Chapter 26
Order in the Court! (Part 2)

When Harry walked outside the courtroom, he noticed that everyone was staring at him.

"What?" Harry said.

"Harry, do you not understand how serious it is in there?" Arthur asked.

"Of course I do," said Harry.

"There are certain limits a person can go through inside one of the courtrooms, Harry," Arthur said, "The Wizengamot are not people to mess around with. They are the kind of people who decide our fate tonight."

"They are pretty much deciding the fate of the whole world, Arthur," Harry said, "And they do not know it. We have to get it through their thick minds that the Order has to reform... tonight."

"Yes, we know," Arthur said, "And it isn't going to happen by force."

"Well, if you ask me, Arthur," Harry said, "At this pace, the Wizengamot is not going to vote for the Order to be reformed. Which, as we all know, cannot happen. For the sake of the wizarding world, the Wizengamot have to agree with us. As of right now, Susan Bones still believes that the Dark Mark was just a joke. We know it wasn't a joke, Arthur."

"And how exactly do you think we are going to change her mind?" Arthur asked, "I can tell you that it will not be the way you acted in there just now."

"How I acted?" Harry asked, "I was trying to make them remember that it was the Order who saved the wizarding world, not the Ministry. That is what you were trying to accomplish, right?"

"Yes, that is correct," Arthur said.

"May I say something, Arthur?" Remus said, walking in between Arthur and Harry.

"Of course," Arthur said.

"What I understand," Remus said, "Is that the Ministry is afraid of the Order. You heard Bones. The Wizengamot believes the Order of the Phoenix wants to have more power then the Ministry just because it was the Order who was responsible for the end of the Second War, not the Ministry. The Wizengamot believes we want to turn our backs on the Ministry."

"Seems like a pretty good idea to me," Harry said, "If the Wizengamot isn't going to hear us out, then I say we should turn our backs on the Ministry."

"The problem with that, Harry," Remus said, "Is that a good majority of the Order works at the Ministry, and one of them is the Minister of Magic."

Harry began to reply, but looked down at the floor and sighed.

"So what do you think we should do, Remus?" Arthur asked.

"We make the Wizengamot believe that we are siding with the Ministry," Remus said, "The Wizengamot will have to believe us. You are the Minister of Magic and a part of the Order. The Wizengamot knows you wouldn't stop being Minister of Magic just to bring the Order back."

"Then they don't know me very well," Arthur said, "You know what my reason was for taking the job as Minister of Magic."

"Yes, I do know, Arthur," Remus said, "But the Wizengamot believes that you do not want to risk your job as Minister. And like I said, many of the Order Members are part of the Ministry. Harry is one of the best Aurors there is right now. The Ministry doesn't want to lose him. But the Ministry also knows that Harry would do anything to be with the Order. So we use that against them. We offer to ally ourselves with the Ministry of Magic, and then we see where it goes from there."

"What do you mean by 'we see where it goes from there'?" Harry asked.

"We see what the Wizengamot has to say about it," Remus said, "We see how they react. I think they will try to do something harsh, but it might take that to bring back the Order."

Arthur sighed and looked around at his friends. He looked over at Harry.

"What do you think, Harry?" Arthur asked him.

"I stick with what I said earlier, Arthur," Harry said, "The Order has to reform tonight."

"And does that mean that you think it has to reform... whatever it takes?" Arthur asked.

"If that is what it takes," Harry said, "Then yes, I do believe we will have to go that far."

"All right," said Arthur, "We need to figure out something. Because other than Remus' idea, we might have no other choices. And we need to get back into the courtroom. So, what does everyone think?"

"Whatever it takes, Arthur," Kingsley said, "The current events has forced us to make this decision."

Everyone else agreed and Arthur motioned them to go back into the courtroom.

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The moment Arthur, Harry and the other present members of the Order walked into the courtroom, the Wizengamot went silent. Susan began to speak.

"Well, I trust that you have calmed down the members of your defense, Minister?" she asked.

"That is correct," Arthur said.

"And I assume that it will not happen again," Susan said.

"I don't think you have to worry about something like that happening again," Arthur said.

"I hope you are right, Minister," Susan said, "For your sake. Now, I believe before we took a recess, you were still discussing your opening statements? Do you want to continue?"

"Yes, Your Honor," Arthur said, "And I believe you will like what I have to say."

"Is that so?" Susan asked. Harry noticed that this last statement from Arthur had made Susan give her full decision. Previous to this, she was resting her foot on the ledge, bored with the events that were taking place.

"Yes, it is so," Arthur said, "You see, the other members of the defense and I used the twenty minutes we were given... quite wisely. We know that the Wizengamot does not trust the Order of the Phoenix. The members of the Order will not forget what happened nearly eighteen years ago. But, what I understand is that you have not given any sign of wanting to feud with us. You were pleased when I was chosen for Minister of Magic. And I see that you were more then happy to see that Harry Potter recieved a job in the Ministry, even though just a few years ago, Harry was still refusing to believe anything the Ministry had to say."

"Yes, yes," Susan said, "But what, may I ask, does that have to do with the Order requesting to reform?"

"Oh, it has plenty to do with it, Susan," Arthur said, "You see, my friends with me tonight can see that the Ministry of Magic does not hate the Order of the Phoenix. The Ministry of Magic knows that it was the Order who was responsible for the end of the Second War and that if it wasn't for the Order, that the wizarding world as we know it... may not have existed."

"Yes, but that was when Voldemort was still alive," Susan said, "The Ministry of Magic was trying to get rid of Voldemort, and Rufus Scrimgeour knew that the only way that Voldemort would be destroyed, would be to get Harry to join our side. But when he didn't join the Ministry, we had to go a different way. So he let Harry's friends... you and your friends, Arthur, who we know now as the Order... take care of the job for him. But as I said, that was during the Second War when Voldemort was in power. And as we know, those years are over... ancient history. Only a painful memory."

"The Second War is over, yes," Arthur said, "But as Minister of Magic, I know that the Ministry does not want to see another War happen. Tell me, Your Honor, if you had the choice, would you do anything you could to stop another War from ever happening again."

"Of course I would, Minister," Susan said.

"Well, then you should be happy to know that it is your choice right now," Arthur said, "You see, the Dark Mark shows us that there could be another War starting. And right now, we are here tonight discussing the future of the Order. Which means we are discussing what could be the future of the war. The Order of the Phoenix would try as hard as we could to prevent a war from ever happening. And if you are wanting to do anything to keep a war from happening, then you would allow the Order to reform."

Susan said nothing, but was opening and closing her mouth, trying to decide if she should say something. Harry thought she looked like a fish. Finally, she found her voice.

"So, basically what you are saying, Minister," she said, "Is that the Order will fight in the War, but only if the Ministry allows it... if the Wizengamot allows it."

"Correct, Your Honor," Arthur said.

"Which means that the Order would be doing stuff under the Ministry's request," Susan said.

"I guess you could call it that," Arthur said, "It also means that the Order would be allied with the Ministry. And, believe me Your Honor, that would be a very strong Ally for the Ministry."

"So, Minister," Susan said, "Let's just say the Wizengamot will allow you to reform the Order. If this would happen, the Ministry would have a big part in the Order. At least one Ministry member, who isn't in the Order right now, would be in the Order of the Phoenix. And it would be the Wizengamot's choice... not yours. Would you agree to it?"

"If that is what you would ask," Arthur said, "Then yes, we would agree to it."

"Hang on," Harry said, standing up, "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to talk to the Minister."

Susan shrugged and motioned for Harry to walk over to the Minister, which Harry did.

"What is going on?" Arthur whispered.

"Arthur," whispered Harry, "Do you realize what they are saying. They would have a spy from the Ministry to be in the Order."

"We said we would do this whatever it takes, Harry," Arthur whispered, "This needs to happen."

"I don't like this," Harry whispered, "But you are the Minister. You know best."

Harry walked back to his seat and sat down.

"Are you finished?" Susan said.

"Yes, I believe we are," Arthur said.

"All right," said Susan, "You have given us some decisions to make. This will take a little while to discuss, and we do not make decisions in front of the defense. So, I ask you to leave the courtroom and wait for our decision."

"Yes, Your Honor," Arthur said, motioning for Harry and the others to follow him again.

Arthur led the others out of the court room yet again.

"Arthur, can we really trust the Wizengamot?" Harry said, as they walked into the corridor outside the courtroom, "Who knows what schemes they are hatching in there? If they don't agree to bring back the Order, the whole world is doomed. And if they do agree to bring back the Order, we will have someone we might not be able to trust working with us."

"We agreed that we would do this whatever it takes, Arthur said, "We have no other choice. Tonight's decision will change the course of history for the better or worse. You better pray that it changes it for the better."

"Man, I wish we could hear what was going on in there," Fred said, looking at the door.

"Are you thinking what I am thinking, Fred?" George said.

"Boys, the doors been Imperturbed," Remus said, "Not even Platinum Extendable Ears could get through there."

"There is nothing we have made that has failed us yet," George said, taking out a golden string from his pocket. George kneeled down and fidgeted with the string. After a minute, he stood back up and turned around. "Okay," he said, "I was wrong."

"The Ministry is smarter then you realize," Remus said.

"We knew we shouldn't have shown the Ministry too many of our inventions," George said.

"Well, we can't do anything about that right now, bro," Fred said.

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Ten minutes later, Harry began to pace back and forth trying to think of anything that he could do to up their chances of the Order returning. An hour later, no answer had come, and Harry's pacing had become contagious. Fred and George were now pacing, but Harry believed they were trying to decide how they could get some answers by using their inventions.

"Would you guys stop it?" Charlie asked, "That is starting to make me nervous."

"What is taking the Wizengamot so long?" Harry asked.

"Well, hopefully they decided to reform the Order long ago," Remus said, "And now they are deciding who in the Ministry should join the Order."

"More like they are deciding who to spy on us," Harry said.

Suddenly, the courtroom doors opened and Susan's voice was heard.

"Members of the Defense," Susan said, "Please return to the courtroom."

Harry, Arthur and the others all sighed collectively, and everyone walked into the court room.

"Remain standing please," Susan said, as Harry and the others reached their chairs, "We have made a decision. It was a hard decision, but the Ministry believes in acting upon the sake of the people. So, we have decided to allow the Order to reform."

Harry and the others looked at one another and smiled.

"But," said Susan, "We have also come to the decision that not one, but two people, will join the Order. One of these people is a future member of the Wizengamot and we feel he needs to prove himself. Minister, I am sure you will be happy with this choice. The other member is not with the Ministry anymore, but we feel he needs a chance to prove himself. There have been rumors that he is wanting to apologize for his past actions and rejoin the Ministry. We are happy to say that both of the new members of the Order are here tonight. We called them to come immediately and they should be here any second... ah, I think I hear the door now."

Every member of the defense stared at the doors, which started to open.

"I am sure everyone of the defense knows who these two men are," Susan said, "So there needs to be no introduction. Come on in, fellows... please."

Harry's jaw dropped as the two men walked into the room.

"The two newest members of the Order," Susan said, "are Percy Weasley and Rufus Scrimgeour."

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Well, this ended the two part Hearing. I hope you like the chapters and the surprises that came with it...

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