Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and characters related to it. Harry Potter and its characters are the intellectual property of the talented J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros. Scholastic, Raincoast and Bloomsbury books. Storyline and plot have been developed partially based on the plots, characters and storylines of the first 5 installments of Harry Potter, The Sorceror's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban, The Goblet of Fire and The Order of the Phoenix.

Chapter 4

Harry woke up rather late the next morning. He looked to see that Ron's bed was empty and he figured that he had already gone down for breakfast. He got dressed and went down to the kitchen to see Ron, Hermione and Ginny already at the kitchen table. Ron and Hermione seemed to be in an animated argument over house elves again.

"It's not like I'd ever expect YOU to understand what it means to work all day without getting paid. All YOU ever do is reap the benefits of what others do for you!" Hermione had said all this in quite a heated tone of voice only to be countered by Ron,

"Well it's not like we haven't told you a million times that all the S.P.E.W business is not going to help house-elves! Even Hagrid told you years ago that house elves ENJOY work. To set them free is to do them unkindness!" came Ron's reply in an equally heated voice.

The both of them had seemed to not notice Harry as he sat down next to Ginny, not wanting to disrupt the flames that were being tossed at the kitchen table. "Oh, morning Harry," greeted Ginny softly so as not to disrupt the flow of her older brother and her bushy haired friend's argument.

Harry took a look at Ron and Hermione, shook his head silently, and turned his attention back to Ginny, "Morning Ginny," he replied and continued, "How long have the both of them been at it? Nevermind I don't want to know," as he helped himself to some toast and eggs. "Where's Mrs.Weasley by the way?" he asked as he tried to strike up a conversation with the youngest Weasley.

"Oh, mum said she had to do some things for the Order, she wouldn't say what though. She did say that she trusts we are all old enough to fend for ourselves for the rest of the day. She'll be back to make dinner. Oh, she left you a note too Harry," said Ginny, handing Harry the note. Obviously, she had already read the note as she looked as though she couldn't wait to ask him something. Harry took the note and read it quickly,

Harry,

            Remus left early this morning. He did ask me to tell you that you will be joining tonight's meeting of the Order. Also, I think there's another boggart in one of the cupboards upstairs, the room on the second floor, third from the right. Just thought I would tell you so that you don't go wandering into that room.                                                                                                                                                         Mrs.Weasley.

Harry folded the note and put it into his pocket as Ron and Hermione finally seemed to notice that he was at the kitchen table. "Oh good morning Harry sorry we didn't notice you came down, Ron and I were…," said Hermione before Harry cut her off,

"It's okay Hermione I think I know what Ron and you were doing, I could hear it pretty clearly from over here," and Ginny suddenly burst into a fit of giggles which surprised Harry.

"And what's so funny Ginny?" asked Ron as he attacked the food yet again.

"Oh well, it's nothing…..do you know why you're joining tonight's Order meeting Harry?" said Ginny hastily trying to change the subject.


"I'm not too sure Ginny, but it's nice that they are going to let me in the meetings, seeing that I'm ……," he stopped. He was about to mention the prophecy that he had been told about in Dumbledore's office the previous year when he realized that he hadn't told his friends about the prophecy yet.

"That you're what, Harry?" asked Hermione curiously.

"Well, it's like this you see…," and with that Harry continued to tell them about the contents of the prophecy that he had heard in Dumbledore's office the previous year. When he had finished, his friends could only stare at him wide-mouthed. "Harry, does this mean what I think it means?" asked Hermione in a subtle tone.

Harry could see that Hermione looked very worried but he answered her in a steady voice, "Yes Hermione, that means that in order to defeat Voldemort I will have to face him at one point or another, and………..kill him," he had answered that in a steadier voice than he had intended, maybe subconsciously he didn't want them to think that this was causing him as much trouble emotionally as it already was.

"But Harry, you can't face him, I know you've escaped from him a few times already but how are you going to know if you can defeat him in a real fight?" said Hermione again as Ron and Ginny nodded in agreement with her statement.


"Well, I guess this means I'll just have to wait to see what the Order has to tell me tonight, until then, I can't tell you any more about it myself because I don't know." "Anyway," he tried to change the subject to something more light hearted, "Mrs.Weasley mentioned that there happened to be a boggart in one of the rooms upstairs, I was thinking, maybe we can try practicing the Patronus Charm, since we didn't really get down to a practical lesson last year during the DA meetings," he said. The DA had been discovered the previous year right after the meeting that Harry had taught them how to produce a Patronus.

"Harry! That'll be excellent, but er……I'm not too sure if I'm up to it though, I wasn't able to produce a real one last year, just wisps of smoke," went Ron who seemed excited at the prospect but nevertheless not too confident considering he couldn't conjure a real patronus.

"I think it'll be a great idea Harry. We can finally see if we can take on a Dementor, but we're not allowed to do magic during the holidays, how are we supposed to manage any practice?" said Hermione who also sounded excited but slightly nervous as well.


Harry smiled and looked at the last DA member present in the room, "What about you Ginny? Fancy a try with the patronus charm?" he said and for the first time that morning he noticed how incredible Ginny looked as she turned her head towards him, sweeping her chin length fringe aside.

Smiling at him she replied, "I'd love to try Harry, but er….I'm not too sure if I can…you know……face a Dementor," she said sounding a little anxious.

"Don't worry about it Ginny, at least you didn't collapse when we ran into that Dementor the last time. If I can make it I'm sure the three of you won't have any problems," he said trying to give her reassurance that he believed they could do it.

"Wow, coming from you Harry that's really encouraging," she replied with a smile. "So when are we going to try that out?" she asked as she looked at Ron, Harry and Hermione.

"Er…….well Hermione did mention that we can't do magic outside of school yet. I suppose we'll have to wait until I talk to the Order members tonight. Maybe we can try and work something out. I just wanted to make sure you guys were feeling up to it before I asked the adults. Maybe we can get Prof- I mean Remus to help out. After all, he was the one who taught me how to conjure a Patronus in the first place," said Harry as he felt that he had something to look forward to. He did wonder however, whether they would be allowed to perform magic, but he decided that he would save that curiosity for later.

"Well okay, but I really wonder if we'll be allowed to do magic outside of school. Wonder what our excuse will be?" said Ginny.

"Well I don't know, but I think maybe the ministry might be forgiving this time, seeing how they owe you a huge favor after what happened last year Harry," said Hermione smiling at him.

Harry grinned at this comment as they continued the rest of the afternoon talking about anything and everything that had happened in the past few weeks. Apparently, Percy had been too ashamed to face his family after the way that he had treated them the previous year. Percy had written a long and sincere letter to his family, which had included profuse apologies to Harry, about his behavior and how he would have to work hard to atone for his mistakes and his treatment of his own flesh and blood. Ron mentioned that Percy had resigned from the ministry, but no one had any idea about what he was currently doing. It appears that he had mentioned in his letter that he was thinking about getting a job at the Daily Prophet, to try and bring about some changes to the way that the wizarding world received their news. Kreacher, the house-elf was no longer bound to the black manor, but after the events of the previous year, Dumbledore had instructed that the house-elf be taken away to a place where he could be looked after and be watched, so that he didn't expose the secrets of the Order to any of Sirius's distant relations. Harry knew that this was wise of Dumbledore since Kreacher had been serving 2 masters the previous year and was bound to go to the Malfoys after the death of Sirius which broke him from his bond to the family. The Quibbler it seems became rather popular with the wizard community after showcasing the interview with Harry the previous year. The magazine became even more popular after the Ministry of Magic acknowledged their mistakes and cover ups and people started to become more interested in what the gossip magazine had to offer. Ginny mentioned that Luna Lovegood's father was very impressed with Harry really wanted to meet him. Harry could only smile at this. He really wondered if Loony Lovegood's father emitted the same aura of dottiness as his daughter. He imagined a full grown man wearing a necklace of butterbeer bottlecaps and he snorted his tea into his cup.

The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully, as there wasn't much to do around the house. Ron and Harry had played a few games of wizard's chess, which Ron won of course, and the four of them had enjoyed a few rounds of exploding snap. It wasn't long before Mrs.Weasley apparated back at Grimmauld Place along with Bill Weasley.

"Harry, good to see you, how have you been?" asked the long haired man as he extended his hand to Harry.

"I'm fine Bill, it's nice to see you too," Harry replied as Mrs.Weasley set off to prepare dinner.

"Good, good, so I hear that you'll be joining us for tonight's meeting. Quite a few people will be present at tonight's meeting. Charlie's going to be apparating in later. Moody, Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dung, Remus and dad will be here tonight as well. I'm not sure who else will be here tonight, but they say that Snape and McGonagall will be here tonight as well," said Bill as he gave Harry a brief rundown on the people that will be present that night.

Harry did not like the bit about Snape being there at all. The potions master was his least favorite person in the world and he was not looking forward to seeing the greasy haired professor again. Harry excused himself and he went upstairs to his room. He felt that he could use a little privacy before he prepared himself to face whatever he was to be told at tonight's meeting.