I do not own Harry Potter. Sorry, I intended to update sooner, but I wasn't able to. I will make this chapter as long as I can, as a Christmas present. I don't know how long it takes these to appear on the site, but I will put this on line on the date of Dec 25, hopefully it will show up on that date. Part of this is barrowed (with a few changes) from another of my stories, I feel it serves the purpose and saves me a few minutes.



Beginning of the End

((AN: Sarah Granger, made this name up, is supposed to be Hermoine's older sister.))



Sarah Granger was having a bad day. Her sister, Hermoine, had been gone for almost a month, and she missed her. Her alarm clock "died", so she didn't wake up on time, and was therefore late for school. Derek, the boy she had a crush on, asked her best friend to the homecoming dance. Her book bag broke and dumped her books and papers in the hall, causing her to miss the bus home. She had to walk home. She was about two blocks from her house when she stopped. "Hermoine must be practicing magic," she thought. But then she realized that Hermoine wasn't home, and wouldn't be until winter break, in a few months. "Then what could it be?" she started to ask herself. Then her stomach got queasy. Something Hermoine had told her. It was the dark mark. The symbol of death. She started sprinting towards her house, ran in the open door, and started looking for her parents. She stopped dead when she got to the kitchen. Her parents were there, slumped over the table. Lifeless. "No, NO!" She screamed. This couldn't be happening. Her parents were dead. She noticed a piece of paper in her mother's hand. She dared not touch it, but was able to read it anyway:

Tell that mudblood, owl, that she and her fiancé are next.

That was all it said. No, this wasn't happening. It must me a bad dream. It cannot be real. And who was owl? Who could it be other than her sister. AND HER FIANCE? Hermoine must have left some huge information out when asked how her school year was. Actually, she had been sneaking out, did that have anything to do with a boyfriend? Oh, who the hell cares right now. My parents are dead. Dead! No. This can not be real. This entire day is just a bad dream. Screw that, this day is a nightmare.

When 3 people appeared in the room, she was still babbling about it. They were from the Ministry. They asked her a few questions, and then told her to get some of her things. She did, and followed them to their car (brought for her). She was to be taken to her sister. She had always wanted to see this place that Hermoine rants about, but Hermoine had said that she couldn't. She just wished that it wasn't a hallow victory.

She had just dozed off when the car made a loud squealing noise. It was skidding to a stop. She and the three wizards all jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped. Unfortunately, the three of them fell dead. Another dark mark was above the car. She was surrounded.

"The master decided you would be better as a hostage then a messenger." One of them told her as a laugh. He started to say something else, but his head was jerked sideways by some invisible force. He dropped to the ground, dead, with a broken neck.

Great, first my parents are killed, then this, and now some invisible monster is going to kill the whole lot of us.

She heard a few more yells, then all her attackers were dead. She was afraid she was next. She had read enough of her sister's books to know that there were invisible monsters in England. Then, all of a sudden, 5 people appeared.

"We are so sorry you had to see that." One of them spoke up.

"Who, who are you?" Sarah asked, still quite afraid.

"We are the Order of the Phoenix, the current group of a very old and powerfull order of wizards. I am Phoenix, this is Cardinal, Robin, Eagle, and Owl." He said, motioning to the others as he said their names. "We tried to, but we couldn't get to your parents in time to save them."

"Owl? There was a note with my parents telling me to deliver a message to owl. Why would they leave it with my parents of all people?"

"Please take this, it is a portkey. It will take you to our base. We will explain there."

Sarah took the portkey, and landed on a hard floor, in a dark room. Suddenly there was light in the room, lots of it. The room she was in was huge. Not huge as in basketball court huge. Huge as in she only knew it was a room from the roof, at least 30 meters up. She couldn't see the walls, they were so far away. It was Magnificent. Huge chandeliers hung from the ceiling, each holding hundreds of candles. No, hung wasn't the right word. She couldn't see any wires or anything. No, more like were suspended by and invisible force. The floor was white marble. Wow. Wow was the most coherent thought she had at the moment. Then she heard a pop.

"Quite wonderful, isn't it." Phoenix asked.

"Quite" she barley squeaked.

"Sarah" Owl spoke, taking off her mask.

"Hermoine! I figured you must be owl. Why else would that @$$ have chosen our parents as a message. But I had kinda hoped I was wrong."

"What did the message say?"

"That you and your fiancé were next."

With that, Hermoine's face went very red.

"So it's true, you're engaged?"

"Ya"

"Who"

"Ron" At his name, he removed his mask.

"Ron, I take it?"

"Uh, ya" he responded.

"Well, nice to meet you. Wish it was under better circumstances."

"Ya, me too."

Sarah fainted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After that, there was very little death eater activity for a very long time. It was already the last week of school. Unfortunately, that is when things really went down hill. Sheer rock wall type hill. Sarah had some latent magic in her blood, and was at the level of 5th years by this time. She had not told a soul about her sister, and her friends. They were Sarah's friends too. As for Harry, he saw it coming. He saw, but could not have dreamed about what was actually going to happen. He was a nervous wreck. Not only did he have an approaching war to deal with, but he had something else. Ron told him it would be fine, so did everyone else.

"Ginny, can I talk to you?" Harry asked one day after Quidditch practice. (Ginny was the Gryfindore keeper.)

"Sure, what's up?"

"Um" Harry pulled a box out of his pocket.

"Oh my god" Ginny practically yelled.

"Will, you, Virginia Weasly, marry me?"

She was about to answer, but there was a very loud explosion at the castle. He saw the astronomy tower fall. Then they noticed the worst part. Thousands upon thousands of dark wizards were apperating onto school grounds. They, without a word, apperated to their base, were the others arrived at the same time. Sarah was using her portkey to lead people to the safety that was The Order's base. The team quickly changed, then apperated back to the chaos that used to be Hogwarts.