A little intelligence

Christmas day had come and gone in the blink of an eye. The Granger's had seemed to love the Burrow and all of its inhabitants. Mrs. Granger was particularly taken with Fred and George to everyone's surprise. Harry for one had been glad to see it and hoped it would make things easy for Hermione and Ron. Now though he had a different worry, it seemed that Fred and George were still mad about Ron being excluded and were planning on making it an issue at the Order meeting today. Harry knew that the last thing they needed was for those two to cause trouble. Not to mention if they brought it up he might have to let the Order know his own feelings on Ron's treatment and that would just cause more problems.

All the Order members who were staying at the Burrow had to Floo over to number twelve and that had been a bit uncomfortable. One minute they were all sitting in the kitchen laughing and talking. Then all of them but Ron and Ginny had to get up and go Floo away. To his credit Ron had asked Ginny if she wanted to go upstairs and play wizard chess so it wouldn't be quiet so awkward. Once they had gotten there they found out the Professor Dumbledore was going to be a bit late and they would start off by going over some routine business until he arrived. It had been going fairly well and they got through the operations discussions with very little time taken up. When they got to recruiting however they ran into a great big red headed wall in the form of Fred and George.

"So we are still discussing recruiting new members when we haven't asked Ron to join?" Fred said incredulously.

"Can we not have this discussion again please?" Lupin said wearily.

"Yes we are going to have this discussion again. What the hell is wrong with you people? I want to hear exactly why he can't join. Not some obscure mumbo jumbo but a real reason." George said rage written across his face. No one present wanted to deal with one of the Weasleys upset let alone the twins.

"The reason he won't be allowed to join is simple." Kingsley said slowly "He might get out of control and we can't afford that. His temper makes him too easy for the death eaters to turn. We can take the risk."

Fred and George both stood up and stared at him "Are you saying you think our brother is going to be a Death Eater?" George snarled.

"I'm saying it could happen that's all. We are having too much trouble as it is to be worried about being able to trust order members."

"Who here thinks my little brother could really end up as a Death Eater?" Fred asked clearly unable to believe anyone could think it. To his chagrin several hands went up at the table. Kingsley, Snape and Dung seemed understandable but when he saw Lupin raise his hand he was floored.

Both Hermione and Harry both started when they saw Lupin raise his hand.

"Remus" Harry started "Ron has been there when I need him, every time without fail. How can you think he could turn on me?"

Lupin seemed to shrink for just a moment and then he sighed "I'm not saying he will Harry, truthfully I don't think he will but he could and I don't want to risk it."

"If you don't want to risk it then why in the bloody hell is there an Order member sitting here with the Dark mark on his arm. Don't you think that's a bit rich?"

The room went silent and Snape stood up and left the room without a word.

Lupin had turned chalk white but Harry was fairly certain the Moody had laughed.

At that point Professor Dumbledore had arrived and asked why everyone looked so tense.

"Fred and George asked about their brother joining again." Kingsley spoke up.

The Professor looked a bit sad for a moment "Suffice it to say that Mr. Weasley is lost to us for the foreseeable future."

"Are you saying our brother has gone over to the other side?"

"Goodness no Fred, Ron has found another way to fight against Voldemort and as such can no longer join us here."

"What is he doing?" Hermione spoke up for the first time.

"Mr. Weasley will have secrets he cannot divulge just as you will have. I trust you all to not make demands of him that you wouldn't want made of you."

"Now on to matters at hand, we have found out through diligent efforts that Voldemort is looking for a number of potent magical artifacts. So far we have been unable to ascertain his purpose for searching for them however it is safe to say that whatever the reason we do not wish for him to find them. Already teams are traveling to search for several artifacts whose locations are relatively easy to discover. Many of them however are the stuff of legends and myth. It is in this vein that I must ask Miss Granger and Mr. Potter to shoulder a great deal of the effort. Much research must be done to assist in locating the items in question and Miss Granger's skill in research is without peer. I have taken the liberty of having a list of the items and a bit of back ground information sent to your room at Hogwarts Hermione. Interestingly one of the items on the list is at Hogwarts."

"Well then at least we know where on of them is." Tonks sighed.

"Unfortunately we don't know where it is Nymphdora. We know that it was hidden at Hogwarts at the time of it's founding by Lady Ravenclaw. What we do not know is where it is hidden. This is most troubling considering that the item in question is one of the more powerful one's that Voldemort is seeking."

"Professor what is the item?" Hermione could no longer restrain herself from asking

"It is called the Cauldron of Medea. Medea was a famous witch of the classic times, she was quite renowned for her skill at brewing potions. The Cauldron was said to be her life's greatest work and was purported to be quite powerful. Which is why we must ensure that Voldemort doesn't gain control of it."

Everyone seemed to be trying to digest the information when Dumbledore spoke up again.

"It is late and everyone is tired, please return to your homes and I will inform you of the date of the next meeting. Those who need to know will be kept up to date on the searches."

Harry and Hermione were herded towards the Floo as soon as the meeting broke up. As soon as they left Mad Eye Moody spoke up "I thought we were worried about Voldemort splitting the three of them up?"

"We are Alastor, we are."

"Well then why in Merlin's name are we splitting them up for him?"

A/N Sorry for the chapter being so short. The next Chapter is going to be very long and I needed to get this part layed out first.