Disclaimer: I don't own HP, I only own Evan and Iris.

Wow, this is my longest chapter yet in this series! Over 5,500 words! Hopefully it will keep you entertained!

Also, I originally had Ravenshold as an estate in Kent, but I've changed it now to a small private island off the coast of Kent.

Read, enjoy and review!

Published 8-3-2024

Chapter Two

The Order Meeting

It was three hours before Sirius came home, looking exhausted and grim. The rest of the family (plus the twins and Bill, minus the other Weasleys) had been waiting anxiously for news in the family's favourite private parlour (the Weasleys had use of the guest parlour in their wing). Sirius trudged into the room and slumped down in his favourite armchair with a tired sigh, while Emma hurried to fix a cup of tea for him (pouring in a dash of Firewhiskey because of how drained and pale he looked).

"What happened, Daddy?" Aludra finally gave into her impatience for answers after waiting several moments for him to settle in and take a large gulp of his drink. "Are Evan and Iris and that boy okay? Where was their guard?"

The Order had assigned a guard to the Potter children for the summer. Although they knew now that Evan wasn't the Prophecy Child (and Aludra flinched to even think the title), he was still a high-priority target according to Snape. Aludra was wary of any intelligence given by the 'reformed' Death Eater, but she agreed that they couldn't risk ignoring his information no matter how dubious it was. Especially when it came to her siblings' safety.

She'd gotten to the point where she was able to acknowledge their relationship in her mind, but she was unwilling to claim it openly unless she could do so without acknowledging Lily Potter as her mother. She just couldn't get over the hurt she felt at how they had abandoned her. Healer Blishwick had told her she didn't have to forgive them until and unless she felt ready, though forgiveness would be good for her mental health. She wasn't ready yet, so she worked on not giving into her bitterness instead.

"The kids are fine, no thanks to Mundungus," Sirius growled, sounding uncannily like his Animagus form.

"Tonks was meant to be guarding them today, but she had to switch because of work," he explained frustratedly. "The only one available was bloody Fletcher, and he decided that pawning some stolen goods was more important than protecting two vulnerable kids. Well, unfortunately for him he's currently rotting in a holding cell, and I don't care what Dumbledore says, I'm charging him this time. Bloody rat."

He took another gulp of tea and went on. "To make matters worse, Evan is being charged with underage magic."

"But the Statue of Underage Magic allows for self-defence and defence of another!" Aludra objected. "Evan was protecting the lot of them from those two Dementors."

"The problem is, Fudge is refusing to believe that there were any Dementors," Sirius said frustratedly. "He's claiming that Evan is making it up, and of course Iris is supporting her brother, and the Muggle is both their cousin and unable to actually see the bloody things so they're being called 'unreliable witnesses'. Thankfully, we were able to pull some strings and stop him being outright expelled. He'll have a private trial in Amelia's office on the 15th of August."

"So it'll be fine, then," Aludra smiled. "Aunt Mia won't let Fudge bully her into expelling Evan."

"It should be," her father sighed as he sipped at his tea. "We'll have to be on guard for any tricks Fudge might pull, though."

The others nodded solemnly. Since shortly after the end of the term, the Daily Prophet had been full of subtle remarks designed to undermine the influence and credibility of Dumbledore and Evan without breaking the slander laws, in what was clearly an attempt to make them both seem crazy and keep people from believing them when they spoke of Voldemort's return. Unfortunately, Evan's claim to Fudge back in May that he'd seen Voldemort return in a vision had greatly helped the Ministry's cause.

It was no doubt only the fact that the Blacks held 15 percent of the Prophet's stocks that protected Aludra from similar slander. Instead she was portrayed as an innocent girl traumatized and tricked by her kidnappers, who had disguised themselves as Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters. It was just unfortunate that they didn't hold enough stocks in the newspaper to control, or at least block, what they published in their articles, though Sirius was on the hunt for more stocks in the hopes of getting at least 38 percent to be equal with and thus able to block the Ministry's influence on the articles being written.

It would be just like Fudge to use this to disgrace Evan even further, Aludra thought darkly. If only they could gather enough votes to kick him out, but they also needed to control who replaced him, and that was the stickler. The Grey Traditional faction was needed for any action to be taken, and was no doubt revelling in the courting by the Light and Dark factions.

"I've spoken with Albus, as have James and Lily," Aludra's father interrupted her thoughts. "It was decided that Peverell Manor is no longer safe. As such, an Order escort under Alastor's command will go to collect them on the night of the first, and bring them here, where they'll spend the rest of the summer."

The twins glanced at Aludra, who had tensed at the news. Her father leaned over to take her hand.

"It's not ideal, I know, but we have to assume that it was Voldemort who sent those Dementors," he told her softly. "Peverell Manor fell during the last War, and it's been breached twice in recent years. Here is safer for them."

"I know, I just," Aludra faltered and took a deep breath before continuing. "I should go and speak to Millie about organizing their rooms," she stated, trying to reassure her concerned companions that all was well. "Or would you prefer to do that, Emma?"

Emma, who'd been having a difficult time of it in the past month of her pregnancy, especially given she was in constant battle with Mrs. Weasley, smiled and shook her head. "If you don't mind, I'll leave that to you," she answered kindly. "Actually, I should go and check that Molly isn't bothering Kirby about the dinner."

"Sorry about her," George said ruefully. "She's always been, difficult-"

"But we never imagined," Fred continued, "that she would act this way-"

"As a guest in someone else's home!" George finished, exasperated.

"You are not responsible for your mother's attitude," Emma assured them. "You are welcome guests in this house."

The Weasley boys flushed and thanked her before they all stood, scattering to their respective tasks.

The evening of the first of August found Aludra at Black Manor in London. Her father had offered the Georgian-era townhouse up for use as Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, seeing as it was heavily warded, but more accessible than Ravenshold. The island itself, seeing as the War Wards were active, was only accessible through the Floor at Black Manor or, for the tenants, specially made Portkeys that were keyed by blood and magical signature to their owner. Even someone using Polyjuice couldn't use one, despite being almost perfect copies of the individual they were impersonating, as magical signature was simply unable to be mimicked successfully.

They were discussing the guard schedule when a clatter in the foyer signalled that the Potters had arrived.

Personally, Aludra thought (and Sirius, Remus and Emma all agreed with her when she mentioned it to them) that the idea to guard the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries was a stupid and risky one. Only two people could touch, let alone remove, the Prophecy, and that was her and Voldemort. Voldemort wasn't going to risk going to the Ministry himself, especially when he was busy building up his forces, and if he did, a single wix wasn't going to stand in his way very long. Therefore all they had to do was make sure that Aludra didn't lose all her brain cells and walk into an obvious trap, and everything would be golden.

Her grandfather didn't agree, so guard the prophecy the Order did.

Of course, that was simply one of the disagreements between the Blacks and Dumbledore. Another disagreement was Sirius's requirement in exchange for (a) allowing them to use Black Manor as a HQ and (b) allowing Aludra to return to Hogwarts at all after the mess that was her fourth year.

As the door to the dining room opened, Aludra moved her chair back a bit, trying to use her father and uncle's bigger forms to hide her small one from the new arrivals.

"You just head into the sitting room with the other children, dears," she heard Mrs. Weasley saying in a voice that sounded way too condescending for use towards two teenagers. "The meeting is almost over. Lily, James, just through here."

She heard her friends head into the front parlour (that Mrs. Weasley insisted on calling a sitting room) while their parents entered the dining room. She spotted Mrs. Weasley whispering to the Potter couple and tensed alongside her father and uncle. Sirius leaned forward, bracing himself for an argument as Lady Potter turned to them, dismay filling her expression.

"What-? What's Aludra doing in here?" Lady Potter demanded, sounding and looking upset. "She's only fifteen! Albus, you can't seriously be allowing this!"

"It's not Albus's decision, Lily!" Sirius snapped, cutting her off. "It's mine. I won't lose my daughter because she doesn't have all the facts. Aludra knows not share anything she learns here with her friends, and she won't. Albus and I have already discussed this, and you have no right to add your opinion."

Lady Potter flinched at that and Lord Potter shot Aludra's father a frown as he wrapped an arm around his wife and guided her to a pair of empty chairs.

Aludra's cousin, Tonks, sat next to the Blacks and reached out to squeeze Aludra's arm lightly, giving her a sympathetic look. Aludra smiled weakly back.

"If we could return to the topic at hand, please," Aludra's grandfather requested in a soft but firm voice. "Sirius, what news from the Wizengamot?"

Aludra's father scowled unhappily. "The Alliance is holding our own against the Dark faction, but they're good, Goddess damn them," Sirius said grumpily. "I'm willing to bet this was Voldemort's idea, because the Darks have never been this subtle or united as long as I've been in the Chamber.

They're trying to tack on sub-clauses with extremely complicated and boring language that counter our Creature Protection Laws to seemingly routine bills. Bills I would, to be honest, otherwise agree with. They've nearly slipped a few passed us. It was only because Frank picked up on the fine print of one bill that we figured out what they're doing. We're spending so much time and favours on blocking them that we can't press our own agenda.

And because they're just subclauses to normal bills, and many of those clauses would make sense to the more conservative members of the population, the Darks can portray us as irrational and overly radical, blocking them just because we disagree with them. We need to come up with a counter strategy soon. If nothing else, we won't have enough favours left to get the Greys to vote with us or abstain soon enough. We lost a lot of influence when you were ousted."

Aludra nodded in agreement. Although the Chief Warlock (or Sorceress, depending on the dominant party) was technically neutral and could only vote to break a tie, their opinions held a lot of weight. Furthermore, Dumbledore had united the Progressives and Traditional Lights, helping them work together to get their agenda through the Chamber. It had been a big blow prestige-wise to the Light faction to have their leader lose the vote of no-confidence Fudge had called. Aludra was still bitter. One vote. He'd lost his seat by one vote. It was like the Goddess was laughing at them. He was still a member of the Wizengamot, Fudge couldn't strip that from him without creating a precedent no member of the Chamber would allow, no matter which faction they voted with, but the vote had led to him assigning Sirius as proxy, due to the disgrace he was in.

Dumbledore nodded solemnly. "Perhaps it would be best if we, that is myself, Lord Black and Lord Longbottom take a moment to speak soon, and work on a strategy. We can't afford to lose on Creature and Muggleborn rights. We lost a lot of part-humans to Voldemort last time. We need to at least keep them neutral."

Sirius nodded curtly.

Aludra's eyes flickered worriedly to her uncle. He was safe enough for now, but one of the bills (authored by that damn Umbridge, no doubt) was trying to ban werewolves from all jobs in the magical world. He'd never agree to live off the Blacks' largesse, no matter how dearly they loved each other, and he had no muggle degrees, plus the need to take at least three days off per month meant he would have a lot of trouble finding a decent job in the muggle world too. He'd be stuck with menial work and finding a different employment every few months. Not to mention all those other innocent people whose sole crime was to suffer from a terrible disease and who would have the rights the Black Alliance had gotten them ripped away just so Voldemort could manipulate them into joining his army.

Remus saw her look and gave her a gentle pat on the arm, before redirecting her attention to her grandfather, who was now announcing that Hagrid and Madame Maxime had reached the giant enclave in the Pyrenees. Neither of them had discovered any surviving kin, but they were hopeful that the Gurg would be willing to listen. He had accepted their first gifts, at any rate, which was an encouraging sign.

The meeting ended after that, and Mrs. Weasley invited everyone to stay while she cooked a dinner for them all, as the Blacks and their guests typically ate dinner at Black Manor after an Order meeting. Sirius and Emma exchanged irritated looks and Bill and Mr. Weasley both looked embarrassed at the rudeness of Mrs. Weasley inviting guests to someone else's house. Others gave her contemptuous looks. Her constant condescending and rude attitude towards her hosts had quickly turned most of the Order, who venerated Sirius for his efforts in and after the First Blood War (as the Order was starting to call it), against her.

Meanwhile, Dumbledore had caught Aludra's eye and signalled for her to join him. Eager to put off coming face to face with the Potters, she made her way over to him.

"Is everything alright, Granddad?" She asked curiously.

"That is what I wanted to ask you, as it so happens," he smiled in response. "How has your scar been? Has it been bothering you? Or have you been having any strange dreams?"

Aludra blinked in surprise at the strange question. "My scar has been bothering me a bit, but nothing excruciating, and if I do an Occlumency exercise it goes away. I've taken to doing exercises three times a day, one around lunchtime instead of just when I wake up and before bed. As for dreams...I've been having nightmares about the graveyards, but that's normal."

Dumbledore nodded thoughtfully.

Realization as to why he would ask something so strange struck Aludra as she took in the expression on his face, one she recognized as him being deep in thought. "Evan's being having dreams again, ones you think are coming through the link, hasn't he?" She guessed. "That's why you're asking."

Her grandfather dipped his head in confirmation. "As I'm sure he will inform you himself I have no qualms about telling you that Evan has been dreaming of a long corridor leading up to a blue door."

"As in the door leading to the Department of Mysteries in the Ministry?" Aludra whispered.

"It seems so," Dumbledore confirmed. He met Aludra's eyes. "Take great care in coming months, my dear girl," he urged. "Voldemort desperately wants that prophecy and he will no doubt want to use you to get it. Do not let him fool you with false visions."

Aludra nodded solemnly. "I won't, Granddad," she vowed.

He smiled, satisfied, then made his excuses and left to return to Hogwarts. His departure started the exodus, until only the Blacks, the Longbottoms, Weasleys, Potters, Tonks and Mad-Eye remained for dinner. Aunt Mia, while a believer in Voldemort's return, hadn't joined the Order, as she felt it would conflict with her Oaths as Director of the DMLE.

The other teens entered the dining room as the various materials from the meeting were cleared away. As soon as they entered Aludra felt Evan and Iris fix their gazes on her, but she carefully avoided meeting their eyes in favour of smiling at George, who sauntered over to sit beside her casually and draped an arm over her shoulders as he greeted her. He quickly removed it at Sirius's narrow-eyed look, exchanging it for holding her hand beneath the table, where her protective father couldn't see.

Sirius, while he genuinely liked George and was pleased he cared so much about Aludra, wasn't happy that she was dating. He appreciated that she was mature and grown up, but she knew a part of him would always see her as the confused and upset four-year-old with no memories he had adopted. Or maybe even his sickly toddler goddaughter too weak to stand on her own.

"Evan, Iris, dears! Come in and take a seat!" Mrs. Weasley ordered enthusiastically. "How are you? Really, you two are much too thin! Don't worry, I'll have dinner ready in a moment."

Aludra spotted Evan and Iris exchanging confused looks and Neville looking down the way he did to cover rolling his eyes in annoyance. No doubt the Potters were puzzled why Mrs. Weasley was acting like she owned the house, she thought grumpily. George caught her eye and rolled his own, making her smirk in agreement. It was a good thing he and Fred had such a bad relationship with their mother, she mused. Otherwise this could've put a lot of strain on their own relationship.

"I hope you've caught up with the others?" Mrs. Weasley went on. "Ron and Ginny were so looking forward to seeing you both!"

The two Potters grimaced. Aludra knew for a fact that Evan hated being around Ginny Weasley. Four years after they'd first met and she still stared at him silently all the time. Iris didn't like her either. Ginny and her best friend, Romilda Vane, spent half their time staring at Evan, and the other half nagging Iris for information on everything from what his favourite colour was to whether he was single.

As for Ron, he and Evan had been growing distant for quite some time, and by the end of last year they barely talked, a situation aggravated by Aludra's refusal to spend time around the youngest Weasley boy and Evan choosing her side. She simply couldn't deal with his vindictive comments anymore, and her friends agreed. Ron had drifted over to Seamus and Dean's little group instead. Aludra was glad he wasn't alone, because she didn't hate him that much (she had more important people to be angry with than a petty, immature child like Ron), but she was even happier that she was free of his vicious tongue.

Or she had been, until he and his family had unceremoniously moved into her home and violated her space. It was a good thing that Ravenshold had wards to keep the guests out of the family wings, otherwise she'd never be free of them.

"Yes, we talked with them," Iris said politely.

"They were about as helpful as his letters," Evan grumbled, earning a stern look from his parents. Neville flinched a bit and Aludra sent him a sympathetic look. They'd all known Evan would be angry at being shut out, but the risks of intercept were too great to risk.

"Evan!" Lady Potter scolded. "Don't be rude. You know that secrecy was needed in case of the owls being intercepted."

"Now I know, but someone could've at least mentioned it in the letters," Evan complained.

Aludra looked down at the table at that, guilt twisting her stomach. She hadn't exchanged any letters with the Potter children. They'd said they would, at the end of the term. But then she'd actually sat down to write one, and she just...couldn't. She knew there was only one thing they wanted to talk about with her, and she wasn't ready.

She wasn't sure if she ever would be.

"Don't blame your friends, Evan," Remus urged him gently. "You all have to listen to your parents."

"We know you're frustrated and feeling helpless, Evan, but now is not the time for this conversation," Lord Potter added.

Evan huffed, glaring at the table. Thankfully, dinner was then served (the Weasleys and Potters had been cooked for by Mrs. Weasley, but Millie had prepared the meal for everyone else, as they all agreed that Mrs. Weasley's cooking was both too heavy and repetitive-how many times could you cook a roast in one week?) and everybody was distracted by eating. Conversation picked up after several moments of awkward silence, with Neville choosing the neutral topic of their Herbology summer homework to keep Evan as distracted as possible from Aludra, who was quietly and deeply grateful for her best friend. She could sense the Potters (all four of them) continually glancing at her throughout the meal, but focused on talking to George and Fred to keep from meeting their eyes and risking having to talk to any of them.

Once they'd finished dinner, Mrs. Weasley was the first to rise to her feet. "Well then, I think it's bedtime for you lot," she stated decisively. "Evan, Iris, dears, we're not staying here. We're staying-"

"Wait a minute, Molly," Aludra's father cut in. He turned to the Potter children. "I know you two have questions, so I'm going to give you some very basic information to keep you from bothering Ally. Agreed?"

"Sirius-"

"Lily, you know from experience that information is power," Sirius insisted. "How many times did we end up running into an ambush in the First War because we had incorrect or incomplete intel? How many times did Voldemort use the information from Pettigrew to screw us over? No, they need to know at least the basics if we want them safe."

"They're not your children, Sirius," Mrs. Weasley objected. "And this suggestion just proves how lucky they are not to be. Bad enough that you're insisting on Aludra taking part in this-"

"Do not," Emma cut in icily. "Speak to my husband in that manner. I will remind you, again, that not only are you guests in our home, but you are vassals of our Family. Arthur, you are meant to be head of your household so for the love of the Goddess, control your wife. We are dangerously close to throwing her out of all Black properties."

Mrs. Weasley's face reddened in fury.

"How dare you-?" Mrs. Weasley began to demand, outraged, only to be cut off.

"Molly, Evan and Iris are not your children," Lord Potter said firmly. "I-"

"They're as good as!" She exclaimed shrilly before he could finish speaking, earning disbelieving looks from everyone. Lord and Lady Potter looked justifiably offended, and Evan and Iris annoyed.

"Enough, Molly," Mr. Weasley finally spoke up. "Take our lot back to Ravenshold."

"We're seventeen!" Fred and George howled instantly.

"I'm your mother and I say you go home!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.

"Mum, the twins are of age," Bill said firmly. "You can stop them joining the Order until they graduate, but you can't control them otherwise."

"Lily, you can't honestly agree with this?" Mrs. Weasley demanded, turning to Lady Potter for support. Lady Potter glanced at her children, then at her husband and then turned back to Mrs. Weasley.

"Sirius has a point, Molly," she sighed, earning herself a look of betrayal. "A lot of the deaths in the First War were due to lack of or incomplete information. I'll agree to my children learning the basics, and the basics only."

"Fine!" Mrs. Weasley said shrilly. "If you're all against me, fine! But I'll be telling Dumbledore about your disobedience, Sirius!"

"It's Lord Black to you, Mrs. Weasley," Sirius answered coldly. "And go ahead. Albus is not in charge of me, nor is he guardian to any of the children."

"Ron, Ginny, come on!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. "We're going back to Ravenshold!"

"Why do they get to hear and not us?" Ron protested.

"Mum, I want to hear!" Ginny wailed like a spoiled child.

"Now!" Mrs. Weasley bellowed, silencing them. To Aludra's relief, they left without further argument, though neither was quiet in their upset as they were herded through the Floo and Mrs. Weasley seemed ready to start hexing people.

She throws adult sized temper tantrums and Dad never stops her, George had once said bitterly about his mother when they were talking about their families. Aludra had come to truly understand that since the Weasleys had invaded her home. It seemed like there was an argument between Mrs. Weasley and one of the other adults daily, if not multiple times a day. Emma hadn't been joking when she warned that the older woman was close to being thrown out of the Blacks' property.

"I'm sorry for making a bad situation worse, Arthur," Emma said tiredly. "But I mean it when I say she is quickly wearing out her welcome in our home."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Em," Sirius insisted, giving Mr. Weasley a pointed look that made him flinch and grimace.

"I understand," he sighed. "I-I'll talk to her."

"Thank you," Sirius said curtly, before turning to Evan and Iris. "Alright, you two," he began. "Here's the bottom line. There's been no sign of Voldemort or any of his Death Eaters since May. Both sides have mostly been focusing on recruitment and preparation, but he has the advantage in that a lot of people don't believe that he's back."

"How come he isn't killing people?" Evan demanded. "Shouldn't there be disappearances, and attacks and stuff? That's what happened last time."

"That sort of thing would draw attention, make people start wondering if he really is back, not some imposter colluding with Pettigrew," Remus explained. "Ally messed up his plans last term. She wasn't supposed to survive, to spread the word."

"But why haven't you at least arrested the Death Eaters who she identified?" Iris asked. "Ally had a bunch of names, and the Aurors definitely duelled them."

"But nobody saw their faces," Sirius explained. "We need probably cause even just to bring them in for questioning, and unfortunately our society is still very slanted in favour of purebloods, especially wealthy purebloods, meaning just Voldemort's word and a few voices aren't enough. We're trying to gather enough to bring at least one in for questioning in the hopes of getting him to implicate the others, but it's slow going because Fudge is playing hardball, trying to interfere with DMLE activities. The Department is under the Crown's jurisdiction, same as the Department of Mysteries, but as Minister he can still make things tough for us."

"Fudge is an idiot," Evan complained bitterly. "I used to think he was alright, if not great, but clearly not." He shook his head in annoyance.

"Agreed," Sirius replied dryly. "At any rate, Voldemort needs to rebuild his army, but we have managed to make that harder on him with our reforms from the past decade. On the other hand, some of our Creature Laws have led to wixen who were sympathizers last time joining him outright this go around. We're working hard in the Wizengamot to make things as difficult politically as we can, but we lost a lot of prestige when Dumbledore lost his position as Chief Warlock."

"So the Order's just waiting around?" Evan huffed, clearly disappointed.

"We need to be careful how we do things," Lord Potter corrected him. "You can't understand how things were back in the First War. We were losing badly, no matter how much the Ministry likes to deny it. Voldemort was always one step ahead, sometimes more. Of course, now we understand why." He cut himself off, a bitter expression crossing his face and Lady Potter grabbed his hand.

Sirius and Remus stiffened at the allusion to their traitorous former friend. Emma reached over to rest a hand on Sirius's arm, while Tonks gave Remus an understanding look.

Lady Potter sighed and picked up the conversation. "I realize this doesn't look like much, but the Order really is working hard to counter Voldemort, sweethearts. We have a spy in their ranks, and we've all taken Unbreakable Vows not to knowingly pass information to his followers, though Snape's Vow had to be worded differently to accommodate his role as a double-agent. When he makes his move, we'll be ready for him."

"I don't understand why Fudge is refusing to believe the truth, even with Ally and the Aurors' testimonies," Iris spoke up after a moment of silence while the non-members considered this new information. "I mean, with those statements, and with Dumbledore-"

"And there's the key word as to why Fudge is being a moron," Tonks interrupted, snapping her fingers and pointing at the younger witch. "Dumbledore. Fudge is afraid of him."

The two Potter children stared at her in confusion. "Scared of Dumbledore?" Evan echoed in disbelief. "Why?"

"Scared of what he's up to," Mr. Weasley told them. "You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want —" Evan began.

"Of course he doesn't," agreed Mr. Weasley. "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired back in '90. 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 stated. "But it seems that he's become fond of power now, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of 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?" Evan demanded angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up — that Ally would 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," Sirius replied bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it, especially because he knows that he'd be voted out in heartbeat in favour of someone like Amelia or Rufus Scrimgeour if it was accepted.. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."

"You see the problem," Remus stated tiredly. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort, that it was just Pettigrew and Crouch colluding, 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 anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."

"But the Order is telling people, aren't you?" Evan pressed.

"Of course we are," Sirius confirmed, "but people in general like to believe that they're safe. They remember what it was like back then, and they're afraid, for themselves and for their families. They've convinced themselves that it's not true, because that way they can persuade themselves that they'll be safe, that they won't come home to find the Dark Mark over their houses and their families slaughtered."

Evan glanced at Aludra, who had remained silent, staring at her empty plate and holding George's hand beneath the table, this whole time. "Why is Ally-?" He began to say.

Sirius cut him off sternly.

"Aludra is in the Order because I want her to have all the facts," he insisted firmly. "She's Voldemort's prime target, and I want her to be ready. But that's a special circumstance based on her position in this war. Otherwise, you need to have graduated to join."

"But I want to help!" Evan objected. "Ally's always there for me when I need help. I owe it to her to be there for her now!"

"We both owe Ally more than we can ever repay," Iris added softly.

Aludra shifted in discomfort, knowing they weren't thinking about the many times she'd kept Evan from being killed at school. Her father answered, saving her from having to speak.

"If you want to help, then you can do so by not pestering her for answers she can't give you," Sirius told them firmly. "Others haven't been so good." He looked pointedly at Ron and Ginny's father, who winced at the jab. The pair were constantly trying to get Aludra to tell them what was going on. Neville, Susan and the twins weren't, but Aludra had no doubt if she wasn't George's girlfriend, he and Fred would be just as bad. They, she felt, actually had justification for being annoyed at not knowing what was going on, considering they were of age. But Ron and Ginny didn't seem to understand the seriousness of what was happening. They were just over-indulged children, sulking because they hadn't gotten their way.

Rather like their mother, she thought snidely.

"But-" Evan began to object.

"Alright," Iris interrupted. She shot her brother a pointed look. "It's not much, but it's a start. We won't bother Ally. I promise."

Evan glanced at her, then at Aludra, and sighed. "I promise too," he agreed.

"Good," Sirius nodded. "Now, onto the next topic. We're staying at Ravenshold. It's a private island belonging to the Blacks. It's very well protected and the villagers who live there are all sworn to our House. But emergencies can still happen, no matter how protected a place is. There will be a member of my team, counting Remus and Emma, there at all times. That person is in charge. If they tell you to do something, you do it. No ifs, ands or buts. You'll be in the guest wing. You may only enter the private wings with permission from myself, Emma, Ally or Remus. If you want to leave the mansion, you need to inform whoever is in charge, and your parents, and you need their permission. You cannot leave the manor alone. Understood?"

"Yes, Sirius," the two agreed, subdued.

"Good," he sighed. "Let's get going. I don't know about the rest of you, but I could do with crashing out."