when the time comes

Remus

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

Harry takes a deep breath. "Hey, Tom, want to know what the order knows so far?" He hisses into his mental connection the resurrected dark lord. A prolonged silence follows suit, which is quickly broken by the aforementioned man. "Do what you will, brat! I don't mind listening in."

Harry grins softly. "What do you know about Voldemort?" A consensual shiver runs across the room at the mention of the name. Harry rolls his eyes, these idiots give the enemy more power by fearing him so.

"There haven't been any funny deaths, yet," says Sirius gravely, "not as far as we know, anyway... And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do, anyway," says Remus.

Harry smirks to himself, little does anyone, apart from his dad, of course, know that there are two moles among them. They will certainly see their blue wonder.

"How come he's stopped killing people? Harry asks. He knows the answer to his question already but is curious to see what the order thinks.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," says 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."

Tom snorts into his head and Harry has to press his lips to a thin line, he can't laugh now. "Stop making me want to laugh!" Another laugh follows, but it isn't Tom. Harry pales, this is even worse. "Theo! I'm being serious!" Harry whines.

"Don't you mean Sirius?" His brother in all but blood asks with a smirk, that Harry is certain is on the boy's face. "Don't!" Harry sighs and snaps back to attention.

"Or rather, you messed it up for him," says Remus with a satisfied smile.

"How?" Harry asks with feigned perplexity. Inwardly he can be seen smiling, it's thanks to him that the dark lord is back. And with that he means the real dark lord, the sane Tom Marvolo Riddle.

"You and Diggory weren't supposed to survive!" says Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you two survived to bear witness."

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

"And that helped? How so? Harry asks.

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

Tom scoffs and Theo chuckles. "I'm not scared of anything!" Tom indignantly huffs.

"Are you sure about that? Last time I checked you were terrified of death. Which was the catalyst to your downfall in the first place."

"That's true, father. And I'm witness to that. You can't deny the truth as much as you would love to." There's a certain mocking element to Theo's voice, that Harry knows just too well. That little shit.

"You're wrong." Harry says softly.

"What do you mean? Everyone knows you-know-who was most afraid of Dumbledore" Remus says softly and Harry shakes his head.

"Why do you think Voldemort created so many Horcruxes? Was it out of fear for Dumbledore or something else? Horcruxes give a person a type of pseudo immortality, with the price of your body and sanity. Voldemort was scared of death. Not Dumbledore. If you ask me, then Voldemort is the one closest to being on par with Dumbledore if not then the dark lord is even more powerful. The only way to defeat him is if you find all his Horcruxes and destroy them. There are seven in total."