Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

Chapter Two

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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?).

Authors Note: I tried to get this out sooner, but my computer was pretty screwed up for a couple weeks, plus I don't have all day to write this because I'm still going to school.  This chapter's a longer chapter and just so you guys know, I'm trying to get this on gryffindortower.net and more revised additions will be posted there. Anyways, on with the story. 

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Harry found himself in the center of a gigantic, stone room.  It easily had to be two hundred yards across and it was completely circular.  Harry could see what looked like a few large courts and Harry guessed that they were for fighting.  There were two racks of swords, axes, knives, bow and arrows and throwing stars at each court.  Also, next to each court was what looked like a large wardrobe.  Harry couldn't tell what was in these wardrobes however because they were all closed.

Suddenly, someone cleared their throat loudly behind Harry.  He turned to find a group of about fifteen to twenty witches and wizards across the room looking at him with satisfactory looks on their faces.  Harry recognized a few of them as he began to walk towards the group.  Dumbledore was there, along with his godfather Sirius Black who coincidentally was a convicted murderer.  Harry, however, found out that it wasn't Sirius who murdered those thirteen people, but Peter Pettigrew.  Peter had murdered those people and then transfigured himself into a rat.

However, besides Dumbledore and Sirius was his old defense teacher, Lupin, his transfiguration teacher, Professor McGonagol, his loathsome potions teacher, Professor Snape, and his old babysitter, Mrs. Figg.  He should have been surprised to see Mrs. Figg here, but when he was in the hospital wing the after the Triwizard Tournament last year, Dumbledore had told Sirius go find Arabella Figg among with a few more people.  Harry had put two and two together that Arabella Figg was Mrs. Figg, his old baby-sitter.  Harry guessed that she was there to keep an eye on him, but wasn't sure.  Harry didn't recognize anybody else there, but Harry could guess that they were friends.

Harry finally reached the group and realized that they were standing in front of the door to this large room.  It was Dumbledore that spoke up first, "Well Harry, it seems like a bit of explaining is in order."

"Well, yes, an explanation would be nice."  Harry was utterly confused.  He didn't know where he was, let along why he was here.  All he knew was that he was here for the Order of the Phoenix.  He knew next to nothing about this 'order'.

"Well, as you can guess, we are the Order of the Phoenix.  There are of course, other agents in the order, but we are sort of the inner circle.  As for the room itself, it is basically a training area for the Order of the Phoenix.  We are in Hogwarts now, although you would never be able to tell.  I really don't know why this room is here though.  It has been here for longer than anyone can remember, along with the order.  You see the Order of the Phoenix has always been reinstated when there is a particularly bad wizard that under normal circumstances could not have been defeated.  The room that we are in has appeared in a different place every time the order has been reinstated.  It is another mystery of the order.  You know of course, that our goal is to destroy evil in the world.  We know that this can never truly happen, but it is our hope that we can, at least, do whatever we can to help make it happen."

"Why was I selected then?  Everyone else here seems to be an adult."

"I think that, Harry is a question for another time.  All that matters is that you were chosen and now you have to be tested," was all the response Harry got.

"Tested? How will I be tested?"  Harry was starting to get a little scared. He felt the same as he felt before he tried on the sorting hat.

"It's really a standard test, like the sorting hat was," he said, as if reading Harry's mind.  "However, this has more to do than just trying on a hat.  It is sort of an obstacle course used to determine someone's magical ability."

"What exactly is this obstacle course, sir?"  Harry was a little more frightened by now.  It was hard enough for the third task last year.  How hard would an obstacle course be for something like the Order of the Phoenix?

"That Harry, you will have to find out for yourself," and he Dumbledore made a gesture towards the door.  The group of people behind him parted and Harry's way to the door was clear.  "After you then, Harry.  And by the way, while you're in the obstacle course, don't worry about not doing magic.  The ministry's magic detectors don't detect magic inside of Hogwarts."

Harry made his way towards the door cautiously and opened it to find two more large doors, quite contrary to what Harry thought would be there. He had guessed that there would be some type of corridor there or at least a hall.  Regardless, he walked through the doorway and was slightly startled when the door slammed shut behind him.  Harry doubled back for a second and tried to push open the door, only to find that it was solidly closed. 

Well, that leaves me with two options, Harry thought to himself.  There was the door on the left, carved eloquently from oak, or there was the door on the right.  It was a simple door, no eloquent carvings or anything special about the door.  He still didn't know which door to choose, though.

Harry thought for a few moments.  He considered his choices for a few moments.  Something seemed to be urging to go to the door on the right and decided to follow his instincts.  As he walked towards the door, he noticed something small was actually carved in the door, barely distinguishable from the door itself.  When he reached the door, he realized that the thing carved in the door was the exact same rune as was the rune on the letter The Order sent him.

Harry turned the doorknob, opened the door and with fear and doubt looming in his mind, stepped into the obstacle course.

As soon as he stepped in, the door slammed shut behind him and Harry was thrown into complete darkness.  Harry immediately whispered, "Lumos," and his wand was set alight.  All Harry could see was a stone corridor leading down to some distant place.  So, he started forward, unaware of the danger that was before him.

He continued down this corridor for about a minute until he heard a faint noise somewhere.  He stopped for a moment to see if he could hear it again, but heard nothing.  He continued on, but stopped after only a couple of seconds when he heard what sounded like a roar.  Harry continued on, quieter than before and saw the corridor opening up ahead into a room.  He crept into the room and at first thought there was nothing here, but his hopes were soon diminished as a large mountain troll leapt out from the shadows.

Harry had to do a sideways roll to avoid the troll's club coming down on top of him.  Harry, remembering his first year, yelled out, "Wingardium Leviosa," and aimed his wand at the troll's club.  The troll however kept a very tight grip on his club and Harry was forced to move away again as the troll swung his club.  Harry called out, "Expelliarmus," and this time the troll stumbled back a bit, but the club flew towards Harry.  He dove to the side, but the club barely ricocheted off of his right shoulder.  Pain shot down his arm and back up again as Harry tried to raise his wand again, but he had only raised his arm halfway when he was hit with a sharp pain and his wand dropped to the ground.

The troll advanced on Harry quickly and he was forced to hurry away, without being able to pick up his wand.  The troll turned around and forced Harry into a corner.  The troll advanced on Harry until he was only about ten feet away.  Harry had no where to turn, and not stopping to think, he threw his left hand up and, without warning, the troll was blasted back across the room and landed with a loud crack.

Harry just stood there for a few moments, hardly daring to believe he had just defeated the mountain troll.  Suddenly, the wall across from where he came in slid up to reveal another winding corridor.  Harry went over and picked up his wand and started the path to whatever his next challenge would be.

It wasn't long before he came to an odd, gold, glowing mist.  He recognized this as the mist that he had almost gotten trapped in during the third task last year.

He remembered last year after the third task he had wanted to find out a few things.  Before he had gone home on the Hogwarts express, he had checked out a few books in hopes of learning what that glowing mist was and maybe a few other things.  He had read those books a few times over being bored at the Dursley's this summer and he had learned quite a bit about dark curses and objects, not to mention how to beat that golden mist.

He rose his wand, his arm feeling better now and performed the charm that would banish the mist.  "Retroago," he shouted, and with a flash, the mist disappeared and his way was clear once again.

This time, he started at a run and soon enough, he saw the corridor open up into a room again.  Cautiously, he entered the room, only to be sent back out by a couple of flying knives, which bounced off the wall and landed on the ground in front of him.  Thinking quickly, he summoned the knives to him and tucked them in his robe.  He thought they might be useful to him later on.

He quickly thought up a plan.  He didn't think that these would be the only knives that would come flying at him.  He didn't get a good look at the room, but he guessed that it was some type of trap, like the ancient Egyptian wizards used in their pyramids to stop people from getting to the pharaohs.  He supposed that the knives were on a motion detector charm.  He still didn't know how to get past.

Suddenly, a thought came to him.  He took out one of the knives that were thrown at him and transfigured it into a large, muggle "super ball" and then performed a bounce charm on it.  He made it larger than a normal "super ball" so it would attract the motion detectors easier.  It was about 5 inches in diameter, but was very light.  Harry threw the ball as hard as he could into the room and was nearly deafened with the sound of the knives hard metal on the gray stone.

After about half a minute, all that could be heard was the soft bounce of the bouncy ball as it sprung around the room.  Cautiously, just in case there were still knives that hadn't been triggered, Harry stepped into the room.  The ground was littered with knives.  He walked across the room and when he reached the center of the room, a door opposite the door he walked in swung open to reveal the next part of the obstacle course.

Gingerly, he stepped across the rest of the room and just before he reached the door, he heard a faint sound and without thinking, his left hand rose and the knife stopped in midair and fell to the ground.  Harry thanked the heavens and also questioned himself.  What had just happened?  He hadn't used his wand to make that knife stop.  He only put his hand there and it had just stopped.  He also remembered about the fight with the troll. He didn't mean to put his hand up, it had just gone there on instinct and the troll had been blasted away.  Unless he was mistaken, he had just done some serious wandless magic and according to one of the books Harry had read over the summer, it was uncommon for a wizard or witch to do much wandless magic without getting tired easily.  Harry however, was barely tired yet.  He really hadn't done all that much to get past the troll or the other obstacles.

Harry had started walking down the corridor by now and was brought out of his thoughts as he felt something grab his leg.  He looked down at his leg and a vine had wound its way around his leg and was now creeping up towards the rest of his body.  Harry sprung into action immediately.  He pointed his wand at the base of the plant and yelled, "Ignito."  The plant withered and let go of his leg.  Suddenly, something grabbed onto his other leg.  Harry burned that one as well.  Harry looked down once again and there were at least a dozen thick vines slithering toward his legs and he started running.  He was tripped up almost immediately and his wand was thrown from his hand.  Two vines started slithering up his legs and Harry made a desperate attempt for his wand, but it was too far for his reach. The vines were up to his waist now and more vines had started on his legs. 

This time, conscious of his actions, he put his hand towards where the vines were coming from and thought of nothing else but burning the vines.  There was a flash of light and Harry felt the vines on his body loosening their grip and then they were gone completely.  Harry's brain was working overtime.  Why could he do so much wandless magic?  The book had said there had been a few, what had the book called them Harry thought.   Then he remembered: they were called expesias.  There were supposedly only a few of those in the wizarding world at any time.  The book had said that expesias were usually powerful wizards and one of the few wizards that could do them now was Albus Dumbledore.  It was said that Godric Gryffindor was an expesia too.

Was it possible that he, Harry, was an expesia too?  He didn't know.  It was possible that because of the danger Harry had been able to do this wandless magic, but something told Harry that this wasn't the reason.  Maybe he was an expesia. It wasn't impossible he thought to himself.  But also, why was he one?  There had to be better witches or wizards in the world than him that should be expesias.  But still, it looked like he was an expesia and he was going to find out as much as he could about them.

Harry awoke from his thoughts, went to pick up his wand, and started at a jog down the corridor; weary of any other plants or traps.  Once again, he saw the corridor open up into a room, and cautiously, stepped in.  As Harry turned as he heard a sound coming from his left.  He let out an inaudible gasp as he saw a death eater standing there, wand out.

Harry immediately got into a dueling stance, waiting for the death eater to follow suit.  However, the death eater instantly yelled out, "Stupefy."  Harry instantly rolled to the side and shot a stunning spell back at the death eater.  The death eater dodged to the side and yelled, "Expelliarmus."  Harry moved quickly to the side.  The death eater used another disarming spell that Harry had to dodge before shouting, "Tarentallegra," and shot a tickling charm at the death eater.  The death eater, caught off guard by the simple spell got hit by it but performed the counter spell before Harry could take advantage of it.  He pointed his wand at Harry and yelled, "Imperio."  Harry didn't bother to dodge so he could use this time to catch the death eater off guard. 

The death eater told him to put his wand down.  Harry stooped low as if he was putting his wand down, but in reality, was acting totally of his own accord.  Before he put his wand down, he pointed it at the death eater and said, "Petrificus Totalus."  The death eater went rigid, either from shock that Harry had beaten the imperius curse or from the spell.  Harry couldn't tell which.  The death eater was stronger than he looked because he broke the spell in a matter of moments and was back on his feet.  Harry thought the match was over and was just putting his wand away when the death eater said, "Expelliarmus."  Harry's wand flew from his hand and Harry was blasted backwards.

He landed hard against the wall and something sharp inside his robes pricked his skin a little bit.  Harry remembered the knife he had stowed away in his robes.  Hoping the death eater didn't see him; he slowly reached into his robes as the death eater walked up to him.  Harry could tell there was wearing a smirk, even though he couldn't see the death eater's face.  Cautiously, he started to take the knife out of his robes. 

The death eater began, "Ava-," but then let out a shrill scream as Harry's knife pierced the forearm of his wand hand.  The death eater's wand dropped from his hand and Harry made a quick reach for his own wand, which was in the death eater's other hand.  Harry yelled out, "Stupefy," and the death eater fell to the ground unconscious.

Suddenly, the whole room around Harry disappeared and he found himself back in the training room that he had started in.  The other members of the order seemed to be watching a screen and talking amongst themselves as they turned around and the screen they had been watching disappeared with a pop.  As the order turned around, Harry could see smiles on each of their faces, and in Snape's case it looked like a very forced smile which made him all that much scarier.

It was Sirius this time that spoke up, "That was some show there, Harry.  It was very clever how you transfigured that knife into the muggle super ball.  You did far better than most of us did on our first run.  Most everyone here got stuck at the knives.  Only Albus, Lupin, Arabella, James and I completed the whole obstacle course on our first try.  And we were probably about three years older than you at the time."

Seeing the blank look on Harry's face, Professor McGonagall spoke up, "To change the subject Harry, we wanted to start a dueling class and competition because of what happened after the Triwizard task.  We thought it would be smart to help prepare students if they ever need to defend themselves away from school.  We want some student teachers from each house to help with this and we wondered if you would help."

Harry stood without speaking for a few moments before responding.  "You want me to be a student teacher?  Why wouldn't you pick a sixth or seventh year instead of me?"

"Harry.  Did you pay attention during the obstacle course?  You did exceptionally well.  You are not an ordinary wizard.  Did you see the way you took care of that troll?  No other sixth or seventh year could have done that. You will do well teaching the dueling club."

Very reluctantly, Harry replied "OK," and seemed rather sullen.

McGonagall told Harry, "Don't worry about it, it isn't for another month and a half and you'll do fine."

Lupin spoke up now, "Now let's get down to business.  You should of course know by now that you are here because you have been accepted to The Order of the Phoenix.  Throughout the school year there will probably be many Order of the Phoenix meetings that you will be expected to attend.  Don't worry; we will try to get the meetings to not conflict with your school schedule.  Unfortunately, we can't make any promises.  You know that letter we sent you?  Keep that rune of the phoenix with you at all times.  If you are contacted by the order for a meeting, all you have to do is to press your first two fingers to the rune and you will be transported here again.  To get back home, press the last two fingers of your hand to the rune. I believe you should get home before your aunt and uncle get back or they may be angry."

Professor McGonagall stopped Harry.  "Before you go, here is your Hogwarts letter as long as you're here."

Harry pocketed the letter and pressed his first two fingers to the phoenix and was very soon gone from Hogwarts, back to the muggles and back to the Dursley's.

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A/N:  First of all, I would like to thank all five of you that reviewed:

                                    Lil lupin

                                    The Red Dragons Order

                                    Lucy

                                    Heather

                                    Brion

Thanks. I still can't believe I got review this time. I hardly ever get reviews so that's what spurred me to write another chapter with Harry getting killed.  Still, if you don't review I think I'm going to have Voldie intercept Harry mid-flight and kill him.  There's my death threat of the chapter.  *I can't believe it: Five Reviews!!! Five Reviews!!!* I'm so happy.