The Order of the Phoenix headquarters seemed unusually empty to Harry Potter as he made his much anticipated return to his true home, 12 Grimmauld Place. This was where the Order had met the year before to begin the fight against Voldemort and his dark followers.
The old run-down house had belonged to the Black family and had been vacant for more than fourteen years, its last resident being Mrs Black. Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, had given it to the Order in a bid to help out in the only way he could. Harry had enjoyed coming to the old house, but now it was different.
Harry had been trying all summer to forget the events that had drawn his fifth Hogwarts year to a close. It was at night that those fatal moments, which had resulted in Sirius' death, seemed most vivid. Friends had reminded him that he was not to blame but he knew he was. If he had taken the time and concentrated on his Occlumency lessons to block out Voldemort with Professor Snape, he would not have been loured to the Ministry of Magic to save Sirius. Acting the hero... that's what he had been doing.
The headquarters was the only place Harry had been able to see Sirius on a regular basis and now he was gone forever, he was alone in this horrible world without a single relative in the wizarding world to look after him.
"Harry dear, are you alright? You've barely touched your dinner." Mrs Weasley's voice broke through his thoughts.
The Weasleys, along with other members of the Order of the Phoenix were now permanently resided at Sirius' house. The Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, had finally come to his senses and accepted that Voldemort had returned after a full year of denial.
At least Sirius didn't die for nothing, he made this all real for every witch and wizard in Britain, Harry thought.
"I'm fine, just not hungry." Harry replied, reassuring Mrs Weasley.
Ever since his return, the entire Order had been babying him in an attempt to make him forget, but it was fruitless. How could a person just forget the death of their godfather?
"Ron, I think that's an owl with mail. Could you collect it?" Mr Weasley asked his youngest son, seeing a brown barn owl fly towards the window, it was a school owl.
"I think it is our OWL results, Harry!" Ron exclaimed, taking the two letters from the barn owl and watching it fly away
"Oh I thought they would never come! Quick, bring them over so you can open them together." Mrs Weasley said anxiously.
Harry took his letter with interest. He had been hard pressed to find something that would take his mind off recent events but this seemed to be doing the trick. Harry and Ron, Harry's best friend, ripped open their envelopes and unfolded their letters.
"Excellent!" Ron grinned, "I got an E in everything but I got an O in Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against the Dark Arts." He said proudly.
"What did you get mate?" Ron asked looking across at Harry.
Harry looked up, the first grin of the holidays spreading across his face. Ron took Harry's letter and passed his own onto his mother who seemed reasonably pleased with his results. Ron quickly skimmed the letter and then looked up in disbelief.
"No way! Hey mum, dad, look at this. Harry got O's in Charms, Care of Magical Creatures, Defence Against the Dark Arts and... wait for it... Potions!"
Mrs Weasley snatched the letter from her son and read through Harry's marks.
"Oh, well done Harry! And I see you received E's for everything else."
Mr Weasley clapped the two boys on the back just as Remus Lupin entered the stone kitchen. He was looking very tired and haggard. Harry knew this was because the full moon had just passed and Lupin was a werewolf.
"Harry has done exceptionally well Remus, look at this!" Mrs Weasley said, showing him the letter, "Ron did well too, of course." She added almost as a second thought, making Ron roll his eyes.
Lupin skimmed through the OWL results on both boys' letters and beamed.
"Your parents and Sirius would be so proud." He said.
Harry's smile faltered but Ron, who had announced he would write to Hermione to tell her of their results, saved him the awkward silence. Harry jumped up and followed him without a word.
X
"I felt sure I was going to fail." Ron said, his smile still in place, it seemed he was unaware that Lupin had made reference to the three people Harry most cared about and who were all gone.
"I knew you wouldn't. Can you imagine Snape's face when he sees my O in Potions?" Harry laughed, glad to have Ron to have Ron to tae his mind off things again.
"I bet Hermione got O's in everything. We'll have to listen to her gloating for the rest of the summer when she arrives." Ron groaned.
"Hermione doesn't gloat." Harry said, "At least not knowingly anyway." He added when he saw the look on Ron's face.
Hermione Granger, Harry's other best friend, was due to arrive at the Order's headquarters a week before school was to begin. It would be the first time since last year that she would see the house at number 12 Grimmauld Place and Harry knew she would be surprised at the difference. A whole year cleaning had turned the house upside-down.
The members of the Order who had not been on important missions had somehow managed to get the house fit for human existence. Mrs Black and her other fixed portraits had finally been taken down from the wall by some mere fate of luck and Kreacher, the old house-elf, had been given the boot after betraying Sirius, the betrayal that had ultimately led to Sirius' death. When Harry had raised the issue of Kreacher's knowledge of the Order of the Phoenix, Mad Eye Moody had told him not to worry.
"Kreacher has been taken care of. He won't be telling anyone our secrets were he has gone."
Harry had not wanted to know the exact details after that. Wherever Kreacher had gone certainly didn't sound pleasant.
X
Hermione did arrive safely a few weeks later, ecstatic at their results. Ron was right in predicting the number of O's she received. Hermione's brought some bad news though.
"Four muggles have gone missing." She said when she unpacked.
"Does Dumbledore know?" Harry asked.
"I saw the minister just as I arrived and he promised to tell Dumbledore." Hermione told them, "I cant help but notice that he still doesn't seem keen on the idea that Dumbledore had been right all along. I was reading in the Daily Prophet only yesterday that his denial of claims Voldemort had returned was to safeguard the public from an all out panic." She exclaimed.
"Well of course that's what he wants people to believe. He would loose his position in a second if everyone knew he had been a complete git not believing Dumbledore in the first place." Fred said.
He had just apparated in time to hear Hermione.
"I thought you'd be working with George at his new joke shop of your's." Hermione said, turning to face Fred just as George apparated next to him with a pop.
"Oh don't worry, our plans are moving along quite nicely but we've decided that there are more important things to be done at the moment." Fred said.
"Of course, with all our free time we have been able to aid the Order." George said.
"I didn't think your mother would allow you to do that!" Hermione exclaimed.
"She doesn't like it but we are of age now and we don't go to school anymore so dad said she couldn't really tell us what to do anymore. Mum finally said we could if we promised to stay at home. As if we were going to leave, I couldn't imagine having to cook for myself!" Fred answered.
"Yeah, and imagine the cleaning... all that dirty laundry!" George added making a face.
The others laughed.
"I just came up to tell you that mum got your book lists and she's going to get your things now so if you need anything then go and tell her." George said, remembering what it was he supposed to be doing.
The group broke up in different directions leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. Being inside his thoughts was one thing Harry was trying not to do, so to take his mind away from the pain he felt every time he thought of Sirius and his stupidity, he went to visit Buckbeak, the hippogriff that was residing in Mrs Black's abandoned bedroom.
Buckbeak looked up from his meal when Harry entered the room but resumed chewing the dead rat when he saw whom it was. Harry sat on the stool that Sirius had once used when he kept Buckbeak company, and stroked the hippogriff's feathers. Buckbeak gave a whinny noise that sounded all too much like the longing Harry felt.
"Don't worry Buckbeak," Harry said soothingly, "I miss him too."
XXX
[A/N]: PLEASE REVIEW
