Harry Potter and the Dark Pheonix

Disclaimer: Huh, I wish I owned something, but I don't, okay the plot is my idea I guess, but still…..

Dumbledore's Army Reloaded

Harry awoke the next morning to see the rain greet him. This really didn't bother him much, until after his shower, when he was standing at the window in the Gryffindor dorm room. He saw what looked like Crookshanks running toward the Forbidden Forest. `Great, Hermione will be worried sick. I better go tell her' Harry thought. He tromped down the staircase to the common room to see Hermione and Ron talking quietly about something. They both hadn't noticed Harry, but many of the other Gryffindors had. Harry was soon swarmed with people asking him about the training going on tonight. All he could do was repeat over and over, “Professor Lupin will say more at breakfast, so make sure you're there on time.”

Harry finally made his way over to his friends and told Hermione about Crookshanks. She reacted just as Harry had expected; she even bullied him into getting Crookshanks from the forest. Ron however was exempt from this, but he had to take notes for both of them and get assignments so they wouldn't be behind in any of their classes. Harry snickered at Ron's dilemma before heading out into the harsh rain to find Crookshanks.

Silently cursing, Harry continued his search for Hermione's blasted cat. He had long ago given up on calling him Crookshanks. The rain never relented, and even in the forest, it still came down as hard as ever. Whenever Harry tried for shelter, the trees would move in the wind and Harry would get drenched. After what seemed like forever, Harry heard a soft purring coming from a cave. He crept up silently, not wanting to present himself as a threat in case it wasn't Crookshanks at all. As he was about to enter the cave, a great black dog bounded out onto Harry. It licked his face, almost as if this dog had been Harry's.

Harry managed to lift the dog off him and patted its head. Smiling to himself Harry realized how much this dog looked like Sirius. “Oh get over it, Potter. It's just a coincidence. Sirius won't come back…” Harry thought to himself as he stroked the dog. Before long, Hermione came up behind Harry. She was surprised to see Harry playing with a great big animal, but even more surprised when the said animal turned out to be a dog.

“Harry, I thought we were here to find Crookshanks?” Hermione asked, her voice shaking Harry out of his trance. She sounded hurt, but happy at the same time. Harry was about to respond when the dog gave her a look and jerked his head toward the cave. Hermione crawled in and retrieved her cat. Smiling, she led Harry back to Hogwarts. He grinned and patted the dog playfully.

“Good boy,” Harry said as he hurriedly followed Hermione. They hadn't gone to far when Harry noticed the dog following them from a safe distance. Harry called to him, and the dog, overjoyed, rushed over to him.

“Well Harry, looks like you made a friend,” Hermione said, humor in her voice.

Harry just smiled and looked down at the black shaggy brute, “Yeah, me and Padfoot had a great day,” Harry said grinning. He knelt down and ruffled the dog's head. “You like Padfoot, boy?” Harry asked. Much to their surprise the dog nodded his head. The four of them then walked out of the Forbidden Forest. Looking down at his watch, Harry realized that it was almost time for dinner. Seeing as neither of them had eaten anything today, they hurried toward the Great Hall.

Harry and Hermione walked into the Entrance Hall only to be stopped by Professor Lupin. “What's this?” he asked, indicating the dog by Harry's side.

“Oh just a friend we met while looking for Crookshanks,” Harry said, trying not to get into trouble as they had missed an entire day of school.

“Ah, that explains it then. Most teachers don't mind when some students are sick, but I needed to talk to you about tonight. Just make sure you are well fed by seven o'clock and then proceed to my room,” Lupin said before turning toward the Great Hall. “Also if anyone asks…”

“We had a bad cold?” Hermione asked tentatively. Lupin smiled and nodded as he went into the Great Hall.

Harry looked down at Padfoot, “Sorry boy, just wait out here for five minutes. I'll bring you some food.” Padfoot nodded and wagged his tail.

Hermione smiled as they entered the Hall. It was buzzing with life, as students talked and joked with their friends while they ate their steak and vegetables. Harry stood at the doors and smiled. Even with the threat of Voldemort and his war, students can still sit around and joke with their mates. `This is what I'm fighting for' Harry mused. Smiling, he made his way to the Gryffindor table. Harry ate very quickly and then left with some meat for Padfoot. A few third years gave Harry a questioning look, but he just smiled and told them to eat up and he would see them later. After feeding Padfoot, Lupin came over to him again. “Harry, this dog…he reminds me of Sirius. Does he have a name?”

“Er…yeah sir, Padfoot.”

“That's very touching, Harry. Sirius would be proud,” Lupin said with a sad smile. He stroked the dog's fur and noticed a look in the dog's eyes, something he couldn't place.

“Er…Sir?” Harry asked, breaking Lupin out of his trance.

Lupin looked at Harry and smiled, “Harry, I was wondering if I could look after Padfoot here. I mean you already have Buckbeak and Hedwig to look after, I would be honored if I could look after Padfoot.”

“Sure, Sir, I mean Sirius was your friend, too. If anything, Padfoot should be yours to take care of. I'll look after him on a full moon if you'd like?” Harry replied. At this, Lupin smiled and nodded, before leading Padfoot up to his office. Harry smiled and ran to the Gryffindor Common room, his clothes still soaked. He wanted something warmer and dryer before he really did come down with a cold.

After getting changed into some jeans and a jumper, Harry descended the stairs only to find Hermione standing there, smiling.

“What is it?” Harry asked, wondering why Hermione could be looking at him like that.

“Oh…nothing,” Hermione replied, a cheeky grin playing across her face. Harry looked at her and took in what she was wearing. Her school shirt was tighter than normal, fully accenting her chest, and her skirt was shorter then normal. Harry didn't mind, it showed off her legs, which were now devoid of socks. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun, and her eyes were alight with playful mischief.

“Well someone looks hot tonight, don't they?” Harry asked a goofy grin on his face.

“Really?” Hermione asked, her voice dripping with fake innocence. Harry then closed the distance between them quickly, he took her hand in his and lent in for a kiss. She looked as if she was willing to do whatever Harry wanted, and he wanted to do really naughty things after seeing her in that dress. As their lips touched, he felt her hand across his side and his hands traveled down her back when…she tickled him. Harry fell back, laughing as she continued to tickle him. He fell onto the ground and she straddled him, fully enjoying the power she had over him. Harry finally managed to fight Hermione off him; still not fully believing Hermione could have beaten him so easily. However, he wasn't surprised. In what Hermione was wearing, she could have convinced him to snog Snape. After some playful glares and looks of mock innocence, Harry led the way to Lupin's classroom.

Hermione, shocked at this said, “Uhh…Harry…shouldn't I get changed?”

Harry smiled and shook his head and they walked to the Defense Against the Dark Arts room in playful silence. When they arrived, Lupin greeted them at the door.

“Miss Granger, shouldn't you be in robes?”

“Er…yeah Professor, but it was stuffy in the Common Room, so I went with this look, but I wouldn't say no to a fire.” At this Lupin smiled and ushered them into his room, before waving his wand. The fire burst into life and Hermione bee-lined over to it. Harry followed and sat with her in front of the fire, waiting for the rest of the DA to arrive. After about fifteen minutes it seemed that most of the school had arrived, well apart from the Slytherins. When Harry was about to start, the doors burst open and Malfoy strode in, wearing his arrogance like a cloak. A lot of the Gryffindors motioned for him to leave, but Harry gave them a look that said `If he wants to be here, let him and we'll just beat him at magic'. After about ten more minutes, a few more Slytherins made their way into the room, and Harry was then right to begin.

“All right, last year all we did was curses and jinxes. They are important but if you can't handle yourself in a duel, well you might as well not bother with a wand.” Harry looked around and saw fear and excitement on everyone's faces. “Last year a few of us went into the Department of Mysteries. There, we faced ten Death Eaters, but we weren't ready. In fact, we most likely were going to die, until Dumbledore arrived. So, I thought this year we would focus on dueling, not that crap we had in my second year, but real dueling.”

At this Malfoy's face alighted with glee. Most of the class looked at Harry with respect, as many had thought that this was just going to be another Defense course.

“Uh…Harry, real dueling? What do you mean?” Cho Chang asked from near the back.

“Pretty simple. You face off against someone and you try and win. Don't use any Unforgivables, but try to knock them out and stay conscious with your own defense spells.”

The class murmured excitedly about this and Harry's gaze fell onto Malfoy. He was lapping up every word Harry said and this gave him an idea.

“Okay a demonstration is in order. Malfoy, you and me, first one to lose consciousness loses what do you say?”

“I say you got a death wish, Potter. I'm a lot better than I was four years ago.” Malfoy had a glint in his eye, not pure hatred but he loved this challenge. Harry thought as much; Malfoy would never turn down a challenge from Harry.

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Hermione had gasped when Harry challenged Malfoy. Two arch rivals…Hermione couldn't believe it. Harry and Malfoy both had glints in their eyes as they stood to meet each other.

“In a real duel, one won't meet in comfortable circumstances, its comes down to gut instinct,” Lupin said as Harry and Malfoy started casting at each other, their wands becoming blurs of motion, as they jinxed and counter jinxed each other.

A lot of the younger students gasped at some of the spells they threw at each other with wanton abandon, but the 6^th years knew that this duel was one of a kind. The two best Defense Against the Dark Arts students, and two of the most promising seekers in Hogwarts' history dueling with each other. Even a three day Quidditch match couldn't match up to this. Hermione looked on with fear in her eyes; she didn't know how low Malfoy might sink to beat Harry. A lot of the school knew that Malfoy had grown up with the Dark Arts, but few knew that Malfoy didn't want this life anymore. He rarely showed anyone this side of him. Hermione looked in awe at how Harry and Malfoy dueled. They both knew more practical spells than Hermione, and right now they were giving the group a great light show. Also you could see by the look on each of their faces that both were trying to out duel the other, using any means necessary. Harry once tried an all out offensive spell, one Hermione had only recently read about. She had no idea when Harry had managed to practice this spell, but he had mastered it.

“Corperalus Sceptrius!” Harry cried as a white blade shot out from the end of his wand. He leapt over to avoid a stunning spell Malfoy had shot at him and lunged. Hermione cried out when Harry went to strike. A bright light erupted from the impact; most of the group seemed to think Harry had won it. When the light faded, they saw Malfoy holding up a corporal shield to block Harry's impact. They both grinned and Harry leapt back. They again started flinging curses at one another, however this time, they were not able to stay stationary. They were ducking and weaving around the room. A curse hit the floor mere inches from Hermione and Harry was livid, flinging out a series of curses faster than anyone but Malfoy could have hoped to follow.

“Sorry Potter, didn't mean it,” Malfoy said, a friendly smirk across his face.

“Fine,” Harry said with the same type of smirk. “Wingardium Leviosa,” Harry said calmly. When Malfoy's wand left his hand, Harry cried out “STUPIFY!” and Malfoy hit the wall unconscious.

Harry looked around at the group; they sat there in a stunned silence. Before long, Lupin started clapping, “Excellent Harry, a simple levitation spell. Who would have thought of using that in a duel? You are a true genius in a fight,” Lupin finished, beaming. He walked over to Malfoy and revived him.

Malfoy shot a glare at Harry before grinning, “Brilliant move there, Potter. Never would have thought a simple charm would defeat me. I owe you a hand shake on a brilliant fight.” Malfoy then got up and shook Harry's hand. The group started cheering, applauding both Harry and Malfoy; even the Slytherins were impressed with the duel.

After a brief talk about serious dueling with the group, they paired up and began dueling. After about five minutes however, the doors burst opened, and Crabbe and Goyle strode into the room.

“Malfoy, what are you doing…with them?” they said, jerking their thumb at Harry and his friends. Malfoy was still weak from his duel with Harry, but to everyone's surprise, Neville got up into their faces and told them to shove off. They threatened him with physical violence, but he just brandished his wand at them. They snickered and pulled out their wands.

Ron went up to help him, but Lupin held him back. “Let Neville fight alone.” As an afterthought, he lowered his voice so only Ron could hear, “He needs this, leave him be.”

Neville quickly dispatched them and all the Gryffindors applauded him. The Slytherins (bar Malfoy) just said that both Crabbe and Goyle were bad at magic, but before this could get out of hand Malfoy stood up and said, “Despite Crabbe and Goyle's lack of magical talent, their fathers are Death Eaters. They both know a lot of dark magic. Neville still took on both of them, and he beat them into the ground. If you think that Death Eaters won't stack the odds against you, well you're wrong. Me and Potter are good, but neither of us could take on two death eaters and survive. There are advantages in numbers, don't forget that.” And with that, the DA's first meeting ended.

Neville was joyous all the way to the common room. Harry couldn't blame him, it's not every day you beat down two people that you hate. Harry smiled at his retelling of the tale for the seventh time, before starting on his homework for the day. After all, he missed his classes and needed to get his grades back. Hermione was stressing, pouring over her assignments as to get Os on all her papers. Harry on the other hand, just wanted to scrape in an A and would be over the moon with anything else.

After about three hours of working, Harry got up and stretched. Looking around, he saw that he and Hermione were the last ones awake in Gryffindor. He smiled to himself, before Hermione asked him what was wrong.

“Nothing, just thinking about what to do now,” Harry replied, thinking about how comfortable the couches would be to snog on.

“Well there's always potions,” Hermione said. Harry smiled to himself; schoolwork would always come first, but maybe Harry might get lucky tonight.

“Yeah, or something else,” Harry said, sitting closer to Hermione. She looked at him, realizing what Harry meant.

“Yeah, there is that…” Hermione said, putting her books down. Looking at Harry, a smile crept across her lips. Harry smiled, his thoughts racing. Hermione didn't want to study tonight.

Harry lent forward, his lips brushing against hers ever so lightly. His hands reached around her, and he pulled her into him. As he kissed her more passionately, she straddled him and put her hands up shirt. He felt a blush coming across his face as his hands caressed her back. His kisses were deeper, but had a hint of fear in them. Hermione was also feeling Harry's body nervously. She was about to lift his shirt up, when they heard someone clear their throat.

Hermione shot up and blushed. “Er…Hi Gin,” Hermione stammered out. Great, Ginny had just caught him snogging with Hermione. That was almost as bad as Ron, although Ron would keep his mouth shut; Ginny had a tendency to gossip.

“Hey Hermy, if that's not Harry down there, you have some explaining to do,” Ginny said, humor in her voice. Harry decided to sit up and remove any suspicions on her part.

“What do you mean, Gin?” Harry asked as he sat up, his face redder than her hair.

“Well…it's just, well Hermione usually doesn't do late night studies with a breast hanging out of her bra.”

At this, Harry shot a glance at Hermione. It was true that he had felt around her chest, but he didn't reveal her breasts…did he? Much to his relief, Ginny told them she was joking, and then told them the real reason why she was down in the common room.

“What do you mean you wanna break up with Dean?” Harry asked, his voice loader than it should have been. After getting shushed by both girls, he pressed further, “Well?”

“It's just well, I can't snog with him. I mean if I can't do that, well there's no point…” Ginny said, with her head hung low. Harry was sure this was a hard subject for her to bring up. Harry felt as if he were a brother to Ginny.

“You're right, Gin,” Hermione said, shooting a glance at Harry. “If you don't feel anything sexual for your partner, there is no point. He'll understand, or Ron will make him.” At this Ginny laughed. They all shared giggles before Harry got up to go to bed. Clearly these girls would stay up all night talking about boys and Harry really didn't need to be there for it. After all, he had just reached first base with Hermione. Sleep felt like a good thing to do right now; it had been a long, hard day.

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Remus Lupin was sitting in his office with his new companion: a big shaggy black dog that looked so much like his former friend's animagus form that it hurt to look; yet hurt even more to look away. Lupin poured himself some tea and sat there, his eyes meeting the dog's for what seemed like an eternity before he tore his eyes away. As he did, a peculiar thing happened. The dog, which Harry had named Padfoot, seemed to try and meet his gaze again. Lupin stood up from his desk and walked over to his window. His office was cluttered with Dark Arts books, and scrolls and scrolls of parchment on dark creatures and curses. He looked across the Hogwarts grounds remembering his youth and his friends. Those trouble free days seemed so far away now; he had faced the loss of his two best friends, and now had to teach his best friend's son how to fight against the Dark Lord.

Before his musings could lead him to tears, he heard a voice inside his head; much like what his friends did when he was a werewolf. “Hey Mooney, Geeze would it kill you to look at your friend for longer than two minutes? I didn't cross hell just to be shunted aside. Harry needs our help, you know?” Lupin shook his head, thinking that he was going mental over grief before he felt Padfoot nudging his legs, “MOONEY, I WILL NOT TELL YOU AGAIN, LOOK AT ME!” Lupin looked down at the dog by his side and a realization came across his face. He raced over to the fireplace and threw a handful of Floo Powder into it.

“Professor Dumbledore, I think you should know something. Please come down to my office immediately.” Not before he had even taken two steps toward his table had Dumbledore arrived.

“Ah, I see…” was all Dumbledore had to say when his gaze fell upon the dog.

********************************* *********************************************

The next few weeks went by fairly quickly for Harry. The first Quidditch match was drawing ever closer. Sure, it was only against Ravenclaw, but Ron seemed hell bent on driving his team into the ground with every practice. Hermione came down to watch when the weather wasn't too unbearable. The DA was coming along in leaps and bounds; after his first duel with Malfoy, both he and Harry were striving to beat each other. Neville had become very reclusive, taking any challenge and fighting until he needed to be rushed to the Hospital Wing. Harry joked with Neville that Madame Pomfrey would soon be very close to Neville at the rate he kept on going up there.

Harry was trying to handle all his classes as well. Snape was usually very hard on him, but the other teachers didn't push as much work on him. Hermione though, stated that Harry shouldn't grow complacent and treat each bit of homework as if it could be the difference between staying at school and leaving. Ron and Parvati's relationship had cooled off in recent days. They seemed to be more into just hanging out than the full passionate snogs. Ginny was worried that Ron was growing bored of this and would leave her, but Parvati was stubborn and stated that her and Ron had a very strong relationship. Ron on the other hand, didn't know what to do. Some days he felt like leaving her and finding someone else to have a passionate snog with, and other days he felt wholly dependent on her.

On weekends, Harry made his way to Hagrid's to spend time with his giant friend and Buckbeak, or spent time with Lupin and Padfoot. On one such weekend, he and Hermione were taking Padfoot for a walk to meet up with Hagrid, who had wanted to see the `little fella' for the past week. Harry felt obliged to show Hagrid. When they made their way down to Hagrid's hut, they noticed that he was out feeding Buckbeak. They walked over to the paddock and called out to him.

“Oh, hey `here yeh two,” Hagrid called, beaming at them. Buckbeak seemed very happy for some reason with Padfoot, who in turn was overjoyed to see Buckbeak. This puzzled them all for the whole trip. When it was time for Harry to bring Padfoot back to the castle, Buckbeak flew overhead. Hermione commented that he was reliving the heroic flight to save Sirius back in their third year. Harry smiled sadly at this and returned Padfoot to Lupin.

“We have studies to get to,” Harry said, not meeting Hermione's gaze. She seemed hurt by this, but shrugged it off, leading Harry up to the library. When they entered, they saw a sight neither of them expected: Malfoy sitting with Ron and Ginny.

Malfoy was sitting there, this hair slightly messed up, looking windblown but still slicked back. Something Harry could never have managed with his untidy mop of hair. Ron was sitting there, his face red from laughing and his textbook sitting propped up on a page about Quidditch. Ginny was sitting there, an air of dignity surrounding her, as if she was going out of her way to impress someone. She had her hair tied neatly behind her head, and her clothes pressed neatly (not too tightly) against her body. Harry and Hermione were taken aback at this sight, but moved over to inquire what Malfoy was doing.

“Hi Guys….Er what umm…” Hermione started.

“What am I doing here?.....Fair question, I suppose I can tell you unless you guys want to?” Malfoy replied.

“Well, Draco here came over and asked if he could study here, as the Slytherins are making his life hell. We agreed and all too soon we were talking about Quidditch,” Ginny said.

“Yeah, turns out that Malfoy and Gin both like Heidelberg Harriers, d'you believe it? Well anyway, we were having a friendly argument about them and the Canons,” Ron said, his voice getting stronger as he said Cannons; the Chudley Cannons were his favorite team.

“Oh cool, well we gotta study…you mind?” Harry asked. They shook their heads `no' and he and Hermione sat down. All too soon the conversation had started again, this time Harry got involved.

“You bewitched the snitch to be faster, and Potter can catch it in ten minutes on a bad day?” Malfoy asked astonished. Harry blushed at this, but both Ginny and Ron were grinning broadly at this. Malfoy seemed to recover a little when he said, “Well that's to be expected. I mean he doesn't have anyone to seek against…”

“Yeah, but most seekers ride my coattail, Malfoy so it's sorta like a real game anyway,” Harry said, with a wink to let Malfoy know that he wasn't harboring resentment.

“Well, seeing as the Slytherins won't let Malfoy fly against you Harry, I'm sure Cho would. Then you can show her up whenever you fly,” Hermione said with a sly grin. She still hadn't got over how cruel Cho had been to her recently.

“Hmph, Cho Chang, that wannabe give Potter a challenge? Next practice, Potter after you do your secret business, I'll fly against you,” Malfoy said, his hand extended. Harry grinned and reached out for it.

After a few more minutes of joking around they were told to leave. Hermione held Harry's hand on the way back to the common room, flirting with him about how much face he would lose if Malfoy could beat him in a practice match. Harry just grinned and let her have her fun. Hermione didn't know that Malfoy would just ride his coattails like he does in every game Slytherin and Gryffindor play. Sure, Malfoy is the second best seeker at Hogwarts, but they both knew that Harry was better. It was a sort of an unspoken agreement. Still it would help hone his skills having another seeker on the pitch.

After doing an essay for Snape, Harry tromped off to bed, knowing that tomorrow he would be flying against Malfoy. Harry at least needed the practice as Cho was pretty good. At least that's what Malfoy had told him, `She might not be fast, but she has got as reckless as you are in the air Potter. You just gotta do what you do faster than before.' Malfoy had said that before they parted ways to go to their respective common rooms. Harry smiled at this, as he lay down on his bed, sleep taking him quickly.