The next few weeks passed very
quickly for Harry and before he knew it, it was Halloween. The Great Hall had
been decorated with at least one hundred pumpkins floating in the air above the
student’s heads and a thousand live bats flew around under the enchanted
ceiling.
The
house-elves down in the kitchen seemed to have been trying extra hard this year
to make a very good meal. Harry, Ron and Hermoine had come straight from study
(a study class had been arranged every Saturday for the fifth years so they
could prepare for the OWLs) so they still had all their bags and the book
Dumbledore wrote, which turned out to be very heavy, with them. When the dinner
was finished they headed up the staircases towards the Gryffindor common room.
Halfway up, however, Harry’s bag tore and parchment, quills, ink and the rest
of the contents of his bag spilled out on to the ground.
‘You two go a head,’ Harry told
Ron and Hermione. ‘I’ll meat you in the common room.’ Ron and Hermione
went on up the stairs while Harry gathered up all his belongings. No matter how
he arranged the contents he seemed unable to fit in the phoenix feather quill
that Dumbledore had given him so he had to carry it in his hand.
On the forth floor just beside the
statue of Merlin the Great, Harry fell victim to one of Peeves’ tricks. Peeves
had arranged the carpet so an unlucky student would trip and this is exactly
what happened to Harry. He flung out his hand with the quill in it to break his
fall and the feather brushed against the statue of Merlin.
The statue jumped to life and
sprang aside to reveal a brightly lit tunnel decorated with beautiful pictures
of witches and wizards. Being that Harry had always been a curious person and
was always interested in finding secret passageways and where they led to,
headed down the long corridor. As he walked the eyes of the witches and witches
in the pictures followed him and whispered to each other saying things like
‘He shouldn’t be here’ and ‘should we tell Dumbledore?’ He looked back
to where he had entered the corridor to see the statue of Merlin doing a little
dance before jumping back to his place covering the passageway. Harry walked
down the long passageway and when he reached the end, he found a room of such
splendour Harry had never seen one like it in all his time at Hogwarts. In the
room there were seven witches and wizards sitting around a large table. Harry
knew them all except for one.
‘Sorry,’ said Harry. ‘Wrong
place.’
Prof. Dumbledore, who was seated
directly opposite the passage Harry had just come down, stood up.
‘Ah Harry!’ he said brightly.
‘One is never in the wrong place. There is a reason for everything. We’ve
been expecting you. A bit later then we had hoped, however. But never mind,
I’m sure you’re wondering why there are six wizards and witches sitting
around a large table in a secret chamber.’
‘Well, yes,’ said Harry
wondering if Prof. Dumbledore had been reading his mind.
‘Firstly, I will introduce you to
the members,’ continued Prof. Dumbledore. ‘I am sure you have already met
most of them but just to tell you a bit more about them. Remus Lupin and
Arebbela Figg.’ He pointed to the two people to his right who Harry new as
Prof. Lupin who had taught him Defence Against the Dark Arts in his third year
at Hogwarts and Prof Figg. ‘Remus and Arabella specialize in defence and
transformation of one’s own body. And then next to Arabella is Mundungus
Fletcher who specializes in potions, antidotes and hexes. On my other side,’
Prof. Dumbledore gestured to his left, ‘are Sirius Black who specializes in
defence against the dark arts and secrecy,’ Harry couldn’t help but smile
and Sirius returned the smile. Harry’s heart had been thumping very fast ever
since he had entered the room and saw Sirius sitting at the table looking
healthier and happier then Harry had seen him yet. There was an empty seat next
to Sirius and next to that Harry recognized the disfigured face of Mad-Eye
Moody. Harry watched as his electric blue eye swivelled around in his head.
‘Then there is Alaster Moody who specializes in hexes and defence,’
continued Dumbledore. ‘Beside him is Nicolas Flammel who specializes in
charms, philosophy and remedies. Then of course there is me who specializes in
transfiguration of – well, basically anything you put in front of me and one
or two witty remarks!’ Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled as Harry let out a small
chuckle. ‘There are four other members,’ he continued, ‘two are off
speaking to the giants. They are Rebus Hagrid and Olympe Maxime. The other, we
do not speak of at all. I am the only one who knows who they are and the only
person who shall have contact with them. The final member, and the newest is
you, Harry!’ Dumbledore smiled at him. ‘Now if you would like to make
yourself comfortable beside your Sirius, I will explain all about what you will
be doing over the next year.’
Harry looked at the empty chair and
wondered how he could make himself comfortable in that. It was elaborately
decorated but it was made out of a hard gold-like metal and Harry felt it would
be almost impossible to get comfortable in it. However, as he sat down on it, it
seemed to move on its own accord, form around him and grow softer until he felt
more comfortable then he had ever felt before.
‘Excuse me, Sir,’ said Harry,
‘but what exactly am I the newest member of?’
‘Ah, Harry!’ exclaimed
Dumbledore. ‘An excellent question! Well,
the room you are currently in is Godric Gryffindor’s own Chamber of Secrets,
if you will. None of the other founders of the school knew about it. This Harry
is the Order of the Phoenix. It is an order that was set up by Godric Gryffindor
to help protect people from evil if such a need arose. When Lord Voldemort
started to gain power over sixteen years ago the Order called a serious meeting
for the first time since it started. The Quill of Knowledge chose members but it
was not a matter of replacing someone if they were killed. If a member was
killed we might have had to wait for a couple of decades just for a suitable
member to be born and then they couldn’t join the Order until they had left
Hogwarts. A special exception was made for you.
‘You are the first new member to
join the Order in over thirty-five years. Both of your parents were members and
so were both of the Longbottoms. You will need a lot of training to become a
member. I must worn you that and because you are so young it will be more
difficult but I still believe you will be able to do it, Harry. Otherwise why
would the Quill have chosen you? It’s never been wrong before. Different
members will teach you twice a week at night. You will need to learn a few
simple but important spells that I am sure you already know but you will also
need to be able to do things that even some fully grown wizards are unable to
do. All members of the Order need to be an animagus, be able to become invisible
and Apparate for starters. There are also some more difficult spells you will
need to learn. Your first lesson will be tomorrow night in this chamber with
Sirius and myself.
‘However, there is one very
important thing that you must remember Harry and that is that you can not tell anyone
about this Order. You may relay what you hear in here to Mr. Weasley and Ms.
Granger, as I believe it will be almost impossible to stop you but you must not
discuss it in open places or around anyone else no matter how much you trust
them. The only other person who knows about this Order other than the members is
Prof. McGonagall as it is difficult to hide people coming into the school every
month for a meeting without the deputy head noticing. I believe that is all. Do
you have any questions, Harry?’
‘Well, Professor,’ said Harry
cautiously - this was a lot to be taking in at the moment. ‘How exactly do I
get in here?’
‘Firstly,’ said Dumbledore,
‘please do not call me, or any of us, Professor. We are all friends in this
room. Call me Albus. Getting in here is very easy, Harry, if you know how. All
you have to do is brush the statue of Merlin outside with a phoenix feather.’
‘You mean,’ said Harry, ‘the
quill you gave me?’
‘Exactly, Harry,’ beamed
Dumbledore. ‘Or, of course you could use your wand which has the core of a
phoenix feather. All of the members of this Order have a phoenix feather in some
form or another. You are lucky in the way that you have two.’
Prof.
Fletcher then got up from his seat and went over to Prof. Dumbledore.
‘Albus,’ he said in a whisper
but everyone was still able to hear him. ‘I still think this is a bad idea.
You’re only looking for trouble taking this boy on at such a young age. The
whole Order might have to dissolve. You’re breaking an age old tradition.’
Harry was taken back by this. He
had thought that Fletcher would like him better now he was a member. Obviously
not. Sirius was staring angrily at Fletcher and was about to say something when
Prof. Dumbledore jumped in ahead of him.
‘Mundungus,’ he said calmly.
‘I know exactly what I am doing. We all break traditions from time to time
don’t we.’ He looked up at Mundungus who had now turned a shade lighter.
‘I am only doing what I feel is best for the Order. Now I believe we have
covered everything we need to tonight so I call this meeting to an end.
Goodnight to you all. Goodnight Harry. I will see you tomorrow night at ten
o’clock. I will make sure no one gives you any hassle for wandering about that
late.’
‘Goodnight Pr- I mean Albus,’
said Harry. ‘Goodnight Sirius.’
‘Goodnight Harry,’ said Sirius.
‘We can talk properly tomorrow evening. I’ll see you then.’
‘Goodnight Harry,’ called
Arabella Figg in a cheery voice. ‘Don’t forget that one thousand word essay
I gave you for homework on Monday!’
Harry sighed.
He had just realised that he had still got one hundred words to do and he’d
written all he knew about defence against dragons. Even his battle with one last
year and the time he had spent with Hagrid’s pet dragon was not enough
experience to write one thousand words. When everyone had left the Chamber Harry
turned to Dumbledore.
‘Albus,’
he said. ‘After I stopped Voldemort getting the Philosopher’s Stone in first
year you told me Nicolas Flammel would die but he was here today. What
happened?’
‘The day I
visited you in the hospital wing,’ said Dumbledore, ‘I sensed evil in the
room with us. I did not know what form the evil was in or where it was. Wortmail
was in the room with us – in the form of Mr. Weasley’s rat of course. I did
not know the rat was there but I could still sense an evil presence. He was
there because he had heard what had happened to Voldemort and wanted to find out
more.
‘I decided
to lie for the protection of Nicolas. I said he would die and I hoped that would
be enough to convince whoever was listening that Nicolas would die. Of course
after drinking the Elixir of Life you can’t die but I didn’t know how clever
the evil power I was dealing with was. Now, off to bed.’
Harry moved
quickly out of the chamber and down the passageway towards the statue of Merlin
the Great. When he reached the back of Merlin, the statue jumped aside and Harry
continued into the hallway. He hurried back to the Gryffindor common room eager
to tell Ron and Hermione all he knew about the Order, but as Prof. Dumbledore
had said, away from anyone else.