Heaven

Heaven

-- Chapter 3 --

Dumbledore was brought back to earth when a familiar looking head appeared in the fireplace.

"Ahem. S'cuse me Professor Dumbledore. Am I interrupting?" spoke the head.

It's navy blue eyes travelled from Dumbledore's hand, still holding his wand in mid-air, to the stack of invitations, which was teetering over dangerously on the edge of the desk.

"No, Tom, not at all," replied Dumbledore. With a flick of his wand the invites tidied themselves and soared into an open drawer at the far side of the room, which then shut with a snap.

Dumbledore moved to the squashy armchair closest to the fireplace and leaned in towards the flames.

"What is it you need, Tom?" asked the old man politely.

"Just need to check a few things for Saturday evening, sir. Decorations in the function room; Christmas is just around the corner, would you prefer Hogwarts décor or the Leaky Cauldron's own?"

Albus did not reply. He sat back in the armchair, propping his chin on his left hand and drumming his fingers along his cheek. He had a pensive expression on his face and after a few minutes of silence he closed his eyes and made complicated wand movements.

The venerated wizard murmured, "No, no, no, that won't do- Yes, oh that will surprise them- Just a finishing touch, wonderful."

Dumbledore opened his eyes to see a very bewildered Tom looking up at him expectantly.

Dumbledore smiled, his eyes twinkling, "It's done." Tom's eyebrows shot up, with an expression of disbelief on his face. "Go see for yourself," Dumbledore prompted with a chuckle.

Unsure whether the Headmaster was pulling his leg or not, Tom stayed where he was. The barkeeper finally came to his senses after remembering that this was Albus Dumbledore, and with a toothy grin said, "Back in a jiffy," before vanishing from the hearth.

Dumbledore waited for Tom's return, humming merrily to himself.

Minutes later, Tom's head reappeared where it had been moments before, looking quite impressed.

"Very good, sir. Very good indeed, but the tables- "

Tom stopped when the ancient wizard slowly shook his head.

"There is no mistake, Tom. The table arrangements are deliberate," said Dumbledore calmly. "Promotion of inter-house unity," he added.

"I understand Professor. But the Slytherins and Gryffindors? There's bound to be hexes cast and probably punches thrown if they're to sit beside one another."

"And I know from experience," he continued earnestly, "I remember being caught up in a dual once, nasty business it was, between a Gryffindor 3^rd and a Slytherin 5^th year. I had feet the size of flippers for a month, I lost most of my teeth too...and I was a Ravenclaw!" he stressed.

"That was then, Tom, this is now. They are adults and have no bad blood between them," replied Dumbledore.

At these words, Tom snorted incredulously, which he hastily turned into a hacking cough. Disappearing for a moment, most likely to wipe his eyes that were shining with tears of laughter, Tom rematerialized and said, "I don't mean any disrespect, sir. But some things just don't change."

"Point taken," replied Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling with amusement at Tom's reaction. There was an air of finality in his voice. Albus wasn't angry, but it was clear that the matter was closed.

"Anything else, Tom?" proceeded Dumbledore

"Oh- yes, sir, right. The Weird Sisters are still on their Greatest Hits Tour, somewhere around Oslo at the moment I think, and they won't be back in England 'till the New Year. The only other group available is their tribute band, who in my opinion, aren't worth the gold your paying Professor."

"Is there another option?" enquired Dumbledore.

Tom scrunched up his facial features, with his tongue between his teeth. Clearly thinking very hard, he answered, "Well, I do have a baby grand in storage. I could collect it if you like, it's charmed to play any musical piece on request."

"Yes, that will do nicely, Tom."

"Err...that's everything Professor."

"Well, thank you Tom."

"Your welcome Professor Dumbledore, sir. 'Till Saturday evening..."

"Yes, good afternoon, Tom," said Dumbledore, and in the blink of an eye, Tom's head disappeared.

***

Dumbledore took out his pocket watch and looked at it, "Still another hour until the Minister arrives," he thought.

The invitations were finished, so Dumbledore had nothing left to do. He went back to his seat behind the desk, and said, "Accio pensieve."

The shallow, stone bowl hovered towards Dumbledore and landed noiselessly on the desk in front of him.

Prodding his wand into the swirling substance, Dumbledore looked down into the bottom of the bowl to see the dark kitchen of 12 Grimmauld Place and a group of people sitting around the table in silence.

***

"I would not have come if I didn't think there was still hope, are you going to take away his chance of living?" spoke Dumbledore in grave tones, fixing each person at the table with his solemn gaze.

Remus Lupin was the first to reply, speaking in a quiet voice and looking to his past Headmaster, "I don't want to believe Harry did those things, but if he was under Imperius, why couldn't he throw it off? He'd been able to do that since he was 14, what stopped him?"

"We can only guess," replied Dumbledore truthfully, "But very few people can fight the Imperius curse, as you all know. And if it had been anyone other than the Boy-Who-Lived that had been forced to murder Virginia Weasley, I can assure you that they would not be in Azkaban now."

"I know that's true," said Tonks, taking a sip from the mug of hot tea between her hands, with her currently violet eyes looking seriously to the rest of the group, "It's Fudge's doing, you all know that, don't you? He's been waiting for something like this to happen, ever since the Triwizard Tournament, sneaky little toerag..."

There was a murmur of agreement around the table; Dedalus Diggle nodded his head fervently.

"Dumbledore, what are you asking us to do? Break the boy out of prison?" asked Kinsley Shacklebolt in his deep voice.

"I want you to help me to get Harry out of Azkaban, by any means necessary," he replied.

Hestia Jones spoke up anxiously, "How could we do that Dumbledore? Think of how the Weasley family would feel, you know they believe Harry's guilty. They would never forgive us, freeing their daughter's murderer."

"Losing a child affects people's judgement in unpredictable ways. Arthur and Molly were too grief-stricken at the time of Virginia's death to realise fact from fiction. She was their youngest child, and only daughter, I do not doubt that those responsible should pay, but Lord Voldemort is an elusive individual and therefore cannot be brought to justice at this present time."

"No-one knew the boy better than the Weasley family, if they believe he is guilty then we must accept that," said Emmeline Vance curtly.

"One person knows him better than anyone else, even better than the Weasley family. Hermione?" asked Dumbledore gently and he looked expectantly to his left.

The teenage girl at the end of the table slowly lifted her head, with pearly tears rolling silently down her cheeks.

When the members of the Order looked into the girl's dark eyes, they saw a look of utter despair. As if her entire world had been suddenly ripped out from beneath her feet, and they wordlessly conceded, it had.

After a few minutes of silence, Hermione replied in a shaky but determined voice, "I know Harry didn't do it, Professor. I can feel it...Please," she continued in a pleading voice, "please, sir. Just get him out, get him out. He'll die in there if you don't, I know it, I just know it - "

At this she disapparated with a pop, and the next second running footsteps could be heard above them.

The younger members of the Order, who had been sitting opposite Hermione, were still staring at the space she had just occupied.

With a look to his past schoolmates and friends, Oliver Wood stood up said, "Hermione's right. Ginny Weasley's dead and we can't do anything to bring her back, but we can save Harry. We'll do whatever you want, Professor Dumbledore." Lee Jordan, Alicia Spinnet, Cho Chang and Katie Bell all nodded in agreement from behind him.

"We're in too," said the other group of teenagers, consisting of Parvati and Padma Patil, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, Lavender Brown, Ernie Macmillan, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Hannah Abbot, and Neville Longbottom.

Dumbledore smiled at them in gratitude, and then turned to look at the older members, "That's fourteen willing, would you like to make it an even twenty?"

"Your on," said Tonks, her now green eyes glittering with grim determination.

"Of course," said Remus Lupin seriously, looking at Dumbledore but unable to repress a wolfish grin.

Dedalus Diggle became very excited and squeaked, "Y-yes, sir. Anything for Harry Potter."

"I'll go," said Hestia Jones with a small smile, nudging Emmeline Vance with her elbow.

"Alright, I will," she said giving Dumbledore a nod of agreement.

"I'll do it," stated Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Thank you all in advance for doing this, it is greatly appreciated," said Dumbledore, his eyes twinkling with pride, "I personally, would rather get Harry out of Azkaban by legal means rather then illegal ones. I'm sure you all agree?"

Everyone nodded.

"Fudge doesn't need a reason to arrest us, but that doesn't mean we have to give him one," said Tonks, going over to the stone sink and pouring out the rest of her cold tea. Walking back to her seat she continued softly, " but how are we going to free Harry, Dumbledore? He's been found guilty by the Wizengamot, we're lucky he wasn't Kissed."

At these words, an involuntary shudder swept around the table. The thought of a Dementor sucking Harry's soul out through his mouth made them all sick to their stomachs.

"We're going to Ottery St. Catchpole, to try and talk some sense into Molly and Arthur."

During the minute of stunned silence that followed, they all contemplated the huge task ahead of them.

Lee Jordan spoke eagerly, "Percy's a shoe-in for the next Minister of Magic. If we changed his mind Harry could be cleared of all charges."

The rest at the table nodded in assent and when the young dreadlock haired man saw this, he continued, "I could go with you Professor, talk to the twins, try and change their minds, you know. They might listen to me, after all, I am their business partner."

Wood then said, "If I go, Charlie might hear me out, we can have a talk, captain to captain." He smiled as he said the word 'captain' like he was winning the Quidditch Cup all over again.

"I'll talk to Arthur and Molly myself," Dumbledore said, "Nymphadora," she grimaced at the name, "Would you talk to Bill?"

"Yes, sir," she said through gritted teeth, "I'll go to Gringotts now," she waved goodbye to them all and disapparated.

Hermione stood in the doorway, her eyes puffy and her face tear-streaked, "I'll go and see Ron, Professor," she said, sounding like she had a bad head cold.

"Thank you, Hermione," Dumbledore said, giving her a reassuring smile.

Hermione then decided to make herself useful by boiling some water and making tea for everyone. The tea was taken in silence, each person lost in his or her own thoughts.

Dumbledore then stood up and spoke, "We have no time to lose; Misters Jordan and Wood, and Miss Granger, come with me now, we shall take a portkey to the Weasley house."

The three young people got up and left the kitchen to get on their jackets, and to prepare themselves.

Dumbledore addressed those staying behind, "Remus, while we're gone, find out the best way to get in and out of Azkaban undetected," he nodded and vanished with a pop, "Kingsley, check through Harry's file at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, note which prisoners are closest to his cell and whether they could be a problem if we have to go and get Harry ourselves," the tall black man stood up and disapparated, "Hestia, Emmeline; get in touch with all your contacts in the ministry, talk to them about Harry's case, but don't let them know I'm involved," two pops followed.

"Dedalus," he said to the little man with the top hat, "If things don't go as planned, we may need...a diversion." The man nodded fervently again and departed.

Dumbledore then turned to the group left; to Katie, Alicia and Cho he said, "You three will go to Little Whinging in Surrey. Number 4, Privet Drive, its Harry's relative's house. Interrogate them about the events of the summer, and take this with you," he held out a small vial of clear liquid. The girls realised what it was, smiled and left quickly to get parchment and quills for the questioning.

"Mr Longbottom, I understand you still keep in touch with Miss Lovegood?" Neville nodded, waiting for instructions, "Send her an owl, better yet, go to Hogwarts and tell Professor Flitwick I sent you to see Luna. See if her father could publish the results of the Dursleys' interrogation if needs be, hopefully we won't have to."

Neville stood up and walked towards the door. Halfway there he stopped and realised that he could apparate, after rolling his eyes and blushing at his mistake, he vanished.

"Mr Finch-Fletchley, Mr Macmillan and Miss Abbot, make for Hogwarts, go to Professor Sprout and give her this," he handed Ernie a letter, "She'll know what to do."

Three consecutive pops, and they were gone.

"Miss Brown, Miss Patil and Miss Patil," he said smiling, "Harry will need new clothes once he's out of Azkaban. Go to Diagon Alley and use this gold to buy him some clothing, I'm sure you can guess his size," he gave them a money bag, the three girls nodded and disapparated with a simultaneous pop.

Dumbledore turned to the two young men remaining with his eyes twinkling, "Last but by no means least, Mr Finnegan and Mr Thomas," he produced another money bag, smaller than the one he gave the girls, but it was still a considerable weight and jangled happily, "Take this to Hogsmeade, to Honeydukes actually, and buy the biggest bar of chocolate you can find, I have a feeling we'll be needing it."

The two teenagers grinned at each other, and with moneybag in hand disappeared like the others.

Oliver Wood's voice came from upstairs on the ground floor of the house, "We're ready, Professor."

Dumbledore fixed a look of fortitude on his ancient face, and strode out of the kitchen.

At the front door, Dumbledore held out a chipped coffee mug and murmured, "On three."

They crowded around the mug and counted.

"One...

Two...

Hermione whispered, "Hold on Harry, we're coming."

Three."

The foyer that had beforehand held four people was now empty and silent.