Today's Date: Get the Book!
	The Order of the Phoenix.net Chapter 4

Exciting isn't it? The book is here! Find the latest about the fifth book here at TheOrderofthePhoenix.net

home | stories | rumors and facts | chapter summary | buy the 5th book | book 6 | book 7 | wands | fan fiction | contest predictions | email of the week | news | phoenix archives | contact us

Chapter Four - Number Twelve Grimmauld Place

Harry and the group come upon a dark building that looked in need of repair. He is greeted by a familiar face, Mrs. Weasley, the mother of his best friend, Ron. Ron had been his best friend since first year when they met on the train to Hogwarts. Anyway, Mrs. Weasley scoops up Harry in her arms briefly then tells Harry to meet up with Hermione and Ron upstairs as “the meeting’s started”. She instructs Harry to keep his “voice” down because “you don’t want to wake anything up”. Harry is puzzled but carries on to find Hermione and Ron.

The second Harry meets up with Hermione she blasts him with tons and tons of questions. Ron has to tear him away and give him room to breathe. Harry reunites with Hedwig and she nibbles his ear affectionately as he pets her. Ron apologizes to Harry that they were unable to respond in full to his owls during the summer due to secrecy. Ron tells Harry that the Order of the Phoenix has been watching him all summer long and that Professor Dumbledore was really mad when he found out Mundungus was not on post. Harry wants to know why “they” get to be here at the Order and he has to stay with the rotten Dursleys??? Harry gets his nose out of joint feeling resentful that Ron and Hermione have been here all summer in the thick of things.

Harry gets angry with Ron and Hermione and reminds them of his having to get past dragons and sphinxes and Harry being kept TOTALLY in the dark about this Order of the Phoenix. Boy was he mad!! Hermione apologizes profusely on the brink of tears. Things smooth out and Harry questions them about this “Order of the Phoenix”. Ron explains that it is only for members and children are NOT allowed. He further explains that Fred and George have invented “Extendable Ears”. This is a contraption that “extends” somewhere else to people can listen in on conversations, etc. Mrs. Weasley had found out and went crazy so they had not used them for a while. One thing he told Harry was that the Order is following some known Death Eaters (followers of Lord Voldemort) and that they are actively recruiting more people for the Order.

The next thing you know there is a pop and another pop and Fred and George Weasley appeared in the room. Harry exclaims with delight, “you two passed your Apparation tests?” With distinction!! Fred advises Harry. Ginny joins the group and is happy to see Harry. They decided they could not use the Extendable Ears right now, but Fred tells Harry he would really like to know “what Snape is up to”. Harry is quite surprised that Snape, Professor Snape who detests him, is here. Harry wishes to know why Snape is here and he is told he is there to “give a report, top secret report”. Harry still finds it hard to believe that Snape is truly on “our” side.

Ron tells Harry that both his brothers, Bill (the one who works for Gringotts) and Charlie (the one who works with Dragons) both are members of the Order. And apparently, Fleur Delacour (the foreign exchange student/champion from last year-GOB) got a job at Gringotts and Bill has been tutoring her in English. She improves with Bill’s expert assistance! He also explains that Percy cannot be in the Order as he is working for the Ministry of Magic. He received a promotion.

After this there is dead silence. The next thing we find out is that Percy and Mr. Weasley had had a terrible row. Percy didn’t believe Dumbledore when he went to the Ministry of Magic after last year when Lord Voldemort had arisen to physical form again. Of course Mr. Weasley is in the Order and believes Harry and Voldemort. The Weasleys have not spoken to Percy since this row. You see, Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic, also does not believe Lord Voldemort has arisen again as he has kept a low profile since last year’s Triwizard Tournament. And Fudge seems to be suspicious of Mr. Weasley as he has an affection for Muggles.

Well, this is a great deal of “news” for Harry. Hermione then tells Harry that he has been mentioned several times in the Daily Prophet in a manner that made him appear silly or insignificant. And guess who has been writing this junk? People who are building on Rita Skeeter’s previous articles!! She pulled a great deal amount of tricks, inventing her articles when she covered the Tournament. Boy did she come up with her own truth. Harry truly disliked this woman. Rita herself would not dare print any more false truths about Harry, Hermione, Ron, etc. as last year Hermione made sure of it.

Hermione tells Harry that the Daily Prophet is simply trying to smear Harry’s name as it is politically connected with the Ministry of Magic and they have “chosen” not to believe Dumbledore about Voldemort’s return. Therefore the articles go on to say Harry is insane, incompetent and attention-seeking. This is something that really burns Harry up. There was not one word about the dementor attack on him and his cousin, Dudley.

The next person (well person is really not the right word) Harry hears lives here at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place is Kreacher, this house’s house-elf. Hermione reminds everyone about SPEW – Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Ron tells Harry that Kreacher is a total nutter. They gang next hears (from the Extendable Ears that were just recently placed down to the second floor) that the meeting is over because the members were starting to exit their meeting. Fred and George narrowly get the Extendable Ears retracted before his mother or someone else would see them.

The noise prompts the this one painting of a woman to scream awful things at the people standing around like:

“Filth! Scum! By-products of direct and vileness! Half-breeds, mutants, freaks, begone from this place! How dare you befoul the home of the fathers - -“

The next thing we see is Sirius coming back on in to the room saying” I see you’ve met my mother”.

Editors Comments: Wow, this Order of the Phoenix is some big secret! And it was tough on all during the summer when all Harry wanted to know was “where” is Lord Voldemort. We still don’t know at this point. This sure seems to make Harry become more introverted about his feelings. And this house is somehow more related Sirius. This is Sirius’s family home and the ghosts seem to go crazy about these people being in their home! Will we find out “why” this is so important to these paintings?