Saviour of Magic

The Order of the Phoenix

Harry flicked his wands towards the other side of the lake on the grounds of Potter Castle; he was practising duel casting, something which he was determined to perfect after his duel with Voldemort. The two fire whips decapitated the targets while he finished firing a spell at the practice dummy that was behind him. Sweating and panting, Harry collapsed on the ground, looking tired. He had been practising for several hours straight. It had been a month since he and Dylan had returned home from school and a lot had happened in that time.

After interrogating Barty Crouch and de-briefing Harry, Sirius and Amelia had issued arrest warrants against all those Death Eaters who Voldemort had identified in the graveyard. Unfortunately, all of them had done a runner and had disappeared underground. Sending a team of Aurors to Little Hangleton graveyard after the place had been identified proved to be useless as there was no evidence present other than traces of a dark magic ritual. Unknown to them, a large manor which used to be present on top of a hill in the village had disappeared – and no one in the village even remembered its existence or knew where it was. Dumbledore, who had tried to investigate it had realised that Voldemort had used a Fidelius Charm on the house - which he could not remember - and had turned into his headquarters.

Meanwhile, Voldemort had not wasted any time in showing the wizarding population that he was back. Barty Crouch Junior might have been executed by the Ministry but the information he had managed to acquire for Voldemort combined with the information Rookwood had been able to provide had made him smuggle giants into Britain without triggering the sensor net. There had already been multiple attacks and mass-Muggle killing, making the Ministry scramble to erase the memories of various Muggles and their contraptions – if the International Statute of Secrecy was breached, things would turn very ugly, very fast. Sirius had also informed the Muggle Prime Minister of what was happening – Magical Britain was in a state of war.

The Dementors had also sworn allegiance to Voldemort so now there were thousands of those foul creatures roaming all over the mainland. Sirius had any remaining Dementors at Azkaban destroyed with the use of Fiendfyre and then dumped their remains in the sea; a few hundred Dementors were destroyed, but there were too many of them out of control to capture them all. The Ministry had grown too dependent on Dementors over the last few centuries for them to change in such a short time. There had been several incidents of Dementor attacks on Muggles, but there had been no attacks on any witches and wizards – yet.

Not everything was bad though because the Vampires and Goblins had decided to stay neutral in the war, much to Sirius and Amelia's relief and Voldemort's frustration. There had been no werewolf attacks as yet but everyone knew it was only a matter of time. On the political side, Sirius had little success because the members of the Wizengamot were terrified to vote on any bill. If they took a stand against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, they would be the next ones to be killed. There had already been an attempt on Rufus Scrimgeour's life and people did not want to be on the Death Eater's target list.

Miller's Mirrors were proving to be an outstanding source for creating awareness with the public. The Ministry knew they couldn't broadcast anything which the Death Eaters wouldn't find out anyway, so they used it as a means to inform the common witches and wizards of the country in how to defend themselves and their families from the Death Eaters, Dementors, Inferi and a host of other things. A retired Auror would teach defence and offensive spells to the public through the recording crystals so that they would be able to protect themselves in case of an attack.

Meanwhile, Harry had been training extensively since he came back to Potter Castle. Dylan, ever Harry's shadow, had decided that he too wanted to train and help his brother so he began practising against the duelling dummies as well. Harry had also lent books to Daphne for her to study and she trained with him whenever he was in a teaching mode. Harry was an outstanding teacher, something which both Daphne and Dylan readily agreed.