Full text of "Fake Order Of The Pheonix"

HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX The Entire Book HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX 1 CHAPTER 1 - THE TRIP 2 CHAPTER 2 - MIRROR-MUNCHIES 8 CHAPTER 3 - THE LETTER 18 CHAPTER 4 - AMBUSH AT MRS. FIGG'S 22 CHAPTER 5 - THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX 25 CHAPTER 6 - BLACK PHOENIXES 30 CHAPTER 8 - NEW STUDENTS 39 CHAPTER 9 - CLONUSOUTS AND TRYOUTS 46 CHAPTER 10 - DECISIONS 55 Chapter 11- Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff. 62 Chapter 12- Transformation Training 79 Chapter 13- Animals 89 Chapter 14- Dueling and Morphing 103 Chapter 15- The Plan 113 Chapter 16- The Return of the Phoenix 125 Chapter 17- Azkaban 133 Chapter 18- Back To Hogwarts 146 Chapter 19- The New Dueling Club 157 Chapter 20- The Trap 178 Chapter 21- The Yule Ball 193 Chapter 22- The Aftermath 213 Chapter 23- Second Round 219 Chapter 24- The Quidditch Final 234 Chapter 25- The Final Duel 244 Chapter 26- The O.W.L.s 262 Chapter 27- Dungeons and Dragons 286 Chapter 28- Harry's Order 306 Chapter 29- Voldemort's Story 319 Chapter 30- The Phoenix of the Order 337 Chapter 31- The Surprise Order 342 Chapter 32- Truth and True Correspondents 348 1 CHAPTER 1 - THE TRIP It was the most wonderful feeling Harry ever experienced. He was flying through the air, feeling the wind blow by and through his entire body. The warm sun was glowing all over him and some birds were flying by, singing merrily. He raced them, not knowing where to, just knowing he was having the best time of his life. As Harry was shooting ahead, he looked forward, and saw a thin line on the ground. Harry threw his hands back, getting a sudden burst of speed. He was going far faster than the birds now, he could hear their voices trailing behind him, getting farther and farther behind him. The thin line was getting closer as Harry sped up. As he got nearer to it, the Sun's warmth became slightly colder, and the wind was blowing much harder. Despite this, he continued on, having a huge desire to see what the line was dividing. Harry suddenly realized that he was shivering, and his teeth were chattering. The wind was approaching the speeds of that of a hurricane. It just kept blowing harder and harder, until Harry was unable to fight against it any longer. So, he fell. He was falling, falling, falling. Faster, faster and faster. The ground was rushing at him. He fell through the clouds, and could just about make out the top of some houses. He could see some cars. Now, he can make out someone below him. Harry abruptly realized what was happening, and he let out a scream, anticipating the painful impact. . . when all of a sudden he felt hands below him. Someone caught him. Harry let out a sigh of relief. The hands below him felt bony and weak, they were concealed in a long flowing black robe. Harry looked up to see the face that went with the arms, and as soon as his eyes met the face, he wished he hadn't been caught at all. It felt as though there was a brick in his stomach that suddenly moved up out of his mouth, escaping with a scream. The face belong to Voldemort. He merely gave Harry a small grin. Harry jumped out of Voldemort' s hands, and started running away. Green rays were shooting by him, and Harry recognized the green rays as killing curse beams. He kept running, not knowing where he was going. All of a sudden, he saw someone! Two people actually, a man and a woman. . . they looked very familiar. Harry ran as fast as he could towards them, spells still shooting by him every second. All Harry did was try and concentrate on the people ahead of him. As soon as he got a little closer to them, he realized who they were. . . they were his parents. The woman was tall, and had red hair and unmistakable green eyes. She was cradling a bundle of blankets in her arms. . . it looked like a baby. Next to her, there was an even taller skinny man with untidy black hair. He was staring down at the bundle of blankets. What were they doing here? Weren't they. . . dead? All of these questions were running through Harry's mind when he suddenly remembered how he had gotten to see his parents in the first place. Voldemort! "We have to get out of here!" Harry yelled to them. But, it was as if he didn't even say anything. . . or exist for that matter. His mom kept cradling the bundle of blankets, and his dad was just watching her. "Voldemort' s here!" yelled Harry as loud as he could. "We have to go!" 2 This time, they looked at him, and Harry felt relief come over him. Then, he felt a hand come over his shoulder, and squeeze down hard. He didn't even have to turn around to see who it was that was holding onto him. . . the bony fingers gave it all away. "Give me the boy. . ." Voldemort hissed. "You already know we won't," said Harry's dad. "We had an agreement," said his mom, setting the bundle down into a cradle next to her that seemed to have just appeared. What agreement? Harry never knew that his parents had ever made some sort of deal with Voldemort. "Yes, well. . . that agreement did not benefit me enough to continue it," said Voldemort. "I would rather just take the boy now." "Never," said both of Harry's parents together. "If you will not give him to me, then I will take him by force!" yelled Voldemort, brandishing his wand. Harry saw his father immediately respond by taking his out too. But, he wasn't fast enough. "Avada Kedavra!" yelled Voldemort. The familiar green flash brightened the white oblivion round them. . . where had the world gone? It seemed to have all just disappeared. That was the last thing on Harry's mind, though. He saw his father be hit by the Killing Curse, and fall to the ground with a large thud. He was dead. "No! James!" yelled Harry's mom, running over to him. "Now give me the boy and you shall live," said Voldemort, pointing his wand right at Harry's mom. "I shall never hand him over to you, even if it means my death!" she said. "Very well then. . ." said Voldemort. "Avada Kedavra!" The world flashed green again, and Harry's mom collapsed to the floor, right on top of James. Voldemort walked over to the cradle that the baby version of Harry was in. He gave a sickening version of a smile, and pointed his wand right at Harry, and mumbled the Killing Curse. Suddenly, there was a massive explosion like none Harry had ever experienced before. It was as if a nuclear bomb went off right in front of his eyes. The entire world turned black for an instant, and Voldemort, and his mom and dad were blown away. It lasted for only a second though. . . and Harry was back in his white, infinite oblivion. . . all alone this time. "Harry. . .", came a voice. It was a soft, soothing voice that was barely loud enough to be heard. Harry ran toward where he thought the voice was coming from, though the world around him was appearing to get lighter. "Harry. . ." This time, the voice was slightly louder. Harry ran faster. . . maybe it was his mom! Maybe she didn't die after all! The voice rang out again, and again and Harry ran faster and faster, not caring that he was getting tired. "Harry!", yelled the voice. It was not soothing at all this time, it was instead very harsh and loud. The world around Harry was spinning now, with many colors. The voice was yelling at him almost every second, and the world was coming into a blurry focus. Harry shook his head, rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was in a small room. . . in a bed. . . with pajamas on. . . what was going on? 3 It now came to Harry that he had been dreaming, and was back now in his real life. However, Harry's real life is nothing like ours. Harry is a wizard. Though, not a full wizard yet. He is still a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry threw his covers off himself, and climbed groggily out of bed. Every second he moved, he lost more and more memory of the dream he had. He remembered seeing his mom. . . and something about Voldemort. . . but that was it. He groped around the table next to his bed fro his glasses and put them on. Now his room came into focus and he walked over to his closet to pick out some clothes. "HARRY!", yelled the voice. Now Harry knew who was making it, his Aunt Petunia. His door exploded open and his she blasted through. "Harry get down here this- oh!", she saw Harry while he was changing his pants and all he had on was his underwear. She quickly backed out of the room and yelled, just as loudly as before, "Get downstairs now! It's Dudley's birthday, and you're late! We need you to make breakfast!" Harry heard her go downstairs. Harry quickly finished changing into his clothes and went to the door. He opened it, and turned around to look at his room before he went down. It contained many things that would be in our dreams: there was a cauldron by his bed that contained books on magic. Next to the window in his room was an owl cage that contained Harry's owl, Hedwig. She was a snowy white owl that was used to send and receive letters. Harry's two most recent letters were on his wall next to Hedwig. Once was from Hermione Granger, one of Harry's best friends from Hogwarts. It read: Dear Harry, Since I won't be able to send you another letter soon, happy birthday. I am having a great time here with Viktor at his house, I hope you are doing well with your aunt and uncle. Even though I've been with Viktor, I have been doing a lot of thinking, especially about what Dumbledore said last year. Since You-Know-Who (most wizards were too afraid to use Voldemort's real name, so they said 'You-Know-Who' instead) is back, you'll have to be extra careful since you do seem to run into him often. I've also been wondering about what the jobs are that Dumbledore sent everyone to do. I guess we'll find out this September. Sincerely, Hermione That letter was exactly like Hermione. Always worried and concerned, though never forgetting to do work. However, she did have some good points. Harry was wondering about what Dumbledore said last year. He sent Hagrid (the groundskeeper at Hogwarts) on a secret Summer job, he sent Professor Snape (Harry's potion's teacher who was Harry's only reason to dislike Hogwarts) as some sort of spy to Voldemort, and Dumbledore asked the rest of the professors to "gather the old crowd". Harry was also surprised, in reading Hermione 's letter, that she did go to Krum's mansion for the Summer. Viktor Krum is an excellent Quidditch player, he is the Seeker on the Bulgarian Quidditch team, the same position Harry plays on the Hogwarts Gryffindor House's Quidditch team. At the end of the year, she said she was still 4 "thinking about it", so Harry assumed she wasn't going to go. He couldn't wait to get back to Hogwarts and ask her all about it. The other letter on Harry's wall was from his other best friend at Hogwarts, Ron Weasley. It read: Hey Harry! Hope you're well, I know we're not doing too good here. That money you gave Fred and George last year, I'm not sure if that was such a good idea. They now seem more determined than ever to set up their joke shop, and since they got so much money from you for funding, mom can't object to them doing it. Every day, it seems, they have some new invention that they're more than willing to test out on us. When we're not turning into an animal or something from eating a candy, our faces turn green, or we grow an extra ear on our forehead. Because of the chaos here, I doubt we'll be able to come over and help you if the Muggles try and keep you from coming back to Hogwarts, or just make you miserable. So, I gave Pig a map that leads you from your house to our house. It took a while to make since dad's Muggle maps can't talk. I hope you don't have to use it in an emergency, but go ahead and use it to get here for fun! See ya soon! Ron Harry had the map in his pocket at all times, just in case he needed it. Even though the names of the roads and towns were written very messily, Harry guessed he could just fly to the Weasley 's house on his broomstick if he really had to. Harry couldn't help but laugh when he came to the part about Fred and George's joke shop. Last year, Fred and George (Ron's older identical twin brothers) decided they wanted to open up a joke store (called Weasley 's Wizard Wheezes) and make their living doing that. Mrs. Weasley, whose other three sons had graduated from Hogwarts and gone into "respectable" businesses (except for maybe Charlie who bred Dragons), would have nothing to do with their joke shop idea and destroyed all their inventions. Later that year, Harry won a tournament at school, and got a thousand galleons (quite a sum of money in the wizarding world). Already having a small fortune inherited from his parents, Harry gave the money to Fred and George to support their business since he liked the idea. "HARRY! GET DOWN HERE NOW!" came a giant booming voice from downstairs. The voice belonged to his Uncle Vernon, obviously upset that Harry had taken so long to come down. However, Harry was used to this kind of treatment. The Dursley's hated magic in any form and, because of this, they despised Harry. So, even though Harry was used to this way of communication, he thought it best to not upset Uncle Vernon any more, and he started on his way downstairs, which turned out to be a good deal more difficult than other trips doing the same. Every step was littered with wrapping paper, boxes, cards, tape, bubble wrap, and even some forgotten presents. Though he tripped twice (once on a box, and on a shirt), Harry eventually made his way to the bottom of the staircase, and headed to the kitchen where he tended to the bacon and pancakes on the stove. His cousin, Dudley was sitting at the table that was an island in the sea of wrappings. He was opening another present right now. 5 "Oooh another present! I wonder what it could be!" said Dudley as he tore open the next box in a giant pile next to him. Within two seconds, the present was open, and Dudley pulled out a giant red shirt. "Oh no, not another one!" "Another XXXXXXXL shirt Dudley?" laughed Uncle Vernon as Dudley began opening his next gift. "Well then, just be glad that you can't wear them anymore anyway." It was true though. Last Summer, Dudley might have been too small for that shirt but, since his school, Smeltings, did not store uniforms in that size, Dudley was forced on an extreme diet that must've been enforced throughout his entire year there due to the amazing amount of weight he lost. Dudley was just a little bigger than Harry now, who was extremely skinny after being practically starved by the Dursleys for ten years. "Yes!" said Dudley after opening his latest present. It was evidently some video game he had wanted as that was the only thing that could make Dudley so happy. Then, when Dudley reached for his next present, he let out a shriek. "Ah! There's only one left! Oh, but it's a big one!" Dudley walked over to the giant box which was at least as tall as Harry, and about five times as wide. Dudley climbed on top, and ripped the ribbon off as fast as he could. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were smiling in the back. "Oh man! This one's gotta be good!" Dudley threw off the last of the wrapping to reveal... "Another box!" yelled Dudley. This made Harry look over from the stove. Wrapped in the box that Dudley had just opened was another box that was identical to the previous one in every way, except for the fact that it was smaller. However, this did not make Dudley and less determined, in fact he looked as though this was a present he really wanted to conquer. Just as Dudley threw off the ribbon of the latest box, Harry let out a laugh. Another box was inside that one, once again, identical to the last. Dudley quickly ripped through that one, and the present inside was again a box. This continued for fourteen more boxes until Dudley, looking like he might explode at any second, opened the last one which was about the size of a hamburger. Instead of there being another box inside, there was an envelope. Dudley opened it, and nearly fainted. "Oh. . . my. . . god!" he stuttered. Harry walked away from the stove and over towards the presents to see what could have possibly made Dudley speechless. "Get away from those boy!" yelled Uncle Vernon, "we didn't get one for you!" "What?" asked Harry, "one. . . one what?" questioned Harry. "Tickets! A ticket!" replied Uncle Vernon. "Tickets, to where?" asked Harry. "To. . . to. . . Hawaii!" yelled Dudley. He held up the three tickets that were bright yellow with hula dancers on them. "Wow, that's great. I think I'll just explode with happiness due to the fact that I'M NOT GOING!" yelled Harry. Even though he had never gone with the Dursley's on any of their trips, they had never rubbed it in his face so much. "That's right you're not going!" said Aunt Petunia. "We're taking YOU to Mrs. Figg's house next week, when we leave." Harry was not going to put up with this. It was almost his fifteenth birthday, and he didn't have to deal with his Aunt and Uncle's dictatorship over him anymore. 6 "NO!", yelled Harry as loud as he could, his Aunt and Uncle looked appalled. "HOW DARE YOU TALK BACK-" said Uncle Vernon before he was cut off. "No! I'm NOT going to go to Mrs. Figg's, I'm going to Ron's house!" said Harry as he started running back upstairs, avoiding the presents. He could hear Uncle Vernon behind him, closing in. All Harry has to do was grab the map, his owl, and fly out on his broomstick, and the Dursleys would not be able to do anything about it. Nothing they owned could fly, and they would not pursue him into wizard lands anyway. Just as Harry reached the door, he felt Uncle Vernon's presence right behind him. Harry threw open the door, and saw the strangest sight he ever saw: his owl was fighting with a black phoenix. The phoenix was about five times as large as Hedwig, and a million times darker. It wasn't just black, it was a pure -black, with dark flames coming out all around it. It had an unnaturally long beak with small sharp teeth all around it. It was pulling Hedwig apart, feathers and blood were everywhere. Just then, the phoenix stopped fighting with Hedwig, and looked at Harry. There was an explosion of piercing, white-hot pain in Harry's forehead. He could feel himself falling backwards, then quickly falling into unconscious. He collapsed on the floor. 7 CHAPTER 2 - MIRROR MUNCHIES Harry woke up what felt like days later to him, though it must've been only a few minutes. He shook himself up, and ran over to Hedwig. She looked like she had been mauled by a garbage disposal. Harry picked her up into his arms and put her chest to his ears. She was still breathing, and he could feel her heart beating. Harry set her down on a bed, and looked through his cauldron for his wand. When he found his wand, he took it out of the cauldron, and pointed it at Hedwig. "Anicure!" said Harry. Even though he wasn't allowed to use magic out of school for fun, if a life and death situation arose, it was legal. A small glowing fish, bird, and dog flew out of Harry's wand and into Hedwig. She glowed bright yellow for a second, then went back to her normal white. She opened her eyes, and ruffled her feathers. Hedwig then flew back to her cage, and let out a large hoot. As she flew over, Harry looked around his room, and almost screamed when he saw Dudley, just sitting there in a chair in the corner of his room. "Dudley. . ." gasped Harry. "What are you doing here?" "I have something for you," he said, standing up with his arms behind his back. "Dudley," sighed Harry, "I don't have time for this right now, my owl is hurt and- "Here," said Dudley, extending his arm to Harry. Right on top of his palm, there was a small, brown box. What was he up to? Dudley had never given Harry a real present in his life! Could it really be real? "Take it," said Dudley, sensing Harry's hesitation. Harry was almost afraid to take it, it was probably just another one of his pathetic jokes. "I promise its not a joke, just take it, alright?" There was something about the way he said it that convinced Harry. With a questioning look on his face, Harry grabbed the small box out of Dudley's hand, and opened it. Inside, there was the most beautiful watch he had ever seen. It was made out of some sort of green crystal, it shimmered all over. At the place in the watch where the face would be, there were a tiny snake -head, with two red rubies for the eyes, and its tongue going around as the hand. It was intricately carved all over, to look like not just any snake, but a Basilisk! The king of all snakes! "Th- thanks, Dudley," said Harry, having no clue what to think. Throughout his entire life, Dudley had never even said one nice thing to Harry, much less give something to him. . . voluntarily. Maybe he had turned over a new leaf. "Happy Birthday!" said Dudley. "What?" said Harry. "Urn... there's still several weeks until my birthday, Dudley." "I know, but since we're leaving for Hawaii next week, I figured I won't have time to give it to you on your actual birthday." "Where did you find it?" asked Harry, still looking it over and admiring it. "I found it in the basement," he said. "It was in a box labeled 'Lily'" Harry immediately looked up at him. Lily? Lily Potter? His mother? "You mean my mom?" asked Harry quietly. "Yeah," said Dudley. "I think we got a box of her stuff from her will. Even though my mom hated her, she still couldn't throw it out." 8 Harry looked at Dudley, then at the watch. Somehow, knowing that it had once belonged to his mother made it appear to be even more beautiful. "But why are you giving this to me?" asked Harry, putting the watch on. "Come on," said Dudley, smiling and patting Harry's shoulder, "can't a cousin do something nice every now an then, huh?" "Other cousins, yes I'm sure. You. . . no way," said Harry. Dudley let out a sigh "Harry, I haven't told anyone this. . . no one at all." "What is it?" asked Harry, interested. "Well, a little into my school year last year, I started having these dreams," said Dudley. "Only, these weren't dreams of floating in the air, or falling, or whatever. No, these were dreams with a message. They were telling me something." "What were they telling you?" asked Harry. "That I should be doing something that I'm not," said Dudley, extremely seriously. "So, I tried everything. I tried losing more weight, but the dreams wouldn't stop; I tried to do better in school, but the dreams wouldn't stop; I even tried having a girlfriend for a while, but that didn't make them stop. "So, one night, I laid awake in bed, contemplating what I could possibly be doing that I wasn't: being nice to you, treating you like a human being." "And have the dreams stopped?" asked Harry. "Ever since I proclaimed to myself that day that I would be nice to you for the rest of our lives. . . yes. I realized that I should have known to be that way ever since you first came here. Just because you can make glass appear, and talk to snakes doesn't mean you're a bad person. . . in fact, it makes you kind of cool." "Um. . . thanks Dudley," said Harry. "Hey, you want to come downstairs?" asked Dudley. "You must get awfully bored up here all by yourself." "Um. . . sure," said Harry, still overwhelmed by Dudley's sudden and complete change of heart. "Just let me check on Hedwig." "Alright," said Dudley, smiling as he left the room. Once Hedwig had been settled back into her cage, Harry sat down on his bed. So many questions were burning in his mind: Why was Dudley being so nice to him? Was it really because of the dream? And before. . . what was up with the black phoenix in his room? He didn't even know phoenixes came in black! And what had caused his forehead to hurt when he saw it? Harry rubbed his eyes and walked over to the mirror in his room, and lifted up his bangs to reveal a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. This scar made Harry even more unusual, even by wizard's standards. Harry was the only person to ever survive an encounter with Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and evil wizard in over a century. Voldemort barged into Harry's parent's house one night when Harry was only one year old. Voldemort killed his mom and dad, and when he tried to kill Harry, his curse backfired, turning him into a weak, powerless creature that over a course of thirteen years returned back to his original power with the help of his most faithful servant, Peter Pettigrew or Wormtail. The reason Voldemort' s curse had backfired is because his mom, Lily, sacrificed her life for Harry giving him a shield against Voldemort's powers. However, last year, Voldemort used some of Harry's blood to rise again, letting him get passed Harry's shield. 9 Ever since Harry's first encounter with Voldemort, he has had the lightning shaped scar as a symbol of where the curse hit him. It had hurt other times during the course of his life, but only when Voldemort had been close, or had an extremely evil thought. So, how could his scar have hurt when Voldemort wasn't near? It must have had something to do with the black phoenix that was in Harry's room. Now that Harry was thinking, what was that phoenix doing in his room? Was it a spy for Voldemort? The only other phoenix Harry knew of was Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes. But, Fawkes was red and beautiful and it most certainly didn't cause Harry to faint. This phoenix Harry just saw was black with dark flames all around it, it was like nothing Harry had ever learned or heard about. Harry suddenly remembered Dudley. He ran downstairs, avoiding the large mass of wrapping paper that was still there. He arrived at the bottom of the stairs, still being slightly cautious: this could be on of Dudley's more elaborate jokes. He still didn't trust him completely. "What took you?" asked Dudley, holding his hands behind his back like he did when he was hiding the Basilisk watch. Oh, um. . . nothing," said Harry. "What'cha got there?" "This," said Dudley, his eyes twinkling, "is the secret of my success." "What success?" asked Harry. Dudley looked surprised. He waved his hand all over his body. "How I lost over five hundred pounds!" "Oh, that success..." "Yeah," said Dudley, not shrugging it off anywhere as fast as Harry was. "Anyway, here it is." He showed Harry what he was hiding behind his back. It was some sort of rectangular package. . . it looked like some sort of video game. "What is that?" asked Harry skeptically. "The single greatest thing ever. . ." said Dudley, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The secret to my success. . ." "How did that help you?" "Well," said Dudley, "whenever I got hungry, I just popped this video in, and watched it. Soon, I was far too busy laughing to worry about eating. Not only that, but this video taught me everything I know, like logic. I didn't understand it in school, but after just watching this, I finally comprehended how, if you weigh as much as a duck, then you are a witch." "Oh really. . ." said Harry, wondering if Hermione weighed as much as a duck. "Come on," said Dudley, beckoning Harry to the living room, "let's watch it!" Harry, having already finished his little amount of summer homework, had nothing better to do. So, he decided to join Dudley in watching his little video. Though, he would have liked to have had some time to ponder and research that black phoenix he saw. They sat down, and Dudley put the movie on. For the next hour and a half, they bonded like they had never before. Laughing, repeating lines, and making fun of the movie together, it was a truly new experience to Harry, and he liked it. For the next week, Harry and Dudley watched the movie several times each day, while Uncle Vernon was at work, and Aunt Petunia was away visiting friends or 10 shopping. Fairly soon, Harry and Dudley were practically acting out each scene together, Harry felt as though he were back at Hogwarts with Ron. . . only there had he ever had this much fun. But, once Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia popped their horrible heads into the house, Dudley transformed into a slightly less mean version of the way he used to be; he didn't want to look too changed in front of his parents. Apparently, he still thought very highly of them. Finally, the day came when the Dursleys would leave for Hawaii, and Harry would be sent to Mrs. Figg's house. Either out of a newfound respect for him, or a prolonged fear that he may break the magical rules to get revenge on them (Harry chose the latter) the Dursleys did not drive him to her house, but were allowing them to walk to her house since it was so close. "There'd better not be anything missing when we get home, boy," said Uncle Vernon to Harry, face to face as he was stepping into his car. "Of course not Uncle Vernon," said Harry, trying not to laugh. He shot Harry one last dirty look, and then climbed inside his car, and shut the door. "Goodbye Harry!" yelled Dudley, sticking his head and one arm out of his window As the car was pulling out of the driveway. That was a mistake. "What did you say?" asked Uncle Vernon, immediately stopping the car. Harry saw Dudley go red, recognizing what he did. "I. . . um. . . said goodbye to Harry," said Dudley nervously. "You do NOT say goodbye to that. . . thing!" said Aunt Petunia. "Oh come off it mom!" said Dudley. There were expressions of shock on Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and even Harry's face. Dudley never spoke like that to his parents. "Dudley... I..." "Mom, why do you insist on treating Harry like that?" asked Dudley, appearing to look more confident while speaking freely now. "He's just as much a part of this family as I am and yet you keep treating him like he's some sort of diseased alien!" "Dudley!" yelled Aunt Petunia. "He is NOTHING like us! He does the. . . magic thing! He's., different!" "Didn't you learn that we should accept other's differences in Elementary School, mom?" said Dudley. "Trust me, I've been spending the last week with Harry, and let me tell you, I wish I'd been spending the last fifteen years like that with him!" "DUDLEY!" yelled Uncle Vernon. "You've been associating yourself with him!? What is wrong with you!?" "No, what's wrong with YOU dad?" said Dudley. "We will discuss this later, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon, immediately turning the car back on, and backing the rest of the way out of the driveway. He evidently wanted to get out of there as fast a possible, before someone heard him say 'magic' or 'wizard'. "Goodbye Harry!" yelled Dudley from the car as they began speeding down the road. "Please, don't write to me! We've got some pretty big animals at school, and I don't want Hedwig to get hurt! And don't forget! We are the knight who say-" His last word was cut off, they were far away now. But, Harry knew he said 'nee'. 11 Harry stood there for a few seconds, still staring down the road that the Dursleys had driven away on. From that moment on, he knew that things would be completely different between him and Dudley. Harry suddenly snapped back to reality, and remembered that he had to go to Mrs. Figg's house. He shuddered at the thought: cats everywhere, mess everywhere, old, cranky lady. . . yuck. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the rest of his summer vacation at her house. Harry stuck his hands into his pockets and began to think. . . what else could he do? Then, he felt a piece of parchment in his pocket, and he pulled it out. Harry hit himself on the forehead for not remembering Ron's map. Why spend the rest of summer with Mrs. Figg when he could spend it with Ron? Harry dashed back up to his room, and got ready to leave. Hedwig was in no condition to travel, she was still recovering from her massacre. That made him think: since the whole Weasley were wizards, and five out of nine of them are fully qualified, they should know more than he does about these things. Maybe they would know something about black phoenixes. Harry packed up all of his possessions (which did not amount to much) into his cauldron. He swing the cauldron onto his broom, and he put Hedwig in his jacket. Harry walked downstairs, and opened the door. The air was warm, but not humid at all. The sky was a perfect blue, and he was about to spend the rest of his summer with his best friend. Though, something was still troubling him: then black phoenix. But, he shouldn't let it get to him that much though. Chances are, Hedwig must've met it on one of her trips, and got in a fight. Maybe it came back to get revenge. And the fact that he fainted, maybe it didn't even have to do with his scar at all, maybe he bumped his head on his door (he was getting taller) or, maybe Uncle Vernon hit him, even though they had never physically abused Harry before. All in all, it was not that big of a deal, and Harry shouldn't let it spoil his good time. Suddenly, as Harry came out of thought, he realized he was already flying in the air. Harry lost his balance for a second at the initial shock, but then, he realized what was going on and got his balance back. Flying came more naturally to Harry than anything else in the magic world, which was probably why he didn't even realize that he was doing it. Harry took out Ron's map and attempted to decode the horrible handwriting. Ron's house didn't seem too far away from where Harry was, and if he went fast enough, he could make it there within the hour. Harry flew for what felt like only a few minutes to him since he was enjoying it immensely, it had been the first time he had flown in almost a moth, and it was and even greater feeling than he had remembered. It was no wonder he had that dream of flying, he was craving it so much. Ron's house was coming into focus, right beneath the clouds Harry was flying through. It was not that hard to miss, it was a massive house that leaned over to one side 12 so much that you would expect it to fall over in the Muggle world, but in the magical world anything was possible. Harry zoomed down towards the house faster than he had ever done so before. He had never flown in such an open place as the open sky itself before, so he had never had the opportunity to gain as much speed. As he went closer and closer to the house, the anticipation of meeting Ron rose. Harry was soon just a few feet from the Weasley's house, he slowed down considerably, and when he was near their door, he came to a complete stop and dismounted. He put his broom over his shoulder, and walked up to the door. Harry, not being used to wizard doors, looked around for a doorbell. Instead, he found a shiny sphere that was attached to a gold rod coming out of the house right next to the door. Harry put his hand on the sphere, and it turned green. Harry then pushed down on it and when he pushed it all the way down, the entire Weasley house flashed a bright green, the same as the sphere had. This took Harry by such a surprise that he tripped over his cauldron that was behind him, and landed on one of his books. As he was rubbing his back from the initial pain, the door opened, and Mrs. Weasley appeared in the doorway. She was a plump woman with fiery red hair and a loving personality. As soon as she saw Harry lying on the ground, she cupped her hands over her mouth and ran out to him. "Oh my goodness! Harry! What are you doing here?" she asked. "Well. . . err. . . uh. . ." mumbled Harry. "Oh, say no more! We're happy to have you, you know, and I'm sure Ron will be just delighted to see you. Come in, come in!" she offered Harry her arm, and he grabbed onto it. She helped him up, and they walked into the house. Once they were inside, Harry stood in the middle of the kitchen, looking around for Ron. "Harry dear, Ron's up in his room. You can put your stuff up there." Harry nodded, and walked over to the stairs. He had been to Ron's room so many times before, he knew where to go. But, just as he was about to go on the first step, he saw Mrs. Weasley coming down the stairs. She looked at him and her mouth dropped open. "Harry!" she said, "What- what are you doing here?" "Uh, you just let me in," replied Harry, slightly confused. "But I've been her the whole time- oh no. . ." her face suddenly turned to an look of anger. "Those twins! Arg!" She stomped down the rest of stairs, and Harry moved out of the way. Just as he turned around though, he was face-to-face with another Mrs. Weasley. The Mrs. Weasley that opened his door was right behind that one, each had an expression of surprise and confusion on her face. Even though oddities were probably common in the world of wizardry, Harry had never experienced anything like this before. Seeing three copies of the same person at the same place and time was very strange. Suddenly, the Mrs. Weasley that Harry met when he turned around, spoke: "Fred! George! This time you've gone too far!" she said to the two others. Both turned red, and they said the same thing at once: "What do you mean?!" "Creating some sort of item that transforms you into someone else! The world just isn't prepared for that sort of thing, and neither is this house!" 13 "How dare you yell at me! I'm your mother!" yelled the Mrs. Weasley that opened the door. "Fred, George! Change back right now!" said the Mrs. Weasley that Harry had met on the staircase. "No, you change back!" said the other two. Harry felt so confused right now, his brain should have exploded a while ago. "Sorry Fred, sorry George," said the Mrs. Weasley that was on the staircase calmly as she pointed to her eyes. "Your eyes gave it away, your item needs tweaking. I'll never forget that you both are the only ones in the family with blue eyes." After these words, the other two Mrs. Weasley's took out their wands, and pointed them at themselves. "Epistrefus!" they both yelled. Their skin suddenly turned into a clear liquid that quickly dripped off, collecting in a small puddle at their feet. When all the liquid had dripped off, Harry recognized what was left as Fred and George Weasley, Ron's older, identical twin brothers. "I can't believe you would play a trick on Harry! Especially since it's because of him that you even have those things at all!" said the real Mrs. Weasley. "Yeah, sorry Harry. It was just a perfect opportunity," said Fred. "We saw you flying in, and we just finished some of them," said George. "Oh, it's okay," said Harry, "I liked them. What were they anyway?" Fred and George looked at each other and smiled. They both reached into their pocket, and pulled them inside-out. About fifty, tiny gray spheres fell out, though they stayed suspended in mid-air due to Fred and George's magic. "They're Mirror Munchies! Only a galleon each, a huge bargain!" said George, smiling. "They transform you into whatever person is closest to you. Best used in crowds." "They took us forever to get right," said Fred. "Once we tested one on Ginny, and she turned into her toast. Once we got it to only change into people, we tested it on Ron, and every time he got near someone, he turned into that person. Now that was a confusing day." "Here Harry," said George, offering several Mirror Munchies to Harry. "Take some as a token of our gratitude. If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't have been able to get all the ingredients to make them." Harry took them all and put them into his pocket. "Oh yeah, and that'd be too bad. It's a real sad world without Fred and George's crazy stuff," said a voice coming down the stairs. Harry turned and saw Ginny Weasley coming down. Harry was amazed at the sight of her. He knew that she had a crush on him, but had never returned those feelings until now. Ginny must've grown over the summer, she was now just a little shorter than Harry, and her long flaming-red hair went all the way down her back. She walked over to a cabinet, took out a green apple, bit into it, and then walked back upstairs. Harry could still hear her eating, and he kept his eyes on her as long as he could until Fred's voice broke his daze. "Oh, don't mind her Harry," he said. "She's just upset because she woke up four different days as four different animals. I mean, I can understand not liking being a giraffe, what with your head hitting the ceiling and all, but you'd think she'd like waking 14 up and seeing a horse or a flamingo face in the mirror, I thought girls liked those sort of things." They all laughed, and Harry decided to head up to Ron's room. He once again grabbed his stuff, and ran up the crooked steps to the very top. He came to a door that had a plaque on it that read: "Ronald's Room". Harry knocked, and he heard Ron say, "Come in." Harry opened the door, and walked through. Ron was on his bed reading some Quidditch book. When he looked over and saw Harry, his face turned to a smile, and he walked over. "Well I'm glad I went through all that trouble to make that map now," said Ron. "Yeah, thanks", said Harry as he set his stuff down on the floor. "That saved my life. The Dursleys were leaving for Hawaii, and if I didn't have your map, I would have had to stay with Mrs. Figg all summer." Harry walked over to Ron's bed to see what he was reading. The book was laying cover-up on top of the covers, it was Quidditch Tips and Tricks. Seeing the look of confusion on Harry's face, Ron spoke. "Well, it's a new year, and since there's an open spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, I guess I might try out." He shrugged his shoulders, and looked at Harry for his approval. Harry had been the youngest player on a Hogwarts Quidditch team, and his team had only lost one game while he was on it. He was the unspoken champion of Hogwarts Quidditch. "Sure, you'll do great Ron," said Harry who wasn't absolutely sure if that was true. Ron was an okay player, but Harry never seen him show the level of skill necessary to be on a team. Just then, one of the reasons Harry had come to the Weasley's, besides to be with Ron, came to his mind: the black phoenix. "Uh. . . Ron?" proposed Harry. "Yeah Harry," replied Ron, who began looking at his book again. "Um. . . well. . . your dad's a wizard, and so are three of you brothers and I was just. . . well. . . wondering if any of them had ever come across a... black bird before. . ." Ron lifted up his head from the book, and raised an eyebrow. "What kind of 'black bird' ," he asked. "More of a. . . black phoenix," said Harry. "A black phoenix? What are you talking about Harry. . ." then suddenly his face dropped and went white, "did you see something Harry? What was it? Does it have something to do with You-Know-Who?" Harry didn't know what to say to this, so he just decided to tell the truth. He told Ron about what he saw when he entered his room, and what it had done to Hedwig. Ron was silent throughout the whole thing until the very end. "Well, I've never heard of such a thing, Harry. But-", he was cut off by the "dong" of a clock somewhere. Harry knew from previous experience that this was an alarm to signal when someone arrived home. "Hey! Dad's home!" said Ron excitedly. "If anyone of us knows anything about it, it'd be him!" Ron jumped up, and burst through the door when Harry stopped him. "No Ron!" he yelled after him. "I don't want them to think I'm crazy or anything, seeing a black phoenix, or that I got scared of a bird if it turns out to be nothing!" Ron turned around and looked at him. 15 "Harry," said Ron, "this is more serious than a bird, an unknown phoenix somehow got into your room, attacked your owl, and put you into a state of unconsciousness! We have to know what it was!" He looked up, and saw the look of pleading on Harry's face. "Fine!" said Ron, changing hid mind. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll make up some other story." "Thanks Ron," said Harry. They walked downstairs quietly, and when they got to the bottom, Harry and Ron saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the table talking quietly. Harry and Ron came up to them. "Hey dad," said Ron, "uh. . . guess what Harry and I think we just saw through my... uh... telescope." Mr. Weasley looked at Ron suspiciously, stabbed a piece of meat with his fork, put it in his mouth, and started chewing. As he did so, he replied, "What? What did you see?" "We think we saw a black phoenix," said Ron. At this reply, Mr. Weasley swallowed his meat quickly and Mrs. Weasley dropped her fork that was almost to her mouth. "Now, what makes you think that son?" said Mr. Weasley in a loud voice. "Well um. . . uh. . ." mumbled Ron. "It looked just like a normal Phoenix," said Harry, "only, it had black flames instead of red." Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley's eyes fell upon him, and then Mr. Weasley spoke, "Well then," he said, "if you ever see this 'black phoenix' thing again, um. . . call me up and I'll have a look, alright?" Harry and Ron nodded, and they sprinted back up the stairs not saying anything until they reached the top. "What was that about?" Ron asked Harry when they arrived back in his room. "Well," said Harry, "they either know nothing about it, or they do know something and they don't want to tell us." "Yeah well, I'll go with the second one," said Ron. "Me too," said Harry, "but for now, let's not worry about it. Hey, I've got an idea, let's go practice some Quidditch in your yard, ok?" "Yeah, that sounds good," said Ron. He grabbed his ancient broomstick from the corner of his room and he and Harry set out to play. They were later joined by Fred and George, and had a mini-game: Harry and Fred against Ron and George. Ron must have been practicing over the summer as Harry was having a tough time keeping up with him, even though he was on the superior broom. The game kept progressing for hours until both teams were tied at four-hundred- thirty. Harry, having been putting off catching the Snitch for so long as to prolong the game, decided it was time to stop, and caught in just a few seconds. After a few exclamations of accolade, they all went in. Just as they got inside the house, Mrs. Weasley had dinner ready, and they sat down at the unusually long Weasley table. The first thing Harry noticed as he sat down was Ginny. She was looking even nicer than usual dressed in light-blue not-formal dress. It made him notice her face even more. She appeared to have an expression on her face that read she both did and didn't want to be seen. Harry guessed she was trying to look nice for him since she liked him, but didn't want to actually say anything. Nevertheless, Harry and all of the Weasleys sat began to eat. 16 Harry hadn't eaten so well in over two months. Even though Dudley's horrific diet was over, the Dursleys decided to still keep Harry on it while they ate normally. Harry almost jumped in surprise when Mr. Weasley asked him is he wanted seconds. Despite the wonderful dinner, Harry was feeling quite uncomfortable as Mr. Weasley stared at him for almost the entire time. Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley was doing the same, and wondered what it was all about. Perhaps they did know something he didn't. Harry ate the rest of his dinner very self-consciously, and when he finished, Ron declared that he had had enough and they both went upstairs, and to bed. Harry climbed into bed, and he and Ron talked for a while: about Quidditch, Hogwarts, just about everything that came to their minds. After they started running out of ideas, though, both of them slowly slipped into unconsciousness. Just as Harry was about to fall asleep, he heard a scratch at the window. He sleepily glanced over, and saw nothing there. As he looked away, trying to go back to sleep, he heard it again, louder this time. He sat up in his bed, climbed out, and went to the window. It was raining outside, and Harry could hear the thunder rolling in the distance, getting closer. Harry inspected the area, but saw nothing. He sighed and blamed the wind. Just as Harry was about to go back to his bed, lightning lit up the sky and a face appeared in the window. 17 CHAPTER 3 -THE LETTER Harry jumped back in fear. The lightning made the night sky appear to be day, and the face glowed bright. Just as Harry was about to yell in terror, he quickly gained control of himself, took a closer look at the face. It wasn't a human face, it was an owl! Harry opened the window and let the owl in. Instead of fluttering about and hooting as Harry expected him to do, it slowly and silently flew in as though it was trying to keep its presence a secret. Harry knew that this owl must have something important to deliver to the Weasleys, so he let the owl perch on his arm, and he walked downstairs to deliver it to them. The lights coming from downstairs showed that someone was down there and Harry hoped that it was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley so he could give them the owl. As Harry got closer to the door leading to the bottom floor, he heard voices. It was Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, and they were talking. "I just don't know Arthur," said Mrs. Weasley to her husband, "it just doesn't seem like the kind of thing they'd make up." "They didn't make it up Molly," replied Mr. Weasley, "The only people that know about black phoenixes are either victims of Voldemort's attacks with them, or members of the Ministry of Magic during that horrible time. So, how could they now about them without seeing one? So, they either did see one today, or. . ." "Or? Or what?" she asked. "Or, Harry saw it and didn't want to tell us directly." Harry felt his blood go cold and his body stiffen. He suspected him! "Now Arthur, why would he do a thing like that?" "Well, why did Harry come here in the first place. I'd bet everything I had on that he came here originally to ask us, then thought about it, and believed he'd sound weak and afraid if he did ask us, so he made up the story about seeing it through the telescope." "Well," replied Mrs. Weasley, sounding a little angry, "Harry told me the reason he is here is because the Dursleys went on vacation to Hawaii, and he didn't want to stay with the lady that usually watches him." "Molly, I've worked with Muggles enough to know that they do not take spontaneous trips like that. A trip anywhere, much less Hawaii, would probably take years of planning for them." They both stood there for a minute in silence pondering Mr. Weasley's comment. "Well, if he did see it," said Mrs. Weasley quietly, "then what should we do about it Arthur?" Mr. Weasley put his hand to his chin, and Harry could tell he was thinking. "I don't know Molly, I just don't know. Black phoenixes only meant one thing in my day: You-Know-Who. They were his symbol before the Dark Mark was, and they assisted in his destruction wherever he went. If he saw one, either Voldemort is near us, or spying on Harry." Harry decided this was not the best time to deliver the owl, so he headed back upstairs, all the way thinking about what Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had been talking about. Obviously, they did know something about the black phoenix but were unwilling to tell him. Why? Why did everyone still think he was a baby? Sure, he wasn't a legal adult yet, but still, he had faced Voldemort four times and gotten the best of him at every occasion. Why couldn't people treat him with more respect? 18 Just then, the owl that had delivered the letter bit Harry's finger, causing him a small amount of pain. Harry shook his finger, and as he did, the letter fell off of the owl's leg. Harry looked down at it, and saw his name written on the front of the small envelope, not Mr. or Mrs. Weas ley's. Maybe the letter was for him. Harry grabbed the letter and the owl, and ran back to Ron's room, careful to be quiet enough to not wake him up. He sat down on his bed, and opened the envelope, taking out the small piece of parchment inside. It read: Be alone at the front of your Aunt and Uncle's house tonight at midnight. That was it. There was no signature, no anything that would indicate who sent it. Then, it came to Harry. It must be a letter from Hogwarts telling Harry to go back with his Aunt and Uncle for the rest of the Summer. Dumbledore told Harry that he had used a very powerful charm on him so that whenever he was near family, Voldemort could not touch him. Now, with Voldemort rising again, Harry assumed that Dumbledore thought that even the Weasleys were not enough protection for him. Dumbledore could find a way to get the Dursley's back and be with him, even all the way from Hawaii. But then, Harry thought, if it was a letter from Hogwarts, why didn't it have the Hogwarts seal on it, or the professor's signature on it who sent it? Harry guessed that they wanted him back in a big hurry and they didn't have time for anything like that. Since the letter said to be there alone, Harry didn't wake Ron, but scribbled a note for him telling him that he was being forced to stay with the Dursley's for the rest of the summer. Harry slung his cauldron over his broom (with all his stuff in it), and started on his way downstairs. Just then, he remembered. Mr. And Mrs. Weasley were down there, and they would probably question him some more about the phoenix, and where he was going. Harry really feel like dealing with that right now, he was very tired. He had to find another way out. Harry turned around, and saw the window in Ron's room that the owl had come through. Since it took up almost half of the wall, he, along with all his other stuff, could easily fit through it. Harry walked over to the window, and opened it. A brisk summer night's wind blew by him causing his teeth to chatter. Harry threw Hedwig (who was now well enough to fly) out the window, and then he jumped out after him. They both flew as fast as they could all the way back to the place Harry had just tried to get away from. It was a little after midnight when Harry finally arrived back at the Dursley's house. It took him less time to return than going since he didn't have to decode Ron's map, he just remembered the way to go. Harry dismounted from his broom, and sat down on the stoop in front of the Dursley's house, feeling extremely disappointed and unhappy. Harry waited for a few minutes, and just when he was about to fall asleep, he heard footsteps coming closer from down the street. Harry stood up, and tried to see who was coming. Was is Dumbledore. Was it Hagrid? Who? 19 Harry grabbed his stuff, and started walking towards the figure. As he got closer, it came into focus, and as soon as Harry saw who it was, he turned around and walked in the opposite direction, trying to get away from it as fast as possible without being seen. "Harry? Harry Potter? Is that you?" came the creaky old voice behind him. The voice that belonged to Mrs. Figg, the woman that the Dursley's were originally going to leave Harry with. Harry couldn't try and go the other way now, it was too late, she had spotted him. All he could do now was stand where he was, and wait for her to come over to him. Within seconds, she was right next to him. "Why, hello Harry!" she said. "Fancy meeting you here at this time!" "Hello Mrs. Figg," replied Harry with a sigh. "Oh, why the sigh Harry?," she asked. "Well, it's just that I was expecting to meet someone and-" She cut him off. "Well that's very nice Harry," she said. "Why don't you come in for some tea and cookies? You look like you're awfully cold." It was true. Even though it was a summer evening, Harry was very cold. In fact, the more he thought about it, the colder he got. Also, he thought to himself, Mrs. Figg's house wasn't too far away from where he was supposed to meet whoever was coming, so he could see them through the window, then come back when they arrived. "Alright," said Harry. "Excellent," said Mrs. Figg. She led the way to her house which was just as Harry remembered it. It was a perfectly green lawn with pink flamingos placed all over the yard, as if guards for the house. When Mrs. Figg opened the door, Harry didn't hear something that he had expected to. Mrs. Figg owned many, many cats, as some old women do, and whenever she used to open the door, Harry would hear all of the cats 'meow' in unison as if saying hello to her. This time, however, when she opened the door, there was just silence. Harry guessed she must've put her cats in the basement or something. They walked through the door, and into the house. Harry sniffed, and for once, could not smell a single cat. He could, however, smell the cookies, that were baking and the tea that was boiling. Before he could ask her what happened to her cats, she asked Harry a question: "So Harry, how have you been?" she asked nicely. Her voice seemed different. It was not weak and old anymore, but stronger and louder. "Oh, okay," Harry responded, not daring to tell her anything about the phoenix, Hogwarts, or anything else magical. "Um, Mrs. Figg, may I ask you a question?" "Certainly Harry," she responded in the same voice. "Um, what happened to your cats?" Mrs. Figg gave Harry a look he didn't expect, she smiled. "Well Harry," she said, still smiling, "I had to get rid of them all." Harry, not understanding how someone could get rid of their only friends and be happy asked, "But why? Why did you get rid of them?" "Because," she responded, "I got a dog." Harry, who liked dogs, smiled and followed Mrs. Figg who was leading him into the kitchen. Right in the middle of the kitchen was a black dog whom Harry was positive he'd seen before. Wanting to continue with some conversation, Harry asked her, "What is his name?" 20 "Well," replied Mrs. Figg, now with a bigger smile, "I use the name he called himself before, Sirius Black." 21 CHAPTER 4 - AMBUSH AT MRS. FIGG'S Harry's jaw dropped so far down, he thought it was in danger of hitting the floor. How and why would Sirius, his godfather and a fully trained Animagus (a wizard that could transform into an animal) wizard who was being falsely accused of murder, be here at Mrs. Figg's house? As Harry's mind was racing over this, the dog that was in Mrs. Figg's kitchen transformed into Sirius Black. He ran up to Harry and gave him a hug. "Harry, Harry! So good to see you! I haven't heard from you lately so I thought it would be best to be here when we-", he stopped suddenly, frowned for a second, then put his smile back on. "Well, I'm just glad to see you." Harry's brain had finally seemed to consciousness, as he found himself able to speak again. "What? How? When? Why? Why? Why are you here?" he asked. "That, Harry, is a question that shall be answered once Remus arrives", responded Mrs. Figg. "Remus? Oh! Professor Lupin! Is he coming?" asked Harry, quickly. Then, realizing there was bigger question at stake here, "Mrs. Figg... are you a... witch?" asked Harry. Mrs. Figg smiled. "Yes Harry, I am a witch and a bodyguard," she said. "You see, Harry, Dumbledore put a Kinsafe Charm on you so that whenever you are around your family, your mortal enemy could not come near you. In this case, Voldemort could not touch you." "Yeah", said Harry, "he told me that." "Good," she replied, "from your expression at hearing me to be a witch, I am assuming that you did not know that when the Dursley's left somewhere without you, I was expected to take care of you. If Dumbledore couldn't have you around your family, he at least wanted you around a fully trained wizard, in this case: me." "So you were the one that wanted to meet me, you sent me the owl didn't you?" Harry asked Mrs. Figg. She nodded. "Well," said Harry, "now that I'm here, what do you want?" Mrs. Figg and Sirius looked at each other and gave a look of excited sadness. "Once again Harry," said Sirius, "that is for when Remus arrives." Harry nodded, anxious to know what this was all about, but trusting them enough to allow them to continue going along in their secretive manner. Just then, an alarm went off, and Harry jumped. "Oh!" said Mrs. Figg as she ran to her stove. "Well, I suppose Remus won't mind if we start without him." Harry and Sirius nodded in a hungry agreement as they saw and smelled the cookies coming out of the oven. Despite the excellent food, and the fact that every time on cookie was eaten, two more magically grew in its place, it was a very tense time. They all ate in complete silence, and Harry's anxiousness to know what this meeting was all about was growing. Then, when the plate of cookies was about three times its original size, Harry heard the front door quickly open and close. 22 "Ah! That must be Remus!" said Mrs. Figg. She tapped her napkin against her lips stood up, and walked back out to the living room. Sirius and Harry did the same. As soon as Mrs. Figg entered the room, Sirius and Harry heard a loud shriek, and they ran in. As Harry saw what Mrs. Figg had seen, he let out a scream as well. Professor Lupin did arrive, but he had a large snake protruding out of his chest with blood all over it. It was evidently impaled through him as Harry saw a snake tail protruding out of his back. Sirius was the only one who kept his cool, and took out his wand. "HARRY! RUN!" yelled Sirius, but Harry's feet felt as though they were cemented to the ground. Sirius finally pointed his wand at Professor Lupin, and yelled, "Magnetus!" an orange beam shot out of his wand, and right into the snake's mouth. The snake screamed and shrieked, but Sirius did not stop. The snake was turning a bright green, and then suddenly, it exploded. Harry shielded his eyes as what seemed like millions of tiny snakes slithered all over the place. They were attacking Sirius and Mrs. Figg, but they were both out of shock now, and shooting some sort of black ray at them all which made them disappear. "HARRY! RUN NOW!" yelled Sirius again. This time, Harry did run. He ran to the door, and reached for his broom that was right next to it. As he put his arm out towards the handle, a tiny snake jumped up and but him in the arm. It was not very painful, but lots of blood was pouring out of Harry's arm where the snake gotten him. Harry wrapped the fingers of his other hand around the snake, and ripped it off taking a little bit of his flesh with it. Harry threw it back into the sea of the snakes that Mrs. Figg and Sirius were trying to keep back. Harry grabbed his broom and ran outside. He immediately mounted it, and flew into the sky, not knowing where he was going, just wanting to get away from there. As he flew higher and higher, the sounds coming from Mrs. Figg's house got fainter and fainter until Harry couldn't hear them at all. Harry flew higher than the clouds, and then zoomed down. As he was flying, his mind flew faster. What had just happened? What was that thing in Professor Lupin? What happened when Sirius used that spell on it? Harry certainly knew a general answer to all of these questions: "Nothing good." Just then, Harry realized he was back on the ground. He must have flown while he was thinking, lost track of what he was doing... again. He looked around to see where he was, and recognized the area as Diagon Alley, one of the largest wizard-only villages in the world. It was like a wizarding market where anything that you wanted could be found. How did he get there so fast? Only, Harry had only experienced Diagon Alley in the daytime and crowded with people. As Harry looked around and saw the closed shops and clear streets, another question came across Harry's mind: how did he get to Diagon Alley so fast? It was all the way in London and Mrs. Figg's house is far away from London. Harry must have been a better flier than he thought. Harry walked around looking for a sign of anyone, anyone at all. Suddenly, he saw a light in a store. It was Void's Worm's Tails. The name of the store sounded familiar, but Harry's brain felt hazy at the moment, so he couldn't put his finger on it. But, since it was the only store that looked open and inhabited, Harry went up to the door and opened it. "Hello?" asked Harry. "Is anyone here?" 23 Just as he put one foot in, he felt something cold touch his face, then curl around over his mouth and pull him back. Harry couldn't breathe, he was being kidnapped! The kidnapper pulled Harry into a room in the back of the store with his silver arm still around Harry's mouth. Harry was trying to pull it off, but the metallic arm was too strong. As they entered the room, Harry saw a tall red chair turned away from him. The person holding Harry shut the door behind him, and let go of Harry's face. Harry immediately turned around and saw Peter Pettigrew, the man who was the reason he had no parents. Peter was looking different though. He used to be bald and a little large. Now, he had a full head of hair and large muscles, gifts that Voldemort had evidently given him for being a faithful servant. Peter had a smirk on his face, and he walked backwards toward the door, fading into the shadows. Harry's attention now turned to the chair. It was the only object in the room so Harry was naturally drawn to it. The chair slowly spun around, and when Harry's scar began to tingle, then sting, then hurt, he knew who was in that chair: Voldemort. Harry's guess was confirmed when the chair turned all the way around and Harry, once again, came face to face with his enemy. Voldemort, who now looked more like a skeletal snake than a man, stood up, and glided on the air, rather than walked, over to Harry. When he was within a foot of Harry, his pale, snake-like face contorted into what Harry assumed was a smile, though it was hard to tell expression from the small slit in Voldemort's face. He put out a spider-like hand, and caressed Harry's head. "Harry... Harry Potter.... The boy who caused my downfall, and who caused my rise. You will help me become greater than ever before..." hissed Voldemort. "Never!" yelled Harry, quite louder than he expected. He grabbed Voldemort's hand, and tossed it off his head. It fell back to Voldemort's side. Voldemort's smile now turned to an expression of disgust, but then into another one of his grotesque smiles. "Harry, I don't think you understand. You see, you will help me. Now, you can either use this opportunity to your benefit, and join me now, and I will make you more powerful than you could possibly imagine. Or, we could do this the hard way, and I could just wait a while, then kill you. Either way, you will help me in the end." "Never!" yelled Harry again, not knowing what else to say. Voldemort took away his smile, and glared at Harry. "Very well then, you have sealed your fate! You will die! And your little friends will pay, especially your Animagus god-father: Sirius!" spat Voldemort. His expression of hatred now turned to a small smile. "Wormtail and I have become better friends, Harry. We both share the same enemies and allies. If Wormtail desires Sirius dead, then that is what will happen. If I desire you to be dead, then that is what will happen. Lord Voldemort always rewards his faithful, as long as they help him..." "No way! Even if you kill me, there's no way you can get to Sirius or my friends!" "Oh, yes there is Harry, yes there is! Now, time to go!" Voldemort took out his wand and pointed it at Harry. "Expellius!" he yelled. Suddenly, the world around Harry faded to a black, then it quickly transformed into Mrs. Figg's house. She, Sirius, and Remus were each looking at him from above while he laid on the ground. 24 CHAPTER 5 - THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX "What happened?" asked Harry groggily as he rubbed his eyes. Suddenly he remembered Voldemort and Wormtail and he sprang to his feet. "Where are they!? Where are they!?" he cried. "Harry it's okay!" said Mrs. Figg. "The snakes are gone now." She walked over to him and waved her arm in the direction of a chair. It immediately popped up behind Harry, and he sat down in it. Obviously they didn't know who Harry was referring to. He had completely forgotten about the snakes, and the ambush that had occurred. He was trying to ask where Voldemort and Wormtail were, but Sirius interrupted. "A baby Hallython bit you, Harry, and caused you to hallucinate," said Sirius. "I forgot that baby Hallythons are stored inside the mother, so when I used the magnet spell, I accidentally pulled them out." Sirius looked very depressed, he must have felt as though the ambush was all his fault. Just then, Harry feel and iciness on his arm where the Hallython bit him. He looked over and saw Professor Lupin rubbing his wand over Harry's snake bite wound. The cut slashed blue for a second, and then it just disappeared. "He's all fixed up Sirius," said Professor Lupin. "You don't need to worry," "We were all concerned when you started moving all over the place," said Mrs. Figg quietly. "The Hallython must've caused you to hallucinate, but Sirius thought something had possessed you. Never seen him so worried in his life." "What did you see Harry?" asked Sirius. Harry, who didn't want Sirius to worry about getting caught because of a dream he had about Voldemort, said, "I don't remember." Harry still wanted to know why he was called here, and he didn't want that cut short because of a silly hallucination. Suddenly, another blue flash appeared next to Harry, and he looked over. Professor Lupin was rubbing his wand on the place where the snake impaled him, and it apparently took more magic to heal than Harry's wound because of the brighter flash. There was a scar there for only a second, but that disappeared almost instantly. "Professor Lupin-," began Harry before he was cut off. "Remus Harry, just Remus," he said. "I'm not your teacher anymore, and I think we are familiar enough to be on a first name basis." "Okay, uh. . . Remus. Why were you attacked by that Hallython?" asked Harry. From the look on his face, this was apparently something Lupin didn't really want to tell him, but he sighed, and spoke: "Well Harry, I got a letter from Arabella (he pointed to Mrs. Figg) and she said the Dursleys had left you home alone. I didn't bother to read the rest that said you were with the Weasleys and you'd come to her. I immediately came to the Dursley's house and barged in while someone else was in there." "Who was there?" asked Harry. "Peter Pettigrew, or as he is known now, Wormtail," shuddered Lupin. "He shot the Hallython at me, but not before I hit him with a Stupefy. It prevented him from kidnapping me, but not from apparating away. I immediately came over here and. . . 25 well. . . you know the rest." Harry waiting a few seconds to take all this in, then he responded. "But, how did Wormtail know I was there, and how did he know I would've been home alone?" There was a few seconds of silence. "That, Harry, is still a mystery," said Lupin. No one spoke for about a minute, until Harry once again broke the silence. "Anyway, why am I here?" he asked. "Well, it's a good thing you're sitting Harry because if you weren't I'd ask you to. This is a long story," said Mrs. Figg. "Well, I've only got another month left until I got to go back to Hogwarts, so don't make it that long," replied Harry. Everyone forced a laugh. Mrs. Figg spoke again. "Harry, the reason you're here begins before even Hogwarts was founded, before even Godric Gryffindor was born, well over 2,000 years ago. It is a story that has been passed down from each generation to the next." Harry was listening with intent, Sirius and Lupin were half listening, they both were looking tired, they must have heard this before. "It started with a man named Garde Delafer. In his time, phoenixes were hunted, both for sport and for their healing powers. While a phoenix's tears are powerful healers, the actual phoenix, when put into a potion, is millions of time more powerful than its tears. Because of the intense hunting of them, the phoenixes were slowly but surely going from rare and endangered to extinct. "Only one man, Garde, cared about the phoenixes for other reasons than their bodies for potions. He felt it was important for future generations to experience the beauty of a phoenix. He believed there was nothing on this earth that could compare with the splendor of a phoenix. So, to help them, he joined a group that hunted phoenixes for sport. This way, he would know where and when to find and save them. "One day, a giant phoenix hunting expedition was planned, and it was a massive one, bigger than any other before. The hunting group had discovered an enormous pack of phoenixes that had eluded them ever since the group was founded. There were over one hundred phoenixes in that pack, and if the group managed to kill them all, they would make more money than any of them could possibly imagine, the phoenix species would be extinct, and Garde's dream would be over. "Well, the group did succeed in planning and developing the expedition strategy and Garde had to find some way to stop it. He first tried to sink the ship (brooms that could travel distances that far were not invented yet) that was taking them all there by putting a small hole in the bottom of the ship. It was too small to be noticed easily, but large enough to left a good deal of water in. "Unfortunately, the room that Garde put the hole in was converted into a cargo hold and a large box covered the hole he made, making it useless. Not a drop of water got inside the ship. But, Garde did not give up, he had another plan. When the ship landed and set up camp, the other men partied, anticipating the large sum of money they would receive when they sold the phoenixes: just one was worth a thousand times its weight in galleons. "While they were feasting and partying, Garde snuck into their leader's tent and stole the maps that showed where the phoenixes were. He magicked the maps so that they 26 were inaccurate, and his plan would be that the men would wander aimlessly, unable to find the phoenixes, until they decided to return home. "It seemed like a good plan, but the next morning, when they set out, all of them men were terribly drunk. They tried to follow the inaccurate maps, but they instead went the correct path, and found the cave where the phoenixes were. However, all was not lost. "Garde had one last plan, a suicidal plan. He would make the cave fall in, and they would all be crushed, but the phoenixes, who dwelt far back into the cave, would be saved. That day, they all went into the cavern, drunk as ever, trying to find their way to the pack. As soon as one of the men blurted out that he saw a dim flame up ahead, all of them started to run towards it, while Garde used a Siragus Spell on the ceiling. "It was chaos, rocks were falling everywhere, men were yelling, blood was spraying, and all the while, Garde was trying to get passed the group to the phoenixes, just to try and see a real one in the wild: not the skin of one, or one from a zoo. Just as it appeared that he got passed the falling rocks, he stopped for a second and rested. But, the leader of the phoenix hunting group saw Garde use the Siragus Spell and with his last bit of energy, he threw a giant rock at Garde, and died. The rock knocked Garde unconscious, and the smaller rocks from the ceiling started to fall on him, practically crushing him to death. "Just when it seemed as though Garde was about to die, he heard beautiful music playing; it was as though there were one hundred wonderful symphonies playing at once. Garde looked up, and saw all of the phoenixes flying toward him. The one that was in front of the rest, however, was a golden color, and it was at least three times as large as the others. It came up to Garde, bent its head over him, and let a single giant tear roll down its cheek onto Garde. The second it touched him, he felt reborn, and gained the strength of fifty men. He easily lifted the rocks off himself, and stood up, in awe of the creature that was before him. 'Man,' spoke the golden phoenix, 'you risked your own life to spare ours, why?' 'Because, I want other generations to experience your beauty,' he responded. 'You speak with the wisdom of many years,' said the Phoenix, 'even though you are so young. Since you sacrificed yourself for us, we are in your debt. Tell us one thing you desire.' All of the phoenixes were still and the only movement was their flames flowing. 'All I want is for my children, their children, and their children to know and love your splendor,' spoke Garde. 'Very well then,' said the golden phoenix, 'to let them experience it better, we will give each member of your bloodline an Order. This Order will allow that person to heal one other of anything, even death if it is necessary, and enough magic is used. However, each person in your bloodline shall only get one Order as we are unable to go all over the world healing people every second. Mankind would get suspicious, and we want to keep our location secret.' 'Thank you,' said Garde. 'I did not expect such kindness,' . 'Nor us from you,' it responded. "And that's how the story goes, Harry. Each person in Garde's family has had an Order, and thus was established the Order of the Phoenix; all the people in Garde's family are in it. Now, however, Garde's family is so far spread all over the world, you can't tell who is part of the Order and who's not. Anyone you meet could possibly be part 27 of it. You've already met four of them, Harry." Harry, who had been silent the whole time, now spoke. "Who? I don't know anyone," he said. "Yes you do," she said, "they're in this room right now." Harry looked around the room. Sirius, Lupin, and Mrs. Figg were all members of the Order of the Phoenix? "You mean, you three are part of this Order?" he asked. "Yes Harry, all of us. . . and you," said Sirius half-asleep. "ME!" said Harry. "No way, I would have known before!" "How would you, you didn't even know about the Order until just a few minutes ago," said Sirius. "Actually Harry," said Lupin, "none of us even knew you were until recently." "How did you find out?" asked Harry. "Well Harry," said Lupin, "I was down in Diagon Alley one day when I came to a pawn shop. I looked around and something caught my eye. It was your mom's old schoolbook." Lupin sat up off the chair, reached into his pocket, and took out a small old tattered book. He opened to a page with lots of tiny writing in it, and showed it to Harry. "It's your mom's family tree, Harry. She researched her genealogy all the way back to Garde. As soon as I saw this, I told Arabella and Sirius, and they decided on this meeting." "But," said Harry whose mind was now filled and buzzing with information, "if you are part of the Order of the Phoenix, and I am too, then we're relatives! Why couldn't I have stayed with you instead of the Dursleys?" "Because," said Sirius, "the Dursley's are much closer as relatives to you than any of us and the closer the family, the stronger the shield is." But Harry hadn't finished with his questions yet. "Hey, if my mom was part of the Order of the Phoenix, then why didn't she use it to save herself or my dad after Voldemort killed them?" "Because there was another part to Garde's deal with the phoenix, Harry," said Mrs. Figg quietly and seriously. "The person could not have been, is, or would be evil." "But my mom wasn't evil!" yelled Harry quite loudly. Sirius, Lupin, and Arabella looked at each other with cheerless faces. "I guess that no one ever told you your mom's history Harry," said Mrs. Figg, "it's not as pretty as Garde's or your dad's, but you have to know it to understand what's going on." "I want to know," said Harry. "Alright Harry," said Mrs. Figg. "I guess it starts over twenty years ago, when your mom was eleven years old and Voldemort was gaining power. No one really knows why, but when your mom was still quite young, he went to her house, changed into one of her friends, and went inside. After discussing several and irrelevant child topic with Lily in front of her parents, Voldemort and her went back to her room.. "He knew that your mom was obsessed with magic. She had acquired a Standard Book of Spells for Seventh Years from an unknown person even earlier in her life, and she did not let her parents know about it. So, before Lily got her letter of acceptation to Hogwarts, he told her some false story that she wouldn't be allowed in unless she did what he told her to do.. 28 "She accepted before she even knew what the catch was. After she accepted, he told her. There was a man starting at Hogwarts: James Potter. Voldemort ordered Lily to befriend him, marry him, have a child, then give it to Voldemort. In return, Voldemort would ensure her arrival at Hogwarts. From that point on she became a Death Eater. "At first, all went according to plan. She did befriend James, and did marry him. However, after a while of being with him, Lily decided she liked her life with James, and did not want to give their son to Voldemort. By the time they had a son though, it was too late. "Voldemort came that night for you, Harry, and when he was not given you immediately, he attacked and killed James and Lily, and tried to kill you." "But, Mrs. Figg-" Harry was cut off. "Harry please, Arabella," she said. "Alright. . . Arabella, I still don't understand, what this has to do with me. I mean, it's nice to know that I'm part of this Order, and my mom's history, but what do you need me for?" Lupin reached into his other pocket, and took out a newspaper. He unfolded it, and showed Harry the front page. It read: Body of Lily Potter Found! After years of searching, the body of Lily Potter has been found. As you know, Lily was James Potter's wife, and died saving her son, Harry's, life. Ever since that infamous night, when she and James were killed, there have been extensive searches for their bodies so that a memorial may be erected. A week after the attack, James' body was found. Only a few ashes were discovered, but due to some special searching charms, they proved that that was all that was left of him. Lily's remains were not that easy to find. Two years after the slaughter, all searches were discontinued due to lack of success, and the memorial was erected without any part of Lily Potter, until now. Yesterday, three young students were practicing Quidditch in Godric's hollow (where Lily and James lived). After a crazy Bludger knocked one player off his broom, his fall was broken by a hard white stone. After a bit more inspection, that white stone was revealed as Lily Potter's skull, with the rest of her skeleton under the ground. Strangely enough, the skeleton was over five miles away from the Potter's house. Inspection of this phenomenon is still going on, though inspectors assume that You-Know-Who did not stop at merely killing the couple, but blowing them into the air, "So you brought me here to tell me that there's a monument for my parents?" asked Harry, feeling extremely confused. "NO!" all three yelled at once. "Harry!? Can't you put two things together!?" said Sirius. "What? What am I missing?" "Harry!" yelled Sirius. "You can bring your mom back to life!" 29 CHAPTER 6 - BLACK PHOENIXES "Wha- wha- what?" stuttered Harry. He was at a loss for words. He could bring his mom back to life? Was this just another dream of hallucination? "Yes Harry, that's correct. You have to power to do that. That is, if you want to use your Order on her," said Arabella. "Of course I do!" yelled Harry. "All my life, I've wanted nothing more than to be with my parents. But, Dumbledore told me no spell could bring back the dead, was he wrong?" Mrs. Figg, Professor Lupin, and Sirius all looked at each other. Sirius spoke: "He said that did he?" said Sirius. "Well, Harry, he was not entirely wrong. This is not a spell, potion, charm, or anything. It is an Order. It does not fit into any of those categories. So he is correct in saying that no spell could bring back the dead Also, bringing people back to life is illegal." "Illegal? Why?" asked Harry. "Because if someone were to discover how to do it, the wizarding world would be overpopulated, for one. Also, Dark Wizards would be practically invincible: they could revive each other all the time. All of this would reign unless every time a way was discovered, it was immediately shunned out and destroyed. Dumbledore was right to tell you that, Harry. He didn't want you chasing off and trying to find a way to bring Cedric back to life. You would've felt more guilty about his death when you would not be able to find a way to bring him back." "Okay, I see," said Harry. He still remembered last year when he asked Cedric Diggory to touch a trophy with him that transported them both to Voldemort. Harry had survived the encounter, but Cedric did not. Harry felt it was his fault for his death since he asked Cedric to touch the trophy with him. "But," asked Harry, "why can't one of you revive my mom instead? Why do I have to do it?" "Well, there are two reasons for that Harry," said Lupin with a trace of sadness in his voice. "First, each of us has already used our Order." "What? You used them already!?" said Harry. "Yes," said Mrs. Figg, "we all wasted them, that is, except for Sirius. I, for example, used my Order on a baby rabbit that I had as a child. It was not even close to death yet, it just looked sick to me because some food was stuck in his fur." "And I," said Lupin, "Also wasted mine. Back in my sixth year of Hogwarts, we had a school dance to celebrate the House Cup winner. My girlfriend, however, was sick that night and would've been unable to attend the dance. Not wanting to look like a fool in front of everyone, I use my Order on her so she could attend. Idiotic and head strung. Thank goodness Sirius wasn't the same, if he had, I wouldn't be here right now." "Yes," said Sirius, "you remember those Hallythons Harry? Well, the babies just inject their victims with hallucinogens, but a mother injects you with poison. Lupin was about to die when I used my Order on him. After I used my Order, all that was left on him was that small cut that he healed himself." "And I am forever in your debt for doing so Sirius," said Lupin. "The other reason we would not be able to raise you mom, Harry," said Arabella, 30 "even if we did have our Orders is because an Order is strongest when used on a direct member of the family. While your mother is related to the rest of us, it is too distant to do he much good. She has been dead for a while, and it will take quite a but of magic to bring her back." "We need at least three phoenixes and it should be performed on her birthday, the day when the most magic will be with her," said Lupin. "Well, Harry can call upon one, and we can 'borrow' Fawkes from Dumbledore, so that means we only need one more," said Sirius. Just then, Harry blurted out something: "I saw a black phoenix the other day, maybe you can use that," said Harry. "What did you say?" asked Arabella. Harry swallowed hard. He just remembered that the fact that he saw the black phoenix was not a good thing. "The other day, I saw a black phoenix in my room attacking Hedwig," said Harry slowly and gloomily. Sirius, Lupin, and Arabella each looked at him as though he was Voldemort himself. "Harry," gulped Sirius, "that's not a good thing that you saw that. . ." "Why? What is the black phoenix? I know it has something to do with Voldemort, but what else?" "Well Harry, you remember that story I told you about Garde?" asked Arabella. "Yes, why?" "Well, that man who was the leader of the phoenix-hunting group started his own Order of the Phoenix, only it wasn't and order, it was The Chaos of the Phoenix." "But, you said he died! How could he have his own group?" asked Harry. "Yes, Harry, but you've been to Hogwarts, so you know all about ghosts. Ghosts are people who have died, but still have enemies that they wish a vengeance upon. This is what happened to Veldomert." "Voldemort? He was alive back then?" asked Harry. "No, no, not Voldemort, Veldomert," said Arabella, "they are two totally different people. Where do you think Tom Riddle got his name from? Voldemort wasn't an original name, just a slightly different version of another." "Alright, I get it," said Harry. Arabella must've been older than he though since she knew Voldemort when he used to go by Tom Riddle. "Anyway," continued Arabella, "Veldomert started his Chaos of the Phoenix. He returned as a ghost and went back to his castle. There, he had a collection of phoenix skeletons. You see, the skeleton of a phoenix are not necessary for a healing potion, just the rest of the body. He conjured up a potion that bought the phoenix skeletons to life, though not back to their full life, a half-life, much like the kind of life that one would receive after drinking unicorn blood. They were are new type of phoenix, black and dark and more powerful than the normal red ones. Veldomert used these dark phoenixes to fight the Order of the Phoenix and used them to try and destroy Garde and his family. "But, even a ghost is not immortal, Harry, and he was killed. However, his black phoenixes were not. They remained in his dark castle, waiting for someone to make use of them. Voldemort was that person, he used them as his weapons, and they became his temporary symbol. He sent them into houses, and just one could take out an entire family. It was horrible." "So then why did he stop using them, if they were so powerful?" asked Harry. 31 "He didn't," said Arabella. "He continued to use them until they all died, or at least we thought they all died. Evidently, he either hid some somewhere, or some escaped from his clutches." "And since you saw a black phoenix, Harry," said Sirius, "that means that either Voldemort or his minions are here somewhere, and they are keeping a close eye on us." "But why would they care about me?" asked Harry. "For the same reason we want you," said Arabella. Harry twisted his face into an expression of confusion. "Just as a pure phoenix can bring your mom back to a full life, a dark phoenix can bring here to a half-life, an existence of evil. Since your mom was such an amazing witch, they want her on their side." "Who wants her on their side?" asked Harry. "Voldemort," said Arabella. Harry quickly sat up, and spoke: "Well then what are we waiting for?" asked Harry. "Let's get to her before Voldemort can!" "Harry, Harry, sit down!" said Arabella. "We've already got your mom's body secure. It's out of the memorial and in a safe and hidden place." "Well then why don't we just do the ceremony now?!" asked Harry. "We already told you why," said Lupin. "We need two more phoenixes, and we have to do it on her birthday, the day when the most magic will be with her." Harry sat down again. "Right, I forgot. Sorry, just getting a little excited I guess," he said. All four of them sat there for a few seconds when Harry heard a 'dong' sound. It was Mrs. Figg's clock. It was past five in the morning, and the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon line. "Oh my goodness!" said Arabella. "It's incredibly late! Harry, even though you've had a tough past few hours, I think you should get some rest." "Yeah, I think you're right," said Harry. "Good night everyone." He sat up, waved to everyone, went upstairs, and fell asleep before his new information-filled head even hit the pillow. "Harry. . ." said a voice from far away. Harry responded with an 'ugh'. He pulled his covers all the way over his head. The voice sounded like Aunt Petunia's. So, he was out of his dream and back at the Dursley's house. All that he remembered about some Order of a Phoenix, and a Veldomert wasn't true. He was still at the Dursleys for the next month. Despite this, Harry sat up, groped around for his glasses and put them on. As the room around him came into focus, he saw he was surrounded by things he'd never seen in his room before, things that belong to Mrs. Figg. . . that meant he wasn't dreaming after all! He really had been at Mrs. Figg's house for the past few weeks, learning about his past. Harry quickly pulled on some clothes, and ran downstairs to meet Sirius reading a newspaper, and Arabella cooking in the kitchen. Lupin must've not woken up yet. "Oh, good old Nicholas Flamel finally kicked the bucket," said Sirius, reading the paper. "His god of gold juice finally ran out I guess." 32 "God of gold?" asked Harry. "What's that?" "Oh, that's just a different name for the Sorcerer's Stone," said Sirius. "And the god of gold juice is the elixir of life that it produces.... Ah! The Ministry of Magic's been screwing everything up again as usual!" "What now?" asked Arabella. "They still refuse to acknowledge the fact that Voldemort has returned," he said, looking quite upset. "In every story here, where his presence is clear, they are still covering it up! Those idiots, they're just too afraid to accept the truth." "Come on Harry, breakfast is ready," said Arabella. Now that Harry listened closely, her voice did sound like Aunt Petunia's. Harry smiled at this, and sat down at the table. After few minutes of eating, he heard the door open and close. Lupin appeared in the kitchen seconds later dressed in wizard's robes. He had a small letter in his hand. "Oh! That reminds me," said Harry seeing the letter, "I have to send a letter to Ron and Hermione telling them all about this! The Order, Veldomert, my mom, and everything else!" He sat up, and started running back upstairs to get a piece of parchment and Hedwig. "Oh no you don't!" yelled Lupin, Sirius, and Arabella at once. Harry turned around and stared at them. "Uh, why?" asked Harry. "I thought we went over this Harry," said Sirius. "The Order of the Phoenix has been kept a secret for centuries. We're not going to let you start talking about it now!" "But, they're my best friends!" said Harry. "Harry," said Lupin, "at school, James was my best friend, but I kept my loyalty to the Order and never told him. Even Lily, his wife, didn't tell him. Do you understand Harry? You mustn't tell anyone! Not even. . ." Harry could tell Lupin was searching his brain for someone Harry respected, "not even... Dumbledore!" "What!" yelled Harry, confused. "Dumbledore doesn't know about the Order of the Phoenix?" "Of course not Harry!" said Arabella. "Only those within the Order know about it, and as far as we know, Dumbledore is not in it." "Alright, alright," said Harry, "I won't tell them." He walked back to his seat looking depressed, but the rest were looking happy. This would be the first time he would have ever kept something from Ron and Hermione. They had always helped him with his secrets, his problems, and he trusted them. Could he really keep this from them for the rest of his life? "Anyway Harry," said Lupin, "I have here a list of supplies for your next year at Hogwarts. It's about time to get your supplies for next year since you start tomorrow." Harry nodded in agreement. The last thing he wanted to do was be at school tomorrow without everything he needed.. "Since Arabella and I have things to prepare, Sirius will accompany you," said Lupin. Harry's depressed face turned into an excited smile. "You mean Sirius is free? He's not being prosecuted anymore?!" said Harry loudly. Sirius had been on the run from the rest of the wizarding world ever since he was falsely accused of murdering Wormtail. Sirius smiled. "No Harry," he laughed. "I will transform into the dog and go with you." 33 "Oh, okay," said Harry. For a second he thought everything would be okay with Sirius, but then he remembered that nothing could ever be okay in his life, something always had to go wrong. "Well, what are we waiting for?" asked Arabella. "We've all got thing to do so let's get going!" She waved her wand, and the mess of breakfast things on the table immediately disappeared. "Right, I got some Floo Powder Harry so let's go Harry," said Sirius. Harry knew that Floo Powder was a way of traveling from one wizard fireplace to another. Since Harry couldn't Apparate (disappear in one place, and reappear in another) yet, Floo Powder was the fastest way to get somewhere. He and Sirius walked over to Arabella's fireplace in her living room. Sirius reached into his pocket, and took out some green powder. He threw it into the hearth of the fireplace, and some green flames magically came up. Sirius transformed into his black dog, and barked what must've been 'Diagon Alley' because the next second, the fire flashed blue, and he walked into the flames and disappeared. Harry walked over in front of the fireplace. "Diagon Alley!" he spoke. The fire tuned blue again, and Harry stepped through it. The world spun around several times, and then he appeared in Diagon Alley with Sirius next to him. Diagon Alley was now as Harry remembered it: buzzing with people, shops, and money. It was nothing like in his hallucination. Harry then remembered why he and Sirius were here and he took out the letter of his supplies from his pocket that Lupin gave him. Harry opened the envelope. The letter read: Fifth- Year Students Will Require: The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5 By Miranda Goshawk All You'd Ever Want To Know About Dragons, And More By Charlie Weasley Advanced Prediction By Eyesee Yoopi Shields Against Darkness By Gulden Armur Morphing and More By Polly Morfi Growing Success, A Book On Higher Plants By Tulep Grolots Brewing Masterpieces, A Potions Guide to the O.W.L.s By Lekwid Van Brewtoven 34 Magic History: Creation to the Now By Verri Olde Harry re-read it, just to be sure, then he spoke to Sirius quietly: "Hey! Charlie wrote a book!" Charlie was the second-oldest boy in the Weasley family. Harry knew he dealt with dragons for a living, but he never knew he was writing a book. This also meant that Harry was going to be looking at dragons this year. Hagrid, their care of magical creatures teacher, loved dragons so Harry knew it was going be a great class this year. However, with reading that letter again, Harry saw the book about the O.W.L.s. All fifth-year Hogwarts students took massive exams at the end of the year called O.W.L.s (Ordinary Wizarding Levels). They determined whether or not you passed that year, and it contributed to you becoming either Head Boy or Girl for the seventh year. Just as Harry was thinking about what next year would hold, there was a scream. Harry looked to his left and saw a witch that was just a little older than him pointing right at Sirius and screaming. Suddenly, the rest of the people looked at Sirius and started yelling as well. Some started shooting different colored rays at him. Harry started to panic. What was going on? Sirius panicked and began barging through the crowd, and Harry was following him. Every time they passed someone, that person started yelling or running after them. What was happening? Could they somehow see through his transformation? Just as Harry thought he was through the crowd, a wall of seven identical wizards dressed in yellow and blue robes appeared in front of them. They squatted down in unison, took out their wands, and then they each shot out a red beam at Sirius at the same time. Harry jumped out of the way a second too late, two of the beams hit him, and he froze in the exact position he was in. The seven wizards put their wands away, and then three of them walked over to Sirius. One of the three wizards pointed his wand right in front of Sirius and a hole appeared in the air. They pushed the frozen Sirius into the hole, and he disappeared. After, six of the wizards dissapparated and only one was left. The one that was left cam over to Harry and put his harm on Harry's shoulder. Harry was shocked and amazed. He was at a loss for words. What had just happened? "You okay Harry?" the wizard asked him. His voice was very strong and deep. But, how did he know his name? Then Harry remembered his scar, everyone in the wizarding world knew who he was because of it. "Uh, yeah. . . I guess so. . . ." said Harry. "But, what happened? What did you do?" "Harry, you won't believe this," he smiled, and took his hand of his shoulder, "we just caught Sirius Black." 35 CHAPTER 7 -NABAKZA "What?!" yelled Harry, "How did you know that was him?" "Huh?" asked the wizard. "What do you mean? That was Sirius Black in the flesh that we just arrested." Ha