Harry Potter and the Fight For Freedom
The Old Stone Foundation
“Potter! Stop stargazing," Moody barked. "We have a long night ahead of us.”
“Er…Professor Lupin, how far exactly is the new Order of the Phoenix headquarters?”
“Well, if we were to fly from here to the new location, it’d be about two and a half hours, but we’re not going straight to headquarters yet, we have one more stop to make,” Lupin told Harry.
“Where else are we going?” Harry asked.
“We have to go get Hermione,” Lupin answered.
“Hermione? You mean she’s not there yet?” Harry asked amazed.
“Well, neither Miss Granger nor you, Mr. Potter, will be getting anywhere if we don’t get moving!” Moody snapped at Harry.
Harry looked at Moody who had already mounted his own broom and was hovering a few feet above the ground. Tonks and Kingsley were up higher scouting out the area. Harry and Lupin mounted their brooms and took off.
“Keep your cloak close at hand,” Moody told him as he reached him.
“Looks okay to continue.” Kingsley announced reaching Harry, Moody and Lupin.
All right let’s move on,” Lupin said.
Harry looked down at the Dursleys' house. It was a lot smaller from this point of view. All the lights in the house were off, except for the ones in the living room. He’d never have to return again, save for at the start of the school year to collect his belongings.
Not long after leaving Surrey, Harry had started to feel very tired. At one time Harry fell asleep on his broom while flying over the country side and almost fell off.
“You all right Harry?” Tonks asked as he settled back onto his broom.
“Yeah, I’m just tired,” Harry answered.
“Well, I can help. I know a charm that I can put on your broom that will make it follow me. The charm also prevents you from falling off, so you can sleep if you want.” Tonks said.
“That would be nice,” Harry mumbled.
The last thing Harry remembered was Tonks mumbling a spell over Harry’s Firebolt, the next thing he knew Tonks was shaking him awake.
“Harry, wake-up,” Tonks said while gently shaking his shoulder
“Are we at headquarters?” Harry asked.
“No,” Tonks answered, “Hermione’s house.”
Harry looked down and saw Lupin, Moody, and Kingsley below them. He and Tonks descended down towards the house; the other three were already approaching the door. Tonks and Harry reached the ground as Lupin knocked on the Grangers' door. The door opened, and Mr. Granger was standing there.
“Oh, hello, come in!” Harry heard Mr. Granger exclaimed excitedly.
Harry entered the house behind Tonks. The hallway was peachy white, with pictures of the family scattered on the walls; there was a table at the bottom of the stairs with a plant, bills, keys and books. Harry suddenly noticed upon closer examination that almost every table within his sight seemed to have at least one book on it.
“I’ll be right back, I’ll just go wake Hermione up," Mr. Granger said, heading towards the stairs.
“Perhaps Harry can go wake Hermione up,” Moody said brightly.
Harry felt himself go red. He looked at Mr. Granger who had a sly smile on his face. He gave Harry a little nod and said, “Just make sure you knock first,” while waggling his finger at him.
Harry headed towards the stairs, all too aware of how hot his face felt. He suddenly realized that he didn’t know where Hermione’s bedroom was. Nervously, he turned around to ask Mr. Granger where it was, but Mr. Granger was one step ahead of him and said quickly, “The door at the end of the hallway, Harry.”
Harry went up the stairs and headed towards the door at the end of the hallway. He opened the door slowly and let himself in. And then immediately froze as he remembered he was supposed to knock first. Guiltily, he shot a look behind him to see if he had been caught, then seeing everything was okay he continued on. Though Moody probably saw me, Harry thought. The room was dark and quiet and much cleaner than Harry’s room at the Dursleys' had ever been. Harry quietly crossed the room over to Hermione’s bed. Hermione was lying on her side facing Harry.
“Hermione,” Harry said placing his hand on her shoulder.
Hermione didn’t stir.
“Hermione,” Harry said a little louder, giving her a little shake.
Hermione’s eyes flew open.
“Harry!” she shrieked excitedly, when she saw him.
She threw aside the covers, jumped out of bed and threw her arms around him.
“Yes, yes I’m happy to see you too Hermione,” Harry said breaking away from her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Well, I’m here with the others to go to the new Order of the Phoenix headquarters,” Harry answered.
“You mean they picked you up tonight, too?” Hermione asked.
“Yeah, they picked me up at 11 o'clock." He replied. "I slept the whole way here,” Harry added.
“Wait a minute, you slept?” Hermione asked, shocked.
“Yeah, the whole way here. Tonks put a charm on my broom so it would follow her's. The charm also prevented me from falling off while I was sleeping. It was pretty uncomfortable actually. I was stiff when I got off,” Harry told her.
“Tonks is here?" Hermione asked.
“Yeah, along with Kignsley, Moody and Lupin too,” Harry answered.
“Well, how am I leaving? I don’t have a broom,” Hermione stated.
“You ask too many questions,” he replied.
That made both of them smile. Harry put his arms around her waist, and Hermione put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“All right, you two, enough of that,” Tonks said, entering the room a moment later. “You can do enough of that at headquarters and then at school, but right now we're in a hurry.”
Both Hermione and Harry turned a pale shade of red at Tonks’ comment.
“What do you mean by at school’? Harry is not returning to school, didn’t you know that Tonks?”
“Well yes I did, but…”Tonks stopped and looked at Harry
“I’m going back to school; it is what Dumbledore would have wanted. It’ll give me a better chance when I finally have to face Voldemort,” Harry informed her.
Harry waited outside Hermione’s bedroom as she changed. Shortly afterwards, her bedroom door opened, and she came out.
“Harry, at the bottom of the stairs is a table with my Charms and Arithmancy text books on it. Could you bring them up to me, please?” she asked him.
Harry walked down the hallway and almost collided with Mr. Granger when he turned to go downstairs. Feeling shame for not knocking on Hermione’s door before going in, Harry froze on the spot, and hoped Mr. Granger would not pick up on his guilt. Mr. Granger just smiled benignly at Harry, completely oblivious to his nervous tension.
“Hermione’s going to need these,” Mr. Granger said, handing Harry her textbooks.
“Thanks, I was just coming too get these,” Harry said feeling very relieved.
“Here are your books, Hermione,” Harry said a moment later, coming into her room.
“Thanks," she said, walking towards him, taking the books from his hands, and placing them into her trunk.
It was then that Harry noticed a little screech owl sitting in a cage. It was the same little owl that delivered Lupin's letter to him.
“Whose owl is that?” Harry asked.
“Mine. His name is Hector,” she answered.
“Then how come he delivered a letter to me from Lupin?” Harry asked.
“Well, I sent him there with a letter for Ron few days ago, so…I guess Lupin used him,” she replied.
Five minutes later, Hermione’s trunk was packed and sent away, along with Hector, by Tonks.
“Well, let’s go,” Tonks said.
Harry was last out of her room. He closed the door behind him and followed Hermione and Tonks downstairs.
“Hello Hermione. Ready to go?” Lupin asked
“Yeah, I am,” Hermione said.
“Well, we’d better go,” Kingsley said, looking at his watch. “It’s really getting late, or early whichever way you want to look at it.”
Hermione hugged her parents and walked out of the house, closing the door behind her.
“All right, Kingsley and Tonks say the coast is clear. Hermione you’re going to have to ride with Harry,” Lupin told them.
“No problem,” Hermione said, taking hold of his hand.
Harry and Hermione mounted his Firebolt while everyone else was already off the ground. When Harry and Hermione rose up into the air, Hermione held him tightly around the waist.
“No need to worry Hermione, I’m in control of this broom, I know how to fly,” Harry assured her.
“I know, I’m just nervous,” Hermione told him. “You know I’m not terribly fond of flying.”
Two hours later, everyone was back on the ground. Moody approached them and handed each a piece of paper that read The location of the new headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix can be found on the edge of the forest, on the eastern side Godric’s Lake at the old stone foundation.
Moody took both pieces of paper back and, using his wand, lit them on fire. Then he turned around and nodded towards Lupin. Lupin turned towards the old stone foundation. He took out his wand and pointed it at the iron plaque on the standing door frame. Harry and Hermione heard a shuffling noise. Then, slowly, the shape of a house took form. Lupin muttered something else they could not hear and the door opened.
“Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix headquarters,” Tonks whispered to Harry and Hermione.