Chapter 9

"Well what do you want to know?" Sirius asked.

"Where's Voldemort?" Harry aswered first. "What's he doing? I've bee ntrying 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 funny deaths yet. Not as far as we know anyway, and we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway." Remus added.

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

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself, I get the feeling his comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to." Remus and Sirius' expressions seemed to agree with my statement.

"How do you mean?" Harry turned to me, but Sirius was the one who answered him.

"You two weren't suppose to survive. Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was suppose to know he'd come back, but you survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return was Dumbledore, and Alice made sure Dumbledore knew right away." Remus pointed out.

"How has that helped?" Hermione asked curiously.

"Are you kidding?" Bill raised his eyebrows. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of! Thanks to Harry and Alice, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned."

"So what's the Order been doing?" I pried.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans." Sirius promised.

"How do you know what his plans are?" Fred questioned.

"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate." Mr. Weasley volunteered.

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?" George implored.

"Well firstly he wants to build up his army again." Sirius grinned. "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 of the groups 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 from getting more followers." I said more as a statement than a question.

"Well..." Bill sounded hesitant, "the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned. It's proving tricky though."

"Because," Tonks said as if guessing our next question, "because of the Ministry's attitude. You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back. Well he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

"But why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore..."

"Ah, well Harry, you've put your finger on the problem, Dumbledore."

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

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" I repeated. The elderly man's soft face came to mind as I wondered how anyone could be afraid of the Headmaster.

"Frightened of what he's up to. Fugde thinks Dumbledore's plotting to over throw him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic." Sirius laughed at the thought. "Of course he doesn't. 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 support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."

"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is." Remus stated. "And in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice. It seems that he's become fond of power 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 said suddenly angry. "How can he think Dumbledore would just 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." Mr. Weasley replied gravely. "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 now?" Tonks questioned. "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 rumor, 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 that's one of the thing's the orders doing right?" I was suddenly very worried. "You're telling people the truth right?" At this the adults burst into smiled, chuckles and laughs. I turned to Harry, concerned.

"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a 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?" Sirius cackled.

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the cummunity. It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf." Remus said good naturedly. "Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off, and it's very important for us to have spied inside the Ministry because you can bet Voldemort with have them.

"We've managed to convince a couple people though." Mr. Weasley piped up. "Tonks here 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 are putting the news out that Voldemort's back..." Harry voiced his concern.

"Now who said none of us are putting the news out?" Bill grinned mischievously. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"

"They're trying to discredit him." Sirius nodded. "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'd 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, still grinning.

"It's not laughing matter." Mrs. Weasley spoke for the first time. "If he carried on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there, he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out of the way, well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."

"What else could Voldemort want besides followers?" Sirius and Remus exchanged a fleeting glance before Sirius answered me.

"Things he can only get by stealth." When Harry and I continued to look puzzled, Sirius elaborated. "Like a weapon, something he didn't have last time."

"Like what kind of a..."

"That's enough!" Mrs. Weasley interrupted suddenly. "I want you in bed,now. All of you."

"You can't boss us..." George began but his mother cut him off.

"Watch me." She snarled. "You've given Harry and Alice plenty of information. Anymore and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."

"No." Remus said firmly as he took in mine and Harry's expressions. "The Order is comprised only of overaged wizards." Noticing Fred and George out of the corner of his eye he amended his statment. "Wizards who have left school. There are dangers involved, dangers 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. Mrs. Weasley took this as her opportunity to heard us up the stairs.