Chapter 159: Questions
Sirius looked at Mrs. Weasley with a stoney expression.
"I'm perfectly clear who he is, thanks, Molly." He said coldly.
"I'm not sure you are!" said Mrs. Weasley rising up from her chair as well. "Sometimes, the way you talk about him, it's as though you think you've got your best friend back!"
"I don't think it's like that, Molly." Aurelia interrupted. "I know them and..."
"I didn't ask for your opinion, Aurelia." Mrs. Weasley snapped. "No matter how much you know James and Sirius, you don't know Harry."
Aurelia for the first time looked taken aback, her cool attitude was gone, and a hurt look flashed on her face so fast that anyone barely noticed.
"Right you're Molly. I shouldn't interfere." Aurelia got up from her chair. "Thanks Remus... for inviting me to dinner."
"Wait, Auri." Sirius stopped Aurelia, then rounded on Mrs. Weasley. "It's not upto you Molly, who gets to say in Harry's matter. He's not your son."
"He's as good as," said Mrs. Weasley fiercely. "Who else has he got?"
"He's got me!" Sirius snapped. "I'm his Godfather Molly."
"Yes," said Mrs. Weasley, 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?"
"Molly, you're not the only person at this table who cares about Harry," said Lupin sharply. "Sirius, Aurelia, please sit down."
Aurelia sat down, slowly, eyes fixed at Sirius, who was still standing.
"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 got Harry's best interests at heart —"
"That doesn't give you the authority to make decisions for Harry." Sirius said coldly.
Mrs. Weasley's lower lip was trembling. Sirius sank slowly back into his chair, his face white.
"I think Harry ought to be allowed a say in this," Lupin said. "He's old enough to decide for himself."
"I want to know what's been going on," Harry said at once.
"Very well," said Mrs. Weasley, her voice cracking. "Ginny —Chris — Ron — Hermione — Fred — George — I want you out of this kitchen, now."
Chris was about to got up but Ginny and Harry pulled her back to the seat.
"Mum, I want to know!" wailed Ginny.
"We're of age!" Fred and George bellowed together.
"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" shouted Ron.
"NO!" shouted Mrs. Weasley, standing up, her eyes overbright. "I absolutely forbid —"
"Molly, you can't stop Fred and George," said Mr. Weasley wearily. "They are of age —"
"They're still at school —"
"But they're legally adults now," said Mr. Weasley in the same tired voice.
Mrs. Weasley was now scarlet in the face.
"I — oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron —"
"Harry'll tell me and Hermione everything you say anyway!" said Ron hotly. "Won't — won't you?" he added uncertainly, meeting Harry's eyes.
"'Course I will," Harry said. Ron and Hermione beamed.
"Fine!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "Fine! Ginny — Chris — BED!"
"Alright." Chris got up but again Ginny and Harry pulled her back.
"I want her to stay." Harry said firmly.
"Really?" Chris looked at him, surprised. "I thought you're angry at me?"
Harry glared at her but didn't let go.
"And Chris will tell me everything you say." Ginny declared. "Hermione too."
Mrs. Weasley's face was so red that it got mix with her red flaming hair.
"FINE!" She roared, crossed her hand on her chest and sat back on her chair. "FINE!"
"Okay, Harry . . . what do you want to know?" Lupin said.
Harry took a deep breath and started asking questions.
"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news," he said, ignoring the renewed shudders and winces at the name, "and there hasn't been anything that looks like him yet, no funny deaths or anything —"
"That's because there haven't been any suspicious 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.
"It's obvious, Harry, isn't it?" Chris said. "The Ministry don't want to believe us, they're completely ignoring Voldemort and Malgino. Of course Voldemort and Malgino wants to keep it that way, so they can prepare their army without Ministry interfering."
Mrs. Weasley gave Chris a stern look, Chris hastily looked at Sirius.
"Right." Sirius smiled at Chris. "Though His comeback didn't come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see, Harry. He messed it up."
"Or rather, Chris and you messed it up for him," said Lupin with a satisfied smile.
"And Cedric." Hermione added.
"Yeah but how we messed it up?" Harry said.
"Harry, do you think we were supposed to be alive?" Chris said. "According to their plan, Voldemort was going to get his body back, Malgino was going to get the keys from me then Avada Kedavra."
"And the very last person Voldemort wanted alerted to his return and his new friend, the moment he got back was Dumbledore," said Lupin. "And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
"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.
"Times up, Harry. My turn." Chris said cutting Harry off. "What about Malgino? What's happening to him?"
"That's where we come." Leyla said but then she looked around the table uncertainty.
"Go on Leyla." Lupin encouraged.
"Well... You see Malgino had lived a very long life and that's why he has sources in so many places, we only can imagine." Leyla said looking at Chris. "And now he's gathering all his followers all over the world. We're working on stopping those people, before they can join Malgino and Voldemort."