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!" 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? 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 "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. "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. "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. 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. "Um… 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." 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. 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 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’. 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 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!" "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 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. "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. 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. 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? 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. Weasley’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? 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?" "Well," replied Mrs. Figg, now with a bigger smile, "I use the name he called himself before, Sirius Black." 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. "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 Vold’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?" 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. 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… 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 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 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.. "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!" 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, "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. "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." "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." "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 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." 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." Harry’s brain was now pulsing, he could feel the blood beating to it. "You mean he didn’t look like a dog?" asked Harry calmly. He didn’t want to sound too suspicious. "Uh, no. He looked very human to me," responded the wizard questioningly. "Harry, are you feeling okay?" "Yeah, yes I am. I’m okay," said Harry. How could they have known the dog was Sirius, much less see the actual Sirius while he was transformed? Harry’s mind was hurting from all of these contradictions. "Alright, well why don’t you come down to Nabakza with me," he asked nicely. "We have a few questions for you. Okay?" Harry tried to sound very agreeing, he didn’t want to sound like he was guilty. "Okay, let’s go. But," thought Harry, "what is Nabakza?" "You mean you don’t know? Oh, well, it’s understandable, you did live with Muggles for the most of your life. Nabakza is like Azkaban, only not as serious. It is where wizards and witches accused of crimes are put before their trial starts and while it is going on. We don’t want to punish them by forcing them to be with dementors unless they are proven guilty now do we?" he laughed. "Heh heh, right…." said Harry. "Another question: who are you?" The wizard turned around showing his back to Harry. On the back were five large white letters: ‘AUROR’. "I‘m an Auror, Harry," he said. "We’re the advanced police of the wizard world. We’re only involved in cases that deal with tracking down and capturing criminals. But, enough questions for now, Harry, we have to head out." He took out his wand and waved it. Two broomsticks magically appeared. "Get on one," said the wizard as he mounted the left one. Harry got on the other broom, and followed the wizard up after he shot away. This broom was no where near as nice as Harry’s Firebolt. It felt weak and clunky, as though he was flying on an ostrich. Even with the low-grade brooms, it wasn’t too long before they reached a large building secluded on a grassy mountain. It didn’t look like a prison of any sort, it rather looked like a very tall apartment house. However, when Harry steeped inside, it was definitely not an apartment building. It was a perfectly square, perfectly white room that had black doors on the walls going up all the way to the very high up ceiling. Harry looked up, and it appeared that they went up out of the sky, as if it went up forever. In front of Harry, though, was a small brown desk with a goblin behind it. He looked busy signing papers. On either side of him were wizards that looked like Aurors, only they were clad in red robes. The wizard that lead Harry here walked up to the desk and Harry followed. "Mr. Lokup, sir," said the Auror to the goblin, "I have Harry Potter, you requested him for questioning." The goblin looked down at Harry, and squinted. "Ah yes, Harry," said the goblin. He had a soft and deep voice, "I need to ask you a few-", he was suddenly cut off by the door suddenly opening. Harry looked behind him and saw Lupin and Arabella run in, appearing to be out of breath. Lupin took a second to rest, then walked up to the desk looking very confident. "Mr. Lokup," he said, "I can assure you, Harry has nothing to do with this." Mr. Lokup took his eyes off of Harry and looked at Lupin. "Oh really Remus?" he said. "How can I be sure? Sirius is Harry’s godfather, was looking for him at Hogwarts, and was with him at Diagon Alley. I see many ways in which Harry is connected with his case." "Yes, it may seem as though Harry is, but Harry has nothing to do with this. Sirius Black is innocent of the accusations against him. He did not kill Peter Pettigrew. I have heard Sirius’ side of the story for two years now, and it is far more convincing than the Muggle witnesses." Lupin waited for a few seconds for Mr. Lookup’s response. Mr. Lokup gave Lupin a smile, then spoke: "So, you admit you have known of the location of Sirius Black, a criminal desperately wanted by the Ministry of Magic and all wizards, and yet you did not turn him in?" Lupin’s face turned white, then it turned green. He obviously did not expect this answer, nor to give away that information. "Well, yes and no… you see…." stuttered Lupin. "Yes, I’ve heard enough. Take him to cell 67A, right next to Sirius Black," Mr. Lokup nodded in the direction of the guard to his left. The guard grabbed Lupin by the arm, and flew up with him. He didn’t put up a fight. "Well Harry," said Mr. Lokup, "I would like to know, do you know and talk to Sirius Black?" He grinned and squinted his eyes at Harry. "No," Harry lied. "No I do not." Mr. Lokup looked disappointed. "Away then boy! I don’t have all day!" he waved his arm in the direction of the door. Before Harry turned away, he looked up and searched for Lupin. He saw that the guard was pushing Lupin into one of the black doors and Lupin just slid through the blackness as though it were water. Harry guessed that they must be the cells. Harry then turned around, and walked away. Arabella walked him out, and as soon as the doors shut behind them and they were outside, Harry asked, "How did they know Sirius was there with me Mrs. Fi- err… Arabella?" There was a few seconds of silence before her answer. "Well, Harry, I don’t know," she responded quietly. "There’s certainly no way one of them, much less all of the people in Diagon Alley could’ve seen Sirius . This is troubling me as much as it is troubling you Harry." "You mean you have no idea how?" "None at all Harry. All I’m glad about is the fact that we got down here fast enough so that Mr. Lokup couldn’t use his spells on you and make you divulge all your secrets." "What do you mean? And how did you get here so fast?" "Well, we heard on the WWN (Wizard Wireless Network) that Sirius Black was captured in Diagon Alley, so we assumed they’d be taking him to Nabakza." "And what about Mr. Lokup’s spells?" "Well, Mr. Lokup is infamous for getting people to admit their guilt. How do you think he got Lupin to say that he’d known Sirius for two years? Lupin must’ve been so angry from Sirius being caught that he forgot. If I hadn’t been putting a mind barrier jinx on you while he was talking, you would be in a Nabakza cell right now." "Thanks Arabella," said Harry. "No time for thanks Harry, we both have things to do. Let’s go back to Diagon Alley for you supplies, then go back home. We both have busy days tomorrow: you start school, and I have to go and defend Lupin and Sirius in court." "Alright, let’s go," said Harry. The brooms Harry and the Auror flew on to get here were propped up against the side of the building. He and Arabella each grabbed one, and they flew off. Within a few minutes of speedy flying, Harry was back in Diagon Alley. All the time Harry was there, he kept a look out for Ron and Hermione. "They should be here getting their school stuff too," thought Harry to himself. But, he saw no trace of them the whole time. "They must’ve come earlier." Before he knew it, Harry had all his stuff for next year, including a new dress robe, an article of clothing necessary for dances. On the way back to Mrs. Figg’s house, he started thinking again: where is Voldemort now, and does he know he’s here? How did the people in Diagon alley see Sirius? Will Sirius and Lupin win their case? Will his mom be returned to life, and will Harry live with her? Anticipating the new, exciting, and possibly dangerous year that lay ahead of him, Harry bid goodnight to Arabella, collapsed onto his bed, and immediately fell asleep. Chapter 8- New Students To Harry, it felt as though no time had passed at all from when he laid down and fallen asleep to now, with Mrs. Figg’s voice in his ears, telling him to wake up. She came in, and Harry looked at her. She looked even more tired than he, she had probably been up all night preparing her case to defend Sirius and Lupin. "Alright," said Harry, "I’m up." He sat up, and slouched downstairs, still half-asleep. He ate some breakfast, then grabbed his stuff for school. His cauldron was heavier than ever before, he had more and bigger books this year than all his other years. Mrs. Figg was waiting for him at the door when he finally got there after falling twice due to his heavy cauldron. Harry and Arabella got into her old pink car that was in the driveway. Students didn’t usually fly to school because it would be a big risk to have hundreds of brooms flying in the sky at once, all headed toward the same place. However, from his experience with wizard cars, Harry knew there was probably more to Mrs. Figg’s car then met the eye. Harry’s suspicions were confirmed when he stepped into her car. It was more of a house than an automobile. There were sinks and beds, table and chairs, curtains on the windows, and even wallpaper. At the front of the ‘car’ were two large chairs that looked as though they were made out of wood with red cushions. Harry waddled (his cauldron was still weighing him down) over to the one on the left. He opened Hedwig’s cage, letting her fly around a bit since she hadn’t been out of her cage in a while. Harry looked over and saw Arabella in the chair next to him, she was looking determined as though she knew she had already won the trial. She pulled back on a lever next to her chair, and a voice came from the inside of the car: "Good morning Arabella, where would you like to go today?" it spoke. It was a sweet and flowing mechanical voice, it was the car. "King’s Cross," she responded. She folded her arms, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes. The car suddenly started to back out of the driveway, and it drove forward perfectly as though it was being driven by an expert Muggle. Harry decided to follow Mrs. Figg’s decision, and he leaned back and fell asleep. Just as he felt unconsciousness coming on, the car stopped. Harry sat up, and looked around. They had arrived at King’s Cross, the train station that would take him and the rest of the students to Hogwarts. As he stepped out of the car, Arabella stuck her head out of the window. "I’ll see you soon Harry. Good luck this year!" "Thanks Mrs. Figg," said Harry, wondering when he’d be seeing her. She put her head back in, and drove off, leaving Harry with only Hedwig. Harry started walking to the platform that would lead him to the train that would take him to Hogwarts. There was something different about this platform though, it wasn’t really there. It was between platforms 9 and 10, it was platform 9 ¾. The first time Harry had to arrive there, he was clueless on how do to do. Now, though, he had done it four times before, so he was quite used to it. You had to walk into a brick wall that separated the two platforms, and unless you were used to doing it, it was quite unnerving. As Harry was walking toward that wall, he kept an eye out for Ron and Hermione. By the time he had arrived there, there was still no sign of them. Harry shrugged, and ran through the brick wall. It was as though he just walked through a doorway. All around Harry were wizard students, younger and older than he, each was dressed in their black robes, all of them except for Harry who just realized he was still wearing his normal Muggle clothes. "Oh well," though Harry, "no big deal, I’ll just change on the train." He walked towards the golden train that just blew its whistle announcing that it would not be waiting much longer. Harry stepped on the train, and sat down in the nearest compartment. He set all his stuff next to him, and decided to copy Hedwig who was sleeping. Harry leaned back, and closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the train slowly moving. Just then, the door to Harry’s compartment opened, and a very red-headed, very tall boy stepped in. It was Ron. He was clutching a newspaper in his hand, and he had an exasperated look on his face. He looked at Harry as though he was a ghost. Ron just showed the front of the newspaper to Harry but, Harry could only make out the title: Sirius Black Is Caught!" Ron walked over to the seat opposite Harry, and sat down, still staring at him. Harry was about to say hello to Ron when the door to the compartment opened again. Harry saw a bushy-headed girl step in. It was Hermione. She, like Ron, had a newspaper in her hand. It was exactly the same as Ron’s. What did they think, he didn’t know? Well, that might be the case, thought Harry to himself, for all they knew, he was at the Dursleys ever since he left Ron’s house and Harry was oblivious to the wizarding world, even the most important events he knew nothing about. Hermione though, unlike Ron, had a look of sadness on her face. She sat down next to Ron, and they were all silent for a while. Each of them knew and loved Sirius just as much as Harry did. They were among the very few wizards who knew the real story about him, and they felt for him. Hermione opened her mouth, as though ready to say something when, once again, the door to the compartment was opened. This time, however, the visitor was not welcome. "Hello Harry," said Draco Malfoy. If Harry ever needed another enemy besides Voldemort, his next choice would be Draco. He and Harry were enemies, like Clark Kent and Lex Luther, like Voldemort and Dumbledore, like King Arthur and the Frenchman. Draco came from a wealthy wizarding family who prided themselves on being ‘pure-blood’ that is, each member of their family had been a wizard, no Muggles. Malfoy’s family were also big supporters of Voldemort, though they escaped the accusations that they were accused of after his downfall. "Hullo poor-boy, mud-blood," said Draco, nodding to Ron and Hermione. A mud-blood was a nasty name for a wizard or witch who was from Muggle descent, Hermione, whose parents were both Muggles, was Malfoy’s favorite target for this insult. "Go away Draco," said Harry calmly. "You know, I’d rather not," he responded. Draco’s two friends, Crabbe and Goyle, appeared behind him. They both looked more like very muscular and stupid apes rather than humans. "Just heard about your god-father there Harry, dreadfully sorry," he smiled, though there was a hint of truthfulness in his voice. "He was a great supporter of You-Know-Who, and it’s a pity to lose him. May we have a moment of silence?" He smiled, and he, Crabbe, and Goyle each bowed their heads in unison. They were among the majority of the wizarding world who believed that Sirius Black worked for Voldemort. "Shut it Malfoy!" yelled Ron who stood up and pointed his wand at Malfoy. He hated being insulted because of his family being poor. Hermione, who was used to such taunts of her being Muggle-born just sat there watching. "Oh! Standing up for yourself are you now?" smirked Malfoy looking at Ron’s wand. "Just know this Weasley, I know more curses than you have brain cells." With that, he brandished his wand, ready to fire at Ron, when suddenly, a teacher walked by their compartment. Harry recognized him as the tiny wizard, Professor Flitwick, their Charms teacher and head of the Ravenclaw House. "Hello boys, oh! And girl," he smiled spotting Hermione. "Not practicing Defense Against The Dark Arts against each other now, are you?" He smiled, not realizing that they were. "Oh, no. Not at all professor," smarmed Malfoy. He hid his wand behind his back. "Professor," asked Harry, "why are you on the train? Professors never used to normally ride on it." Professor Flitwick’s smile faded. "Oh well, we need to take some… err… extra precautions due to… well… you know…" He walked away and started mumbling incoherently. Harry knew what he was referring to, the fact the Voldemort was back meant more security everywhere. Even if the Ministry of Magic wasn’t doing anything about it, Dumbledore certainly was going to. "We’ll finish this later Weasley," said Malfoy. He spun around, and left. Obviously, he didn’t want to fight in front of teachers, lest he get in trouble. The door to their compartment closed by itself. "What happened Harry?" asked Ron immediately. "I mean, with Sirius and all. The paper says that you were with him." Hermione nodded, she must’ve wanted to ask the same question. Harry sighed. "I don’t know Ron," answered Harry. "One minute, Sirius was there with me as a dog, then the next second people were screaming all around us saying they saw Sirius Black and then some Aurors came down and took him away." "How did they know that dog was Sirius?" asked Ron. "Did they know the type of animal he could turn into?" "I don’t think so," said Harry. "The Auror who spoke to me said he saw Sirius Black in the flesh. That means they must’ve somehow seen through his transformation." "Is that possible?" asked Ron. Both he and Harry looked at Hermione, the smartest of them all. She, however, had her face buried in a book. "Is it Hermione?" asked Harry, looking curiously at her. "What?" she looked up from her book and shook her head. "Sorry Harry, what did you say? What was it?" "Is it possible to ‘see through’ an animal transformation?" repeated Ron. "No, of course not! That would defeat the purpose of transforming in the first place!" she said as she buried her nose back in the book. Harry’s curiosity came over him: "Hermione," he asked, "what are you reading?" "Oh, just looking over the standard spells for this year. Getting ready for our O.W.L.s you know," she smiled and started reading again. "WHAT!?" yelled Ron, dumbfounded. "Hermione! We don’t take our O.W.L.s until the end of summer! We’ve still got almost ten months!" "Yes, well, never too soon to start studying," she said, "and the O.W.L.s make up most of our grades, and they determine Head Boys and Girls." "Speaking of prefects, Hermione," said Ron slyly, "what’s that in your pocket?" Harry noticed it to, there was something shiny and circular popping a little out of her pocket. "Huh? Oh! That! I totally forgot about that with all that’s been going on with Sirius lately," she took the circle out of her pocket and pinned it onto her chest. It was a badge that read: ‘Hermione Granger: Gryffindor Prefect’. "Hermione? You’re a prefect?" stuttered Harry. Though, now that he was thinking about it, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to him. Hermione had always gotten the best grades of anyway in their grade. "Well, you should know," she said. "By the way, where’s your pin, Harry?" "What do you mean?" asked Harry. "I’m not a prefect, I didn’t get a letter." "Well, in my letter it says you are one," said Hermione, taking it out from her backpack. "See?" Harry grabbed the letter from her and read it: "Slytherin Prefects: Draco Malfoy! What How did he get on that list?" "Keep going," said Hermione. "He probably bought good grades," said Harry to himself, "and Pansy Parkinson is the girl prefect. Hufflepuff Prefects: Ernie Macmillon and Hannah Abbot. Ravenclaw Prefects: Paulo Calvacanti and Lisa Turpin. Gryffindor Prefects: Harry Potter and Hermione Granger! Hey! I am a prefect!" "So then how come you didn’t get a letter?" asked Hermione. "I don’t know," said Harry, giving her the letter back. "Oh, wait, I think I know," said Ron, digging through his backpack. He took out an envelope. "This came for you the day after you left my house." Harry snatched the letter from Ron, and tore it open. Sure enough, inside, was the prefect letter, and his shiny badge. "Wow," said Harry to himself. "I’m a prefect…" He threw his Hogwarts robe on over his clothes, and then pinned the badge onto to it. The incredibly shiny badge reflected the sunlight all over the room. "Great job Harry," said Ron. Harry thanked him, then realized something. Four years ago, he had found a mirror that showed whoever looked in it their deepest desires. In it, Ron had seen himself as Head Boy and captain of the Quidditch team. But, only prefects could become Head Boy or Girl. So, one of Ron’s dreams was not going to come true. Just then, the train stopped, and Harry looked out the window. They had arrived at Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione walked out of the compartment, and Harry ran out after them. As he stepped off the train, he heard a familiar voice: "Firs’ years! Firs’ years this way!" yelled Hagrid, the very large groundskeeper at Hogwarts. Traditionally, he led the first years at Hogwarts over the lake to the castle in boats while the other students went up a path. "Hello Hagrid," said Harry, Ron, and Hermione. "Hullo Everyone!" he said. "Can’t wait to get started this year! Got some great lessons planned for yeh." Harry knew Hagrid was looking forward to teaching about dragons, Hagrid had always wanted one for as long as Harry knew him. He, Ron, and Hermione headed up to the Hogwarts castle while about ten little kids got in small boats and crossed the lake with Hagrid. Harry wouldn’t have minded crossing the lake today, it was bright and sunny, clear and warm. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the first to reach the gates of the castle, so they threw open the door. It was just as Harry remembered it. The front entrance was… huge was the only word to describe it. It was fifty times the size of Mrs. Figg’s house, and it had pictures on the walls, ghosts flying, and students walking everywhere. Harry kept walking forward until he came to the Great Hall, the place where the first feast of the school year would take place, and where the new students at Hogwarts would be sorted. At the beginning of each year at Hogwarts, the new students were sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, or Slytherin. A student was judged by a hat they placed on their head which house they shared the mist common traits with: Gryffindor is they were brave, Ravenclaw is they were clever, Hufflepuff if they were loyal, and Slytherin if they were ambitious and cunning. All were good houses, that is, except for Slytherin. There wasn’t a single witch or wizard that hadn’t gone bad that hadn’t been in Slytherin. There were four tables in the Great Hall, one for each house. Harry, Ron, and Hermione (who were all in Gryffindor) sat down at the Gryffindor table. Harry spotted the rest of the Weasleys, all of whom were in Gryffindor, and they sat down across from him. "Harry, meet us on the Quidditch Field after the Sorting. We have to have a team meeting," said Fred to Harry. Harry nodded in agreement. Harry, Fred, and George were on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and they hadn’t played as a team for a year now due to the fact that Quidditch was cancelled last year because of the Triwizard Tournament. Just then, the doors to the Great Hall flew open again and the ten or so students who crossed the lake with Hagrid came through the door. Harry watched them as they walked through the center of the room, and up to the front where there was a three-legged stool with a large and tattered black hat on it. As Harry watched them go across, he noticed something funny about one of the new students. He didn’t look like a first year at all, he looked as old as Harry. Also, he didn’t look nearly as scared as the other first-years, he in fact looked confident. He wasn’t wearing black robes either, he was instead wearing a long, black flowing coat. he was also wearing white gloves that seemed to dissolve into his skin rather than have cuffs. His wand wasn’t in his pocket or his hands either: it was slung over his shoulder. On his back, there was a sheath for it, and a long string that went over his shoulder, over his chest, and then connected to the bottom of his sheath. Inside the sheath there was a long sword that had a beautiful wand painted on the blade. Harry decided to just wait and see what happened when he was sorted, maybe he’d be in Gryffindor so Harry could ask him some questions. All of the new students were lined up in front of the stool now, and Professor McGonagall was next to the stool with a long piece of paper. Suddenly, the hat floated off of the stool that it was on, and began… singing. "Many, many years before, There was a gigantic war. It was between both wizards and men. However, no one won in the end. When all the dead bodies lay strung out, Four voices, did ring out: Godric Gryffindor: Bold and true; Salazar Slytherin: Cunning and shrewd; Rowena Ravenclaw: Quick and bright; Helga Hufflepuff: Loyal and with might. Together these four made the place in which you stay, So that others may learn their magnificent ways. And so that a war like before would never happen again, To tutor their pupils, and help them become true men. So that the world may become a better place, They built Hogwarts, where you learn the magical ways." There was a magnificent amount of applause for the hat, like always, and when I dies down, Professor McGonagall brought the hat down from its hovering position, and back onto the stool, ready to sort the newcomers. "When I call out your names," she spoke loudly, "you will come up to this stool, place the hat on your head, then go to the table of the house that the hat designates you to. With that, let’s start: Vernon Crabbe!" The boy that was first in line stepped up to the stool, and placed the hat on his head. His clumsy movements and unmistakable similarity caused Harry to believe that this was Vincent Crabbe’s, Malfoy’s friend’s, little brother. It was confirmed when he placed the hat on his head and it yelled out: "SLYTHERIN!" The Slytherin table cheered, and Crabbe gave his brother a pat on the back as he sat down. "Prancy Patil!" A small, cute little girl stepped up to the stool, and placed the hat on her head. "RAVENCLAW!" yelled the hat after a second of being on her head. "Aw, too bad," said Parvati Patil, another fifth year Gryffindor who had been Harry’s date to a dance last year, "I was hoping Prancy’d be with me, not Padma. (her twin sister who was in Ravenclaw)" "Akshay Dayal," said Professor McGonagall. The next boy in line stepped up to the hat, and placed it on his head, waiting for less than a second. "GRYFFINDOR!" shouted the hat. As with the rest of the new students, the Gryffindors clapped as he walked over to their table. The next name on the lost took Harry by surprise: "Aylar Dumbledore!" said Professor McGonagall with a hint of proudness in her voice. Could this be Professor Dumbledore’s son? If it wasn’t his son, than he surely looked a lot like Dumbledore. He had the same long nose, skinny figure, and a certain blissful look in his eyes. Dumbledore was also looking at him with proudness in his face. Aylar confidently stepped up to the chair, and put the hat on, the hat looked as though it was thinking very hard, just as it had done with Harry. "SLY- no… GRYFFINDOR!" yelled the hat. Harry looked shocked, that was the first time the hat had ever stuttered. Aylar didn’t look to happy, however, he must have wanted to be in Slytherin. But, the next second, as he was cheered over to the table, he looked excited and glad, so Harry thought he must’ve just imagined his sadness. "Michael Whalen!" A small, skinny little boy stepped up to the chair. "HUFFLEPUFF!" said the hat. The next five sortings went by uneventful (Christopher Zimmermann in Gryffindor, Vikram Kumar in Ravenclaw, Joe Coppellotti in Gryffindor, Pawan Kodandopani in Slytherin, Mike Baronowski in Gryffindor, and Oshi Mandahib in Hufflepuff). Then, the older-looking student walked up to the hat, and just as he was about to put it on, Dumbledore stood up. "Tuh.. Tuh.. Sy? Tuhsyeh… neb? Tuy sy?.." stuttered Professor McGonagall. "Tuh-sy-uh-neb," said the boy, looking frustrated. "Oh yes," said Professor McGonagall looking embarrassed. "Tcieneb… uh…" "Del-on-rah," he pronounced to her, "Tcieneb Delonra. Sounds exactly like its spelled," he smiled. The Great Hall gave a small laugh. "Yes well… how about just Tci?" "I am pleased to announce," said Dumbledore, interrupting the boy placing the hat on his head, "that we have a new fifth-year student joining us this year from Durmstrang (another wizarding school). Since he was obviously not sorted here in his first year, he will be now, and I hope you will make him feel just as welcome as any other new student to your house." With that, Dumbledore sat down and smiled. Tcieneb now looked extremely embarrassed as he sat there with the hat on his head. The hat looked as though it was thinking very hard, then it spoke: "SLYHER- ahh!" Tcieneb shot up, and started walking over to the Gryffindor table, as though he didn’t even hear the hat say he was in Slytherin, or the fact that he made it fall on the floor. He walked straight up to Harry. The entire hall was laughing. "Hello Harry!" he said. He had a deep voice that flowed nicely, "I saw you earlier and I wanted to get to meet you." He put out a hand for Harry to shake. "Uh, yeah. That’s great uh… Tci, but uh… you’re in Sly-" Harry was cut off. "I just know we’ll be great friends, we both have a lot in common, you play Quidditch, I play it, you were raised by Muggles, I was too…" just then, Dumbledore spoke very loudly: "Tci!" he said loudly. "Would you please proceed to the Slytherin table?" The entire hall exploded with laughter and Tci looked around. "Oh, you mean… I’m not in Gryffindor?" he asked, looking almost scared. "But… I did everything I was supposed to do.. I-" he was cut off by Malfoy coming over and speaking to him. "Come on over Tci, you don’t want to hang around this filth. Nice Swand you have there. I wanted one, but father said they’re too hard to find and not worth it. I can tell you…," Malfoy trailed off indicating the thing in Tci’s sheath as he led him over to the Slytherin table. "What was that about Hermione?" asked Harry as he poked her in the ribs. "What? Huh? I wasn’t paying attention, I was busy studying." Chapter 9- Clonusouts and Tryouts After Harry and Ron had a good laugh about Hermione, Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement for the year. "Hello students, welcome to another, or first, year at Hogwarts!" he said loudly. The hall burst into applause, Fred and George whistled and screamed sarcastically. "I hope," said Dumbledore, "that you will all leave this year with your brains more full than how you arrived, and I hope you will all also go on to your next year in the first place." He looked in the direction of Marcus Flint, the seventh-year Slytherin Quidditch team captain who had set a record of stupidity by staying back for three years. He just smiled a disgusting toothy grin while the people next to him patted him on the back. "I would like to introduce," continued Dumbledore, "two new teachers this year." Harry just noticed the two people sitting next to Dumbledore. "Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher: Mrs. Arabella Figg!" The hall clapped loudly and Harry’s mouth opened wide. Why hadn’t she told him she’d be his new teacher? She stood up and waved. From the smile on her face Harry thought that the trial must’ve gone well. Even though she hadn’t old him, Harry was glad that Mrs. Figg was here, in case he had any more questions about the Order. "And," Dumbledore went on, "our new potions teacher, Mr. Mundungus Fletcher!" Harry’s jaw, if it was possible, fell even more towards the ground. Professor Snape, one of Harry’s only reasons, besides Malfoy, not to love Hogwarts, was gone! He looked up and down the tables for him, but there was no sight of him. Ron was looking ecstatic, and Hermione didn’t have any expression, she was still reading, oblivious to all around her. This was turning into the greatest year of Harry’s life at Hogwarts. He was going to be with his mom, and Snape wasn’t going to be around to hate and punish him for no reason all the time! Mundungus Fletcher stood up and waved like Arabella did. His robes were not black, but yellow and fluffy looking. He had long curly blonde hair, and pale skin. The applause for him was even louder than it was for Mrs. Figg, he even got a few standing ovations. Everyone was happy to be rid of Professor Snape. He was the most evil and unfair teacher Harry had. Everyone was happy, that is, except for the Slytherins. Snape was the head of the Slytherin House, and always favored them. Professor Fletcher sat down. "Now that the announcements are out of the way," said Dumbledore, "I invite you all to eat, drink, and make merry!" He smiled, and sat down. The second he sat down in his chair, huge bowls and plates of food appeared on each table. Harry took a little bit of everything, then a question came into his mind: "Hey Hermione, how was you summer with Viktor?" he asked. Hermione looked up at him, slammed her book shut, and said, red in the face, "I’d rather not talk about that right now Harry," she retorted, with a stiffness in her voice. There was an awkward silence as they both stared at each other: Harry in shock, and Hermione glaring at him. Ron coughed loudly. "Well then!" he said, trying to change the subject. " Ahem… uh… Hermione… uh… so, where’s Crookshanks? I haven’t seen her so far this school year." Hermione stopped squinting and looked at Ron. "I packed him in a kitty cage," she said. "She’s being brought up with the rest of the luggage, along with the rest of my books." "Hermione," said Ron, "you’re going to burn yourself out from studying before the time comes that you really have to cram." "Oh, I’m not studying too hard now Ron, just building myself up slowly, I’ve decided on a little more than a book a day. Once the exams get closer, I’ll start really studying." "Hermione!" said Ron, "Not even Percy studied that much the week before the tests! And he got an almost perfect score!" "Yes, well, he would’ve gotten a perfect if he’d started sooner," she said. Ron turned away from her and rolled his eyes at Harry. "She’s crazy you know, she going to drive herself insane," he said. "Hmph fa mph mf fum fa," said Harry as he spoke with mashed potatoes spilling out of his mouth. Just then, a golden piece of parchment appeared in front of Harry. It was his schedule for next year. He folded it up, and put it in his pocket. Just then, he saw Fred and George leave the table and, remembering the meeting, he took a last swig of pumpkin juice, and ran off after them, spitting at Ron, "Shee ya tenite!" Harry soon caught up with Fred and George and they walked the rest of the way to the Quidditch field. When they arrived, Harry saw the other three members of the team Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell. They were each standing there looking annoyed. "What took you so long?" asked Angelina. "You told us to meet you here just before the feast!" Fred and George looked at each other and smiled. "Yeah, oh, well, we decided we were more hungry than eager to get started. Thanks for your food Angelina!" said Fred. All three of them started angrily at the twins. "Anyway…" said George breaking the silence, "onto business! As all of you know, we are short a Keeper and a captain." This was true, Harry thought. He hadn’t thought about it before but when Oliver Wood graduated, their previous captain and Keeper, they became short one player, and they never got a new one. "So," started Fred, "we need to vote on our new captain, and have tryouts for the new Keeper." He reached into his pocket and took out six pieces of tiny paper, and a small box. He passed out a piece of paper to each. "What’s this for?" asked Katie in a squeaky voice. "It’s a Muggle voting system, dad told me about it," said Fred after each person had a piece of paper. "Each of you writes down who you think is the best person to be captain, put it in the box, then I’ll tally up the votes and whoever has the most votes is the new captain!" Angelina, Alicia, and Katie looked at each other awkwardly, thinking that there was no way that this would work, and something had to go wrong. Harry smiled, he knew that most wizards were brilliant, but had no common sense. He quickly wrote down: ‘Fred Weasley’ on the piece of paper, and put it in the box. The three girls looked at Harry as though he was a genius, then quickly copied him, and put their votes in the box. Fred and George did the same seconds after. "Alright!" said George, picking up the box and shaking it. "Let’s see!" he opened the box up, and looked extremely hopeful. He reached his hand inside the box, and pulled out a piece of paper, "One vote for…" he read the paper, and frowned, "Fred Weasley". Fred looked very happy. He drew a red transparent sphere in the air with the words ‘Fred’ above it and made his vote fly into it. George reached his hand in for the next one "The next vote is for…" he smiled, "George Weasley!" He created a blue sphere with ‘George’ written above it in the air, and placed his vote inside it. He shot his tongue out at Fred who was looking sulky. It would definitely be between those two, thought Harry. They were excellent Beaters, and very talented when it came to strategy. George reached into the box and pulled out the next vote, as he read it, his eyebrows went up, "One vote for Harry Potter!" he said surprised. Harry was even more surprised than George was. Sure, Harry was a pretty good Seeker, but him… captain of the team? Harry didn’t think that would suit him very well. But there were still three more votes to go, thought Harry, maybe that vote was just a fluke. "Alright then," said George after Fred created a yellow sphere and put Harry’s vote inside it, "the next vote is for… Fred." he said blankly. Fred happily shot the vote into his red sphere. Good, thought Harry, his chances were getting less of becoming captain. "The next vote is for…" said George as Fred made a drum magically appear in front of him, and he started tapping it very fast, "…Harry." Fred made a cymbal appear, and he whacked it creating a loud sound. Harry was now tied with Fred. Once more vote for him, and he was captain. Now that the initial shock of the thought of him being captain was over, Harry thought it wouldn’t be so bad. He pictured himself holding the Quidditch House cup with hundreds of cheering people all around him. "Okay… the last and final vote is for…" said George suspensefully as he reached into the box, and took out the last piece of paper, "Harry Potter!" he yelled. He was apparently happy that at least Fred hadn’t made captain. He put the votes for Harry into the yellow sphere, and it exploded into a small fireworks display, destroying Fred and George’s votes. Harry was standing there with a look of shock on his face. He was now the captain of the team… but how? He voted for Fred, Fred and George obviously voted for themselves so… all three girls must’ve voted for him. Harry looked over at them to see that they were slightly giggling. "Alright Harry," said Fred nicely to him, apparently over his shock, "since you’re captain, you make all the decisions… sure you wouldn’t rather let me do it?" he asked, Harry was about to speak when Alicia shouted, "No way Fred! Harry earned that position! Ever since he joined the team, we’ve only lost one game, and that wasn’t even his fault. He deserves to be captain!" "Alright, alright!" said Fred. "Anyway Harry, you do need to decide who’s going to be the next Keeper. Have anyone in mind?" Harry thought about Ron. "Yeah, your brother!" said Harry. Fred and George snorted. "Heh, Harry," said George, "you can’t let your friendships interfere with your decisions! Ron’s okay, but we need someone awesome!" "Alright," said Harry, "let’s just have tryouts this Friday. The best person gets the position." "Sounds good," said everyone at the same time. It was so perfectly synchronized, Harry thought they must have rehearsed. They all left back up to the Gryffindor Common Room. As Harry reached the painting of the Fat Lady who guarded the room, he saw one of his other friends, Neville Longbottom, curled up outside. "What are you doing Neville?" asked Harry. Neville sprang up. "I’ve forgotten the password to get in Harry! Hermione told me just a second ago, but I forgot it!" Neville looked pleadingly at Harry. Neville never did have much of a brain. "Password," said the fat lady in the portrait. "I know, hold on a sec, I’ve forgotten it!" said Neville. "No dear," she looked at Neville, "the password is: Password." She smiled and swung open. Neville turned around and gaped at Harry in a dumbfounded surprise. "She’s been saying that for the past five minutes, and I didn’t figure it out!" said Neville as he waddled into the room. As Harry walked in, he saw a large group of people all standing together. He walked over to see what it was all about. They were all standing in a circle, with a small boy in the middle that Harry recognized as Aylar Dumbledore. There was a small animal in front of him that Harry had never seen before. In fact, people all around him were holding animals that he’d never seen before. Some looked like aardvarks, only with wings. Others had elongated faces with scaly feet, and one looked like a purple blob with red eyes. The creature in front of Aylar was long like a snake, but it had long golden mandibles instead of a face. He picked it up, and wrapped it around his neck. It licked him on the cheek. "I think I’ll call you a crake, a crab and a snake… combined!" he smiled and the people all around him clapped. He took a bow. What was going on? Aylar suddenly looked at Harry. "Harry Potter?" he asked, looking at the scar on Harry’s face. "Yes, that’s my name. What are you doing?" Harry asked. "Oh, just conjuring up some pets for people who don’t have any," said Aylar. He smiled and waved his wand at all the animals. The people who were holding them looked as though they were in a state of pure bliss. "You want one Harry? I’ve got plenty more ideas left!" he said, tapping his head with his wand. "No, no thanks. I‘ve got an owl," said Harry, amazed that a boy who hadn’t even started school yet could conjure animals right out of his wand. That was magic that was too advanced for some seventh years! "Oh, all right. But, if you ever need a pet to guard your room, I’ll happily make a vicious, spiked, fluffy ball for you!" "Harry!" said Hermione. "Did you already show the new first year boys where their rooms are?" Harry went red. He forgot that prefects had responsibilities: among those being to show first years where their dormitories are. Harry looked around and saw the four new boys standing around Aylar. "Come on guys," said Harry to them, "I have to show you where you’re sleeping." "But we want to see Aylar do more tricks!" said Joe. "Not today," said Harry. "Maybe tomorrow. Come on, let’s go." All five of the boys followed him up the stairs leading them to their room. Harry opened the door, and immediately the five of them shot in. "Have fun," said Harry quickly, trying to get away from them. "Wait!" yelled Aylar. "You mean I have to share a room with these… others? I thought we all got our own rooms!" "No such luck Aylar," said Harry. "Good night!" "Wait!" yelled Akshay. "Where can I plug in my computer?" "Muggle things don’t work here," said Harry, becoming very impatient. Didn’t these kids know anything? He wanted to get way from them. "Wait, where can I put up my Kanji charts?" "You’re not putting them up on my part of the room!" yelled Chris. "Baka!" yelled Mike. "What did you call me?" "BAKA!" "Why you little!" yelled Chris, jumping off of his bed, and right onto Mike’s face. Harry decided it was time to leave, and let the boys figure this stuff out for themselves. "Good bye boys!" said Harry, quickly shutting the door. He breathed a sigh of relief as he turned away from their door, and took a step away. But, he felt suddenly weighed down at his feet, and he fell over onto the ground. "Ow!" yelled Harry, falling right onto his face. "What the?" Harry looked down at his feet and saw, holding onto his legs, the skinny first ear boy, Joe. He scrunched up his face, and suddenly excreted a horrible and incoherent statement from his mouth: "I LIKE THE PIEZ!" he yelled as loud as he could. "Okay…" said Harry, peeling Joe off of his legs, and throwing him back into the chaotic room, happy he wasn’t part of that group. Harry hoped that Aylar, appearing to be the smartest of them would whip them into shape. Harry ran up to his room. He opened the door, and saw Ron sitting on his bed, shaking his wand up and down, as through trying to force something out. "Um, what are you doing Ron?" asked Harry. "Oh," said Ron, still working on moving his wand, "just… trying to make a pet like that Aylar kid." Just then, a silvery ball flopped out of Ron’s wand, stood on the floor for a second, then melted into a puddle. "Darn," said Ron. He stopped shaking his wand, "that’s the third time that has happened!" * * * Harry’s first day of classes was great. He woke up on time, came downstairs, ate breakfast, then hurried off to his first class: Care of Magical Creatures. When he arrived there, Hagrid was pacing back and forth by his hut, anxiously awaiting class. When he saw Harry, he smiled at him. "Hullo Harry! Can’t wait ter get started!" he said, beaming. Harry looked next to Hagrid and noticed there was a large box. The lid was sealed, so Harry couldn’t look inside it. But, he guessed it had something to do with the dragons. As he stood there, more kids came down, getting ready for class. Hermione and Ron were among the first. This was the first time Harry saw Hermione without a book so far this year. "Hermione!" said Harry when he saw her. "You’re not reading!" Rod nodded in agreement, and held back a laugh as he walked away from Hermione and over to Harry. "Don’t be stupid Harry," said Hermione. "I’m not going to miss lessons because of studying, I’m only going to study after classes." She smiled and walked over to Ron. More and more Gryffindor students came down to Hagrid’s hut. Most of Harry’s classes were with another House, and Care of Magical Creatures was with the Slytherins. Harry saw two Slytherins arriving, and recognized one as Tci, and the other as Malfoy. They were engaged in conversation, though Tci looked more interested in the grounds than he did with Malfoy’s blab. Then, when Tci saw Harry, he shot over, forgetting about Malfoy. As he ran, Harry heard some girls giggle. He looked around to see what it was that was causing it, then he looked more closely at Tci. He was wearing a black jacket, long red pants, and his Swand, but other than that, he had no shirt on. His chest and stomach were, for the most part exposed. "Hey Harry!" he said as he finally arrived next to Harry. "Err- uh… hi Tci…" said Harry awkwardly. He had never had a serious conversation with a Slytherin before, so this was quite new to him. "Brrr!" he shivered. "Kind of brisk today, eh Harry?" he said. Hermione and Ron laughed out loud. "Well, Tci, maybe it wouldn’t be as cold if you put a shirt on," said Harry, using his usual voice and attitude he used towards all Slytherins. Tci looked down his front, then looked back at Harry with a confused look. "You mean, people wear shirts here… and robes?" he asked. All the people around him, except for Harry and Malfoy burst into laughter. "Yeah, Tci, that’s what most people in the world do," said Ron, still laughing. Tci just shrugged. "Well, at Durmstrang," he said seriously, "third years and up are encouraged just to wear a jacket to increase our mind power. We must use our mind all the time to keep ourselves thinking we are warm. It is like constantly making your brain lift weights, it helps your mind grow and become more powerful." Everyone around him stopped laughing. Malfoy finally arrived over. "Hey Tci, why don’t you show all of them your Swand?" he said slyly. "Okay," said Tci. He quickly reached into the quiver on his back, and pulled out the Swand. It looked exactly like a sword, except for the blade that had a picture of a wand on it. The rest of the blade looked like a highly polished mirror, and the handle was golden. Tci brandished it, and swung it around a few times, doing a few amazing moves. Everyone clapped when he put the sword back in. "Is that you wand?" asked Ron, amazed. "Yeah," said Tci, "only, a Swand is much more powerful than a regular wand." "Not to mention more rare and valuable," said Malfoy, putting his hand on Tci’s shoulder. Tci rubbed it off. Malfoy, looking a little annoyed, went over and stood with Crabbe and Goyle. "You know Harry," said Tci very quietly, bending over, "I really wanted to be in Gryffindor. I can’t believe the hat put me in Slytherin." He stood back up, and gave a small shudder. Harry thought he might get to like Tci. Harry noticed that the entire class had now arrived, and Hagrid clapped his hands together very loudly. "A’ight everyone!" he said excitedly. "Today we’re gonna be startin’ a lesson that will take us through th’ res’ of th’ year!" He walked over to the giant box that Harry saw earlier, and threw off the lid. He grabbed from inside what appeared to be large eggs, each a different color with a different pattern on it. Harry recognized that they were: "Dragon eggs!" yelled Hagrid, "for th’ res’ of th’ year, yer gonna raise and teach yer dragon. Then, t’wards the end, we’ll see who has done the best job by having a lil’ competition." He smiled, "Now I wan’ each of you ter come up, an’ pick an egg. Look at yer books if you want a specific kind. Today I just wan’ you to look at ‘em and read a few pages ‘bout ‘em, no getting’ ready to hatch or anything’ like that just yet." He moved out of the way "Well what are yeh waitin‘ fer? Get one!" All of the kids came running up, and grabbed a random egg. Harry instead came up to Hagrid. "Hagrid," asked Harry, "isn’t it illegal to have a dragon?" "Well, usually it is ‘Arry, but… Dumbledore made a few deals with the Ministry, said that kids should be trained to deal with everything even dragons." "But, Hagrid," said Ron who was next to Harry, "dragons don’t stay small forever! Where are we gonna keep them when they get… huge?" "Oh, me an’ Dumbledore got all that worked out, great man that Dumbledore is, got a special room all set up to keep ‘em good." Their questions satisfied, Harry and Ron then went over to the box of eggs where the rest of the class had been. Ron took a red egg with yellow spots on it, and Harry took a golden egg that had no pattern on it. Nobody had bothered to consult their books on choosing, too excited to bother, but now they were all rushing to see what kind they had gotten. "Oh! I got an African Abysmall," said Ron. "Yer quite luck there Ron," said Hagrid. "Even though th’ African Abysmalls may start out bad, each one of ’em has a special power." "Yeah," said Ron, "but it says here that no one has ever found out what that special power is." "Well, maybe ye’ll be th’ first," said Hagrid. "What kind did you get Harry?" "I don’t know yet," said Harry, looking through his book. Finally, he stopped on a page. "Here it is! Oh no, I got a Hungarian Horntail." Last year, Harry had to fight one as part of the Triwizard Tournament, and it was a massive and terrible beast. "Well, you’re gonna have your hands full all year!" said Ron. "Hermione, what did you get?" Hermione was still looking rapidly through her book. "No, it can’t be!" she said. "Why didn’t I look more carefully before I chose?" she asked herself. "What is it Hermione?" asked Harry. He looked at Hermione’s egg that was a dark green with light blue stripes. "I wanted a Welch Green," she said, "but that dragon’s egg is light blue with dark green stripes, not the other way around!" "Well than, what did you get?" asked Ron. Hermione finally stopped on a page, and pointed to a dragon that Harry couldn’t see,. "I got a… a… Transylvanian Three-Headed Terror!" she said, looking horrified. Ron and Harry laughed. "Geez Hermione!" said Ron. "And I thought Harry was gonna have a hard time, you’ll have three times as much trouble!" The rest of the class went okay, they all spent it researching their eggs. Harry didn’t have to ask Malfoy what he’d gotten, from seeing his egg, he knew he had gotten a Hungarian Horntail just like Harry did. Tci had a pure-black egg that Harry looked up and saw that it was a Mongolian Mutilator, a large dragon with an extremely fiery temper. When the bell rang, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year. As it turned out, Mrs. Figg was just as good a teacher as she was a person. She spent the whole class trying to teach them basic defense spells: shields. According to Mrs. Figg, this was the first time she’d ever seen a shield spell used to inflict damage on someone. Neville somehow messed it up, and it hit Parvati right in the forehead. Highly embarrassed, Neville ran over, and apologized at least one hundred times. Parvati didn’t seem too angry though, especially after she put a hex on Neville that caused his nose to grow to the size of a beach ball. "Now now!" said Mrs. Figg after Parvati hexed Neville. "No cursing in class! Come on over Neville, I’ll show you how to do it right." She spent the rest of the class tutoring him, and when the bell rang, Neville could do it better than any other student in the class. His shield was perfectly white and shiny, appearing exactly one foot in front of him like it was supposed to. As he strutted out of the classroom, looking especially smug, Mrs. Figg called Harry over. "Harry, could I see you for a minute?" she asked. Harry mouthed ‘see you in a minute’ to Ron and Hermione as they stepped out. "Harry," she said, "we need to get Fawkes." Harry looked at her, amazed at first, then realizing that they needed two more phoenixes to bring his mom back to life. Fawkes seemed like the perfect phoenix for the job. "I heard that Dumbledore has to go to the Ministry on Saturday on some business, so we need to get him this then. It will be one of the only times this year that he will be gone. I’ll meet you outside his office at ten o‘ clock at night, okay?" "Alright," said Harry. This would be the first time he’d ever stolen anything from Dumbledore. Harry could only imagine what would happen if he got caught. He shuddered at the thought. Harry wasn’t really paying attention during his Charms class next period, even thought they were learning the exciting Clone Charm today. Harry was thinking about tonight, and what was going to happen. Just then, Hermione nudged him in the side. "Harry!" she whispered, ‘the Cloning Charm is one of the most important spells you’ll learn this year! Pay attention!" Harry swung his eyes over to Professor Flitwick who was talking. "… the Cloning Charm is unique from all other spells in magic due to one fact! Instead of it taxing your mind, it strains your body! The spell takes some of your energy, and uses that to create new material… the clone. Even if you are a smart wizard, more intelligent even than Dumbledore himself, you will not be able to perform this charm, you need a strong body to do it!" He pointed his wand at a pillow in front of him. "Clonusout!" he yelled. A white ray shot out of his wand, and hit the pillow. A hazy copy of the pillow appeared next to the original one. It was like a TV that was stuck on the black and white fuzz, it wasn’t coming in very clear. Professor Flitwick then grunted, quite loudly, and the blurry copy disappeared. He was breathing hard. "I… hope… you… now see… how much… energy… it takes…" he panted. "Now… you… try!" he collapsed on the pillow he was trying to copy. In front of every student was a small rock that they had to copy. Each of them pointed their wand at the rock and yelled, "Clonusout!" It was much easier than professor Flitwick made it look. Harry made about twenty copies of the rock before he even felt slightly tired. The bell rang, and everyone filed out, everyone, that is, except for Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas (two other Gryffindor boys). Each of them made a copy of sleeping Professor Flitwick, and then ran out. They shut the door loudly, and everyone put their ears to the door, not being able to wait to hear Professor Flitwick’s reaction. Suddenly, they heard him wake up. "AHH! HELP! DARK MAGIC!" they heard Professor Flit wick (or at least one of his copies) yell as they all walked away laughing, back to the Gryffindor common room. Chapter 10- Decisions The rest of Harry’s classes weren’t nearly as exciting as his others. Divination (predicting the future) was just as bad as always. The teacher, Professor Trelawney, seemed to have forgotten that she’d already taught crystal ball gazing, and was repeating it. It did improve, however, from the last two years when she kept predicting his death. She hadn’t said Harry would die even once yet. Herbology (the study of magical plants) wasn’t as bad as Divination since they were at least doing new things. They were studying plantimals, plant versions of animals. It was a fun lesson, especially when a plant version of a kangaroo started bouncing all over and chasing Neville. Transfiguration wasn’t as much fun as it was interesting. They were learning how to transfigure themselves. They started by just making their fingers scaly or fluffy, but Professor McGonagall said, that by the end of the year, they should know how to change almost all of their bodies, though of course not to the level of an Animagus. Potions was so much better this year, Harry almost looked forward to it rather than dread it. Professor Fletcher, it seemed, knew even more about potions than Snape did, and he had a much nicer demeanor. Instead of having Gryffindor lose twenty or fifty points each class, it gained that much. However, Tci kept Slytherin in balance. It seemed he knew as much about magic as Hermione. "Who can tell me the main ingredient of a Necrevival Potion?" asked Professor Fletcher one day in class. Tci’s hand flew up half a second before Hermione’s. "Yes Mr.. uh… Tci?" "The ingredients of a Necrevival Potion are, one: a carcass of a dead person or animal, two: three drops of blood from that person or animal, three: blood of a tri-corn, and four: the eye of a mandrake. While some say that the skeleton is the most important for the mixture, the things that will come alive, others argue that the blood of a tri-corn is more important. It has been shown that the potion itself can come alive without the skeleton, but not without the blood of a tri-corn. "The Necrevival Potion is used to bring skeletons to life. Though the revived skeleton will have no abilities or memories from its former life, that doesn‘t it mean it can‘t fight or used magic. Hordes of revived skeletons are a favorite army for dark wizards." He stopped with everyone in the class gaping at him. Hermione was looking especially angry. "How’d he know all that?" she asked Harry quietly. "I didn’t even know all that and I’ve read all the books on dark potions!" "A very good response," said Professor Fletcher. "A much greater one than I would have expected from a fifth year. Twenty points to Slytherin. Even though we will obviously not be reviving human skeletons with this, we may be bringing some smaller beings back." Malfoy patted Tci on the back and Tci didn’t react at all, he just kept sitting there as though he had just given a basic answer to an easy question. There was something more to Tci, but Harry didn’t know if he’d ever find out what it was. Before long, the tryouts for the Gryffindor Quidditch team came. Fred and George put up signs up all over the school advertising it, so when the time came, there were about fifteen Gryffindors ready to try out for the team. Since Harry was captain, it was his responsibility and decision how to run it, and who, from the fifteen, to choose. "All right!" yelled Harry over the voices of the fifteen people trying out. "Line up here in front of me, and we’ll do some tests!" They all did as he said, and filed in front of him. Harry recognized a few people: Seamus, and Dean were there, and so was Ron. One of Fred and George’s friends, Lee Jordan, was there too. Another boy, Colin Creevey, was there. He was a bit of an excessive fan of Harry’s, always trying to get his picture or something. This year, however, he hadn’t been much of a bother to Harry, and he almost forgot about him since he wasn’t breathing down his neck every second. Harry didn’t know the eleven others by name, but knew their faces. "I am captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and I will be deciding who will be the Keeper for this team!" said Harry loudly. Some of the people looked at him confused, and Ron gave him a ‘why didn’t you tell me that!’ look. Harry felt a little guilty, he should have told Ron that he was captain, but he didn’t want Ron thinking he’d give him an unfair advantage, even though he was his best friend. "I’m sure that since you’re here, most of you know how to play Quidditch," continued Harry, "but, I’d just like to do a quick review of what it is: there are seven players on a team: three Chasers (he nodded toward Angelina, Alicia, and Katie). They chase the large red ball called the Quaffle, and score goals. A team also has two Beaters (he waved his hand at Fred and George) who whack two large balls at the other team to try and de-broom them. A team also consists of a Seeker… me. I have to find the tiny golden Snitch, and end the game, giving the Gryffindor team an extra one hundred and fifty points. Now, a team also needs a Keeper to prevent the other team from scoring goals. That’s what you all are here to try and become. "I thought we’d have a small tournament for the tryouts, and whoever’s left at the end will get the position. Sound fair?" he asked the Keeper hopefuls. They all nodded, and started getting ready to mount their brooms. "What we’ll do first is test your accuracy," said Harry. "I’ll throw a ball in the air, and I want you to fly up and hit it back toward me as close as you can, alright?" The group nodded again. "Now, form a line, and get ready. You go up when you think it’s time, and everyone who succeeds will go onto the next round." Harry looked at all the nervous faces. Most of them were white, and some of them were even a little green. Ron was among the few that looked confident. "Ready… set… go!" yelled Harry as he threw the Quaffle up in the air. The first person in line was Ron. He blasted off the ground, met the ball at its maximum height, did a fancy spin, and the ball came soaring back, right into Harry’s arms. Ron came quickly back to the ground. He had done a perfect job! "Excellent work Ron!" yelled Harry. "Next!" He threw the ball back into the air, and Lee Jordan flew up, earlier then Ron did. Harry had to lean just a slight bit to catch the ball when it came flying back at him. Each other person went, and only six people had passed. Everyone except for Ron, Lee, Seamus, Dean, Colin (much to Harry’s dismay) and another Gryffindor whose name Harry learned was Bill McCunley. The other nine left, muttering to themselves that they ‘didn’t really want to be on that dumb team anyway’. "Our next test," said Harry, "will be to test your blocking ability. Fred, George, and I will be shooting Quaffles at you. Every time you block one, you will get one point." Harry pointed to a magical scoreboard that Angelina, Alicia and Katie were looking after. "Whoever the top three are that block the most will go onto the last round. Ready… set… go!" Fred, George, and Harry started cloning Quaffles by what seemed like hundreds at a time. They shot them towards the six hopefuls at extreme speeds, and Harry was glad he was doing the shooting rather than the blocking. There was a mad rush for every Quaffle. Even though they came from every direction, all of them seemed to want the same one at the same time, and ended up crashing into each other. After five minutes of this chaos, Harry thought they had enough, and stopped the test. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie looked positively exhausted from keeping track, just as exhausted as Harry, Fred, and George were from cloning all the Quaffles. Once Harry caught his breath, he looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Ron, Bill, and Colin were each tied with seventy-two Quaffles blocked each. Harry walked over to Dean and Seamus (who were lying on top of each other and appearing to be unconscious) and told them sorry, but they didn’t win. They didn’t seem too sad, on the contrary, they looked positively thrilled that they wouldn’t have to be tortured anymore. "For the final test!" yelled Harry to Colin, Ron, and Bill. "We will test your speed! It’s as simple as this: the first one to the other end of the Quidditch field first wins." Colin, Ron, and Bill each mounted their brooms, and grasped the front tightly. Each was looking just as much determined as the other. "What will I do if Ron doesn’t win?" Harry thought to himself for a second. "Nah!" he reassured himself. "Ron will win for sure! He’s the best." Harry blew on a whistle, and the three hopefuls were off, with Fred at one side of the three, and George at the other, to see who crossed the finish line first. They seemed to be speeding bullets rather than humans as all three shot forward. Even Fred and George were having a tough time keeping up. Since the race was so fast, it was over very quickly. Less than five seconds had passed when it was finally over. Harry saw Fred and George signal him to come over. He shot over there on his broom, and saw glum looks on their faces. "Harry," said George, "I think we have a tie." He pointed to Ron and Bill who were currently arguing with each other. "How can there be a tie?" asked Harry, worried that he would have to choose between the two f them. "See for yourself!" said George as he held up a magical picture of the finish line. It showed Ron and Bill pass the line, with Colin a millisecond behind. While Colin was definitely out, Ron and Bill were exactly tied. While they were all arguing, Harry had a quick thought. "Movus Pictorus," he whispered as he tapped his wand on the picture. Harry moved the image of Ron just a tiny bit forward, so it appeared that he had won. "What are you talking about!" yelled Harry as he held up the changed picture, "Ron is clearly the winner!" Ron grinned eagerly as Harry gave the picture to Fred and George. They scratched their heads. "How’d we miss that, George?" asked Fred, "Ron did win after all! Congratulations Ron!" Bill and Colin left looking sulky, and Ron got a handshake from each of the members on the team. Harry was feeling a little guilty. Did he do the right thing? What if Bill was the better player? "But, Bill and Ron are so close talent-wise, it didn’t really matter," Harry reassured himself silently as he shook Ron’s hand. "I can’t believe it Harry!" said Ron. "Ever since Charlie was on the team, I’ve wanted to be on it too. I can’t believe I’ll be on it… with you!" "Yeah… great Ron!" said Harry, trying to sound happy, but still feeling guilty. "Here we go!" said Fred and George as they brought in several mugs filled with yellowish-brown liquid. "What is that?" asked Katie. "Butterbeer!" said Fred. "To celebrate out new Keeper!" Everyone eagerly grabbed a glass, and they cheered them all in the air, creating a loud ‘clink’. "To a Gryffindor victory on Sunday!" said Harry. That would be their first game of the Quidditch season, and their first game with Ron, against Hufflepuff. As everyone chugged it down, Harry noticed Fred and George laughing. "What’s so funny?" asked Ron, he had obviously noticed it too. "Your face!" said George still laughing. "No seriously!" said Ron. "Seriously, your face!" said Fred. Harry looked over at Ron, and burst out laughing. Ron’s face had turned into one of a bunny’s, ears and all. Suddenly, the same thing happened to Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. Fred and George laughed even more, and Fred fell onto the floor. Harry started to worry that the same would happen to him, after all, they did test their other invention on him. "Don’t worry Harry," said Fred, sensing Harry’s feeling, and recovering from his fall onto the floor. "Yours and ours butterbeers are real." After everyone’s face turned back to normal, Alicia asked, "What was that?" "Bunny-Butterbeer! We also have Beetle, Bear and Bumble-Bee!" said George. "A real bargain! Only a galleon a gallon!" The next day went by very quickly to Harry. All he really remembered was at breakfast when Ron was bragging to everyone that he was on the team, and also pestering Hermione to tell him what happened at Krum’s house over the summer, and to ‘get her face out of that book’ that she was reading. She did neither. All that happened toward night was Aylar, still showing off his magic by making Butterbeer come pout of his wand and into glasses (which he had also conjured up). All day long, Harry was nervously anticipating kidnapping Fawkes, and he wasn’t able to lessen that fear by talking to Ron and Hermione about it. Finally, when ten o’ clock came around, Harry said he’d forgotten his books in Transfiguration as an excuse to leave, and he slipped out the door with his invisibility cloak tucked under his shirt. The invisibility cloak was the only thing Harry had inherited from his father (except for the giant fortune), and it made whoever wore it completely invisible, and it came in handy many times before. It didn’t take Harry too long to get to Dumbledore’s office, it was pretty close to the Gryffindor room. As he got closer, he wondered where Mrs. Figg was. He looked around, and suddenly saw that she was next to him. He slipped the hood off his head. "How’d you get here so fast?" asked Harry. "Oh," said Mrs. Figg, "I’ve been here for a while, Harry. Eventually, you’ll learn magic that can make you invisible without a cloak." Harry nodded, and Mrs. Figg walked over to Dumbledore’s door that was guarded by a gargoyle. She was holding a small, light-blue cube. "Wizard Scout Cookies", she said, and the gargoyle moved out of the way, and the door opened. She and Harry quietly and quickly walked up the staircase leading to his office. It was just as Harry remembered it. He had been in Dumbledore’s office before, but never with the sort of intentions that he had now. It was a large circular room with many pictures of the old headmasters on the wall. In one part of the room was a cage, and a tiny black bird was in it. "It works out nicely doesn’t it?" said Mrs. Figg,. "The day that Dumbledore is out is the day Fawkes will burn (burst into flames and be reborn). That’s when they’re the weakest you know." They top-toed over to the cage where the tiny black bird (that looked nothing like a phoenix) was sleeping. "Now Harry," said Arabella, "this is when you come in. I’m to weak to do it, but I need you to clone a copy of Fawkes." Harry swallowed hard. "Alright," he said, thinking that all this would be worth it when he was with his mom. He walked even closer to the cage, and brandished his wand, feeling extremely conscious of everything around him, and trying not to jump at every minute sound. "Clonusout!" he said quickly. Another Fawkes suddenly appeared inside the cage right next to the original one. "Good job Harry!" said Arabella. She then opened the small door to the cage, and grabbed the original Fawkes around the mouth, so that it couldn’t make any noise. She touched the blue cube that she had brought with her to the head of the now awake Fawkes, and he suddenly flashed blue. Then, he disappeared, evidently into the box. "Now lets get out of here, Harry," she said, stuffing the cube back into her pocket. Harry nodded in agreement: he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. As she put the box in her cloak pocket, and started walking down the stairs, she put out her arm, signaling Harry to stop. He froze right where he was on the staircase. What happened? Was someone coming? Someone was definitely coming. Harry could hear footsteps coming from far down the hallway that were getting closer every second. As Harry saw Mrs. Figg turn invisible, he slipped his cloak back on. Harry heard Arabella open the door just a tiny bit more, and then run out it. Harry followed her, and closed the door behind him. As Harry ran across the hallway, he glanced down to see who was coming. It took him by surprise to see who it was: Tci. What was he doing here at this time? However, Harry didn’t have time to ponder this. He heard Arabella continuing to run down the halls, and Harry did not stop following her. He didn’t want to fall behind. They ran all the way to her office, and then, Harry heard her finally stop. She became visible again. "Good job there, Harry, I’m glad you weren’t caught," she said, panting slightly. "We just need one more phoenix now. I’ll contact Lupin and Sirius about that later." "About them," asked Harry, "how did their trial go?" "Very well Harry," she said. "Sirius presented his side of the story regarding killing Wormtail, and Lupin presented his story regarding the thought that everyone though Sirius was trying to kill Harry. If they aren’t found innocent, I will be very surprised." "That’s great," said Harry, feeling relief flow through him.. "One other thing, why don’t we just get another clone of Fawkes for the other necessary phoenix? Won’t that save time?" Arabella laughed. "Harry, oh, there’s still so much you don’t understand about magic. Clones, while they share the same physical and chemical attributes of the original, do not contain the same magical properties. So, if we were to use a copy of a phoenix, it would be just as good to use an ostrich. Understand?" "Yeah, I think so," said Harry, his head spinning. "One last question though: did you figure out how all the people in Diagon Alley saw Sirius?" "No Harry," she said, "that is still a mystery. All witnesses said they saw Sirius Black, not one of them mentioned a dog. But, enough of that, I guess you’ll be wanting to go to bed now, you’ve had a very exciting night." "Yeah, see you in class tomorrow," said Harry as he walked off, not really wanting to leave, but also wanting to rest as well. When he came back into the Gryffindor room, no one was there, they had all gone to bed. Harry decided to do the same, and headed up to his room. As he collapsed on his bed, he felt something under his stomach. He stuck his hand under it, and grabbed a piece of parchment. It read: "I know what you did Harry Potter, I know what you did…" To be continued... DISCLAIMER: This is a personal page and anything on this page is simply for the personal use of VNO and his peers. There is no intention to preempt anything.