THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

AND

THE DARK ALLIANCE

"I have summoned you all here," said Dumbledore turning to the group in the dining room of number twelve Grimwauld Place "Because I have horrible news."

"What is it Albus?" asked Mrs. Weasley weakly, as though she would rather didn't hear it. Professor Dumbledore walked paced back and forth for a moment trying to decide how to break it to them.

"Minerva? Do you remember what happened when I challenged the dark wizard Grindelwauld back in nineteen forty-five to a duel?"

"Of course!" said Professor McGonagall briskly "You two fought, you beat him, you killed him."

"Two out of three Minerva," said Professor Dumbledore shaking his head "I did fight him and I did defeat him, but I didn't kill him."

"What?" said half of the room together, but Dumbledore held up his hand for silence.

"I didn't kill him, I imprisoned him in a crystal capture sphere," he said into the silence, Mad-eye Moody looked he wanted to cut in but Lupin put a hand on his shoulder and asked, "Why hadn't you ever told anyone this before now?"

"Because I figured that the place that I put the crystal capture sphere would be one of the safest places in the world."

"Where?" asked Mrs. Weasley, with her hand over her mouth.

"In my office, second shelf on the bookcase to the right of my window to be precise. I never dreamed that such a thing would happen. But when I came back to my office the day after term ended, I found that my office had been searched, the place was a mess, and the capture sphere Grindelwauld was imprisoned in gone. The window was open, so I assume whoever stole it flew in on a broomstick so it could be anybody." Dumbledore nodded at Snape who was standing in a shadowy corner of the room "Thanks to Professor Snape here, I told him what had happened since he was the only Professor in the Order that was both at Hogwarts and not recovering from several stunning spells." Professor McGonagall smiled a little. She had almost made a full recovery, but the bandages she still wore made her walk like a stick figure.

"Professor Snape tracked Grindelwauld down and here is his report" Dumbledore withdrew a piece of parchment from within his cloak and read "Since Grindelwauld had escaped from the crystal capture sphere, he has unfortunately stumbled upon the tomb of the undefeatable ghost orc army of Mordor, used centuries and centuries ago before Hogwarts school had even started by the dark lord Sauron. Most disturbing of all, he has formed an alliance with our greatest enemy Lord Voldemort. However, to resurrect the ghost orc army, they must capture the souls of wizards to power the army. I watched from afar as Voldemort and Grindelwauld cast a spell that only to great evils could create. They made a spell that could shatter the blood shield that protected Harry Potter at his relative's house. With its defenses down, they attacked Privet Drive." Dumbledore looked up from the parchment at the faces in front of him that had turned completely white. "Harry Potter is dead."

"NO!" screamed Ron, Fred, George, Ginny and Hermione. Mrs. Weasley fell to the floor in a dead faint but Tonks grabbed her just in time.

"Quiet!" yelled Dumbledore and a surge of energy seemed to radiate from his body. Then it was gone as quickly as it had come.

"We cannot grieve for Harry's death now, all is not lost. With the Death Eaters divided from our battle within the department of mysteries and the ghost orc army not yet operative we can stop it from happening. Ron, Hermione, Ginny, you are now members of the Order of the Phoenix. We need every last Wizard we can get, I've even recruited some muggles into the order who were once in the military, they will be of some use I am sure. We must strike now if we are to stop this Dark Alliance…"