Welcome back one and all. Sorry for the wait, but I hope it is worth it in your eyes!
Before I begin, big shout out to everyone who reviewed, especially MFernandO. I read your review with literal tears in my eyes, thank you so much.
Enjoy!
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Damien wandered in a daze over to the room he was to share with Ron. The ginger boy followed, nudging Hermione and Ginny and gesturing for them to come as well. Fred and George looked at him in question, tilting their heads to silently ask if he wanted them as well. Ron shook his head, knowing Damien just needed it to be the four of them tonight. The twins shrugged, entering their room and shutting the door.
The four underage witches and wizards waited in the hallway until the last of the rooms occupants, Dumbledore, closed the door to their rooms. Ron could of sworn the old man winked at them, but couldn't be sure. One by one they entered the room, Hermione closing the door firmly behind them. Damien threw himself face first on one of the beds, burying his head in the pillow and letting out a frustrated scream. Ginny sat on the floor by that bed, reaching up and taking Damien's hand in a show of support. Ron and Hermione sat side by side on the opposite bed, Hermione blushing and shifting away when their things brushed against each other.
"I can't believe," Damien's voice was slightly muffled, so he turned his face reluctantly to the side to face his friends. "I can't believe they never told me."
"Damien," the reluctance was evident on Hermione's face even as she spoke. "They thought he was dead."
"Then I should have been raised with that knowledge!"
"Can't argue with that." Ron shrugged.
"It was a shitty thing that they did." Ginny agreed. "But you can't stay mad at them forever."
"Watch me."
"No." Damien looked at Ron in shock as the older boy spoke. "They're gonna need you to support them, mate. Yeah, they screwed up. Yeah, you should be mad, you deserve to be. But right now it's pretty clear to everyone that your parent's are struggling, probably more than you are. They need you to be there for them, even if you don't want to."
Everyone was silent, taking this in. Damien nodded in agreement, once, before turning and facing the wall, clearly intent on getting some sleep. Hermione and Ginny exchanged glances, rising to their feet and heading to the door. Ron slumped over onto the bed once Hermione had risen. Hermione left first, Ginny stopping with one hand on the doorknob as she went to follow the older girl. She turned back to the room.
"Aren't you like, the King of holding grudged Ronald?"
Ron flung his pillow at her without looking, and she ducked out of the room laughing.
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Ginny closed the door with a laugh, turning and running straight into her mother.
"Ginny! There you are. I was hoping we could have a talk?"
Ginny frowned. "Sure?" Her mother wringed her hands, nervous.
"Good, good." She gestured behind her. "Did you want to go sit down somewhere?"
"No, sorry mum. Hermione would be waiting for me. Could we do this here really quick?"
"Oh. Oh okay. Well, dear I just wanted to talk to you about... Harry."
Ginny hoped her face wasn't as red as it felt. 'Damn it.'
"Mmmhmmm."
Molly appeared to be waiting for her daughter to speak. When she didn't, she elaborated. "Well, it looks like you may be developing... feelings for him." She looked at her daughter, gently tilting her face up to look her in the eyes. "I'm not mad darling."
"You're not?" Molly felt a lump in her throat at the vulnerability in Ginny's eyes, the girl's voice shaking.
"Never." She pulled her youngest into a hug, squishing the girl tightly to her as though she would never let her go. "I'll never be mad at you." She kissed the top of her head. "You make me so proud."
Ginny swallowed. "Thanks mum." Molly pulled back, brushing a hand over the girls cheek.
"Don't go falling for him to fast though." Ginny groaned.
"Mum! I'm going to bed now."
"I love you."
"Love you too."
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It was with no small amount of trepidation that the next day began. Sirius was the last to rise, a red-faced Tonks (who wouldn't make eye contact with a certain werewolf) stumbling off to get him before joining the rest at the breakfast table. Draco sat in the middle of his two cousins, stony-faced. He ate little, despite Sirius loading up his plate, and watched the Potter's closely out the corner of his eye.
Damien surprised both his parents by warmly greeting them, hugging his mother briefly before joining his friends. James and Lily smiled at each other, pleased he no longer seemed mad at them. Ginny was speaking in hushed tones to Hermione, retelling the conversation she had with her mother the night before as the older girl was asleep when she entered the room. Dumbledore spoke with Alastor in the corner of the room, an unpleasant conversation mimicked by Arthur and Charlie at the other end. The pairs joined the rest, the conversations remaining, unfortunately, unresolved.
The last bites scraped off of plates, hesitant eye contact was made, the tension in the room rising. Dumbledore rose, the signal for everyone to move. They made their way to the couches, sitting in the same positions as last time. Percy grabbed the book as he passed it, opening to the next chapter before looking at Dumbledore. The old wizard nodded, and Percy cleared his throat to read.
"Revelations"
James turned around to see who had entered the dining room. He saw Lily appear holding yet another plate of untouched food.
"Damn it, he's starving himself!" James rounded on Moody. "This is all your fault!"
James sighed.
"Still no luck?" he asked in a defeated voice. Lily just shook her head and set the plate on the table.
"I wonder how long it's been?"
"Hang on, it say's right here," Percy winced.
It had been three days since Harry had come to the headquarters, and since then he had not touched any food or drink.
Several people hissed at the news, Draco shaking his head at his friends stubbornness.
Lily and James would take his three meals of the day to his room and come back with the food untouched. Harry had not spoken to anyone after the disastrous incident with Moody. Harry had confined himself to his room and refused to speak to anyone.
"Well, this is going well."
"Not the time, Sirius."
"James, it can't go on like this. It's been three days and he has not had as much as a single drop of water! He's going to get ill and he's not in great health to begin with." Lily was getting hysterical. She had just spent the last 45 minutes trying to get Harry to eat something.
"Good luck with that. He's a right stubborn prick when he wants to be."
Lily smiled weakly at the blond haired boy's words, upset by the news.
At first Harry used to respond with 'Leave me alone!' or 'Get out!' but lately he just ignored everyone and just sat on the stone floor of his room. Lily had noticed the dark circles under Harry's eyes and the look of exhaustion on his face but couldn't convince Harry to come over to the bed and lie down.
"He's not sleeping either!" Lily was in hysterics. "James! What do we do?" James shook his head, mouth agape, at a loss.
James looked over at her wearily.
"What do you want me to do Lily? Do you want me to go upstairs and force feed him? Do you think that's what we should do?" James didn't want to snap at Lily but he knew that the situation with Harry was getting out of control.
He held his wife close to him.
"It'll be alright." Molly reassured the couple.
"This won't happen this time." Arthur added, taking his own wife's hand.
When Harry had first rejected his food, James had disregarded the situation by saying 'he will eat when he gets hungry'. However it was three days later and Harry was not showing any signs of defeat and James was getting increasingly worried.
"He'd rather starve than betray his father." Draco said, horror filling the occupants of the room.
"Don't snap at me James! This isn't the time to turn on each other. We have to solve this problem together." Lily answered him hotly.
"I know darling, I'm sorry."
James let out another sigh and got out of his chair. He walked over to Lily and wrapped his arms around her.
"Sorry Lils, but I am just at a loss as what to do about Harry. The Minister still hasn't got any word back to Dumbledore, the Death Eaters are causing havoc trying to find Harry and we have a suicidal teen upstairs who just won't listen to anything we have to say." he finished and both parents sat on the couch and were lost in their thoughts.
"The situation just keeps getting worse." Kingsley sighed.
Just then a very worried looking Sirius came into the room. He looked over at James and seem to pale.
"Padfoot, what's wrong?" James had instantly sat up at the look of worry on his friends face. Sirius walked over at James and sat down, still looking really upset.
"Nothing Prongs, just tired, I guess." Sirius looked determinedly at the ground as he spoke. James was at once suspicious. Sirius never admitted he was tired, never.
"You couldn't lie if you're life depended on it mate!" James laughed. He stopped at the look on his friends face,
"I could." Sirius whispered. James was instantly transported to that fateful night years ago, a broken and bruised Sirius appearing on his parents porch, shaking (I didn't tell them where I was going, James. I didn't tell them). Sirius lived with him from that day on.
"Not to me you can't."
"No. Not to you."
"Padfoot, something's up, tell me."
"Always, mate."
Sirius sighed loudly and turned to face his two friends.
"Okay, but promise you both won't like freak out and make the situation worse." he looked at James and Lily seriously. They both looked on the verge of arguing but then nodded their heads anxiously. Sirius continued.
"Alright, I went in to see Harry after Lily left. I just wanted to see if I could talk some sense into him. However, I kind of noticed that he looked really ill, I mean he could hardly keep his eyes open and he wouldn't respond to anything I said. Not even a 'get out'. So I used the Gondume charm, just to make sure he was healing well and that there wasn't any damage that we were unaware of." he paused here unsure of whether he should continue.
"What happened? What did you find?" Lily asked in a hushed tone.
Sirius looked at them both and replied sadly.
"He's not been taking any of the potions that we have been giving him. There is no trace of any pain relief or muscle replenish in his system and…well he seems to be sleep deprived. It seems he hasn't slept since the first night be was brought here." Sirius finished awkwardly.
"Merlin's pants!" James hissed.
James sat with his fists clenched and the look of fury that was in his eyes made Sirius regret instantly the decision of telling him. Lily gasped and was sitting with her hand over her mouth. She has suspected Harry to be having sleepless nights but did not think for a second that he was deliberately depriving himself of sleep for the last three days.
Without warning James leapt of the couch and made his way over to the store cupboard. He yanked it open and pulled out various bottles. He finally found the one he was looking for and furiously made his way to the door. Sirius and Lily were both on their feet and were blocking the exit.
"Not good." Remus looked at his friend. "Someone is about to react badly and make a situation worse."
"When have I ever done that!" James shrunk as not only his wife and friends, but McGonagall and Kingsley looked over at him, really? Written all over their faces. "Okay, good point."
"James! Where are you going? What are you going to do?" Lily asked while blocking his way.
"Something I should have done long before now." James hissed back at her. He tried to go around her but found Sirius blocking him.
"Prongs, just relax, mate you promised you were not going to go all psycho."
"He always does." Sirius shook his head.
James just pushed Sirius roughly.
"Out of the way Padfoot, I've had enough! Who does he think he is, torturing himself like that? I'm going to put a stop to this right now!"
Draco sat up sharply. The man was angry that Harry was hurting himself, but the words - I'm going to put a stop to this right now! - what was he going to do?
With that said James managed to get out of the door and raced his way to the top of the stairs. He rushed to Harry's room and slammed the door open.
Harry snapped his head up and looked at the blurry image of James. He had been trying to jerk himself awake for awhile now and his eyes were watering with the effort of staying awake.
"Well go to sleep then!" Damien groaned, slapping a hand over his eyes in despair.
He was, once again sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, but not touching it. He had on purposely kept himself in an uncomfortable position, since he found staying awake was now impossible in a comfortable position. Every night he had brought himself, painstakingly to the ground and fought hard against the sleep that was desperate to take over him.
Groans resonated around the room. Stupid, stubborn boy!
Harry was convinced that no sooner would he be asleep that Moody would force the Vertiserum into him. Harry knew that the truth potion would work even if he had been unconscious. He had managed not to eat or drink anything, including the potions given to him, for fear of been drugged by the truth potion. He was determined not to give up any information, regarding his father. No matter what the outcome was.
Mad-Eye refused to meet the glares that came his way. The brat was a prisoner, and he needed to be interrogated. He needed to be punished, for what he did to Frank and Ali- for what he did.
Harry watched as James stormed over to him and roughly yanked him up by his arm. Harry winced at the strong grasp on his upper arm and felt himself leave the floor as James lifted him off the floor and dragged him over to the bed. James violently threw him onto the bed
"James!" Lily looked agahst, and she wasn't alone. Damien was shocked at hearing his father act that way, having known the man to be nothing but gentle with him. Ron, Hermione and Ginny were struggling to look at the man they all felt safe with. James flinched, unable to meet the gaze of everyone openly staring, appalled by his own actions as they were.
"I'm sorry. I don't know why - I'm sorry."
Draco sneered, feeling that this proved him right. 'Finally showing your true colours Potter,' he thought, watching the man shrink in on himself.
and held up the small purple potion that Harry recognised as the Dreamless Sleeping Potion.
"Drink!" he commanded to the exhausted boy.
Harry slowly shook his head. James lost the last of his patience. James forcefully pushed Harry to lie flat on the bed.
'Merlin.' James gasped, covering his face with his hands. "What is wrong with me?"
Harry struggled to be free but was overpowered by James. James flicked the potion open and was about to pour it into the teen's mouth when Harry suddenly brought up his hand and knocked the bottle out of his hand. James looked on in fury as the bottle toppled over and the contents spilled over the bed. Lily and Sirius had come through the door at this point and watched the entire scene unfold.
"Why are we just watching?" Lily cried.
"It's been three days." Remus looked at the despairing couple. "It's been three days." He looked to the rest of the room, settling a desperate gaze on Arthur and Molly. "How would you react?"
Arthur shrugged his shoulders. "If one of my sons hadn't eaten, drank or slept for three days? Pretty similar I believe."
Tonks nodded slowly. "It's shocking for us because we aren't in the situation currently. We're just reading about it, we're not there."
"Exactly." Remus smiled at the woman, looking away quickly as she flushed. He smiled reassuringly at his friends. "Exactly."
"Always the voice of reason, Moony." James croaked.
James pulled Harry into a sitting position, holding him by the collar of his robes. He shouted at Harry in frustration.
"What is the matter with you! Do you have a death wish? Why are you so determined to hurt yourself?" he shouted.
"Harry please-" James gasped. "Please, don't do this." Draco frowned.
'Why are they all so damn confusing?'
James let go of Harry and raised a hand to rake through his own hair, as he did when he was extremely angry or nervous. Harry closed his eyes in reflex and flinched away from him, obviously thinking that James had raised his hand in order to hit him.
James stopped in mid action. He saw Harry flinch away from him. 'He thinks I'm going to hit him!' he thought in horror.
"WHAT?!"
"Why-"
"That makes no sense-"
"Oh my Merlin, did You-Know-Who -?"
"Oh Harry"
'In horror?' Draco frowned to himself. 'What?'
"You," James pointed a shaking finger at Draco. "Tell me he wasn't abused. Tell me-"
"He can't have been!" Charlie snapped. "The last chapter - no one had dared treat him like that - that's what he said! You're just overreacting. He's flinching from an enemy."
James dropped his finger away from a pale Draco in shock. Draco couldn't tear his gaze away from the distraught family. 'What in the name of Merlin's saggy left-'
"I'll just... continue then." Percy awkwardly interrupted the tense silence.
James' insides jolted at the thought. Even Lily and Sirius saw Harry's reaction and felt their hearts plummet into their stomachs. James slowly lowered his hand and felt all the anger leave him as he looked closely at his son.
Harry's eyes had dark circles around them. His lips were dry and chapped, since he had not allowed a single drop of water to pass by them. He was very pale and looked on the verge of collapsing. His breathing was harsh and he had a hand on his side, clutching his ribs.
James breathed heavily through his nose, eyes closing.
James' look softened as he took in the terrible state of his son. He spoke calmly to Harry now, determined to show Harry that he honestly didn't mean any harm.
Draco hated being confused. Why couldn't Harry have stayed for this chapter? How was he meant to explain any of this?
"Harry, please, you need to understand. If you don't eat or drink anything, especially these potions you will fall very ill." James lowered his voice and spoke softly to Harry, but the teen just ignored him.
"If you think that you can blackmail us into letting you go, then you are mistaken. You can starve yourself all you like. I'm not going to send you back to that monster!"
At hearing his father being called a monster, Harry looked directly at him and gave him a death glare.
"Damn it."
Harry spoke to James in a dry and hoarse voice.
"That's not what I'm doing."
"What?" asked James, confused with Harry's response.
"Blackmailing you, I know you don't care what happens to me." Harry said quietly.
"That's not true!"
James opened his mouth to argue but was cut off as Lily rushed over to the bed.
"Harry, that's not true! We do care about you, all of us do!" she said as she stood beside James.
"Exactly!" Lily said. "Oh, Harry."
Harry lifted his gaze and looked at her with tired eyes. He didn't believe her, it was apparent with the look he was giving to all of them. James tried a different approach.
"If you are not blackmailing us then what are you doing? Why are you making yourself suffer?"
Just then they heard a shout from downstairs.
"Potter! Black! Come down here, we need a word."
Moody's voice echoed into the room and James saw Harry tense up at once.
Mad-Eye looked pleased at the reaction, despite the glares sent his way.
Harry's eyes darted to the door and his hands clenched into fists. Harry seemed to be shivering slightly and didn't take his eyes away from the door. James was momentarily confused with Harry's reaction. James knew that Harry was not afraid of Moody, but Harry's reaction to Moody's voice alone was causing the teen distress.
'Would you look at that.' Mad-Eye thought with glee.
"Harry, what's the…." James stopped.
Suddenly it all made sense. Harry's last encounter with Moody, Moody trying to force Vertiserum into Harry, Harry not eating or drinking anything, not even the potions given by Lily. His refusal to sleep, tensing like that at Moody's voice. Harry was afraid that Moody was going to drug him! He was afraid to sleep in case Moody drugged him, was afraid to eat or drink anything, especially potions, in case they were spiked with the truth potion.
'Oh Merlin, what has Moody done to you' James thought to himself as anger coursed through him at the memory of Moody's behaviour with Harry. James breathed out slowly to calm his temper before speaking.
"Harry, are you afraid that someone will spike your food or drink?" James saw Harry slowly look over at him.
"Obviously." Fred drawled in George's ear, his twin stuffing a fist into his mouth to keep from laughing aloud.
James saw the answer in Harry's exhausted eyes. James took a deep breath.
"Harry, why would you think we would allow anyone to put anything harmful into your food? You should trust us, we are your parents. We are not going to allow anyone to hurt you."
Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Like Harry would believe that!
Harry gave another mistrusting look at both James and Lily. James decided that he needed to show Harry some proof, so that their son could trust them, even if it was just a little. James removed his wand from his robes and at once saw Harry's body tense at the sight. Even Lily was eying James warningly.
"I'm not going to hurt him!"
"Sorry."
James ignored both of them and pointed at the door and spoke in a clear voice.
"ACCIO VERITASERUM PONDLEY!" at once seven bottles of Veritaserum appeared through the door and landed on the bed that Harry and James were sitting on.
Harry looked confused. He backed away a little, unsure of what James was going to do with all these bottles. They heard a gruff cry from downstairs and Moody's voice thundered. 'What is going on here? What just flew out of my pocket?'
Fred and George sniggered at the Auror having been caught unawares.
James then pointed his wand at the bottles and muttered another curse.
"REDUCTO"
"Huh." Kinglsey looked impressed. "Good idea."
"It's a waste, is what it is." Snape looked despaired. "Seven whole bottles."
The bottles smashed and the liquid drained the bed covers. Harry looked at James with surprise written clearly on his face. James did a drying spell to dry the wet covers.
"There Harry, now there is not a single drop of Veritaserum anywhere in this house. You can go to sleep completely at ease. There will also be no Veritaserum in anything you eat or drink, including potions. If you want I can do an 'Ingreto' spell on your food so that it shouts out all the ingredients that are in them. That way you can have complete peace of mind." James looked at Harry and almost smiled at the look of surprise on Harry's handsome face.
'Handsome face?' The thought crossed Draco's mind in disgust, and Ginny's in wonder.
"Handsome face?" Sirius voiced his thoughts aloud. "Bragging much Prongs? Just because you look alike." He snorted. "Handsome face. The ego on you, I swear."
"Sleep now Harry, you are never going to heal properly if you don't sleep. I will bring up another vial of sleeping potion to help you."
James watched as Harry slid down onto the bed. James turned around and pointed his wand again at the door.
"ACCIO SLEEPING DRAUGHT" the purple potion zoomed into James's outstretched hand. He turned around to give the potion to Harry but found that the exhausted teen was already fast asleep.
"Wow."
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Things improved slightly after that day. Harry was making a good recovery, now that he was drinking all his potions and eating small meals in the day. He still didn't eat as much as James or Lily had wanted but it was better than before. Harry still didn't talk much to anyone and stayed in his room. However Sirius had pointed out the library in the Black Manor and Harry had at once raced to it.
Sirius smiled, pleased that he had done something for his Godson.
Harry had decided that if he was going to be forced to stay here than he would keep up to date with his reading and studies. James and Lily were so much happier at Harry's behaviour, even though Harry was still as bitter to them as before.
James and Lily looked sad, yet resigned.
It had been exactly seven days, since Harry had arrived at the headquarters that the first Order meeting was to commence. Dumbledore had finally got the Minister's final decision on Harry's future and it was to be revealed to the entire Order that night.
"Here we go." Tonks muttered.
James and Lily were worried sick, what was going to happen? What fate would Harry have to face? Was there any hope for him?
"There is, there is," Lily whispered feverently.
On top of this they were feeling immensely guilty about ignoring Damien. They had only once popped their head in the fire at the Burrow to see if Damien was okay. Damien had been having a good time with the Weasleys' but was still suspicious about his long summer with them. Damien had tried talking to Mr and Mrs Weasley about what was going on but they had been as helpful as James and Lily.
Arthur laughed at this.
James paced the floor as Sirius and Lupin watched him with somewhat amusement.
James growled at his smirking friends. It wasn't funny, he was worried!
"Prongs, you're going to get dizzy, come and sit down." Sirius joked as James threw him an annoyed look. Lupin chuckled as well but gave James a sympathetic look.
"And isn't that just their relationship in a nutshell," Tonks whispered to Kingsley, who smirked.
"They will be here soon Prongs, have patience. I'm sure that if it was really bad news Dumbledore wouldn't have decided to announce it in front of everyone, before telling you and Lily."
"Why not tell us before everyone? We're his parents, we have a right to know!" James looked outraged.
Dumbledore looked helpless. He didn't have an explanation.
At this James stopped his pacing and looked at Lupin. He sighed and came and sat down.
"I guess you're right, but why he couldn't just come now and tell us before the meeting. I mean we are Harry's parents after all, don't you think we deserve to know the fate of our son before everyone else?" James was raking his hand through his messy hair again.
"Yes." James looked at Dumbledore pointedly.
Lily appeared in the room and gave the three marauders a quick, nervous smile. She walked over to James.
"Did you tell him?" she asked quietly.
James looked lost. "Did I miss something." He looked at Sirius and Remus, who appeared just as mystified. "Tell who what?"
James looked lost.
"Um…tell who what?" he asked dumbly. A look of annoyance flashed in Lily's eyes.
Damien sniggered at his father' apparent misfortune.
"Did you tell Harry to stay in his room tonight at the time of the meeting?" She asked.
"Oh."
"Oh, that, well yes, I mean no, not yet."
Sirius barked out a laugh while Remus grinned.
Sirius and Lupin couldn't keep the grins away from their faces. They loved it when James got tongue tied in front of Lily.
"Really." James stared at them before looking away.
"Well, it did happen a lot in school."
But then again who wouldn't when Lily's green eyes were burning into you.
"Really?" It was Lily's turn to stare.
"James, you said you would, it is only ten minutes before everyone starts arriving. Please go and tell him."
"Lils, sweetheart, do you really think it's necessary. I mean we could just lock the door without having to explain anything to Harry, he might not even notice…"
Lily glared at James, ignoring the sniggers in the room.
James trailed off at the look of anger on Lily's face and mumbled something about going now and telling Harry before leaving the room.
Damien laughed outright at this.
James knocked on Harry's door and opened it to find Harry sitting up on the bed, reading a book about the Dark Arts.
"Perfect."
'Perfect' thought James angrily. He would have to have a word with Sirius about the content of the library.
"Hey! It's not my fault! Basically every book in there is related to the Dark Arts in some way!"
"Hey Harry, I just wanted to let you know that there is a small meeting today downstairs."
"Okay" Harry replied, not even looking up from his book.
"It is just some people from the Order and I don't want them to know that you are here just now."
"Okay" Harry replied again in a bored voice.
"I am afraid I am going to have to lock you in."
"Right"
"Just until the meeting, after they are gone I'll unlock it."
"Whatever"
"Okay I'm going to go now."
"Right"
"I'm locking you in now."
"You do that."
Arthur laughed, turning to James. "You have no idea how similar that conversation is to one's I've had before when my son's are mad at me." James smiled, relieved that it seemed all teenagers acted the same way.
James could tell from Harry's voice that he was mad at being locked in. Truth be told so would James, if he were to be put into that situation. James closed the door after looking at Harry one last time. Harry had still not looked up from his book. James closed the door with a sigh. He touched the door with his wand and muttered the spell to lock it.
James hated lying to Harry, most of the Order knew Harry was here by now, but that didn't mean they were happy about it. Most of the Order agreed with Moody. They thought that Harry should not get any preferential treatment just because he was a Potter.
"Sorry."
"Yeah, ummm sorry"
"I apologise"
"Oh, I'm so sorry"
"Sor-"
"We get it! Everyone's sorry!"
"Sorry."
James slowly made his way downstairs, lost in his miserable thoughts. Harry was best to be kept out of the way, for Harry's own safety.
When James entered the room, which was to hold the Order meeting, he found that most of the Order had now arrived, except the Weasley family. He gave Lily a small smile and a quick nod to show that Harry was safe upstairs. She smiled back at him. However their smiles were wiped off their faces instantly when the fireplace erupted in green flames and Damien appeared along with the entire Weasley family.
"Uh oh."
"Hey Mum, Hey Dad."
Damien walked over slowly to his stunned parents and gave them a quick hug.
"What wrong, aren't you happy to see me, it's the first time in a week." Damien was looking at the astonished looks on his parents faces. Lily recovered quickly.
"You better tell me." Damien muttered, unhappy.
"Of course we are happy to see you. It's just that we were not expecting you, that's all."
She quickly pulled him in a hug and planted a kiss on his forehead. Damien just blushed and muttered something about 'not in public'. Lily smiled at him. She had missed her youngest son this last week and was glad to see him again,
Damien blushed when Ron nudged him, Ginny making kissy faces.
but she felt nervous as well. Harry was just a few feet away from them and Damien didn't even know about him yet.
The boy promptly scowled at the reminder.
She looked worryingly over to James who seemed to be in deep discussion with Mr Weasley.
Molly hurried over and ushered the teenagers to the other room.
"Boring."
"We deserve to know!"
"He's our age!"
"My brother!"
McGonagall cleared her throat, effectively silencing the rabble.
She took them to one of the bedrooms on the second floor and told them that they were forbidden to leave.
'Not fair.' They scowled.
As she left the six teenagers, Fred, George, Ron, Damien, Hermione and Ginny went instantly into a meeting of their own.
"Oh really?" Sirius smirked.
"So, what do you think happened this time?" Ginny asked as she and Hermione flopped onto one of the beds in the huge room.
"It has to be big, never saw so many people attend a meeting before." Fred was saying as he sat on one of the chairs, while putting his feet up on the table.
"Fred!"
"Sorry mother."
"Yeah, well they've not had a meeting for awhile. Maybe they're just catching up with the recent attacks." Hermione suggested thoughtfully.
"Nah, this meeting is big." George said with a smirk on his face.
Many Order members tittered at hearing the youngsters meeting.
"What makes you say that?" asked Damien who was sitting on the other bed with Ron.
"Heard mum talking to dad this morning,
"Boys! No eavesdropping!"
she was saying that this meeting was going to 'determine the future' and that 'Dumbledore better know what he's doing playing such a dangerous game."
Everyone was eying George as he playfully took a bow.
"How did you hear that?" asked Ron looking at his brother with an awed expression.
"With these!" George held up something that looked like a bit of flesh coloured string. It was really long and looked like nothing anyone had ever seen before.
"What's that?" James frowned.
"Wow, what is that?" asked Damien as he climbed of the bed and came over to George to take a closer look at these things.
"Extendable Ears." he said proudly as Fred smiled and winked at him.
Molly groaned. More of the twins inventions.
"I slipped these under their bedroom door and heard the whole conversation,
Molly threw her hands up. Honestly!
well as much as I could before Perfect Percy came and told me to go away, stupid git!"
Percy stopped reading. "Hey!"
"What?"
"George apologise."
"Sorry you're a git."
Percy scowled and continued.
George had a really ugly look on his face now.
"It does not say that!" George howled.
"Does so!"
"Does not! I'm not ugly!"
"Well, that's what it says!"
"Take it back! Fred stop laughing, we're identical!"
"Wait - take it back!"
"That's what it says!" Percy brandished the book.
"Just read!" Moody growled.
"But you know you shouldn't have been eavesdropping anyway…" started Hermione but was cut of by the look on Damien and Ron's face.
"Thank you Hermione." Lily said.
"Hmm, 'decide the future', 'dangerous game' whatever could they have been talking about?" Ginny asked with a curious look on her pretty face.
Ginny smirked. "Pretty face, you hear that George?"
"Shut it, you."
"Well sis, why don't we go and find out." Fred got up and took out five pairs of the extendable ears and handed everyone a pair.
"Boys!"
"Wow you came prepared." commented Hermione.
"Well the house didn't get infested by pixies, just as the Order meeting was going to start by chance." Fred and George were stifling their laughter at the look on the other four faces.
"BOYS!"
"You…you did that!" Ginny didn't know whether to scowl or cheer.
"But how are we going to get rid of them?" Ron asked.
"Don't worry, they're temporary, once they run out of active enzyme they will just fade away."
"That's... really clever." Sirius frowned in contemplation, while Remus and James nodded. Their praise did nothing to deter Molly's fury.
"If you can do all that, you can get better grades!"
"We're applying ourselves to our future mum! We don't need NEWTS for that!"
Fred took another bow as Ginny and Damien were clapping their hands in praise.
"You…you designed them, wow that is really advanced magic, how did you..." Hermione was cut off by the sound of shouting coming from downstairs.
The six of them looked at each other and then ran to the door.
"Why do I get the feeling Harry is involved?"
xxx
Harry was fuming.
"You'd be right." Fleur muttered to Bill.
As soon as James had left the room he had leapt out of bed and had made his way, as quietly as he could to the door.
"Of course he did." James sighed.
"Well, he is your son."
He heard the magical click as the door was sealed shut. Harry waited a few minutes. He heard the sound of six or seven people, noisily making their way to the second floor.
"That's us!"
"We're not noisy!"
"We're not exactly the pinnacle of silence."
When he was sure there was no one around, he took a step back from the door and placed his hand on the door. He closed his eyes and focused his mind on the magic sealing the door. He had been studying wandless magic since he was fourteen and had used it on numerous occasions.
"Of course he has." There was no denying the pride in James's voice, even as it mixed with exsparation.
He let the power flow through his fingers and neutralise the magic around the door. The door clicked open within a minute.
"Great."
Harry couldn't help but smile. He was going home.
"Great."
He knew that with so many people coming to the Order meetings the wards would be down.
"Great."
"Sirius!"
"Okay Moony!"
He knew for a fact that families of the members usually came to the meetings but were not actively involved in the meeting itself. He had learned this information while studying the Order last year.
"Studying?"
"How could he possibly have gotten that information!"
"That's not good-"
"Our families could be in danger!"
He knew that non members of the Order would not have been able to enter or exit the house with the wards up, so they had to be temporarily brought down. This was the chance Harry had been waiting for.
"Smart kid." Kingsley said gruffly.
He stepped out of the room and looked around quickly. There was no one around. He quickly went over to the stairs and crept quietly down them.
"Oh come on!"
He reached the bottom of the stairs and released the breath he was holding. Harry crept quietly towards the door. He knew he was taking a huge risk; he had no wand, and had not fully healed yet. He paused briefly as he neared the room that the meeting was being held in. He knew that the door probably had the Silencio charm placed on it so that no one could eavesdrop. Harry crept towards the door and reached it within a couple of minutes. He places a trembling hand on the handle and pulled the door open. He nearly cried out with joy as the door opened and he felt the cool air rush to greet him. He had not stepped outside in seven days and this feeling of being in the open air was making Harry feel giddy.
Harry had placed one foot out of the door when he felt a strong hand grip his shoulder.
"Oh thank Merlin!"
"Please be friendly."
Harry was pulled inside violently before Harry could even turn around to see who had caught him. The door had been closed and locked with a wave of a wand and Harry whirled around to end up face-to-face with an infuriated looking James Potter. Harry blinked at him in surprise. He had not even heard him approach behind him, how the hell did he catch him? Harry suddenly was filled with fury. James Potter had spoiled his plans to escape, he had stopped Harry from getting home and away from this horrible place.
Damien frowned at his brothers words. Draco too, seemed upset, although for different reasons.
James yanked Harry away from the door and hissed at him.
"Get upstairs! Now!"
Harry tried to twist out of his grip but James was now pointing his wand at him.
"James," Lily groaned.
This did nothing to calm Harry's rising temper.
"Great."
"Sirius!"
"Let me go!" Harry shouted.
"Get upstairs!" James grabbed Harry roughly by the upper arm and dragged the boy up the stairs.
Harry shouted again and tried to yank his arm out of James's hand.
"Let go of me! Let me go Potter!"
James arrived in front of Harry's room and pushed Harry roughly into the room. James went in and closed the door behind him.
"At least I stopped him from escaping?" James said weakly.
xxx
Damien and his five friends opened the door and stepped out into the dimly lit hallway. They could hear shouting from the floor below. They peered over the banister in time to see James Potter dragging a boy towards a room.
"Not good."
Damien watched as his dad roughly pushed a teenage boy into a room before going in himself and slamming the door shut. The six teenagers had only seen the back of the boy and in the dim lighting had not been able to make out any features.
The sighs of relief made the teenagers scowl.
They looked at each other and quietly crept back to their room.
"What the hell was that?" asked Ron looking at Fred and George as if they had planned this.
"Hey!"
"Who was that boy?" Ginny asked a little worriedly.
"Your future love!" George sighed dreamily.
"Shut up!" Ginny shoved him, red faced.
"Yeah and why was your dad being so rough with him, it looks like he was hurting him." Hermione asked a very puzzled Damien.
'Even the blind can see it.' Draco thought, victorious.
"I don't know, my dad would never hurt someone on purpose, I don't understand." Damien replied in a small voice.
"Thanks Damien."
"Well, there's only one way to find out, Damien did you bring the map?" Fred asked.
"Map?" James asked. Sirius sank down in his seat. "What map?" Damien scowled, fuming, refusing to answer.
Damien pulled out a blank piece of parchment. He tapped it with his wand and whispered;
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good in the Black Manor."
James turned slowly to look at his friend.
The blank piece of parchment suddenly filled with a detailed map of the Black Manor. The only section of the map that remained blank was the room that the meeting was taking place in.
"At least there's that."
When Sirius had given this map to Damien
Sirius smiled weakly at the looks he was given.
he had explained that it was vital that everything about the Order was kept a secret, including its members.
"Don't be mad?"
"Oh, we're a bit beyond that."
The six children quickly scanned the map in the hope that the identity of this mysterious boy would be revealed. They saw the room where they were all standing. There were six little dots with their names next to them. They scanned to the room below them and spotted the two dots standing in the room. Damien felt the world stop as he read the name next to his fathers.
Harry James Potter.
"Well that's certainly not how I would have wanted him to find out. Thanks a lot, Sirius!"
Damien snapped. "Well, if you had just told me in the first place this wouldn't be an issue!"
"Damien!"
"No! I'm trying to be supportive because I know it's difficult for you but it's difficult for me to! It's not fair!" Damien stormed from the room, slamming it behind him with a bang.
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Damien flew down the castle stairs, making his way onto the grounds, hearing his parents pursuing him. He took a sharp turn past the lake, the giant squid breaking the surface as he raced past. Sprinting for the trees of the forbidden forest, he ducked and weaved, losing them. He sat down heavily behind a tree, panting.
"Damien!"
"Damy please!"
"Damien come out now!"
Multiple voices. Looks like they all came after him. Rage still simmered inside him.
"Damien!"
"Damy come out! It's dangerous out here!"
"Damien is it?" He jumped, the voice right next to his ear. Whirling around with a yelp, he looked at the person who startled him.
"I think we should have a talk." His brother smirked.
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Yeah. So. Please review?