* * *
THE DINING ROOM WAS ONE OF ELARA'S FAVORITE ROOMS IN TWELVE GRIMMAULD PLACE. it was scarcely less gloomy than the hall above, a cavernous room with rough stone walls. most of the light was coming from a large fire at the far end of the room. a haze of pipe smoke hung in the air like battle fumes, through which loomed the menacing shapes of heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling. many chairs had been crammed into the room for the meeting and a long wooden table stood in the middle of the room, littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be rags. mr. weasley and his eldest son, bill, were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.
mrs. weasley cleared her throat. her husband, a thin, balding, red-haired man, who wore horn-rimmed glasses, looked around and jumped to his feet.
"harry!" mr. weasley said, hurrying forward to greet him and shaking his hand vigorously. "good to see you!"
elara saw bill, who was still wearing his long hair in a ponytail, hastily rolling up the lengths of parchment left on the table. "journey all right, harry?" bill called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "mad-eye didn't make you come via greenland, then?"
"he tried," said nymphie, striding over to help bill and immediately sending a candle toppling onto the last piece of parchment. "oh no — sorry —"
elara sniggered.
"here, dear," said mrs. weasley, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand: in the flash of light caused by mrs. weasley's charm, elara caught a glimpse of what looked like the plan of a building.
mrs. weasley had seen her looking. she snatched the plan off the table and stuffed it into bill's heavily laden arms.
"this sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped before sweeping off toward an ancient dresser from which she started unloading dinner plates.
bill took out his wand, muttered "evanesco!" and the scrolls vanished.
"sit down, harry, lara," said sirius. "you've met mundungus, haven't you, harry?"
the thing elara had taken to be a pile of rags gave a prolonged, grunting snore and then jerked awake.
"some'n say m' name?" mundungus mumbled sleepily. "i 'gree with sirius. . . ."
he raised a very grubby hand in the air as though voting, his droopy, bloodshot eyes unfocused. ginny and elara laughed.
"the meeting's over, dung," said sirius, as they all sat down around him at the table. "harry's arrived."
"eh?" said mundungus, peering balefully at harry through his matted ginger hair. "blimey, so 'e 'as. yeah . . . you all right, 'arry?"
"yeah," said harry.
mundungus fumbled nervously in his pockets, still staring at harry, and pulled out a grimy black pipe. he stuck it in his mouth, ignited the end of it with his wand, and took a deep pull on it. great billowing clouds of greenish smoke obscured him in seconds.
"owe you a 'pology," grunted a voice from the middle of the smelly cloud.
"For the last time, Mundungus," called Mrs. Weasley, "will you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we're about to eat!"
"ah," said mundungus. "right. sorry, molly."
the cloud of smoke vanished as mundungus stowed his pipe back in his pocket, but an acrid smell of burning socks lingered.
"and if you want dinner before midnight i'll need a hand," mrs. weasley said to the room at large. "no, you can stay where you are, harry dear, you've had a long journey. you too, lara. last time didn't go so well —"
"what can i do, molly?" said nymphie enthusiastically, bounding forward.
mrs. weasley hesitated, looking apprehensive.
"er — no, it's all right, tonks, you have a rest too, you've done enough today —"
"no, no, i want to help!" said nymphie brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried toward the dresser from which ginny was collecting cutlery.
soon a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by mr. weasley, while mrs. weasley stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and the others took out plates, more goblets, and food from the pantry. elara was left at the table with harry, sirius, and mundungus, who was still blinking mournfully at harry.
"what happened last time?" said harry to elara curiously.
"ah," said elara ruefully. "my dreams — or visions, you could call them — have started to happen when i'm awake. i start zoning out. if i'm holding something, i'll drop it. last time i helped, no one was used to me having my fainting spells yet. i was holding a great big knife, dropped it, almost stabbed my foot, and passed out."
"does that happen a lot?"
"yes," said sirius and mundungus at once. they were both all too familiar with the aspect of diving to catch elara before she hit the ground.
"seen old figgy since?" mundungus asked harry.
"no," said harry, "i haven't seen anyone."
"see, i wouldn't 'ave left," said mundungus, leaning forward, a pleading note in his voice, "but i 'ad a business opportunity —" elara felt something brush against her knees and started, but it was only crookshanks, hermione's bandy-legged ginger cat, who wound himself once around elara's legs, purring, then jumped onto sirius's lap and curled up. sirius scratched him absentmindedly behind the ears as he turned, still grim-faced, to harry.
"had a good summer so far?"
"no, it's been lousy," said harry.
for the first time, something like a grin flitted across sirius's face. "don't know what you're complaining about, myself."
"what?" said harry incredulously.
"personally, i'd have welcomed a dementor attack. a deadly struggle for my soul would have broken the monotony nicely. you think you've had it bad, at least you've been able to get out and about, stretch your legs, get into a few fights. . . . i've been stuck inside for a month."
"how come?" asked harry, frowning.
"because the ministry of magic's still after me, and voldemort will know all about me being an animagus by now, wormtail will have told him, so my big disguise is useless. there's not much i can do for the order of the phoenix . . . or so dumbledore feels."
there was something about the slightly flattened tone of voice in which sirius uttered dumbledore's name that told elara that sirius was not very happy with the headmaster either. elara was glad she wasn't the only one.
"at least you've known what's been going on," harry said bracingly.
"oh yeah," said sirius sarcastically. "listening to snape's reports, having to take all his snide hints that he's out there risking his life while i'm sat on my backside here having a nice comfortable time . . . asking me how the cleaning's going —"
"what cleaning?" asked harry.
"trying to make this place fit for human habitation," said sirius, waving a hand around the dismal kitchen. "no one's lived here for ten years, not since my dear mother died, unless you count her old house-elf, and he's gone round the twist, hasn't cleaned anything in ages —"
"sirius?" said mundungus, who did not appear to have paid any attention to this conversation, but had been minutely examining an empty goblet. "this solid silver, mate?"
"yes," said sirius, surveying it with distaste. "finest fifteenth-century goblin-wrought silver, embossed with the black family crest."
"that'd come off, though," muttered mundungus, polishing it with his cuff.
"fred — george — NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" mrs. weasley shrieked.
harry, elara, sirius, and mundungus looked around and, a split second later, dived away from the table. fred and george had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air toward elara. the stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface, the flagon of butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere, and the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, right next to elara's head had been.
"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed mrs. weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED — I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS — JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOUDON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING! YOU COULD HAVE SERIOUSLY INJURED HER, AND THE POOR CHILD DOESN'T NEED MORE TROUBLE!"
"we were just trying to save a bit of time!" said fred, hurrying forward and wrenching the bread knife out of the wall. "sorry lara — didn't mean to —"
but elara, harry, and sirius were both laughing. mundungus, who had toppled backward off his chair, was swearing as he got to his feet. crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from whence his large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.
"boys," mr. weasley said, lifting the stew back into the middle ofthe table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age —"
"— none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" mrs. weasley raged at the twins, slamming a fresh flagon of butterbeer onto the table and spilling almost as much again. "bill didn't feel the need to apparate every few feet! charlie didn't charm everything he met! percy —"
she stopped dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden.
"let's eat," said bill quickly.
"it looks wonderful, molly," said lupin, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it across the table.
for a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food. then the table burst to life. elara and nymphie kept entertaining ginny and hermoine by changing their noses. it soon became a competition.
elara's nose swelled to a beaklike protuberance like snape's. nymphie's shrank to something resembling a button mushroom. elara then sprouted a great deal of hair from each nostril. after awhile, ginny and hermione began requesting their favorite noses.
"do that one like a pig snout, tonks . . ."
"ooh, and the one like a duck, lara. . ."
they obliged, turning their noses into those of the ones requested. three helpings of rhubarb crumble and custard later and elara was feeling awfully sleepy. she lay down her spoon in a lull in the general conversation. mr. weasley was leaning back in his chair, looking replete and relaxed, nymph 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 on 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 rapidly. 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, but lara kind of is, so —"
"and they're quite right," said mrs. weasley. "you're too young."
she was sitting bolt upright in her chair, her fists clenched upon its arms, every trace of drowsiness gone.
"but lara --"
"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 happen —"
"hang on!" interrupted aurora 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 -- and neither is lara!"
"it's not my fault you haven't been told what the order's doing," said sirius calmly. "that's your parents' decision. lara is different, you know that. harry, on the other hand —"
"it's not down to you to decide what's good for harry!" said mrs. weasley sharply. her normally kindly face looked dangerous. "you haven't forgotten what dumbledore said, i suppose?"
"which bit?" sirius asked politely, but with an air as though 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.
elara, harry, ron, hermione, fred, and george's heads turned from sirius to mrs. weasley as though 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 one of the ones who saw voldemort come back. 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 the same age as elara. not to mention, 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, sirius!"
"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 him, 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 adults responsible for you should not forget it!"
"meaning i'm an irresponsible godfather?" demanded sirius, his voice rising.
"meaning you've 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 say, "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 professor 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 that harry gets the facts — not all the facts, molly, but the general picture — from us, rather than a garbled version from . . . others."
"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 got harry's best interests at heart —"
"he's not your son," said sirius quietly.
"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 him while you've been locked up in azkaban, hasn't it?"
sirius started to rise from his chair.
"molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about harry," said professor 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," professor lupin continued. "he's old enough to decide for himself."
"i want to know what's been going on," harry said at once.
"very well," said mrs. weasley, her voice cracking. "ginny — ron — hermione — elara — aurora — fred — george — i want you out of this kitchen, now."
there was instant uproar.
"we're of age!" fred, george, and aurora yelled together.
"i'm already half in the order!"
"if harry's allowed, why can't i?" shouted ron.
"mum, i want to!" wailed ginny.
"NO!" shouted mrs. weasley, standing up, her eyes over-bright. "i absolutely forbid —"
"molly, you can't stop fred, george, and aurora," 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 tiredvoice.
mrs. weasley was now scarlet in the face. "i — oh, all right then, fred and george and aurora can stay, but ron —"
"harry'll tell me and lara and hermione everything you say anyway!" said ron hotly. "won't — won't you?" he added uncertainly, meeting harry's eyes.
after a split second of tension, harry answered, " 'course i will."
"fine!" shouted mrs. weasley. "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 mrs. black'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, "where's voldemort? 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."
"that's because there haven't been any suspicious deaths yet," said sirius, "there's not anything else as far as we know, anyway. . . . and we know quite a lot."
"more than he thinks we do anyway," said lupin.
"how come he hasn't killed anyone else?" 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 sirius. "nobody apart from his death eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. but you survived to bear witness, and elara, as we know, would've seen it anyways."
"and the very last person he wanted to be alerted to his return the moment he got back was dumbledore," said lupin. "and you and elara 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'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," 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 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 nymphie. "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 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 nymphie 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," 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 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 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. "you're letting people know he's back?"
the order members smiled humorlessly.
"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 lupin. "it's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."
"tonks, corrine, 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 corrine, for two — 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 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 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," 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 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.
elara caught both sirius and lupin looking at her fleetingly before turning back to harry.
"stuff he can only get by stealth, like a weapon. something he didn't have last time." sirius added when harry continued to look confused.
"when he was powerful before?"
"yes."
"like what kind of weapon?" said harry. "something worse than the avada kedavra — ?"
the rest of harry's question was cut off by a loud sigh from elara. "not something, harry, he's after someone -- "
"that's enough."
mrs. weasley spoke from the shadows beside the door. elara 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 harry, elara, aurora, fred, george, ron, 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 order straight away."
"why not?" said harry quickly. "i'll join, i want to join, i want to fight, it's what lara is doing, isn't it—"
"no."
it was not mrs. weasley who spoke this time, but lupin.
"the order is comprised of overage wizards," he said. "wizards who have left school," he added, as fred and george opened their mouths. "and elara... well, you know she is a special case. but again, she's also not allowed to know everything. there are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, the rest 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, aurora, elara, and hermione. elara followed quietly after harry, ready to drink the special sleep potion.
* * *
AUTHORS NOTE
-- i'm in the gettho... ratatata... ratatata... AH
JANUARY 25, 2020