~:-:~
"What was it?"
"A few more minutes and he'll be up....if I casted the charm right..."
"Remus! 'DO-YOU-KNOW-WHAT-IT-WAS' is what I was asking! And what do you mean, if you casted the charm right?? You've done it before, haven't you?
There was a noise that sounded like someone sobbing."What? Y-y-you casted the charm wrong? Is he going to stay like this forever?"
"Relax everybody, just calm down. Dumbledore's going to be here any minute now, I have done this spell before, and Harry should be waking up in the next ten minutes. If not, that means I did cast it wrong and I'll just do it again, ok? Nothings going to happen to him..." There was a moment of silence before they heard the sound of the door clicking open, and Dumbledore walked into the room.
Harry heard but could not see. He wondered why for a few seconds before he realized that his eyes were closed. His brain seemed fogged, and every sound he heard seemed distant. After about three minutes of hard thinking, he comprehended the fact that he was lying on a bed and there were other people in the room; he recognized the voices of Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Albus Dumbeldore nearest to him. He heard other voices more far off though. He tried to open his eyes but they felt unnaturally and glued together. Maybe they are glued together, he thought, slightly panicked.
After a minute or so, when he decided his eyes woudn't open on their own, he lifted his right arm over his head and gently pulled opened his left eyelid. He had to pull because they were drenched in some sort of potion that closed them, numbed the pain, and made them feel ice cold. Now looking into the room, he saw that he was right. Seated to his right and left were Professor Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts, Remus Lupin, one of his late father's best friends, and Sirius Black, Harry's godfather. Farther away from his bed were Ron, Hermione and her parents, and another man that Harry couldn't recognize. Dumbledore now turned and looked at Harry, smiling as relief took over his previous worried expression. Lupin, too, looked relieved, and he grinned as he made eye-contact with Harry. He poked Sirius, who had his head bowed, and pointed in Harry's direction. Sirius slowly looked up and had the exact same reaction as Lupin as he gently pulled his godson's arm away from his eye. Harry now realized why they had smiled, he must have looked very silly with his right index finger pulling only his left eye open, leaving the other eye closed. He grinned and felt his dry lips almost tear and his cheeks burn. He quickly stopped and touched the area lightly while the adults surrounding him looked at him curiously.
"Where a-" He had to stop because Madame Pomphrey now came in through a door at the left side of the bedroom and poured some thick orange liquid with swirls of something shiny and red and forced him to swallow. Almost choking, his first swallow was pleasantly sweet, the second and third however were so sweet that after he gulped, they left a very bitter aftertaste. The potion instantly gave him a warm sensation at he pit of his stomach. Madame Pomphrey watched him for a few seconds before she wet a small washcloth in some light blue liquid and wiped his face with it. Instantly he felt all the scars that the silver egg had given him vanish, except ofcourse the red lightning bolt on his forhead. Just when Harry opened his mouth to ask his question, the school nurse poured a vivid green, thick, and smoking potion down his throat. It tasted like salty water and made him feel like he was lying on a bock of ice. Madame Pomphrey quickly covered him with a thick blanket and watched her wristwatch, counting. After 30 seconds, she took the blanket off him and gave him a silver goblet filled with water to drink. Harry finally felt back to normal after he drained the goblet.
"Where-" he began again. This time he was interupted by the door opening. In walked Severus Snape, Harry's loathsome potions master. Harry looked at Sirius, expecting him to sneer or throw Snape a dirty look. To his surprise, his godfather merely patted the chair next to him, indicating that he should sit down. Snape took the seat without hesitation and smirked at Harry's gaping face. Harry quickly closed his mouth and turned to Dumbledore to ask his long awaited question, but Dumbledore spoke before him.
"Are you feeling better Harry?" he asked gently.
"Yes, a lot better."
"I believe you wanted to ask us something before you drank your potion?" The headmaster asked, his eyes twinkling in that knowing way.
"Yeah, where are we?" asked Harry as Sirius attempted to put his glasses on for him, poking his left ear and ripping out a few strands of his hair that got tangled in the frames. Harry pulled them out of his grasp and put them on himself.
"You are in Remus' house, Harry. Your uncle and aunt informed Sirius of your unconciousness through your owl. As you may already know, Sirius is currently residing with Remus so they informed me, traveled to Privet Drive, and brought you back here." Dumbledore let the information sink into Harry's head before he added "You have been here for two days."
Harry looked at the old man and thought for a moment. The Dursleys contacted Sirius? Just the image of Aunt Petunia touching Hedwig seemed impossible to him. Now that he thought about it, what had happened? He remembered opening the present from Ron...the one from Hermione...then he opened one from Sirius...
His reveries were broken with the very question he was trying to answer for himself, "Can you tell us what happened, Harry?" asked Professor Dumbledore. He was looking at the boy in front of him with concern. He had no idea what to expect from his explanation this time.
"Er..." Harry didn't quite know where to start, "I guess it all started out when I got my birthday presents"-he thought for a second-"Two days ago. I got them in the middle of the night..." he launched into the pointless story of how he woke up after his dream and his adventures of present opening. Somehow he felt he needed to mention the details. After about five minutes of explaining, he finally got to the part where he opened the bird's present. "It was some sort of um.. ball or an egg... it was a sphere and it was silver, about the size of-of-a snitch! Yeah...so I opened it- it could be opened, there was a clasp on one side- and at first a lot of black smoke filled the room. Then when I couldn't see anymore, my scar started hurting and then I ...I fell because of the pain"-he felt the color rising in his face, Snape was giving him a peircing look and at the same time it was obvious he trying best not to smirk-" and the last thing I saw was Uncle Vernon walking towards me and then I guess I passed out.." Everyone was silent for a moment before Lupin spoke.
"Harry, can you describe the bird?" Dumbledore gave Lupin a curious look and then faced Harry, expecting an answer.
"It was big, about 2 feet in height, um.. it was purple at first but then right before it left, it turned orange...." He couldn't really think of anything else to say.
"Was there anything different about it's eyes?" Lupin anxiously leaned forward and the other man Harry hadn't recognized at first walked out of the shadows and towards his bed. He stood next to Lupin and looked at Harry with an expression of great curiosity mixed with something else- astonishment.
"I don't remember... I don't think so... what do you mean by different?"
"Did they look like gems?", asked Lupin, now Dumbledore was staring at Harry but it was nothing compared to the look on Lupin's face. He was leaning about a foot away from Harry's head and didn't even notice the dramatically worried expression on the other man's face as he placed one hand on his heart and the other on Lupin's shoulder. Snape looked mildly interested while Sirius looked clueless as to what they were talking about. As Harry looked at all their faces, getting nervous all the while, he thought about what Dumbledore asked and something flicked in his head. He remembered looking at the bird's eyes and being creeped out by their lack of pupils or anything that looked like an eye. They were white...they looked cut....glittering in the sunlight...
"They looked like Diamonds!" exclaimed Harry. He was satisfied as he saw realization spread across Lupin's, Dumbledore's and the other man's faces. Snape and Sirius now looked confused. This man was really irritating Harry. He seemed so much in shock that he needed to sit down; since their were no seats he sat on Harry's bed, crushing Harry's right leg. Dumbledore seemed to notice Harry grimace at the man's back and he smiled at him, his eyes twinkling.
"Harry, Darron, I don't believe you've been introduced. Darron, this is Harry Potter, you have heard of him, I daresay. Harry, this is Darron Rich, he will be your Dueling professor this year. I was having a meeting with Mr. Rich when I was called here and he decided to come along." Professor Rich quickly got up and shook hands with Harry. This time he stayed standing looking at Harry. Harry now faced him too. He had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He was tall, built, nicely tanned and it was evident the was going to be the next Lockhart. Harry turned away and looked at the others.
"Have you got any idea who sent me the sphere?" Harry had been waiting for an answer since he told them about the diamond eyes. It was Professor Lupin who answered.
"Not quite, Harry. We know that the bird is a Pheilox, a member of the Phoenix family.This bird is extremely rare and there are only three in Europe. These three are closely watched by the Ministry of Magic and I don't believe your bird is one of them. Each Pheilox can only have two different shades of plumage. What colors did this particular one have, Harry?"
"At first it was purple but right before it left, it turned orange." Harry saw a flicker of movement somewhere to his left. He looked around and saw Ron and Hermione move closer to smiling. He grinned back and saw Mr. and Mrs. Granger still sitting farthest away from him, smiling worriedly at him. He wondered why they were here.
"Purple and orange?" It was Sirius who spoke. "What colors are the ones at the Ministry?"
"One is green and orange, another is yellow and red, and the last is blue and green." answered Snape, looking at Dumbledore.
"If there are no more questions, I think we should all go down to the Kitchen and have ourselves a nice supper." said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, he looked very stressed.
"Professor, if..if... You-Know-Who is still in Europe, and their are only three Pheiloxes and their all with the Ministry, how did Voldemort sent the egg to Harry?" asked Hermione.
"That, Miss Granger, is because it was not sent to Harry by Voldemort, but by a wizard far more powerful than he." he didn't seem to want to say anymore, "Now lets go eat, I'm sure you are all very hungry."
"Headmaster, you must excuse me, I need to go now" said Snape, getting out of his seat and making his way to the door, Harry saw his arm twitch.
"So soon? Go, go, I'll see you back at the school." The Grangers walked towards Dumbledore as he said this. They apparently had to get home and do some work. Dumbledore bid them farewell and they too walked out of the room. Harry got out of bed and started towards the door with Ron and Hermione.
"Harry, are you alright?"
"We were so worried when we got here."
"Yeah I'm fine, did Dumbledore tell you to come here?" Harry asked his two best friends, he had been wondering why they were here.
"Actually, my parents, Ron and I went to your house to pick you up about two hours ago. When we got there and asked for you, Your Uncle gave us a note Sirius left for us-he knew we were coming to pick you up-and it told us to come here." Hermione explained as Ron nodded beside her.
"Hehe, and we saw your Aunt Marge, she's still really fat, are you sure they infalted her?" said Ron. Harry chuckled. It was nice to be back with his friends but there was something troubling him.
"Do you guys know who Dumbledore was talking about, being more powerful than Voldemort?" He wondered if this wizard was in the Daily Prophet and whether Ron or Hermione had heard of him.
"No"
"I've never heard of him"
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a/n: so, lemme tell you, I saw tombraiders; its a pretty good movie but its not as great as I thought it would be, theirs a lot of action so if you like stuff like that, go see it...i also so artificial intelligence, that was a great movie at first but the end is as boring as hell, i wanted to walk out of the theatre, its still a good movie and its still worth watching, just ignore the end, my jude law was of course perfect in it...anyways, review and tanks to all those who reviewed before, i gtg, bye