Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author Notes: Thanks to all who reviewed and responded to my request. And sorry for the slight delay in posting this chapter. Here I'll try to clear some of the doubts.
The X-Woman: (You are the best!) (i) Draco's high score, legally obtained or not, just gives him another thing to brag about! (ii) How do you know that Ron didn't react? We saw it from Harry's POV, and he was too panicked to notice Ron's reaction after the Aurors barged in.
(You'll notice that I'm keeping silent on some questions, but that's 'cause I'm supposed to keep silent about them if I don't want to give the plot away. :-))
David305: (i) The Black house was connected to the Floo network in OotP, since Harry able to communicate with Sirius & Lupin through the fireplace in Umbridge's office. It might be possible that only the people who knew its existence would be able to Floo to it. (ii) I did mention that Harry packed his Firebolt, Invisibility and Map in his knapsack before leaving for the Granger's in chapter 1. About the Firebolt, I just assumed that he got it back before he returned from school in his 5th year, since there's no mention of it in the end of the 5th book.
OK, I want to clear this up before some of you get all emotional and start declaring your undying love for Hedwig: Honestly! All I said was that she would not reach her destination. What do you take me for? An owl killer or something?? LOL :-)
BTW, we've just broken the 100 reviews barrier on FFN! Also thanks to those who reviewed on Schnoogle and Portkey.org! Please keep reading and reviewing...
Harry Potter and The Sacred Alliance
Chapter 5
The room was dark, eerie shadows creeping on the walls with a single flickering bluish white torch fixed on a table in the center. It was a bright morning in Scotland, but no sunlight ever entered the ancient dungeons deep under Hogwarts castle. All through his membership in the Order of the Phoenix, Arthur Weasley had never been to this room before; but such were the times, that his presence was warranted in the private office of the Head.
Arthur had just related his discussion with Shacklebolt to the two men before him - one was Severus Snape, cloaked in black, who seemingly had been finding the ancient runes on the walls more interesting than Arthur's speech. The other was Albus Dumbledore, in a form Arthur had not seem him in since Voldemort's first defeat in 1981. He was tense, if such an adjective were to be applied to his tall figure, clad in purple-and-white robes, emanating a power that rivaled the magic that was part of this ancient chamber.
"The Order has been compromised," spat Snape, in a mood that would make his usual behavior towards students seem almost compassionate.
A shrill meow answered him, startling Arthur, who hadn't noticed the tabby cat sitting under the table before. It was evident, from their lack of surprise, that Snape and Dumbledore had known of her presence. The cat transformed before his eyes to a pale-faced Minerva McGonagall, who seemed to be searching for words to speak.
"How... I can't believe that the note was authentic... Albus, is there a way they could have got the note?" she finally asked.
"We can be sure that it was genuine. Only a note written by myself can reveal the location of the Headquarters."
"And there was no way it could reach that Fudge unless we were betrayed," added Snape in a spiteful voice.
Betrayal. That was something that Arthur did not want to contemplate, but the more he thought of it, the more it seemed that it was the only explanation. The Order had been betrayed.
"Obvious though it may seem, Severus, we must not jump to conclusions. And we will have plenty of time to assess the situation later. We must prepare ourselves... I believe that Aurors under orders from Cornelius will invade the Headquarters any moment now. We have no time to waste." Dumbledore replied coolly, not betraying a single drop of the tension underneath it, before lowering his voice to mouth what seemed to Arthur to be an incantation.
The next moment he felt a strange sensation, as a clear male voice spoke with urgency in his ears, "Esteemed member of the Order of the Phoenix, the Head declares emergency and requests your immediate presence at the place of need. Please give your consent to apparate." Apparently, this was the Order's way of calling its members urgently. Having being a member of the Order for only one year, this was a new experience for him.
With two pops, Arthur was left alone in the room with Dumbledore, who apparently was waiting for him to disapparate.
"Ah Arthur... All you have to do is nod your approval."
Unsure of whether it would work, he simply nodded. A moment later, his surroundings disappeared and he found himself among a group of hooded figures clad in scarlet robes. To his surprise, he himself was in a similar clothing - the attire of Phoenix members. They were in a Muggle neighborhood, the early rays of the rising sun illuminating a lane before them.
The leader was undoubtedly Dumbledore, since he had lowered his hood - the only one to do so. They moved briskly after him in silence, unbeknownst to the Muggles living in the houses they were passing. Arthur had no difficulty in recognizing the place - it was Grimmauld Place. Most of the members were scanning the area for any sign of Aurors.
Before long, they were facing the Black ancestral residence.The front doors were ajar - a sign that things weren't normal. Arthur felt a sinking sensation in his stomach, his heart beating with anxiety for his family and Harry. With a sense of foreboding, he entered the house with the other members in stealth, lead by Dumbledore.
The corridor was shrouded in dim light due to the lack of windows - the fact that the wall lamps were extinguished not helping matters. Dumbledore stopped abruptly when they were just a few feet from the living room. They could hear voices, most of them belonging to persons whose identities were indiscernible to Arthur. Evidently, Aurors were still in the house. From what he could pick up, the Aurors hadn't found Harry yet.
"We must take them my surprise, and preferably by using disarming and stunning spells only," whispered Dumbledore to the squad, before resuming their march, the old worn out carpet barely silencing their footsteps.
Wands outstretched, they rushed into the living room, red bursts of light heading in all directions. Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur could make out a dozen figures in Auror robes. Being a Ministry worker in profession, he had never imagined that the day would come when he would be dueling with Aurors. Dodging a stunning spell, he yelled "Expelliarmus!" at his attacker, but missed. Quickly taking shelter behind a sofa, he surveyed the room. Arthur could spot his wife, children and Hermione in a corner - they all seemed to be under body-binding spells, except for Ron, who was passed out. Hoping that his son was all right, he looked around for Harry, but he was nowhere to be seen.
Though the Aurors were putting up a good fight, they were on the losing side as the Order members had taken full advantage of the initial shock. And the fact that Tonks, who was among the Aurors, was silently sending spells towards the other Aurors, didn't help their cause. Seeing that he wasn't needed in the battle, he made his way to his wife and kids, keeping away from the line of fire. Reaching them, he cast the counter-spells to free them. By the time he had revived Ron, the battle was over.
"I would suggest you leave immediately," said Dumbledore, in a calm but loud voice. Most of the Aurors had lost their wands; four of them lying stunned on the floor had just been revived by a few Order members.
"We don't fear you Dumbledore," one of them replied gruffly, "and we shall not leave without Potter."
"Bold though you may sound, Tyson, you haven't found him here. So you have no choice but to leave."
"We do not take orders from you," Tyson spat back.
Many of the Order members raised their wands at him, but they need not have done so, if the sudden horrified expressions on each of the Aurors' faces were to be considered. For the man standing before them was no longer an old school headmaster. To collective gasps from many in the room, they were facing Albus Dumbledore in his most powerful form, the defeater of Grindelwald and the only one feared by the Dark Lord. He was positively glowing with blinding white light, all traces of his age vanishing, as he spoke in a thunderous tone.
"DO NOT PROVOKE ME, FOOLS! FOR YOU WILL BE EXTREMELY SORRY. ONE LAST WARNING I GIVE YOU..." he said, aiming his wand on the cowering Aurors, who looked small and helpless in front of the towering figure before them. All the members of the Order were gazing at Dumbledore in awe, Arthur himself being one of them. He wondered why Dumbledore had needed their services - in this form Dumbledore looked capable of subduing a whole army of wizards all by himself.
In an instant, the Aurors had disapparated. Meanwhile, Dumbledore who had returned to his usual form, came over to Arthur's side. It took a few moments for the other Order members to recover from the spectacle that they had witnessed, before they followed, lowering their hoods. Arthur could spot Lupin, Moody, some Hogwarts' professors and a few others.
"Now please, will one of you explain to me where Harry is?" Dumbledore asked, facing the kids and Molly.
Apparently none of them had heard a word, for the moment they recovered from the previous shock, each one of them started speaking at the same time. It took a few minutes before the events were recounted by each of them separately.
From what Arthur gathered, Molly, Fred and George had been alerted about the possibility of the attack minutes before its occurrence by Tonks. Ron, Hermione and Ginny had still been in bed. The moment the Aurors forced their way in, the adults had done their best to hold them back, but were hopelessly outnumbered. After overpowering them, the Aurors had rushed upstairs to check the bedrooms, but were unable to find Harry in his bedroom. Ron, who shared Harry's bedroom, had woken up to three Aurors forcing their way into the room. Before he could grab his wand and send a spell, he was stunned, but not before he noticed that Harry was gone, and so were his belongings.
The Order members searched the whole house for any sign of Harry, but in vain. Mrs. Weasley had busied herself in preparing tea for all. Just when the others had given up, Tonks and Shacklebolt apparated in, Tonks still in Auror robes.
"Kingsley, Tonks. I have been expecting you," greeted Dumbledore.
"From what Tonks here says, you could have taken on the whole bunch yourself," remarked Shacklebolt, smiling slightly, but lost his smile to a glare from Snape, who was standing beside Dumbledore.
"I was part of the team who searched Harry's bedroom. I found these on the desk," Tonks said, giving two letters to Dumbledore, "I hid them before any of the others noticed."
Dumbledore read them silently before handing them to Snape and McGonagall, a look of comprehension in his eyes.
"I must say that Percy did more good than harm. Apparently Harry escaped away before the Aurors arrived," he said, chuckling slightly.
"How can you say that Albus? Now Potter's alone all by himself in Merlin-knows-where. Who gave him the permission to run off?" said McGonagall angrily, who had just finished reading the letters.
Snape was about to make a comment on Potter's arrogance and rashness before Dumbledore raised his voice to get everyone's attention.
"I understand that all of you would like to know about Harry's disappearance. I will explain it to you in a minute, but first we must reach our new hideout, since the Ministry knows of our location and may send more Aurors."
He muttered "Portus" pointing his wand at an empty tea-cup. Then he beckoned Ron, Hermione and Ginny - the only people who weren't members of the Order - to join him in touching it.
"Where is it?" asked Arthur.
"Wales," said Dumbledore, before he disappeared along with the children and the Portkey. Next moment, Arthur heard the same voice that he had heard earlier that morning, asking his consent to apparate to whatever location the Head of the Order of the Phoenix had set. He nodded in affirmative, as did all the other members of the Order.
* * *
The sky was overcast, a light drizzle raining outside, as Hermione sat at the window in her bedroom. Ron, Ginny and the twins were roaming outside, exploring the village that they were staying in - Godric's Hollow. It was an old Muggle village having an appreciable wizarding population. The Potter's cottage - the very place in which Voldemort had killed Harry's parents - was the new temporary Order hideout.
Hermione had declined the others in their exploration trip, giving her health as an excuse. But, to be truthful, her physical health was perfect; it was her anxiousness about Harry that holding her back from joining the others.
It had been two days of hell for them since Harry's disappearance, and she didn't even want to imagine what Harry was going through. Just a week ago she had assured him that he would be trusted by everyone. How wrong she had been! This was turning out even worse than last year for him. She desperately wanted to talk to him, to tell him how much she trusted him, how much his friends trusted him and how they would stand by him forever.
But he was nowhere to be found. She recalled how her hopes were squashed for the third morning in succession when she discovered that the Order had had no luck in locating his whereabouts. What if Voldemort had got him? She cursed Harry's foolishness; for the hundredth time, she mouthed all obscenities at him for running away like that. Only if he had stayed, Dumbledore wouldn't have let Fudge's henchmen to take him. And then she rebuked herself - her own sufferings were nothing compared to Harry's life. She had no right to judge his actions.
Yet she couldn't help but want to meet him, at least have some contact. Dumbledore had expressly forbidden them from owling him, since the Ministry had means of intercepting and tracing owls. Only yesterday she had got into a fight with Ron to prevent him from flouting Dumbledore's orders by writing a letter to Harry. Gazing absentmindedly at her surroundings, she tried to think of a way to locate Harry without the Ministry or Voldemort's followers knowing too. It was true the Order was doing its best in this regard, but Hermione knew that it had other things to take care of - like find out how the Fidelius charm on the Black residence was breached.
It was then that the envelope lying on her desk caught her gaze. Having arrived along with her OWL results, it contained the book-list for the coming year. But it wasn't the contents that had grabbed her attention - she had already read them - instead it was the address on the envelope.
Miss Hermione Granger,
Second Bedroom from the Stairs,
First Floor,
Order Headquarters,
London.
"That's it!", an excited voice shouted in her head. Dropping all pretense of sickness, she rushed to her trunk and pulled out her new edition of Hogwarts: A History.
* * *
Wednesday, July 31st, 1996
THE-BOY-WHO-LIVED OR THE-BOY-WHO-KILLED? - The Daily Prophet
HARRY POTTER CHARGED WITH MURDER, ON THE RUN - The Magical Gazette
MINISTRY ACCUSES HARRY POTTER OF HOMICIDE - Wizarding Express
"Way to celebrate your birthday, Potter," whispered a certain green-eyed boy sarcastically to himself, as he wound his way carefully through the crowds in Diagon Alley. The shopping spree that enthralled wizarding Britain, before the new term started at Hogwarts, had just taken off. His own images were staring back at him from the various newspaper stalls, ensuring total sell-outs as people of all ages thronged the stalls to get a glimpse of the shocking story.
Being under his Invisibility cloak, he wasn't afraid of being caught. His immediate concern was in taking care of his dwindling monetary resources. He had almost no Muggle change left, and his wizarding money would probably last him a week at the most. It was for this reason that he had built up the courage to enter Diagon Alley - until now he had been spending his times in Muggle public parks and getting his meals in Muggle restaurants.
He had his Gringotts vault's key in his money bag, but where the problem lied was in extracting the cash from the bank without being recognized. And thanks to the newspaper articles, it had been necessary for him to prepare a good disguise before he dared to enter the bank. Since he never bothered to cut his hair, it had been literally falling over his eyes. He had bought a good Muggle hair cream - which had cost him most of his Muggle money - and somehow managed to tame his hair, adopting a hair-style which perfectly covered his scar. And to his own astonishment, he had been able to transfigure his old-fashioned round metal glasses into one of those sleek Muggle rectangular models to go with his hair-style. He had even managed to darken the glasses to camouflage the bright green color of his eyes.
On the whole, he was satisfied with his disguise, and as he walked among the wizarding folk of London, his mind went back to the thoughts that he had been immersed in for the past three days. The more he had thought of it, the less wise his decision to run away from Grimmauld Place had seemed. But surrendering to the Aurors wouldn't have helped either, though he believed that Dumbledore would eventually find a way to clear his name. Yet he couldn't be sure, for the fact, that Sirius - even being innocent - spent twelve years in Azkaban, regularly kept flashing back to his mind.
Before long he could spot the snow-white marble entrance to Gringotts. Shrugging of his thoughts, he concentrated on the task at hand. The entrance was being guarded as usual by goblins, as scores of witches and wizards were passing through it. He reckoned that he wouldn't attract any attention if he simply moved with the crowd. Moving into a secluded corner, he removed the Invisibility cloak, tucking it into his knapsack. Cautiously, he emerged in front of the entrance. To his relief, no one seemed to recognize him in his disguise.
He went in with the crowd, staying as far as possible from the guards standing on either side of the entrance. Surveying the grand marble hall, he could not find any sign of Aurors. Since he was in desperate need of Muggle money, he first changed all the galleons he had into pound sterling. Then he quickly handed over his key to a goblin at the counter, observing the goblin's face minutely for any sign of recognition. When none showed, he followed the goblin to a dimly lit carriage-chamber to board a carriage that would carry them to his vault.
Once he had filled his money bag with coins, he and the goblin started on the trip back, the carriage moving slower than before due to the climbing required. When the carriage was less than 15 feet away from the chamber, Harry spotted two human figures standing in the chamber, who hadn't been there before. His heart stopped for a second at the sudden realization - he had been discovered.
Without wasting another moment, he pulled out the Invisibility cloak and draped it over himself. Though he had laboriously gone over how he would face any problems at the entrance, he had not expected an encounter with Aurors after he had withdrawn his money. However, seeing that there were only two of them, he quickly came up with a plan.
Aiming his wand at the back of the goblin driving the carriage, he muttered "Stupefy" with all his concentration, praying that goblins responded to stunning spells. The goblin driver slumped to the floor, unconscious, and the carriage halted immediately. Harry carefully stepped on the rails as one of the Aurors started in the carriage's direction to investigate. Harry, being invisible, hurried to the chamber, stepping to the left to let the Auror pass. He didn't have much time, he judged, before the Auror reached the unconscious goblin.
Reaching the door of the chamber, which was guarded by the second Auror, he sent a Silencing spell at the Auror. Realizing that Harry was invisible, the Auror aimed a stunning spell at where he thought he had heard Harry. But Harry, who had expected this, dodged expertly and cast a body-binding spell on his assailant. The second Auror was now running back towards the chamber, having seen the goblin and his unmoving partner. But Harry had already exited the chamber and was now dashing towards the entrance.
Any moment, Harry feared, more Aurors would be apparating in. And his fears were not in vain, as five cloaked figures popped in near the entrance, blocking any exit from inside. In his surprise at their appearance, Harry tripped over the hem of his cloak, miraculously missing a nearby middle-aged witch as he fell flat on the floor. However, a part of his feet were exposed in process, leading to a shriek of horror from the witch. That caught the attention of the Aurors, as they started raining stunning spells all over the place where Harry had fallen moments ago.
Pandemonium ensued as the public scrambled for the exit, Harry running with them. Knowing that there was no way the Aurors could calm the crowds, Harry took full advantage of the situation, and rushed out of the building, even if it meant getting trampled and push by many since he was still invisible. But nobody seemed to notice his presence, and before long Harry was speeding his way to the Leaky Cauldron, soaked to his bones in the rain that was deluging London city.
* * *
In another part of the same city, a short man, of about 20 years of age, was walking briskly down a deserted lane, bordered by old and battered buildings on both sides. The rain was pouring as heavily as ever, but a water- repelling charm on the man's dark green cloak prevented the water from seeping in. If any of the wizarding folk of England were present here, they would have immediately recognized this man - he was often seen in purple uniform, as the conductor of a triple-decker bus that served as emergency transport for stranded witches or wizards.
However, Stan Shunpike had excused himself from his work today - he had urgent matters to attend to, which couldn't wait. A forgotten copy of the Daily Prophet was clutched tightly in his hands, soaking wet in the rain.
Harry Potter. The hero of the millions of blue-collar wizarding workers like him all over Britain. The one who had defeated the Dark Lord as a baby, freeing them from the merciless hell that had once been Stan's childhood. Naturally, when the rumors of You-Know-Who's return started a year before, the Boy-Who-Lived had once again become their source of hope; as long as he lived, they had nothing to fear.
Stan cursed the Ministry, cursed the power-mongers like Fudge sitting at its top. Stan had always had a happy-go-lucky attitude towards life, but what he had read in today's newspapers had, in his opinion, simply crossed the limits. Not once had he believed the shameless jibes that the Ministry made on Harry's personality all through last year, but he, as most of his co-workers, had let them pass in good humor. But this new dirty game that Fudge was playing had to be stopped, and contrary to all the Ministry's claims, he had evidence to show otherwise. He was the evidence.
Not having any idea how to reach Harry, or any of his supporters, Stan had hit upon another brilliant plan. It was to carry out this plan that he had taken the day off from work. And it would be accomplished any minute now, as he neared his destination. A seemingly desolate building stood at the end of the lane, a battered signboard hanging at its entrance. Muggle eyes would not catch what was written on the board.
The Quibbler,
Head Office,
London.