DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I don't.
CHAPTER SEVEN – Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It…
Harry felt himself shoved back into a chair just moments before the rough burlap sack that had been placed over his head was removed.
"What the fuck is going on?" asked a very angry Harry. "Who the fuck are you?"
"I apologize if our Gatherers were a little forceful Mr. Potter," said a man in the corner wearing a hooded cloak, his face hidden in shadows. "However, it was of the utmost importance to meet with you right away and sending an owl would have taken too long as time is not on our side."
"That doesn't give you the right to kick someone's door down and start stunning people and kidnap them," said Harry, remembering the chaotic scene within the Three Broomsticks just a short while ago.
"As I said, I apologize," said the hooded man.
"Fine, you apologize, now let me go," said Harry.
"Not until we've had a chance to talk," said the hooded man. "You see, you are a child of prophecy."
"Is that was this is about?" asked Harry. "That stupid fucking orb? Look, I don't know what it contained. It was smashed and I never got the chance to hear it."
"That prophecy matters not to us," said the hooded man. "It has been fulfilled and if the orb still remained would be nothing more than a fancy paperweight. No… There is another prophecy involving you."
Harry was silent for a moment before he said, "Bloody hell… You guys are from the Department of Mysteries."
"We are," said the hooded man.
"Well, in that case, your security sucks balls," said Harry.
"Excuse me?" asked the hooded man.
"Your security… It sucks," said Harry. "I mean, not only did a bunch of school kids manage to break in there, but so did a dozen Death Eaters, some of which were the recent escapees from Azkaban. If that doesn't scream security flaws, I don't know what does."
"You assume we didn't know about any of that," said the hooded man.
"I don't assume shit," said Harry. "If you had known, you would have done something. It wasn't like any of what was going on was quiet. I'm sure if people were around, they would have heard the spell fire three floors up. So don't try and cover your faults with bullshit answers… Now. Tell me why the fuck I am here?"
"As I said, you are a child of prophecy," said the hooded man.
"Yeah, I got that part," said Harry. "How about telling me what this stupid prophecy is so I can go back to trying to live a normal, quiet life."
"I am afraid I am not allowed to divulge that information," said the hooded man.
"Not allowed to divulge…" Harry started to say, his anger rising quickly. When he tried to lunge for the hooded man so he could punch his face in, the two other hooded men standing next to him were much quicker in holding him back against the chair.
"I understand that you might be upset," the hooded man said.
"Oh, I'm beyond upset," said Harry. "I'm getting right pissed off."
"Enough," someone said from the shadows.
Harry and the hooded men all turned to see a slightly elderly man walking towards them.
"Let him go," he said and the two hooded men holding Harry released him. "Leave us."
The three hooded men all looked at each other for a moment before they all left the room, leaving Harry and the elderly man alone.
"I apologize Mr. Potter for your abduction, however as it was explained, time is of the most importance," he said, conjuring a seat across from Harry and sitting down. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Damascus, and I am the head Unspeakable of the Department of Mysteries."
"Nice to meet you," said Harry. "You heard my thoughts on your security, right?"
Damascus chuckled a bit. "I did," he said. "However, I shut down our security protocols that night. You see, I had it on good authority that followers of You-Know-Who would attempt to break in and steal something. What, I did not know. At the time I believed it to be our collection of Time Turners."
"Time Turners?" asked Harry suspiciously.
"Oh yes," said Damascus. "In a war, they would have been quite effective. Imagine you have only five soldiers. By repeated use of the Time Turner, those five could become a force of one hundred, with each group of five attacking different places all at the same time, making your army look much grander than it truly is. Which is why I had tracking charms placed on each of them. You see Mr. Potter, I did believe you and Professor Dumbledore about You-Know-Who returning. We found the cemetery the ritual was preformed at, as magic like that falls within our jurisdiction. However, our findings were sealed by our former Minister because he refused to accept the truth."
"Well, nice to know that not all of the Ministry is full of complete fucking idiots," said Harry.
"Sadly, the majority of those that have control are," said Damascus. "Anyways, we did not suspect that the Death Eaters were in fact, here for a prophecy about you and You-Know-Who. If I had, I would not have shut our security measures down that night in an attempt to expose that You-Know-Who was back as well as capture his followers. Especially if I had known you and your friends would have shown up."
"Fair enough," said Harry. "Now, about why the hell I'm here."
"Yes, let's," said Damascus as he pulled out a small stack of parchment. "It would seem that around the moment you defeated You-Know-Who, a prophecy was made. Normally I wouldn't put much stock into a prophecy as most of the time, even if they do come true, can take a very long time before it happens. However, three of the four lines have already come to pass."
Damascus handed the sheet of parchment with the prophecy written on it to Harry, who read it.
"So, you think I'm this hero who has returned?" asked Harry and Damascus nodded. "The leader of old would be Dumbledore… Which means he is dead."
"Our files recorded the end of his magic at the same time witnesses viewed Hogwarts collapsing," said Damascus.
"You can tell when people die?" asked Harry.
"We do," said Damascus. "It was something we implemented in the mid 1800's after a dark wizard had murdered the Minister for Magic and took his place, allowing him to implement all sorts of new laws for his rule."
"Makes sense," said Harry. He then reread the prophecy. "Who is till old foe?"
"That is where things become… Interesting," said Damascus. "A few days before Professor Dumbledore's death, a very dangerous criminal somehow escaped and killed every guard within the prison. Gellert Grindelwald."
"Grindelwald, as in THE Grindelwald?" asked a surprised Harry.
"The very same," said Damascus. "He was dangerous back then, and as you can tell by his recent actions, he is dangerous now."
"And you want me to stop him before he can bring this… Betrayer back, whoever that is," said Harry.
"Yes," said Damascus. "Normally I would not ask a sixteen year old to save the world, but…"
"The prophecy," Harry said, holding up the parchment. "Got it."
Harry sighed as he got up and paced around the room. All he wanted was a peaceful life. Play some Quidditch. Maybe spend a little time with Hermione in a broom closet as the two of them snogged each other senseless. Instead everyone was once again looking to him to save their collective arses. It seemed that no matter what, he could not escape being the hero. Not even in death.
"Alright," Harry finally said as he turned to look as Damascus. "I'll do it."
"Good," said Damascus.
"But I'll need a few things," said Harry.
"Which are?" asked Damascus.
"First, I'll need the trace taken off of me," said Harry. "It wont do me or anyone else any good if I go to face Grindelwald only to start having owls dropping notices about being in trouble for underage magic."
"Agreed," said Damascus.
"Portkeys," said Harry. "Obviously I'll need those to be able to get around."
"Agreed," said Damascus.
Harry then grinned and said, "I'll also need a team of people I can trust."
OoOoOoOoOoO
Two hours later, Harry was standing in a conference room as he looked at Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Ginny. All five of them looked like they might be sick.
"They can't be serious," said Neville.
"They are," said Harry. "There's a prophecy that basically says only I can stop this. However, I won't do it without your help. I can't do it without your help. I need you guys. All of you."
"This isn't going to be like when we thought we were going to rescue Sirius," said Hermione.
"No, it isn't," said Harry. "This time we know what we're walking into. Plus, the odds are in own favor. Then it was the six of us against a dozen Death Eaters… Death Eaters. Psychotic nut jobs that get off on causing pain and death. This is just one person. We've survived worse. Hell, we all survived a year of Umbridge."
None of them could help but laugh a little.
"I know it sounds scary because of it being Grindelwald," Harry continued. "Hell, when I found out, I nearly wet myself. But if there is anything I have learned over the years since I joined the wizarding world is that you cannot fight fate. You cannot fight destiny. I tried with Voldemort and he just kept coming back. I had to die in order to stop him. And by some higher power, I was brought back to stop someone yet again."
"Yeah, but that's you," said Ron. "None of us are mentioned. What if we go and we all die?"
"You wont," said Harry. "I promise that I will do whatever it takes to make sure we all survive this. If that means that I think things are getting to difficult and leaving you all and finishing it myself, so be it."
"That would never happen," said Luna. "All of us would follow after you. Just like we did when we went to the Department of Mysteries for your godfather."
"Luna's right," said Ginny. "We stuck by you then, and we'll stick by you now."
"I think you are all mental," said Ron.
"So does that mean you're out?" asked Harry,
"And let you take all the glory?" asked Ron with a smirk. "Not bloody likely."
"Language Ron," said Hermione and as soon as she looked away from him, he stuck his tongue out at her, causing Ginny and Luna to giggle.
"Alright, so we are all in agreement to do this?" asked Harry and they all nodded. "Good. I guess I'll go tell them."
"Wait," said Neville. "How badly do they want us for this?"
"Well, considering when they came to get me that stunned a room full of people, including three Auror's, I'd say pretty badly. Why?" asked Harry and Neville suddenly got a very mischievous grin on his face.
OoOoOoOoOoO
Damascus was in the middle of talking to one of his employees when the door to the conference room opened and Harry walked out. He noticed that his friends remained just inside the room watching.
"Well?" asked Damascus. "What's the verdict?"
"They'll do it," said Harry. "But they want a few things first. Nothing big really."
Damascus suddenly got a bad feeling in his stomach.
"They want to get paid, obviously," said Harry. "One million galleons each."
The Unspeakable that Damascus had been talking to scoffed at this, but Damascus put a hand up to silence him. "Go on," he said cautiously.
"Neville wants the Ministry to pay for top of the line medical care for his parents," said Harry, reading from a folded sheet of parchment he pulled from his pocket. "Ginny wants a Firebolt and the events from her first year at Hogwarts wiped from her record. Ron would like for you to arrange for him to be the Keeper for the Chudley Cannons as soon as he turns seventeen. Hermione wants lifetime access to the Ministry library and archives room. And Luna would like every single file you have on Nargles, Wrackspurts, Heliopaths, Blibbering Humdingers, and Crumple-Horned Snorkaks."
Ron made an exaggerated clearing of his throat.
"Oh, and none of us want to pay taxes," said Harry. "Ever."
A/N: There you have it. The adventure is about to begin. I have to say that so far this has been my favorite chapter to write. It was just fun.
Also, I would like to point out that credit for the last scene goes to the movie Armageddon by Michael Bay when Bruce Willis and the rest of them basically black mail the government for them helping save the world from the asteroid.