CHAPTER NINE
They followed Alia Roman into another large room down the hall which she told everyone would be called the “meeting room.” The Enchantresses present (and there were many of them) took up one side of the room. There was a small table near the front of men, Harry had no idea who they were. The rest of the room was taking up by the Order of the Phoenix and to Harry’s surprise, the DA.
“Hey, Harry,” Neville Longbottom called out, “over here.” Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way over to the DA as Alia Roman called everyone’s attention to the front of the room.
“We have many great organizations gathered for a great cause. We, of course, have the Council of Enchantresses. We are honored by a small group of Enchanters as well. The Order of the Phoenix, under the lead of Albus Dumbledore, who have been doing most of the fighting. Also, a group just recently formed, The DA, or Dumbledore’s Army.”
There were murmurs among the different groups until Alia claimed their attention once again. “We are here for a noble cause. Many of us, if any of us at all, may not return. Just know this, it is for the greater good. We are here to take down Tom Riddle and his forces. Let it be known, we will prevail!”
The room was in an uproar of enthusiastic agreement. Harry watched his sister and wondered if he was ever going to get to know her. They were already making plans for the destruction and downfall of the proverbial darkside. What if Aurora didn’t make it back? Or the other way around? Why were things so complicated?
*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry found Aurora in the library of the Ranch as he was walking around that night. She was drinking from a goblet with a heavy book on her lap. He watched her from the door. He could see bits of his mom and dad in her. He had enough pictures to be able to tell that. It’s just that he couldn’t figure out why no one every mentioned her, not even in passing.
“Harry, don’t stand there, gawking from the doorway. You can gawk at me from this chair across from me. I don’t mind, really.” Harry smiled to himself as he made his way over. “You probably have lots of questions. It’s understandable. I’ve told Alia I’m not doing anything else until you and I understand each other. So, ask any question that you wish.” She took another drink from her goblet, pulled a face, and then set it down with a thump, looking at him expectantly.
“Well, I was wondering about Mom and Dad. Do you remember them?” She nodded, making Harry smile. “What were they like?”
“Wonderful,” she said, “they were absolutely wonderful. Of course, I grew up with Alia and some of Mom and Dad’s other friends. I heard stories all the time. Albus came to visit me a lot, taught more than you’ll ever know. It was hard, hearing all the stories and not being able to ask mom and dad. My best friend, Kailey, and I use to pretend that our parents were alive. She had lost her parents, too. So the two of us would listen to the stories and then pretend like they were still alive. No one knew, except for Alia. That woman knows everything.”
Harry smiled at that, she made Alia sound like a female Dumbledore. “We, Kailey and I, spent much of are time growing up traveling and training all over the world. We always imagined what it would be like if they were traveling with us. I knew about you, of course, but never really thought about you. Anyway, Alia took me to Potter Mansion for my sixth birthday. Grandpa Potter was there. He told me that my parents ghosts inhabit the cabin they have by the lake on the property. Kailey stayed with Grandpa and I went out to the cabin. We had a nice long talk. They recently moved to the cabin by Lake Kneazle here at the Ranch. We’ll go see them tomorrow.”
“Couldn’t we go right now?”
“No, they aren’t there right now,” she said, sadly, “they’ve gone to play spy for us.” She picked the goblet up again and drained it. “Anyway, after that we went searching for Kailey’s parents. Kailey’s were still alive and she wanted to give up her Enchantress status. Her parent’s talked her out of it, though. She was okay until the Death Eaters snatched me up.”
“Yeah, how did that happen anyway?”
“I was thinking about you,” Aurora said, staring at him. “I had just gotten obsessed with you. How would you take having a family after all of this time? Had you grown up tailing me, would things have been different? How did Aunt Petunia treat you? You were like this little light following me everywhere, I was obsessed. I asked Albus several times to bring you over. I was on duty, protecting someone, when I got obsessed over you again. Well, some Death Eaters caught me off guard.”
“Bill said something about you not sleeping well,” Harry mentioned, sheepishly. She nodded. “You knew where I was. Why didn’t you just come to find me?”
“I didn’t know what Albus had told them. I guess I was a little scared. I didn’t know what you thought. I didn’t know how you acted or anything. I was just scared.”
“Okay, this is driving me nuts,” Harry said, “Just what is an Enchantress anyway?”
Aurora laughed at the frankness her little brother had just displayed. “Hmm, well, an Enchantress is just like a witch. That means we can come from parents who are an Enchantress or Enchanter, just plain witches or wizards, or even muggles. The thing is, we basically control the magic that’s floating around all over the world. If there wasn’t a group controlling it, maintaining it, it could be lost forever. See, magic likes to float around and do what it wants. Of course, as long as people still use it, it’ll stick around. We don’t know what would happen if it decided to go elsewhere. We have more power because we are more directly. . .I don’t know. . .plugged into the magic. Have you ever gotten a letter from the Ministry because of, um, let’s say underage magic? Well, they only knew because we told them. We control the magic and basically the ministry. Recently, it’s about time really, we’ve decided to intervene with the Dark Arts. See, we control it all but have to stay neutral. We can’t help the good guys without helping the bad guys.” She sighed. “It is complicated.”
They talked the rest of the night, through till morning, without stopping or realizing the time. Bill smiled from the doorway, where he had listened to them in hiding the whole time. “About time, really,” he thought, “maybe now we can get down to business.”