Chapter 4

Harry found himself facing Lucius Malfoy at the Malfoy house. He had joined the Order in walking into the Death Eater ambush. Around him the adults were busy dueling other Death Eaters. The Death Eaters were falling one by one. In a corner, Bellatrix Lestrange and Alastor Moody were trading spells. Wormtail hit Professor McGonagall with a body-bind but was himself bound by Remus Lupin. Ron, Hermione, and Tonks were dueling Snape together, and he was obviously not doing his best against them, failing to knock out any of them. Ginny and Rabastan Lestrange had their own duel going through the doorway.

Malfoy threw various spells at Harry, many of which he had seen in Snape's potions textbook. Harry blocked each spell. Suddenly Malfoy collapsed unconscious, and Harry saw Tonks standing behind him, wand pointed. Tonks had sneaked up behind Malfoy and used a Stunning spell. They rushed to help Moody with the last Death Eater. After petrifying Bellatrix, the remaining Order members set about tying up the incapacitated Death Eaters.

"Avada kedavra!" The voice came behind them. Harry whirled around instantly—he knew it was Voldemort's voice—and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ginny fall. Time seemed to slow—just as it had when he saw Sirius fall through the veil— as he watched Ginny absorb the green beam to her chest and lift off her feet, before landing spread-eagled on her back. The other Order members were rapidly saying incantations but all Harry could hear was Voldemort's evil cackling echoing through his head.

"Harry, I may die, but I will be satisfied knowing that you have lost your one true love," Voldemort's voice said. "Aguamenti!"

Harry thought this was a strange spell to use in a duel, but the cold stream of water splashed him right in the face—

He jumped awake, bolting up in his bed. His surroundings gradually came into slightly better focus as he realized that he was at the Burrow. It had all been a dream. He grabbed for his glasses, found them after fumbling for a short while, and put them on, seeing completely clearly now. To his great relief, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were standing around his bed, smiling. In Ginny's hand was an empty bucket.

He suddenly noticed the water on his face and noticed that some of it had gotten on his shirt.

"Come on sleepyhead," Ron urged, "We've got to be at Grimmauld Place at six o'clock! Breakfast is downstairs." Harry wearily dressed and went downstairs with them, still thinking about his terrible nightmare. The sun was still barely peeking over the horizon but he didn't notice. He sat at a random seat at the dining table and ate his excellent breakfast in sullen silence, without enthusiasm.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Ginny asked. Sitting next to him, she had noticed his depression.

"Yeah, you seem a bit…out of yourself, today," Ron added.

"Well…I…uh…" Harry became nervous.

"Harry, what is it?" Hermione asked.

"I had a nightmare," Harry mumbled quickly under his breath.

"What was that?"

"I had a nightmare."

"What was it about?" Hermione asked, worried. Harry hadn't had a nightmare for some time, but they all knew from past experience that his nightmares were never a good sign.

"Today's mission…" Harry said quietly. Hermione and Ron looked at each other fearfully.

"What happened in the dream?" Hermione asked.

"Well…" Harry said, "We were at Malfoy Manor…I was dueling Lucius Malfoy. You were all there with me, the Order was there too, and we were winning. We got all the Death Eaters, but at that moment Voldemort sneaked up on us and…" Harry stopped, trying desperately to erase the terrible images from his mind.

"What happened next?" Hermione prodded.

"Voldemort used the killing curse on Ginny…" Harry mumbled.

Ron choked on his food. Hermione and Ginny both looked horrified.

"The rest of us were dueling Voldemort," Harry continued, "I could only hear Voldemort speaking to me. He said, 'I may die, but I will be satisfied knowing that you have lost your one true love', then he splashed me with an Aguamenti spell. That must have been when you threw the bucket of water on me to wake me up this morning."

"Let's just hope the dream isn't true," Ginny said determinedly.

They ate the rest of their breakfast quickly and quietly before heading off to No. 12 Grimmauld Place. When they arrived, Neville and Luna were already there, along with Arthur Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin, Minerva McGonagall, and Nymphadora Tonks.

When they arrived Minerva gave them each a Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes Shield Hat. "This way we can concentrate on attacking," she explained. Harry noticed that Fred and George were also wearing their hats, as was everyone else there.

Minerva pointed her wand under Harry's hat and muttered an incantation quietly. She did the same for Hermione, Ginny, and Ron.

"Alastor pointed out that the Death Eaters might try and steal the hats," Minerva said, "I've used Sticking Charms to attach the hats to your heads. Do not try to remove them, for the result would be painful."

A rack of broomsticks was very conveniently placed against the wall and they each moved to get a broomstick. Harry and Ron looked over with worried expressions on their faces as Ginny took the last broom from the rack.

"What are you doing with that broom?" Harry demanded.

"What do you think I'm doing?" Ginny retorted.

"You're not coming," Harry declared.

"It was just a dream!" shouted Ginny angrily.

"Stop!" interrupted Minerva, using the strict voice she used with misbehaving students at Hogwarts. "We haven't much time left. What was the dream?"

Harry quickly described the entire dream to his teacher just as he had told it to his friends earlier.

"If the dream is true, this is a grave situation indeed," observed the professor. "It would indicate that Voldemort knows about the relationship between you two. In that case, Ginny will not be safe whether or not she accompanies us." She paused to allow the words to sink in. "Harry, I want you to stay with Ginny at all times. She requires protection. Take her on the mission with us."

"But Professor…"

"Call me Minerva, we're not in school," the professor replied, "Come on!" Reluctantly, Harry mounted his broomstick along with the Order and flew off. The

Meanwhile…

A knock was heard on the door of Mark Lovegood's house in the early dawn. Wearily, he got out of bed, dressed, and went to answer the door. When he opened the door, two Aurors were standing before him.

"We're here to see Luna Lovegood," the first Auror said.

"I'm sorry, she's not here now," replied Mr. Lovegood. In fact, Luna was going with the Order to fight the Death Eaters that morning.

"I see. Well then, we're sorry to bother you. We thought she would be home so early in the morning." The Aurors left.

Disguised with another dose of Polyjuice Potion, Voldemort walked through London, trying to remember the path to No. 12 Grimmauld Place. He had been there a few times before; the Blacks had invited him to spend Christmas there a few times while he was a Hogwarts student, and he had held several Death Eater meetings at the Black house during the First War. However, in the last few years Grimmauld Place seemed to have suddenly disappeared without a trace; Narcissa, Bellatrix, and Regulus had been as mystified as he when they were suddenly unable to find their home.

At the time, Voldemort hadn't thought of the Fidelius Charm. Now, he realized that it was a fitting explanation and sought to test it. Was the house there, but merely unseen?

Voldemort stopped when he heard the sound of broomsticks flying. He looked up and saw Harry and his friends, then Kingsley Shacklebolt and a few other Order members ascend into the distance on broomsticks. Good, he thought, Most of them are falling into my trap.

Voldemort walked past No. 11 Grimmauld Place and turned, where he remembered the gate to have been. There was a gate, which Voldemort managed to unlock with Alohomora after some fumbling. He opened the gate that he could feel but not see with his fingers and proceeded up an invisible, but uneven, rock path. He walked forward until he suddenly bumped into something flat and staggered back.

Trying again, he extended his hand and felt the flat surface, obviously a door, and felt along the sides for a doorknob. He tried to open it; it was locked. He pointed his wand at the area. "Alohomora!" The door unlocked and he stepped forward. He saw nothing around him.

"Incendio!" he tried. Sure enough, a flame burst to life in what seemed to him to be thin air. He knew that it was the wall of the house, on fire. He cast a few more fires. Satisfied, he left the burning house that he could not see. He proceeded to the next stop, the Burrow.

The Order of the Phoenix team swooped down to land some distance from Malfoy Manor. Everyone dismounted from their broomsticks. "We will enter through the back door of the house," Minerva directed, "Alastor, as you can see what goes on behind you, you will be watching for the ambush and alert us when the ambushers attack. Don't get too distracted in front. Then, you must take out Snape as quickly as possible so that no one notices when he does not use his full ability. Tonks and I will handle the other ambushers. The rest of you, concentrate on the first group of Death Eaters. If you see Bellatrix Lestrange, concentrate your wands on her, she's the most dangerous."

The team quietly climbed the fence and entered the back yard of the house, then proceeded up to the back door. It was locked.

"Alohomora!" whispered Moody. The door didn't budge. "Reducto!" Still no effect.

"It's warded," Moody said. "At least ten different spells were used on this one."

"They want us to go through the front door," Minerva said. "Tonks, get to work dismantling the wards. Everyone else, come around to the front."

The front door was locked as well, but opened to Alohomora. The eleven Order members stormed into the living room only to see Draco Malfoy standing casually in the center, with his wand pointed. They looked to either side: to the right of the door was only a couch, to the left a slightly ajar door. Moody used his magic eye to see Lucius Malfoy behind the door.

"The Dark Lord told me to tell you that this is a trap," Draco was speaking loudly, "There is no Hufflepuff cup here. He knew you were stupid enough to believe an article on the Daily Prophet. There are anti-Apparation wards on this house, so you won't escape from our ambush."

"Petrificus totalus!" Bellatrix shouted on cue, leaping up from behind the couch. Her spell reflected off Kingsley's shield hat and she ducked again to avoid it.

"Stupefy!" Lucius stepped out through the door to the left. The red beam bounced off of Harry's hat shield.

"Incarcerous!" Draco shouted. That spell, too, deflected. All this time, the Death Eaters noticed that the Order members hadn't said a word.

"The hats! They must be those shield hats from the Weasley joke shop!"

Suddenly Moody jerked a thumb behind him, signaling to the others. They looked at him and nodded. Moody pointed his wand behind him, and without turning his head, shouted "Petrificus totalus!" The three approaching Death Eaters—Rabastan Lestrange, Antonin Dolohov, and Snape—were caught flat-footed as the body-bind hit Snape in the chest, making him fall stiff to the ground. Rabastan and Dolohov raised their wands. "Stupefy!" Both spells were reflected off Minerva's hat shield.

"Get the hats!" yelled Bellatrix. "Accio hat!"

Her wand was pointed at Kingsley's hat, but the hat only shifted slightly in her direction, refusing to move any further.

"Everyone get his hat, on my mark!" Bellatrix shouted, side-stepping to the center of the room to join Draco. "One, two, three!"

"ACCIO HAT!" shouted Draco, Bellatrix, Lucius, and Wormtail in unison. Everyone's hat shifted slightly towards the Death Eaters. As their wands were nearest to Ron, Ron's hat lifted slowly and painfully from his head, ripping his red hair out of his head and leaving even redder streaks of blood as some of his scalp also peeled back under the force of four Summoning Charms.

"Accio hat!" Harry used his own Summoning Charm to restrain the hat. Soon Neville, Ginny, and Luna were also using Summoning Charms, and the hat slowly moved back to settle firmly on Ron's head.

Meanwhile, Tonks had succeeded in removing some of the wards on the door. "Sectumsempra!" a voice came from behind her. The curse fortunately bounced off the shield from her hat. She turned and was face to face with Rodolphus Lestrange.

Inside, Hermione noticed that the four Death Eaters were all busy summoning. "Stupefy!" she shouted. A red beam extended from the end of her wand and hit Draco in the stomach, knocking him unconscious. Simultaneously Remus Lupin hit Lucius with a body-bind curse. Within a few minutes, the battle was over.

In front of the open door, Crabbe tiptoed towards the open door, pointed his wand at a random Order member and started, "Avada kedav—"

"Stupefy!" Moody quickly shouted, pointing his wand behind him and stopping Crabbe from finishing the curse. "Incarcerous!" Crabbe was now tied in ropes along with the other Death Eaters.

They levitated the Death Eaters, tied, around with them to the back, meeting Tonks, who had succeeded in tying up Rodolphus. The Order members returned to London, levitating the unconscious Death Eaters with them as they flew on broomsticks, to return to London. The Death Eaters were turned over to Azkaban.

The mission finished, Harry, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione returned to the Burrow…

And found the large house of the Weasleys spouting flames the color of Ron's hair. A column of thick, dark smoke was rising in the air, and the Dark Mark was glowing through the smoke. The Burrow was on fire!

Meanwhile…

Luna hesitated as she reached her house, seeing two Aurors leaning on the door waiting for her. One of them pointed at her. The other quickly pulled out a parchment and looked at it.

"Yep, that's her all right," one of them said.

"Get her!"

Luna ran back down the street.

"Tarantallegra!"

"Locomotor mortis!"

"Petrificus totalus!"

Fortunately, Luna hadn't taken off her shield hat yet. The hat blocked the curses as she continued to flee. The two Aurors ran after her, and their height was giving them an advantage. She ran desperately for her freedom, but the shadows of the Aurors crept ever closer.

Next Chapter: Visits from Voldemort and Dolores Umbridge.