Okay, I have all the free times in the world now! Well, just
for one week though and I'll use that for finishing this story. I made a new approximation (nice word) and
there are six (that's right) chapters left for this story. So without further ado, here's chapter
26. I don't know anything, btw.
Chapter 26
*************
Ron and Hermione were getting along, but still seemed
distant with each other. They chose to
avoid anything that came close to what happened that day. March came and went, and April soon
followed. Easter holidays (if you can
call it a holiday, Harry thought) went by in breeze. During the holidays, the teachers gave them so much homework that
beside sleeping and eating, homework became a sort of necessity to them. Harry, like his fellow Gryffindors, dread
the upcoming months. Aside the
quidditch final, he would be taking the O.W.L.s in less than two months. School resumed after Easter. The first day that they had lessons again,
Harry, Ron, and Hermione had an unexpected invitation. When they were filing out of Defense Against
the Dark Arts classroom, Professor Sullivan asked them to stay. Wondering what was going on, they looked at
each other and sat down on the first three seats on the front. Professor Sullivan closed the door. She turned to them and said,
"I don't know how
to start this. I'm sure you all are
aware of the, er, secret organization that the headmaster has organized a long
time ago, right?" They were silent.
"About the old crowd? I'm sure
he has mentioned it to you."
"Old crowd." Harry was sure Dumbledore has mention that
phrase before. Instantly, like
videotape played in his head, he remembered:
"Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher, and Remus Lupin, you know, the old
crowd…"
"I reckon I can
recall something. Why?" asked
Harry.
"Well, that
organization is holding a meeting called the grand counsel meeting on Sunday
night-"
"What's that got to
do with us?" asked Ron.
"Well, I asked you
three to come. I need to talk about
something that involves all of you. So
how about it? Sunday night? All right with all of you?"
"Well, I
guess. If it concerns all of us,"
replied Hermione slowly.
"All right, that's
settled, then. We will all meet at the
entrance hall at 6:30? Wait for me
there and I will lead you to the, er, headquarters. Oh, yes, Harry, this may sound very strange, but can you please
bring that dragon necklace of yours?"
"Okay, but why?"
asked Harry curiously. But Professor
Sullivan chose to ignore his question.
"Now, remember,
Sunday night at 6:30. Wait at the
entrance hall. Be very careful as to
who you might bump into. Too many
people can't be trusted these days.
That would be all. You are
dismissed." Before Harry could say another word, Ron and Hermione ushered him
out to the empty corridor.
"Save them for
Sunday, will you?" remarked Ron. "Maybe
she'll tell you then."
"I don't know. It seems so secretive. Does the minister even allow Professor
Dumbledore to do that?" said Hermione.
"Of course not,
Hermione, like Professor said, it's a secret organization. No one knows about it?" said Ron. Harry thought of the reasons possible as to
why the professor would want his necklace.
Maybe Ron was right about it.
Maybe it was an amulet. But is
it just that?
That Sunday night, they went down to the entrance hall and
waited for the professor. Harry, who
was holding his necklace out in the firelight, said, "I still don't get why she
wants to see this. I mean how important
could this thing be?"
"I don't know. But it's 6:30 and she's not here yet," said
Ron, checking his watch. Hermione
looked at the opposite side of the hall where the door that leads to the
kitchens was. That door opened and out
came Professor Sullivan. She smiled at
her.
"Look, she's here,"
Hermione pointed.
"Are all of you
ready?" she asked breathlessly. They
nodded. She led them to the door and
went down a staircase that was unfamiliar to Harry. She led them to a beautifully decorated corridor and stopped down
in front of a door. She opened it and
beckoned them to go in. It was a rather
large room. It was equivalent to one
and half classrooms put together. There
were chairs all around with unfamiliar people sitting on them. In front the room, Harry noticed was a table
with dark red velvet tablecloth. Two
chairs were behind the table and seated there were Professor Dumbledore and the
real Mad-Eye Moody. He looked exactly
the way Harry last saw him and was wearing an expression that was
unreadable. Harry looked at the chairs
that faced the table. About fifteen
people were sitting on the chairs.
Harry looked around these people. He couldn't recognize any of them. His eyes stopped at the three people
conversing mildly. The two men he had
recognized. They were Sirius and
Remus. However, the old woman next to
them he knew from long ago, or at least he thinks he does. He rubbed his eyes in amazement.
"Mrs. Figg?" he
amazed loudly. The three stopped
talking and looked at him.
"Harry, Arabella, you
know my godson," said Sirius, standing up.
"Mrs. Figg? Y-y-you're, you're a-a-a w-w-witch?"
stammered Harry, still quite amazed.
"Well, of
course. Could I be anything else? Well, don't look at me like that, boy,"
Arabella snapped. Remus laughed.
"Why don't you
three have a seat right here?" he said as he pulled up three chairs. They were taking a seat when Ron
exclaimed, "Bill?"
Bill was sitting right behind Mrs. Figg. He smiled and said, "Well, don't look too surprised. Mum knows I'm here."
"B-but…" stuttered
Ron.
"Oh, come on,
Ron. What about you? What are you doing here?" remarked Bill.
"I go to school
here," said Ron indignantly.
"Arabella, how are
you doing?" asked Professor Sullivan.
"Fine, my dear,
couldn't be better," she replied.
"Well, are we all
settled? Shall we begin?" asked Dumbledore, up from the table.
"Yes, yes, we
should start right away," replied Mad-Eye.
"Briana, why don't you go ahead and start this meeting?"
"All right,
Alastor, I begin this grand counsel meeting at-" the door opening interrupted
her. It was Severus Snape. In an instant, murmurs flowed through the
room.
"Him? What is this Death
Eater doing here, Dumbledore?" asked a man with graying hair.
"Yes, I would like
to know that too, Albus," roared Mad-Eye, his magical eye surveying Snape.
"Listen to me
please, Severus has been, and always will be in our side from now on," said
Dumbledore firmly.
"How can you be so
sure about that, eh? He can betray his
side once, maybe he can betray us too," said the man again.
"Now, now,
Mundungus, calm down. He will not
betray us. How many times I will have
to tell you? Severus, please sit. Briana, will you please get on with this?"
"Right, well, let's
see, where was I?" she asked thoughtfully.
"You were calling
this meeting to order," said Sirius.
"Oh, right, thank
you-" she paused and looked uneasily at Sirius then to Severus then back
again.
"You were saying,
Annie?" said Remus.
"Right, right,
calling this meeting to order at 6:47.
Right, into attendance, some of us are not here. Maria, Andrew, Marcus, and Louis are not
here. Now, into business," she paused
for a moment and then said,
"About a thousand
years ago, a secret society was founded by four unknown magical people. That society was promoted to do one
thing. That thing is to teach its
members the very old way of doing magic, without wands. Its members require great concentration
skills that are acquired through vigorous training. This society was called the Order of the Phoenix."
"For more than fifteen years ago, those who trained under
Alastor Moody were given opportunities to be in the Order of the Phoenix. There were six of us that got in. Douglas McKinnon, Roberta Everett, Marcus and
Maria Costello, me, and Frank Longbottom were the chosen members."
"Frank Longbottom?
But isn't he?" asked Remus.
"I'll get to that
later, Remus," replied Briana. "Now, in
the beginning, the four founders of the society had each four necklaces. Their pendants symbolize the two oldest
magical creatures known to wizards, the phoenix and the dragon."
"There's a tradition in the Order of the Phoenix. Every new generation of its members, four
are chosen to guard the necklaces. The
chosen ones are called the Guardians of the Fire. Their jobs are to keep the necklaces and protect them from evil
that want to take them away from us.
Out of six, four of us were chosen.
Douglas McKinnon and Roberta Everett both were chosen to guard the two
dragon necklaces. Frank Longbottom and
I were chosen to guard the phoenix necklaces.
These necklaces, their powers individually are great, but when together,
are even greater. They are used for
good but if in the wrong hands, will do a greater harm. Now, Voldemort, of course, have discovered
the society of the Phoenix and had long to take the necklaces away from
us." Ron and Hermione were the only
ones that flinched at the sound of the name.
"The night the McKinnons died, one of the reasons why they died
was because of the necklace. I'm not
quite sure if they managed to retrieve it.
Now, about Frank Longbottom, Remus, they did tortured him for
Voldemort's whereabouts, and also, they found out that Frank was one of the
Guardians of the Fire and-"
"And they knew that
if they torture him, they would retrieve the other necklace, right?" said
Sirius. "And bring him back into
power?"
"Yes, but Frank
knew that his fate was about to come.
Someone has warned him about it, and so he sent an owl to Marcus
Costello with the necklace telling him to keep it. Today, Marcus told me that Maria has the necklace, and so I will
send an owl to her about it. Now, the
third necklace I have, but the fourth necklace, the one that Roberta Everett
had, is right here with us now."
"Wait, didn't
Roberta moved to the north?" asked Mundungus Fletcher.
"Yes, she did. Now, I don't know why the necklace came back
here. Harry, can you please tell me how
you got that necklace?"
"Well, Hermione
gave it for me for my birthday."
"Hermione, how did
you get this necklace?"
"Well, I was at
Durmstrang for the early part of the holidays.
I was looking for a gift for Harry and so I went to this village. I saw this old man who was selling antique
things. He said that this necklace was
well suited for the person I was giving it to."
"Is this man a
muggle or a wizard?"
"He was a
muggle."
"Right, so Roberta
must have moved to the north and then accidentally dropped this necklace
somewhere," said Alastor thoughtfully.
"It can be one of
the reasons. But I know that whoever
has been trying get in the castle wants this necklace and the necklace that I
have."
"We can also say
that one of the necklaces can be in Voldemort's hands as we speak," said Mrs.
Figg.
"Hmm…we can say
that," said Dumbledore thoughtfully.
"So what do we do
now? Retrieve the necklaces?" asked Remus.
"Well, for now, I
don't know. I reckon we could get the
necklace Voldemort has. Because if he
gets all of them, I regret what he can do with it."
"Does he even know
how to operate these necklaces?" asked Bill.
"Hmm…now come to
think of it, the only ones that know how to operate them are the guardians and
the members of the Phoenix."
"Are you saying
that one of us might cross the dark side again?" asked Sirius.
"Well, it's not a
big deal, isn't it? It's bound to happen again," said Mad-Eye, he was speaking
especially to Snape.
"Well, that person
would have to be a Phoenix member, Alastor," said Briana, catching what he
meant.
"Our task now is to
retrieve the necklace that he has," said Dumbledore. "Before he wrecks havoc with it.
Now, I adjourn this meeting right now."
Okay, that mostly sums up what I think the Order of the
Phoenix is. Remember, this is not a
spoiler; it's only my take of the fifth book.
Please leave a review. The next
chapters are really cool, especially the next one. Can't say anymore!