Harry Potter and the Forest of Shadows

Harry Potter and

the Forest of Shadows

Chapter 15: Condemned (Part 2)

The dining hall was just shy of the size of the Great Hall. However, there was only one table at the head of the room. Sitting behind was the whole of the Advance Guard, the Hogwarts staff, all of the graduated Weasleys, Sirius, and in the very middle, Dumbledore. Facing them was an army of people filling the room to the brink.

"This is every single member of the Order from all around the world," Rosy shouted above the noise coming from the crowd as they cut their way through it. "It's an extremely rare occasion," she continued, "when all of us come together like this in a formal meeting. But tonight's a special exception. Besides, we've been trying to get all of us together since Voldemort rose to power again."

By that time they had reached the head table. There were five empty seats, two of which Rosy and Harry sat to occupy.

"Harry," Rosy said, turning to him with a look of apology etched on her face, "I'm really sorry to have to do this and put you on the spot, but have you made up your mind?"

He nodded and with a deep breath said, "Yea. I'll join."

She gave him an encouraging smile and gathered herself from the ledge of the mahogany chair. Harry watched as she bent down to speak in Dumbledore's ear. After a minute or two he gave a satisfied nod and replied to her. She grinned momentarily before returning to her seat.

Harry could feel Sirius' eyes prying into him as he stared blankly ahead, contemplating if he had made the right decision or not. Breaking his train of thought was a light weight landing on his shoulder. Turning his head, he grinned at the sight of Fawkes whom was staring curiously into his darkened eyes.

Sirius let out a soft chuckle, running a hand shortly over the phoenix's feathers. "Well, Fawkes certainly does seem to like you," he said with a hint of amusement.

"Fawkes and I go way back," Harry said, grinning at the beautiful bird.

"Uncle Remus!"

Harry's head snapped towards the direction of where the shout had just come from. Running up to the table, was Cassy and Melany. Remus smiled, hugging both of them. Both girls were talking at one hundred miles an hour to the grinning werewolf. Following closely behind was the two girls' parents.

"Cassy," Kyle said, squatting down to her height, "go ahead and go back to the house. We'll be home in a little while." He kissed her forehead and gave her a little shove to the door behind the head table.

Just before she went through she gave Harry a secretive, small smile, which he returned without anyone noticing.

The noise in the hall began to dim as the clock chimed the ninth hour. Rosy sat back down, Kammy, Kyle, and Melany on her other side. Finally, a resounding silence rang throughout the hall.

"I want to welcome everyone to the first meeting of the whole Order of the Phoenix that has taken place in over ten years," Dumbledore said, holding out his arms to show his gratitude as Fawkes settled on his shoulder.

"The first order of business tonight," said the headmaster, "is one of the main reasons you have all been called here. We will be welcoming two of our youngest members. Melany Waller and Harry Potter, would you please come forth?"

Harry's legs felt as though they would give out on him at any moment, walking in front of this crowd of people whose eyes seemed to bear straight into him. It was as though the whole room held its breath as Harry and Melany stood before the headmaster.

"Melany Waller." She took a step forward at her name, leaving Harry in the background, fidgeting nervously. "Do you swear to work against the Dark, even if it means putting your life or the lives of others at risk?"

"I do."

"And do you swear to remain loyal to the Order of the Phoenix until death take you?"

"I do."

"And finally, do you swear to never speak a word of what plans and or courses of action we are to take to anybody but a member in this room, even under the pain of torture?"

Proudly lifting her head a little, she nodded and said, "I do."

"Melany Waller, I hereby welcome and swear you into the Order of the Phoenix."

As though she had known her whole life what to do in this situation, she raised her right hand sleeve and waited. Fawkes gently floated down from his perch on Dumbledore's shoulder and to her arm. Just below the crook of her elbow, he bent his head and let three single tears drip onto her arm. Getting a better look at what was happening, Harry saw a shape of a beautiful phoenix appear on her skin.

Without another word she slowly walked back behind the table to sit.

"Harry Potter."

He took a deep breath and took a step up to the table. Dumbledore bowed his head and began saying the oath for Harry.

"Do you swear to work against the Dark, even if it means putting your life or the lives of others at risk?"

"I do," he gulped.

"And do you swear to remain loyal to the Order of the Phoenix until death take you?"

"I do."

"And finally, do you swear to never speak a word of what plans and or courses of action we are to take to anybody but a member in this room, even under the pain of torture?"

"I do."

"Harry Potter, I hereby welcome and swear you into the Order of the Phoenix."

Fawkes settled himself on Harry's arm and let the tears fall. A strange tingling sensation was going up and down his arm. A sudden flash of painful heat surged into his arm, yet left as quickly as it had come. Dumbledore looked up at him, a soft smile on his face and pride lightened in his eyes.

Harry turned to face the rest of the table, everyone looking upon him with the same pride as the hall erupted into applause. As he came to sit by his godfather, he felt Sirius grab his shoulder and say to him, "Your parents would be so proud. Almost as proud as me."

A grin spread over Harry's face as he waited for the hall to quiet down. Dumbledore took his seat and held a hand for silence while Melany leaned back and flashed a smile at Harry, which he returned.

"Now, down to business," he heard Sirius mutter.

"Albus," a witch from the crowd shouted (it was impossible to tell which one), "do we have any idea what Voldemort is up to now?"

"Severus," Dumbledore said, nodding to the spy.

The potions master cleared his throat and began. "Currently, Lord Voldemort has one goal. He is building an army of the dead. Capturing families, torturing and killing them, then putting their twisted soul back into them. However, they are but mere shadows when it comes to getting rid of them. Like ghosts they pass straight through you, however even the smallest child can lift three times the weight a grown man can.

"They have endless endurance and there is no way known to destroy them. Except for the fact that every one of their souls or lifelines is a part of Voldemort's. The only way to destroy them would be to destroy him."

"Which brings us back to the beginning of the circle," someone shouted.

"Exactly," Dumbledore said sternly.

"But," Rosy said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "We need to start working on ways to get rid of these dead... things. If open war is waged against us, we stand no chance against things we cannot defeat. Not to mention he also has the whole of the population of the dementors with him. Azkaban is completely unguarded except for the few aurors the ministry has stationed there. Most prisoners have begun talking sanely. Azkaban will soon be deserted."

"The ministry is stationing more and more aurors. Even as we speak," Kammy said.

"But they should be out fighting!" Sirius shouted. "Voldemort has us trapped and currently there is no way to get out of it."

"Phylaca!" a voice called. "Move Azkaban's prisoners to Phylaca. It's smaller, and not extremely convenient, but Azkaban is falling. Rosemary is right. If we do not get those prisoners out now, they will soon be back in Voldemort's ranks. Germany will gladly take them. And they only have Aurors there; no dementors."

"Then it is settled. Azkaban will be transferred to Phylaca as soon as possible. When it is filled, we will use the holding cells in the British ministry. Hopefully it will not come to that. The cells are weak and easily escapable."

"Then the question currently is, how do you destroy something that is dead?" Rosy said.

A ringing silence filled the room.

"Egypt," she said, glancing to the room, "any ancient scrolls might help. But if we do not find an answer to this question," her voice lowered, "we are all condemned to an early death. There is an answer to the question. There has to be."

The rest meeting was filled with a few ridiculous ideas from people on who to get rid of the Dead and talk of moving all of Azkaban's prisoners to the German prison, Phylaca, which Kammy would be addressing to the press tomorrow.

Once Dumbledore finally called the meeting to an end it was half past ten and Harry was starting to nod off. He zoned out for a few minutes before he felt Sirius giving him a slight shove. "Come on kid, time to go back to bed." Giving a yawn, Harry got up and followed Sirius out through the back door and into a large passage which they climbed up and entered out into the foyer as the rest of the Order crowded into the fireplaces to leave or just apparated.

Harry saw no more of Melany or any of the Black sisters that night; Sirius and Remus just rushed him out of the house and back to the ballroom where a portkey was waiting. He hardly remember any of the events that took place from then on out, except for Sirius leading him to the portrait of the fat lady, and pushing him gently inside the common room with a quiet goodnight.

His bed had never looked more welcoming to him than it had right then. Grinning at the still tingling feeling his arm had his last thought was, *well at least it won't be too hard to hide from everyone*.

***

Dawn was just breaking when Harry felt a soft hand run back and forth over his cheek. Warm breath made his eyes flutter open. He smiled as Ginny focused into his view.

"Good morning," she whispered, softly kissing him making his lips curve into a smile.

Reaching for his glasses and sliding them on, he found her already dressed and ready to go to classes. The whole attire was finished off with the delighted smile on her face as though someone had just announced Christmas was coming early.

"What is it?" he yawned, stretching and relishing in the fact no nightmares had come to him last night.

She kept grinning like a Cheshire cat. "Guess."

He rolled over onto his side and looked at the clock, groaning at the time. "Gin, it's not even seven O'clock."

"Guess!" she demanded, hitting him on the shoulder.

"I cannot believe you woke me up this early."

She grabbed the pillows from beneath his head, hit him hard with them, and threw them across the room. He emitted another moan and pulled the covers over his head.

"Harry Potter!" she growled, pulling the covers off and looked at him straight in the eye.

"What?"

"I just came up here to tell you..." Before continuing she let her face break into a smile again. "Ron's back."