Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling [38]
“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. He knew that Voldemort had murdered more than once in the last year alone.
“Because he doesn’t want to draw attention to himself at the moment,” said Sirius. “It would be dangerous for him. His comeback didn’t come off quite the way he wanted it to, you see. He messed it up.”
“Or rather, you messed it up for him,” said Lupin with a satisfied smile.
“How?” Harry asked perplexedly.
“You weren’t supposed to survive!” said Sirius. “Nobody apart from his Death Eaters was supposed to know he’d come back. But you survived to bear witness.”
“And the very last person he wanted alerted to his return the moment he got back was Dumbledore,” said Lupin. “And you made sure Dumbledore knew at once.”
“How has that helped?” Harry asked.
“Are you kidding?” said Bill incredulously. “Dumbledore was the only one You-Know-Who was ever scared of!”
“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.
“How d’you know what his plans are?” Harry asked quickly.
“Dumbledore’s got a shrewd idea,” said Lupin, “and Dumbledore’s shrewd ideas normally turn out to be accurate.”
“So what does Dumbledore reckon he’s planning?”
“Well, firstly, he wants to build up his army again,” said Sirius. “In the old days he had huge numbers at his command; witches and wizards he’d bullied or bewitched into following him, his faithful Death Eaters, a great variety of Dark creatures. You heard him planning to recruit the giants; well, they’ll be just one group he’s after. He’s certainly not going to try and take on the Ministry of Magic with only a dozen Death Eaters.”
“So you’re trying to stop him getting more followers?”
“We’re doing our best,” said Lupin.
“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,” said Bill. “It’s proving tricky, though.”
“Why?”
“Because of the Ministry’s attitude,” said Tonks. “You saw Cornelius Fudge after You-Know-Who came back, Harry. Well, he hasn’t shifted his position at all. He’s absolutely refusing to believe it’s happened.”
“But why?” said Harry desperately. “Why’s he being so stupid? If Dumbledore —”
“Ah, well, you’ve put your finger on the problem,” said Mr. Weasley with a wry smile. “Dumbledore.”
“Fudge is frightened of him, you see,” said Tonks sadly.
“Frightened of Dumbledore?” said Harry incredulously.
“Frightened of what he’s up to,” said Mr. Weasley. “You see, Fudge thinks Dumbledore’s plotting to overthrow him. He thinks Dumbledore wants to be Minister of Magic.”
“But Dumbledore doesn’t want —”
“Of course he doesn’t,” said Mr. Weasley. “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,” said Lupin. “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.”
“How can he think that?” said Harry angrily.