"S-Stupefy!" Jenny Smith's voice was locked between a stutter and a croak as a rather pitiful burst of red light streamed out of the tip of her wand, only to be easily dissipated by the shield generated by Kingsley Shacklebolt, while Moody cast another spell chain effortlessly and ruthlessly towards the girl.

Jenny squeaked, looking terrified as she tried to dodge, but her movements were clumsy and unrefined.

Watching the side, Nymphadora Tonks wondered how much time the young girl had before she collapsed due to magical exhaustion. Not for the first time, Tonks wondered if they were making a massive mistake in believing in a prophecy, the contents of which Dumbledore still refused to divulge; they had been told Harry Potter and Neville Longbottom were subjects of the prophecy, but now Potter was locked up after being caught out as a Death Eater, and Longbottom had refused to even fight in the war unless he didn't have a choice, so it seemed likely that he and his grandmother had learnt of the prophecy since Augusta Longbottom had gone out of her way to keep Neville away from Dumbledore.

Tonks had taken Divination during her Hogwarts years as an elective. And she had learnt to regret it even if she had gained a good OWL in the subject. Not only was Trelawney worthless but many of the concepts had told her it was a waste of time, and she lacked the gift needed to become a seer. Tonks often regretted not taking Ancient Runes.

But what stunned her the most was how Dumbledore seemed determined to make it come about. To think a prophecy could end You-Know-Who…

Tonks was not sure what to believe, but she knew prophecies like that were tricky things indeed, but what confused and concerned her greatly was what possible link could You-Know-Who have made between himself and Potter, and now this girl.

For a long time now, Tonks had tried, and failed, to make the connection and even what had led both You-Know-Who and Dumbledore to conclude this child could be the prophecy child who'd save them all.

The last two years had worn down Tonks' faith in Dumbledore, and their losses were continuing to mount. She had seen so many people die in the last two years, and even if she was somehow able to just hold onto her bubbly personality, she had begun questioning Dumbledore's commitment to ending the war after she had seen so many Death Eaters she had personally stunned getting back up again to fight more before being petrified and stunned again and again, only to be locked up and then let go on a technicality due to Fudge's inability to see reality.

Being asked to put her faith in a preteen girl who struggled to fight back was the last straw as far as Tonks was concerned.

After seeing the Battle in the Ministry and seeing how good Potter and his 'friends' had been at fighting, Tonks knew better than to simply dismiss the capabilities of a teenager, but Jenny Smith was the exception to the rule.

The girl was timid and just wanted to be left alone. She hadn't asked to be a part of this, and Tonks hadn't wanted her here at all. She was under tremendous amounts of stress, and she was being forced to train day after day with few breaks, and Tonks was getting worried by how much pressure she was under. If they kept this up much longer, the girl would suffer damage to her magic.

On top of that, she was so slight and young!

She was only an eleven-year-old girl. She was short with long light brown hair, and blue eyes behind glasses which only added to her timid demeanour. And she didn't seem to be strong magically, but there was always the chance she would improve later. But that would only come with time.

But Dumbledore was relentless. More than once she and Moody had needed to force him into a corner, but Dumbledore was so fixated on making the prophecy a reality, she was beginning to wonder about his motives.

"Come on, Smith, keep moving!" Moody barked.

"I-I'm trying," the girl looked like she was on the point of crying. Tonks saw her weakly lifting her wand arm, only for her wand to be snatched out of her weak grasp.

Tonks sighed. How many times had they told the girl to be careful? She must be extremely tired for that to happen. But at the same time, it was another piece of proof that Jenny Smith was not a duellist.

Moody caught it. "That was pathetic," he snapped at the girl, gazing at her in contempt. "My gran could do better than that, and she's dead!"

Jenny flinched. She had heard what Professor Dumbledore had said about her fighting the Dark Lord because she was destined to do it, but she and her parents didn't agree with this, and she hated not being with them. Her parents hadn't been allowed to come here, to Headquarters. It hadn't taken her long to see she didn't like the Order of the Phoenix.

Everyone treated her as if she was a doll about to break and some treated her no better than a dog being kicked around, and the things they said about her heritage in the muggle world were appalling to her. But it was clear to her none of them cared about her.

Tonks had had more than enough. She was tired. She had used a lot of her magic up. She had only taken a break so she could cool down but also give her magic a chance to recuperate from the long session. "That's enough, Mad-eye. Can't you see she's tired? She can barely stand!"

Indeed Jenny was struggling to stay upright, and she was blinking back tears. Tonks was mentally preparing herself to call Poppy and get the healer to have a look at Jenny, and if Dumbledore interfered then she was going to hex the headmaster for not seeing this girl was too weak.

Moody took a look at the girl and saw she was on the point of collapsing. He growled in frustration. "Okay, take her to the bench and give her some water. And get Poppy here. This is the fourth day in a row she's been training and I don't think she can handle the strain much longer."

Tonks frowned at the harshness of her mentor's words, but she led the shaking girl away. Jenny had begun to cry. She was a very sensitive girl, and she didn't deserve this.

"It's okay, sweetie," Tonks told her when they sat down on a bench.

Jenny shivered as she slowly drank her water. Tonks had laced it with a potion to calm her nerves, believing that she would need it the most. For a moment, she let herself "W-Why? Why is this happening to me? I-I mean…I don't l-like violence. I-I don't want to f-fight. I-I might get h-hurt."

Tonks was a little disgusted with the girls' lack of fortitude, but she pushed it aside seeing for herself the girl didn't have an aggressive bone in her body. "We all might, Jenny."

"Why is this happening? Why is the Dark Lord after me?" Jenny turned to her, her eyes filling with tears. She had seen the older witch's look of disgust at her not wanting to die or get hurt, and she realised sadly this woman didn't care about her either.

Tonks bit her lip. When she had joined the Aurors she had never intended to have this kind of problem. "I don't know," she replied. And she was telling the truth since she didn't know anything about the prophecy, and Dumbledore was not likely to tell them anytime soon. "I really don't."

A part of Tonks wanted nothing more than to take the girl home, back to her family before anything really bad happened. The Death Eaters had attacked her ages ago, and it looked like He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was no longer interested in pursuing her any more, but it was well known the Dark Lord was deceptive.

Jenny shivered as Moody hobbled over to them and got his flask out, and the little girl grabbed onto Tonks, but the ex-Auror was not interested in them. Tonks flinched as the girl's grip tightened around her arm. She knew how frightened the poor girl was whenever Moody was nearby. She could understand it, but it worried her that Moody didn't see he was frightening her.

Moody was just taking a swig when the door burst open, making the wand-happy ex-Auror whip out his wand and launch a devastating spell chain before the astonished Tonks stopped him before he brought the House down. "Whoa! Moody, stop it; it's just Ron!" She shrieked after trying and failing to get his attention, but the old man was on a roll, launching blasting curses towards the idiot who'd run in so carelessly.

Moody stopped when he saw that she was right. "What the hell do you want, Weasley?" He demanded.

Ron, meanwhile, was too shaken by the sudden attack and he needed a moment to catch his composure. As he did he noticed the state of the room and the corridor he had just run in from.

The blasting curses had largely demolished them, with plaster dust hovering in the air as if held there by a wandless levitation charm. Some of the damage was so heavy that the curses had smashed through the walls into the rooms on the other side.

"Well, come on, Ron, get on with it, for Merlin's sake!" Tonks lost her patience. "You should know better than to rush in here while we're training Jenny."

Ron spotted the little girl, who was cowering in fear after seeing the damage to the room. And she was trying to keep out of sight of Ron. Jenny didn't particularly like the vocal redhead, finding him too nasty and cruel. Likewise, Ron didn't like her any more than Hermione did.

"Ron," Tonks wanted to forestall yet another derisive rant towards Jenny. The girl was weak, yes, but she didn't deserve to be treated the way she was, and she wanted to keep the youngster safe. "Why are you here?"

Suddenly Ron remembered what he had come in for in his excitement, "It's Pettigrew. He's been caught."

"What?" Moody said in disbelief. "How did that happen?"

"He was caught in a Death Eater raid. He was stunned before he could change into his rat form."

"Where is he now?" Tonks asked.

"He's being held at the Ministry. Dumbledore is rushing the trial. He wants Pettigrew, who's an Inner Circle Death Eater, to speak quickly about You-Know-Who's latest plans," Ron sneered as he spotted Jenny visibly shaking at the thought of the Dark wizard, but Tonks stopped him from mocking her.

"Are we needed at the Ministry?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah. Professor Dumbledore wants us all there at the Ministry, even her," Ron sneered down at the girl.

"M-Me, why?" Jenny had never been to the Ministry before and she wasn't even sure she wanted to go there. Sometimes the magical world was just so overwhelming.

Ron sneered at her, unable to hide her disdain for her. "Professor Dumbledore wants you to know more about the enemy you're going to save us from," he said.

"Ron, that's enough," Tonks was getting tired of Ron and Hermione deriding the little girl, who'd done nothing but become a person of interest because of some prophecy. She might have studied Divination herself as an elective at school, but that didn't mean she had liked the experience. And it didn't mean she had to like the way Ron and Hermione, who'd become so arrogant over the last two years since Potter's betrayal and quick imprisonment in Azkaban, treated her. Ron was mocking her and Hermione was always lecturing her on how to perform magic when she was too young for some of the things Hermione 'understood.'

"Tell Dumbledore we'll be there," Moody waved his wand and banished Ron out of the room, ignoring the sharp "Oi!" With a sigh, he turned to Tonks and Jenny, his earlier attitude now gone. "We'd better get freshened up. It's bound to be a long day."

"Yeah," Tonks agreed as they left the room with Jenny.

"Who is this Pettigrew?" Jenny looked between the two Aurors curiously. "What's he done?"

"Peter Pettigrew. He's a Death Eater. He was once a member of the Order, wasn't he Alastor?" Tonks asked.

"Yeah, that's right. He was a spy and a traitor," Moody replied.

Jenny shivered. She didn't know much about traitors or spies, but she knew enough to know she didn't like either concept.

"He sold out several of our operations against You-Know-Who during the First Blood War," Moody went on, "and he was eventually discovered and cornered by a wizard called Sirius Black. Sirius was framed for his murder, but Pettigrew is a rat animagus, who can transform into a rat he used that power to flee and he hid for a few years before Sirius revealed what he'd done, but Sirius was forced to go on the run when Pettigrew escaped. But now Pettigrew's caught, we can finally discover what those bastards are doing."

"Don't swear in front of her," Tonks chided.

"She's almost in her teens, Tonks," Moody snapped. "She's exposed to this daily."

Jenny meanwhile wasn't listening. Contrary to popular belief, especially in the Order of the Phoenix, she was sharp enough to see there were too many holes in the story, and it looked like nobody was going to talk anytime soon.

Xxxx

The Ministry of Magic was a shambles. Repeated Death Eater attacks had wrecked a lot of the space in the underground complex that was the centre of British magical power, and yet incongruously banners were displaying Cornelius Fudge's face amid the rubble-strewn halls of the Ministry. It offended so many people someone as limited as Cornelius Fudge was still in power, but somehow like the cockroach he was he had held on.

The Order of the Phoenix members arrived at the courtroom, closed in around Jenny Smith. Many of the members found it odd and even strange Dumbledore was taking such an interest in the small muggle-born, and they tolerated her for the most part even if many of them found her incompetent.

Fortunately, Fudge was not in attendance but Amelia Bones was; the Minister only appeared whenever his friends were being accused of being Death Eaters, and he didn't care about those who weren't wealthy enough to keep them out of prison. The formidable head of the DMLE was tired looking, the war was taking a toll on all of them.

The courtroom was packed full of spectators; everyone had assumed Pettigrew had been murdered by Sirius Black many years ago, so finding out he was alive all of this time was a shock. After having the truth potion administered, Madam Bones had her questioners ask the preliminary questions.

"What is your name?"

"Peter Patrick Alan Pettigrew."

"What is your mother's name?"

"Mary Elizabeth Pettigrew."

"Are you a Death Eater?"

"Yes."

"When did you become a Death Eater?"

"19th February 1979."

"Why did you join He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?"

"I joined because I knew the Dark Lord was going to win," Pettigrew replied. "I was a member of Albus Dumbledore's Order of the Phoenix, but his methods were useless. He had us continually stun and petrify the Death Eaters. We would arrive and deal with raids far too late, and Dumbledore's habits of keeping all information to himself and sending us to our deaths, and ensuring all children who graduated from Hogwarts on his side became unfeeling and unthinking child soldiers rubbed me the wrong way."

In the audience many stirred uncomfortably at the implications of the last statement; for Jenny Smith, the little ratty man's words had her going over all of the things the Order kept making her do; keeping her under constant watch, telling her she was going to defeat the Dark Lord, and never being allowed to catch a break until she was driven to exhaustion.

Was she being turned into a child soldier?

Jenny didn't understand the concept, but she understood enough to know she didn't want it.

Pettigrew went on, "I joined the Dark Lord because I also wanted power. I had spent my entire life being scorned, and ridiculed by everyone, including my friends. I wanted to be feared by everyone, and I also lusted after Lily Potter."

Many women grimaced. There was no way a woman like Lily Potter, who had more self-respect, would have spared Pettigrew with so much of a glance.

The trial went on, with Pettigrew detailing his crimes; how he led the McKinnon family to their deaths, and how he betrayed the Potters to the Dark Lord, but it was the last one that shocked them.

"…with Severus Snape's help, I was able to knock out Harry Potter, while Snape took his place as part of the Dark Lord's plan to get Potter out of the way," Pettigrew said.

Jenny frowned. She had heard of Harry Potter, but she didn't know the full story.

"What do you mean by that?" Bones asked darkly, sending a look towards Dumbledore, who had gone white in the face. He had spent years claiming Snape was one of his most trusted advisors; if this was one of the old man's insane plans…but no, this looked like he hadn't known.

"Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord once too often. The Dark Lord sensed his powers growing and he became convinced Potter would become a truly dangerous threat. He wanted the boy weakened, but he still wasn't sure of how to destroy him but he decided to have Potter framed and sent to Azkaban for a few years before he made up his mind on the best way of dealing with him," Pettigrew explained.

"So…," Bones drawled out, "Harry Potter is innocent?"

"Yes. Snape took his form using Polyjuice potion. He then took Potter's wand, and then attacked Hogsmeade with the Dark Mark which was cunningly revealed, to make it appear as if the boy was truly a new follower of the Dark Lord," Pettigrew said.

Suddenly, Pettigrew gasped. "M-Master!" He choked out as his silvery hand reached out and grabbed his throat; the Aurors rushed to try to stop him from strangling himself, but the magic of the hand defied their attempts while Pettigrew gasped and choked before there came a terrible sound as the hand finished its work. Peter Pettigrew, the traitor, was dead.

Xxxx

"Now Voldemort knows about Pettigrew's confession, he will be going after Harry now," Dumbledore was saying to a hurried Order of the Phoenix meeting taking place in the hall at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Everyone was getting ready for the inevitable battle, knowing the Death Eaters would be planning to go to Azkaban themselves. "We have to be there. Now we know he's innocent, we'll need Harry for the war effort."

Jenny Smith was silent as she listened to Dumbledore talking with a frown on her face. Not once had he nor the others bothered to explain what was happening. But something told her these people no longer cared about her or viewed her as worth protecting.

"Can we get there in time?" Hermione asked anxiously.

Dumbledore would normally wait for confirmation, but this was too crucial; Petttigrew's death made it clear Voldemort knew what had happened in the Ministry today. "I think so," he said. "But we have to be quick."

As one, the Order of the Phoenix prepared their wands for the inevitable fight, but just before they left, Jenny took out her wand and sent a blasting curse at the wall. "Wait," she called, "what about me? Are you going to send me home?"

Dumbledore spared her a glance. In truth, in all of this, he had barely given the little girl a thought. "Oh, of course, how foolish of me, Miss Smith," Dumbledore said, his mind racing as he considered what to do. In truth, the girl was a disappointment to his plans, so she was no longer vital. With that, Dumbledore took out a simple knut, and waved his wand over it, saying the portkey incantation, focusing his mind on the girl's family home and handing it to her.

The girl vanished.

With Jenny gone, Dumbledore turned to the Order. "Now we should go," he said and he held up the large, deflated beach ball which was also a portkey. Everyone took the ball, and they vanished…

Right into the middle of a battle.