𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 | 𝐟. 𝐰𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲 𝐱 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

{ 79 }

── ⲇ ──

It was merely a few minutes before Y/n was fetched from her room by Ginny who was shouting on her way up. "They're asking for you. Mum wouldn't let me stay."

Y/n stood up. "What do they want?"

Ginny huffed and rolled her eyes. "They're gonna let you in on their big adult talks, they're filling Harry in. Tell me everything, 'kay?"

Y/n cracked a small smile. "Will do." She then made her way back to the kitchen. She was quite embarrassed to walk in there, seeing how she had left. They all looked at her as she walked in. She kept a stern face and arms crossed as she sat next to Fred.

"So, what is it you want to know, Harry?" Sirius asked Harry. "Where's Voldemort?" he said, ignoring the renewed shudders and winces at the name. "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. He knew Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.

"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 incredulously. "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 all.

"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.

"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."