In Need

~~**~~


“Damn it!” spat Harry through clenched teeth and winced as a sharp tagging spell hit his arm, feeling like an electric shock and nearly making him lose his grip. He nudged his broom faster and spiraled upward in a twisting pattern that was harder to follow. “Fred!” he shouted over his shoulder, “You’ve got to watch my right side - come on now and quit letting them through!” His face set in concentration, Fred gave a brief wave of acknowledgement and pulled in closer to Harry as they both sped downward in an arc around the clearing to get a better view of the figures running beneath the trees.


Squinting slightly, Harry tracked the movement through the trees below him and fired a stunning spell, noticing with satisfaction that it hit its mark. Viktor was on his left doing the same thing, only noticeably faster. Harry heard the sharp cracking sound of another spell coming at him. This time, Fred moved swiftly to his side, blocked the spell, and rebounded it toward the running figures below.


The four young men, Hermione, and Professors Snape and Waters were in a small clearing in the dense woods along the lakeside which was secluded from the view of the main grounds. At the edge of the clearing, Snape fired another volley of tagging spells at Harry (and tried not to enjoy it very much), while Megan tried to tag Viktor. The Weasley twins hurried to block any that got too near their marks, and Harry and Viktor flew swiftly, trying both to avoid getting hit and to knock down the golems that Megan had animated and directed to run around the forest clearing. Even for as fast as Megan and Severus were firing off their spells, Megan was pleased to see that despite their best efforts, only a few of the tags were hitting the fliers.


Hermione apparated next to the golem that Harry had knocked down. She put her hands on it and apparated away with it to the spot on the other side of the clearing which had been designated as the homing point. When Viktor swooped lower, trying to get a better look at the golems, Snape managed to tag him. Viktor glared and snarled out a stream of Bulgarian.


“What was that all about?” Megan asked, dodging a tagging spell that George had flung neatly back at her.


Severus replied dryly, “He had some suggestions for what I might do with my wand besides using it to hit him with curses. Not terribly creative ones, I\'m afraid.”


One by one, the remaining golems fell, and Hermione went to each one and apparated it away. When Hermione brought the last one in, Megan conjured a white cloth in her hand and waved it at the fliers. “Come on down, guys!” she called up to them. “This was a good start. We’ll try it again tomorrow with some more people.”


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That evening, Severus Snape stalked toward the greenhouses with a scowl on his face. In one hand he carried a leaf, and in the other hand was a folded up piece of parchment whose contents effectively doubled his current workload.


Through the fogged up windows of greenhouse number four, Severus saw the shadowy silhouette of Megan working at a potting table. He closed the door firmly behind himself and, ducking out of the way of the draping tils ils overhead that grabbed at him, he approached her.


“You can’t be serious,” he said, holding the parchment up for Megan to see. “He didn’t require anything close to this amount before.”


She squinted at where he was pointing. “No, it’s right, I’m afraid. He said that he wants to take additional precautions this time.”


Severus’ voice began to raise in annoyance. “*Fifty* *gallons*? Do you have any idea how *long* it will take to make that much dragonsdraught?”


“Yoow tow that we need to have it though - he’ll be here in about a week. Since you already have so much to do, why don’t we ask Hermione to help you with that one? She’s good at potions and is always looking for extra credit projects anyway.”


He tutted and made a face. “Granger? She’d be such a bloody nuisance.”


“Severus...” Megan reproached him softly, “Hermione’s a good girl and you know it.”


“Miss Granger is an insufferable know-it-all and I cringe at the thought of her working in the dungeons every day. However… you are right that she would get it done competently at least. Very well,” he relented, his tone softening somewhat, “Please arrange it for me.”


“Okay. I’ll ask her when I finish here.”


“Fine. In any case, I will need more of this wyvern weed.”


“How much?”


“Two hundred and fifty bushels.”


Megan’s eyes widened and she invented a few choice expletives.


“Indeed,” said Severus, smirking. His fair lady had a sailor’s flair for vulgarities when she got perturbed enough about something. More delicate audiences than himself would likely not have been amused.


“Alright then,” she sighed, “we’d better get started. Do you have a piece of it?”


Severus handed the leaf to Megan that he had brought with him. It was small, gray, and leathery, and the edges of it were menacingly sharp.


Megan held it and ed ied it to grow. The leaf burst out into stems from which dozens - and then hundreds - of gray leathery leaves rapidly began to uncurl. It looked like a plant was erupting from her hands as she concentrated, and it sprawled out across the work table and cascaded down onto the floor. Donning gloves to protect against the sharp leaves, Severus swiftly cut bunches off the plant and stripped the leaves off. When they finally had enough, Severus conjured them up to his laboratory and went to make preparations.


Megan noticed that her hands and arms were full of small cuts from the sharp little leaves. She stepped out of the greenhouse and plunged her arms into the ground up to her elbows and pulled them back out repaired. She heard a squeak of surprise and looked up to see Neville Longbottom staring at her.


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“We’ll need another chair, Molly,” said Dumbledore. “There will be one more for the meeting and I believe he will be staying for dinner.


A frazzled Molly Weasley paused briefly in her bustling to ask in exasperation, “What? Honestly, Albus, how am I supposed to keep up with everything if you don’t tell me until the last minute?”


His blue eyes twinkling kindly down at her, Dumbledore said, “I have never doubted your ability to always be able to welcome one more.”


“Pooh. Don’t you sweet-talk me,” she said, now sounding much less exasperated. “Ginny, love, make another place at the table please.” She fretted as she stirred an enormous pot of soup (that could easily have fed twice as many as were actually planning to attend), saying, “I only hope there will be enough here!”


“I hope so too!” a hearty voice from the hallway called out. “I’m so hungry I could eat a cave troll!” Mrs. Weasley dropped her spoon, gasped, and covered her mouth with her hands.


She cried out in complete astonishment, “Charlie?”


And sure enough, it was indeed Charlie Weasley who clomped boisterously into the kitchen and scooped his mother up into a bear hug.


~~**~~


It had been quite an ordeal to get him there at all. It began several weeks earlier when the council that Megan called together to act as a sounding board for her overall strategy agreed with her latest assessment that they were going to need to bring dragons into the fight. Megan, Dumbledore, Severus, Bill, and Arthur Weasley were now trying to invent a viable cover-up to keep Megan\'s decision from revealing anything to their enemies.



The decision to bring in dragons was, in theory, a good one. If they were facing the likelihood of having to face the sheer size, strength, and aggressiveness of giants, then they were going to need to be ready to counter with some muscle of their own. Dragons were the answer, and the Order had the good fortune of personally knowing one of the best handlers in the field.

“Of “Of course Charlie would be willing to do it,” said Bill.

Arthur also thought that Charlie would readily agree to help, but they still needed to establish a feasible motive for procuring such reinforcements, and the answer kept coming back to Hagrid.


Severus shook his head. “How we are supposed to manage it is beyond me. Charlie may well be willing to come, but he will require assistance - and a bumbling gamekeeper with a penchant for gossip is the last thing we need in that case.”


On the one hand, Hagrid was the perfect front for them. His love of large and dangerous creatures - especially dragons - was no secret to anyone who knew him. As instructor for the care of magical creatures, he would be able to include lessons about dragons as a “special treat” for his seventh years. Charlie would still be expected to be present as the primary handler. The only problem was how to handle his inevitable questions about the dragons’ presence. If there was anything else that Hagrid was known for, it was his inability to keep a secret for long.


~~**~~


That night at dinner, Bill said, “She’s really very nice, you know. You shouldn’t base your opinion of her on my botched attempt at a love life with her.”


Charlie frowned. “Hmph. Anyone that makes my big brother feel that bad can bloody well kiss my - oh, hello, sir!” he finished as Dumbledore came over to speak with them.


“Hello Charlie. I trust that your travels went well?”


“Yes, sir. Thank you. I’ve settled both of them into their new quarters up at Hogwarts and they are resting comfortably. Of course, Hagrid was beside himself with rapture and couldn’t get me out of there fast enough so he could have them all to himself.”


Dumbledore chuckled warmly. “Yes, I can only imagine. I hope that you will find your quarters satisfactory as well. Will you be able to come by my office tomorrow morning at nine o’clock?”


Charlie smiled and said, “Yes sir. I’ll see you then.”


“Very well then,” said Dumbledore, squeezing the brawny young man on the shoulder. It’s good to see you, my boy - I’ll excuse myself now and let you enjoy the rest of the evening with your family.”


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At the other end of the dinner table, Ginny said to Tonks, “Do a face for us, won’t you?”


“Aren’t you getting a little old for this?” teased Tonks, her nose sprouting out to proportions that rivaled Pinocchio. Egged on by the kids’ laughter, Tonks shrank her hair back into her head and, with canned exaggeration, tentatively felt her completely bald head, her eyes wide in mock surprise.


Even Ron, who had been in a chronically bad mood lately, started to warm up to her antics, although he still refused to look in Hermione’s direction.


Tonks grew her hands into huge mitts and daintily tried to pick peas up one at a time from a bowl on the table and flick them at the kids. In the process, she accidentally knocked over a pitcher, smashing it and spilling the contents.


Megan watched Tonks for awhile, lost in thought and beginning to weigh an idea. “Tonks?” she finally asked.


“Yeah?” Tonks answered, now covered with chartreuse and mauve spots.


Megan asked, “Can you look like Harry?”


Instantly, sitting next to the original Harry, there was an identical match. Well, almost...


“Er...,” blushed the real Harry, not exactly sure how to point out her mistake.


“Lose those,” said Megan, pointing at Tonks’ still-full chest.


Which naturally only served to encourage her performance even more. “Woo hoo!” she hooted merrily, shaking her buxom-Harry-self suggestively, as Ginny nearly split herself with laughter. The real Harry did not happen to find it funny at all though, and begged her to cut it out.


“I don’t know, Har - I think you’d look pretty nice with boobs,” said Tonks, growing her chest even fuller and striking a pose.


“Gross Tonks, really!” Harry pleaded in total embarrassment. Her little performance was drawing attention from the rest, and even Professor Snape was looking over, sneering at him.


Finally letting him of the hook, she adjusted herself and was now identical to him.


Harry saw Megan scrutinizing Tonks, and then, as it dawned on him why she most likely was doing it, he was aghast. “Megan, no! You can’t be thinking of bringing her into the fight looking like that!”


The comic mood of the cluster instantly got serious. Megan said, “Tonks is a strong auror and we are going to need any diversion from you that we can get. I think that I will need to ask her to do it. If they see ‘you’ fighting on the ground with Ron and Neville on either side, it will surely provide at least some distraction from you in the air.”


Tonks said, “That’s actually a good idea, Meg.”


Angrily, Harry slammed his hand onto the table, and everyone at their end of it jumped and looked nervously at him. He said, “No! It’s not fair! It’s bad enough that all of us have to do be in this fight at all, without doing something that *guarantees* someone getting hurt!”


“Harry...” said Megan, trying to reason with him.


“Don\'t patronize me!” he snapped, suddenly tired of her, the plans, the war - everything. “I have gone along with *everything* for *years* now! I’ve learned the spells to defeat him, I’ve practiced and taught magical defense with others, I’ve even faced Voldemort himself a few times already - *and* have come out of it in one piece *each* time, I might add. So where do you get off, then, suddenly showing up this year and taking over?”


Megan looked sad but took his fuming in stride, which only heated his temper even more. She was as infernally calm as Dumbledore, and it grated and annoyed him to not get more of a visible reaction from her.


“Why am I not consulted about these things?” Harry demanded. “And why should I be expected to just follow orders? I mean, if I am going to be the one that it all bloody comes down to, shouldn’t I be calling some shots here?”


He glared angrily at Megan, breathing heavily as Ginny and Tonks looked uncomfortably between the two of them.


Megan regarded him for a moment and then said, “Those are fair questions, Harry. As for my role, I need to be here *because* I’m an unknown. You’re going to have too much to do when the time comes to be worried about everything else that’s going on around you. Think of it - Professor Snape knows Voldemort and the death eaters better and has far more experience in fighting, and Professor Dumbledore has more magical skill and practical knowledge than anyone we know. But frankly, you three are going to be the main targets when all of this goes down. And if, God forbid, one of you is hurt, who would keep things together then, if everyone had been taking direction from that person? I can only imagine how frustrating it is for you, but you have to trust me and all of us who have been working on this to find the surest way to your success. None of us asked for this, but we have no choice but to proceed as best as we can.”


Harry squeezed his eyes shut and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “I know,” he finally muttered.


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A/N - Hi everyone! I\'m back! Sorry to take so long with this update, but between travel, work, and school I\'ve not had time to upload the new chapters. The next one will be up pretty soon - just needs a little refining.

As always, thank you all so much for reading & special thanks to those of you who have reviewed - you totally make my day. :-D Drop a line & let me know what you like/don\'t like.

Droxy - Thanks for your comments! I\'ve tried to make the kids\' romances something that 17 and 18 year-olds could feasibly experience. And the answer to your question is yes! ;-)

elfinbride - Welcome to the story! Thanks for your sweet comments. Your wish is my command. :-)

Barrie - Thank you for your sweet comments - it was really nice to hear that it\'s not dragging too much. I was also tickled that you liked the ankle thing in the library. Yeah, I feel like the books have really set up the potential for a tug-of-war like that for Hermione, and I would agree with you that Viktor seems like the manlier choice. We will be hearing more from them very soon...

Best wishes to all of you!
R.