Sorry for the wait but you know how it goes

THE NEW ORDER

By

Padfootjr23

Chapter Nine: Preparations

It seemed that the moment that Harry's head hit the pillow that night he was immediately sleeping soundly. That is until he was suddenly swept away and he found himself in that same damned empty black void. Harry dropped his head in annoyance and let out a deep sigh. This was really getting irritating. After a few quick moments he raised his head again and looked around for his ancestor, he was no where in sight. Having nothing better to do he simply sat down and waited for the man to come.

As he sat there he began thinking about the past few days. Now that he had time to reflect even he was surprised with his actions in regard to Voldemort. Whether it be his proposal to Dumbledore or the escape from the Death Eaters. He was both relieved and disturbed by his lack of shame for killing those Unspeakables but he reasoned that it was either them or him and his friends, though he certainly didn't count Snape as a friend. This line of thought eventually led to the escape itself. Do to all that had been thrown his way since he regained consciousness it was thrown to the back of his mind.

'How the hell did I transform?' He asked to himself in confusion. Granted he wasn't complaining, it allowed him to escape and the feeling and raw power that came with being a lion was almost intoxicating. Thinking back he figured that the animagus transformation was one of the magical 'talents' that Gryffindor said he was going to unlock. But how had he transformed to begin with? 'Can I still do it?'

"Yes and no." A powerful voice spoke up from behind him. Harry nearly shot up off the floor and whirled around to see the amused face of Godric Gryffindor. Harry merely glared at his dead ancestor as he tried to slow his breathing.

"What the hell are you trying to do, give me a heart attack?" He snapped at the man with his hand still clutching his chest.

"What would you have me do, tap you on the shoulder before I speak up?"

"Great, a smart ass." Harry mumbled to himself.

"Of course. Us Gryffindor's are notorious for our sarcasm. Why do you think we have always been targets of dark wizards? Everyone of them seems to be a walking cliché and we simply don't know how to keep our mouths shut. But what can they expect when they give us such good material." Gryffindor explained as if he were merely explaining some important and undeniable fact of life.

"Ok." Harry responded slowly before something clicked in his mind. Gryffindor had known what he was thinking when he first arrived. "How did you know what I was thinking?" He asked suspiciously.

"We are currently within your mind Harry. Once you are inside the rest is easy as long as you know what you are looking for." He explained. "But lets get back to your questions. You wanted to know how you had transformed and if you could do it again. As I told you, I unlocked a few of your abilities, the animagus transformation was one of them. Normally a person unlocks this ability through long meditation and complicated charms and potions. We just skipped that step. When you woke and saw your friends being violated it brought your more primal instincts to the forefront of your mind. You thought of nothing but the need to protect them. Through your anger and the need to protect your instincts took over and did what was necessary to accomplish your goals.

As for being able to do it again, the answer is simple. No. At least not yet. If you were put in a similar situation you could pull it off again but it would once again be triggered by your instincts. To achieve a controlled transformation you are going to have practice the transfiguration aspect of the art and study up on the anatomy of the lion until you know it as well as your own. So to my way of thinking you have two options. You can either spend your time researching and practicing this on your own or you can ask your transfiguration professor to assist you which would allow you to finish in a fraction of the time."

"WHAT? Are you mad? I can't bring Professor McGonagall here." Harry nearly shouted. If McGonagall were to gain knowledge of what they were doing, or rather what they would be doing, she could be put in danger. Not just from Voldemort but from the Ministry as well. But, finishing the transformation as soon as possible was a definite advantage. Thinking it over for a few moments he decided to discuss it with Blaise and Snape. They were after all her daughter and husband respectively. Harry gave a slight shudder as he thought about that. He could never get used to hearing about those two being together.

"I'll have to talk it over with a couple people before I decide anything concerning that." Godric nodded and seemed to be pleased that Harry apparently wanted their permission before approaching his teacher. "Now you said you unlocked more than one ability?" Harry half asked and half stated after a moment of silence.

"Oh, yes. The only other thing I unlocked was your natural Occlumency shields. Much like Salazar passing on Parseltongue to his descendants my family passed on natural Occlumency but when Tom Riddle's curse failed to kill you, you received his inherited ability to speak with serpents and the Occlumency was locked in a sense. Although anyone can be trained to shield their mind a natural occluman's shields are far stronger and are almost indestructible."

"Then how are you able to enter my mind if you already unlocked it?"

"That is a valid question my boy and the answer is simple. When I was alive I was one of the most powerful wizards in the world and in death my power has only increased. Besides which I'm family so I can find a way around it." This answer left Harry wide eyed and stuttering.

"Does, does that mean. Um, I mean..." Harry continued like this for several moments with both hope and fear before Gryffindor pieced together what he was asking.

"No, I am afraid that if I could find your father he would not be able to contact you. Though he carried a great deal of power he did not have enough to pass through the realm of the dead and still have enough to make it through your shields. In fact as you grow older and gain in power soon not even I will be able to reach you. Now Harry, I originally came to see you so that I could help you in your quest to finish off Salazar's line and we will begin tomorrow night. While you are with me I will teach you dueling and combat magic as well as hand to hand fighting. Since this is in fact the dream world you will need to practice what I have taught you while you are awake to master these skills but you will certainly master them quicker than what most would call normal. While here you will probably find these skills easy but you must realize that this is because you are not in the real world so do not get discouraged. It will take some time but I'm sure you will master them soon enough." He paused for a moment before looking directly at Harry with a look in his eyes that made Harry nervous.

"I also believe that it would be prudent for you to begin training in the art of Legillimency. Even with only a working knowledge of the art you will be able to tell whether someone is lying to you or not. With more proficient practice you will be able to seek out what information you need from your targets. I'm sure Professor Snape will be delighted to instruct you." He finished with a large grin as Harry dropped his head and groaned.

"But since you seem to be planning to rob Borgin and Burkes at the end of the week we will simply begin with physical conditioning. Your spell knowledge is astounding for a young man of your age but your physical condition and more importantly your endurance leaves much to be desired." At the mention of Borgin and Burkes Harry's head snapped up and he was about to demand how he had known about that when Godric simply tapped his temple and grinned.

"Yes well perhaps your right, flying on a broom doesn't exactly give you a very strenuous workout. But could you not use the word 'rob'. It makes it sound so ugly."

"Well that is what you are going to do isn't it? Your going there to steal some items, that is called a robbery, hence the term 'rob'." Godric explained as if he were speaking to an infant.

"No, what we are going to 'confiscate' are illegal items and therefore cannot be classed as marketable goods or private property. We are merely doing our civic duty to take them out of circulation and perhaps use them for the betterment of all mankind." Harry said with a straight face as Godric eyed him with annoyance.

"Now whose being a smart ass." He grumbled to himself before he began lecturing Harry on the importance of speed and agility in a duel.

XXX

Tonks shot up out of bed and began looking around wildly as she reached for her wand on her bedside table. After a few moments she came to the realization that she was alone. As she tried to calm her breathing she pulled her legs up and hugged her knees to her chest as she softly wept. Her entire body was shivering as a cool breeze blew across the room and a thin sheet of sweat coated her entire body leaving her night cloths clinging to her skin. After she got her breathing under control she looked around once more and realized it was only one thirty in the morning. Growling to herself she picked up the clock on the bedside table and hurled it across the room. She had not had a single night of undisturbed sleep since they escaped the Death Eaters.

Being an Auror they train you to endure nearly every hardship and resist many forms of torture and interrogation techniques. However being abused in other manners is something that was never covered. No matter how many times she bathed she could not help but feel dirty. Her only consolation was that Harry had prevented the Death Eaters from going any farther in their 'activities'. She simply could not handle the thought of what it would have been like if Harry had not been able to stop it as soon as he did. Pulling herself away from such thoughts she swung her legs of her bed and stood up. With a quick wave of her wand she cast a simple cleaning charm to remove the sweat from her body and made her way to the door. As she walked out into the hall she quietly closed the door behind her and made her way to the same destination as the previous few nights.

Walking up the stairs to the third floor she walked down the hall and thankfully didn't trip over anything on her way. When she reached her destination she slowly opened the door and crept inside, taking extra care not to revert to her more clumsy nature. Looking around the room that was lit only by the pale glow of the moon she almost instantly felt a calming presence. She slowly made her way over to the massive bed on the far wall and upon reaching it carefully laid down on the left hand side. Almost as soon as her head touched the pillow Tonks drifted off to a peaceful sleep, fully intending to be awake and back in her own room before Harry woke up in the morning.

XXX

"Hermione, do you think that maybe Moody and the others may be right? About Harry I mean." Ron asked a bit apprehensively as they sat up late that night reviewing what they had been taught that day during training. Since the whole fiasco with Harry, Snape and the others the other three students staying at Hogwarts seemed to be giving them the cold shoulder. Well, not Ginny anyway, she was flat out avoiding them like the plague.

"Ron, honestly. It is quite clear that they are guilty, all the evidence points to it." Hermione replied with a sigh.

"But Moody had a pretty good point concerning Harry's injuries..." Whatever he was planning on saying next was cut off as Hermione interrupted.

"Ron, just for the sake of argument, lets say that they're innocent. For that to be true you would have to have at least thirteen Death Eaters in the ranks of the Unspeakables when there has never been even one. Also, according to Dumbledore, Tonks and Zabini admit that Harry killed those men and in a very brutal and bloody way. Even in the Department of Mysteries he showed no where near that level of aggression and that was only a month ago. The only thing that could cause a change that sever is if he had gone dark. Now I do not believe that he has joined Voldemort but it is clear that he is now just as bad. My only hope is that Voldemort and Harry will concentrate on each other in some sort of power struggle and weaken each other and give us time to rebuild the Order because we certainly don't need enemies coming at us from several different sides." Hermione finished as she packed up her books and headed towards her dorm room not giving Ron time to reply.

As she entered her room Hermione closed the door and leaned against the wall. After dropping her bag she rubbed her face in aggravation. In truth she too was having doubts about Harry's guilt but she sure wasn't going to say it out loud. After making her opinion very clear at the beginning she wasn't going to change it with no evidence to back it up. As long as there was the slightest doubt regarding his innocence she would remain firm. After a moments thought she changed into her night cloths and climbed into bed. Her last thought before drifting off to sleep was that the evidence was to overwhelming to be false and that she would be proven right.

XXX

When Harry woke the next morning he felt the best he had felt in a very long time. He closed his eyes tighter and seemed to burrow himself deeper into his bed in an attempt to ward off the morning. He was warm, he was comfortable and there was absolutely no reason he should get up anytime soon. After laying there for almost half an hour he came to the conclusion that he would not be able to get back to sleep so he decided that he might as well get up and do something productive. Sitting up he glanced out the window and saw that it was just shortly before dawn and he wondered why the hell he would wake up at that god forsaken time of day. Shrugging it off he began to move towards the edge of the bed when his eyes met a VERY unexpected sight. Nymphadora Tonks was sound asleep right next to him. All thought stopped as he simply stared at the young Auror. It was several minutes before he could shake off his shock enough to try to figure out what she was doing in his bed.

His first thought nearly sent him into a panic but he quickly discarded the idea as ludicrous. After all he was pretty sure he would remember that. For a brief moment he looked around to make sure that he was in fact in his room. After confirming his whereabouts he, for the life of him, could think of no possible reason for Tonks to be there. Deciding to simply ask her after she woke he carefully rolled to the other side of the bed as not to wake her. However if finding Tonks shocked him the sight on the other side nearly sent him into cardiac arrest.

'Snape is going to kill me.' He thought frantically, for on his other side slept none other than Blaise Zabini. More scared now than shocked Harry slid his way down to the end of the bed to avoid having to climb over either women and quickly grabbed some clothes and literally ran from the room. The sound of the door closing didn't seem to affect Blaise but Tonks shot up immediately and looked around to see where the noise came from. Suddenly she seem to realize where she was and her gaze darted to the spot beside her where Harry was sleeping. When she found Harry missing she almost had a panic attack as she tried to find out how she was going to explain this to him. She knew she would be a bit uncomfortable speaking of the reasons to him but she didn't want him to think she was some kind of pervert, preying on a younger man. However these thoughts were driven from her mind when her eyes registered a slight movement on the other side of the bed. Her eyes went wide when she saw the younger woman lying there but she could not help but feel a bit pleased. At least she would not have to confront Harry alone. However this was definitely the first night that Blaise had ventured into Harry's room. Wondering what she should do Tonks simply decided that waking Blaise would be a good idea. At first the younger girl looked confused about her surroundings but quickly that confusion turned to embarrassment and even a little fear.

"Oh my god!" Blaise moaned as she put her head in her hands. "I won't be able to look him in the eye again." Tonks was a bit surprised to hear the normally stoic Slytherin sound almost desperate.

"If it makes you feel any better I in the same boat." Tonks said sheepishly.

"Uh?" She asked in confusion. "What did you do?"

"I was sleeping on the other side of the bed. Apparently Harry woke up and found himself between the two of us." At this point Tonks' cheeks were turning pink at the thought of what Harry must think of them.

"What were you doing here?" Blaise asked though she felt she already knew the answer. Tonks' face took on a pained expression but she answered nonetheless as she sat down in one of the armchairs and motioned Blaise to join her.

"I just didn't feel safe alone but when I'm around Harry I feel protected, like he wouldn't let anything happen to me. It seems rather childish but since Harry freed us I almost feel like a small child who is afraid of some monster coming out of the dark to attack me. While we were at Hogwarts it wasn't that bad. Although he was unconscious Harry was still there, close by. But here its different." Tonks explained in a monotone voice.

"Last night was the first bit of restful sleep I have had since we left Hogwarts." Blaise agreed. "Every night so far I have woken up with terrible nightmares. Most of them have been much worse than what actually happened." She said as she seemed to stare off into space.

XXX

As the two women were talking Harry climbed out of the shower and got dressed before making his way to the library. As he entered the spacious yet comfortable library Harry was surprised to Mundungus and nearly half of his friends present and looking over various tomes and scrolls while scribbling notes furiously on pieces of parchment that were spread out all over the place. With his mind full of confusion Harry approached the table 'Dung' was sitting at and took a seat across from him.

"What is going on?" He asked the older man quietly. For a moment Harry thought that he had not heard him and was about to ask again when the man raised his head and Harry realized that he was merely finishing the section he was reading.

"We're researching some of the items that we know are hidden in Borgin and Burkes. Between the group of us we have a pretty good idea what is there since each of us brought something in there at one time or another. In our line of work it is always useful to know the details and capabilities of specific items, you can negotiate for a better price that way, it could also save you from any mishaps. Remember Harry that it is not just some of the people in Knockturn Alley that are dangerous but everything hidden in all the little nooks and crannies as well. To be most effective you must know as much as possible about the location, not just the target." The man said seriously and Harry was looking at him with his mouth hanging open like a goldfish. He had never heard Mundungus speaking in a serious manner before much less make sense and speaking logically. Seeing Harry's surprise the old thief laughed.

"There are a great many actions that have almost nothing in common but function along the same guide lines. Being a criminal and operating these little surprise attacks we will be doing are among them. You need a lot of the same knowledge and tactics. When I first discovered it was you that had come up with this plan I was surprised that you wanted to include many people you would steer clear of under normal circumstances but I guess you saw at least some similarities in the work and I must say that that is surprising for a young man that has a reputation of always doing the right thing whether it was against the rules or not."

"Thanks, I think." Harry replied slowly when he suddenly had an idea regarding their first raid. "Can I look over your notes later? I just thought of something and wont have time to do much research."

"Sure, I'll get the boys to make copies of theirs as well and give them to the others."

"Thanks Dung." He half shouted as he ran out of the door. After several minutes of searching the ground floor Harry was unable to locate Professor Snape and began thinking that the man was still asleep. "Twinkle." Before he even finished calling the name the house elf was at his side waiting for instructions. "Twinkle do you know if Professor Snape is awake yet?"

"Yes Mast... Harry. Professor Sir is in the potions lab." She answered immediately but looked up wide eyed as if she feared he would punish her for almost calling him master after he asked her not to. But Harry did not seem to notice as he took on a surprised expression.

"We have a potions lab?" He asked dumbly.

"Yes sir. Mistress Lily insisted." She explained in a sad voice as pain crossed her eyes as she thought of the two dead Potters. Wanting to get her off such thoughts quickly Harry asked her to show him where the lab was and she cheerfully led him away. As it turned out the entrance to the potions lab was behind a large tapestry of the Potter family tree that was not unlike the one hanging on the wall at Grimmauld Place of the Black family. The biggest difference was that this one was in almost perfect condition and there was not one single name that had been blasted off. Either the Potter family had never had a family member go bad or they did not try to hide such 'disappointments' like the Black family did.

Twinkle led him down a very steep set of stairs and when they reached to bottom Harry was once again rendered speechless from shock. Unlike the dungeons at Hogwarts that were dark and musty this potions lab was bright and clean. It looked more like a muggle medical lab than anything else. It appeared to be about half the size of the Great Hall of Hogwarts and just as impressive. The floor, wall, ceiling, workstations, everything was constructed out of a dark marble and were of the finest quality. There were about thirty different workstations and each had plenty of room to brew your potion, prepare ingredients, and store such ingredients properly until they needed to be added. Along the wall were hundreds of alcoves with drawers with transparent fronts that held many different ingredients. Over all Harry was very impressed. Not only in the craftsmanship but also with the fact that this was his mother's lab. He had no idea that she even liked potions much less liked it enough to have her own lab built inside of her home. This thought brought his mood down significantly as he thought about how much he seemed to not know about his parents. In fact a lot of time it seemed that people purposefully kept such information from him. Either they intentionally ignored it or they seemed to swiftly change the subject when he brought it up. Hell, he didn't even know what his parents did for a living.

"POTTER! What are you doing here?" Snape began with a yell but then asked his question in a more respectful tone, well respectful for him, after remembering their 'discussion' the other night. Harry's head snapped to the side after hearing his ex-professor's voice. One look at the man and Harry knew that he still did not know of the morning's bazaar, if not confusing, events. Even though Harry thought he could give Snape a good fight he really didn't want to find out and discovering that his daughter had slept in Harry's bed would certain bring the man after his head.

"I came down here because I need to know what potions the Order has stock piled." This statement clearly threw the man off as he looked at his least favorite student with confusion clear in his eyes.

"Why..."

"Because there are a great number of potions that we could use here however many of them take quite a while to brew. So I figured you could give me a list of the more complicated potions that we could use, or at least have in stock, and I will have Albus send them over tonight with Fawkes." Despite himself Snape could not find anything wrong with the suggestion, in fact he was rather upset that he had not thought of it first. Then a sudden thought struck him.

"Why did you suddenly think of this Potter?" He asked as he looked at Harry suspiciously though he didn't seem all that intimidated by it.

"It's simple really. I figured that we could use some Polyjuice Potion this weekend. With Voldemort back in full swing it is highly possible that Borgin will be using his store to move more merchandise than usual. If this is so, than we could see more than a few customers walking in on us than I'm comfortable with. But with 'Borgin' behind the front counter we can hopefully work in the back room undisturbed for a while." Harry explained.

"Yes that certainly is a smart suggestion." Snape agreed reluctantly. "I will make my list and will begin brewing the quicker potions now so if you will excuse me Potter." No matter how nice it may look Harry certainly didn't feel at home in a potions lab so he had no problem leaving Snape to his own devises. He followed Twinkle back up to the kitchen where she insisted on making him breakfast. After eating he wrote out his letter to Dumbledore and when Snape returned with his list he sent both off with Twinkle.

XXX

After breakfast Albus Dumbledore was sitting in his office with Alister 'Mad Eye' Moody and Professor Minerva McGonagall discussing a certain problem. The very noticeable split within the Order. Despite their firm belief in the innocence of their missing four members both McGonagall and Moody agreed that the Order could not afford to be divided. While everyday operations were running smoothly everything else seemed to be falling apart. Many members were refusing to even speak to anyone that did not believe as they did and confrontations and verbal arguments were an almost daily occurrence. Something had to be done to remove the feuding. The only problem with this idea though was that no one had any idea how to do it. So for the most part that simply sat in silence. That is until a quiet pop echoed throughout the room and a small house elf walked up to Dumbledore's desk. McGonagall instantly recognized it as the one leading the house elves that 'rescued' Harry and the others from the hospital wing. Moody simply watched the creature with interest.

"Dumbledore Headmaster sir, my master wished me to deliver this to you." She said simply as she handed him a few pieces of parchment. Albus took the offered letter and smiled kindly at elf.

"Thank you twinkle." He said and she vanished immediately. Unfolding the paper he began to read.

Just so you know, this parchment has been charmed so that only you may read it and two seconds after you finish the final word it will be incinerated.

I am writing this to inform you that we will begin our work in a few days time. At the moment I am unable to inform you of the details but I'm sure you will find out not long afterwards. I would also like to thank you and your friend for the 'gift', it is working out great so far. Enclosed is a list of potions that we will be needing either now or in the near future but as you will be able to tell we do not have the time to brew them ourselves. I assure you that we will be able to replenish your stock when we are able but at the moment they simply take to long to brew so if you can send them over with Fawkes it would be greatly appreciated. While on that subject I would also like you to send over those books that I was translating before I left. There is still a great deal we were not able to go over and I believe some of it could prove to be very useful later on. Inform the fur ball that the snakes send their 'affections', (shudders).

After reading the final word Albus let out a short burst of laughter which was suddenly changed into a yelp as the parchment caught fire and burned his fingers. Composing himself slightly he picked up the other parchment that merely had about a dozen potions listed. The two that stood out the most were the Polyjuice Potion and Veritaserum. He could understand the Veritaserum but what did they need Polyjuice so quick for. Forgetting that he had guests in his office Dumbledore sat and tried to think of what their first target was and why they obviously needed the potion for it. After coming out of his musings he explained the letter to his two colleagues and though she was a bit annoyed at being referred to as a hairball McGonagall was happy to have the message passed on to her. Moody of course was very pleased that Harry had used no names and simply hinted at other details.

XXX

That night Harry was sitting in the library when Fawkes appeared in a burst of flames. Harry was actually surprised that he did not even flinch when it happened. He figured he was getting used to such things happening. He stroked the bird's feathers for a moment before he disappeared then he turned to the package he delivered. With a simple wave of his wand he enlarged the box and his eyes went wide when he noticed that it was much larger than he expected.

"What the hell did he send me?" He muttered to himself quietly as he opened the box. On top was a case that held a number of labeled veils and under that was the journals that were written in parseltongue. After removing the journals he reached in and to his surprise he pulled out a magnificent looking battlerobe. As he held it in his hands he looked at it in awe and was unconsciously holding his breath. The dark green of the scales dimly reflected the light in the room as Harry ran his hand over it. Harry found it ironic that the creature that had nearly killed him in his second year would probably go a long in saving his live in the future. He clearly remembered suggesting battlerobes to Moody and Remus but with recent events he didn't think it would happen. After a few moments he quickly stuffed it back in the box and shrunk it down once again before putting it in his pocket. He would wait until just before they left before handing these out as a surprise of sorts. After all not even top level Aurors could get their hands on battlerobes made out of such strong Basilisk skin so no doubt they will be just as shocked as him.

The next four days passed in a blur for Harry. He had decided to hold off on studying his animagus form until after their first raid and training and planning took top priority. He spent a good deal of time with Bill and worked on his dueling technique and went over the notes Dung and his friends had compiled on Knockturn Alley and the items they knew to be stored within Borgin and Burkes.

As promised, while Harry was asleep the time spent with Godric was used to train him to increase his speed and endurance. While awake he worked to master these exercises in the gym that was on the back of the ground floor of the house. He was usually joined by Bill while he worked out. The time not spent working out or dueling was spent in the library, learning new spells and researching dark objects that Dung and his people new little about.

It had been decided early on that they would not waste a dose of Veritaserum on Borgin because they would probably get very little out of the man. He was not a Death eater though his loyalties and sympathies certainly leaned in that direction. Any business conducted with Death Eaters was done anonymously and usually through a middleman. He rarely met his clients unless they needed to get rid of something quick due to Auror raids that they had been tipped off about.

The strangest events of those few days was definitely the actions of Tonks and Blaise. Although he greatly wanted to know why the two women were in his bed that night he could not help but feel relieved that they were keeping their distance from him. In fact the only time you would see them in the same room with him was at meals and even then they sat as far as possible from him and never made eye contact. Surprisingly no one seemed to notice the worn and tired features of the two though that could have been because of judicious use of glamour charms.

Saturday afternoon Harry was sitting by himself in the library staring at the pages of a book on wards but not really seeing the words. It was just two hours before they were due to leave for Knockturn Alley and he was feeling very nervous. He continually thought of ways this could go wrong and each one was worse than the one before it and he was near to a panic attack. Putting his book down he closed his eyes and took several deep breaths and he tried to calm himself.

'Come on Harry, pull yourself together.' He thought to himself with anger. 'Everything is going to go right. Everything must go right.' He kept repeating that to himself over and over hoping that he could make himself believe it. After some time he opened his eyes again and looked at his watch. It was nearly time. He replaced his books back on the shelves and left the library walking swiftly and a lot more confidently than he actually felt.

TBC