Chapter 8: The New Leader of the Order of the Phoenix
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"You could've been hurt, kidnapped, or killed even! What were you thinking wandering off by yourselves?"
"Mum, we were fine, nothing happened to us! We made it back all in one piece!" Ginny shifted uncomfortably in her chair, the thoughts of what happened when she was out on her own still vivid in her memory, but no one seemed to take notice her fidgeting.
"Nevertheless, Ronald, you shouldn't have been out by yourselves, we're in the middle of a war!"
"You think we don't know that! You can't protect us forever, Mum. Sooner or later you have to let us go." The anger left Mrs. Weasley's face and she sighed and sank into the nearest chair.
"I know that, Ron," she said sadly. "But you have to understand, you're my youngest son, and Ginny, you're my youngest child and only daughter, Harry and Hermione, you're like two of my own. You have to understand that I worry about you, and yes, I do understand, Ron, that I have to let you go. It's just not as easy as it sounds." Mrs. Weasley turned to Harry and Hermione.
"Would you two mind if I talked with Ron and Ginny alone for a moment?" They both shook their heads and left the room. Heading upstairs, they went to Harry and Ron's room to wait for him. Fifteen minutes later, Ron came up. He sighed and sank onto his bed.
"Well, how did it go?" Ron shrugged.
"We understand each other better now." And that was all he said about the subject, and Harry and Hermione weren't about to press the issue.
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Dinnertime was beginning to roll around, and while Hermione and Ginny were helping Mrs. Weasley cook dinner, Mrs. Weasley called Harry and Ron in from the garden.
"Please set the table for me will you? Be sure to set two extra places, I've invited Remus and Tonks for dinner tonight." Ron grinned.
"Any particular reason why, have they news or something?" He said, looking pointedly at Hermione, who smiled.
"Why would you care if they have news, you said they wouldn't be engaged until next summer."
"That's true. Still thinking it'll be Christmas though?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"Why?"
"Because it's perfect, a ring is a good Christmas present. And then a summer wedding...it'd be perfect." Ron shook his head.
"Nah, Christmas is too predictable. A man's gotta have spontaneity."
"But a proposal at Christmas is romantic though." Mrs. Weasley smiled.
"We should write this down for reference to Hermione's future husband. When he proposes, he has to do it at Christmas," she said with a small pointed look at Ron. Hermione blushed slightly and glanced at Harry who was laughing with everyone else except Ginny.
"I'm sorry, I'm a hopeless romantic," Hermione said. "Can't help it. But I still think you're going to be owing me five galleons by Christmastime, Ronald."
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"You know, this doesn't actually surprise me that she wrote this letter to you, Harry. I knew somewhere deep down Petunia Dursley had a heart. There was some reason she kept you under her roof for sixteen years, and not just because of Dumbledore," Lupin said, folding Petunia's letter to Harry back up and handing it to him. Dinner had been consumed, and everyone was either congregated in the living room or in Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lupin's case, the kitchen table. Harry had brought down the letter and the three books that his aunt had given him and showed them to Remus.
"She could've at least showed it over the years."
"Well, like she said in her letter, she was basically taking out her jealousy of her sister out on you, Harry," Hermione said. "The jealousy must've overpowered her sisterly love for your mum."
"Here, Remus, I thought you might want to see this too." Harry slid his mother's scrapbook over to Remus, who smiled fondly at it.
"Ah yes, the scrapbook. Lily's pride and joy was her pictures. We always used to joke with James saying he was second in importance to Lily after this scrapbook and her pictures." Remus opened the first page and looked at the title page. "She always said she wanted pictures or a memory of everything, so that when she was old and gray she could look back on this scrapbook and remember her life and all the things in it." There was a sad silence that followed Remus's last comment, the sad knowledge that Lily Potter never would be able to look back on her memories that she put so much time and effort into in that scrapbook. The scrapbook was split into sections, after family, came friends, a page dedicated to each of her friends, and then a few at the back of the section with group pictures. The first page had a picture of a pretty witch with black hair and bright blue eyes. She had a gentle smile and seemed very mature and professional, until something happened in the background of the picture that insulted her and she stuck out her tongue childishly and laughed. Above the picture was the name, Isabelle L. Portman. There were pictures of Isabelle over the years, and then one with Lily and Isabelle together.
"That was Lily's best friend in school," Remus said, smiling at the pictures of Isabelle. "She was a conniving witch, there was always talk of letting her into the Marauders."
"Where is she now?" Ron asked.
"She died a couple months before James and Lily were married. Killed by Death Eaters, I believe." Remus turned the page and then next page was for a witch that the trio recognized without having to look at the name, for she looked so much like her son, Neville. Above the big picture of Alice was her name, Alice M. Haysing-Longbottom.
"And you know what happened to her," Remus said softly and turned the page. The next page was for Peter Pettigrew, which Remus didn't stop at and turned the page again. The next page was for Remus. He smiled at it, and Ron pointed at the picture of Lily and Remus together. They stood with their arms around each other's shoulders; both wore the same badge pinned to their robes. A gold one with a red `P' in the middle.
"You both were prefects?" Remus nodded and turned the page. A grinning picture of Sirius was on the next page, and at the bottom right had corner where Lily had pasted all of the pictures of her with the other person, Lily was laughing in the picture and glancing at Sirius, Sirius had a mischievous grin on his face, as he held Lily tight and winked at a person in the background. Remus laughed at the memory of this picture.
"Sirius always loved taking pictures with Lily. Because every time they would take a picture together, Sirius would always pretend to be trying to steal Lily away from James. It was always one of his favorite jokes, because it would always get James riled up." The next page belonged to Harry's father. In the picture with Lily, she was smiling and blushed a little when James turned and kissed her on the cheek. Remus flipped through some more pages, stopping on certain pages. A few dedicated to the Marauders. One had a picture of the original Order, the same copy that Moody had. About ten pages were of James and Lily's wedding day. Again there was a picture of a last minute attempt by Sirius to steal Lily away that resulted in a punch in the arm from James. There were pictures of all the guests, the wedding party, and almost every detail of that day. A few pages later, there were pictures of Harry when he was born. There was a picture of James holding Harry and the little caption read, "Looks just like his daddy..." and a little ways down the page was a picture of Lily holding Harry and the caption continued, "...but has his mother's eyes." Remus flipped through a few more pages, mostly dedicated to baby Harry, and then at the end were pages that were unfamiliar to him.
"I don't remember these." One page had an article clipped from the Daily Prophet about the Potter's death, with other things written on it. Another page had Harry's first Hogwarts letter, or well, one of the copies of it. There were other things from Harry's first years at school, decorated just like Lily would've done.
"Your aunt must've done it, Harry," Hermione said. Harry pulled the scrapbook to him which was open to a page that a copy of the award to special services that both he and Ron had received their second year for killing the basilisk and finding out the secret of the Chamber of Secrets.
"This seems like it was a million years ago. So much has happened since then."
"That's the tricky thing with time. One day you're free with little worries," Remus turned the scrapbook back to a picture of the four Marauders and Lily and her two best friends together. "Then the next day you're sitting in a kitchen, looking back at memories wondering where your life went. How did you reach this place?" Harry understood exactly what Remus was saying; it was hard to believe that he, Harry, just six years ago had found out that there was another world out there, one that he belonged to, one where every witch and wizard knew his name. And now, at seventeen, he was being thrust into the middle of a war, one where it was either kill or be killed. Harry glanced at Hermione and Ron. At least he was facing it with his friends, he couldn't imagine what it must be like for Remus, all of his friends from school were either dead or had turned out to be a traitor. Harry was glad that Remus and Tonks had found each other; at least they had each other for support.
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An hour later, Remus and Tonks left, and one by one, the ranks began thinning out as members of the Weasley family began going to bed. Pretty soon the only people left in the living room were Harry and Hermione. Though Hermione had long fallen asleep, lying on the couch, book in hand. Harry sat in a chair dozing until he heard a 'thump' signaling that Hermione's book had fallen out of her hands. Harry got out of his chair, picked the book up and set it on the coffee table. He grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and covered Hermione up with it. He started to walk to the stairs but felt Hermione grab his hand.
"What time is it?" she asked sleepily.
"Eleven-thirty." Hermione hadn't opened her eyes, nor had she let go of Harry's hand yet.
"Mmm, you should go to bed," Hermione mumbled. Harry smiled.
"I was on my way to go do that." There was a short silence. In that time, Hermione let go of Harry's hand and he sat down on the edge of the couch next to her.
"Harry?"
"What?"
"Do you ever think about the future?"
"Yeah. Loads of times."
"What do you see?"
"Well, I don't really know, right now, the future consists of me getting rid of Voldemort. I haven't thought about anything past that. What about you?"
"I see the war ending...hmm...and getting on with my life...getting married...having children. I dream about it a lot. I see myself older with two children...living in the country...the sun shining over the...green grass on the rolling hills...my husband...swinging our son up into the air...and into his arms." Hermione was beginning to become incoherent because the sleep was overpowering her.
"And do you see said husband's face, or is he faceless like my wife is when I think about it?"
"No…he has a face...he's looks like..." But Harry didn't hear who Hermione's husband in her dreams was, she dozed off again. A few seconds later, she grabbed his hand again.
"Harry?"
"Still here, Hermione."
"When do you want to destroy that locket we got from Grimmauld Place?"
"We'll talk about it in the morning."
"Mm…k."
"I'm going to bed, k?"
"K, me too." She threw the blanket back like she was going to get up, but fell asleep again. Harry covered her back up and went upstairs.
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The next morning, while everyone was seated around the table eating breakfast, they were all brought out of their normal every day conversations when there was a flash of fire causing them all to jump in surprise, and Fawkes the phoenix was perched on the table staring at Harry, a letter clutched in his beak. Everyone stared at the phoenix sitting on the table with baited breath, almost as though they were afraid to speak. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley glanced at each other, while Harry slowly took the unaddressed envelope from Fawkes.
"What's going on?" Ron finally said, asking the question most of them were wondering.
"I had a feeling that this would happen." Everyone turned their attention to Mr. Weasley, who said, "Dumbledore said that should the worst happen, the Order would still continue, he would leave a successor and Fawkes would turn up one day with instructions." Harry's hand froze in the process of opening the envelope.
"You mean to say that Fawkes is here because Dumbledore wanted me to be his successor in leading the Order?" Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley nodded.
"We never mentioned it because we never thought it would happen, we never thought that Dumbledore would die before the end of the war, so it was forgotten," Mrs. Weasley said. "He never said who his successor would be; just that we'd know when Fawkes appeared to that witch or wizard." Harry continued opening the envelope and unfolded the letter.
Dear Harry,
If you're reading this letter, then that means I've passed on, and now the Order of the Phoenix is without a leader. By now I'm sure you've figured out that I've named you as my successor, to take over lead of the Order, should the situation come to this. I know it's a lot to ask of you, but I know without a doubt that you'll be a strong leader; one anyone would be willing to follow. Your first order of business is to call a meeting at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, since we now know that it does belong to you, and is still safe to conduct meetings there. You will use Fawkes to send your summons. Write on a piece of paper and place in an envelope the date and time of the meeting and send Fawkes out. He will appear to every member of the Order in the flash of fire that occurred when he appeared to you and leave copies of your note. Just leave the date and time, there's no need for anything else; that can be saved for the meeting.
Once the meeting has been called, you'll be filled in on the goings on of the Order, since I know you've not been included in meetings. It is also at this time that you may accept new members, two of which I'm sure will be Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. Others will bring in recruits they know will be good assets to the Order.
Know that every member of the Order is still trustworthy, no matter what they've done. There are reasons for the things they do. Do not be surprised and do not let violence arise when he arrives...you know of whom I speak. Understand that I died as a part of a plan, one that is too complicated to explain in this letter, that'll be saved for later times. Remember that.
I know that you'll make me proud of how you lead the Order and the movement for the end of this war. Do not feel like you're walking blindly into this task, there will be many who will offer guidance and assistance to you whenever you need it, one person you can depend on for aid is Remus Lupin. He and Minerva McGonagall are the only other people who know of your successing me. Thank you for accepting this task, and good luck.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
P.S. As you are now the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, Fawkes now belongs to you. He is a very loyal friend; I know he's left in good hands.
Harry was in shock after finishing the letter from Dumbledore. How could he lead the Order of the Phoenix? Dumbledore must truly have been crazy when he was alive.
"Harry? What does it say?" Hermione asked.
"It says…I'm the new leader of the Order. I'm supposed to send Fawkes out to send summons for the next meeting. Everything is supposed to be explained at this meeting, and we'll initiate new members. Snape is going to be there, but Dumbledore says it's alright."
"Snape is going to be there? And Dumbledore says it's alright? Is he mad? Snape killed him!" Ron said, stunned.
"Dumbledore says in the letter that it was all part of a plan."
"What plan?"
"I don't know, Ron, he didn't say, but said it'll be explained later."
A few minutes later, Harry placed the piece of paper that contained the date and time of the Order meeting in an envelope and tied it to Fawkes's foot. Fawkes was off in the same flash of fire that occurred when he appeared. He, Hermione, and Ron were the only ones left in the kitchen; everyone had gone back to their everyday activities. Harry sat down at the table with a sigh.
"Harry, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, and Harry gave her a look that told her he thought that was the stupidest question to ask.
"What do you think, Hermione?"
"Well, this doesn't really surprise me that this happened, Harry. All of what Dumbledore said in his letter doesn't surprise me."
"All of it? It doesn't surprise you that we're all of a sudden supposed to trust and accept Snape?" Ron said.
"No, it doesn't. If Snape hadn't killed Dumbledore he would've done two things, given up his life because of the Unbreakable Vow, and given up his role as the spy. As long as Voldemort knows Snape's loyalties lie with him, he can still be used as a spy."
"Well, I don't trust him, no matter what the reasons for all this, I never have, never will."
"I'm not saying we'll just roll out the welcome mat and embrace him, we still need to be careful." She looked at Harry, who had dropped out of the conversation long ago.
"You'll be fine. I know you can do it, you can lead them, and you will."
"I wish I had as much confidence in myself as you do."
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A/N: Ok, not the greatest end to a chapter, but I had to end it somewhere, and I couldn't think of what else to type. Sorry I haven't written in a LONG time. I started my freshman year of college in August and I didn't bring all of my fanfic stuff with me until I came back for Christmas break. Since then, I've been slowly writing this chapter, and now since it's Spring break I have a chance to finish it! Hope you enjoy it, and just to let you know, it might be a while before the next chapter is up, hopefully not as long as the wait for this one.
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