"So the plan is to stop Harry getting killed?" Sirius snorted, wrapping an arm around Remus, his golden wedding band glinting slightly on his ring finger.

"Yes," Snape responded, shifting a little in his seat at the round table. Harry was sat next to him looking a little guilty.

"I'm sorry you all had to go to this trouble, you know," the brunet boy said, looking down at the wooden table. "I don't want any of you to get hurt, especially when I hardly know any of you."

Sirius smiles sadly at him from opposite Harry. "Harry, let me make it very clear, if one of us gets hurt during this, it will not be your fault. We all know what we're signing up for here."

"Ah, this reminds me," Tonks said happily. "Let me introduce you to everyone!"

"There's me, Tonks, and Mad Eye Moody, whose first name is actually Alastor but no one uses it. Your professors: Hagrid, McGonagall, Dumbledore and Snape. Kingsley Shacklebolt, who's actually a spy in the government for us, how cool is that! And lastly, Molly and Arthur Weasley. You probably know their son, Ron."

Harry nodded to that and the red-haired woman looked hopeful. "How is Ronald, by the way? We haven't heard from him in a while."

"Uh, yeah, he's good. He and Hermione are doing really well," Harry said a little awkwardly. The two parents looked confused.

"Hermione?" Arthur Weasley said, brows furrowing. "Who's that?"

Ron and his parent's relationship must really be going through tough times, if they don't even know about his girlfriend, Harry thought. He suddenly felt guilty for not asking Ron more about his home life but then figured that Ron would probably not want to tell him. Ron tended to keep things hidden and build them up rather than letting them out slowly. It was a rather self-destructive that Hermione was trying to break him out of, but to no avail.

"Just one of our friends." Ron could tell them on his own when they patched things up.

"Ah," Molly said carefully, catching onto the fact Harry was concealing something from them. "That's nice."

"So," Tonks said, cutting into the extremely awkward conversation. "Are we going to kick Death Eater butt, or what?!"

"We need to know where they're hiding out first, Tonks," Lupin reminded her gently.

Hagrid snorted. "Well, that'd be Malfoy Manor, no?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "No, Hagrid. We've already discovered their base in Malfoy Manor. It would be unwise of them to keep meeting there."

Sirius turned thoughtful. "But what if that's what they want us to think?"

Remus turned to look at him. "Sirius, what are you talking about?"

"Think about it, Remy," Sirius said. "They're a smart bunch and they know that we're a smart bunch. They might've thought about it. The one place we're not going to think to look is the one place we've already found them."

"But we would never be sure," Dumbledore pointed out. "And we don't want to waste time, remember? Voldemort may be planning to capture Harry at this very moment!"

"We can hire protection for Harry in the meantime," Kingsley said, waving a dismissive hand. Harry felt anger boil under his skin.

"No," he automatically said. Everyone turned to look at him. "Look, I understand you all want to help me and all, but no way in hell am I going to be monitored and 'protected' while you guys go risk your lives for me. No way."

Molly opened her mouth to argue but Sirius beat her to it. "I think you're right, kiddo. You should be able to fight your own battles. But you're barely even sixteen, you can't fight yet. You'd be slaughtered out there. The Death Eaters are a brutal bunch."

"Yeah, Harry," Moody said suddenly. "If you want to fight, you'll have to train!"

"Then I will train!" Harry said, determined. "I'll do what it takes to be out there fighting with you!"

The Order members looked at him in a way that made Harry strangle self conscious. "What? What is it?"

Sirius laughed. "It's nothing, Harry. You just remind us a lot of your father. He always wanted to be where the action was."

"That's very true. James could never sit still for a second even if his life depended on it," Dumbledore chuckled.

"Ah, I have a question," Harry said, a little nervous. "Why did my parents go seeking money from a gang?"

Remus smiled sadly. "None of us here in the Order are in the best financial position, Harry. At some point, all of us have had to live off scraps or go to food banks just to be able to fill our stomachs. No one really wants to employ weird, eccentric people like us. Me and Sirius are gay, Dumbledore looks like something out of a Lord of the Rings film, Hagrid could practically pass for a giant, Moody's missing some body parts... the list goes on. James and Lily wanted more for you, and none of the banks were granting them any money because they didn't think they could pay it back. So they resorted to the Death Eater's organisation, which was typically known for violence. Eleven years go by and they were struggling to get together enough money to pay back. And then it was too late."

Harry could see Sirius' eyes become shiny with tears, and watched as the older man blinked them away, shaking his head furiously. Harry understood his pain.

"And since then we've been trying to break them down and tear up their organisation," Shacklebolt cut in. "We'll stop at nothing until we get revenge."

An idea popped into Harry's head. "I do know someone who could give me answers. Someone who might know at least some of all that's going on and can tell me where the base is."

"Who?" Hagrid asked.

Harry shook his head. "I'll tell you if my plan works. If I'm right, this person probably won't want to tell me their gang's secrets so suddenly. I need to make them trust me."

Remus looked uncomfortable. "That sounds like a good plan, Harry, but isn't this technically what Draco Malfoy did to you? It's a little immoral."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Who cares about morals! If this works, we'll be one step closer to destroying the organisation!"

"It's fine, Remus," Harry said offhandedly, ignoring the stab of guilt. "She can handle some betrayal."

It was probably nothing Pansy Parkinson hadn't seen before.

~~~

AAAH!! what's going to happen? ;)

(vote and comment!!! :D)