They rushed off to the cabin at the sound of the barking. Harry and Hermione finally reached the door, but by the time they did, the barking had stopped. They flung open the door to reveal Fang's body lying on the floor of the cabin. A dementor was leaning over top of Hagrid with its hood lowered, ready to administer the dementor's kiss. "Expecto patronum!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the dementor. A silver stag erupted from the end of his wand, and Harry watched as it charged straight for the dementor. Harry saw the dementor vanish from the cabin, and Hagrid's body fell to the floor with a thud. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go get Dumbledore," Harry told her. He transformed into his phoenix shape, and took off out the window. He flew right for the window to Dumbledore's office, and opened the window with his beak. He flew inside, and landed on the chair in front of Dumbledore's desk. He transformed back into his normal state at which point Dumbledore looked up from what he was doing. "Dumbledore! Come quick, Hagrid's hurt!" Harry told him. He and Dumbledore rushed out of the office and across the grounds to Hagrid's cabin.
They slammed the door open, and saw Hermione standing over Hagrid crying. "We have to get Poppy down here. Hermione, do me a favor and go get Madame Pomfrey. Tell her Hagrid's been hurt," Dumbledore told her. He walked over to Hagrid's body, and began looking it over. "Well, it doesn't seem to be too bad. He's just had some major flashbacks. By the looks of it, they were horrible. Look at his eyes, they're all swelled up," Dumbledore told Harry. Harry knew what Hagrid had gone through. He had been through it several times in his encounters with dementors. They had sucked all the good out of him, and left him only with memories of his parents dying. They were horrible memories, memories he never wanted to remember. Madame Pomfrey walked in the door minutes later, a stretcher already conjured. She lifted Hagrid up with her wand, and moved him onto the stretcher. Then she wheeled him off to the school without saying a single word to neither Dumbledore nor Harry. The rest of the day Harry spent in the common room talking to the rest of the quidditch team including Euan and Jack Sloper, who was substituting for Ginny.
The day flew by very quickly, although Harry and Hermione were constantly discussing what had happened to Hagrid. Harry knew there was going to be an Order meeting that night so he promised Hermione he would tell her anything he found out about the attack on Hagrid. But the first thing on his mind was the quidditch game. When they walked out on the field for the first time that day, Harry knew it was going to be a great game. The sky was clear, the sun wasn't too bright, and there was barely any wind at all. He looked across the field and saw the Ravenclaw team begin to walk onto the grass with their broomsticks. The teams lined up in position on their sides, and Madame Hooch came strolling onto the field. "Gentlemen, please shake hands," she told the team captains. Harry shook the captain's hand, and Madame Hooch blew her whistle. Harry and his team flew up into the air along with the Ravenclaw team. Harry could see Cho on her broomstick. She still did not look all that well with her face very pale, and a frown on her face. Harry knew he must stop concentrating on Cho, but instead on the game and finding the snitch.
He flew around in circles as he listened to the commentator speak about the game. "Granger with the quaffle, passes to Graves, GRAVES SCORES! Gryffindor 10-0," he heard the voice say. He cheered along with the fans as he continued to fly around the field in hopes of catching a glimpse of the golden snitch. But then he heard something he didn't want to hear. "RAVENCLAW SCORES! The game is tied up at 10-10." "Aw man, c'mon guys! We need to win this!" Harry yelled down to his teammates. "And here's Sloper with the quaffle. Passes to Granger who passes to Graves. Graves back to Sloper, Sloper back to Graves. GRAVES SCORES! Gryffindor up 20-10!" the commentator shouted into the microphone. Harry watched as several more shots were put through by both teams. And then finally he saw it. The snitch was floating near the middle Ravenclaw goal post. He flew down the quidditch pitch, Cho flying behind him and rapidly losing ground on Harry. Harry knew it wasn't a challenge for him to get the snitch. He outstretched his hand and grabbed the golden snitch from where it was hovering a mere six inches from the feet of the Ravenclaw Keeper. He had done it; he had won the game.
He landed on the ground and moments later, the whole team had rushed over and picked him up off the ground. They carried him off towards the locker rooms to the sound of many Gryffindors cheering. The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were booing, but much of their noise had been drowned out by the sound of the Gryffindors showing support for their team. The Hufflepuffs really did not have any preference in the match, so their section was mostly empty except for a few students who were ecstatic to see any match. The Gryffindor team hurriedly changed out of their quidditch robes and got into their normal clothes before heading back up to the stands to meet up with their other non-quidditch-playing friends. Normally, Harry would be celebrating with Ron after a victory, but Ron was not here which made Harry feel very bad about Ron. He felt sorry for Ron having to go into hiding, and he knew that Ron would have been overly excited of this Gryffindor win. Instead, Harry was celebrating with Hermione, though it was not as fun as it would've been to hang out with Ron.
They went on back to the now full common room where kids were running around gleefully with huge grins on their faces as they partied in celebration of Gryffindor's second win of the three-game season. There was only one match to go in this year's season, and that would be the hardest game to win. Slytherin had always been their rivals and for the past two years, Gryffindor had managed to pull off not only a victory over Slytherin, but also winning the Quidditch Cup. Dean and Seamus could be found in one corner of the common room talking very intensely with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Harry was now sitting alone in one corner of the room staring at a book full of information about wandless magic. "Harry, c'mon. Get up and have some fun!" Neville said as he pushed his way through the immense crowd. "I'm not really in the mood tonight, Neville," Harry replied, not taking his eyes off the book. He wasn't really interested in the book though. He wasn't even really reading. He was just trying to look busy so nobody would bother him. Obviously it wasn't working though, as now there were three or four other people bugging him to get up.
"I'm not in the mood!" Harry repeated, this time a little too loudly. Half of the common room was now staring him straight in the face. He grabbed his book and went up to his dormitory, tired of people bothering him. "Why didn't I come up here before?" he thought to himself, lying down on his bed. Moments later, Hermione came strolling into the room. "What's wrong, Harry? You're normally so happy after quidditch matches! You and Ron always have so much fun....Oh, it's Ron, isn't it?" she asked. "It's none of your business. Why don't you go talk to your friends down at the party. You can borrow my invisibility cloak and go get some butter beer from Hogsmeade if you want," Harry suggested, putting his book down on his chest for the first time that night. "Well, it won't be any fun if you're not there. You're the hero of the game! You're the reason we won!" Hermione told him, trying to cheer him up. "Hermione, just leave me alone, okay. I really don't want to talk. Just let me rest. Everything is fine," Harry returned, picking his book back up. "Whatever Harry. You know where I'll be if you need to find me though," she said, pointing out the door towards the common room. He watched as she walked out of the dormitory before he threw the book down on the floor and laid his head back on his pillow.
He began thinking about what Ron and the Weasley's were probably doing at that moment before he realized that the Order meeting was just about ready to start. He ran out of the dormitory and through the crowd still gathered in the common room. The crowd was beginning to dwindle down, but there was still quite a bit of people in small groups around the common room chatting about various items. He rushed through the groups of friends and through the portrait hole. He broke into a run as he went down one of the many moving staircases in an attempt to get to the meeting on time, rather than being late and getting yelled at by some of the more non-lenient members of the Order. He had finally reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office, the gargoyles. "Skiving Snackboxes!" Harry yelled at the gargoyles. They split apart, revealing a spiraling staircase that Harry knew led to Dumbledore's office door. He ran up to the door and was about ready to knock when the door flung open. "Welcome, Harry," Moody greeted him, beckoning him to walk inside the office. Harry was getting quite used to Moody being able to tell when he was about ready to join the Order meeting. Moody had done it several times that year, and today was no exception.
"If you all would kindly take a seat, this meeting of the Order of the Phoenix will begin," Dumbledore said. Harry noticed a very nervous looking Arthur Weasley in the corner, and Harry realized something. Mr. Weasley must not have been in hiding with his family. After all, he was the Minister of Magic, who would take his place? Tonks was there, along with Lupin, Sirius, Kingsley, Professor McGonagall, Ms. Figg, and, of course, Harry's least favorite teacher, Professor Severus Snape. "Firstly, I would like to discuss a particular event that has happened earlier today. Our dear Hagrid was attacked in his cabin by a dementor. He was about to receive the Dementor's Kiss when Mr. Potter here barged into the cabin and used the Patronus Charm to extinguish the dementor. Thanks to Harry, Hagrid is recovering well in the hospital wing, with only minor trauma. It seems a though Hagrid relived some pretty bad memories," Dumbledore began informing the crowd. Many heads turned to look at Harry, and Moody gave him the thumbs up. Lupin clapped him on the back and said, "Heh, it's times like these that I'm proud to have adopted you." He smiled at Lupin, and turned his attention back to Dumbledore.
"Now, onto our next area of business. Moody, inform us what you have found out about who has joined the ranks of Voldemort," Dumbledore said, turning his face to one of his most loyal friends. "Well, it seems that a few new people have joined Voldemort's ranks. Marcus Flint, former Slytherin prefect and former Quidditch Captain, has become a Death Eater, along with Percy Weasley who was fired from his job at the Ministry," Moody told the group. At this, Harry turned to face Arthur Weasley. Mr. Weasley's face was very pale, and Harry knew he was ashamed of his son. He did not know what else was going through Mr. Weasley's head, but Harry knew that there were mixed emotions and thoughts going through his mind. The rest of his family, excluding Percy and Bill, was in hiding, trying to avoid Voldemort. One of his sons, Bill, was killed by Death Eaters, and to top it all off, another of his sons had become a Death Eater. "Also, several giants have betrayed our trust and have joined Voldemort's cause. One of these giants includes Hagrid's mother, a very strong female giant," Moody finished explaining to the Order members. "Thank you, Alastor. That was very informative. Now, onto our next order of business," Dumbledore said.
"Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, what have you found out about the veil?" Dumbledore asked. "Well, we found that the veil does indeed go to a place in the next realm, the realm of the dead. Sirius is going to explain what he experienced when he was behind the veil," Lupin said. "Well, it definitely felt as if I was in the next realm. I saw some people I knew were dead, like Lily and James Potter. But they obviously could not see me. The air behind there was lacking oxygen and I presume it was mostly carbon dioxide which is not a suitable atmosphere for a human being. I was lucky Harry saved me when he did or else I would have suffocated because of the air," Sirius explained. "Yes, and we have found a lot of information on the creator of the veil. It was created by an ancestor of Salazar Slytherin himself, which means that Voldemort is also connected to the person who created the veil. We don't think that Voldemort knows this information, so we plan to keep it quiet so he does not find out. We know we will probably find that there is a connection between the realm behind the veil and Voldemort's mind, giving Voldemort just one more power we do not have. This is something we do not need, so please try to keep this information quiet as you should do with all other information given at these meetings of the Order of the Phoenix," Tonks told the crowd. "Thank you Tonks. Now, I understand Kingsley has something to say, and he'll be the last person to talk before I do," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, I have more information about the break-in that occurred a while back. There was another attempted robbery, but luckily I was in the vault and was able to stop the robber. He was looking for the Veil of Mystery, the veil which was supposed to be a replica of the veil found in the Department of Mysteries. Of course, this veil does not work the same, but it uses the same theories. I took him to the headquarters, and used some Veritaserum that Severus brewed for me in order to question him. I found that he was the same person who broke in the last time, it was Mr. Goyle whose son is a Slytherin in Harry's year. We are still questioning him, so I will update you when we are finished," Kingsley concluded. Harry wasn't really paying any attention to the part when Kingsley started talking about bringing the man back to headquarters. Kingsley always had that same boring monotone voice that nobody really wanted to listen to, and Harry was just the same as everybody else. The way Kingsley talked bored him to death and almost caused him to fall asleep.
"Alright, that sums up what all of you have been doing for the past few weeks time. I would like to say thank you for all you have been doing. It has all helped us out in our cause, and without you doing even the smallest of assignments, Voldemort would be free to roam around this country and slaughter non-purebloods and Muggles. We will meet again in a few weeks time, unless something else urgent happens before then. I will keep in contact with you all. Kingsley, continue to question him. Alastor, please help him. Tonks, Lupin, you need to continue researching the veil. Sirius, I'm going to need you to join the team of watchmen for Harry. Arthur, please do not worry. We have a few of our best men with your family helping them. We need you to stay strong during these hard times and do your best job as Minister of Magic. Harry, I need to speak with you after the meeting. Everybody else is free to go," Dumbledore said, giving another speech everybody was attentive to. No matter what the subject was, everybody always paid full attention to Dumbledore when he was speaking. He could have been talking about flobberworms, and what they eat, and the Order members would take great interest in what he was saying. Harry supposed it was because Dumbledore was such a noble man.
"Harry, please take a seat. This shouldn't be too long," Dumbledore told him, gesturing towards the nice fluffy seat in fron of his desk. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore," Harry replied, taking a seat. "Harry, why didn't you kill the dementor? You have found you have the power to do so, so why didn't you kill the one trying to kill Hagrid?" Dumbledore asked him. "Umm...I don't know, Professor. I guess I just wasn't thinking," Harry answered. "Ah, okay Harry. Listen, I have a request to make. If you are ever in the room with a dementor, please kill it. I'm sorry if I sound too harsh, or if I'm asking too much of you, but it would do the Order a great deal of justice. It would help us out a lot, Harry," Dumbledore told him. "Sorry Professor. I don't know if I really want to kill them though. The idea of killing something just doesn't seem right to me," Harry replied. "Harry, how are you supposed to get rid of Voldemort then?" Dumbledore inquired. "Err...I guess you're right. And, I mean, I would be helping the Order out greatly. So, I guess I could try," Harry told his Headmaster. "Thank you, Harry. Now, why don't you go get some sleep. You'll need it for classes tomorrow," Dumbledore told him, ushering him towards the door. Harry walked silently back to the common room. He passed Professor McGonagall on the way, but he did not stop to say 'hi'. All he could do was think about Dumbledore's request. No matter what he did, he could not shake the thought. It just didn't seem like something Dumbledore would say.
They slammed the door open, and saw Hermione standing over Hagrid crying. "We have to get Poppy down here. Hermione, do me a favor and go get Madame Pomfrey. Tell her Hagrid's been hurt," Dumbledore told her. He walked over to Hagrid's body, and began looking it over. "Well, it doesn't seem to be too bad. He's just had some major flashbacks. By the looks of it, they were horrible. Look at his eyes, they're all swelled up," Dumbledore told Harry. Harry knew what Hagrid had gone through. He had been through it several times in his encounters with dementors. They had sucked all the good out of him, and left him only with memories of his parents dying. They were horrible memories, memories he never wanted to remember. Madame Pomfrey walked in the door minutes later, a stretcher already conjured. She lifted Hagrid up with her wand, and moved him onto the stretcher. Then she wheeled him off to the school without saying a single word to neither Dumbledore nor Harry. The rest of the day Harry spent in the common room talking to the rest of the quidditch team including Euan and Jack Sloper, who was substituting for Ginny.
The day flew by very quickly, although Harry and Hermione were constantly discussing what had happened to Hagrid. Harry knew there was going to be an Order meeting that night so he promised Hermione he would tell her anything he found out about the attack on Hagrid. But the first thing on his mind was the quidditch game. When they walked out on the field for the first time that day, Harry knew it was going to be a great game. The sky was clear, the sun wasn't too bright, and there was barely any wind at all. He looked across the field and saw the Ravenclaw team begin to walk onto the grass with their broomsticks. The teams lined up in position on their sides, and Madame Hooch came strolling onto the field. "Gentlemen, please shake hands," she told the team captains. Harry shook the captain's hand, and Madame Hooch blew her whistle. Harry and his team flew up into the air along with the Ravenclaw team. Harry could see Cho on her broomstick. She still did not look all that well with her face very pale, and a frown on her face. Harry knew he must stop concentrating on Cho, but instead on the game and finding the snitch.
He flew around in circles as he listened to the commentator speak about the game. "Granger with the quaffle, passes to Graves, GRAVES SCORES! Gryffindor 10-0," he heard the voice say. He cheered along with the fans as he continued to fly around the field in hopes of catching a glimpse of the golden snitch. But then he heard something he didn't want to hear. "RAVENCLAW SCORES! The game is tied up at 10-10." "Aw man, c'mon guys! We need to win this!" Harry yelled down to his teammates. "And here's Sloper with the quaffle. Passes to Granger who passes to Graves. Graves back to Sloper, Sloper back to Graves. GRAVES SCORES! Gryffindor up 20-10!" the commentator shouted into the microphone. Harry watched as several more shots were put through by both teams. And then finally he saw it. The snitch was floating near the middle Ravenclaw goal post. He flew down the quidditch pitch, Cho flying behind him and rapidly losing ground on Harry. Harry knew it wasn't a challenge for him to get the snitch. He outstretched his hand and grabbed the golden snitch from where it was hovering a mere six inches from the feet of the Ravenclaw Keeper. He had done it; he had won the game.
He landed on the ground and moments later, the whole team had rushed over and picked him up off the ground. They carried him off towards the locker rooms to the sound of many Gryffindors cheering. The Slytherins and Ravenclaws were booing, but much of their noise had been drowned out by the sound of the Gryffindors showing support for their team. The Hufflepuffs really did not have any preference in the match, so their section was mostly empty except for a few students who were ecstatic to see any match. The Gryffindor team hurriedly changed out of their quidditch robes and got into their normal clothes before heading back up to the stands to meet up with their other non-quidditch-playing friends. Normally, Harry would be celebrating with Ron after a victory, but Ron was not here which made Harry feel very bad about Ron. He felt sorry for Ron having to go into hiding, and he knew that Ron would have been overly excited of this Gryffindor win. Instead, Harry was celebrating with Hermione, though it was not as fun as it would've been to hang out with Ron.
They went on back to the now full common room where kids were running around gleefully with huge grins on their faces as they partied in celebration of Gryffindor's second win of the three-game season. There was only one match to go in this year's season, and that would be the hardest game to win. Slytherin had always been their rivals and for the past two years, Gryffindor had managed to pull off not only a victory over Slytherin, but also winning the Quidditch Cup. Dean and Seamus could be found in one corner of the common room talking very intensely with Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. Harry was now sitting alone in one corner of the room staring at a book full of information about wandless magic. "Harry, c'mon. Get up and have some fun!" Neville said as he pushed his way through the immense crowd. "I'm not really in the mood tonight, Neville," Harry replied, not taking his eyes off the book. He wasn't really interested in the book though. He wasn't even really reading. He was just trying to look busy so nobody would bother him. Obviously it wasn't working though, as now there were three or four other people bugging him to get up.
"I'm not in the mood!" Harry repeated, this time a little too loudly. Half of the common room was now staring him straight in the face. He grabbed his book and went up to his dormitory, tired of people bothering him. "Why didn't I come up here before?" he thought to himself, lying down on his bed. Moments later, Hermione came strolling into the room. "What's wrong, Harry? You're normally so happy after quidditch matches! You and Ron always have so much fun....Oh, it's Ron, isn't it?" she asked. "It's none of your business. Why don't you go talk to your friends down at the party. You can borrow my invisibility cloak and go get some butter beer from Hogsmeade if you want," Harry suggested, putting his book down on his chest for the first time that night. "Well, it won't be any fun if you're not there. You're the hero of the game! You're the reason we won!" Hermione told him, trying to cheer him up. "Hermione, just leave me alone, okay. I really don't want to talk. Just let me rest. Everything is fine," Harry returned, picking his book back up. "Whatever Harry. You know where I'll be if you need to find me though," she said, pointing out the door towards the common room. He watched as she walked out of the dormitory before he threw the book down on the floor and laid his head back on his pillow.
He began thinking about what Ron and the Weasley's were probably doing at that moment before he realized that the Order meeting was just about ready to start. He ran out of the dormitory and through the crowd still gathered in the common room. The crowd was beginning to dwindle down, but there was still quite a bit of people in small groups around the common room chatting about various items. He rushed through the groups of friends and through the portrait hole. He broke into a run as he went down one of the many moving staircases in an attempt to get to the meeting on time, rather than being late and getting yelled at by some of the more non-lenient members of the Order. He had finally reached the entrance to Dumbledore's office, the gargoyles. "Skiving Snackboxes!" Harry yelled at the gargoyles. They split apart, revealing a spiraling staircase that Harry knew led to Dumbledore's office door. He ran up to the door and was about ready to knock when the door flung open. "Welcome, Harry," Moody greeted him, beckoning him to walk inside the office. Harry was getting quite used to Moody being able to tell when he was about ready to join the Order meeting. Moody had done it several times that year, and today was no exception.
"If you all would kindly take a seat, this meeting of the Order of the Phoenix will begin," Dumbledore said. Harry noticed a very nervous looking Arthur Weasley in the corner, and Harry realized something. Mr. Weasley must not have been in hiding with his family. After all, he was the Minister of Magic, who would take his place? Tonks was there, along with Lupin, Sirius, Kingsley, Professor McGonagall, Ms. Figg, and, of course, Harry's least favorite teacher, Professor Severus Snape. "Firstly, I would like to discuss a particular event that has happened earlier today. Our dear Hagrid was attacked in his cabin by a dementor. He was about to receive the Dementor's Kiss when Mr. Potter here barged into the cabin and used the Patronus Charm to extinguish the dementor. Thanks to Harry, Hagrid is recovering well in the hospital wing, with only minor trauma. It seems a though Hagrid relived some pretty bad memories," Dumbledore began informing the crowd. Many heads turned to look at Harry, and Moody gave him the thumbs up. Lupin clapped him on the back and said, "Heh, it's times like these that I'm proud to have adopted you." He smiled at Lupin, and turned his attention back to Dumbledore.
"Now, onto our next area of business. Moody, inform us what you have found out about who has joined the ranks of Voldemort," Dumbledore said, turning his face to one of his most loyal friends. "Well, it seems that a few new people have joined Voldemort's ranks. Marcus Flint, former Slytherin prefect and former Quidditch Captain, has become a Death Eater, along with Percy Weasley who was fired from his job at the Ministry," Moody told the group. At this, Harry turned to face Arthur Weasley. Mr. Weasley's face was very pale, and Harry knew he was ashamed of his son. He did not know what else was going through Mr. Weasley's head, but Harry knew that there were mixed emotions and thoughts going through his mind. The rest of his family, excluding Percy and Bill, was in hiding, trying to avoid Voldemort. One of his sons, Bill, was killed by Death Eaters, and to top it all off, another of his sons had become a Death Eater. "Also, several giants have betrayed our trust and have joined Voldemort's cause. One of these giants includes Hagrid's mother, a very strong female giant," Moody finished explaining to the Order members. "Thank you, Alastor. That was very informative. Now, onto our next order of business," Dumbledore said.
"Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, what have you found out about the veil?" Dumbledore asked. "Well, we found that the veil does indeed go to a place in the next realm, the realm of the dead. Sirius is going to explain what he experienced when he was behind the veil," Lupin said. "Well, it definitely felt as if I was in the next realm. I saw some people I knew were dead, like Lily and James Potter. But they obviously could not see me. The air behind there was lacking oxygen and I presume it was mostly carbon dioxide which is not a suitable atmosphere for a human being. I was lucky Harry saved me when he did or else I would have suffocated because of the air," Sirius explained. "Yes, and we have found a lot of information on the creator of the veil. It was created by an ancestor of Salazar Slytherin himself, which means that Voldemort is also connected to the person who created the veil. We don't think that Voldemort knows this information, so we plan to keep it quiet so he does not find out. We know we will probably find that there is a connection between the realm behind the veil and Voldemort's mind, giving Voldemort just one more power we do not have. This is something we do not need, so please try to keep this information quiet as you should do with all other information given at these meetings of the Order of the Phoenix," Tonks told the crowd. "Thank you Tonks. Now, I understand Kingsley has something to say, and he'll be the last person to talk before I do," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, I have more information about the break-in that occurred a while back. There was another attempted robbery, but luckily I was in the vault and was able to stop the robber. He was looking for the Veil of Mystery, the veil which was supposed to be a replica of the veil found in the Department of Mysteries. Of course, this veil does not work the same, but it uses the same theories. I took him to the headquarters, and used some Veritaserum that Severus brewed for me in order to question him. I found that he was the same person who broke in the last time, it was Mr. Goyle whose son is a Slytherin in Harry's year. We are still questioning him, so I will update you when we are finished," Kingsley concluded. Harry wasn't really paying any attention to the part when Kingsley started talking about bringing the man back to headquarters. Kingsley always had that same boring monotone voice that nobody really wanted to listen to, and Harry was just the same as everybody else. The way Kingsley talked bored him to death and almost caused him to fall asleep.
"Alright, that sums up what all of you have been doing for the past few weeks time. I would like to say thank you for all you have been doing. It has all helped us out in our cause, and without you doing even the smallest of assignments, Voldemort would be free to roam around this country and slaughter non-purebloods and Muggles. We will meet again in a few weeks time, unless something else urgent happens before then. I will keep in contact with you all. Kingsley, continue to question him. Alastor, please help him. Tonks, Lupin, you need to continue researching the veil. Sirius, I'm going to need you to join the team of watchmen for Harry. Arthur, please do not worry. We have a few of our best men with your family helping them. We need you to stay strong during these hard times and do your best job as Minister of Magic. Harry, I need to speak with you after the meeting. Everybody else is free to go," Dumbledore said, giving another speech everybody was attentive to. No matter what the subject was, everybody always paid full attention to Dumbledore when he was speaking. He could have been talking about flobberworms, and what they eat, and the Order members would take great interest in what he was saying. Harry supposed it was because Dumbledore was such a noble man.
"Harry, please take a seat. This shouldn't be too long," Dumbledore told him, gesturing towards the nice fluffy seat in fron of his desk. "Thank you Professor Dumbledore," Harry replied, taking a seat. "Harry, why didn't you kill the dementor? You have found you have the power to do so, so why didn't you kill the one trying to kill Hagrid?" Dumbledore asked him. "Umm...I don't know, Professor. I guess I just wasn't thinking," Harry answered. "Ah, okay Harry. Listen, I have a request to make. If you are ever in the room with a dementor, please kill it. I'm sorry if I sound too harsh, or if I'm asking too much of you, but it would do the Order a great deal of justice. It would help us out a lot, Harry," Dumbledore told him. "Sorry Professor. I don't know if I really want to kill them though. The idea of killing something just doesn't seem right to me," Harry replied. "Harry, how are you supposed to get rid of Voldemort then?" Dumbledore inquired. "Err...I guess you're right. And, I mean, I would be helping the Order out greatly. So, I guess I could try," Harry told his Headmaster. "Thank you, Harry. Now, why don't you go get some sleep. You'll need it for classes tomorrow," Dumbledore told him, ushering him towards the door. Harry walked silently back to the common room. He passed Professor McGonagall on the way, but he did not stop to say 'hi'. All he could do was think about Dumbledore's request. No matter what he did, he could not shake the thought. It just didn't seem like something Dumbledore would say.