Death's Gift - Chapter Twenty-One
Getting into the Order
Harry's eyes widened and all expression dropped from his face, his memories from his time with the Dursleys flooded back and he couldn't control himself. Harry started shaking as the times that he was beaten till he was unconscious replayed in his mind. He started hyperventilating when he remembered all the days he'd go without food. He staggered and his back hit the wall, slowly sliding down as he remembered all the scares that covered his body from where his Uncle would throw glass things at him, or beat him till he was bloody. All the years of being Dudleys punching bag came back as he pulled his hands up to his head, having a complete mental breakdown.
Remus turned around when he stared hearing Harry's breathing pick up, "Harrison?"
Sirius turned around to as Harry started to hyperventilate. The adults bolted up as the teen was visibly shaking.
"Harry?! Harrison are you alright?" Sirius asked.
Harry took a step back and slid down the wall, his breathing even faster.
"Harry!" Sirius and Remus were by his sides in a second, Remus grabbing one of the hands that and been pushed up against the side of his head.
"Albus, do you have any calming drought?!" Sirius asked immediately.
Albus shook his head, having stood up as well, "I do not, though Madam Promphry will."
Sirius and Remus steadied Harry and started to pull him up, both of them talking to him in a quiet voice, telling him it was going to be okay. They were just about to leave when Harry started to calm down, slowly taking deeper breaths and his shaking went down.
"Harry?" Sirius asked.
Harry swallowed thickly, and turned to look at his father.
"Do you think you're alright to stand on your own?" Sirius asked.
It took a bit for Harry to process the question, but once he did he gave a shaky nod. Sirius and Remus let slowly let go, but remained at his sides just in case. Once he has gotten control over himself again Harry turned towards Dumbledore.
"You-" He said, "You are not sending-" he had to take another breath, "sending me to the Dursleys."
Sirius and Remus looked at him curiously.
"How do you know their names?" Remus asked.
"We've never mentioned them, lot of filthy people they are." Sirius added.
Harry just shook his head instead of answering.
"There's no way we're sending Harrison anywhere." Sirius stated.
"We will stick with our own plan." Remus told Dumbledore.
Dumbledore sighed and made his way back over to sit down, Sirius and Remus forcing Harry to sit down in a chair between them, "Very well, though I highly advise you to rethink who you will choose as your secret keeper. I can assure you that you would be much safer if you made your secret keeper some like myself or Moody."
"Moody is already the secret keeper for Grimmuald Place." Sirius reminded him.
"And we're choosing Hermione. There's not a better person for it than her." Harry stated simply.
"Harrison, I am afraid your judgment is being clouded by your friendship with her, please, leave this to the adults." Dumbledore said.
Harry balled his fists, his magic turned thick, making everyone in the room a bit on edge, "Last time I checked Professor, the last time something like this was left to the adults my parents were murdered." He spat venomously.
Dumbledore's eyes widened, fear shown clearly in them.
"I may be young, but I am not the idiot you seem to think I am. I escaped Death Eaters who tried to come for me while I was in Paris with Theo without using any sort of magic, I was able to get Sirius and Remus, as well as the Grangers, out of our street and to Grimmuald Place before the attack happened and I did more work there repairing the place then the bloody Aurors did! You've said yourself that I am a protégé, so you must've noticed that I am brighter than everyone else in my year, as well as the next few years up. I apologize if my age may be small in numbers, but I believe to have shown myself capable of just as much as any adult. Maybe you should just learn to back out of other people's business and simply know where you belong, because it's not up in mine, and my family's face."
Sirius and Remus were taken aback at Harry's behavior and words, but they found themselves agreeing with everything he had said. Dumbledore was dumbstruck, completely bewildered about the teen that now stood in front of him, leaning slightly over his desk and challenging him head on.
"I think we've covered this section enough for now, we will do what we we're originally planning and put the house under a feildus, making Hermione Granger our secret keeper." Sirius said, "Though there is something else we need to discuss."
Harry pulled back and moved to the corner of the room, ignoring Remus's protests of telling him to sit back down. Dumbledore perked up as soon has Harry had left, "What's bothering you Sirius?"
"These recent Death Eater attacks, they're far too coordinated to be just the messy and unplanned ones that followed the dark lord's death." Sirius told him.
Remus nodded, "Surely you must know something about them Albus."
Dumbledore fell silent for a moment, "I am afraid, that Lord Voldemort, has found some way to return."
Sirius and Remus paled while Harry perked up, this was his chance.
"What do you mean, 'return'?" He asked.
Dumbledore looked at him wearily, "I believe that he has found a way to come back."
"And what would that be?"
"I do not know..."
"Then why do you think he has come back?" Harry asked, stepping closer, "When someone dies they can't just choose to come back to the living world after a certain amount of time. Something has to keep their soul tied here so that it can't reach the after life."
Harry chose not to include the name of The Half Way Point, as well had the perks that came along with being the Master of Death.
Dumbledore opened his mouth to reply but Harry beat him to it, taking another step towards him, "Why do you think that it is so hard to believe that a still loyal Death Eater has managed, after eleven years, to reunite those still loyal to Voldemort and restart what he had created?"
"I-"
"I think, headmaster, that there is something you're not telling us."
Harry smirked at Dumbledore's gawking expression.
"Did you not expect me to figure that out?" Harry asked, tilting his head, "He has Horcruxes, doesn't he?"
Dumbledore's jaw dropped slightly and Harry's smirked widened. Sirius's eyes widened, he was taught about Horcruxes from his mother, how did Harry come to know about them?
"What's a Horcrux?" Remus asked cautiously.
"A Horcrux is the process of splitting one's souls in half and storing that half in an object. They're used as a blocker of Death, though doing the ritual itself is used extremely dark magic and requires you to murder someone who is completely innocent and pure."
Sirius gulped, Dumbledore snapped back to his senses, "How did you know that Harrison?"
"It was in a book on ancient magic that I checked out from the restricted section last year." Harry told him simply.
"If he has a Horcrux, "Sirius began, "Then he can use it to come back at kill Harrison."
"Which is exactly why you should let me join the Order of the Phoenix." Harry stated, crossing his arms.
"Harrison, the order is no place for a child." Dumbledore drawled.
"Excuse my rudeness Professor," Harry said, not even meaning it and he knew the headmaster could tell, "Who has the last two attacks been targeted at? Me. Who was the one to kill Voldemort as a baby? Me. Who's the one that Voldemort, if he even has returned, and his Death Eaters are trying to kill? Me. Who's the only one that is capable of killing him according to the prophecy? Me! So I see no reason why I should be kept in the dark because all of this is riding on my shoulders!"
"You're just a boy-" Albus began.
"Do you think that matters to them?!" Harry burst, forcing tears to escape his eyes for effect, "Do you think, that for one second, that Death Eaters will look at me and let me live just because I'm a kid?! No! They'll kill me! I'm not going to just sit around and wait for my own death to be handed to me on a silver platter!" Harry paused, he pulled back at looked down at the floor, "I don't want to die..." the last he said barely above a whisper.
Sirius stood up and pulled Harry into a hug, Remus placing his hand on his shoulder. Harry wrapped his arms around his father and buried his face in his clothes. They stayed like that for awhile, the only sound that could be heard were Harry's occasional sniffs. He eventually lifted his head and Remus knelt down to look him eyes to eyes.
"You ok cub?" He asked.
Harry nodded, he and Sirius pulling away.
"It wouldn't do us any good to have Harrison be uninformed Albus." Remus said, "We can't just leave him in the dark, it's too dangerous. He doesn't have to fight or do anything that could cause him harm, but he has to be apart of our plans, be apart of the Order."
"Remus and I are planning to start teaching him self defense, the muggle way of course since he is still underage, but we're also hoping to be able to do some lessons on offensive magic while he's at Hogwarts." Sirius told Dumbledore.
Dumbledore looked between the three of them and sighed, "I supposed it would do us more good then bad to keep Harrison informed, though I do not think he is ready to be a member of the order quite yet, maybe when he is older."
"Harrison, I think it is best if you don't hear what I have to say to Dumbledore." Sirius told his son wearily.
Harry nodded and Sirius cast a mufflintio charm around just him, Remus, and Dumbledore. Though Harry couldn't hear them, he had other ways to know what they were saying.
"Albus, if we don't do something about the attacks now, there might not be an older Harrison to join the order." Sirius said.
Dumbledore's eyes widened and he stared at the two men before him.
"I spoke with Hillary when she and her team were taking care of the muggles and the damage. This wasn't just a simple attack, it was an ambush like the one in Paris. With the amount of Death Eaters that were there, how many people were hurt and how much damage was done, if Harry hadn't gotten us out of there when he did, it is quite possible that we all could've died."
Remus swallowed thickly and Dumbledore fell silent.
"Please Albus, Harrison has to join the Order." Remus tried.
Dumbledore sighed, "It really is looking like the best possible option..." he glanced over to where Harrison stood, staring at them, "Very well."
With a wave of his hand Sirius's mufflintio charm was removed and Dumbledore spoke, "Harrison, you are herby invited to join the Order of the Phoenix."
Harry smiled, he'd done it.
"Before you are considered a member you must take the oath." Dumbledore said, standing up, "Pull out your wand."
Harry flicked his wand into his hand from where it rested in his holster as Dumbledore picked his up off of his desk.
"You must make in unbreakable vow."
Harry nodded and the two put their wands between their hands, grabbing each others wrists. Dumbledore muttered some words Harry couldn't make out and a red light made a string that wrapped around their hands and up to their elbows.
"Do you, Harrison James Potter-Black, swear to protect the Wizarding world from destruction by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters? As well as to never tell another person about what happens in our meetings, to keep our information only in your mind?"
Harry resisted the urge to smirk at Dumbledore's stupidity, there were loopholes everywhere, "I swear."
There was a wave of magic from where their hands were conjoined and the string faded away, Dumbledore and Harry letting go.
"Welcome to the Order Harrison." Dumbledore said and Harry grinned.
'Well played, very well played indeed.' said the man who had been inside Harry's mind since his panic attack.
. . . . . . .
The next few days Sirius, Remus, and Harry started brainstorming of which wards to put up around their house. During one of the periods that they were planning it out Voldemort slid into Harry's mind, offering his own input on how to improve their wards. Harry told him to butt out and the man left with a chuckle. Then later, Harry realized he was right the whole time and pointed it out to his parents. Needless to say that Voldemort held that over him for awhile.
The family was currently in the drawing room, all standing around a table with a piece of parchment on it, Remus holding a quill in his hand.
"-Then if we cross this one with the Fianto Duri, we should be able to boost the power behind everything else." Remus told them, making some marks on the parchment.
Sirius smirked, "Then we can burry the runes to create the illusion charm, which will will keep the charm active until we break the rune circle."
"Then all that's left is the feildus."
The two men grinned and made a few last markings on the parchment.
"That's it for the new wards then?" Harry asked.
Sirius nodded, "That's it."
"We'll start putting them up tomorrow, it will be tricky since we're surrounded by muggles and we can't get caught using magic, but we'll manage. It'll just take us the whole day, and probably the whole night." Remus said.
Sirius groaned, "We can't just take a one day break?"
Remus shook his head, "We were supposed to have these finished and up by yesterday, or did you forget that you decided to disappear on Tuesday?"
"You have to take a break at some point Moony. If you just work all the time you're going to snap."
"Unlike you, I can handle a lot of work."
Sirius rolled his eyes and Remus grinned, playfully hitting the man's shoulder. Harry smiled at the pair.
"Can I help in any way?" He asked.
"Sorry pup, but with you not being able to use magic there's not really anything you can do now." Sirius told him.
"Don't worry Harry, you've already helped loads with the planning. Why don't you just take tomorrow to relax? You can go out with some friends, or stay here and read. Whatever you want."
"So he gets a break on not me?" Sirius asked, dramatically falling into a chair acting like he was just stabbed in the heart.
Remus raised an eyebrow, "He can't use magic because he's a kid, you're just a grown man acting like one."
Harry laughed along with Sirius.
'If you're not doing anything tomorrow then come here. There is something I need to speak to you about.'
Harry laughter soon faded as he heard the voice in his head, 'Okay, I'll let you know before I have Kretcher bring me.'
He felt the man pull out of his mind and Harry enjoyed the rest of the day with his family. When he finally went to bed he found himself somewhat looking forward to the next day.