A/N: Disclaimer - I do not know JK Rowling, nor own Harry Potter
Harry sat away from the others, Dumbledore noticed.
While the others crowded around him, Harry alone sat away from the group, not enough to necessarily cause any sort of consternation, but enough to cause a definite break in the group, a lone wolf. Dumbledore hoped to bridge that gap one day, but he knew it was to be a long road ahead. One day at a time he silently vowed to himself
He watched as both Lily and James kept glancing nervously at him, almost like if they believed it too hard, then it would break, and he would disappear forever. Often one or both would begin to reach their hand out, as if to grasp his hand in theirs, but would pull away at the last moment.
Mad-Eye was looking at the young man with a calculating gaze, his normally frenetic electric blue eye alternating between the boy and his contraption outside.
Some of the Order tried referring to it as a golem, but Dumbledore knew that was incorrect, a golem was a natural humanoid shape brought to life with magic.
This looked like it had come off an assembly line, but Dumbledore could feel the magical power that radiated off the machine. He knew he would have to talk to Mad-Eye about this after the meeting and find out what he saw
Dumbledore had always suspected that Harry wasn't dead. The magic around Godric's Hollow did not have the taint of death around it, as he imagined it would have to for that much magic to be at play. But even still people needed a story to rely on, so the story of a baby dying to defeat a Dark Lord was born. His name was venerated as one Harry James Potter, the Boy Who Died.
Standing up, he waited for a moment while the chatter around the table died down.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice, I see no reason to delay the inevitable any longer." he heard some appreciable chuckles from around the room.
Older students remembered Dumbledore's penchant for long-winded speeches during the end-of-year feasts while at Hogwarts.
"Harry Potter has returned."
Nearly everyone not at the Ministry gasped at hearing the revelation. A clamor of questions came tumbling out, one after another.
"What… how?"
"That's, that's not possible"
"Seriously, how?"
Everyone started talking at once, trying to make sense of the bomb that just dropped.
"Enough!" James slammed his hand down on the table, quieting the questions.
"Thank you, now Albus, if you would be so kind as to enlighten us as to why Harry,'' he gestured to the unbothered young man. "Is here"
As he looked at harry, seemingly profoundly uninterested to the casual observer, but still alert if you looked for the signs. He got the feeling that he was in the presence of a dragon, a being you had to handle with great care if you wanted to live.
If Dumbledore were to be honest with himself, he was a little worried about Harry and his apparent ease with which he took the lives of Death Eaters, people with hopes, and aspirations, people he truly believed weren't beyond saving, weren't beyond redemption.
Dumbledore wasn't stupid, he understood accidents happen especially in the heat of battle, but he had watched Harry after the battle at the Ministry, and he didn't even shudder once he was safe. He simply went about his day, as if brutally killing all those poor misguided people didn't phase him in the slightest.
James cleared his throat, breaking Dumbledore away from that train of thought.
"An explanation if you please, Albus."
"Ah, yes, of course, my apologies, an old man like mine tends to wander occasionally. So how did young Harry," he gestured to the boy sitting a little way off from the group "Survive that fateful night 16 years ago? I have no proven answers but I do have some theories."
"We all know your theories are usually right on the money," Cormac McDougal said from his seat on the far end of the table.
"Quit screwing around and answer the damn question Albus," Mad-Eye Moody said.
Dumbledore took a deep breath and began his theory.
"As you are all well aware that fateful night, no bodies were found. I found that rather odd, given the size of the explosion of that magnitude, one would expect to find, if not a body, then at least pieces of one. Given Barnabus Willoughby's excellent treatise on the probable existence of a multitude of universes-"
"Hang on," Lily interrupted, understanding where he was going with this, "But the magical expenditure had to have been gigantic, it's not-" Her words trailed off before falling in Harry, his familiar green eyes looking profoundly disinterested in this whole affair.
"Assuming you're right, Albus, and it is Harry back from another universe, how does that change our plans?" Mad-Eye said.
"Our son just came back to us and you're already wondering how our son, a mere child, changes the war?" James asked incredulously, "May I remind you that he is merely a boy of sixteen, and is, as such still legally a child, by both magical, and non-magical law. We should not be involving this child!"
"You saw what he did to the death eaters in the Ministry, you saw the combat potential he holds!" Mad-Eye shot back, "We need him-"
"And it's precisely his performance at the Ministry why we can't involve him," Remus cut in forcefully, He slaughtered how many death eaters? And seemingly without remorse! And may I remind you, that we have no jurisdiction in the Ministry, they were to be captured and turned over to the Aurors! To be given a trial as is required by the Wizengamot charter"
The whole room stilled as Harry stood, his eyes sharp and ready to cut if someone so much as uttered a peep. Even Dumbledore was surprised at the power radiating off the boy.
"Shut up and let me talk," he said.
He didn't yell but still, it chilled everybody to the bone. The room went deathly quiet and only the sound of shallow breathing permeated the atmosphere.
"Now, it's my turn." Harry turned to Dumbledore. "You're the leader of this group."
Dumbledore locked eyes with the boy, and even without Legilimency, he could sense a hardness in the boy's eyes. He took an involuntary step back.
"I am," Dumbledore said, wondering where this was going.
"Are you, or are you not at war with these so-called Death Eaters?"
Dumbledore thought about it for a moment before nodding in the affirmative.
"We are," he said with confidence.
"So then where is your government in all of this?" Harry asked, slipping into intelligence-gathering mode.
"They refuse to acknowledge that he's back."
"He, who is this he?"
The others had been constantly switching their focus attention between them, like a tennis match between the greats.
"He is Lord Voldemort, the greatest dark lord since Grindelwald," Albus said.
"So when did this, Lord Voldemort, disappear?" Harry asked, having already come up with a theory.
"The same night you disappeared," Dumbledore replied.
"And you never believed him truly dead, did you?" Harry asked.
"No, no I did not, I did not think either you or him were ever truly gone."
"But he was defeated for the time being, correct?" he asked, trying to get the story straight.
"That is correct," Dumbledore agreed.
"So what exactly did you do in the meantime?"
"What do you mean? We had won the war, Voldemort was defeated." Dumbledore defended coolly. "What else was there to do?"
"Except by your admission, you didn't think he was truly gone. So what did you do to prepare for his inevitable return? And what of his supporters, No man can truly rule a;;one, a man must indeed have followers, from what I saw he had many supporters, so it stands to reason that he would have had followers during his first rise, no? He wasn't alone this time, So, correct me if I'm wrong, but he probably had followers before, So how did you handle those?"
"Of course, the offenders went to prison," Dumbledore said as if this had been the most obvious thing.
"Except those that claimed the Imperius defense," came a quiet voice from the back corner of the room.
"The Imperius Defense?" Harry asked curiously, "what exactly is that?"
"The Imperius Curse is one of three 'Unforgivable Curses.' it strips the recipient of the curse of all free will and forces them to do the caster's will. People with extremely high willpower can throw it off, but it is extremely difficult, most witches and wizards can't manage it."
Harry began nodding in understanding, he understood how being stripped of your free will and being forced to do despicable things would make just sentencing hard. Given how was it really their own free will if it was consumed by the will of the caster?
"Is there a way to make sure those that were claiming the Imperius defense were telling the truth?"
"There's Veritaserum, a truth-telling potion, but it's not admissible in court?"
"And why not?" Harry asked, fearing that he would not like the answer.
"Because it's always been this way, many of the old families had secrets they did not want to reveal. And this was hundreds and hundreds of years ago, so when they invented the potion it was immediately ruled inadmissible."
"And let me guess, the same old families kept the law on the books, for seemingly the same reason." Harry finished exasperatedly.
"And also the same people claim that strong-willed people were able to throw off the effects, therefore making it detrimental for use in court, because a lie could be taken as absolute truth simply because they had taken, and beaten Veritaserum." Remus cut in.
"And you are?" Harry asked pointedly.
"Your uncle Moony, your dad was one of my best friends at Hogwarts."
"I barely even know my father, let alone you, I fail to see how you can claim a familial bond with me, given the fact that I have no memory whatsoever of you."
"Aw, c'mon Harry, it's me your Unca' Moo'ey as you used to call me," he said, switching from a solemn middle-aged man to acting like a petulant child extremely quickly.
"Don't talk to me so condescendingly. I'm not a child anymore." Harry snapped, before continuing ."So they argued that they were too weak-minded for the Imperius Curse but too strong-willed for Veritaserum to work on them." shaking his head at the supposed idiocy, of the so called "wizarding world"
His father, James whined, "Harry, you weren't there, you didn't know the amount of terror that existed beforehand, and you don't know how happy everyone was to put this tragic event in the past. How much people wanted to just move on with their lives! Please, Harry, please understand."
Harry decided to drop that line of questioning for the time being. "OK fine, We will move on, while putting a pin in this."
Turning back to Dumbledore he asked, "Ok, so leaving that point at the time being, what else did you do to prepare for his return?"
"I'm the headmaster of one of the most prestigious educational institutions in all of Europe," Dumbledore said proudly.
"So you're training children to fight in this war? I thought that was frowned upon if what I overheard was any indication."
"No, no, of course not, what we are going through is preparing young men and women to become marvelous witches and wizards, to lead us to a better tomorrow."
"That's all well and good," Harry said, "but what did you do, in the intervening 14 years between his defeat and when he returned to make it easier, or hell even possible for you to defeat him, the next time he showed up? Have you found any of his soul jars?"
Dumbledore went pale at hearing this, "How, how did you know?"
"When I went into the academy I had to do a complete physical, and they found a piece of a foreign soul in my scar." He traced the extremely light scar, that could now only be seen if you were looking for it, "Given the size of the fragment they had found, and given the way the soul splits they postulated there six other pieces, in jars and the final still in the body."
"We've, we've found one" Dumbledore stammered, looking like he had just seen a ghost.
"Headmaster, What is he talking about?" a lanky man in his mid twenties asked, looking concerned, if he's talking about what I think he's talking about, Oh Merlin, please, please, please don't be what I think they are, and seven? SEVEN!
"Bill, please, we will talk about this later." Dumbledore said, looking as if he had just been ambushed.
"No Headmaster, I need to know now. Gringotts, needs to know now." swallowing hard, Bill Weasley turned to Dumbledore, and looked him straight in the eye. "How long have you known?"
Dumbledore looked down, defeated. "I had my suspicions after I learned that he had fled to Albania. But I had no Idea where they could be. So I decided to keep my suspicions to myself. I had it handled."
"DID IT EVER OCCUR TO YOU THAT THIS KIND OF SHIT IS MY JOB?" Bill began to yell, when suddenly he went very quiet, a look of horror crossing his face as realization dawned on him.
"The Diary! The diary was one!"
Dumbledore tried to shrink further down into his seat.
"Please Bill, this isn't the time nor the place to be having this conversation. Can we please finish this then you and I can continue this conversation elsewhere?"
The man sitting in the corner looked confused. "The diary was what, son?" he asked, beginning to look concerned.
"A horcrux, Dad, a horcrux."
A gasp went up from a few people in the room, at that revelation, but most just looked confused.
"What's a horcrux?" asked a plump blonde witch who looked to be about fifty.
There was a quickly muttered conversation between Lilly nd the older lady, before the old lady's face morphed into one of shock, and disgust
The man in the corner went from placid to fiery in the blink of an eye.
"You mean my daughter was possessed by a horcrux while at Hogwarts?" he said, looking horrified.
"Please, please I beg you, let us take this conversation to another room." standing up, he beckoned the two men. The older man grabbed a woman by the hand who he was sitting next to, and led her out of the room, following his son and Albus Dumbledore.
"Now, boy," said a grizzled old man, his left leg made of wood and an electric blue orb in the socket of his missing eye. "My name is Alastor Moody, but most people call me Mad-Eye. I have some questions for you if you don't mind."
"Now listen here Mad-Eye, you're not drafting our son into the war." James tried to cut in.
"Ah, shut it Potter, he's already involved, do you think Voldemort will allow some unknown in a giant-ass robot to lie low? No, he was involved the second he stepped out of the Veil of Death. So either butt out or help us have a productive conversation."
Harry grinned at the man, finally glad there was someone who understood.
They stood up ad walked to another room, Mad-Eye's leg making a clunk sound every time he took a step.
"Son, listen here, I know we've talked your ear off from here to Sunday about shit that frankly doesn't really matter. Here's the hard truth: We haven't done near enough to stop the rise of the Dark Lord, ever since he was defeated the last time. Too many got off either through bribery or simple incompetence, Albus I thought asked for far too much leniency, I thought."
"Albus Dumbledore is a good man, but sometimes I think he's gone soft in his old age, he's smart, probably too smart if I'm being honest. He thinks he has all the answers and he's a bit too strict on the 'need to know' side of the protocol, and you saw how that backfired. Bill Weasley is a curse-breaker.
"It is literally his job to go to some of the most dangerous places in the magical world and uncurse them, he probably knows more about 'soul jars' as you called them, than any two people in this room with the exception of Dumbledore. And even then I'd reckon he had more practical knowledge on dealing with them then Dumbledore does."
Harry nodded in understanding, many washed out or retired pilots still needed that adrenaline rush and would do something similar. His estimation of this Bill Weasley went up quite a bit.
"Don't discount the rest of the family out yet either, the man in the corner? That was Arthur Weasley, the patriarch of the clan, he's now the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artifact office. Most people see it as a joke of the department, but it's really not, he has to understand how the item is supposed to work but also how to counter each and every jinx, hex, curse, whatever was put on it. Most department heads only lasted three years on the job before being blown up, or killed by something, Arthur? He's done it for twenty-five years and is still going strong."
"Charlie, Bill's younger brother works at a dragon reserve in Romania, as a dragon handler. Percy, the middle son can come off as a bit of a prat, nut don't let that fool you, the kid is a political mastermind, two years out of hogwarts he was the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation's assistant, meaning he essentially controlled the British Magical Ambassador's schedule,and by extension him. If Percy doesn't want you to meet with Barty Crouch, the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation , then you aren't meeting him. I'll eat my goddamn leg if he's not minister for magic by the time he's thirty."
"The twins Fred and George are pranksters, but don't let their lacksidal attitude through you off. I've never met a more dedicated or ingenious pair of people in my life, give them a goal and a reason to rach it. And whoo boy just watch them fly, they just graduated last year, and started up their own business already selling like gangbusters. They'll be the richest entrepreneurs in Great Britain, both magical and muggle, if they have their way."
"The youngest son, Ron, he feels a bit overshadowed sometimes, but damn does that kid have a mind for strategy. Chess is a game that tests your strategic thinking, and I've never seen anyone better. If he could just get out of his shell then he could be one of the best commanders this world has ever seen."
"Saving the best for last, one miss Ginevra 'don't-you-ever-call-me that-my-name-is-Ginny' Wesaley, She has six older brothers who are simultaneously terrified of her and will burn the world down for her if she asked, Now you tell me, how scary must she be if the sixI just described to you are terrified of her, her best friend is actually your little sister." Mad-Eye finished that last part with a genuine smile.
"What I'm trying to to say here, Harry, is that as much as we don't want want to admit it is this war isn't ours," he gestured at the old people in the room, "To fight, it's yours" he pointed at Harry and made a gesture seemingly to indicate the young people.
"What you saw in the Ministry, that was only the beginning, and no one seems willing to fight. Wars are a series of escalations, and the first to stop escalating loses, and you just inadvertently gave us a huge escalation, people just need to see it as such. So commander, what's next?"
Harry let a smile slip across his lips.
Here was the first person who seemed willing to fight these people, truly fight them.
A/N I got the idea for the Hyper competent Weasley's from MIster Cynical's fic Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum check him out, he's great! And Special thanks to Chiaroscurogirl for her excellent beta work!