Again, thanks to everyone for taking time to review this. I'm sorry I haven't been updating as frequently as I did at first. I have been completely swamped at work! I don't think my boss would agree that writing fan fiction is a good excuse to shirk my duties.
"Could I speak with you for a moment?" Harry asked Dumbledore, pulling him to the side as the majority of the Order filed out of the room.
"Of course," the aged wizard answered, seemingly surprised that Harry wanted a private word with him.
Harry told Hermione and Ron that he would meet them in the living room in a few minutes and Dumbledore suggested that he and Harry go to the room he used for an office.
"Professor," Harry began, sitting across the desk from his headmaster. "I wanted to explain to you about the other day, how I reacted to the rings." It had bothered Harry that he may have hurt Dumbledore's feelings or seemed ungrateful.
Dumbledore waved his hand, "No explanation is necessary," but his voice held little conviction.
"I think it is," Harry replied. "I was taken aback when I saw them. All I could think of was my parents being dead, that they were wearing those rings when they were murdered protecting me. I do appreciate that you saved them for me. I really do. I was just overwhelmed when I saw them and it wasn't with warm fuzzy feelings."
"I think I understand, Harry." Dumbledore replied, kindly. "I had wanted those rings to remind you of the love your parents had for one another. But rings can't remind you of something you were too young to remember." He paused a moment to let Harry consider what he had just said. "You see, Harry, the way you look at Hermione reminds me so much of the way Lily looked at James. You do have her eyes and just like her, you light up when you see the person you love most in the world. You also have her protective streak. Yes, people tell you how you look like your father all the time, but you act very much like your mother. She had a very strong sense of character and right and wrong."
Harry remembered that his mother had defended Snape to his father. He wondered if he had looked more like Lily if Snape would have not hated him on sight.
"But I digress," he sighed, realizing he had not intended to go down memory lane. "What I failed to consider is that those rings have no meaning to you. You weren't there when you're parents exchanged their vows and you weren't with them long enough to watch them with each other."
"But they do have meaning," Harry interjected. "Everything about my parents has meaning to me, more than you can imagine. I think sometimes I see the negative before the positive though."
"Understandable," Dumbledore nodded. "I think you were wise to get your own rings, Harry. You and Hermione are not Lily and James and if you had any trepidation about taking and using their rings, you should not have used them."
"But it was still thoughtful of you to save them for me. I am going to use them. I have something else in mind." Harry shared. "Anyway, the thing is, now that I'm not completely out of my mind with so many things going on, I wanted to tell you thank you."
"You're very welcome." Dumbledore answered. "Now, may I ask, how is marriage suiting you?"
Harry couldn't repress the grin that came across his face. He couldn't find the right word. If he said it suited him well, he was afraid he would sound cheeky.
Dumbledore laughed quietly, shaking his head. Harry's eyes were lighting up again in a way that was so rare. Dumbledore's heart soared with happiness, just by seeing Harry happy. He wished he could ensure that that happiness would be long-lasting. "Before you go, Harry, I wanted to tell you, I'm going to be dropping in more regularly. I will be training you personally. Do you remember what you did to this office when your uncle was here?"
Harry nodded. He pushed down the feeling of panic that was rising in his chest. Perplexed that once more the mention of his uncle was plaguing him this way. He had endured years of mistreatment but compared to Voldemort, Vernon was a kitten.
"Your emotions feed your power, Harry. I'm reminded of the incident with your Aunt Marge, for instance. I need to help you focus the power within you."
Harry's first thought was, oddly, of Bellatrix Lestrange. She had told him that you had to mean it when you performed an unforgivable curse. He remembered the moment Voldemort had possessed him and that his freedom came with his emotional thoughts of Sirius. "I think I know what you mean," he told Dumbledore.
"Yes, I think you do." Dumbledore told him. "I'll be back. We will work diligently until the beginning of the semester. You have a lot to learn and a short time to learn it. I was also supervise continued occlumency lessons."
"Will you be working with Hermione too?" he inquired. "She won't take lightly to being left out."
"Yes, I will work with both of you, though you and I will have to do some things alone. Harry, it's time you began to reach your potential, and while Hermione is quite a capable witch, she does not have the base power you do."
Harry's confusion was clear on his face. How could Hermione not be just as powerful, even more so than he was? She was top of their class. She had helped him learn just about everything he knew.
"Harry, I mean no disrespect to your wife, but much of her ability is learned. She is clever, indeed. A perfectionist, determined, resourceful, and skilled in her own right. She has proven herself against evil, applying her knowledge. But this is natural for you. Just as you are a natural flier, you're a naturally powerful wizard. It's more basic, in your very soul."
Harry absorbed what Dumbledore was telling him, the comparison made between himself and Hermione.
"It's your natural born instinct and ability that has helped you so often. Your magic is reflexive, but somewhat unfocused. I'm going to train you in control. Control is more important than you can learn at this point. It is necessary for you be able to manage and focus your power."
He nodded. "I'll tell Hermione we can expect to see you a lot before school."
"Very well then, I'll let you get back to your wife and Mr. Weasley. I'm sure they're curious about what is going on. And, Harry, I know how loyal you are to your friend Ronald, but I must ask you to not include him in this training. I fear he may be a distraction. When you get back to school, I'm sure you would like to restart the D.A., although, we will be having a much better Defense Against the Dark Arts professor this year. Perhaps your group can collaborate with the professor."
"You don't mind about the D.A.?" Harry had considered different possibilities of what the Headmaster's reaction would be to that particular group. He did step down from his post over it. Yet, he had covered for them by leaving, so Dumbledore must have seen it as worthwhile.
"Of course not. Defense is the most valuable asset the students have. I'm honored that your group named yourselves what you did." His eyes were sparkling.
"You've found a new professor? Who is it?"
"You'll see," was the only answer given.
Harry knew there was no point in questioning further. He agreed to meet Dumbledore at 10:00 the next morning and went to find Ron and Hermione.
********************
"You arranged that, didn't you?" Ron asked. Harry had joined him and Hermione. Ron was sitting in chair next to the sofa where Harry and Hermione curled up together.
"What?" Harry asked.
"You talked Dumbledore into letting me join the Order."
"You're mother was the harder sell," Hermione laughed. "But once we explained it..."
"It pretty much amounted to what Dumbledore said. It saves us the trouble of telling you everything anyway," he laughed.
"Whatever the reasons, it's pretty cool," Ron said. He did not tell them how much he appreciated being made a part of things. The past few days had been hard for him, but filled with revelations. He had had a long conversation with his sister about Harry, Hermione, and their prospective crushes. Talking it over with Ginny, he had considered the way Hermione had reacted to him over the years. She did not take his side when he was angry with Harry in fourth year. She showed little enthusiasm about his making the Quidditch team. She had an uncanny ability to not even recognize his presence when Harry was around. She had never even worn the perfume he gave her for Christmas the previous year. Ginny had told him not to take it personally because many girls did not like perfume, but that only made him think that if he had known Hermione better, he never would have gotten her such a frivolous gift. What had he been thinking? She was far too conscientious to pollute the air around her with chemical toxins.
He had also considered himself. What was it about Hermione that attracted him? The fact that they argued all the time? He wondered if he and Hermione would even put up with one another if not for Harry. He had even taken a hard look to see if it was merely wanting something Harry did not have that had made him fancy Hermione.
Ginny had admitted that even though she could speak in front of Harry and even though she liked Dean Thomas, she had always harbored the hope that Harry would fall for her eventually. She supposed he would always be her first love, even if he had not reciprocated it. Maybe if he had been a total git like Michael Corner instead a sweet, courteous boy who saved her life, she would have gotten over him completely. But that was not Harry. Once he put a stamp on her heart, it was there forever.
"We weren't going to leave you out," Harry told him. "If there's one thing we learned... last year..." he did not refer to the incident of Sirius's death specifically, "It was that knowledge is power. Keeping one or more of us in the dark can not lead to any good. Age has nothing to do with it. Voldemort would not think twice of harming us because we're young. He tried to kill me when I was one. The three of us have worked against him since we were eleven. No, he doesn't care if we're 'of age.' He wants us dead. This time we're not going to sit by unprepared waiting for him to strike."
Harry had gone off on a bit of a tangent, leaving Ron and Hermione to exchanged concerned and accepting looks with one another. Things were different now.
"It won't be long until he's gone and we can breathe peacefully," Hermione said, silently adding that Harry would fulfill the prophecy and come out the victor. She would not push him to tell Ron or anyone else about the conditions, yet it seemed as if everyone almost knew that Harry was the key to Voldemort's defeat, even if they did not know why. Perhaps some of them thought it went back to his being the Boy-Who-Lived. Maybe they thought he had some strange power. He had to have something to have survived so many encounters with the Dark Lord.
"That's right," Ron agreed. "I bet that by Christmas, this will all be over."
"Yes. And after all this is over, maybe you can ask Luna to attend the Halloween Ball with you."
"What Halloween Ball?" Ron asked.
"If Voldemort thinks we're getting married on October 1, he'll strike then or before. If we survive, we'll still be celebrating when Halloween rolls around," Harry said with a hopeful smile.
"Speaking of, how is married life?" Ron asked.
Harry felt that same cheeky grin spreading across his face.
"Never mind," Ron laughed. "I don't think I want to know. I'm just glad to see you both happy for a change. And when You-Know-Who is gone, we'll all be happier than we've ever been before."