Hi everyone,
I know, this is earlier than expected, but I had a few days free. Don't get use to it ^^
Same as the prologue, Harry Potter does not belong to me, and I don't make money from this story.
English is not my first language, so I apologize for any mistake I probably made.
Thank you the reviews and the follows, they made me very happy, and I hope you will enjoy this chapter as well.
Whitling
Chapter 1
Grimmauld Place Dimanche 3 Avril 1997
Today's meeting was held in Grimmauld place. The house had changed a whole lot since the ministry's accident. The house was not the same anymore,everything had been cleaned up and all the furnitures changed. It was not the house anymore. Even the air seemed cleaner.
When they had first used the house as the headquarter, the house was more like a prison than a house, maybe because of his owner, Sirius Black. But after Black death the house had became the property of one Harry Potter. Of course, at that time, the brat was too young too live in the house alone and Grimmauld had been abandoned once again. But since his 17th birthday, more than six months ago, the brat had been living there (when he was not at Hogwarts). And if Potter had absolutely no talent whatsoever for potion , he certainly had for home decorating. The Potter brat would one day be a fabulous house wife thought Snape, eating a large slice of treacle tart.
It was currently the end of the afternoon, and the Order was about to have a meeting. Since the death of Sirius Black, they had usually meet once a month, rarely more, sometime less. Since the end of last May, and the failure of Voldemort's plan to kill Dumbledore, the Dark Lord had gone in hiding. Only some of his most trusted Death eater were still called to his side, and even that was very rare. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on the person asking, Severus Snape was one of them. The past months, he had only been called an handful of time. The Dark Lord had not himself, at first, just after the Accident in Hogwarts, The Dark Lord had been brooding, pacing and muttering for himself. Then a view months prior, he had changed, he was happy, he was planning something. Severus was sure of it, but he couldn't learn more. But last month, thanks to Snape meager information, the Order had been able to raid one of Voldemort's safe house. They had caught to Death eater , Bellatrix Lestrange and Walden Macnair. Bellatrix, being the insane woman she was had turned her wand and cast upon herself the killing curse. And Macnair was not important enough to know nothing with any real victory of this raid had been the recuperation of an old book, hidden in the depth of the house. It was a grimoire, older than any books Snape had ever seen. But the most interesting things about this book was the fact that it has been annotated by the Dark Lord himself. Almost every pages, had notes, written by the hand of a young Voldemort. One one page, in the middle of the book where written « I will be here forever »
Thanks to Dumbledore, Potter and the last Weasley girl they were sure the was the Dark Lord handwriting (Well, Slughorn could have testify of it to but the cowards was on the run once again).
The main problem with the grimoire as that no one could read it, less understand it.
Of course, Albus had asked one of his friend, an expert with languages, and old magical book only thing this friend , named Watanabay K. Simpson (even his name sounded stupid), was the title of the book (Magical theories), but this part was written in Latin so even Snape could read it. He also had found the name of the author, a witch named Naîa, a name no one had ever even heard of.
After this first failure, Dumbledore had not give up, the man seemed sure that this book was the key to the Dark Lord defeat, at least the way to the secret of Voldemort's invincibility. Because the Dark Lord was not a mere human anymore . During the last battle of Hogwarts, Snape had seen Potter hit the Dark Lord with an Avada Kedavra, but the curse had just hurt him, not even to the point of him disappearing again. Snape had cursed the Potter brat with a light Crucio ( Even he did not hate the brat that much), and he had apparated away with the Dark Lord, saving his life. Thanks to his actions, he was back as one of the Dark Lord favorite.
This last month, every Order's member had examined the Grimoire under its every angle. From Albus and Minerva to Fred and George Weasley, had looked at the book and no one had nothing, the smallest bit of information. The book contained some runes, some graphics, and some wands drawings. But without the explanations going with the schema there was no use. It just seemed that the author had just threw on the paper randoms fact about every kind of Magic with no purpose at all.
Since the discovery of the book, the Order had been meeting up every week on Sunday afternoon. Today was the fifth meeting since the then, and the first with the Golden trio and co, who were back from school for the Easter Holidays. During this months of calm, Dumbledore had recruited quiet a few new order's member. Of course the Golden Trio had join as soon as they were old enough, but they were not the only one. Surprisingly Lee Jordan, Caroline Stewarts, Neville Longbottom and Ginevra Weasley were the newest addition to the Order. Also the two oldest Weasley boys, William and Charlie, had moved back to England, to be closer of their family. Fleur Delacour, William's wife, was a member since their wedding.
So today's was meeting day and with all the new and old members, the kitchen was quite crowded. Potter, Granger Weasley, Weasley, Weasley and Weasley were sitting together looking very serious and anxious about this meeting, well they probably all had looked just as serous for their first meeting. Around 7 o'clock, everyone was reunited, even Remus Lupin and his very pregnant wife Nymphadora and the two of them were always late. The meeting began by Dumbledore introducing a new member. A young and pretty woman was standing at his side.
« -Hello everyone ! I would like to introduce a new member to this Order. This is Laura Johnson, one of our former student who just finished her master under Master Prius in will work as a consultant with the Auror department and help Severus with the brewing of the Wolfsbane potion. » said Dumbledore. « Thank you Laura » Everyone applauded . « You can go and sit down. We will continue this meeting with the reports... »
The « reports » as Dumbledore called them were made by the member working at the ministry or in a position they could learn something of importance for the war. The weeks Snape was summoned he would also do a report.
With the low death eater activity there wasn't really anything new. After the reports, they moved on the most interesting part of the meeting this day : the Book.
Of course, miss Granger had wanted to look at the book as soon as she got to Grimmauld place. Maybe she would get something, after all she was said to be the brightest witch of her age . But with the like of Potter and Ronald Weasley it may not be very difficult.
As Snape expected, she didn't have anything new, but she wanted to look up the author. She was sure she had saw the name somewhere but couldn't remember where. Snape thought that it was not a bad idea to research the author first, it could teach them about this Naîa goal and other research.
Unfortunately, it was the only new information they had, if the idea of a future research could be called a new information, so the conversation soon dried up. While everyone stayed in their thought, not yet ready to end the meeting, Snape could only hear the hushed whisper of Fleur Delacour and Laura Johnson. Miss Delacour probably explaining the situation to the newest member about the current situation, her husband sometimes lening in to add or correct some fact. Snape looked around the table, wondering if they would ever break the Book's secret and if this would be enough to stop the Dark Lord. While doing so, his eyes locked with Arthur Weasley's, who was sitting across the table. The eyes contacts only last for a second but it was enough to remind him of another pair of blue eyes.
A pair of blue eyes he had tried very hard to forget the last five years. Well, it was more the owner of the mentioned blue eyes,and the utter confusion said owner had bestowed upon him wit a butterfly like kiss. Snape was no virgin by a long shot, despite what most of his student seemed to think, and he had had his fair amount of lover during the year. That's why he couldn't comprehend why this kiss was so unforgettable ? Why couldn't he just let go, like he always did ? Percy Weasley had been a rather good looking guy, if you liked the the nerdy kind of guy. But he was a Gryffindor ! And most importantly, a Weasley !
« - You could always try to ask Mr Weasley » said Snape absentmindedly, as he was still in his memory of the kiss.
« - Well, you will have to be a little more precise Snape, I would think even you could see that there is six Mr Weasley in this room . » It was Ronald's nasal voice. Snape growled at him, and Weasley (Ronald) blanched. Even if Snape couldn't take points or give detentions during vacations, he was still scary as hell. Dumbledore raised an apaising hand, and turned to his spy with a raise eyebrow, encouraging him to continue.
« - Actually, I meant the only Mr Weasley who is not in this room » He paused for moment . « Percy Weasley ».
And then, the world broke loose of a hoard of screaming, screeching and sniffing re heads. Of course, Molly Weasley was sniffing, blowing her runny nose in an handcrift, her husband patting her back, looking completely stunned. Charlie and Ronald were, of course , the one screaming insamnity about their brother, Fred and Georges were white and listening intensely to Charlie and Ron, while nodding and whispering furiously between them. Ginevra was holding her mother's hand and glaring daggers at Snape. Only William was silent, head down, clutching at his wife's hand. Said wife was also unusually quiet, looking worryingly at her husband.
« -What do you want with this asshole ! »
« -He gave up the family ! »
« -He is the shame of the Weasley name... »
« The shame of Gryffondor... »
Snape was only half listening to the elucubration of the most angered brothers of Percy, and choose to talk directly to Arthur Weasley.
« -Can you contact your son ? » asked Snape.
« - I haven't talk to Percy in almost five year. » Of course, Snape had heard about the fallout of the Weasley family, with the subtlety of the family, the whole wizarding world knew about the fight. There had been many versions, but all of them agreed on something : Percy was the bad son who had left his family, ashamed of their social conditions. Snape really didn't know what to think about it, it wasn't like the young man he had known at Hogwarts.
« - But you could contact him, should you? »
« - I...Yes, I guess...I know he still work at the ministry , even if he had been retrograded after the accident at the ministry. After Fudge was dismissed. »
Snape couldn't help but wonder at why Percy was so inclined to work for the ministry, even after everything that had happened.
« - I guess I could but … why ? » asked Arthur. He seemed desperate, and Molly started to cry again.
« - Because I think Percy could help with the book. After all, he is an expert on magical theories, and he wrote his thesis on some of the theories used by the Dark Lord » said Snape with a sigh. The all room went silent again, too stunned, this time, to say anything. Remus Lupin was the first one to react .
« - Why didn't you said something earlier ? » The question was directed at Arthur Weasley and the man was looking utterly lost.
« - I didn't know » Arthur said in a subdued voice. « I...really didn't know » he had a little louder.
Dumbledore simply nodded his head.
« -Severus, do you really believe that Percy could be about to help ? »
« Yes, I think so. I helped him for some part of his thesis, and he had quite an unique insight. » Snape said. Unanswered questions were whirling around in his head, most of them about Percy Weasley and his choices. There was definitely more about Percy Weasley than what most people thoughts, including his own family.
« - No way , you can't do that ! He still work at the ministry, I mean he refuse to join the Order, he disowned his family, broked mom's heart. You can not tell him about the book, who knows what he will do with the knowledge ! » screamed Ronald Weasley, almost standing. The other Weasley looked like they agreed with him, some of them even looking ashamed of the one they called once their brother.
Snape just raised an eyebrow, looking as contemptuous as he could.
« - You are aware, I suppose, that your brother is perfectly aware of the existence of the Order of Phoenix ? And you are also aware, I presume, that your brother perfectly knows who are the members of said Order ? And...that with only your brother testifying against us could get all of us straight to Azkaban ? Yet we are here. » Snape had not raised his voice once, using his best « scary teacher's voice ». He was glad to see the brat sitting back in shock and gaped at him. He was not the only one, unease had fell all over the room. Sturgis Podmore, always the coward (He was an Hufflepuff after all), turned to Dumbledore and asked :
« - Albus, is that true ? We could go to Azkaban ? » The poor man looked utterly terrified.
« No, in a matter of fact, I received a letter from Percy Weasley himself, not long after he left his family » said the headmaster looking at Arthur and Molly. « Your son said that our secret is safe with him. And I trust him. »
The room felt silent once more. It was recurrent today.
« - So it is decided . Molly, Arthur, can you try to contact Percy this week ? If he is willing to help us, you can tell him to come to next week meeting. By the way , to celebrate Hagrid's birthday, we will have a party next week from 1pm, and you are all invited of course. »
And on this words, the meeting cme to an end. Snape went home to his beloved brewings. He was wondering about Percy and what he had became during the last five year. So many things could have changed in this lapse of time, and he hadn't known Percy to begin with.
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The next chapter of this story will be posted on the 29th of July.
Thank you for your time, and see you again.