Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Chapter Three
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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: Well this is out sooner than I thought it would be. I'm pretty happy that I created an original plot idea I think. Read on if you want to know what it is. Also, this is a pretty long chapter (Yay for me!).
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Harry appeared in his bedroom right where he had left it. He looked at his bedside clock and nearly gasped with shock. It was already about one o' clock in the after noon. He guessed that he had left his room sometime around nine or ten in the morning. That meant he had been gone for about three or four hours. He didn't even want to think what would happen if the Dursleys found out that he had been gone. He just hoped that maybe they weren't home yet. He couldn't hear any yelling right now and he thought that was a good thing.
Cautiously, he stepped down the stairs. Harry peeked his head into the kitchen but luckily found nothing. He wound his way into the dining room and living room and found nothing. He breathed a sigh of relief but his relief was short-lived. Within moments, the front door slammed open and Uncle Vernon stomped in, followed by Petunia and Dudley. Dudley had another one of those evil grins on his face and Harry was trembling from head to foot.
His uncle's rage seemed to fill the room, almost as though it were magic, and if Harry hadn't been so frightened, he would have laughed. Anything magic mixed with his uncle was funny. However, Harry couldn't laugh at the moment and was waiting for his uncle's wrath to reign down upon him. He could see Vernon getting redder by the second, and it almost looked like steam was going to come out of his ears. Finally, he let his anger loose.
"HARRY POTTER! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!? WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU FOR OVER AN HOUR! WE GIVE YOU FOOD, SHELTER, AND CLOTHES AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY US? IF ANYTHING HAD HAPPENED TO YOU, THINK OF WHAT WOULD HAPPEN TO US? IF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THAT...THAT...MAGIC STUFF," and he said this word with total disgust, "YOU'RE GOING TO BE LOCKED UP IN THE CUPBOARD FOREVER!"
"I was just…out! I was just out! Can't I do that now?!?" Harry stammered. "Anyway, I got home a while ago and was just finishing a letter to my godfather." However, mentioning his godfather didn't work this time.
"JUST OUT? IS THAT IT? YOU WERE JUST OUT? DID IT JUST SLIP YOUR MIND TO COME BACK BEFORE WE GOT HOME? AND ABOUT YOUR GODFATHER: HE'S JUST SOME MADE-UP LUNATIC THAT YOU CREATED TO KEEP US AWAY FROM YOU ISN'T HE? IT'S NOT GOING TO WORK THIS TIME! I BET YOU WERE OFF WITH SOME OF YOUR FREAK WIZARD FRIENDS FLYING BROOMSTICKS OVER LONDON AND BLOWING UP HOUSES! YOU'RE GOING TO BE LOCKED UP POTTER! AND THIS TIME YOU'RE NOT COMING OUT!" Vernon seemed to have burned himself out by now, but was still glaring at Harry with a look that could have killed.
Harry yelled back, livid with rage, "I was not off with my wizard friends! I can't believe how bad of a view you have of wizards! Why can't you get it straight that wizards aren't bad and aren't abnormal. What is wrong with you people? I just can't stand you anymore!" With that Harry blew the Dursleys back with wandless magic, ran upstairs to gather his school stuff. He summoned everything from his closet and shoved it hastily inside his trunk. He reached under his bed and magically, everything under there was sent to his trunk. He was about to leave when he remembered the note beneath his mattress and quickly shoved it in his trunk. He tried to shut his trunk but it wouldn't fit. Harry opened the trunk and grabbed the first thing he could find: the book on expesias and shrunk it and put it in his pocket.
Harry's rage before his third year was nothing compared to the rage he felt now. His uncle went too far this time. This time he wasn't going to stand it. He ran down the stairs, followed by his trunk and Hedwig. Harry planned on running straight out the door, but was stopped as he reached the bottom of the stairs. There was his uncle, some blood streaming down his face. O yeah, he also had a shotgun pointed directly at Harry.
Harry's voice bellowed out, deeper than usual, "NO UNCLE VERNON! NOT THIS TIME!" With that, he blasted Vernon into the kitchen and into the kitchen table harder than before. He left number four privet drive fully aware that he could be on his way out of Hogwarts, but it was too late to go back now. He raced past a few streets before he was overcome with exhaustion and fell down on top of his trunk.
As Harry was trying to catch his breath, someone called out, "There he his!" Harry recognized the voice immediately as minister Fudge. Well this couldn't be good he thought to himself.
Harry turned around to see Minister Fudge and six other wizards. The six wizards had their wands out, pointing them at Harry. He could only guess that they were from the Department of Improper Use of Magic.
Harry spoke in a confident voice, expecting something of the sort to happen, "Don't stun me. I'll come with you." The six wizards slowly put their wands down as Harry lifted his hands up.
Minister Fudge spoke up, "So Harry- You claim that your aren't insane and Voldemort is back? I think this just proves the opposite. I'm sorry but we are going to have to send you to St. Mungo's." When he said this though, his eyes glimmered with what almost looked like malice. Fudge's expression however was almost immediately replaced with a stern look.
Harry didn't really have a reply to this statement. He just kept his dignity about him and let the six-cloaked wizards bind his hands behind his back with magical rope and allowed them to take his wand from him.
Fudge took a simple baseball out of his pocket and gave it to one of the wizards. The wizard grabbed Harry and forcefully made him touch the ball. Harry felt a familiar jerk behind his naval and felt like he was flying through the air when they stopped. Harry heard some popping noises and the other five wizards and Fudge appeared next to them.
Harry was escorted up to the building that could only be St. Mungo's. Some witches and wizards were popping up every fifteen yards or something, each one of them in a hurry to get somewhere.
Harry was brought up to a desk and the lady at the desk greeted Fudge warmly, "Hello minister. What brings you here today?"
"Well, I think we have a patient for the mental ward here unfortunately. It seems Harry here has been having problems lately."
The lady at the desk's expression could only be characterized as amazement. She recognized who Harry was and her jaw was opening and closing without making noise. Fortunately, Fudge didn't notice this and the lady stood up and ushered them down the corridor behind the desk. The lady looked vaguely familiar.
When she stood up, Harry could see that the nurse's name was Amelia. Amelia led Harry and Fudge (the other guards had stayed behind) to a room.
Amelia said to Fudge, "Well this will be Harry's room if you really think he should be put here." As she said this she quickly glanced at Harry.
Fudge wasted no time in answering, "Of course he should be put here. Can't you see this boy is insane?"
Harry just stood there, nothing looking strange about him. Harry could see that Amelia was trying hard not to laugh, but obeyed the minister. Sensing that she didn't really think he should be here, Harry gave her a small smile. She led Harry into the room and closed the door.
It was nothing like the mental facilities that muggles had. Instead of a big white room and being tied up in a straightjacket, it was a normal room, though Harry guessed that there were many spells and charms on the room to prevent patients from either killing themselves or escaping. Inside, the room was only about 8ft by 8ft, including a toilet, a cot and a small bedside table. Overall, there wasn't much room. Well, he said to himself, this is going to be your home for who knows how long. Not knowing what else to do, Harry lay down on the bed and drifted off to sleep.
Harry awoke early the next morning to find a new issue of the Daily Prophet and a couple of eggs and some bacon on his table. Harry quickly ate the bacon and eggs realizing that he hadn't eaten since breakfast the previous day. Actually, thinking to himself again, this was better than the breakfast he got at the Dursleys'. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad here.
After eating, Harry picked up the issue of the Daily Prophet and opened it up. He was somewhat shocked to find a picture of himself being led to St. Mungo's by Fudge with the title, Boy who lived taken to St. Mungo's. He continued to read the article.
It seems the boy who lived was taken to St. Mungo's Hospital for MagicalMaladies and Injuries. It seems that after his story of Voldemort returning
the past year, he attacked his muggle aunt, uncle and cousin. He was detained
by wizards from the department of the improper use of magic and Cornelius
Fudge, the minister of magic himself. Minister Fudge gave his thought on the
matter: "Harry Potter has been making up stories for the past couple of years and
it is my opinion that he actually believed these tales himself and that is what
drove him insane." An anonymous official from St. Mungo's gave their thoughts
of the matter: "Harry Potter seems very sane to me. I don't mean to disrespect minister
Fudge, but I can't see why he was taken here." It is possible that the minister sees the
boy who lived as a threat or it is true that Harry Potter is truly insane. In this writers
opinion, only time can tell if this fifteen year-old boy is really insane.
Harry looked up from the paper. It was as obvious as day and night that he was angry. Well, angry wasn't the word for it. Pissed off would have suited it better. Fudge truly confused Harry. At times he would appear blustering but well natured but other times…well…other times Harry didn't know what to think of Fudge. Well, it appeared that today was going to be a boring day Harry thought to himself.
Suddenly, he remembered the book he had shrunk before leaving the Dursleys' house and also had a pang of alarm. All of his stuff in his trunk was left on the sidewalk of where Fudge had found him. He was missing Hedwig, all of the books he had checked out of the library, his robes, his broomstick, and his invisibility cloak. He prayed that someone had picked up his possessions. He comforted himself in saying that they had to do something about it. It would be a nasty shock for the muggles if they found a trunk full of spell books and odd ends and a loud owl in a cage. Well, it's not going to help worrying about it now he told himself.
Harry took the book out of his robes but wasn't sure what to do with it. He didn't have his wand so he couldn't transfigure it back to normal size. A thought came to him suddenly. It was possible that he really was an expesia. Another thought popped into his head: he wasn't sure if there was some type of magic detector on the room. He didn't need to be taken to Azkaban, but he wasn't even sure that he could do this wandless magic. Maybe he had done the wandless magic earlier because he was panicked, like a natural reaction. It was going to annoy him all day if he didn't find out if he was an expesia or not. It would be something of a splinter in his mind if he didn't find out.
He placed the book in the middle of his table and cleared everything else off of it. He thought of making the book grow to its normal size and flicked his hand at the book. Nothing happened. Harry tried it again, only this time he concentrated harder on making the book larger. Again nothing happened. This time, Harry kept his hand pointed towards the book. For a third time nothing happened. Harry was losing hope. Perhaps he wasn't an expesia after all. Harry decided that this would be his last try. He kept his hand pointed at the book and said, "Engorgio." The book immediately grew to its normal size. Harry realized how big the book was. It was at least about five to six inches thick with pretty small writing. It was going to take him a long time to read this book.
With held breath, he waited for someone to come to his room yelling at him not to use magic or take him away or something like that. After a couple of minutes, he let go of the breath he had been unconsciously holding. Ok, so there weren't any magic detectors on the room. That was a good thing. He still wasn't entirely sure that he was an expesia though. That was a pretty simple spell that he had used. Harry couldn't really find out if he was an expesia or not until he had more information. Quickly checking that no one was coming to his room, he opened up the book and began to read it.
The book was very interesting. He had read for at least an hour before he heard footsteps coming from outside of the room and quickly shrunk the book and put it back in his robes. There was the sound of a key being turned and in walked Amelia by herself. She closed the door behind her and motioned Harry towards the bed. Harry sat down on it and Amelia sat next to him.
Harry spoke up first, "Why exactly are you here?"
Amelia replied, "I'm here to talk to you."
"Well aren't you afraid that I might hurt you? I could do it since you don't have any guards, plus the fact that I'm insane," and Harry said "insane" with total sarcasm.
"I don't think you're insane. Nor do I think that you should be here."
"If you don't think I'm insane, it's obvious that you don't think I should be here."
"No, I really don't think you should be here. You should be at the Dursleys' right now."
"But they tried to kill me. My uncle had a gun pointed to my head and I barely got away. Why should I be back at the Dursleys'?"
"Because Harry, there are protective wards at the Dursleys' that protect you. Here you are not safe from…"
"From what?"
"From dark magic Harry. You aren't safe from dark magic here."
Harry was puzzled, "How do you know all this?"
"I have my ways Harry. If I could, I would let you out of this place. But I can't right now. Somehow you will get out of here though. I have to go now."
Amelia walked up to the door, unlocked it and locked it up again after leaving. Harry was very puzzled after she left. How did she know all of these things? It was pretty obvious for anyone to see that he wasn't insane, except for Fudge of course. That explained why she didn't think he was insane. But how did she know about the protective wards surrounding the Dursleys'? He remembered Dumbledore mentioning that last year and that was why he couldn't go straight to the Weasleys' house, but how did she know? Still puzzled, Harry lay down on his cot, soon slipping into a light sleep.
Harry was awoken by a pulsating sound, which sounded much like an alarm. Harry heard a loud booming voice, "Dark wizards are attacking the hospital. At the time being, they are in the west wing making their way to the east wing. Harry didn't know where in the hospital he was, but he guessed that he was probably in the east wing. He also guessed that those were death eaters coming for him. It couldn't be just a coincidence that they had showed up the day after Harry got to the hospital.
He wasn't sure of what to do though. Should he stay in his room and hope they didn't find him or he could try and get out of the room and leave the hospital or should he fight? Thinking fast, he ruled out staying in his room. They had probably found out his room right away. He was just left with the decision of whether to fight or not. Well, if they were coming for him, it was no use running. Others would just be killed in his place if he didn't stand up for himself.
He stood up and stepped over to the door. He thought of opening the door and shouted, "Alohomora." The door burst open and Harry stepped out into the hallway. No one was here. He wasn't sure which way was east and he couldn't hear any noise. He did the only thing that he could think of. He summoned the fork from his breakfast and placed it in his hand. He performed the four-point spell and the fork pointed straight ahead. Well that meant east was right. He took off at a run, as silent and cautious as he could. Soon, he could hear the faint sounds of the battle. He ran for a full minute before he could catch the first glimpse of the battle. Wow, he thought to himself; there must be a lot of crazy or hurt witches and wizards in the area.
Harry was awoken from his thoughts as a rogue curse was thrown his way and he had to dodge out its path. Harry reached the group of hospital workers that were fighting a small group of death eaters that were putting up a good fight. The hospital workers number was twice as much has the death eaters, but they weren't trained fighters.
Harry saw two hospital workers go down from the killing curse right in front of his eyes. They had just died because of him. The death eaters had only killed those two people because they were trying to get to him. Two more died next to him. The workers still hadn't noticed him, but in a couple of seconds they did. He was glowing a deep scarlet and it could be easily identified that he was emitting some powerful magic, even with out the wind whirling around him that nearly knocked the hospital workers off their feet. Without incantations and without thinking his right hand shot forward and all of the ten death eaters that were huddled in a tight circle were blown off their feet and into the wall some twenty feet back. They landed in a heap, though still breathing.
The hospital workers looked at Harry with looks nothing short of amazed. Sudden realization soon replaced these looks as the workers discovered who Harry was.
"Harry Potter?" one of the workers asked.
Harry didn't answer but ran ahead, looking to help other workers. Within moments another small skirmish came to Harry's attention. His scarlet glow had fade by now and the hospital workers once again didn't notice him. Harry was thankful of this and dodged a curse and then threw his own curse back at the offending death eater. The death eater fell to the ground, stunned. He was getting the hang of this wandless magic stuff. This put an end to the discussion of whether he was an expesia or not. Now all he had to do was to read that book and maybe he could learn how to control it.
His thoughts were interrupted again as he ducked out of the way of another curse. He shot two more at two different death eaters. Each of them tried to block the curse, but their shields were disintegrated as soon as the curse came near them. Soon the rest of the death eaters were stunned or incapacitated. Harry was thankful no one had noticed who he was besides that first group of hospital workers.
Harry ran farther on down and soon came to a spot where the death eaters greatly overwhelmed hospital workers. There were probably about forty death eaters but only about fifteen hospital workers. Before Harry could get there, about half of the workers were brought down. Anger surged through Harry's veins as a scarlet glow surrounded him again and everyone at the nearing skirmish turned to watch him coming. Well this isn't good Harry thought to himself: now they're going to know who I am.
A death eater suddenly yelled out, "Get him! There's Potter!"
Before any of the death eaters could move, Harry's hand shot out and a great mass of magic was released from his hand. About a quarter of the death eaters were blown backwards, not ready to block the curse and knocked unconscious. The rest shrunk backwards in fear at seeing their comrades attacked.
Harry shouted out, "Drop your wands and give yourselves up!"
None of them did anything. However, the other eight workers had shouted more curses and hexes at the death eaters. The death eaters put up shields, but too late: about eleven more death eaters were brought down. Harry shot another blast of magic at the death eaters, but some of them blocked the blast. Only about five of the death eaters went down. Luckily, a new group of workers came over and started attacking the remaining death eaters. The magic he had used was very powerful and was not very easy. He had only been able to use it because of his anger and adrenaline. Now that it had worn off, Harry was about to faint because he was so tired. He didn't have time to faint though, as something hard hit the back of his head and everything went black.
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A/N: First of all I would like to reply to a review:
Emerald Phoenix524: I think it is logical that the phoenix delivered the letter because after all, it is the order of the phoenix. They would probably have a phoenix or two. Plus the fact that Harry would have been suspicious if he got a letter from someone he didn't know by owl. The Order needed to make sure Harry would read the letter.
I would like to thank the following 7 people for reviewing:
Della luna
Wquad
Shdurrani
Jedi Amoira
The Red Dragons Order
Child-of-the-light
Enialedam
Thanks everybody for reviewing. It really helps me to write faster (hint, hint) when you review. I hope to get the next chapter out in a week or so.
Threat of the chapter: I think it's pretty obvious. Who do you think hit Harry on the head? The Dursley's? Ok, here's a threat if you don't like that. It was Vernon who hit Harry on the back of the head and he wants to kill Harry for blasting him away earlier.