Harry Potter and the Legend of the Golden Griffin

Chapter 2

The Meeting

When Harry and the Weasleys appeared outside Number 12 Grimmauld Place, Remus Lupin ran out the door saying, "What happened? Is everyone alright?"

"We're all fine Professor, don't worry," Harry said, assuring his friend. "Ginny took a slicing curse to the leg and Ron got a nasty bone breaking spell, but we fixed them up."

"Alright, but we were all very frightened when Dobby appeared, saying that you had been attacked. He asked Dumbledore and I volunteered to go but Albus said to stay behind," Lupin said.

"Call an emergency meeting," Harry replied, "the Order will need to know about this."

"Go into the kitchen and wait. Let me contact them." Lupin ran inside and into the living room, ducking into the fireplace.

"Come on guys, we have to wait," Harry said, leading the way in. Seated at the kitchen table was Ginny and the one person he least expected, Hermione. "Hermione, what are you doing here?!"

"Have you gone brain dead? I swear one of those Death eaters hit you with a confundus charm. I came here for the rest of the summer for protection, remember?" she said.

"Oh, right," he said, "How are you? I missed you."

"I'm fine. I missed you too. What happened? Is everyone alright? Oh, Harry, I was so worried," she said, stressing. "I heard Dobby arrive and heard him talking to Dumbledore and then they disappeared and then an owl flew in and..."

Harry grabbed her in a bone crushing hug saying, "Hermione, you're babbling. We're all fine and you look great. Now, come on, tell us about you're summer."

Suddenly, Hermione's face turned dark. "I don't want to talk about that right now," she said, turning away so her friends couldn't see the tears in her eyes.

"Hermione, are you ok?" Harry said cautiously.

"Harry, please come with me," she said, "Ron, you too." Harry and Ron followed her into the living room, where Remus Lupin was.

"Professor Lupin?" said Hermione. "Is there anywhere we could go so we could talk?"

"Yes, you can go see Buckbeak, up in Sirius' mum's room. He's gone into some sort of withdrawal from not having anyone he recognizes come to feed him. He's tried to go through the window to find food twice but when I bring it to him, he doesn't eat. Maybe a familiar face like yours will work. Here are some rats," he said, handing her some dead rats in a bag.

"Thanks Professor," she said, walking up the stairs. As they walked past the heads of Kreacher's ancestors, Harry noticed a new one.

"Hermione is that Kreacher?" asked Harry.

"Yes, don't you remember? He was killed in the attack," she replied. "Oh, you can't repeat what I tell you until I say so." They wondered what had happened. When they got into the room, Buckbeak jumped up and gave a cry that sounded half eagle and half horse neigh. Harry walked over and bowed, and Buckbeak immediately bowed back. Harry took the bag of rats Lupin had given him and, after Ron and Hermione had bowed, started to feed him. When the Hippogriff was happily munching, Hermione took a deep breath and said," Okay, do you remember last year when I was in St. Mungo's, recovering?" Harry and Ron nodded. She continued, saying, "Well, after you left, an owl came from Victor. He said he had been recruited for Voldemort and that he had accepted. Apparently, he thought I would be happy. I forgot about it when we had Fudge's funeral. But he owled me again, asking me to come to his induction ceremony. After I refused, he replied, telling me that he had met Cho Chang, the Death Eater that had recruited him, and they started dating. I haven't heard from him since."

"Well," said Harry, "take this from a true friend. Scumbags like him don't deserve people like you."

"Yeah," Ron added, "he attacked Draco for no reason, and Neville was cursed because he tripped over his toad."

"I know, but now he's a death eater! With a temper and training like his, who knows what could happen," she said franticly, "I'll never forgive myself if he dies."

"Look, find someone new, someone who cares about you," Ron said.

There was a loud crash below, followed by a voice yelling, "MUDBLOODS, BLOOD-TRAITORS, SCUM OF THE EARTH. HOW DARE YOU DEFILE THIS HOUSE. EVIL, STINKING, HORRIBLE--," The shouting stopped abruptly.

"Tonks must be here," Ron said, "let's go down."

Right after Ron walked out the door, Harry grabbed Hermione's arm, asking, "Wait, do you want to talk?" She turned and he saw her eyes well up.

"Oh Harry!" she cried, tears that she had been containing for a month finally released, "I've been stupid. I let him get to me and I've been preparing for the N.E.W.T.s and I haven't had time to think and--," Harry cut her off.

"You're already preparing for the N.E.W.T.s?" he exclaimed, eyes widening, "Hermione, it's the beginning of summer and you are already studying?!"

He could have gone on ranting and rambling, but he was cut off by a yell of "Are you two coming or not?!!!" from Ron. Tentatively, he kissed her on the cheek.

She smiled, wiped her eyes, and asked, "Shall we go down? Ron will blow a gasket if we don't leave soon." She kissed him back and went to the door, and, giving him a warm smile, walked out, leaving a dumbfounded Harry to his thoughts.

When he finally came to his senses, he walked down into the kitchen to find a large number of people there. Prominent among those assembled were Remus Lupin, Tonks, Mad-eye Moody, Mundungus Fletcher, Professor McGonagall, Heista Jones, Dedalus Diggle, and, to Harry's surprise, two Dumbledores! Noticing Harry's astonishment, the real Albus Dumbledore said, "Harry, meet my brother Aberforth."

"Uh, Hi," said Harry, clearly embarrassed, "nice to meet you."

When Harry had sat down, Professor Dumbledore said, "For those of you that do not know, Harry's place of residence was attacked on hour ago by a number of death eaters. Harry, will you please explain the events leading up to the attack." Harry stood. He took a deep breath and started. " I was inside my house, talking to my cousin, Dudley, a muggle, when my uncle walked into the room. Unfortunately, he walked in at the precise moment that I was saying wizard and that I had my wand out. He, being a muggle and having a bad attitude towards magic, began to rage at me. I walked out of the house and summoned my things from my room. Then, hearing the crash, my uncle stuck his head out the door and continued to yell. I warned him not to come after me but he didn't listen, and I was forced to disarm him, blowing him back into the house. Ms. Figg saw me and we spoke for a while. Then, before I disapparated, I saw Malfoy and then it started."

"Thank you Harry," Dumbledore said, "now, Ron, can you tell what do you remember?"

"We were at home cleaning up after dinner when Dobby popped into the room yelling something about Harry in trouble. Everyone but Ginny and my mom immediately went to Privet Drive and saw Harry holding off about 10 Death Eaters with two wands." He paused for a second, recalling the scene when he got there. Harry standing there, wands raised, spells flying all around him. He'd grown so powerful after this last year. That training from Dumbledore must have helped. "Anyway," Ron said, continuing, "one of the wands must have been picked up from one of 5 Death Eaters on the ground. About 10 seconds later, Ginny sped out of Mrs. Figg's house, wand ready. We began dueling and I ended up next to Harry. Harry drew a's' in the air and I got the idea. Silently counting to three, we cast the Sonar curse at the same time. Bellatrix fell, but she disapparated before we could stun her. Malfoy snuck up behind me and broke my leg, but Dobby saw this and zapped him. The rest of the Death Eaters saw this and ran." Ron sat down.

Dumbledore stood again. "You have heard their story. We know why they attacked. We have been waiting for something like this to happen. Now that Voldemort is moving more freely, Harry, Ron and Hermione need a way to defend themselves if Voldemort strikes with Death Eaters, Dementors or werewolves."

Lupin spoke up, saying, "When Peter, James and Sirius all became Animagi, they helped me during my transformation. When Sirius was in Azkaban, becoming a dog helped him keep his mind. Maybe they can train."

Harry, Ron and Hermione looked at each other excitedly. Dumbledore looked thoughtfully into space, twiddling his thumbs. Harry wondered who would train them. Would it be Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall? Dumbledore continued, "What a wonderful idea! They all scored highly on their O.W.Ls and I see no reason to restrict them. We'll begin as soon as school starts. This brings me to another important point. I know that last year the three of you found one of Merlin's ancient texts. It said that there are ways to block the Cruciatus, and Avada Kedavra. Many people think this is a hoax, but the order thinks otherwise. That is why Harry will become Head Boy, and Hermione Head Girl. Ron, you will be something like an Honorary Head Boy. Think of it as an assistant, but you are not really under Harry." (Harry had been made a Prefect last year due to the events at the ministry. Dumbledore thought it best to show confidence in him after what the ministry did).

They were speechless. The whole room had gone silent. Dumbledore continued, "The three of you will not be attending regular classes this year either. Yes, there will be prefect meetings, but they will be held by other 7^th year prefects. For the next few months, you will be accompanying Professor Snape, Remus Lupin, and I on a trip around Europe. We will be traveling throughout the country and then leave on a trip to another place that I would like to keep hidden from you for now. During this trip I will train you on becoming an Animagus and train you on transfiguration, Remus will be your defense and charms instructor, and Severus will be your potions teacher, along with Advanced Dark Curses and Spells. This is a class not normally offered to Hogwarts students, but seeing as we will be taking quite a few risks, you need to lean some new spells that could help. There will be my personal library at your disposal at all times, in order for you to research. While traveling, we will encounter many dangerous situations, as well as renewed attacks by Death Eaters. The one advantage we have is that Voldemort does not even know about the scroll, and he has no idea where we are traveling. Please, while at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, decide on your animals. That concludes our meeting. Thank you for coming."

The trio sprung up. Wringing everyone's hand, the dashed up to Buckbeak's room. "No School!" Harry shouted.

"Animagi," yelled Ron.

"Head Girl," Hermione squealed.

"Let's start writing down ideas." Harry said. He summoned quills and parchment from his room and began to write. About 2 minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

Ginny's voice was heard, "Can I come in?"

"Of course Ginny," Hermione replied, opening the door. "What did you need?"

"I was wondering if I should ask Dumbledore to become an Animagus as well. The "prophesy may say that Harry is the only one that can defeat You-Know-Who, but that doesn't mean that we can't help hold off the Death Eaters while Harry duels."

"Neville would be proud. You'll need to keep him company this year. Oh, and tell him that I have turned all official duties of running the D.A. over to you two while I'm gone," Harry said.

"Here's some parchment and a quill, write down your ideas," Hermione said, passing the parchment to Ginny. 15 seconds later, she handed Harry back the quill.

"I'll go first," said Hermione. "At first, I was thinking wolf or dog, like Sirius and Remus. I saw these as powerful, strong animals, and would be great help in a fight. But, seeing as I'm not much of a physically strong person, I decided on a delicate, but magical animal. I chose a unicorn."

"Oooh, Hermione, great choice," Ron said. "I wanted to be a dragon or a phoenix, but those were too large. I wanted power, but speed and strength with it. I decided on a panther. Now Harry, your turn."

"Well, this one was hard on me. There were so many things I could be, but I couldn't decide," he said. "First it was an eagle, then a dog, stag, cheetah, and so many more choices. I've decided on something better then all of those though, a lion."

"Wow, wonderful choice. You are really taking after your house," Ginny said, giggling. "I had an easy time at choosing. I thought bird, but none of the birds I know of are very powerful. I wanted to fly, but I also wanted power. Then it hit me. A winged horse, preferably white."

"It's getting late, and we need to get to bed. After all the excitement today, you guys must be tired." Hermione said. Suddenly she heard a grunting snore. Ron had his head on Ginny's shoulder and was fast asleep. Hermione poked him in the ribs.

"Wha-? I'm up," he said, jumping to his feet. Ginny, who unfortunately had been leaning back on him, fell with a clunk to the floor. Her eyes snapped open.

"RONALD WEASLY, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!" she exploded, and she whipped out her wand. Looking cautiously at the wand, Ron started to slowly back away. "If I have a single bruise tomorrow morning, you are going to regret it. For now, I'll settle with a nice healthy hex," she said, stepping forward menacingly.

"Now Gin, let's be reasonable..." he said, reaching behind him for the door handle.

"Be reasonable, eh?" she said, raising her wand, "let's see who's being reasonable. Who's the one who just dropped me? Hmm? I didn't think so."

Ron ran, with Ginny close behind. They could hear explosions from the staircase, and Ron's continued yelping. There was a definite crack, and Ginny yelled out triumphantly. "HA, you stinking little... now you are the toad you deserve to be." A croak sounded from the open door.

"GINNY!" heard Harry and Hermione, "I told you not to practice transfiguration on your brothers. I know you're good at turning them into horned toads, but that doesn't mean that it has to be every other day." Mrs. Weasley had heard the yells and gone to investigate. Sitting on the floor was a small green toad, looking very warily at Ginny.

Harry and Hermione looked at each other before bursting out laughing. He looked more closely. Hermione seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. He went over to her and put his arm around her.

"Harry, what happens if Voldemort decides to send Victor after my parents?" Hermione said, looking scared.

"We'll ask the Professor about it in the morning. He'll know what to do," Harry replied. "Now get some sleep, and stop worrying about Krum. We'll talk tomorrow."

She kissed Harry on the cheek. He smiled, and helping her to stand, and watched her leave. He sat for about 10 minutes, gathering her thoughts. He wondered if she could be attracted to him. Hermione, like Harry, said a nasty little voice in the back of his head. Ah, but she kissed me, said another voice. Harry sighed, reminding himself to ask Remus about conflicting voices and how to get rid of the negative one. Maybe there was some kind of spell to cancel out your evil side of you brain. He shook his head, thinking longingly of his bed. Saying goodnight to Buckbeak, he walked from the room, still torn about his feelings for Hermione.