AN: I am so sorry for the delay in this chapter. It's been written for a damn long while now, and the only reason I was unable to upload it at all was because my computer went through a phase in which it believed it had gone through a lobotomy, so all the information on my hard drive was lost. Fortunately, I had a few copies backed up, and so now I'm able to upload this at last. So, without further ado, here's Chapter VIII. -- Marquis Black


Nine days later…

Harry paced his way down the metallic corridor that led towards Sulu's office briskly. The men and women who passed by him seemed to glance at him somewhat fearfully, and with good reason, too.

For Harry Potter was not pleased.

In fact, he was bordering on outright anger.

It had been well over a week since any word had come from the Third Legion, and his repeated requests to send an expedition to find out what had happened had been continuously denied, often on frivolous grounds.

Which was why, at the moment, Harry was storming towards Sulu's office.

Not even the guards standing by the doors stopped him, as they were, for the most part, sympathetic to the Duke's cause, and were not a little miffed at the seeming callousness that Headquarters was displaying in this situation.

Thus it was that Harry, Duke of Halifax and decorated Hero of the Empire, slammed open the elaborate wooden double-doors, loudly and rudely interrupting a meeting between Sulu and some of the former Order members; namely, Dumbledore, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

All of the occupants within the room jumped as the Duke stormed in, eyes blazing, and a few armed guards following closely behind him.

"What is the meaning of this?" demanded Shacklebolt as he stood up, shocked by both Harry's presence and the rude entry.

Harry's glare at the man was ferocious enough to quiet the normally proud and capable ex-Auror. The glare was subsequently turned onto Sulu, who looked shocked, irritated, and yet, reluctantly unsurprised.

"What is it this time, Marshall?" asked Sulu, not willing to display the usual familiarity amongst those not within his inner circle of trust.

Harry glared at the occupants briefly before turning his attention to Sulu. "You know why I'm here, General," he replied in kind, although far more bitingly.

Sulu levelled his own glare at Harry. "As you've been told before, the Imperial military will not attempt to relieve the Third Legion, Marshall," he reminded Harry.

"Why the sodding hell not?" all but screamed Harry furiously. Behind him, the guards seemed to swell with indignation as well.

"Marshall!" cried out Hermione in shock at the man's language.

Sulu ignored the bushy-haired woman and narrowed his eyes at Harry. "There are procedures to follow, Marshall. No distress signal has been received from the Helm, and—"

Harry had to stop himself from drawing his sword at that moment. How could his friend be so blind? "Have you forgotten the fact that the Helm is within a very powerful electromagnetic field?" he hissed.

Sulu faltered for a moment, but regained his composure. "Colonel Longbottom would have known to put up an antenna outside the field's range," he countered.

"You seem to forget that the closest point for him to build such an antenna is within Death Eater territory," snapped Harry.

Now Sulu did falter. "But…," he stammered. "Our maps…"

"That's impossible!" protested Ron Weasley, finally butting into the conversation. "The intelligence I was given told me that the surrounding area was under Imperial control!" he asserted.

Harry glared at the Weasley man. He hadn't forgotten their past history, or what Sirius and Remus had told him about his later years.

Eventually, however, he managed to refocus his attention towards Sulu. "You're positive about the maps?" he asked briskly.

Sulu nodded wordlessly. Instead, it was the Granger woman who spoke up.

"The General and Ron aren't lying, Marshall," she said somewhat nervously. After all, it was a somewhat daunting and terrifying experience to be within striking distance of the man who'd taken down Serpent Fortress, led the American Incursion, and been hailed as the Restorer of the Throne. "Ron showed me the information before he submitted the plans."

Harry levelled a cold, calculating gaze at her. He contemplated her silently for a few minutes before finally asking, "Why?"

Hermione seemed nonplussed at this semi-courteous question. "Logistical problems, mainly," she replied after a moment.

Harry kept his gaze on her for a moment before nodding and turning to Sulu. "Do you still have a copy of the maps used?"

"Now, I don't believe that will be necessary, will it?" interrupted Dumbledore smoothly.

Harry glared at the older man. Their past history was very much not forgotten. "And why is that?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"We've already established that the information mister Weasley and Miss Granger had was erroneous," Dumbledore explained calmly. "Perhaps rather than look further into the matter of how erroneous it is, we should focus on helping the poor fellows at the Helm."

Harry was about to snap an angry retort when Shacklebolt spoke up.

"I agree," stated the ex-Auror before matching Harry's gaze. "I don't know whether you remember me or not, Marshall, but I was at Hogwarts in nineteen ninety seven. I was the Ministry garrison commander."

Harry nodded at him silently after a moment's contemplation. "I remember. Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt. Major Wolfe spoke to you directly."

Kingsley nodded, somewhat honoured that such a hero (in his eyes) would remember him. "That is correct, Marshall. However, returning to my point, Marshall, I believe that if you were to ask Major Wolfe—"

"Colonel Wolfe," corrected Harry.

Kingsley didn't miss a beat. "—Colonel Wolfe about that particular instance, he would have told you that I'd ordered your men unharmed and well kept."

Harry nodded. "He said much the same thing," admitted Harry, scowling at Dumbledore's apparent smugness as Kingsley gave his faction the moral high ground. "Get to the point, Shacklebolt."

"My pardons, Your Grace," apologized Kingsley. "What I meant to say is, in the presence of the option to either go immediately and save your men, and digging further into this apparent dereliction of duty, perhaps the wiser option is to ascertain the fate of your comrades. After all, the error will still be there when you return. The men, on the other hand, may not."

Harry looked at the ex-Auror with something akin to respect, yet a great deal of suspicion (rooted in his total distrust of the former Order) was mixed in as well. He was, however, forced to concede the point.

"Very well," he agreed, before turning to Sulu. "I have your permission, then?"

Sulu nodded, somewhat shocked that someone else had managed to talk reason into the usually unreasonable (when angry) Field Air Marshall.

Harry nodded briskly. "Very well. I shall have the Aurora and the Orion depart immediately with components of the Fourth Legion to investigate the situation."

With that, Harry spun on his heel and strode out of the room, his guards close behind.

Harry, however, hadn't gotten far before a cry halted him.

"Marshall, a moment, please!"

The Duke turned to see Weasley run up to him. Obviously, the redheaded man had quickly excused himself from the meeting and had sought to catch up to him.

"What is it, mister Weasley?" asked Harry.

Weasley seemed a bit unnerved by Harry's form of address, but managed to summon enough courage to say his piece.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," said the redheaded man quickly.

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "What for?" he asked dryly.

"Getting your men into trouble," he explained. "Whatever you might think of me and the rest of the Order, I would never have intentionally sent them to their deaths."

Harry was silent for a moment. "Your record is against you on that count, mister Weasley."

The redheaded man flinched. "I know, and I can say that my youth made me somewhat stupid…" he admitted at length. "But I would never do something as horrible as send an entire Legion to their deaths just for petty revenge!"

Harry considered the man's response for a moment. Something wasn't quite right with it. "Why are you doing this?" he asked eventually, his tone crisp. Upon seeing Ron's confused look, he elaborated. "You don't care about my opinion, Weasley. You hate me. It's common knowledge. You hate me, the Imperial cause—heck, even your own sister!"

At this, the redheaded man flinched. Hard. Understanding flooded Harry's face.

"You're actually worried about her, aren't you?" he asked softly. After all, he really couldn't begrudge that. Lord knew that he himself was practically falling apart due to his wife's condition. After all, she hadn't woken up at the week's end, like it'd been estimated, much to his dismay. It had taken a couple of soldiers to restrain him from killing the doctor for this simple miscalculation.

Harry had no idea why, but for some reason, his temper had slowly, but surely, degraded with time, to the point that he now needed little prodding before his temper exploded violently.

Harry watched as the redheaded man nodded slowly. "I...I know I was horrible to her, and you," he added quickly, "but when I was told that Ginny had fought in Panama City and gotten hurt, I felt horrible. More than I thought I would."

Ron ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated move. "I mean, my brain kept telling me that she was the enemy—that she'd betrayed the family by going to you!" he told Harry, who hadn't made a move since the beginning of the man's confession. However, he did signal for one of his guards to relay his orders to Central Command.

"But?" prompted Harry after Ron did not immediately continue.

"But she's my sister," said Ron. "I even asked Hermione about it. Did you know she was one of the first to argue for the disbandment of the Order after Snape motioned for it?"

Harry was surprised to know this. "No, I had no idea," he said honestly.

Ron nodded with a weak chuckle. "She did. For the first time since I've known her, she stood up to Dumbledore and used that brain of hers to dismantle something she'd personally been advocating for years," he told Harry. He then blinked and suddenly reddened. "I'm off topic, aren't I?"

Harry wordlessly nodded, causing the redhead to flush even more in embarrassment.

"Anyway," he continued as he managed to lose some of his flush. "I was confused, and I asked her about my situation. I think she may have wanted to hit me at the time, come to think of it," he added to himself. He shook himself as he realized he'd gone off in another tangent, much to Harry's amusement. "Anyway, she told me I was an idiot--"

'No argument there,' thought Harry.

"--And that my problem was that I'm only seeing things from Dumbledore's perspective, rather than seeing the whole picture."

Ron glanced at Harry, who raised an eyebrow at this move. "Are you expecting me to counter that? I actually agree with her," remarked Harry wryly.

Ron flushed. "Yeah, that's what she said you'd do, too. I guess that's when I realized that maybe I'd been too harsh…too set in my ways. So I asked to be transferred into the Army when the Order disbanded."

"That was barely a month ago," interrupted Harry. "Why the sudden change in opinion? Most take months, even years to reconcile their old views with reality."

Ron chuckled weakly. "I guess it was my fellow cadets that showed me the error of my ways," he admitted. "I mean, most of the others were either Muggles or Squibs,"

"Ungifted," interrupted Harry sharply. "Don't use those terms. They're derogatory."

Ron winced. "Yeah, the others said the same when I first used them in front of them. Even the few who were magi—Gifted like me seemed to look at me as if I was scum when I used them."

'With good reason' thought Harry.

"Anyway, after the first few days of being shunned, I guess I realized how dumb my prejudices were. No one ever came to my side during my fights, and yet the instructors never marked me differently for being an ex-member of the Order. Back at Hogwarts, similar situations would have gotten me marked down at every opportunity."

Silently, Harry felt horrified and glad he had never had to go to such an uncivilized school.

Ron sighed. "I'm glad to say I got over it. Mum, on the other hand…" Ron looked uneasy. "Mum still thinks Dumbledore's right, I reckon. As does Percy. Mum occasionally asks about Ginny, but since you've restricted our access to her, she hasn't heard much about her since the accident. Percy, on the other hand, simply acts like she doesn't exist, the great git," snarled Ron.

Harry nodded. "Have you seen your brother yet?" asked Harry, obviously referring to Bill, whom Remus and Sirius had told him everyone thought dead.

Ron looked a bit confused by the sudden topic switch but nodded. "Aye. Tore us a new one when Mum, Percy, and I talked to him about rejoining the Order. Still hasn't talked to us since."

Harry had to fight himself so he wouldn't grin. He knew there was a reason why he liked the eldest Weasley son.

"Since we're on the topic of my brothers…" Ron began nervously.

Harry sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but no word yet on Charlie," Harry told him. "We figure that once Bill was rescued, they did their very best to hide Charlie away. As leverage, I assume."

Ron snarled at the idea. "As if we would be coerced so easily. Charlie wouldn't want us to betray the cause for him."

Harry gave him an appraising look and finally one of approval. "Good to know, Weasley."

Ron looked shocked at seeing Harry's look of approval, making the Marshall chuckle as he turned away. After taking a few steps, Harry suddenly turned back.

"Weasley!"

Ron snapped out of his shock and turned to look at Harry, who was smiling approvingly. "Yes, Marshall?"

"Good work on the plan. I took a look at it and it looked good. Maybe if the phoney maps had been true, it would have worked."

With that, Harry turned his back on Ron and walked off down the hallway.

Maybe all wasn't lost with the Order, Harry mused. Perhaps there was hope yet.