At last the final member of the Order of the Phoenix arrived and at last Dumbledore rose from the head of the table. As he stood up he was surprised at how tired he felt, perhaps Snape was right, perhaps he really did need a nice long sleep. Of course he was never going to get one anyway, not with Voldemort around.
Slowly he lifted his deep blue eyes and surveyed each person in turn before he started the long meeting that was bestowed upon them all, prolonging their weary day further.
'Before we start this meeting, I would like to welcome Fred and George Weasley,' Dumbledore said, smiling for the first time in ages.
Everyone clapped politely and Hagrid gave them an extra clap on the shoulder. The only person who did not seem to be joining the little warm welcome was Serverus Snape who was just glaring at the twins, thinking that they should not deserve a place in the Order, after all they might think this some joke like school and cause havoc all over the place.
'George and I are very grateful to be allowed in the Order and as a Token of our appreciation we are all going to give you one of these,' Fred said holding up a necklace with the initials WWW (Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes),
'The main one we give to you, Dumbledore,' they said handing Dumbledore the one in Gold, then continuing to hand the other's the ones in Silver, 'these will enable Dumbledore to know where you are and your situation as long as you wear them. They will also allow you to signal other members of the Order. They have a powerful shield charm on them…' they continued to explain exactly how they worked.
'Thank you boys, these are ingeniously worked devices, precisely one of the reasons we let you into the order so young.' Dumbledore said. 'Now down to business, Voldemort is going to attack the Hogwarts express by sending his death eaters under the influence of Polyjuice potion. I would suggest we do something along the lines of…'
At long last they managed to finalize their plan and headed off to prepare.
Meanwhile Harry was having his most enjoyable time this summer (which wasn't difficult). He quickly found out that the Grangers were not at all fussed about their lawn, compared to the Dursleys, who did not allow Harry on it unless he was mowing it or clipping the roses, and always let/made Harry eat as much as he possible could. Harry and Hermione spent the majority of their time together finishing Harry's homework but Harry also spent a lot of time brooding about Voldemort. He normally did this while lying on the lawn since, contrary to his mood, the weather was determinedly sunny.
It was during one of these brooding sessions that Harry was sharply brought back to reality by two loud cracks. He sat up, pulling out his wand, and was immediately confronted by Fred and George.
'Fred! George! What brings you here?'
'We came here to make sure you two lovebirds are behaving properly.'
'Actually, what Fred meant is that we were here to see Hermione.' George quickly added seeing Harry was not really in the mood for joking.
'Oh and Harry why don't you stay out here, it's going to be boring.' Fred added.
'I'm Fred and George's accountant,' Hermione lied seeing his puzzled face.
Once inside Hermione, Fred and George started to plan Harry's surprise party because they were sure he never had a proper one in his entire life.
'It would be nice for him if he could have a Birthday he could remember as being happy, especially sweet sixteen' Fred started.
'We can't invite that many people!' Hermione practically shrieked. 'You know it would attract far too much attention. Look, let's invite Lavender, Parvati and her twin Padma, Cho, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Neville, some members of the Order and of course your whole family. Not the Creevy brothers, Harry finds them rather annoying.
15 minutes later the planning was finished. It had more or less gone smoothly, unless you count them arguing a bit because Fred and George kept on wanting some wild party activities. They finally sent out the invitations, removed the silencing charm from the room and then went outside to join Harry. After playing a few games of doubles on Hermione's table tennis table, Fred and George left for the Burrow.
Back in the Riddle House Voldemort was waiting for his inner circle to apparate, when an owl came flying in through the broken window and dropped a letter on Neville, who was sitting on the floor near Voldemort's throne. Voldemort quickly snatched the letter from Neville, opened it and then paused. There was nothing written on the letter. Dumbledore had given Hermione a special quill to allow only the one addressed on the letter to be able to read it in case the letter was intercepted.
Voldemort handed the letter back to Neville, got up and walked downstairs. Neville quickly grabbed the letter and read it tears already streaming down his face. If only Voldemort had left him and his grand-mother alive then none of this would have happened. He would be at home with his grand-mother eating dinner when this letter would have arrived. He would have been overjoyed that he was invited to his friend's birthday and every one would be happy, but no, that was not the case. He, Neville, was stuck in this hell, tortured in the day physically and at night mentally as he watched in slow motion again and again the death of his grand-mother.
That evening Hermione received all her responses except for Neville's. She didn't worry, there was going to be a good reason for Neville not replying and there are still going to be plenty of people since every response was positive except for Luna's who was still on holiday with her father looking for those none existent animals. 'Such a waste of time' Hermione thought. Now that she had sorted this entire thing out, all she could do was wait until Harry was asleep to put up the decorations with her parents for the following day.
The next morning Hermione was outside before Harry had even got up and five minutes before everyone was port-keying here from Dumbledore's office. She looked around to make sure everything was perfect; the garden had been magically enlarged by the twins so that everyone could fit in without being squashed, the decorations were hung all around with muggle protection charms and there was quite a large pile of presents stacked in one of the corners.
Now that she was sure that nothing was missing, she went upstairs to wake Harry so that he could be ready by the time the guests came. She knocked on the door to make sure she wasn't about to walk in to find him changing or anything. She went to his bed and gently shrugged his shoulders to awaken him. She left him to get ready and said that breakfast was going to be served outside. She was surprised he didn't question her why.
Just as she returned outside there was a loud 'pop'. Hermione turned around to find all her friends there and two minutes after that the patio door opened to reveal a sleepy Harry unwarily walking into the best day of his summer.
That day everyone had lots of fun and certainly lots of laughs since Fred and George had spiked some of the food and all their games turned out not to be as catastrophic as Hermione thought it would. All in all Harry was happy to spend his birthday for once with his friends and did not notice the absence of Neville.
The same night, in the Riddle house, Voldemort was watching Wormtail giving Neville some healing potions of all sorts, after all, Neville was going back to school, they could not sent him there weak and injured, that would be suspicious. So for the first time since Voldemort captured Neville, he had a proper meal. Neville hungrily stuffed it all down.
After he finished Voldemort had Wormtail lift up Neville's sleeve. Voldemort lifted up his wand and muttered some words. At once Neville shrieked in pain. Slowly, the Dark Mark began to etch itself into his skin. Once the spell ended, Voldemort examined his work and looked at it as if it were a master piece. He turned back to Neville.
'You see Longbottom, you will never escape from me now, I can track you down wherever you are. I can also torture you through this mark too. Now, you had better do as I tell you otherwise you will die and as you have seen, I don't deal with betrayal or mistakes easily. Now I am going to place a charm on this mark. No one will ever know you have it unless you betray me. Understand?' and without waiting for an answer, he placed on the charm. Neville let out one more scream of pain before he was thrown into unconsciousness.
The next day was chaotic because Hermione could not find one of the books her mother bought her from Diagon Alley; Mrs. Granger was chasing her to get her to eat her breakfast, Harry was doing some last minute packing and Mr. Granger, who seemed oblivious to all the mayhem going on around him, was in the kitchen eating his breakfast while reading the paper.
Eventually their trunks were placed into the car and they all finally headed for King's Cross. After saying their good byes, Harry and Hermione went through the barrier back into the world they belonged in. They found Ron and after saying their good-byes to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley the trio went onto the train. They found an empty compartment right at the back of the train. Once they went in they found Dumbledore waiting for them. Without a saying a word to any of them Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick and the compartment door sealed shut. He then disapparated.
'What was that for?' Harry said looking at Ron.
'Beats me' Ron replied shiftily.
Harry couldn't help but think that Ron wasn't telling him the whole truth but then again it didn't really matter. As long as he was shut in with his two best friends he didn't care. Soon enough Harry and Ron started to play wizards chess and Hermione began reading her DADA book.
Two hours later Neville walked into a compartment, containing Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna, with a few boys who looked like some first years trailing behind him.
'Hey Neville, pity you couldn't come yesterday, how are you?' Ron asked.
'They're some long distanced cousins.' Neville said in a shaky voice. 'They wanted to meet you.'
The journey was uneventful for the next hour or two. They talked about quidditch mostly. About three hours away from Hogwarts some of the boys along with Neville went out to go to the toilet. After they left the lights suddenly turned off, there was a few seconds silence then the battle began. The kids who were still with them took out their wands at the same time as Harry and his friends. One of the boys started the incantation for the avada kevadra curse but was hit with a stunning curse that Hermione threw. They started to duel.
Five hectic minutes later two of the five death eaters were down, one clearly dead, along with Ron who was out cold. Then suddenly it all ended, one of the avada kevadra curses which was meant for Hermione missed and hit Harry. The four remaining death eaters stopped dueling to watch Harry, slowly, as if time had been slowed down to make a second to seem like a minute he fell to the ground dead. The death eaters disapparated with a crack, gleeful looks plastered all over their faces.
Slowly he lifted his deep blue eyes and surveyed each person in turn before he started the long meeting that was bestowed upon them all, prolonging their weary day further.
'Before we start this meeting, I would like to welcome Fred and George Weasley,' Dumbledore said, smiling for the first time in ages.
Everyone clapped politely and Hagrid gave them an extra clap on the shoulder. The only person who did not seem to be joining the little warm welcome was Serverus Snape who was just glaring at the twins, thinking that they should not deserve a place in the Order, after all they might think this some joke like school and cause havoc all over the place.
'George and I are very grateful to be allowed in the Order and as a Token of our appreciation we are all going to give you one of these,' Fred said holding up a necklace with the initials WWW (Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes),
'The main one we give to you, Dumbledore,' they said handing Dumbledore the one in Gold, then continuing to hand the other's the ones in Silver, 'these will enable Dumbledore to know where you are and your situation as long as you wear them. They will also allow you to signal other members of the Order. They have a powerful shield charm on them…' they continued to explain exactly how they worked.
'Thank you boys, these are ingeniously worked devices, precisely one of the reasons we let you into the order so young.' Dumbledore said. 'Now down to business, Voldemort is going to attack the Hogwarts express by sending his death eaters under the influence of Polyjuice potion. I would suggest we do something along the lines of…'
At long last they managed to finalize their plan and headed off to prepare.
Meanwhile Harry was having his most enjoyable time this summer (which wasn't difficult). He quickly found out that the Grangers were not at all fussed about their lawn, compared to the Dursleys, who did not allow Harry on it unless he was mowing it or clipping the roses, and always let/made Harry eat as much as he possible could. Harry and Hermione spent the majority of their time together finishing Harry's homework but Harry also spent a lot of time brooding about Voldemort. He normally did this while lying on the lawn since, contrary to his mood, the weather was determinedly sunny.
It was during one of these brooding sessions that Harry was sharply brought back to reality by two loud cracks. He sat up, pulling out his wand, and was immediately confronted by Fred and George.
'Fred! George! What brings you here?'
'We came here to make sure you two lovebirds are behaving properly.'
'Actually, what Fred meant is that we were here to see Hermione.' George quickly added seeing Harry was not really in the mood for joking.
'Oh and Harry why don't you stay out here, it's going to be boring.' Fred added.
'I'm Fred and George's accountant,' Hermione lied seeing his puzzled face.
Once inside Hermione, Fred and George started to plan Harry's surprise party because they were sure he never had a proper one in his entire life.
'It would be nice for him if he could have a Birthday he could remember as being happy, especially sweet sixteen' Fred started.
'We can't invite that many people!' Hermione practically shrieked. 'You know it would attract far too much attention. Look, let's invite Lavender, Parvati and her twin Padma, Cho, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Neville, some members of the Order and of course your whole family. Not the Creevy brothers, Harry finds them rather annoying.
15 minutes later the planning was finished. It had more or less gone smoothly, unless you count them arguing a bit because Fred and George kept on wanting some wild party activities. They finally sent out the invitations, removed the silencing charm from the room and then went outside to join Harry. After playing a few games of doubles on Hermione's table tennis table, Fred and George left for the Burrow.
Back in the Riddle House Voldemort was waiting for his inner circle to apparate, when an owl came flying in through the broken window and dropped a letter on Neville, who was sitting on the floor near Voldemort's throne. Voldemort quickly snatched the letter from Neville, opened it and then paused. There was nothing written on the letter. Dumbledore had given Hermione a special quill to allow only the one addressed on the letter to be able to read it in case the letter was intercepted.
Voldemort handed the letter back to Neville, got up and walked downstairs. Neville quickly grabbed the letter and read it tears already streaming down his face. If only Voldemort had left him and his grand-mother alive then none of this would have happened. He would be at home with his grand-mother eating dinner when this letter would have arrived. He would have been overjoyed that he was invited to his friend's birthday and every one would be happy, but no, that was not the case. He, Neville, was stuck in this hell, tortured in the day physically and at night mentally as he watched in slow motion again and again the death of his grand-mother.
That evening Hermione received all her responses except for Neville's. She didn't worry, there was going to be a good reason for Neville not replying and there are still going to be plenty of people since every response was positive except for Luna's who was still on holiday with her father looking for those none existent animals. 'Such a waste of time' Hermione thought. Now that she had sorted this entire thing out, all she could do was wait until Harry was asleep to put up the decorations with her parents for the following day.
The next morning Hermione was outside before Harry had even got up and five minutes before everyone was port-keying here from Dumbledore's office. She looked around to make sure everything was perfect; the garden had been magically enlarged by the twins so that everyone could fit in without being squashed, the decorations were hung all around with muggle protection charms and there was quite a large pile of presents stacked in one of the corners.
Now that she was sure that nothing was missing, she went upstairs to wake Harry so that he could be ready by the time the guests came. She knocked on the door to make sure she wasn't about to walk in to find him changing or anything. She went to his bed and gently shrugged his shoulders to awaken him. She left him to get ready and said that breakfast was going to be served outside. She was surprised he didn't question her why.
Just as she returned outside there was a loud 'pop'. Hermione turned around to find all her friends there and two minutes after that the patio door opened to reveal a sleepy Harry unwarily walking into the best day of his summer.
That day everyone had lots of fun and certainly lots of laughs since Fred and George had spiked some of the food and all their games turned out not to be as catastrophic as Hermione thought it would. All in all Harry was happy to spend his birthday for once with his friends and did not notice the absence of Neville.
The same night, in the Riddle house, Voldemort was watching Wormtail giving Neville some healing potions of all sorts, after all, Neville was going back to school, they could not sent him there weak and injured, that would be suspicious. So for the first time since Voldemort captured Neville, he had a proper meal. Neville hungrily stuffed it all down.
After he finished Voldemort had Wormtail lift up Neville's sleeve. Voldemort lifted up his wand and muttered some words. At once Neville shrieked in pain. Slowly, the Dark Mark began to etch itself into his skin. Once the spell ended, Voldemort examined his work and looked at it as if it were a master piece. He turned back to Neville.
'You see Longbottom, you will never escape from me now, I can track you down wherever you are. I can also torture you through this mark too. Now, you had better do as I tell you otherwise you will die and as you have seen, I don't deal with betrayal or mistakes easily. Now I am going to place a charm on this mark. No one will ever know you have it unless you betray me. Understand?' and without waiting for an answer, he placed on the charm. Neville let out one more scream of pain before he was thrown into unconsciousness.
The next day was chaotic because Hermione could not find one of the books her mother bought her from Diagon Alley; Mrs. Granger was chasing her to get her to eat her breakfast, Harry was doing some last minute packing and Mr. Granger, who seemed oblivious to all the mayhem going on around him, was in the kitchen eating his breakfast while reading the paper.
Eventually their trunks were placed into the car and they all finally headed for King's Cross. After saying their good byes, Harry and Hermione went through the barrier back into the world they belonged in. They found Ron and after saying their good-byes to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley the trio went onto the train. They found an empty compartment right at the back of the train. Once they went in they found Dumbledore waiting for them. Without a saying a word to any of them Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick and the compartment door sealed shut. He then disapparated.
'What was that for?' Harry said looking at Ron.
'Beats me' Ron replied shiftily.
Harry couldn't help but think that Ron wasn't telling him the whole truth but then again it didn't really matter. As long as he was shut in with his two best friends he didn't care. Soon enough Harry and Ron started to play wizards chess and Hermione began reading her DADA book.
Two hours later Neville walked into a compartment, containing Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Luna, with a few boys who looked like some first years trailing behind him.
'Hey Neville, pity you couldn't come yesterday, how are you?' Ron asked.
'They're some long distanced cousins.' Neville said in a shaky voice. 'They wanted to meet you.'
The journey was uneventful for the next hour or two. They talked about quidditch mostly. About three hours away from Hogwarts some of the boys along with Neville went out to go to the toilet. After they left the lights suddenly turned off, there was a few seconds silence then the battle began. The kids who were still with them took out their wands at the same time as Harry and his friends. One of the boys started the incantation for the avada kevadra curse but was hit with a stunning curse that Hermione threw. They started to duel.
Five hectic minutes later two of the five death eaters were down, one clearly dead, along with Ron who was out cold. Then suddenly it all ended, one of the avada kevadra curses which was meant for Hermione missed and hit Harry. The four remaining death eaters stopped dueling to watch Harry, slowly, as if time had been slowed down to make a second to seem like a minute he fell to the ground dead. The death eaters disapparated with a crack, gleeful looks plastered all over their faces.