Sorry this chapter will be more Rowling than I. All of this is very important, and can't be skipped over. Plus Ron was there to witness it of course.

Chapter 119: The Order of The Phoenix

"Your-?"

"My dear old mum, yeah," said Sirius. "We've been trying to get her down for a month but we think she put a Permanent Sticking Charm on the back of the canvas. Let's get downstairs, quick, before they all wake up again."

"But what's a portrait of your mother doing here?" Harry asked, bewildered, as we went through the door from the hall and led the way down a flight of narrow stone steps, the others just behind us.

"Hasn't anyone told you? This was my parents' house," said Sirius, as if he wanted to say otherwise. "But I'm the last Black left, so it's mine now. I offered it to Dumbledore for Headquarters-about the only useful thing I've been able to do."

You could hear the bitterness in Sirius's voice. He really felt useless in the whole matter, no matter how many people would tell him otherwise.

It was scarcely less gloomy than the hall above, a cavernous room with rough stone walls. Most of the light was coming from a large fire at the far end of the room. A haze of pipe smoke hung in the air like battle fumes, through which loomed the menacing shapes of heavy iron pots and pans hanging from the dark ceiling. Many chairs had been crammed into the room for the meeting and a long wooden table stood in the middle of them, littered with rolls of parchment, goblets, empty wine bottles, and a heap of what appeared to be rags. Mum and Bill were talking quietly with their heads together at the end of the table.

Mum cleared her throat. Dad looked around and jumped to his feet.

"Harry!" Dad said, hurrying forward to greet him, and shaking his hand vigorously. "Good to see you!"

"Journey all right, Harry?" Bill called, trying to gather up twelve scrolls at once. "Mad-Eye didn't make you come via Greenland, then?"

"He tried,"said Tonks, walking over to help Bill and immediately toppling a candle onto the last piece of parchment. "Oh no-sorry-"

"Here, dear," said Mum, sounding exasperated, and she repaired the parchment with a wave of her wand. When it was repaired, she caught Harry glancing at it and snatched it quickly off the table, shoving it into Bill's hands.

"This sort of thing ought to be cleared away promptly at the end of meetings," she snapped, before sweeping off towards an ancient dresser from which she started unloading dinner plates.

Bill took out his wand, muttered, "Evanesce!" and the scrolls vanished.

"Sit down, Harry" said Sirius. "You've met Mundungus, haven't you?"

"Some'n say m'name?' mumbled a heap of clothing that called itself Mundungus sleepily. "I agree with Sirius..." He raised a very grubby hand in the air as though voting, damn butter still thought he was in a meeting.

Ginny giggled while Hermione whispered "Oh honestly!" and crossed her arms.

"The meeting's over, Dung," said Sirius, as we all sat down around him at the table. "Harry's arrived."

"Eh?" said Mundungus, looking at Harry through his lashes. "Blimey, so 'e 'as. Yeah ... you alright, 'arry?"

"Yeah," said Harry.

Mundungus fumbled nervously in his pockets, still staring at Harry, and pulled out a black pipe. He stuck it in his mouth, ignited the end of it with his wand and took a deep pull on it, blowing out green smoke that looked thick enough to choke someone.

"Owe you a 'pology," he grunted from the middle of the smelly cloud.

"For the last time, Mundungus, will you please not smoke that thing in the kitchen, especially not when we're about to eat!" demanded Mum angrily.

"Ah," said Mundungus. "Right. Sorry, Molly."

The cloud of smoke vanished as Mundungus stowed his pipe back in his pocket, but an rancid smell of burning socks lingered.

"And if you want dinner before midnight I'll need a hand," Mum said to the room at large. "No, you can stay where you are, Harry dear, you've had a long journey."

"What can I do, Molly?" said Tonks enthusiastically, bounding forwards.

Mum hesitated, looking apprehensive.

"Er-no, it's alright, Tonks, you have a rest too, you've done enough today."

"No, no, I want to help!" said Tonks brightly, knocking over a chair as she hurried towards the dresser, from which Ginny was collecting cutlery.

"Bless her," I whispered to Harry as I stood up.

Soon, a series of heavy knives were chopping meat and vegetables of their own accord, supervised by Dad, while Mum stirred a cauldron dangling over the fire and the rest of us took out plates, more goblets and food from the pantry. Harry was left at the table with Sirius and Mundungus.

"Something about that guy makes me suspicious." mumbled Hermione, as she helped me gather more dishes, watching Harry, Mundungus, and Sirius have a discussion.

"Oh I guess he's alright." I said, taking plates from her. "He's seems like he has a few brain cells lost, but he is also very business minded. Fred and George sometimes asks him for advice. "

"They're still making plans about opening up a shop? But they're still in school."

"You know them. Once an idea gets into their head, it won't leav-ah...kind of like the idea they have going now." I said, nodding in the direction of my brothers.

"Fred-George-NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" Mum shrieked.

Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer, and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air towards the table. The stew skidded the length of the table and came to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface; the flagon of Butterbeer fell with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere; the bread knife slipped off the board and landed, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius's right hand had been seconds before.

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screamed Mum. "THERE WAS NO NEED- I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS- JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!'

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" said Fred, hurrying forward to wrench the bread knife out of the table. "Sorry, Sirius, mate-didn't mean to-"

Harry and Sirius were both laughing; Mundungus, who had toppled backwards off his chair, was swearing as he got to his feet; Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from where his large yellow eyes glowed in the darkness.

"Boys," Dad said, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age!"

"-none of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mum raged at the twins as she slammed a fresh flagon of Butterbeer onto the table, and spilling almost as much again. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't charm everything he met! Percy-"

She stopped talking and looked over at Dad, who's face had a wooden expression on it. She cleared her throat and sat down.

"Let's eat,' said Bill quickly.

"It looks wonderful, Molly," said Lupin, ladling stew onto a plate for her and handing it across the table.

For a few minutes there was silence but for the chink of plates and cutlery and the scraping of chairs as everyone settled down to their food. Then Mum turned to Sirius.

"I've been meaning to tell you, Sirius, there's something trapped in that writing desk in the drawing room, it keeps rattling and shaking. Of course, it could just be a boggart, but I thought we ought to ask Alastor to have a look at it before we let it out."

"Whatever you like," said Sirius absentmindedly.

"The curtains in there are full of doxys, too. I thought we might try and tackle them tomorrow."

"I look forward to it," said Sirius,,in a sarcastic voice that reminded me of Fred.

Tonks was entertaining Hermione and Ginny by transforming her nose between mouthfuls. Screwing up her eyes each time, her nose swelled to a beak-like protuberance that resembled Snape's, shrank to the size of a button mushroom and then sprouted a great deal of hair from each nostril. She did this quite often, and it was great fun. Hermione and Ginny were requesting their favourite noses.

"Do that one like a pig snout, Tonks!" squealed Ginny.

Mundungus had Fred, George, and I rolling around in our seats with laughter at his stories

'...and then," choked Mundungus, tears running down his face, "and then, if you'll believe it, 'e says to me, 'e says, 'Ere, Dung, where didja get all them toads from? 'Cos some son of a Sludger's gone and nicked all mine!' And I says, 'Nicked all your toads, Will, what next? So you'll be wanting some more, then?' And if you'll believe me, lads, the gormless gargoyle buys all 'is own toads back orf me for a lot more'n what 'e paid in the first place!"

"I don't think we need to hear any more of your business dealings, thank you very much, Mundungus," said Mum sharply, as I slumped forwards onto the table, howling with laughter.

"Beg pardon, Molly," said Mundungus at once, wiping his eyes and winking at Harry. "But, you know, Will nicked 'em orf Warty Harris in the first place so I wasn't really doing nothing wrong-"

"I don't know where you learned about right and wrong, Mundungus, but you seem to have missed a few crucial lessons,' said Mum coldly.

Fred and George buried their faces in their goblets of Butterbeer; George was hiccoughing.

Three helpings of rhubarb crumble and custard later and I was ready to go to sleep. Harry was looking much better than he was a couple of hours ago. Usually a fed Harry was a happy Harry.

"Nearly time for bed, I think," said Mum with a yawn.

"Not just yet, Molly," said Sirius, pushing away his empty plate and turning to look at Harry. "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."

The atmosphere in the room rapidly changed. Where seconds before it had been sleepily relaxed, it was now alert, even tense. Hermione and I exchanged looks, bracing ourselves just in case Harry decided to go off again.

"I did!"said Harry indignantly. "I asked Ron and Hermione but they said we're not allowed in the Order, so-"

"And they're quite right," said Mum quickly, her eye giving a twitch. 'You're too young."

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" asked Sirius. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen-"

"Hang on!" interrupted George loudly.

"How come Harry gets his questions answered?" said Fred angrily.

'We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" said George.

" 'You're too young, you're not in the Order,' " said Fred, in a high-pitched voice that sounded just like Mum's. "Harry's not even of age!"

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," said Sirius calmly, "that's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand-"

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!' exclaimed Mum. The expression on her face resembled with she had hit her last nerve with one of us. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"

"Which bit?" Sirius asked politely, however, everyone could see that he was not going to back down without a fight.

"The bit about not telling Harry more than he needs to know," said Mum, placing a heavy emphasis on the last three words.

Hermione, Harry, Fred, George, and I's heads swivelled from Sirius to Mrs. Weasley as though we were following Quidditch. Ginny was kneeling amid a pile of abandoned Butterbeer corks, watching the conversation with her mouth slightly open. Lupin's eyes were fixed on Sirius.

"I don't intend to tell him more than he needs to know, Molly," said Sirius. "But as he was the one who saw Voldemort come back, he has more right than most to-"

"He's not a member of the Order of the Phoenix!" said Mum. "He's only fifteen and-"

"-and he's dealt with as much as most in the Order," said Sirius, "and more than some-"

"No one's denying what he's done!" said Mum, her voice rising, her body shaking. "But he's still-"

"He's not a child!" said Sirius impatiently.

'He's not an adult either!' said Mum, ferociously. "He's not James, Sirius!"

Harry looked stunned when that came out of Mum's mouth. I couldn't blame him. It was starting to feel like Mum was crossing a line.

"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly," said Sirius coldly.

"I'm not sure you are!" continued Mum. "Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"

"What's wrong with that?" said Harry.

'What's wrong, Harry, is that you are not your father, however much you might look like him!" said Mum. "You are still at school and adults responsible for you should not forget it!"

"Meaning I'm an irresponsible godfather?" yelled Sirius defensively.

"Meaning you have been known to act rashly, Sirius, which is why Dumbledore keeps reminding you to stay at home and-"

'We'll leave my instructions from Dumbledore out of this, if you please!" said Sirius loudly.

"Arthur!" said Mum, looking for help. "Arthur, back me up!"

Dad looked like he really didn't want to speak, and nonchalantly took off his glasses and cleaned them, not looking at Mum. Then he put them back on and began to talk.

"Dumbledore knows the position has changed, Molly. He accepts that Harry will have to be filled in, to a certain extent, now that he is staying at headquarters."

"Yes, but there's a difference between that and inviting him to ask whatever he likes!"

"Personally," said Lupin speaking up finally, "I think it better that Harry gets the facts-not all the facts, Molly, but the general picture-from us, rather than a garbled version from ... others."

He snuck a look over at Fred and George, who preoccupied themselves with a spot on the table that seemed interesting all of a sudden.

"Well,' said Mum, breathing deeply and looking around the table for support that did not come, "well ... I can see I'm going to be overruled. I'll just say this: Dumbledore must have had his reasons for not wanting Harry to know too much, and speaking as someone who has Harry's best interests at heart."

"He's not your son," said Sirius quietly.

"He's as good as," said Mum. 'Who else has he got?"

"He's got me!" shouted Sirius, insulted,and for good reason.

'Yes," said Mum, her lip curling, "the thing is, it's been rather difficult for you to look after him while you've been locked up in Azkaban, hasn't it?"

Everyone dropped their jaws. Mum had officially crossed the line. I was angry. It was not Sirius's fault he was locked up, and everyone knew that had he been free, he would have taken great care of Harry.

Sirius started to rise from his chair, about to explode.

"Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry!" said Lupin sharply. "Sirius, sit down!"

Lupin had a point, and Mum couldn't argue it. She sat there, bottom lip trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face white.

"I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Lupin continued, "he's old enough to decide for himself."

"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once. He didn't look Mum's way, and I could tell that he was very much hurt at what she had said.

"Very well," said Mum, her voice cracking. "Ginny-Ron-Hermione-Fred-George-I want, you out of this kitchen, now."

There was instant uproar.

"We're of age!" Fred and George bellowed together.

"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" I shouted.

"Mum, I want to hear!" wailed Ginny.

"NO!",shouted Mum, standing up. "I absolutely forbid-"

"Molly you can't stop Fred and George," said Dad wearily. "They are of age."

"They're still at school!"

"But they're legally adults now," said Dad in a voice that clearly stated that he was completely tired of all of this.

"I-oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron-"

"Harry will tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway, won't you mate?" I said confidently.

"Course I will," Harry said,in a definite tone.

Hermione and I shot Mum a fake wide smile.

'Fine!" shouted Mum. "Fine! Ginny-BED!"

"What?! Fine!" yelled Ginny, heading out the door with Mum. We could hear Ginny raging and storming at her all the way up the stairs, and when she reached the hall Mrs. Black's ear-splitting shrieks were added to the din. Lupin hurried off to the portrait to restore calm. It was only after he had returned, closing the kitchen door behind him and taking his seat at the table again, that Sirius spoke.

"OK, Harry ... what do you want to know?"

'Where's Voldemort?" he said. "What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news, and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything."

"That's because there haven't been any funny deaths yet," said Sirius, "not as far as we know, anyway... And we know quite a lot."

'More than he thinks we do, anyway," said Lupin.

"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.

"Because he doesn't want to draw attention to himself," said Sirius. "It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up."

"Or rather, you messed it up for him," said Lupin, with a satisfied smile.

"How?" Harry asked, perplexed.

"You weren't supposed to survive!" said Sirius. "Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he'd come back. But you survived to bear witness."

"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."

"How has that helped?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" said Bill, astonished that Harry would even ask such a question. "Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!"

"Thanks to you, Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned," said Sirius.

"So, what's the Order been doing?" said Harry, looking around at them.

"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," said Sirius.

"How d'you know what his plans are?" Harry asked quickly.

'Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," said Lupin, "and Dumbledore's shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate."

"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"

"Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again," said Sirius. "In the old days he had huge numbers at his command: witches and wizards he'd bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they'll be just one of the groups he's after. He's certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters."

"So you're trying to stop him getting more followers?"

"We're doing our best," said Lupin, shrugging.

"How?"

"Well, the main thing is to try and convince as many people as possible that You-Know-Who really has returned, to put them on their guard," said Bill. "It's proving tricky, though."

'Why?'

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," chimes in Tonks. "You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry. Well, he hasn't shifted his position at all. He's absolutely refusing to believe it's happened."

*But why?" said Harry desperately. "Why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore-"

"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," said Dad with a smile. "Dumbledore."

"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," said Tonks sadly.

"Frightened of Dumbledore?" said Harry.

"Frightened of what he's up to,x said Dad. "Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister for Magic."

"But Dumbledore doesn't want-"

"Of course he doesn't," continued Dad. "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. 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," said Lupin. "But it seems he's become fond of power, and much more confident. He loves being Minister for 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?" said Harry angrily. "How can he think Dumbledore would just make it all up-that I'd 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," said Sirius bitterly. "Fudge just can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilise him."

"You see the problem," said Lupin. "While the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort 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 you're telling people, aren't you?" said Harry, looking around at Mr. Weasley, Sirius, Bill, Mundungus, Lupin and Tonks. "You're letting people know he's back?"

They all smiled humorlessly.

"Well, as everyone thinks I'm a mad mass-murderer and the Ministry's put a ten thousand Galleon price on my head, I can hardly stroll up the street and start handing out leaflets, can I?" said Sirius restlessly.

"And I'm not a very popular dinner guest with most of the community," said Lupin. "It's an occupational hazard of being a werewolf."

"Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they started shooting their mouths off," said Sirius, "and it's very important for us to have spies inside the Ministry, because you can bet Voldemort will have them."

"We've managed to convince a couple of people, though," said Dad. "Tonks here, for one-she's too young to have been in the Order of the Phoenix last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage- Kingsley Shacklebolt's been a real asset, too; he's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information that Sirius is in Tibet."

"But if none of you are putting the news out that Voldemort's back-" Harry began.

"Who said none of us are putting the news out?" said Sirius. "Why d'you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"

"What d'you mean?" Harry asked.

"They're trying to discredit him,x said Lupin. "Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but it's not true; he was voted out by Ministry wizards after he made a speech announcing Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock on the Wizengamot-that's the Wizard High Court-and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."

"But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do as long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," laughed Bill.

"It's no laughing matter," said Dad, very seriously. "If he carries on defying the Ministry like this he could end up in Azkaban, and the last thing we want is to have Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to he's going to go cautiously. If Dumbledore's out of the way-well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."

"But if Voldemort's trying to recruit more Death Eaters it's bound to get out that he's come back, isn't it?" asked Harry.

"Voldemort doesn't march up to people's houses and bang on their front doors, Harry," said Sirius. "He tricks, jinxes and blackmails them. He's well-practised at operating in secret. In any case, gathering followers is only one thing he's interested in. He's got other plans too, plans he can put into operation very quietly indeed, and he's concentrating on those for the moment."

"What's he after apart from followers?" Harry asked swiftly.

Sirius and Lupin exchange the most fleeting of looks before Sirius answered, "Stuff he can only get by stealth. Like a weapon. Something he didn't have last time."

"When he was powerful before?"

"Yes."

"Like what kind of weapon? Something worse than the Avada Kedavra?"

"That's enough!"

We all jumped at Mum's voice. None of us had noticed she had came back into the room. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious.

"I want you in bed, now. All of you," she added, looking around at Fred, George, Hermione, and I

"You can't boss us-" Fred began.

"Watch me," snarled Mum, meaning 100% business.

"You've given Harry plenty of information. Any more and you might just as well induct him into the Order straightaway."

"Why not?"said Harry quickly. "I'll join, I want to join, I want to fight."

'No."

This time, it was Lupin who was calling the shots.

"The Order is comprised only of overage wizards," he said. "Wizards who have left school,' he added, as Fred and George opened their mouths. "There are dangers involved of which you can have no idea, any of you... I think Molly's right, Sirius. We've said enough."

Sirius half-shrugged but did not argue. We all stood up and went to bed, defeated.