A/N: This is the new chapter 9. I've made some small changes to chapter 8, and I'm afraid that the Muggles are not going to learn about wizards after all, because it really limited where I could take the story. If you want a story like that there are plenty available, but I'm afraid this won't be one of them. Anyway...
It was a very relieved Molly Weasley that welcomed Sirius, Albus and Aberforth back to Grimmauld Place. Upon ushering them inside she immediately made for the kitchen, and set about making the trio one of her famous meals, talking away as she did so.
"Oh, I'm so glad you're back, when you didn't return immediately we feared something had happened to you – of course, Albus was there, but you went to fight a giant! And then Kingsley and Alastor were late back –"
"What?" asked Sirius sharply.
"Yes, Alastor had to talk to the Minister, and Kingsley had to take an Auror to St Mungo's."
Dumbledore leant forward, worried. "Alastor talked to the Minister? About what?"
"He wouldn't say." huffed Molly reprovingly.
"I think," Sirius said slowly, "that it's time we had another Order meeting."
"Alright." began Sirius once everyone had convened. "First thing's first-"
Snape's characteristic drawl cut across him. "Funny. I don't recall appointing you leader, or did I miss something while you were locked up by the Muggles?"
"Now that you mention it, I suggest that we do make Black the leader of the Order."
Moody's unexpected statement sparked immediate outrage, with Molly Weasley's strident tones sounding above all others: "You can't do that! Albus was the one who started the Order, you can't just kick him out! And I know Sirius has been acting smarter lately, but we all know he's hardly the most responsible person. He spent a decade in Azkaban for Merlin's sake!"
The pandemonium continued until at last Dumbledore issued a cannon blast from his wand, effectively silencing the Order. Speaking gravely, he addressed his old friend. "Alastor, through what actions have I given you reason to remove me from my place as leader of the Order?"
Moody snorted. "Don't kid yourselves. At this point it's only ceremonial – Black's been giving orders for months now, and everyone, Albus included, has done what he says. If he's already acting as the unofficial leader of the Order, we may as well formally put him in charge. Besides, I'm not saying we kick Albus out. He's a damn sight more useful than several of you are, but that doesn't mean he ought to be leader."
"Unbelievable! I will not be part of the Order if it's going to be led by Black! With him in charge, the Dark Lord will have won by next week!" Snape was incandescent with rage; it was one thing to have Black make suggestions that didn't apply to him, it was another thing entirely for the idiot to be put in charge of the Order.
"Mad-Eye's right." disagreed Tonks. "Sirius is already leading us, it just isn't official."
"I have no quarrel with Sirius, but Albus is older, wiser and much more experienced." stated Doge.
"I think it is a marvellous idea!" squeaked Dedalus Diggle.
Kingsley and Hestia supported Moody, while Molly and Arthur sided with Dumbledore.
Remus sighed. "I'm sorry Sirius, but I don't think I can trust you to be the one making the big decisions."
Several people looked at him with surprise, having expected him to support his childhood friend.
Minerva and Mundungus voiced their support for Albus and Sirius respectively, and Bill Weasley also chose Sirius. Aberforth Dumbledore went against his brother, while Arabella Figg supported him. Sturgis Podmore, who was rather bitter about spending six months in Azkaban, agreed with Aberforth that Sirius was the better choice.
It was a very even split, however more people had chosen Sirius than Dumbledore, so it was made official: Sirius Black was now the head of the Order of the Phoenix.
Throwing his hands in the air, Snape spat out: "Well, Black? What shall it be? Do you want us to prank the Death Eaters? Or maybe we should spend more time boosting your ego?"
"Listen, Snape." Sirius snarled. "Either leave, or get over it. We have bigger problems than you throwing a temper tantrum."
If adults were prone to accidental magic, the look of concentrated loathing on Snape's face would have reduced Sirius to ashes. Or perhaps a pile of unpleasant potions ingredients. As it was, the Potions Master held his tongue.
"Mad-Eye, how did your battle go?"
"Both Lestranges are now in custody, and so is Amycus Carrow. Alecto is dead, but she took Proudfoot with her. How about you, I heard you got into trouble with some muggles?"
Sirius subjected Moody to a hard stare. "Yes. Fortunately, the muggle Minister had us released, saying that we were working undercover for him in a terrorist group. He made sure to tell us that he knew about our 'little group of vigilantes', courtesy of the Minister for Magic. I don't suppose that came up in your conversation with Scrimgeour?"
With all eyes on him, Moody explained himself to the rest of the Order.
"Scrimgeour may be the Minister, but he's no Fudge. When we turned up shortly before the Death Eaters he put two and two together, and certainly didn't get three. By giving him the names of all active Order members, I ensured that he wouldn't prosecute Kingsley, Sirius, Tonks or myself."
"Do you realise what you have done?" demanded Dumbledore. "The Ministry is compromised, and you just gave them a list of everyone in the Order!"
Moody gave a lopsided grin that somehow came off as sly. "Ah, but I didn't tell him about everyone in the Order."
"You said all active members-"
"Exactly. All active members. You and Scrimgeour chose to interpret that as all members currently involved with the Order. And if I actually only meant people who were, at that moment, doing something Order related, well, who am I to correct authority?"
There was a stunned silence, as people attempted to understand what Moody was saying. Tonks was the first to give up.
"Enough games Mad-Eye, who did you tell Scrimgeour about?"
"Myself, Kingsley, Sirius, Tonks, Albus, Aberforth and Snape. Of those, the first four can't be prosecuted for joining the Order, Dumbledore and Snape he already knew, and I only told him about Aberforth because he got himself captured by muggles."
"And what of the Death Eaters?" pressed Dumbledore. "They will know that those people are members of the Order-"
This time, Sirius interjected. "Albus, I don't know if you remember but we had a giant battle in the Department of Mysteries a few months ago? I think it's safe to say that anyone involved with that battle was already outed as a member."
Minerva quickly did the maths. "So that means the only new person Scrimgeour knows about is Aberforth?"
Moody grinned affirmatively. "All I told Scrimgeour was that Dumbledore's brother is a member, something he should have guessed himself, and in exchange I got a blank check that four of our fighters can't be arrested for Order business."
Bill sat up suddenly. "Someone just used the floo to my house."
"Death Eaters?"
"Death Eaters don't use the floo." Remus reminded Molly.
"I'll just pop over and see whoever it is out, if that's alright with you?"
Sirius nodded, promising to tell Bill if he missed anything important while gone.
"Are we certain that Scrimgeour believes no-one else is in the Order?" questioned Arthur.
"Not at all." replied Moody. "But before he could interrogate me any further he got side-tracked by some irate Americans. From the brief snippet I heard there was an attack over there too, and they want us Brits to clean up our mess."
"Americans." muttered Minerva. "As if we aren't trying already."
"Well, clearly our efforts have not been enough." sneered Snape. "It's a miracle that we aren't exposed to the Muggles."
"That's a good point." frowned Sirius. "How did the muggles apparently not see a giant in the middle of a busy city?"
Dumbledore stroked his beard, pondering how he would have hidden a giant from that many muggles.
"The obvious method of keeping it secret would be obliviation, but so many muggles renders that impractical, if not impossible. As a more preventative method, one could use disillusionment or notice-me-not charms, but giants are magic resistant – hiding an entire giant behind a spell would be impossible, even for Voldemort."
"What about multiple spells?" suggested Hestia, receiving several sceptical looks.
"If one spell doesn't work, why would multiple be any better?" questioned Sturgis.
"Actually..." murmured Sirius. "Hey Remus, remember that time we enchanted the gargoyle at Dumbledore's office to only open if you offered it a lemon drop?"
"How did you do that?" asked Minerva. "That gargoyle is supposed to be impossible to tamper with, and we still haven't worked out how you managed to get around the protections."
"Well, we didn't exactly. Remus can fill you in on the precise spellwork, but essentially instead of trying to force magic into the gargoyle, we sort of layered it around instead."
"Eloquent as ever, Sirius." Remus sighed. "The gargoyle was enchanted to be impervious to magic – literally impervious, so as to prevent any magic entering it. What we did was layer a mixture of spells around it, so that people who looked at it wouldn't perceive it opening unless they offered it a lemon drop. We were counting on the fact that the gargoyle always opens for the Headmaster of Hogwarts, and that no-one other than Dumbledore would ever try to feed a statue a sweet."
"I distinctly remember having to carry around a bag of lemon drops for a month after that." replied a disgruntled McGonagall.
"Ah, that may have been my fault." admitted Dumbledore. "As Remus said, no-one would think about sweets when entering my office, so I set the password to be lemon drops for a while."
"So it was you who started these absurd sweet-based passwords!" Minerva accused the two Marauders.
Moody coughed. "I think we've gotten a little off track here."
"Right." Sirius quickly agreed. "Anyway, the reason that prank worked was because the spells we used didn't affect the gargoyle, they affected people trying to get past it. What if Voldemort did something similar to the giant? Put spells around it, so that people wouldn't realise they were looking at a giant unless they fit a certain requirement?"
"Why'd 'e need a requirement at all?" slurred Mundungus.
"So his Death Eaters could see it?" responded Tonks.
"Weren't just Death Eaters that could see it." muttered Aberforth. "We could too."
"So what do we have in common with Death Eaters, beyond magic?" wondered Doge.
"Why look any further than that?" asked Kingsley. "It would be typical of Voldemort to enchant his giant so that muggles couldn't see it, and only magicals, who would know what they were looking at, were able to. Scare the muggles and the wizards with one spell."
"Fitting." murmured Hestia.
There was a moment of silence, interrupted by an owl swooping in, dropping a letter in front of the two Weasleys, and leaving. Opening the letter and flicking through, Molly paled dramatically.
"Arthur... It's from the Ministry. They say the Burrow's been destroyed by Death Eaters. They burnt it to the ground with magical fire, so it isn't safe for us to go back."
"I'm sorry, Molly." Sirius spoke up. "Know that you and your family are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you need."
"Thank you, Sirius." Arthur replied, as his wife was currently too emotional to actually answer.
"A galleon that Rookwood was the one who cast the fire." growled Moody.
"He's quite the problem, isn't he?" agreed Sirius. "With Bellatrix defeated we need a new major target, and I think Rookwood should be next on the list."
"An Unspeakable won't be easy to take down." warned Aberforth.
"You can say that again." Moody nodded. "He's got a lot of obscure spells up his sleeve, and it looks like he has a penchant for magical fire too. Rookwood's probably the strongest Death Eater still free, and by a good margin."
The floo suddenly roared into life, and Bill stepped into the room.
"I've got some bad news. There was an attack in France, and the Delacour family are dead. Fleur only just found out, and she flooed over to me."
"And just why does she have your floo address, William?" asked Molly.
"She's working at Gringotts, and we've been paired together a few times. It was easier if we could contact each other quickly." Bill's smooth reply didn't fool anyone, but he would escape his mother's interrogation – for now.
"I take it the French are up in arms?" sighed Dumbledore.
"Yes, apparently they haven't taken kindly to British wizards murdering a French family."
"Great." huffed Aberforth. "Now the French and the Americans are mad at us."
"The Americans?"
"While you were gone Mad-Eye told us that the Americans were demanding some progress after some of Voldemort's supporters attacked over there." explained Sirius.
"Damn. He really branched out for this attack."
"He did. The Burrow was burned down, probably by Rookwood since it's magical fire. We've decided to make him our new priority target, because he is definitely not pulling any punches when it comes to immensely dangerous spells."
Bill frowned. "Hold up. What kind of magical fire?"
"Not sure." Sirius glanced at Kingsley. "Try and find that out – there are several types of magical fire, and we need to know which ones Rookwood can cast."
Kingsley nodded an agreement. "I can get on that now if you want?"
"That would be great Kingsley. Now while he's doing that, let's talk about what to do next. Voldemort just launched a coordinated attack on many different fronts, and the Ministry is on the back foot. Scrimgeour is busy dealing with the Americans and the French, so he'll be more concerned about placating them than ensuring that things get done. Madam Bones might be another matter, but there's only so much she can do while still coping with recent events, so unsurprisingly it's up to us to strike back at Voldemort. The good thing is that he and his group will be busy celebrating their successes, which gives us a chance to get in some hits before they fully return underground. We know Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater, and Snape said that he was one of the people who attacked the Burrow. We know that Narcissa at least is in Malfoy Manor, so let's pay her a visit."
"Don't be absurd!" exclaimed McGonagall.
"Malfoy Manor is like a fortress, there's no way we're getting in." protested Arthur.
"If we convince Bones to send some Aurors to investigate the manor Narcissa can hardly say no, can she?"
"How do you intend to convince Amelia that there is something to be found in Malfoy Manor?" Dumbledore asked.
"She's been itching to investigate the Malfoys ever since Lucius was caught in the Ministry. All we need is some decently viable information, and she can act on it."
"Arthur already conducted a search of the house, are you going to suggest that he missed something?"
"Considering he was searching an entire mansion and didn't even have an experienced curse-breaker?" countered Sirius. "Yes, I think that's quite possible. Speaking of which, wouldn't it be convenient for a family curse-breaker to offer the Aurors help with finding any hidden dark objects?"
"The goblins don't like me working independently, and they certainly won't lend me out for free." warned Bill.
Sirius waved his concerns away. "The Black vault contains a fortune, I can pay for it."
"So you're leaving this up to the Ministry." grumbled Sturgis.
"To an extent, yes. But Bill will be there, and it's probably sensible for Arthur to go too, as he searched the place before and might be able to give Bill suggestions on where to start. Kingsley and Tonks could go too, as they're Aurors. It might make Bones suspicious if I ask for them directly, but I think... hmm. What if I suggest that I come along, since I'm a blood relative to Narcissa and have experience as an Auror?"
Tonks shook her head. "That wouldn't fly. You were in Azkaban, and aren't an Auror anymore. She'd be better off picking me."
"Exactly." replied Sirius smugly.
"What – oh. Sneaky."
"I do try."
Snape rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, well done Black for accomplishing some basic scheming. Now, what are you going to do if you find that the Malfoys did not, in fact, leave any incriminating evidence simply lying around the house?"
"It's not about incriminating evidence. Malfoy was already a convicted Death Eater, but after escaping Azkaban where do you think he went?"
"Some Death Eater bolt hole." grunted Moody.
"Well, maybe, but the manor is almost as likely."
"So, we're trying to find something to pin on Lady Malfoy?" checked Diggle.
"Ideally, yes. If we can have her arrested the Malfoy fortune will be further out of Voldemort's reach. Lucius will still be able to withdraw money, but that runs the risk of him being seen."
"Not to mention there are steep fines for owning dark objects." Tonks reminded them.
Sirius nodded, lapsing into silence.
"Sirius?" prodded Remus after the quiet stretched on for a couple of minutes.
"Sorry, I'm just trying to think of a way to deal with the Dementors." explained Sirius.
"I thought we already established that they were untouchable?" Moody pointed out.
"Yes, but we're going to have to deal with them eventually. The problem is, how do you kill something that can't be hurt?"
The Order members shifted uncomfortably, unable to offer an answer.
"Well, I'll just come out and say it. Avada Kedavra. The killing curse." growled Moody.
"Alastor!" reprimanded both Dumbledore and Molly.
"Look, it's a beam of instant death. If that won't put a Dementor down, I don't know what will. The things are bloody untouchable."
"Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way." mused Sirius. "Instead of ways to kill an unkillable creature, tell me how you'd destroy an unbreakable object."
"Fortunately, I have already done some significant research into this in preparation for hunting Voldemort's Horcruxes – which, I might add, are still out there. Should we desire to locate them, we should delve deeper into Voldemort's past. I was intending to procure some memories-"
Dumbledore was interrupted by Sirius, who barked: "Hestia, you have access to the Ministry records. Look for information on Tom Marvolo Riddle. Doge, Voldemort's been around for a long time, but you've been around for longer. See if any acquaintances of yours can tell you anything."
Dumbledore frowned, offended. "I am quite capable-"
"I'm sure you are," Sirius interrupted once again. "but two heads are better than one, and three heads are better than two. It'll be faster finding out Voldemort's history with more people coming at it from different angles. Now, you were saying you researched destroying objects?"
Disgruntled, Dumbledore nonetheless replied, "My research revolved more around Horcruxes than a being such as a Dementor, however I have some theories that might be applicable. The Sword of Gryffindor, after being used to slay the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, was imbued with basilisk venom."
"Ah." nodded Bill. "Goblin steel."
"Precisely. Now, basilisk venom is extremely corrosive and has only one known antidote, however I am not certain that it would suffice to kill a Dementor. An alternative would be to use an extremely destructive form of magic, such as Fiendfyre. Unfortunately, that spell is almost impossible to control, and could easily become as much of a threat as the Dementors should we prove unable to contain it."
"Do you have any other ideas?" inquired Sirius.
"Not presently, no."
"Then I suggest that you spend your spare time after this meeting researching ways to defeat a Dementor. You've made some impressive discoveries in the past, Dumbledore. Let's hope that you've still got it."
At that moment Kingsley re-entered the room. His solemn expression made it clear that he did not bear good news.
"Amelia Bones is dead. We think that Voldemort himself must have killed her, and by the looks of things she put up quite the fight. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough."
His weary pronouncement stunned the Order. Madam Bones was a strong and just woman, probably the only person that was universally trusted to do exactly as the law demanded. To hear that she had been murdered was a real shock, and a huge blow to morale.
Taking a deep breath to recover from the surprise, Sirius reminded Kingsley about the magical fire at the Burrow.
"More bad news. We lost two Aurors to that blaze before we realised what it was. Rookwood cast Merlin's Bane."
If the Order was shocked before, they were completely dumbstruck now. Merlin's Bane was internationally recognised as the single most dangerous spell in existence. Conjuring purple flames, the spell itself was none too damaging. However, these flames sought out active magic. Burning at impossible temperatures, they would leap towards a charm cast and follow the flow of magic. Unlike Hellfire, Merlin's Bane did not devour magic, but instead used it as a route to travel. To put it in perspective, casting a spell in the vicinity of Merlin's Bane would be like standing next to a pool of electrified water and dipping a thin copper rod in it.
There was no counter spell to Merlin's Bane; any magic simply led the fire straight to the caster. Even a simple diagnostic spell was suicide. Apparition was no escape: the fire simply followed you through the traces of magic left behind. No record existed of Merlin ever encountering this spell, but the meaning behind the name was that no matter how powerful a wizard you were, this fire would still kill you. No exceptions.
Tonks summarised the collective thoughts of the Order in two words: "Holy shit."
A/N: Voldemort's getting serious now, and so are the Order. The war just got cranked up a notch, and Voldemort seems to have the upper hand, with super deadly spells, unkillable demons and also the minor bonus of being immortal. Still, he's now lost a total of 10 Death Eaters, including some of his best fighters. And Sirius is now officially in charge of the Order, which has certainly been a long time coming.