Malfoy Flavor

-26-

"Wotcher, Dustin!" Tonks greeted Harry warmly. "Good to have you back!"

Harry grinned at her. She had green hair with silver streaks. It simply had to be the same hair style as what Severus said she'd done after Harry left last time. "Hello," he said. He couldn't remember if he was supposed to know her name or not. "Nice hair," he added.

"Just thought I'd show my support for you being here today," she said, winking at him.

Dumbledore didn't say anything, but smiled benignly as he gestured Harry and Severus to seats near him at the head of the table. This was the first meeting of all, or at least most, of the Order members since the beginning of the year.

Harry knew from Severus that, generally speaking, Dumbledore would simply meet with individuals on a regular basis. Full Order meetings were usually only called when there was an emergency, or to periodically keep everyone up to date with what everyone else was doing. Thankfully, this was just one of the periodic update meetings, and more than likely being held simply because things had been awfully quiet over the last couple of months.

Well, it'd been quiet for everyone else, at least, Harry thought to himself. He glanced warily at Dumbledore. It had been a couple days, but the old wizard still hadn't specifically talked to Harry about the Death Eater meeting that he had attended. Harry didn't think that Dumbledore would try to get him to discuss it in front of everyone but, then again, it wouldn't surprise him if he did. Harry began to really wonder exactly why this meeting had been called.

He turned and quirked an eyebrow in question at his father. Severus shook his head slightly. He either didn't know, or was choosing not to tell Harry, and Harry wasn't sure which it was.

Harry glanced around at the other Order members as they were arriving. Some, like Tonks and Remus, were offering Harry encouraging smiles. The Weasleys still looked a little concerned, but seemed all right with Harry being there. Moody and a few others were still looking awfully wary, though.

Dumbledore soon called the meeting to order. "I think we all agreed to spend some time pondering the issue of whether or not Dustin should be allowed to attend the Order meetings. At this point, does anyone have any objections?" he asked the fairly large group.

Most were slowly shaking their heads. Harry had to suppress his grin when he realized that his father was glaring at them all, essentially daring them to say they didn't want him there.

Moody, of course, spoke up, ignoring Severus' glare. "I think the boy should tell us if he's actually managed to do anything useful over the last two months before we decide," he growled.

"I think you will find that Dustin has done a number of things," Dumbledore said calmly to Moody. He gestured to Harry. "Dustin, why don't you tell him of the successes you've had with uniting the school so far."

Harry sighed in irritation, glancing at Dumbledore to see if he could gage if that was all the old man expected him to talk about or not. Dumbledore, as usual, wasn't giving anything away. Harry turned to address Moody and the rest of the group.

"At this point, I've got close to half of the school working together in the DA." Gasps of surprise could be heard from some, even as others looked confused. "For those of you who don't know what the DA is, it's a group started by Harry Potter last year. The group meets regularly to study extra defence that's not taught in the classroom. Many of the students have only had one decent Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher over the last several years," he said, with a wry smile and a gesture towards Remus.

Remus smiled and acknowledged Harry's comment with a nod.

"You've got almost half the school?" Fred, or George, commented incredulously. "We only had about twenty-five members last year!"