Chapter 1

Sirius was Padfoot - wagging his tail happily and running after the Hogwarts train. The next moment, Sirius was falling through the veil - the look of surprise on his face .

Harry woke up with a start, a feeling of emptiness welling up in his heart. He looked at the clock, and it said that it was only six o'clock in the morning. The sun was beginning to rise, Harry wondered for the hundredth time whether Sirius was having a better time where he was now than when he was alive. He recalled with regret how Sirius had been so lonely during the few months before he died. Harry felt a pang of regret that he had not stayed with Sirius like he had wanted to when the threat of expulsion was eminent. Then Sirius would not have died. "then again", thought Harry bitterly, "If it wasn't for me playing the hero, and leading everyone into danger, Sirius would not have died anyway!" But Harry had been through this line of thought hundreds of times. At first, Harry tried to blame everything on Dumbledore, but the scene of Dumbledore's tears rolling down his cheek kept surfacing on Harry's mind, and this made Harry unable to harbor any thoughts of anger and hatred towards Dumbledore. Deep in his heart, Harry knew that Dumbledore was only trying to protect him. Trying not to burden him with the responsibility of knowing that he had to face off Voldemort one day.

As long as Voldemort was alive, Harry knew he was living on borrowed time. He would have to face Voldemort one day. Harry gave a bitter laugh. how was he, a fifteen year old boy - going to be able to kill Voldemort? That sounded ridiculous even in his head. Perhaps he should simply fulfill Voldemort's wishes and let Voldemort finish him off. This way, Harry did not have to live in guilt of causing one death after another - his parents, Cedric, then Sirius! There may be more to come - Harry broke off in cold sweat as he began to think about the others who are at risk - Hermione, Ron, the Weasley Family. Harry recalled how numb he had felt when he was holding on to Hermione during the fight at the Department of Mystery, and how afraid he had been to even check whether Hermione was still alive. He remembered Mrs Weasley's bogart - how it had shown her family members dead one after another.

Suddenly, Harry sat up. "I'm not going to let Voldemort have his way! What's going to happen to all my friends and people who love me after I'm gone? The prophecy says that only one shall live. So if I die, Voldemort will only live and grow stronger! He's going to go after the Weasleys and Hermione after he kills me! Especially Hermione - he hates muggle-borns!" It suddenly became clear to Harry that he had been very stupid not to see that. He could not simply sit back and let Voldemort have his way. He had to fight back. He had to prepare for this fight with Voldemort. There was no way that he would let Voldemort kill his friends.

The first thought that came to Harry's mind was to go to Dumbledore. He had to stop blaming Dumbledore. Dumbledore was not the one who was causing his pain and losses. Dumbledore was the only person who could help him. He needed to think - how could he contact Dumbledore? By owl - that's too slow. He cannot waste any more time. Its been two weeks since he has returned to the Dursleys. Precious two weeks when Voldemort was recovering from his fight with Dumbledore and plotting how to hurt Harry and his friends. Finally, Harry remembered - Arabelle Figg. If the Order have been keeping watch over Harry like last Summer, Mrs Figg would know how to get into contact with someone from the Order.

Harry threw on his clothes and ran downstairs, and ran across the street to Mrs Figg's house. Ignoring the fact that it was only six in the morning, he pounded hard on Mrs Figg's door. As he expected, he heard a 'pop' sound behind him - and saw Tonks appearing behind him.

"Hi, Harry!" said Tonks cheerfully. "Woke up early? Its my turn to take watch today."

Ignoring any pleasantaries, Harry ran to Tonks and said urgently "I need to talk to Dumbledore - NOW!"

Tonks appeared not to be surprised by Harry's reaction. Nodding her head, she took out a watch and spoke into it. "Dumbledore, Harry is looking for you. Shall I bring him over now?" She put her ear to the watch and listened for a while and then replied back to the watch, "OK. Got it."

She turned around to Harry, who was beginning to feel very suspicious about her reaction. "Don't look at me like that, Harry" Tonks grinned. "Some people say that old Dumbledore can tell the future. Follow me" With that, she opened the door into Mrs Figg's house and led Harry to the living room. From her robes, she pulled out a key. It was a portkey. She instructed Harry to hold on to it, and in a minute, Harry felt the familiar tug and when he opened his eyes again, he realized that he was in the Hogwarts headmaster room.

Tonks did not follow him. Harry turned around and saw Dumbledoore sitting at his desk, looking very fatigued, but he appeared to be very glad to see Harry.

Before he could stop himself, Harry blurted out "So you've been expecting me? Because there's something else that I need to know that you haven't told me, is that it?" The moment the words left his mouth, Harry regretted what he said. A trace of hurt flashed across Dumbledore's face. His smile faltered slightly, but he regained it very quickly. "Harry, I only wanted to give you time to sort out your thoughts, but I had the confidence that it was only a matter of time before you would come to me to complete our last conversation." Dumbledore said quietly.

Harry looked down, remembering his attitude and how he had treated Dumbledore in the last month in school. He felt very ashamed and silently scolded himself. Finally, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore. I've been a prat to everyone recently, and to you most of all. I should not and do not blame you for Sirius' (he swallowed a lump in his throat) death." He looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore looking at him. He thought he saw his eyes turning red, but Dumbledore looked down and was back to normal the next moment. Harry continued, "Professor, I cannot sit here and let Voldemort regain his strength and allow him to come after me next, or worse, continue to torment me with the suffering of my loved ones. If the prophecy is true, I cannot continue to rely on my luck to get me out of trouble the next time. I want to fight back." Harry looked at Dumbledore's face light into a smile. Finally, Harry said, "I want to join the order."

Dumbledore got up from his desk and stepped out to where Harry was standing. To Harry's great surprise, Dumbledore pulled Harry into a hug. It was a brief but affectionate hug. Harry felt overwhelmed with guilt at the thought of how he had treated Dumbledore in the last few weeks. Dumbledore stepped back and said to Harry, "Harry, I knew that you would finally decide that it is time to fight back. I cannot and will not make your decisions for you, as I have learnt last year. I will respect your decision, and allow you to join the order. But it is a fact that you are not ready to fight Voldemort yet. You have not even begun to tap into the powers that Voldemort is so afraid of. The first and foremost task, Harry, is to start you on an intensive training program. To train you for the impending fight with Voldemort. You can join the Order in our discussions, but your time must not be spent doing what others in the Order are doing. You must make good use of your time to start training to face Voldemort - that is, if you are willing."

Harry nodded. Of course - he had to train himself. He could not even transfigure a simple pin cushion, how can he talk about facing Voldemort. Harry thought fiercely to himself that he would put his heart and mind into training like what Hermione does, and not waste the efforts of Dumbledore.

Dumbledore smiled and began tapping on his watch and he spoke into the watch for Professor McGonnagel to come to get Harry. He turned to tell Harry that he would stay in Hogwarts for the rest of summer, and Tonks would be bringing in the rest of his stuff from the Dursley's. His training would begin that very day. "I'm afraid that I will have to forbid you to communicate with Ms Granger or Mr Weasley about where you are and what you will be doing. We have to keep this training and your whereabouts top secret. I will write to both of them to tell them that you are safe and that they will have to refrain from any communications with you for the rest of summer. I know that this will be difficult, but this will be a small sacrifice to make considering how much other sacrifices have already been made. and I promise that you will be able to tell them after they return to Hogwarts."

Harry frowned - Ron would be hopping mad, and Hermione would be worried sick. But they both trusted Dumbledore. He did not look forward to having a summer without any communication with his friends. But this was for the good of everyone. He nodded. At that moment, Professor McGonnagel appeared. She did not appear surprised to see Harry. However, she broke into a rare smile - with a hint of pride that normally surfaced when the Griffindors won the house cup. She led Harry out of the headmaster's office, and led him to a totally different corridor.

Harry realized that he was not going to the Griffindor common room. "Where are we going?" He asked. Professor McGonnagel explained "You'll have to stay at the staff quarters. There will be no security for you to return to Griffindor. There are people staying in the staff quarters in summer, and you will be safe there.

Professor McGonnagel turned around a corner and opened the door to a room - it was a room that was decorated very similarly to the Griffindor Dorm Room. He was not surprised to see that his belongings was already in the room. Professor McGonnagel gave him a parchment and explained that this was his training schedule for the summer. Before she left the room, she said softly "Harry, we all have high hopes for you. You must do your best."

Harry looked at the parchment and realized that the Order must have planned the training schedule weeks ago. He wanted to kick himself again for having been the sulky little boy the past few weeks, and refusing to speak to anyone. If only he had come to his senses earlier, he would have started training by now, and he would have been that much closer to being better able to protect his friends. He read the parchment. It appears that everyday was filled with training sessions. He would have Occlumency lessons - to his surprise, it was not Snape. Apparently, Dumbledore had decided that he would train Harry himself. Harry hieved a sigh of relief. Most of the days seem to be occupied by "Auror Training" - and it would be given by a variety of people - Kingsley, Moody and Tonks. He would also have lessons on Animagus - that would be taken by Professor McGonnagel.

Harry began to prepare for his first lesson that was to be auror training.

Harry's first lesson was with Tonks. She was dressed in a singlet and shorts when she met Harry by the lake. Harry gave her a grin, and said "Sorry for being so rude just now." Tonks, however, was not her usual cheerful self. She began saying sternly "You must not take this training easily. You will be going through the normal Auror training, that all Aurors go through, except you will be going through the training in one third of the time. So we have no time to waste. We're going to start off with building up your physique. You will jog around the lake five times, and you will go through muggle like circuit training - you will do this twice a day, every day - including weekends. And you need to build up not only stamina but also speed. GO!"

And that was how Harry started his Auror training. It was a big help, however, as he came back totally exhausted everyday, and would promptly fall into a deep sleep. With his heavy training schedule, he hardly had time to miss his friends. The Occlumency lessons with Dumbledore proceeded much better than with Snape. He was able to calm his mind better, and he made use of the lessons to talk with Dumbledore at length, and learn from Dumbledore's experience. Dumbledore would show him many parts of his memory from his pensieve and Harry even had the opportunity to explore the pensieve of other headmasters. This gave him the chance to witness many of the major historical events that Professor Binns talked about in the history lessons. At this, Harry could not help but imagine how jealous Hermione would be when she heard that.

His Auror training with Moody and Kingsley was extremely intensive. Moody put him through a drilling course, where he had to learn his charms and hexes extremely well. Moody and Kingsley would take turns dueling him, and they had no qualms using the forbidden spells. After one month, Moody began every lesson with putting Harry through several minutes of the cruciatus spell. He wanted Harry to learn to deal with pain, and he would ask Harry to duel him and Kingsley after the cruciatus spell. In the first two weeks, Harry had to go to Madam Pomphrey everytime after his lesson to take care of the pain and aches in his body. After several weeks, however, Harry began to learn to get used to the pain and even block out the pain such that he would feel no pain during the cruciatus spell, but he would feel the aches after the spell. His physical training with Tonks, however, helped to train him much better to deal with that.

Harry's animagus training also got off to a good start. Harry was apparently rather adept with making parts of his body parts change at will. The only trick was to put his focus on it, and will it to change. The Occlemency lessons complemented the Animagus lessons nicely such that Harry's progress was so fast that Professor McGonnagel was very impressed. By the third week, she said to Harry, "Harry, this is amazing. You've taken a mere three weeks to accomplish what most people take three years to achieve. I think it is time for you to begin thinking about what animal you would like to become. The animal that you choose must match your strengths and weaknesses, and it must be something that you can relate to. I want you to think about it and come back for the next lesson with three choices in mind, and we'll see which one is the best fit."

Harry spent the night thinking about his choices. He wished that Hermione and Ron were there for him to talk to. He imagined what Hermione and Ron would say. Hermione would probably say "Lets think this through logically. You like to fly. You are good at that. You definitely should pick an animal that can do that." Well that sounds like a good reasoning. What about the match in nature? Hermione would probably say "To be a good weapon, you should pick an animal that is not too eye catching." But Ron would probably say "Hey, but Harry should be able to fight and pose an effective threat as an Animagus. So that he can pounce on the death eaters and shred them to pieces with his teeth!" Harry grinned as he imagined how Hermione and Ron would start arguing because of that. Both of them had a point, Harry thought. He thought for a long time, and then decided on the choices of an eagle - an animal that can fly and can fight, an owl - an inconspicuous animal that can fly - and he couldn't resist putting in the choice of a unicorn. He knew that his father used to be a stag, and a unicorn was the closest flying animal to a unicorn that he could think of.

The next day, he came to Professor McGonnagel's class and told her his choices. Professor McGonnagel nodded and said, "These are good choices. We'll try each one of them and see which is the best fit." In the following weeks, Harry tried all the three configurations. He had lots of trouble with the owl - he simply could not picture himself as the owl, and could not even change a little bit of himself while he was picturing the owl. Professor McGonnagel promptly told him to drop that choice after two lessons. He had a better time with the other two choices. For the unicorn, however, he found himself having trouble progressing after a week. Professor McGonnagel asked him to continue on with the eagle before deciding. With the eagle transfiguration, however, it appeared to be much easier. Within a week, Harry had finished transfiguring his wings, and was working on his legs. The choice appeared clear that the eagle was the best choice. He began working hard and doing more research on what eagles do and how they lived. By the end of summer, he had successfully transfigured himself into an eagle. Professor McGonnagel, however, noted that he was not ready to be a full animal yet. He needed to learn to change his animagus form faster, and he needed to learn to talk, eat, and fly like his animagus form. Professor McGonnagel decided that his lessons would need to continue into term time.

Harry also attended several Order Meetings. He kept quiet throughout the meetings, however, and sat at the side. Dumbledore felt that it was good for him to be kept aware of what was going on about Voldemort. Things were still pretty quiet, but everyone appeared even more worried about it, as it looked like it was the calm before the storm. Harry suspected that Voldemort was still trying to recover from his last battle from Dumbledore, and that he was still trying to build his army. Several death eaters, however, had begun to openly try to recruit more death eaters, and there had been sporadic incidents of muggle accidents during the summer. Snape was at all the meetings, and he would glare at Harry everytime Harry appeared, and mumble something about having to put up with teenagers. Harry met Lupin briefly during some of the meetings. He appeared to have taken a very active role in the order after Sirius' death. Harry understood that Lupin was going all out because he had nothing else much to live for. Harry pulled Lupin to a side after one of the meetings where Lupin had just volunteered himself for another dangerous task.

"Remus, promise me that you will be careful." Said Harry staring into Lupin's eyes. Lupin looked at Harry and sighed. "You have really been forced to grow up quickly, Harry. I will be careful." And Lupin left at that. Harry watched after the view of Lupin's back and hoped with fervour that he would see Lupin again. Somehow, Lupin did manage to keep his promise and did appear in the next meeting, much to the relief of Harry. This incident, however, highlighted to Harry how much he should treasure his friends, as there was no saying whether he would get to see them the next time.

By the end of his summer, Harry felt like he has shed all his old bones and skin and he felt totally new. His work outs had helped tremendously and he had built a body that would certainly turn Lavender and Pavitra's head. He had even progressed in his occlumency training to learning wandless magic - something that Professor Dumbledore found by accident that Harry could do, and decided to tap that potential. It was a new area for everyone, as no one else appeared able to do wandless magic. Professor Dumbledore spoke with a twinkle in his eye that this appeared to be a worthwhile research project for Ms Granger to find out more about. Harry could literally imagine her bursting with excitement if she heard that. Professor Dumbledore called Harry to his office the day before the school returned. All his trainers were there.

"Harry, I heard that you've progressed wonderfully during the summer," Dumbledore broke into a smile that he often gave Harry during the summer. All the trainers nodded and appeared pleased. Harry felt himself go red, and mumbled his thanks. "But as term is starting, and as you will be going along with your normal lessons, we'll need to make plans about continuing your training after the term starts. You will still go on with your Animagus lessons, but that will be once a week at night. You can continue with your physical training on your own," at that, Tonks added "and have no doubt that we'll have people making sure that that happens" Harry noticed that she had a twinkle in her eye as she said that. "You will continue with Auror training in dueling with Moody and Kingsley, and wandless magic practice twice a week - we'll schedule the lessons at night. For that, we may have to use the time turner to extend a three hour lesson to a five hour lesson. That will mean twelve extra hours of training per week. Will you be able to handle that?" Dumbledore continued.

Harry nodded enthusiastically. He wanted to continue the training, and he had begin to feel much more confident of himself after the training started. Finally, Dumbledore smiled and gave him a letter, saying, "Here are your owls results. It arrived a week ago, but we have all forgotten about it." Harry promptly tore open the letter. The results did not surprise him except for his results on Potions:

Defence Against Dark Arts Outstanding Herbology Exceeds Expectations Transfiguration Exceeds Expectations Care for Magical Creatures Outstanding Charms Outstanding Potions Exceeds Expectations History Poor Astronomy Average Transfiguration Average

Professor McGonnagel smiled grimly and said, "you could have done so much better, but I guess this is the best we can expect given last years' circumstances. You will be taking Newts classes for all the classes that you get exceeds expectations and above. Yes, even potions. The headmaster managed to arm-twist Snape into taking you into his classes, but he is seriously considering giving you remedial potions if you don't show yourself up to his standard."

Harry was torn between relief at his results and horror at the prospect of having to take Snape's classes and more remedial lessons. Kingsley, knowing Harry quite well by now, however said something that made Harry really consider taking his potions classes much more seriously. "Harry, potions is a very important subject. You may not need to brew potions all the time as an auror, but you definitely need to take note of what potions can do to a person, and take note of suspicious material that can be different types of potions. If you have no knowledge of potions, you will not be able to know what people can do with potions." Somehow, being told this by Kingsley made it much more credible and important than if the same statement came from Moody.

Finally, Dumbledore noted that Harry would be using the portkey to get to the Burrow before coming to Hogwarts again by train. This was so that there would be no one who was aware that Harry had spent his summer training in Hogwarts. Tonks, however, gave an appreciative grin and said "he'll have to come up with a likely story for why he looks so different." Before Harry could ponder about what she meant, Moody pat him on his back and said, "Harry'll have to say that he was forced to join the gym with that Dudley pig in his muggle home." It suddenly dawned on Harry what Tonks was grinning about, and it made his face go a shade of red.

With that, Harry ended his most fulfilling summer in Hogwarts and took the portkey to the burrow.