"Okay, Harry... what do you want to know?" Harry takes a deep breath and asks the question that has obsessed him for the last month.
"Where's Voldemort?" he says, ignoring the renewed shudders and winces at the name. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."
"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," says Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway... and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do, anyway," says Lupin.
"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asks. He knows Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.
"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."
"Or rather, you messed it up for him," says Lupin, with a satisfied smile.
"How?" Harry asks, perplexed.
"You weren't supposed to survive!" responds Sirius. "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 wasDumbledore," says Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
"How has that helped?" Harry asks.
"Are you kidding?" says 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," says Sirius.
"So, what's the Order been doing?" says Harry, looking around at them all.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," says Sirius.
"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asks quickly.
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea,' says Lupin, "and Dumbledore's shrewd 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," says 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 Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups 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 getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best," says 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," says Bill. "It's proving tricky, though."
"Why?"
"Because of the Ministry's attitude," joins 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?" asks Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore -"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," says Mr Weasley with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," says Tonks sadly.
"Frightened of Dumbledore?" says Harry incredulously.
"Frightened of what he's up to," says Mr Weasley. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."
"But Dumbledore doesn't want -"
"Of course he doesn't," says 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," says Lupin. "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. Heloves being Minister for Magic and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever oneand Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."
"How can he think that?" says 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," replies Sirius bitterly.
"Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."
"You see the problem," says 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 rumour-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware any things 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?" says Harry, looking around at Mr Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Lupin and Tonks.
"You're letting people know he's back?" They all smile humorlessly.
"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousandGalleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" says Sirius restlessly.
"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," says Lupin. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off," said Sirius, "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," says 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 is putting the news out that Voldemorts back -" Harry begins.
"Who said none of us is putting the news out?" says Sirius. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What d'you mean?" Harry asks.
"They're trying to discredit him," says Lupin. "Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation ofWizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemorts return. 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," says Bill, grinning.
"It's no laughing matter," says Mr Weasley sharply. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have 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. 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?" asks Harry desperately.
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," says Sirius. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well-practised at operating in secret. 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 those for the moment."