Hey everyone,
So just a warning ahead of time. This chapter is going to bash the following characters: Hermione Granger, Albus Dumbledore, Remus Lupin, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Dolores Umbridge and a slight bashing of Alastor Moody and Molly Weasley, though the latter two will be constructive instead of all-out negative.
Be warned!

Venquine1990


Chapter 03
Meetings Of Conflict

14th of October 1995
Dumbledore's Office, Hogwarts
Ron's POV

The last hour has been really annoying. While I expected Hermione to be slightly against the decision made by Harry and myself, did I not expect her to continuously try to convince me to tell Dumbledore where Harry was, even when I told her exactly why Harry and I decided on this course of action, to the most intricate detail.
The girl didn't see the fact that adults were hiding themselves to guard/spy on minors as something important and thought that Dumbledore knew what he was doing, yet I had glared at her and snapped: "And if Tonks, my mum, Hestia and other female members guarded/spied on you, Parvati and Lavender? Would you still be so callous about this?"
The girl had been shocked at being called callous and I glared at her as I say: "You don't see the problem, Hermione, because it's not happening to you. You're not the one who feels violated, who feels as if his rights mean nothing to those who he's supposed to respect. But what is there to respect – if it doesn't go both ways?"

The girl hadn't been able to form a cohesive answer and had tried to go back to her usual argument: "Dumbledore –." But I had snapped: "Is human and can make mistakes! Just because he's older than us does not always make him wiser or better!" And this had been something the girl obviously didn't want to believe.
I rolled my eyes at this and snapped: "Hermione, I feel that you're being stupid – and I'm usually the dumb one of us. You have had Quirrell, Lockhart, Crouch, Umbridge and even Snape from time to time to prove you that adults aren't always right, that they're not saints, that they aren't infallible – and you're still siding with the wrong ones."
"Then who am I supposed to side with? Umbridge?" The girl had shrieked, but I had coldly retorted: "No, your friends." And the girl had been left speechless, just as Pig had flown in with a note, telling me that Dumbledore wanted to see me. And the way that his note had underlined the words national and family importance had said it all.

"That actually went faster than expected." I think to myself as I head for the Headmaster's office, having actually come up with a pretty clever excuse to anyone who will probably ask where I suddenly disappeared off to. Dumbledore told me that the pressure of the Ministry is causing strive between my parents and he wants my help.
This is, of course, an excuse that anyone who knows my family knows is utter dragon dung, but I also know that if this excuse reaches people like Umbridge, she will devour it with gusto and believe it in a second. Hermione had looked at me strangely when I gave the excuse to a First Year, but I had just winked at her, telling her to catch on.
And while part of me wonders if Harry will really return to all of the same friends he left behind when we put the spell up, do I know that it really doesn't matter. If Harry has to lose a few friends just because their loyalty isn't in the right place, so be it. Then my team and I just need to make sure he can fill those spaces with new, better friends.

And while I mentally go over a list of people who might fit this bill, Neville coming to mind right away thanks to how he's been growing into his own person this last month, do I notice that the gargoyle actually moves aside as I reach it without me needing to state any kind of password. And then I remember something.
"Dumbledore didn't even write down a password, or even a hint to what it could be." I think with a dead look of annoyance on my face and it is this same look with which I enter the office. I turn my face to the man, who seems slightly unsettled at seeing it and then says: "Good of you to come, Mr. Weasley. Your parents await us."
And he motions for a single red feather that lies upon his desk. "Clever Port Key." I think to myself, yet I also resent it as I have used this last week to go over all the ways that Harry's adventures could have been less hazardous and dangerous for him to go through these last few years and Second is the worst of them all.
"His own phoenix can easily transport itself into the Chamber once someone loyal to him is there and he couldn't even bother to show up and help that person, while probably knowing that said person was a bloody twelve year old?" I think to myself, but I don't let this angering thought show on my face as I just put a finger to the feather.

Instantly I feel the usual, stomach-churning sensation that comes with a Port Key and, like always, it takes a lot out of me not to land on my face on the cold stone floor of the basement kitchen. I land on my foot, knee and one hand and scratch the latter up a little, but not enough to really hurt and I just wipe the pain away as I stand up.
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! YOU TELL US WHERE HARRY IS RIGHT THIS INSTANT!" Is the first thing I hear when I turn to my mother, but while she has always scared me easily and made me want to cower, do I have something now that I didn't then. The determination and resolve of the other six filling me up from within.
And mum instantly notices that I am not backing down or even looking slightly guilty or scared. I am just staring her down with an uncaring look and say: "I may have had a traitor for a pet, mum, but I am not one myself. Harry made me Secret Keeper, asked me to set up six others in exactly the way I explained the school and I did.
And unlike Pettigrew, do I not feel like bowing down to someone else only a week after having done so. Besides, you might want to read that book I showed the school. It says that, once the spell is at full power, the ones that are all Secret Keepers share an emotional bond with each other, allowing them to keep each other strong."

The whole room looks shocked and I turn to my mother as I say: "You are definitely an intimidating presence, mum, especially when angry, but I'm not alone in this decision or this course of action. I have six other people, who all believe Harry should be kept safe, keeping me strong by sharing their resolve in all this with me."
Everyone is looking at me, various looks of shock and amazement on their faces, yet I also notice that Sirius looks more intrigued than anything. Yet thanks to that empathy bond that I now share have I also learned to read people better and I easily spot it. Behind that intrigue is the pain of a man who feels he just lost his godson.
"I'm really sorry, Sirius. It had to happen." I think and then decide to let the man know exactly why as I can only imagine how confused he feels over all this. Yet I also decide to prove him that, who he was to James, I am now to Harry. I smirk at him and say: "You know. I am willing to explain why – and have you to thank for all this, Sirius."

Now a strong sense of amusement is shown mixed with the intrigue on the man's face and yet Mum proves that her anger makes her irrational as she shouts: "SIRIUS! WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE! YOU KNOW YOU'RE –." But I interrupt her and say: "I meant when he delivered your message about the club, mother."
The woman instantly quiets down, looking at me in shock over having interrupted her and confusion over what I just said. I sit down at the table and say: "Allow me to explain. And for the Potter's sake, respect my rights and don't interrupt me." Sirius of course picks up on why I said what I did, but the others just sit down, confused.
"When Sirius delivered to us your message of displeasure over our club, did he also tell us that the meeting had been overheard by Dung. Harry remembered that all up into Tuesday night, the night he decided on all this, and then realized it. Dung had been there – even before the meeting started, as if he knew we'd be there."
Those around me are now looking a little unsure, but I plough on and say: "Harry made this realization while in the air and got lost in his own thoughts, scouring the grounds for what he knew would be an Order member guarding him. And I use that term loosely because of all of the other realizations he, I and the rest of the team made.
Like for example, that it was someone guarding us at Hogwarts who told Dung about the meeting. Which meant that someone had been watching us for some time as Hermione decided that days before the weekend. Which meant that someone had been guarding us, even when Harry was –." And here I turn to Dumbledore and growl:

"In detention with Umbridge." And I make sure to put more and more angry emphasis on each word, yet the man doesn't even flinch, just looks at me, the usual twinkle not being there being the only indication that he is upset over this. And yet someone else proves that her moral code is ten times better than his.
Tonks sighs and says: "You're right, Ron. And you're right to be upset. After Harry caught me in the changing rooms and after he called me that – that name, I felt so bad, so horrible, so guilty." Yet I decide to not only show her no pity, but explain exactly why Harry called her what he did to the rest of the seated group as I say:
"As you should, Mss. I-can-change-my-appearance-at-will-however-I-want." Here Sirius turns to Tonks and asks: "So you saw my godson in a situation that the Guard duty was set up for in the first place – and didn't use your changing skill to get him out of there without alerting or causing trouble for the Order. Really Dora?"
The woman looks away from her cousin, who turns his own head away and shakes it as mum says: "Sirius, you don't even –." But I glare at her and snarl: "Don't, mum. Don't, unless you can tell me that you were never told what Harry went through when in detention with Umbridge. Because let me tell you one single thing."
I turn to Sirius again at this and snap: "Even you would say that even Snape would not sink this low." And the man instantly sends me a curious look, but not one that says he disagrees with me and I turn from him to mum and snarl: "And besides, I thought Harry was like a son to you. So why aren't you defending his rights to be protected?"

The woman looks shocked and I turn to the group at large as I say: "And that is exactly why. Why Harry chose to use the Fidelius and why I refuse to break his trust. Because you lot already did that for me. You constantly tell him that he should be kept safe, that he should rely on the Order, that he should trust you guys."
But at this, before any of them can do more than open their mouths a little, do I slam the Marauders Map on the table and snarl: "How can we, when you lot are committing criminal activity, breaking and entering into personal spaces and private rooms as well as the trunks that don't belong to you and casting unknown magic on personal artifacts?
None of you have any ownership rights to this map or the Fifth Year Boys Dorm, not even the Headmaster as that's a violation of personal space and privacy. But that didn't stop any of you from going in there, breaking into Harry's trunk, taking this Map and then making it so that it no longer showed you following him."

"Wait, what?" Sirius suddenly asks, his voice as dangerously low as it was when he had his argument with mum last summer and he instantly turns to Lupin, who shrinks away from the glare as he snarls: "The only one I know who could have that kind of ability – outside that traitor – is you, Remus, so care to explain this one?"
"Harry has a temper. It –.""And that temper wouldn't have shown itself if Harry, from day one, got evidence that he had someone to turn to if things got rough. Like, I don't know, a friend of his late father?" Now Lupin really shrinks down, looking as if Sirius just slapped him with a cane in the neck or something.
"SIRIUS!" Mum shouts, but I am not going to let her and shout: "WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF MCGONAGALL CURSED MY BROOM TO TURN AWAY FROM WHEREVER THE ORDER WAS GUARDING ME! WOULDN'T YOU BE JUST AS ANGRY WITH HER?" And this again leaves the woman speechless.

"See, that's your lot's problem! You get angry when people point out what you did wrong, but when it concerns Harry, you try to defend what you did wrong till the Founders get revived. You don't give one bleeding rat's tail about him, his rights or the fact that you are walking all over those all willy nilly without a care in the world."
"It's not as if the Death Eaters will care for rights once the war starts, lad." Moody callously tells me, finally saying something while he has, until now, just been standing in the corner, observing us all with his special eye. But I stare into both his magical and normal eye without flinching, not even caring for how they look combined and say:
"One, we're not at war yet, so that little excuse is bloody invalid. Two, I thought we were supposed to oppose Death Eaters, especially if we were once – or still are – working for the Auror force. Telling potential Death Eater victims how they can get their rights crushed and their lives taken is one thing, actively doing it yourself."

I leave the sentence hanging, just staring at the two eyes once again, silently relying a lot on the bond I share with the other six to keep my nerves at bay and after several tense minutes, the man grins, which looks really creepy and says just one word: "Touché." And just by the look in his normal eye do I know I got him on my side.
I then turn back to the rest of the group, some of them looking at Moody in shock, as if they can't believe that he is agreeing with me, and I glare each of them into looking back at me as I state: "And that is why I will not reveal the secret of Harry's location. Not only will it matter nothing, because of the six others.
I also have no interest in becoming Pettigrew the Second or in letting Harry out in a world where there is little to no difference between the Light and the Dark. Where the border between the two and what they actually believe in is so small you're led to believe an army of Hogwarts students hit it with the Shrinking Charm or something.
I have my reasons, personal, factual and otherwise, to keep my mouth shut and if you lot had cared a little more about Harry's rights instead of just fueling your own egos by saying we're doing good. We're keeping Harry safe. We do what Harry needs us to do. And whatever else kind of nonsense, I wouldn't have needed to do this.
So you can ask are you really siding with Harry? Choosing him over us? Over the Order? Over your own mother?" And here I look at mum, showing her how much I just don't like that this is happening before I say: "My answer? Yes. Because I and my six are the only ones Harry has. The only ones – that he trusts."

And with that, and another look at Sirius to prove that he too is included in that group and that I feel sorry for him for having lost his chance with Harry like this, do I move back to where the feather lies and silently count down after having picked it up. And while I am not entirely sure, do I feel relieved when it indeed Port Keys me back.
I return to Dumbledore's office and before any of the portraits can hound me with questions or the man can come in to try and persuade me, do I just head for the door, slamming it close as I release some of the pain and anger I personally feel, especially over the fact that I am indeed forced to pick here. Pick between mother and brother.
"Mum would die for us, I would die for her, but that doesn't mean I am not willing to die to protect my little brother." I think as I storm down the staircase, knowing that my angry tears will just further feed the story of the whole argument between my parents and at the same time not really caring for it as I just run across the grounds.


Poor Ron.
Yeah, being a Secret Keeper, because your own side can't be trusted, is probably much harder than being a Secret Keeper to someone who is being endangered by the opposite side – though I doubt Peter saw it that way. And Ron isn't Peter, as I hope to have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt with this chapter.
And don't worry, he and Sirius are both going to get a very welcome relief next chapter, though Sirius won't come in right away. I am thinking of putting down a confrontation between him and Lupin, but that's not for much later, near the end before the Great Battle to take down Voldemort. It will happen, though.
I guarantee,

Venquine1990