This is the last chapter of Order Of The Phoenix, and I am SO happy to get out of it.

For those who aren't really Romione fans, Half Blood Prince will NOT be for you lol. It's going to have so much Romione in it, you'll lose your mind lol.

Well, anyways, back to the fic!

Chapter 160: The Second War Begins

HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED RETURNS

In a brief statement on Friday night, Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge confirmed that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned to this country and is once more active.

"It is with great regret that I must confirm that the wizard styling himself Lord-well, you know who I mean-is alive and among us again," said Fudge, looking tired and flustered as he addressed reporters. "It is with almost equal regret that we report the mass revolt of the dementors of Azkaban, who have shown themselves averse to continuing in the Ministry's employ. We believe the dementors are currently taking direction from Lord- Thingy."

"We urge the magician population to remain vigilant. The Ministry is currently publishing guides to elementary home and personal defence which will be delivered free to all wizarding homes within the coming month."

The Minister's statement was met with dismay and alarm from the wizarding community, which as recently as last Wednesday was receiving Ministry assurances that there was "no truth whatsoever in these persistent rumours that You-Know-Who is operating amongst us once more."

Details of the events that led to the Ministry turnaround are still hazy, though it is believed that He Who Must Not Be Named and a select band of followers (known as Death Eaters) gained entry to the Ministry of Magic itself on Thursday evening.

Albus Dumbledore, newly reinstated Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, reinstated member of the International Confederation of Wizards and reinstated Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, has so far been unavailable for comment. He has insisted over the past year that You-Know-Who is not dead, as was widely hoped and believed, but is recruiting followers once more for a fresh attempt to seize power. Meanwhile, the "Boy Who Lived"-

"There you are, Harry, I knew they'd drag you into it somehow," said Hermione, looking over the top of the paper at him.

We were in the hospital wing. Harry was sitting on the end of my bed and we were both listening to Hermione read the front page of the Sunday Prophet. Ginny was curled up at the foot of Hermione's bed, which was now beside mine. Neville was in a chair between the beds, and Luna, who had dropped in to visit, clutching the latest edition of The Quibbler, was reading the magazine upside-down and apparently not taking in a word Hermione was saying.

"He's the 'boy who lived' again now, though, isn't he?" I said with a huff. "Not such a deluded show-off any more, eh?"

I helped myself to a handful of Chocolate Frogs from the huge pile on my bedside cabinet, threw a few to Harry, Ginny and Neville and ripped off the wrapper of my own with my teeth. There were still deep welts on my forearms where the brain's tentacles had wrapped around me, however, I was learning to get used to them, especially after Hermione had said they made me look rugged and strong. The dreams were still happening. I was starting to feel extremely sorry for the man I was dreaming about whose thoughts were now my own because of the brain.

"Yes, they're very complimentary about you now, Harry," said Hermione, scanning down the article. 'A lone voice of truth ... perceived as unbalanced, yet never wavered in his story ... forced to bear ridicule and slander'...Hmmm. I notice they don't mention the fact that it was them doing all the ridiculing and slandering in the Prophet."

She winced slightly and put a hand to her ribs. The curse Dolohov had used on her, though less effective than it would have been had he been able to say the incantation aloud, had nevertheless caused, in Madam Pomfrey's words, 'quite enough damage to be going on with'. Hermione was having to take ten different types of potion every day, was improving greatly, and was already bored with the hospital wing.

"You-Know-Who's Last Attempt to Take Over, pages two to Jour, What the Ministry Should Have Told Us, page five, Why Nobody Listened to Albus Dumbledore, pages six to eight, Exclusive Interview with Harry Potter, page nine. Well, it's certainly given them lots to write about. And that interview with Harry isn't exclusive, it's the one that was in The Quibbler months ago."

"Daddy sold it to them," said Luna vaguely, turning a page of The Quibbler. "He got a very good price for it, too, so we're going to go on an expedition to Sweden this summer to see if we can catch a Crumple-Horned Snorkack."

Hermione looked as if she was ready to tell Luna that it didn't exist, but decided against it.

"That sounds lovely." she said.

Ginny caught Harry's eye and looked away quickly, grinning. I got the impression that neither of them wanted that to be seen.

"So, anyway," said Hermione, sitting up a little straighter and wincing again, "what's going on in school?"

"Well, Flitwick's got rid of Fred and George's swamp," said Ginny, "he did it in about three seconds. But he left a tiny patch under the window and he's roped it off-"

"Why?" said Hermione, looking startled.

"Oh, he just says it was a really good bit of magic," said Ginny, shrugging.

"I think he left it as a monument to Fred and George," I said, through a mouthful of chocolate. "They sent me all these, you know, the frogs. Must be doing all right out of that joke shop, eh?"

Hermione looked rather disapproving and asked, "So has all the trouble stopped now Dumbledore's back?"

"Yes," said Neville, "everything's settled right back to normal."

"I s'pose Filch is happy, is he?" I asked, propping a Chocolate Frog Card featuring Dumbledore against my water jug.

"Not at all," said Ginny. "He's really, really miserable, actually ..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "He keeps saying Umbridge was the best thing that ever happened to Hogwarts."

All six of us looked around. The toad was lying in a bed opposite of us, gazing up at the ceiling. Dumbledore had strode alone into the Forest to rescue her from the centaurs. How he had done it, how he had emerged from the trees supporting Professor Umbridge without so much as a scratch on him, nobody knew, and Umbridge was certainly not telling. Since she had returned to the castle she had not, as far as any of us knew, uttered a single word. Nobody really knew what was wrong with her, either. Her usually neat mousy hair was very untidy and there were still bits of twigs and leaves in it, but otherwise she seemed to be quite unscathed.

She also smelled. A lot.

"Madam Pomfrey says she's just in shock," whispered Hermione.

"Sulking, more like," said Ginny.

"Yeah, she shows signs of life if you do this," I said, clicking my tongue to sound like hooves. Umbridge bolted upright, looking around wildly.

"Anything wrong, Professor?" called Madam Pomfrey, poking her head around her office door.

"No ... no ..." said Umbridge, sinking back into her pillows. "No, I must have been dreaming..."

Hermione and Ginny muffled their laughter.

"Speaking of centaurs," said Hermione, when she had recovered a little, "who's Divination teacher now? Is Firenze staying?"

"He's got to," said Harry, "the other centaurs won't take him back, will they?"

"It looks like he and Trelawney are both going to teach," said Ginny.

"Bet Dumbledore wishes he could've got rid of Trelawney for good," I said, munching on my fourteenth Frog. "Mind you, the whole subject's useless if you ask me, Firenze isn't a lot better."

"How can you say that?" Hermione demanded. "After we've just found out that there are real prophecies?"

"Merlin, don't remind me."

"It is a pity it broke," said Hermione quietly, shaking her head.

"Yeah, it is. Still, at least You-Know-Who never found out what was in it either- where are you going?" I asked, as Harry got up off my bed.

'Er-Hagrid's," said Harry. "You know, he just got back and I promised I'd go down and see him and tell him how you two are."

"Oh, alright then," I grumbled. "Wish we could come."

"Say hello to him for us!" called Hermione, as Harry proceeded down the ward. "And ask him what's happening about ... about his little friend!"

Harry gave a wave of his hand as he left the dormitory.

"Poor Harry." said Neville, sitting up straighter in his chair. "Has he talked about Sirius any?"

"Nope, and I doubt he will. You know how Harry can be at times." said Ginny.

"Dean and Seamus had been trying to perk him up a bit, but he won't budge. He won't talk to anybody. I would have thought he would at least have talked to you and Hermione." said Neville.

"Harry is in mourning." said Luna in an airy voice. "He needs his time and space, and as his friends, we should give it to him, don't you think?"

"No, "said Hermione. "He needs to talk about it. You know how he is Ron. When he bottles it all up."

Luna shrugged and went back to her magazine.

Hermione and I left the hospital wing completely cured three days before the end of term. Hermione kept showing signs of wanting to talk about Sirius, but I hushed her everytime she mentioned his name. I could tell that he wasn't ready to talk about Sirius, and Hermione needed to respect that.

Professor Umbridge left Hogwarts the day before the end of term. It seemed she had crept out of the hospital wing during dinnertime, evidently hoping to depart undetected, but unfortunately for her, she met Peeves on the way, who seized his last chance to do as Fred had instructed, and chased her gleefully from the premises whacking her alternately with a walking stick and a sock full of chalk. Many students ran out into the Entrance Hall to watch her running away down the path and the Heads of Houses tried only half-heartedly to restrain them. Indeed, Professor McGonagall sank back into her chair at the staff table after a few feeble remonstrances and was clearly heard to express a regret that she could not run cheering after Umbridge herself, because Peeves had borrowed her walking stick.

Their last evening at school arrived; most people had finished packing and were already heading down to the end-of-term leaving feast, but Harry had not even started.

"Just do it tomorrow!" I said, waiting by the door of our dormitory. "Come on, I'm starving."

"I won't be long ... look, you go ahead." he said, shrugging.

I closed the door and went down the stairs, where Hermione was waiting. She looked at me as if to ask if Harry was coming, and I sighed and shook my head. She nodded, tugged lightly at my robes and we went down the the feast.

The journey home on the Hogwarts Express next day was eventful in several ways. Firstly, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, who had clearly been waiting all week for the opportunity to strike without teacher witnesses, attempted to ambush Harry halfway down the train as he made his way back from the toilet. The attack might have succeeded had it not been for the fact that they unwittingly chose to stage the attack right outside a compartment full of DA members, who saw what was happening through the glass and rose as one to rush to Harry's aid. By the time Ernie, Hannah, Susan, Justin, Anthony, and Terry had finished using a wide variety of the hexes and jinxes Harry had taught them, Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle resembled nothing so much as three gigantic slugs squeezed into Hogwarts uniform as Harry, Ernie and Justin hoisted them into the luggage rack and left them there to ooze.

"I must say, I'm looking forward to seeing Malfoy's mother's face when he gets off the train," said Ernie, with some satisfaction, as he watched Malfoy squirm above him.

"Goyle's mum'll be really pleased, though," I said, as I had caught the tail end of the situation. "He's loads better-looking now. Anyway, Harry, the food trolley's just stopped if you want anything."

Harry thanked the others and followed me back to our compartment, where he bought a large pile of cauldron cakes and pumpkin pasties. Hermione was reading the Daily Prophet again, Ginny was doing a quiz in The Quibbler, and Neville was stroking his Mimbulus mimbletonia, which had grown a great deal over the year and now made odd crooning noises when touched.

Harry and I whiled away most of the journey playing wizard chess while Hermione read out snippets from the was now full of articles about how to repel dementors, attempts by the Ministry to track down Death Eaters and hysterical letters claiming that the writer had seen Lord Voldemort walking past their house that very morning.

"It hasn't really started yet," sighed Hermione gloomily, folding up the newspaper again. "But it won't be long now."

"Hey, Harry," I said softly, nodding towards the glass window onto the corridor.

Harry looked around. Cho was passing, accompanied by Marietta Edgecombe, who was wearing a balaclava. They looked at each other for a moment, Cho blushed and then she kept walking.

"What's-er- going on with you and her, anyway?" I asked quietly.

"Nothing," said Harry.

"I-er-heard she's going out with someone else now," said Hermione tentatively.

Harry shrugged, indicating that he really didn't give a fuck.

"You're well out of it, mate. I mean, she's quite good-looking and all that, but you want someone a bit more cheerful."

"She's probably cheerful enough with someone else," said Harry, shrugging again.

"Who's she with now, anyway?" I asked Hermione, but it was Ginny who answered.

"Michael Corner."

"Michael-but-But you were going out with him!" I exclaimed.

"Not any more," said Ginny. "He didn't like Gryffindor beating Ravenclaw at Quidditch, and got really sulky, so I ditched him and he ran off to comfort Cho instead."

She scratched her nose absently with the end of her quill, turned The Quibbler upside-down and began marking her answers. I for one was ecstatic. I didn't like the little fucker anyways.

"Well, I always thought he was a bit of an idiot," I said, prodding my queen forwards towards Harry's quivering castle. "Good for you. Just choose someone-better-next time."

I gave Harry a look that stated that with better, I meant no one.

"Well, I've chosen Dean Thomas, would you say he's better?" asked Ginny vaguely.

"WHAT?" I shouted, flipping over the chessboard. Crookshanks went plunging after the pieces and Hedwig and Pigwidgeon twittered and hooted angrily from overhead.

We argued the rest of the way to King's Cross.

When the ticket inspector signalled to the three of us that it was safe to walk through the magical barrier between platforms nine and ten, however, we found a surprise awaiting us on the other side: a group of people standing there to greet us who we had not expected at all.

There was Mad-Eye Moody, looking quite as sinister with his bowler hat pulled low over his magical eye as he would have done without it, his gnarled hands clutching a long staff, his body wrapped in a voluminous travelling cloak. Tonks stood just behind him, her bright bubblegum-pink hair gleaming in the sunlight filtering through the dirty glass of the station ceiling, wearing heavily patched jeans and a bright purple T-shirt bearing the legend The Weird Sisters. Next to Tonks was Lupin, his face pale, his hair greying, a long overcoat covering a shabby jumper and trousers. At the front of the group stood Mum and Dad, dressed in their Muggle best, and Fred and George, who were both wearing brand-new jackets. Dragonhide. Charlie would go mad.

"Ron, Ginny!" called Mum, hurrying forwards and hugging us tightly. "Oh, and Harry dear-how are you?"

"Fine," said Harry, clearly lying, as she pulled him into a tight embrace.

"What are they supposed to be?" I said, pointing to the jackets in disbelief.

"Finest dragonskin, little bro," said Fred, giving his zip a little tweak. "Business is booming and we thought we'd treat ourselves."

"You're treating yourself to an ass kicking when Charlie sees this."

"Details, Ron. Details." said George, popping his collar annoyingly.

"Ah, Harry!' said Dad turning from Hermione's parents, who he had just greeted enthusiastically, and who were now taking it in turns to hug Hermione. "Well- shall we do it, then?"

"Yeah, I reckon so, Arthur," said Moody.

"This is going to be brilliant." I whispered to Harry.

We followed them across the station towards the Dursleys, who were apparently rooted to the floor. Hermione disengaged herself gently from her mother to join us.

"Good afternoon," said Dad pleasantly to Harry's uncle as he came to a halt right in front of him. "You might remember me, my name's Arthur Weasley."

The blubbering mass turned a deep shade of puce and glared at Dad, but chose not to say anything, partly, perhaps, because the Dursleys were outnumbered two to one. The stick lady of an aunt looked both frightened and embarrassed; she kept glancing around, as though terrified somebody she knew would see her in such company. Dudley, meanwhile, seemed to be trying to look small and insignificant, a feat that wouldn't work if somebody shrank him.

"We thought we'd just have a few words with you about Harry," said Dad, still smiling.

"Yeah," growled Moody. "About how he's treated when he's at your place."

"I am not aware that it is any of your business what goes on in my house." puffed Harry's uncle. I was trying my best to hold in my laughter.

"I expect what you're not aware of would fill several books, Dursley," growled Moody.

"Anyway, that's not the point," interjected Tonks, whose pink hair seemed to offend Harry's aunt more than all the rest put together, for she closed her eyes rather than look at her. "The point is, if we find out you've been horrible to Harry- "

"-And make no mistake, we'll hear about it," added Lupin pleasantly.

"Yes," said Dad "even if you won't let Harry use the fellytone-"

"Telephone," whispered Hermione.

"-Yeah, if we get any hint that Potter's been mistreated in any way, you'll have us to answer to," said Moody.

Harry's uncle looked a great mix of frightened and enraged. "Are you threatening me, sir?" he said, so loudly that passers-by actually turned to stare.

"Yes, I am," said Mad-Eye.

"And do I look like the kind of man who can be intimidated?"

"Yes you do." whispered Hermione, Harry, and I at the same time.

"Well ..."said Moody, pushing back his bowler hat to reveal his sinisterly revolving magical eye. Harry's uncle leapt backwards in horror and collided painfully with a luggage trolley. "Yes, I'd have to say you do, Dursley."

He turned to survey Harry. "So, Potter ... give us a shout if you need us. If we don't hear from you for three days in a row, we'll send someone along. Bye, then, Potter,"

'Take care, Harry,' said Lupin quietly. 'Keep in touch.'

"Harry, we'll have you away from there as soon as we can," Mum whispered, hugging him again.

"We'll see you soon, mate," I said grinning, shaking Harry's hand.

"Really soon, Harry," said Hermione earnestly. "We promise."

Harry nodded, raised a hand in farewell, turned around and led the way out of the station towards the sunlit street with his relatives trailing behind him.

"Well, that's that, let's go you lot." said Moody, leading the rest away.

"We'll give you a minute, Ron." said Mum, giving Hermione another quick hug, then following the rest.

Hermione and I turned to each other. I hated this part, even though I tried to play it cool.

"Are you going on vacation with your folks?" I asked.

Hermione shrugged. "Possibly. They haven't really said too much about it."

"Well, you know, if you...if you don't you..." I hesitated to say, not knowing why.

"You can come visit if you want from to time." said Hermione, her voice a little shaky. Clearly she couldn't be the nervous one.

"I can?"

"I could also come and stay at The Burrow, that is, if it's okay with you and your family." she said looking at the ground.

"Are you mental? Of course you can. Shit, you could come right now!" I said with way too much enthusiasm.

Hermione looked up and smiled at me. "Maybe not now, but in a couple of weeks?"

"Anytime." I said. "And I'll call you tomorrow."

"Okay."said Hermione, pulling me into a hug.

For some reason, this hug felt completely different. She had crushed her entire body into me, squeezing me tight as I was doing the same. When we were done, we just sort of stared at each other. I felt the strong urge to kiss her, but I thought better against it. Her parents probably wouldn't approve.

Hermione must have felt something too and ignored it however, because she gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then she waved and walked back over to her parents.

I smirked and touched the spot that she had kissed me. I walked back over to my family, who were each giving me the same weird and knowing expression.

"What?" I said.

"You have a lot to learn, baby brother." said Fred, patting me on the back.

"Too right you are, twin." said George. "That was bloody embarrassing to watch."

"Oh, shut up." I said, knowing that my ears were probably glowing red with blush.