Jake limped all the way down to the kitchen and retook his seat, finding his dinner to be only mildly warm. He heard the door open behind him, but he didn't turn because it would've hurt too much to turn his body like that.
"Jake, what-" Lupin started to ask.
"I don't want to talk about it," he responded quickly.
"But you were-" Molly started to say.
He slammed his fist onto the table, "I don't want to talk about it!" He inhaled, held it for four seconds, then exhaled, "can we - can we just go about as though nothing happened?"
Sirius sat back in his seat, "Sure thing, there's something I've been wanting to ask anyway, Harry? But after we've finished eating, okay?" Harry retook his own seat and nodded to Sirius.
Idle chatter refilled the kitchen, but there was an obvious tension in the air. Hermione was looking at him, "You saw the worst of it..." he whispered to her, "I'll be okay... eventually..."
"I know that, Jake, but..." she paused to look for the right words to say, "why does bad stuff always happen to you if it's not Harry?"
"Not just me... you've had your fair share of it as well these past few years... the Troll in First Year... the fucking Basilisk in Second Year plus that was the start of Malfoy's racist tendencies... Ron and Harry being angry with you in Third Year and you almost got Kissed by a Dementor, and me almost ruining our friendship that year... and the whole Rita Skeeter thing last year... you've endured more than you should've had to," Jake said as he looked at her.
"You know how ironic that is coming from you, right?" She couldn't stop the smirk that threatened to appear on her face.
"Yeah, I guess so," he smiled at her and they continued eating.
It wasn't until after they all had a helping or two of rhubarb crumble and custard when Molly spoke up, "Nearly time for bed, I think," she said, yawning just as she finished talking.
"Not just yet, Molly," Sirius said, pushing his plate away, "I wanted to talk to Harry, remember?" He then turned to Harry, "You know, I'm surprised at you. I thought the first thing you'd do when you got here would be to start asking questions about Voldemort."
The atmosphere in the room noticeably changed at the beat of a heart. Mere seconds before everyone was relaxed and could probably fall asleep at the table, whereas now they were alert, even tense for the Weasley's. A frisson had gone through them at the mention of his name. Lupin, who had been about to take a sip of wine, lowered his goblet slowly, looking wary.
"I did!" Harry yelled indignantly, "I asked Ron and Hermione, but they said they weren't allowed in the meetings because they aren't apart of the Order, so-"
"And they're quite right," Molly said, "you're too young."
"When-" Jake had started to speak, but when he was cut off, he just leaned back in his chair and waited.
"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" Sirius asked her, "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle House for a month, except for when Jake was there for him," Sirius turned to Jake quickly, "thank you for that by the way..." Jake closed his eye, bowed his head slightly, and looked back at Sirius, who turned back to Molly, "He's got the right to know what's been happen-"
"Hang on!" George interrupted loudly.
"How come Harry gets his questions answered!?" Fred asked angrily.
" We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" George yelled.
" ' You're too young, you're not in the Order, ' "Fred said in a high-pitched voice that sounded uncannily like his mother's, "Harry's not even of age!"
"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," Sirius said calmly, "that's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand-"
"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Molly said sharply.
Jake chose that time to speak, "So I suppose it's down to Dumbledore? The one who left Harry at the mercy of those Muggles for years? The one who keeps sending him back to that hellhole every summer? That Dumbledore? The man who wanted Harry ignored by Hermione, Ron, and pretty much everyone in this room except for me? He knows what's best for Harry? By leaving a mentally broken then fourteen year old on his own for almost a month?" Jake was rising into a straight sitting position the entire time he spoke, getting more and more frustrated as he spoke, "You're talking about that fucking Albus Dumbledore!?"
Molly looked at a loss for words, unable to believe she was being talked to by a Fifteen Year-Old Wizard, and that he was talking badly about Dumbledore.
Jake ached all over his body, but he resisted the urge to let it be known to everyone in this room that he was in pain. He stood up, "Either you explain everything, and I mean everything you know about Voldemort, or I walk out."
"If Jake leaves, I go with him," Hermione stood up, "I didn't even want to come here in the first place, honestly, something told me I should, but if he leaves, I leave."
"You're only Fifteen, you're still in school-" Molly tried to justify the reason for not telling any of them anything.
"I am seen as an Adult Wizard to the Ministry. I have done more than most people in this room in four years than you've all done in twenty plus. I've faced death numerous times... and with Voldemort back," every Weasley shuddered at the name, "our future is at stake, why the hell shouldn't we know everything you know?"
Everyone was looking at Jake and Hermione as they stood there, "Very well, Ginny - Ron - Hermione - Fred - George - I want you out of this kitchen, now."
There was an instant uproar.
"We're of age!" Fred and George bellowed together.
"If Harry's allowed, why can't I?" Ron shouted.
Hermione had been about to speak, but she lost her chance to, "NO!" Molly shouted, standing up, but her short stature barely made it seem like she had stood up at all, "I absolutely forbid-"
"Molly, you can't stop Fred and George," Arthur said wearily, "They are of age-"
"They're still in school-"
"But they're legally adults now," Arthur said in the same tired voice. All of these recent events had clearly taken it out of him.
Molly was scarlet in the face, "I - oh, all right then, Fred and George can stay, but Ron, Hermione, Ginny, out."
"With all due respect, Molly," Hermione said, "you're not my mother, you cannot make me leave this kitchen. Jake will just tell me everything he is told anyway."
"And Harry will too," Ron said and then looked at him, "Won't - won't you?"
Harry looked at him for a second, and he clearly thought about not doing so, "'Course I will," Harry answered and Ron beamed at him.
"Fine!" Molly shouted, "Fine! Ginny - BED!"
Ginny did not go quietly. They could hear her raging and storming at her mother all the way up the stairs, and when she reached the hall, Mrs. Black's ear splitting shrieks were added to the din, "Excuse me for a moment," Jake said and limped out of the kitchen. After a few minutes' wait, the shrieking died out completely, and Sirius had a most hopeful expression on his face. Jake returned a moment later, "That's taken care of."
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked him.
"You can see for yourself after we've been told everything you all know," Jake walked back to his chair, "Like I said, with Voldemort back, our future is at stake. If I don't have all the intel, how can I possibly keep myself or Hermione alive?"
"Okay... Harry," Sirius turned to his Godson, "Where would you like to start?"
"Where's Voldemort? What's he doing? I've been trying to watch the Muggle news," he said, his eyes never leaving his Godfather, "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," Sirius answered, "not as far as we know, anyway... and we know quite a lot."
"More than he thinks we do anyway," Remus added.
"How come he's stopped killing people?" Harry asked.
"I think that one's a bit self explanatory, Harry," Jake said, "he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. The Ministry doesn't want to believe he's back, because his return... he messed it up, you surviving let you bear witness and reveal what happened."
"And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore," Lupin said, "and you made sure Dumbledore knew at once."
'That's what they believe, anyway... and if they want to believe that, I say let them,' Jake thought to himself.
Harry sat quiet for a second, "But... How has that helped?"
"Are you kidding?" Bill asked incredulously, "Dumbledore was the only one he was ever scared of."
Jake didn't miss the glance Harry gave him, "Thanks to you," Sirius said, "Dumbledore was able to recall the Order of the Phoenix about an hour after Voldemort returned."
"So what's the Order been doing?" Harry asked, looking around at them.
"Working as hard as we can to make sure Voldemort can't carry out his plans," Sirius said.
"How d'you know what he's planning?" Harry asked quickly.
"Dumbledore's got a shrewd idea," Lupin said, "and his shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate..."
"So what does Dumbledore reckon he's planning?"
"I would imagine the first thing he'd want to do is build up his army again," Jake said, "back when he was still reigning terror, he commanded large numbers of witches, wizards, and dark creatures. The Giants will just be one ally he will try to regain. He's not stupid to try and take the Ministry with only the Death Eaters you saw at the Graveyard."
Harry turned back to Sirius, "So you're trying to stop him from getting more followers?"
"We're doing our best, or they are at least since I'm stuck in this House," Sirius answered him.
"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," Bill said, "it's proving tricky, though."
"Why?"
"The Ministry obviously," Jake said, "Fudge was furious and staunchly refused to believe that Voldemort came back. It's going to be great when it comes back to bite him in the ass."
"But why?" Harry asked desperately, "why's he being so stupid? If Dumbledore-"
"Ah, well, you've put your finger on the problem," Arthur said with a wry smile, " Dumbledore ."
"Fudge is frightened of him, you see," Tonks said sadly.
"Frightened of Dumbledore?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Frightened of what he's up to," Arthur said, "You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore's plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic."
"That's ridiculous! Dumbledore doesn't want-"
"Of course he doesn't," Arthur said, "He's never wanted the Minister's job, even though a lot of people wanted him to take it when Millicent Bagnold retired. Fudge came to power instead, but he's never quite forgotten how much popular support Dumbledore had, even though Dumbledore never applied for the job."
"Deep down, Fudge knows Dumbledore's much cleverer than he is, a much more powerful Wizard, and in the early days of his Ministry he was forever asking Dumbledore for help and advice," Lupin said, "but it seems that he's become fond of power now, and much more confident. He loves being Minister of Magic, and he's managed to convince himself that he's the clever one and Dumbledore's simply stirring up trouble for the sake of it."
"Typical politician," Jake scoffed.
"How can he think that?" Harry asked incredulously, "How can he think Dumbledore would make it all up - that I'd make it up?" He was visibly angry.
"Because accepting that Voldemort's back would mean trouble like the Ministry has not had to cope with for nearly fourteen years," Sirius said bitterly, "Fudge can't bring himself to face it. It's so much more comfortable to convince himself Dumbledore's lying to destabilize him."
"No way that can backfire... like I said, this is going to come back to bite him on the ass," Jake said casually, "You don't ignore a tumor and pretend like it isn't there, you do something about it to prevent further damage. Yeah it's gonna hurt to remove it, but it'll be better in the long run." 'When it's out that Voldemort is back, Fudge won't be Minister for much longer after that.'
"So you see the problem, Harry," Lupin said, "while the Ministry insists there is nothing to fear from Voldemort, it's hard to convince people he's back, especially as they really don't want to believe it in the first place. What's more, the Ministry's leaning heavily on the Daily Prophet not to report anything on what they're calling Dumbledore's rumor-mongering, so most of the Wizarding community are completely unaware anything's happened, and that makes them easy targets for the Death Eaters if they're using the Imperius Curse."
"So not only is Fudge's denial of Voldemort's return going to make things worse, not letting people know he's back will allow Voldemort to grow his Army back to size through use of Magical influence... this just gets better and better," Jake said sarcastically.
"But you're telling people, aren't you?" Harry asked as he looked around at Arthur, Bill, Sirius, Remus, Mundungus, and Tonks, "You're letting people know he's back?"
They all smiled humorlessly, "Harry, think about it for a moment before speaking," Jake said, "Sirius can't tell anyone because he's still wanted by the Ministry and has a price on his head; Lupin is a Werewolf, they are not popular among Witches and Wizards, even if they take the Wolfsbane Potion every full moon cycle; Tonks and Arthur would lose their jobs at the Ministry if they just randomly interweaved into the conversation that Voldemort was back."
"And it's very important for us to have spies in the Ministry, because you can bet your last Galleon that Voldemort will have his own in there," Sirius said.
"We've managed to convince a few people, though," Arthur said, "Tonks here, for one - she was too young to be in the Order last time, and having Aurors on our side is a huge advantage. Kingsley's been a real asset too. He's in charge of the hunt for Sirius, so he's been feeding the Ministry information on him being in Nepal."
"But, if none of you are putting out the word that Voldemort's back-" Harry began.
"Who said none of us were putting the news out?" Sirius asked with a smirk, "why do you think Dumbledore's in such trouble?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked them.
"They're trying to discredit him," Lupin said, "Didn't you see the Daily Prophet last week? They reported that he'd been voted out of the Chairmanship of the International Confederation of Wizards because he's getting old and losing his grip, but that's simply not true, he was voted out by Ministry Wizards after he made a speech about Voldemort's return. They've demoted him from Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot - that's the Wizard High Court - and they're talking about taking away his Order of Merlin, First Class, too."
"What a joke that's become..." Jake said so quietly, only Hermione heard him, and she merely glanced at him.
"But Dumbledore says he doesn't care what they do so long as they don't take him off the Chocolate Frog Cards," Bill said while grinning.
"It's no laughing matter," Arthur said shortly, "if he carries on defying the Ministry like this, he could end up in Azkaban and that's the last thing we want, Dumbledore locked up. While You-Know-Who knows Dumbledore's out there and wise to what he's up to, he's going to go cautiously for a while. If Dumbledore's out of the way - well, You-Know-Who will have a clear field."
"Not if I have a say in it," Jake said, straining to sit up.
"Jake?" Sirius looked at him.
"I'm not afraid of Voldemort or his followers... I killed many of them last summer, that's already set him back on getting the old crew back together. I'm not going to let him run freely if something does happen to Dumbledore... I'll make sure he falls before the Power of Ambrosius, as well as anyone who stands with him," Jake said in a dark, grim voice.
No one really knew what to say in response. Hermione figured no one wanted to try and contest Jake, because they knew they wouldn't win in power or wits.
"So... what is he after?" Harry asked Sirius.
"We don't know, but it has to be something he didn't have last time... we just-"
"That's enough," Molly's voice rang out from the shadows beside the door. Her arms were crossed and she looked furious, and Jake didn't care at all, "I want you in bed now, all of you," Molly looked at Fred, George, Ron, and Hermione.
"You can't boss us-" Fred started to say.
"Watch me," Molly snarled, she was trembling slightly as she looked at Sirius, but before she could speak, Jake spoke up.
"With all due respect, Molly, you are not my mother, so don't pretend like you are... both of my mother's, my adoptive and biological, are both dead, so don't pretend you're either of them," Jake said calmly, or as calmly as he could.
Molly's lower lip trembled as she rounded on her children, "You three in bed, NOW!" She turned to Hermione, "I want you-"
"No," Hermione cut her off, "I'll go up to bed when Jake does."
Molly looked like she couldn't stand her authority being contested, and after her children left, she stormed out of the kitchen.
"That was oddly satisfying," Sirius said.
"I doubt that was necessary," Remus said.
"Molly needed the reality check, I feel..." Jake said, "she's used to her authority being challenged by her kids, but this has made her realize she can't boss around everyone still in Hogwarts."
"At any rate, that's really all we know, so it is probably best if you go up to bed anyway," Remus said.
"I'll go up in a minute..." Jake said, finding himself having a hard time getting up.
"I've got to see what you did to the portrait," Sirius exited the Kitchen and a moment later, he was heard letting out a cheerful sound. He was heard running back to them, "You got rid of it! How?"
"A secret as old as time itself," Jake said, but after a moment couldn't hold his laughter anymore, "I quite literally turned it to dust and Scourgify'd it away."
Sirius looked like Christmas came early, "And you got all the other portraits! Jake, you are welcome at Grimmauld Place any time you want to visit."
Jake smiled as Sirius, Remus, Tonks, Mundungus, and Harry all left the Kitchen, leaving Jake and Hermione alone, "Are you okay enough to walk?" She asked him, sitting so she was facing him while he still faced the table.
"Yeah... with some help..." he held out his right arm and Hermione grabbed it, helping him stabilize on his feet, "thanks... I'm glad you stayed down here..."
"I am too," she let go of him and looked up at him, "so... Sirius helped me with practicing Occlumency."
"Really? How?"
"It turns out he's a natural Legilimens. Don't worry, I had nothing... that we did at the Tower on the surface of my mind as he was helping me," 'And I had none of my lewd thoughts about you either, Jake, don't worry, those are kept safe.'
"I'll need to thank him tomorrow," he said as they left the Kitchen and went up the stairs to the floor where their rooms were. He stopped outside of Hermione's room she shared with Ginny, "I'll see you in the morning," he smiled and leaned forward.
Hermione met him halfway and they shared a kiss for a few seconds before just staring into the others eyes, or in Hermione's case, she stared into his eye, "I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too," he whispered back. She watched him go into his room and she turned to go into her room, ready to tell Ginny everything that they talked about.