Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

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Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books, Raincoast books and Warner Brothers Inc.  No money is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.  Besides that, I own all of the made up characters and the loopy plot(holes?).

Author's Note: This is just the first chapter and more to come if I get enough reviews.  Hmm . . . reviews, they seem so fake to me. That's probably because I never get much.   Anyway, on with the story.

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Harry Potter, the reluctant fourth occupant of Number 4 Privet Drive, woke up in the middle of the night unaware that the moment earlier, he had been glowing a most spectacular scarlet color and the few objects in his room had seemed to be moving as if an invisible tornado was plowing through his room.   He had another nightmare last night and the unusually shaped lightning scar on his forehead was causing him agony.  He had been having nightmares ever since that night where he had been captured by Voldemort and Cedric had been murdered.  He could not stop thinking that it had been his fault. He shouldn't have let Cedric touch the cup with him. 

But no, another voice said inside him.  He had no idea what would happen when they touched the cup.  It wasn't his fault.

But then again, the always nagging thought in the back of his head.  "If it weren't for you, Cedric would still be alive." It was driving him mad inside.  He tried to put this aside and look forward to what there was to look forward to the next day. Tomorrow was his birthday and he had almost grown to expect birthday presents from his friends.  The next moment, he turned over and fell back into his troubled sleep.

Harry awoke the next morning to his Aunt Petunia's yelling for him to get down and make breakfast.  Harry had become used to this again since he had got back from Hogwarts.  This year was different from last year however because instead of his cousin Dudley on a diet, he was eating as much as he could possibly contain.  Dudley came back from Schmeltings, his private high school, less than half of the size he was when he set off for school.

Ever since Fred and George had given Dudley one of their famous Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes magical candies, (a ton-tongue toffee to be exact that made Dudley's tongue grow to an enormous size) Dudley had been afraid to eat anything given to him by a stranger or basically, anyone but his parents or his school lunch lady and even then he was still very cautious.  This had of course, ended up with him losing a lot of weight and now that he was back home, Dudley was eating almost anything he could get his hands on.

To Harry, this was a big relief because Harry could actually get some real food into his body instead of the usual grapefruit and other fruits and vegetables and even then, in small proportions.

Harry came downstairs to find his Aunt Petunia cooking bacon on the stove and when Harry walked into the room, his Aunt immediately told him to start cooking and left the food for Harry to prepare. 

Sighing, Harry walked over toward the stove and began cooking breakfast as his Uncle Vernon walked into the room and immediately yelled at Harry for nothing in particular.  Harry acted as if his uncle hadn't said anything but was pushed aside by his aunt as she started putting the food on plates, heaping a huge mound on what would be Dudley's plate.

At that moment, Dudley walked in, barely pausing to wipe the sleep out of his eyes as he saw the food and started to eat as if it would be taken away from him at any time. 

His aunt Petunia declared,  "We have to get something into this body here.  I still can't believe our little Dudley-kins has lost so much weight this school year."  Well, according to the school nurse he lost half of his size.  He still looked like an overgrown pig to Harry, but of course he didn't voice his opinions and silently ate his piece of bacon and half an egg while Dudley devoured his pile of bacon and at least two dozen eggs.

Harry quickly finished his breakfast and was just about to go upstairs when he and the Dursleys heard a horrible racket coming from upstairs.  Harry quickly ran to see what was the matter before anybody could stop him and entered his room to find Ron's owl Pigwidgeon zooming about the room chirping loudly, which was making all the racket.

Attached to the owl's leg were a couple of letters and also a copy of what looked like the Daily Prophet.  Harry read one of the letters first:

Dear Harry,

Dumbledore still hasn't said you could come over.  But, you HAVE to see the Daily Prophet.

It doesn't look good after what you told us about the third task. It's really shaken up Percy

and he has been at work early and stayed late since it happened.  Fudge still doesn't

want to believe Voldemort's back, but I think it's gonna be hard to not believe much longer.

Harry opened up the issue of The Daily Prophet to find the headline:

Dementors Abandon Azkaban: Believed to be the work of Dark Wizards/Witches Unknown

Harry looked under the headline to see a picture of the dark mark in the sky and the wizard prison, Azkaban was burning. There was the full article underneath the picture:

The fifty occupants of the heavily guarded Azkaban have been broken out of Azkaban.  There is no sign of a struggle and it is believed that the dementors that guarded the prison were taken away willingly.  The dark mark was seen in the sky and the prison was set fire to when wizards of the Ministry of Magic were sent to check upon the jailhouse after reports indicated of strong magic being used in the area.  Interviews with several dark magic experts say this could have been avoided if the Minister of Magic had been more cautious after the murder of Cedric Diggory, One of the four champions in the Triwizard Tournament which took place at Hogwarts last year.  Apparently, the boy who lived, Harry Potter had come up with the idea that a servant of He-Who-must-not-be-named had murdered Diggory and that He-who-shall-not-be-named had come back from the dead.   Minister Fudge on return had told reporters that Albus Dumbledore, headmaster at Hogwarts had suggested that the ministry extend the hand of friendship to the giants and replace the dementors of Azkaban. Fudge had thought of the idea as preposterous at the time.  Maybe the wizarding community  should propose the idea of investigating the Minister of Magic.

This sent a horrible feeling down Harry's spine.  So the minister of magic still did not believe Dumbledore about Voldemort being back and the dementors had abandoned Azkaban along with the other Death Eaters.  The only thing that cheered him up slightly was that Fudge could be under investigation soon.  He had liked Fudge when he had first met him, but starting at the end of his third year, he began to realize that Fudge had been blinded by the power of his job to accept the truth.  First that Sirius was innocent and then the return of Voldemort.

Harry was woken from his thoughts once again by his Aunt Petunia's yelling.  She shrieked, "Get down here now. What's taking you so long?"

Harry rolled off his bed, quickly stuffed the other letter under his bed and headed down the stairs for the second time that day.  He walked slowly as he thought of a good explanation.  Perhaps he could say that his godfather had sent him an owl. He wasn't sure if the Dursleys' would believe this though and was trying to think of another excuse, but was spared of an answer as he walked into the kitchen. 

Dudley was having one of his famous temper tantrums again.  Apparently, his parents refused to buy him the new big screen TV that he wanted.  He knew that if he whined enough, his parents would get him it and sure enough, after only a couple of minutes, Vernon called out over his son's screaming, "All right, All right, you can have the TV, just stop screaming!"

Immediately, Dudley stopped screaming and a somewhat evil grin spread across his face. 

Within a half hour, the Dursleys were getting ready to leave for the department store and Vernon pulled Harry aside.  "Now we are not going to be taking you with us.  We don't want anybody getting the 'wrong' idea.  If one chair out of this house is out of place, you're going to be locked up in the cupboard."  It strongly reminded Harry of the speech he got at the zoo about five years ago.

With that, his uncle, his aunt and his cousin left for the department store, leaving a delighted Harry behind.  Harry could not believe his luck.  He had the whole house to himself for a couple of hours.  He was debating on what to do first when he heard a muffled sound coming from his room.

He climbed the steps to his room only to find a phoenix perched eloquently on his dresser.  As soon as it saw Harry, it quickly dropped a letter onto Harry's bed and flew quickly and quietly out his window.  Harry stepped over to his bed to pick up his letter.  In deep red,  grand writing was written his name, Harry Potter.  There was nothing else on the glistening gold envelope.  He opened the envelope to take out a letter written in the same manner as was his name on the envelope. 

Dear Mr. Harry Potter,

You have been selected to join the Order of the Phoenix. The Order of the Phoenix

is a selective group dedicated to fighting and ridding evil in the world.  The Order of

the Phoenix was created many years back in the hopes of fighting back against evil.

You know that the Ministries  of the world cannot always be relied on and The Order

of the Phoenix was instated to fight evil when the Ministries could or would not fight

evil for themselves.  It seems that once again the Ministry refuses to believe in the return of

the dark wizard, Voldemort.  You have faced Voldemort before and one and it is for this

reason that you were chosen for The Order of the Phoenix.  If you accept this offer,

please press you first to fingers to the rune on the bottom-right of this paper.  You will be

transported to the Hall of the Phoenix if you do accept.  Otherwise, press your two first

fingers to the rune on the bottom-left of this parchment.  You will not remember getting this

letter and will continue living your life.  We await your choice.

-The Order of the Phoenix

Harry studied the letter for some time, examining it and considering his choice, if he was going to make a choice.  He thought to himself that it could be a trick from Voldemort.  But then again, he thought to himself: Would Voldemort send him a letter by phoenix of all birds?  Throwing caution to the wind, he pressed his first two fingers to the phoenix-shaped rune on the bottom-right of the parchment.  Harry Potter was soon no longer to be found on Privet Drive.

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A/N: Alright.  Was it really that bad?  I had to redo this chapter because, to be frank, my last attempt sucked. Alright.  I would really like reviews people.  I was nice enough to write this for you so could you at least make an attempt to review? It really helps me write faster if you review.  Ok, I would threaten you, but that might just scare you off.  But still....I might have to make Voldie come and kill Harry while he's sleeping.  (Good motive, right?)