Harry watched the scene before him as though he were having an out of body experience. Ginny was drying the newly washed dishes that his aunt was churning out of the sink at an alarming rate. Mrs. Weasley busied herself with sweeping and mopping the floor of the kitchen until it sparkled. Even Hermione carried a rag with her as she dusted every surface within her reach. Ron had opted to put up some Christmas decorations as a show of festivity, though the gloominess of those around him meant that his effort was little appreciated. Fred and George had left for the day, insisting that they needed to get some work done in their shop at Hogsmeade.
Dudley, Vernon and the Prewetts were taking quick naps before they were due to return to St. Mungo’s to check on Mafalda. Generally, the atmosphere of number Twelve Grimmauld Place was highly charged and close to combustion. Mainly this was because he, Harry, had reacted very badly to the news that Ginny had given him earlier that day. He had accused Lupin, the closest person he had to a father, of being a traitor. No one had really anticipated how severe his reaction would be, including Harry himself. Hexing Lupin had been a grave error; Harry decided, thinking back on the mornings’ events.
Pigheaded or not, he still refused to apologize for the actions he had taken. Lupin had put Ginny in grave danger and Harry felt the need to protect her overwhelm him. If he had been armed with the knowledge that either Gaia or Voltara had betrayed his mother’s identity as a Volcen to Voldemort, thereby making her a target for his followers…he would have kept Ginny far from Volcency, by any means necessary. Lupin, on the other hand, had used Ginny, and that was inexcusable. None of that really mattered now, not since Lupin had gone missing. Half the Order was out scouring the country for him, but they had come up with nothing.
Harry was rather certain that no one would be able to find Lupin if he did not want to be found. Lupin’s disappearance was not the only reason that the inhabitants of number Twelve Grimmauld Place were so volatile. The main reason for their agitation had occurred in the very kitchen that they were now scrubbing spotless. After the initial search for Lupin had proven hopeless, Tonks had come after Harry in a fit of rage demanding that he write an apology to him. Harry refused and did her one better. He had forbidden her to give Ginny any more Volcen lessons. Things had escalated quickly from there and both had drawn their wands.
Any fighting had been quickly diverted when Fawkes arrived with a message that Dumbledore would be arriving later that night to deal with the situation. Still in a huff, Tonks left with Kingsley Shacklebolt to continue searching for Lupin. Ginny had surprised everyone by siding with Harry, she felt that the Order had used her and put her in harms way for their own selfish motives. Mrs. Weasley reserved judgment, waiting to hear what Dumbledore would say before withdrawing her family from the Order. Shortly after Dumbledore’s missive, a note from Percy had arrived. The ministry had dismissed Harry’s use of underage magic citing it as defense against a dangerous dark creature.
Harry bristled with some discomfiture when he realized that they classified Lupin as a “dangerous dark creature”. He felt both offended and relieved by the Ministry’s reaction. At least it was one less thing he would have to worry about. The ringing of the doorbell had them all looking anxiously at one another. Mrs. Weasley came to with the second ring and hurried to let Dumbledore in. Within seconds of Dumbledore’s arrival, the rest of the Order members were ringing the door bell and coming into the house in groups of two’s and three’s. Finally they congregated in the kitchen, conjuring chairs out of thin air and arranged their seats around Dumbledore.
All the while Dumbledore and Harry took no notice of this. They were locked in a silent battle of wills each attempting to stare the other down. Harry was deeply affronted by Dumbledore’s assuredness and was determined to out-glare him. He felt highly let down by the man he had always considered a mentor. If he couldn’t trust Dumbledore with Ginny, and it was clear that he could not, than he would shoulder the task of protecting her all on his own. Harry felt a moment of euphoria when Dumbledore broke their eye contact but quickly realized that he had only done so to begin the meeting.
“I see that Remus will not be joining us for this impromptu gathering,” he commented with a slight nod of his head at the empty seat next to Tonks.
“We couldn’t find him,” she told Dumbledore while shooting Harry a nasty look.
“That is neither here nor there at this time Nymphadora. He is fully aware of all the things that I will be divulging tonight.”
Dumbledore’s statement was met with eager faces. Most everyone leaned forward in their seat, eyes riveted on Dumbledore.
“I suspect you have all heard, in varying degrees of accuracy, about the events that transpired this morning between Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, and Remus Lupin?”
Some people nodded adamantly while others looked hesitantly around before nodding as well. Taking their tentativeness into account, Harry guessed that the latter of the two groups were those who heard about the events in “varying degrees of accuracy”.
“I have always preferred bold truth to idle gossip. Therefore I must ask you, Miss Weasley, would you relate the memory that Mr. Potter shared with you today, as you saw it, to the Order?”
Ginny seemed surprised that Dumbledore had addressed her and quickly did as he requested. Ten minutes later, Harry sat in utter shock. Their view of things up until the dementor attack was identical, though their account once the attack began could not have been more different.
“That’s when everything went dark. Lily probably sensed it first, being that dementors are our natural enemy. She gave up her body right away and went on the attack. Professor Lup…that is to say, Lupin, attempted to conjure a Patronus. He failed. The dementors were coming around Lily’s younger sister Petunia. I was certain that they would perform the kiss on her. I even forgot that I had just seen her in the future, I mean now, the present. Anyhow, Lily fought them off rather spectacularly. Professor Tonks had told me that Volcens are able to fight dementors using their soul like a Patronus, but I had never seen it.”
“Wait a minute,” Harry interrupted. “I saw Lupin conjure a Patronus, it was weak, but I saw it.”
Tonks rolled her eyes and didn’t wait for Ginny to respond to him.
“What you saw was Lily’s soul,” she looked at Ginny, “I expect you were overwhelmed with the amount of light around you.”
“It was completely dark,” Harry told her rudely.
“Actually, yes,” Ginny answered as though he had never spoken. “I felt like I was going blind when Lily began to fight the dementors.”
“Solbrillo,” Tonks crossed her arms looking self-satisfied, “the brilliant light that marks a Volcen-Dementor battle ground.”
“Right, we’ve talked about that,” Ginny commented. “I felt like I wanted to join the fight but Harry kept whispering that we were in a memory so I did nothing.”
“When a Volcen ensues a battle with dementors, they radiate Solbrillo to call for help from their fellow Volcens,” Dumbledore explained Ginny’s strange remark to the confused Order members, “so your desire to want to join the battle is only natural.”
“No one came to help her,” Ginny told Dumbledore.
“I don’t expect they did,” he replied in a thoughtful tone. “Please tell us what took place once Lily fought the dementors from her sister.”
“Well, she noticed that…that they were taking…Mrs. Potter’s soul.”
The Order members shot each other startled looks and leaned closer so they could catch every word; even Snape, who Harry had not taken notice of, was enthralled by Ginny’s tale.
“How did she get it back?” Dumbledore asked in a tone that suggested that he did not know the answer to this question.
“She ripped it from them,” Ginny said, shrugging her shoulders.
“But how?” Tonks reiterated Dumbledore’s quandary.
Ginny looked to be getting frustrated by their lack of understanding so Dumbledore tried another tactic.
“What does it mean to rip a soul, Ginny?”
Ginny bit her lips for a moment and studied Harry’s face. Finally she turned back to the crowd that was staring adamantly at her.
“You know how side-along apparation works? One person knows how to apparate and the other doesn’t. So the person who knows how to apparate gets a good grip on the one who doesn’t, and somehow they both end up apparating.”
“Yes?” Dumbledore encouraged her.
“Well, let’s say I want to vessel-voyage…but I want to take someone with me. I can enter their body, get a ‘grip’ on their soul, and take them vessel-voyaging with me.”
“But that’s unheard of,” Tonks shot out of her chair, “studies on Volcens would have revealed if they had that sort of power!”
“I believe,” Dumbledore’s eyes lost their sparkle as he gazed at Ginny, “that nowadays, we refer to that as murder.”
“I believe we do,” Ginny responded.
“Lily murdered Emma Potter? That’s impossible!” Mrs. Weasley cried out looking extremely alarmed.
“No mother! She did not take Mrs. Potter from her own body! She took her from a dementor! She freed her soul to pass on the next world! Otherwise she would have been trapped living the life of a soul-less being!”
“…and that is why she died after the dementor attack instead of remaining alive yet soul-less,” Dumbledore mumbled as he worked it out. “It is no wonder that Remus was certain Lily was keeping a secret. He was always a bright young man. Besides that he himself was keeping his werewolf identity a secret. He was bound to notice when others were acting in a secretive fashion as he often did.”
“Why didn’t he just confront her if he had a suspicion?” Harry bellowed out.
“Angering a Volcen,” Dumbledore offered Ginny a gentle smile, “not a wise course of action, I’m afraid.”
“I want to know who betrayed her,” Ginny spoke up.
Dumbledore shook his head, “Your guess is as good, and in truth it is probably better than mine.”
“What do you mean betrayed her?” Tonks jumped in.
“Two attacks on her within a years time is too much of a coincidence,” Ginny replied tersely. “Either Gaia or Voltara sold her out to Voldemort then he sent his goons to kill her.”
“But when he came to kill me he told her to step aside! He didn’t care about killing her…”
“He probably didn’t even know it was her, Harry.” Ginny raked her hands through her hair.
“I expect he was solely concentrated on you that night,” Dumbledore told him.
“She must have done something to make you survive the killing curse!” Tonks shouted out, her excitement getting the better of her.
“Of that, we can be sure,” Dumbledore muttered before turning to face Ginny. “As we were saying earlier, either Evalene, your Voltara I mean, or Gaia must have given Voldemort Lily’s name. Though I wish it were not so one of the two betrayed her.”
“It couldn’t possibly be Voltara!” Tonks bounced on the soles of her shoes. “Professor, you know her from your past! I know her as well! Ginny has never come to harm under her guidance! If she wanted to, Voltara could have destroyed us all but she would never do such a thing!”
“Than you suggest that it is Gaia that is the traitor?” Dumbledore asked wearily.
“Of course!” Tonks shouted as though it was the obvious solution.
“I am afraid that there is, perhaps, one person who would not agree with you.”
“Who?” Tonks enquired looking thoroughly annoyed.
“Remus Lupin,” Dumbledore announced, “Gaia was his fiancée.”