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Once everyone finished eating, the plates disappeared from the table. Harry's thoughts wandered to the friendly house elf now working in the kitchens of Hogwarts. He and Tess had "accidentally" freed Dobby when they were twelve. In return, Dobby had remained loyal to them, feeding them information and helping them with missions. It was through him that they found out about Tom Riddle's diary that had been smuggled into Hogwarts. With the hunch that it was a Horcrux, they had sent the school an anonymous tip about the diary. According to their Hogwarts sources, the diary had been confiscated and destroyed. One down, six to go.
Harry was snapped out of his daze by a gentle peck on his ear. He looked up to see his owl, Hedwig, sitting happily on his shoulder, a letter tied to her foot. Harry had gotten Hedwig as a tenth birthday present from Fiona, Tess, Phin, and… Bea. She was a gorgeous owl, snow white with gray markings around the eyes. Unfortunately, she was easily spotted, which was why Harry usually didn't use her on missions. Still, Hedwig held a special place in his heart. "Hey, Hedwig," he greeted nonchalantly. "Have any trouble getting here?" Hedwig gave out a little indignant hoot, as if offended by the idea that she wouldn't be able to find him. Tess laughed as Harry gently untied the letter from her leg. Only Harry could offend an owl.
"I missed Hedwig," Tess said. "She's got personality." She held out a bit of chicken to the snow white owl that gobbled it down happily. The rest of the room was admiring Hedwig, and she relished in the attention. Harry rolled his eyes.
"She reminds me of you whenever we go to a concert in London and dozens of boys are falling over your feet."
Tess blushed somewhat embarrassedly. "That's never happened!" she insisted. He just gave her a look. "Well, maybe once or twice…" Harry smirked. "Hey, wipe that smirk off your face before I send the picture of you in a tux to the Daily Prophet!" she threatened. Harry immediately stopped smirking. The rest of the Order, who had been either admiring Hedwig or talking amongst themselves, laughed at the idea of Harry in a tux, which most of them knew was the Muggle equivalent of dress robes. None of them could imagine Harry Potter, with his leather jacket and rebellious attitude, in anything that formal. Ever.
Tonks tried to hide her laughter but failed miserably. "How'd you get him to wear it?" she managed to get, her giggles dying down.
Tess smirked while Harry simply glared at her. "Silencio and Stupfey," she explained.
"And that's all it took?" Tonks asked in disbelief.
"Well, we also tied him to a chair, took away both his wands, and sound-proofed the room so he couldn't try to get help," Tess added casually. Many of the adults in the room looked amused. All that to get the boy in a suit? Somehow sensing their surprise, Tess said in defense, "It was Stephanie and Thomas's wedding. Harry was being a difficult groomsman. Desperate times called for desperate measures."
Harry, now not even paying attention to the conversation, opened the letter. He read through it carefully. It was from Theodore Nott, a good friend and useful spy of theirs. Harry had met Theo in Knockturn Alley while out on a delivery when they were fourteen. Unlike a lot of delivery boys, Harry wasn't overly picky about where or what he had to deliver to as long as he got paid. Theo had been sitting in the Dark Arts section of the store Harry had made a delivery to. The green-eyed boy saw what he was reading and recommended something better. Since then, the two boys had been good friends. Tess had taken a liking to Theo as well and enjoyed trying to match him up with Luna. While the pairing made him want to laugh, the two did get along extremely well. He read through the letter carefully. Harry and Tess had developed a special code for their friends to send them letters in case any of the owls were intercepted.
Tess noticed Harry's scowl and saw that he was reading the letter. "Who's it from?" she asked.
"Theo," Harry responded, not even taking his eyes off the parchment.
"Theo? McGonagall repeated. "Theodore Nott, perhaps?" Tess nodded.
"But his dad's a Death Eater!" Tonks exclaimed.
Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, because Death Eaters clearly just breed perfectly obedient robot children who always follow orders. Never mind that they've seen their family names shamed by some Dark tosser." Tess held back a laugh. Many members of the Order, Dumbledore included, looked a little surprised at this jab. None had considered recruiting Death Eater children. After all, didn't they just grow into their parents? Snape nodded in approval. He knew a few members of his house that didn't support the Dark Lord but either pretended to or remained indifferent about it to avoid trouble at home. Slytherins were known as cunning for a reason.
Tess turned back to Harry. "So how's Theo?" she asked cheerfully.
"Same as usual," Harry replied with an eye roll. "Broody and bored."
"Gee, I wonder who else that sounds like?" Tess joked. Harry shot her a look. "So why are you making that face?"
"No news," Harry stated emotionless. Tess shrugged, not getting his point. Harry sighed. For all the things she did know, Tess was a little naïve. "No news was good last year. Now it's just alarming. Voldey-warts is planning something."
Tonks laughed at You-Know-Who's new nickname. Other Order members simply frowned at the boy's casual mention of You-Know-Who. Dumledore, however, had an annoyingly bright twinkle in his eyes.
"But what's he planning?" Tess questioned, the wheels in her head turning. They still weren't sure how much of the prophecy or their plans Voldemort knew. Almost as if reading her mind, Harry answered, "I think he's planning an attack, a really big one. He's going to try to hit where it would hurt the most. I'm guessing it would either be the Ministry or…"
"Hogwarts," Tess finished, her eyes wide.
Mrs. Weasley went pale, and Mr. Weasley grabbed her hand and tried to comfort her. Feeling bad for Mrs. Weasley's reaction, Harry uncharacteristically tried to offer some comfort, adding, "But he's not going to attack until he's more powerful. To do that, he needs more student followers and a weaker Hogwarts.. Then he'll attack when Hogwarts is at its most vulnerable."
Tess scrunched up her face in confusion. "But what about the…" She didn't even need to finish her question.
"No, I think he knows a little but not everything," Harry answered seriously. "All of our people are safe for now."
"A little of what?" Kingsley questioned slowly.
Harry fixed the man with a Fuck-you glance. "Just picking up the slack your little birdie club has left," he replied cheekily, not wanting to give a lot of information to an Auror but also wanting to majorly piss him off. He turned to Tess. "I'm going to go see if someone can cover for us tonight."
"Tonight?" Tess repeated before a light bulb went off in her head. "Oh, it was our night tonight."
Harry nodded. "I think Thomas's brother is in town. The two of them can do it." He left the Great Hall. As soon as Harry was good, everyone turned to Tess.
"What were you doing tonight?" Mad Eye questioned suspiciously.
"I can't tell," Tess admitted. "Harry would throw a hissy fit. I can say it's something important."
Remembering something, she turned to Snape and Dumbledore. "Oh, and no more trying to get into Harry's head. It pisses him off, and nobody wants to live with a pissed off Harry. Trust me on that one."
"You couldn't get into his head?" Dumbledore asked Snape. The Potions master shook his head. The Order looked shocked. Severus was a master Legilimens, even better than Dumbledore himself.
Tess smirked. "Harry's good at Occlumency. Actually, he's bloody brilliant at everything, but especially good at that."
"And who taught him?" Amelia Bones asked, thoroughly impressed.
"Phin. He always said that the most important thing that you possessed were your memories and that no one should be able to take them away from you. He taught the three…" Tess caught herself saying three of us, remembering that is was just her and Harry now. No more blonde hair flying everywhere, no whispered fairytales when they should've been sleeping. "He taught both of us."
Tess kept talking, trying to distill the empty feeling in her stomach. "It comes naturally to Harry. He's good at not letting anyone know what's going on inside that head of his." Realizing that she might've said too much, Tess excused herself from the table. The rest of the room was left to speculate on the two highly unusual teenagers that were sure to make waves in the castle.