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"YOUR?──"

"My dear old mum, yeah," said Sirius. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."

"But what's a portrait of your mother doing here?" Harry asked, bewildered, as they went through the door from the hall and led the way down a flight of narrow stone steps, the others just behind them. Este rolled her eyes, if this was who was going to be saving them from doom, there wasn't much hope.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house," said Sirius. "Este inherited the house from my mother and they were so kind to let us use it as the Headquarters for the Order."

"I'm a philanthropist," Este grumbled going to the kitchen. Many chairs had been crammed into the room for the meeting and a long wooden table stood in the middle of them, littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be ragged. Mr. Weasley and his eldest son Bill were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.

Este enjoyed most of the food, one helping of rhubarb crumble and custard later. As she laid down her spoon there was a lull in the general conversation. Mr. Weasley was leaning back in his chair, looking replete and relaxed, Tonks was yawning widely, her nose now back to normal, and Ginny, who had lured Crookshanks out from under the dresser, was sitting cross-legged on the floor, rolling Butterbeer corks for him to chase. "Nearly time for bed, I think," said Mrs. Weasley with a yawn.

"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The atmosphere in the room changed with the rapidity Este associated with the arrival of dementors. Where seconds before it had been sleepily relaxed, it was now alert, even tense. A frisson had gone around the table at the mention of Voldemort's name. Lupin, who had been about to take a sip of wine, lowered his goblet slowly, looking wary.

"I did!" said Harry indignantly. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so──"

"And they're quite right," said Mrs. Weasley. "You're too young," She was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched and its arms, every trace of drowsiness gone.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" asked Sirius. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happening──"

"Hang on!" interrupted George loudly.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" said Fred angrily

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" said George.

'"You're too young, you're not in the Order,"' said Fred, in a high-pitched voice that sounded uncannily like his mother's. "Harry's not even of age!"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," said Sirius calmly, "that's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand──"

Este scowled as she turned to her father, an angry look on her face. "I've been trying to get something out of you for months now!" she exclaimed, "I've opened my house for the order and I can't even get to know what's going on?"

Sirius stayed silent at this.

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" continued Mrs. Weasley sharply. The expression on her normally kind face looked dangerous. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius asked politely, but with the air of a man readying himself for a fight.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," said Mrs. Weasley, placing a heavy emphasis on the last three words.

Ron, Hermione, Fred, and George's heads swiveled from Sirius to Mrs. Weasley as though they were following a tennis rally. Ginny was kneeling amid a pile of abandoned Butterbeer corks, watching the conversation with her mouth slightly open. Lupin's eyes were fixed on Sirius. "I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly," said Sirius. "But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back" (again, there was a collective shudder around the table at the name), "He has more right than most to──"

"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix," said Mrs. Weasley. "He's only fifteen and──"

"──and he's dealt with as much as most in the Order," said Sirius, "and more than some--"

"No one's denying what he's done!" said Mrs. Weasley, her voice rising, her fists trembling on the arms of her chair. "But he's still──"

"He's not a child!" said Sirius impatiently.

"He's not an adult either!" said Mrs. Weasley, the color rising in her cheeks. "He's not James!"

"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly.

"I'm not sure you are!" said Mrs. Weasley. "Sometimes, the way you talk about them, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

"What's wrong with that?" said Harry.

"What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father, however much you might look like him!" said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes still boring into Sirius. "You are still at school and the adults responsible for you should not forget it!"

"Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" demanded Sirius, his voice rising.

Este glared at him, "You're a shit dad," she grumbled under her breath──resentment twisting in her guts.

"Meaning you have been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay at home and──"

"We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this if you please!" said Sirius loudly.

"Arthur!" said Mrs. Weasley rounding on her husband. "Arthur, back me up!"

Mr. Weasley did not speak at once. He took off his glasses and cleaned them slowly on his robes, not looking at his wife. Only when he had replaced them carefully on his nose did he reply. "Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly. He accepts that Harry will have to be filled in, to a certain extent, now that he is staying at headquarters──"

"Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever he likes!"

"Personally," said Lupin quietly, looking away from Sirius at last, as Mrs Weasley turned quickly to him, hopeful that finally, she was about to get an ally, "I think it better than Harry gets the facts──not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture──from us, rather than a garbled version from ... others." His expression was mild but Este was sure Lupin knew that some Extendable Ears had survived Mrs. Weasley's purge.

"Well," said Mrs. Weasley, breathing deeply and looking around the table for support that did not come, "Well ... I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has Harry's best interests at heart──"

"He's not your son," said Sirius quietly.

He's not yours either. You've got one daughter right here.

"He's as good as," said Mrs. Weasley fiercely. "Who else has he got?"

"He's got me!"

"Yes," said Mrs. Weasley, her lip curling, "The thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after the children you've got while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?" Este snorted ever so quietly, but Harry had caught it and had nudged her.

Sirius started to rise from his chair. "Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," said Lupin sharply. "Sirius, sit down." Mrs. Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face white. "I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Lupin continued, "he's old enough to decide for himself."

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once. He did not look at Mrs. Weasley.

"Very well," said Mrs Weasley, her voice cracking. "Ginny—Ron—Hermione—Fred—George— You too Estele, I want, you out of this kitchen, now." Este had gotten up to leave, but her father sent her a look to sit back down and so she did but very carefully as she looked at the raging Mrs. Weasley.

"We're of age!" Fred and George bellowed together.

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" shouted Ron.

"Mum, I want to hear!" wailed Ginny.

"I'll just go──"

"NO!" shouted Mrs. Weasley, standing up, her eyes overbright. "I absolutely forbid──"

"Molly you can't stop Fred and George," said Mr. Weasley wearily. "They are of age──"

"They're still at school──"

"But they're legally adults now," said Mr. Weasley, in the same tired voice.

Mrs. Weasley was now scarlet in the face. "I──oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron──"

"Harry'll tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway!" said Ron hotly. "Won't──won't you?" he added uncertainly, meeting Harry's eyes.

"Course I will," Harry said. Ron and Hermione beamed.

"Fine!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. 'Fine! Ginny, Estele──BED!"

Este nodded hurriedly, "Alright──"

"You don't have a say in what my child does!" Sirius protested, finally paying attention to Este who felt the slightest twinge of joy at the slight attention her father gave to her. It was sickening how much she craved his attention and approval──she had never felt this way toward a person before. "Estele, do you want to stay? You are more than welcome to," he told her, smiling slightly as her heart tugged uncomfortably, unsure of how to feel.

"I need to know what's going on," Este finally decided, she sat back down, "It is my house you are operating in." Sirius nodded, and Mrs. Weasley huffed.

"Fine! Ginny──BED!" Ginny did not go quietly. They could hear her raging and storming at her mother all the way up the stairs, and when she reached the hall Grandmère's earsplitting shrieks were added to the din. Lupin hurried off to the portrait to restore calm. It was only after he had returned, closing the kitchen door behind him and taking his seat at the table again, that Sirius spoke.

"Okay, Harry . . . what do you want to know?"

Harry took a deep breath and asked the question that had been obsessing him for a month."Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news," he said, ignoring the renewed shudders and winces at the name, "and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything──"

"That's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," said Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway. . . . And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway," said Lupin.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or rather, you messed it up for him," said Lupin with a satisfied smile.

"How?" Harry asked perplexedly.

"You weren't supposed to survive," said Este in an obvious tone, "Think about it... Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted to be alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"How has that helped?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" said Bill incredulously. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!"

"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius.

"So what's the Order been doing?" said Harry, looking around at them all.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," said Sirius.

"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," said Lupin, "and Dumbledore'sshrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"

"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," said Sirius. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command; witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful DeathEaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one group he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him from getting more followers?"

"We're doing our best," said Lupin.

"How?"

"Well, the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned, to put them on their guard," said Bill. "It's proving tricky, though."

"Why?"

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said Tonks. "You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

"But why?" said Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore──"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," said Mr Weasley with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," said Tonks sadly.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry incredulously.

"Frightened of what he's up to," said Mr Weasley. "You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want──"

"Of course, he doesn't," said Mr. Weasley. "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."

"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," said Lupin. "But it seems that he's become fond of power now, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic, and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."

"How can he think that?" said Harry angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up──that I'd make it all up?"

"Because accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," sighed Este, "Fudge's in denial. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him. Basic Politics, Potter."

"You see the problem," smiled Lupin. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort, it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report any of what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the Wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."

"But you're telling people, aren't you?" said Harry, looking around at Mr. Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Lupin, and Tonks. "You're letting people know he's back?"

They all smiled humorlessly. "Well, as everyone thinks Daddy's a mad mass murderer and the Ministry's put a ten-thousand-Galleon price on his head, he can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can he?" said Este sarcastically. "And he's not a very popular dinner guest with most of our community," she continued, gesturing to Lupin "It's the occupational hazard of being a werewolf."

Lupin nodded, "Tonks and Mr Weasley would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off," said Lupin, "And it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry because you can bet Voldemort will have them."

"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," said Mr Weasley. "Tonks here, for one──she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage──Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset too. He's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information that Sirius is in Tibet."

"But if none of you's putting the news out that Voldemort's back──" Harry began.

"Who said none of us was putting the news out?" said Sirius. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked.

"They're trying to discredit him," said Lupin. "Didn't you see theDaily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he was getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true, he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort'sreturn. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot──that's the Wizard High Court──and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."

"But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog cards," said Bill, grinning.

"It's no laughing matter," said Mr Weasley shortly. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this, he could end up in Azkaban and the last thing we want is Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to, he's going to go cautiously for a while. If Dumbledore's out of the way──well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."

"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters, it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" asked Harry desperately.

"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Potter," said Este knowingly.

Sirius nodded, "He tricks, jinxes, and blackmails them. He's well-practised at operating in secrecy. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in, he's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on them at the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly.

Sirius and Lupin exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius said, "Stuff he can only get by stealth."When Harry continued to look puzzled, Sirius said, "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."

"When he was powerful before?"

"Yes."

"Like what kind of weapon?" said Harry. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra──?"

"That's enough."Mrs Weasley spoke from the shadows beside the door. Harry had not noticed her return from taking Ginny upstairs. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious. "I want you in bed, now. All of you," she added, looking around at Fred, George, Ron, Este, and Hermione.

"You can't boss us──" Fred began.

"Watch me," snarled Mrs Weasley. She was trembling slightly as she looked at Sirius.

"You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Orderstraightaway."

"Why not?" said Harry quickly. "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight──"

"No."It was not Mrs Weasley who spoke this time, but Lupin. "The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," he said. "Wizards who have left school," he added, as Fred and George opened their mouths. "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you . . . I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough." Sirius half-shrugged but did not argue. Mrs Weasley beckoned imperiously to her sons and Hermione. One by one they stood up and Harry and Este, one recognizing defeat, and the other finally bored enough to sleep, followed suit.