Dinner that evening seemed much louder and happier than usual—Bryt couldn't decide if it was because things were normal with her and Ron again, or because Harry was finally at the Order. It was probably a little of both.

Bryt spent most of the dinner sitting with Ron, talking about Quidditch and if Ron would try out for the Gryffindor team—as the Keeper position was open. Ron seemed a bit unsure of the idea, saying that his broom wasn't exactly the best, and his mood seemed to sour a bit more when Bryt offered to let him borrow her Nimbus Seventeen-Hundred. Bryt decided best to change the subject then, but before she could say anything, Fred, George, and Sofí's loud laughter seemed to get everyone's attention. Bryt looked over to where they were sitting around Mundungus, who was apparently telling them about one of his criminal accomplishments. From what Bryt could tell from the end of Mundungus's story, and Mrs. Weasley's scolding afterward, Mundungus had apparently sold someone's stolen goods back to him. Bryt shook her head in disgust, not seeing what was so funny about something like that.

It was very late when dinner finally came to an end and Bryt gave a loud yawn as Mrs. Weasley suggested that everyone head up to bed.

"Not just yet, Molly," Sirius said, then looked 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."

Bryt could literally feel the shift in moods. Everyone went from a laid-back, sleepy mood to suddenly being tense, glancing around towards each other.

"I did!" Harry said, "I asked Ron, Bryt, and Hermione, but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so—"

"And they're quite right, you're too young," Mrs. Weasley cut in, looking more tense than anyone else in the room, her hands clenched into fists—Bryt was suddenly reminded of the looks her mother got on her face any time the wizarding world had been brought up over the summer.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius replied, "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen—"

"Hang on!" George said.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred asked loudly.

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single thing!"

"'You're too young, you're not in the Order'," Fred mimicked his mother's voice, "Harry's not even of age!"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's been doing," Sirius said simply, "That's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand—"

"It's not down do you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley snapped, "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius replied, sounding a lot calmer than Mrs. Weasley did.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," Mrs. Weasley shot back, stressing more on the last three words. Bryt glanced at her friends curiously. There was definitely something going on, and it was clear all of them wanted to know what.

"I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly. But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back, he has more right than most to—"

"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix! He's only fifteen, and—"

"—and he's dealt with as much as most in the Order. And more than some—"

"No one's denying what he's done! But he's still—"

"He's not a child!"

"He's not an adult, either! He's not James, Sirius!"

"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," Sirius said, a cold edge to his voice. Bryt glanced between Sirius and Molly nervously.

"I'm not sure you are!" Mrs. Weasley said, "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?" Harry spoke up. Mrs. Weasley and Sirius both looked over at him.

"What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father," Mrs. Weasley said, then glaring back at Sirius, though she was still talking to Harry, "However much you might look like him! You are still at school, and adults responsible for you should not forget that!"

"Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" Sirius snapped.

"Meaning you've been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay home and—"

"We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!"

"Arthur!" Mrs. Weasley turned to her husband, "Arthur, back me up!"

Everyone looked over to Mr. Weasley, who had taken off his glasses and cleaning the lenses—reminding Bryt of how her younger brother, Drew, played with his glasses when he was nervous. Mr. Weasley was quiet for a couple of minutes before he finally answered his wife.

"Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly," he said slowly, "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," Lupin spoke up and Bryt jumped slightly, looking over at him. She had almost forgotten he was there. "I think it's better that Harry gets the facts—not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture—from us, rather than a garbled version from...others."

Bryt suddenly had the feeling that Lupin was referring to Fred and George's Extendable Ears.

"Well, well..." Mrs. Weasley was still looking angry, and seemed to be realizing she wasn't going to win this argument, "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 one who's got Harry's best interests at heart—"

"He's not your son," Sirius said.

"He's as good as," Mrs. Weasley replied sharply, "Who else has he got?"

"He's got me!"

"Yes, the things is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban."

Bryt stared at Mrs. Weasley in surprise as Sirius pushed himself to his feet. Mrs. Weasley always seemed like a kind, gentle person—even with her yelling when she got angry—but bringing up Azkaban with Sirius seemed like a very low blow from anyone—especially her.

"Molly, you're not the only person who cares about Harry," Lupin spoke up again, a slight edge to his voice, "Sirius, sit down."

Sirius slowly sat back down, though Bryt noticed he was pale. Probably thinking about the nightmare of the twelve years he spent in Azkaban. Bryt glanced away, finding herself unable to watch him.

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said quickly.

"Very well," Mrs. Weasley said sharply, "The rest of you—I want you out of the kitchen, now."

Bryt and the others quickly pushed themselves to their feet and began protesting all at once. Mrs. Weasley seemed determined, but slowly, through pointing out that Fred, George, and Julio were of age, and the others would be told of what happened anyway, Mrs. Weasley caved in—but not before trying to at least get some control again and refusing to let Ginny stay. Ginny protested louder and louder as she left, and soon her shouts were mixed with those of Mrs. Black's portrait. Lupin hurried out of the room to pull the curtains closed again, and once he returned, Sirius turned towards Harry.

"Okay, what do you want to know?" he asked.

"Where's Voldemort?" Harry asked, and there was a collective shudder 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 suspicious deaths yet," Sirius said, "Not as far as we know, anyway...And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway," Lupin added and Bryt looked between the two curiously, but didn't dare speak up.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself at the moment," Sirius replied, "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," Lupin said, smiling.

"How?"

"You weren't supposed to survive," Sirius said, "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 alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Lupin continued, "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"How has that helped?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" Bill replied, "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."

"So what's the Order been doing?" Harry asked, looking around.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry on his plans," Sirius answered.

"How d'you know what his plans are?"

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," Lupin replied, "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," Sirius said, "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; 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."

Bryt shuddered slightly as she thought about all the different types of Dark creatures she'd read about when learning all she could on magical creatures. There were definitely plenty for Voldemort to choose from. And any of them would bring a lot of trouble.

"So you're trying to stop him from getting more followers?" Harry asked.

"We're doing our best."

"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," Bill answered, "It's proving tricky, though."

"Why?"

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," Tonks spoke up for the first time, "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?" Harry asked, "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore—"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Mr. Weasley cut in, "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," Tonks added.

Bryt blinked, glancing around at her friends, some of them seemed as confused as she was.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry asked.

"Frightened of what he's up to," Mr. Weasley said, "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. He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanting 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," Lupin said, "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?" Harry asked, his voice rising slightly, "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," Sirius replied, "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."

"Though I don' agree with what Fudge is doin'," Julio spoke up, "You can't really blame people for wantin' to believe nothin's wrong."

"And there lies the problem," Lupin said with a slight grin, "It's hard to convince people Voldemort's back when they 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."

Bryt shuddered slightly, easily remembering the year before when she had to go through an Imperius Curse in Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She doubted she'd ever be completely over just how willing she had been to do whatever was told of her.

"But you're telling people, aren't you?" Harry asked, looking around, "You're letting people know he's back?"

"Well," Sirius said, "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?"

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," Lupin said, "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," Sirius added, "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," Mr. Weasley said, "Tonks 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's putting the news out that Voldemort's back—"

"Who said none of us was putting the news out?" Sirius asked, cutting Harry off, "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"

"What d'you mean?"

"They're trying to discredit him," Lupin said, "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," Bill said with a grin. Bryt snorted.

"It's no laughing matter," Mr. Weasley said sharply, "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."

Bryt thought of her family, and what would happen if Voldemort didn't think there was anyone to stop him. She wondered if they would have to go into hiding, or even leave the country, to stay safe. After all, with Bryt and her brothers still underage, they hadn't been able to risk any type of protection for the house—any magic done there would have been taken as Bryt, Mike, or Drew preforming underage magic, and they'd risk being expelled from Hogwarts. If that happened, Bryt would lose her wand and have no chance at all of protecting her family. Bryt closed her eyes, trying to push back the thought. She didn't want to think about that. She'd just have to hope that Dumbledore's presence would keep Voldemort at bay for now.

"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters, it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," Sirius replied, "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?"

Sirius and Lupin glanced at each other for barely a second before answering.

"Stuff he can only get by stealth," Sirius said simply, then on everyone's confused looks, "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."

Bryt and her friends glanced around at each other, each of them obviously thinking about what type of weapon Voldemort would be so determined to get. Whatever it was, it must be something very dangerous.

"Like what kind of weapon?" Harry asked, "Something worse than Avada Kedavra—"

"That's enough."

Bryt jumped, looking towards the kitchen door and seeing that Mrs. Weasley had come back. Bryt wondered how long she had been standing there, listening to what the Order members had been telling them.

"I want you all in bed now," Mrs. Weasley said, looking around, "All of you."

"You can't boss us—"

"Watch me," Mrs. Weasley snapped, cutting off Fred as she turned to Sirius, "You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might as well induct him into the Order straightaway."

"Why not?" Harry asked, "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight—"

"No," Lupin cut in, "The Order is comprised of overage wizards. Wizards who have left school," he added, glancing between Fred, George, and Julio, "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you...I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Knowing they'd get no more information tonight, Bryt and the others slowly stood up and headed out of the kitchen.

Ginny had been waiting for Bryt and Hermione. The second the two had finished changing clothes, locked the door, and turned out the light, Ginny started asking questions in a hurried whisper. Hermione and Bryt explained everything the best they could. Once they finished, Ginny voiced the question Bryt had been wondering herself.

"What do you think's the weapon Sirius mentioned?" she asked quietly.

"I don't know," Bryt replied, "I just hope Voldemort doesn't get his hands on it."

Before they could theorize any more on the subject, they heard footsteps on the stairs and Bryt lay still in her bed, staring through the darkness, knowing Mrs. Weasley was outside the door, making sure they were really going to sleep. Not wanting to risk being overheard, the three didn't start their conversation again. Though Bryt was sure that Ginny and Hermione, like her, would go to sleep wondering what type of weapon could be dangerous enough for Voldemort to be so determined to get it.