A/N: Rowling still owns every thing and almost everyone in this universe. Phoenix_Girl There is a change to this
chapter, a slight addition..
Chapter 5: The Test
********************12 Grimmauld Place, London********************
August 24, 2005
6:00 am
"Bloody hell Harry, what are we doing up at this hour?" Ron growled as he staggered into the basement room of the old mansion that Harry had told him to come to when he was rudely awoken this morning. Hermione grinned wryly but quickly turned her face so Ron couldn't see her expression. Ron had come into a room outfitted in some ways like a combination Room of Requirements in its DA mode and a classroom. Over to one side, practice dummies and mats sat waiting for use. Unlike the Room of Requirements at Hogwarts when the DA used it, the shelves of books on the various subjects of DADA were absent, though there were more than a few upstairs scattered about Harry's and Hermione's rooms, the library and Dumbledore's interim office in the study.
Harry sat behind a rectangular wood table at the front of the room, his feet casually propped up on it. Hermione was perched next to his feet on the table, while the other student inhabitants, and just coincidentally the rest of the six that went into the Ministry after Sirius were scattered on a couple of couches, Luna waved Ron over to her. He scowled again but paced over and plopped down beside her.
Harry raised an eyebrow at his oldest friend and replied, his voice dripping with irony, "Good morning, Ron, Moody loves this crack of dawn shit." With that pronouncement, Harry swept his feet off the table and rose to stand behind it. His tone and manner turned suddenly serious and he looked at them all except Hermione, though he knew with out looking, she had his attention too.
Harry took a deep breath and waved his wand over a crystal orb that sat alone in the middle of the table. A projection of a house appeared above the orb, the house sat in a meadow, a creek running beside it. As soon as the image appeared, Hermione had a weird feeling that she had seen it somewhere before.
"Godric's Hollow" Harry said briskly as he pointed to the projection with his wand. Hermione suddenly knew where she had seen this house, Harry's parent's home and where he had lived for the first year of his life, it had been in his memories when they were practicing Occlumency/Legilimency together last year. "Today we get to leave the house to go to another." Hermoine glanced over at Harry, she could tell that this bothered him a bit; she grabbed his free hand from where she sat next to him. Thanks, Love, Harry replied in his thoughts as he gathered them to go on. "Today, we take this house back from approximately twenty Death Eaters."
"BLOODY HELL!" Ron snapped, wide-awake suddenly.
Ginny looked over at him with a slightly apprehensive look but she just had to get in a dig, "What's a matter dear brother, afraid of Voldemort's thugs?"
"No, I..." Ron sputtered but Harry soon saved him.
"Fortunately, today, our Death Eaters are members of the Order, this is an exercise" Harry paused to four identical sighs of relief; Hermione had already known of course what was happening. Harry gave them a wry smile at their obvious relief, not that he doubted their bravery, not at all, he had been with all of them only two months ago at what was now already being called the Battle of Hogsmeade. Damn Chocolate Frog Card already has it added to the Bio, an annoying random thought flickered across his mind as he weighed what to say next, Might as well just go with it.
"The house is, as I said, in Godric's Hollow, we will take a clandestine portkey to here." A spot just out side of the house started flashing on the floating diagram. "We will then split into two teams of three. Ron, you, Ginny and Neville will enter from the rear entrance, while Hermione, Luna and I will enter from the front." Harry waved his wand and the schematic zoomed into a 3D floor plan of the house.
"Ron you take your group, and after you've entered, immediately go down these stairs and sweep the basement. While you are down there my group will hold the main floor. As to the initial entry, blow the bloody doors off hard; it'll hopefully knock out anyone in the rooms beyond. After you get done with the basement, Ron you take the rear stairs from the kitchen, I'll take the front stairs and we clear the remaining two floors. In the top of the house in a room on the third floor is a crystal-recording sphere; we need to recover it and get out. We get it, and as one group we get the hell out of there. As there are anti-apparation wards on the house itself we will evacuate to here, " the projection had followed Harry's words and a picture of a clear area just on the other side of a hill from the house was seen, "We get here, we're done, if this were real of course we'd disapparate out, but since its an exercise, we wait. Any questions?" Harry pointed to Neville's raised hand, "Neville, I'm not Umbridge I don't give a shit if you raise your hand."
"Harry since its an exercise what spells can we use, just stunners?" Neville replied worriedly.
"Stunners of course Neville, however you can use other spells as needed, don't worry the same dueling guards are in place at the objective house as are at Hogwarts in the Room of Requirement. So as long as you don't screw up and use an unforgivable we're fine." Harry replied evenly to assuage his fears. Neville nodded to signify he understood, as did the rest of them. "However, for the purposes of this exercise, if you are stunned, you're out, the rest will have to carry you out if they can. Ok then, go get ready, we leave from here in an hour" Harry sat back down closing his eyes, listening to the footsteps as they walked out and the door opened and closed. Without opening his eyes, "Did I screw up too much Mione?"
"Not too much, love." She replied seriously. Hermione sat carefully in his lap in the chair and leaned back into his chest. Looking down at the sweats both of them had on, "we should probably get ready." Harry didn't respond he just waved his wand in a complex manner over their heads and as she watched their outfits morphed into the cloaks and battle dress of the Order. "I taught you that."
"I know, thanks"
7:00 am
"Ok here it is" Hermione said to the assembled group, now all back and dressed more or less as Harry and she were. The full black gear was probably overkill, in the middle of the day, jeans and t-shirts would probably done as well; the cloak however was a different animal. The cloak itself was truly armor, just as Dumbledore had said, it would protect against low level spell attacks and even physical attacks such as flame to a degree. Hermione held out an old soda can, today's portkey, and one they could dispose of without anyone the wiser. They all reached out and touched it with a finger, their off hands grasping drawn wands just in case, "on three...two...one..."
They all felt the all-too familiar sensation of being in several places at once, and in a flash they were in a beautiful meadow, the white washed house one hundred yards away. Quickly scanning the area, Harry and the rest looked for any surprises, there were none that they could see anyway. With a grimace, he signaled to Ron to head off and he did, silently trailed by Ginny and Neville, with only a nod for confirmation.
Harry led his team; they ran up to the house, and crept onto the front stoop. Only to almost have it all go wrong at the start. Without any warning, a masked figure came around the corner, and with a muffled curse, tried to draw its wand. Unfortunately for him or her, Hermione already had hers out, "STUPEFY", and with a blot of red light the figure crumpled to the ground.
Harry didn't have time to laugh at the pink hair sticking out from behind the mask, "Shit, Luna, take the door down, now!" He snapped, and with a shouted "REDUCTO" she did, blowing it to splinters. Distantly he heard the echo of Ron's group doing the same on the other side of the house, but he paid it no mind as he dove through the door to the right. Seeing another masked figure, which was currently staggering from the effects of the reducto in the small room, Harry immediately stunned him and glanced around the room on his side, not even turning as he heard Hermione's "STUPEFY" and the thump of another body behind him. Harry did grin for a split second at his victim, especially at the bright red ponytail that had been revealed when he was knocked out and the hood had fallen back. "Clear?" He asked behind him, and on hearing an affirmative back he walked to the foot of the front stairs and waited. Looking up he saw no one but he knew somehow that was a lie.
Harry, Hermione and Luna heard stomping as Ron's team ran back up the stairs, "Basement's fine Harry, two out down there." Ron shouted through the open door from the kitchen, as he got ready to go up the back stairs that led from the kitchen up. Looking around, damn I'm hungry, Ron thought idly as he waited for the next part.
Harry kept glancing up the stairs nervously, this had been entirely too easy. His thoughts flashed back to his earlier training, of an ambush that Dumbledore had arraigned to prove a point. "Get ready," he murmured to the girls beside him as he pointed his wand up the stairs, "ACCIO CLOAKS." Suddenly four new figures were visible at the top of the stairs as, four invisibility cloaks came sailing down the stairs towards him.
"STUPEFY" Harry and the two girls said at once and three of the four dropped instantly. The fourth looked at Harry, dumbfounded for a second, Harry grinned, "PETRIFICUS TOTALUS" and the fourth froze into a full body bind. Harry sprinted up the stairs and shot four more random stunners at the top of the stairs at the opposite end of the second floor hallway. Two more thumps were heard, and as Harry summoned their cloaks too, he saw that two more "Death Eaters" were taking a nap.
Unfortunately he missed the cracked door of one of the two, second floor bedrooms, and the wand sticking out just an inch. In a flash of red light, Luna fell to the floor, Shit Harry snapped to himself, only to watch the door shatter into a million pieces as Neville's Reductor curse almost vaporized it. Neville and Ron sprinted into the room, and Harry heard two more shouted stunners as he and Hermione looked the other room over.
"Harry in here" was heard in a stage whisper from the other room, and he ran over from were he and Hermione were standing out of sight at the base of the stairs that led to the third floor and their objective. Running into the room, Harry saw what Ron meant, Mad-Eye was laying on his back looking a little dazed from the explosion that had knocked the bedroom door down. Harry smiled down at him grimly, and pointing his wand, "sorry Mad-Eye, ever vigilant you know, STUPEFY" He had the satisfaction of seeing Moody grin at him before he was knocked out.
"Let's go" Harry snapped to the other two and ran to where Hermione and Ginny were guarding the stairs. He saw with satisfaction that one of them had pulled Luna into the unoccupied bedroom. "Ok," he whispered to the others, not taking his eyes off the stairs, "by my count that's fourteen of them, there are supposed to be only twenty, but I don't really believe that, do you?" Harry asked to the other four and got identical looks of agreement. "Me either" he glanced up the stairs and tried to peer though the open door, but could see nothing in the gloom. Looking around he spotted a more or less round piece of rumble, and he picked it up. "Let's see if that book was any good" he muttered to himself, touching his wand to the piece of refuse, "REDUCTO DELAYUS MOMENTA" The rock, or piece of brick glowed a bright red, then dimmed, it started pulsing as if counting down. Harry flipped the rock to Ginny, "you're the Chaser" and pointed at the door.
Crazy bugger, Ginny thought madly and hurled the rock though the open door at the top of the stairs, just like a Quaffle though the center ring. Harry held up five fingers, then four...three...two...one...BOOM. The rock detonated, shaking the house and causing plaster to fall over them. Harry sprinted up the stairs followed by the other four, only to find an apparently empty room, just to be sure, Harry and Ron cast summoning charms over the room, looking for more cloaks but none came. The crystal orb, sat in the center of the room, waiting for them to take it, which Ginny did with a flash of triumph.
"Cool bang" Ron said, gleefully.
"Yeah wasn't it?" Harry quipped, equally amused.
It was pretty cool...wait, damn, "Harry" Hermione glared at them and they guiltily shut up. "We are working here, boys" Yep my boys are back She thought happily to herself, at the proof that their animosity of last June was finally totally gone. Hermione glanced around the room again and rolled her eyes. "You know this means that they are waiting for us on the way out?"
"Yeah," Both Harry and Ron muttered exasperatedly at the same time, bringing a quick, fleeting grin to her face. Harry turned to Ron and smiled, "any ideas O' master of games?"
"Run like little girls screaming into the night?" Ron replied quickly, to cringe at the looks of the female part of the team, he quickly corrected himself, "Unhh, if this were a chess match, I'd go for misdirection, I'd make them look one way, while I snuck around the other."
"Yeah," Harry breathed as he thought quickly of how to do just that little thing. Then with a flash, a smile came to his face. "Here's what we do, Ron, you grab Luna and carry her, Gin you keep a hold of the sphere, and..."
*****Several Minutes Later*****
"You sure this will work?" Ron asked in a hush, from the invisibility cloak next to Harry's. Harry for his part didn't answer, since this was his brilliant plan he took the most difficult part. He had taken Ron's stratagem and came up with the idea of letting the six or so Order members, which might very well include Dumbledore, see what they thought they would see, five figures, in the Order's cloaks, hurrying through the woods to the exit point with the biggest one carrying another smaller figure on his back. He was currently struggling to hold Bill, with Tonks tied to his back, in a Locomotor Mortis charm and have him seem to dodge from tree to tree as if trying to stay under cover. The others, except Ron, were using their wands to levitate four more bodies: Charlie, the twins and Sharon Fredricks, an Auror friend of Tonks' that she had recruited. Tonight she was playing the part of Hermione. What worried Harry was the people that they knew they hadn't seen yet; by the fact they hadn't been stunned in the house, namely, Dumbledore, Lupin, Kingsley, or any of the professors. Harry looked up, as they were a hundred yards from the goal, right at the tree line of the clearing.
Suddenly bolts of red light flashed without any warning whatsoever, from seemingly out of the air over to one side. As planned, the five levitating the unconscious forms of the Order members let them drop to the ground as if they had been stunned, just now. Damn, they are going to have a headache, Harry thought with a touch of guilt as he glanced over at Tonks, who was lying on top of Bill, both, now having been stunned twice. Harry ran straight out away from the scene to one side then straight at the clearing. The only problem with this plan had been that Dumbledore, like Moody could probably see people under invisibility cloaks, so they had to be away from where he was looking as soon as they could.
Harry stopped and looked back at where the "bodies" lay in the grass just inside the tree line. His suspicions were confirmed as Remus swept off a cloak and ran to the downed people, his wand already raised. As Harry watched, Kingsley, McGonagall, Snape, and Flitwick swept off invisibility cloaks and went to follow. After a moment, Harry witnessed what he had suspected, he watched Dumbledore fade into view, as he strode quickly over to the scene. Without having to actually see her, he knew Hermione had just tucked in next to him, she also, finding him unconsciously.
At the treeline, Lupin bent over Tonks, and pulled back her hood. He stared at the pink hair for a long minute. "HARRY," he bellowed in an odd mix of annoyance and mirth. Dumbledore spun on his heel and stared at the seemingly empty clearing, then started chuckling softly.
Harry swept off his cloak and waved at the Order members in the woods, the rest of his team following a second later. They all waved too, happy as clams.
"Harry" Hermione said with a fake whine and a twinkle in her eye, loud enough to carry to the Order members in the trees. "I'm hungry can we get breakfast now?"
"I don't know hun; Ron do you think your mum will have breakfast on?" Harry said loudly, choking down a laugh.
"I'm sure she could make something mate." Ron returned, not even trying to keep from laughing.
"Well bloody hell, lets go" With a final wave and five quick CRACKs, the five conscious team members and Luna disapparated to Grimmauld Place.
Back in the trees, Dumbledore waved his wand over the group on the ground, "Enervate". The crowd on the ground moaned and awoke, though no one got up yet.
Lupin leaned close into Tonks, "Ok, Nymph?" his voice concerned.
"Fine luv, head just kills me is all," She griped as she looked up at him.
Mad-Eye Moody clumped up from the house; the Order member that had been full body bound had finally managed to free himself, and had revived the rest of the house. His eye spinning wildly, he came up to Dumbledore and McGonagall where they were standing away from the rest. "Well Alastor?" Dumbledore asked with barely repressed mirth.
"Blimey lad went through us like shit through a goose. I stunned Lovegood myself, but I think that was the only casualty they took at all." Moody grimaced and took a drink from a flash he pulled out of a coat pocket. "Kids blew up a door in my face for my troubles. They showed good tactics and Harry saw right though the cloak ambush. Heck those kids probably performed today better than the older Order folks we had here, I might have to rethink who needs training." Moody looked pensive at the thought, "how did they make it past you, Albus?"
Dumbledore laughed, while McGonagall looked a little disgusted, "They dressed Tonks and the those others in their cloaks, and took your group's invisibility cloaks. They then hid under the cloaks and Locomotor Mortised the 'corpses' as if they were alive, we stunned the fakes again, while they ran around us to the clearing, and started discussing breakfast, loudly." As if to prove a point Dumbledore's own stomach chose that moment to growl. "And I think I will join them, anyone else?" Without a sound Dumbledore vanished, his Order medallion allowing him to apparate directly to Grimmauld Place.
************************Grimmauld Place, Parlor***************************
10:00am
"And Harry here, picks this rock up, and puts a really brilliant delayed Reducto curse on it. He hands it to Ginny and says, and I quote, 'you're the Chaser,'" Ron laughed as he related the exercise to Arthur, who laughed heartily then shut up abruptly at a sudden scowl from Molly. Determinately not looking at his mother, Ron reached out and grabbed another sandwich from the pile on the coffee table. Molly had whipped up a quick 'snack' when they got back, muttering all the while about headmasters that made their students get up at insane hours and not even feed them. With an annoyed sigh, she wandered off, back into the kitchen.
Arthur glanced at the door, then in a soft tone, "What then" like a little kid with a bedtime story.
Ginny ignored her mum, and took up the story, "So I toss this enchanted rock up the stairs and Harry stands there counting down on his fingers from five, and doesn't even flinch when the thing goes off, dropping plaster everywhere, even coating his hair. Everything except his glasses, which stayed perfectly clean."
"Mione put a impervious charm on them" Harry muttered from the other couch, Hermione just turned on his lap and kissed his cheek.
"Any left?" A deep voice asked from the hall door. Albus Dumbledore stood leaning on the doorframe, still in his field gear from this morning.
"Sure Professor come on in," Harry said to Dumbledore waving him in.
"Please, Ginny don't stop on my account" Dumbledore said, eye sparkling with mirth as he summoned a sandwich with a flick of his wand.
Ginny nodded and a corner of her mouth flipped up, "and so we all sprint up stairs only to find no one there. So we're all shocked that no one bothered to guard the damn thing and these two start going on about how cool a bang that reducto of Harry's was, until Hermione over there gets on to their case." as she waved in the trio's general direction.
"Honesty, I was just saying that we were working, Gin, I did think it was cool" Hermione replied a little defensively, to which Harry silently reassured her.
"Anyway Harry, it's your show now" Ginny finished.
"Harry?" Arthur asked still hanging on their words.
Harry glanced about apprehensively oh hell screw it. Harry's lips curled up, and he picked up the story to finish, "So I'm up there, Luna's kipped out, and we know that Dumbledore and the rest of the Order are waiting for us between the house and the disapparation point, so I ask Ron for advice, and after a asinine comment that about got him hexed..."
"I said I was sorry," Ron muttered, as Hermione, Ginny and Luna, who had been told after she was enervated, all glared at him.
"Ron said I'd go for misdirection. So I look around for a sec, and decide to give them what they expect to see. We all grab invisibility cloaks, and Ron picks up Luna and we all Locomotored Bill with Tonks tied to his back to simulate Luna, and Charlie, and the twins and some Auror, from under our cloaks. We moved them back and forth like they were running to the clearing, and we had put our Order cloaks on them so they looked like us. We were about one hundred yards from the exit point when Dumbledore, Lupin and the others stunned the bodies, which we all drop when they're hit just like we planned, and sprinted outward then straight to the clearing, so the Professor there couldn't see us until too late. We are all standing there in the middle of the safe zone, in the cloaks still, as Lupin goes up to Tonks and pulls back her hood, and finds her instead of Luna. He got all prissy. The Professor meanwhile had turned around and saw us under the cloak, and he started laughing and we went with it. Mione brought up breakfast, loudly, and we apparated back here." Harry finished with a grin.
"Bloody Brilliant" Arthur said brightly, then "as much as I enjoyed the story and the company, I have to get back to the Ministry before my minders find that I am gone from my office." Arthur Weasley walked quickly over to the fireplace, and with a final wave said, "Minister of Magic's London Office" and vanished in a ball of green flame.
"Harry, all of you" Dumbledore said looking at each of them in turn, suddenly serious, "you did very well today, I am proud of you."
************************12 Grimmauld Place, London************************
August 26, 2005
2:23 am
Harry carefully eased the door shut, brushing Crookshanks into his room with his foot as he did. Before the door closed, he saw the half-kneazle give him a glare before he curled up at his mistress' feet on Harry's bed. The soft click of the latch echoed as Harry murmured a silencing charm on his steps and headed down the stairs to the basement and the kitchen. Easing over to the icebox, Harry carefully took a pitcher of milk from it and poured himself a glass.
But before he could replace it, a sudden scrape of wood on wood echoed in the room behind him. The pitcher fell, shattering on the tile floor; milk splattering as Harry spun; the tip of his wand already glowing. "Bugger...sorry, Molly." Harry murmured, sheepishly. "I'm sorry, didn't see you about."
"Obviously..." Molly said with a curious air. "Couldn't sleep, eh?" She asked as she leaned forward into the light. She was sitting on the opposite end of the large kitchen table, with her hands joined before her on the table.
"Umm, no, not really, I was thirsty." Harry replied, more or less truthfully.
"Sure its not another nightmare, would you rather I go up to Hermione's room and get her?" Molly asked with a crooked eyebrow and Harry finally understood what she was getting at.
Carefully Harry set his glass down on the table and sat down facing Molly. He looked down at the table for a moment before looking back at her, "No, Molly I'd rather you leave her be, she deserves to sleep as well."
"Sleep is it?" Molly replied mildly, too mildly.
Harry gnashed his teeth for a moment, "Yes, Molly, sleep...and even if it wasn't it honestly is not any of your business, this is my house, both of us are adults and neither of us are your children." Harry instantly regretted his last comment as he saw Molly flinch in the candlelight. "I'm sorry Molly that was not called for...you know that I consider you as much a mother as any I've had." Harry quickly corrected himself and heard Molly poorly conceal an odd sniff.
Molly got up and walked over to Harry, in response he rose and stood looking down at her, he was now taller than her by several-inches. "Harry, its not seemly, its not something wizards do..."
"Ohh Bullocks," Harry snorted, "please Molly," He sputtered and after a minute she nodded in sullen agreement, her argument was false anyway.
"Its just that, I don't want to see you get hurt Harry, and you both are so young..." Molly muttered pleadingly. She placed her hands on Harry's shoulders.
With a slight snarl, he twisted away, "Molly, she is the only thing that has kept me sane since Sirius died...and she has been sleeping, sleeping only mind you, with me off and on for a long time, longer than we have admitted that we were in love with each other...yes she keeps the nightmares at bay, mostly and I'd like to think I fight hers as well." Molly gasped, and Harry gave her a tiny, sad smile, "Yeah...mum, we knew for sure last Christmas at the Burrow, but we probably knew last year at this time..." Harry snorted softly, "actually if I wasn't so thick, I probably knew about the time she hugged me when we went for the Stone in my first year." Molly nodded as Harry forgot his drink and headed back for the door, "please...Molly drop this, we are not going to change, and I guarantee that if it comes down to a choice between her and anyone else, its her, no questions, no debate." With that, Harry left the room, the door swinging after him, a sudden silence in the room.
A/N there ya go, Chapter 5 of Lions in the new, improved Portkey/Directors Cut. And if anyone knows what the html tags
are for colors let me know. Is the tag for say blue text ? or what. Thanks