Albus Dumbledore sat at the table, mouth agape, for a good few seconds. In that time, the other members of the Order began to look back and forth between Harry and the Headmaster, trying to determine what was happening. Dumbledore visibly gathered himself and tried to maintain his usual unflappableness.

"Mr. Potter, "he said in a rare show of formality, but with sharpness coating his tongue, "what happened to your scar?"

Harry was surprised that Dumbledore wanted to have this conversation now, in front of everyone, but who was he to deny him? "Ah, that. It just disappeared after the dementor attack. I have no idea what happened." He said this all while staring at the rim of Dumbledore's gold eyeglasses since he did not fully trust his very rudimentary occlumency. He tried to portray innocent confusion in this assertion.

Dumbledore was obviously not sure whether to believe him. His bushy white brows furrowed in the middle of his forehead as he contemplated whether a soul could be selectively sucked out with no apparent damage to his body. He still wasn't meeting his eyes though…Oh. Dumbledore was trying to decide if it was really him or if it was Tom Riddle's soul in his body. Time for damage control.

Harry made himself look vaguely panicked, "Do you know what could have happened, sir? I mean the dementors did get really close to me this time, but I didn't know they could remove a curse scar." He made sure to inflect his voice with appropriate deference and just a dash of hero worship that Tom Riddle would never have been capable of even faking towards the old man.

He could see the Headmaster's shoulders un-tense slightly, but his eye-twinkle was still absent. "Ah, unfortunately, I do not know, my boy. I will look into it after this meeting. Why don't you go up and meet with your friends, Harry?"

Harry knew he would have to fight to be included in the Order and he really did not want to do so right now, but he was worried if he capitulated to the adults' wishes for him to leave right now his arguments would not make as much impact later. Molly wouldn't be able to get as riled up with all the adults currently there. Harry took a deep breath, "Actually, Headmaster, I think I should be included in the meeting."

There were instant protests to this suggestion. Snape snorted from where he lurked in the corner behind the Headmaster. Mrs. Weasley started yelling about him being a child. Other adults protested that he was too young. Sirius's arm tightened from where it was still slung across his shoulders. And so on. But Harry kept his eyes on Dumbledore, who was clearly trying to figure out why he was being so level-headed.

"You're too young, Harry," he said while looking over his glasses at him, "you cannot be in the Order until you are of age."

Harry tried to bite back all of his hypocritical retorts about how he should not be tested in first-year obstacle courses until he was of age either if they were going that route. "I think I have more than proved myself, Professor. I've faced Voldemort several times. When I was 15 months old, twice in my first year, once in my second, and once a few months ago when he came back. I was the reason a man died in my first year and I was the reason a boy died a few months ago. I may not be of age, but I have seen more than a lot of adults have. I have never had the privilege of being a child, my relatives and Voldemort saw to that. All I request is that I be allowed into Order meetings and to be given information. I am not asking to fight, although I would not turn down extra training, since we all know he is going to be coming after me. I think I have earned the right to know what is being done to defeat the man who murdered my parents. I will not waste my mum's sacrifice by floundering around, uninformed."

Harry knew that the last part was sort of underhanded. He knew he could get Snape to vote for his inclusion with that. Snape may loathe his very being, but he would do anything to honor Lily's sacrifice. And other older members of the Order knew Lily as well and he hoped they would also be similarly moved. Others like Shacklebolt and Moody he was hoping to convince with the logic of his arguments. Sirius and Remus were kind of wildcards. Last time around, Sirius was happy to keep him informed but had been cowed a bit by Molly Weasley. Remus believed he should be informed of some information last time and Harry was hoping that was still true.

"You're just a boy, Harry," said Mrs. Weasley, with tears in her eyes. She was surprisingly more composed than he was expecting. It might have been because of the iron grip that Arthur had her hand in on top of the table.

He gave her a sad smile, "I'm not though. I wish I could be, but it's just not in the cards for me. I promise I will not reveal any information to my friends unless it is a life or death situation, however. I understand you want to protect your kids."

"We've always thought of you as one of our kids as well, Harry, we can't allow you to know these things," said Molly.

Apparently, Sirius had some balls after all. "It's not your decision to make, Molly. Harry is my godson and I think he's proven to have a good head on his shoulders. I think he should be informed."

"You can't treat him like an adult! He's NOT James, Sirius!" she yelled at him.

Sirius took a deep breath and blew it out through his nose noisily. "I know that. But he isn't a kid anymore. And James and Lily aren't here but they wanted me to take care of him if they weren't and I am going to do that."

Harry's heart warmed at these words, but the happiness was not to be.

"Ah, yes, fine job you've been doing, leaving him alone all these years." Mrs. Weasley said, snidely.

"That's enough!" Dumbledore slammed his palm down onto the table. "We will not argue this anymore. Harry, you cannot know this information, you're too young."

"Oh, let the brat stay, Albus."

Everyone turned as one, eyebrows raised, to the dark corner where Severus Snape sat scowling at all of them. He continued speaking. "Potter will just go on another misadventure with his friends if we don't keep him somewhat informed and will endanger the other idiots."

Harry had never heard Snape say anything remotely in his favor before. Well, he was rather indignant when finding out he had been raised to be a martyr, but he hadn't expected a show of support to join the Order. He met Snape's burning gaze and nodded his head in gratitude, just a bit. Snape looked sullen at that but returned the gesture with an infinitesimal nod.

"Aye just let the boy stay, Albus. He snuck up behind all of us at Privet Drive and could have cursed Tonks before she even got her wand out," said Moody, cackling a bit. Tonks looked abashed at this reminder.

"Alastor is right, Headmaster, the boy seems to be mature enough to know what's going on," Shacklebolt added in his two knuts.

Dumbledore looked rather thoughtful at their words. "Alright, Harry. You can stay for now."

Mrs. Weasley looked mutinous, but Mr. Weasley restrained her with a gentle hand on her arm. Harry was sure she would try to reason with him later.

Harry nodded his head in thanks in the direction of Moody and Shacklebolt and then took a seat at the table in-between Sirius and Remus. After all of this excitement, Dumbledore decided to start the meeting. Various members reported on what they had been doing.

"The werewolves are not interested in fighting with us. The most we can hope for is neutrality," Remus said while fiddling with his teacup.

"Why don't they want to fight with us? Surely, they don't want to follow Voldemort," said Emmeline Vance.

Remus looked nervous, so Harry cut in, "They've been oppressed for too long. People like Delores Umbridge have been passing laws and persecuting them for decades, so they have no faith in the Ministry. Voldemort offers them an alternative by telling them that if he wins, they will have an equal place in his society. Which is obviously untrue, but some werewolves see it as worth a shot to not be degraded and impoverished and hunted." Harry glanced at Lupin after he finished talking and found him looking grateful but surprised that Harry understood the werewolves' plight so well. The other Order members also looked surprised that he knew so much.

"Well, we will just have to keep trying," Dumbledore said while looking intently at Harry.

"You're wasting your time by using someone as intelligent as Remus on what is essentially a pointless mission. The werewolf packs will not want to listen to someone who carries a wand and is Hogwarts-educated."

"Harry is right," Remus added, looking upset, "they don't want to listen to me. They see me as a traitor for working with wizards and living amongst them."

"If you want to take them out of the war so that they cannot fight against us, you would have to actually give them an incentive that they could have more rights if we win," Harry said.

Dumbledore was starting to look a little annoyed. "Ah, yes, you may be right, my boy. We can discuss that later. How about you Severus, anything to report?"

Snape rolled his eyes at Dumbledore's non sequitur but responded anyway. "The Dark Lord has been laying low. He is trying to quietly recruit while the Ministry is denying his return. I have been tasked with brewing potions for him since that idiot, Pettigrew is a terrible potions brewer so his body is not as strong as it should have been."

Harry was amused, "And you're oh so nicely not making them at full strength, right?"

Snape was clearly annoyed Harry was talking but there was also an amused glint in his black eyes when he looked at him and for a second, they had a shared understanding. For a second.

"Yes, thank you, Severus," said Dumbledore. And so, on the meeting continued. The Aurors were reporting what they could from the Ministry, but they didn't know much. They were trying to feel out who was sympathetic and may be swayed to join them. Meanwhile, Fudge was trying to defund the department.

After all of the reports were given, Dumbledore wrapped up the meeting with more general assignments that were not really helping anyone. But Harry didn't want to say anything yet. He had to curb his impulsiveness, garner support, be patient before making moves. He had only been back in this time for a few days and he had time to make some plans before people started dying. Harry stayed seated at the table while the other members who were not staying for dinner headed out. The meeting definitely could have gone worse and he had achieved his goal of being invited into the Order.

"So how has your summer been, pup?" Sirius asked him.

"It's been difficult," Harry answered honestly, drawing from his original experiences of this summer. "It was awful being stuck at the Dursleys with no news. And then with the dementors and everything..." he trailed off.

Sirius and Remus both grimaced when he mentioned the dementors.

"Yeah, Dumbledore was furious at Mundungus," Remus said.

"KIDS! DINNER!" Molly yelled from where she was setting platters on the table. There was soon pounding on the stairs and a cracking sound from Fred and George apparating in. When all of the kids saw Harry, there was clamoring to reach him. Hermione reached him first and hugged him tightly, soon followed by the twins who hugged the both of them together and pretended to cry with happiness that he was there. Harry extricated himself from the hug, laughing at their antics.

"Hey guys," he said with a smile. Following that was an interrogation of him during dinner about when he got there and how was his summer and so on. Harry basked in the warmth of having everyone together again, alive and relatively healthy. It was a wonderful feeling and he was going to do everything he could to protect it this time around.