Chapter 2

An Ambassador

Harry woke up to a hard rapping on his door. "Potter! Training." He recognized Moody's voice and the clunk of his wooden foot. Groaning he glanced at his watch: 5:30. Moody hadn't been kidding when he said bright and early. He rolled off his bed and started to get dressed. It seemed like he had only gotten two hours of sleep. Sleepily, Harry dragged himself out the door of his room. In the hallway he could hear Ron's distinct snores. He'll probably be sleeping for at least another three hours, Harry thought jealously. Silently, he walked down the stairs of Grimmauld Place, his wand in his pocket. He could already smell pancakes cooking. Evidently Mrs. Weasley had woken up early too.

"Good morning, Harry dear," she said when he entered the kitchen. He saw a heaping plate of pancakes and another of sausages. With a flick of her wand, Mrs. Weasley had them soaring towards the table. "Sleep well?"

"Sort of," he lied and smiled.

"Good. Now do sit down and have some breakfast," she pleaded while she bustled to pick up the pitcher of orange juice. He did, and didn't realize how hungry he was. Mrs. Weasley put a good six pancakes and eight sausages on his plate at first. Before long, Harry had cleared his plate entirely. "There's a good boy," she said, grinning as she placed the rest of the heaping plate onto his own empty one. "Eat as much as you want to, dear. There's plenty more where that came from." Soon the large griddle was frying once again. "Would you like some pancakes, Alastor?" she asked Moody who was sitting in the corner of the room looking intently at the Daily Prophet. Harry hadn't realized he was sitting there.

"Not now thanks, Molly," he replied gruffly. "Although I wouldn't say no to a cup of coffee."

Mrs. Weasley quickly bustled around the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. Harry took the opportunity to look up at the front of Moody's paper, headlined: Muggle Artifacts Bewitched: Ministry Officials on the Scene. Harry had noticed Mr. Weasley hurrying out of the house before he had gone to bed…but then…why weren't they reporting Voldemort? At the end of his fifth year was the last time the Daily Prophet had reported Voldemort in great depth and detail. Moody was in the way back of the paper, evidently intrigued. "Er—Professor?"

"Yeah?" He didn't even look up from reading.

"What are you reading?"

"You see this front page? Have you read the headline?"

"Yes."

He closed the paper. "This front page article only addresses the fact that Ministry officials are trying to figure out who did this. It says their 'leads' lead to careless wizards—most likely drunk—thinking it funny to capture Muggles and bewitch anything and everything they can. It says here that no one should worry and that it has nothing to do with the Dark Lord."

"So that's where Mr. Weasley went? To help the Muggles?"

"Yes. He has informed me that the real leads they have discovered for sure trace back to Voldemort and his supporters. This isn't just one careless act done by drunken fools, Potter. And do you know what kind of Muggle things they bewitched?" Moody's voice kept on getting louder and Harry simply shook his head. "Kitchen knives that would stab Muggles in their sleep! Hedge clippers that will trim more than just the green hedge…and lots of other things too gruesome to even talk about." He flipped his paper to the article he had been reading. "See this?" he asked, shoving it under Harry's nose yet again. "This could be the key to which of Voldemort's supporters was in charge of the bewitching." Harry read: Supporters of You-Know-Who Caught in Drunken Stupor. "This is on the back page for a reason, Potter. The Prophet does not want to shoulder the blame for causing a disturbance of the peace. For the last three years they've tried to hide these types of things. True, they told the public about Voldemort's appearance about a year and a half ago, but unfortunately they don't realize that they're only causing more trouble." Moody brought the Prophet back to himself and started dissecting every word in the column again.

"More pancakes, Harry, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked again. Harry could tell she was in a happy mood now that he'd decided to eat again.

Harry smiled at her. "Yes, please, Mrs. Weasley."

"Now, Potter, you've already learned disguises, the Web of Life, and a few charms, right?"

"Yes."

"Then you'll be studying the Unforgivable Curses today." Harry took in a sharp breath. "Don't worry, I won't be using them on you like that imposter in your fourth year. It's more of a studying lesson rather than a practical one." Moody slammed a humungous dusty book on the table. "All the answers to the questions you will have about the Unforgivable Curses are in there, Potter. I don't expect you to read it all, but throughout today I want you to skim it. Is that clear?"

"Perfectly," Harry replied, picking up the heavy book, his knees practically buckling under its weight.

"Good. Now on the top floor there's a large living room. Do your reading in there so you aren't bothered. I'll make sure no one asks for you."

"OK. Thanks, Professor."

Harry climbed to the top level of Grimmauld Place. Directly to his right he noticed the ancient living room. It was quite out of the way, and there were three huge dusty portraits dominating the walls. Their occupants were sleeping. He opened the front cover of the dusty book and turned to the table of contents. "Chapter One: The Origination of the Unforgivable Curses, Chapter Two: The Use of the Unforgivable Curses, Chapter Three: Unforgivable Curses Help to Open Azkaban…" all the way up to "Chapter One Hundred Thirty Two: Banishing the Unforgivable Curses." Moody had said he didn't expect him to read it all, but skim it…even that would take forever! He began to read…

Nearly five hours later, Harry had skimmed up to "Chapter Fifty- Six: The Unforgivable Curses and Aurors." Although it was somewhat interesting in its own way, there were only so many things he could read about the Unforgivable Curses before it all just looked the same. He didn't realize how much detail went into it. He walked downstairs, the book still under his arm. Moody was again in the kitchen, this time talking to a witch Harry had never seen before in a hushed voice. They both looked up as Harry entered the room.

"Done, Potter?"

"Nope. I just needed a break."

"Good thing, then. Molly says it's almost lunchtime. I'd like you to meet Elizabeth O'Reilly," he said, gesturing to the witch standing beside him. "She's an Auror from Ireland and has come as an ambassador to start up another branch of the Order of the Phoenix. Elizabeth, you know Harry Potter."

She smiled genuinely. "I've heard a lot about you, Harry," she said, extending her hand in a friendly gesture while talking in a rich Irish accent. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," Harry replied. Elizabeth was rather short with mid-length auburn hair and hazel eyes. Her hair accented her pale skin and the few freckles that flecked her face. She looked like she was in her mid-twenties.

Moody chuckled. "Don't be fooled by Elizabeth's appearance, Potter. She's a whole lot tougher than she looks. A great Auror if I ever saw one."

"Thanks, Alastor," Elizabeth stated in her accent, grinning widely again. "It's great to have finally met you, Harry."

Mrs. Weasley then briskly walked into the room and stirred some pots that Harry hadn't realized were sitting on the stove. "Lunch is served in about five minutes, you three," she said. "Harry dear, would you please go upstairs and check that Ron is ready for lunch?"

"Sure, Mrs. Weasley." Harry ran up the stairs, two at a time, and walked into Ron's room where he saw Ron fiercely beating Ginny in a game of wizard's chess. "It's lunchtime, guys," he called into the room, peaking his head around the door.

"One second, mate…almost…have…her…pinned…" Ginny moved her bishop, leaving an obvious spot for Ron to place her king in checkmate. "Yes! Victory is mine!" Ron yelled as he stood up and pumped his fists in happiness, accidentally throwing the chessboard in the process. "Oops, better clean that up later. C'mon, Harry. I'm starving."

The mood seemed almost cheerful at the kitchen table with the Aurors. The snippets of conversation were the lightest Harry had heard in a long time.

"So how has the Bulgarian Quidditch team been this year? I haven't heard much about Krum lately…"

"The Weird Sisters are coming to perform in Diagon Alley this summer! The WWN said so."

"This spaghetti is excellent, Molly."

All expect for Ginny, who was still grumpy due to her spectacular loss to Ron. Her brother didn't help much in the matter; he kept on gloating to her about it. While eating ferociously he tried to tell Harry all about it. "So right away I had already captured her rook and a couple pawns…setting me up to attack her knight…" he took the time to take a huge bite. "'Arry, 'ould 'ou pass da sheez pwease?" Talking politely with food in his mouth never had been a forte of Ron's.

Ginny had been ignoring Ron completely and had started a conversation with Charlie about dragons. "There's really nothing to it while keeping a dragon," Charlie was telling her happily. "All you really have to do is make sure its pen is far enough away from everything that its fire can't reach: trees and houses—old buildings especially. And make sure they have enough food, but that's easy enough—a hundred kilograms of meat is usually pretty good."

"A word please, Harry?" He turned around to see Elizabeth standing behind him.

"Sure." Excusing himself from Ron's play-by-play wizard chess game, he stood up and followed her to the foyer.

"I'm going to have to leave Grimmauld Place soon in order to go back to Ireland. Alastor told me to start my branch of the Order as soon as possible." She looked all around the house and sighed. "I hear this house once belonged to your godfather."

Harry nodded silently in reply. He didn't want to think about Sirius now.

"Sirius Black was a great man. I didn't know him personally, but through the Auror community I've heard a lot of good things about him. My parents had been in this original Order early on before they started up their own in Ireland. They knew Sirius and have always told me good stories about him. Even before his trip to Azkaban he had nothing but loyalty for your parents and the original Order. You should be proud, Harry."

"I am," Harry said, trying to choke back tears at the same time. "I only know Sirius for two years, but it seems like I had known him forever. He was like the father I've never had."

Elizabeth smiled sadly and put her hand on his shoulder in comfort. "Well, I guess I'd better get going. I'll see you soon I'm sure. Bye."

"Bye," he said quietly as she walked out the door.