A/N: Harry Potter and all contents belong to the master of the quill, miss J.K. Rowling. I’m only 16, I don’t have a lawyer, I’m not making any money off of this, and I don’t have any money for you to sue me for.
Harry stood up, dusting off the soot from the fireplace. Nobody in the room said a thing, still waiting for what Harry was going to say. None of them had ever seen him this serious before. “You know how when you are traveling using floo you can see into the random fireplaces as you pass by? Well this time the last place I saw before coming out here was a very dark room with several people in it. At first I thought I was seeing things, or maybe I was just confused, but I realized it had to be real. There wasn’t any other way that I had seen what I had seen, and once I saw his hand I knew that it was.” Harry paused, trying to collect his thoughts. At the same time Lupin and Joy appeared in the fireplace, smiling, completely unaware of what was going on.
“Wow, that was by far the oddest feeling I’ve ever had. I could feel the fire on my legs but it wasn’t hot. And the whole fireplace expanded so we could fit in it. Did you like it Emma?” Joy asked, exhilarated by her trip she still hadn’t noticed the tense atmosphere in the room.
“Harry what’s wrong, did something happen?” Lupin asked, finally noticing the boy’s now ashen face.
“I saw him Moony, just sitting by the fire. I think that they might be spying on us, it was the last place I saw before landing here, that means they’re close right?” Harry asked quickly, almost out of breath.
“Slow down there boy, you’ll give yourself a stroke. Breath. Now tell me what happened, who did you see?” Moody said, limping up to the boy, scaring Emma with his magical eye.
“I saw Wormtail, well Peter I guess, and some other death eaters. I think I recognized another, McNair, they were all just sitting in the room discussing something. I think they must be close because they were the last room I saw before getting here. Could they be spying on us? Do they know about headquarters?” Harry said glancing at the fireplace behind him nervously, as if he expected them to come bursting out of it.
Everyone tensed up immediately, the Aurors in the room drew their wands and out of maternal instinct Molly grabbed Ginny, and even though Joy had no idea what was going on she did the same.
“Potter, can you describe the room, what did it look like?” Moody asked, his eye swinging even more out of control.
“I only saw it for a second, but it was just a small dirty looking room. Its curtains were pulled, and there wasn’t really any light. The wallpaper was peeling off also. But that’s about it, I really barely recognized Peter, but then I saw his hand, the silver one. I wish I’d seen more.” Harry said, shrugging.
“That’s better than nothing,” Shaklebolt said, standing up, “Mad-Eye, I think we should head outside and search the surrounding buildings. I don’t know if the room being the last thing he saw means it’s close, but it wouldn’t hurt to be safe.”
“I agree with Kingsley,” Tonks said, “why don’t we let your eye take a little peek at the houses near us. Maybe it can find that filthy little rat.”
Moody laughed harshly, “Let’s get going then, Shaklebolt, Tonks, your coming along. Remus?”
“Yes, I’ll come too, let me just get my cloak,” He made to head out of the kitchen but Harry stopped him.
“Moony, this isn’t about vengeance; I don’t want to loose you too. Just find them and capture them that’s it.” Harry said putting stress on the last words.
Lupin smiled and then hugged the boy tightly, “I promise I won’t do anything stupid, but I do want to go try and get him.” He pulled away and walked out of the room to go with the rest of the Aurors who were waiting at the front door.
“If we aren’t back by nighttime contact Dumbledore, but we should be back soon. I doubt that even the death eaters are stupid enough to hide next door to us,” Moody said letting another harsh laugh out, which in turn woke up Mrs. Black’s portrait. The Aurors went outside and left the others in the hallway with a screaming portrait.
“Harry, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL JUST…hold on a minute…” Ron shouted over the din of Mrs. Black’s screeching to no avail. He turned to face the portrait, grabbed its curtains and yanked them shut bringing silence back once again. Turning once again to face Harry he smiled, “Good to see you mate, now will you tell us what just happened?”
After getting the customary hug from both Mrs. Weasley and Hermione, and introducing Joy and Emma to everyone he led them back to the kitchen and retold the story exactly. When he finished he leaned back and watched everyone’s different expressions.
“And you’re sure it was them? I mean they weren’t just people who looked like them?” Hermione asked.
“I’m positive, Wormtail has a silver hand. I’ll never forget it, I saw Voldemort give it to him for bringing him back to life. And McNair was there two that night, you know, the man who was going to kill Buckbeak,” Harry added, noticing the blank expressions.
“Um, I know I don’t really know anything about this whole war. But why is it bad if you saw these death eaters in the fireplace?” Joy asked, feeling very out of place in this group of wizards.
“It’s not just the fact that he saw them in the fireplace, but also that it was the last thing he saw before arriving here. That means that the place had to be somewhat close to here, and seeing as this place is supposed to be a secret that is not a good thing if they know about it,” Hermione said.
“Let’s just hope that they can find them,” Ginny said.
“Ginny dear, how was your stay with Harry and Remus? Did you learn a lot, Albus said that you two would be learning a lot more defensive spells. Did the Dursley’s treat you well?” Molly said, snapping at once back into her motherly mode bustling around to prepare a Ginny, Harry, Emma, and Joy bowls of porridge for breakfast.
“Yeah, the Dursleys were quiet, we rarely saw them,” Ginny said uncertainly, curious why her mom hadn’t asked about the Heartbond yet, “did Dumbledore tell you what happened to Harry and I?”
“Tell me what?” Molly asked, now eyeing her daughter suspiciously.
“Well, I’m not sure why he didn’t tell you but the reason I had to stay with Harry was because-he-and-I-have-been-Heartbonded,” She spit out quickly, afraid of her mom’s reaction.
At those words, Molly dropped the bowl of porridge she was handing to Harry in shock, “YOUR’E WHAT!” She shouted, but it wasn’t only her, Hermione too had shouted in amazement.
“Uh…Heartbonded,” Ginny said feebly, witling under her mother’s gaze.
“There’s no way that my daughter can be Heartbonded, I mean that’s a child’s story that parents told their kids. I mean even if it was true the story said only Merlin and Godric Gryffindor have been Heartbonded.” Molly thudded down into a nearby chair, rubbing her temples. Joy jumped up and began cleaning the spilt porridge all over the counter top.
“I’m sorry Mrs. Weasley, I don’t know why Dumbledore didn’t tell you, but it is true. That night that she disappeared was on my 16th birthday, apparently when I turned sixteen we became bonded. It was so strong that it broke through the wards at both your house and mine. The bond is very strong, and if what Dumbledore says is right then it will make us both much stronger too.” Harry said, trying to head off Mrs. Weasley’s temper before it got the chance to really manifest. He’d seen her be mad at both the twins and Ron and it wasn’t a pretty even if you were on the sidelines.
“Oh Harry dear I’m not mad at you, well maybe a little bit at Albus, but I’m just more confused than anything. I don’t know what to say, did he tell you what was going to happen to you two?” Molly said, composing herself once again.
“Well, we’ve already started to be able to do smaller stuff like some wordless or wandless incantations. I can sometimes feel where Harry, or another person is, even if I can’t see them. Oh, and Harry can do some sort of wandless healing on himself,” Ginny said shrugging, “It’s been an interesting few weeks.”
“There haven’t been that many changes…well we do have to sle-“ But Harry was cut short by Ginny stepping on his foot and giving him the, ‘we’ll tell her later’ look, he then tried to cover up his near slip up, “Umm…we do have to get used to the fact that Gin and I are fated for each other. Not in a bad way, but knowing that your soul mates is a little bit too much to digest right away.”
“At first when you told me I didn’t believe it at all, I thought your aunt and uncle were feeding you something bad. But now looking at all the things you have done it seems to make sense. You had a crush on him the moment you met him at the train station your first year, even before you learned his name. Then you saved her life once when she was a first year, and probably saved her again last year at the Ministry of Magic. You might not have even known yourself, but before the Quidditch World Cup I could tell you were starting to realize she wasn’t just Ron’s sister anymore.” Molly said smiling at the two teens who were blushing and smiling awkwardly now.
The rest of the day went by with Harry, Ginny, Emma, and occasionally Joy, telling about their summer and all of the things they had done. Molly and Hermione were most interested by the trip to Harrods, but the twins were ecstatic when they heard about Hamleys, the four level toy store, saying they were planning on going as soon as possible.
The room was not devoid of tension however, everyone would occasionally glance over at the clock, counting down the time until they would call Dumbledore if the Order didn’t return. At around three the fireplace roared up in flames and everyone jumped up expecting Moody, or some other auror, but it was only Mr. Weasley stopping by for a quick late lunch before heading out again. He was pleased to see Harry and Ginny back, and had to sit down for a moment when Mrs. Weasley told him about them being Heartbonded. He rebounded quickly however, and said he was happy for them and he’d be interested to see what other things would happen over the next several months.
Molly decided to not tell her husband about the Order’s expedition right at that moment because she felt he was stressed enough. Apparently with the open announcement of Voldemort’s return a lot more, much nastier, muggle traps were being created. Causing Mr. Weasley to have a lot more work, but because of Fudge’s loathing for anything Dumbledore, even friends of his, it had been difficult for him to even get a temporary replacement when his assistant Perkin’s got viciously mauled by a bad tempered pair of fire tongs.
Arthur left a little later, and Molly decided to start cooking once again to take her mind off of the Order. The rest of the group were sitting in the dusty couches in the library talking about Hogwarts and other news around the wizarding world.
“Did you hear that Malfoy’s dad apparently got out of Azkaban? He was the only one too. Somehow either he, or someone else, managed to stun over a dozen guards and break through the warded gates,” Hermione asked Harry.
“That great git, stun 12 guards, I doubt it. I bet he had help from his cronies Crabbe and Goyle Senior,” Ron guffawed.
“Or Tom,” Harry said solemnly.
“Who?” Ron asked.
“Tom,” Harry said more loudly, then noticing no one knew what he was talking about he continued, “…Marvalo Riddle? Lord Voldemort.”
“Maybe, but do you really think he’d risk it just for Malfoy’s dad? I mean he’s nothing special, is he?” Ron asked.
“He’s got money, and that seems to be the only thing ‘Tom’ can’t really kill to get. The goblins have it all, almost 87 percent of all galleons, and he’s not exactly friendly with them. He killed a whole colony somewhere in
“in a book!” Ron, Harry, and Ginny all said in unison.
Ignoring the incredulous glare from Hermione Harry turned to Ron, “So has your dad heard anything on the inside. I mean from the papers I’ve read it seems like Fudge is having a hard time staying minister right now.”
“Yeah, my dad says he’s really mad now, after the whole Department of Mysteries thing. Dad hasn’t seen him after that, says he’s mostly up in his office now, fuming. I think he knows his time’s up and he’s now just trying to buy time to get out of it in a way that makes him look good.” Ron said.
Another hour passed until they heard a loud knock on the door and muffled voices. Everyone sprinted down the hallway to get the door and see who it was.
When Molly threw the heavy door open a figure dropped in through the door frame. It was Emmeline Vance, and she seemed to be completely covered in blood, so much so that it was impossible to see the actual cuts.
“They sent me, they’re coming. Got them…some injured. Cutting hexes…something else. Call doctor,” Emmeline panted, she was suffering from massive blood loss.
Molly could mend bruises of cuts not something this drastic so she ran off to go floo Madam Pomfrey for help.
“Harry, try what you did this morning. She doesn’t look too good, and maybe it will help her,” Ginny said.
“Good idea, here Ron help me flip her over so I can get a good look at where her cuts are.” Harry and Ron gently turned her on her back. Hermione tried a cleaning charm to remove some of the blood but it didn’t do much.
Harry got on his knees and began to look for where the hexes had hit. He saw a large gash around her left calf and upon closer inspection saw the huge cut on her leg. “Looks like they got an artery, she’s loosing a lot of blood. I’m going to try and stop the bleeding. Here Hermione do that cleaning charm over here one more time.”
She did it twice more, clearing it a bit so Harry could see the beginning and end of the gash. He placed his thumb on the smaller part of it, closed his eyes, and just began rubbing the area in circles.
“He heard a gasp from Hermione, and Ron said some variation of a curse word, so he opened his eyes. The spot where he’d been rubbing had become completely clear of blood and was healed. He quickly went to work on the rest of the cut, slowly working his way across it, stopping the blood flow. He reached the very end and rubbed the edge of the cut until that too disappeared.
He smiled and stood up, but swayed a little bit and had to grab a hold of Ron to stop from collapsing.
“Whoa, that was weird, that healing must have taken a lot of magic because I’m a little dizzy. Here let me just sit for a second I’ll be alright. Take her to the kitchen and let Madam Pomfrey look at her, I think I hear her.
As Harry was sitting down several more figures appeared in the doorway. They stepped into the house. On the left side was Moody, on the other was Kingsley Shaklebolt, and sandwiched and bound up in-between the two men was Wormtail.
“This little bastard tried to choke me with his silver hand on the way back here, almost took my head off in the process,” Moody growled, indicating the large cut on the side of his face. “Get moving rat!” Moody shouted pushing Wormtail further inside.
Harry looked at Wormtail with the utmost disgust then noticed he was cradling his right hand, “Mad-Eye, what happened to his hand?”
“Oh well I told you, he tried to choke me with it. So I removed it,” He said, with a slight grin on his face, he then pulled the arm out of his cloak pocket and waved it in front of Wormtail’s face teasingly.
“Kingsley, where are the others?” Molly asked, bustling out of the kitchen, looking slightly flustered from all the commotion. Joy was back with Emmeline and Madam Pomfrey trying to patch everything up.
“They’re on their way Molly, no need to worry. Got a couple more of the scum with ‘em. A few managed to escape but we got four of the six, not too bad. How’s Emmeline, she was our only real injury, couple of us got scrapes or burns but that’s about it.” Kingsley said.
Moody pushed Wormtail once again, causing him to fall over, “Get up you rat, and go in there, we’re going to have ourselves a little chat about espionage.” Moody said in his most frightening voice, both his eyes focused intently on the cowering spy.
