Chapter Thirteen
Monday proceeded as expected, my classes that day being Charms, Divination and Arithmancy. Harry and Ron began passing out the informational flyers regarding the Defense Club yet to be named. Hermione continued to research the history of the house elves. Fred and George celebrated the start of the school year by enchanting a pair of shoes to tap dance their way through Hogwarts.
Tuesday was Transfiguration, Herbology and to everyone’s eager anticipation, Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Everyone made sure to get to the classroom early and waited for Moody to show up. When the clock reached 1:00, Moody still hadn’t arrived.
“Do you think he’s late?” Ron asked at 1:05, his voice carrying over the quiet classroom.
“I wouldn’t bet on it. Either something horrible has happened to him over the lunch period, or this is a test,” I mused. “It could be some sort of Lord of the Flies situation, leave us to our own devices and see what happens, but that seems uncreative and quite frankly I’d expect better of Moody. It might be a surprise attack, testing our abilities with no preparation. That would be fun. Or maybe he faked a kidnapping of himself, left a clue and we’re supposed to find him. Or I suppose-”
“CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” a voice hollered and several jets of bright blue-white light shot out from the staircase leading to Moody’s office.
“Protego!” I shouted, pitching myself onto the floor and poking my wand above the desk to cast some more spells. “Stupefy! Expelliarmus! Cromes!”
Harry, Hermione, Ron and a few others had cast shield spells or ducked out of the way in time. Over half of the class was sitting frozen in their seats, victims of the Body Binding Curse. Meanwhile Professor Moody had been taken by surprise by the half dozen paintballs that had hit his shielding spell.
The paintball spell, Cromes , which Hermione and I had invented last year, summoned a paintball that shot out in the direction the wand was pointing. While shield spells deflected or absorbed most spells, the paintballs would splatter all over the shield.
“Not horrible for a bunch of fourth years,” Moody said, dropping his shielding charm and taking off his invisibility cloak. “I was planning on waiting a little while longer before attacking, but I would have lost my advantage once you had time to process the thought that I might attack. Five points to Ravenclaw for guessing I would attack you. One additional point to every person who didn’t get hit.”
Moody waved his wand and the Body Binding Curse was released.
“Now, I’m Alastor Moody, former Auror and now your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. From what Albus told me, you have shit luck when it comes to Defense teachers. So I am going to be teaching how to fight Dark wizards and survive in a year.”
“Now curses! Most wixen won’t shout out the spell that they are using. They also won’t politely challenge you to a duel. Expect attacks from anywhere. Be alert, be watchful, be prepared. Now there are three curses, the Unforgivable Curses, which are the most heavily punished spells in Britain. Usage alone will earn you a life sentence in Azkaban, even if you don’t cast at someone. Who can tell me one of them?”
The lesson continued, with Moody going over the three unforgivable curses and describing them in rather gruesome detail. Fortunately, he did not demonstrate the curses in the middle of the class.
“How are you?” I asked Neville gently as everyone gathered their things at the end of class.
“Oh, I’m fine. Interesting lesson. I wonder what’s for dinner,” Neville stammered.
“Do you want to talk?” Hermione asked.
“No, I’m going to go work on my herbology homework in my dorm,” Neville said, fiddling with the clasp of his bookbag.
“We can walk you there,” Harry said.
“Thank you,” Neville said.
While we were dropping Neville off at Gryffindor Tower, Fred and George managed to drag us all into a lengthy discussions about the marketability of various types of prank bombs.
On Wednesday afternoon, Hermione commandeered Harry and Ron’s shared room to give a presentation on house elf rights. While we had figured out that the boys could access the girl’s dorm through our animagi forms or by levitating themselves onto the balcony overlooking the common room, it wasn’t worth it for everyday meetings. Dobby joined us, bringing a plate of snacks that Ron eagerly grabbed.
“Welcome to the House Elf Rights Organization, abbreviated to HERO,” Hermione said. “Our mission is to raise awareness regarding the unfairness of how house elves are treated and get worker rights for them. Dobby?”
“Thank you Missy Hermy. We house elves, we like working for wizards. Every house elf wants a kind master who will treat us well and let us stay with them when we are old. Most house elves don't want money, because our masters give us food. Master Malfoy was a bad man and so Dobby is very glad to work for you now. Dobby wears clothes because Dobby is free to leave his place of employment as Missy ZoZo says, whenever he wants, but most house elves think clothes mean being abandoned. We want to be treated well and to have good homes,” Dobby finished.
“I’ve spoken with several of the Hogwarts house elves. What they want is retirement benefits, the ability to choose where they work instead of being sold by their masters or the ministry, the ability to marry and reproduce when and with whom they want and the option of payment.”
“I have pins for members of HERO and informational pahmplets. The pamphlets lay out what the house elves current legal situation is, compares it to muggle chattel slavery, explains what the house elves want and how people can get involved. That would be writing letters to various news outlets to publish, speaking to family and friends and signing our petition.”
“As we have seen before, petitions are a good way to measure support. Once we build enough support, our plan is to get a member of the Wizengamot to introduce legislation to guarantee house elf rights. We have a preliminary outline of what this bill would entail. House elves could leave their place of employment at any time. Any physical mistreatment of house elves would be illegal and punishable by imprisonment or fine. The Office of House-Elf Relocation would work to find house elves without employment new jobs if they so wish instead of selling the house elves.”
“It is the hope of HERO to ensure that the house elves are treated with the respect that they deserve as an integral part of wixen society and granted the protection from the variety of abuses that many house elves face,” Hermione said.
“This is awesome,” Harry said, flipping through the pamplets.
“You think? How was my speech?” Hermione asked nervously.
“It’s good,” I said encouragingly. “You have a solid platform, you’ve been in communication with the house elves to understand what they need and have clear short term and long term goals. We’ll join obviously. What’s your plan after this?”
“Dobby has already agreed to be the Vice President of HERO. Ron, you are the treasurer and Harry, you are the secretary. Zo, you’re a regular member. You all need to wear pins and explain about HERO if anybody asks. Our meeting times are Wednesday afternoons at 4:00. I’ll be putting up flyers and a pamphlet in the common rooms and handing out pamphlets. We’ll be trying to get people to join, both students and the house elf staff.”
“Wait, why do Harry and I have to do jobs and Zo doesn’t?” Ron complained.
“Because Zo is already leading the defense club and the war preparations. She has enough on her plate and quite frankly, she needs way more sleep than she is getting,” Hermione said.
“I am right here,” I pointed out, bemused.
“Just because you hide your eyebags with makeup charms, doesn’t mean they’re not still there,” Hermione said.
In our Thursday DADA class, Professor Moody brought in spiders and grimly demonstrated the three Unforgivable curses to the class. The first two were quite disturbing, watching the spider be forced to obey and then subjected to horrible pain. After that, the Killing Curse seemed merciful, putting the poor thing out of it’s misery.
When somebody brought up the fact that the casting of the spells themselves earned life imprisonment, Moody explained that there were a few exceptions. Fully fledged Aurors were allowed to cast the spells for educational purposes to instruct Auror trainees. Since Moody was an Auror, he only had to get Dumbledore’s permission as Headmaster to show us the spells.
There was also a medical exception for patients who were terminally ill and wished to die on their own terms or those in comas with no hope of recovery, although that was usually a potion based version of the Killing Curse.
Moody also said that sometimes Auror trainees would undergo voluntary Imperius or Cruciatus resistance. Students would have an entirely optional opportunity to undergo the Imperius Curse to build up resistance to it, but it would require parental permission and for Dumbledore, McGonagall, or the student’s Head of House to be present.
“Are you going to be doing the Imperius thing?” Harry asked as class ended.
“Yeah. I think it’s important to experience that in a safe environment and build up a resistance,” I said.
“Easy for you to say,” Ron said. “I am the only one who actually has to get parental permission.”
“I have parents,” Hermione pointed out. “And Molly signs Hogsmeade forms for Harry and Zo, won’t they need her permission?”
“Yeah, but nobody has met your parents and you can just forge their signature and nobody will ever know. And they are muggles so they won’t have a magical signature. If I forge my mum’s signature, someone will tell her eventually.”
“Fair,” Hermione conceded.
“And it’s dubiously legal and dubiously ethical, but considering Harry is the Chosen One and I am mentally eighteen not to mention this is important cause you know, we’re child soldiers, Dumbledore will probably be willing to make an exception,” I said with a shrug. “He’ll probably be really interested. Sometimes I get the feeling that he regards me as a particularly interesting lab specimen he wants to understand better.”
Friday passed by quickly. As the last day of the week, it always seemed quickest. Although it might have had something to do with the fact that we didn’t have a first period class on Fridays and the two classes we did have, History and Potions, were quickly shaping up to be some of the most interesting classes.
Saturday was the first meeting of the Hogwarts defense club, where we would hopefully decide on a name. The Room of Requirement provided a large room styled like all the other Hogwarts classrooms but with the raised auditorium seating of a college lecture hall. A large chalkboard helpfully appeared as soon as I thought of it.
Harry, as the Boy-Who-Lived and Order’s future poster boy, got assigned to greeting people as they walked in the large doors. Dobby, standing next to him, was handing out light snacks. Ron did have a point about the popularity of snacks.
We had a sizable crowd, well over a hundred students and much more than I was expecting. Nearly the entirety of our year had come.
“Welcome everybody. We are going to be creating a defense club to teach people how to fight. Many of us have had spotty educations in Defense due to the changing of teachers, some of which have been dubiously qualified. The goal of this organization is to ensure that everyone who wishes to can learn to fight. We will be teaching duelling, theory, knowledge of different curses, knowledge of magical creatures, how to fight with weapons such as a sword or a bow and arrow and more,” I began.
“This is not an official club. It’s somewhere between an informal study group and a secret organization. We don’t have permission from the school to create this group and appreciate your silence on the matter,” Hermione said, looking into the crowd sternly.
“Voldemort is going to be coming back soon. The Ministry knows it, the general public knows it, we know it. I fought him for the first time at the end of my first year, not counting when I was a baby. My friends and I have been training ourselves to fight as best as we possibly can. Some of you might be interested in joining the fight against Voldemort once you graduate, some of you might want an increased knowledge of defense to better protect yourselves, some of you might want to simply make up for a lack of DADA education. To that end, we have created this group to help anybody who wants to learn to fight,” Harry said.
“We are planning on splitting everyone interested into four groups based on age and skill level. The four of us will rotate between groups and teach you. Once You-Know… Once Voldemort returns, we will split the club into two groups. One for those who wish to continue learning Defense skills and one for upperclassmen who wish to learn additional fighting skills and potentially join the Order of the Phoenix after graduating,” Ron said.
“Questions?” Hermione asked.
“What’s the Order of the Phoenix?” a fifth year Hufflepuff asked. Right, that wasn’t publicly known.
“The Order of the Phoenix is a resistance group led by Dumbledore during the last war that worked with the Auror Department to fight against Voldemort,” I said.
“You said this doesn’t have permission for the teachers. Would we get in trouble for being a part of it?” Selina Fawcett, a third year Ravenclaw asked.
“It’s not likely. It would be wildly unpopular to punish the majority of the school. Most likely each House would get some points knocked off and the four of us would get detention,” Hermione said.
“What would we be learning?”
“Generally, Defense, but more in depth and more broad then DADA classes. Like I said Zo said earlier, it would be theory, combat duelline, hand to hand sparring, footwork, learning about different curses, basic healing, weapons,” Harry said.
“What’s the name of this club?”
“We’re trying to figure that out mate,” Ron said.
“Deciding on a name will be our next order of business,” Hermione said.
“You’re only fourth years. Why are you going to be teaching us?” a seventh year Gryffindor asked.
“Because we’re the ones who fought Voldemort in our first and second years. We’re the ones who are going to be fighting him once he returns to power. We’re the ones who are creating this group and we’re the ones who are going to end up leading the fight against Voldemort,” Harry said. The Gryffindor boy had the decency to look slightly ashamed.
“Does joining this mean we would be siding against the Dark Lord?” Olivia Snyde asked. While Slytherin was the most under-represented house here, a lot of the younger Slytherins had turned up and looked concerned.
“No. This is a student organization to learn defense skills. Nobody is required to join the Order or fight in any capacity. That said, the four of us have fought and will continue to fight Voldemort. If anybody thinks that associating with us or joining this group would put you in danger, whether from family members or from Voldemort, I would encourage you to not join and find another way to learn defensive skills,” I said.
“You said the club would be split into two groups once You-Know-Who returns. Could you tell me more about that?” a fifth year Gryffindor asked.
“For this year, we will be operating as a study group. We’ll also be figuring out how this will work with over half the school, deal with the growing pains. There is a high chance, although not a certainty, that Voldemort will return at the end of this school year or over the summer. That would mean that next year, we would want to introduce a more combat oriented group. Instead of making sure you could get Os in DADA, this group would make sure you could survive in a battle. It would be similar to the Prank War Armies of last year, but this will be preparing for war not playing games. It would likely be restricted to upper years while the more study oriented group would be for the younger years and those aren’t interested in combat skills. There will be more information once we decide to split into two groups,” I said.
“Any other questions?” Hermione asked after nobody had spoken for a minute.
“If there is anybody who wishes to leave, we will not hold it against you, but please don’t tell any teachers,” Harry said.
Nobody left. It was a pleasant surprise, I had expected 5-15% of those who showed up to not want to join.
“As I mentioned before, we need to first and foremost come up with a name. So throw out any ideas you have,” Hermione said, picking up the piece of chalk and standing by the chalkboard.
“Hogwarts Defense Club.”
“Students Against Voldemort.”
“Hogwarts Army of Wizarding Kids.”
“Hey, that one abbreviates to HAWK. I like that one,” I joked to a round of laughter.
“Dumbledore’s Army.”
“Hogwarts Army.”
“Potter’s Army.”
“I’m vetoing that one,” Harry said quickly. Hermione obligingly crossed the name out.
“Hogwarts Organization for the Defense of Students.”
“Any other suggestions?” Hermione asked.
“On to voting. We’re going to be doing this through ranked choice voting. Ron is handing out ballots for you to write in your first, second and third choice. If you only like one and hate all the others, leave the second and third blank. Once you’re done, raise your hand and Dobby will collect your ballot to tally them up,” I said.
Hermione, Harry, Ron and I quickly filled out our ballots and placed them on the table.
After everyone had voted, Dobby and Hermione worked to read the ballots and add them up on a piece of parchment as everyone waited.
“We are also going to be having a design contest for a logo,” I announced as we waited. “You can submit as many different designs as you want, although I would ask that you please not submit too many. The logos will go onto shirts, pins, some banners for decoration and probably some other stuff that we’ll think of later. The deadline will be the meeting after Halloween, although we need to figure out exactly when our meetings will be. Then everyone will look at the designs and vote on which one we like best.”
“Does the winner get a prize?” Dean Thomas asked.
“Sure, ten galleons as a prize,” I decided. A lot of students perked up at that.
“And bragging rights,” Harry added.
“What medium do you want it in and how big should it be?” a seventh year Hufflepuff asked.
“For medium, whatever you want. For size, an average piece of parchment I suppose, but it can be bigger or smaller,” I said.
“How are you going to put it on t-shirts and pins if it’s on a piece of parchment?” a Slytherin student in third year asked.
“There are muggle companies that can copy images and print them onto various products. I’m not sure the exact specifics cause I’m not the best at technology, but it’s fairly easy to mass produce and I can have them ready to hand out by Winter Break,” I said.
“Alright,” Hermione said. “The name of our group is Hogwarts Army !”
“Excellent,” I said, writing Hogwarts Army in bold letters on the chalkboard.
“Now we need a time to meet,” Harry said.
“Probably weekly,” Ron commented.
“It should be in the evening cause it’s a secret army,” a first year in Gryffindor called out.
“That would be too suspicious, if we have over half the school sneaking around after dark. It would be best to do it during the day when there are plenty of people moving around anyway. There’s not quidditch this year, so we’ll just have to work around a handful of other club timings,” Hermione said.
“Everyone made it today. Why not do Saturdays? Considering it’s the weekend it will be less obvious if half the school disappears for a few hours. Everyone will be well rested after a full nights sleep and able to sleep off any exhaustion before the school week,” Daphne suggested.
“Any objections to Saturdays?” Hermione asked.
“Move it back an hour. Lots of people do late lunches on the weekends so it would be best to do it from 3:00 to 5:00,” Laura Hopkins, a sixth year Ravenclaw prefect said.
“Saturdays from 3:00 to 5:00. We’ll look into alternate entrances and exits so that everyone isn’t coming to an unused seventh floor corridor,” Hermione said.
“Next week we will work on figuring out everyone’s skill level and splitting people into four groups based on age and skill level,” I said.
“Please put your name down on the piece of parchment by the exit,” Harry said.
“We’ll see everyone next week,” Ron said.
The next morning, our late breakfast was interrupted by a first year coming up to us with a message.
“Um, hi, I have a message for you from the Headmaster,” the young boy in Hufflepuff robes said, holding out a scroll.
“Thank you,” I said with a smile, breaking the seal on the parchment and reading the message.
“Our illustrious headmaster politely requests that we come to his office at our earliest convenience,” I read out. “Likely regarding the new Hogwarts Army.”
“That was rather quick. We just sat down to breakfast,” Harry commented.
“Dumbledore is aware of everything of note that goes on in this school. He was likely notified as soon as we left Ravenclaw Tower,” Hermione commented.
“Well, he can wait until after we finish breakfast,” Ron said.
After leisurely finishing our breakfast, the four of us took the train system to Dumbledore’s office.
“Ah, good afternoon to you all,” Dumbledore said, kindly greeting us. “I hope you have been enjoying your weekend.”
“I thought you were okay with us forming a defense group,” Harry said bluntly, as we took the four seats in front of Dumbledore’s desk.
“I haven’t the slightest idea what you are talking about Mr Potter,” Dumbledore said with a wink. “Although, if you wanted to form a hypothetical defense study group with your peers I would be in full support of that.”
“Our hypothetical defense group which is hypothetically called Hogwarts Army by the way, hypothetically has an option for any graduating seventh years to hypothetically join the Order of the Phoenix. I can hypothetically collect a list of names of those who want to join after graduating and give it to you,” I said. “Hypothetically, of course.”
“I would hypothetically be very grateful for that, Miss Hawk,” Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling. “Have you made any progress on recruiting your classmates to be double agents as we discussed at the end of last year?”
“Yes. A few people are interested in it. Furthermore, there are a lot of students who want to leave their families. I have purchased several heavily warded safehouses from Gringotts, so underage students who want to run away from their families can stay over the summer. For those who are adults and will be graduating this year, I said that they had to contribute in some way, whether that be helping with housecleaning or strategy or fighting for the Order. I’ll need some adults to essentially run the safehouses anyway. There are a few Hogwarts aged students with little kids who would be staying in the safehouses year round, mainly in cases of parental abuse where they really need to leave their houses.”
“Are you going to be offering the housing to other new recruits?” Dumbledore asked.
“I mean, I kinda assumed that those who are coming from non Death Eater families would be living at home, having their parents pay for an apartment or staying at Order Headquarters. But yeah, if they want free housing then sure. I can also set aside the smallest safehouse for people like Dung who are full adults than might need free housing,” I said.
“Wait, you’ve been setting up safehouses?” Harry asked. “How come I didn’t know about this?”
“Because you don’t pay attention to it. Hermione and I have outright discussed this in front of you several times,” I said. “What did you think I meant by war preparations?”
“Nevermind,” Harry said.
“Sirius has offered his family’s home, Grimmauld Place, as Headquarters. He and Molly have already come to an agreement for the Weasleys to stay there over the summer and share custody of Harry. I imagine Professor Lupin will be staying there as well. Order members without available housing can stay at Miss Hawk’s safehouses as well as the children of Death Eaters who have fled their families,” Dumbledore said.
“There are also a lot of people who might want to leave the country entirely, but don’t have the resources to do so. Since the schools of the other European countries are coming this year, do you think you could politick with the other teachers and figure out some sort of refugee immigration option?” I asked Dumbledore.
“Yes, that would be possible. However most wixen may be reluctant to leave the country, even in war,” Dumbledore said.
“As long as the option is there,” I said.
“Now, Miss Hawk, I am aware that you possess knowledge of Voldemort’s rise to power. Should I assume that you have shared that with your friends?” Dumbledore asked.
“Yep. Born to the muggle aristocrat Tom Riddle Sr and Merope Gaunt. Raised in an orphanage. Potential sociopathic tendencies. Found out about magic. Grew to hate muggles. Gained followers among the purebloods. Started making horcruxes. Fell off the grid a few years after graduating Hogwarts and re-appeared as Voldemort,” I said, summarizing Voldemort’s early years.
“And you are aware of what his horcruxes are?” Dumbledore asked.
“Childhood diary, destroyed. Hufflepuff’s cup, destroyed. Ravenclaw’s diadem, destroyed. Slytherin’s locket, yet to be destroyed and currently at Grimmauld Place in the possession of Kreacher the house elf. Gaunt Ring, yet to be destroyed and currently in the Gaunt Shack. Naigini the snake, yet to be destroyed and currently wherever Voldemort is. Harry’s forehead, yet to be destroyed and currently sitting next to me,” I listed off.
“WAIT WHAT?!?”
Right, I had forgotten that I hadn’t told Harry that yet.
“Before you start freaking out, no you are not evil. No, Voldemort cannot get into your head as long as you do Occlumency. No, you will not need to die, Gringotts can transfer the horcrux to a spoon or something and destroy it without harming you. Yes, that is why you have a connection to Voldemort. No, Voldemort does not know that you are a horcrux. There’s pros and cons to removing it now versus waiting until it’s the only horcrux left because having a connection to Voldemort is an advantage, but it’s ultimately up to you,” I explained. “Would you like a Calming Draught?”
“I’m good,” Harry said faintly.
“It would indeed by beneficial to keep your connection to Voldemort’s mind for as long as possible,” Dumbledore said.
“But, it’s totally your choice,” I insisted firmly.
“Right, I’ll think about it,” Harry said.
“You good, mate?” Ron asked.
“Yeah,” Harry said, grabbing one of Dumbledore’s lemon drops which were laced with a small amount of Calming Draught and popping it in his mouth.
“So he made seven horcruxes in total?” Dumbledore clarified.
“Yes. Voldemort intended to make six horcruxes, seven parts of the soul in total but including Harry he has seven horcruxes, eight parts of the soul in total. That said, I’m not entirely sure if he has turned Naigini into a horcrux yet,” I said.
“And Professor Slughorn?” Dumbledore asked, although it felt more like he was quizzing me.
“Professor Slughorn told Voldemort, then Tom Riddle, about horcruxes and how to make them under the impression that it was for a DADA independent research project. Naive, but not ill intentioned. Professor Slughorn feels horrible, but also knows Voldemort is going to attempt to recruit him for his potions skills, connections and whatever sentimentality Voldemort has left. Hence, why you extended the offer to work at Hogwarts and why Slughorn accepted. You’re welcome for getting Snape arrested and creating the vacancy by the way.”
“Regarding his Slug Club, the four of us have all gotten informal invitations to the Club although there hasn’t been an invite to a party yet. Likely assessing the student body. I think that befriending the personification of LinkedIn is a great idea, so we’ll attend. I think it will be nice to do junior politics at parties instead of in dark corridors. If there’s specific people you want us to meet to push an agenda, let us know. We’ll also do general promotion of the Order.”
“I’ve been practicing my poster boy face,” said Harry, who had eaten perhaps too many calming lemon drops.
“How legal is the Order of the Phoenix?” Hermione asked curiously.
“It depends entirely on who is in power. Currently the Order is technically not public knowledge and the Daily Prophet has been instructed not to talk about it, but the entire Wizengamot knows. We’ve been working with the government Ms. Bones has named Kingsley Shacklebolt as the liaison between the Order and the DMLE,” Dumbledore said.
“That’s good, we told half the school about the Order yesterday,” Ron said. “Although most didn’t seem surprised.”
“Now, regarding the underage students who are interested in the Order of the Phoenix. I’ve implemented a hard limit at fifteen for those interested in spying. For those who are fifteen, sixteen or seventeen and still in school, I was thinking something along the lines of a non-combat summer internship with the Order.”
“Quite frankly, I’m not sure how the Order is organized or if it is organized at all, but having a bunch of interns to help with that would be beneficial. Especially if you want to expand the order beyond 30 or so people. You’ll need different divisions and stuff. There are a lot of people who are interested in learning healing, or people who are good at strategy and organization. Lots of kids of Death Eater families feel really weird about the lack of quid pro quo and see it as me essentially helping them for free, so they would want to be useful.”
“Also the four of us are definitely being involved no matter who tries to stop us. As interns, we can come to the meetings, help with strategy and planning, be involved, but Molly and the others won’t bite your head off about child soldiers. We won’t be actively fighting and summer jobs or internships for teenagers are perfectly acceptable by societal standards,” I explained.
Harry would be fourteen for the first half of the summer, but it was easy to make an exception for the Boy-Who-Lived.
“That seems like a well thought out solution,” Dumbledore said, eyes twinkling.
“Feel free to present this to the Order as your idea by the way,” I said, knowing how much Dumbledore liked to be in control of things. I would hate to see what he would do if he no longer thought he was in control of me.
“My parents have already agreed to let me stay with friends for the summer, so I’ll be at Grimmauld Place as well,” Hermione said.
I wasn’t entirely sure how truthful that was, but Hermione’s parents were muggles and nobody would double check with them. I made a mental note to see if she wanted to talk about her relationship with her parents. She had spent the majority of last summer with us and I knew that muggleborns becoming estranged from their muggle parents was quite common.