It had been about a week since the Weasleys moved into Grimmauld Place. There had been an Order meeting that the Weasley children tried to spy on. Their mother caught them, lecturing them about it, using Harry and Ben as examples. Ben, while walking by, burst her bubble saying that he and Harry already knew what the Order was doing. After that reveal, there had been an awkward tension throughout Grimmauld Place. It came to a head a couple of days later.

Another Order meeting had been scheduled for the day that Hermione had arrived. After it had ended, Dumbledore briefly stopped to speak politely to Harry asking about how his day had been and talking about his problem getting a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Baron, Ben's cat, had run past, chasing Crookshanks. Harry had enquired briefly about Voldemort, but was told only that little had changed.

It was after they had finished dinner that the argument started. Around the table for dinner, Sirius sat at the head of the table, with Harry and Remus on his left and right sides, respectively. Ron, Hermione, Ben, Tonks, and Ginny were sitting on Harry's side of the table. Mr. Weasley, Bill, Fred, George, and Order member Mundungus Fletcher seated on the opposite side of the table, with Mrs. Weasley at the end, sitting opposite of Sirius.

"I can't believe you get to know what's going on, Harry," Ron said, stopping all other conversations.

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked, voice gaining a steely edge.

"Nothing bad," Ron replied. "I'm just jealous you're learning about what's going on."

Before Harry could reassure Ron that he knew only a little bit of what the Order was doing, Mrs. Weasley spoke.

"Well, if it was up to me, none of you would know anything about what was going on. Honestly, I don't know what you were thinking telling him, Sirius. And convincing Dumbledore to - "

"It was Dumbledore's idea, Molly," Sirius interrupted in a long-suffering tone.

Mrs. Weasley scoffed. Harry's blood was boiling a bit at that. He noticed Ben's expression shifting into a thunderous scowl.

"Still, you're all too young to be involved in this."

"You're right that we shouldn't be involved in this, Mrs. Weasley," Ben replied, voice velvet-soft. "But, unfortunately, we are."

"And yet you insist on knowing more of what's going on," Mrs. Weasley barreled through, interrupting Ben. "At least Fred and George are of age, though I'd rather they not be involved."

"And yet," Ben said, thundering before quieting after the two words, "Harry's at the center of this and he needs to know. He can't plan proper if he's not got the information, he's not your son - "

"He's as good as," Mrs. Weasley fiercely interjected.

" - and, most importantly, he's being targeted by Voldemort. Honestly, so long as He-who-is-an-idiot is targeting Harry, he at the very least needs to know some of what's going on. Even then, you're mostly recruiting and subtly spreading the word about the Dumb Lord's return. Tell us that should satisfy most of our curiosity about the meetings, even if some of us believe you should be doing more. You've also got to remember we're not children."

"You're not adults either!" Mrs. Weasley retorted.

"We're closer to adults than to children!" Ben thundered back, before slipping back to a near-whisper. "Some of us more than others, primarily due to our experiences."

Mrs. Weasley jumped up, face contorted in fury, before Ben snapped out, "Molly! Sit down!"

In shock, Mrs. Weasley sat back down as a deadly silence wafted through the room. Ben took a deep breath. "We know what's going on. There's nothing you can do to change that. We are at the center of this, and there's nothing you can do to change that, either. Think long and hard about that before you start screaming at the people who can't change that, or else the people you care about will die."

Ben took another breath before standing up. "I'm heading to bed."

He left the room with an awkward silence in his wake.

AN: Sorry for the delay, writer's block. As I've said on my profile, I know where I want this story to go and it's general direction, but individual chapters are a bit more fluid. Hope you have a good day today.

Uploaded Aug. 6th, 2023