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?).
A/N: I'm extremely sorry for the delayed update, but I have been working on another Harry Potter fic. I'm very excited about this one and just so you know, it's titled "Revenge of the Muggles." Interesting, no? I've also been writing a totally original fic which I am debating on posting of fictionpress.net but I'm not totally sure. I'm actually thinking of going to see if I could get it published but I will wait on that one so don't expect to see it anytime soon. Also I would like to thank all of the people that I've stolen ideas from in the past and if you see something that I stole, then tell me. I probably won't do anything, I'd just like to know because I don't really remember anymore.
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Chapter Five
Harry opened his eyes, aware that he was in the hospital wing of Hogwarts due to the fact that he had nearly memorized every detail of it from waking up there so often. He reached over to the bedside table where he knew his glasses would be and put them on. It seemed that everyone from the order was in the hospital wing waiting for him to wake, but amazingly no one had yet seemed to realize that he had woken up. He calmly spoke up, loud enough for everyone to hear him, "How long have I been out?"
All movement in the room ceased. In a sudden rush of movement, everyone came running towards Harry's bed, but Remus was the first to get there. Harry could see Dumbledore standing back from everyone, but there was a gleam in his eye along with a broad smile on his face. Everyone seemed overjoyed to have Harry back, but Harry couldn't spot the person he was looking for. Dumbledore seemed to notice this and motioned for everyone to quiet down.
"I'm sorry Harry, but Sirius is not here right now. He is on a mission for me and I don't expect him to return for a few days. I can't tell you what he is doing but rest assured that it is very important and that is all you need to know for right now. To answer your question, you arrived here six days ago. Now for the matter at hand: Harry, it is wonderful to have you back but we need to know what happened. We know you were taken to St. Mungo's. We would have tried to get you out of there, but if we had, the media would have had a field day and we needed to at least pretend we are on good terms with the Ministry. I'm sorry Harry. Amelia here did her best to comfort you because we didn't know how long you would be trapped there."
He motioned to a woman sitting on the bed next to him. It was the Amelia who had been his nurse for his short stay at St. Mungo's. He thought she had looked familiar when he saw her before and he guessed he must have seen her when he was introduced to the Order of the Phoenix.
"Sir, I'm not going to have to go back to St. Mungo's am I?" Harry had absolutely no desire to go back there besides the fact that it was probably ruined after the attack.
"No Harry, I think we'll be able to talk your way out of going there, but you can't go and attack your Aunt and Uncle like that."
"Professor, he threatened me with a gun."
This earned a responding gasp from everyone in the room. Harry was asked, "They really threatened you with a gun?" from all sides of the room. Witches and Wizards didn't know much about muggle culture, but they knew the destructive power of guns. Dumbledore called for silence and everyone in the room shut up.
"Harry, did they actually show you a gun or did they just threaten you with a gun?
"Professor, he pointed the gun at me and I just…I don't know, blew them away."
"You blew them away Harry? What do you mean by that?"
"I don't know sir. I was very angry at them and when Uncle Vernon pointed the gun at me, I just snapped. I threw my hands up and he just was banished. I don't know what happened…"
Dumbledore stood there, staring at Harry through his half-moon spectacles. Harry once again had the feeling that Dumbledore could see through him. However, Dumbledore's gaze turned back to a faint smile as he said to Harry, "Now that we know that, Harry, on to more serious business: What happened after you were abducted?"
Harry took a few minutes before answering the question as he was still having trouble figuring out what had happened himself. Also, he was contemplating on whether to tell them that he was an expesia. He wasn't sure he wanted anyone to know right now. "Well you know I was abducted at St. Mungo's. I got out of my room and was wandering the halls after I had heard that the hospital was under attack." He had decided not to tell everyone else about his being an Expesia. For one, he wasn't totally positive that he was one. He had always been under heavy mental stress when he had performed the wandless magic. For two, he didn't want everyone fussing over him, deciding weather or not he really was one or how dangerous he could be. He had a wand and that was fine enough for him.
"Suddenly, I felt something hard hit the back of my head and I woke up in a small cell in somewhere that looked like a jail or a castle. Two guards came by and I acted if I was still asleep and when they came in the cell I knocked them out and stole the key from them. I wandered the halls until I came to a large room where I heard Voldemort speaking to his followers. I came up to listen to them but I tripped and they found me and stunned me. I woke up chained to a wall to the Cruciatus Curse." This elicited gasps from everyone in the room.
"All I can remember after that is being under the Cruciatus Curse a lot and drifting in and out of consciousness. Suddenly, the piece of parchment from the Order of the Phoenix letter came out- the one that was a portkey. Somehow I broke the chains around my wrists and managed to touch it and transport back here."
Everyone in the room was staring at him in amazement and it looked like admiralty from some after the tale. Nobody spoke for some time, reflecting on what Harry had said. Suddenly Dumbledore cleared the silence, "Well Harry, you went through a terrible ordeal a few days ago. Remember though, the next time Voldemort will undoubtedly put anti-apparation wards around wherever you two happen meet again. That portkey only works through Hogwarts anti-apparation wards though we don't know why. The Order of the Phoenix is still a mysterious order though we are still a part of it. It seems that it draws on an unknown power to break through these apparation wards, but it will only work because this is the base of the order." He paused, waiting for Harry to take all of this in.
There was still a question at the back of Harry's mind though, "Sir. I won't have to go back to St. Mungo's again, will I?"
"No Harry, I think we can explain your situation to the Ministry of Magic. However, now that you seem to be in good health, I think that you might want to go to your friend Ronald's house for the rest of the summer holidays."
Harry thought for a moment and then spoke, "You said my godfather would be back in a couple of days. Actually I'd like to wait here until he gets back."
There was a sparkle in Dumbledore's eyes as he spoke, "I suspected you would say that Harry. Which is why I already took the liberty to prepare you a small room near the Great Hall. You will find your belongings there and I believe your owl will be waiting for you as well." He motioned to Professor Lupin, "Could you please show Harry to his room?"
Professor Lupin stood up and Harry followed him out the hospital wing door. They weaved through the halls, which had become very familiar in his four years at Hogwarts. He was suddenly at a space of wall next to the Great Hall. Professor Lupin said, "Sospes," and an opening opened up in the wall that would admit them through.
As they walked in, Harry noticed a fire was burning in the fireplace on the wall on the right hand side. A four-poster bed, slightly larger than the one in his dorm was in the far left-hand side except that the curtains were a deep scarlet. A dresser was also against the wall, right next to the door on the right-hand side. It wasn't only the bed-curtains, but the room was dressed in scarlet and gold, and Harry guessed that it was Dumbledore that insisted the Gryffindor colors. It was very spacious, considering that it was only for one person and Harry couldn't have been happier.
In the far left corner was his trunk with Hedwig perched on top, hooting very happily seeing Harry for the first time in days. Harry went over and opened up her cage and let her out. She perched on his shoulder and gave him an affectionate nip on his ear and flew out of the room, headed towards the owlery. Harry was surprised yet relieved to find all of his belongings in his trunk next to his bed.
Fifteen minutes later, Harry, feeling refreshed and in new clothes walked into the Great Hall. The four house tables were nowhere to be seen, as was the staff table. However, a large round table had been placed at the center of the hall and currently, the members of the order were sitting at it, eating lunch. As Harry approached the table, the members all greeted him and went back to eating their lunch, which looked very delicious. Harry sat down at an empty seat next to Lupin and began to pile Turkey and mashed potatoes onto his plate.
Lunch passed normally with conversation and Harry couldn't help but notice that a few members of the order seemed to glance at him from time to time though they didn't seem like worried glance, more like excited glances, as if they were bursting to ask something but couldn't quite get it out. However, Harry turned to Lupin and asked, "Are you going to be teaching the defense classes this year?"
"I'm sorry Harry, but I'm going to have many other things to do this year and I won't have time to teach."
Harry looked a bit sad at this statement but then asked, "Then do you know who will be the teacher this year?"
"Actually, yes I do, but I don't think it would be much of a surprise to you if I told you now," he replied with a small wink.
Lunch finished and all of the members stood up. Dumbledore walked over to Harry and said, "I suggest you follow the rest of the order members. That way, we can begin your training in these few days you will be staying here."
Harry wasn't sure whether to feel excited at this or nervous so he chose the former in hopes that it would be fun. The order members filed out of the Great Hall and climbed up the stairs. Harry followed and was surprised to find that everyone was going through the door that had once held Hagrid's large three-headed dog, Fluffy. Harry followed them through the doors and saw that instead of a straight drop down, a staircase had been built that led to the place where the Devil's Snare had resided only four years earlier.
Harry felt like he was having Déjà vu as they passed through the doors that he, Hermione and Ron had passed through to get to the Sorcerer's (A/N: Yes I'm American) Stone. Harry was very surprised however when they passed through the door, which had previously held the Mirror of Erised and found it was, in fact, the training area for the Order of the Phoenix.
Wordlessly, the members of the order walked over to the large wardrobes and opened them. Inside, there were a dozen or so robes of scarlet and gold in each wardrobe. Each member in the order pulled one on and then headed to the large weapon racks. Harry was surprised to see that there was an extra robe in the wardrobe to his right and also a few robes in the other, wardrobes, presumably for the order members that weren't here at the moment. Dumbledore turned to him, already garbed in the scarlet robes, "Harry, you are a member of the order too. Please get a robe on so that you can practice dueling with us."
Harry was a bit nervous, but excited none the less. He half walked, half ran to the wardrobe and put the robe on. To his surprise, the robe felt like it had no weight at all and had many pockets on the inside as well as the outside. He also noticed that there seemed to be a place to keep a sword in the belt that tied the robes together.
Dumbledore came over to Harry, "Now I think we have to choose what weapons you will carry when you duel. I have to explain to you a few things though: We use weapons in duels because the if you duel with someone, if you can get up close with someone, they won't be able to fire curses at you, and since most wizards don't carry weapons and you will have an advantage over them. Second, when you carry your wand, it still leaves one hand free. It can help you a lot if you carry a weapon in your free hand. Also, for these purposes, the weapons have been charmed so that they will leave red stains on the body where they hit, but will not harm the person. We don't want anybody to get hurt training. Also, you will notice that these weapons are very light. You must know that even if they're light, they're very strong and when you do have to use it in battle, it will slice through most things. Now, I believe I have one of the weapons you will use right here." With that, he pulled out a sword from the depths of his robes. Harry recognized it as once. It was the same ruby-encrusted sword that he had pulled out of the sorting hat in the Chamber of Secrets, so many years ago it seemed.
Dumbledore held out the sword to Harry and he took it into his hands, surveying it. It really was the same sword as he had killed the basilisk with, minus the bloodstains of course. He put the sword in his belt and took a few steps towards Dumbledore who was standing in front of the weapons rack, looking it over.
Harry looked over the great supply of weapons on the rack. The number of weapons there was on the racks overwhelmed him. However, Dumbledore seemed to know what he was doing and said to Harry, "You seemed to have a fondness for throwing knives when you completed the obstacle course. I suggest you carry a few of those with you at all times."
Harry, not knowing what else to do, picked up five of the knives from the rack and placed them in his new robes. Almost as an afterthought, he grabbed a medium-sized ax and one of the larger knives from the rack and also put them in his robes. Dumbledore had started towards the duel field where Lupin and another member of the order were dueling. At the moment, Harry couldn't see either of the two duelists with their wands drawn and Harry could only assume that they were just practicing with their weapons.
As he approached the arena, Harry was amazed at how fast the weapons were moving. Harry could see his former professor striking with one hand and blocking with the other, almost faster than his eyes could register. He didn't even think anyone could move that fast, let alone brandish two blades that fast. The other duelist was moving equally as fast, though his moves looked a bit sloppy and sure enough, within a few moments, a red gash appeared across his chest-Lupin had scored a hit and a solid one at that.
Dumbledore turned to Harry and was smiling with great amusement. "You will learn to move that fast some day Harry. These two have had years of practice to get where they are now. I don't expect you to get be able to battle that fast for some time. However, I think it is time we start your training, though you will, of course, need to learn the basics first. I believe Amelia could teach you the basics at first, even though she is one of our nurses." Dumbledore waved Amelia over to them. "I believe you have already formally met her," he added before she got there.
Amelia smiled at Harry and then she motioned for Harry to follow her to the empty dueling area. She stood in front of Harry some ten feet and then took out a sword of her own. It was a scimitar that she handled very well. She told Harry, "First of all, you have to handle your sword well. Next to your wand, it will probably be your most valuable weapon. Now show me how well you can handle your sword right now." Harry took out the sword, feeling a little weary, but still felt confident. To his own amazement, the sword felt very familiar in his hand and he swung it about with ease. The sword flashed in the light as he still swung the sword about and as his confidence grew, he started moving faster.
A few minutes past before Harry knew what was happening and finally stopped. He was thoroughly tired and put his sword away as he put his hands on his knees and panted heavily. He hadn't meant to go for that long, it just kind of happened. He slowly pulled his head up and saw that Amelia was looking at him with a rather surprised sort of expression, as well as about five or six other members of the order. Harry hadn't met these members though and was still too tired to think much about them.
All of the sudden, a slight grin crossed her face as she hurried over to Dumbledore who was watching another and whispered something into his ear. He gave a look towards Harry that he couldn't decipher, but turned back to Amelia and whispered something back into his ear. She seemed to be bouncing up and down, though not literally, and ran back to Harry, shooing all the other wizards that had gathered around the court. Harry was starting to feel like he was being left out of something, but let the feeling pass as he guessed that they were just amazed that he was brandishing his sword so well. Heck, he was amazed that he was brandishing the sword so well.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts as Amelia spoke to him in a rather excited voice, "That was very good how you handled your sword. Now, we can start of slow, but I would like to see how well you can handle your sword in a real duel." With this, she pulled out a sword of her own from within her robes. It was a scimitar. She waved it about a bit, getting used to the feel of it, before she turned the blade towards Harry. Harry drew his blade up so that it was level with hers.
"Like I said Harry, we'll take it very slow to begin with so you can get a feel for fighting with a sword. When you experience more, it will become natural to you. However, let us begin." With that, she brought her sword around and sliced down slowly at Harry, who met it in midair to block it. "Good Harry. I see that, you know, at least how to block. Now see if you can hit me, try as hard as you can, I will only block."
Harry swung his sword around, but Amelia parried the attack. He stabbed at her and she sidestepped to safety. He launched an attack on her with all the force he could muster, but she only dodged and blocked his attacks. He could almost sense that she was falling behind with his attacks though. He increased the rapidity of his attacks even fast and now he could definitely feel that she was getting behind. He feinted left and he swung full-force right. Amelia didn't bite however. She blocked his attack and the force of the attack mixed with the block jarred the sword out of his hands and in an instant Amelia's sword was at his throat.
"The one critical thing that you must never do in a fight is to lose your weapon. If you lose your weapon you are the definition of vulnerable and that should never happen. You should always be able to defend yourself in hard times like these. Now face me again and let's see how well you can defend. Don't worry, I'll start off slow and if you seem to be doing it well, I might speed up."
With this, Harry picked up his sword and each of them got into fighting stances again. Amelia swung full force at Harry with her scimitar and Harry raised his sword to meet hers. A metal "Clang" sounded and Amelia repeated the action to Harry's other side. He once again blocked and then Amelia stabbed at him. Harry stepped to the side and bashed her sword down but she used the momentum to bring the sword around and slice down at Harry. Instead of blocking, however, he stepped to the side and when Amelia brought the sword down, it left her completely vulnerable and Harry took advantage of this and swung his sword around her waistline. Harry thought he had her, but at the last moment, she jerked back and his sword barely grazed her robes and the fight continued at a slightly speedier pace. Harry was mainly on the defensive, but every once in a while he got a chance to take a swing, which always missed. Amelia seemed to be a decent swordfighter, but then again, she had gotten accepted into the Order of the Phoenix and therefore had to have some skills. Harry had a strong suspicion that Amelia was a medic for the order however because after all, she worked at St. Mungo's.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts speedily as Amelia's blade nearly sliced his robes as he stepped back to avoid it. The fighting had escalated far beyond than what Harry had expected it too, though still not nearly as fast as Lupin's fight. Still, Harry had trouble keeping up with the speed and it wasn't long before there was a red line drawn across his chest. He put his sword away collapsed onto his knees. He was thoroughly tired and could barely breath correctly. Amelia had her hands on her knees and was breathing heavily, though didn't look nearly as tired as Harry felt.
It was a while before anybody spoke. It was Amelia though, that spoke first, "You did very well Harry. I didn't expect you to be able to fight that fast for even a short period of time. I am very proud of you as well as I'm sure Dumbledore is. What really intrigues me though is that you have just woken up after sleeping for so long and before that being tortured for half a day. For one, if Dumbledore hadn't insisted that you start your training today, I wouldn't have you start for at least a week." (This confirmed Harry's suspicion that she was a nurse or one of the nurses of the Order) "You should have barely been able to swing the sword around, but here you are, giving me a run for my money." She had a small grin on her face and then more to herself she said, "I guess Albus was right about you." Then back to Harry, "I think we all underestimated you but I have a feeling this will not be the last time someone underestimates you. You are made of a lot stronger stuff than anyone could have imagined and I know you will aide in the defeat of the dark lord. Now, I'm sure that you are very tired and I would suggest you go to your room and get some sleep."
Harry had regained his breath and only nodded mutely and sheathed his sword. He walked over to the wardrobe and put the Order of the Phoenix robes back where they came from and exited the training area. He walked up the steps and back down to the first floor. As he entered his room, he fell upon his bed and was asleep before he reached it.
Harry awoke the next day fully rested and hopped out of bed in high spirits. He got changed and went to breakfast in the neighboring Great Hall to find that he was one of the first ones there. Dumbledore was there along with Lupin and a handful of other order members, though Harry hadn't been formally introduced to them. Harry sat next to Lupin and felt a bit awkward as he saw a few of the present order members stare at him a bit abnormally. He helped himself to eggs and bacon and began to eat.
Gradually, the Great Hall filled with sleepy-looking order members who all seemed to glance at Harry before beginning to eat. Somewhere during breakfast, Harry asked Lupin what they were doing today and Lupin replied, "We'll be continuing your training of course. We want you to get as much training as you can before you go back to The Burrow.
This reminded Harry, he hadn't heard from his friends for a long while. Harry was sure they hadn't forgotten about him but Harry guessed that Hermione was somewhere in Bulgaria with Viktor Krum. She had seemed very excited at the thought of going there at the end of the term last year and Harry hoped she was having a good time. Harry laughed to himself at the thought of Ron's face if he got any owls from Hermione in Bulgaria. He had positively despised her going to Bulgaria though Harry wasn't quite sure why. The point of the Triwizard Tournament was to encourage interschool friendships and Hermione seemed to be doing just that. Harry thought Ron might have been jealous perhaps that one of his best friends had another friend. Well, Harry wasn't going to worry about it now.
He was brought back from his daydreams as once again, Order members got up from the table and left the Great Hall, headed towards the training area. Well, he thought to himself, this is going to be a long couple of days.
In reality, it was a long couple of days, but Harry was very happy nonetheless. He had gotten really good with his sword and could best Amelia twice every three times on average now and he guessed that pretty soon he would be able to beat Amelia every time, but the other Order members were still a different story. Amelia was a medic not a fighter, though still skilled at swordplay, but could not compare to the trained fighters. He had seen her fight against another member once and she had barely lasted half a minute before there were red lines across her body. Harry still hadn't started wand dueling yet, but he was sure it would be much harder than sword dueling.
During these couple of days though, new order members came around that Harry had never seen before. He guessed that they had been on missions, but had no idea what these missions could be. One member caught Harry's eye though. He had a beard that wasn't quite as long as Dumbledore's and not nearly as thick, but also looked very similar to the man. Harry supposed that this could only be Aberforth Dumbledore, which Albus had mentioned in Hagrid's hut some half a year ago. Albus had said that Aberforth had been prosecuted for performing "inappropriate charms" on a goat, and Harry wanted to ask what these were but chose to ask some other time, as Aberforth seemed to be busy as he left very shortly after he arrived.
The other order member that caught Harry's attention some three days after he arrived was none other than Sirius Black. Harry was overjoyed to see him, though it had only been a week and a half or so since he last saw him, but it seemed like so much longer. He had been through a lot in those short days, and judging by the tightness of the bear hug Sirius was hugging him with, he was happy that his godson was still alive and well.
Harry spent the rest of the day alone with his godfather, just happy to be alive. However, the day was soon over and though hard it was for him to leave his godfather, he was still very anxious to see his friends.
Harry and Sirius, accompanied by a guard of order members, headed down to Hogsmeade in order to use floo powder. Hogwarts' defenses prevented the use of floo powder and in Harry's opinion, this was a good thing because no one else could get into Hogwarts. As they made their way down the sloping lawn, the cool night breeze swept the treetops and sent a slight shiver down Harry's spine.
The group left Hogwarts' grounds and entered the purely wizarding village of Hogsmeade. They walked through the village until they came to The Three Broomsticks. They went in and were greeted by Madam Rosmerta, though they would only be stopping to use her fireplace, oddly as that may sound. As Harry took a pinch of floo powder, he looked over his shoulder and asked, "What was your mission Sirius?"
"You'll find out soon enough," Sirius replied with a mischievous smile as Harry raced back to the Burrow.
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A/N: Well there it is. Another Chapter. Might I add an exceptionally long one according to my standards. First of all, I would like to give thanks to all 13 of you who reviewed my chapter. This is a new record for me. What I am also very happy of the fact that they were all good comments, though I don't mind flames as they give me something interesting to write about usually. I'm kind of making it up as I go here.
Heather: Sorry about that long update.
(Blank Name): I'm glad you like it, though I'm not sure who you are….
The Shadow Bandit: I thank you for your kind comments.
Kelzrey: I left it there for a cliffhanger of course!
Litchy: Thank you, I just love it when people love my work.
GodricPotter427 (AKA Godric): You highly doubt that Harry dies? You don't know me as well as you think you do then.
Endless-Luv: Sorry about the update time….
Lil Lupin: Another sorry for the long update and thanks though you could leave out the as usual part because here's where things start to get interesting.
Leaf: Where Ron and Hermione have been will be announced in a future chapter…probably around 7 or 8.
Goodshiplollypop: Thank you for the comment on suspense. I didn't think it was too suspenseful, but then I again, I knew what was coming.
Epholge: I won't make Harry die….yet.
Chaser: Thanks for reviewing!
Ingy: Thank you for liking my fic, though the other fic I am working on is going to be much more interesting I think.
Second of all….second of all….well, there really is no second of all. Hmm….however:
Threat of the Chapter: Who knows? Voldemort could have been so angry after Harry got away that he attacked the Burrow and is waiting for him there.