Chapter Three

Grimmauld Place

"So how long do these meetings normally last?" Alaw asked after they'd spent a good hour discussing the upcoming Hearing.

She would rather have not, but she was grateful for the others' suggestions. Hermione had urged her to speak with a solicitor as soon as possible and the Weasleys and Neville had heartily agreed. Now her stomach was gurgling and she was thinking longingly of Mrs Weasley's cooking.

"Well, for a big one like this, usually a couple of hours. We've been watching people arrive all evening and we reckon most of the Order are here. Usually it's about half," said Ginny. Alaw frowned a little.

"Then I take it Dumbledore still isn't letting us little ones join up then?"

Ginny and the Twins pulled sour faces.

"No," Fred sighed. "And whenever we try and point out to mum and dad that we're not a bunch of kids, they just refuse to talk about it. They haven't told us a damn thing, not even Sirius! And he's an alright bloke."

Alaw had been extremely put out at the end of term when Dumbledore had rejected her request to join his resistance. His reason had been pathetic in Alaw's opinion. The headmaster had insisted that she and her friends were too young, that no one would be allowed to join until they finished school and that he was simply trying to protect them for as long as possible.

"I'm calling bullshit on this whole 'too young' bollocks. Dumbledore's never cared about that before!" Alaw griped. "During the last war he had no problem recruiting Sirius and Lupin and their mates whilst they were at school. No there's something else going on here."

"Like what?" Ron asked sceptically. Alaw chewed her lip and glanced around the room, thinking. She had a theory, but she hadn't shared it with anyone before.

"Maybe, maybe Dumbledore doesn't trust us as much. Think about it, Sirius and them lot were die hard Dumbledore fans when they were young, he could get them to do whatever he wanted. But us, we're loose cannons. Maybe he doesn't think he can control us as easily."

There was an uncomfortable silence whilst the others digested this but it was clear from Ron's expression that he wasn't buying it.

"Bloody hell Al, this is Dumbledore we're talking about, not You-Know-Who."

"I'm not saying he wants to control us for bad reasons," Alaw explained hurriedly. "But he's the leader of the Order, and sometimes leaders have to make tough decisions. I'll give you an example, and Hermione you can back me up on this. There's an urban myth that, during the Second World War, the British managed to crack the German code and found out that the Germans were going to bomb Coventry. But instead of protecting it, they let it happen so that the Germans wouldn't know they'd cracked the code. It's probably not true but you see the point. If Dumbledore had to make a tough decision like that during this war, do you think he could trust the likes of us not to go against him?"

Another silence followed her words but this time it was more thoughtful. Ron still looked doubtful but Ginny in particular was nodding and the twins looked at each other shrewdly. Eventually, Neville asked,

"So, what do you think we should do? Because I don't know about you lot, but I don't want to sit on my backside in school whilst other people are out there fighting You-Know-Who."

"Damn straight," Alaw agreed fervently. "We should do anything we can to stop him, even if the grownups don't want us to."

"So what, we should set up our own resistance? Like – Order of the Chicks?" Ron said sarcastically.

"Technically, Phoenixes are just fire when they're young so it'd be the Order of the Flames." Hermione pointed out and Alaw snorted.

"The Flames, sounds like a prog rock band," she muttered. "Anyway, I'd sure like to know what them lot down stairs have been up to these past few weeks. I guess we'll have to start spying on them"

The twins chuckled at these words and Ginny rolled her eyes.

"What do you think we've been doing whilst you lot were dicking around France? When mum hasn't got us scrubbing out this place to make it habitable, we've been trying to listen in on the Order's plans. George, show them."

Alaw, Ron, Hermione and Neville all looked around at George who reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a long, pink, rubbery object that wriggled slightly.

"What the hell is that?" Ron asked with a look of revulsion.

"Extendable Ears," George announced proudly. "Fred and I invented them. You put one end in your ear, as so," He demonstrated. "Then the other end goes under a door or through a key hole and you can hear what people are saying on the other side no problem. Trouble is, Lupin found out and snitched on us to mum who went ballistic and tried to bin them all. Now the kitchen door's been Imperturbed so we can't use the one's we've got left either."

"But we got a fair bit of information before they found out," Fred said eagerly. "We know of about twenty full time Order members but by the sounds of things there are loads of other people involved, informants and what not, who aren't in the inner circle."

Kind of like the Death Eaters, Alaw couldn't help but think.

"We know some of the members spend a lot of time tracking known Death Eaters. Lucius Malfoy's name crops up a lot, and Crabbe and Goyle senior. Look, I've written down all the names of people they talk about as potential Death Eaters," said Ginny, and she rolled onto her stomach and started rooting around under the bed, eventually locating a writing pad and showing it to Alaw.

There were a few names on the short list Alaw recognised, but many that she did not. She made a mental note to ask Ginny for a copy of the list later. Alaw had gotten into the habit of keeping records of her fellow classmates miss-deeds back in first year, to use as blackmail. It had meant Theodore Knott and his gang of cronies had largely left her alone since then. At the start of second year, when everyone had thought Sirius was out to kill Alaw, she'd begun a second file about known Death Eaters, just in case. It looked like she'd be expanding it very soon.

"They're also trying to recruit more people into the Order," said George. "But by the sounds of things it's been tricky because the Ministry is trying its best to discredit Dumbledore."

"Hang on, what?" Ron asked in surprise.

"Oh yeah you won't have seen the Prophet for a few weeks, here, take a look."

George picked up a copy of the Daily Prophet from the bedside table and handed it to his youngest brother. Ron scanned the front page with a slight frown on his face. All Alaw could see was a dull story about the Galleon rising against the American Dragot.

"Am I missing something or what?" Ron asked, perplexed.

"Page five, idiot," Ginny snorted.

Ron turned to the correct page and after a few moments swore. It also took Alaw a moment to find the article in question, since it was tucked away at the bottom of the page and consisted of a few short paragraphs.

ALBUS DUMBLEDORE SUSPENDED AS SUPREME MUGWUMP OF THE ICW.

"Why is that such a tiny story? Surely it should be on the front page?" Hermione asked in confusion.

"Because Fudge leant on the Prophet to keep the thing quiet, according to what we managed to overhear," said Fred. "It was the same when he got sacked from the Wizengamot a few weeks ago too. The Ministry is trying to make people think he's not relevant anymore, that he's gone a bit barmy in his old age and that he's not reliable. It's all because he made a speech to the ICW about a month ago saying that You-Know-Who was back. They didn't even report that! So most of the people here don't even know what's going on."

Alaw felt a chill as she glanced down at the newspaper again. She had told Fudge at the end of term that he was no different from any corrupt muggle politician, and now it seemed to he was proving her right. She hadn't know he had such power over the press but it was quite eerie to behold.

"Damn he's good," she muttered angrily. "And I suppose the Order can't just drive around on a broomstick with a megaphone shouting about Voldemort, or the Ministry will come down on them like a ton of bricks! This sucks."

There were nods of agreement as Alaw folded up the newspaper so she wouldn't have to look at the picture of Fudge shaking hands with the new Supreme Mugwump.

"So, anything else you've managed to pick up?" she asked.

"Well, there is one thing," said Ginny. "They sometimes talk about 'guard duty', and we think it's important because they only talk about it when Dumbledore comes to the meeting. But we haven't been able to pick up much because they're always more careful about keeping us away when it's a big one."

"Guard duty?" Hermione repeated curiously. "You don't suppose they meant us, do you?"

"We're not sure," Ginny shrugged.

Alaw leant back in her chair with a thoughtful expression. She couldn't think what the Order might be guarding, but she was determined to find out. She'd already made a decision that, if she was expelled, she wouldn't simply go back to life as a muggle and wait for Voldemort to catch up to her. She would fight him with or without Dumbledore's permission. Besides, she didn't think she could bear telling her parents she'd been kicked out of university.

O

The kitchen of number twelve Grimmauld Place was a long, underground room with lots of shiny copper pots hanging from the ceiling. It had a large old fashioned oven at one end with was currently cooking that night's dinner and at the other, a set of stairs leading down to a pantry. Not that Alaw had had much chance to look around. She was sitting at the long wooden table in between Hermione and the boys and had been staring at the grain for quarter of an hour as her cheeks grew steadily redder. Mrs Weasley had ordered all four of them to sit down the moment they were called into the kitchen and she hadn't stopped shouting since then. Ron had tried to interrupt a few times, insisting that his friends weren't to blame, but his mother's wroth could not be contained so easily. When she was done berating her son for nearly driving her to distraction, she turned to the others.

"As for you three," she said, "I hope you all understand how foolish you've been. I don't care if you had your parents' permission, Dumbledore told you all to stay home safely. But instead you deliberately put yourselves in danger! I'm just glad you all made it back in one piece! Neville, I have half a mind to write to your grandmother about this!"

Alaw glanced to her left and saw Neville go pale at these words. But it seemed that Mrs Weasley had finally run out of steam and after scolding them all one last time, she moved off to attend to the dinner. That left the four fugitives sitting at the table in a state of slight shock, as if they'd just survived a great storm. The other people in kitchen went back to what they'd been doing before the row had begun, all accept Mr Weasley, who lent down and said quietly,

"We'll say no more about this matter, but I think you understand that you aren't fooling anyone Alaw. You obviously knew Molly and I were being duped. I know you were angry at Dumbledore and maybe you were right to be, but please don't lead your friends into danger again just to prove a point."

Alaw felt as if she wanted the floor to swallow her whole but Mr Weasley had already moved away to help his wife with the food. Ginny was commandeered to put out cutlery and the twins were assigned bread cutting duty. Alaw got up slowly from the table and walked away to the other end of the room where Sirius was leaning against the frame of the pantry door, grinning.

"Well done, you survived," he said, drawing his goddaughter into a one armed hug. After corresponding for most of the summer, they'd grown quite fond of each other.

"Now I've got to get ready for round two," Alaw said grimly. "I suppose Dumbledore will want to shout at me now."

"Dumbledore? He's already gone," said Sirius in surprise. "He left right after the meeting ended."

Alaw blinked and opened her mouth in surprise.

"Oh," she said.

She wasn't sure how she felt about that. She'd steeled herself for an argument and was now feeling a little cheated. Part of her had wanted to see Dumbledore again and really let rip about the injustice of it all. Her anger with the headmaster had only increased over the summer and she felt he needed to be told what an idiot he was. But now he was gone and Alaw had no one to shout at.

"He's coming back before the trial though, right?" she asked, a little anxiously. "He'll come and give me some advice?"

"I'm sure he will," said Sirius confidently. "And don't you worry about that, this is your first arrest for underage magic, at most it'll be a caution. Practically everyone gets one at some point before they leave school."

Alaw glanced at her godfather sceptically. Sirius had spent twenty years locked in Azkaban prison in the company of hundreds of Dementors. Alaw knew from old pictures she'd seen that Sirius had once been handsome and full of laughter, but now his features were gaunt and even when cheerful there was a haunted look behind his eyes. Though he'd been free for nearly a year now, nothing could hide the trauma. Sirius knew the Ministry wouldn't give her – a troublemaking muggleborn – a fair trial, he was obviously just trying to spare her the worry. Perhaps he realised he hadn't managed to fool her because he put a hand on her shoulder and said, in a more serious voice,

"Dumbledore will help you build a good strong case, he won't let you be expelled. Now come on, let's eat."

Not entirely reassured, Alaw followed him to the table and sat down in time to have a steaming bowl of stew set in front of her. As they ate, Alaw looked around the table with a slight frown, assessing the Order members who had remained behind after the meeting for the meal. Tonks was chatting cheerfully to Ginny and Hermione about her work as an Auror, seeming not to notice that her elbow was resting on her buttered piece of bread. Beside her sat Lupin, deep in discussion with Bill Weasley about goblins and their stance on the war.

"I've been trying to get a straight answer out of Griphook for weeks but he's being a bit difficult. Apparently he's had some sort of financial problems with Bagman so he's feeling very anti-wizard at the moment."

"I don't think the Goblins would join You-Know-Who," Mr Weasley said, shaking his head. "He murdered plenty of them during the last war."

"It all depends on how willing he is to work with other species," Alaw chipped in, making Lupin, Bill and Mr Weasley look around in surprise. "He hates other Beings just as much as he hates muggleborns, but if he was smart about this, he'd hold his nose and work with the Goblins. Having them onside would do some serious damage to the Ministry, seeing how they control Gringotts."

A regal looking black man sitting opposite Lupin raised his head from his goblet and gave Alaw an appraising look.

"Interesting point. But I'm not sure he will hold his nose, he didn't in the last war after all."

Mr Weasley made the introductions.

"Alaw, this is Kingsley Shacklebolt, he's one of our new recruits."

"You're an Auror," Alaw said, remembering the name from the Ministry documents she'd taken the time to read last year.

"Yes, I'm head of the taskforce trying to catch Sirius Black, we've got high hopes of finding him in Tibet," said Kingsley solemnly and Alaw's lip curled as she glanced at Sirius.

Further along down the table sat Fred and George who were muttering with a wizard Alaw recognised at once. She'd only seen Mundungus Fletcher once before but she was hardly likely to forget the man who had sold Hagrid his most illegal pet ever. Mundungus was just as dishevelled as he had been then, and even from this distance Alaw could smell the tobacco and heavy drink wafting from him. She nodded towards him,

"What are they talking about I wonder?" she muttered to Sirius who shrugged.

"Something dodgy no doubt, hopefully Molly won't kick up a fuss. She's not a fan of Mundungus ever since he let you lot give him the slip."

"He's a crook isn't he?" Alaw asked softly. "What's he doing in the Order?"

She felt more than a little annoyed that villains who dealt in stolen dragon eggs were welcomed into the Order of the Phoenix whilst she and her friends were left out in the cold.

"He's handy to have around, he hears things we don't in the circles he moves in. And Dumbledore got him off quite a serious charge a few years back so he's very loyal to him."

Ah, loyalty again. Alaw was becoming more and more convinced that her theory about Dumbledore's motives was true. After all, who wanted to have someone they didn't trust in their organisation? Despite all the chatter, there was still a slightly chilly air to the meal. Mrs Weasley was clearly still furious at the whole lot of them and she kept shooting suspicious glances towards the twins. Ron and Neville were concentrating a little too hard on their food and Alaw felt the twinge of guilt again. In hindsight, leading her friends into danger had been foolish in the extreme. But they hadn't expected to encounter any danger, they had been convinced that they'd evaded both Dumbledore and Voldemort. But it was done now, so there was no point crying about it.

When everyone had finished eating and Mrs Weasley had floated all the dirty bowls and cutlery over to the sink for washing, Alaw leant back in her chair and drained the last of her pumpkin juice with a slight grimace. She'd never acquired a taste for the stuff but it was the only thing on offer. Everyone else around the table was yawning and making noises about going to bed but before anyone could get up, Sirius spoke.

"So, Alaw, now that you're here at headquarters, I suppose it's time you were given some of the facts. Stop you going barmy thinking about it."

The atmosphere in the room changed in an instant. Everyone was now tense, and alert, especially the young ones.

"Sirius, Dumbledore said no!" Mrs Weasley cut in at once. "He insisted that no one should be allowed to join until they leave school, and I quite agree."

Despite how much she liked Ron's mother, Alaw couldn't help but shoot her an angry glare. She desperately wanted to say something but Sirius said it for her.

"I'm not saying she should be allowed to join, but it's ridiculous to expect her to stay in this house without being told anything at all. We should at least give her the bare bones of the situation. Dumbledore never said anything about keeping her completely in the dark."

"And since he didn't bother to stick around long enough to talk to me himself, I think it's pretty clear he doesn't care what I get up to," said Alaw sharply. She wasn't sure what made her say it. She'd never been rude to Ron's parents before, but all her frustration at being treated like a child was bubbling to the surface. "Look, I know to you lot I'm still a kid, but I'm not! I'm not like you, I'm muggleborn, and we come of age at eighteen. I can vote and get married and join the army and do whatever the hell I please in the muggle world. Sometimes I hate being a witch! And I won't be told that this is nothing to do with me because it is, whether you like it or not!"

She glared pointedly around the room at the members of the Order. They were all sitting in rather stunned silence at her outburst. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Sirius grinning proudly and Lupin was giving him a rather exasperated look. Tonks too, Alaw thought, looked as if she was trying to hide a smile. Kingsley and Moody's expressions were unreadable, and the Weasley parents were exchanging worried looks.

"Alaw, I know it must be frustrating, but we can't just dish out whatever information we like," Mr Weasley said soothingly. "Dumbledore is the head of the Order, it's his decision."

Alaw's resolve only hardened. She glanced towards Hermione, Ron and Neville and thought about their earlier conversation.

"With all due respect, I don't need Dumbledore's permission to fight Voldemort. He's going to try and kill me either way."

There was the usual uncomfortable shiver around the table at the sound of Voldemort's name. Alaw had been most amused back when she first learned that the name was mildly jinxed and that it sent physical pangs of fear through witches and wizards who heard it. It didn't effect muggleborns like herself and Hermione because they hadn't grown up with the jinx and it had a lesser effect on adults. Dumbledore used it freely of course, he was obviously too great and powerful to be bothered by such a tiny thing. And Sirius and Lupin didn't flinch on hearing it either. Sirius had faced the horrors of Azkaban after all, and Lupin had been a werewolf since he was a small child, a silly little jinx was nothing to them.

There was another lengthy pause as Mrs Weasley clearly sought some means of pacifying Alaw but it was Lupin who eventually spoke up.

"Alright, I think perhaps you can be given some information, Alaw. Enough to keep you from resorting to – other means."

It was quite clear from this that he knew not all the Extendable Ears had been confiscated and the twins quickly tried to look as innocent as possible. Mrs Weasley's face fell and she looked around the table for allies, but found none. Finally she sighed.

"Fine, I think it's a mistake, but fine. Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione, Neville, up to bed now."

The fury that erupted at these words was perfectly predictable. All the young ones started speaking over each other, the tone ranging from begging to demanding. Alaw gave a low hiss in Parseltongue which only Sirius and Hermione heard and the latter turned her head in surprise. Alaw widened her eyes and gave Hermione a look. Hermione took the hint and elbowed Ron and Neville to make them shut up, muttering low in their ears. Ron gave a huff.

"Fine, we'll go to bloody bed," he griped, pushing back his chair angrily and stomping to the kitchen door. Hermione and Neville followed him and after a little more argument, the twins and Ginny were also packed off upstairs. Mrs Weasley went with them, perhaps to make sure they didn't try and eavesdrop, and once the kitchen door had closed behind her, Sirius turned to Alaw.

"So, what do you want to know?"

Alaw frowned as she considered this question. The others had already filled her in adequately on the basics of the Order's activities, so she asked something more specific.

"Do you know where Voldemort's set up his base of operations?"

Sirius opened his mouth to answer but then closed it again, glancing at the other Order members. Perhaps he didn't trust himself not to give too much away.

"We've got a good idea," growled Moody. "The place is under heavy protection though so there's no point attacking it. Very strong, very old enchantments."

"One of his Death Eaters' houses?" Alaw guessed and there were reluctant nods. Well, that wasn't news, Dumbledore had told her as much when he took her to place protective enchantments around her family home. "And what about Voldemort himself then? What are his plans?"

"At the moment, the same as us, recruitment. He'll want to build up his strength before he takes on the Ministry. In the last war, he had his core group of Death Eaters, usually no more than about twenty or so individuals of varying importance. Then add to that hundreds more witches and wizards who were either loyal to his cause or had been Imperiused or otherwise coerced into working for him. Usually as hired thugs or informants. Then of course he had all manner of dark creatures he used to spread terror among the general population, Dementors, giants and so forth."

Alaw avoided glancing at Lupin at this point. Having studied the last war, she knew Voldemort had had a pretty loyal following of werewolves, people who had been shunned to the edges of society for so long that they were easily won over with promises of a better life. She shook off the disturbing thought and asked her next question.

"So the Ministry is still refusing to believe he's back then?"

"Unfortunately, yes," said Mr Weasley sadly. "Fudge is absolutely convinced that Dumbledore is just stirring up trouble to destabilise the Ministry and steal his job. It's making things incredibly difficult for us, the press has been told not to report a word Dumbledore says about You-Know-Who. Of course, plenty of people whose children heard his speech at Hogwarts know the general story by now, it's impossible to keep a secret in a community as small as ours. But because it hasn't appeared in the paper or on the wireless, most witches and wizards don't think it's legitimate."

"Sheep," Alaw snorted contemptuously. "Just like muggles I guess. Our politicians do it too, it's called fake news. Flood the internet with conflicting stories, create some noise, and no one knows what's true anymore. It's usually quite effective. Means every idiot in office can deny anything he or she wants."

Alaw shook her head and then frowned around at all the members again.

"So, that's it? All Voldemort's doing is recruiting new followers? That doesn't sound like him, come on he has to be doing something else? No murders or kidnappings?"

"Too much activity would alert the Ministry," Sirius explained. "They're not all as stupid as Fudge. People like Amelia Bones and Barty Crouch know something's going on and they'll have their ears pressed to the ground. And – there's another reason Voldemort's been quiet lately."

There was a slight rustle from the other people in the room at these words and Alaw looked intently at her godfather.

"What reason?" she asked eagerly. Sirius licked his lips and then continued.

"He's got other things on his mind, other plans he can put into motion very quietly."

"What plans?" Alaw pressed.

"Sirius," Moody grunted warningly. Sirius looked for a second like he was going to listen but then his eyes hardened and he ploughed on.

"We know that he's after something, an – object – something he didn't have last time."

"No!" cried Mrs Wealsey making them all jump. Alaw hadn't noticed her come back in because she'd been skulking by the door the entire time. "Sirius, that is enough. Dumbledore said on no account should you tell her about that."

Alaw growled in frustration and looked appealingly at Sirius but he grimaced and shook his head.

"Fine, fine, Al, that's enough for tonight."