FicWad

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the HP characters

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That evening, the order held a meeting in the castle's Hall of Meetings. The hall was a large rectangular chamber filled with portraits of ancient wizards and witches. In the middle of the chamber was a huge table of dark brown oak. All members of the Order of the Phoenix were present, except Dumbledore. Harry and Ginny were sitting in the corner of the chamber looking at all the present members.

Dedalus Diggle was reporting on the strange disappearances of at least one hundred wizards and witches. Most of them had disappeared without trace and the ministry was not able to come up with any good leads as to their whereabouts.

Doreen Dorough, a new member of the Order, was reporting on the sightings of strange creatures and if the ministry could believe the witnesses, the creatures were terrible to look at, but at the same time, these witnesses could not give full details of what these creatures actually looked like.

Sturgis Podmore was reporting that nobody seem to know where the headmaster was. He had disappeared a few days ago and nobody had seen him since.

Emmeline Vance was reporting from the ministry that the Minister of Magic, Amelia Bones, was holding closed-door meetings with several members of the magical community, but nobody really knew whom she was talking to.

Jack Best, also a new order member, reported an enormous explosion in the south of Scotland, near the village Huroushs. When the aurors came to investigate, they discovered a huge hole in the ground, which was covered with a glass substance, a substance that can only be created after a magical explosion.

Alastor Moody cleared his throat. "Do you have anymore details about that explosion?"

"Well, not much in detail, except that the explosion took place late this morning, and what ever it was before, it is totally destroyed", Jack Best answered.

Mr. Weasley stood up. "I think I can continue on the report from Doreen Dorough in more detail. This afternoon we were summoned by the castle, and the castle gave a warning, it spoke about demons. I believe that those creatures were daemons." Mr. Weasley continued to tell the Order what the castle revealed earlier that day.

Several members of the order were looking sideways to Harry and Ginny. Alastor Moody cleared his throat again. "Lord Baron, do you have something to add?"

Harry and Ginny stood up and faced the order. "Yes, we have something to say to you all." "The second war is approaching very fast and the other side that we call the evil is more powerful then ever. Before Dumbledore disappeared, we were handling only Voldemort but now we are handling a demon, or even possible 666 demons. A demon is extreme powerful and virtually impossible to destroy. There is only one certain way to defeat it and that is banish the demon back to where it came from and close the gateway from that place to here, where ever the gateway is. Before we can begin to address possible offences towards the evil, we need to work on our defenses. I like to offer Potter castle as home base for the ministry, order and Hogwarts students."

"I'll tell you something about Potter castle. The castle has two modes of existence, the castle mode, as you see now, and the fortress mode, when it is called upon. The only person who can change the mode of Potter castle is the married head of house. That is something where we are working on. When the castle is in fortress mode, nothing can penetrate its defenses, not even thousand demons and millions of men."

"When we have a safe base to operate from, we can plan any offensive measures, otherwise we will unnecessarily loose many people. Thank you." He bowed to the people present and walked out of the door with Ginny.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat quietly in front of a large fireplace. Mrs. Weasley was busy knitting a green sweater, which was almost finished. They had talked for hours after the order meeting about Harry and Ginny and now they were trying to come to an understanding and trying to decide what to do. The door opened and Ginny came into the room. "Mum, dad, what are you doing awake so late in the night ... it is three o'clock in the morning!"

"Gin sweetheart, we were talking about your courtship with Harry."

"What is wrong with my courtship with Harry, mum?"

"Nothing is wrong with it, sweetheart. Nevertheless, the changes you want to make are hard for us to accept. You are fourteen, almost fifteen and Harry is hardly sixteen."

Ginny frowned. "I think that there is no other choice. Dad, you heard what the castle had to say, and if we don't act fast, then we have no way to defend against the demons and Voldemort, they will kill us all."

"But Ginny, you don't know if the castle is right."

"Do you want to find out, mum? Do you want to be responsible for the death of ... let's say a hundred people ... no ... make that two thousand people, including our family?"

Mrs. Weasley looked shocked to Ginny, her eyes started to shine with inner fire.

"You don't know that" she hissed.

"When the demons are standing here in front of our door, there will be nothing we can do anymore, it will be too late. It will be too late because you think it is not a decent thing to do!" Ginny hissed back, her eyes flashing.

A door opened and Harry with Peragrain entered the room. They walked to the group, conjured two armchairs and Harry helped Ginny to sit; Peragrain stood beside her.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked bewilderedly at Harry and Peragrain.

Peragrain cleared his throat. "Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, I am the oldest elf here in the castle and I am ... let's say its spokesman. " He paused for a moment to let that sink in.

"Potter castle is an old, magical building, one of the last in existence. This castle was built a long time ago to offer the people living in it many things and one of the specific things it offers was security and safety."

"Now, when there are forces that can penetrate its defenses, the castle has the ability to offer another mode of existence, and that mode is its fortress mode. The castle cannot change the mode on its own, only the master of the castle can order that."

Peragrain pointed to Harry. "Lord Baron is not the master of this castle, nobody is at the moment. The castle can accept Lord Baron as master of the castle only when he is married and there is a good reason for that."

"The main task for the master of the castle is ruling the family line and the defenses needed to keep the castle and family safe. The main task for the mistress is the care of the castle. All of the castles needs are managed by the mistress, but since the master is in charge of defending the castle and his family, he would need the help of the mistress to order the castle into fortress mode. This is how the castle was designed. It is another way for the castle to protect itself."

"The castle can detect major changes in the global stream of magic throughout the world. It detects when many people suddenly die by whatever reason, it can also detect the arrival and leaving of major magical beings like the demons and even the rebirth of Voldemort."

"Some time ago, the castle detected the opening of a gateway to or from a strange universe. Yesterday the castle detected the presence of a creature near its magical borders, what you describe as a demon, in the body of Albus Dumbledore. That creature knows where the castle is, and if it really wants, it can reach the castle, but not penetrate it ... yet. It is essential for you and for the castle that the Lord Baron and Lady Weasley-Potter in waiting be bonded by marriage, so they could be able to active the defenses of the castle."

"If they do not so, this castle and all people living in it will be killed very soon and when we speak about demons, you will not be killed but imprisoned for eternity inside a daemon."

With a pop Peragrain disappeared.

Harry stood up and held a hand out to Ginny. "Let's go and let your parents talk and think." Ginny took his hand and both of them disappeared as well with a soft pop.

To say that the matron of the Weasley family was shocked was the understatement of the year.

The morning came early for Harry. Mr. Weasley knocked on the door of his bedroom. "Harry, are you awake?"

Harry looked around. "I am now awake, Mr. Weasley, please come in." He looked to the alarm clock and his eyebrows went up. "Did you and your wife sleep?"

Mr. Weasley smiled warily. "No my boy, neither of us slept for a minute but I hope that Molly will sleep now, though."

Mr. Weasley took a deep breath. "We came to a conclusion this morning and we decided to allow you to renegotiate the courtship."

Harry's eyes went wide. "You mean that, Mr. Weasley?"

"Yes of cause, Harry. I suggest that we renegotiate after breakfast." He smiled to Harry and left the bedroom.

Harry felt a wave of happiness. He was jumping on his bed like a little boy and began yelling, "PERAGRAIN ... PERAGRAIN ... ARE YOU THERE ... FAST PERAGRAIN, I NEED SOME THINGS! GET THE RINGS"

Suddenly Harry froze. 'Oh my god, what do I tell Ginny? How should I propose to her?' He thought for some moments. She mentioned something romantic but does that mean in private or more in public!

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Authors Notes:

Next chapter: Harry starts his new project: Again proposing to his love. That is not all, because the demons and Voldemort are not sitting on their behinds ...