It was interesting to watch as the scene played out before him. Moody, Doge, Diggle, McGonagall and Snape (who was arguing from his position on the floor) were clearly on Dumbledore's side of the matter while Flitwick, Podmore, Vance and Sprout were furious. While they had each done some pretty damning things in the past, Dumbledore had finally asked for too much of some of his pawns, as he had done of Harry back in the summer.
Then there was the fact that what they had done under Dumbledore's command was going to get them in more trouble that the crimes and scandals which were being used as leverage against them, it was fair to say that Dumbledore had lost their allegiance entirely.
As for the rest of The Order, they were doing their best to keep as quiet as possible. For some this was simply because they had no opinion to offer. Some others were too afraid to say anything after seeing Kingsley blasted into the wall by Dumbledore for going against him.
Harry also noted for the first time that not everyone from The Order were present. Arthur, Molly and Bill Weasley, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Nymphadora Tonks, Hestia Jones, Rolanda Hooch, Arabella Figg and Argus Filch (or whatever their names were) and perhaps a dozen others had not been grabbed by Fawkes. Rubeus Hagrid was absent too. Clearly even Dumbledore did not know where the half-giant was.
Finally Dumbledore put an end to the argument for now. Raising his voice loudly to be heard over the shouting he said "Enough. Now is not the time to be turning on each other. Alastor, would you kindly assist me in examining Harry's mind?"
Although it was phrased as a question, it was clearly a command. As Moody stomped forward to take the spare wand from Snape, Dumbledore erected a shield to keep the rest of the Order back. Flitwick and several others protested loudly but without wands there was nothing that they could do.
Dumbledore gave a flick of his wand in Snape's direction, repairing the man's broken nose and then turned to join Moody in raising their wands and taking aim towards Harry. Still under the effects of the silencing charm and bound tightly to the chair he was sat on, Harry settled for glaring hatefully back at them, mentally bracing himself for what was to come.
"Legillimens!" barked two voices in unison.
Harry's body went rigid as his mind was invaded by the double attack. Memories swirled through his mind so quickly that it was enough to induce nausea and a headache, but it did not last long.
Unlike Snape, who had apparently been a match for the wand, Moody quickly found that the wand of Dumbledore's father was not well suited to him at all and within moments the spell that he cast broke off. He tried again with even worse results – the legillimency probe didn't even begin that time.
Dumbledore meanwhile continued to rifle through Harry's mind, trying to locate the places where adjustments would have to be made. Quickly he realised that it wasn't just Harry's memories of the past few weeks that he would need to alter – there were the memories of memories as well. This meant that the task of obliviating Harry would take much longer than he had initially thought. He began to dig deeper to assess just how much he would have to erase.
Harry, meanwhile, was starting to get extremely worked up. The last time Dumbledore had pulled this stunt, Harry had been unconscious for the whole thing. This time he was not only awake, he was fighting back.
The events of the past few weeks had left him angry, confused and scared, and that was before you factored in everything else he had been through in his life. None of this was a good combination. Being kidnapped, tortured and having his mind invaded only made things worse and things were rapidly approaching boiling point.
Harry had not been this close to unleashing a burst of anger-fuelled accidental magic since the summer holidays before his third year at Hogwarts, when his Aunt Marge's continual berating of him and badmouthing of his deceased parents resulted in her being inflated like a blimp and left bobbing helplessly against the dining room ceiling of Number Four, Privet Drive.
Fawkes the Phoenix sensed the waves of anger radiating off of Harry and flew in to sit on the back of the boy's chair, where he began to trill a soft, calming tune.
It didn't help. Harry could hear the phoenix's song well enough, but in Harry's mind phoenix song was something that was associated with Dumbledore and right now there were few things in this world that Harry hated more than Albus effing Dumbledore!
Things were quickly reaching boiling point. Albus Dumbledore was too engrossed in rifling through Harry's mind to notice when the glass in the windows began to rattle ominously, but the rest of the Order, except the unconscious Kingsley, did.
And so did the Ministry.
.....
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