Harry Potter and the Fulfillment of the Prophecy

Harry Potter and the Fulfillment of the Prophecy

Disclaimer/Author's Note- Yeah, the usual, I don't own Harry Potter and never will, that's just plain sad!

Enjoy!

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Chapter Four- A Party and a Prat

That night after a scrumptious dinner and congratulation party thrown for Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco in honor of their test results, they were to be found in the warm Drawing Room. Ron and Ginny were immersed in an intense game of Wizard's Chess, where Ron's Bishop had just blown apart one of Ginny's pawns. But their faces were set in deep concentration; the game had now been going for about an hour and a half. Hermione was propped up in a large armchair reading a thick tome about The Risks of Bodily Transformations. Draco was performing spells to the side of Ron and Ginny, carefully reading them from a Spell Book lying on the floor at his feet. Harry was gazing sleepily into the fire. Just over a year ago, he had believed Sirius was dead. He had felt as if his whole world was over when his godfather had slipped through the fluttering black veil. But now, now his life felt as though it had just begun.

He had his godfather and Lupin, both like parents and brothers at the same time. Then there was the Weasley's, they were like his adoptive family, always there when he needed love. Hermione and Ron were his whole life. Without them, he wouldn't be sitting staring into the fire; he'd most likely be dead. They were his foundation. Just when he had discovered he didn't belong to the world he had been living in for ten years. Just when he had discovered he was something more than an unwanted nephew in a town full of pompous garden-lovers. He had made his first friends with people who would be with him to the death.

But that was what scared him.

He loved Ron and Hermione dearly, but if loving them meant that they could be killed at any moment, wouldn't it be better if he had never met them? Harry had gone through these things in his head a lot lately. First he'd feel doubtful, scared even, that their knowing him would get them killed, that he would wish he had never stepped into Platform Nine and Three-Quarters all those years ago. But then it would move onto `what if?' What if he had never received his Hogwarts letter from Hagrid and never met Ron and Hermione? What would have happened? Quirrel would have stolen the Philosopher's Stone and restored Voldemort to his original form once more seeking havoc over the word and getting revenge on him, if Harry knew what he had done when he was a baby or not.

And it always ended on a confused note. His life was much better now that he had found out his true destiny. Harry knew that his life wouldn't always be death and destruction. Once he had defeated Voldemort, by killing him squarely or taking him down with him, the world would be free. There would be no terror of leaving your children in the street at night, no terror in believing in what was right, and no being afraid of what people would say about your birth parents, whether they were witch and wizard, muggle or both. It wouldn't matter. And Harry felt a great sense of peace at the thought of living a normal life. And it would all come down to him. Whether or not he killed Voldemort.

As he stared into the fire, Harry came to a decision. He would train and fight in anyway he can to bring Voldemort down, once and for all. He would seek advice from everyone and anything he could on defense spells. But not just defense spells this time, but spells that could kill. As Harry looked into the flickering flames and burning logs, he knew it in his heart. He must learn how to cast the Avada Kedavra.

His eyes glanced down upon the floor in the shadows. He'd just spotted movement from the corner of his glasses. He smiled at the sight of the chocolate face of Mellow, her great yellow eyes cast upon Harry's green. She meowed silently, and padded up and onto his lap. He stroked her head carelessly, his thoughts wandering once more.

He hadn't seen his own transfigured feline since the previous night, having fed him in the kitchen. He wasn't even sure if it had been Shadow he'd fed, as it was dark when he crept down to the basement kitchen, having forgotten to feed him earlier. It could've been Crookshanks or Mellow that had eaten Shadow's meal. Harry lifted Mellow off his lap and stood silently, gaining Draco's attention. He had just cast a highly complicated charm on Ron's chess pieces, so when he told them a command, they acted the opposite. Ron had no idea that Ginny was killing off his pieces one after the other at each turn. He gave him a curious glance, but Harry just smiled and strolled from the room.

He hadn't gone five paces when a pair of golden slit pupils gazed from the darkness upon the stairs.

“Shadow” Harry said into the darkness, his voice echoing down the stairs. They didn't need to hush their voices on the first landing anymore, as Mrs. Black's portrait had been removed and the wall repaired. Harry watched as Crookshanks crept up to him and brushed along his legs.

“Hey boy, have you seen Shadow?” he asked it, knowing that this cat was highly intelligent. But the bandy-legged feline merely purred loudly and bounded into the Drawing Room from whence Harry came. It was almost fifteen minutes when Harry sank back into his fireside chair, not having found his winged cat anywhere. Maybe he had hid in the attic again? He thought, remembering when they had found Shadow up in the attic, chasing after a pack of savage Doxy's. Crookshanks now leapt up into his lap, his lamp like eyes gazing angrily over to Hermione's chair. Harry followed his gaze and found his problem. Mellow was curled up in Hermione's lap, getting a thorough tickle under her ears. Harry grinned, mimicking the finger movement on Crookshanks' ears, gaining a great purring to emanate from the cats throat.

The following week passed fairly quickly, with the finishing touches of painting and cleaning being completed. Shadow was still missing with Harry fearing he had gotten out and been captured by a muggle or hit by a car. Hermione told him not to worry and that he would turn up soon. This didn't raise Harry's spirit just made him realize how much he had liked the grey and white winged cat he'd called a friend. It was well into the second week since Shadow's disappearance when something happened. They had been eating a late breakfast having placed all the left over tins of paint on the first floor landing just above the first flight of stairs when there was a loud thump followed by many more. Everyone scrambled out of the kitchen fearing Tonks had tripped over a tin and fell down the stairs. They all paused on the top step, gazing out across the landing floor.

Red, yellow, lurid pink, green and aqua blue paints covered the once mahogany floorboards. The stairs were also covered in trails of paints where they had fallen from the top step. The cause of all the trouble came wheeling from the middle of the ruckus. It was a small, multi-colored thing, with two great wings protruding from an orange back. Harry immediately recognized the blue eyes of his feline and bounded forward, slipping on some paint and reeling off into Tonks who had appeared from upstairs. They both careened into the nearest wall, landing with a `thump' onto the floor. Tonks blew bits of Harry's hair from her face, leaving green imprints. She took one look at the mess they had gotten themselves into and cracked up laughing. The others joined in, Harry being one of them.

After peeling themselves of one another, and wiping most of the paint from their eyes, Harry picked up the fur-ball which was Shadow.

“Where've you been, boy?” Harry said, laughing as paint sprayed across his face as the cat fluttered its wings. Harry took Shadow to the bathroom, dumping the cat into the water and scrubbing hard at its white wings. After that, he had a shower himself then cleared out, letting Tonks clean herself up. Everybody was already at work cleaning away the paint. With a few quick spells from Sirius, Lupin and Hermione's wands the paint was cleared, just as there was a soft knock at the front door. Harry opened it, being the closest and revealed Fred and George Weasley with their mother. The twins faces were both flushed with anger, but their mother was beaming with happiness. With out waiting for anyone to speak as Harry shut the door, she spoke in a highly tearful voice.

“Percy has come back to us!” she said loudly, gaining shocked looks all around, and unbelieving ones form the Weasley children. “He apologized this morning to Arthur and then to me! Oh, how wonderful!” she said, hugging Ginny tightly as she was too shocked and angry to move.

“Yeah, the prat!” said Fred angrily, thrusting his green dragon hide jacket onto the coat stand. “He finally decided to believe Dumbledore because Fudge did!”

“Even after the invasion at Hogwarts and everything where Ron and Ginny nearly got killed! Now he wants forgiveness, he won't be getting it from me!” George said.

“Or me!” shouted Ron, Fred and Ginny at the same time. Mrs. Weasley's smile faltered her eyes cast to Harry, an almost pleading look in them. Harry was interrupted from answering by an almighty hissing. He looked down to find Crookshanks rearing on his toes, hissing fitfully at Shadow who was curled around his legs. Hermione quickly jumped forward and clasped her cat before he could pounce on Shadow who Harry was now holding tightly in his arms.

“What's wrong with him?” Harry asked, gazing at the struggling Crookshanks in his girlfriends arms.

“I'm not sure, he's always gotten along with Shadow!” she managed to stammer before walking up the stairs and shoving the cat into her room and slamming the door. You could hear Crookshanks' hissing and scratching to get out from the bottom floor.

“What's gotten into him?” asked Ron when Hermione reappeared, nursing a few scratches on her arms. She shrugged.

“I don't know. He's usually good tempered!”

The rest of the Weasley's remained in a bad mood throughout the day, but nothing seemed to dampen Mrs. Weasley's spirits. Even when Mundungus turned up at dinner time, his cloak full of stolen door knobs and car keys, did her good mood dispense. She merely said, “Oh, Dung, what are you going to do with fifty-two door knobs?” Mr. Weasley arrived a bit after seven, his face forced into a happy expression when Molly hugged him around the middle saying, “Oh, Arthur, we've got all our boys back, I'm so happy!”

But later on, he confided in Harry that he wouldn't forget what Percy had said as easily as Molly, that whenever he would see his third eldest son that it would remind him of his words. Harry felt the same way about Percy. He hated him for abandoning his family so much that he would never forgive him. The only reason he was apologizing now was because the Minister had and even that thought was not comforting to Harry. He was somewhat glad that Shadow was back, but weird things had started to happen since his return.

One night he had gone to sleep with his wand and glasses on his bed side table and woken to find his glasses on his face and his wand tucked into his pajama pants. Also, Crookshanks was acting strangely. He wasn't allowed out of Hermione's room when Shadow was out of Harry's as they were prone to fight throughout the house at all times. Shadow never seemed to be around as well. Sometimes he would disappear for an hour or two, in that time no one could find him. But when he did reappear, it was in an awkward position, just like the paint tin way. They had found him wading in the bath tub one day and in the attic the next, cramped up in a closed trunk.

The pets weren't the only ones acting strangely. Mrs Weasley could be found cooking her meals with twitchy hands, and was prone to drop things while wiping up. When asked of this she simply glared at whoever had spoken and said nothing was wrong. The reason for her nervousness and twitching hands arrived late Monday night. There had been a meeting due to begin when there was a knock on the Drawing Room door. Harry and the others looked up from what they were doing to find Sirius smiling happily.

“What's up, Sirius?” Harry asked, after telling his Castle to capture one of Ron's pawns.

“Well, we've been talking and its come to our attention that you four are of age now and we've come to a decision,” Ron's neck cracked loudly as his head zipped up to stare at Sirius with eyes wide and unbelieving. Sirius grinned. “So, if you wanna-?” he began but before he'd even finished the four of them were already up and out of the door. Luckily, Ginny was asleep in her room, having been up the night before talking to Hermione about some thing's they'd rather not mention. The group entered the basement kitchen. Harry's eyes scanned the room and came to a rest on Molly Weasley. She was sitting rigidly in a chair, her face pale and nails short from her incentive biting. Harry smiled slightly, not getting one in return.

Albus Dumbledore was seated at the head of the table, dressed in a deep purple robe and sitting in a matching armchair. He was gazing at the four friends with excitement etched in his blue eyes. He motioned them to sit in the four chairs surrounding his seat. Fred and George were sitting in chairs at one side, both looking slightly disgruntled about something. The kitchen was full of different witches and wizards, from Ministry Representatives, to Hogwarts School Professors, to, what looked like, the Muggle Prime Minister. Even Harry spotted and smelt Mrs. Figg, Harry's babysitter from when he was younger. She smiled casually and turned her attention to Dumbledore. He had stood and was looking at each member in turn.

“We have four new people with us today who wish to become members. They are, of course, of age in our community but not overage. I am allowing them to join with us as of their past and the present. All four of these students have shown themselves capable of standing up to what is out there in the world today, some more than others!” his eyes lingered on Harry, a warm smile on his lips.

“We will have a proper vote for each of the new recruitments. Firstly, for Mr. Harry Potter, please raise your hand if you do not wish for Harry to join and state your reason.” Harry looked around nervously, and spotted a solitary hand in the air. “Yes, Tony?” The man Harry recognized as the Muggle Prime Minister stood, his face looked confused.

“I've heard all the stories about Harry Potter, Albus, but he's only a boy!” Many outbreaks of muttering shot around the room. Anger began to bubble in Harry's chest, only a soft hand on his arm brought it down. Hermione stared at him a second, mouthing “not now”. Harry couldn't help remembering what Fleur Delaclaur had said just after the Goblet of Fire had spat out his name. “E' cannot compete. E' is too young!”

Dumbledore raised a hand gaining silence.

“I know many of you think that Harry is too young. You have said it since he returned from the Graveyard in his fourth year,” Harry tensed up, “But he has accomplished things that many other seventeen year olds have only dreamt of. Harry and his friends have shown much bravery over the years and it has come to this point. We know now that Voldemort wishes to defeat Harry, and until he does that he will stop at nothing to get to him. He is no longer just a boy, he is a man. I've known him many years and during those years I've witnessed many drastic changes. Just at the end of his fifth year, when we had just returned from the Ministry and thought Sirius was dead, Harry was the most distraught I have ever seen him. A deep power burnt in his eyes when he was throwing objects across the room and it only strengthened as the night progressed. We tell ourselves that he is only a boy, but he is much more.

“We have to allow Harry and his friends to join, as they want to fight, they want to make a difference. They have grown up in a world void of Voldemort's first reign but now the Second War has begun, and we all have to fight and, sometimes, believing in those who still show hope is all we can do!” Every head nodded, every face shown with agreement. The Minister nodded, smiled and sat. No other hands were raised; no other people disapproved of Dumbledore's words.

“Next that's vote for Hermione Granger, anyone who opposes her?” No one raised their hands. “Ronald Weasley?” Harry looked to Molly Weasley but she just sighed and looked for any hands. None, once again were raised. “Draco Malfoy?” Many hands were raised this time. Harry glanced to Draco who was stiff and staring at his hands. Harry knew what this was about; Lucius Malfoy, his father, was named a Death Eater.

The first person spoke when standing. “How do we know if we can trust this boy? His father was convicted as a Death Eater!”

“He could be a spy for you-know-who!”

“What if he's in touch with the Dark Lord at this very moment?” Dumbledore just gazed gravely around at all the faces. Harry spotted Draco shifting in his seat, his face red with anger.

“We don't.” spoke Dumbledore getting many more mumbling to advance from the other members. Harry couldn't believe Dumbledore! He stood profusely, every eye was on him now and he felt the headmaster gazing into his own eyes.

“Draco Malfoy saved me! He killed his own father to stop him from murdering me! Would someone who was working for Voldemort do that!” he said loudly anger bubbling on every word. Many people shuddered and gasped at Voldemort's name. But none spoke, none told him to sit down and that he was wrong. Instead their eyes were understanding, some even nodded in approval.

“It could have been a ploy!” said one man, standing to face Harry now.

“Yeah, it was a pretty good ploy! Too bad I saw Malfoy drop dead to the ground and didn't rise!” he was yelling now. He felt Hermione's hand in his own. She pulled him down back to his seat. Harry just stared at the man before him. The man was caught between two things. If he should just accept that the boy was right and let Draco Malfoy in or go by his father and only identify him as a Death Eater. In the end he slumped back down to his seat and clasped a hand over his eyes.

“Lucius Malfoy tortured my wife and killed her in the first war!” he said slowly, his hand shaking. Harry felt his heart drop.

“I'm sorry. But that doesn't mean Draco is Lucius Malfoy, or that Sirius is like the rest of his family!” Harry answered, glancing over to Sirius who was grinning. His godfather stuck up a thumb.

“I `spose your right,” the man said, wiping his eyes with his sleeve and gazing at the table. Dumbledore stood. Every eye now on him.

“Thank you all for voting. Our new Members are now Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy. You each will have to answer to an oath to join the Order of the Phoenix Ranks. Harry, you first. Just stand and raise your right hand!” Harry did as he was told feeling every person looking at him.

“Now do you swear to fight on the side of the light forever and never switch to the dark and fight against us? Do you swear to report any information that we see fit for our ears that will be of use to us. Do you swear to serve for the Order of the Phoenix until the day comes when you life has been taken and that you will die as a hero in our hearts?” Harry was struck to the severity of this.

“I do!” he said clearly and loudly. His voice echoed around the room, sounding strangely powerful amongst all the quiet heads. Dumbledore nodded, and Harry sat. Hermione smiled warmly at him, which he returned as she stood to take the oath. Once all four of them had stood and recited the two word answers, the room applauded.

“Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix!” announced Dumbledore, smiling broadly, his trademark twinkle shining from his light blue eyes. Harry couldn't help but think that he was finally going to do something about Voldemort and for once be apart of something bigger than just a school Defense Association.

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Author's Note- Oooh…………Harry and co. are apart of the Order of the Phoenix!!! How's my story going along? I've been searching for a Beta Reader and emailed her. So I'm just awaiting her response then I'll post the first chapter!

Words- 3,583