Author's Note

Not much to say here. Ummm, yeah, so enjoy the chapter!

Harry and the others proceeded to the gloomy kitchen, lit mostly by a single fire with chairs crammed into it around a long wooden table in the middle for the meeting. Goblets and empty wine bottles littered the table along with rolls of parchment. Mr. Weasley and the eldest Weasley child, Bill, were conversing with their heads together at the end of the table. Mrs. Weasley cleared her throat to get their attention, causing Mr. Weasley to jump and come forward to warmly great Harry.

"Harry! Good to see you!" Mr. Weasley greets him shaking his hand vigorously.

"Journey alright, Harry?" Bill calls as he tries to roll up and collect a dozen scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried." Tonks tells him, going over to help him.

"Is that where we were goin'?" Shinji asks. "I knew we were takin' a helluva long way, but Greenland?" He just shakes his head at the ridiculous detouring Moody attempted. "Remind me to never take directions from him." He receives muffled sniggers from most of the room's occupants, causing his grin to widen.

"Oh no– sorry–" Tonks apologizes as she has just knocked a candle onto the last piece of parchment, setting it ablaze.

"Here, dear." Mrs. Weasley says in a tone that indicates that it most certainly is not the first time she's had to clean up after Tonks as she fixes the damage with a wave of her wand. Harry thought the contents of the parchment looked like a blue print or layout for a building, but Mrs. Weasley caught him staring and quickly snatched it away, placing it in Bill's already full arms. "This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings." she snaps, sweeping off to an ancient cabinet to begin unloading dinner plates.

After a brief introduction to Mundungus Fletcher, which included a very smelly pipe and a small scolding for using said pipe from Mrs. Weasley, preparations for dinner got underway. Harry was excluded from helping per Mrs. Weasley's orders while the others helped set the table and retrieve food from the pantry. Harry found out while he was waiting that Sirius was hardly having a better time himself this summer as he was cooped up in Grimmauld Place when he'd much rather be out there in the world, doing his part for the Order.

"Fred– George– NO JUST CARRY THEM!" shrieked Mrs. Weasley, catching Sirius, Harry, and Mundungus's attention, just in time for them to dive out of the way.

Fred and George had enchanted a cauldron of stew, flagon of butterbeer, and a wooden breadboard with a knife, to come hurtling towards the table, and them. When the cauldron hit the table and skidded along half the table, leaving behind a burned, blackened line on the table, before Ichigo swooped in with pot holders, easily lifting it from the table in a swirling motion before setting it back down almost exactly where he had picked it up from, having effectively destroyed its forward momentum. The flagon of butterbeer fell towards the floor only to get snatched by the handle by Uryu, quickly up righting it so that it barely spilled its contents. The breadboard and knife were less fortunate, as the knife slipped off the board and, with no one to save it, landed in the table, quivering ominously where Sirius's hand had been but moments before.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" Mrs. Weasley screamed. "THERE WAS NO NEED– I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS– JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!"

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" Fred justifies their actions as he hurries forward to wrench the knife free of the table. "Sorry Sirius, mate– didn't mean to–"

Harry, Sirius, and Shinji, who had been standing back from the preparations, were all laughing at Mundungus who had toppled backwards off his chair in his haste to avoid the flying objects. Crookshanks had fled Sirius's lap with a hiss, taking up a residence under the dresser, yellow eyes glowing from the dark beneath it.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley begins to lecture as he flicks his wand to clean up the spilled contents of the cauldron and flagon, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age–"

"–none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley scolded the twins, angrily placing another flagon of butterbeer on the table, slopping most of its contents out onto the table from the force with which she placed it. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't Charm everything he met! Percy–" She suddenly stopped, remembering Percy's disownment of them, and turned to Mr. Weasley with a frightened expression as his expression turned cold and stony.

"Well, let's begin this delicious looking meal!" Urahara quickly announces, trying to diffuse the sudden tension.

"It does look wonderful, Molly." Lupin compliments, ladling out stew for her and passing it across the table.

The room is silent, except for the sounds of chairs moving to accommodate people and the clinks and clatters of plates and cutlery as food is served. However, soon enough conversations start. Mrs. Weasley goes over with Sirius how she'd like to proceed with the cleaning, only getting short, sarcastic replies, though if she realized that nature of them, she didn't comment upon it. Opposite of Harry, Tonks was entertaining Ginny, Hermione, and Orihime by changing her nose between mouthfuls. He could tell by the way that Ginny and Hermione started requesting favorites after a while that it was a regular mealtime show. Orihime was quick to join them, even coming up with noses Tonks hadn't displayed for her to try. Ichigo and Uryu also watched the show, but they remained silent, though Harry could see their lips twitching into smiles every now and then from some of the more ridiculous looking noses. Mr. Weasley, Bill, and Lupin were intensely discussing where the goblins might side while Urahara listened in, adding his own thoughts.

"I highly doubt you'll have to deal with a majority of them siding with this Voldemort fellow. They seem to focus on the long term rather than the short and combined with what seems to be rather amazing grudge holding skills, I doubt they'll actually side with anyone as a race considering that both sides have horrid track records against them. Your people have, as a general populace, suppressed and looked down on them, leaving them with no feeling of affection or loyalty, along with a rather blatant ignorance of their culture with no attempts to placate them. Voldemort-san is, in some ways, worse with a very open display of a superiority complex that won't spare them and a ruthless side that views others as disposable pawns rather than valued people. As with any group you'll see a few that will pick a side, but I doubt the majority will do much of anything regarding your war. They'll just let it play out as long as they aren't particularly threatened as a race." Urahara concludes, leaving the others rather surprised, but also agreeing with his thought process.

"That sounds about right." Bill says. "Though it would be good if we could get them to our side. I'm surprised you could figure all of that out with little more than a basic insight though."

Urahara pulls his fan out of nowhere, lazily waving it in front of his face. "Maa, I've been tangled in some pretty twisted politics before back home. It's just a matter of knowing how to use the information you have and reading between the lines–"

A gale of laughter drowns out the rest of that conversation. Fred, George, Ron, Shinji, and Mundungus are rolling around in their seats, laughter shaking their sides as Mundungus tells them a story of him selling a man his own toads back to him for twice their original price. Mrs. Weasley demands Mundungus to stop with such stories of shady business, giving a scathing reply to his choice of morals. When she shoots a glare at Sirius, he is quick to explain to Harry how she doesn't approve of Mundungus, even if he is useful to the Order, and that she especially doesn't like having him stay for dinner, even more so after his botched job defending Harry.

After several servings of desert, everyone lulls into silence, too full to think of doing much more than making the journey to their bed. Mr. Weasley is relaxed, leaning back in his chair, Tonks was yawning, done with the dinner show, Ginny had lured Crookshanks out and was tossing butterbeer corks for him to chase, and Orihime had fallen asleep at the table, using Ichigo's shoulder for a pillow. Ichigo had wrapped an arm around her waist to keep her from falling out of her seat, but he seemed to be drifting on the edge of sleep and consciousness himself, eyes heavy and head lolling.

"Nearly time for bed, I think." Mrs. Weasley states with a yawn.

"Not just yet, Molly." Sirius says, pushing away his empty plate as he turns to look 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."

The atmosphere changed from relaxed and calm to alert and tense with a speed Harry could only relate to the arrival of dementors. A shiver passed around the wizards at Voldemort's name. Orihime slept on while Ichigo's head snapped up, eyes suddenly sharp and wide awake, and scanned the room with his senses. Finding nothing out of the ordinary besides the tensed actions of the wizards, he went back to his semi-dormant state, sure that Uryu would poke him in the ribs or something if he really needed to be awake and aware for whatever topic stirred the wizards up. He didn't particularly care at the moment about any high-horse riding Uryu would do later whenever this subject came up later, he was too tired and the previous atmosphere had lulled him much too close to sleep to really care anymore.

"I did!" Harry indignantly replied. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so–"

"And they're quite right," Mrs. Weasley snaps, obviously disliking the direction the conversation is taking. She is now sitting bolt upright, fists clenched, not a sigh of her previous drowsiness present.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asks her. "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 loudly interrupts.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred angrily asks.

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing." George continues bitterly.

" 'You're too young, you're not in the Order.' " Fred says in a high voice, mimicking his mother. "Harry's not even of age."

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

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley sharply cuts in. her normally motherly air turned very dangerous.

The brewing violence in the air causes Ichigo to wake once more and seeing the further increased tensions, he decides to pay attention for a while. He silently watches, as do the rest of the awake foreigners, as Mrs. Weasley and Sirius argue about whether or not Harry should be told. Their voices raising higher and higher in volume as they argue. When Mrs. Weasley looks to her husband for back up, he carefully lets her down by acknowledging that it is somewhat expected that Harry be told things. Lupin also expresses the thought that Harry should be given a general picture. Realizing that she is being out numbered, Mrs. Weasley bitterly concedes defeat.

"I think ya should let him decide." Shinji idly states, looking rather bored with the whole affair. " 'Ccording to you guys, he's handled more'n his share of trouble, so I'd think he knows what he can handle, ne? 'Sides, it ain't like you can't decide to not answer a question or when ta stop."

Harry was quick to leap on the chance. "I want to know what's been going on." Harry truly appreciated that Mrs. Weasley considered him to practically be one of her sons, but he didn't want to be completely treated like a child.

"Very well." Mrs. Weasley sniffs, her voice cracking. "Ginny, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, I want you out of this kitchen now."

Her children instantly rebelled.

"We're of age!" the twins roar.

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" Ron shouts.

"Mum, I want to!" Ginny wails.

"NO!" Mrs. Weasley bellows, standing up, eyes lit with anger. "I absolutely forbid–"

"Molly, you can't stop Fred and George." Mr. Weasley wearily sighs. "They are of age–"

"They're still in school–"

"But they're legally adults now." Mr. Weasley continues in his tired voice. He loves his wife, he does, but this argument had gone on too long and he'd rather like to be done for the night.

"I… oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron–"

"Harry'll tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway!" Ron vehemently states. "Won't… won't you?" he asks, now feeling uncertain as he remembers Harry's previous anger, looking to Harry for reassurance. Harry briefly considers leaving them in the dark, see how you like it, but loses the impulse open connecting eyes with his friend.

" 'Course I will." He confidently states, causing Ron and Hermione to beam. They're glad to know that Harry's forgiven them. Grudges with him have never gone well, Ron thinks, remembering last year and the whole debacle with Harry getting into the Tri-Wizard tournament.

The sound of a chair scraping the ground draws attention to Ichigo as he carefully eases himself out of the chair, avoiding waking the sleeping girl leaning against his shoulder. He then scoops her up bridal-style with a small grunt and she curls into his chest, hands gripping his shirt. " 'm going to bed. I'll take Inoue up too. You can tell me 'bout it tomorrow." He announces with a yawn, turning with the girl in his arms and heading for the exit.

"Before we can get into further arguments, I'd like to say I'll be staying." Uryu calmly states, pushing his glasses up his nose. Mrs. Weasley swells up, ready to shoot him down, but he continues. "I recognize that you are an adult, and thus in charge, Weasley-san, however I am not one of your children and I doubt anything too horrifying will be discussed tonight." Mrs. Weasley still looks ready to shout, but she turns to Urahara and Shinji to force Uryu to leave.

Shinji just shrugs. "Four-eyes can handle himself."

"I don't really see a reason to stop Ishida-san from listening when others his age are being allowed." Urahara reasons with her. Mrs. Weasley just bristles at their lax attitude.

"Fine!" she shouts. "Fine! Ginny– BED!" Ginny is dragged out by Mrs. Weasley, Ichigo quietly lumbering behind them, Orihime still fast asleep through the shouting. Ginny refused to go quietly and her loud rebellion was only added to as she woke the portraits in the hallway. Lupin rushed off to help with the portraits and was left in a bit of disbelief that Orihime was somehow sleeping through the loud din. Urahara comments that it's hardly a surprise since she was approaching 24 hours of wakefulness. Once Lupin is settled at the table again, Sirius allows Harry to begin his questioning.

"Okay, Harry… what do you want to know?"

Given the clear to finally ask and, hopefully, get some answers, Harry asks the one that has been bothering him the most this past month. "Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch Muggle news," he says, ignoring the shudders of the wizards in the room, "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 answers, "not as far as we know anyway… And we know quite a lot."

"More than he thinks we do anyway." Lupin adds.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asks, knowing that Voldemort has no problem killing people. Heck, Voldemort murdered multiple times in the past year alone.

"Strategy." Urahara and Shinji answer at the same time like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Sirius and Lupin nod in agreement with their statement. Harry just looks at them in confusion.

Urahara sighs before he begins explaining. "Unless I'm mistaken, Voldemort-san wanted a private resurrection, but you escaped and were able to warn others of his revival. Now the Order of the Phoenix can try to rally others and make them aware of his presence. However, he gained some luck in the form of your Ministry trying to deny his revival. Since they aren't looking for him, he has no reason to reveal himself with flashy actions. Instead he can operate under the radar and undermine them before they even realize he's there. Then when he's good and ready, he can come prancing out of the shadows to turn the world on its head." He sighs again, shaking his head. "Your Ministry is even stupid enough to try to remove the personnel who know the truth and discredit them instead. They're trampling his enemies' efforts and he doesn't even have to lift a finger."

"Damn. This is like Aizen all over again." Shinji mutters under his breath.

"Who's Aizen?" Ron asks, having heard Shinji's comment. Shinji blinks and realizes that all the wizards are now staring at him curiously.

"He was an asshole who decided he ought ta be god, so he went and did a buncha nasty experiments so he could build a powerful army, got a bunch of us on death row for being monstrous victims while Kisuke and the others who tried ta help us got the blame and sentences of exile. Wiped out nearly half of our upper ranks in one move and nobody left was any the wiser that it was all his plan." Shinji bitterly says, leaving out a lot of details and making it obvious that they weren't going to get them, at least not tonight. "Bastard was a master strategist and he hid himself in plain sight for years before he revealed his hand. I don' think this Voldemort fellow has the patience to wait it out like Aizen, but he ain't gonna move rashly either."

Harry listened to both men's explanations, though he didn't pay as much attention to Shinji's as he was trying to puzzle out Urahara's explanation. "Wait, the Ministry is denying that Voldemort's back?" he asks with a note of incredulity and worry. "Why would they do something like that?"

"You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry." Tonks says. "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." Mr. Weasley says with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see." Tonks sadly states.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry incredulously repeats.

"Frightened of what he's up to." Mr. Weasley elaborates. "You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want–"

"Oh heavens no." Urahara says, waving his fan. "Who would want a whole government on their shoulders when they can just merrily head a school where people don't lie through their teeth to take all you've got? But it doesn't matter what Dumbledore-san wants. If this Fudge fellow has decided to be paranoid over him, there's very little you can do. It probably doesn't help that Dumbledore-san is an influential individual, giving a good reason behind why an uprising by him could do damage. So because Fudge-san loves his power and knows that leaders in the transition from peace-time to war-time rarely do well, he has taken the easiest road to retain that power by denying the possibility of War rearing its ugly head. And furthermore, in an attempt to check the possibility of a coup, Fudge-san is using his sources to discredit Dumbledore-san as much as possible."

"And they're doing a fairly decent job of it." Lupin adds. "Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that Dumbledore has 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 doesn't car as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog cards." Bill says with a grin, getting a small chuckle out of Shinji and causing Uryu to roll his eyes.

"It's no laughing matter." Mr. Weasley says in a serious voice. "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."

"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.

"Not necessarily." Uryu responds. "He'll get people from the shadows. Ones that won't be missed then he'll carefully worm his way in with others by whatever tactics are necessary while remaining out of the spotlight."

Sirius nods. "He won't just march up and bang on people's doors, Harry. 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?" Harry swiftly pounces on the offered subject. This would finally be something relatively new. He thought he saw Lupin and Sirius exchange glance before his godfather answered the questions.

"Stuff he can only get by stealth." The answer only confused Harry. It was much too vague an answer. There were too many things one could get through stealth, like a nemesis's favorite quill as revenge for tripping you in the hallway. "Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time." Sirius further explains upon seeing Harry's look of confusion.

"When he was powerful before?" Harry asks nervously.

"Yes."

"Like what kind of weapon?" Harry asks, a slight note of fear giving a minutely desperate tone to his voice. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra?"

"That's enough." Mrs. Weasley snaps from her position in the shadows by the door. Harry hadn't noticed her return from taking the others up stairs. Her motherly air had yet to return as she glared furiously at the gathering. "I want you in bed, now. All of you." She adds, looking to all of the teenagers.

"You can't boss us–" Fred begins.

"Watch me." Mrs. Weasley snarls, sounding absolutely dangerous. She turns her glare to Sirius. "You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might as well just induct him into the Order straightaway."

"Why not?" Harry quickly says, feeling ready to do all he can to fight Voldemort. "I'll join, I want to fight–"

"No."

Harry was surprised that the one to turn him down wasn't the bristling Mrs. Weasley, but rather Lupin who had turned him down. "The Order is compromised only of overage wizards." He says, looking at Harry to make sure he gets the message. "Wizards who have left school." He adds on, noting the twins about to argue it out of the corner of his eye. "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you… I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Sirius half-shrugged, acting as if he couldn't care less, and did not argue the decision. Mrs. Weasley beckoned for the children to leave the room. Uryu gets up first, departing calmly and not looking the least bit upset by the cut off of information. One by one, the others depart as well and, admitting defeat, Harry joins them.

After all the teens had been seen to their rooms, Ron and Harry started to quietly discuss what they had learned that night, with only a small interruption as Fred and George Apparated in to join the conversation. The only new bit of info was the weapon and they all truly wondered what it was. However they didn't get to discuss their ideas for very long as Mrs. Weasley came around, checking to make sure that they were all truly in bed and not up discussing things as she had forbidden them to do. Harry had thought that mulling over the information would keep him up all night, but in the end, he drifted off to sleep without even realizing it, dreaming strange dreams with many-legged, cannon-headed creatures in them.

Uryu returned to the room he was sharing with Ichigo, slightly glad to find it free of Orihime because that just would have been an awkward mess. Ichigo's deep breathes are the only sound in the room as Uryu switches into his Quincy patterned pajamas, pondering what he's learned. It's mostly a game of politics, trying to oust the enemy without getting in trouble yourself, and the Order's side isn't doing to terribly well. But I suppose that's not our problem. We're just here to take care of the spirit group that would cause them lots of trouble otherwise. And that was another problem in and of itself. They had too little information to go on. Sure it wasn't something that normally bothered Uryu, and he was certain it didn't bother Ichigo, that idiot's favorite method is to just charge in and learn as he goes, but with the mix of the all too unfamiliar magic, they could get into deep trouble before they even know what's hit them. All the more reason to study and learn all I can from those textbooks. He spends a little more time thinking things over, trying to decide what to tell Ichigo and Orihime and what can be left out. Finally satisfied with what he'll tell the others tomorrow, he finally allows himself to drift off to sleep.

I hope you guys don't think it's too weird that Urahara and the others had such good input, but I thought it was believable considering how smart they are. I haven't received any complaints about it, so I assume you guys don't mind my paraphrasing for when I don't want to write out conversations. Hmmm, I just can't think of much to say today.

Please review/comment to tell me how I did.