Information gained
Dumbledore strode into the room and the babble of voices fell silent immediately. He looked around the room at them all, smiling politely. The room was slightly fuller than usual; when Fudge announced that Voldemort was indeed back, a steady stream of people had gone to Dumbledore looking to apologise for not believing him, and to help. Many of them were not at the meeting though, as only the most trusted members of the Order were permitted to be there, the risk of spies was too great.
"Thank you all for coming at such short notice." Dumbledore began "There are a number of matters we need to discuss. The first, and possibly the most important, is Harry Potter.
"As you all know, Sirius Black was murdered two months ago. I'm sure most of you are aware that Sirius was Harry's godfather. In his will, he clearly stated that this house, and most of his possessions, including a considerable sum of money, are to be left to Harry. But also, before he died he requested that Harry be looked after by Remus Lupin. We have yet to tell Harry this, but, with Harry's consent, Remus will become Harry's legal guardian, a task that he is delighted to undertake. Now, the reason I am telling you this is because you will need to know the current state of things regarding Mr. Potter."
At this, Snape spoke up from the back of the room where he was sitting in the shadows. "As much as we all love to hear about the latest drama in Potter's tragic life, Professor, may I enquire as to the point in all this?"
A few people frowned at the greasy haired potions master, there was no need to be disrespectful.
"I'm sorry if I have not yet made my point clear Severus," Dumbledore replied politely, "So now I will proceed to it.
"You all know how much Harry Potter is hated by Voldemort, and his followers. Harry's life is constantly at risk, and to reduce this risk to Harry, I would like to have four volunteers to be Harry Potter's guards when he is outside the relative safety of Grimmauld Place and Hogwarts. At the end of this meeting, if any of you wish to volunteer yourselves, I will be most happy to take your names."
Once again Snape started to speak. "Professor, may I ask -" but he got no further than that before McGonagall cut in, irritated by his lack of respect. "Ah I see you can't wait until the end of the meeting to offer your services Severus?" A few people chuckled at the look on Snape's face at the thought of being Harry's guard.
"Actually Minerva, I was going to ask why it is necessary for Potter to have babysitters when most normal people his age do not need someone to hold their hand? He seems to manage to get into, and out of, trouble perfectly well by himself. Why do we have to waste key members of the Order to protect him? And anyway, he wouldn't like the idea. He would most likely think in that over-large head of his that it is an insult to his supreme power to suggest he needs babysitting."
A fierce argument broke out at this comment, until finally Dumbledore was able to restore order. It was decided that Harry was to have two guards at all times when out of school.
"Now that that's decided, we shall move on to other matters. Kingsley, if you would please continue."
Kingsley Shacklebolt stood up and moved to the front of the room. "The first thing we must discuss is the murder that happened in Wiltshire two days a go, on the 3rd. St. Mungo's have confirmed that the body was Hector Rookwood. Luckily for us, the prophet haven't discovered that Rookwood was working for us, although they've been digging around. At the minute we have no leads on the person who tortured and killed him ,but both the Ministry and the Order have Aurors looking into it. Now, Rookwood's killer must have known him well enough to know about his secret room, and he must have known what was in it. Fortunately, the daily prophet is keeping quiet about the object that was stolen. Rookwood had in his possession the Staff of Amaror." at this point an excited babble broke out among the listening witches and wizards. Kinsley cleared his throat and waited for silence before continuing "As some of you may know, this is an extremely powerful object that we need to recover as soon as possible. That was the reason for the 'raid' on Rookwood's manor that night. It was all staged, so as not to alert the death eaters that Hector Rookwood was working for us. Unfortunately, someone else got there first. We don't know whether this person was working for You-Know-Who or not, although we do know that their powers are considerable, no ordinary wizard could have got into Rookwood's secret room without being torn apart."
After this a discussion took place, with people offering suggestions and theories as to what happened, while others asked questions. Snape sat at the back, silently fuming about Potter getting special treatment once again. He was also getting increasingly annoyed at the fly buzzing round his head, it had been there all meeting. He snatched it out the air in irritation and crushed it in his hand.
Up in Ron's bedroom the three spies grumbled in frustration as their fly was squashed, leaving them with a buzz of static to replace the interesting conversations going on in the meeting room downstairs.
The following evening, Mrs. Weasley called Harry into the kitchen. Walking in, he found Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Tonks and Bill Weasley waiting for him. He looked at them curiously, they all looked so serious, apart from Dumbledore who's attention was currently fixed on the bag of mint humbugs in his hand. He looked up as Harry closed the door. "Have a seat Harry, we have some important business to discuss." He gestured to the table on which a number of official looking papers were scattered. Harry sat down next to Mrs. Weasley who smiled brightly at him and looked to Dumbledore to continue. Dumbledore offered Harry a humbug and basically repeated what was said at the meeting the previous evening about Harry's safety, but editing out Snape's comments. "On the table, Harry, are the documents you and Remus will have to sign, that is, if you agree to him becoming your legal guardian."
Lupin looked slightly apprehensive, as if worried Harry might refuse. Harry couldn't do that though, he knew it was Sirius' wish that Remus became his guardian, and anyway, he could think of no one he'd rather have, other than Sirius of course, he thought. He grinned at Remus. "Where do I sign?"
After all the legal stuff was cleared up and the documents sent away with a grand looking owl, Dumbledore asked Tonks and Bill to step forward. He went on to explain the that they had volunteered to be Harry's guards. Harry grinned. He thought he would be stuck with some strict old wizards that wouldn't let him do anything and whom he did not know. Instead he got two people who he knew and trusted, and were his friends. He frowned "but professor, how will they know if I leave the school?"
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled. "may I also introduce to you Hogwarts new Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers?" he said, gesturing again to Tonks and Bill. Harry was stunned. "Two teachers sir?"
Mrs. Weasley looked ready to burst with pride. "Oh isn't is super! Bill, a teacher at Hogwarts! I can't believe it!" She sniffed and rummaged around for a tissue. Bill rolled his eyes at her and became serious again. "But you can't tell anyone thought Harry, not even Ron and Hermione."
Harry looked like he was about to protest, so Lupin cut in "I know its hard Harry, but we don't want anyone knowing until school starts. Its for Bill and Tonks' safety. You see, there is a lot of speculation as to who the new Defence Against the Dark professor will be this year, and it is critical that you have competent teachers this year. By telling people that Bill and Tonks are going to teach you, we are risking another situation like the one in your fourth year, having an impostor in place of the real teachers. We just can't risk that." Remus said sternly.
Harry nodded slowly, then asked the question that had been bothering him. "But I thought you were a curse breaker?" He said to Bill, then turned to Tonks. "and you're an Auror! How can you do both?"
"Well, I quit my job at Gringotts when I was asked to teach at Hogwarts." Bill supplied. Harry looked at Tonks., who shrugged and simply said "I guess I've always wanted to teach." she stood up to leave then turned back as she reached the door, "Oh, almost forgot! Next week would you, Ron and Hermione like to go to Diagon Ally? To get your school stuff and do some shopping?" Harry grinned. Excellent, we could find out some information on the staff of Amaror while we're there!
"Love to" he said.
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