Disclaimer: I don't own the characters; they are property of JK Rowling.
A/N: Hope you'll like this. Thanks to those who have reviewed, it makes me happy. Thanks to my beta GeoTube too.
Chapter Twelve
"Attack"
Harry led the others to the castle, and while they were walking, some Dementors appeared on the border of the Forest. All of them were frightened, but at Harry's signal, the Dementors returned in the Forest; the voice of the Ringwraith started to be heard.
"Welcome back, Sir. I see you are in company," sounded the deep voice, which scared Harry's companions a little.
"Yes, Ringwraith. They are the only people who trust me, after all the events I told you in my letter. Have you and the other Ringwraith gently prepared their rooms?"
"Of course, my Sir. The rooms are ready; all of you have only to choose which one you prefer. And there is also a good dinner for you, in the Great Dining Room"
"Perfect! So, as soon as we will enter the castle, we will leave the trunks in the Entrance Hall, we will go to have dinner, and then we will choose our rooms. Is it ok for you guys?" he asked to the others, who nodded, still a bit scared.
After dinner, they settled themselves in their rooms, and Hermione asked to stay in Harry's one. He was a little surprised at her forwardness, but agreed all the same. He was glad of that, to say the truth. That earned them some teasing from their companions, especially Draco. Then, tired for the travel, all of them went to bed.
Once in their room, Harry and Hermione found their things in there. They took just what they needed for the night, leaving the rest to be unpacked the next day.
Harry then started changing.
"Harry! What are you doing?"
"I'm changing, why do you ask?" he said, turning toward her with only his trousers on, his chest free to her to see.
"I'm in the room too! You can't simply undress like that!" she said, blushing.
"Hermione, I'm sure you've already seen a man naked, plus you are the one who wanted to be in my room. I thought it was because you could peek at me while I undressed…" he said, teasing her.
She smiled at him.
"Well, that's an extra feature, Mr. Potter. A very pleasurable one, too. But the main reason is that I want to wake tomorrow morning held by the man I love"
"And who would that be?" he said, feigning to be deep in thought. "Maybe a messy black haired, green-eyed wizard, pursued by evil wizards and good ones too?" he said, pulling her close.
"Yeah, that would be him" she said just inches away from his lips, then kissed him.
Few minutes later, they entered the bed and snuggled together. Sleep soon overcome them.
In the morning, after unpacking, Harry showed the whole castle to the others, he then asked the Ringwraith for a map of it.
When he found it on the table, some minutes later, he multiplied it, so everyone had one copy of it. Harry asked the Ringwraith to show himself to his companions, so he could present him, and the others Ringwraith too, to the rest of the Order.
Twelve shadows appeared. They seemed ghosts, but they were more likely the souls of dead people, not properly ghosts. Harry asked them to explain their story, so the usual voice started to say.
"We are the souls of twelve great wizards, companions of your great-grandfather, Grindelwald, and we were killed in battle. He enchanted our bodies to leave our souls here, protecting the castle, until one of his heirs, the most powerful, would give us the freedom, but before, we have to help him in his great task."
"Well, I don't know if I'm the powerful Heir you are waiting for, but I know that I need your help to defeat Voldemort. Will you help me?"
"Of course, Sir Harry Potter. If you ask, we have to. We are bound to obey your orders, or be damned for the eternity."
Two days later, while the Order of the Shadows was training, Harry received a letter in which Minister Fudge told him that his trial was delayed to the next summer, after his seventh year, because the Ministry wasn't in the condition to proceed with a trial, after the attacks from the Death Eaters. Harry chuckled thinking that probably next summer there would not be reason to give him a trial.
For three weeks, all the Order members worked hard, running in the morning, building up their bodies in a gym created in one room of the castle, and every evening they trained on spells, learning all what they could from the DADA books they found in the huge library. For example, Harry found a spell, the "Gladiator Curse", that wasn't an Unforgivable, but was really painful, it conjured a fake Gladiator, who pretended to hit the person with his sword, and even if it wasn't real, the pain was really strong. It was created by a dark wizard coming back from Italy, where he had learned the story of Roman Gladiators.
During the day, they also met all the creatures of the Forest, the werewolves, the giants, and they found some Thestrals. This was a new also for Harry, and the discovery was accidental. Luna fell stumbling on a root, and she bruised her knee, a little blood trickling from it. After some minutes, a group of at least ten Thestrals arrived in the clearing.
In this way, they had resolved one problem that was worrying Harry, the transportation system.
It was by now the 20th of August, when they received their Hogwarts letters, and so they decided on a break for the day. They went to Diagon Alley to buy what they needed, and there they met Ron. The bloody moron, as he saw them, cast a spell on Hermione, which started to suffocate her. Then he did the same on Hanna and Neville, the nearest to him, but he wasn't able to go on, because Harry and Draco attacked him together.
"Expelliarmus!" and Ron's wand flew to them, while he fell on the ground.
"Finite Incantatem!" Harry shouted then and all the Order members who were attacked regained their composure, breathing again.
"Weasley, I alert you. This time, you have really passed the limit. I'll be comprehensive one more time. Next one, you'll pay with your life," Harry said, then all the members went to the shops they needed to visit, leaving Ron on the ground.
Three days later, the Order of the Shadows woke up very early in the morning. They had breakfast, and then Harry called the Ringwraiths.
"Today is the day of the first battle we have to fight. Please, follow us, while we will fly on the Thestrals. I want all the Order of the Phoenix to be destroyed, use all the methods that you want or know, but only Dumbledore, Lupin, Hagrid and McGonagall have to be kept alive, for now."
The members heard his speech and wondered about his plan. They did not believe he was that angry at the Order of the Phoenix to want all of them dead. However, they followed him and the Ringwraith in the Forest.
They called the Thestrals, mounted them, and then Harry said.
"To the Order of the Phoenix whereabouts!" not really knowing where they were, but hoping that the Thestrals would find them.
The flight started, with some occasional screams by Hermione, who as usual didn't like flying, and then, after four hours of it, they reached a building in the countryside, near London. It seemed the Order had not moved too much, after all. The Thestrals landed near it, followed by the Ringwraiths, who were able to fly, being only souls, and then Harry led all of them to the door.
He looked all of them in the eyes, took a deep breath, and opened the door. It did not oppose too much resistance.
They entered the building, and suddenly the doors and the windows locked themselves. Then, Harry heard Snape's voice.
"End of the run, Potter. You are trapped now" the Head of Slytherin sneered.
Suddenly the other members of the Order of the Phoenix entered the room. That was something Harry had not expected, but after all, they were there to fight, so they didl.
"Ok, let's start!" Harry shouted, and the battle started. Neville was immediately stunned by Remus, who was however attacked by Draco. Hanna started duelling with Tonks, while Justin was engaged by Mr. Weasley. Terry Boot was fighting with Mundungus, while Hermione was in battle versus Ron. That was an hell of a duel, between them, trying to avenge all the wrongs both of them felt the other had done to them the previous school year.
Bill Weasley engaged Ernie Macmillan, while Luna attacked Mrs. Weasley. Harry was left duelling with Moody.
After some minutes, almost all the members of the Order of the Shadows were in great troubles. Their skills were really good, what they lacked of was duelling experience.
Hanna, Neville, Terry and Justin were stunned, Luna, Draco and Ernie were fighting with two opponents, and Hermione and Harry were the only who, even if against two attackers, were doing well.
Finally, Harry found the right moment to stun Mundungus, so he could concentrate on Moody. The fight was harsh.
"Stupefy!" Moody barked, but Harry dodged it. "Impedimenta!" Harry cried, but the ex Auror shielded himself from the hex.
"Inverto!" Alastor barked again, and the spell hit Harry. He knew the effects, though, so he continued fighting even if he felt to be upward down. In the end, Harry was able to stun him.
The others were still in troubles, though, so Harry thought better to call help. After all, the Order of the Phoenix had a lot more members than their own.
"Ringwraiths, hurry up! Help them!" he shouted and the twelve shadows appeared, with swords in their hands. They flew trough the room, killing the members of the Order of the Phoenix, sparing only Remus who had been stunned by Hermione. The Order members were terrified seeing the shadows, so their shock made them easy targets for the Ringwraiths.
Harry in the meantime enervated the ones who had been stunned.
"Impedimenta!" Hermione cried and Snape fell on the floor, tripping, but Ron was still there. Harry was duelling now with Mr. Weasley, and he cried "Expecto Gladiatorem!" and Arthur fell on the floor in pain, shouting. Then, Harry cried "Protego!" defending himself from the Stunning Spell Sturgis cast on him.
He counter-attacked. "Expelliarmus!" and Sturgis flew through the room, hitting a wall, for the power of the spell. His neck cracked, and he died on the moment.
Now, the only fighters were Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Mr. Weasley. This last one stood up, since Harry had lifted the curse from him to fight Sturgis, and tried to attack Harry from behind, but Draco, still dazed, cried "Stupefy!" so, Arthur fell on the floor.
In the meanwhile, Ron was still fighting with Hermione. Suddenly, he took advantage of the closeness between them to kick her on her stomach. She fell on the ground, and he kicked her other times, right on the belly, with the clear aim to kill the baby. However, that did not go unnoticed.
Harry, filled with rage, cried "Crucio!" and Ron started to writhe in pain, shouting.
"I had alerted you, Weasley. This time, you'll pay with your life. But before that, I want to enjoy your pain. Expecto Gladiatorem!" Harry said with the evillest voice he had ever mustered.
Ron started to shout even louder. For minutes Harry looked at him writhe on the ground, smirking, his green eyes dark with hatred and rage. It was a sight that frightened all the ones who were there.
"I think this is enough. Avada Kedavra!" Harry said. A green light appeared on his wand tip, and then, the curse hit Ron in the chest, killing him. The Order of the Phoenix was almost extinguished. Exiting the room, the members of the Order of the Shadows killed Mr. Weasley too, the last member alive.
Now, only Dumbledore, Lupin, Hagrid and McGonagall remained, but Harry didn't want to kill them. He wanted to show the Headmaster that he was wrong in his judgement about him, and for Lupin, well, the werewolf hadn't really done anything bad to him that year, while all the others did, so he was keen to spare him. He was the last of his father best friends, after all. Hagrid, well, he owed so much to the half giant, and McGonagall had been like a mother for him in the past years.
For now, his revenge was accomplished.
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