Sirius spoke. "Okay, Harry . . . what do you want to know?"
"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news," asked Harry. "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 Remus.
"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 Remus with a satisfied smile.
"How?" Harry looked confused.
"You weren't supposed to survive Harry." I said softly. "Nobody apart fromhis Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said Remus. "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. "With all of us who were in the first one."
"And then just a few days after, he started recuruiting new people, like us for instance." I gestured to me, Ollie, TOnks and Bill.
Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius. "So what's the Order been doing?" said Harry.
"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 Death Eaters, 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 getting more followers?"
"We're trying our best." Remus said.
"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," I said.
"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 Remus. "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?"
"My mum and Seamus think so." I said sadly.
Harry's head snapped towards me. "What?"
"They think you're making it up. That's why I never see them anymore."
"Oh."
"Accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," said 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," said Remus. "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 rumormongering, 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 Me, Ollie, Mr. Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Remus, and Tonks. "You're letting people know he's back?"
"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass murderer and the Ministry's put a ten-thousand-Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" said Sirius restlessly.
"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," said Remus. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"Sara, 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," said Mr. Weasley. "Tonks and Sara here, for one — they were 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 are 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?"
"They're trying to discredit him," said 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 of Wizards 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 Voldemort's 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," said Ollie, grinning, and I couldn't help but chuckle at that.
"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, Harry," said Sirius. "He tricks, jinxes, and blackmails them. He's well-practiced 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.
"Stuff he can only get by stealth." Sirius said. 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 emerged from the shadows, having come back from taking Ginny upstairs.
"I want you in bed, now. All of you," she added, looking around at Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione. she looked at Sirius. "You've given Harry plenty of information. Anymore and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."
"Why not?" said Harry quickly. "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight —"
"No." Remus said shortly. "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
One by one, all the children started going up the stairs slowly, with Mrs. Weasley behind them.
Bill leaned towards me. "I'm sorry about what my mother said to you."
"It's fine." I said shortly. In reality, it wasn't fine. What Mrs. Weasely said hurt. Hurt a lot. I was aware I sucked at my spying, but she did not need to throw it out there again in front of everyone.
"No, it's not." Mr. Weasley said. "I'll talk to Molly.
"Don't let her hear you say that." I said tonelessly.
"I'll have a talk with her. She didn't truly mean it, it was just a slip of her tongue."
"Right, like when Percy said all those horrible things to me, it was just a slip of his tongue."
Mr. Weasley went rigid.
"What did Percy say?" asked Ollie.
"What did he say to you?" asked Bill angrily.
"Nothing." I mumbled. "Just forget I said anything."
"Come on, tell us." Ollie coaxed.
I glanced around at everyone.
"Fine, he said, and his exact words were 'You're being stupid, believing a mentally ill child. Maybe those scars on your face affected your brain a bit too much. Not like the Ministry want's someone like you anyway, looking like a hideous fucking werewolf.''"
Ollie blanched, his mouth opening and closing but no sound came out. Bill turned red. Tonks narrowed her eyes, probably plotting Percy's death. Mr. Weasley let out a breath of air, Sirius just blinked, and Remus' jaw clenched tightly.
"He said that to you?" Bill asked.
"Yeah." I shrugged, blinking away tears.
"What the fuck." Ollie breathed. "What the fuck. He wouldn't say something like that."
"Well, he did." I mumbled.
"Where's his new flat?" asked Bill. "First what he said to mum and dad, and now you?" he stood up. "It's unacceptable."
"You're not going anywhere." Mr. Weasley said, grabbing Bill's arm and pulling him back down.
"It's not worth it." I said. "Percy will come around to his senses, one day. And he will see what an absolute moron he was." I rubbed my eyes. "I think I'm going to go to bed."
"Goodnight Sara." Remus said.
I ignored him and went upstairs. I quietly cilmbed into bed, careful not to wake Hermione and Ginny up. I pulled the covers to my chin and thought about our conversation earlier. Harry was still confused, probably had a million more questions on his mind, but we weren't allowed to answer them. I sighed, and willed myself to go to sleep.