Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [80]
“Ron!” Harry yelled to the bottom of the hole. “Are you okay?” Ron gave a low moan, and gave Harry a weak thumbs-up.
“Come on and get out,” Harry said. Ron slowly stood up, and brushed himself off. Harry gave Ron his hand, and pulled him out of the hole.
“When did you fall in Ron?” asked Harry.
“I don’t remember,” said Ron. “I just remember that the heat was really getting to me, then the bird turned to me, and it became unbearable. So I think I just… fainted.” Harry shook his head and sighed.
“Come on Ron,” said Harry. “Let’s go find something else.”
“Man, I really wanted that bird, it was so big,” said Ron, scouting the area again for some animal. They started heading back to camp, where hopefully Hermione would share some of her rations with them that she had brought. Just when they were about to get back to the clearing that they had landed in, however, Harry felt the familiar warmth again.
“Ron, do you feel that?”
“Yeah,” said Ron, wiping his brow which was already starting to get wet. Harry felt the heat getting more and more intense. “What is that bird?” The same thought was running through Harry’s mind, how was that bird producing heat?
Suddenly, a fireball flew over Harry’s head, searing his hair. Harry screamed, and frantically searched for something to put the fire out.
“Aquaius!” yelled Harry. A tiny sprout of water shot out of the tip of his wand like a small fountain. He poured it all over the top of his head, and there was a small ‘hiss’ as smoke flew out of the his hair. Harry looked up and saw that what seared his head was not a fireball, it was a phoenix, only not a phoenix like Fawkes, it was a black Phoenix.
“Ron! Watch out!” yelled Harry, trying to warn him about the phoenix. But, his warning was too late, the phoenix had already seared Ron’s head as well, only it was far worse than Harry had had it, his entire head was on fire. Harry ran over, and shot some more water on Ron who was screaming and twitching on the ground. Harry soon heard the hiss of the fire being put out, and saw some smoke. He helped Ron up, and looked around for the phoenix, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“What was that Harry?” asked Ron, tending to a few scars on his face.
“It was a phoenix… a black phoenix.”
“You mean, those phoenixes that were created by Veldomert?” Harry nodded his head,
“I saw one before… it attacked Hedwig….”
“But what was this one doing here?”
“I don’t know,” said Harry. “But I know that we should get out of here as fast as we can, if that phoenix returns, we could be in trouble.” Ron nodded hastily in agreement, and they ran as fast as they could out of the forest, all the time wondering why the phoenix hadn’t finished them off then, and constantly darting their heads in all directions around them for any sign of it.
When they burst out of the forest, panting, they met up with a very confused Hermione who was wondering why they were out of breath and looking paranoid. She was standing around and tending to a very large fire that already had some of the food she had brought with her on it.
“What’s wrong?” she asked them as she threw another log into the fire.
“It’s after us!” yelled Ron, sounding insane, and, with his eyes darting all over, looked it as well.
“What is?” asked Hermione, starting to look slightly panicked.
“A black phoenix,” said Harry. This didn’t seem to help Hermione’s mood.
“What? A black phoenix? Like the one you told us about? Oh no Harry, oh no.”
“Listen Hermione,” said Harry, “as long as we can eat quickly, and get out of here soon, we shouldn’t be in any danger. I don’t think the phoenix was after us, it never seemed like it was directing its attacks at us, we just got caught in the crossfire.” Hermione looked slightly relieved.
“But why was it here in the first place?” asked Hermione. That thought never occurred to Harry, why was that phoenix there anyway?
“I guess, maybe… there’s just some left over from when Veldomert created them, and they’re wandering the world now,” said Harry. Hermione looked