Dumbledore surveyed the room gravely. These were the people that he must speak to, the people who he could not lie to. The people whose lives were in his hands. These were the people that he would probably end up killing. The people who would die at the hands of others, yet their blood would still be on his hands. That is if he didn't end up dead before they did.

He knew that he wouldn't survive this war. He was old, and he was tired. His friends of old were long gone, his sons and daughters dead, his wife dead, his students dead- all dead. Lily and James, Sirius

"I won't lie to you now, I could never lie to any of you. The link between us all has seen to that. A dark cloud is ahead of us now. A cloud of pain and strife. We are here to stop this cloud from consuming everything. Consuming all of us.

"I will be in front of you leading you into battle, but I will also be behind you. I will support your decisions like you have supported mine. I would die for you all, and I would kill for you all. You are my Order. Nothing can kill your spirit because each and every one of you has the spirit of the phoenix. Nothing can kill a phoenix!

"We are in hard times, and things are about to get harder. Some of you are probably wondering why you're here at Hogwarts and not at Headquarters. And some of you already know. Needless to say some of you are going to be upset by what I have to tell you. Our spy is dead.

Many people made noises of shock. "How did it happen Dumbledore?" asked Molly Weasley.

Dumbledore responded, "Avada Kedavra , there are symptoms of the Cruciatus curse on his body. His tongue is partially bitten through, and there are nail marks in his hands. We sent a letter to his remaining relatives when his body came back here, but there has been no response. It seems that we will inter him into the Hogwarts Mausoleum."

Another gasp of shock from Molly Weasley. "But, the Mausoleum! How long has it been since anyone's been buried in there

"No one's been buried there since, well, since Headmaster Dippet died. There was talk of interring Lily and James, but that's not what they wanted. They had made plans for them to have a spot in the Potter Mausoleum if anything were to go wrong. They had added two shelves, on for them, and on for Harry- right above where their coffin is. You see, they loved Harry with all their hearts and wanted him to be with them for eternity." No one in the Order had expected Remus to answer Molly's question, least of all Dumbledore.

"The first in fifty years Dumbledore? Are you sure that's what Snape would want?" Enquired Molly. "Even as a child he never did want to be in the limelight."

"That's where you're wrong Molly, Severus Snape always did want to be recognized. That's why he hated James and Sirius so much. They had what he couldn't." With that said, Remus Lupin- last of the true Marauders- left the room and closed the door.

Molly looked concerned as Remus left, and to take everyone's mind off of what had just happened Dumbledore answered. "Yes Molly, that's what Severus would have wanted. He always did say that Hogwarts was more home to him than this ancestral house ever would have been."

After a few minutes of each person contemplating his or her own thoughts Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Now, onto the next order of business..."


Back in Little Hangleton, in the sitting room of the Riddle House sat the thing once known as Tom Riddle- now called Voldemort by the brave, You-Know-Who by the masses, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named by Ollivander, or the Dark Lord by the Death Eaters- in a huge elaborate chair. His inner circle stood in a semi-circle around the chair. On his right side Lucius Malfoy- smug as ever, and on his left Bellatrix Lestrange.

Bellatrix had killed her husband for her Lord and master. Lord, master, and now soon-to-be lover. The corpse of the once-Rodolphus Lestrange lay on the floor of the house. The heat hadn't even left his body yet and his wife now belonged to someone else. How fickle this world was.

Rodolphus Lestrange had been too much of danger to the true cause. He hadn't been nearly as insane as his wife- hadn't been nearly insane as he should have been. Bellatrix had been willing to give all for her cause, her husband hadn't. So, it made sense to kill him. Besides, he had been a thorn in the side of the Dark Lord. What the Dark Lord wanted, the Dark Lord got- and what he had desired was Bellatrix

"Faithful Death Eaters! The time for our revolution has come! We've had to wait for fifteen long years, but your patience will be rewarded a thousand times over!

"Faithful Death Eaters! Your wait is over! Soon you will let your thirst be slaked by the blood of the un-pure! We will eliminate the thousands of filth, leaving only the pure! We will not lose! We cannot fail! We are right! We are mighty!"

The inner circle lifted their voices in a great cry- more animalistic than human. It was the cry of a hungry wolf. The cry of the Amazon. The war cry of the blood- thirsty. It pierced the heart of all within hearing rang.

It was more real than anything ever experienced before. It was everything, more than anything that had ever mattered before. Revelling in this delight the Dark Lord lifted his head and joined in with his inner circle.

Voldemort knew that somewhere out there the muggle-filth that inhabited Little Hangleton were huddling closer to their fires and crossing themselves over and over. He took delight in that, and his war cry rose in volume until it was louder than that of all the others.

Of course all good things have to come to an end and soon the cry had ended and all the inner circle looked at each other. Their hair was dishevelled and their breaths heavy.

Voldemort kicked Lestrange's corpse. It seemed that it would take more than one killing to slake his blood lust. And now he'd have to find someone else to take the place.

"Someone get this out of here," he hissed. "Leave him for the Aurors. And the rest of you get out!"

In a seamless motion all the Death Eaters bowed low to the floor and backed out of the room. All except for Bellatrix, knowing to stay when her Lord and Master wanted her to. This was the moment of reckoning.

It was going to be a very busy night...


The trip to the Alley would be a long one. Professor Kiliani had already chosen partners for the trip. They were to sit together, and they were to share a room with each other. Ginny was partnered up with a girl named Braeleigh. She didn't seem to be annoying or mean, but Ginny got the feeling that the Ravenclaw already knew who she was.

Harry had been partnered with Aubrey, much to the chagrin of Ron, who had been placed with Neville. Seamus and Dean had been partnered with each other. Hermione had been stuck with Cho Chang (who was giving her nasty looks when ever her back was turned). Luna had been partnered with Susan Bones. Crabbe and Goyle (who were unfortunately in the class as well) were each other's partner. Everyone pitied Zacharias Smith, although he was a git, because nobody (no matter how annoying) deserved to be stuck for two days with Draco Malfoy.

They seemed to be on some sort of carriage-like contraption, which was about the size of the Knight Bus, but was considerably less rocky. Beside her was Braeleigh, and across the aisle were Harry and Aubrey. In front of Ginny were Ron and Neville, and across from them were Hermione and Luna.

The fact that Ron and Hermione had chosen a seat there kind of annoyed Ginny. It was a bit pathetic that they always had to be in the same area as Harry. But what really pissed Ginny off was that eversince the fight on Saturday Ron had been watching Ginny closely. Why couldn't he leave justher alone?

An all too familiar voice interrupted Ginny's musings. Draco Malfoy.

"And how is precious Potty today? Feeling a bit... out of sorts?" Drawled the heir to the Malfoy fortune.

No one had a chance to say anything before Ginny did. This was one time that she wouldn't be interrupted.

"And how is the Ferret today?" she mocked, "A lot more smug now that Daddy escaped?" A fake pout went perfectly with her tone.

His cheeks flushed pink. "Shut up Weaslette! Or else I'll..."

She interrupted his words smoothly. "Or else you'll what? Try to kill me? Have you forgotten that Daddy already tried? Tried that and failed!" She was starting to get mad. Opening her mouth to start the next round of haranguing she felt a tug on her sleeve.

"Prin- Ginny! Calm down, look at your sword!" Ginny looked down, and saw that the tip was glowing. She sunk down into her seat, and tried to breathe calmly. She couldn't lose control like that; it could ruin all of the carefully made plans.

When she had calmed down a bit she turned to Braeleigh. "What did you just call me?" she whispered, furious at herself for missing something as big as that.

"I called you Ginny," Braeleigh said, not convincing Ginny at all.

"No you didn't! You called me- you started to call me Princess! You know about all this! That's why I knew that you know who I am!"

A calm voice interrupted their whispered conversation. "Is there something wrong back here?" It was the Professor.

Ginny studied the Professor's face. She was quite pale, with black hair the colour of the night sky. Her eyes were almost the same shade of blue as Aubrey's, so deep of a blue they looked almost black. Her ears were the pointed ears of an elf, and her nose was small. Her lips were of a medium size, and were a pale pink that complimented her skin tone. Ginny had never quite noticed how tall the professor was; Ginny estimated that the teacher stood about five-foot ten.

"Ms. Weasley?" the teacher prompted, "I asked if there was a problem back here."

"Oh no professor," responded Ginny, "Draco here," she gestured, "just felt it necessary to show us that he is still alive and well. But it has been taken care of now."

"See that it stays taken care of Ms. Weasley, or all of you will have to face the consequences." With that, their teacher walked back up to the front and sat down. All this with the posture of a soldier, and the grace of a beauty queen. It made for quite an impressive show, and Ginny had to wonder whether that hadn't been all done for show.

"Aubrey!" whispered Ginny, conscious of how impatient she sounded. "Aubrey!"

"Yes Princess?" came the smug response of someone who knows everything is going to plan.

"Meet us in the pub later, I have a few things to talk to the two of you about."

"The two of us? Who's the other?"

"You know bloody well who I'm talking about!"

"Well, it seems that I don't, so you're just going to have to tell me."

"Braeleigh!"

"Whom?"

"Braeleigh!" Ginny was becoming quite annoyed, and it seemed that Aubrey knew exactly how to annoy her."

"Whom?"

"The Companion!" Ginny stopped. 'Were the hell did that come from?' she thought.

"The Companion and I have to meet you in the pub later? Very well. Why didn't you say that in the first place? It would have saved us a lot of time and confusion."

Ginny growled and turned away. A few minutes turned into half an hour, which turned into an hour. It was dark out now, and everyone was hungry and tired. Being on a bus with twenty students and a professor was getting old very quickly. Just as soon as Ginny thought she was going to scream...

"Welcome to Diagon Alley..."


A.N: Hello. Two chapters done now. I refute some things that I said in Chapter 10. The deaths that I was talking about will not be in these next few chapters.

I guess this chapter is dedicated to Jasmine for her help with the second part of the chapter.

Susire: No Beta. Thanks.

Thanks to all my reviewers.

Ta.