Author's Note: Two items to address before I continue – firstly, to answer one of the questions, yes, this will be the fifth Harry Potter book (including characters) with my own personal view of what would happen if the basic premise I've set up were to occur. This includes interaction with the Harry Potter characters, which will likely end up being a fair amount since they're the best view of the wizarding world we get throughout the books. Although, bear in mind that Max, being 12, won't get to experience the same classes or day-to-days as the rest of the cast, so it won't just be Harry Potter plus a tag along.
Secondly, I have a question for anyone actually keeping up with this. Would you prefer me to write, say, ten thousand words at a time before I update it, or do you prefer me updating it with 1-2 chapters at a time? The only difference will be that the first option will probably space out updates at about a week each.
Thanks for all the pleasant comments, and I hope you enjoy the rest.
Grimmauld Place – Weeks later
It had been a few weeks since we'd first gotten to Grimmauld. I ended up spending most of that time cleaning with Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George. Apparently, this whole place belonged to one of the Order members named Sirius Black who was on the run for murdering a whole bunch of people (but he's innocent). Anyway, he hadn't lived in the house for years, so the entire place had gotten really gross. We normally worked with the Weasely's mother, who seemed kind of in charge of the whole housework stuff. It was neat at first, dealing with all the magical stuff that was in the house, but we weren't allowed to use magic to do any of our work. That was pretty bunk.
It turns out that all wizard kids in Britain have this thing called a Trace on them, which pretty much makes it so that if they ever use magic outside of school, the Ministry (that's the government and one of the Order's enemies) knows about it. Since I was born in America, I didn't actually have a trace on me, but one of the only times I saw Dumbledore, he warned me to never ever show off that I didn't have a Trace on me. He didn't get angry or yell like Dad would, but I could tell he was really serious about it.
Jake still said he was refusing to join the Order. The owner of the house, Sirius, said that we shouldn't be living here if Jake didn't want to join up. They got into a pretty big fight about it before Lupin broke it up, but I figured out that Dumbledore was the reason we were allowed to stay here. I didn't really want to leave. Jake said the Order was bunk. I liked living here though. Everyone was nice and friendly. And there was cool stuff when we weren't cleaning.
It was dinner time, and we had just finished cleaning out one of the upstairs bedrooms. It turns out that Harry Potter was supposed to come and stay with us soon. Tomorrow night, actually. Jake had been shut up in his room all day, but we heard voices while we were cleaning up there. Mrs. Weasely said that he was talking with Dumbledore. Anyway, Jake came down when we were about halfway through eating. He looked really angry.
"Want anything to eat, dear?" Mrs. Weasely didn't seem to like Jake, but she was always polite to him anyways.
"No, I'm fine." He turned and looked at me. "Say, Max, how would you like to get out of the house for a little bit tomorrow? I have to go and do a quick errand in London. What do you say, want to tag along?" Right after he'd finished though, the rest of the Weaselys started talking.
"Wait a minute, we've been in this house all bloody summer! Can't we go to?"
"What do you say, mate? Mind if we come too?"
"Yeah, can we go?"
"Please?"
"Absolutely not!" Mrs. Weasely slammed the pot she had been cleaning down on the counter. "None of you are going. You know full well that these kids are too young to be in the Order, and you're going to practically drag them along on one of the jobs?"
"Molly," it was really weird hearing Jake talk to her like that, "I'm not going anywhere dangerous. You know what I'm basically doing. Max has been in this house for weeks and doesn't know a thing about the magical world because of where and how he was brought up. I thought it might be nice to give him a little bit of a life lesson. If you don't want your kids to go, that's fine, but I'm taking Max."
"Fine. None of my children are going. I think you're making a huge mistake though." She started muttering something about being irresponsible and went back to cleaning some dishes. Sirius looked over at Jake though.
"How exactly do you plan on walking through Diagon Alley tomorrow anyway? As I understand it, you're a wanted man too."
All of the Weasely children and Hermione stopped eating and listened. I didn't know Jake was wanted either. "Well," he started, "I don't think I'll have too much legal trouble. That was a few years back, and I thought Dumbledore was able to get a lot of those charges knocked down."
"I didn't mean wanted by the law, Jake." What was Sirius talking about?
"Oh, that kind of wanted. I think that might actually help. Makes making contact easier anyway, eh?" Sirius laughed. Mrs. Weasely looked like she was about to curse both of them.
"Terrific, you're going out tomorrow, looking for a fight, and you're bringing a twelve year old right into the middle of that. Great parenting skills you've got there. I can definitely see why you and Sirius get along." She threw the pan into a cupboard and left, banging the door as she went. Sirius and Jake looked pissed.
Everyone else looked scared. Fred and George were the only ones who spoke. "So, what're you wanted for?"
"Yeah, what'd you do, mate?"
"And what do you mean not wanted by the law?"
"I kind of smuggled certain dangerous or otherwise illegal items for people with lots of money. You know, in case someone suspected that their house might get raided, I'd be willing to take it off their hands for them for a few days, or if someone needed a certain something that the Ministry didn't let people sell, I might be able to find a certain someone with a more open view of commerce."
"In English, mate?" Ron looked confused. Hermione answered him though. She looked as angry as Mrs. Weasely.
"It means he sold or hid Dark objects for Dark wizards. Isn't that right?"
Jake laughed. "In a nutshell, yes. Hey, now don't give me that look." Hermione was glaring at him. "These people were going to get the items anyway. Best that they don't pay some curse-crazy Dark wizard for it, right? I never killed people if I could help it, and I didn't take jobs that involved too much of the Dark Arts. Unless there was a pretty someone involved…"
"That's disgusting."
"Hermione, pipe down." Fred was angry too.
"Yeah, we want to hear the rest of the story."
"Continue, please." It was weird, but Fred and George could almost be the same person and not just in looks.
"Well, ya see, about two years ago, I happened to have in my possession a certain substance that was to be deemed illegal, and I happened to know a certain someone who wanted to buy this illegal substance, although why Cursed Dragon's Blood is illegal is still beyond me."
"I'm sure it has nothing to do with it being exclusively used in poison making." Hermione still looked angry. Fred and George glared at her again.
"You know, I seem to recall it being something like that too." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Well, anyway, few members of the Magical Law Enforcement squad tracked me down and found the blood on me. I was arrested and stood trial. Well, I was expecting to do some time in Azkaban, but old Albus Dumbledore showed up at my hearing and was able to plead the case down to a misdemeanor offense. I only got a fine."
"Then what do you mean by being wanted? It sounds as if you already paid your punishment."
"Well, isn't it obvious, Ron?" Hermione seemed meaner to everyone when she was angry. "He didn't pay the fine."
"You are correct. I did not. Hey, now look, it was still more money than I really had to spare. Not to mention the fact that I couldn't stay in England much longer. I had seriously pissed off the Malfoys by getting caught and screwing them out of some pretty expensive stuff they'd already paid for, which sucks since they were pretty regular customers." Hermione was on her feet now.
"You worked for the Malfoys!" It wasn't even a question. Who were the Malfoys anyway? "I can't believe you're staying here with us! And then after Dumbledore goes and gets you out of trouble, you vanish into the night. I'm sure that made him look real good after vouching for you. You're scum." The rest of the table was silent, staring at Jake. He smiled and shrugged.
"And you're kind of cute." Ron started to stand up and then sat back down.
"Don't." Ron warned him.
"Oh, come on, look. The Malfoys had money. I didn't. I needed money, so I'd go and do some jobs for them, their friends, Ministry employees, whoever needed a job done. I didn't do anything seriously Dark, and I definitely wasn't doing anything that they couldn't get anyway. I was one of a dozen smugglers. I happened to be pretty good at what I did though, if I do say so." Hermione shook her head.
"Who else did you work for, hm?"
"You'd be surprised. I worked for crooks and politicians. Normally, those terms were interchangeable." Hermione sat back down. Even though she seemed to hate him, it didn't look like she wanted to stop talking to him. She was the only one though.
"Why did Dumbledore want to get you off anyways?"
"Dunno. At first I expected him to ask me for a 'favor.' I never would have suspected him of having skeletons in his closet he needed help with, but you never know. Said he didn't need that sort of help though. He just told me there'd come a time when I'd pay him back, no questions asked. Sort of weird, really. I never even thought he liked me that much in school, especially after I dropped out." This seemed to really set Hermione off.
"You dropped out of Hogwarts?"
"Yeah, I didn't really see a need to stay anymore. I wasn't about to join the Ministry or anything. I spent a few years in England and then moved back home to America after the whole arrest thing. Picked up a decent job and been making an honest living ever since in the Muggle
world." Except when he was charming Muggles to get things he needed, but she didn't need to know about that. He stared at her for a few minutes. "Dumbledore trusts me enough to bring me here. No reason to doubt his judgement."
Sirius decided to join back in the conversation with a laugh. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time we've doubted him though, would it?" A few of the kids gave really small laughs. This seemed to lighten Hermione up some.
"Well, who'd be looking to come after you then? Surely not just over a few fines."
"With Dumbledore being discredited, I'm sure they'd love to find a fugitive he vouched for and put him back on trial. Make it real public too."
"And be your fault too if his name was smeared more." Hermione added.
"True, it would. There's also the issue of me having pissed off a few in the underground. What do you think all of my old contacts thought? I get arrested. Charges get dropped down. Looks like a cut a nice, fat deal with the law, doesn't it? I'm sure there are a number of scumbags and socialites alike who'd love to put a curse in my backside." Hermione looked at me.
"And you don't think it's wrong to bring a kid with you when you go to try and dig up your old contacts. That is what you're doing, isn't it?"
"You are a sharp one. O.W.L. year coming up, isn't it? I suspect you'll get 12 Outstandings." She blushed a bit. "But no, I don't think there's anything to worry about. Firstly, I don't intend to walk into a back alley and start hustling up information from Death Eaters. I know where to look when digging for information." The door opened and Lupin walked in. He smiled at me and sat next to Sirius. They started talking quietly. Sirius was explaining what was going on. "And secondly," in less than a second, he pulled his wand out, flicked it, had the entire table cleared and cleaned, and had the wand back in his jeans' pocket, "I'm pretty fast with a wand."
Fred and George piped up. "So, mate."
"What sort of information are you looking for?"
"That," Lupin said, standing up, "is confidential information. I really think it's bedtime for everyone. Jake, a word if you please." Jake patted my back and told me he'd be upstairs in a minute to check on me. I followed the Weaselys and Hermione up the stairs.
"Hey, Hermione." I called out. She stopped and turned around.
"Yes, Max, what is it?" I stood there for a few minutes. "Is there something wrong?" I took a deep breath.
"What did that mean? Who're the Malfoys and what's so wrong about what Jake did?" Ginny let out a whistle. Fred and George patted Hermione on the back and laughed.
"We'll let you handle this one, Hermione."
"Yes, best of luck with it." The three of them walked up the stairs. Ron looked at Hermione and shook his head.
"Hermione, don't. Don't you dare do this." Hermione glared at Ron and then looked at me.
"The Malfoys are very bad Dark wizards who work for You-Know-Who. What Jake basically said is that he helped You-Know-Who supporters get things, probably to hurt people." Ron was glaring at her. I looked down at the floor.
Was Jake one of the bad guys? I had always thought of him as kind of like a hero. I know Dad didn't like him, but Dad didn't like a lot of cool stuff. Alex had always been excited when he
came around. Mom liked him. Justin was, well, Justin. And hadn't he saved me from those Death Eaters? Wasn't he protecting me all the time? Looking out for me? Was this why he and Dumbledore fought all the time? I looked at Hermione. Her face was completely emotionless. "Was Jake – I uh, mean, is Jake one of the bad guys then?" Ron spoke up again.
"Hermione, stop it." He grabbed her shoulder. She shook him off.
"Cut it out, Ron. Max, Jake isn't one of the bad guys, but I'm not altogether sure I'd consider him a good guy." She turned around and walked off with Ron following her angrily. I hurried off to my room, got dressed in my pajamas, and got into bed. When Jake came in, I pretended to already be asleep. He left a few minutes later. I got up and turned the light on. Staring into the racecar that was trying to drive off the front of my pajama top, I wondered if Jake was really as good as I'd always thought.