While the Order deals with the Minister and tries to put Harry in safety, some feel powerless at Grimmauld Place.

RON XIX

The moment he heard his mother go down the stairs, Ron rushed out of his bedroom and went to join Hermione and Ginny in their own. His mother supposedly put them all to bed after Mrs Evans arrived at the headquarters and ordered them to sleep, but for a rare time in his life, Ron was not afraid enough of his mother to reluctantly follow her orders. He pushed the door to find Hermione and Ginny, and also Fred and George who had already joined them.

"Last one to arrive, little brother," Fred said.

"I'm almost taller than you are now, might I remind you," Ron retorted. But he turned immediately to Hermione. "So, what are we going to do?"

"What do you mean, what are we going to do?" Hermione asked.

"For Harry. We've got to help him," he said. It was an evidence.

"And what would you want us to do? We're stuck here. We can't leave. And Harry is out here, far away."

"Not that far away. He's in London, just like us."

"Could you find your way in London?"

Ron was speechless in front of that argument.

"I guess they're going to protect him," Ginny said. "That's what the reunion of the Order must be about."

"Let's hope so," Fred and George told in chorus.

"I can't believe that Dementors attacked him. I thought… I thought Dumbledore would have made sure Harry was safe," Hermione said.

"Well, he failed," Ron said gloomily.

Ron was beginning to be fed up that people always thought Dumbledore could arrange everything. If Dumbledore always arranged everything, he, Harry and Hermione would never have gone in the dungeons to take the Philosopher's Stone or in the Chamber of Secrets in their first years. Hermione would never have been Petrified. Dementors would not have fallen upon Harry during a Quidditch game. If Dumbledore could not stop hundreds of them from approaching in Hogwarts, no wonder he failed at stopping them far away in London. He couldn't even keep that Peter Pettigrew out of the school. And Dumbledore also failed to prevent Harry from falling face to face with You-Know-Who in June.

"But Harry must be fine," Ginny said. "I mean, if the Ministry is after him for using a Patronus Charm, that means he could repel them."

"His mother told us he was fine," Hermione said. "At least, he's alive. I hope they're going to bring him here. Some members of the Order have been discussing it, after all."

They all nodded. "Another idiot to join our group of idiots," Fred declared.

"The more idiots there are, the funnier it gets," George added.

"This is not funny," Ginny said. "Harry got attacked by Dementors and the Ministry wants to expel him from Hogwarts. They can't do that."

"No, they can't," Hermione said. "Harry used magic to defend himself. Laws are very clear. All wizards can use magic if their lives are in danger. Even if they are underage. It's so unfair."

"When has the Ministry ever been fair?" Fred and George asked together, in a tone that called for no answer.

"If the Ministry was fair, they would have fired Percy a long time ago," Ron muttered.

Again, everyone in the room silently agreed, but with even more vigor.

"With the way the Ministry is right now, I don't give much chance to Harry to go back to Hogwarts next year," Fred said, discouraged.

"Dumbledore will never allow it," Hermione countered.

"How can we know that?" Ron said. "You've seen how the Daily Prophet is treating him. Half the world believes he's an old fool now."

"Yes, but he went to the Ministry, and now he's coming here. He must have talked down the people there. And anyway, the Ministry cannot forbid Harry from practicing magic without a hearing."

"For all the good it will make," George said, obviously not convinced.

"With the way Fudge runs things, Harry will lose his wand two minutes after entering the Ministry," Fred added.

"Stop that!" Ginny said. "Stop being so pessimistic. Harry is alive. It's already something. We should be relieved by this."

"Of course, we are," Ron retorted. "But we're worried about him all the same." He sighed. "Now, what are they going to do? Dumbledore, the Order… What are they going to do about Harry?"

"Too bad we can't attend the meetings," Fred pointed out, not for the first time.

"They'll do something, I'm sure," Hermione said. "They have to. Maybe they will bring him here."

"Well, that would be a great idea!" Ron declared theatrically. "It's dusty, muddy, and filled with stuff that wants to kill us, but it would be great. Why didn't they bring Harry here from the very beginning? I'm sorry, but I don't see why they would let Harry spend most of his days alone in the middle of London. It's stupid. Do you think he would have been attacked by Dementors if he had been with us from the start?"

No one answered, for Ron knew that everyone knew he was right. Harry would have been far away from Dementors if he had been brought to Grimmauld Place at the same time as they were. Why in hell didn't Dumbledore make him come here right away? Not long after they settled in this house, Dumbledore came and told them to write nothing about where they were or what they were doing to Harry. When Ron had asked him why Harry couldn't come now, Dumbledore said he had his reasons. Even Harry's mother, the few times they saw her, couldn't tell them why Harry wasn't coming here yet. Only their parents told them they thought that Harry would come eventually, without giving details.

"Dumbledore said he had his reasons," Hermione said.

"Dumbledore, yes. He didn't give us many details about his reasons."

"Who knows?" Fred said. "At least, Ginny will get to see Harry soon, won't she?"

"Stop playing the fool," Ginny retorted very seriously. "This is no time for jokes. Who knows how Harry is right now. You remember what happened the last time Dementors fell upon him? You want to see him make a hundred feet fall again?"

"At least, he will be good looking again," George shrugged.

"Stop making jokes! This is not the time!" Hermione shrieked.

"What do you want us to do, Hermione?" Fred countered.

"We're just trying to relax the atmosphere," George added. "We may be able to Apparate now, but we cannot go and bring Harry back here."

"Mother would kill us," Fred said.

"For real," George completed.

Ron wasn't certain whether Fred and George were joking or not this time. But he was fed up with this situation. His best friend was out there, probably in danger, and here they were, locked into an old, crumbling home, with an old house-elf with a tenth of his mind remaining.

"Why don't they tell us what they're going to do?" he burst all of a sudden, causing Hermione to jump. "Come on! It's Harry. If they don't want us to know what they're doing against You-Know-Who, they could at least tell us what they're going to do about our friend!"

It was probably the frustration coming out, but to Ron it was justified. They were stuck into this ruined house, cleaning and trying to make it a livable place, while their friend was out, his life at risk, and no one wanted to tell them anything.

"We will ask your mother," Hermione said after a moment. "Once their meeting is over, we will ask them. I agree, we have to know what's happening with Harry."

"And if they refuse to tell us, I'm throwing Dungbombs at them," Ginny said.

"We'll help you," the twins said, the three looking deadly serious.

For a moment, Ron imagined Dumbledore and Mad-Eye covered by Dungbombs. But Mad-Eye would probably think they were trying to kill him and one of them might be transfigured into a rat or something… if they were lucky.

"What are we waiting for?" George asked, producing one of their Extendable Ears.

Fred and George created them this summer. They used them to spy on the Order's meeting at the beginning, until their mother found out and went on rampage. She confiscated all the Ears. Or so she thought. Fred and George managed to hide a few she couldn't get her hands on.

"Your mother is going to kill you if she sees any of them," Hermione said.

"It may be worth the risk, Hermione," Ginny said. "Harry just almost got killed, remember."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "True."

"So, then…" Fred began, but they heard footsteps at this very moment.

Fred and George hid the Extendable Ears in their clothes immediately. A second later, their mother came in. Ron expected her to be furious, but instead, she just sighed heavily.

"I should have expected you would all be up," she muttered in an angry, frustrated tone, but far from the outburst Ron might have feared.

"Is Harry alright?" Hermione asked on the spot. "What's going to happen to him? Mrs Weasley, I know you don't want to tell us much about what the Order is doing, but I think we have the right to know what you intend to do with Harry?"

The last words of Hermione were drowned by the questions coming from all the other Weasleys in the room except Ron's mother. After a moment though, she boomed.

"Silence, you all! I came to tell you that Harry is coming."

Ron was almost stunned. He didn't expect it would be that easy.

"Seriously?" the five of them asked together.

"Yes, he is. Lily, Sirius and Remus have gone to bring him here. He will be here very soon, no more than in a few hours. Now," she continued, taking a more serious, threatening tone. "He's been through a lot this evening. I have no doubt you are eager to see him, but we're going to give him a good night of sleep. You'll be able to see him tomorrow morning, when he wakes up. So you go to bed now, all of you."

"Wait, Mom. We should be waiting for him," Ron protested.

"Out of the question! We still have a lot of work to do, and I won't have you standing up the whole night and sleeping tomorrow, all that so you can bombard Harry with questions the moment he arrives. You let him rest, and then you'll see him. You will not make things even worse for him tonight. No discussion," she added threateningly. "You go to your chambers right away. Now!"

They all protested, some very loudly, but their mother got her way, like she always did. Less than five minutes later, Ron was forcibly put into bed by psychological means. He heard his mother check on whether he was sleeping or not about five times, and from her footsteps he could hear, he suspected she verified his brothers' and the girls' chambers as well.

Ron couldn't sleep, and he was sure that no one could sleep tonight. How could they, with the news that their friend was assaulted by Dementors, and that he was finally coming to stay here? Their father recently more or less let it slip that Harry might come to stay here soon, but he didn't give them any details.

Ron was frustrated, like many of them, to not be informed about what the Order was doing. What were they afraid of? Did they fear that they might reveal their plans or activities to Draco Malfoy in September or what? They were forced to stay inside this house, spending their entire days cleaning, while the others were carrying really important missions to fight You-Know-Who. Hermione said that making the headquarters a livable and safe place was an important mission, but that wasn't really Ron's impression when they tried to remove encrusted dust from the corners of the living room.

Ron didn't find it fair that they were confined to the inside of a house literally trying to kill its new occupants while everyone else was free of their movements. This included Harry. Through their exchange of letters, Harry gave the impression of being frustrated of being kept in the dark like they were, but there were times when Ron found that his best friend didn't have much to complain about. He lived in the same place with his mother that he had for years, he could go outside and do what he wanted, and he wasn't forced to play cleaning man. And from what Ron could tell and the many times he mentioned her, Harry was spending quite a lot of time with his girlfriend.

Ever since the Yule Ball, Ron couldn't shake the impression that his best friend was moving away from him, right after Ron did everything he could to mend things between them. Ron recognized he was wrong to think Harry actually wanted to participate to the Triwizard Tournament, but he had done everything to mend his mistakes. However, he couldn't help but feel Susan Bones was stealing away his best friend. Perhaps it also had to do with the fact that the girl was Hannah Abbott's best friend. Ron was relieved to not be with her anymore. The truth was that Hannah was getting on his nerves, after the initial bliss at the beginning of their short relationship. It made Ron feel good to have a girlfriend. Harry had his own, who just happened to be this girl's best friend, and Hermione had Viktor Krum. At least he was gone, and Ron didn't have to see his other best friend getting away too.

But to his shame, Ron felt jealous. He felt jealous that Harry got to spend his whole summer free, and with the girl he loved. This looked like paradise when compared to what Ron and the others here were enduring, almost cut from the outside world. In his letters, Harry often mentioned the fact he spent his days with Susan. And his letters to Hermione were way more detailed about that. There were moments when Ron got the impression that Harry had an easy life, and that his mother even told him secrets about the Order and what they were doing. After all, Harry was aware of the Order's existence long before he and Hermione were. And his mother seemed much more open than Ron's mother was.

Of course, this was when Ron didn't think about how the Hungarian Horntail, the freezing Black Lake and You-Know-Who tried to kill Harry at every turn last year. And now there were the Dementors. As hard as it was to admit, maybe Ron's parents were right and remaining inside the twelve, Grimmauld Place, was actually the best thing to do. And it enraged him further about the fact they didn't do the same for Harry. If they really wanted to keep him safe, why didn't they bring him here at the very beginning of the summer holidays? He would have been with them from the very beginning furthermore. Life in Grimmauld Place would have been way more bearable.

Ron stayed awakened for a very long time. He usually could fall asleep easily, and when he fell asleep, he wouldn't wake up, but tonight he wouldn't. How could he sleep knowing his best friend just survived a Dementor attack and was finally coming to stay with them? He didn't know how long it took, but he thought he heard something on the first floor after a long time. Then people climbing the stairs. Then he heard his mother whispering, but could still clearly understand what she was saying.

"Be careful to not wake Ron up. He's sleeping. You'll be able to talk to him tomorrow."

The door opened. Ron closed his eyes and faked snoring so that they would believe he was sleeping. He would reopen his eyes once his mother was away.

"Have a good night, Harry. You deserve some rest."

His mother closed the door. Ron remained with his eyes closed for a moment in fear she might come back. But before he reopened them…

"Ron, stop it. I've been hearing you snore for the past four years. You really think I won't recognize them?"

He opened his eyes right away and lit the lamp.

"Hey, mate. It's good to see you," Ron said while standing up.

"Yeah, it's good to see you too," Harry replied.

Right away, Ron knew something was wrong. Perhaps it was the poor light, but Harry looked pale. And bored.

"Are you alright?"

"Am I alright? I just got attacked by Dementors! How do you think I am?" his best friend abruptly replied.

"Well…" Ron stammered. "You're alive, and you're here now."

"Yes, I'm here. I think it's very clear," Harry replied gloomily.

Harry sat down on the other bed in the room, the one which was not occupied by Ron. This was not really the kind of reunion Ron was hoping for with his best friend.

"Hey, look, it's okay now. The Dementors are no longer here. They haven't hurt you, haven't they?" he asked, a little concerned. He knew that Harry was more heavily affected by the Dementors than the others. But if he managed to create a Patronus, then that meant he succeeded to push them back. They would have to thank Lupin for that.

"No, they haven't hurt me, Ron. They just brought back to the surface the worst memories I ever had, like they did every time. That now includes the night when Voldemort returned and Cedric was murdered."

Ron grimaced at the mention of the name. "Well, okay, but aside from this, you're alright, aren't you?" He took a more affirmative tone, trying to sound positive. But Harry looked furious at him.

"Have you been attacked by a Dementor recently?" he asked on an accusing tone.

"No, I haven't, but…"

"Then the next time you meet one of them, I'll tell you that you're alright, and we'll see how you take it."

Well, the reunion was really not going the way Ron hoped. He thought Harry would be glad to see him again. But it was true that he also had some reasons to not be happy, given he was attacked only a few hours ago.

"Hey, listen, mate, I'm really sorry about what happened, but…"

Before he could finish, the door opened, and Hermione and Ginny came in. Hermione, though, literally rushed on Harry.

"Harry! You're here!" She hugged him so tight that she almost knocked him out.

"Hermione, leave him some space to breathe," Ron said, a little uncomfortable. He didn't remember the last time Hermione rushed on him like that, but he was sure it could have strangled him.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sorry," Hermione said, releasing their friend. Fred and George arrived at this moment.

"Hey, Harry, glad to see you back," Fred said, all smiles.

"And? Have the Dementors regretted coming face to face with you?" George asked, still on a playful tone. Like Ron feared from his early discussion with his best friend, Harry didn't take it well.

"Well, I do know that Susan was not happy about coming face to face with them," he retorted.

Hermione spoke right after. "Susan? Wait. She was assaulted as well?"

"She was with me when the Dementors came on us!" Harry roared, which made all of them, except Ginny maybe, take a step back, although she wasn't as close to Harry as the others. "When my Patronus pushed them back, one of them had his lips a mere inch from her mouth."

Ron shivered at the thought. They knew what a Dementor's kiss did, and the mere idea was horrible. No wonder that Harry was in a gloomy state. Ron thought he understood better now. His girlfriend almost got killed an hour ago.

"Is she alright?" Hermione asked right away, sounding very worried.

"She's still alive, and she still has her soul, if you describe it as being alright," Harry shot, still looking furious.

"Harry, I'm really sorry," Hermione said. "We had no idea that Susan was attacked too."

"Like you have no idea what it is to spend an entire summer reading newspapers that treat you like you're crazy, not knowing at all what is going on, and receiving letters from your friends who keep repeating you, we cannot say what very important thing we are doing because Dumbledore asked us to not tell you anything in case our letters are lost?"

That was it. They had reached the heart of the matter.

"We tried to write to you, Harry…" Hermione began.

"You tried, well, you failed miserably. Even Susan was getting tired of your letters that said nothing," Harry shot back.

"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," Ron interrupted, not wanting to let Hermione speak. She could make very poor choice of words sometimes. "We did, mate. But he's really busy now, we've only seen him twice since we came here, and he didn't have much time even then. He just made us swear to not tell you important stuff when we wrote. He said the owls might be intercepted. And we thought your mother might have been telling you some things."

Harry snorted. "I've barely seen my mother of the whole summer. She's always out, either working for the Ministry or the Order. And she refused all the time I asked to tell me what she was doing."

Ron felt disappointed. "Oh. We were hoping that she might have told you something…"

"Our parents don't let us attend the meetings here either," Ginny interrupted this time. "They're not telling us anything."

"But we've been able to learn a few things all the same," Fred said, producing one of the thin straws of skin color.

"Expendable Ears. Excellent to spy and hear secrets other people wouldn't want you to hear," George announced as if it was a new product.

"We used them to listen to the early meetings of the Order, before Mom found them and confiscated most."

"Okay, so you know what has been going on?" Harry asked.

"More or less…" Hermione began.

"Then tell me. You no longer need to send owls that could be intercepted, so you have no excuse to keep me in the dark," Harry said aggressively.

"Well, we know that some members of the Order are recruiting new people. And they're also following known Death Eaters, spying on them."

"They also always talk about guard duty all the time," Ginny added.

"Could it be me?" Harry asked on a sarcastic tone.

"Oh, yeah," Ron confirmed. Now it all made sense. This was Harry that the Order was guarding. Not that they did a very good job either. They allowed Dementors near him, after all.

"So… what was this very important thing you were doing?" Harry asked, still in a dark mood. It was not very enjoyable, but it was better than having their friend ignoring them or shouting at them.

"We've been decontaminating the house," Hermione quickly answered.

Harry frowned. "What do you mean by decontaminating?"

"We've been cleaning the whole place," Ron summarized in a gloomy voice as well, showing clearly by his tone that he found it was stupid.

"Seriously? You've been cleaning? That's the very important thing that was dangerous to talk about in a letter?" Harry asked, outraged.

"Hey, that's not what you think," Ron defended themselves. "This whole place has been empty forever. There's not a single corner without something dangerous. When this something is not trying to outright kill us. We only cleaned the kitchen and some of the chamber so far, and it's been a real ordeal."

"Worse than facing Dementors?"

No one dared to reply. Ron knew that Harry got the right to be angry, but he should stop thinking they were having fun here.

"And why does this place need to be cleaned in the first place?" Ron's best friend further asked. "What is this place?"

"This is the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Hermione explained.

"That, I had already guessed. But what is this place? Why did the Order install its headquarters in such a hole?"

"Well, maybe because it has all the magical protection someone could think of. Sirius' ancestors look to have been really crazy."

They only had to think about the portrait of his mother in the entrance hall to get an idea about it. Harry frowned again.

"What do you mean, Sirius' ancestors? What does Sirius get to do with all of this?"

Ron was surprised by the question, but it was Hermione who answered first.

"Sirius never brought you here?" she asked, surprised as well.

"Why would he bring me here?"

"Well, this is his house," Ron stated, which was an evidence.

"Or at least, the house in which he grew up. This is his family's house," Ginny specified.

Harry looked interested for once. "This is the house where Sirius grew up?" he asked. They all nodded. "He never loved his family. I guess this is why he never talked to me about it."

"No wonder he hates this place," Ron declared. "Between all the things that are trying to kill us and his mother's horrible portrait at the entrance, this is no wonder. She's even worse than our own mother in real life."

"Don't say that, Ron," Hermione said, insulted.

"Well, he's not entirely wrong, this time," Fred said. "Our mother can be pretty horrible when she wants."

"Stop that. It's not funny," Ginny cut short. She then turned to Harry. "Look, Harry, I know you must not be happy to be kept in the dark, but we are as well. At least, you had the right to wander out. We have all been kept behind close doors for weeks now. And you weren't that alone from what we understood in your letters."

It was hard to miss what Ginny meant by that. Ron's little sister had a crush on Harry from the day they met. Although she managed to speak to him now, Ron suspected she was not happy to see Harry with another girl and getting news that he spent the first half of the summer with her. Ginny had gotten better to taunt all of them, including Fred and George. She even put Ron back to his place more than once, including by reminding him of his stupid decision to date Hannah Abbott last year. Something Ron both regretted and missed.

"So… your parents are both in the Order?" Harry asked, his voice sounding less harsh, but still resentful.

"Yes," Ron confirmed. "We left home about a week after summer began. Bill and Charlie are in the Order too."

"Really?" Harry now looked more curious than anything. "I thought they were in Egypt and Romania."

"Charlie is still in Romania," Fred said. "Dumbledore wants agents in other countries, so Charlie is trying to gather information and to recruit more agents there. As for Bill, he took a desk job to come back home. With some advantages."

The twin brothers exchanged a knowing smile. Ron knew what they meant, and he felt something in his neck thinking about Fleur Delacour. He was still afraid of how she might react if their paths crossed again. It seemed she didn't hold it against Bill though.

"So there are many people in the Order?" Harry asked.

"There's also your mother, Sirius, Professor Lupin, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, a few Aurors, and a few other people. We saw about twenty of them, but we believe there are others."

"And there's Snape," Ginny added, a grimace on her face, which all of them shared.

"Snape is in the Order?" Harry asked, unbelieving.

"He's on our side now," Hermione reminded them, but she was clearly the only one to share her own idea.

"Even Bill doesn't like him," Ginny said, settling the matter.

"What is he doing for the Order?" Harry asked, obviously upset that Snape was part of the Order as well.

"We couldn't find out," Fred answered. "Even when our Expandable Ears worked. He's not saying a lot. I suspect he's hiding things."

"It seems that even within the Order, some people don't know entirely what the others are doing," Hermione said. "There are top secret missions that are not shared with everybody."

This seemed to discourage Harry again. "And Percy? He's in the Order too?"

If the mood was dark because of Snape, it got even worse at the mention of Percy's name.

"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mom and Dad," Ron warned his best friend.

"Why?"

They went on to explain what happened between their father and Percy, how he left the house, saying he was no longer a Weasley, declaring he was loyal to the Ministry.

"Is he crazy?" Harry asked when they were done explaining. Their faces showed an answer was not required. "What, does he believe what the Daily Prophet and Fudge are saying about Dumbledore?"

"And about you too," Hermione said. "Yes, he does. The Daily Prophet has really been horrible. They say…"

"I know, Hermione," Harry said, frustrated. "No need to tell me. I've been reading it since summer began, and when I didn't, it was Susan who told me what they were writing. Someone in the tower where we lived even moved out because she didn't want to live next to a crazy boy. And once, I crossed the path of Lavender when she came to visit Parvati, and she looked at me as if I was carrying some sort of plague."

Ron rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe that Harry dated a girl like that. He was thinking about Parvati, of course. Though in some way, maybe Lavender was even worse, but the fact that Parvati was her best friend said lots of things.

"Well, many people seem to believe the Daily Prophet," Hermione informed him. "I wonder how they're going to present the Dementors' attack."

"I'm eager to see it," Ron said, imagining what crazy inventions this newspaper would invent this time to explain this.

"I guess they will jump on the occasion to depict me as an unstable boy who believes he can use magic whenever he wants and that I will soon be kicked out of Hogwarts and have my wand confiscated because I'm not responsible enough to use magic," Harry complained.

"What?" Hermione said. "They can't do that."

"Yes, they can, Hermione. Or else, why do you think they summoned me to a disciplinary hearing." That was something none of them were aware of.

"What? But… They can't do that," Hermione protested.

"Yes, they can. They almost confiscated my wand this very evening. They stopped because Dumbledore and my mother stopped them before they could do it. Something to do with the laws. I think they cannot confiscate my wand without a hearing."

"No, they can't," Hermione confirmed. "And anyway, young wizards can use magic when they are in situation of danger. We used it last summer during the Quidditch World Cup, when the Death Eaters attacked, and no one had any problem."

"Something is telling me that Fudge will not care," Fred said, and they all agreed silently.

"There's got to be a way to get you out of this," Ron said. "I mean, Dad knows a lot of people in the Ministry. And Dumbledore…"

"Dumbledore is not very popular in the Ministry right now, little brother," George reminded him.

"Harry…" Hermione went on. "You must be so afraid. But they cannot confiscate your wand. They cannot deprive you of the right to use magic. You were only defending yourself. It's so unfair. The law allows you…"

"I know, Hermione. And it's fine. Amelia Bones is going to preside my hearing, so it should be alright."

"Amelia Bones? Wait, that's not your girlfriend's aunt?" Ron asked.

"Yes, that's her. My mother told me on our way here."

A wave of relief crashed over Ron at this news. "Well, then you're safe. Just tell her you saved her niece, and she will let you leave immediately."

"Susan always told me her aunt was impartial and fair," Hermione said. "It should go well in this case." She seemed to be trying to convince herself to a certain extent.

"Yes, I guess," Harry muttered.

He didn't look convinced at all.

Harry may not have been as vocal as in canon, but he was angry nonetheless.

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Next chapter: Lily