Neighbourhood Watch time: Let's all keep an eye on The Anonymous PenName aka Lady Sayu aka whatever she calls herself next, userID 2696598, who tried to blatantly steal Embarr's Dual Minded and turn it into a Harry Potter / Yugioh crossover fanfic by copy-pasting most of the first chapter of DM. When confronted by review she took down the story and changed her penname: I think she might try the same thing again at some later date, using someone else's story.
Note: I'm drawing on Google Maps and my own (very) limited memories of London in this chapter. I probably got a few things wrong: if you notice something, please tell me so I can fix it!
Chapter 3
The shivers had been well-deserved, Harry decided, as he finally came to a gasping halt somewhere in Hyde Park. Dark was a relentless, annoying taskmaster, and for the past month Harry had been driven further than he thought possible. He was now a fairly accomplished acrobat, although he supposed he would never be anywhere near as good as someone who started at a very young age, and very good at running far and fast. Today was July thirty-first, so Harry had it "easy" – just two laps around the park.
After catching his breath Harry made his way to Hyde Park Corner and took the Tube to the station nearest the Leaky Cauldron. Harry jumped in surprise when a hand gripped his shoulder as he was emerging from the station. He whirled around to discover... "Professor Lupin!" he exclaimed, relieved to see an unthreatening and familiar face.
"Harry! Where have you been?" Lupin asked, "Everyone's been so worried about you!"
"I couldn't stay with the Dursleys," Harry stated emphatically, and explained his reasoning. Lupin frowned but accepted it for now.
"I'm taking you with me," he told Harry in a no-nonsense sort of tone. "We've set up headquarters somewhere undetectable."
"Alright, but I need to get my things from the Leaky Cauldron – that's where I was heading," Harry responded.
"The Leaky? But Tom didn't know where you were!" Lupin protested.
"I didn't say I was staying there as myself, did I?" Harry answered with a small, secretive smile. Lupin gave him an odd look but made no verbal comment.
On entering Harry's room Lupin took a quick look around and soon spotted Wiz sprawled out on the pillow. "Who's this?" he asked.
"That's Wiz," Harry answered, "I found him the other day."
"Well, I suppose you can bring him," Lupin said after a moment's deliberation, "He should be easy enough to transport."
Harry got started packing, and while he worked he asked, "How are we getting to... wherever?"
"Brooms," Lupin answered immediately, "It's the only way. You're too young to Apparate, they might be watching the Floo and unauthorised Portkeys are too risky." But Harry, having had the chance to do some studying during the last month, disagreed.
"But what about Side-Along? It would be a lot quicker," he pointed out.
"How do you know about that?" Lupin asked, confused.
"I've been doing a lot of reading – not much else to do when you're trying to keep out of sight," Harry responded.
"Well, I suppose you have a point," Professor Lupin acknowledged.
As he continued packing Harry was distracted by Dark. So that's Lupin.
Best Defence teacher I ever had, Harry agreed. We might have to be careful around him: he's really observant and he's got a good nose. It wouldn't take much for him to notice something funny about me.
Great, a challenge! Dark enthused.
Harry rolled his eyes, making sure he was turned away from Lupin, and finished packing.
Ten minutes, a Disillusionment Charm and a Side-Along Apparition later Harry found himself standing on a messy, weedy jungle of a patch of grass in the middle of a small square, still holding his trunk. He took a quick look around and noticed that the houses surrounding the square all had either peeling paint, broken windows, heaps of rubbish on the doorstep or some combination of the aforementioned.
"Where are we?" Harry asked. Instead of answering, Lupin took a look around to make sure no-one was watching and pulled out a scrap of parchment. Hedwig hooted softly from her perch on Harry's right shoulder, and Wiz shifted on his left.
"Here," Lupin said as he handed the parchment to Harry. "Read and memorise that quickly."
Harry looked down at the paper and read the vaguely familiar, narrow handwriting. It said, "The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London."
Huh? Harry wondered.
Huh? Dark asked simultaneously.
Wait, where's number twelve? There's nothing between numbers eleven and thirteen! Harry realised
"Professor?" he began to voice his question only to be quietly interrupted by Lupin.
"Think about what you just read, Harry."
Harry went over the text in his head and as soon as he reached the part about number twelve, Grimmauld Place something strange happened. An extra house seemed to squeeze its way between the two aforementioned houses, almost like it was inflating. The radio in number eleven boomed along uninterrupted: clearly the Muggles inside hadn't felt anything.
Lupin gently pushed Harry toward the door, saying, "Get in quick, Harry, we don't want anyone to see. Don't go too far in and don't touch anything."
Harry stepped over the threshold and into the gloom of the old house. The air smelt musty, sickly sweet and mouldy. Clearly the house had been empty for quite some time. Lupin followed him in, shut the door and pulled out his wand. "Here..." he said in a very quiet voice and tapped Harry on the head, removing the Disillusionment Charm. "Now, let's have some light on the subject," he added as he cast something wordlessly. Instantly the old gas lamps up and down the hall hissed to life, casting a dull, flickering light on the peeling wallpaper and ancient carpet.
Almost immediately Mrs. Weasley bustled out of the door at the other end of the hall and pulled him into a rib-cracking hug. "Oh Harry, I'm so glad to see you're alright! I was so worried! And you look so well! Where were you?"
"I'm fine, Mrs. Weasley, I was at the Leaky Cauldron: perfectly safe," Harry reassured her.
"Tom knew where you were? Oh, when I get my hands on him...!" Mrs. Weasley hissed.
"No, no, he had no idea! I wasn't there as myself, y'see," Harry told her in a conciliatory tone. After a little more fussing Mrs. Weasley turned to Remus.
"He's just arrived, the meeting started a few minutes ago." Lupin headed in the direction of the door Mrs. Weasley had just used, and Harry tried to follow him. Mrs. Weasley held him back, saying, "No, Harry, the meeting's only for Order members. Ron and Hermione are upstairs: you can wait with them until it's over and we have dinner. And keep your voice down in the hall: we don't want to wake anything up," she added in an urgent whisper.
"What..." Harry started, only to be stopped by Mrs. Weasley.
"I'll explain later: I'm supposed to be at the meeting. I'll just show you where you're sleeping." She pressed a finger to her lips and led him past an umbrella stand which seemed to be made of a severed troll leg and up the stairs. The row of shrunken heads on the staircase wall was disturbing enough, but Harry's slightly delayed realisation that the heads belonged to house-elves was even more so. Going by first impressions this house seemed to have belonged to the most evil of evil wizards. What on earth was the Order doing in a place like this?
Harry opened his mouth to ask Mrs. Weasley about it, but she hushed him and directed him to the right-hand door from the steps on the second landing. "Ron and Hermione will explain everything. I've really got to dash: I'll call you when it's over," she told him and headed back down the stairs.
I wonder what the meeting's about, Harry thought, and turned the doorknob. He only caught a brief glimpse of the room before his vision was obscured by a brown bush and he was bowled over by a very emotional Hermione.
"HARRY! Ron, look, it's Harry! He's alright! Oh, Harry! Where were you? Everyone's been so worried since you disappeared from the Dursleys! Do you realise how dangerous that was?"
"Gerroff him and let him breathe, Hermione," Ron told her, grinning from ear to ear with relief as he pushed the door shut. He appeared to have grown a fair bit over the summer, which made him look a bit ganglier than before, though the rest of his features remained unchanged.
Harry, you lucky dog! Dark put in his own two cents from the back of Harry's mind, Something you forgot to tell me?
It's not like that! She's the closest thing I've got to a sister.
Finally Hermione let him back up and repeated her earlier question. "Where were you, Harry?"
"I was at the Leaky Cauldron all summer and no, Tom didn't know I was there. I stayed as somebody else," Harry explained. "I was worried the blood wards might let Voldemort through since they got some of my blood in June. Could they still use my blood even if the ritual failed last time? I didn't want to take the chance." Ron and Hermione tried to get him to tell them how he had remained undetected over the summer but Harry refused to tell them. Maybe once we know why you're here? Harry asked Dark, who gave no answer yet.
"What is this place, anyway?" Harry asked aloud.
"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Ron answered instantly. "But you already knew that," he added, the tips of his ears going bright red.
"It's a secret society against Voldemort. Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it," Hermione elaborated.
"Who's in it?" Harry asked.
"Quite a few people, all adults – Mrs. Weasley won't let anybody underage join," Hermione answered, and was cut off by Ron.
"We've met about twenty of them, but we think there are more."
"What about the Death Eaters?" Harry asked. "Have they tried again?"
"Yeah, they grabbed a Muggleborn witch – what was her name again?" Ron started.
"Judith Archer," Hermione reminded him. "That was the day before yesterday – Snape reported it at the last meeting. Voldemort's back. "
"Oh." Harry looked pensive. "I wonder why my scar didn't react." Inwardly, however, he knew: Dark had been in control for most of that day, so of course he didn't feel anything.
"We don't know details since we haven't been able to sit in on a meeting," Hermione added. "But we've got the general idea."
"Fred and George invented Extendable Ears: they're really useful," Ron continued. "But Mum found them and had a fit. The twins had to hide them to keep her from binning the lot. We got a fair bit of use out of them before Mum caught on. We know some of the Order members are keeping tabs of the Death Eaters, recruiting more people for the Order and others have been busy trying to find you," Ron said with a pointed look at Harry.
Harry ignored that last bit. "So what have you been doing, besides eavesdropping on the Order?" he asked.
"We've been keeping busy," Hermione answered him. "We've been decontaminating this house – it's been abandoned so long there are things breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen and most of the bedrooms, and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo – AARGH!"
There were two loud cracks and Fred and George materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room.
"Stop doing that!" Hermione snapped.
"Hullo, Harry, thought we'd come see what was going on," George told Harry, beaming.
"You two passed you Apparition tests, then?" Harry asked.
"Perfectly," answered Fred, who was holding what appeared to be a very long piece of flesh-coloured string.
"It would've taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs," Ron grumbled.
"Time is Galleons, Ronniekins," Fred told him and turned to Harry. "We're going to use these," he lifted the string, which Harry now noted was trailing out the door, "to try and hear what's going on downstairs. Extendable Ears," he added on seeing Harry's raised eyebrow.
"Careful," Ron said, staring at the Ear, "If Mum sees one of those again..."
"It's worth the risk, that's a major meeting going on down there," George told them.
The door opened and Ginny appeared. "Oh, hello Harry," she said and addressed the twins. "It's a no-go with the Extendable Ears: she's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door."
"How d'you know?" George asked, crestfallen.
"Tonks told me how. I chucked a load of Dungbombs at the door from the landing and they bounced off, didn't even make contact. No way the Ears'll get through that gap."
"Shame," Fred said, "I really wanted to know what old Snape had to say. He's giving a report now, top secret."
After another half-hour of comparing notes Fred stiffened, muttered "Uh-oh," and pulled the Ear back into the bedroom. Once he had picked it up he and George Apparated away. Mere seconds later Mrs. Weasley came bustling in.
"The meeting's over, you can come down for dinner now," she said. "Everyone's so glad to know you're safe, Harry. And who left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"
"Crookshanks," Ginny said without batting an eye. "He loves playing with them."
They had almost made it to the kitchen door when a witch whose purple hair reminded Harry of Dark's tripped over the troll-leg umbrella stand in the hall. The resulting crash was immediately followed by a loud, piercing screech as the curtains on one of the portraits flew open and a horrible-looking woman shrieked about mutants, half-breeds and the defilement of her ancestral home. Lupin and Mrs. Weasley tried unsuccessfully to pull the curtains shut again. After a moment a very dishevelled Sirius Black emerged from the kitchen and roared "Shut up, you horrible old hag! SHUT UP!" Finally they managed to close the curtains and Sirius spotted Harry.
"Oh Harry, thank God you're safe! Where have you been?"
And for the third time in one day Harry had to explain himself. After his explanation was finished a round of introductions followed, and Harry now knew that the "Tonks" Ginny had mentioned was the witch who tripped over the umbrella stand.
The next day Harry found himself pressed into service clearing out a glass case in the drawing room, and after sorting through various odds and ends – such as a many-legged pair of tweezers which scuttled up Harry's arm when he tried to pick it up, and tried to pierce his skin only to be snatched away by Sirius and bludgeoned with a heavy book – he eventually picked up an ugly, heavy locket with a vaguely serpentine S. As he made to open it Harry was surprised by Dark telling him to put it away quickly. It almost feels like a Hikari artwork. Don't throw it out – I'll take a closer look at it later – but try not to touch it bare-handed. And whatever you do, don't wear it! We don't know what that thing can do. Harry, remembering some of the stories Dark had told him, gave a mental nod and stuffed it in his pocket.
He spent the rest of the day dusting and scrubbing, a monotony broken only by the repeated attempts of Kreacher, the Black family house-elf, to steal back items from the rubbish sack. The house-elf would always swear vehemently when confronted and slink off to his bedroom, only to return in a little while to try again. Finally evening came and everyone headed off to bed. Harry lay awake for about half an hour, listening to make sure no-one was still awake before he quietly got up and padded down to the drawing room, with the locket in the front pocket of his shirt.
Once he was in the drawing room, having read his fifth-year Charms book in advance, Harry was able to successfully cast a silencing charm on the room. He pulled out the locket once more, hung it on the wall on a conveniently unoccupied nail, and looked at the engraving. With a flash of insight he spoke to the thing in Parseltongue, telling in to open. Red eyes appeared on the two halves of the locket and it seemed to get ready to speak. Before the horrible thing could get out a complete word Harry let Dark take over. It actually seemed to hurt a bit less, for some reason. It was less like a mild form of the Cruciatus curse and more like two or three years' worth of growth pains condensed into a couple of seconds, now. Perhaps he was just getting used to it?
Dark kept the locket at arm's length and took a good look at it. It radiated evil, power and the echoes of a twisted soul. It appeared to be a very powerful, skewed Hikari artwork, but no Hikari piece he had ever encountered had felt quite like this one. It felt identical to Harry's scar, that much Dark was sure of. After examining it, Dark wasted no time in setting about sealing it. The locket resisted for some minutes, speaking in disturbing tones and telling dreadful lies about Harry's parents, but finally lost the battle. As its power was destroyed it let out a horrible, drawn-out scream which took several minutes to fade away into silence. Harry breathed out a heavy sigh of relief in the back of Dark's mind as the lies and screaming finally came to an end.
I wonder what that thing was... Not an ordinary locket, that's for sure! he mused.
And why did it feel just like your scar? Dark wondered.
I don't know. We'll have to ask Dumbledore when we get back to Hogwarts, Harry answered. Dark remained silent.
The remainder of the summer was spent cleaning and removing other dangerous, cursed objects (although no other items like the locket surfaced), a continuing monotony broken only by the regular ringing of the doorbell as various Order members came and went. Every time the bell rang, the portrait Harry had learned belonged to Mrs. Black, Sirius's mother, would start shrieking about blood traitors, mudbloods and filth. After about the third time this happened Dark started planning his next heist: that accursed portrait; a plan which was foiled only by Harry's insistence that while everyone would appreciate the peace and quiet, the adults would only become suspicious and soon discover Dark's existence. Harry already had enough trouble explaining away the glassy look in his eyes when talking to Dark.
On the very last day of the holidays Harry was occupied by cleaning Hedwig's favourite perch, the top of the wardrobe, when Ron came into the room carrying a couple of envelopes.
"Booklists are here," Ron announced and handed Harry his. "'Bout time, I thought they'd forgotten since they're so late..." he trailed off as he realised what else was in his envelope. "Bloody hell!"
And yay! CapsLock!Harry didn't make an appearance!