Harry Potter and the Child of Tourach

“What?” asked Ron, confusion evident on his face.
“I am going to overthrow the ministry and I will need your help.” replied Harry very slowly, barely resisting the urge to roll his eyes.
“Harry, are you feeling well? You are not making any sense.” echoed Hermione cautiously, apparently convinced that he had gone round the bend. “Where have you been and what happened to you?”

This time Harry did roll his eyes. Leave it to Hermione to question every bloody thing on earth. However they really did not have any time to spare at the moment. He had to contact all former members of the order before Scrimgeour ordered some of his ex-colleagues to tail his close friends. He was especially concerned about Tonks and Kingsley.
“I can assure you that I am in perfect health and completely sane, as far as one can actually be.” said Harry, locking eyes with his curly haired friend and willing her to understand. “I have a very good reason to plan this putsch and I will share it with you soon enough. However timing is crucial at the moment and I fear that I will be too slow if you won’t help me.”

He saw Hermione sharing a significant glance with Ginny, before she nodded hesitantly.


* * * * *


Half an hour later, Harry found himself sitting in the spacious kitchen of Grimmauld Place, feeling strong pangs of nostalgia. Once again it was filled with a large crowd of people debating heatedly with each other, like it had been so many years ago. Most of the old members of the Order had joined their spontaneous meeting. There was Headmistress McGonagall, Remus Lupin, Nyphadora Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody, Bill, Charley, Fred and George Weasley and, of course, Ginny, Hermione, Ron and he himself. Some former members had died during the war, while others remained absent for various reasons. Mundungus Fletcher, for example, was currently sitting in jail for selling various highly restricted potion ingredients. Even though Harry technically was not even a member, he was regarded to be the host and the leader of today’s gathering. At the moment he was only waiting for chatter to die down. Most of the attendants had arrived only recently and appeared to be very eager to share some exciting news with others.

After Hermione and Ron had agreed to help, the four of them had spent the next fifteen minutes writing letters and making floocalls. They had stayed very vague in them to prevent any information from leaking out. While it was not very likely that these ways of communication were getting watched, they also did not want to give to many details to the members. When confronted with Harry’s plan most would probably pepper them with question or would simply refuse to go along with it. This way it was possible to tell the story behind the plan, before presenting it and without anyone asking too many unpleasant questions.

Harry himself had changed after organizing the meeting, after all he still had been wearing his prison robes! However his new outfit was unusual to say the least and he was still a bit surprised at himself for wearing it. Directly after sending the last owl, he had walked into one of the many bedrooms of the manor and had taken the small wooden chest holding the spare wands with him. Yet it contained one more item. One the first glance it appeared to be a simply small scrap of leather, but one Engorging Charm later it was a full dragon hide armour set. And it was not any ordinary piece of armour. It was the dragon hide Harry had worn during the last fight against Voldemort. This often patched piece of clothing was a symbol of everything he had fought against and he had once made the vow to never wear it again. He did not even know why he had kept it in the first place.

Still something in him had urged him to wear the old armour and he was surprised how good he felt doing it. The leather snuggled tightly against his body, almost fusing with his skin. It felt cool and somehow soothing and he felt a strange calmness taking control of his mind as soon as he had put it on. Suddenly he knew what he had to do to get out of this mess nearly unscathed. Being the nice guy would not do any good today it was the time to be mean and ruthless. Well, at least as mean and ruthless a notorious do-gooder is able to get.

“May I have your attention?” he said, just loud enough to be audible about the noise in the room. Silence fell almost immediately.
“I have asked you to join me today, because I had a kind of run in with the ministry.” he said calmly. “What happened during the past few days changed everything. We are at the threshold of a new area and with an effort you and I may be able to enhance this country. However we may find ourselves committing questionable deeds in the process. Therefore I am asking every one of you to think carefully before joining this operation. You will have an hour to decide after I am finished with explaining. If you don’t want to participate, then you will forget that this meeting ever happened and go back home. I can’t risk any information leaking out, so I may be forced to oblivate you, if you do not seem to be trustworthy. And trust me I will be able to tell.”

The silence in the room was almost absolute; you would have been able to hear a leaf falling to the ground. Everyone’s interest was sparked at Harry’s introductory words and they were all hanging on his lips. Well, almost everyone. Ginny was looking him straight into the eyes, a worried look on her face. She did not know his plan, but she knew the story behind and her face showed very clearly that she was not going to like his strategy. She had this strange look on her face as she had seen him wearing the armour and Harry strongly suspected that she was trying to psychoanalyze him at the moment. He could only hope that she would support him in this troubled times, he was not able to fight the ministry and his wife at the same time. Well, he was going to find out soon enough.

He started to recite the past week’s events, starting directly after he had entombed the leviathans again, carefully watching the listener’s faces. Most of there getting darker with every sentence he finished, especially Ron’s and Remus’, who looked ready to murder the next ministry employee they encountered halfway through the story. Others, for example Hermione and Mrs. Weasley, were thoroughly shocked, while some person’s expressions remained completely impassive. Finally after almost fifteen minutes, Harry was finished with his explanation.

“THESE BLOODY WANKERS!” shouted Ron, banging his fist on the table as soon as Harry had stopped. “HOW DARE THEY TO THREATEN MY SISTER AND MY BEST MATE? AFTER ALL HARRY BLOODY SAVED THEM!”
“Ron, language!” scolded Hermione and Mrs. Weasley at the same time.
“I agree with Ron.” said Remus Lupin, fury only thinly veiled in his voice. “It is outrageous. Considering to put an innocent man into jail just to remain in office. He even threatened to kill Ginny, just because it would come in handy! We have to do something against this madness!”
“I agree with Mr. Lupin and Mr. Weasley, even though I would not have articulated it in this harsh way.” said McGonagall crisply. “However considering our resources and our enemy, our hands are tied. Scrimgeour has nearly limitless resources and he will make sure to let the public know his story. You Harry will be the scapegoat of the public, making it exceedingly difficult to gain any support. I daresay that I consider this quest hopeless and I strongly advise you to leave the country as fast as possible.”

“No.” replied Harry simply.
“Potter, be reasonable.” snapped his old transfiguration teacher. “Too stay means to get thrown into jail for the rest of your life, do you want this? Take Miss Weasley, sorry, Mrs. Potter, with you and go abroad. You’ve got enough money too spend the rest of your life away from Britain, even without having to work! You can not overthrow the minsitry, it is impossible!”

“This won’t prevent Scrimgeour from sending aurors after me.” replied Harry calmly. “I am not going to spend the rest of my life on the run, just because the minister wants to keep his power. The only thing that kept me sane while fighting Voldemort was the promise of a better life after I defeated him. I was victorious and I got my better life and I will be damned if I let anyone take it away for me, after buying it with so many tears and blood! I am not going to condemn my wife to a life of uncertainty on the run through so many countries! I am not going to make her leave her family behind, so that she can stay with me! And I am absolutely not going to give up! I lost this ability years ago during the war and I do not regret it! And if I am going to spend the rest of my life ruining Scrimgeour’s days then so be it!”

McGonagall opened her mouth to further argue with her former pupil, but one look into his eyes convinced her not to waste her breath. They were practically aflame and their green glow was shining with determination and defiance. Potter was going to pull this through!
“What exactly do you have in mind, Harry?” asked Mr. Weasley mildly. “I understand your decision, but I simply can’t think of a way to come out of this struggle victorious. Maybe McGonagall is right and it is the best option to leave this country.”
“No, I have made my decision.” replied Harry, shaking his head. “This is the only way I will be able to look at myself in the morning without doubling over in self-loathing. I am not going to ruin Ginny’s life and every attempt to convince me to give up is a waste of time. And I – we – will win. Because we are going to use a strategy which has been highly successful in the past: we are going guerrilla.”

“We are going to do WHAT?” asked Ron, a look of absolute confusion plastered on his face, while most of the Order’s members sported similar ones.
“Honestly Ron, you could really do with some muggle education.” said Hermione, rolling her eyes. “Guerrilla is Spanish and means ‘little war’. It is a strategy usually employed by small rebel groups, which are striking fast and hard before disappearing again as quickly as possible. They usually strive to demoralise their enemies and are very often successful. It is not the actual damage they inflict, which counts, but the psychological effect. They demonstrate that they are able to hurt their enemies and to get away with it. On a long term base the guerrillas usually win, for example a big muggle war, the Vietnam War, was won this way.”

“Well this is a good idea Harry.” added Tonks, as soon as Hermione was finished. “Basically this was the Death Eater’s strategy and we all know how successful it was. But do you know that we are going to hurt innocent civilians if we are doing this? They are usually the targets of this kind of warfare, because they are so vulnerable.”
“I know Tonks.” replied Harry, having thought about this issue for a long time himself. “And that’s why we are modifying the strategy. We are going to show the ministry that we are dangerous and that they should start negotiating with us, but we are not going to hurt any civillans in the process.”

“Is it me or is this a paradox?” asked Fred – or was it George? – Weasley.
“It sounds like one, but it isn’t. Be patient and I will explain to you what I have in mind, but first I want everyone to leave this room, who does not want to be a part of this resistance group.”

No one moved.

“Good, then sit down and listen; this is what we are going to do.”


* * * * *


Half an hour later, Harry had finished filling them in with his battle plans. They had argued a lot about it. Some people thought it impossible to do, others inefficient, some unethical. But in the end they had all agreed to do it. Now they were figuring out each member’s role in the reformed order.

“Alright.” said Harry, his face glowing with excitement. “So far we agreed on the following. Molly and Arthur will stay put and use their contacts in the ministry to supply us with information. Tonks and Kingsley will do the same and spread false rumours about our plans. Remus and the twins will use their contacts to the more shady spheres to supply us with all kind of restricted items. The headmistress will use some of Dumbledore’s old contacts to the Daily Prophet to make sure that every one of our operations will get noticed by the public. Ginny and I will be the only ones staying here at headquarters, because we are outcast and it is of outmost importance that no one notices that the rest of you are part of the Order. Still we will need your help soon enough and I ask every one of you to be available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. We are going to need the extra manpower to brew some of the more complicated potions and especially to execute our operations. To communicate Hermione is going to design some improved versions of the fake galleons the DA used. They will allow members of the order to communicate with each other over any distance and will, of course, show the next date of a meeting. Any further additions?”

“Yes.” replied Remus. “We are going to need some powerful allies to be successful and we are going to need access to your vault Harry, the money you brought won’t last for a long time, if we are going to buy some restricted goods.”
“I have thought about that, too.” echoed Harry, pensively. “I am going to have to talk with my old trainees and tell them to stay out of harm’s way. I do not want any of this children getting caught in the crossfire. Hmm… maybe I can talk one of them to donate some hair for a Polyjuice Potion. It would be easy to get into Gringrott’s this way and the goblins never share information about their accounts.”

“It would be nice to have Wright on our side, too, but I can’t take the risk of contacting him. If he loses his position, then we would have made our situation even worse. He is going to be under close surveillance by the ministry, it is pretty well known that we are friends after all. Okay, I am not contacting Wright, but I still have someone to contact…”

“Where are you going Harry?” asked Ginny, as he rose from his chair.
“I have to finish a chat with a certain assassin.”


* * * * *


The Falling Noose was not an establishment aurors frequently consulted. In fact, no one in his right mind would visit the bar without a very good reason to take the risk. Usually at least one of the bar’s patrons died a week, just because there were so many bad guys coped up in a small room at the same time. Normally entering it is a death sentence if you are only distantly connected to any kind of law enforcement. Despite all these facts, Harry was sitting on one of the dusty, ebony tables, wearing a black cloak and feeling remarkably save. As a rogue, there were few sanctuaries as safe as this pub, even though the violent guests prevented most costumers to stay for a long time. He was reading the evening edition of The Daily Prophet and its headline only confirmed his suspicions.

Scrimgeour had not wasted any time. In the title story he told his made up cover story in all its gory details. He had even added Harry’s jail break and the serious injury of two aurors, which had resulted of it to the already impressively large list of charges. To make matters even worse, he announced to put a bounty on Harry’s head and to hire the best assassins the guild had to offer. Fortunately Harry had anticipated this move and he decided to visit the bar to do some damage control. Having a strange, but pretty good, connection to the most experienced and dangerous assassin around gave him the unique chance of countering this part of the minister’s strategy, before it even had the chance of starting properly. If only said shade would finally show up!

He was already waiting for an hour and his hopes that Sandro would visit the pub this evening were getting smaller and smaller. Truth be told he did not even know if the shade had ever visited The Falling Noose, but he could not think of another place a thoroughly evil guy like Sandro would go. Nipping at his firewhiskey, Harry was already pondering what his next steps would be if he should not be able to gain the assassin’s favour. Maybe the slightly crazy shade would try to earn the fifty thousand galleons himself and would attack him. Harry was fairly confident that he would be able to stand his ground, but being victorious over Sandro would be difficult to say the least. However his musings were rudely interrupted by the sound of a heavy bottle slamming on the table in front of him.

Harry jumped out of his chair and drew his wand in the same instant, only to find himself face to face with the shade assassin, he had wanted to meet all evening.
“Hi Potter, fancy meeting you here.” said Sandro, smiling wolfishly, showing his almost unnaturally bright white teeth in the process. “Are you here to drink a bottle or two with me?”
“Err, no, I am actually here to discuss business.” replied Harry hesitantly.
“Ah, music to my ears!” cried the assassin so loudly that several patrons glanced at the two men.
“Stop making such a ruckus!” hissed Harry, wanting to avoid as much attention as possible. “This is serious!”
“Of course it is or you would not be sitting in this pub waiting for me.” replied the shade softly. “Let my take a wild guess: you want me to keep all my fellow assassins of your back.”

“Yeah, something like that.” echoed Harry, wondering where the catch was.
“Okay I will do it.” said Sandro simply.
“Without getting anything in return?” asked Harry, bewildered. When had Sandro become a Samaritan?
“Hey I will a have a lot of fun and I always wanted to test how far my influence in the guild stretched. Also I like to help convicts, it makes me feel like a nice guy you know?”

Wondering if the whole world had gone mad, Harry downed his glass and shook hands with the assassin.


* * * * *


After having apparated a block away from her parents’ home, Sarah Carter started to slowly walk towards the building. She could have apparated directly to the front door, but decided that she would need a bit time alone to think about the day’s events, even though it was already nine pm. The last week had been completely insane and today had been the icing on the cake. The mad icing on a very insane cake.

Everything had started last Thursday. In the early morning some very covered operation took place, which backfired horribly. Many top notch aurors lost their lives and even a week later it was not completely sure who had died on the mission. Of course the missing aurors’ relatives were going berserk and were putting a lot of pressure on the ministry. To make matters even worse, the ministry itself and Diagon Alley were attacked on the same day by the same creatures the aurors tried to stop in the morning. She and her fellow trainees had not been near any of the attacked places, but she had heard of the immense destruction, which had occurred. Even though a week had already passed details were still very vague and this did nothing to pacify the enraged public. At least the attackers disappeared afterwards and even though no one really knew what happened to them it was a great relief.

While the ministry was getting repaired, the trainees had to work as clerks in the makeshift ministry in Hogsmeade, a very unpleasant job, due to the insane amount of enraged people, who blamed the government for their misfortune. Fortunately it had only taken till Wednesday to restore the ministry to its old glory and every trainee had been looking forward to resume their training. However instead of Harry Potter, Tonks had been teaching them and had been suspiciously tight lipped about the original instructor’s whereabouts. And then the bomb exploded today.

It had started as an usual Friday, filled with boring lectures about the theory of being an auror. At lunch, however, the ordinary day became unordinary. Rumours started to spread, claiming that Harry Potter had been responsible for the failure of the auror operating and consequently for the attack on the ministry and Diagon Alley. Also they said that he had been taken into ministry’ custody and was going to get charged for high treason, but escaped today. At first she had been convinced that these rumours were simply ridiculous lies, created by a bored mind, but exactly this story had been printed in the evening edition of The Daily Prophet, confirmed by no one but the minister of magic himself.

Now, as she was wandering on the empty streets, Sarah could not help thinking about her instructor. She found it hard to belief that he would purposely cause the deaths of thousands of people. The paper claimed that he wanted to finish the three beings, which had executed the attacks, himself to restore his fame and to be once again lavished in the admiration of the wizarding world. However, this did not seem to be part of the Harry Potters’ character she knew. In fact her instructor had been very tight lipped about his famous past, a feat very unusual for a person striving for attention. Also he had told them that he had worked hard to keep his career as an auror a secret and this would not make any sense if he actually liked his fame.

Sighing, Sarah pushed this train of thought away. She had no possibility to do change anything of this weird situation. She should worry about her own problems. Just as she reached for her key, to open the front door of her parents’ house, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her and before she had the time to react, she felt herself getting side-along apparated away.


* * * * *


Directly after having apparated with his old student, Harry threw her down to her to the ground, snatched her wand out of her back pocket and put some anti-apparation wards up, before she could react. It would be just his luck, if she ran off before he had any chance to explain! They were standing in the run down living room of an old and unused house, two blocks away, which Harry had explored before starting to wait for Sarah to arrive back home. He did not even know why he had chosen her in the first place. His gut instinct simply had told him that it would be a good idea and over the years he had learned to trust it. At the moment she was getting back at her feet, not as fast as Harry would have liked to. After all she had been in training for almost three months!

“Who…Who are you?” she asked hesitantly, fumbling in the back pocket for her wand. “What do you want from me?”
“Do not bother looking for your wand, it is quite safe in my pocket. And do not try to apparate away, I have got wards in place.” replied Harry, before removing the hood of the black cloak he was wearing over his dragon armour. “Hello Sarah, have you seen today’s papers?”
“Instructor Potter!” she squeaked, a definite look of fear in her eyes. “Ye-Yes, I have seen it, they mentioned you in it.”
“There is no reason to be so nervous.” said Harry, in what he hoped was a reassuring and trustworthy tone. “I simply want to tell you my side of the story. There is more to this article than what meets the eye.”

And he started explaining everything for the moment where Tonks had yanked him out of bed a week ago. Sarah watched intently and seemed to get more relaxed with every moment which passed. However Harry was not sure if she believed him at all or if she was just acting to save her neck. He could have tried to find out with his Legimency, but she probably would notice it and that would cost him any chance to convince her. After fifteen minutes he was finished.

“Contact me, if you want to join my little rebellion.” he said, giving her a silver sickle. “This is a fake coin, rub it three times and say my name and I will contact you as soon as possible. In each case try to stay out of trouble, I do not want any of you kids hurt, just because the minister is being a royal ass. Make sure to tell the others to be careful as well!”

With these words he lifted the wards, dropped her wand to the ground and apparated away, leaving a very confused Sarah Carter behind.


* * * * *


Two days later:
Head healer Erik Ford, the current leader of St. Mungo’s hospital for magical injuries and maladies, was sitting on his desk in his spacious and tastefully furnished office. He was a tall, black man in his early fifties, with a kind face, long silver hair, which he always wore in a ponytail and watery blue eyes. He had just finished reading the reports of the passed week, like he did every Saturday around five o’clock in the afternoon and was already starting to gather his things to go back home. However his peaceful and quiet afternoon was going to end in the next few seconds.

Suddenly, a grey eagle owl flew through the open window and dropped a letter on his desk, before changing direction gracefully and disappearing in the afternoon sky. Frowning, the head healer picked up the plain, white envelop, with his name on it and broke the seal bearing a golden phoenix. Wondering, who on earth had the need to send him an owl on a Saturday evening, he put on his reading glasses and started to read.

Dear Mr. Ford,

Unless you want everyone in your hospital dead, you should strongly consider evacuating it in the next twenty minutes. This is not a joke.

Yours sincerely,

The Order of the Phoenix

Stunned, Ford stared at the letter for at least a minute, before calling his secretary and ordering the evacuation.


* * * * *


Precisely eighteen minutes later, the whole hospital had been evacuated. Ford was standing roughly thirty feet away from the front door talking to the leader of the aurors, who had arrived three minutes ago. Of course they were much too late to search the building for any possibly dangerous devices and so the only remaining option remaining was too wait for the catastrophe to happen. And of course Ford was not the least bit happy with this situation. Directly after the operation leader had approached him, he had in no uncertain terms portrayed his dissatisfaction with the world in general and the department of magical law enforcement in particular. The fact that his conversational partner had fallen completely silent after ten seconds did nothing to calm the angry black man down.

Suddenly his litany was rudely interrupted by several large explosions on nearly all floors of the hospital. Windows burst and a shower of fireworks erupted from the building, painting the darkening sky in all colours. The witnesses barely had the time to comprehend the situation, when a large golden phoenix appeared in the sky above the hospital.