"These are the ingredients." Hermione handed him the list.
Harry looked at it then smiled perversely, "This has got to be the worst Christmas present ever."
"You're welcome." she smiled sweetly.
"Can... Can we not tell Ron and the others about this? I mean we can tell them about it, but not what it does."
Hermione nodded, "We could say it puts on a permanent Cruciatius Curse."
"Neville." Harry said.
He didn't need to say anything else, they both knew how Neville reacted to the spiders in their fourth year.
"We could say it will take all the magic from him, forever. So he will never hurt anyone ever again."
"It's not exactly lying." Harry agreed.
* * *
The only type of celebrating they were able to do on Christmas day was to open presents. After that they had to have another Order meeting. Harry was surprised to see Neville in the meeting room. Of course, his Gran wouldn't stop him from taking part in an Order meeting. The meeting looked rather strange. Every Weasley, Harry, and Hermione had a knitted jumper with their initial on it. The other members were half dressed or their hair was in disarray. Neville and Dumbledore seemed to be the only ones ready for the meeting, with not a hair out of place.
"The meeting is about to begin. First, I would like to express my apologies on having the meeting on this particular day, but there is an announcement. The Ministry of Magic has found the killer of Cornelius Fudge."
Murmurs could be heard all around the room. Exactly four people stayed quiet. Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Snape didn't make a sound, they just waited to hear whatever Dumbledore had to say.
"Dolores Umbridge killed him. Her obsession for him grew to such a fevered pitch, that she felt the only way to save him was to kill him."
Dumbledore waited as the members began to whisper again.
"We have another piece of news," Dumbledore spoke over the hushed voices, "A new member."
"Dr. Sam, the new History of Magic teacher, has been asked to join and she has accepted. If there are any objections..."
Snape raised his hand.
"Yes Severus, you lodged a complaint before."
"I'd like to re-iterate my objection."
"Your objection was noted and your renewal of said objection is noted."
Harry, feeling a little brave, raised his hand.
"Harry, you object to Dr. Sam joining the Order?"
"No."
"Then why did you raise your hand?"
"Because I object to Snape's membership."
The same mumbles resurfaced, while a petrified Neville kept looking from Harry to Snape.
"You can't do that!" Snape glared.
"I wasn't here, obviously, when you were a new member so because I was unable to object openly I'd like to do it now."
"Albus!" Snape said, " You can't actually take this seriously."
"I think if we question the worthiness of a member that is guilty of nothing other than being a muggle then we must question the worthiness of a member who has the Dark Mark tattooed on their arm," Harry said.
Before Harry had always felt like a kid they allowed to join, right now, he felt like a real member. It was the first time he was able to actually stand up to Snape without the threat of house points taken away or detention. He realized here, they were equals.
Neville seemed to be having an aneurysm while Hermione looked... proud. Dumbledore stood at the front of the room with a twinkle in his eye while Mrs. Weasley was looking at him as though he were some kind of imposter.
"Is this at all appropriate?" Snape asked.
"I think you should take away your objection.," Harry said. "You take away yours and I'll take away mine."
"I would consider his offer Sevrius." Dumbledore said, eyes still twinkling.
Snape glared but said nothing.
"The objection is withdrawn? How nice. Our new member has been added and will be present the next meeting. End of meeting." Dumbledore smiled as everyone exited, some more grumpily than others.
Once they were out of sight of the other Order members Hermione almost tackled him.
"I can't believe you did that! The look on Professor Snape's face! The look on Professor Dumbledore's! It's so great the way you stood up for Dr. Sam."
She hugged him fiercely, but before Harry could say it was nothing, Mrs. Weasley walked up to them with a stern look on her face. Harry had seen this face many times before, but never had it been directed at him.
"I wasn't mouthing off to a teacher," he said before she could scold. "I was standing up for someone who needed it. I didn't do anything wrong."
"Of course your right, dear, but do be careful."
Harry pulled Neville aside and told him about the tattoo. He squirmed a bit, but Harry reassured him that his Gran wouldn't see it until the summer and he could always tell her that it was secret Order business.
* * *
Harry waited outside the Wizengamot. Apparently, from how much time they spent with Dumbledore it didn't have much to do with Umbridge's wayward obsession with Fudge. Mr. Weasley was not able to wait with him this time. He had to fill in for other wizards who were trying to help control the chaos that ensued once the Minister died.
He just wanted to go home. He was sure that whatever it was they wouldn't need his testimony. But then again, they could be trying to still pin this on a Death Eater. This was, after all, the place where people thought he would produce a Patronus in front of muggles for no reason. Before Harry could contemplate how to sneak out without people noticing, the door opened and his name was called. Harry looked up to the Wizengamot, it had some familiar faces. Dumbledore was sitting in the middle of the first row. Along side him was Madame Bones, and over on the far left was Percy Weasley looking rather disgusted. Harry understood why Mr. Weasley would not want to be here.
"Please state your name for the record," Dumbledore said.
"Harry James Potter," Harry said loud and clearly.
"You knew the late Minister of Magic," Madame Bones asked.
"Yes,"
"Is it true that you did not agree with some of his policies," Percy asked.
"Considering that some of his 'policies' were actively calling me crazy, no, I didn't," Harry said. If they were going to send him to Azkaban he was going to earn it.
Dumbledore was on the verge of laughing while other members did full out laugh.
"Are there any other policies you disagreed with," Percy asked, as if his valuable time was being wasted.
"Of course."
"Name some." Percy got a quill out, ready to copy down whatever Harry said.
"All of them?"
"Yes, is there a problem?"
"Are you planning on being here all day?"
Unknown members of the audience chuckled.
"Well then, humour us with a few." Percy gave a hallow smile.
"His attitude towards non-purebloods. Toward other magical beings."
"And what attitude is it you didn't like?"
"He thought purebloods were better than muggleborn witches and wizards which is just plainly untrue. One of the smartest witches I know is muggle-born."
"One Hermione Granger," Percy asked.
"For one yeah, my mum for another."
No one spoke at that moment. An odd sort of hush fell over the room, as if they were just reminded they were talking to an orphan.
Percy cleared his throat, "We at the ministry-"
"Shut it. Don't you dare give me your condolences from the Ministry you back-stabbing twit. I sincerely don't ever want to hear it."
"And what about his policies towards other magical beings did you not agree with," Amelia Bones asked.
"It's the fountain you used to have out there. You pretend to feel equal to other beings but you take advantage of house elves so much they end up becoming enslaved."
"You are a member of S.P.E.W.?" Dumbledore asked.
"Secretary actually."
"Go on, Mr. Potter," Amelia Bones encouraged.
"The centaurs... You tried enslaving them. Now they're so worried about it they kill any human that comes near, which I don't blame them for. The giants aren't the nicest people, but they deserve the same rights as everyone else. I mean, they just don't like spells being cast on them, but you do it at any chance you get. You enslave all these creatures because you're afraid of them. You are afraid the powers they possess are stronger than yours, so you make sure they can't use them against you by instilling in them that their only job in life is to make their wizard family happy and if they don't then that brings great shame. But it doesn't. He allowed this to continue happening when he was minister because he didn't want to rock the boat. The same reason why he called me insane. We shouldn't have a minister that lets us be who we are, but who we should be. I don't know if the minister felt any differently on any of these issues because he took no action, so I have to believe he was happy enslaving people. That's one policy I could never stand behind."
Harry heard quills scraping on parchment behind him. He looked up to the Wizengamot to see Percy fuming, and Dumbledore looking down on him, eyes twinkling. Apparently he was pleased with what Harry said, that gave him some relief.
"Mr. Potter, if you were to reccomend a wizard for the position of Minister, who would it be," Amelia Bones asked.
Harry thought about it for a moment. As much as he wanted to say Dumbledore he knew that he wanted Dumbledore to stay where he was, as Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Without even thinking as to the reasons why, he blurted out, "Mr. Weasley."
Everyone fell silent, except for Madame Bones.
"Percy Weasley?"
"Of course not. Arthur Weasley."
Everyone in the audience began to whisper, which caused the entire place to be filled with a loud hum.
"The man that works in the Muggle Artifacts office," Madame Bones asked.
She along with the rest of the Wizengamot looked at him as though he finally cracked.
"Would you like to explain your reasoning," Dumbledore twinkled.
"For one, you know he isn't working for the power. He's been here for the longest time and he's happy working in the closet you people put him in. He has children of his own, so you know he wont be inactive like Fudge was. You know he cares about all beings, just look where he works. He loves to learn everything he can about muggles and their way of life, I think he might do the same for the other magical creatures. And unlike Fudge he can admit when he's wrong. The thing is, he knows he doesn't have all the answers, but he knows who could help him find the answers. He's not afraid to ask others for help which puts him in a different class than Fudge."
Percy snorted derisively, "Exactly."
"A higher class than Fudge. Maybe if you weren't such a big prick you'd understand what your father has been trying to teach you all these years. It doesn't matter how much money or power or awards you get. It's not what you've accomplished, but what you've done. You can spend your entire life getting awards and promotions, or you can spend your life sacrificing for your family and making sure the people you love will always know that nothing short of the world ending is going to stop you from coming home to them."
Dumbledore looked at the rest of the Wizengamot and once they nodded, thanked Harry and told him he could leave. He entered the hallway and realization hit him, he just insulted a member of the Wizengamot... twice. He just said Fudge was a crap minister to everyone. That's what his testimony was, either insulting Percy or Fudge. Mr.Weasley came down the hall, ready to bring Harry back to Grimmault Place, but stopped when he saw the look on Harry's face.
"Is anything wrong Harry?"
"Great... I think I'm going to be sick."
* * *
"How did it go?" Hermione asked Mr. Weasley.
"I wasn't in there, but I don't think it went too well."
"What did he tell you?"
"He said... he was going to be sick."
Hermione looked up the stairs where she knew Harry was.
She smiled over to Mr. Weasley, "I'll go find out what happened."
She knocked on his door and entered without an invitation.
"Was it bad? Did you lie? Did they catch you lying?"
"Yes, no, no." Harry's muffled voice came from underneath his pillows.
"What happened?"
She sat next to him on the bed and put a hand on his chest.
"I said what I felt exactly when I felt it."
"That's not bad..."
"I insulted a member of the Wizengamont twice."
"That's bad," She paused, "Did Dumbledore seem upset?"
"Oh, no. Quite the opposite actually. He found all of it extremely funny."
She took the pillow from his face, "Well that's good. Dumbledore wouldn't find it amusing if you were going to be sent to Azkaban."
"Are you so sure? He found it quite amusing when they threatened him with Azkaban last year."
"Are you that worried you're going to Azkaban?"
"No, I'm more worried about the Daily Prophet tomorrow. I can just see the headline, 'Harry Potter Gives his Opinions, and No One Cares'". Harry put the pillow back over his head and sighed.
* * *
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