Meeting the Order

Harry stumbled a bit as he landed in the Floo at number 12 Grimmauld place,then stumbled even more as Hermione came in too quickly behind them. When Harry looked up he saw both Fred and George walking by and they seemed surprised to see them.

"Hello Fred. George it's good to see you again."

"Hey you guys" they both said.

At that moment Shacklebolt walked by and saw them standing there. "Hello Harry, nice to see you Hermione." he said with a big grin. Then he held his hand out and both Fred and George handed him a handful of Galleons. Then he turned back to Harry and Hermione "See you in the meeting."

"What was that all about?" Harry asked.

George sort of flushed "We bet Shacklebolt that you two would turn Dumbledore down when you found out Ron couldn't join."

Both Harry and Hermione turned red and stared at the floor.

"Don't worry about you two it will all work out and there's plenty of work to do."

The twins turned to go into the kitchen where they had most of the meetings when Hermione interrupted them.

"Can I ask you guys a question?"

Fred turned and said "Why I didn't think there was anything you didn't know already Hermione." with a smile.

All of them laughed then Hermione asked her question.

"Ron would have turned them down if they didn't take us two wouldn't he?"

The twins looked at each other for a second then George spoke up "Yeah he would have."

"Enough of that though, we need to get you two into the meeting."

They all walked into the kitchen where a good deal of the order's members were already waiting.

"Wotcher Harry" Tonks said as she winked at him. "How are you Hermione?"

"Hey Tonks" they both said at once and everyone laughed.

Harry took the chair beside Lupin and started to talk to him while Hermione sat beside Tonks and chatted with her until the meeting really started. A few minutes later Dumbledore started briefing everyone on current operations in the field. That took about an hour or so as people asked questions and the two new member were brought up to speed.

"Now to new matters, Professor Snape has informed me that Voldemort has asked him to make a potion of Clarity. He believe that it will be given to Bellatrix Lestrange. I know many of you will be surprised by that as I think we all believe that Bellatrix's madness has made her a better Death Eater."

Hermione spoke up "Why is that Professor?"

"Well Hermione I know this will be hard for you to believe but before she went mad Bellatrix was not wholly gone over to evil. She was more interested in acquiring power and to be sure she had done some evil things but she was not totally lost. In fact in the very beginning we had marked her as one of the Death eaters we could perhaps redeem. Then Voldemort required her to get some information for the Longbottom's. Her normal methods did not work and she became quite fearful of Voldemorts wrath. So she broke them with the Cruciatus curse and in doing so started her decent into madness. So you see if her sanity returns she may very well be less reliable to Voldemort."

Hermione just nodded in agreement.

"In fact Miss Granger this is one of the reasons you are here. I would like you to research any possible uses that you can find for a potion of Clarity and keep me updated on them."

"I would be glad to Professor."

"Next I would like to ask Alastor how things are going in the training Mr. Longbottom and Mr. Weasley."

Harry shot Hermione a look but she was looking at the floor so she didn't see it.

"Well Longbottom is coming along better than I expected. Weasley is without a doubt the finest fighter I have ever trained. He has good physical skills, a fine and growing command of his spells and I believe a bit of intuition as well. The two of them should both be Auror's if they chose to do so. Though to be honest Weasley's other spells will never be the match of his combat ones."

"Thank you Alsator. Do you have anything to add to that Tonks?"

"You mean other than he should be a member of the Order?"

Dumbledore looked at her over his glasses. "Yes I mean other than that."

"Then no I don't. Moody said it all."

At that point Harry spoke up "Now that I am a member of the Order can someone tell me why Hermione and I are here but not Ron?"

Before anyone else could speak up Fred blurted "because some people here" looking at Lupin 'believe that my dear little brother is on the verge of going berserk and killing people."

Both Hermione and Harry looked at Lupin uncomprehendingly.

"Now Fred you know that's not what we said. I know this will be hard for you two to believe but we are concerned that Ron is a bit to willing to fight. He goes off on his own and that's not a trait that we can afford for an Order member to have."

"Yeah Merlin knows an Order member who actually catches Death Eaters wouldn't be helpful at all." George smirked.

"Let me get this straight. You guys are behind training him to fight but when he does fight you say that's a reason to keep him out?" Harry said.

"It's not that simple Harry." Lupin replied.

"It sounds like it."

"We are just worried that he might get a bit too fond of using the powerful spells he is learning. As Alsator noted he is a fine fighter often times those with the most ability become enamored of what they can do, so much so that the use those powers when other might suffice."

Harry seemed to be getting angrier by the second "So what happens when he has done all this training and learned all of these things and finds out he has been tricked? That you have created a fighter who you won't let fight?"

"Firstly Harry I don't feel we are tricking him in any manner as we do want him to be able to defend himself. Secondly we hope that soon we will have put our fears to rest and we can invite him in."

Harry looked at Hermione "Don't you want to say something." he said almost pleading.

Hermione smiled sadly "What can I say Harry? They don't trust him and I can't make them trust him."

"It's not about trust it's about security." Shacklebolt added.

"No it is about trust. Trust and belief, I guess it's just his fate to have people underestimate him. No matter what he does most people just aren't going to have faith in him. I mean if Professor Lupin doesn't and he's seen a lot of the things Ron has done then we can't expect the others too. Just let it go Harry, in all honesty Ron is too good for the Order." Hermione said sadly.

The others sat there looking stunned. Then the meeting moved to known Death Eater locations. A they went over them Harry and Hermione were surprised by the number of known Death Eaters. A couple of hours later someone brought out sandwiches and they had dinner. After dinner they moved on to long term planning and recruitment. Soon both Hermione and Harry we starting to get tired as well as many of the others. At that point Dumbledore closed the meeting

"Well we should call it a night. I know we all are tired and some people have patrols to do." Dumbledore said fighting off a yawn.

"Yeah Fred and I need to get some sleep. We have to both open the store tomorrow."

"Oh no" Hermione blurted out "What time is it?"

George looked at the clock "It's twelve thirty why?"

At the same time Fred said "That's right didn't you two have dates planned for some sort of muggle party at Hogwarts?"

Harry just looked Hermione horrified and the twins were both looking at them with grave expressions on their faces.