A/N Here's the next part! Enjoy! I know I took a really long time to get this out. I tried to make this longer than usual to make up for it.
Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me except for the plot and Ginny's friends.
The next morning, Harry walked down to the Great Hall with Ron and Hermione on his sides. He was again amazed at how the number of Hogwarts students had decreased. Harry looked closely at the Slytherin table which seemed even smaller. Yup, it definitely was. Harry didn't see Goyle and Crabbe anyway. Their chairs were also taken away.
Harry thoughts were interrupted by Dumbledore.
"Good morning students! I hope you're all well rested for your first day of classes. I must ask a couple of students to come to my office after breakfast -"
"Probably the students being questioned for Dark Arts," Ron whispered.
"Henry Nott, Derek Rancorm, Joseph Macnair, Daniel Eving, Harry Potter, Gennie Jakins, Hermione Granger, Cho Chang, the Weasleys, Delia Yangdon, Arianna Finnigan, Seamus Finnigan, Catriona McDonald, Mike Denok, and Sally Roulin. Please come to my office.
Ron looked at Harry, bewildered. "We aren't involved in the Dark Arts!"
"I know," said Harry.
Hermione looked around, nervously. "How could we be accused?"
Dumbledore's voice again interrupted them. "I have a few more announcements to make. Due to their early arrivals today, our new Dark Arts teacher and assistant Divination teacher could not be introduced. Please welcome Professor Vindictus Viridian and Professor Arabella Figg."
The students all clapped politely as two pretty witches stood up. One had long blond hair, and big, innocent blue eyes. The other had piles of thick dark hair and her eyes were deep brown, almost purple.
"Also, Professor Hagrid will not be returning this year, at least not for the beginning of this year. Professor Grubbly-Plank will be substituting. I'm sure many of you are familiar with her from last year."
A mixed reaction took place. Harry, Ron, and Hermione groaned, Lavender and Parvati squealed excitedly, and Draco was heard, all the way over at the Slytherin table, cheering.
"I wonder what's wrong with Hagrid?" Hermione asked anxiously.
Harry didn't hear her. He was looking closely at Cho.
"You guys, I have to tell you something..."
Cho was sitting in her dorm room, absently picking at her bed spread. She looked at the clock on her wall and jumped when she noticed a white sheen in front of it.
"Hi Cedric," she mumbled.
Cedric first appeared to her as a ghost during the summer. She had been moping around in her room and was scared to death when she felt herself walk through an icy wall. A.k.a. Cedric.
Cedric didn't respond. Cho didn't expect an answer. Whenever Cedric visited her, he'd just stare at her intently, as if willing her to understand something.
At first, Cho had been very afraid. After mourning half the summer over the death of someone she truly loved, he shows up in her room as a ghost. She often avoided being alone because that was the only time he'd show up. After a while, she felt comfortable knowing Cedric was with her. However, she never told anybody that she spent more time with her dead boyfriend than with real people. She didn't tell anyone about Cedric being a ghost. She kind of felt as if Cedric and she belonged together and should be left alone.
But last night, Cho was sure Harry spotted Cedric. His face went completely pale. She couldn't face talking to him. All she wanted to do was be with Cedric. Who needed others when she had him?
True, he couldn't talk. That didn't matter.
Cho smiled weakly at Cedric.
But one other thing she wanted to do besides being with him, she wanted to kill Voldemort. A slow, painful death. After all, he made the death occur whereas now he couldn't even talk to the best guy in the whole world.
" ... and then she sprinted off. I caught up to her, but it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it. I wonder why Cedric is a ghost? How come ... well how come my parents aren't ghosts?" Harry asked, looking down at his plate.
"Well," Hermione said, taking on a business tone, "Cedric is a ghost because he is restless and hasn't fulfilled his life. He may have turned out to have been the one to create a block to a curse, but couldn't do so because he was killed. He will remain a ghost until somehow he can ascend into the above. This can be done if his mission is somehow fulfilled or someone with the powers of releasing the pure spirits of ghosts into the above works their magic on him. This, however cannot be done. The last person who was reported with these powers died over 5 centuries ago."
Ron and Harry didn't respond to this. They just stared at Hermione.
Finally Ron spoke. "If you don't mind me asking, how do you know this?"
"Ron! We learned this in fourth year Defense Against the Dark Arts!"
"Yeah. Right!" Ron said, obviously forgetting every bit of it.
Hermione scowled at him disapprovingly and muttered about "brainless red heads who don't know education if it hit them in their empty heads."
Harry didn't say anything. He was trying to absorb what Hermione said. Why were Hermione and Ron taking this so lightly? Were his parents ghosts? What are ghosts really? And how is Cho doing?
Breakfast ended and Hermione, Ron, himself, and another few students headed to Dumbledore's office.
They talked briefly on the way there. They waited at the bottom of the stairs leading up to Dumbledore's office as they didn't know the password. A few minutes passed and Professor McGonagall led the rest of the students who were called to see Dumbledore to the gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office.
"Hallo," Seamus said to Harry, Hermione, and Ron, looking a tad nervous. Ginny, Arianna, and Cat walked up behind Seamus.
"So, anyone know why..." Ginny started, but was interrupted by the sound of students ascending the staircase. McGonagall obviously said the password.
Harry, Hermione, Ron, Seamus, Ginny, Cat, and Arianna followed the students up the staircase until they reached a tall, oak door.
Dumbledore himself opened it.
"Thank you for coming. I first must ask Henry Nott, Derek Rancorm, Joseph Macnair, Gennie Jakins, and Daniel Eving to come in. The rest of you could please wait out here. I'll be back for you shortly." Dumbledore closed the door.
A few students tried unsuccessfully to listen to what was going on in the office.
Several minutes passed, and Dumbledore opened the door. Six, sulky students walked out, two of which were very pale.
The rest of the group walked into Dumbledore's office and sat down around the room.
"Now, I'm sure you are all wondering why you are here. Well, I'm ... Hold on. Does anyone know where George and Fred are?" Dumbledore asked.
No one responded. That was when banging could be heard beyond the door.
Dumbledore opened the door and disappeared down the staircase. He and the Weasley twins came back up less than a minute later.
"All right. Now that we are all here, I am asking you all to consider joining the Order of the Pheonix. I feel I should be honest to all of you. As you all know, Voldemort has risen and it's hard to know who you can trust. However, I trust all of you and I'll depend on you. I am forming a group called the Order of the Phoenix. We have very able people in this room and I think we should all join together against Voldemort. It is your choice if you want to become part of this group and I warn you, you will be putting yourself in danger. However, if we work together and try our hardest, I believe we will be in less danger in the long run." Dumbledore paused and his eye roamed across the room. "It is your choice and do what you think is best."
Harry glanced at Hermione and Ron. They both looked back at him. Harry looked questioningly at them. Ron nodded slowly followed by Hermione.
"I'll join," Harry said.
"Me, too," Ron said.
"And me," Hermione said.
Gradually, everyone in the room agreed to take part in the order.
Dumbledore looked proudly around the room. "This is a big commitment. I'm sure we can all work together well. Tonight will be our first meeting and you'll be aquatinted with the rest of the members. Please go down to the Quidditch fields at eight."
Everyone nodded.
"I thank you for what you are doing. I'm sure you won't regret it. I also ask that you keep this order secret. You must not tell anyone else. Understand? I'll see you all at eight."
Slowly, everyone made their way down the staircase.
"Geez," Fred muttered. "He made it sound like a friggin' spy cause. I feel like I'm in that Muggle movie. What was it again, George?"
"Er ... Undoable Mission?"
Hermione snorted. "Mission Impossible?"
"Er ... yea. That was the one."
"You all know how important this is to be in this order. Don't take this lightly. We are probably all in danger now. You know that, right? Be careful."
"Shut up, Hermione," Ron said.
Hermione glared at Ron and started to the Great Hall. Harry and Ron soon followed.
"Wow," Cat whispered, "I can't believe we are actually in the Order of the Phoenix! The group against Voldemort. We'll all be famous!!"
"You, guys. Ma wasn't invited. We can't tell her," Ginny pointed out.
"I wonder why Dumbledore doesn't trust her?" Arianna said softly.
"Who knows?" Ginny answered as they approached the portrait hole. "But, we can't talk about it anymore."
As soon as they walked in, Ma swept down on them.
"What did you go to his office for?" Ma screeched. "Are you in the Dark Arts?"
"Shut up, Ma," Cat muttered.
"We aren't in the Dark Arts. Dumbledore just wanted to ... you know ... let us know ... that, er, we couldn't ... we couldn't go in the Forbidden Forest," Ginny stammered.
"You went in the Forbidden Forest?" Ma asked.
"Yep," Cat replied.
"Without me??? And all of those other people went too?" Ma asked, outraged.
"Yea," Arianna said softly.
"So you went to a party in the Forbidden Forest without me?" Ma turned huffily on her heel and walked up the staircase to her dorm. A click of a lock was heard.
"Well, that went well," Cat said sarcastically.
The day passed by fairly quickly, and before anyone knew it, it was eight.
The group of students all walked down separately, to avoid arising suspicion. Harry walked down with Ron and Hermione as nobody would guess that that was unusual.
When they got to the Quidditch fields, Professor McGonagall was waiting for them. Harry looked around curiously until he heard McGonagall's sharp voice.
"Now pay attention. You are to be on your best behavior ... stop rolling your eyes, Mr. Weasley, yes you Ron ... This is a huge privilege. I haven't an inkling why Professor Dumbledore let children join this order, but you can never figure out what goes on in his mind. Act politely and ... stop smirking Miss. McDonald ... mind your manners. Well, I'm to bring you to the meeting spot. I assume you all know what a port key is? All right, then. Touch this wrapper. That's it. All right .."
McGongall's voice was drowned out by the rushing winds surrounding the wrapper. Harry found himself face down on a cement floor. He looked up and saw a hand extended toward him to help him up. His eyes ran up the arm, to the face. It was Sirius. Harry felt a grin spread across his face. He jumped up, and it was then he noticed the screams.
"Why, why, it's Black!"
"Get the Ministry!"
"Where's my wand?"
"Watch out, ladies. I'll kill him with my bare hands."
"You can try," Sirius said cheerfully to Mike Denok, who said the last comment.
McGonagall explained Sirius's innocence and everyone swore not to let anyone know including Fudge. Fudge didn't even know about the order.
Now with that settled, Harry looked around the rest of the room. It was fairly damp and musty, with little light penetrating from the few lamps. Around 25 grown wizards and witches stood around the room, some looking skeptically at the kids. Harry recognized Professor Viridian, the new Dark Arts teacher and Professor Figg, the new assistant Divination teacher. He saw Snape (his smile fading a bit at the site of this oil mine) and then..
"Professor Lupin!"
"Call me Remus. I'm not your teacher."
Harry beamed. Then he frowned suddenly. "Are you sure none of these people are gonna tell the Ministry about you?" Harry asked Sirius.
"Nah. If old Dumbledore trusts them, then I do too."
"Well, I'm glad you trust me, Sirius," Dumbledore said, almost materializing out of no where. "And its true. I do believe these people won't betray me."
"But.." Harry started, but was interrupted by "Remus!"
Behind Remus stood Arabella Figg. Remus turned and his face drained of color. All of a sudden, a flash of recognition came to Harry. Those eyes. He knew them.
Harry and Remus both spoke at once. But, Arabella already turned around on her heel and walked away.
A/N Well, there it is. Kinda a cliff hanger. Not really. Well, you know what I'm going to ask now.. please review!! Thanks!