Stepping over the Edge

Hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

Chapter 9 - Order Meeting

It was past midnight and the halls of Hogwarts were almost completely empty, but there were two third year Gryffindors sneaking around in the dark corridors planning their mischief and giggling silently. The wind was blowing fiercely outside and the only thing breaking the darkness was the half-moon that shined through the heavy rain clouds. The two troublemakers carefully peeped around the corner to see if it was empty and as it was, they carried on walking. If they hadn't been so busy thinking about what pranks to play on the Slytherins, they might have wondered about the absence of teachers guarding the corridors. They would have probably been happy to find out that most of the adults wouldn't even give them a second glance at the moment, though Filch being an exception. But they didn't know about that and therefore they carried on just as carefully as before.

The reason the adults -consisting of teachers and Order members- wouldn't care was the fact that they had all been called for an emergency meeting at the Headmaster's office and were at the moment talking loudly about what might have happened. The fact that when they had entered Dumbledore's office and found Remus Lupin accompanied by both Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley but no Headmaster, made them even more curious. They had been informed that the meeting would start as soon as Dumbledore arrived and that they wouldn't be told anything before then. But since Hermione and Ron were there everyone already knew what this was about. Harry Potter.

As the office door opened they all turned around to see Albus Dumbledore making his way towards his desk. They all moved out of his way quickly and watched him silently in anticipation. He sat down slowly without looking at anyone of them and then took in a deep breath. "I'm sure all of you wonder why you have been called here at this late hour," he started and finally looked up at them, "and unfortunately it is for bad news." He sighed. "Earlier today Harry Potter left the school grounds."

He was cut of by gasps of shock from almost everyone in the room and then the storming of questions and statements like "Did you bring him back?", "Is he alright?", "Foolish boy", "What will we do?" and the most used "Bloody hell".

Dumbledore raised his hand and they all went silent again. "If you would please not interrupt me until I have finished. As I said, Harry Potter left the school grounds and when Professor Lupin, Mr Weasley, Miss Granger and I went after him, he informed us that he did not wish to return to the school and that he would fight us if he had to." More gasps of shock. "We wouldn't let him run away like that of course which led to a fight."

Dumbledore averted his eyes again and sighed. "Harry has improved in his duelling skills a lot over the years but we were still four to one and it didn't take long until Professor Lupin had taken him. Unfortunately Harry slipped away when we found out what he had done." Dumbledore went silent again and wiped away a single tear that rolled down his cheek. A sob could be heard from a couch in the corner and Ron quickly put his arms around Hermione to comfort her.

"Harry is cutting himself."

Those few words, spoken in not more then a whisper, made the whole room go quiet and stare at the Headmaster with looks of shock, confusion, sadness and worst of all defeat. If the saviour of the wizarding world couldn't save himself, then what chance did they have?

"How do you know?" came the voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt after a few minutes.

"We saw his cuts," Dumbledore answered simply.

"Oh Harry!" Mrs Weasley cried out suddenly and broke down in tears, Arthur pulling her close as he frantically tried to blink back his own tears.

The room was silent again for a few more minutes, only disturbed by the sobs from Hermione and Mrs Weasley, until Mad-Eye broke it with the most important question. "But where is the boy now?"

Mrs Weasley gave one last sob then she wiped her eyes and looked up at Dumbledore with pleading eyes, silently begging him to give her a comforting answer.

The twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes was far gone and the powerful wizard looked older than ever when he spoke those devastating words. "We don't know, but we fear the worst."

Again Mrs Weasley broke down in tears in Arthur's arms, and this time he couldn't hold his own back.

"Where is Snape?" Tonks asked suddenly. "Shouldn't he know if Harry's been..." She broke of, unable to say that last word, but she didn't have to, everyone knew what she meant.

"I am not sure where Professor Snape is but it's most likely that he has been called to a meeting."

"Then what should we do, just wait until he returns?" Fred burst out angrily.

"There isn't much else to do at the moment I'm afraid, Mr Weasley."

"We can't just sit here while Harry might be tortured!" George said just as angry as his brother.

"And what would you want us to do? We don't know if Harry has been captured and even if we did, we don't know where Voldemort is," Dumbledore said sadly.

The sound of the door opening made them all turn around and stare at the Potions master who slowly made his way into the room. He gently sat down on one of the chairs by the window before he spoke. "Potter has indeed been captured."

The room exploded in sobs, curse words and screams of revenge from the twins as they rose for the door. Dumbledore raised his wand and locked the door before they reached it and then shot out red sparks until it quieted down.

"Did you see him Severus?" Dumbledore asked gently as he turned towards the Potions master.

"Yes, I saw him. That arrogant little prick won't ever learn to shut his mouth."

"Shut up!" Ron screamed. "Don't you dare talk badly about him!"

"Mr Weasley, please, quite down," Dumbledore broke in. "Now, what condition is he in?"

Snape let out a snort. "Condition? What condition could he possibly be in? He's in the hands of the Dark Lord and you wonder what condition he's in?"

"So he is still alive?" Dumbledore pushed on.

"Yeah, he's alive, and he'll probably be for awhile too."

"What do you mean Severus?"

"The brat just doesn't know how to shut up." Snape looked away and shook his head. "He should have kept quite."

"What did he say Severus? What happened?"

Snape looked up into Dumbledore's eyes again. "He let the Dark Lord find out that he wanted to die." He sighed. "It's like he's begging to get tortured."

"What's going to happen to him now?" Bill asked.

"He will be kept alive for as long as the Dark Lord can find some pleasure in seeing him hurt."

"We need to get him out of there," George said immediately.

"Yeah, we can't just leave him there," Fred continued.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Snape said angrily and turned towards them. "He's in Voldemort's own hiding place. Do you really think someone can just walk in and get Potter out of there?"

Ron looked up from Hermione, who was still sobbing into his chest. "You can."

Snape snorted. "Are you out of your mind? I might be able to get in, but how am I supposed to get him out Weasley?"

Ron looked like he had come up with something brilliant and wasn't about to back down that easily. "Invisibility cloak, Disillusionment Charm, surely you can think of something."

"If you think it's that easy then why don't you go in and get him?" Snape spat.

"Calm down Severus. Maybe Mr Weasley has a fair point," Dumbledore said, and if you listened closely you could hear a bit of hope in his voice.

"Dumbledore, I know you're old but we don't have time to go crazy right now, it's bad enough as it is," Snape said with an angry glare at the Headmaster.

The twinkle was back in Dumbledore eyes, even if it wasn't as strong as it used to be. "Oh, but I'm not going crazy Severus. You could get to Harry and see what condition he's in and his exact position. Then you come back here, bring some of us to Voldemort's hiding place and then we could rescue Harry while you go your own way."

"Headmaster..." Snape started frustrated but was cut off by Dumbledore.

"We need to get him out of there Severus or this war will already be lost."

"But Headmaster..." again he was cut off.

"Put your own feelings towards the boy, or should I say his father, aside for just a few hours. We need him Severus, you know that just as well as I."

Snape gave him the most evil glare he had but finally he gave in. "But don't ever expect me to do this again."

"We won't," Dumbledore said with a smile.

Snape got up from his chair. "It's better to get this over with fast," he muttered angrily but before he reached the door he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you," it was the only words Lupin could get out, but for the moment it was enough.

Snape shrugged the hand of his shoulder and continued for the door. "Spare me the sentimental feelings Lupin; I'm not doing it for you."

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