"What?" Harry asked. He recognized the name, but who was he? Why was Mrs. Figg angry at him?
"Hang on... I've heard Mr. Weasley mention Mundungus Fletcher, he's... one of us. Mrs. Figg, how do you know him?" John grunted under a groaning, terrified Dudley.
"He was supposed to be watching you, but he left! I told him I'd flay him alive if he went, and he did it anyway, and now look! Dementors! It's lucky I put Mr. Tibbles on he case, but we don't have time to stand around!" Mrs. Figg said.
"Dead right" John grunted, shifting forwards, Dudley still on his back.
"Hurry, we've got to get you back! Oh, I'm going to kill him!" Mrs. Figg said.
The fact that she knew what dementors were was incredibly relieving to Harry, but surprising too.
"You're a witch?" Harry asked.
"No, I'm a squib, as Mundungus knows very well. How am I supposed to drive dementors away?" she postulated.
"So if this Mundungus has been following me... he's the one who disapparated!" said Harry, remembering the loud crack on Privet Drive.
"Yes, he has, but now that he's left... the trouble it'll cause... what'll Dumbledore say?" She asked hypothetically.
"You know Dumbledore?" John gasped, both due to surprise and the effort of his legs carrying nearly two hundred kilos.
"Who doesn't know him, of course I do! Keep that wand ready, there'll be hell to pay regardless of what you do now!" Mrs. Figg warned. Harry nodded.
"How come you didn't tell us you're a squib?" John asked, panting with the effort of staying on his feet. "All those times we've been over to your house, you could've said something"
"Dumbledore's orders, I'm sorry. The thing is, if the Dursleys thought you were having a good time, and I needed to keep an eye on you this whole time" she explained. "It wasn't easy you know, but oh my word" she said, wringing her hands worriedly. "How am I supposed to tell Dumbledore about this? I can't apparate, I can't even transfigure a teabag into a tablespoon"
"We've got owls, it's fine" said Harry.
"You don't understand, the ministry already know you've used magic, they have ways, and Dumbledore will want to act right now!" Mrs. Figg warned.
"But there were dementors, we had to use magic!" said Harry.
"I wish it were that simple, but- MUNDUNGUS FLETCHER! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Mrs. Figg yelled upon hearing a loud crack. There was a strong smell of drink mingled in with stale tobacco. A short, squat man with stringy ginger hair and a messy, unshaven face appeared out of thin air. He was holding a light, silvery bundle which was recognizable as an invisibility cloak.
"S'up Figgy?" Mundungus asked, seemingly unaware of Mrs. Figg's fury. "Thought you were meant to be undercover?"
Mrs. Figg's lip twitched. "UNDERCOVER? THERE WERE DEMENTORS HERE!" she screamed.
Mundungus paled. "D-dementors? Here?" he asked, starting to shake.
"Yes. Dementors." she snarled. "All because you had some hare-brained scheme about stolen cauldrons!"
"W-well it was a good business opportunity" Mundungus stuttered.
"So good that the boys were left without protection and had to use magic in a muggle area to defend themselves against dementors! You'd better apparate to Dumbledore right this minute and explain to him what happened, and why you weren't doing your job" Mrs. Figg seethed.
Mundungus stared fearfully for a moment.
"Err... yes, I'd better..." he trailed off, before turning around and disapparating, presumably to Dumbledore.
"That... Oh, if I get my hands on him" Mrs. Figg growled. She continued to mutter angry words about Mundungus all the way back to Privet Drive, where Mrs. Figg left them, in spite of Harry and John's protests, hoping that she'd answer more questions, but instead, Harry had to knock on the door and ignore the pit in his stomach that built as Aunt Petunia's silhouette drew closer and closer to the door.
The look on her face upon seeing Dudley being hauled around on John's shoulder reminded Harry that for all the unpleasantness, Petunia Dursley was still a mother. The same could be said for her more bombastic husband.
After John finally set Dudley down on the sofa, still pale, shaking and terrified, before stretching his back and groaning at the freedom, Uncle Vernon rounded on Harry and John.
"What did you do to him?" he asked furiously.
"Nothing, it was a pair of dementors" Harry said flatly.
"Dem-what?" Uncle Vernon asked, going slightly pale. Clearly he knew that it was a wizarding problem. Aunt Petunia gasped in shock.
"The guards of the wizarding prison?" she asked. Uncle Vernon stared at her as if she had uttered a string of swear words and she blushed.
"That awful boy was telling her about it once" she said in a small voice.
"If you're talking about my mum and dad, at least have the guts to say so" Harry snarled.
"Yeah, dementors. They attacked Dudley" said John hastily, trying to deal with Harry's volatility.
"And you drove them off did you Dud? Gave them the old one-two?" Uncle Vernon asked Dudley encouragingly.
"You can't punch dementors and drive them off, believe me, if you could I would. They're twelve feet tall and they can fly", said John bluntly.
Uncle Vernon paled.
"What were they trying to do then?" he asked.
"I have a feeling they were trying to suck out Dudley's soul", said Harry grimly.
"And... is he..." Aunt Petunia stuttered.
"He'll be alright, we used patronuses and the dementors flew away", said John. The good news made Uncle Vernon recover visibly.
"Why would your prison guards be here?" Uncle Vernon asked suspiciously.
"Dementors aren't exactly easy to control. Voldemort must've sent them", said Harry.
"B-but h... he's supposed to be gone!" Aunt Petunia whispered. Dudley groaned and turned on the sofa.
"He's back. He came back a month ago", said John.
Aunt Petunia's eyes widened, looking remarkably like miniature dinner plates.
"Right! That's it then! You're out! O-U-T out! We're not risking having a marked man in this house!" Uncle Vernon yelled.
As if in response to Uncle Vernon's rage, half a dozen owls burst through the open living room window, all dropping letters at Harry's feet.
"RUDDY OWLS!" Roared Uncle Vernon, however, he noticed that one of the owls had also dropped a letter at Aunt Petunia's feet, and everyone else in the room was staring at her, gobsmacked.
Harry and John recognized the red envelope.
"That's a howler" Harry said. "You'll want to open it now or it'll be worse later"
"What in the ruddy hell is a howler?" Uncle Vernon asked angrily.
"A letter that yells at you" John said simply.
Aunt Petunia paled, and hastily tore open the letter. A familiar voice filled the air, but it was too loud to discern who exactly it was.
"REMEMBER MY LAST PETUNIA!" it shouted. Aunt Petunia was as pale as milk.
"They're staying" she said simply.
"What? But-" Uncle Vernon started.
"They have to stay" she said firmly.
The vein in Uncle Vernon's forehead was throbbing, but he relented.
Harry then looked to the other letters he'd received. The ones from Sirius, Ron, Hermione, Delilah and Mrs. Weasley all said the same thing - they had to stay in that house at all costs. However, the last owl was from the ministry.
John however, wasn't paying attention to that.
"You're in touch with wizards" he said. Aunt Petunia vigorously shook her head.
"Remember my last? What is that? Who was that?" John pressed.
"Shut up! Go to your room now! No questions!" she shrieked louder than anyone had ever heard her. John again, stood his ground calmly. Harry, seeing John calmly stare down someone else who had lost their temper, now saw why it was such an effective tactic.
"I might. If you tell me what that was all about" said John.
Harry wasn't listening any more though. The letter from the ministry had informed him that he had flouted the decree for the reasonable restriction of underaged magic and had a hearing on the twelfth of August where it would be decided whether or not he would be expelled from Hogwarts.
His heart was in his mouth, and his stomach dropped. But... there were dementors, why wouldn't he be let off? If he explained that he simply had to use the patronus, then he couldn't be expelled... surely?
The other thing which caught his attention was that there was absolutely no mention of John being potentially expelled or needing to go to a hearing. That, Harry thought, was extremely suspicious.
Mere minutes later, Harry and John were in John's room, John lying down on the bed to rest his aching back from hauling Dudley for half a kilometre, and Harry pacing manically.
"And why didn't they say anything about you?" asked Harry.
"The ministry hasn't exactly been known for its competence lately" John said simply.
"And why is everyone treating us LIKE KIDS?" Harry roared, kicking John's wardrobe in frustration.
"I don't know. But kicking wardrobes and yelling isn't solving anything" said John, smirking.
"Oh shut up" said Harry. How could John possibly be calm in this situation? No one was telling them anything, he, Harry could be expelled in a matter of weeks, and John was just lying on his bed, smirking like an infuriating git at him!
"Come on Harry, I'm as confused as you are. Being angry won't help us think, will it? Calm down and we can think about this rationally" said John.
"You're sounding like Hermione or Delilah" Harry grumbled. However, the thought of Hermione or Delilah now made his blood boil. Ron too in fact. What were they playing at, telling him nothing, expecting him to be alright with being stuck at Privet Drive with no news, and now telling them to stay in the house like a good little boy?
"Someone's got to. Can't have both of us running around like reckless gits, can we?" John quipped.
However angry Harry was at Delilah, Hermione and Ron, he was angrier still at John and his infuriating ability to stay calm and crack jokes. He honestly wanted to hit him.
"Aren't you the bigger reckless git anyway?" Harry snapped.
"Yeah, but I'm not an angry dwarf right now, am I?" John replied, laughing.
"I'm not that much shorter than you any more!" Harry retorted.
"True, but you're still half my size, and angry as fuck. Come on Harry, relax, we're going to get out of here eventually and they'll explain it all" said John.
"Yeah, but when? And what exactly am I meant to do until then? Listen to you cracking fucking jokes all day?" Harry snarled.
"Better than lying down in the flowerbed listening to some celebrity gossip horseshit" said John lazily.
Harry didn't answer. John was right in that regard. In any case, it had been so long since Voldemort had returned and there still wasn't a single headline. Harry was not going to find out anything until he reunited with Sirius and the others.
John shifted to sit upright in his bed.
"Heads up" he said, looking out of his window. Hedwig had come back from her hunt, her beak holding the severed leg of a frog.
"About damn time" said Harry, scribbling down notes to everyone and tying them to the owl.
"I want decent length answers from all of them. Keep pecking them until they write proper answers if you have to" Harry told Hedwig. She stared at Harry understandingly.
"Oh come on, that's not fair" said John, standing up finally. Hedwig looked at him too, her head cocked to the side.
"I really don't think this is in their hands" he said, looking serious at last.
"So? They can't expect me to just do as I'm told like a good little boy when Voldemort's back!" Harry replied, his voice raised.
"No they don't, but come on Harry, if even Ron is saying this stuff, then something serious is going on, and we don't know shit. We should listen to them. Having an owl attacking them isn't going to help anyone" said John.
Harry sighed.
"Fine, you don't have to peck them. But don't leave until we get something" said Harry. Hedwig understood and took off.
She did not return the next day. In fact, she didn't return for the next three. Harry, already filled with restless energy, found his frustration and anger growing day by day. Even John was getting visibly more frustrated eventually, though he managed to keep his cool. However, on the evening of the fourth day, after the Dursleys had left, all of them wearing very formal clothing, something happened
The supposedly empty house made noises which sounded suspiciously like footsteps. Before long, John had tiptoed into Harry's room.
"You hear that?" he asked. His wand was in his hand. Harry nodded.
The two of them turned around, facing Harry's door, wands trained at the hallway, but to their shock, no less than eight people appeared in the doorway, silhouetted against the moonlight.
"Put those wands away before you poke someone's eye out" came a gruff, low pitched voice.
The voice made them stop for a moment - it was familiar.
"Professor Moody?" Harry asked.
"Don't know much about professor. Didn't get round to a lot of teaching, did I? Get over here, we need to see you properly" growled Moody.
"It's alright both of you, we're here to take you away" came a calmer voice, one which made their hearts soar.
"Remus!" said John.
"Why are we standing in the dark? Lumos!" came a third voice, unfamiliar to Harry, but familiar to John from over a year ago.
"Tonks!" said John. Harry looked at John, confused.
"Met her a while back at Hogwarts, she was with the aurors looking for Sirius" John explained.
"And I'm an actual auror now!" she said happily.
"Hey, that's great!" said John.
"You were right Remus. They both look exactly like James" said the tallest of the wizards present. He was bald, had very dark skin, and had a single gold hoop in his ear. His voice was even deeper than John's and it was slow, very clear and almost reassuring in a way.
"Lily's eyes though", came the wheezing voice of an elderly wizard.
"How do we know it's really them? Death eaters with polyjuice potion would be a damn good lookout" said Moody.
"Harry, John, what forms do your patronuses take?" asked Lupin.
"Stag" said Harry.
"Brown bear... well a silver brown bear" said John.
"It's them" said Lupin firmly.
Harry and John put their wands away, and headed into the living room where there was more space.
"Not in your back pocket!" Moody snapped at Harry. "If it goes off by accident you'll lose a buttock! Too many cases I've heard of, it's elementary wand safety, no one bothers"
"Ooh, who's lost a buttock?" asked Tonks.
"Never you mind!" Moody growled at her. "And I saw that" he said, as Tonks rolled her eyes. Moody's magical eye was clearly still working.
Neither Harry nor John could fully grasp the fact that it was real. Nearly a month of no contact whatsoever from any wizards and suddenly, eight of them were in the Dursley's living room.
"So where's Sirius?" asked Harry.
"He's the only one who can control... a certain house elf. We'll explain when we get there" said the tall, black wizard.
"Get where?" asked John.
"We can't talk about it here. Tonks, Remus, help them pack. You've got brooms as I understand, right?" asked Moody.
"Yeah" said John.
"Good. Make it quick then" said Moody.
After packing, Harry and John found themselves flying towards London, and the feeling of freedom was beyond refreshing and liberating to them. Harry hadn't flown since he took on the Hungarian Horntail, and even then he couldn't simply enjoy the feeling of the breeze in his face or soaring above onlookers. Now though, even in a tight formation amongst what Remus revealed to be their guard, the feeling of soaring a hundred feet above the ground was incredible.
The best part was when they flew over the Thames. Moody wouldn't allow John, who hadn't flown in a longer period of time even than Harry, to test himself by flying deliberately close to barges or smaller boats, but flying over water seemed to be a different experience altogether compared to flying above even a Quidditch pitch. Both of them internally vowed to find an excuse to fly over water bodies more often, perhaps the black lake if Harry was not to be expelled.
"We're coming up on it!" Called Tonks from ahead of the others.
"Alright! Start the descent!" Moody barked.
They landed in a small park overlooking what looked for all the world like a block of connected housing. Harry was sure that during the summer between third and fourth year, he, John and Delilah had passed this street. Reading the sign, Harry saw that this was called Grimmaud place. However, counting the numbers, there was no number twelve.
As that thought entered Harry's mind, Moody shoved a small piece of parchment into his hands.
"Memorize it, quickly" he said.
'The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at Number 12, Grimmaud place' it said. Harry passed it to John, and once John had read it, Moody waved his wand in a large, sweeping motion, and before their eyes, numbers eleven and thirteen split apart, but upon looking into the windows, the muggles living there didn't seem to notice. In the space between the two houses, a much larger one materialized in front of their eyes. Harry stared at it, astonished, and John's reaction was rather similar.
Clearly they hadn't even scratched the surface of what magic was capable of in school yet.
"There's a fidelius charm on that building. Dumbledore is the secret keeper. Sirius owns it" Remus explained.
Things were starting to become clearer. Sirius hadn't been able to come and get them because there must have been a house elf in that house bound to him, and it must have been a difficult house elf to deal with without him.
"What are you waiting for?" Moody asked, limping towards the front door.
Dragging their trunks with them, Harry and John entered the intimidating looking house. The interior was far from inviting. It was dark, gloomy, grimy and it certainly didn't look to be a place where Sirius would be at home. There was a troll's leg used as an umbrella stand, there was black and green wallpaper peeling off, and cobwebs in most corners.
"What the..." Harry whispered.
"I know. Looks like we'll get an explanation at least", said John, following Tonks towards what appeared to be the dining room, where there were a number of hushed voices.
Before he could get into that room, a welcome and familiar figure appeared in the doorway - Mrs. Weasley.
Without a word, she wrapped her arms around both Harry and John. She looked frantic and worried.
"Thank goodness you made it! Now I'm sorry, I can't stay to talk, but you need to head up the stairs to the second floor, Ron, Delilah, Hermione and Ginny are up there. Third door on your right" said Mrs. Weasley.
"But-"Harry started.
"I'm sorry Harry, but you need to go there, we'll catch up later" she said, looking genuinely apologetic.
John looked at Harry, shrugged and began to head up the stairs, and Harry followed him. They shuddered after passing a wall where there were stuffed heads of house elves which presumably once worked in that house. It was clearly a very old house with a long, dark history.
What sort of place were they in?
They opened the door which Mrs. Weasley had directed them towards, and all they saw was a flash of brown and blonde hair running at them. Once they got over the initial surprise, they realized that it was Delilah and Hermione.
"Harry! John! You're here! Thank goodness!" said Hermione quickly and desperately.
"Blimey girls, let the men breathe"
Ron was standing behind them, grinning. Even though they hadn't seen Ron in only three and a half weeks, they'd forgotten how much he'd grown since their third year. If John was built like a heavyweight fighter (or indeed, a bear), Ron was built like a swimmer. He now stood at roughly six foot two, and all of the advice John had given him had paid off.
Hermione and Delilah too apparently had been treated well by the summer. Hermione's hair wasn't quite as bushy as it used to be (though it was still bushy regardless), and Delilah's skin, in spite of worry etched all over her face, was almost glowing.
"You're probably furious with us, I know our letters were useless, but we just couldn't say anything! Dumbledore made us swear not to say anything, but we can explain everything now I swear!" Hermione.
"I thought I told you to let them breathe" said Ron, laughing and pulling Hermione and Delilah back.
Before anything else was said, Hedwig landed beside Harry with a soft whooshing sound.
"She's been going spare, I know she wanted a reply, you probably told her to get replies" said Delilah.
"Only..." Ron started.
"Yeah, Dumbledore made you swear that you wouldn't say shit" Harry spat.
Ron, Hermione and Delilah looked at each other uncertainly. John rolled his eyes, but let Harry go on.
"He probably thinks that I can't be trusted-"
"Don't be thick" said Ron.
"Maybe he thinks I can't take care of myself" said Harry, nastily.
"He doesn't, of course he doesn't!" said Hermione.
"He just thought you'd be safer in the presence of muggles" Delilah said.
"Didn't work though, did it? How many dementors attacked you lot?" Harry asked aggressively.
"Well... none, but that's why he had order members tailing you" said Hermione.
"Still got attacked" Harry pointed out angrily.
"Dumbledore was pissed" said Ron darkly. "When he found out Dung abandoned his post... well... I'll just say I'm glad it wasn't me he was angry at"
"I'm glad Mundungus left. Otherwise Dumbledore'd probably leave me at Privet fucking drive all summer" Harry snarled.
No one responded.
"I don't suppose anyone knows why you lot can know everything that goes on here while I can't?" Harry asked.
"We don't!" said Ron. "We've not been allowed into any of the meetings, mum says we're all too young"
Something inside Harry snapped. He was yelling without caring about the tears forming in Hermione's eyes, Ron's flinching or Delilah's refusal to look at Harry.
"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN IN MEETINGS? BIG FUCKING DEAL! YOU'VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? I'VE BEEN STUCK AT FUCKING PRIVET DRIVE FOR A MONTH WITHOUT KNOWING SHIT! AND I'VE HANDLED MORE THAN ANY OF YOU AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT! WHO SAVED THE PHILOSEPHER'S STONE? ME! WHO DROVE OFF ALL THOSE DEMENTORS? WHO GOT PAST THE HORNTAIL, THE MAZE AND ALL THE OTHER CRAP THROWN AT ME IN THAT FUCKING TOURNAMENT? ME!" Harry roared. All of the thoughts he'd been ashamed of for the past month had burst out at the surface and he just vented them all. He was ready to vent more, but a harsh shove jerked his entire body roughly into a nearby bed. Harry, Ron, Delilah and Ron looked up to see John, looking down at Harry with fury in his eyes.
"You. Ungrateful. Piece of garbage" he said, his voice dangerously low.
"John!" Delilah said, scandalized.
"No Delilah. If Harry thinks he's got the weight of the world on his shoulders and does everything on his own, and he's some fucking saint or whatever, then I have some words for him", John snarled.
"Oh yes? And what does Mr. Sunshine have to say?" Harry spat. He'd been just as angry at John as he had at the others in that room. His incessant positivity was finally crumbling, and in a twisted way, Harry was enjoying it.
"I've been in exactly the same position that you've been in. Am I yelling at the people who've been at our side the entire time? Am I trying to make them feel like shit?" John asked.
Harry didn't say anything.
"And who got past the chess set? Ron. Who got you past the poison room? Hermione. Who worked out we had a basilisk to face? Hermione and Delilah. Who bought you time to get the sword of Gryffindor? Me. I'll add that I fucking died to do that. Who killed the basilisk and destroyed Riddle's diary? Ron. Who fought dementors with you? Me. Who taught you how to cast a summoning charm? We did. Who let you train in using combat magic at their expense? We did. And who brought the cup back to save your ungrateful skin? I did" said John.
Harry was now again starting to feel ashamed of himself. Looking at Ron, Delilah and Hermione, he felt worse still. They didn't look angry like John did, they just looked tense around Harry.
"Have you had a bunch of shit you shouldn't have had to deal with? Sure! But if you're going to sit there and yell at the only people who've been by your side since the beginning, then you can eat a bag of dicks" said John, with no small amount of crudity.
Harry took a deep breath.
"Guys, I'm-" he started.
"Save it. Saying you're sorry doesn't mean shit. Show us with your actions. Now we're going to forget about your fucking childish tantrum, and talk about what's going on like adults. Agreed?" John asked calmly.
Everyone was staring in shock at John. He'd never been one to put his foot down and force mature discussions, and yet here he was, doing just that.
"Yeah. Yeah, I can do that" said Harry.