Merlin Protocol

Chapter 6

Before the Storm

Nute

AN: Well I'm finally back with a new chapter and I apologize for the long wait but school and lack of motivation had struck me. But anyway here is the new chapter with most of the back story you all have been wondering about so I hope it doesn't disappoint. As always please review because it always motivates me to write more.

It was a full house at the Burrow the night of the Order meeting so Mr. Weasley had expanded the kitchen to accommodate the extra bodies. This was where Henry currently found himself, sitting at the table surrounded by his team and the leaders of the other squads going on the mission. Looking around the room, he saw the Weasley family and Hermione down the table talking amongst themselves with Remus leaning against the kitchen wall in conversation with Tonks and Kingsley. Running out of names that he knew he took note of others that he did not recognize around the room, many of them watching him and his team with curiosity and mild apprehension. Drawn out of his observations Henry turned hearing Jake's voice asking, "You ready for this mate?"

"Just another day, eh?"

"Too right," Frank said from across the table as any further conversation was interrupted by the sound of someone coming through the floo. Turning to see Dumbledore stepping out of the fireplace all of the voices in the room died down as Connor stood up and made his way towards the professor.

"Captain are you ready to begin?" the old man said as Connor reached him.

"Almost professor the major and our guest will be here momentarily."

"Good but I must insist once more that you share the identity of this contractor with me, just so I can guarantee the security of this meeting of course."

"You let us worry about the security Dumbledore," as everyone in the room was following the back and forth between the two they were again distracted by the sound of the floo activating. Major Taylor stepped out of the fireplace as he surveyed the room with his gaze coming to rest on the team that still sat at the table. With a slight nod of his head, the team stood and came to stand around the fireplace while the major moved to where Connor and Dumbledore were standing.

"Good to see you professor our last guest should be here right about… now." This time every eye in the room was focused on the floo hoping to get the first glimpse of the mysterious final guest. The fire turned green once again depositing the traveler, those watching took in the tall masculine figure dressed in the same fatigues as the rest of the soldiers as he brushed the ash from his clothes. Finally looking up giving his audience the first look at his face they all froze at the sight of Sirius Black's grinning back at them.

"I know I look good in this uniform but damn you guys," he said after the silence had lasted more than a few seconds. His words snapped the members of the order out of there shock causing the room to fill with their angry shouts as many wands were drawn. Having expected this Jake and Frank drew their pistols while Henry raised a shield that blocked a few curses that had been sent their way.

'BANG'

"That is enough, Dumbledore restrain your people," Major Taylor stowed his wand as he spoke glaring at Dumbledore.

"Everyone put your wands down there must be a good reason that the major would bring Mr. Black here." At the old man's words, most in the room lowered their wands but some were not as easily convinced.

"He's a traitor Albus, he already escaped from Azkaban once he needs to be dealt with now," came the angry growl of Moody who had both eyes and his wand fixed on Sirius. With a curse on his lips, he was halted by the feeling of a wand pressed to his throat and an empty hand looking down to notice his wand was no longer there.

"Easy there Moody, I wouldn't want to have to 'deal with you' for attempting to attack a government agent," Henry said before moving his wand away from the man's throat and tossing him his wand back. "Don't make me have to take it again."

"Enough, Mr. Black is here as an agent of the non-magical government and has been pardoned of any crimes in both the non-magical and magical world on the authority of the Prime Minister. He is to be treated with the respect and professionalism afforded by his position," the major spoke with an air of finality.

"That may be but that man betrayed this organization causing the deaths of the Potters, 12 muggles, and Peter Pettigrew so what proof do you have of Mr. Black's innocence?" Dumbledore said causing many in the room to nod in agreement.

"Would a veritaserum confession suffice professor?" Sirius said coming from behind Jake and Frank.

"Yes that should allow us to get to the bottom of this matter," he said after a moment of thought.

"Good thing I brought some with me then," Sirius said reaching into his pocket and withdrawing a vial of clear liquid. "Snape I believe you should be able to verify that this is real," with a nod from Dumbledore the potions master took the vial from Sirius with a glare. After examining the liquid Snape confirmed that it was indeed veritaserum and handed it back to Sirius. "If you would do the honors major," he said extending the potion to Taylor. After giving Sirius a few drops of the truth serum his eyes glazed over and he relaxed into the chair he sat in.

"Let's begin shall we?" the major said to the group before turning to Sirius. "What is your name?"

"Sirius Orion Black"

"Were you the Potter's secret keeper?"

"No"

"Who was?"

"Peter, we switched at the last minute because I thought it would be too obvious that they would choose me." A few gasps were heard around the room at his answer.

"Are you a supporter the terrorist known as Lord Voldemort?"

"No."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew and twelve non-magical individuals?"

"No, Peter killed the muggles and cut off his finger before turning into his animagus form and getting away." After the confessions looks of shock and sorrow could be seen around the room, many could not believe that it was true.

"Does that settle it professor?"

"Yes, yes that is more than enough major." Dumbledore said his eyes vacant of their usual twinkling. The major administered the antidote to Sirius causing him to become alert once again, "I'm so sorry Sirius, if I had known…"

"It's in the past Albus, we need to look ahead," Sirius said before turning to the rest of the room most of whom were still in shock. "Alright there Moony?" he said bringing Remus back to reality.

"Sirius, I'm so sorry I never should have believed that you would betray Lily and James," he said moving to Sirius with guilt written on his face.

"What did I just say to Dumbledore? What's done is done and I have moved on so don't feel guilty because there's no way you could have known." When Remus reached Sirius he held out his hand seeking forgiveness, but Sirius just smirked at him before drawing the werewolf into a hug letting him know that all was forgiven.

"Wotcher Sirius, not sure if you remember me…" Tonks spoke after the men had separated.

"Nymphadora? My have you grown up I haven't seen you since you were a little girl," he said smirking at the glare her real name solicited from Tonks.

"It's Tonks and that's the only time I'm going to tell you," she warned. "But it's good to see you again Sirius, mom always held out that you were innocent."

"Give her my best then, but there will be time for this later for we need to get to the matter at hand." Turning back to the rest of the room he said, "I'm sure that all of you have questions and I will try to answer them, but first why doesn't everyone take a seat as this is a rather long story." After everyone had sat around the enlarged table Sirius spoke again, "Now I can only tell you part of the story but I'm gonna need some help to tell it all." As he said this he locked eyes with Henry, "It's time pup, orders came this morning to bring the Order into the loop." Henry gave a resigned nod as Sirius turned to the members of the Order," what you are about to hear is a classified state secret and as such is to be protected at all costs, I must insist that all of you take an oath on your magic to not reveal this information." The order turned to Dumbledore who only nodded in acceptance urging his followers to do the same. After all in the room had swore to protect the secret they were about to learn Sirius turned back to Henry and gave him a nod. Seeing the signal the attention of the room turned from Sirius to Henry who stood as an emotionless mask came over his face.

"I want to thank all of you for swearing to keep my secret, the truth is that you were correct professor," he said looking at Dumbledore noticing the previously absent twinkle returning to his eyes. "My name isn't Henry Peters, it's Harry Potter," for the second time that evening everyone in the room was frozen in shock. Looking to the Weasley's Henry saw a mix of emotions played out across their faces. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ron all had looks of awe while the twins were shocked silent and Hermione looked like something had just clicked as a triumphant look came over her face. Coming to the last redhead and the one he was most nervous about Henry looked to Ginny finding wonder and a little confusion on her face.

"Well now that that's out of the way we can begin our tale, I feel it would be best to start in the beginning and please try not to interrupt me." Sirius said standing as Henry took his seat again, "It all started just after I had graduated from Hogwarts, that summer before I was to begin auror training I was approached by an individual with an interesting proposition. He told me that his name was Miles, still don't know if that's true or not, but anyway he said he was from a group called MI6," he was interrupted by a slight gasp from Hermione as most in the room just looked on in confusion. "It's a portion of the muggle government that deals with intelligence and covert operations, basically the things that nobody ever knows about, but he told me that they were aware of our world and the threat of Voldemort" he paused as most around the table flinched at the name. "He offered me some very unorthodox training to help combat the coming threat in return for information on the events that were occurring in the wizarding world. I didn't see how I could turn down the offer so I accepted and left to train for six months."

"That's where you went," Remus said.

"Yes, that's why I was gone, but when I returned I worked for both the Order and MI6 trying to fight Voldemort. That is until that night after Lily and James were killed I gave in to my grief and rage going after Peter even though I knew I could prove my innocence, needless to say we all know how that turned outs. After that I went to Azkaban and we come to the part of the story that I am unable to tell," Sirius finished before sitting and all eyes turned to where Henry sat. Standing up a mask of indifference came over his face as he looked to those waiting to hear his tale.

"As some of you know after the night my parents were killed I was left with my Aunt and Uncle where I was supposed to live a happy, normal childhood," his eyes came to rest on Dumbledore as he said this. "But I can assure you that my time there was anything but that, I was treated with loathing and contempt on good days. However that is unimportant to the story, I lived with my relatives for almost five years before they got sick of me and left me at an orphanage in London" taking a moment to compose himself Henry continued. "Life at the orphanage was better than my relatives, I was fed at least, but mostly I was left alone. I had been living there for three years when something happened, one of the bullies at the orphanage was attacking me when my I lost control of my magic. My magic threw the other boy across the room injuring him and the workers at the orphanage called the muggle authorities because they felt I was 'unsafe'. Eventually the muggle authorities showed up and took me away after hearing the story from the workers. From there I was taken to the police station where they began to ask me all sorts of questions about what had happened, this continued for some time before two men in suits showed up. They spoke briefly with the police before they began to ask me their own questions, who was I, what happened to my family, that kind of stuff."

"Who were they?" Hermione asked when Henry paused; he gave her a small smile before answering.

"They were from the MI6; they had overhead the call to the police and suspected that it was magic so they sent people to investigate. When they talked to me and ran my name through their database, it raised some flags. They were aware of my history and importance," the last words were directed at the headmaster signaling that they were aware of the prophecy Dumbledore had thought secret. "They knew that I couldn't go back to an orphanage or worse jail so they contacted their superior who happened to be 'Miles' from before. Miles told them to take me to a safe house until my guardian would be available. He knew that Sirius was my godfather as well as being innocent; he came up with a plan to free him so that he could take his rightful role as my guardian."

"A bloody ballsy one at that," the major said from down the table causing Henry and Sirius to grin.

"He sent a team much like mine to break into Azkaban and get Sirius out, the major here was one of the ones given the task," all eyes turned to Major Taylor at this statement.

"Yea and that's the last I'll be seeing of that place, I got to give it to you Black I don't know how you lasted eight years in that pit." This caused Sirius to chuckle before turning back to Henry to continue the story.

"Right, so once Sirius was free from Azkaban they cleaned him up before taking him to the safe house that I was staying at."

"That was the best day of my life, I got it from here pup," at that Henry sat back down with a sigh of relief. "Once we were reunited I talked with Miles and we decided that the best course of action would be to leave the country. The United States magical and non-magical governments work together much more than ours does so when the MI6 explained the situation and sought their aid they were more than willing to help. They set us up with new identities, Henry and James Peters, as well as granting us dual citizenship. After everything was arranged, we left England for the U.S., once there we settled in upstate New York to start our new lives. For the next couple of year we led normal lives just trying to come to terms with our pasts, for we both had our demons haunting us but we got through it together. Eventually it became time for Henry to begin his magical education, he got acceptance letters from schools all across the U.S. but only one caught his interest. It was from a school that before then I had thought to be a myth, The Academy." This cause a few in the room to gasp, looking around Sirius saw looks of surprise on the faces of Tonks, Kingsley, and Moody.

"What's The Academy?" asked George his look of confusion matched by many others in the room.

"The Magical Military Academy," Henry responded to the question. "Jake and I's alma mater, each year they select 50 candidates for acceptance from all around the world to be educated in magic, magical and non-magical combat, strategy, and so on. The decision was easy given my past and the threat of Voldemort still out there, I accepted their invitation and began my schooling shortly after my 11th birthday. For the next 7 years I worked my ass of so I could be prepared for what was surely to come. I owe much of who I am to that place, it taught me everything I know and made me who I am today."

"Cum opera venit…" Jake spoke from beside Henry.

"Magnitudine," Henry finished. Seeing the confused looks the others at the table wore he said, "School motto, but anyway I graduated from The Academy earlier this year in May and was deployed with the 22nd in June before rescuing Ginny and coming here."

"And that brings an end to our story bringing us to the present. Now there will be time for questions later it's time to speak on the matter at hand, the raid tomorrow." Sirius said this snapping the others out of their thoughts to concentrate on the plan for tomorrow. Casting a spell that projected a map depicting a shipping yard and docks he said, "now I'm gonna go through this rather fast so I'll answer any questions afterwards." After making sure everyone was paying attention he began,"we have received intelligence that a large number of foreign Death Eaters will be entering the country tomorrow. Intel indicates that multiple portkeys will deposit them here, the port of Liverpool. The plan is that Kilo's 1-4 will insert into these alleys surrounding this square." He pointed to a clearing on the map next to the water and surrounded by buildings on the other three sides. "That's where we believe they'll appear, while Kilo is getting into position Bravo 1 and 2 will take up positions in these buildings on either side of the square to provide over watch. Now with the exception of Henry's team the rest of the squads are non-magical so this is where the Order comes in, two of you will be assigned to each squad to provide shielding and support as well as emergency exfil. The rest of you will be tasked with establishing wards, Mr. Weasley I understand that you may be of use here," Sirius said looking at Bill who nodded back. "Good so you will set up anti-apparition and portkey wards so they can't escape. Once all teams are in position we wait for the Death Eaters to portkey in before we confront them, command wants us to take some prisoners so give them the chance to surrender. Make no mistake though if they attack its open season."

"Is that really necessary Sirius?" The headmaster began.

"It is Dumbledore, this is war, not one that we started but one that we'll be damn sure to finish by any means necessary," Sirius said before turning to the others. "At first glance this appears to be a straightforward operation but make no mistake things can go very wrong so stay sharp. Two little birds have been tasked to give us air support if things go fubar out there, other than that everybody be sure to rest up tonight because we have a busy day tomorrow." He finished as a predatory smile came upon his face. "Anybody with questions feel free to talk to me after the meeting but other than that I believe this meeting is over, headmaster?"

"Quite, tonight has given me much to think on, I believe that I will take my leave now, until tomorrow." Dumbledore rose as he spoke moving to the fireplace to return to Hogwarts.

"Well then it seems this meeting has, wait I almost forgot," he said causing those beginning to stand to sit back in their seats. "We feel that it is time to establish a more secure headquarters for our efforts against Voldemort so I am opening up my house to all of you. You can trust me when I say it is well protected including a fidelius with yours truly as secret keeper. Arthur I feel it would be pertinent to move you and your family there immediately for your protection."

"Very well, it would give me some peace of mind to know that they're safe," Arthur said after a moment of thought.

"Great well that really does bring this meeting to an end," at that many stood, a few moving to ask Sirius questions but most leaving the room. Henry motioned to Jake and they made their way out the back door taking seats on a bench looking out on the woods surrounding the Burrow. After a moment of silence Henry reached into his pocket withdrawing two cigarettes extending one to Jake.

"I'm good; you know that shit will kill you right?"

"Yea well what isn't trying to kill me now a days, besides blame it on Stevens he's the one who always brought them on training exercises." Henry said before lighting the cigarette with his finger, exhaling the smoke with a sigh.

"You alright mate?" Jake asked seeing Henry zone out.

"Yea just don't like thinking about that shit, and I'm interested to see how the Weasley's act around me now."

"Yea how do you think your little crush is going to react," Jake said with a laugh causing Henry to shove him.

"Piss off," Henry could not help the slight smile that turned his mouth up at the thought of Ginny.

"See this is exactly what I'm talking about," Jake said his chuckles turning to full laughter at his friends antics.

"What's so funny?" The voice coming from behind them caused Jake to begin laughing even harder as Henry began coughing out of shock. Fighting the urge to cough Henry turned around and saw Ginny coming to stand behind them, quickly banishing his cigarette he replied.

"Nothing Jake just thinks he's a comedian when he's not very funny," Henry fixed Jake with a glare that caused him to slowly stop laughing as he stood and made for the house.

"I happen to think that I'm hilarious but I guess it's above some," he said still chuckling as he left Henry and Ginny alone. Henry turned to Ginny to find her looking at him intently, he could tell that she was expecting something.

"Listen I know that I lied to you and your family but that was to protect all of us. Besides it doesn't change anything, I'm still the guy that you've gotten to know. Just because I was born with a different name doesn't make me a different person."

"I understand why you had to keep it a secret, and it certainly was a shock but I seem to remember a promise you made to me to tell me about your life when you were able to and it looks like that time has come." Ginny said with a smirk causing Henry to relax knowing that she wasn't mad.

"I believe you are correct but I'm afraid it will have to wait because we need to get inside and you need to get packed to move to headquarters."

"Okay but I'm holding you to that promise," she said standing up as Henry did the same.

"And I'll be more than happy to oblige you," Henry said as they made their way back to the Burrow.

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AN: Cum opere venit magnitudine = With hard work comes greatness