A Young Wizard's Journey - Order of The Phoenix

Introduction

Book 5, and officially the halfway point.

Dear lord that feels weird to say. I started writing this story back in 2021. My first chapter was uploaded in November of that year. Now it's 2023. Feels like I've been doing this forever, and there are some of you who I see returning to each story and each chapter week in and week out since the very beginning. I don't even know what to say to you guys.

Let me get the intro stuff out the way so you can read on. Then I'll sort my personal stuff

Order of the Phoenix. Probably in my top 2 for the entire series, tied with Hallows. And unfortunately, one of the ones I can change the least. The whole deal of Order is trying to smother the rumours of Voldemort's return and those who spin them. Including Y/N. Meaning at least for the first half of the school year, it needs to run exactly the same way as it does in the original

Banning from Quidditch, Harry's detentions, the founding of the D.A. And whilst I've put my own spin on it as always, a lot of scenes and moments may seem familiar, bear with me, it'll swap back to the original stuff soon.

The good news, the first few chapters are mostly entirely new content. And whilst a lot will seem very copy-paste, there's a reason. If you see something, wait for a chapter or two, if you still aren't sure or feel against something, shoot me a comment, I read all of them and I'm not opposed to changing things on the fly, even if they are written in advance.

That's pretty much it actually for this one. You all know how I do what I do, obviously, Order is book 5 so if you're here first, you shouldn't be. There is plenty more story to go through and a lot of this won't make sense if you start here.

Everything above was all I wanted to say before the story. If you've ever had complaints or questions, I recommend reading on.

A lot of people have raised concerns over certain aspects of the story. I intend to answer them here. If you don't care about this and want to start reading, go ahead.

Hermione with her nagging, pressure, and concerns.

I get it, it can be annoying. But Hermione is a natural worrier and was until the start of Order. Order is when she starts to drift into her rebellious side as she grows accustomed to the constant danger and threat. I am continuing to play into that side of her. However, in the originals, it's her worrying about friends so it isn't as present. Whereas in this story, she's dating Y/N and is therefore as present as Y/N is, so it is a lot more obvious in this story. It will stop or taper out. I am playing to the characters, you have to remember, they are teenagers, and nobody is perfect, the characters have to have imperfections, it makes them feel more alive.

Y/N

I have said this in several different comments across all sites where this story is uploaded. But I will confirm here. Y/N is not an inherently good character. He is on the side of good, and fights for his friends. But Harry refuses to kill or harm, he disarms over anything else. Y/N is not and will not be like that. It is called the wizarding war. Y/N will do what needs to be done to win it.

Y/N's power

I said back in Chamber's intro that he would not come into extreme degrees of power. Becoming a child prodigy and stuff. That wasn't entirely correct, I worded it wrong. However, no part of Y/N's power is ancestral. Past history of great wizards etc. He is just a great wizard. Wizards like Merlin, Dumbledore, Grindelwald, they all had to start somewhere. Yes. His power is becoming greater. Yes. He's going to be one of the strongest wizards alive by the end. But that's for two reasons.

One – It's fun, no one wants to be the sidekick, especially in a story about you. You want to be one of the best. You want to be a badass, and I get that, believe me I do. That's why I'm doing it. And that leads into point two.

Two – Power creep. Moody is deemed one of the greatest Aurors of all time. The two times we see him fight he gets defeated in the Ministry, and immediately killed by Voldemort. Lupin dies to Dolohov off screen. Tonks with Bellatrix. Sirius with Bellatrix. Or a lot of people for Bellatrix. The only person who can consistently outperform every single Death Eater is Dumbledore. The strongest wizard of the modern age. Meaning if I want Y/N to be able to go toe to toe with them successfully, he needs to be excessively strong or else it begs the question as to why Y/N wins where the other Order members fail. I hope that Y/N's power crept has felt organic, advanced training mixed with an innate ability to have his magic burst from him which he has now learned to control. But it's had to happen so that he can actually even fight at the level I want him too.

Smut/Heated scenes

I've had a few questions about this. So, I repeat, it is inevitably going to happen between the couple. When it does, the build up will be the rising moment and then fade to black so that you have no doubt as to what just occurred. However, I'm not writing the intricacies, I don't enjoy doing that.

There has been make out scenes, there will be scenes where the two see each other in varying degrees of clothing. But it'll always be vague, never specifics. Even what I'm doing now doesn't feel fully comfortable, it's simply what fits the moment. But you will not see the full deal with me.

For those asking why it hasn't happened yet. They're 15 at the time of this book starting. It isn't legal. And whilst I know the world isn't always black and white. I'm not comfortable with it. Wait till they're 16 as that's legal age in the UK.

Similarities

This one is more of a personal one I want to cover. Yes, there are a lot of similarities between Y/N and Dumbledore. But that links back to the Power Creep point. Y/N's power is becoming increasingly more obvious. So, the comparisons to Dumbledore are going to come through. Mostly just in "you're as strong as" etc. The similarities with the Phoenix Patronus, and from what you'll read in the first chapter of this story are because I wanted a rare magical creature for Y/N to help cement that he's special. My personal preference is dragons. However, in this world, they are just always hostile. They cannot be trained or domesticated, and you can't exactly just have one in your dorm room. Next best, Phoenix. Especially given the affiliation Y/N has with Fawkes thanks to his love of Magical Creatures

Q&A/AMA

I don't know how much people care about this point, and it won't happen unless it's actively requested. But know that I'm not against the idea of doing one of these. If enough of you want one or have questions you want to ask, I'll happily run one.

However, I'm not going to do one randomly for either no traffic or no one really caring. Especially as I've already covered a lot in this intro, some of you email me directly, and my comment responses always try to explain my side anyway, so I may have already answered you. If you care or want one, feel free to ask. But at the same time, don't feel as though you need to wait for this to potentially happen. Comment, email, direct message, any form of communication is welcome, and I will always try to respond.

I think that's everything folks. This story still gets so much love and attention, even those who leave critical feedback, it's exactly that. No nasty comments, no harshness. And even between you guys speaking to each other, it's always pleasant or joking together and it's wonderful to see.

I'll be honest. I don't know what's next for me after this story. I don't know whether I'll vanish, whether I may return with a new story, another genre, world, series, timeline. I have no idea. A lot of it also depends on whether you guys want to see more. I imagine most of you are here for a Harry Potter story rather than me as an author. But the choice to begin uploading this is one of the best I've ever made and thank you to all of you for helping it become that.

Anyway, that's enough. Those of you who made it this far, I appreciate you. Now get reading! You've got a Dark Lord to defeat.