Chapter Five: Time to Leave

book ever again, “why?!”

“We’re going to need its superior Potion’s recipes in the field,” Hermione said, her cheeks reddening considerably and sounding embarrassed.

This admission hit Harry like a lead weight to the stomach. Over this year, Hermione had used everything sort of physical force to try to stop Harry from using that book. She kept claiming that the book was evil and Harry was cheating, but until the night Dumbledore died, Harry had assumed she was just jealous. Now, however, he agreed with Hermione that the book was evil, but he still thought he wasn’t cheating. Her, admission still shocked him, however.

“What do you mean?” Ron asked quizzically.

“Think about it,” Hermione said, embarrassment still tinting her voice. “The Potions instructions in that book take at least half the time as they do in a regular Potions manual, which will be an improvement, say, if we need to interrogate someone we capture. Normally, Veritaserum takes six hours to make; the instructions in that book can do it in three. Three hours can mean the difference between getting to a prisoner in time to save him, or arriving too late to do anything except retrieve his corpse.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic, but the thought of using instructions written by that monster Snape curdled his blood. Nevertheless, he forced himself to march down to the Room of Requirement and pick up that hated book. This morning, as he passed the lake on the way to the carriages, he was filled with an irrational urge to chuck that book into the lake. He had to fight that urge with all his might to keep himself from doing it!

Clearing his head, Harry turned to look at five other people in this carriage, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Neville, and Luna were silently trying to figure out how they were going to convince the Order of the Phoenix to let Dumbledore’s Army take over security at the wedding and preceding family reunion. Finally Hermione spoke up and said, “Why don’t we just sit Professor McGonagall, the Weasleys, and every other Order member on the train and tell them what happened and what we want done.”

They all agreed to this immediately, as no one else present had come up with anything constructive. The only vaguely effective options were either totally illegal or too stupid to put into words. They continued in silence for the rest of the trip to the Hogsmeade train station. Harry spent most of his time looking at his ex-lover longingly while Ginny avoided his gaze and looked out the window forlornly, her big, beautiful brown eyes staring out the window with a deep sadness imbued in them. He loved Ginny completely and totally, but he knew he couldn’t be with her again, not until this war was over.

Besides, Harry thought, anger at Ginny briefly flaring up, I’m not sure she’d take me back. But Justas quickly as her message flared, it passed, leaving Harry with an almost uncontrollable urge to hug her, kiss her, and even… however, his thoughts were interrupted by the carriages rumbling to a halt. He looked out to recognize the wooden buildings and platform of Hogsmeade train station. They all got out of the carriage and waited for the Hogwarts Express to arrive. Making a decision, he left his friends and walked over to the other D.A. members, who were huddled together a good three meters apart from the rest, and looking apprehensive and clearly wondering what to do when they arrived at King’s Cross Station. Harry quickly decided to get everything moving as quickly and as smoothly possible.

“All right, everyone,” Harry said, quietly yet sternly to the thirteen or so young men and women about to go on the train. “When you get on board that train, pretend nothing has changed. Sit where you like, with whom you like to sit with. We don’t want news of the DA’s reformation to reach the general Wizarding public. Not yet anyway.” When the D.A.’s existence is known I want them to have achieved a modicum of legitimacy. “Oh,” Harry said, “Don’t say ‘yes, Sir,’ when I’m done talking, it will draw attention to ourselves.”

With that they broke ranks and got on board the train. He waded through the ranks of literally hundred s of students to get back to his friends, who were about to board as well, to hear Ron say quizzically, “What was that about?”

“They looked worried and I feared thy might draw attention to themselves,” Harry responded. When they all looked at him funny, Harry said, “You all know that the D.A.’s existence will not be received favorably by some friendly parties. Hell, I’m not even sure we’re doing the right thing!”

“But if you back out now,” Ginny said, “You’ll look like a coward.”

“Oh,” Harry said quickly, remembering his orders. “I told them to assemble in one group when we arrive at King’s Cross Station, and we could really use a convenient excuse to get them away from their parents when the time comes.”

“I’ve already thought of that,” Hermione said happily, quite pleased with herself, and handed him a stack of pamphlets the length vertically of his head. He read through one of them, his eyes widening with shock and horror. “I’m holding what?!” Just as he was about to take Hermione to task for this, the conductor yelled, “Are you getting on this train or not?!” They then looked around to see almost no one left on the platform except themselves and the haggard looking conductor. Very quickly, they ran up the steps and got on board the train. A moment later, the Hogwarts Express pulled away from the station and they took one last look at the beautiful village of Hogsmeade as they rode through it. They all found a compartment and sat down, three to a seat, before Harry confronted Hermione.

“Why did you write that I was holding a,” Harry flipped through the pamphlet roughly, “An ‘advanced high-intensity course in defensive magic?”

“I had to do something to waylay their parents’ suspicions,” Hermione said defensively. “I don’t feel good about lying to people either, Harry, but what choice do we have? We’re at war, Harry. We need all the help we can get, and besides it’s all true in sense.”

Harry sat back in his chair, and closed his eyes, thinking about the ethical ramifications of all of this. Oh, well, he thought, I might as well accept it.

“All right,” he said apprehensively.

“Good,” Hermione said, taking the stack. She handed it to Luna and ordered her to hand them out, two to a person.

“Yes, Sir,” was all she said before she walked out the door.

Moving on to the next order of business, “All right, why don’t Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and I go talk to the Order members while Neville goes and does what he wants until the train gets to King’s Cross. When it gets there, Neville you and Luna get the D.A. ready to leave.

“All right,” Neville said, nonchalantly, clearly not focused and already bounding off in the same direction Luna went. Harry had no doubt in his mind that Neville was going to spend all his time with her. Now for the tough part, Harry thought gloomily as he, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny stalked off to find the Order members.

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They found the Weasley parents chatting amiably with Bill, Fleur, Fred, and George. They politely waited for a lull in the conversation before they walked in.

“Hi, kids,” Mrs. Weasley said, clearly happy to see all of them.

“We have a proposal to make,” Harry said

“What?” Mr. Weasley asked curiously.

“Well,” Harry responded embarrassed, and just when Harry was about to talk about the D.A. Hermione interrupted.

“We want the D.A. to take over security at the wedding and associated family reunion,” Hermione said blithely. “Which I assume is the Order’s responsibility.”

After a moment of stunned silence, Mr. Weasley, stunned and still a little shocked, “Wait a minute, isn’t the D.A. that tutoring group you formed in your fifth year?” Harry not entirely surprised that Hermione interrupted, was about to lambaste her for it, but decided that it was better if she did the talking.

“How do you know that?” Hermione said, genuinely surprised that they knew.

“Uh, we told them,” Fred said.

“Well, all right then,” Hermione said, totally disarmed and clearly thinking, well, too late now.

“What is this about it ‘taking over security,’ as you put it?” Bill asked, shock, surprise, and confusion tingeing his voice. “The way I understand it, the D.A. was dissolved in your fifth and fourth years, respectively.”

“Forcibly dissolved by that ass Umbridge’s cronies,” Harry broke in angrily. “But that’s beside the point. The point is,” Harry said reluctantly, “it’s been reformed and wants to get involved in the war.”

“But you’re all sixteen or seventeen,” Mrs. Weasley said, worry in her voice. “You’ll be facing enemies’ years ahead in both experience and skill.”

“So,” Ginny said fiercely. “Harry’s trained us well. I think we proved that at the Department of Mysteries last year and at Hogwarts this year.”

Harry was shocked when she said this, and a little pleased. He never expected this from a woman who had essentially dumped him a couple days earlier. Does this mean she’s having second thoughts? If so maybe I can-. No, Harry thought forcibly; don’t even think of getting back together with her until this war is won.

“Granted the other’s skills in offensive and defensive magic may be a little rusty,” Ginny continued. “But some fresh training will help with that.”

“Because no less than thirty fights, magical or otherwise, broke out over a seventy-two hour period at the Weasley-Prewitt reunion seven years ago,” Ginny responded menacingly.

“What’s zat supposed to mean,” Fleur said suspiciously.

“I don’t know,” Ginny said. “I got this feeling-.”

“’You got this feeling’,” Mrs. Weasley said. “That there would be so many people that maintaining security would be virtually impossible.”

“I seem to recall that, at the last reunion,” Ginny retorted, “You spent three days in your room crying to yourself. The only thing that brought you out was Fred catching pneumonia.” Ginny glared at her mother until she visibly humbled herself.

“Oh, please,” Fleur said, “Seven years eez a long time. I’m sure your family has changed and they will all act ceevilized.”

“And besides, their will be, what, a hundred people there?” Bill said reasonably. “I’m sure everything will be fine. And you still haven’t explained to us why we should allow you to do this.”

“Because they need intensive practice in offensive and defensive spells,” Ron, who had been silent this entire time said. “And they’ll be on hand in the event this is another disaster like last time we attempted such a reunion.”

“Well, if you’re going to do this,” Mr.Weasley said, standing up. “You’re going to need the approval of Mcgonagall as she is now the head of the Order of the Phoenix.”

That’s it? Harry thought. They were going to go along with this without too much of a fight? Still wondering why, Harry, his friends, the Weasleys, and Fleur went to find the other Order members on board. They found Mcgonagall, Shacklebolt, Tonks, Lupin, and Moody a few compartments over. Neither of them had apparently been talking when they arrived.

“What are you doing here?” Mcgonagall asked curiously, her voice still reflecting the deep sadness she had been showing since the attack.

“Two reasons,” Mr.Weasley said. “One, we want to know the decision on the fate of the school.”

“Well,” Mcgonagall said sighing. “The decision me and the governors made was unanimous, the school is closed indefinitely.

Harry was disappointed, though not entirely surprised. He had been hearing rumors about this since the day after the attack. Still, Hogwarts had been his home, his real home, for nearly seven years. Now, his home was closed, there would be no going back, not now at least. Harry heard disappointed groans issue from Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

“And Harry has something to tell you,” Mr. Weasley said quickly. Sighing, Harry launched into a dissertation on what his intentions were for the D.A. The response was one of immediate shock, horror, and refusal. So, Harry and friends, using their only remaining option, set about battling for the right to be involved in the war. In the end, the Order slowly, reluctantly, gave ground until, finally, after an hour’s arguing back and forth, they agreed. The evidence supporting why they should be allowed to fight was solid. One, the DA members had all received particularly high marks in D.A.D.A. classes. Two, Harry and his friends had proven the effectiveness of their training twice in combat. The final thing that won the Order hierarchy over was the fact that they needed all the help they could get.

“All right,” Lupin said, sighing heavily and clearly reluctant. “You can be in charge of security at the wedding and the reunion.” A moment later, with a half-hearted laugh, Lupin said, “This could allow us to focus on more… sensitive issues” He refrained from using “more important” or “more critical” as it might upset the Weasleys. What, they would think. The lives of everyone at the wedding aren’t important enough?

“Now that we’ve got that settled,” Harry said, relieved that after an hour’s arguing they could move on. “Fred, George, we need as many of your D.A.D.A. supplies as you can possibly give us.

“Okay,” Fred said happily, rubbing his hands in excitement over the sudden monetary windfall that was about to befall them.

Hermione again chose to interrupt at this moment again, saying in a bossy voice, “I’ll handle this, Harry.” The three of them, Hermione, Fred, and George immediately began talking about “financial transactions, and “supply and demand” and other economic topics. Finally they filled out an order form on a piece of parchment which they handed to Harry.

Looking over the order form, Harry felt shock course suddenly through him. How many Galleons did commit me to spending, Harry thought, shocked. “You spent over three thousand Galleons?!” Harry shouted angrily. He saw everyone’s jaws drop and they all seemed to be looking at Harry and Hermione. Mrs. Weasley even looked ready to admonish someone, whether it was Harry for shouting or Hermione for spending so much of Harry’s money at once was unclear.

“What?” Hermione said indignantly. “You have at least ten times that at Gringotts. You can pay that much without breaking a sweat.”

“Yes, I can,” Harry said resignedly, realizing her point. “But still, it’s a lot of money.”

“I managed to get their entire stockpile,” Hermione said proudly. “Two hundred boxes containing 500 Decoy Detonators each. One hundred boxes containing fifty Shield Cloaks each…” Hermione continued to prattle on until Harry held up her hand to stop her.

“All right, Hermione. I get it,” Harry said.

“By the way, what does ‘D.A.’ stand for?” Lupin asked curiously.

“Dumbledore’s Army,” Harry said succinctly. And as he said it, he felt pride flow through him like blood through his veins and capillaries.

“Two years ago,” Harry remarked. “During Umbridge’s control of Hogwarts, we chose that name because it was what Umbridge and the paranoid Ministry feared above all else.

Mcgonagall and the others laughed mirthlessly. Lupin looked right at them and said, “It fits. By God, it fits.”

Feeling a sense of accomplishment left and went to await their arrival at King’s Cross. The hours melted away and five hours later, at 1600 hours they arrived at King’s Cross in London. As the train rumbled to a halt, Harry, his friends, and the Order members went and found every D.A. member, luggage in hand, ready to leave. Neville and Luna walked up to them and Neville said, “Well, they all seemed ready to leave, so here they are.” They got off the train, onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, and walked into the Muggle section of the train station.

On the other side, the Hogwarts students had reunions with their parents, everywhere as far as the eye could see mothers and fathers embraced and kissed their children. The D.A. members breathed a resigned sigh almost as one, and shuffled over to hand their fake excuses over to their parents. Harry watched as the parents faces registered surprise, shock, and was that hope?

He watched as, one by one, the other D.A. members broke off and joined Harry and hid friends. One of the parents, a father, went so far as to shout “teach tem well, Harry!” before seven witches and wizards breathed a loud “shh” at him. It wasn’t wise for a wizard to shout something like that at a train station full of Muggles.

“’Teach them well, Harry?’” Mr. Weasley asked quizzically, clearly wondering what was going on. Anxious to avoid a confrontation, Harry said, rather quickly, “I’ll explain later. Or Hermione will.” Thinking about it he said, “Better make it Hermione.” He really didn’t want a confrontation about their out-and-out lie.

“Hermione!,” a female voice shouted. She turned to see a slim-built women in her forties with bushy-brown hair rush up. “There was no doubt as to who it was. It was Hermione’s mother, Dr. Mary Clark Granger.

“Mummy!” Hermione shouted and rushed up to hug her. A few minutes later, after she extracted herself from her mother’s arms she asked, “Where’s Dad?”

“He’s outside on his cell phone,” Dr. Granger said. “He’s talking to your grandma as we speak. We’ll be going there as soon as you say goodbye to your friends.”

“But mum,” Hermione said pleadingly. “I’m spending the summer at the Burrow to help them prepare for their eldest son’s wedding.”

Dr. Granger looked at the Weasley parents and asked politely, “When is the wedding?”

“Er, three weeks from now,” Mr. Weasley said.

“Well, congratulations. You can see our daughter then.” Dr. Granger said. She turned to her daughter and said. “Now come on.” And grabbed Hermione without a word and hustled her towards the entrance.

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A couple meters away from her friends, she turned to her mother and said, “They really need help, mum.”

“Your father and I want to see you more than once a year,” Dr. Granger said. “Your not an adult yet and until you are-.” She was about to say more when Hermione cut her off.

“I am an adult, mum,” Hermione said, anger sparkling in her eyes and showing in her voice. “In the Wizarding world, I became a legal adult on September 29, 1996. I can do what I want now.”

“Oh,” her mother said, embarrassed. “I forgot about that.” She turned away from her daughter, deep in thought. A moment later, she turned around and asked, pleadingly, “Can you at least talk to your grandma? She hasn’t heard from you in so long.”

“That I can do,” Hermione said at once. “It would be nice to talk to her again.”

A few minutes later they were out of King’s Cross and walking across to where her father Dr. Peter Granger was talking to his mother Janet Granger. As soon as Hermione walked over, the stocky, well-built man handed her the cell phone.

“Hi, Grandma,” she said happily over the cell phone.

“Hi, Hermione,” her grandmother responded. “So, when are you coming over?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t,” Hermione said gravely. “I have important things I have to do but I just wanted to talk to you for a bit. See how you were doing.”

“Oh,” the sound of her grandmother’s disappointment made her regret what she was doing, but she had a job to do. “I’m doing fine,” her grandmother said. “How are you?” It was as far as she got. For at that moment Hermione heard five loud cracking noises from on her grandmother’s end. Cracks she knew were the sounds of Apparating witches or wizards.

“Who the hell are you?” She heard her grandmother say. Janet Granger had never been one of those stereotypical timid old ladies you saw on television all the time. Hermione had no doubt she was holding a steak knife and trying to defend her house.

She was about to tell her to run, to get out of that house when she heard a blast that her ears was the sound of a Stunning spell. She heard a body drop to the floor, and the phone on her end suddenly exploded, judging by the sound.

“Damn it!” Hermione shouted and slammed the phone to the ground anger filling her.

“What happened?!” her father asked, clearly reacting to what he heard over the phone.

“Something’s gone wrong,” was all she said as she walked into the station, her father and mother at her heels. Her mind was racing as she tried to piece together why they attacked. And why they broke from their modus operandi and Stunned her rather than killed her as she would have expected.

She ran up to Harry and the other D.A. members and immediately ordered the other members to get back across the barrier and await instructions.

“What’s going on, Hermione?” Harry asked.

“They’ve got my grandmother!” Hermione whispered furtively.

“Who?!,” Hermione’s mother and father shouted at once. Hermione immediately yanked them over to the barrier and admonished them.

“Don’t shout that! Not here, at least. I’ll explain when I get back, just stay calm!”

The last of the D.A. members were about to go across the barrier when he heard a “hello, Hermione” come form behind them. It didn’t take long to figure out who had said it, for Parvati and Padma Patil had walked up into the station.

“You’re here?” Hermione said immediately, wasting no time with platitudes. “Good, get across the barrier right away. We have an emergency. Go!” she shouted. They left to obey and rushed over the barrier. Without another word, she ran over herself and got across the barrier. Without another word, she ran over herself and got across the barrier with her friends trying to keep up with her. They disappeared behind the barrier, leaving a very confused set of Order members and the Grangers behind.

“Wizards,” Hermione said. “Probably Death Eaters, have Apparated into my grandmother’s house in Scotland while we were on the phone and Stunned her!”

“Well!” Ron said. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

“Oi, you there!” he said a moment later when he saw Parvati, Justin, Padma, and Michael snogging, “You can do that later, let’s move!”

“Everyone who can’t Apparate grab someone who can’t and prepare to Apparate to my grandmother’s house in Scotland!” Hermione shouted. The slow place of this operation infuriated her. The time window for rescuing her grandmother was virtually shut, and it wasn’t getting any larger. They had to Apparate now, or all hope was lost.

“We’re in position!” Someone shouted, probably Parvati.

“Good!” Hermione responded, and grabbed Harry and Ron’s hands and Dissapparated followed later by the rest of the D.A. Seconds later, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were across the barrier to demand and explanation. They arrived in time for the popping noises.

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The D.A. arrived at a picturesque old Victorian-era house in a green, grassy field. The sun was bright in the sky and everything seemed normal. The dark red painted house seemed quiet, peaceful, and there was not a scratch on the walls or anywhere else. Harry, however, knew, just knew, something was wrong.

“All right,” Harry said, wasting no time. “Ron, take Ginny, Luna, Dean, Michael, Parvati, and Padma, Seamus, and Justin. Go around the back, and, on my signal, the rest of us and your people will, at the same time, break down the front and back doors and try to surprise them”

“Yes, Sir,” Ron said. He took Ginny and Luna, called out the others, who came out slowly, hesitantly, clearly unsure of what they were getting themselves into. Then, not wanting to look like cowards they ran like the wind to the back of the house.

Harry surveyed his own people, Lavender, Colin, Seamus, Hermione, and Dean were putting on a brave face, but they were Gryffindors, bravery was part of their character. The rest weren’t but they all shared the same, intelligient reservation. Entering that house, they were all clearly thinking, except Hermione of course, was suicidal.

“Well,” Harry said. “What are we waiting for?” He flipped open his comm.-mirror and contacted Ron. Ron’s face appeared on the screen, looking… tense.

“Are you ready, Ron?” Harry asked.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” Ron responded.

“On my signal, then,” Harry said. He pulled out his wand, pointed it at the door shattered and fell to pieces in its frame. He listened as the back door splintered and a great mass of feet rushed in; a couple of seconds later, the rest of the D.A. rushed in, their wands drawn. They were surprisingly disciplined for a group their age and didn’t fire off potshots at anything. They then slowly, quietly, began their search for any sign of Hermione’s grandmother.