Harry Potter and the Eagle's Flight

By Cuthbert the Pure

A/N: This is my first attempt at a Harry fic, so feel free to yell, scream, and yodel at me all you want. I wrote this after finishing HBP, because I hated the way JK was taking her series. So sorry Mrs. Rowling, but number 6 really sucked. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters, storylines, places, and anything else that comes from any of the Harry Potter books (no matter how much I want to own them).

Chapter One: Hedwig's Letter

Harry Potter woke with his scar hurting, but feeling extraordinarily happy. He somehow knew that Voldemort had committed (or received news of) another murder. He hoped it wasn't anyone in the Order. So far, anyone Harry knew personally had survived. For this, he was extremely grateful. As far as Harry knew, no Death Eaters had been killed either. For this, he was very ungrateful. However, as Harry rubbed his scar anxiously, he could not help notice that his owl, Hedwig, was soaring towards his window, a letter tied to his leg. His heart skipped a beat. After so many weeks of waiting, was this finally the letter he had been waiting for? Had Ron finally written to him, inviting him to either The Burrow or even Grimmauld Place? However, as Hedwig flew in through his window, sticking his leg out towards him, Harry saw that he did not recognize the writing on the front of the envelope. Feeling depressed once more, Harry took the letter from Hedwig. She soared back out into the night. Harry tore open the envelope, and extracted the letter within. Sitting down, he read through it quickly.

Mr. Harry Potter,

Gringotts Wizarding Bank has recently received new that one Sirius Black was declared dead by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft of Wizardry. After receiving a copy of Mr. Black's will, we find you, Harry James Potter, to be the sole beneficiary of the Vault of the Black Family. Enclosed, you will find a copy of the vault number, an official document of the Gringotts Wizarding Bank, and a document stating the Black Vault Balance. Gringotts wishes you a very pleasant summer before your return to Hogwarts,

Best wishes,

Resa Freyhold

Resa Freyhold

Head Goblin of Gringotts Wizarding Bank.

Harry Read stared silently at the letter before reading it one more time. Most would have expected him to feel happy. However, Harry was more depressed at the news. It reminded him of Sirius's death. Harry had had nightmares about it over and over all summer, and he didn't need reminding of it from Gringotts. He sighed and glanced at one of the documents.

Vault #416, Lower Level. British Horntail.

Harry frowned at the last bit of this slip. British Horntail? Shrugging, he placed the slip aside and looked at the next one.

Present this document to any Gringotts Goblin to receive all four keys to the Black Vault.

Harry smirked at the number of keys and then looked at the next slip of paper.

The current balance of the Black Family Vault is seventeen thousand galleons and three thousand sickles. Various family heirlooms are also stored within the vault.

Harry couldn't believe his eyes. Seventeen thousand galleons? Harry realized he could probably buy about twenty Firebolts with that much money. Taking a few deep breaths, he managed to store the letter along with the three slips of parchment under his floorboard and then sit back down on his bed. After sitting, he closed his eyes; trying to imagine what seventeen thousand galleons would look like, only to be hit in the side of the head with something hard. He opened his eyes and immediately saw Pigwidgeon, Ron's owl. Grinning broadly, he grabbed the letter from Pig's leg, and tore open the envelope, only barely registering that Pig flew from his room, twittering madly. He opened the letter, reading quickly.

Harry,

I finally persuaded Mum to come and get you from the Muggles. We're coming to take you to the Burrow on Friday Night at 7 o'clock. Make sure it's OK with the muggles, but we're coming anyway. We would be taking you to Grimmauld place, but it kicked us out. Dumbledore said something about you having to let us use it, but I don't know why. Anyway, I'll see you Friday, mate.

Ron Weasley

P.S. We're coming by car this time!

Harry grinned giddily. He was finally going to the Burrow. He lay on his bed, thinking absolutely nothing could spoil his happy mood, Ron's letter still clutched in his hand. Just then, another owl swooped into his room. It was a handsome tawny, one he did not recognize. He did, however, recognize Hermione's neat writing on the envelope. He took the letter from the owl's leg and watched it swoop out into the night. He then took out Hermione's letter.

Dear Harry,

Ron just invited me to the Burrow! He told me he invited you as well, and if you haven't gotten your letter yet, it should be there soon. I'll see you on Saturday. Mr. Weasley won't be able to come get me until then. Crookshanks found a cat in the neighborhood, and now we've got little kittens all over the place. Anyway, I have to go. See you soon!

Love from,

Hermione Granger

Harry grinned at the thought of baby Crookshanks. He then drifted off to sleep, the letters from his two best friends lying on his chest.

The next morning, Harry broke the news to Uncle Vernon about having a full grown wizard coming to pick him up at breakfast.

"Uncle Vernon?" He said timidly. A grunt from behind the newspaper told him to continue.

"My friend Ron wrote me a letter to ask if I could spend the rest of the holidays with and his family." The paper went down to show Uncle Vernon's overlarge mustache.

"What does this have to do with me?" He said, a hint of anger already in his voice.

"Well, they'd be coming to pick me up, of course, and I thought maybe…you might…" Harry trailed off.

"Pick you up? They'd wouldn't be arriving by fireplace again, would they?" Harry stifled a smile and answered,

"No. They'd be coming by car." Uncle Vernon frowned, the silence broken only by Dudley's wolfing down of the bacon and eggs that Aunt Petunia had made. The diet had effectively worked, and Dudley had been reduced to the size of a baby hippopotamus, as opposed to the previous whale. Dudley had also taken up the sport of Rugby, and played for the Little Whinging Wolves, placed third in the Junior Division.

"Fine. As long as your behavior is satisfactory between now and…"

"Friday." Harry supplied.

"Yes, Friday, then you can go. Any…any…you-know-what, and you'll be staying, got it?" Uncle Vernon finished, mustache bristling.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon." Harry replied, continuing with his measly breakfast.

The next four days went by without incident, and by 6 o'clock on Friday evening, Harry was packed and ready to go. He took a long time looking at his reflection before heading downstairs with his trunk. He had grown a good four inches over the summer, and his hair was longer and messier then ever. He startling green eyes seemed brighter somehow, but Harry supposed it was just his imagination. Downstairs, the atmosphere was intense. It felt almost the same as the night the Weasley's had destroyed half the Dursley's living room. Harry waited until 6:45 before heading into the hall to wait. No sooner had he sat down on the bottom stair, the doorbell rang. Somehow, Uncle Vernon beat him to it. Harry caught a glimpse of six or seven people and three cars before Uncle Vernon blocked his view. However, he seemed lost for words. It was Alastor Moody's voice he heard break the silence.

"Is he ready to go, Dursley?" Harry heard his Uncle mutter something and then move from the door. Harry saw his usual guard standing on his doorstep. First and foremost was Mad-eye Moody, then Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Arthur Weasley, and bringing up the rear was Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mundungus Fletcher, and his friend Ron.

"Wotcher Harry." He heard Tonks. He waved and picked up his trunk, muttering a farewell to his Uncle and stepping over the threshold of his home. As soon as the door shut, Ron burst out laughing, with chuckles from Lupin and Moody.

"You should have seen his face, mate." Ron said between laughs.

"Yeah, well, I think he was expecting one wizard," Harry smiled, "and you're early."

"Oh, sorry about that, Harry, but we…" Mr. Weasley started, but Harry interrupted him.

"No, I was thanking you for coming early." Mr. Weasley smiled and then he was ushered into the rear car of the two, along with Ron, Kingsley, and Mr. Weasley as the driver. His trunk and Hedwig's cage, he saw, were thrown unceremoniously into the trunk of the front car by Tonks. The trip to The Burrow was fun, with Ron telling him all about Fred and George's joke shop, and Ginny getting a new owl. It was a snow owl, like Harry's and she had named it Rowena, after Ravenclaw's founder. Harry leaned back, listening to Ron tell him all about Charlie visiting and revealing that he had lost half his hand to a vicious bite from a Hungarian Horntail. It was going to be a great year, he thought to himself.

The next day at The Burrow, Hermione arrived and the trio had a nice long talk about the war. These talks had started by letter at the beginning of summer, but now that they were together, they were much more interesting. Harry opened by telling him about his scar, but yet feeling happy.

"Well, Dad said that an Auror was found dead this morning in East Surrey. Could that be it?" Ron asked, sounding rather unsure.

"No. This kind of happy was like…it was like someone in the Order had died." Harry replied, sighing.

"But we'd know if someone in the Order died." Hermione concluded.

"I know." Harry muttered.

"Well, suppose an Order member did die…think it'd be Snape?" Ron added hopefully.

"Ron, we already decided an Order member didn't die." Hermione frowned. Ron muttered something about knowing. Harry continued the conversation.

"I've been stealing the papers from Muggle bins all summer, and there've been loads of weird muggle deaths. Doctors can't figure out why they're dying."

"Well, that's the thing about the Killing Curse," Hermione said, "it shows no cause of death. It's also good for V-Voldemort because it kills instantly." Ron took a sharp intake of breath at Voldemorts name. Harry, however, smiled slightly. After all these years, Hermione still had trouble saying his name.

"Would you two stop saying you-know-who's name?" Ron hissed.

"His name? Ron, that's not his name. Tom Riddle is his name. I just call him by Voldemort…" Ron flinched, "because that's what everyone else doesn't call him." Ron buried his face in his hands. Both Harry and Hermione laughed. A voice came from the door.

"What's so funny?" Harry turned on the bed and saw Ginny standing in the doorway. She had grown at least half a foot over the summer, but still about two or three inches shorter than Harry. She had also grown out her hair, so it was about halfway down her back. In Harry's opinion, she was quite pretty. So pretty, in fact, Harry was lost for words. Hermione answered her question.

"You brother."

"Of course." She replied smartly. "Come down for lunch, Mum's almost got it ready."

"Ok, we'll be down soon."

"Good. Hi, Harry." She then left, he hair flinging out behind her. Ron stared at him for a minute and then got up and left, saying something about being hungry. Hermione followed, and soon as Harry retained use of his legs, so did he.

The rest of the day went by uneventfully, apart from Fred and George appearing at dinner with a loud crack, much to the dismay of Mr. Weasley, as they landed on him carrying his dinner to the table. The next day, however, Hedwig arrived with his letter from Hogwarts. Opening the envelope, he suddenly remembered that OWL results were arriving. His heart skipped a beat. He obviously knew that Hermione would get and O on every single OWL she had taken. Ron would probably do pretty well too. He only hoped Ron did well enough so that they could have all the same classes together this term. So, throwing caution to the winds, he tore open the envelope. It was the first thing he saw when then envelope was open.

ORDINARY WIZARDING LEVEL RESULTS

PASSFAIL

Outstanding (O)Poor (P)

Exceeds Expectations (E)Dreadful (D)

Acceptable (A)Troll (T)

Harry James Potter has achieved the following OWL results:

Astronomy

A

Care of Magical Creatures

E

Charms

E

Defense against the Dark Arts

O

Divination

D

Herbology

E

History of Magic

D

Potions

O

Transfiguration

O

Harry stared at his results for longer than two minutes. He did not dare believe his eyes. The first thing he noticed was his dream to become an Auror was still alive. The only thing he worried about was if Ron had passed his Potions OWL. At that moment, Ron burst into the room, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"I did it! I'm gonna be an Auror! I got an O in Potions, mate. An O in Potions." He whispered the last word. Just then, Hermione ran into the room as well.

"I got eleven OWLs, out of eleven subjects." Both Ron and Harry stared. She blushed and then said softly,

"How did you two do then? Come on, let me see." She grabbed the letters from their hands and read through them quickly. Handing them back, she said quietly,

"At least Harry didn't get any T's, Ron."

A/N: Well, there it is. I'm sorry it's so short. If I got anything out of the books wrong, let me know and I'll be happy to explain why it changed. Many of the answers may be…"I decided to change it." But you can only give it a shot. And remember, I only wrote this because I didn't like HBP. And, plus, it feels really good to write about Harry like I own him, which I don't. (No matter how much I'd like to.) Have a safe trip home, and come again soon.

MISC STUFF: I'm gonna try and update at least once a week. Things may prevent me from doing so, but badger me to death and I'll eventually get to it. Goodnight!