Obliviate My Rebellion {Book 3}

6. Partial answers and heart to hearts

I guessed exactly what Harry was going to say before it left his lips. He'd been obsessed with it for the last month--even with my grief and guilt I had known that.

"Where's Voldemort?" he said, as I expected, 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 let."

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

"How come he's stopped killing people?" I asked quietly. "I thought he was on a streak." Voldemort had murdered at least twice in the last year. And been the catalyst for the deaths of Kayley and Jenna.

"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 two 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 of course Samantha Lockwood, who escaped."

I wondered briefly where Sam was. Lacey caught my eye, and the shared look of concern was on her face as well.

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

"He doesn't seem to hang around." Lacey noted.

"So, what has the Order been doing?" I asked curiously. All I could gather was that they guarded something, and had many maps. 

"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."

"Why?'

"Because of the Ministry's attitude," said 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."