Harry Potter and The Fate We Make
Chapter 19: Trials and Tribulations, Part 2
A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter. Quick explanation: The connection between Harry and Voldie is not Horcrux-created. So it's not going to act the same. It's there to help equalize them.
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July 29, 1995
To say Harry's words touched off a bit of activity is to vastly understate the case. Dumbledore instantly flicked his wand, sending off a silver ... something that shot straight through the nearest wall. "I've alerted the Order. Harry, I need you to tell me every detail." Dumbledore insisted. For once, Harry was entirely too happy to obey.
"It was that same windowless, poorly-lit room he uses. Everyone but Snape was there. I could hear him thinking things. Suspecting Snape of being the mole." Which he was, but Voldemort finding that out would be really, really, spectacularly bad for Snape's continued well-being and lifespan. "He figured if this raid went off without a hitch, Snape was the mole and he'd deal with him. If the raid ran into problems the same as the first ones he pulled, before you had the house-elves watching over the kids, it was someone else and he'd have to eliminate them one by one to figure out who it was." Harry said. "He said something about seeing if you could protect them all, and then split everyone into teams." Harry rubbed at his head for a moment, trying to remember. "Malfoy and his goons are headed for the Creeveys." He said after a moment. "Wormtail ... and Avery ... got sent to the Dobbs. Which means Nott and Macnair got the MacDonalds."
A few moments later, the majority of the Order had converged on Dumbledore's office, looking surprisingly put-together. But then Harry, who had been rather single-minded in his desire to get the information to Dumbledore, hadn't realized it was no longer the dead of night. Dawn was tinting the sky to the east.
"It seems Voldemort has chosen to begin targeting the muggleborns currently attending the school, since the ones too young to do so have been denied him."
McGonagall looked horrified. "Can we widen the net that far?" She wanted to know.
Dumbledore sighed. "Alas, there are not enough house-elves, however willing they may be, at our disposal to protect every muggleborn currently attending the school as well as the ones that do not yet know of its existence. I am afraid we shall have to come up with another plan to protect them. But that is something to contemplate a bit later. We have a far more serious matter to deal with. Voldemort plans to attack three different muggleborn families tonight."
This caused an uproar. And a very long debate. Most of the Order was all for moving the families involved. A few pointed out that if those three were taken out of reach, Voldemort might go after someone else, and they'd not find out in time to keep them alive. Some were trying to figure out how to guard the families without tipping the Death Eaters (or worse, Voldemort) off ... and at more than one point, they were all trying to talk over each other. Harry and Ron sort of got forgotten in the melee.
Harry watched the whole thing quietly, dismayed at how scattered and divided even the supposedly unified Order was. The good guys were supposed to win, when things were like this? Honestly. With the Ministry at odds with itself and Dumbledore, and Dumbledore's Order at odds with themselves ... no wonder Voldemort had such an easy time of it creating havok! Ron just looked gobsmacked at the whole thing, having never been in a meeting before. After a while, Harry decided to distract himself from the increasingly strident ... discussions, and turned to Ron.
"Ok, mate." He challenged. "What would you do?"
Ron paled. "Me? With this mess? Are you kidding me? I wouldn't have the faintest idea!"
Harry scoffed. "Ron, mate, you're the best chess player I've ever seen. So pretend this ... " He waved a hand at the meeting. "Is happening on a chessboard."
Ron's brow furled. "But how?"
Harry laughed. "I'm the king, mate. Dumbledore's the queen." That worked. Harry stayed put and stayed safe, at least in this particular mess. Dumbledore had the power to move where he wanted and do what was needed ... and if he was lost, the game wouldn't end. It'd be crippled, but it wouldn't end. There'd come a time when Harry would have to be more maneuverable than the king, but that time wasn't yet. "Figure Moody, Kingsley, Remus, for King's side. McGonagall, Flitwick and Tonks for Queen's side." Well, at least they had more people to choose from than Voldemort did right now ... Harry hadn't even named everyone in the room. "Voldie's got himself as king, Macnair, Avery, Nott, Malfoy, Pettigrew, Crabbe and Goyle. I figure those last three for pawns." He admitted. "And the kids we're trying to protect are the pawns on our side."
That's all it took to get Ron's mind ticking over as he considered things, then he sighed. "Well, if I had the faintest idea where the king was at, I'd fake a pass at him, make him pull his forces in to protect himself, but since I don't, I really don't know what to tell you, mate."
Ahh well, it had been worth the distraction anyway. Harry wasn't any more sure than Ron was how to approach the problem. Their little net was getting stretched to the breaking point with this strike.
Eventually, Dumbledore got them all to quiet down. "Tonks, Minerva, as we do not know precisely when, tonight, they plan to strike, I would ask the two of you to keep watch on the Creeveys and Dobbs, respectively. Remus, if you would watch over the MacDonalds. The rest of us shall divide into teams and wait for your signals to arrive."
Harry let out a snicker. "I hope McGonagall gets hungry in cat form and goes rat-hunting." He whispered to Ron. "Pettigrew's going after them." It was probably a mean thing to say, but considering that Harry hated Pettigrew as much as he hated Voldemort, maybe more, maybe it wasn't.
Ron looked revolted. "Mate, that's just cruel. Not only would she be resorting to cannibalism, but Pettigrew can't be good for the digestion."
Harry grimaced and nodded at that. "Point. I take it back." He agreed.
The meeting broke up, with almost everyone heading for the mansion, except those that had to work today. Once the room had emptied out, Dumbledore returned his attention to Harry and Ron. Harry noticed that for once, Dumbledore was not looking him in the eye.
"Thank you for the warning, Harry, though I must encourage you to work harder on the occlumency. This connection to Voldemort is very dangerous."
"I have been working hard." Harry said. "Moody says I'm doing pretty good, especially for someone my age." Harry couldn't help but scoff a bit mentally. Dumbledore was acting as if Harry was just lazing about doing nothing. His scar wasn't even hurting him anymore when it happened! And while he agreed wholeheartedly that the visions were more than a bit creepy, he was learning things that even Snape didn't know. Cripes, if he hadn't 'seen' this meeting, Snape would have been killed ... or worse ... as a spy. He had every intention of trying to block out the visions if he could, but so far he'd worked to absolutely no mitigating effect where the visions were concerned. The visions had actually gotten more detailed and involved, not less, much less them disappearing entirely. Harry wasn't quite sure what the deal with them was, at this point. Did his mind become more defenseless when he was in the middle of building his defenses, maybe? It didn't make any sense, but it wouldn't be the first time something made no sense in the magical world. He'd have to ask Moody later.
Dumbledore let them go after that, and they headed back to the mansion, which was a riled-up beehive of activity. The rest of the day was a complete loss. None of the New Marauders could concentrate on anything. Tensions were so thick they were all but visible. The adults were all grim-faced, most of them pacing about. Molly was cooking nonstop, and snapping at anyone that came any further into the kitchen than the table. Sirius and Snape got into a nose-to-nose, wands drawn standoff, snarling insults and accusations at one another, though Harry wasn't sure if that was the day's tension or just them being them. It did provide the day's only amusement, as Molly went after both of them with a ladle she'd had in hand when she came out of the kitchen to investigate the uproar in the corridor. It was rather amusing watching Snape, of all people, retreat with all haste and much lost dignity from an irate Molly Weasley. Sirius made haste to get away too, but it wasn't as amusing as seeing Snape discomfited.
And weirdly, it was as if that confrontation had been what everyone needed to get their game faces on, as the tension eased or shifted focus or something ... at any rate, it wasn't the oppressive can't-sit-still tension that'd had everyone so surly earlier in the day. Tonks, McGonagall and Remus left right after dinner, to ensure they were where they needed to be in plenty of time, and then it was back to waiting.
The darker it got out, the more Harry fretted, Until Ginny grabbed him, forced him into a chair and quite literally sat on him. He froze up more completely than if he'd been hit with a petrificus, and gave Ginny a completely gobsmacked look for quite some time before he found his voice. Alas, he didn't manage to find his voice before Ginny, Ron, and Hermione (who'd all been in the room) started laughing, though Ron looked as if he maybe wanted to scold Ginny too.
"Ginny, what ... " To his eternal mortification, his voice squeaked.
"You should see your face mate. I don't think I've ever seen you that startled." Ron hooted.
Harry just flailed, quite literally. He had no idea what to do with his hands. He was tempted to try to push her off, but he wasn't entirely sure that'd work, and even if it did, if the look on her face was any indication, she was liable to hex him. "Ginny!" His voice was more sure this time, and managed to even sound scolding.
Which had no effect on Ginny. She just gave him a look more suited to Fred or George in the midst of thinking up a prank than her. "Yes, Harry?"
"Gerroff!"
"Will you stay put?" She wanted to know. "You were starting to drive me mad with all that pacing."
Harry sighed, but agreed to staying put. Ginny removed herself to the cushion next to him and Harry relaxed finally. Less than two minutes later, there was a flash of something white, and Tonks' voice filled the house. "They're here."
Immediately, a group of the adults disappeared. Only moments later, two more white flashes, and McGonagall and Remus' voices supplied the same message. This time, Harry managed to actually see what the flash was all about. There was a white, ghostly tabby cat standing in the hallway. It looked like a patronus, but Harry'd never heard of a patronus being able to talk. "I have got to learn that spell." He told the others.
"Yeah, that spell's wicked." Fred agreed as he walked into the room. A few moments later, the only adults left in the house were Sirius, Molly, and Dumbledore, who'd decided to stay behind just in case Voldemort tried something while everyone else was away.
They tried to distract each other, they really did. It wasn't working all that well. Mostly, the Marauders sat in the dining room picking at food while Molly cooked up a storm.
Finally, in the wee hours of the morning, the first group returned ... Remus'. They were battered and bruised, but triumphant. Tonks' group returned about ten minutes later, equally battered and equally triumphant.
It was a nerve-wracking hour before McGonagall returned. Alone. Quite literally hissing in rage. Pettigrew had managed to sneak into the house via the sewer system while Avery distracted the Order members outside. By the time anyone realized what was going on, Mr. Dobbs had been killed. Worse, Daedelus Diggle had been badly wounded in the scuffle with Avery. The only bit of good news was that wife and child had escaped harm. McGonagall could move fast as a cat. Dumbledore immediately headed out.
It was a very quiet and solemn Order that packed up and headed for their homes that night.