Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [190]
Harry wasn’t used to the silence. It was extremely eerie, like being in a dark and haunted house, just waiting for something to jump out from behind you and bite your head off. He had to break it.
“Ron,” said Harry, still digging, “did you… that is Hermione… did you… love her?” At first, Harry thought Ron hadn’t heard him. He just continued shoveling for a few seconds, then he paused, looked at Harry, and dropped his shovel.
“Harry…” he said. “I… I… I…. Wait…. What’s that sound?”
Harry stopped digging for a second, and put his hand to his ear. Just beyond the sound of the oncoming thunder and rain, Harry heard the most out of place sound… he heard an ‘oink’.
“It sounds like… a pig,” said Harry, giving a confused look. He stood up, and stuck his ear out further in the direction he heard it coming from; he saw Ron do the same.
“Oink…” came the noise from very far away. It was just slightly louder than a pin drop, and Harry wasn’t even sure if it was a real sound.
“Oink.” There it was again! Only louder this time, much louder in fact, as if it was rushing towards he and Ron. Harry began walking closer toward the sound, and Ron followed him. Whatever was making that noise was definitely coming closer. Harry had to be prepared: he took out his wand.
“Oink.”
“Ron,” said Harry, almost laughing at himself, “I think it is a pig.”
“A pig?”
“Oink!” came the sound again, sounding very close.
“Harry!” yelled Ron. “It is a pig!” He ran right up next to Harry, and put his hand over his eyes, to try and see farther away. Harry did the same, and not too far away, he saw a small pink dot next a to larger blue dot running up to them, along with a red dot above them.
“What are those things around the pig?” asked Ron, squinting. Harry tried to focus on it, and was amazed at what he saw. As the figures got closer, he could definitely make out the pink spot being a pig, but the blue dot was not… it was a wizard! Harry could make out the long, blue flowing robe. And the red dot was a bird… a phoenix!
“Harry!” yelled Ron. “It’s Dumbledore and the phoenix!”
Ron was right, it was Dumbledore! The figures were no more than a hundred feet away now, and Harry could see them perfectly. Harry and Ron began running towards them, unable to believe their luck.
“Professor Dumbledore!” yelled Harry. “Is that you!?
“Yes it is, Harry,” he said, stopping when he was just a few feet away from Harry. The phoenix was perched on his shoulder, that was probably Fawkes.
Even though Dumbledore wasn’t wearing his usual, joyous face, Harry was still unbelievably happy to see him. He could have hugged Dumbledore, right then and there. With him around, there was no way Voldemort could touch them.
“Where is Voldemort?” said Dumbledore.
“He’s gone,” said Harry, questions forming inside his head. How did Dumbledore know they were here? What was with the pig? How did he get the phoenixes back?
“He’s gone, has he? Well… that is most unfortunate.”
There was a second of awkward silence.
“Professor, how did you know we were here?” said Ron, asking Harry’s question for him.
“That is all thanks to this pig here,” said Dumbledore. “Or, as you know her, Mrs. Arabella Figg. She led me to the forest where I met Voldemort. He turned into a copy of me, and ran away. We tried to follow him, but we somehow lost him. Later, we heard the song of the golden phoenix, and followed it here.”
“Oh, that’s right!” said Harry. “Wormtail didn’t kill Arabella, he just turned her into a pig, and she ran away!”
“Wormtail killed someone?” said Dumbledore, looking extremely serious.
“Yes,” said Harry, “He killed Lupin, and