"A tattoo. Isn't that a little bit too much like the Dark Mark?" Ginny asked.
They were sitting around in Hermione's room. Ron had a pack of ice on his head while moaning in sporadic bursts. Ginny wasn't much better, she had a pair of sunglasses on to stop the light in the room from making her sick. Harry didn't have much of a hangover, but he did wish he had a pair of sunglasses. Hermione was too excited at her new brilliance to worry about her hangover.
"No, because the Dark Mark causes pain. This doesn't. It's rather simple really; I just combined the Dark Mark with the Marauders' Map. The tattoo creates a map when the person asks for it, and then it will show where everyone else who has the tattoo is. Of course, we have to use codenames, just in case."
"It's great Hermione," Harry smiled, "but won't people be suspicious of six people getting the same tattoo?"
"That's where this gets rather perfect. We all get a tattoo of something that means friendship, or something like that, then people won't suspect a thing!"
"Great," Ron moaned, "What will our codenames be?"
"Nothing too obvious, but we should all help choose." Hermione said.
They spent the rest of the afternoon trying to find names for each other. They decided against it though until Luna and Neville joined them again.
"HARRY!" Tonks screamed.
They met her halfway down the steps, her face was red and she looked as though she was about to cry.
"Lupin is in St. Mungo's."
* * *
"Some crazy wizard was hunting werewolves. He got a bite from your friend for it. He'll be fine, but the poison the man used is going to be there for a while, at least until November."
"November! He's going to be here till November?" Harry asked.
"At least." The medi-witch answered. She pushed Harry inside the room and left.
Harry approached the bed cautiously, and sat down next to Lupin. He looked like Sirius did the first time he met him, no he looked worse.
"Harry?" Lupin asked.
"I'm sorry. I didn't-"
"No Harry, don't apologize. You were right."
"I... I wish you could have spent Christmas with us."
"I will, next Christmas."
Harry nodded, but did not look Lupin in the eyes.
"Do you think one of us won't be here for the next holiday?"
"I never said that."
"But that's what you're thinking." Lupin said, "I'm not abandoning you."
"Okay, Mummy."
* * *
Harry and Tonks walked back into Grimmauld Place, and saw that almost everyone was waiting for their return.
"He's going to be fine, he's just going to be in the hospital for a while." Harry said.
They all began to speak, relief evident, about how they always knew he would pull through.
A charm sound came from inside Tonks' pocket; she took a mirror from it and walked into the kitchen for some privacy.
Dumbledore walked through the front door with a not exactly happy not exactly sad look.
"It seems that when it rains it pours." He sat down in front of all of them.
"What do you mean Albus?" Molly asked.
"It seems as though the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, has been killed."
The entire room spoke up, saying there must be some mistake. Tonks re-entered the room and confirmed what the headmaster had said, Fudge was dead. Everyone that worked for the Ministry was ordered to go to headquarters straightaway, as was Dumbledore, and the rest of the house was ordered to stay put.
"Who wants to bet Narcissa Malfoy is going to try to use her influence to get a Voldemort supporter in as Minister." Ginny asked.
They all sat in the living room, away from the grown ups, who were no doubt asking the same questions to each other.
"I thought Fudge was a supporter of You-Know-Who, why would they kill him?" Ron asked.
"He was until last year, when he had to own up to the fact that Voldemort was back." Ginny snorted.
"He did prefer pure-blood wizards," Hermione said, "but does that mean he worked with Voldemort? Plus, who would want Voldemort to re-appear while they were Minister of Magic? I'm guessing he hoped Harry was too young to face Voldemort when he was elected, so he wouldn't come back until he was long gone. He probably thought he would look at fault if Voldemort came back into power while HE was in power... I don't think he was working for Voldemort though."
"Who do you think did it?" Harry asked.
"Bellatrix, Narcissa, the rest of the Death Eaters... it's anyone's guess."
"Oi, what are you talking about?" Malfoy asked.
He stood just outside of the living room.
"Minister of Magic is dead, we're just wondering which of your relatives did it." Harry said.
"Aunt Bella's insane, leave it to her to go straight into the Ministry of Magic in broad daylight to go kill the Minister. If you don't know who it is, I'd say it was either my mum or Dolohov."
Harry and Hermione shared a look at the name 'Dolohov'.
"Why are you telling us this?" Ginny asked.
"Because, now I'm on your side, right? Okay, so I don't like Mud-" Malfoy stopped himself, "Muggle-borns, that doesn't mean I want them to die. I've thought about it, of course,"
"Your bleeding heart is moving us to tears..." Ginny deadpanned.
"But I never wanted to kill anyone myself, " He continued as if he weren't interrupted, "And once the Dark Lord was in power some Death Eaters were talking about 'taking' the power from him. Well you have enough people trying to kill you, then each other because they don't want the power taken away from them..."
"Anarchy." Harry said and Malfoy nodded.
"Now I've shared something with you... You want to tell me who all these people coming in and out of here are?"
"No."
"Will you tell me anyway?"
"No."
* * *
Christmas was almost forgotten with all of the work that needed to be done with the Order. Ron, not being allowed to take part in any of the Order business, spent most of his time in his room, even after the Order had left.
Harry and Dumbledore were set to testify at the Ministry on Thursday. Harry didn't know what for, but he guessed it had something to do with Voldemort. He and Dumbledore were going to testify that Voldemort was a pompous git who killed the great and honorable Cornelius Fudge, or at least that's what the ministry wanted. He wished he could watch Dumbledore testify first, that would indicate whether he should lie but not lie, or tell the truth. He, of course, didn't want to lie, but if he told the truth and said Fudge was a jerk that might get him in Azkaban. He finally decided Dumbledore would want him to tell the truth no matter what, and that at least Neville's cackleweed was a lot better than Dementors.
Hermione was in the library most of the time, so Harry didn't see her until she went to bed, sleeping with him in her room. She had no explanation of what exactly she was doing, just that it was a secret. Harry got tired of waiting for her, so after a long day of training with members of the Order he would go to the library and sleep on the floor while she studied.
Hermione shook him, "I've got it!"
"What?"
"Dr. Sam and Shakespeare!" She seemed impatient with Harry's expression of complete bewilderment.
"Sorry?"
"Dr. Sam said Shakespeare was a squib, that got me thinking, Macbeth!"
"Was one of his plays, I know."
"Yes, but in one of the most famous scenes what were they doing?"
Harry thought about it, wondering if he might get hit if he didn't answer properly. His eyes grew wide at his realization.
"The potion! It's a real potion, isn't it?!"
Hermione nodded, "I was wondering about it, all of those vile ingredients, I just wanted to know what it could be."
"You've found out."
"Well obviously with the number of Dark Arts books the Black estate has it was relatively easy."
"What is it?"
"It's a soul killing potion, with no hope of a cure!" she said a little too happy for his comfort.
"This is supposed to make me happy?"
She rolled her eyes, "Honestly... You can use it against Voldemort! The only reason he got away the last time was he had spells and enchantments that would stop his soul from dying with his body. That's why when Quirrell died he didn't! When this potion is poured on someone and the Avada Kadava curse is used within twenty-four hours it will kill them completely."
"So you don't want me to just murder him, you want me to 'kill his soul?'" Harry asked.
"Well, -er- that is... I'm just trying to help you! You know no matter how many times he seems to die his soul comes back, I..."
"It's okay, it doesn't matter, good job." Harry stood up and walked up to his room.
He had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach; she was helping him become a murder. He never really thought about it before. He more thought of it as her helping him get ready for battle, a battle he wasn't going to win. He never actually took into consideration that if he won she would have helped him kill someone.
"Harry," she knocked lightly on his door, "please let me in."
"I'll make a scene if I have to." She said calmly.
Harry opened the door and let her in without a word.
"Harry, I chose to help you. I wanted to."
"That doesn't mean you should."
"Harry, you need help."
"I know, lots of it. It doesn't mean I-"
"We've done this before Harry, you're not pulling away again. Not now, and not from me."
"And how do you think your parents would react to the fact that their only daughter is helping me plan a murder!" He yelled.
"Proud that their daughter would do anything for someone she loves!"
"They would be proud of murder?"
"You wont let anyone do anything else for you, what else am I supposed to do? Enlighten me because this is the only way I know how to help you!"
"If you want to help me than you'll help Ron with his studies and leave me alone! I don't want to loose you."
"You think I'm going to leave?" She asked.
He tried to calm his breathing, "You don't understand."
"Than tell me all knowing and wise Harry Potter!"
"When you kill someone or even help kill someone a part of you dies too. I don't want to loose you, I don't want you to loose a part of yourself because of me." He said as calmly as he could.
Her eyes softened a bit and she moved toward him, "Harry, don't you see? If you don't win I'll loose everything! I can't do that, I'd rather loose a part of me than to ever have to live if you're dead!"
Hermione's shoulder's squared while everything else about her seemed to fall apart. She was trying with all her might not to cry, she was trying to be strong, trying to show she wasn't weak and she could handle anything. Above all else she was failing miserably.
Harry went to her and hugged her tightly, which seemed to worsen the situation. As she sobbed she slid down to the floor, bringing Harry with her. They were kneeling in front of each other, and Harry had not let go of her.
Her sobs subsided to small whimpers and Harry pulled her back a bit. He wiped away the tears from her face and smiled weakly. Her hand went over to both his cheeks and her thumbs wiped tears he wasn't aware he'd cried.
They both didn't move, unsure of what exactly was going on until they moved their lips closer, almost touching.
"Harry! Hermione!" Mrs. Weasley was walking up the steps towards his room.
They moved away from each other and wiped their faces even though there was no need.
"What's all this yelling about dears?" she asked as she entered the room
"Just a small disagreement." Hermione said.
Mrs. Weasley would have to be blind to not see that Hermione had been crying. Her face was puffy and blotchy, and her voice shook a little when she spoke.
Harry didn't dare look over to Mrs. Weasley; he looked down at his shoes as if they had the key to stopping Voldemort.
"Are you all right?"
"Of course, I'm going back to the library. I'll be back in an hour."
Harry could hear her footsteps getting farther and farther away.
"Harry, would you like to talk about what just happened?" Mrs. Weasley asked.
"It was nothing, just a small disagreement. It's fine now, really."
"You can always talk to me about it."
Harry finally looked over to Mrs. Weasley and smiled as best he could, "I know, but there's no need."
Mrs. Weasley gave him a downtrodden look, "I understand that it may feel that way but you do know you can always talk to me. Sometimes small arguments are really about something more. And if you tell me, we could figure it out together."
"It's fine. I was wrong and... It's over."
The clock struck midnight.
"Happy Christmas Harry."
"Happy Christmas Mrs. Weasley."
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