Chapter 13: The Order of the Phoenix
"Not here, boy! " Moody growled. "Wait until we're inside!"
He tore the piece of parchment from Harry's hands and set it on fire with the tip of his wand. As the message twisted into flames and floated to the ground, Harry looked back at the houses next door.
Harry looked intently, and as soon as they had reached the spot at number twelve Grimmauld Place, a rather broken door sprang up from nowhere between numbers eleven and thirteen, immediately followed by dirty walls and gloomy windows. It was as if an extra house had swelled, displacing those next to it from its path. Harry's jaw dropped at the sight of it.
"Come on, hurry," Moody growled, shoving Harry from behind.
Harry climbed the stone steps and stood before a door that had just materialized. Lupin took out his wand and knocked once on the door with it. Harry heard metallic clicks and what appeared to be the clatter of a chain. The door creaked open.
"Come in quickly, Harry," Lupin whispered, "but don't go too far when you're inside, and don't touch anything.
Harry stepped through the doorway into the pitch darkness of the hall. He could smell the dampness, the dust, and a sweet smell that seemed rooted in the place; The site gave the impression of an abandoned building. He looked over his shoulder and saw the others coming in behind him, Lupin and Tonks carrying their trunk and Hedwig's cage.
Moody limped inside and closed the front door so that the darkness of the hall became complete.
The silent voices of the others gave Harry a strange foreboding; It was as if they had entered the house of a dead person. He heard a soft, hissing noise, and then some old-fashioned gas lamps came alive along the walls, casting a flickering, dim light on the peeling wallpaper and threadbare carpet for a while. The dark corridor was dimly lit by a faint light reflected by a spider's web from the ceiling and the frames of portraits blackened by the years that hung crooked from the walls.
Harry heard something behind the skirting board. Both the spider's web and the candlesticks on a rickety table nearby seemed to be shaped like snakes.
There was the sound of rapid footsteps, and Mrs. Weasley stepped out of a door at the end of the hall. She was smiling to greet them and ran quickly towards them, though Harry noticed that she was quite a bit thinner and paler than the last time he had seen her.
"Oh, Harry, it's great to see you again!" She whispered, squeezing him into a hug before grabbing him by the arm and examining him critically. "You're too thin, you need to eat, though I'm afraid you'll have to wait a little for dinner."
She turned to the gang of wizards behind him and whispered urgently,
"He's just arrived, the meeting has already begun. "
The wizards behind Harry made sounds of interest and excitement and began to pass one after the other toward the door through which Mrs. Weasley had just emerged. Harry made a gesture to follow Lupin, but Mrs. Weasley held him back.
"No, Harry, the meetings are only for members of the Order. Ron and Hermione are upstairs, you can wait with them until the meeting is over, then we'll have dinner. " She led him through a horrible corridor and saw two house elves along the way.
"Mrs. Weasley, why—"
"Ron and Hermione will explain everything to you, my dear, I really must leave in a hurry," said Mrs. Weasley absently. "They were reaching the second floor, your door is the one on the right, Ginny will reach you in a while. I'll call you back. "
And again, she quickly disappeared down the stairs. Harry crossed the gloomy floor, walked over to the door handle, which was shaped like a snake's head, and opened the door. He glanced briefly at the gloomy ceiling of the room; Then, a loud noise was heard, followed by an even more powerful screech, and the thickness of a large amount of hair completely obscured his vision. Hermione lunged at him in a hug that nearly deflated him, as Ron's tiny owl, Pidwidgeon, buzzed excitedly, over and over again, around their heads.
"HARRY! Ron, he's here, Harry's here! We didn't hear you coming! Oh, how are you? Are you ok? Have you been furious with us? I bet you were, I know our letters were useless... But we couldn't tell you anything. Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn't tell you anything, oh, we have a lot to tell you and you have to tell us too... the Dementors! When we hear – and that view of the Ministry – it is simply a scandal! I've been getting informed, that they can't expel you, they just can't, there's a provision in the Decree Restricting the Use of Magic in Minors that allows magic to be used in life-or-death situations. "
"Give her a break, Hermione," Ron said, smiling as he closed the door behind Harry. Still smiling, Hermione set Harry free, but before she could say another word, a soft flutter was heard, and something white shot out from the top of the dark closet and landed gently on Harry's shoulder.
The whitish owl snapped its beak and nibbled at its ear affectionately, while Harry stroked its feathers.
"He's been very comfortable," Ron said. "Pecking us to death when he brought your last letters.
"Oh, yes," Harry said. "I'm sorry, but I needed answers, I know you understand..."
"We wanted to give them to you, buddy," Ron said. "Hermione thought it was too much. I kept saying what would you do something stupid if you felt abandoned and without news, but Dumbledore made us...
"Swear you wouldn't tell me anything," Harry said. "Yes, Hermione said so. "
The warm feeling that had ignited in him at the sight of his two best friends had been extinguished, and now something icy was flooding the pit of his stomach. In an instant, after he had been pining to see everyone for an endless month, he felt that he would have preferred Ron and Hermione to leave him alone at that moment.
There was a tense silence in which Harry caressed Hedwig automatically, without looking at either of them.
"I think he thought it was for the best," Hermione said almost breathlessly, "Dumbledore, I mean. "
"Good," Harry said. He noticed that Hermione's hands were also scarred by Hedwig's pecks and found that she wasn't sorry for them at all.
"I think he thought you'd be safer with Muggles," Ron began.
"Yes? " Harry said, raising his eyebrows. "Have any of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?"
"Well, no, but that's what he's got the Order of the Phoenix people to watch you for all the time. "
Harry felt a great jolt in his gut as if he had jumped a step down the stairs. That meant everyone knew he was being watched, except him.
"That didn't work so well, though, did it?" Harry said, doing his best to keep his voice intact, in the same tone. "I had to take care of myself after all, didn't I?"
"He was very angry," Hermione said, in a respectful voice. "Dumbledore. We saw it. When he discovered that Mundungus had left before his shift was over. He was very scared. "
"Well, I'm glad he was gone," Harry said coldly. "If I hadn't, I wouldn't have done magic, and Dumbledore probably would have left me for the rest of the summer on Privet Drive. "
"Aren't you... Aren't you worried about the visit to the Ministry of Magic?" Hermione said calmly.
"No," Harry said defiantly.
He walked away from them, looking around, Hedwig curled up on his shoulder, but that room didn't seem to help him chase away their spirits. It was dark and gloomy. It was those well-known slippers at the bedside that brought him back to calm.
"Then why is Dumbledore so keen to keep me hidden?" Harry asked, still trying to make his tone of voice sound casual. "Have any of you asked him?"
He glanced at the very moment when he saw the two of them exchanging a look that told him he was behaving as they feared he would. But this didn't improve his mood.
"We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on," Ron said. "We did, buddy. But he's very busy now, we've only seen him twice since we got here and he didn't have much time. He just made us swear that we wouldn't tell you anything important when we wrote to you. He said the owls could be intercepted. "
"But he could have kept me informed if he wanted to," Harry said curtly. "Don't talk me out that he has no way to text me without using owls. Maybe it's because he thinks he can't trust me. "
"Don't be an idiot," Ron said, looking at him in bewilderment.
"Or that I can't take care of myself. "
"Surely he doesn't think so!" Hermione said eagerly.
"Then how is it that I have to be with the Dursleys while everyone is aware of what's going on here?" Harry said, as his words piled on top of each other hurriedly, his voice raising higher with each word he uttered. "How is it that you are allowed to know everything that is going on?"
"We're not allowed!" Ron interrupted. "My mother doesn't let us hear what they say in meetings, she says we're too young. "
But before he knew it, Harry was screaming.
"SO YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TO THE MEETINGS, WHAT A BIG DEAL! BUT YOU'VE BEEN HERE, HAVEN'T YOU? YOU'VE BEEN TOGETHER! I, I'VE BEEN PUTTING UP WITH THE DURSLEYS! FOR A MONTH! AND I'VE BEEN WRAPPED UP IN MORE THAN EITHER OF YOU TWO HAS EVER BEEN INVOLVED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT: WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE? WHO DELIVERED RIDDLE'S DIARY? WHO SAVED HIMSELF FROM THE DEMENTORS?
All the bitterness and resentment Harry had been enduring for the past month was coming out of him: his frustration at the absence of news, the damage it had done him that they were all together without counting on him, his anger that they had been following him without anyone telling him, all the feelings he was half-ashamed of were finally overflowing.
"WHO HAD TO BEAT DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND ALL THAT STUPID STUFF LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM?! "
Ron was standing with his mouth half open, totally petrified and unable to find anything to say, while Hermione seemed to be on the verge of tears.
"BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD NO ONE TELL ME WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON? "
"Harry, we wanted to tell you, we wanted to," Hermione began.
"YOU DIDN'T WANT IT TOO MUCH, DID YOU? 'CAUSE OTHERWISE YOU WOULD HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR"
"Well, yes, he did. "
"FOUR WEEKS HANGING OUT ON PRIVET DRIVE, STEALING NEWSPAPERS FROM TRASH CANS TO TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON. "
"Wanted"
"I SUPPOSE YOU'VE ALL HAD A GOOD TIME, HAVEN'T YOU? ALL HERE TOGETHER, SUPPORTING EACH OTHER. "
"No, honestly "
"Harry, we're so sorry!" said Hermione, desperately, her eyes shining with tears. "You're right, Harry, I'd be furious if it had happened to me!"
"Anyway, what place is this?" He snapped at Ron and Hermione.
"The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix," Ron finally said.
"Are any of you going to tell me what the Order of the Phoenix is?"
"It's a secret society," Hermione said quickly. "Dumbledore is in charge, he founded it. They're the people who fought Who-You-Know last time. "
"Who's in it?" Harry asked, pausing with his hands in his pockets.
"Quite a few people, we've met about twenty of them," said Ron, "but we think there's more. "
Harry glared at them. "Well?" he asked, looking from one to the other.
"eh," Ron said. "Well, what?"
"Voldemort!" said Harry angrily, and both Ron and Hermione shuddered. "What's going on? What is he up to? Where is he? What are they doing to stop him?
"We've told you; the Order won't let us be at their meetings," Hermione said nervously. "That's why we don't know the details, but we have a general idea, the only one they'll let in is Ginny. Even right now she's there. "
At the name of the person he most longed to see, anger left for a moment and only pain remained. He knew that during the summer she never sent him letters, she had told him that she wouldn't when they separated at the station. However, that didn't make it any less painful.
His friends continued talking, and when he was finally able to give them his attention, they were talking about more topics.
"They're always talking about watching something. "
"Maybe they meant me, didn't they?" Harry said sarcastically.
"Oh, yes," Ron said, with a sympathetic look.
Harry sighed angrily. He began to pace the room again, looking everywhere but at Ron and Hermione.
"So what have you been so busy with?"
"We've been decontaminating this house. It's been empty for years and a lot of disgusting stuff has been feeding here. We have managed to clean the kitchen, and almost all the rooms and I think we are going to start with the living room tomo...AAAARGH!
With two strong cracks, Fred and George had materialized in the air, in the middle of the room.
"Hello, brother-in-law," said George, smiling at him. "We thought we heard your sweet tone of voice.
"Don't hold back your anger, Harry let out everything you've got inside," Fred said, also smiling. "There must be a couple of people in fifty miles around who haven't heard you.
Together, they brought him up to date on what was going on in the Weasley family
"Whatever you do, don't mention Percy in front of Mum and Dad," Ron told Harry in a strained voice.
–Why not?
"Because every time Percy's name is mentioned, my father breaks something he's holding and my mother starts crying," Fred said.
"It's been awful," Ron said.
"What happened? " Harry asked.
"Percy and Dad argued," Fred said. "I've never seen Dad fight with anyone like that. Usually, the one who screams is Mum.
"Percy came home and told us he'd been promoted"
"Are you kidding?" said Harry. Percy had made the great mistake of not realizing that his boss had been controlled by Lord Voldemort (though the Minister would not have believed it, since everyone believed that Mr. Crouch had gone mad).
"Yes, we were all surprised," said George, "because Percy got into a lot of trouble with Crouch, there was an interrogation and all that. They said Percy should have realized Crouch was crazy and informed a superior. "
"He came home very pleased with himself, even more so than usual, if you can imagine, and told Dad that he had been offered a position in Fudge's own office. A very good position for someone who has only been out of Hogwarts for a year: Junior Assistant to the Minister. I think he expected Dad to be impressed. "
"Only Dad wasn't," Fred said, smiling openly. "Fudge was swearing all over the Ministry, currently Dumbledore has a very bad reputation in the Ministry, everyone thinks he's just trying to stir up trouble by saying that You-Know-Who is back. "
"The point is, Percy lost his temper. Said... Well, he said a lot of horrible things. He said that he has been fighting against Dad's very bad reputation since he entered the Ministry and that Dad has no ambition and that's why we have always been... Well, you know... I mean we don't have a lot of money... "
"What? " Harry said.
"And it was even worse. He said that Dad was an idiot for hanging around Dumbledore, that Dumbledore was the head of big trouble that Dad was going to fall with him, and that he—Percy—knew where his faithfulness lay and that it was in the Ministry. And that if Mum and Dad were going to become traitors to the Ministry, he was going to make sure that no one would ever know again that he belonged to our family. So, he packed his bags that same night and left. He is now living here in London. "
Harry was too surprised, he hadn't expected that from him.
"But Percy must know that Voldemort is back," Harry said quietly. "He's not stupid, he needs to know that your mother and father wouldn't risk everything without any proof. And while he may think I'm a liar, there's no way he can't believe Ginny. "
"Yes, well, Ginny was involved too," Ron said, giving Harry a furtive look, he knew his friend was prone to blowing up when his sister's name was said for something bad. "Percy says that since Ginny has never said anything about whether it's true or not, he's certainly doing the right thing."
"What are you talking about? " Harry asked, looking around at all of them. Everyone was staring back at him in fear.
"Ginny has been silent about this whole thing," Hermione said at last, after a long silence that no one else dared to break. "Professor Dumbledore has forced her to attend every meeting to force her to talk about what's going to happen and what's going on, but she refuses to talk, she hasn't uttered a word since we've gone on holiday. "
"We only heard her voice once. " Fred corrected her bitterly. "When the first night we spent here she screamed so much in her sleep that Mum started putting on silencing spells every night in this room. Of course, everyone's terror increased greatly that night. "
Harry didn't ask anymore and let them continue talking, about the Prophet and how they called him a liar. They spent a great deal of time chatting when suddenly they were interrupted by Tonks, who came in with an awkward look and asked Harry to come down to the meeting.
Everyone swarmed down behind Harry, the big door was open, with a table full of people. With Dumbledore at the head. Harry cleared his throat awkwardly, not knowing whether to pass or not.
The chair at the foot of the table moved and Ginny appeared, the chair had hidden her head from Harry. She let out a shriek of pure joy tossing the chair aside and threw herself towards Harry with a big smile and giving little cries of excitement.
In that instant Harry forgot all the anger he could have felt and hugged her, deep sniffing her head, that characteristic floral scent always calming him. He barely felt it when she showered kisses on his face as she exclaimed how worried she was about the fright he had gotten.
"Don't worry honey, I'm fine..." Harry could barely utter those words when his mouth was occupied with more pleasurable activities. After what seemed like a second they were separated by Bill, who seemed quite annoyed.
"Well, welcome to you, Mr. Potter," said Dumbledore, "Dear Miss Weasley, he is here, give us the pleasure of continuing the meeting. "
"My dear, say goodbye to Ginny, you and the other children go back to their room, we'll call you when we go to dinner." Mrs. Weasley said with a forced smile.
"Wait, Molly," Sirius said, turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised with you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got there would be to ask for Voldemort.
The atmosphere in the room changed as quickly as Harry associated with the arrival of the Dementors. A few seconds before he was drowsy and relaxed, now he was alert, even tense. An icy sensation had swept across the table at the mention of Voldemort's name. Lupin looked at them warily.
"I asked!" Harry exclaimed indignantly. "I asked Ron and Hermione, but they said we don't get accepted into the Order, so..."
"And they're quite right," said Mrs. Weasley. "You're too young
She was sitting very upright in her chair, her fists clenched tightly, any trace of forced joy had disappeared.
"Since when did anyone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius said. "Harry was trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He has the right to know what happened! "
"One minute! " George interrupted, almost shouting.
"How does Harry get his questions answered? " Fred said angrily.
"We've been trying to get information from you for a month and you haven't told us anything" George added.
"You're too young, you're not in the Order," Fred said, his high-pitched voice sounding uncannily like his mother's.
"Harry's ageless!"
"It's not my fault if you haven't been told what's going on in the Order," Sirius pointed out calmly, "it's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand... "
"It's not for you to say what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley said sharply, the expression on her usually friendly face looked dangerous.
"Who is it up to, then? You? " Sirius asked mockingly. "Just because your daughter poked my godson's eyes doesn't make you Harry's mother
"Enough Sirius, I don't allow you to disrespect Ginny or her family. " Harry intervened holding back his anger, and felt no remorse when his godfather looked at him painfully, but he was too furious to contain himself and almost ignored his godson and turned to Mrs. Weasley.
"He was the one who saw Voldemort come back." There was a collective shudder around the table at the mere mention of the name. "He has more rights than anyone else. "
"He is not a member of the Order of the Phoenix!" said Mrs. Weasley, "He is only fifteen years old. "
"And he's already been through the same thing as many in the Order," Sirius said, "and even more than others
"No one denies what he has done!" said Mrs. Weasley.
"He's not a child," Sirius said impatiently
"He's not an adult either!" Mrs. Weasley said, her cheeks flushed. "He's not James, Sirius!
"I'm clear about who he is, thank you, Molly," Sirius said coldly.
"I'm not so sure! " Ms. Weasley said. "Sometimes the way you talk about him is like you think your best friend is back!"
"What's wrong with that?" asked Harry, hurt that they were arguing about him as if he weren't present.
"The trouble, Harry, is that you're not your father, even though you look a lot like him!" said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes still fixed on Sirius. "You're still in school, and the adults responsible for you shouldn't forget that!"
"Does that mean I'm an irresponsible godfather?" Sirius demanded, raising his voice.
"We all know you're rash, Sirius, that's why Dumbledore asked you to stay home and—"
"Personally," Lupin said calmly, carefully interrupting the conversation and looking away from Sirius, while Mrs. Weasley turned quickly to him, hoping that she had finally gained an ally.
"I think Harry should know the facts, not all the facts, Molly, but a general picture, of us, rather than a version altered by—" His expression was soft, but Harry was sure Lupin was referring to Ginny
"Good," said Mrs. Weasley, taking a deep breath and looking around the table, looking for help that didn't come. "I can see that no one supports me. I just said this and spoke as someone who has the best wishes for Harry from the bottom of my heart."
"He's not your son," Sirius said quietly.
"It's as if he was," said Mrs. Weasley fiercely. "Who else does he have?"
"He has me!"
"Yes? " Mrs. Weasley said, pursing her lip, "The thing is, it's been pretty hard for you to take care of him while you were locked up in Azkaban, right?"
Sirius began to rise from his chair
"Let's continue with the meeting, please. Molly dear, would you do me the favor of letting the rest of the young Weasleys stay here? " Dumbledore said conciliatory, but already impatient, putting an end to the passionate discussion.
Tempers calmed down and everyone returned to their seats. Fred George, Ron, and Hermione leaned against the wall and were silent.
"Well, can we continue, Ginevra?" Dumbledore asked, nodding to her. And Harry looked at him strangely, he had never heard his girlfriend's full name come out of anyone's mouth, and suddenly he remembered that Professor McGonagall had called her that on another occasion too.
"They'll try to attack him legally tomorrow it would be a good idea to arrive a couple of hours early, if all goes well, he'll get away with it. " Ginny said as she looked into Dumbledore's eyes. And an annoying sound came from Moody, clearly fed up with her.
"You know we're not interested in that now, brat," Mad-Eye said with a grunt, while almost everyone who knew Harry glared at him angrily at those words. "We want to know the Death Eaters' plans. "
"It's not something I should intervene in, as I've told you on other occasions, I can't change what should happen without worse things coming. " Ginny replied calmly and coldly. "You don't want to hear what will happen, let alone what needs to be done, you are not ready for it. "
Dumbledore almost lost his good humor, and his countenance was flooded with disappointment.
"Ginevra, I think all of us at this table are mature enough to face the truth. " Dumbledore glanced at Harry as if ordering him to intervene. He didn't want to turn against his girlfriend, but he was getting more and more to the limit of his desperation for not knowing things.
"You won't be able to use Harry to force me to say forbidden things," Ginny said, finally showing an expression that wasn't cold, "I don't intend to tell you more than you need to know, and I know you'll understand, professor, after all, you've always sought the Greater Good, haven't you?"
Those words were said as if they meant something to the two of them, and surely, it was, as Dumbledore's face took on a pale hue that shocked everyone present, even Mad-Eye Moody hadn't seen him lose his composure so much even during the worst time of the first wizarding war.
"It seems to me, Miss Weasley, that this conversation is going nowhere," said the headmaster after recovering from the situation. "I'm willing to make concessions in exchange for information, even the slightest one you can give us. "
Silence fell over the room. An awkward and tension-filled silence.
"Why don't you ask Colin, Ginny? He is helping you to separate all your information, consult with him, and share the cleansed information with the Order. " Hermione interjected and said calmly
Ginny thought for a moment, it wouldn't do her any good to continue behaving like that. The Order of the Phoenix would come to an end, just like Dumbledore, however, it was not long before it passed.
"Good," she said finally, thinking very carefully. "I'll consult with Colin and we'll decide together what I can and can't share. "
The table quieted down when Dumbledore accepted that deal, even though virtually everyone was unhappy.
Harry was the most annoying of them all, he felt as if a horrible monster had just awakened inside him, he hated to death the idea that Ginny trusted Colin more than him, and he felt even worse when he remembered that for several months, she trusted him more than anyone else and that wouldn't have changed if Harry hadn't been uncomfortable with the information she knew about himself.
Ginny was sad when she offered to stop telling him everything and avoid seeing things about his future, and he was so happy to be on equal footing that he didn't know what he had accepted, and what he lost by doing so.
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