I'M GOING TO KILL HIM, AURELIA THINKS, immediately after she's fallen off her bed and found herself tangled in all of her blankets. It's Harry. He must've just arrived, Aurelia recalls that the Order had been in a panic because precious 'Golden Boy' Potter was attacked by Dementors. Which totally could've been avoided if Dumbledore had decided not to be a shady bitch and brought Harry here sooner.
As she untangles herself from her blankets, Harry continues to yell up a storm: "WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!"
Aurelia grinds her teeth, well fuck you too, Potter!
"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING? — CAN'T'VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU'D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADEYOU SWEAR — FOUR WEEKS I'VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON —"
She understands that he's angry, she understands why he's angry and she completely sympathises with him. But, she still wants him to shut the bloody hell up, free from the blankets, Aurelia pulls herself to her feet and storms down the hall to where Harry's voice is the loudest.
"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN'T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER —"
Opening the door, Harry's voice only increases as does the throbbing in her head; Aurelia makes a mental note to ask Remus to ask Lyra for a potion to ease it. Harry is standing in front Hermione and Ron, who appear to be both startled and speechless as he yells at them.
"Sweet Merlin, Harry!" Aurelia says, shaking her head but, that only makes her very dizzy. He stops yelling mid-sentence to glare at her, quite ready to turn his frustrations out on her.
"You're yelling at them with the intensity of a serial killer, it looks like your teen angst will have a body count if you don't lay off them!" Aurelia says.
Harry narrows his eyes "How would you feel if you were kept in the dark for weeks, huh?!"
"Oh, yeah?" Aurelia says cooly, "Try fifteen bloody years."
Then, she shrugs her shoulders, blank looking taking over her features "But, to answer you're question: I'd be bloody pissed. But, it's not Ron and Hermione's fault. Blame Dumbledore, he was the one who told us not to tell you anything in any letters. He's the one who made the shady decision to keep you in the dark not them. And, Potter? I was in that cemetery too . . . Just thought I'd let you know in case you have forgotten that too."
Harry falls silent yet again, then asks: "Have you been crying?"
"No!" Aurelia says defensively, turning her hair pink, "Anyway, ha, ha! Welcome to Grimmauld Place, Potter."
"The what place?"
"Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix!" Ron says.
"Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix —"
"It's a secret society." Hermione says quickly, "Dumbledore's in charge, he founded it. It's the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time."
"Who's in it?"
"Quite a few people —" Aurelia says, her favourites happen to be the Hattersleys. Descendants of Ian Hattersley, the Donum Vitae dude, and a father-daughter duo. Cyrus Hattersley is a severe looking man but a doting father and his daughter, Thalia although a bit air-headed at times is a complete badass, who works a lot of shifts in underground Azkaban, she happened to be the one who had led Aurelia and Dumbledore to Bellatrix's cell.
Before Aurelia can tell Harry about the members of the order, Ron cuts in with: "We've met about twenty of them but, we think there are more."
It's probably for the best, Aurelia would probably annoy him with all the details and names of them members.
"Well?" Harry demands, glaring at the lot of them.
"Er, well what?" Ron says.
"Voldemort!" Harry says furiously, and both Ron and Hermione wince, Aurelia frowns because she doesn't know what to tell him. None of them know what's going on with Voldemort.
"What's happening? What's he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?"
"We've told you, the Order don't let us in on their meetings." Hermione says nervously, "So we don't know the details — but, we've got a general idea."
"Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see," Ron says, "They're really useful."
"Extendable? —"
"Ears, yeah. Only we've had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But, we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realized what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know —"
"Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order —" Hermione says.
"And some of them are standing guard over something, they're always talking about guard duty." Ron says.
"Couldn't have been me, could it?" Harry says sarcastically.
"Oh, yeah." Ron says, with a look of dawning comprehension.
Harry snorts, walking around the room "So, what have you two been doing, if you're not allowed in meetings? You said you'd been busy"'
"We have!" Hermione says quickly. "We've been decontaminating this house, it's been empty for ages and stuff's been breeding in here. We've managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we're doing the drawing room tomo —"
With two loud cracks, Fred and George had materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room. They along with Elliot had passed their apparition test earlier that summer, while Elliot didn't use this every chance he could get, Fred and George did.
Besides Nym, Elliot, and Aurelia, the others were getting annoyed by the twins overuse of apparition. If she's being honest, Aurelia finds it rather amusing (except for the one time Fred had apparated into her room while she was sitting on her bed in her bra and underwear reading To Kill a Mockingbird out loud to herself, she ended up chucking the book at Fred before he apparated out of the room) she might even considered it to be the best thing this summer had to offer — next to her growing a whole two inches taller — it's especially funny when they scare Hermione or Molly with it.
"You — you!" Hermione cries out feebly, pointing a shaking finger at the twins "You need to stop doing that!"
Aurelia smiles at the exchange, shaking her head as she glances at Hermione then to the twins, her hair gets brighter just by looking at the huge smiles on their faces.
"Hello, Harry! We thought we heard your dulcet tones!" George says, looking Harry up and down with a huge smile on his face.
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, just let it all out." Fred adds, beaming at Harry as he walks over to Aurelia, who notices that he's got an extendable ear in his hand, she roll her eyes.
"You two passed your apparition tests, then?" Harry says.
"With distinction." Fred says, earning a snort from Aurelia and in turn Fred flicks her forehead.
"It would've taken you thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs." Ron says, Hermione quickly nods her head in agreement.
"Time is Galleons, little brother."
Aurelia snorts "And you would call me lazy."
"No one asked you, Aurelia." George says amusedly.
"Bugger of, Georgie." Aurelia says, sticking out her tongue.
Aurelia glances at Fred who is now explaining the use of the extendable ear to Harry, her attention quickly turns to Ron who says: "You want to be careful, if mum sees one of them again."
"It's worth the risk." Fred says dismissively, "That's a big meeting they're having."
Aurelia sits down on the bed as Ginny and Elliot enter the room, saying: "Oh, look the gang's all here."
"I thought you were going to sleep." Elliot says, nudging her shoulder as he takes a seat beside her.
"Yeah, but Harry's here now." Aurelia says as though it explains everything.
"Hello, Harry," Ginny says brightly, "I thought I heard your voice!"
"It's a no-go with the extendable ears." Elliot informs the twins.
"Yeah, mum's gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door." Ginny says, nodding in agreement.
"How'd you know?" George says, looking absolutely crestfallen.
"I heard Molly say something to Remus and Lyra about it." Aurelia says quietly.
"Tonks told me how to find out." Ginny says.
"Objects can't make contact with a door if it's been Imperturbed. Ginny's been flicking dungbombs at it and they just soar away from the door. There's no chance you'll be able to get that through the gap." Elliot explains.
"Shame, I really fancied finding out what old Snape has been up to." Fred sighs.
Aurelia rolls her eyes at the mention of Professor Snape, muttering: "What an asshole."
"Snape's here?" Harry asks.
"Yeah." George says as he shuts the door Elliot and Ginny had left open, "Giving a report. Top secret."
"Git." Fred cut in, Ginny, Elliot, and Aurelia nodded their heads in agreement.
"He's on our side now." Hermione says reprovingly and Aurelia snorted, sending a disbelieving look Hermione's way.
"I'm pretty certain he's fucking Death-Eater like Lucius and my mother. I highly fucking doubt he's truly on our side." Aurelia laughs bitterly, her hair becoming a dark pink color but it instantly brightens again before anyone can comment on it.
"Bill doesn't like him either." Ginny says.
"That's because Bill's a good judge of character." Aurelia says. It's true and not only because of the whole Snape thing, Bill never judged Mae for being a Squib. He never asked uncomfortable questions about it like the other Weasley children had. He even saw Fleur Delacour for who she really was.
Fleur had been writing her letters about Bill and how he was helping her improve on her English, she would go on and on about how wonderful Bill was; it was cute. Of course, she never wrote letters back, Aurelia had no energy to reply to any of the letters she got. But, Fleur happened to very understanding about it all much like Neville has been.
Both Neville and Fleur write letters constantly, sounding as though Aurelia was writing back to them when in reality she wasn't although she really wanted to but when she's put her pen to the paper her mind would go blank and she could never think of good things to say.
"Is Bill here?" Harry asks, sitting down on the other bed, "I thought he was working in Egypt?"
"He applied for a desk job so he could come home and work for the Order." Fred says, "He says he misses the tombs, but, there are compensations."
"What d'you mean?"
"Remember old Fleur Delacour?" George says, "She's got a job at Gringotts to eempwve 'er Eeenglish —"
"And Bill's been giving her a lot of private lessons." Fred sniggers.
"It's not like that, you wanker." Aurelia says defensively, elbowing him in the gut.
"Charlie's in the Order, too," George says, "but he's still in Romania. Dumbledore wants as many foreign wizards brought in as possible, so Charlie's trying to make contacts on his days off."
"Couldn't Percy do that?" Harry asks.
At his words, Aurelia freezes, the Weasleys and Hermione exchange darkly significant looks.
"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad." Ron tells Harry in a tense voice.
Aurelia feels tears burn her eyes as she thinks of Percy. Even though she's bloody pissed at him, she wishes he was here right now, she could sure use his company.
"Why not?"
"Because every time Percy's name's mentioned, Dad breaks whatever he's holding and Mum starts crying." Fred says, glancing nervously at Aurelia. He leaves out the fact that she usually cries too when he's mentioned.
"It's been awful." Ginny says sadly.
"I think we're well shut of him." George says.
"What's happened?"
"Percy and Dad had a row," Fred explains, "I've never seen Dad row with anyone like that. It's normally Mum who shouts."
"It was the first week back after term ended, we were about to come and join the Order. Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted." Ron says.
"You're kidding?"
"Aye, we were all surprised," Aurelia says quietly, "Well, Percy deserved the promotion but, the timing and well, you know . . ."
"Percy got into a load of trouble about Crouch, there was an inquiry and everything. They said Percy ought to have realized Crouch was off his rocker and informed a superior. But you know Percy, Crouch left him in charge, he wasn't going to complain." George says.
"So how come they promoted him?"
"That's exactly what we wondered, he came home really pleased with himself — even more pleased than usual, if you can imagine that — and told Dad he'd been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A really good one for someone only a year out of Hogwarts: Junior Assistant to the Minister. He expected Dad to be all impressed, I think."
"Only Dad wasn't." Fred says grimly.
"Why not?"
"Because it's obvious they only promoted him for their own gain! Percy was too excited to see that. He would've eventually but, he's just so stupidly ambitious." Aurelia says.
"Well, yeah that too . . . I guess." Fred agrees with Aurelia, "But, apparently Fudge has been storming round the Ministry checking that nobody's having any contact with Dumbledore."
"Dumbledore's name is mud with the Ministry these days, see," George says, "They all think he's just making trouble saying You-Know-Who's back. Dad says Fudge has made it clear that anyone who's in league with Dumbledore can clear out their desks."
"Trouble is, Fudge suspects Dad, he knows he's friendly with Dumbledore, and he's always thought Dad's a bit of a weirdo because of his Muggle obsession." Fred says.
"But what's that got to do with Percy?" Harry asks, confused.
"I'm coming to that. Dad reckons Fudge only wants Percy in his office because he wants to use him to spy on the family — and Dumbledore."
Harry lets out a low whistle "Bet Percy loved that."
Ron laughs hollowly "He went absolutely berserk. He said — well, he said loads of terrible stuff. He said he's been having to struggle against Dad's lousy reputation ever since he joined the Ministry and that Dad's got no ambition and that's why we've always been — you know — not had a lot of money, I mean —"
"What?" Harry says in disbelief, while Ginny makes a noise like an angry cat. This part of the fight had happened after Aurelia had stormed out of the room."
"I know," Ron says in a low voice. "And it got worse. He said Dad was an idiot to run around with Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was heading for big trouble and Dad was going to go down with him, and that he — Percy — knew where his loyalty lay and it was with the Ministry. And if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry he was going to make sure everyone knew he didn't belong to our family any more. And he packed his bags the same night and left. He's living here in London now."
Harry swears under his breath.
"Mum's been in a right state." Ron says dully, "You know — crying and stuff. She came up to London to try and talk to Percy but he slammed the door in her face. I dunno what he does if he meets Dad at work — ignores him, I s'pose."
"But Percy must know Voldemort's back," Harry says slowly. "He's not stupid, he must know your mum and dad wouldn't risk everything without proof."
"Of course, he knows deep down." Aurelia says and she hopes what she says is true, "A lot of people know deep down that he's back, that there's always been a possibility he could come back but . . . Well, a lot of them are in denial. It's stupid but, that's what fear does to some people."
"Yeah, well, your name got dragged into the row," Ron says, "Percy said the only evidence was your word and... I dunno... he didn't think it was good enough."
"Our word." Aurelia mutters under breath, "I was there too."
"Percy takes the Daily Prophet seriously," Hermione says tartly, and the others all nod.
"What are you talking about?" Harry asks.
"Haven't — haven't you been getting the Daily Prophet!" Hermione asks nervously.
"Yeah, I have!"
"Have you — er — been reading it thoroughly?" Hermione asks, still more anxiously.
"Not cover to cover," Harry says defensively. "If they were going to report anything about Voldemort it would be headline news, wouldn't it?"
"Well, you'd need to read it cover to cover to pick it up, but they — um — they mention you a couple of times a week." Hermione says hurriedly.
"But I'd have seen —"
"Not if you've only been reading the front page, you wouldn't," Hermione says with a shake of her head, "I'm not talking about big articles. They just slip you in, like you're a standing joke."
"What d'you —?"
"It's quite nasty, actually. They're just building on Rita's stuff."
"But she's not writing for them any more, is she?"
"Oh, no, she's kept her promise — not that she's got any choice," Hermione adds with satisfaction, "But, she laid the foundation for what they're trying to do now."
Hermione had told Aurelia all about Skeeter being a unregistered beetle Animagus, they had figured it out around the same time as each other, only Hermione actually did something about it. Something Aurelia thought had been a little messed up.
"Which is what?" Harry says impatiently.
"Okay, you know she wrote that you were collapsing all over the place and saying your scar was hurting and all that?"
"Yeah."
"Well, they're writing about you as though you're this deluded, attention-seeking person who thinks he's a great tragic hero or something. They keep slipping in snide comments about you. If some far-fetched story appears, they say something like, 'tale worthy of Harry Potter', and if anyone has a funny accident or anything it's, 'lets hope he hasn't got a scar on his forehead or we'll be asked to worship him next —"
"I don't want anyone to worship —" Harry begins hotly.
"Well, at least you aren't being called your best friend's murderer!" Aurelia huffs angrily, "The worst part is that they've confirmed that Gwendoline Goyle was indeed there thanks to me who was at the cemetery with Potter, by the way! They know she was there but, still! — Still, most of them are placing the blame on me!"
They heard her, they definitely heard her but no one says anything to her, Hermione focuses on keeping Harry calm instead.
"I know you don't, I know, Harry. But you see what they're doing? They want to turn you into someone nobody will believe. Fudge is behind it, I'll bet anything. They want wizards on the street to think you're just some stupid boy who's a bit of a joke, who tells ridiculous tall stories because he loves being famous and wants to keep it going."
"I didn't ask — I didn't want — Voldemort killed my parents!" Harry splutters, "I got famous because he murdered my family but couldn't kill me! Who wants to be famous for that? Don't they think I'd rather it'd never —"
"We know, Harry!" Ginny says earnestly.
"And of course, they didn't report a word about the Dementors attacking you," Hermione says hastily, "Someone's told them to keep that quiet. That should've been a really big story, out-of-control Dementors. They haven't even reported that you broke the International Statute of Secrecy. We thought they would, it would tie in so well with this image of you as some stupid show-off. We think they're biding their time until you're expelled, then they're really going to go to town — I mean, if you're expelled, obviously. You really shouldn't be, not if they abide by their own laws, there's no case against you."
The conversation quickly comes to a halt as the sound of footsteps are heard coming up the stairs.
"Uh oh." Fred gives the Extendable Ear a hearty tug; there was another loud crack and he and George vanish.
Seconds later, Molly appeared in the bedroom doorway "The meeting's over, you can come down and have dinner now. Everyone's dying to see you, Harry. And who's left all those Dungbombs outside the kitchen door?"
"Crookshanks," Ginny says unblushingly, "He loves playing with them."
"Oh," says Molly, "I thought it might have been Kreacher, he keeps doing odd things like that. Now don't forget to keep your voices down in the hall. Ginny, your hands are filthy, what have you been doing? Go and wash them before dinner, please."
Ginny grimaces at the others and follows her mother out of the room. Aurelia not wanting to be around Harry any longer, follows after them.
It's not until she gets to the kitchen does she realise just how hungry she is but, she doubts she'll be able to eat anything with how nauseous she is. Aurelia takes a seat next to Remus because he's the least likely to yell during the dinner. Her head is throbbing still and she wishes she had stayed up in her room and slept; she feels like she's going to be sick.
Remus glances at her "Are you alright?" he wonders and Aurelia starts to shake her head but, stops and nods.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." She lies.
"You . . . Don't, uh, look so good."
"I never look good."
"That's not what I meant."
"I know." Aurelia says, picking up the cup of tea Mae had made for her, "I was just throwing it out there."
Remus shakes his head, smiling softly "Oh, Rory, I can see that you spend a lot of time around Elliot and the twins."
She takes a sip of the tea and once again, Remus asks if she's alright to which she tells him she's fine. Remus doesn't look at that convinced by her answer but he doesn't question her any longer. Suddenly her stomach churns violently and she pales, oh no, not now, Aurelia thinks, placing her cup of tea back on the table. Remus notices the change in her demeanor, staring at her questioningly when she says nothing he places a hand on her shoulder.
His eyes widen as he whispers loudly to her "Aurelia, you're burning up!"
She doesn't respond, Aurelia pushes her chair back and it makes a loud screeching noise as it scrapes across the floor but she pays no mind to it nor the fact that almost everyone in the kitchen is staring at her. She bolts to the bathroom but, she doesn't make it. Only a foot away from the bathroom door, her stomach churns violently again, she feels the stomach acid burn her throat as the food from last night resurfaces. Her legs shake violently as she gags and chokes on the vomit.
She sits against the wall when it's done, breathing heavily. Merlin's beard, does she ever hate being sick. Aurelia sucks in a deep breath, instantly regretting it because of the bad taste in her mouth. Her vision becomes blurry as she starts to cry. Molly and all the others had worked so hard on cleaning up Grimmauld place and she had just vomited all over it, she felt absolutely terrible for ruining all of their hard work. Two sets of footsteps approach her, the now green-haired Aurelia bites back a sob as someone places a hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, wow, kid!" It's Thalia Hattersley, her voice is soft and full of concern, "You are burning up, Mr. Lupin wasn't kidding." She mumbled as she tugged gently on her niece's arm "Come along now, we should get you cleaned up, Mr. Lupin, can you clean up the floor while I tend to her?"
"I've already got it, Thalia." Remus says dismissively, with a wave of his wand the vomit on the floor was gone, "I'll get Aurelia some water to rinse her mouth out."
"I'm sorry." Aurelia mumbles as Thalia makes her sit down on the toilet.
Thalia shakes her head pressing a hand to Aurelia's forehead, her hand is cold against her head and Aurelia sighs heavily, enjoying the feeling.
"Don't apologise." Thalia says, "Do you think you're going to be sick again?"
"No, uh, I think I'm good now, this has happened before, it's normal... I think I'm good now." Aurelia replies, "I still have a killer headache though."
Thalia gives her a small grin before pulling out her wand and muttering a spell under her breath and the splotches of vomit on Aurelia's clothes disappear.
"It's just the full moon." Aurelia explains after a moment of silence, "This has happened for as long as I can remember and it has always been around the time of the full moon, I mean, it, uh, well it makes sense considering my father is a werewolf and it must've been passed down in some aspects."
And the fact she had been attacked by the werewolf probably makes it worse. But, she doesn't say that to Thalia because knowing Thalia, she'd probably press for details even though it will make Aurelia very uncomfortable.
Thalia has an issues with boundaries and other people's sensitivities, she means well but she's got a bad habit of making people uncomfortable by getting to close to people both physical and verbal. She only knows to stop if you tell her, Thalia Hattersley is an oblivious fool but, a nice oblivious fool.
"I want my mum." Aurelia says quietly.
Thalia frowns "Sorry, kiddo, but she left. Mr. Dumbledore sent her somewhere. Didn't really give her time to say goodbye to you or Elliot, it must've been something important."
Aurelia cries, like hell it was that important! It takes less than five minutes to say goodbye to someone!
Thalia pets her hair awkwardly "Don't worry she won't be long. Mr. Dumbledore said it would only take a few hours at the most, kiddo. Miss. Macleod should be back by midnight at the latest.
Aurelia pouts, that's far too long, she wants Mae now. What could Dumbledore possibly want from Mae that would be so important that she couldn't even say goodbye to her own children.
"It's not fair." Aurelia says, "Dumbledore is a jackass."
"I know — well, not that the jackass part! Mr. Dumbledore is a wonderful man, he's helped my dad out a lot. But, I suppose everyone's entitled to their own opinion as long as it's not hurting anybody. I meant, it's not fair you didn't get to say goodbye or even know that she had left. But, it sounded real important."
Aurelia scowls, sniffling, she doesn't care how important it is unless someone's life is on the line which she doubts is the case, she want Mae to be here. She just really wants a hug from Mae.
"It's not fair at all, he should've given us more warning! He's probably just using her, using my mum like he uses me — I mean it cannot have been that important, Dumbledore's never asked her to do anything before —"
She falls silent as she hears someone stomping their way over to the bathroom, grumbling angrily as they did so.
Aurelia glances up to see a very pissed off looking Ginny standing in the bathroom doorway, holding a glass of water "Lupin got caught up in a Mum vs. Sirius battle, now everyone but me is allowed to stay for the meeting."
Ginny hands Aurelia the glass of water "Lupin told me to hand this to you on the way up to my room since he got dragged into that mess."
"Thanks, Ginny. Am I allowed in the meeting?" Aurelia asks lightly earning a glare from Ginny.
"Yes, everyone but me. That is, if you're up to it. No offence, Blue, but you look like pure shit."
"Fuck yeah, I'm up for it! There isn't anything that's going to keep me from this! Oh, and don't worry, I'll let you know what they say in the meeting. Aurelia whispers, winking playfully at Ginny who smiles slightly.
Of course, that alone doesn't entirely appease Ginny who continues to stomp her way up the stairs.
Aurelia takes a few sips of water before she stands up and declares that she's ready for this meeting, Thalia laughs at the determined expression on Aurelia's face and then they both head back to the kitchen.
When they enter the room, the tension in it is worse than the sexual tension between George and Elliot.
She glances around the room nervously before she takes her previous spot next to Remus.
"Are you feeling better?" Remus wonders, keeping his voice low as he looks at Aurelia, she nods and gives him a small smile before turning her attention towards Sirius.
He's telling Harry something that's most likely about Voldemort's return " — 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."
From beside her Remus speaks up "Or rather you messed it up for him."
How?" Harry wonders, his eyebrows knit together in confusion.
"You weren't supposed to survive!" Sirius says, "Nobody apart from his Death-Eaters were supposed to know he'd come back, but you, you survived to bear witness."
"And the very last person he wanted to be alerted of his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore and you made sure he knew at once." Remus adds.
"How has that helped?" Harry asks, still looking very confused.
"Are you kidding?" Bill cuts in, sounding suprised, "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever afraid of!"
Aurelia nods her head in response to his statement, letting out a yawn. Part of her wishes she had gone upstairs with Ginny as she's growing rather tired.
"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort's return." Sirius says, giving Harry a smile.
Aurelia glances at Molly, wondering when the older woman would cut this conversation off.
"So what's the order been doing?"
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out any of his plans." Sirius tells Harry who is quick to ask another question.
Aurelia can tell Harry was starving for answers, she knows exactly how he feels. as there are hundreds of questions swimming through her brain about almost everything that's happened to her since the third task.
"How do you know what his plans are?"
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea." Remus says and from across the table
Lyra nods "And Dumbledore's shrewd ideas almost always turn out to be accurate." the blonde adds with a knowing smile that confuses and unnerves Aurelia.
"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"
"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again." Sirius says and Aurelia pales.
Her mother had been part of that army, she slumps back in her seat, looking at her shoes to avoid looking at everyone in the room. They all know who she is, they all judge her for what her for what her mother's done, some not as severely as others. But, the judgment still hangs around her like a heavy wool cloak. Weighing her down, choking her as she tries to show others that she's good.
Sirius continues to speak "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 getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best." Remus says.
"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 says, "It's proving tricky, though."
"Why?"
"Because of the Ministry's attitude," Nym says, "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 asks desperately, "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore —"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Arthur says, with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," Nym says sadly.
Although, Aurelia thinks Fudge is being a bloody asshat she doesn't quite blame him for being scared of Dumbledore. She's wary of him too, especially after he brought her to Azkaban and used her against Bellatrix like she was some kind of weapon.
"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry says incredulously.
"Frightened of what he's up to," Arthur says, "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."
"But Dumbledore doesn't want —"
"Of course he doesn't," Arthur says, "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," Remus explains, "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for 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 says angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up — that I'd make it all up?"
"Because he's scared." Aurelia cuts in, "And, not just of Dumbledore but of the possibility of Voldemort being back. I know it's true, you know it's true. Everyone in this room knows it's true. Hell, they're even some people out there who know it's true but, why should they believe it even if it's impossible? A lot of them knows what entails with Voldemort because they were alive when he was raising hell the first time around. They know the horrors of it all, it's been done for over thirteen years. They finally have — finally have peace and they want it to stay that way. A lot of them don't want to believe he is — that's he back because they don't want to relive the horrors of their pasts. Most of them are in denial and so is Fudge."
Everyone is staring at her now, Aurelia swallows thickly "It's not right what they're doing but, is it really that wrong. Fear makes people do reckless and shitty things that don't make sense. When the come to their sense, I'm sure they'll make up for their actions. They're just not — um, they don't want to believe Voldemort is back because they're scared."
"Aurelia's right. Accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry hasn't had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," Sirius says 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," Remus says,. "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-mongering, so most of the wizarding community are completely unaware any things 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?" Harry says, looking at the lot of adults, "You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smile 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?" Sirius says restlessly, sounding as though he sort of enjoy doing that.
"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," Remus says, "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 says, "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 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 Voldemorts back —" Harry begins.
"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" Sirius asks, "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What d'you mean?" Harry asks.
This discussion would've gone a lot faster if Dumbledore had decided not to be a dick and let Harry know what the fuck was going on, Aurelia thinks as she rolls her eyes.
"They're trying to discredit him," Remus says, "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." Bill says, grinning.
"It's no laughing matter," Arthur says sharply, "If he carries 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 and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. 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?" Harry asks desperately.
Aurelia raises an eyebrow "Do you think that Voldemort is some kind of Jehovah's Witness —"
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," Sirius says, "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well-practiced at operating in secret. 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 those for the moment."
"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asks swiftly.
"Stuff he can only get by stealth."
When Harry continues to look puzzled, Sirius adds: "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."
"When he was powerful before?"
"Yes."
"Like what kind of weapon?" Harry asks, "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra —?"
"That's enough!" Molly finally interjects.
Ooop, Aurelia thinks as she rolls her eyes, there it is! Of course she cuts it off when it gets to the most important part. No matter, Aurelia thinks, I can just ask mum about it when she comes back.
Molly crosses her arms, looking absolutely furious.
"I want you in bed, now. All of you."
"You can't boss us —" Fred begins.
"Watch me," Molly snarls then she turns to Sirius, "You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."
"Why not?" Harry says quickly, "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight."
"We can't join, we're still kids! We still have to go to Hogwarts and get our education, we're wouldn't be much use to the order just yet." Aurelia says tiredly.
"Aurelia's right, Harry. You cannot join." Remus says, "The Order is comprised only of overage wizards — wizards who have left school. There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you . . . I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."
Aurelia and the other kids are lead upstairs by Molly who tells them to go straight to bed and not to talk about anything. Aurelia has to repress at snort this, as if she actually believes thinks they'd do such a thing. Aurelia's can't not talk about it, she promised Ginny that she'd tell her everything that happened and she intended to keep that promise.
ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ | ᴍᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜᴇᴍ ɢᴏʟᴅ
━━ AUTHOR'S NOTE:
The next chapter is going to be a wild fucking ride so get ready! Also one chapter left before Nevari™ reunites! A big thank you to TalkAlot135 & guest who left reviews on the last chapter, it means a lot to hear from you! TalkAlot135, I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and I hope you enjoy this as well. Guest, I'm so glad you're enjoying my story and that you think it's well written, here take all my uwus. For some reason when I've received reviews from guests before I will get an email letting me know the moment the send the review but when I go to check it out on the site, it's not there. For some reason it takes awhile for guest reviews to show up! But, I did see it and I'm really thankful for it! As for Nev and Ari I have no plans on breaking them up but that doesn't mean they'll have a particularly happy ending :) ! Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I would really appreciate it if you could let me know what you thought of it!
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