A/N: I have had a comment about how Harry should grow up and act his age. I think that readers tend to forget we are dealing with a teenager here, and they don't necessarily grow up over night! Harry has some life lessons to learn before taking on the battle for adulthood and Voldemort, and as such, will make mistakes and hopefully learn from them. I have never wanted to rush through this story, I just wanted to explain some of the things that I felt were either left out, glossed over, or just plain wrong with the original story in my opinion. That being said, read on…
Not mine, I'm just trying to fix it….
Chapter 31
The New Order of the Phoenix
By the time Harry got down to the village he was cold and tired. Lupin peppered him with questions, half of which Harry couldn't remember answering. He finally managed to convince Lupin that he would tell him everything tomorrow if they could go home now.
They arrived back at Grimmauld Place to find that everyone had gone to bed. Harry mumbled a goodnight to Lupin and headed towards the stairs. He stopped as he reached the landing and looked down the hall longingly towards Hermione's room. Her light was off, and as much as he wanted to see her, he decided he didn't want to disturb her. He slowly continued upstairs to his room, to where he could hear Ron snoring. Harry was so tired that he was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
Harry sat up and rubbed his eyes. It was still dark, but when he looked beside him, the bed was empty. He felt like he had just gone to bed and he was still tired. He wasn't sure what had woken him up. He grabbed his glasses and crawled out of the bed. Where was Ron?
He padded down the hallway and stopped. The stairs were not there. It was just a dead end. Harry looked around, confused, before turning and going back the way he came. He went past his room, to the end of the hallway to find a set of stairs there. He moved slowly, and silently, trying to figure out what was going on. He came to the next landing and headed down towards Hermione's room. He tapped on the door, and when he didn't receive an answer, he opened it.
There was no one there, and the room was empty of any of her personal belongings. Now he was really confused. He backed out of her room, and headed back to the stairs at a trot. He was beginning to feel uneasy. Something was wrong, and he could feel the panic building in his stomach.
He stopped as he hit the main floor, nothing looked right. Was the house able to change its shape like the school? He could see a flickering light coming from the fireplace at the end of the hall. In front of the fire was a high-backed winged chair. Harry somehow knew that someone was sitting in it. He approached slowly; wary of the danger signals he seemed to be getting from somewhere, but his curiosity overpowering the warning. As he came around the side of the chair he saw a long pale bony hand holding a wine glass. Harry suddenly realized he wasn't really awake at all. Surprisingly, he wasn't as scared as he thought he should be.
"You," he said.
"Good evening, Harry, it seems like such a long time since we've had a visit," Voldemort said as he sipped his wine.
"What do you want?" Harry said, silently cursing himself for not putting up his mental barriers before going to sleep.
"It's quiet, isn't it Harry?" Voldemort said, swirling his glass and watching the liquid dance around the sides.
"What's your point?" Harry asked as he crossed his arms across his chest.
"It can be so lonely when it's quiet, did you know that?" Voldemort took another sip of his wine.
Harry didn't answer; he was busy scanning the room. He saw a map on the wall with several areas circled. He slowly moved towards it, trying to see what was there.
"Feeling a little melancholy tonight?" Harry asked, as he tried to act nonchalant.
Voldemort didn't answer, he seemed do be staring distractedly into the fire, sipping his wine.
Harry took a quick look at him and then bent over towards the map. As he read it, his heart sank. He knew most of the families associated with the circled areas, including the Grangers and the Burrow. He traced the circles, trying to memorize them.
"I'm going to take them away from you, Harry," he heard and turned to see a pair of red eyes glowing at him.
"I won't let you," Harry growled.
"Oh, but I will. You see, I can find out who is most important to you, and one by one I will make them disappear. You will be all alone Harry, and then you will see what it is like when no one cares about what happens to you."
Harry shook his head angrily.
"You won't get a chance," he said.
"You will be alone and unloved, and then I shall destroy you," Voldemort toasted Harry with his glass and drained it.
Harry turned and stalked down the hallway, intent on getting away and waking himself up. He stopped dead when Voldemort appeared in front of him.
"You can't get away from me, Potter," Voldemort snarled.
Harry backed up as the tendrils of fear began to creep through his body. He couldn't figure out Voldemort's mood swings. He seemed unbalanced…
"I won't let you do this," Harry said as he looked around. `Come on Potter, wake up!'
Voldemort slowly smiled at him as he moved towards Harry's retreating form.
"You still haven't figured it out yet, have you? I am still the stronger of the two of us; I am in control, not you."
Harry shook his head. "No…"
"Let's have a look shall we?" Voldemort said as he waved his wand at one of the doors.
The door flew open and Harry could see some of his school friends, Seamus, Dean, Neville, and others. Voldemort waved his wand, and they were gone. A fierce pain struck Harry in his scar and he pressed his fingers to his forehead, trying to ease the pain.
"See how easy it is?" Voldemort smirked as he waved another door open.
Inside, Harry saw the Weasley's. With a wave of his wand, they too disappeared. The pain in Harry's scar intensified, and he fell to his knees as it hit him in waves. Voldemort laughed as he watched Harry struggle, and then he sauntered down the hall.
"Let's work our way up. Shall we look behind another door?" he asked.
Harry struggled to his feet and staggered after him. He couldn't let him see what was behind any more doors. He had too much to protect…
"Impedimentia!" Harry yelled, only to have it slam back into him with a wave of Voldemort's wand.
"These doors are important, are they Harry? Shall I take a look?"
"No!" he cried and slammed into Voldemort, shoving him into the wall. Voldemort pushed him away and pointed his wand at Harry.
"You fool!" he snarled. "Crucio!"
Harry collapsed on the floor and screamed as a thousand points of fire ran along his nerve endings.
Harry cried out again, and sat up in his bed, the sweat running down his convulsing body. He ran a shaky hand across his face, breathing heavily. He could feel his scar burning from Voldemort's anger before he shut him out completely.
"All right there, Harry?" Ron mumbled.
"Yeah," Harry said. "Bad dream."
"Mmph," Ron muttered as he rolled over.
Grabbing his glasses, Harry looked out the window and saw that it was early dawn. Knowing that he couldn't sleep anymore, he quietly got out of bed, threw on some clean clothes, and left as Ron continued to snore. He made his way down to the library and sat on the couch facing the fireplace. He started a fire to ward off the chill, and sat staring at the flickering flames. He mentally berated himself for letting his guard down. He had forgotten, for the moment, about this stupid war. He slumped back as he let Voldemort's words replay in his mind. He was angry because there had already been too many deaths, and now Voldemort was planning more. Harry was sick of it, and the fear of losing those closest to his heart ate away at him. He was still too unsure of his ability to protect them.
He sighed as he reached into his invisipouch and pulled out the little velvet bag hidden in there. He tipped it and let the ring fall into the palm of his hand. He stared at it, watching the silver catch the light from the fire. He had wanted to give it to Hermione, but now…
He carefully put it back into its bag and put it away. He couldn't do it. He couldn't let Voldemort take her away. The pain would be unbearable.
Harry was lost; he didn't know what to do. He wanted to be with Hermione so badly, and yet, to do so would make her a target. He knew that she would be able to take care of herself in a fight, but with Voldemort? He shuddered to think what Voldemort would do to her because of him. He couldn't let that happen. Voldemort couldn't know how he felt about her. He needed to keep her safe. Perhaps, when this whole thing was over, he could try again.
Harry closed his eyes and searched his mind, looking for all of those wonderful feelings associated with Hermione. He gathered them together, ripping them from their hiding places, tearing out pieces of his heart. He encased them, locking them away, and as he put up the final mental barriers to protect her, a lone tear rolled down his cheek, telling of the emptiness in his chest. He brushed it away and got up. He had some planning to do before everyone else woke up.
By the time Hermione, Ron, Lupin and Tonks had arrived in the kitchen, Harry was prepared. He was leaning against the counter sipping his tea as they arrived. He saw Hermione's face light up and he steeled himself for what he would have to do later. She looked at him questioningly, but he broke eye contact and moved to the end of the table. She frowned at his behavior. She knew he was hiding something.
"Good morning," he said. "I was wondering, Professor, if you could call a meeting of the Order. I have some news I would like to share, and I would prefer to tell it just once."
Tonks' eyes lit with excitement as Lupin left to send the message.
"Fawkes is back?" she asked.
Harry stayed silent as he watched his friends, the ones that he had to protect at all costs…
Lupin came back into the kitchen and accepted the cup that Tonks offered him.
"They are on their way," he said.
Harry nodded, and then sat down to wait. They didn't have to wait long. Soon the table was full of Order members, and Mrs. Weasley was bustling around feeding them all. Harry noticed that Mundungus was absent, which didn't surprise him considering how much he had pilfered.
"So what's this all about, Remus?" Moody growled. "I gave up my day off from Potter training for this."
"Harry has some information to share with us," Lupin said as he laid a supporting hand on Harry's shoulder before going to sit down.
Everyone at the table turned and looked at Harry expectantly. Harry scanned the faces as he wondered how everyone was going to take the news.
"I was asked to go to the Alps and meet with Fawkes to get him to come back and choose a new leader for the Order," Harry said without preamble as he looked around.
"Fawkes is back? The Order is alive again?" Tonks asked.
"Er…not quite," Harry said, taking a deep breath. "Fawkes is not coming back. His time is done."
Conversation erupted all around the table.
"What! How could he…"
"What will we do now?"
"We can't leave this to the Ministry…"
"I knew something like this was going to happen…"
"Please!" Harry called over the furor. "Please! Let me finish!"
The muttering died down, and they all turned to look towards Harry again. Now came the moment of truth. He wondered if they would listen to what he had to say, or would they continue to treat him like a child.
Harry pulled out his notes, and Hermione raised an eyebrow.
`Planning in advance, Harry? What a concept,' he could almost hear her say. He hesitated for a moment, unsure of how they would react.
"Go on, Harry," he heard Lupin say quietly.
Harry flashed a smile of thanks at him and pulled out the whistle he had been carrying. All eyes were on him as he blew into it, though no one except Harry heard the song. While the room was silent, Harry cleared his throat.
"From the stories I have heard, the Order was an exceptional group of people. They were the ones who put their lives on the line for the Wizarding world during the last war," Harry stopped and looked around the table. "I think that you have done your duty. It's time to let someone else do the risk taking. I would like to propose a New Order of the Phoenix, with you in the background, using your knowledge and skills to train the new members."
The older adults in the room looked at each other, gauging each other's reactions.
"And where, Mr. Potter, do you propose we find these new members?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"We can't really advertise, Harry," growled Moody. "Already have enough trouble with the Ministry as it is."
"Not all of us are old codgers yet, Harry," Fred piped up and then ducked as his mother aimed her tea towel at him. "Still have a bit of fight left,"
Harry smiled at his attempt to lighten the mood.
"I actually have a list of suggested members," Harry said, waving a piece of paper. Just some people that I thought would be interested, and have some prior training."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "The D.A.," she said. "You're thinking about the D.A."
"Bloody hell, Harry, that's brilliant! We know they can be trusted," Ron said.
The rest of the people, aside from Fred and George, looked at each other in confusion.
"What is the D.A.?" Moody asked.
"Dumbledore's Army," Professor McGonagall replied, surprising the trio. She shrugged. "I knew about them last year."
Lupin had been reading over the list while the discussion was going on.
"It's a thought, Harry, but we will need an age restriction, I think."
"They should be of adult age and out of school," Mrs. Weasley said. "I will not have children running around, getting themselves blown up."
Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, and Ron rolled his eyes. They could think of a few people who would be annoyed by that rule, including themselves.
Lupin tucked the list in his pocket for now, away from Mrs. Weasley's prying eyes.
"We will need a new leader," Mr. Weasley said. "How should we go about choosing one since Fawkes isn't returning?"
Just then, they heard a cry and with a flash of fire, a phoenix flew down the stairs to land on the table in front of Harry. There were gasps of surprise as the bird nodded to Harry and then turned to regard everyone in the room.
"Everyone," Harry said, "I would like you to meet Albion."
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