A/N: Thanks to everyone that has reviewed. It is always nice to get compliments…and constructive criticism for that matter. Anyway, I know this story has seemed to drag on…I mean, 5 chapters in a few day time span. However, I have enjoyed writing like this. I do plan on picking up the pace soon just so you know. Here is chapter 5…enjoy!
Chapter 5: The Order and the Phoenix
Harry awoke early. The sun was just barely appearing over the mountains, casting a red light throughout the sky with a little purple and orange thrown in. He got up and walked to the bathroom. Harry opened the door for the first time and stepped in.
When Harry went into the prefects' bathroom the previous year, he thought it was the most amazing bathroom ever. Little did he know, that hundreds of meters below him, was a bathroom that outdid it magnificently. This bathroom had it all. The bath was the size of a swimming pool, which he was sure he would do laps in, the shower had several heads, and the toilet was even decorated like he had never seen. The room as a whole looked spectacular as it was decorated magnificently.
Harry started up the bath, which filled in seconds (I love magic). He got in and relaxed before doing some laps and after 20 minutes, he got out and left the bathroom.
Harry went over to test out the kitchen area. He wondered if the house elves got food down here somehow without realizing it. Harry sat at the dining table and instantly food appeared. While eating some bacon and eggs, Dumbledore stepped out of the fire.
"May I join you, Harry?"
Harry laughed, "Of course. This food is excellent; do you think the house elves make it?"
"I'm sure Salazar Slytherin had a few tricks up his sleeve. I bet he has enough food to come in here to last a hundred years."
"Speaking of Salazar Slytherin, I have to show you something." Harry got up and moved over to where he placed the four portraits. He spun them around to face Dumbledore. Harry was amazed at the look that flashed across the aged man's face. A look of astonishment passed through his features before he hid them quickly.
"Harry, this has to be the most wondrous thing to happen to Hogwarts in my rule of the school. The school will be honored to bring the founders back. You have brought back important paintings. If only they could talk."
Gryffindor spoke up, "Ah, my dear man. We can talk, and we have some good things to talk about after all this time. I'm sure many things have been lost over the years."
Dumbledore once again had the surprise pass through his face. "Yes, I would love to know about that bathroom that I found last year in the middle of the night. You must tell me when it appears, I very much enjoyed it." Harry thought Dumbledore was the strangest, yet most amazing person he had ever met.
Harry showed Dumbledore the wall that disappeared to reveal the wealthy vault. No surprise passed through Dumbledore's feature, but the twinkle was back. "Well, I don't think we have to worry about running out of money."
Harry quickly showed him the closet and Dumbledore moved all the detectors and trinkets out into the main room. They walked back and the wall closed behind them. "Well, I have had enough surprises for today…how about I give you a few?" Dumbledore said.
Harry agreed and they sat back in the living area on opposite sides of the table with the pensieve on it. "Ok, Harry. You have been showing some extremely rare abilities in just a few short weeks. First, you conquered the Priori Incantatem again Voldemort. Secondly, you have shown the early stages of wandless magic. Next, you showed the power of presence. Lastly, you have the power of being the only person in this world to utterly shock me.
Let's start with your graveyard experience. You mentioned you had a nightmare…which is completely normal. It is amazing only one nightmare has occurred. I would hate to bring up old memories, but whenever you are ready to talk in more detail than at the end of last term, that would be great."
Harry was about to comment when Dumbledore silenced him. "You are not ready yet Harry. I know how quickly you have managed to feel better about it …with the help of your family, you have been able to delude the memory. That does not mean you are over what happened, I don't think you will ever be over it, but you will overcome it.
"Let's move on to this power of presence. You have a calming power about you, Harry. You seem to already have the ability to give off that calming power and allow others around you to feel safe with you. It is a rare gift."
Harry thought about this. Mrs. Weasley certainly did stop fussing over him quickly. And Ginny and Ron were perfectly fine with him leaving without explanation. He was sure trust played a large role in this power. Even Sirius lightened up because Harry showed confidence.
"Now, about this power to shock me…I want you to stay humble, Harry, but I have a feeling that I need to express. You have amazed me from day one. Surviving the curse that has killed so many is amazing. Even with your mother's protection, it takes an incredible wizard to survive what you did. Think about it, don't you think somewhere in the world a mother has died for her child and the child was killed afterwards anyway?"
This had passed through Harry's mind before. It seemed odd that he was the only one to ever have the protection of love. So he played a part in the protection as well.
"So, after that, I left you on the doorstep of abusive people. I had more faith in them than I should have. However, I also had less faith in you than I should have. I never expected you to be such a strong person, Harry.
"Your first year was evidence of that. You defeated Voldemort again. You showed great courage. One year later, under skeptical eyes, you managed to save this school and your future girlfriend. Again, you took down Voldemort. One year later, you cleared one of the greatest men on the planet's name, if only to a few people. And this year…this year you got past a tournament designed for people three years older than you and survived yet another time. Once again, you had no choice but to face pure evil, and you fought magnificently. You foiled his ultimate plan and as a result we can safely live here at Hogwarts.
"As I said before, I do not wish to make you over confident, but you must realize you are strong. You must realize that anyone else who heard that prophecy, if it was made about them, would break down and lose it. You are one of the bravest men I have had the honor of meeting. You have entirely dazed me with your performances.
"You will now be learning under me for a while. I expect great things from you, as should you. We will now move on to the ability you have gotten so far that I have not addressed. Wandless magic, Harry, is a wonderful gift. It can be very dangerous, but extremely helpful. That is why it is important for you to learn more.
"If I am not mistaken, you first realized this power around Miss Weasley." With Harry's nod, the headmaster continued. "You have since then done it again around her as well as Sirius and, I am happy to say, myself. You see, when a wizard does accidental magic, he is releasing stored up excess magic in a time of weakness, much like when you allowed your anger to overcome you and released your magic at your poor aunt.
What you have been doing now, is using moments of strength to funnel not stored up magic, but magic that you would use with a wand. Wands merely focus and amplify magic. Your magic level is so high, Harry, that your wand does little to amplify, it only focuses. So at times when you are feeling love you manage to focus your magic and use it."
Harry thought about all of this new information. He had more magic than most people…so much more that a wand didn't really help him. If he could learn to focus without his wand he could do magic without words. Most wizards could do magic without words, but it took a lot more concentration. Wizards only used words to trigger their wands, so if he didn't have a wand he could shoot spells very quickly and without telling his attacker what to expect.
Once Dumbledore noticed Harry had come to a wonderful conclusion, he spoke again, "I did not experience wandless magic until I was in my twenties, Harry. I believe you can have great success with this due to your experience with the Patronus. It is different, obviously, but it has similarities.
"You remember you have done wandless magic when you are feeling love. That is how you funnel your energy. Voldemort uses dark methods, the dark arts are powerful, but love will always overcome.
"Now, if you remember, you did wandless magic just by thinking of Ginny in the tunnel. I believe she is the strongest force for you to focus your energy at the moment. So, I want you to conjure up a bowl of lemon drops, but you must think of her while doing it."
Harry was slightly uncomfortable talking with the professor about Ginny, but he figured Dumbledore knew what he was doing. So he thought hard about what he wanted to achieve, but even harder on an image of Ginny flying with him.
"Harry, your magic needs to escape somehow, so use your hand to give an outlet."
Harry brought his hand up and instantly a bowl of lemon drops appeared. Harry grinned at Dumbledore, who returned the gesture while popping a lemon drop into his mouth.
"Ok, Harry. You have done extremely well. I have taken much of our time today just explaining everything to you. I must attend to other matters, such as finding a new Defense teacher; it seems Professor Moody will not be rejoining us, not that he was ever really with us. He has a slightly different job right now." Dumbledore paused looking at Harry with the twinkle ever present.
"I wish to tell you more, but I will wait until Sirius arrives. He will want to talk to you about this." Dumbledore stood leaving Harry in thought about his new powers.
"Thank you, Professor; I will see you tonight then." Harry asked Dumbledore before he reached the fire, "Would you like me to study anything specific?"
"I would like you to study everything, Harry. Know this library before it is time to leave. Make Miss Granger proud. Also, feel free to practice your wandless magic, the quicker you master that, the sooner I will be able to teach you more powerful magic."
Dumbledore disappeared in the flames with the four paintings and left Harry on the couch. Harry immediately got up and walked over to the library. He decided to start with his least favorite subject: Potions.
Three hours later, Harry was at the lab hovering over a boiling cauldron. He found he liked potions without Snape looming over him to make him feel inadequate. He was not doing a hard potion, but he found following the directions relatively easy, and he even added his own variations when he felt they were needed. The cupboards full of ingredients were amazing. They refilled themselves as he used them, and Harry noticed they were fresh, which meant there was a charm placed on them. He guessed Slytherin made the charm to refill the vials from the Forbidden Forest.
Harry finished his potion and looked in the book to find his potion looked exactly like the picture of it in the book. He cleaned up and went back to the library and started reading some Transfiguration books. He performed relatively difficult spells easily, and he even used wandless magic on simpler spells.
As the day went by Harry practiced and learned as much as he could, and he was surprised to find that his memory was excellent. He could remember incantations and wand movements without a second glance at the instructions in the books. Harry found that when he did wandless magic, he didn't need to do the movements that he would with a wand…yet another upside to wandless magic. He just had to think the movements in addition to the spell and love.
Harry knew he had to master wandless magic because when crunch time came, he wouldn't have time to focus on those three things. He would have to be able to do it second nature so he could also focus on the evil he would be facing.
The afternoon passed quickly, and Harry was expecting Sirius to show up soon. Just as he was putting away The Right to Bear Charms by Helga Hufflepuff, he heard the flames spit someone out. As he turned to see Sirius, Dumbledore came through once more after him.
"Ah, Harry, working hard I see. I am only going to be here for a moment. You see, I have some more things to tell you." The two adults beckoned Harry over to them. "You see, many years ago, before Voldemort disappeared, I was the leader of a group of people to take him down. The ministry was not much help then, just like now, so we took matters into our own hands.
"Only the most trusted of my friends were members of this group. It was called the Order of the Phoenix. Your parents, Sirius, and many others you may know were members. The Order was very successful and we brought down more Death Eaters than all of the aurors in the ministry."
Harry was excited every time he heard something of his parents' past. He wondered out loud, "So you've started it back up, the Order of the Phoenix? Is that 'the old crowd' you told Sirius to round up that night Voldemort got back?"
"You have a good memory, Harry. Yes, I sent Sirius, which frightened quite a few of the old members to see him. He is still a convict to them, see? But we got it straightened out, and now we have, indeed, restarted the Order."
"So how many members are there? Is it as big as last time? What is the Ministry up to?"
"Well, there are about thirty members so far. The Weasley's are a great addition to the Order. Many of those that were in it fifteen years ago passed away. The Longbottom's, as you know, are unable to help. We have a few more recruits, you will meet them eventually. Tonks, Kingsley, Fletcher, and a few others, I won't name them all. You will see Lupin soon though, he is a member. The Ministry is being more uncooperative than ever. Fudge has taken me off the Wizengammot. Said I was losing my touch…"
"It won't be too long before everyone realizes what is really happening I hope." Sirius looked like he wanted to murder the Ministry…although, Harry decided he would, too if they convicted him of murder and sent him off to Azkaban without trial.
Dumbledore managed to hold the twinkle in his eye as he spoke, "Harry, you have gotten quite a different status in the world now, just remember that it doesn't matter what they say. Always do what you think is right; we all have faith in you. I must now attend to some matters." And with that, he stepped back into the fire and disappeared.
Harry looked happily up at Sirius when he said, "Let's go find out what you will turn into, Harry."
Sirius led them over to the library as Harry asked, "How does it work, Sirius? In the pensieve you all looked like you were in a trance…is it a spell you cast?"
"Nope…it's actually a very difficult potion, and it has to be here in the library." They started looking through the potions books. Harry found several books that might have it, but after looking, it wasn't there. He enjoyed skimming through different potion though.
At last, after an hour of searching, Sirius found it in a book written by Godric Gryffindor. They looked at it together, and Sirius spoke, "I don't remember it being this difficult because it will take several weeks to find the correct ingredients, the actual brewing of the potion could be done in a day."
"That's good news, because there is a stock of every ingredient possible in the cupboards. They refill themselves, too. So, can we start now so tomorrow I will find out what I will turn into?"
Sirius smiled, "Of course, you are an anxious one, aren't you? Yes we will start now, and you will make the potion yourself for practice…besides, I never was any good at potions. Your mother on the other hand, she could brew anything."
"Cool, let's start it up then." They walked over to the lab and got ready. Sirius was right…it was a complex potion. It couldn't be more difficult than the Polyjuice Potion, though. Harry got started and put an automatic mixing charm on it that would mix it at the exact speed he set it to. "That should do for a couple hours until we need to add…unicorn droppings?"
"Ah yes, that took some time for James and me to find." Sirius laughed out loud remembering their adventure into the forest about twenty years earlier.
"Well, its all set for the next couple of hours; what do we do until then?"
Sirius was excited as he said, "Dumbledore has asked me to teach you to duel properly. We will fight each other until you can beat me."
"Cool. How is your new wand treating you? Still think you can beat me with a different wand?"
Sirius was sad for a moment, "Yes, well, my first wand…nothing can beat one's first wand, unless that wand did not pick the wizard. Ron's second wand is better because the first one was a hand-me-sown from his dead grandpa. My first wand was magic…. Of course I can still take you. I'm your godfather after all."
They walked into the dueling dome and Sirius said, "Let's just have a disarming duel. It is excellent for quickening your reactions. Later tonight, we may start using other spells. So just use protego and expelliarmus."
They took positions in the dome and Sirius yelled, "Go!" Harry sent the disarming curse right away and quickly put up his shield as Sirius' came at him. They continued like this, continually getting faster until Harry couldn't go much faster and he jumped behind a rock that was jutting out.
"Come get me, Harry!" Sirius joked. He wasn't having trouble with the speed of the match. Harry spun around the rock just as he had around the tombstone when he faced Voldemort. An unknown power came through him as he remembered that moment and his expelliarmus shot right through Sirius' shield knocking him over and sending his wand to Harry.
"Wow…you got some power in that one! That was amazing…right through my shield." Sirius panted as he got up. "Where did that come from?"
"I just remembered a moment in my fight with Voldemort then I felt power surging through me. I just let it all out in that spell."
Sirius laughed, "Your memory of that moment strengthened you? You really are an amazing wizard Harry. However, no matter how strong your spells are, being quick is just as important. So lets go again, and no hiding this time. That will be ok in later duels, but for now we need to focus on improving your cast rate."
Harry agreed and they went at it once more. Soon, they were up to high speeds again and Harry alternated dodging and blocking spells so he could send some of his own. Sirius found a pattern to Harry's dodges and had him disarmed a second later.
"You need to break habits, so your opponent cannot find a weakness. That was wonderful, though, Harry. It is important to be able to dodge as your quidditch skills allow you to do. That way you can dish out some spells while you don't need to focus on shielding. Be careful, though, about wide spells; they can't be dodged.
"Let's go ahead and move onto all spells that won't hurt us significantly." They began again using all types of spells. Several times Sirius got the better end because he knew spells that could be blocked easily, just not by protego, but because Harry had never seen them before, he didn't know how to block them.
"This is why your studies are important…you can't learn everything hands-on." As Sirius finished his lesson of that fight, Harry's wand gave a ringing sound. It was the timer charm he had set on it to tell him when to add the next ingredient to the potion. "Well, let's go take care of that, and then I will leave you for the night."
They added the ingredients, and Sirius told him to make sure he did it perfectly, so they could use it the next day. With that, Sirius left Harry to take care of the potion. Over the next few hours, Harry tended to the potion, studied blocking spells, practiced wandless magic, and ran around the room to improve his endurance.
Harry ate a late dinner, got ready for bed and fell asleep. Harry ran down a silent hallway. He turned to see a door. He tried to open it, but it was locked. He heard someone scream inside. Then there was a man's voice, high pitched and cold. "You have failed me again, Wormtail. You are worthless. Crucio!"
Harry woke with a start as his wand rang again. What was that? Did he have a dream like he had the previous year? Did that actually happen? It felt so real. What did Wormtail fail to do? Harry walked over to the cauldron and added ingredients and changed the speed of stirring. He had memorized the potion, even in its complexity.
Harry walked back to his bed, but he decided to start his day to take his mind off his dream. He wouldn't be able to get to bed anyway. He went to the bathroom and swam laps for an hour. He was a little sore from dueling the day before, and swimming loosened him up.
Harry got dressed and ate breakfast. He had time to study before Dumbledore got there. He had been going down the shelves when he came across a book called Apparation. Harry knew next to nothing on how to apparate, so he opened up the book. He was surprised to find it so thin. He skimmed the history of apparation quickly and got to the three D's: destination, determination, and deliberation.
This was it? It seemed relatively easy, so he held out his wand and he determinedly deliberated on his destination. He felt an odd compression like he was being forced through a tube, and in a moments panic he worried he had done it wrong. No sooner than it started, it stopped and Harry opened his eyes to find himself on the opposite end of the room.
"Excellent work, Harry." It was Dumbledore's voice. "Apparently the anti-apparation charms do not extend down here."
Harry suddenly felt sick to his stomach. "Professor, what is stopping Voldemort from coming here right now? He knows all about this place."
"Harry, you underestimate me. You must understand I have taken all the precautions necessary to keep that evil away from Hogwarts. You will understand more fully when you finish up this library.
"It is amazing how quickly you learned how to apparate. I am pleased to tell you that you are the first person to learn how to apparate from merely reading the three D's. Once again, Harry, you have shocked me. I don't like it." Dumbledore laughed before sitting down near the pensieve again.
"Now let's get started; show me how you've progressed since yesterday." Harry sat down and gave him a show of his wandless magic skills. He could tell Dumbledore seemed pleased by his quick learning. "Well, Harry…that again is amazing. You have done more wandless magic in your second day of knowing about it than I did in months."
Harry was now shocked…he was becoming stronger than Dumbledore had when his powers emerged. Did that mean he would be stronger than Dumbledore? Harry didn't know if he liked that thought. Dumbledore asked him to do different spells with his wand, then without it. Harry did nearly all of them with the same results with and without his wand.
Just as Dumbledore was getting up to leave for the day, Harry remembered his dream. "Erm…Professor?" Harry wasn't sure if he should worry over this, but decided since he could tell Dumbledore easily, he might as well.
"Yes, Harry?"
"I had another dream…it wasn't of a memory, but more similar to the one I had last summer. I was walking down a dark hallway…and there was a door. I tried to open it, but it was locked. Then I heard Wormtail scream from inside…and then Voldemort…he said that Wormtail had failed him…again. Then as he cast the Cruciatus curse on him aand I woke up."
"Harry, I have not been completely honest with you, and now that you have, I feel I need to tell you what happened. You see, your scar connects you to Voldemort." Harry shuddered at this thought, but Dumbledore continued. "A few days ago, you felt your scar burn. You told Sirius you felt anger…I am almost certain that Voldemort's anger was so strong that it passed into you. I must tell you what he was angry at…
"Arrabella Figg informed me that two Death Eaters showed up at number 4, Privet Drive. I believe his anger was when they reported back to him that you did not return there. You see, Harry, you foiled his plan. No one was supposed to know he had returned except his Death Eaters…but you fought…you won, and you got back…You stopped Voldemort from coming back unoticed. Because of you, I have been able to organize the order once more. Because of you, the dark wizards have something to worry about. Because of you, the world will not bow down to Lord Voldemort.
"Your dream…Wormtail failed Voldemort. This is obviously good news for us. I will set to work right away to find out what he failed to do. Thank you, Harry. I see your potion is nearly done…I can't wait to find out what animal you will become. I dare say you will astonish me once more."
Throughout the day, Harry practiced apparation so he could apparate quickly without having to think for a moment. He was a natural at it. Harry then tried without his wand, and found that the unpleasant squishing sensation did not occur. It actually felt great to move around wherever he wanted to rather than an uncomfortable experience.
The potion was done by noon, so Harry filled several vials. He continued reading books and studying. Hermione would be jealous when he told her he had developed a photographic memory. It was true, he could remember everything he read or did. Harry was getting tired of reading, so he decided to try out a couple paintings. He found in a book how to find secret words that would make secrets appear. He was sure the Marauders knew how to do it, or how could they find Dissendium, the password to open the one-eyes witch to go to Honeydukes.
Harry looked around until he found a strange painting…or rather, lack of painting. It was just a frame with pure black where the painting would normally go. Harry touched the painting and instantly he began swirling around like what the portkeys did to him.
Harry stopped swirling and opened his eyes…well he thought he opened his eyes, but it was pitchblack. Was he in the painting somehow? Or was it a portkey that had taken him some place dark? "Lumos Solam," Harry shouted. The light, as bright as the sun, erupted out of his wand.
Harry found himself in a forest. Suddenly, a Death Eater came out from behind a tree and fired stupefy at Harry. Harry quickly dove to the side while casting his own stupefy back at the Death Eater. Harry's connected and it was followed by an Incarcerous and ropes flew out of Harry's wand and tied the guy up.
The lgith from Harry's wand was out now, so he shouted at a tree, "Lacarnum Inflamare." The tree burst into flames cast a warm, dull light over the forest.
Harry walked over and pulled of the Death Eater's mask off, to find that he had another underneath. He continued pulling until he realized he wasn't going to get through. Suddenly a red light flashed over him missing him by a few inches.
Harry spun around to find another three death eaters each getting ready to send spells at him. Harry thought fast and apparated behind them. He shot out Impedimenta spreata, which is a wide Impedimenta. The spell hit two of them, and they instantly slowed to an abrupt stop. The third wheeled around just in time to see a stunning curse fly his way and send him down hard.
Harry wondered where he was…he didn't thing that the painting was a portkey. He rationalized that Voldemort hadn't been there in fifty years, so how could he have planned that far ahead and made a portkey for fifty years later? No…this was some place different.
Before Harry could think any longer, another Death Eater appeared from behind a tree and they started dueling. Harry thought he had the upper hand, but the Death Eater kept getting faster and faster. Harry apparated, hoping he would catch his opponent off guard, but when he appeared behind the Death Eater, he saw it also apparate away.
The next thing he knew, he saw a light coming from his left side and spun around to find stupefy coming right at him. It was too late, he got hit. The next thing he knew, darkness overcame him, and he felt the spinning sensation again.
"Wow…excellent work on the first four, Harry. That last one was tough though." It was Sirius voice. Harry opened his eyes and found himself back in the Chamber's room.
"What happened…I had no idea where I was…I just touched the painting and the next thing I knew…I was fighting." Harry was very confused. He felt relieved as Sirius smiled.
"Well, from what I gather, you found yet another secret. I could see everything in the painting. I arrived just as you got sucked into the painting. I rushed over to find you in the painting lighting up the area. Then I watched you fight…I didn't know you could apparate, that is amazing, Harry. Anyway, then you got sucked out here once you lost. My guess us that it is a training realm. It uses your memories and fears to create a place where you can fight. However made that is a genius."
"Wow! That will be nice to have. Did you see the potion? It's ready, you know." Harry was very excited to find out what he would become.
"Excellent!" They made their way over to the potions lab and looked down at the vials of green potion. It swirled and changed red as Harry picked one up. "Now, you will drink this, and you will find out momentarily.
"Cool…well, I'll see you when I come out of the trance." With that, Harry drank his potion.
Harry's eyes fogged over until he saw only pure white. He looked around and saw only white. Then from far off, he heard music…it was beautiful. It calmed him down, and made him feel safe. Harry recognized it as a phoenix…Wait…that can't possibly mean…I'm a phoenix? Just as Harry thought this, he felt himself lift off the ground. He looked to his shoulder and found a phoenix pulling him up. Suddenly, with a wonderful cry, the phoenix let go of Harry, and he fell.
Before he hit the white ground, Harry felt himself push himself up without any thought. He was flying, well, his body was flying, and he wasn't doing much more than allow his instinct to take over. Then, Harry decided to take over, and beat his arms…which he found to be wings when he looked over…and he flew upwards. He could fly without a broom or anything. He opened his mouth to shout, but melodic tunes came out instead.
Just as he began to control himself, and realize he was, indeed, a phoenix, the white around him started to fade. The room came back into focus, and Harry looked directly at Sirius' smiling face.
"Well? What are you?"
"I'm…I'm a phoenix."