This is probably the first really big chapter we've come to in terms of what it implies for the future and will also be the catalyst for some of my earliest changes to the canon story. There is also no borrowed dialogue this chapter, though the events of Chapter 22 - St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries still happened.

The lack of sleep caused Leo to be relatively grouchy on the Hogwarts Express as it sped along towards Kings Cross. He shared a compartment with Fay and Anna, the latter of whom spent the majority of the trip snogging Wayne Hopkins, and with Leo not wanting to talk about Harry's incident he pulled his hood further down his face to cover his eyes he tried to have an extended, journey long nap, but sleep evaded the Gryffindor and all he could think about was what Harry had been saying. Eventually, after what seemed like the longest train journey yet the train pulled into King's Cross and Leo didn't hesitate to grab his things and try to rush away, only to be pulled back by Fay.

"Oi!" She exclaimed, pulling him into a hug. "Stay in touch, yeah? I don't know what happened to make you so grumpy today but you know I'm always here to talk."

Leo nodded. "Thanks." He muttered miserably, before scolding himself in his mind for treating his friend like that. "Have a good Christmas." He added kindly.

Fay smirked, punching Leo lightly on the arm. "You too Leo." She said, before disappearing to find her family.

Leo took a deep breath and made his own way onto the platform. He looked around for a moment and spotted his mum walking briskly towards him. Smiling in relief at seeing her, he went to hug her but instead of a warm greeting all he felt was the feeling of apparation. Grimacing as he felt his feet land on the banks of Lock Ryan, Leo turned around accusingly. "What was that for?" He shot at her.

"Get inside." Mary stated warningly as she ignored his complaints, before whipping her wand out and silently casting a few unrecognisable spells in the area surrounding the cottage. Leo just stayed where he was looking at her questioningly, causing Mary to turn back to him sharply and snap. "Quickly!"

Leo frowned but did as he was told, dumping his trunk on the floor in their cottage and turning back to face his mother. "What's going on?" He asked her.

Stil not answering his questions, Mary instead grabbed Leo's arm and pulled him over towards the sofa dragging him to sit down sharply. "You were there with Harry Potter when he had his vision, right?" She asked him rhetorically. "You saw what happened?"

Leo was confused. "How do you know? What does that have to do with anything?" He asked.

"Did he say anything? Did he look any different?" Mary asked frantically.

Leo shook his head. "He looked normal, just sweaty." He explained. "He was thrashing around a lot but he didn't actually say anything until he was awake?" He shifted awkwardly in his seat, confused and worried at the questioning. "What is this?"

Mary sat beside him and grabbing his hands in her own. "Just tell me what happened." She said quickly, her eyes urging him on.

Leo shrugged. "He woke me up screaming. Ron was already by his bed trying to wake him up unsuccessfully and we all went over to see what we could do. When he woke up he said that Ron's dad had been attacked, that he was the snake that bit him." Leo sighed. "It was scary, I'm wondering now if he's actually a seer, that he saw something..."

"He's no seer." Mary explained, interrupting his thought process. "Seers see the future, Harry saw the present."

"You mean it happened?" Leo asked, surprised. "Mr Weasley was actually…" He trailed off, horrified.

Mary shook her head. "There's only so much I can tell you, Leo." She whispered sadly. "Tell me what happened afterwards, and then I'll try and explain what I can."

Nodding his head, Leo continued. "Professor McGonagall came and took him and Ron away, and we didn't hear anything after that. Even Hermione didn't know anything when I spoke to her at breakfast this morning, then she got whisked away by Professor McGonagall too. Umbridge questioned us after that and then we got let onto the train."

Mary sighed, her brow furrowed. "Which means the Ministry will already know that something has happened." She surmised.

"What does that matter?" Leo asked. "And why are you asking me all of this. You're in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, surely this is something for…"

"I work there during the day, yes." Mary interrupted before Leo could mention the Department of Mysteries. "But there's more going on than you realise, dear. There's a war going on, under everybody's noses."

"You-Know-Who." Leo said darkly. "I know he's back, Harry's made that quite clear."

Mary smiled and cupped Leo's cheek. "You always have been bright. You're right, he is definitely back but the Minister for Magic won't act. That's why there's a secret group working in the shadows to fight him, a group that I've been a part of since the first time… since I left Hogwarts."

Leo was shocked as he imagined his little mother fighting in a war... it seemed ridiculous to him. "You're like a spy?" He asked disbelieving.

Mary shook her head amusedly. "Not a spy, just a witch trying to make a better world for you to live in."

As his mind processed all of the information being thrown at him Leo began putting two and two together as more odd instances started to make sense to him. "Professor Lupin… last summer…"

"He came and told me what had actually happened with Harry Potter during the third task, yes." Mary explained. "Last time, before You-Know-Who was beaten, we were purely reactionary, we had very little intelligence on him and could only do so much, and a lot of my friends died. This time, we're much better prepared."

The realities had truly settled in as Leo felt the room grow colder. Staring at the brunette Scotswoman, Leo whispered. "Mum… are we in danger?"

Mary had a tear fall from her eye, and she nodded quickly before wrapping him in a tight hug. "Aye, we are." She explained, her accent thick in his ear. "Almost my whole class joined the Order straight out of school. I was good friends with Harry's parents, and they were big targets even before officially joining. Thankfully I was lesser known, but after the incident with Mulciber and Avery…" She shuddered. "I knew I needed to do something to help, and nothing has changed in all the years since." She grabbed Leo's hands again. "But while this place is remote, it's not quite as safe as we might need to protect ourselves so we need to go and spend Christmas somewhere else."

"Are we going into hiding?" Leo asked, his eyes wide in fear.

Mary shook her head. "Not quite, but the place we are going, it has all of the best defensive spells that Professor Dumbledore can think up. We'll be safe there, I promise."

Leo nodded, going to stand up. All throughout his life it had been him and his mum, and her word meant everything to the Gryffindor boy so he didn't need to know any more than that. "Then let's go." He said calmly.

Mary noticed his quick reaction and looked at him with surprise. "You don't have questions?"

Leo shrugged. "I trust you, mum. Harry was really scary last night, and if it is something to do with your fight against You-Know-Who, then we both might be in danger."

Mary considered him for a moment before wrapping him once again in a tight squeeze. "I love you." She whispered, before letting him go slightly, her hands remaining on his shoulders. "But there's something else I need to tell you." Mary sighed, and another tear fell from her eye. "I said a number of my friends died the last time, lots of people I knew well, but Lily Potter was my best friend. Her death was more painful than anybody's…"

Leo was confused. "You told me my Father died during the war too." He said slowly. "You never told me who he was, only that he was a hero. If his death didn't affect you more, then what happened?"

Mary took a deep breath as she lowered her hands from her shoulders and instead massaged her temples. "What was I supposed to say to a kid?" She muttered more to herself than anything before looking back at Leo. "Your Father, I loved him from my 5th year at Hogwarts right up until the night You-Know-Who was defeated."

"What happened?" Leo asked. He had never gotten this much out of his mother about his father and he was eager for more.

Mary wiped her eyes before she continued. "He murdered his best friend, or at least, I thought he did." She sighed. "James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. The four of them were inseparable before and after school, though when the war grew fiercer they spent less time together. That took a toll, and when James and Lily went into hiding…" She sniffed, emotions clearly bubbling within her. "I always thought Sirius was the secret keeper."

"He was." Leo said firmly. "I know the story, Black betrayed them…"

"No, Leo." Mary interrupted quickly before she sighed. "I only found out the truth this summer. Pettigrew was the traitor. Sirius… that daft man… on the night of Halloween he kissed the both of us goodbye and told me he just needed to check on Peter, the next thing I know our house is swarmed with Aurors and he's been sent to Azkaban." Leo's eyes were wide open at this point as he was digesting the story. "I tried to go on without him but it just got too much… so I moved back in with Grandad and we've been living here ever since."

His mind was racing and threatening to explode with all the information he had just received. Leo remembered his third year vividly, the terror that many students felt at the thought of a serial killer on the loose. Sirius Black had been a nightmare figure, but now… it was too much. He looked back at his Mother, the pleading on her face explicit to see. "So Sirius Black…" He managed to choke out.

"Sirius Black is your Father." Mary nodded. "We got together in our last year of Hogwarts and had you just months before James and Lily had Harry. We found out she was pregnant just after you had been born." She wiped her eyes and smiled at the memory. "For over a year we were happy… despite everything going on we had a family, you had a playmate… and after everything with his family..." She trailed off ignoring Leo's confused look, and then continued through clenched teeth. "Yet he didn't think of you before rushing in and trying to commit murder."

"Trying?" Leo's mind was racing at the sheer amount of information being thrown at him, but he didn't miss the wording she had used.

Mary nodded. "Aye, trying. Pettigrew is alive. Turns out he cut off his finger and escaped that night, transforming into a rat and framing Sirius for murder. He says that he only managed to escape Azkaban so that he could keep you and Harry safe from him."

Leo gulped in realisation as the events of the third year were brought back once again, namely that Ron and Hermione had been having constant arguments about their pets until all of a sudden it was all forgotten. "Scabbers…" He whispered, remembering Ron's dozy pet. "He had 4 toes on one paw and Ron said he died not long after Professor Lupin was outed…"

"Aye." Mary nodded, her accent thick. "I'm so sorry to keep you in the dark, Leo. I just wanted to keep you safe. I'm still so angry at Sirius for abandoning us and I didn't want to bring you into it until we could be in the same room with each other without screaming the bloody house down, but then Harry had his vision and I was told to move in…" She sighed as she rubbed her temples again. "It's too soon."

Leo shook his head, wrapping an arm comfortingly around his mother. "It is what it is." He said, though his mind was spinning as he realised that for the first time in his life he had a father somewhere out there. "If we need to go… I'll go."

Mary smiled, pulling Leo in for another firm hug. "I love you." She whispered. "I'm so sorry to spring this on you."

Leo nodded. "We should go." He looked out the window nervously, the dark clouds feeling ominous as the temperature dropped once again. Mary clearly agreed, rushing out to grab his school trunk as well as one of her own, and after a few minutes of frantic packing once again Leo found himself being apparated away.

They landed in a grimy street of townhouses and Leo immediately felt on edge. It had grown dark and many of the houses in front had broken windows and a lack of fresh paint on the doors, making the entire street seem derelict and forgotten. Keeping his hand in his pocket and gripped to his wand, Leo started looking around in more detail, noticing the old cars parked on the road, one of which had a door a different colour to the rest of it…

His attention was drawn back in as a piece of paper was thrust into his hands. "Read that." Mary explained with a frantic whisper, and Leo did as he was asked, holding it up to one of the lamp posts to read in the light.

The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Mary quickly grabbed the paper again once his eyes had roamed over twice. "You remember it?" Leo nodded, and Mary incinerated the paper with her wand. "Think about the words." Leo looked at the row of houses in front of him and did exactly as he was asked to, and almost immediately the buildings began to tremble, and in between numbers eleven and thirteen, another house began to almost inflate, pushing them to the sides. Leo grinned at the magic on offer as it went on, until number twelve was fully formed in front of him as if it had always been there. He wasn't allowed any time to admire the magic however. "Come on." Mary hurried him and pulled him by the arm up the stone steps towards the shabby black door. Leo stared at the twisted serpent door knocker, concerned at the symbol of Slytherin. Mary however quickly tapped the door with her wand, and the door began to unlock loudly before it swung open. "Get inside, and don't touch anything." She instructed, and Leo stepped inside the house.

He could almost feel the old magic coursing through the mangy wooden floorboards. There was a closed door at the end of the narrow entranceway and Mary gestured for him to walk towards it. When they were about halfway down he passed a set of moth-eaten curtains when the door in front of them opened, and out stepped Ron's mum, a woman that Leo had never actually spoken too but had seen a handful of times on Platform 9 ¾.

"Mary love, you're just in time, and you must be Leo." The red-headed woman greeted kindly. "The others are upstairs dear." She directed at him.

Leo turned to Mary. "Others?" He asked.

"Molly's family are staying here, as well as Harry Potter and Hermione Granger." His mother explained.

Molly nodded. "They'll show you to your room, you're in with Harry and Ron I'm afraid." She then turned to Mary. "He's getting impatient."

Mary swore under her breath. "I bloody told him…" She mumbled. Turning to Leo she kissed him on the cheek and said. "Go upstairs and get settled down, I'll call you back down in a minute."

"But…" Leo complained, knowing that behind that door was the man that he had been thinking about on and off for 15 years, only just now knowing that he was actually alive.

"Go, Leo." Mary said firmly, leaving no further room for argument as she pointed up the stairs.

Leo nodded and turned towards the staircase, but not without a final glance to the door. His father was inside that room, he knew it. Huffing, he began to climb up the stairs, grimacing at the number of mounted House Elf heads on plaques. He got to the first landing and didn't see anybody when a voice called from above. "Leo!" It was Hermione. Leo felt nervous as he climbed up to the second level, and another surprise followed when Hermione crashed into him, hugging him tightly for a moment before letting go just as quickly to Leo's disappointment. "I'm so glad you got here safely."

"I don't know what's going on." Leo admitted, his face blushing as the smell of her shampoo lingered in his nose.

"Well of course you don't." Hermione noted, thankfully ignoring his rosy cheeks. "I imagine it's been a big shock to you. Come on, let us get you settled in and we will explain what we can." Leo nodded, following his classmate as she led him into a room down the corridor.

Harry and Ron were inside playing a game of wizard's chess, and Leo had to admit he was glad to see Harry looking relatively normal, albeit the bags under his eyes showed how tired he must have been. It was Ron who spoke first, cheerfully calling out. "Leo! Sorry about last night mate… we didn't expect to go straight away."

"What happened?" He asked. "One minute Harry was writhing around in bed screaming, the next both of you are gone and we all know nothing. Then I get home, I'm quizzed by mum and she says she's part of some secret group fighting the war and I'm whisked here." He didn't want to mention the fact that Sirius Black was his dad, that was another level of crazy rushing through his mind.

The trio looked between themselves and Leo could all but hear the internal dialogue between them. "The secret group is the Order of the Phoenix." Hermione explained finally. "Professor Dumbledore started it in the first war to fight back, and he restarted it immediately after the third task when it became clear what had happened."

"They're guarding something." Ron continued. "We don't know what, but it's a weapon of some kind to use against You-Know-Who."

"Ron." Harry warned.

"He deserves to know, mate." Ron countered. "His mum…"

"Would have told him if he needed to know." Harry replied in a tone that stabbed through Leo.

Hermione scoffed. "You were exactly the same in the summer, Harry. Angry at us for not telling you anything and demanding to know everything, even things that you aren't allowed to know."

"That's different…" Harry began.

"If my mum is putting herself in danger, then I want to know as much as you do." Leo scowled, interrupting rudely. "I'm not a kid Harry, so don't treat me like one."

"I wasn't…" Harry began before he sighed defeatedly. "Fine, tell him. I need some air." He got up and walked out the room.

There was an awkward silence as the heavy footsteps disappeared into the distance as Ron and Hermione looked between one another again. "Ignore him." Ron sighed eventually. "He's had a rough day."

Hermione nodded in agreement. "Don't take it personally. He's snapped at all of us today too."

"Is it to do with whatever last night was?" Leo asked.

Ron nodded. "Yeah, he…" He turned to Hermione. "I don't even know how to explain it."

Hermione rolled her eyes and gestured for Leo to sit down beside her. "The Order are protecting something and last night it was Ron's dad's turn on guard duty, and somehow… Harry saw him get attacked."

"He said something about a snake…" Leo began.

"It was a snake that attacked Dad." Ron muttered darkly.

Leo gulped, a memory of duelling club immediately springing to his mind. "This isn't anything to do with second year, is it?"

"No it isn't a basilisk." Hermione said to Leo's relief. "This is… different. Nobody really understands it. All we know is that Harry saw it and alerting Dumbledore early saved Mr Weasley's life. But as a result of that for everyone's protection, we're spending Christmas here."

Leo nodded, breathing loudly as he digested the information. "And here is…?"

"Headquarters." Ron said.

"Sirius… wait do you know about Sirius being innocent?" Hermione asked. Leo nodded, not trusting himself with any words on that particular subject. "He let Dumbledore use it for the Order, I think he wants to feel useful as officially he's still on the run. It's his family home."

So it was Leo's ancestors house too. He looked around a bit more and noticed a portrait of a man with an expertly kept black goatee staring back at them intently. "So this is where Mum would go to instead of working at all hours?" Leo asked. Hermione looked confused. "During the summer, she was in and out all the time. I didn't really mind too much then as I thought it was something boring about the Quidditch championships."

"She was working for the Order." Hermione nodded. "We met her a bit in the summer, she was really nice."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "Nice to know you knew her." He commented bluntly.

Ron frowned at his tone. "It's top-secret mate, you understand right? What would you have done if we had said we knew her? You'd have asked all kinds of questions we couldn't answer."

He would definitely have followed it up, so he ceded that point. "Alright." Leo nodded. "And you know Sirius Black?"

Ron grinned. "He's pretty cool, not at all like he was portrayed in the Prophet."

"He is really nice." Hermione agreed. "Almost like a father figure to Harry…" Leo scowled at that. He knew he didn't really have a right to be upset given that Sirius was in hiding and in a secret base all the time, but his old jealousy of Harry began to flare up again. He realised that Hermione was still talking and tuned back in. "… he gets excited when your mum is here too, though all she gets is angry…"

Before Leo could respond to that, two loud cracks sounded in the room and Leo jumped out of his skin as the Weasley Twins appeared in the room.

"Honestly!" Hermione raised her voice as she rounded on the pair of identical red-heads. "Just walk!"

"Now where's the fun in that." Fred grinned.

"We just wanted to tell you that the meeting is over and dinner is being served." George explained. "Harry and Ginny are already going down."

Leo was feeling a bit hungry but being the newcomer he waited for the others to rise and followed them down the stairs. As they reached the first landing level, he spotted Harry and Ginny sat down on the stairs waiting, as voices were being raised behind the door Leo spotted earlier.

"They're at it again." Ginny said. "Hi Leo." Leo nodded a greeting. "It's worse than normal, less disguised." She added to the rest of them.

He heard his mum's voice then loud and clear. "YOU MADE YOUR CHOICE!"

"What's it about?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. "Not sure. We did hear Wormtail get mentioned though."

The door opened below them and Mrs Weasley stepped outside and put some charms on the corridor quickly. Sighing in relief, she then noticed the youngsters hanging over the banister. "Go back up to your rooms, kids. I'll bring some plates up…"

"I HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE HIM!" A man's voice roared.

"YOU GAVE UP ALL YOUR RIGHTS WHEN YOU ABANDONED HIM FOR A STUPIDLY PLANNED REVENGE MISSION!" Leo's mum screamed, and Leo knew who the man was. He began to descend down the stairs as Mrs Weasley hurried back into the room and shut the door tightly.

"Leo." Hermione hissed. "You don't want to be in the middle of those two when they're going at it like this…"

Leo shook his head. "It's about me." He said monotonously.

Hermione was shocked, but Leo ignored both hers and the others surprised faces and continued down the stairs, wincing as he heard Sirius Black shout. "I WAS IN AZKABAN MARY! I DIDN'T CHOOSE…"

"YOU DIDN'T THINK! YOU NEVER DO!" Mary shouted back. The door opened then and Leo was face to face with Molly Weasley, who quickly shut the door behind her.

She was surprised to see him about to enter the kitchen and with an obviously forced smile she said. "I don't think now is a good time dear."

"It's ok." Leo nodded. "I need to."

The shouting match continued as Leo placed his hand on the doorknob as Mary screamed. "YOU RUSH IN BLINDLY AT ANY OPPORTUNITY AND I WILL NOT HAVE YOU HURTING MY SON!"

"OUR SON!" Sirius roared.

Leo pushed open the door and very quickly spotted his Mother, red in the face from the shouting, move from staring angrily at a tall, hauntingly handsome man to staring over at him in shock. "Leo…" She whispered.

Leo, however, only had eyes for the man that was also relatively red in the face. He had seen the face dozens of times in the papers over the last few years, but never did he dream that the face would mean anything to him. Sirius looked back at him with a hint of adoration and shock in his eyes. With the entire room so silent that you could hear a pin drop, Leo said the only words he could at that moment.

"Hello Father."

Reviews:

SkepticPrinceArthur: The Patronuses are all planned out for every Gryffindor in their year group! They'll be mentioned during the story.

Dante687: See above!