Chapter Twenty-Four
“Alright everyone, welcome to our weekly Hogwarts Army meeting. Now, I know some of you have questioned why we are meeting since the Third Task is in just a few hours,” Ron said, sending a glance at Harry.
“This won’t be a usual meeting. In a moment, Hermione will be going over a review of everything we have learned this year. But first, I am looking for a handful of volunteers willing to help me during and in the immediate aftermath of the Third Task. Only those fifteen or older, it would probably be keeping an eye out for stuff and running messages, low risk. You might not be doing anything but I’d rather have people on hand and you’ll get paid for your time anyway. Everyone would get paid a flat rate of five galleons if you want to help during the Task, five galleons if you want to help afterwards, ten if you want to be both. Anyone interested and fifteen years old or older, please come talk to me,” I said.
Five galleons was enough to get some of the older students interested. The standard going rate for first or second years to run errands was one galleon, but most of the upper years had summer jobs and were more competent, which meant higher pay.
“Austin, Blake and Ella. I want you to be monitoring the Death Eaters in the crowd at the Task. It’s the event of the year and there will be plenty of Death Eaters nobles attending without a second agenda. I’ll point them out to you once the Task starts. I want you to monitor for them clutching their left forearm in pain, talking to other known Death Eaters or surreptitiously trying to leave the event. If any of that happens, come get me or if I’m not available, Hermione. Kenneth and Patricia, I want you to sit near me during the task in case I have need of you. Felicity and Nell, I want you to monitor Dumbledore. If he or Moody asks, just say you’re working for me. I trust Dumbledore but he has a habit of not telling me things and it’s really annoying.”
“Everyone who volunteered to help after the task, come and find me or Hermione afterwards. If my worst suspicions are correct, it’s going to be a chaotic shitshow and I’ll be by the swarm of teachers and government officials freaking out. If I’m wrong, you do nothing and get paid because of my paranoia. Questions?” I asked.
“What do you think is going to happen?” Ella Rivers asked.
“Harry’s name being entered is clearly Voldemort’s annual murder plot. Nothing particularly interesting has happened yet and the cumulation of the annual murder plot is always at the end of the school year, so I expect something to happen. Also I had a vision of Voldemort returning and rising out of a cauldron and my gut instinct tells me it’s tied to the Third Task. It’s the most dramatic moment to do something after all,” I explained to a round of nods.
“And if You-Know- if Voldemort does return?” Kenneth Towler asked.
“There will be chaos, the ministry officials will be either running around like headless chickens or turning to Dumbledore. Dumbledore will be trying to reform the Order of the Phoenix and host an emergency Order meeting at Hogwarts. You would be running messages, probably via floo, to said Order members, taking my pre-written statement to Rita Skeeter, my pocket reporter, fetching anything I can think of or other such tasks. If Voldemort were to apparate to Hogwarts, which I am not expecting, you should run and flee, I’m not paying you to fight him,” I said wryly.
The Evening Feast was horribly tense. Sirius and the entire Weasley family had been invited into the castle for the afternoon and the feast as Harry’s family. Krum didn’t appear to have any family, just Eleanor Shirasagijo sitting with him. Fleur had her parents and her little sister sitting by her side with the rest of the Beauxbatons students surrounding them.
“You need to eat food Harry, it will give you strength. High protein stuff, eat some meat,” I said, wrinkling my nose distastfully at the plate of chicken I held out.
“She is right, eating a good meal is important before strenuous activities such as this,” Percy said, his pompousness not entirely hiding his concern. The fact that he was sitting with the rest of the Weasleys at the Ravenclaw table instead of hovering by his new boss spoke measures.
Harry took a chicken leg and pointedly nibbled at it a little before dropping it. He ate around half a normal meal before Dumbledore rose to his feet.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes' time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium
Now,” Dumbledore intoned.
“You’ve got this. Remember, you have your emergency portkey necklace. Don’t let anybody else get the cup. If you get hit with an AK hopefully it will kill the horcrux and not you, but try to avoid that. If Voldemort wants to do some grand duel thing, cast a flurry of spells, a Dungbomb or two and run for the Cup,” I said, nervously smoothing down Harry’s Hogwarts champion shirt.
Harry went down the line and hugged all of us before walking to the doors where Bagman was waiting a tad impatiently with Fleur and Krum.
In a group, all the Weasleys, Maggie, Luna, Neville, Hermione, Sirius, Lupin and I walked down to the stands. We had an entire row in the front cordoned off for us as Harry’s “family”, no doubt thanks to Dumbledore.
“I’ll be right back,” I said, slipping out of the seats to talk to the students I had hired to be on hand. Like I expected, there were a handful of the Death Eaters from the noble families sitting among the crowd, most sitting by their children.
Notably, Lord Malfoy was not present. Lady Malfoy, however, was sitting by Draco and the other Slytherin fourth years.
Harry, Fleur and Krum walked out of the tunnel beneath the stands
“Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! In first place, with ninety-two… Mr. Harry Potter, of Hogwarts School! In second place, with seventy-eight points… Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute! And in third place, with sixty-one points… Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!” Bagman said loudly.
Bagman blew a whistle and with one last glance at us, Harry turned and ran into the maze. He took a left and disappeared from sight.
After a minute, Bagman blew his whistle again and Krum entered the maze. Two minutes ager that, he blew his whistle for the third time and Fleur sprinted into the maze.
I tapped my foot impatiently.
“Are we really supposed to just stare at the bushes? At least the first task we could see,” I said.
“Nah, this is better than the second task though. At least the bushes move and we can kind of tell when someone is fighting something from the explosions. The second task was just watching an empty lake,” Ron said, nodding at a plume of smoke.
“I wouldn’t know. I was busy being kidnapped by mermaids. And I’m freaking out. Is there a way to tell exactly when the Champion touches the Cup?” I asked.
“Well, theoretically, they Portkey back to the front, but I get what you mean,” Hermione said.
“I’m going to go talk to Dumbledore,” I said, getting up.
Dumbledore was not sitting with the rest of the judges as he should have been. Instead he was conversing quietly with Moody off to the side. When I approached them, Moody waved his wand at me and I could suddenly hear what they were saying.
“Who all of the Order of the Phoenix is in the crowd?” I asked.
“Apart from myself and Professor Moody, Professor Lupin, Lord Black, Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley, and Elphias Doge. Hagrid and Professor McGonagall are patrolling the maze. Of course, the Order has not been officially reactivated, these are just old members” Dumbledore informed me.
“Once the Portkey is activated, we will wait five minutes before I’ll send a message about use of an AK in the Little Whinging graveyard. They probably won’t get You-Know-Who, but they should arrest a few Death Eaters and make it clear he’s returned,” Moody said.
“You didn’t tell us that,” I said, alarmed.
“Apologies, my dear, I didn’t think it necessary,” Dumbledore said genially.
“You didn’t think it was necessary for Harry to know that there would be incoming Aurors? That would have changed his strategy immensely,” I said, frustrated.
“I told you you should have told the boy,” Moody said.
“Thank you. Now, by my count there are at least three Death Eaters in the audience. This is a public event and at least some are just here for the entertainment like everyone else. I have volunteers from the Hogwarts Army who are keeping a close eye on them and will come and tell me immediately if they start clutching their left arms in pain. They are also available to run messages after the task concludes, if you need someone running across the castle from the Hospital Wing to your office or even delivering messages via the Floo,” I informed Dumbledore, nodding to a Hufflepuff girl who was subtly standing close to us while pretending to deliberate on what to buy from one of the walking snack vendors.
“Smart. You trust them?” Moody asked.
“As much as I trust anybody outside of my immediate circle. They’re all part of the Hogwarts Army and are probably more reliable than the usual first and second years everyone uses to deliver messages,” I shrugged.
“Hmm,” Moody said noncommittally.
“Is there any way of monitoring what is happening?” I asked Dumbledore.
“The Champions can send up sparks if they want to opt out, we have four patrollers around the maze. If you go to the top of the stands, you might get a better view,” Dumbledore recommended.
“Kay, bye,” I said.
I stopped briefly by my seat to grab a set of binoculars form my bag and let my friends know where I was going. At the top of the stand, I could just barely get enough of a view because of the high altitude, depending on the positioning of the bushes. I was pretty sure that Harry was facing a Sphinx, calmly standing in front of it. After four years of answering riddles to get into the Common Room, I wasn’t concerned.
Krum appeared to be further away from the center than Harry, fighting something or other. I couldn’t see Fleur, although she hadn’t sent up sparks. Unless of course, she was unconscious and couldn’t send up sparks. Without Moody paving Harry’s way, I wasn’t sure how the other Champions would be affected. Somebody had obviously enchanted the Cup, but I wasn’t sure if there was a Death Eater rigging the maze.
As I pondered the question briefly, Austin Midgen raced up the steps.
“Macnair slipped away from the other Ministry officials and I tried to follow him, but he entered the maze itself and I think he had an invisibility cloak, but I’m not sure,” Austin said.
Well, there was the answer to my question. Macnair, as the Ministry’s creature executioner probably could have gotten a job handling all the special creatures. And if he was helping to put them in the maze, he would know where they were and would be able to neutralize them. He might have also been the one who enchanted the Cup.
“Good work, go tell Dumbledore what you told me, tell him Macnair is probably taking out the creatures to make Harry’s win easier and he might have enchanted the Cup. Recommend an Auror arrest him and check his wand,” I instructed.
Austin nodded and raced back down the steps.
I turned back to my binoculars. Harry was fighting a giant spider right by the Cup. Harry shot off a red Expelliarmus and the spider dropped to the ground. He walked up to the Cup and paused. Harry took out a small potion bottle, the Invigoration Draught Hermione had made him, and drank it. Then Harry reached out to the Cup and dissapeared from sight.
“He got the Cup,” I told my friends as soon as I walked down to the front row. “Oh and Dumbledore’s sending Aurors in five minutes. More like four now.”
“And he didn’t think to mention that?” Hermione asked.
“Exactly,” I commiserated.
A minute later, Fawkes was handed a message from Dumbledore and disappeared in a flash. Dumbledore’s signal to the Aurors, no doubt.
“Voldemort’s back,” Luna said, eyes closed.
I turned to look and sure enough, several Death Eaters were grasping their left arms. The assigned watchers were making a beeline for me.
“Kenneth, go tell Dumbledore that Voldemort is back. Patricia, please go tell Lavender Brown of Gryffindor that Voldemort is back and that I have housing arrangements available to anybody who wants to leave Death Eater families and/or graduating seventh years who would like to join the Order and to ensure everyone knows that. I’ll also be doing a Hogwarts Army meeting before the end of the year,” I instructed the two students sitting in the row above us.
“Blake, go find Rita Skeeter, tell her that Voldemort has just returned and has also kidnapped Harry to use in a ressurection ritual. Austin, go use your Common Room Floo, tell Andromeda Tonks that Voldemort is back and to do politics stuff. Ella, go tell the Head Boy and Head Girl that Voldemort is back, tell them it’s going to be pandemonium and they should do crowd control and send everyone back to their Common Room because the adults are going to busy panicking,” I said as the students watching the Death Eaters reached me.
“Got it boss,” Ella said, turning on her heel.
Kingsley Shacklebolt and Nymhadora appeared with a dazed and bleeding Harry in tow.
“Harry!” Hermione yelled, as she, Ron and I rushed down the remaining steps.
“Back away, the boy’s injured. Mr. Potter, come with me to the medic tent,” Madam Pomfrey said, bustling over to Harry.
“The castle, Poppy. Take him to the staffroom,” Dumbledore instructed.
The crowd was beginning to tell that something was wrong, whether that was because I hadn’t been subtle about saying Voldemort was back or Harry had just been apparated here by Aurors was unclear.
“Please head to the staffroom. I’ll be there shortly,” Dumbledore said to the whole Weasley clan, Sirius, Remus, Hermione and I.
“Felicity, Nell, gather everyone working for me and wait outside the staffroom. If anybody asks or tries to shoo you away, say I hired you to wait to deliver messages and Dumbledore approved it,” I said, before dashing off to join the rest of the group heading to the castle.
“Harry, are you all right?” Hermione asked, as we walked up to the castle.
He was still being supported by Dora and Shacklebolt and he looked to be on the verge of a panic attack. Probably would have one once the adrenaline wore off.
“Fine,” he gasped.
Once we got to the empty staffroom, Harry broke down crying in Molly’s arms while Madam Pomfrey tried to heal his injuries. She consoled him while everyone else awkwardly stood around or sat down. Hermione set up a Quick Quills to take notes.
“It was Malfoy helping Voldemort with the ritual. Right after he came back, the Aurors came and interrupted Voldemort in the middle of his monologue. Voldemort disappeared, but ordered the Death Eaters to fight the Aurors to cover his escape. Otherwise everything happened like Zo expected,” Harry said, wiping his eyes.
“Tonks and I were ordered to get Potter out. Hopefully the others will have made some arrests and nobody can deny Voldemort’s return given we all witnessed it,” Shacklebolt said.
Dumbledore and Moody entered along with an elderly man who was probably Elphias Doge.
“Minerva is coordinating with the Ministry and sending the students back to their dormitories,” Dumbledore said, sitting down at the head of the table.
“Apart from the Aurors coming, everything else happened like Zo expected,” Harry informed Dumbledore.
‘Dumbledore sent the Aurors and didn’t tell us until after the task started,” I informed Harry.
“With Voldemort’s return, I am formally restarting the Order of the Phoenix,” Dumbledore announced. “For those of you who are of age now but were children last time, I extend an invitation to join. For those of you over fifteen and still in school, you are invited to join the Order as interns in a non-combat role.”
“I’m joining,” Nymphadora said.
“Me too,” Bill said.
“I’ll see if I can figure something out with my job, but I’m joining,” Charlie said.
“Us too,” the twins said.
“No you are not. You are still in school. If you want, you can do this internship thing, but you’re not joining as full members,” Molly said firmly.
Fred and George looked ready to protest so I pointed out, “You’ll be most useful making inventions and stuff instead of fighting and you can be full members once you finish school.”
“Fair-”
“-enough.”
“What’s your plan?” Sirius asked Dumbledore.
“We need to recruit all those we can, either to join the Order or the Aurors. Elphias, can you please reach out to the old crowd? I believe Miss Hawk has paid some students who are waiting outside to be of assistance. They can write letters and run them to the owlery,” Dumbledore said.
Mr. Doge nodded and left.
“You can use Grimmauld Place as Headquarters. Andy has cleaned it up enough to be livable and it can house plenty of people,” Sirius offered.
“Thank you Sirius. Miss Hawk, you have been working on offering escape for students from Death Eater families?” Dumbledore asked.
“Yes. I have three safehouses. Several students have reached out to me and I expect more to do so now that Voldemort is back. Many of the older students would like to work as interns during the summer. There are also students who wish to work as spies,” I said.
“Excellent, please send me a list of names of those interested in becoming interns and any information from your spies. If you could also reach out to the graduating seventh years about joining the Order of the Phoenix as full members, that would be appreciated,” Dumbledore said.
“You got it,” I said.
“I will suggest to the Minister that he remove the dementors from Azkaban, as they have previously allied with Voldemort,” Dumbledore said.
“Is Fudge as Minister really the best idea?” Sirius asked.
“Perhaps if you convince him to gracefully step down and endorse Amelia Bones for Minister. He’s an incompetent politician who is not qualified for leading the country in a war. If he retires now, it will save a lot of face rather than being forcibly outed, he can spend time with his grandkids, write a book, whatever retired people do. Madam Bones would be far better and wouldn’t need to be managed all the time,” I suggested.
“I shall talk to Cornelius,” Dumbledore said, nodding in my direction.
“How exactly is the Order organized?” Hermione asked.
“Pardon?”
“How large was the Order last time and how large are you expecting it to be this time. Are there combat teams, maybe a specific arial team trained in fighting on broomsticks? A healing team or is it just Madam Pomfrey? How are you organizing supplies and channels of information? If we are interns, who do we report to? This is a pseudo-militia group, it needs some organization,” Hermione said.
“I shall look into the matter,” Dumbledore said.
It was very alarming that he didn’t have some form of group organization beyond him being in charge.
“We will have another meeting at Headquarters the evening of the day the train leaves. Until then, please remain calm and hopeful. Thank you,” Dumbledore said, before sweeping from the room.
“Austin, Lila, Ella and Helen,” I said, addressing a student from each house that was waiting outside the staffroom. “Go back to your respective common rooms, tell everyone that we are having a Hogwarts Army meeting tomorrow at noon to address the whole Voldemort is back thing along with related subjects. Open to the whole school, not just HA members. Anybody who wants to join the Order or Slytherins who want to run away from Death Eater families or muggleborns who want to leave the country should come to the meeting. I will address everything there.”