny rolled her eyes and moved away slightly from the blast radius of Mt Ron before he exploded. Harry watched with a slight sense of foreboding. Ron had shot up and was staring at Hermione incredulously.

"Protect us! What do you mean 'protect us?' When are they going to figure out that they can't protect us!"

You know the drill, pleasereview if you read! Thanks!

AZ