Chapter Seventy: The Order of the Lightning Bolt

"Your…?"

"My dear old mum, yeah," Sirius said. "I've been trying to get her down ever since I came back here a year ago, but I think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas…Let's get to the kitchen, quickly…"

They went down another flight of stairs, into the basement kitchen, where many chairs and a long wooden table still littered with parchment, goblets, and empty wine bottles still showed the signs of the meeting.

Daphne spotted Mr. Weasley and Bill…but also her parents.

"Mum, Dad!" she said, running over to them and hugging them both. "What's going on?" she asked immediately.

Dad laughed. "We'll tell you after dinner," he said. "Give us a few moments, though. That meeting was Wizengamot-levels of boring. Useful, but boring. Just look at Mundungus, there…"

Something that looked like a pile of rags made a loud, snoring noise and then jerked awake.

"Some'n say m' name?" Mundungus mumbled sleepily. "I 'gree with Sirius…" He raised his hand in the air as though voting for something, his droopy, bloodshot eyes unfocused. Ginny giggled.

"The meeting's over, Dung," Sirius said as everyone sat down at the table, which Mrs. Weasley had cleared with some disapproving comments about how the parchments should've been cleaned up immediately.

Daphne was distracted by something furry brushing against her legs. "Nyx!" she said happily, lifting her up and putting her in her lap. "I've missed you," she said, and judging by Nyx's purring the feeling was mutual.

Shortly afterward, everyone was seated and absorbed in their food. Some lingering conversations about the meeting were still going, but Daphne couldn't really make out anything, especially when all the noise was drowned out by Mundungus, Fred, George, and Ron laughing loudly at something Mundungus was telling them, which Mrs. Weasley did not seem to appreciate much.

Some time later everyone had eaten their fill, and Mrs. Weasley said, "Nearly time for bed, I think."

"Not just yet, Molly," Sirius said, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

Daphne felt the relaxed atmosphere turning tense in an instant.

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

"And they're quite right," Mrs. Weasley said. "You're too young."

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asked. "Harry and Daphne have been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. Since I'm Harry's legal guardian–"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said.

"Begging your pardon, Mrs. Weasley, but it sort of is," Daphne said.

Mrs. Weasley ignored her and went on, "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius asked, clearly getting ready for a prolonged argument despite his polite tone.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," Mrs. Weasley said.

"I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly," Sirius said. "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!" Mrs. Weasley said. "He's only fifteen and–"

"–and he's dealt with as much as most of the Order, and more than some," Sirius said.

"No one's denying what he's done!" Mrs. Weasley said angrily. "But he's still–"

"He's not a child!" Sirius said impatiently.

"But he's not an adult either!" Mrs. Weasley said. "He's not James, Sirius!"

"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," Sirius said coldly.

"I'm not sure you are! Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

"WHO CARES?!" Daphne shouted, immediately silencing the argument and focusing all attention on herself. "Sirius is right regardless! Do you think that Voldemort cares one way or another how old anyone is?! He tried to kill Harry when he was a baby! If anyone needs to know what's going on, it's him, regardless of whether or not he should be dealing with it or not! And the thing is, every single underage person here has dealt with a lot already.

"In our first year, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and I faced a gauntlet of trials to protect the Philosopher's Stone. I met Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest, Harry faced him to protect the Stone.

"In our second year, Harry, Ron, and I went into the Chamber of Secrets to save Ginny from Voldemort, who, by the way, had fought off being possessed by him for months before then.

"In our third year, we faced Dementors after discovering that Wormtail was still alive and posing as Scabbers.

"And last year, Hermione, Ron, and I helped Harry prepare for the Triwizard Tournament, into which he was entered by an insane Death Eater, and then Harry saw Voldemort come back.

"Voldemort wants Harry dead more than anything, so Harry needs to know what he's up to so he can prepare for it. Because they will face each other again. And we, his friends, will help him, regardless of what any adult has to say about it.

"You're the Order of the Phoenix? Fine, we'll be the Order of the Lightning Bolt. We will help Harry in any way we can, because he and Voldemort are connected, whether they should be or not. Harry should know the truth, and he will tell us. All of us.

"I honestly don't care about rules or what Dumbledore has said. He's only human. He can make mistakes like anyone else. Of course we don't need to know everything; it would be stupid for any one person to know everything in case they get captured.

"But everything related to Voldemort himself is information Harry needs. You can either tell us right now and ensure the information we have is correct, or we'll find out ourselves some other way, and you can ask any of our teachers at school about our persistence when it comes to learning things we have no business knowing."

She fell silent. Everyone stared at her.

Sirius looked at Harry and whispered, "Marry her."

Harry grinned. Mrs. Weasley looked absolutely furious and seemed to be marshaling all sorts of arguments.

"I rather agree with Daphne, actually," Dad said. "These are dangerous times. If we want our children to be safe, they must know certain things. Keeping the information from them could lead to misunderstandings, and we can ill afford those in a battle that is fought through subtlety, as this one currently is.

"They are teenagers. They're reckless and impulsive. You can forbid them from doing things all you want, but they'll find a way around any restrictions. We did when we were that age. If we are to stop them from acting rashly, we need to show trust. We need to share essential information so they will not act endanger themselves or others in their desire to help."

"Fine. I can clearly see I'm being overruled, here," Mrs. Weasley said angrily. "But while all of that is beyond my control, I will not have my fourteen-year-old daughter here while this is being discussed."

"You might as well, though, because I'm telling her everything," Daphne said flatly.

Ginny, who'd been about to start shouting at her mother, shot Daphne a grateful look.

"I absolutely forbid you to–"

"I don't care. She's our friend. She's faced Voldemort and lived to tell the tale. She's got the right to know too."

Mrs. Weasley glared at Daphne, who coldly looked back. She liked Mrs. Weasley, but after a month of being kept in the dark, she wasn't going to leave any of her friends hanging if there wasn't a damn good reason to. Snape's secret was just about the only thing, thus far, she wouldn't share with anyone because it was vital for his survival.

Mrs. Weasley looked at Mum and Dad. "Are you going to let her talk to me that way?" she asked.

"We want to keep these kids alive, Molly," Mum said. "So we want them to know what we're dealing with. Keep them in the dark at your own peril. Do you really think they're going to go around telling everything they hear here to all their other schoolmates? Do you really think they'll spread all the secrets of the Order around? But all of them are close to Harry, and Harry is linked to V-Voldemort."

Mum shuddered when she said the name, but Daphne looked at her proudly.

"It's more dangerous for them not to know these things. We're on the same side, you and us. We want our kids to be safe. You try to reach that by shielding them from all knowledge they 'shouldn't have to deal with', while we prefer giving them the knowledge and trusting them to use it appropriately and leave acting on it to us for as long as possible. Daphne's a bit blunt in how she brought that across, I admit, but I agree with her point."

Mrs. Weasley angrily threw her hands up. "Of course, why not! Ignore everything Dumbledore said, why don't you?"

"Dumbledore is a great wizard, perhaps the greatest wizard currently alive. He's also reticent to a fault," Dad said. "You may feel free to blame us for everything, if you wish. We'll talk to Dumbledore if our actions upset him."

"So that's where you get your 'blame me for everything' trait from," Harry whispered.

Daphne grinned.

Mrs. Weasley got up from her chair. "Well, since no one here is willing to listen to reason and caution, I'm going to bed," she said irritably. She left the room without looking at anyone.

For a moment, there was a somewhat uncomfortable silence. Then Sirius asked, "Okay, Harry, what do you want to know?"

"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing?" Harry asked immediately.

"He's lying low," Sirius said. "His plan was to return in secret, but your survival ruined that for him, meaning Dumbledore got gather the Order of the Phoenix again within an hour of his return."

"Why does Voldemort care about that?" Harry asked.

"Because Dumbledore is the one person he ever feared. Dumbledore would be the absolute last person Voldemort would want to be informed about his return," Remus said.

Daphne privately thought that he would've known anyway, given that Snape was a Death Eater and had admitted, to Fudge, even, that he felt the Dark Mark burn the moment Voldemort returned.

"So what's the Order doing?" Harry asked.

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

"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked.

"He was powerful once before," Remus said. "So initially, he'll want to do many of the same things, like rebuilding his army. Many witches and wizards who weren't Death Eaters followed him, either by choice or by force. He'll recruit Dark creatures like Dementors. He'll want the giants to join him, as well as the werewolves."

"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers? 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 said. "It's proving tricky, though."

"Why?"

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," Tonks said. "Fudge is absolutely refusing to believe You-Know-Who's back."

"But why?" Harry asked desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore–"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Mr. Weasley said with a wry smile. "Dumbledore."

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

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry said incredulously.

"Dumbledore is powerful and clever, Harry, exactly the things that Fudge is not," Dad said. "Fudge believes that Dumbledore is seeking to supplant him as Minister. Being in love with his own nominal power, he has become paranoid, and has convinced himself that Dumbledore is simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."

"How can he think that?" Harry said angrily. "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 fourteen years," Sirius said 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."

"And since the Ministry insists that everything is fine, and is keeping the Prophet quiet about everything Dumbledore says, while at the same time discrediting him and you, it's incredibly difficult to convince people of the truth," Mum said.

"Add to that that many of us can't really do much without getting into trouble themselves," Dad said. "Arthur and Tonks would certainly lose their jobs at the Ministry if they rile up the wrong people. I don't officially work for them, not to mention being from a wealthy Noble House, so they won't really go after me, but being from a Noble House also means everyone suspects me of having ulterior motives, so I'm not all that trusted outside the Department of Mysteries, where people know me. And in there, I've managed to convince some people."

"I've actually already been put out of action as a Hit Wizard," Sirius said. "Since I'm your godfather and they're discrediting you, they don't believe in my integrity anymore, either. Well, Amelia Bones does, but Fudge overruled her, of course."

"Dumbledore himself has been voted out as Chairman of the International Confederation of Wizards and has been demoted from being Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot," Remus said.

"But he 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.

"It's no laughing matter," Mr. Weasley said shortly. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this, he could end up in Azkaban."

"He could, if they caught him," Dad said. "But do you think he'll allow that to happen? He's far too powerful."

"But if Voldemort's recruiting followers, it's bound to get out that he's back, isn't it?" Harry asked, sounding desperate.

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

"Stuff he can only get by stealth," Sirius said.

"He seeks something from the Department of Mysteries," Dad said. "But I don't see any way for him to obtain that by stealth, as I've been trying to tell everyone here, and surely Voldemort will at some point learn that too. Augustus Rookwood is a Death Eater, and he used to work in the Department of Mysteries."

"What is he looking for, then? A weapon of some kind?" Harry asked.

"No, it's something more subtle than that. He's after knowledge. Specifically, the knowledge of how to destroy you, Harry," Dad said.

Harry blinked. "Why…why would that knowledge be in the Department of Mysteries?" he asked.

Daphne, however, thought she might know what he was after. There was a room in the Department of Mysteries called the Hall of Prophecy, which Dad had told her about long ago. Given what Snape had told her, Voldemort was most likely looking for that prophecy to find out what the rest of it said, the part Snape hadn't been able to tell him. Then she realized she could mention her theory without ever endangering Snape's secret.

"It's a prophecy, isn't it?" she asked, and the stunned silence that followed that question confirmed her suspicion. "The centaurs told me Harry was 'steeped in prophecy' when I went to visit them. I guess that's what they meant."

Dad nodded slowly. "Yes, that's what he is after. The prophecy was the reason he went after you in the first place, Harry," he said.

Harry paled, and Sirius and Lupin looked grim.

"But Voldemort doesn't know the full prophecy, and he hopes that learning it will give him what he needs to defeat you," Dad said. "The trouble for him is that only the people the prophecy is about may take them from the Hall of Prophecy. So Voldemort can't have it stolen by anyone. He needs to do it himself…or he needs to get you to do it for him."

"Why would I ever help Voldemort?" Harry asked incredulously. "He can't Imperius me; he's tried that already and it didn't work, back in the graveyard."

"Your scar, Harry," Daphne said. "We'll need to pick up our Occlumency practice again as soon as possible."

"But…if he can't get to the prophecy at all, unless he goes himself…why are we worried about it?" Harry asked.

"This is Voldemort we're talking about," Sirius said grimly. "There's no telling what he might be able to do. We'd be fools to leave the place unguarded, at least."

"But what does it matter if he gets the entire prophecy?" Daphne asked. "He still won't have more power, will he?"

She frowned. "But that isn't what it's about, is it? We want him to focus on that prophecy. As long as he does, he remains in the shadows, and the war remains in the background. Dumbledore's using the Ministry's obstinacy against Voldemort by bogging him down in an impossible task for as long as possible, so Dumbledore has more time to recruit people. So the guard around it…are those people just bait? To keep him tempted?"

"Edmund, Amaranth, your daughter is scary," Sirius said with a shake of his head.

"We try," Mum said modestly.

"It's not sure how long it'll work," Dad said. "I think Rookwood might still be in Azkaban right now, but the moment he rejoins Voldemort, Voldemort will know he needs to go himself, and no amount of protection we put up will be able to stop him."

"Can't you just…kill Rookwood before that happens, then? Get him Kissed by a Dementor?" Daphne suggested.

Sirius laughed humorlessly. "Azkaban isn't a place you'd lightly break into. I imagine Dumbledore could do it, but he wouldn't kill someone in cold blood like that. I think that, the moment Voldemort realizes he needs to get the prophecy himself, Dumbledore will need to go to the Ministry himself to prevent Voldemort from getting it, if he really intends for that to happen."

An image flashed in front of Daphne's eyes, an image of Voldemort and Dumbledore fighting. But…hadn't that been Harry's future? And if so, why was Harry at the Ministry, if the vision was even of the Ministry to begin with?

"Well, 'Order of the Lightning Bolt'," Sirius said with a rueful smile. "Does this satisfy your curiosity? And did it impress on you that, whatever you do, you need to stay away from the Department of Mysteries?"

Harry looked around at all his friends, ending on Daphne, who smiled at him in spite of the vision that was still in her mind. "Yeah…I think that'll do for now."

So here's the first instance of me going all-in against Molly. I hope I didn't make her too much of a strawman, but if I did…well, so be it. This chapter in the book was really one of the prime reasons I went off her completely.

Oh, and if it seems unlikely Daphne just thought of that reasoning for why the Order is guarding the Hall of Prophecy…that's literally what I did when writing it. I wondered why they'd need to guard that place — knowing that, in canon, Dumbledore is quite aware of the restrictions on the prophecy and who is and isn't able to take it — and this popped into my head the moment I was writing that scene. If it doesn't make any sense, well, there's your reason.