A/N: This might resemble the beginning to the real Order of The Phoenix, but I'm trying to find ways to make it my own. Also, there will be a few changes in this chapter that will totally change the tone of the fic and make the fic my own. I'm not sure exactly how things are going to turn out just yet, as I sit down and write whatever comes to mind... Anyway, I hope to have a few more reviews sometime soon. I love feedback. So, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy.

Dinkus - Thank you for your feedback! I appreciate your opinion that the fic could use more reviews. About the fic being Ron/Hermione, I have a few reasons for that, which I will probably reveal a little later on. I hope you continue to read!

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Harry's arrival was just as Ron and Hermione expected. He shouted, and they listened. He screamed, and they listened some more. He complained, and finally, they had enough.

"We wanted to tell you everything we knew, Harry!" Hermione shouted, tears in her eyes.

"Oh, and I can see that the pair of you tried very hard," Harry replied, not bothering to hide his sarcasm.

"Now that isn't very fair, is it?" Ron said, speaking for the first time. "Dumbledore made us promise, mate. We weren't about to go back on a promise to Dumbledore."

"I would have done it, if it meant helping my best friend," Harry said, adding another hint of sarcasm to the last part.

"Would you?" Ron asked. Harry was silent for some time, thinking about the promise he made to Dumbledore not to tell the pair of them about the demise of Neville's parents.

"Well…" he said.

"Exactly," Ron said in a tone that said the discussion was finally settled. They fell silent for some time, Ron and Hermione sitting on Ron's bed, and Harry pacing back and forth across the room, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

"We heard about the Dementors," Hermione said in a feeble voice.

"You should have seen Dumbledore," Ron said.

"He was furious. He was… scary," said Hermione, clasping her hands together in her lap and looking down at them.

"Was he really?" Harry said with a curious look on his face.

"Yeah. He set those guards for a reason, and he wasn't too happy when he found out what nearly happened," Hermione said.

"That's curious. He hasn't written to me much more than the two of you. It's a wonder he would be worried about me at all," Harry said scathingly.

A sudden 'pop' signaled the arrival of Fred and George. Ron and Hermione, long since used to the antics of the twins, didn't flinch. Harry on the other hand had dived to the side and had his wand pointed at the pair of them before they had even fully appeared.

"Oi, Harry! What gives?" George said, looking warily at the wand.

"Nothing… I just… You…" Harry stammered.

"Ah, worry not my young friend. We'll just charge you extra when we open our shop," Fred said with a forced grin as Harry lowered the wand.

"So you're going to open a shop, then?" Harry asked.

"Of course, whenever a good one comes up," George answered, looking down at Harry as if he was daft for even asking the question.

"Until then," Fred started. He pulled out a little yellow piece of candy and popped it into his mouth. In an instant, an explosion rang out, causing the portrait in the hall to scream and wail once more. Harry looked at where Fred had been and instead saw a little yellow bird. A few seconds later, the twin was back to his normal self. "We're opening shop in the Gryffindor common room," Fred finished.

"But that could be dangerous," Hermione said, her eyebrows coming togheter in a way that said she didn't approve at all.

"Oh come off it, Hermione," George said with a grin. "We wouldn't do anything that would put anyone but ourselves in danger."

"And besides, we've tested this stuff on ourselves loads of time, and nothing has happened to us yet," Fred added. The two of them exchanged an unmistakably reminiscent glance.

"Ok, there was that one time…" Fred said.

"But that wasn't our fault. Ginny sneezed into a new batch of Canary Creams, and apparently snot shouldn't mix with the other ingredients," George said.

"How long do you reckon we had those pimples?"

"Oh, maybe a week or so, until we found the cure," George answered after a bit of thought.

"Remind me never to accept any food from either of them," Hermione said as she leaned over and whispered into Ron's ear.

"Likewise," Ron said, watching George demonstrate the affects of the Canary Creams again. He glanced over at Hermione and saw her raise her eyebrows, silently impressed with what the twinswere able to accomplish. From that moment, he knew he was going to have to do something astoundingly impressive to get her attention. But what could he do?

The door opened and Mrs. Weasley stood framed in the door way, towering over them with a slightly frightening air. The twins quickly shoved the candies in their pockets and turned to face their mother.

"What is all this racket?" she hissed "We're in the middle of a very important meeting, and Severus was interrupted in the middle of his report thanks to you."

"Snape is here?" Harry asked, speaking for the first time in a long while.

"Of course dear. He is an important member of the Order," Mrs. Weasley said. "Now, whatever you lot are up to, stop it!"

"Only a game of Exploding Snap, mum!" said Fred with a weak smile.

"It's been so long since we've seen Harry here, we couldn't resist," George said, backing up his brother.

"So long? It's only been a few weeks!" Mrs. Weasley said in a voice that reinforced her disbelief. Secretly, however, she was agreeing that Harry had been away far too long, especially given the muggles he had for a family.

"A few weeks is a few weeks too long," George said, protruding his chest and looking over at Harry significantly. Mrs. Weasley gave a great sigh and turned and left the room. Moments later, the door opened and Ginny entered.

"Hi Harry," she said, walking over to the bed and sitting next to him.

"'Lo, Ginny," Harry said, smiling weakly at her.

"Having a good summer?" she asked him. Everyone in the room caught her playful sarcasm and burst into laughter. Even Harry, who had long since decided to continue to show his irritation, smiled despite himself.

"Wonderful," Harry replied. "So what have all of you been doing all these weeks?"

"Mum has been absolutely adamant to clean this dump up," Ron said.

"And we've been her little house elves," Fred said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

"Fred!" Hermione shouted.

"Well, it's true," said Fred, defending his previous statement.

"It's been dreadful," George said. "We've had little time to do anything worthwhile, as she calls it. Of course, she doesn't know we're planning on going through with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

"We have been able to get some interesting ingredients, such as Doxy venom and Cornish Pixie dust. The combination will be most fascinating," Fred said with a slightly hungry expression.

"Ron and I have spent whatever time we weren't cleaning studying," Hermione said as she leaned back a little on Ron's bed.

"That's been nearly as bad as the cleaning," Ron said in an undertone that went unnoticed.

"The way we figure, if fifth year is going to be as bad as Fred and George are saying, we might as well be prepared," Hermione explained, noticing Harry's perplexed expression.

"So you see, Harry, you honestly haven't missed all that much," Fred said.

"Whenever mum isn't in the kitchen with the others, she prowls the hallways during the Order meetings to make sure we're not listening," George said.

"It's quite annoying, actually," said Ron.

"But naturally, we found a way," Fred said with a wry grin.

"A way?" Harry asked.

"A way to listen to the meetings, of course!" George said. Harry stood up so fast that Hedwig (who had been silent in the corner) hooted in surprise, and Pig (who had been screaching and hooting ever since Harry arrived) screached and hooted louder.

"You found out how to listen to the meetings without Mrs. Weasley knowing?" Harry asked.

"Of course we did! We couldn't go all summer without any information," George said.

"Nor could I," Harry admitted.

"You know, if these two didn't spend all their time making joke stuff," Hermione said, gesturing to Fred and George, "they could make a fortune."

"I have a feeling they'll make a fortune anyways," Ron replied as Fred reached into his pocket and pulled out a long rubbery looking string.

"Extendable Ears," he said with a gleeful grin on his face. "This thing is going to make us a fortune."

"What does it do?" Harry asked apprehensively, remembering all too well how important caution was when it came to taking things from the Weasley twins.

"You put one end in your ear, and slide the other end, say, under a door, and you can hear anything inside as if it was being said right beside you," said Fred.

"You two ought to be careful," Ginny said. "The last time mum found those things she went balistic. I didn't think you had managed to salvage any."

"Well, the information we get out of that meeting will much more important than these things," George said.

"Besides, we can always make more," said Fred.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Harry said. "I want to know what Snape is saying."

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So the entire group walked onto the landing and saw a group of witches and wizards milling about near the door, preparing to leave. The meeting was over, but many of the members of the Order were still having individual conversations, some looking grave, others determined.

George lowered the Extendable Ears until it was just above the heads of the group of people, then split it up so everyone could slide their end in their ear to hear. The closest people were Sirius, Lupin, Mad-Eye Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"I wonder if the Potter kid knows," Kinglsey said.

"Harry will find out eventually," Sirius said quietly. "Sooner or later, either he will put two and two together, or Dumbledore will tell him."

"Well, if I were him I would want to know as soon as I could," Moody said gruffly. "That way I could be prepared for it."

"If Harry knew the truth at this moment, I don't know how he would deal with it," Lupin said. "We all know that he tends to take matters into his own hands, and this is certainly not the time for him to be doing that."

"But what about his friends? Ron and Hermione? What are we going to do about them?" Shacklebolt asked.

"What do you mean?" asked Sirius, shifting his weight from one foot to another and crossing his arms in front of him.

"Well, I know for a fact Molly would not want her youngest son in harm's way," Kingsley began.

"There is no proof that Ron will be in any danger this year, Kingsley," Lupin said.

"There is no proof that he will be safe, either," Shacklebolt said grimly.

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Ron was sitting in the room with Harry and Hermione, his chin resting on his palm as his eyes rested in one spot on his potions book. He read the first line of page 226 three times before he realized it, and glanced up at the others.

Harry was staring at the opposite wall of the room obviously lost in thought about what he had heard the previous night. He had been this way for most of the day, trying to figure out what he wasn't being told. Directly after their dinner the night before, Sirius, Lupin, Mr. Weasley and Bill Weasley finally decided it was time to fill Harry in a bit.

None of them mentioned what had been overheard.

Ron turned his attention to Hermione and watched her writing furiously, her head bent over her notes and her tongue slightly protruding between her lips. How long he sat watching her write, even he didn't know. She glanced up and saw him staring, smiled weakly, and returned to her notes.

Ron looked down at his book and, inspired by Hermione's smile, began reading without the slightest hint of difficulty. The door opened slowly and Ginny poked her head in.

"Lunch," she said quickly before closing the door with a snap. The three of them closed their books and walked down to eat. Mrs. Weasley was standing in the kitchen talking to Sirius, but fell silent as Ron, Harry, and Hermione waked in.

"Alright... Term starts in a week, and we still need to go to Diagon Alley to get your school things," Mrs. Weasley said.

"But we haven't even got our lists yet," Ron said.

"They've only just arrived. A few of them seemed heavier than usual, now that I think of it," Mrs. Weasley said, turning her back and running the water to begin rinsing some of the dishes.

"Oh my..." Hermione said in a weak voice. "I can't believe I forgot..."

"Forgot what?" Harry asked. But Hermione didn't answer. She looked over at the stack of envelopes at the corner of the table, then approached them slowly. She picked them up and handed Ron and Harry their letters, then looked down at her own apprehensively. She opened it, turned it over, and felt a small badge fall into her hand.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

"That's a prefect's badge!" Ron exclaimed.

"Way to go, Hermione!" Harry said brightly. "I wonder which boy will get the badge for Gryffindor."

"That'll be Ron," Ginny said suddenly. The others turned, and sure enough, Ron was holding a badge with his mouth ajar.

"I thought for sure it'd be you, mate!" he said, looking at Harry, his eyebrows lost behind his hairline.

"I told you not to add the Doxy venom until after the pixie dust, didn't I?" Fred said as he walked into the kitchen, looking back out into the hall. George walked in slowly, his face covered in hairy tentacles.

"What's going on?" He said, his eyes trying to see through the waving additions on his face.

"Hermione's made prefect," said Ron quickly without looking up.

"And so has Ron," Ginny said as she admired the lion decorated badge.

"Ickle Ronykins is a PREFECT?" George shouted, causing everyone to look at him for the first time.

"Wh-What happened to you?" Harry said, trying to stifle a laugh.

"OH MY GOODNESS!" Mrs. Weasley shouted, turning around for the first time. "YOU... George, WHAT... HOW COULD..." and then she hurried out of the room, returning only after she had found "Magical Maladies Explained: Identificationa and Treatment" by Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Tentacles... Tentacles..." she said, thumbing through the pages quickly. "I swear, if you two keep this up you'll end up in Azkaban," she said absently.

"Hey mum," Fred said.

"Not now... Tentacles... Tenctacles..."

"Ron's made Prefect," Fred said.

"I said not now, Fred! Tentacles... Tentacles... Tent------ WHAT? RON, THAT'S WONDERFUL!" Mrs. Weasley said, tossing the book aside and embracing her son. "That makes everyone in the family!"

"What are we, next-door-neighbors?" George asked in a voice that sounded like his nose was being pinched as he spoke. Indeed, another tentacle had sprouted out where his nose had been.

"We're going to have to buy you something special when we go to Diagon Alley," Mrs. Weasley said, looking down at the badge. "What do you want? You already have an owl, Fred and George were kind enough to buy you robes over the summer, though I don't know or want to know how..."

"Can I have a broom?" Ron asked hopefully, looking up at his mom.

"Oh, I don't know, dear... They're quite expensive," Mrs. Weasley said. Harry turned to Hermione and whispered something in her ear, but Ron was focused on Mrs. Weasley and didn't notice.

"It doesn't have to be anything spectacular," he said. "Just a newer one."

"Alright, dear, we'll see what we can do," Mrs. Weasley said, turning with a wide smile and returning to the dishes.

"Uhhh... Mum?" George said.

"Yes dear?" Mrs. Weasley said without turning.

"Tentacles... Tentacles..." he answered, holding Gilderoy Lockhart's book in the air.

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A/N: R&R Please! I absolutely love feedback.