Second part.
'Where's Voldemort?' Harry said immediately. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."
"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," said Sirius calmly, "not as far as we know, anyway ... and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do, anyway," Remus added. It got him a smile from Sirius.
"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked, frowning.
"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," Sirius explained. '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."
"Or rather, you messed it tip for him," Remus corrected, smiling.
"How?" Harry pulled up both his eyebrows.
"You weren't supposed to survive!" said Sirius proudly. It sounded as if it was all thanks to Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Remus added. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
"How has that helped?" Harry asked, still not understanding.
"Are you kidding?" Bill said. He had a look of incredulity on his face. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!"
"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius, nodding.
"So, what's the Order been doing?" was Harry's next question. He looked at each of them in turn.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," said Sirius. Remus nodded his approval - a good answer without giving too much away.
"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked.
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," Remus said, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate." Sirius smiled somewhat wryly.
"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?" Harry naturally wanted to know.
"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," said Sirius. "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," said Remus.
"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 explained. "It's proving tricky, though."
"Why?" Harry's vocabulary seemed to have been reduced to one-syllable words, Remus noted, grinning. He had a feeling Sirius had noticed it too; he had that peculiar 'trying not to laugh'-expression.
"Because of the Ministry's attitude," Tonks added to the conversation. "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 nearly pleaded. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore -"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Arthur said, smiling wryly. "Dumbledore."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," explained Tonks.
"Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry. He sounded as if he didn't believe it one bit.
"Frightened of what he's up to," Arthur corrected. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."
"But Dumbledore doesn't want -"Harry began.
"Of course he doesn't," Arthur interrupted. "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 added to Arthur's answer. "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?" said Harry 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 nearly fourteen years," said Sirius. He was now far from laughing. He had a personal thing against Fudge and the Ministry. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilise him."
"You see the problem," Remus nodded. "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 rumour-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?" said Harry urgently, looking around at the Order-members present. "You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smiled wryly. If only it was that simple.
"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head," Sirius said, fidgeting with his goblet, "I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?"
Remus gave a weak smile. "And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," he said with a feeling for understatement. "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 added, "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," Arthur said so that it wouldn't seem like a completely hopeless case. "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."
Remus looked at Sirius at the same moment Sirius was looking at him. Both fought back a grin - it had been Sirius' idea to pretend he was in Tibet.
"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemorts back -"Harry began.
"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" interrupted Sirius. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What d'you mean?"
"They're trying to discredit him," said Remus with a small sigh. "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," said Bill. He grinned; typically Dumbledore.
"It's no laughing matter," his father said 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?" asked Harry. He looked at his Godfather as he asked it, and Sirius answered.
"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," he said. He narrowed his eyes, remembered certain people he had known. Or thought he did at least. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well-practised 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 asked. The question was a natural follow-up to what Sirius had just said.
Sirius glanced at Remus, for a moment unsure what to say. The truth? Tell him about the prophecy? But Remus shook his head almost unnoticeably. Tell him only what he needs to know, he thought. And even then, tell him even half of that.
"Stuff he can only get by stealth," answered Sirius evasively. When he saw that Harry didn't understand, he added: "like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."
"When he was powerful before?" Harry asked, just to be sure.
"Yes."
"Like what kind of weapon?" said Harry. Remus began to fear the boy was incurably curious. "Something worse than the Avada Kedavra -?"
"That's enough!"
They all jumped. Molly had come back from taking Ginny upstairs, but none of them had noticed. She looked livid.
"I want you in bed, now," she commanded. "All of you." She glared at the children.
"You can't boss us -"Fred protested, but his mother interrupted.
"Watch me," she threatened. She looked at Sirius, ready for another row. "You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."
"Why not?" said Harry quickly, eagerly. "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight."
Remus looked quickly at Sirius. His friend didn't seem to have any real objection to the idea. "No," he said. Sirius turned to look at him, a bit curiously.
"The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," Remus said. He was speaking to Sirius as well as to the children. The Weasley twins opened their mouths to protest, and he added, a hint of sharpness in his voice: "wizards who have left school. There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you..." Sirius nodded slightly, seeing sense. "I think Molly's right, Sirius," Remus told him. "We've said enough."
Sirius didn't object. As happened more often lately, he accepted Remus' judgement.
"Now, bed," Molly said sternly. Realising that the question-and-answer session was really over, the children obliged meekly.
"D'you think that we've, perhaps, said too much?"
"No, I think we've said just enough."
"Hmm." Sirius pensively curled a strand of hair around his fingers. "I did nearly tell him about the prophecy, though."
"And good thing you didn't. Harry can do without such a thing troubling his mind." Remus was leaning against the doorframe of his bedroom, the room that was once occupied by Sirius' father. Sirius was staying in his mother's room. The good part of having these two bedrooms was that you could stand on the landing and talk while standing in the doorframe, as if leaning over a back fence. Indoor-neighbours.
"Do you think Harry will ever join the Order?" Sirius asked curiously.
"If Voldemort's still around when he leaves school, I don't think we can stop him," Remus smiled. "Besides, this is Harry Potter, remember? It's pretty much expected of him."
"Yeah. Hey, if Harry... if Harry does get kicked out of school, d'you reckon Dumbledore will let him stay here?"
Remus' expression was between frowning and smiling. "If I say yes, will you start wishing he gets kicked out of school?"
Sirius pulled a face. "Don't be ridiculous. Of course not."
There was silence for a moment. Sirius kept curling and uncurling the lock of hair. Inside, in his bedroom, Buckbeak was grunting in his sleep. Letting the hippogriff stay here had been another step in the Sirius-Kreacher war. Sirius had insisted on having the animal in the luxurious and above all very white room. Cream-coloured carpets and hippogriffs don't agree, and the floor had been ruined in minutes. Kreacher had had to be pushed out of the room kicking and screaming, hurling insults to Sirius about being a disgrace and what his mother would say. Of course, this had only encouraged Sirius further. He was set on turning his mother's bedroom into a stable.
"Hey Remus," he now broke the silence.
"Hm?"
"Do you..." Sirius trailed of uncertainly. "Do you reckon I think... that Harry is, you know... James?"
"Of course not," Remus said firmly. "You're not that insane."
Sirius smiled, reassured. Perhaps he wasn't insane, but he did seem very lonely.
"You know, I'll try and come home more often," Remus promised.
"You don't have to," Sirius said, smiling at this 'home'. "Really. I mean, Harry's here now too..."
Remus frowned. Even if you're not thinking he's James, you are clinging to him a great deal, he thought. But he didn't say it. He thought that Sirius had had enough arguments today.
"I'm going to bed," he announced. "Busy day tomorrow."
"Yes," Sirius sighed. "We're going to clean the drawing room. Yippee."
"Oh, cheer up," Remus said bracingly. "I'm sure it won't be that bad."
"We'll see," Sirius answered darkly.
Remus smiled a bit weakly and made to walk into his room. He turned around again after a few steps. "By the way, have you seen Monster lately?"
"No, but I'm sure he'll pop up again soon," Sirius said. "He always does. And if Kreacher murdered him, I'll hit him."
"Thanks - I guess," Remus grinned.
"Night, Remus."
"G'night."
Pffff...
Now, was that long or was that long? I thought it was long. Stupid Jo for writing so much...
To anybody speaking Spanish; I wrote that one line with the help of an online dictionary, so any mistakes are all my fault. Snape really can speak Spanish. Or at least enough to correct Sirius!
Is anybody else getting REALLY annoyed with Molly, btw? I sure am. I didn't really like her in OotP anyway, but she's always nagging Sirius and arguing with him - and that comment about Azkaban! Can you say WAY out of line?! That's Snapish! Not kind, motherly Molly!
Hmm, anything else to say about the chapter...? Not that I can really think of, at the moment...
Review! Please...