Chapter 4: The Order Meets
"What?" Tonks exclaimed.
"Severus Snape?" Eliza asked, staring suspiciously at Hestia. She chewed on her lower lip, as though she was doing some quick thinking.
Lupin, Harry, Ron, Hermione stood up, looking at her, at a loss for words.
"Yes. But before they could capture him; he Disapparated. I've never seen Kingsley so mad; but the most interesting thing was the way Snape behaved. Kingsley said the man insisted that: Dumbledore wanted to die. What rubbish!" Hestia said in a rush.
"Where did they find Snape?" Harry asked quietly. Hatred and anger rose inside him like a huge monster which had been hibernating for a long time. He could almost picture Snape leering at him with that superior smirk, as though challenging him for war. Harry wanted revenge.
"Near his house, of course," Hestia answered non-committally.
Lupin, who hadn't said a word through-out the exchange, looked at Harry with raised eyebrows. Harry could see the unspoken suspicion in his eyes.
"Listen, Harry," Lupin began, "As much as you want to go after Severus, you can't. You don't even know Severus as well as I do. Just leave the matter to us, we'll take care of it," he said in a placating tone that suggested rather frivolously that Harry was behaving like an annoying two-year-old.
"I know Snape better than you do," Harry shouted, his voice rising shrilly with every syllable. Ron, Hermione stared at him, but Eliza cast him a venomous glance. Harry was now shaking with mad fury, "You weren't the one who had to see him kill Dumbledore. None of you were there to save him. He was pleading. But none of you even bothered to find him-"
"Don't you dare accuse him," Eliza interrupted furiously. Her face remained calm, though she was breathing hard.
There was a shocked silence that ensued. Ron was staring at her, open-mouthed, as though she was an alien from outer space. Hermione's face was passive. Harry opened his mouth, but the words didn't come out.
Finally, he found his voice and asked her crossly, "Who are you to tell me that anyway?"
If Eliza was offended by Harry, she didn't show it. Her face was as calm as ever, which only added fuel to Harry's fire. "He's my uncle, in case you haven't noticed," she replied frostily.
"Now, Eliza, don't go arguing like that. We already have enough to deal with and the last thing we want is a fight," Lupin stated plainly.
"If he says another word-" she began, but Lupin quickly cut her off.
"I've known Harry for longer than you have," he said calmly, as though this could clear things up. Eliza just grimaced, but said nothing after that; although she continued to glare at Harry, reproachfully. This did nothing to improve Harry's mood. He was tired of everyone treating him like a child. Hadn't they already lost Sirius because Harry was constantly kept in the dark? Hadn't they realised that they ought to at least keep him informed as well to avoid any more deaths? And who was Eliza to lecture him? He'd only met her only today.
"Shouldn't we inform Minerva, Remus?" Tonks' voice cut sharply into Harry's thoughts.
"Kingsley already did," Hestia answered.
In the next few minutes, there was a lot of popping and cracking as almost fifty people Apparated into the hall. Still, the room looked as though it could fit even twice that number because of its vast dimensions. Most of them were known faces to Harry like Moody, Amanda and Sturgis Podmore. As he scanned the room, his eyes fell upon Viktor Krum, who was deep in conversation with Hagrid and a grubby little wizard with a pointed nose and pale complexion. Hagrid was shaking his head in disapproval on something that they were discussing. Harry's thoughts returned to Krum. Of all people who could've joined the Order, Harry couldn't imagine Krum being there. Wasn't he busy with his Quidditch? He turned around to see if Ron or Hermione had noticed him.
Ron had obviously seen Krum and catching Harry's eyes; he raised his eyebrows questioningly. Hermione on the other hand, had not noticed; she was inattentively twirling a knot of her hair between her fingers, apparently lost in thought. Harry nudged her towards Krum and seemingly woke her up from her previous trance; she looked at Harry and nodded, without a flicker of surprise.
"Viktor's been a member of the Order since last summer," she elaborated in a tone usually used with five-year-olds.
"How did you know that?" Ron raised the question quickly. He then narrowed his eyebrows at her and continued in a suspicious tone, "You haven't been in contact with him, have you?"
"Why does it matter to you?" Hermione asked coolly.
Harry, sensing trouble, quickly changed the topic. "Ron, where are your parents?" he asked, looking around.
"Dunno, maybe they went to St. Mungo's to see Bill," he said vaguely, still glaring at Krum.
"Why is Bill at St. Mungo's?" Hermione asked, looking concerned.
"Because it is the full moon in another two days or so," Ron answered in the same monotonous tone.
Suddenly the muttering within the room was silenced and Harry saw the reason for this; Professor McGonagall had entered the room. Her face looked strained, just as it had been that morning. Worry lines etched her face and her lips were pursed together. The Order members around her silenced as though she was their teacher and they, her students. Her eyes fell upon Harry, Ron and Hermione, and a flicker of doubt or annoyance, Harry couldn't decide which, flashed across her face; but she finally said, "You might join us Potter, Weasley, Miss Granger," she paused and then added, "and Miss Rosenay, as well."
Harry gave Ron and Hermione an amazed look; he had not expected this; especially from McGonagall. However, he proceeded to follow the others. They entered a room which looked like a Conference Hall. There was a podium in front, complete with a luxurious-looking chair and table. Harry guessed that it was for Professor McGonagall. Sure enough when she arrived, she made her way straight to the top. She waved her wand, a piece of parchment and quill appeared out of thin air.
The room could seat at least a few hundreds, thought Harry. It seemed as though people had been assigned their places, because each one of them made their way to a particular seat without any hustle or bustle. Harry could see Tonks and Lupin took a seat together; Hagrid, Amanda and Krum were right behind them. Moody, Sturgis, Hestia and Kingsley were seated behind Hagrid.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Eliza made their way to one of the last rows, and looked up expectantly for the meeting to begin. McGonagall cleared her throat. Harry looked at the quill on the table, which rose to a ready position; as she spoke, the quill began to move on the parchment.
"We're gathered here to discuss the matter of Severus Snape, who's been in hiding since Dumbledore's death," her voice faltered. Clearly, Dumbledore's death had left a deep impact on her. She regained her voice and continued, "We believed him to be on our side, but after Dumbledore's death, doubts were created in some of our minds. We're lucky, if I might add that we have some first-hand information on the subject in the form of Kingsley." She gestured for him to rise and continued, "If you would elaborate on what happened,"
Kingsley stood up, cleared his throat, and started rather mysteriously, "Well, I'd gone to do you-know-what. I'd covered almost all the places except for Spinners End. I didn't think I would find anything there, but I just thought I'd check it out. Just when I had decided that nothing useful could be found, Snape Apparated. I was shocked to see him in broad daylight and all, what with the whole of Britain looking for him, but he was not the least bothered. He greeted me with a sombre 'hello', as though we'd gathered there for a tea-party. I tried to stun him, but he blocked my spell and gave me this cock-and-bull story. He told me that he didn't want to kill Dumbledore, but he was forced to kill. He was really on our side, but had no choice. This is clearly a part of some plan which he's cooked up to fool us, no doubt about that," he finished crossly.
"Thank you, Kingsley," McGonagall said. Her eyebrows were knitted together and she grimaced. "Was the Malfoy boy with him?"
"No, come to think of it; it was just Snape," Kingsley answered looking puzzled.
"Fine, what are your opinions on this?" she addressed the rest of the crowd.
"Listen Minerva," Moody said rather rudely, "we all know Snape was and is a Death Eater. Albus believed in second chances and see what happened to the poor bloke. He made a fatal mistake, Minerva. You need to learn from his mistakes."
McGonagall said nothing, but appeared to be in deep thought while the quill on her table continued to scribble away.
Hagrid then gave them his opinion, "Professor McGonagall, yer makin' a fool of yerself if yeh believe Dumbledore made a mistake. He's the cleverest wizard tha' ever lived. He's not sommat to make mistakes, is he? Tha's all I have ter say," he finished rather abruptly.
Amanda then voiced her opinion, "Minerva, I sent him a notice of the Order meeting. If he really is on our side, he would have turned up, right?"
"You didn't give him the password, did you?" Moody asked disbelievingly.
"Not the password, Mad-Eye; only the time and place," Amanda said lightly.
Moody just shook his head and muttered something in which Amanda could catch phrases like 'totally irresponsible' and 'constant vigilance'.
"Now, we have other matters to deal with," McGonagall ended their conversation. Looking up at Harry, Ron and Hermione, she narrowed her eyes. "You three are returning to Hogwarts, I presume?"
"Yes Professor, provided Ron and Hermione are allowed to go along with me to look for the Horcruxes," Harry replied coolly.
"You can go Mr Potter, but as for Mr Weasley and Miss Granger, you'll have to ask their parents for permission, I'm afraid," she answered in an equally cool tone.
"Minerva, how can you allow them to wander off on their own? They're not old enough," Moody objected. He rolled his eyes at McGonagall, as though this would be that last thing anyone in their right mind would do.
"How about having an Order member accompany them? We could take turns at it…" Tonks looked at Moody hesitantly, expecting him to object.
"Yes, that should be fine," McGonagall agreed before Moody could say anything.
Though Moody wasn't able to say anything, it was evident from his face that he didn't quite approve of the idea. Fortunately, he was outnumbered.
"Anything else we need to discuss?" she asked, addressing the crowd.
"There was an attack in Hogsmeade today. No casualties, as far as we know. Remus and I managed to put Fenrir Greyback and a few other Death Eaters are in Azkaban, though," Tonks said with a twinkle in her eyes.
"Um, Nymphadora, according to the latest news, Greyback and the others are out of Azkaban," Sturgis Podmore corrected her.
"Outrageous! They broke out in a single day!" Tonks said incredulously.
"Unfortunately," McGonagall muttered. "Perhaps, we will need to talk to the Minister about this. We will need new guards for Azkaban, other than wizards,"
"Anything else?" she asked them once more. Seeing that no one responded, "Fine, meeting dismissed," she announced in a tone that reminded Harry of her way of dismissing Transfiguration classes.
All the Order members dispersed rather noiselessly. Harry was left to his own thoughts. Now that he'd got permission to look for the Horcruxes, his thoughts turned to the next pressing question: Where to start looking for the Horcruxes? It seemed as though he was looking for the proverbial pin in the hay-stack. Could he come out successful, or rather alive from this ordeal? Even if he did manage to destroy the Horcruxes; there was still Voldemort himself, along with his whole army of Giants and Inferi, not to mention the Dementors. As if all this was not enough, Azkaban wasn't safe anymore, either. Then there was also Snape. Harry sighed. It was a tall order indeed; he didn't even know where to begin. He was beginning to feel lost…