on?’
‘We’re not!’ Ron interrupted. ‘Mum won’t let us near the meetings, she says we’re too young —’
But before he knew it, Harry was shouting.
‘SO YOU HAVEN’T BEEN IN THE MEETINGS, BIG DEAL! YOU’VE STILL BEEN HERE, HAVEN’T YOU? YOU’VE STILL BEEN TOGETHER! ME, I’VE BEEN STUCK AT THE DURSLEYS’ FOR A MONTH! AND I’VE HANDLED MORE THAN YOU TWO’VE EVER MANAGED AND DUMBLEDORE KNOWS IT – WHO SAVED THE PHILOSOPHER’S STONE? WHO GOT RID OF RIDDLE? WHO SAVED BOTH YOUR SKINS FROM THE DEMENTORS?’
Every bitter and resentful thought Harry had had in the past month was pouring out of him: his frustration at the lack of news, the hurt that they had all been together without him, his fury at being followed and not told about it – all the feelings he was half ashamed of finally burst their boundaries. Hedwig took fright at the noise and soared off to the top of the wardrobe again; Pigwidgeon twittered in alarm and zoomed even faster around their heads.
‘WHO HAD TO GET PAST DRAGONS AND SPHINXES AND EVERY OTHER FOUL THING LAST YEAR? WHO SAW HIM COME BACK? WHO HAD TO ESCAPE FROM HIM? ME!’
Ron was standing there with his mouth half open, clearly stunned and at a loss for anything to say, whilst Hermione looked on the verge of tears.
‘BUT WHY SHOULD I KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON? WHY SHOULD ANYONE BOTHER TO TELL ME WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?’
‘Harry, we wanted to tell you, we really did —’ Hermione began.
‘CAN’T’VE WANTED TO THAT MUCH, CAN YOU, OR YOU’D HAVE SENT ME AN OWL, BUT DUMBLEDORE MADE YOU SWEAR —’
‘Well, he did —’
‘FOUR WEEKS I’VE BEEN STUCK IN PRIVET DRIVE, NICKING PAPERS OUT OF BINS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON —’
‘We wanted to —’
‘I SUPPOSE YOU’VE BEEN HAVING A REAL LAUGH, HAVEN’T YOU, ALL HOLED UP HERE TOGETHER —’
‘No, honest —’
‘Harry, we’re really sorry!’ said Hermione desperately, her eyes now sparkling with tears. ‘You’re absolutely right, Harry – I’d be furious if it was me!’
Harry glared at her, still breathing deeply, then turned away from them again, pacing up and down. Hedwig hooted glumly from the top of the wardrobe. There was a long pause, broken only by the mournful creak of the floorboards below Harry’s feet.
‘What is this place, anyway?’ he shot at Ron and Hermione.
‘Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix,’ said Ron at once.
‘Is anyone going to bother telling me what the Order of the Phoenix —?’
‘It’s a secret society,’ said Hermione quickly. ‘Dumbledore’s in charge, he founded it. It’s the people who fought against You-Know-Who last time.’
‘Who’s in it?’ said Harry, coming to a halt with his hands in his pockets.
‘Quite a few people —’
‘We’ve met about twenty of them,’ said Ron, ‘but we think there are more.’
Harry glared at them.
‘Well?’ he demanded, looking from one to the other.
‘Er,’ said Ron. ‘Well what?’
‘Voldemort!’ said Harry furiously, and both Ron and Hermione winced. ‘What’s happening? What’s he up to? Where is he? What are we doing to stop him?’
‘We’ve told you, the Order don’t let us in on their meetings,’ said Hermione nervously. ‘So we don’t know the details – but we’ve got a general idea,’ she added hastily, seeing the look on Harry’s face.
‘Fred and George have invented Extendable Ears, see,’ said Ron. ‘They’re really useful.’
‘Extendable —?’
‘Ears, yeah. Only we’ve had to stop using them lately because Mum found out and went berserk. Fred and George had to hide them all to stop Mum binning them. But we got a good bit of use out of them before Mum realised what was going on. We know some of the Order are following known Death Eaters, keeping tabs on them, you know —’
‘Some of them are working on recruiting more people to the Order —’ said Hermione.
‘And some of them are standing guard over something,’ said Ron. ‘They’re always talking about guard duty.’
‘Couldn’t have been me, could it?’ said Harry sarcastically.
‘Oh, yeah,’ said Ron, with a look of dawning comprehension.
Harry snorted. He walked around the room again, looking anywhere but at Ron and Hermione. ‘So, what have you two been doing, if you’re not allowed in meetings?’ he demanded. ‘You said you’d been busy.’
‘We have,’ said Hermione quickly. ‘We’ve been decontaminating this house, it’s been empty for ages and stuff’s been breeding in here. We’ve managed to clean out the kitchen, most of the bedrooms and I think we’re doing the drawing room tomo— AARGH!’
With two loud cracks, Fred and George, Ron’s elder twin brothers, had materialised out of thin air in the middle of the room. Pigwidgeon twittered more wildly than ever and zoomed off to join Hedwig on top of the wardrobe.
‘Stop doing that!’ Hermione said weakly to the twins, who were as vividly red-haired as Ron, though stockier and slightly shorter.
‘Hello, Harry,’ said George, beaming at him. ‘We thought we heard your dulcet tones.’
‘You don’t want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out,’ said Fred, also beaming. ‘There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn’t hear you.’
‘You two passed your Apparition tests, then?’ asked Harry grumpily.
‘With distinction,’ said Fred, who was holding what looked like a piece of very long, flesh-coloured string.
‘It would have taken you about thirty seconds longer to walk down the stairs,’ said Ron.
‘Time is Galleons, little brother,’ said Fred. ‘Anyway, Harry, you’re interfering with reception. Extendable Ears,’ he added in response to Harry’s raised eyebrows, and held up the string which Harry now saw was trailing out on to the landing. ‘We’re trying to hear what’s going on downstairs.’
‘You want to be careful,’ said Ron, staring at the Ear, ‘if Mum sees one of them again …’
‘It’s worth the risk, that’s a major meeting they’re having,’ said Fred.
The door opened and a long mane of red hair appeared.
‘Oh, hello, Harry!’ said Ron’s younger sister, Ginny, brightly. ‘I thought I heard your voice.’
Turning
