"Roll call!"
"We aren't having a roll call, Hermione," Harry sighed and shook his head. "I think everyone knows who everyone else is."
"Uh..." Fred glanced at Barty, who was under Polyjuice once again. Though it was at least a similar look to his actual looks that Harry finally saw when he returned from Hogwarts. Harry had stolen a ton of hairs from the first blonde haired, blue eyed, tall, muggle man he found when he traveled out to London after visiting Gringott's Bank the prior morning.
"Bart," Harry said, gesturing lazily toward Barty. "This is Bart Doe."
"Harry," Susan rolled her eyes at him, "are we really not meant to know that's Barty Crouch Junior?"
"I have no idea what you mean," Barty sniffed. "And I'm insulted to have my identity questioned by you."
"Yeah because we're idiots, mate," Ron sighed. "We know it's Barty."
"Bart," Fred corrected his brother with an easy smile. "Harry said his name's Bart and that's that."
"Can we move this along?" Snape asked drily. "I believe I get enough of your bickering in the school term."
"Fine." Harry turned to Hermione, the official secretary of the gang. "We know who is here, who isn't here?"
"Blaise Zabini, the Contessa Zabini, Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Narcissa Malfoy, and Lucius Malfoy," Hermione recited the names promptly from memory.
"Where's the Malfoys?" Ron asked around a mouthful of pastry that Mavis kept piling on their meeting table.
Even though Harry specifically told Mavis not to bring pastries to the meeting table because it was for meetings.
Mavis never fuckin' listens. How am I meant to run a country if I can't even keep pastry crumbs off my parchments? Harry thought irritably, wiping the aforementioned crumbs off his stack of parchments.
"Draco and Narcissa are with Blaise and Juliana hiding out in Italy," Luna said. "Timmy moved in the Malfoy Manor and knows Draco is allied to Harry so Draco can't go home and Cissa won't leave him behind."
Harry felt a pinch of guilt for causing Cissa and Draco to effectively become homeless, but he'd offered to help find them a place to stay.
"Absolutely not," Cissa sniffed at the platform when the students returned from Hogwarts. "I am a Black and a Malfoy, I am perfectly capable of finding a suitable temporary home for me and Draco."
"And by that she means the Contessa already invited us to stay with her and Mother can't wait to go shopping in Italy," Draco said with a sarcastic twist of his lips.
"Is that not what I just said?" Cissa asked innocently as she examined her fresh manicure.
So it wasn't like they were going without because Harry kept Lucius on as a spy. Their family was divided temporarily, but Harry would make sure they were safely reunited once Timmy was dead.
"What about Neville?" Fred asked. "I assume Fleur, Viktor, and the Zabinis are just out of the country, but we could have snagged Nev on our way here."
"They are," Luna confirmed about the missing foreign gang members. "But Neville wasn't invited on account of Bart being here and Harry wasn't sure how he'd immediately react."
Harry sighed at Luna's never ending honestly. Really, what was the point of the polyjuice for the meeting if everyone seemed to just know it was Barty sitting at the table? Not that anyone acted like they cared at all, not after Harry said Barty was innocent of all previous wrongdoings anyway.
It wasn't really Harry's problem if that was true or not, as long as Barty knew better than to torture anyone else without Harry's okay in the future.
Sirius turned his head to gape at Luna after she had finished explaining about their missing members.
"How do you know that?" he asked, not as used to Luna's connection to the nargles as the rest of the group was.
"Harry told me," Luna smiled. "Well, actually I spoke with Fleur and Viktor when they left last year and Draco told me he was going on vacation in Italy with his mother this summer. He asked me to go with them, but I'd much rather stay here."
"Good call," Barty told her seriously. "Vacationing with Narcissa is a terrible experience. Isn't it, Sev?"
"Yeah, Sev?" Harry grinned across the table to his guardian. "Is it terrible, Sev? Just awful?"
"Get to the point of this meeting, now, Harry," Snape practically growled. "There is only so much patience I am willing to extend for this charade."
"It's not a charade, sir," Theo scowled. "We've got real information to share now and plans to make, don't we. Harry?"
"We do," Harry said, straightening up in his seat and adopting a more solemn expression. "We actually have a lot to go over today, so we might as well get to it. Everyone should know that Sirius, Lupin, and Bart have all officially sworn in. Everyone here is officially in the gang and have vowed to not share what we talk about during meetings. So, Sirius, your information first."
Sirius sat upright as everyone seated around the large table set in the backyard turned their attention to him.
"Moony and I were invited to rejoin the Order of the Phoenix two days ago, after the train left Hogwarts, by Albus," Sirius said, ignoring the multiple scowls and sneers he got for that. "Which we did, because Harry asked me to," he winked at Harry cheerfully.
Harry suspected that Sirius had waited his whole life to he a spy. He was just so bloody excited he had all but begged Harry for the chance.
Which Harry graciously accepted.
"We had the first meeting yesterday, and they're using my parents old house —"
"Grimmauld Place?" Barty asked. "You're joking! You gave it to Dumbledore?!"
"He asked," Sirius shrugged. "And I couldn't think of a good excuse to say no on the spot. Plus I was just going to sell it later anyway."
"But the books," Barty whined. "The Black Library has so many books. And you know that Dumbledore will burn them all!"
Hermione gasped, clearly and amusingly appalled at the mere thought.
"Mum is mad about clearing all the 'dark artifacts' from the house," Fred said, Ron nodding along with him. "We're apparently staying there this summer."
"Why?" Snape asked, one brow lifted in curiosity.
"Er," Fred glanced uneasily at Harry, knowing Harry was frustrated that the entire Weasley family felt like they were in danger just by being associated with Harry.
"Well... Dumbledore reckons the Weasleys might be a big target of Timmy's and... and I think he wants as many of us as close to him as he can get. He's a bit obsessed with you, Darlin'."
"Pains of fame," Harry quipped with a grin at Ron. "Mione, write down 'Black Library' and 'dark artifacts' under our to do list."
"Do I put those before or after kill Timmy and torture Dumbledore?" Hermione asked sarcastically.
"Before," Susan said seriously. "The Black Library might have some new curses in it."
"It will," Sirius grinned.
"Can we move this along?" Snape sighed impatiently.
Harry was pretty sure Snape was just putting on a show for everyone. He had seemed rather pleased really when Harry asked him to attend the meeting.
"Okay, okay," Sirius held up his hands for attention once more. "So the Order is using my family's place. Dumbledore is secret-keeper, but it's technically and legally my and Harry's home so he can't keep the two of us out. We just won't be able to give anyone else the address."
"Which is fine," Lupin said, "because our quarrel isn't with the Weasleys who are the only ones staying there."
"Hear, hear," Ron grinned.
"What else was said at the meeting?" Susan asked Sirius.
"So here's the short version: Snape isn't invited."
Snape rolled his eyes at that.
"Neither is Harry."
Harry smiled, pleased to finally be publicly acknowledged as Dumbledore's enemy.
"Dumbledore wants everyone to work on recruiting. He's also stationed a guard at the Department of Mysteries, he thinks Voldemort—"
"Timmy," Harry said.
"Timmy then," Sirius grinned, "he thinks he'll try and get the prophecy."
"The one locked in my vault?" Harry asked, lying slightly.
It was in his trunk.
His heavily warded trunk.
But nobody needed to know that.
Well, Snape knew. But that was it.
"That exact one," Lupin nodded. "Albus believes that Vol- Timmy," he sighed, spotting Harry's mouth opening to correct him, "will want to hear the exact contents of the prophecy."
"What an idiot," Susan laughed. "Okay, so Dumbledore is trying to recruit and setting up a guard for a prophecy that Harry took years ago. Snape and Harry aren't Dumbledore's best friends, boo hoo. Anything else?"
"He's also trying to convince everyone that V- Timmy is back," Sirius said with a sly grin at Barty. "Apparently he doesn't believe 'the Dark Lord Barty' is really the mastermind behind all the mayhem during the tournament."
"How rude," Barty said simply, taking a sip of his disgusting mint tea he kept sending Sevvie off to special order.
"Who all is in the Order, and who all is he trying to recruit?" Theo asked Sirius, a quill posed and ready to start writing.
Sirius listed off about a dozen names, only a couple of which Harry recognized.
"Your aunt fuckin' joined Dumbledore?!" Harry asked Susan, feeling rather betrayed by Amelia Bones.
"Amelia actually spoke with me after Albus approached her," Snape cut in. "As Albus is attempting to recruit the majority of the DMLE, Amelia felt as if it would be best if she rejoined, though she is trying to sway the aurors away from siding with Albus at present."
"She won't swear an alliance to you," Susan told Harry with a frown. "She thinks you're too young to be involved. But she knows I've joined your side and she's refusing to swear anything to Dumbledore either. She says she's 'working for peace but building connections in case of war'."
"That's a good strategy," Ron said approvingly. "Alright then, where's Dumbledore focusing his recruitment at?"
"Creatures," Lupin said bluntly. "He wants me to go underground and find werewolves willing to join him. He's sent Hagrid off to envoy with the giant; he also asked Madame Maxine but she won't go ever since Skeeter wrote about Dumbledore calling Harry a liar."
Madame Maxine was a sweet woman, in Harry's opinion. Even if she did keep trying to convince Harry to come to her school.
Or maybe it was especially because she kept doing that.
Also in Harry's opinion, Rita was a real God send. The more she slandered Dumbledore in the newspaper, the better.
"Are you going?" Snape asked Lupin.
"I—" Lupin glanced at Sirius, who scowled irritably and crossed his arms, apparently not liking the idea much at all. "I'm not sure," he said.
"You shouldn't," Fred told him. "I heard a bit of that meeting, and Dad reckons it'll be dangerous. Dumbledore doesn't care if you die, does he? Not if you can find more people to join his side."
"He isn't asking them to join him," Lupin said with a frown. "He's asking them to simply not join V- Timmy."
"Wait." Harry looked at Lupin incredulously. "Dumbledore doesn't want werewolves in the Order?"
"He did not say that, explicitly," Lupin said slowly. "As I am a member, I assume that was not his meaning. I think he is under the impression that neutrality is the best he will get. So that is what he's asking for."
Harry and Susan exchanged a long look before they broke out into identical smirks.
"We'd take neutrality too," Susan said with a calculating look in her clever eyes. "What's Dumbledore offering them in exchange for them not joining Timmy?"
"Nothing," Lupin said, confirming the guess Harry had made on Dumbledore's offer to them. "He only wants me to dissuade them from joining Timmy. Which may be difficult because I'm sure that he will be sending his own messenger to them with offers of power on his side."
"They'll be lies," Barty said. "He would never allow anyone less than a pureblood, or a genius half-blood, to take the mark." Barty sent Snape a hopeful smile as he added the exception that Timmy must have made for him, and Harry nearly laughed at Snape's responding scowl. Merlin. Snape spent probably half his time pretending to dislike people that Harry knew for a fact he actually liked.
Snape could probably end diseases worldwide in a week if he didn't waste so much time trying to seem cold and unlikeable.
"I know," Lupin sighed. "But that's the only offers on their table."
"Not all the offers," Susan corrected him. "Harry, what offer can we make for the werewolves?"
Harry thought carefully about it and tried to come up with a convincing offer for them.
"How would they like to be a part of our gang?" he asked. Snape rolled his eyes, probably only partially in distaste for werewolves, the other part had to be the mention of a gang.
An alliance sounded stuffy, boring. A gang accomplished things.
"You would ask them to fight for you?" Lupin asked skeptically. Harry had no idea what made Lupin think he was anti-werewolf but it was bloody annoying. Harry thought werewolves were brilliant and sometimes he was even jealous of Lupin's extra abilities he got from it.
The physical strength to crush a man's skull with their bare hands? Bloody brill.
"They're literally just witches and wizards 29 days out of the month," Susan said. "Witches and wizards who are discriminated against, probably jobless, and in desperate need of more rights. Which we'll give them once Harry's the Minister."
"If you go, tell them I have a message for them and that's it," Harry said, thinking carefully. "Tell them that Harry Potter promises them a place to stay, food to eat, and promises to fight for them once I've joined the Ministry. Every single one of them who wants to swear they won't join Dumbledore or Timmy at least has a place to stay."
Harry knew that the main issue werewolves dealt with was poverty from the disgusting discrimination of the wizarding world. Businesses wouldn't hire them, so then they'd end up broke and homeless. And Harry of all people knew what a boon it was in life to go from homeless and struggling to survive to having a place to stay and food to eat.
It could change someone's entire life, permanently. It could save their life too.
"Harry, where are you planning on housing these hypothetically neutrally-aligned wolves?" Snape asked tightly. Harry figured he was worried Harry was trying to bring even more people to their house, but he wasn't stupid.
"The house I bought yesterday," Harry shrugged. "I was going to use it for Muggleborns to hide out in from Timmy's followers, but this might be a better option for now, yeah?"
Technically, he bought the house to try and start getting Muggleborns away from their crummy Muggle families. But he didn't want to get into that argument with Hermione again just then and they did need to be protected from Timmy, so it didn't really matter which explanation he shared. Although, the looks that Susan and Fred both gave him meant they suspected his true original motives in buying the house.
Eventually Harry would open a new house for muggleborns, the war just took temporary priority.
Ron and Theo nodded in agreement with Harry's idea, but Snape looked somehow even more wary about it all.
"You spent the money in your vault on a house for muggleborns?"
"Nope, I spent Sirius's money on a house," Harry said, ignoring Sirius's look of confusion. If the man wasn't going to check on his vaults every so often like Harry did then that was his problem.
Harry knew Sirius had the power to cut him off from the vaults since he was the Lord and Harry just the Heir. They both also knew the Black vault could buy a dozen houses before there was any noticeable difference in gold, which was probably why Sirius didn't bother complaining.
"For God's sake," Snape sighed. "Any other ridiculous purchases?"
"Er, yes, but I'll tell you later," Harry said before pushing on hastily. "So we're offering a house to werewolves and I'll give Lupin the address before he leaves. What's next?" he asked Hermione.
"Recruiting for actually active members," Hermione said promptly. "Professor Snape, we figured you would know more about how Dumbledore and Timmy built up their armies and could advise us on who we should start asking."
Snape looked taken aback as they all focused on him, but he answered anyway.
"I believe that the Slytherin students will be your main focus this year," he told them. "They were a popular group that had been exploited in the last war. Albus did not trust them and thus made them easy pickings for the Dark Lord. I believe many will choose to follow Harry instead if he convinces them of their likelihood of success on his side."
Theo scribbled that down while Ron toyed with his hair and considered the best approach.
"Opening night," he eventually said, his eyes screwed up as he considered different plans. "You should make a show of power in the duels then make an offer to everyone," he told Harry.
"Good idea," Susan praised him. "And I think we should start recruiting in the DMLE too."
Harry, who had been nodding along to Ron's plan for their housemates, scowled at Susan's suggestion.
"No cops," he said stubbornly. "I don't trust them."
"Yes cops," Susan disagreed, just as stubborn as Harry. "It's stupid not to at least extend offers to some that we can trust."
"Like who?" Harry demanded, ignoring the rest of the group in favor of arguing with his best friend. "Besides Amelia of course."
Except she already joined Dumbledore, didn't she?
"Johnny."
Harry, Fred, and Lupin of all people, sputtered at that.
"Johnny?!" Fred laughed. "Johnny Abbott?? Pot smoking, booze drinking, rule breaking Johnny?"
"They had a sign on bonus," Susan shrugged as if it explained everything. "Johnny had the right NEWTS, and Auntie was authorized to hire 50 new DMLE staff members thanks to the Dark Lord Barty."
"Johnny is welcome then," Barty said with mock solemnity and a half-bow.
"What's Johnny's problem?" Harry asked, rather startled by the news of someone he considered to be his friend joining the DMLE. "He was supposed to be going backpacking around the world!"
"Which costs money, you prat," Susan said slowly. "We can't all be rich heirs, Harry," she stuck her tongue out at him, softening her admonishment.
"Hey, I made 500 galleons on my own last year," Harry said defensively.
"You made 1,000, Harry," Snape corrected him.
"Nope. 500," Harry said. "I got 200 from the interest Bagman owed Fred, and then 300 from the tournament."
"And where did your other 700 galleons go??" Sirius asked.
"200 I owed Ron, and a 500 galleon investment in an upcoming shop in Diagon Alley as a silent partner. I am 'investing in my future'."
Or, at least, that's what Griphook kept saying.
"Cheers, Darlin'," Fred winked at him.
"Wonderful," Snape sighed. "You'll either be penniless by graduation or more wealthy than any teenager has reason to be."
"We'll see what happens, Sev," Harry grinned. He wasn't worried, Griphook told him he already doubled the original value of his parents' vault even before he added the 500 galleons.
Snape scowled at Harry for the nickname but was interrupted by Sirius.
"Pup, nobody likes cops," he said, bringing the focus of the conversation back on task. "But if you don't at least try and recruit some of them then you'll be the only side in this that doesn't. Dumbledore and Timmy will both have plenty of law enforcement on their sides and it won't be good if you didn't."
"I agree," Barty said. "The DMLE can make your life difficult if you don't have any of them working for you."
"There are plenty of them who would be trustworthy," Luna said quietly while gazing up at the sky.
"Fine!" Harry cried, annoyed at their logic and arguments. "Fine. Sue, ask Johnny to join and if he does then have him start finding other people we can trust. But none of them can join until I check them out. They're starting in the negatives on trust levels."
"Done." Susan smiled smugly as her plan was added to the official to do list. "Next?"
"Harry wrote 'Fudge' on my list," Hermione said as she squinted to decipher Harry's messy scrawl. "So I assume the Minister is another problem?"
"Or Harry's hungry," Fred joked.
"Or we could stay on topic and finish this before I present myself to the Dark Lord to be taken out of my misery," Snape muttered, clearly unamused by the constant side conversations derailing the meeting.
"I meant the Minister," Harry clarified. "He told me he wants me to 'pop in the ministry and boost public morale'."
"He wants you to be a mascot for the ministry's efforts at reassuring the public that they are protecting them from the new Dark Lord," Snape scoffed, interpreting the minister's intent correctly. "It is absurd and disgusting."
"I figured I'd do it," Harry shrugged. "Not for free, but it wouldn't hurt to have Fudge in our pockets, would it?"
"Careful, Harry, your Malfoy side is showing," Theo said without any real malice.
"He's not wrong though," Ron pointed out. "The Ministry controls a lot of public opinion. If Harry can influence the Minister then the Daily Prophet will keep dragging Dumbledore and Harry can maybe start making some changes early."
"Exactly," Harry nodded at Ron's endorsement of his plan. "What do you think?" he asked Barty and Snape. It wasn't that Harry didn't trust his friends, it was that they almost always agreed with him and Harry's plans always sounded brilliant and didn't always execute quite as brilliantly.
"I like it," Barty said immediately.
So maybe Barty was another 'yes-friend'.
"It is acceptable enough, though I would appreciate being informed of the changes you are attempting to execute before you do so," Snape said slowly. "Having the Minister on your side carries no true downside at present time."
"Brill. Anything else?"
"That's all we had really," Hermione told him. "But then I had to add 'Dept of Mystery' and the Black library and artifacts on the bottom."
"Why are we worried about the Department of Mysteries?" Susan asked. "Let Dumbledore and Timmy waste their time there looking for the prophecy."
"Dumbledore's wasting my time," Sirius grouched. "We're all taking shifts guarding it."
"Are we just going to let Timmy and Dumbledore fight over a prophecy you already have?" Ron asked curiously.
"Yeah, I don't see a problem with that," Harry shrugged. "That's a good enough distraction that we don't really have to worry about."
"And I have an idea about the stuff from Sirius' house," Fred said as he leaned his chair back on two legs and stretched. "George and I have already been nicking stuff, we can probably get crazy Kreacher to help if we tell him it's all about saving the Black history or some bullshit."
Harry's lips flattened and he rolled his eyes at Fred for his description of Sirius' house elf. It wasn't Kreacher's fault everyone treated him like dirt. Harry would probably be a bastard if he was treated that way too.
In fact, Harry had been a bastard and continued to be a bastard even without being treated like a filthy bit of rubbish.
"Do it nicely," he chastised Fred. "Don't piss off Kreacher, he could be helpful, yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah," Fred shook his head at Harry with a fond tone of exasperation. "You and your hopeless crusades."
Harry didn't think it was hopeless at all. He already recruited plenty of people that nobody expected. Which included someone who was meant to be dead. What was one more moody person to add?
"Are we quite done then?" Snape asked.
"Yes," Hermione said decisively. "We're supposed to meet again at the end of summer before we return to Hogwarts for updates on everyone's jobs. Lupin will talk with the wolves, Ron will figure out Harry's approach to the Slytherins. Susan will work on the DMLE, Fred can start on saving the stuff from Sirius's we want, Harry will work on the Minister, and Mister Malfoy will have an update on Timmy for us then."
"Adjourned then," Harry told them all, secretly relieved to be finished. "Good work, guys."
"Let's have pizza next time," Ron said eagerly.
"Let's not," Harry rolled his eyes. Crumbs, crumbs everywhere all the time.
"I need to make a few notes and then I'll give Lupin the address for the place I got. D'you have a minute when I'm done, Sev?" he asked Snape with an innocent smile referring to the discussion they needed to have on the other purchase he made through Griphook.
"Do not call me Sev," Snape scowled, "or I will kill you myself. And yes, find me in my office when you are prepared to inform me of what is undoubtedly another poorly thought out, and likely illegal, scheme."
"It's a great scheme," Harry blinked at Snape before smiling slowly, "Sev."
"I should kill you," Snape told Barty. "You are a terrible influence on my ward."
"Hey now - Harry's the bad influence!" Barty defended himself. "He's completely corrupted my morals!"
"I'll meet you in my office," Snape told Harry as he got to his feet.
Harry laughed quietly as Snape and Barty started arguing on their way back inside. Snape could keep fighting with Barty all he wanted, but Harry knew he liked having his friend alive and back on the same side again.
"See you tonight?" Fred whispered under the cover of everyone else making their way to their feet and splitting up.
"Yep," Harry nodded and waved as Fred and Ron headed back to the house to floo to the Burrow before they floo'd to Grimmauld Place.
"Sleepover at my place tonight?" Susan asked Luna. "Auntie Amelia won't be home, so we can just hangout."
"That would be wonderful," Luna smiled brightly. "Do you think we could go to the films again? I want to see the one we watched the ad for the last time..."
Harry waved the girls off, only feeling a minor twinge of jealousy that they were going to hang out together without him while he was busy with Snape. Although, the film Luna described sounded terrible, so maybe he would just ask them to a different movie later in the summer.
"Give me just a minute," he told Lupin and Sirius as he distractedly began writing down everyone's plans before he forgot anything they decided.
"Take your time, plotting world domination does require careful notes," Sirius grinned.
"Not world domination," Harry murmured as he scrawled down the new updates. Sirius could crack jokes all he wanted, but Harry felt like his memory was terrible and there were people counting on him suddenly. He wasn't going to let one of his spies get hurt, or killed, because Harry had forgotten a key detail or something once the inevitable upcoming fights really got going.
Sirius and Lupin relaxed back in their chairs, enjoying the dimming sunshine as Harry wrote quickly and carefully.
"Done," he finally said. He tapped the parchments and made sure they were readable only to him before sending them to his heavily warded trunk. "Alright, I've got stuff to do tonight, yeah? But I'll give you the address and you can take anyone there who vows not to join anyone else. I dunno how to set it up so there's food or anything there though."
"I do," Sirius told him. "I'll handle that, Pup. You're doing enough already for everyone."
"You need to make sure you take time for yourself," Lupin said in the gentle tone that always made Harry feel coddled. "You're taking on quite a bit."
"It's my gang, my problems," Harry said shortly. "I have to make sure everyone's safe, yeah? I don't want someone to hurt any of my people."
And by that he meant he was absolutely not going to let Timmy or Dumbledore steal, hurt, or kill any of the people who joined Harry's gang. They were his people, his friends to protect. If someone got hurt, it would be on Harry.
"Heavy lies the crown," Lupin murmured before clearing his throat. "You've assembled a good alliance, Harry," he continued in a louder voice. "Make sure you rely on them for help, that's what we're all here for."
"Noted," Harry rolled his eyes. "Here," he handed Lupin the scrap of parchment where he wrote the address for the house in Scotland he purchased. "It's in my and Sirius's name, but I wanna name it," he told his godfather. It was childish, but when Griphook told him he had to pick a name to register the house with, he'd been excitedly coming up with ideas.
"That's a fun tradition," Sirius said, easily leaving it to Harry. "I tried to get your dad to name their cottage 'Marauder's Mansion' but Lily put a stop to it."
"Rightfully so," Lupin chuckled, pocketing the address in his sweater pocket. "It was a two bedroom cottage meant for their family, not a place for you and James to get drunk and relive your glory days."
"Just for that I'm naming our next house 'Padfoots Love Shack'," Sirius told Lupin as he helped him to his feet.
"Gross," Harry crinkled his nose. "That's really fuckin' gross to say in front of me."
"And hearing Fred ask to come over tonight was meant to be pleasant for me to hear?" Lupin asked with a small smile.
"It's not my fault you've got super hearing," Harry shrugged, unconcerned. "Special little wolf senses aren't always so great, huh?"
Sirius laughed, as he usually did when Harry and Lupin had 'friendly disagreements', as Lupin called them. Harry didn't dislike Lupin as much as he used to, in fact most of the time he liked Lupin almost the same amount as he did Sirius, but Lupin seemed determined to try and 'counsel' Harry so Harry figured Lupin deserved some arguments every now and again for it.
"We'll see you later, Pup," Sirius ruffled Harry's hair in the annoying way Harry had begrudgingly gotten used to from him.
Harry waited for the two of them to leave, the last people in the yard, before releasing a heavy sigh and relaxing his stiff pose.
It was bloody exhausting trying to lead a whole army. It was no wonder Dumbledore's hair was entirely white and Timmy was completely mad.
Harry slowly made his way inside toward Snape's office, snacking on one of the pastries he snagged from Mavis as he went. Even if Mavis seemed determined to make Harry's meetings a tea party, there was no denying he was a brilliant baker.
"I need a favor," Harry said in lieu of a greeting once he entered Snape's office, warded the door against eavesdroppers, and plopped down on his chair by the bookcase.
"I may grant your favor if you inform me of the other ridiculous purchase you made," Snape said without even looking up from whatever bit of correspondence he was working on.
"I bought another house and I want you to be the secret-keeper."
Snape immediately looked up at that and even though he was too controlled to look really shocked, Harry knew him well enough by then to see the surprise in his eyes anyway.
"You purchased a second house?"
"Yep. It's from just my vault though," Harry explained. "It's a safe house. There's too many people who know of this house, yeah? So I figured we needed one in case anyone needs to go in hiding."
Which was actually only an idea he had after Draco and his Mum had ran into that exact scenario.
"That is an excellent plan," Snape said approvingly. "I will rest much easier knowing you have alternative housing should this one become compromised."
Harry gave him a crooked smile at his praise, pleased to show him that he was capable of coming up with useful plans on occasion.
"Are you certain you wish for me to be the secret-keeper?" Snape asked.
"Well, yeah, who else? Nobody. You're the strongest person in the gang, and I trust you the most. I figured you'd die before you gave it up and nobody can break your occlumency shields, so who else?" Harry repeated with a small shrug.
Snape looked flattered by Harry's assessment and accepted easily.
"When would you like to establish this?" he asked Harry.
"Er, now? If you aren't busy?"
"Excellent." Snape stood up and summoned his cloak from the cloakrack by the door. "Is it connected to the floo network or will we be illegally apparating?"
"Illegally apparating," Harry smirked. "D'you want me to side-along you?"
"No," Snape pretended to shudder at the thought, or maybe it was a real shudder, sometimes it was hard to tell with him. "I would prefer if you wrote down the location and I can meet you there."
Harry jumped to his feet and handed Snape a bit of parchment after he scrawled down the address, "See you there."
Snape looked down at the parchment after Harry popped out of the room and sighed at what his overtly dramatic ward had written:
The safe house for the Grey Gang, aka Invisibility Way, is located at 01 Meadowview, Shanklin, Isle of Wright
"Ta da!" Harry laughed at Snape's look of confusion when he apparated to the address Harry gave him. "What'd you think?"
"I think either you have made a terrible investment or whichever Goblin assisted you in purchasing this home has already had it warded," Snape said as he looked around him. Harry knew what Snape was seeing just then, a brilliant glamour of a ward that Griphook had one of the Gringotts curse breakers contracted out to enact on the property.
Even though Harry could easily see the large two story grey brick house with the fenced in back lawn, he knew all Snape could see was a rundown shack that resembled an old Muggle outhouse. Which was good, because it meant that if anyone ventured too far into the forest near the beach that they would assume it was just another old abandoned bit of property.
"The second one," Harry told Snape. "Want to set up the spell or have the grand tour first?"
"Lead the way," Snape said, gesturing towards the shack with a slight smirk. Which Harry hoped would fall right off his face once they stepped past the ward.
"Ta da!" Harry said again once he threw the front door open and Snape was able to actually see the property as Harry did. The two of them stepped inside the door to a modestly sized, and currently unfurnished sitting room.
"I see you have already painted," Snape said as he inspected the green painted walls that mimicked their house in exact shade.
"Yeah, I just told Griphook what colors I wanted every room to be and he did the work," Harry explained as he led Snape through the sitting room to the kitchen. "I haven't actually seen it since we came here after I purchased it, so only the bedrooms have any furniture."
To highlight his point, Harry showed Snape Mavis's quarters off the kitchen, which were a bright yellow color and completed with elf sized furniture.
"Cheery," Snape curled his lip up at the decor. "I'm quite sure Mavis will appreciate the effort you made for him."
Harry ignored Snape's sarcasm and instead explained about the different dimension stretching spells and runes that Griphook told him about when they were discussing the property as he continued with the tour.
Snape probably already knew all about the spells, bloody genius he was, but it was still kind of him to listen patiently as Harry talked eagerly about them. It could change the world, erase homelessness forever.
If muggles weren't so afraid of magic, they could be comfortable and safe for their entire lives.
"The library is really the only downstairs room I had them change," Harry explained as he showed Snape his favorite room in the house. "I figured we'd need to make sure we had all our research and stuff with us if we had to go into hiding or something."
"Indeed," Snape agreed lightly, with a curious look towards the corner of the room that Harry sectioned off as a potion lab.
Once they finished with the downstairs tour, Harry led Snape upstairs and hoped that Griphook made sure the rooms were all set up the way he'd tried to describe how he wanted them. He really had lucked out with Griphook as an account manager, all he'd had to do was transfer some money from his vault to Griphook and the goblin had eagerly began setting everything up quickly for Harry.
It was probably because Harry didn't care what things cost, not really.
"Harry, how many people do you anticipate residing here?" Snape asked when Harry led him to the very magically expanded second floor.
"Er, I dunno," Harry lied airily. "This place had seven bedrooms though." He pointed out the doors in the long hallway that each led to a different bedroom.
In truth, Harry assumed that eventually he would need to house the entire gang there. If Timmy or Dumbledore started targeting Harry's people, then Harry would have to move them and keep them safe. That was just how it needed to work. And he could hardly protect just a few of them and leave the rest to fend for themselves, could he?
"Look how brill this is," Harry said eagerly. He began taking Snape through different doorways to show off the maze of bedrooms that all had connected bathrooms and room dividers in them, aside from two.
"Twelve," Snape sighed after they'd toured all seven of the freshly painted and furnished bedrooms. He must have been counting the beds, but he counted wrong. "You intend on having us reside with ten other people if there comes a time that you must go into hiding."
"Uh, twelve other people," Harry admitted. "And not if I have to go in hiding, I can handle myself, can't I? But others might get targeted."
Particularly Snape. But Harry knew Snape wouldn't want him to have bought a safe house based on the idea that Snape would need protection. He had too much pride for that.
"There are twelve beds," Snape said. Harry blinked at him until finally Snape's left eyelid twitched and he perceptively glanced towards the light blue bedroom with two beds in it that Harry planned on sharing with Theo, Fred, and Hermione.
"Are you not concerned with your personal safety if you share this location with twelve others?" Snape asked, apparently deciding not to comment on that bit of information.
"No, I trust them," Harry shrugged. He also wasn't concerned with his own safety, but again, that was better kept to himself.
"And who all will have access to this property?" Snape asked as he rubbed a hand across his face wearily.
Harry pointed out bedrooms as he listed off the people he planned on sharing the safe house with if the need arose.
"Sue and Lue get the purple room by the stairs. Me, Theo, Fred, and Mione get the light blue room in the middle. Neville and Blaise get the gold room on the end." Harry shifted to point out the doorways on the opposite side of the hall.
"Barty gets the private dark blue room down there, then George and Ron in the red room, Draco and Cissa will have to share the green one next to it, or Draco can bunk with Blaise, I don't care which. But that one—" Harry pointed at the only other private bedroom that he had painted a charcoal grey, "— is just for you."
"I will kill the Dark Lord with my bare hands before I reside with this many people," Snape said as he curled his upper lip in annoyance. Harry chuckled at his dark look of irritation and ignored his threat. He knew that wherever he went, Snape would go too.
"We'll see," Harry grinned. "Ready to set the spell then?"
"Do you understand how to cast it?" Snape asked.
"Yep."
"Excellent."
Snape watched as Harry cast the spell and then he calmly and confidently spoke the correct words for Harry's magic to cast him as the keeper of the home that actually was finally invisible to all others.
"This truly was an insightful plan," Snape told him when they went back outside to set the perimeter of the spell. "You came up with this yourself?"
"Sure did," Harry said proudly. "It's practical, isn't it?"
"It is," Snape told him, his dark eyes gleaming with approval after they cast the final spell of the secret keeper ritual together. "As is this." Snape cleared his throat, seemingly momentarily uncomfortable.
"This morning I myself visited Gringotts and formally named you my heir," Snape said stiffly, shocking Harry to silence. "If anything should happen to me, then you stand to gain my vault, which contains as much research as it does coin, annual royalties on the potions I have published, and all trademark rights to those potion recipes."
Harry was frozen where he stood, truly stunned as he studied Snape's face closely for any sign of a lie.
"You - you actually made me your heir?" he asked in a voice only slightly louder than a whisper. "Like... like you would have if I were actually your - like your son?"
"Precisely," Snape said calmly, his eyes firmly locked on Harry's with no sign of it being a horrible or cruel joke. "Although, I admit that the Snape name comes with no obstinate jewelry nor any true weight to the name," he added drily.
"Oh I dunno about that." Harry gave Snape a small and kind of shy smile, feeling oddly touched at the man's gesture. "I think the 'bravest Slytherin in Hogwarts history' and Witch Weekly's third most eligible bachelor carries a pretty important name," Harry teased him before adding on more genuinely, "it's a name I'm happy to carry on."
"Heir Potter-Black-Snape is quite an absurd mouthful," Snape said, hiding his own affection toward Harry behind a smirk of shared amusement.
"Potter-Snape-Black," Harry corrected him. He couldn't put Potter anywhere but first in the lineup, as it carried the most weight within the magical world, but he would definitely put Snape ahead of Black.
Snape's eyes softened and in the front lot of Invisibility Way he laid a gentle hand on Harry's shoulder, "I am quite proud to have you as my heir."
Harry only responded with a nod, not wanting to speak in case the tightness in his throat affected his voice, but he knew they understood each other anyway.
The rest of Harry's first week of summer holiday was thankfully much more relaxed than his first few days had been. Even with all the work that he needed to do, and the looming threat of Timmy, who was remaining suspiciously quiet, Harry thought the holiday was shaping up to be a good one.
Harry exchanged letters with Fleur, who wrote about her new job at Gringotts and her blossoming courtship with Fred's older brother, Bill. He also shared a couple short letters with Viktor, who was encouraging him to train and try-out with professional quidditch teams this year.
Which Harry absolutely was going to do. If Viktor Krum could be on a professional team in his NEWTS year, then so could Harry Potter.
Harry also popped in to the Ministry with Susan one day with two goals in mind:
Begin bargaining with the Minister and he needed to destroy any record of him ever having visited the Hall of Prophecies.
If Timmy and Dumbledore wanted to wage a war over a prophecy Harry already had, there was no downside to it. Harry was happy to let them fight over it, meanwhile he would be setting himself up to be the last wizard standing.
"I'll go down and burn the evidence while you meet with Fudge then we can get lunch with Johnny?" Susan suggested quietly when they entered the atrium together.
"Perfect," Harry nodded at her, keeping his head slightly ducked though to avoid the crowds that he tended to draw in places like the Ministry. "Meet you guys in the cafeteria in an hour?"
Susan agreed and they split up to their separate destinations; Susan down to the Department of Mysteries under Harry's cloak, and Harry up to the Minister's office.
"Harry! Come in, lad!" Harry smiled politely at Fudge once he made his way up to his office and saw the man waiting for him by his secretary's desk. "How are you?"
"Fine, thank you," Harry kept up his polite smile as he shook Fudge's hand, nodding at the friendly secretary seated behind the desk. "How are you?"
"Busy, busy," Fudge sighed. "This problem with the Barty Crouch Junior has got us all working overtime I'm afraid. Has Madame Bones told you about the changes within the DMLE?"
"No," Harry said, mostly honestly. Susan told him quite a bit about the expansion of the department and the new emphasis on protecting citizens, but technically Amelia hadn't told Harry anything. "I'd love to hear about it though," he told Fudge.
"Of course! Come in, have a seat, I'll call up a tea service and we can chat," Fudge said happily, clearly eager to have a famous and nationally beloved figure such as Harry approve of his plans. "Mandy, order tea and biscuits for us, would you, dear?"
Harry followed Fudge into his overly decorated office and listened politely while he chattered on all about the changes he was enacting within the ministry. Harry was pleased to hear that Fudge did seem to be taking the threat seriously, and was once again impressed with the plan they set up.
He seriously doubted if Fudge would have made any changes to prepare everyone had they insisted Timmy was back from the dead. Instead, they presented him with a perfectly viable Dark Lord to prepare against and Fudge was able to set himself up as a minister who cared enough about his citizens to ensure their safety before a war broke out.
It was a win-win.
"I think you're doing amazing," Harry said after Fudge finished his explanations, laying it on with just the right amount of admiration that he knew Fudge thrived off of. "We're lucky to have such a caring and proactive Minister."
"Well..." Fudge puffed his chest out and preened in a way that Harry thought made him look like a little kid getting praised by their parent. "You know, Harry, I think it would go quite a ways with the public opinion if I could maybe tell Miss Skeeter that you said that. Perhaps a quote for her next article?" Fudge asked hopefully.
"Hmm..." Harry pretended to debate the matter as he sipped his tea. He knew Fudge was desperate to have people see that Harry approved of him and his plans, especially since March would bring along another election for Minister, and it was that desperation Harry wanted to exploit. "That would be quite a favor for you," he finally said.
"Oh, one I would happily repay!" Fudge said quickly, easily picking up on Harry's subtle suggestion. "You just name it."
"Well, there's a bill coming up in the Wizengamot to be voted on next week," Harry said slowly. "If it passed, then I would be more than happy to write to Rita and tell her all about how great I think you're doing. Maybe we could even get a photo together to add to the article, really show everyone how we're a team in this, you know?"
"What bill?" Fudge asked him cautiously.
"It limits the cost that suppliers are allowed to charge for moonstone," Harry said, having talked about it with Draco when he and Blaise stopped by earlier in the week. "I think it's an excellent bill to be passed."
Fudge twirled his purple bowler hat in his hand quickly as he weighed the pros and cons of Harry's offer. Harry stayed quiet and sipped his tea as he waited for him to come to a decision on what would be the first obvious bribe they shared between the two of them.
"I couldn't agree with you more," Fudge eventually said with a weak smile but a decisive nod. "I could speak with some of the members on the Wizengamot and see if we can't make sure that happens."
By the time Harry met Susan, Johnny, and Tonks, for some odd reason, in the Ministry dining hall for lunch, he was feeling rather smug. Honestly, Lucius always made it seem like bargaining with the Minister was hard but Harry thought it was actually just as easy as any other bargain Harry ever made.
Fudge wanted to piggyback off Harry's fame, and Harry wanted to start making real changes in the wizarding world. If the bill was passed when it was brought up next week, all Harry would have to do is have it quoted in the paper that he agreed with the Ministry's actions, which he did, and he would hopefully take a step towards easing the lives of werewolves.
Eventually he would find a way to get all magical beings to even standings, but it was slow work and he could only take small steps until he was in charge one day.
Then Harry would change everything.
The first Sunday back at home, a week into his break, Harry was cleaning his Firebolt after a vigorous practice session he had in his backyard when he was suddenly joined by Susan and Luna.
"You look so sad, Harry," Susan said as she threw herself to the ground next to Harry.
"Er... I do?" Harry asked her, confused at her mischievous smile and off the mark assessment of his mood.
"Very much so," Luna said with an equally mischievous grin as she folded herself gracefully to the ground on Harry's other side. Harry felt a little bit trapped between them, and unsure of what the two witches had planned.
"Don't worry though, we have the perfect plan to cheer you up," Susan said brightly, throwing her arm over Harry's shoulder.
"What's that?" Harry asked suspiciously. Susan's idea of cheering someone up usually involved trouble. Not that he was opposed to trouble, as long as it was worth the fight with Snape afterward.
"Movie night!" Susan declared excitedly. "Me, you, Luna—"
"Hermione."
"Ugh." Susan groaned at Luna's interruption. "And apparently Hermione. We can get candy, popcorn, junk food, and just go to my place today and camp out in the sitting room and watch movies alllll night long."
"Done." Harry quickly finished off the polish on his broomstick and packed up his kit. He didn't know if the girls knew about his jealousy last weekend when they'd done this without him, though he suspected Luna did, but either way it was a perfect plan in his opinion. "Let me check with Snape then we can find Mione, yeah?"
"She's in your and Theo's room," Luna said confidently as she got to her feet and offered Harry her hand. "And Snape will say yes."
Harry didn't need the nargles to tell him that, Snape rarely said no to anything Harry planned with his friends.
Hermione, however, was a different story.
"Movie night?" she squinted at Susan's offer warily up in Harry and Theo's room. "With you guys?"
Harry knew that Hermione sometimes felt excluded in the gang, but it was still silly of her to think they wouldn't want to include her. Her and Susan bickered the most in the group, but Susan would still kill anyone who would ever dare to hurt her.
"It's a girls night," Luna said, quite winningly in Harry's opinion. "We can watch those Disney movies you like, gossip about our friends, and eat terrible food that your parents would never approve of."
"Girls night?" Hermione perked up at that. "Are you inviting Ginny?"
Harry barely repressed a scowl at that, still unhappy with the friendship Luna struck up with Fred and Ron's younger sister.
"No," Luna hummed thoughtfully. "Her and Harry don't get along just yet."
"Harry?" Theo looked at Harry and raised his eyebrows. "Is Harry one of the girls?" he snickered.
"He is," Susan said simply, ignoring Theo's annoying chuckles at their inclusion of Harry in the plans. "Are you in, Hermione?"
"Well..." Hermione glanced guiltily at Theo, who grinned and nodded slightly at her. "Alright then," she beamed, her brown eyes bright with her excitement of being invited. "I'm in. Girls night!"
Late that night, as a musical number from a film nobody was paying attention to filled the room with background noise, the four of them were having more fun than Harry had had in a while with his friends.
Just easy, relaxed, teenage fun. Normal teenage fun, which Harry thought might be much more relaxing than the typical fun he and his friends had.
They all laughed as they gossiped and talked about their lives. Susan told them about sneaking around with Johnny, and her plans to 'explore her sexuality' at Hogwarts in the upcoming year. Hermione's face turned a dark shade of red when she told them all about how her parents nearly caught her sneaking back in from Theo's early one morning.
Luna even casually mentioned two people who expressed interest in 'being in a courtship' with her, though she refused to say who they were, no matter how much the other three begged her.
And Harry?
Harry just smiled happily as he listened, laughed, and felt a long carried heavy weight of responsibility and stress melting off him in favor of being a normal teenager for the night.