Remus Lupin

MEETING MINUTES
Order of the Phoenix
Institute of Sophie's Supporters (formerly the 'Junior Auxiliary')

Date: 8 April 1996
Location: 12 Grimmauld

Order Members Present: Sirius Black, Minerva McGonagall, Poppy Pomfrey, Pomona Sprout, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Molly Weasley, Dora Tonks, Charlie Weasley, Bill Weasley, Lee Jordan, Severus Snape, Remus Lupin, Hermione Granger, Terry Boot.

Order Members Absent: Arabella Scrim, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Albus Dumbledore, Walden Macnair, Dorcas Meadows, Caradoc Dearborn, Stephen McGivern, Nick Towler, Rhymes with Rudy.

ISS Members Present: Hermione Granger, Terry Boot, Luna Lovegood, Fred Weasley, George Weasley, Ron Weasley, Sally-Anne Perks, Pansy Parkinson, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Neville Longbottom, Evelyn Longbottom, Susan Bones.

ISS Members Absent: Hydra Lestrange, Harry Potter.

REVIEW OF PREVIOUS MEETING MINUTES:
Skipped, because we don't wish to offer a complete airing of our organisational dirty laundry until we've properly sworn the lot of them in.

TREASURER'S REPORT:
Skipped; too much potential dirty laundry.

AGENDA:
Alice welcomed our visitors and explained the primary purpose of our meeting today: to answer their questions, to offer them some information and some help, and to see if they had any specific ideas about help they might need.

1. Naming their organisation.

Alice started by saying she'd like to know what they call themselves so that we can call them by their proper name when we talk about them.

Evelyn said that perhaps we should call them 'Sophie's Army.' Pansy Parkinson objected to this on the grounds that Sophie's Army is a larger group. Sally-Anne Perks suggested that we call them the Institute of Sophie's Supporters, which sounded ludicrously awkward to me but for some reason the Juniors, which I suppose I now need to start calling the Institute, seemed to think it was an excellent name.

Minerva asked whether they had any other members ('hiding anyone under your cloak,' I think is how she put it) and they all looked thoroughly uncomfortable; Alice gently suggested that as we weren't volunteering a great deal of information about absent members of our own group it was a bit unfair to demand information about theirs. Perhaps they had a member with privacy concerns like Rudy's? But, she added, we do know about Harry and Hydra, obviously.

Hermione said she thought it was good for us to know who they are, so that in an emergency we know who to try to get out, and so we should know they're planning to add Draco Malfoy soon. There was a moment of silence; I imagine they were waiting to see if we objected. There were some noises of concern from the Order; Sirius said that Draco's kept his secrets so far, and he imagines him to be trustworthy, and that seemed to make them relax a bit.

2. Safety planning.

Bill spoke first about portkeys. Currently, the only way to get a portkey is through the Ministry. We've been trying to get information about what they did with the arithmantical routing algorithms, or failing that to work them out ourselves, but with no success so far. Which is why we've been working to teach them apparation.

Poppy broke in to tell them that she's staying quite close to Hogwarts, on a farm owned by a friend, and should they need to flee and can't reach a floo, that would be a safe first place to come, and apparation should be relatively easy since it's such a short trip. (Alternately, they could simply walk there, if they can avoid being seen; it's not very far.) Her friend, Tilda, is not in the Order, but Poppy considers her very trustworthy. Tilda will be out all day at least once this coming week, and we'll send the juniors Institute by floo so they'll know where they're going. ('Close' isn't very helpful if it's also completely unfamiliar.)

We reiterated that at Hogwarts, they can safely trust Pomona (obviously, since she was sitting right there -- er, was it my imagination, or did they look completely unsurprised to see her?), Milland, and Brutka.

Perks asked about Aurora Sinistra, adding that for a while she thought Professor Sinistra was one of the 'wand-smugglers.'

Pomona said that no, Professor Sinistra was not one of us, and added that if absolutely necessary -- in a situation of dire need, if one of them is in trouble and unable to get to a known Order member -- they could certainly do worse than trusting Aurora. But she shouldn't be their first choice.

Poppy said, 'I think she'd let you use her floo. But you should let us know, and we'll send someone to offer her memory modification.' There were some murmurs (sorry, Bill) and I added that we're not saying we'd Obliviate her without her consent -- however, given the company she keeps on a regular basis she might actually prefer to have no memory of it.

The Institute exchanged some dire looks that I couldn't quite unravel and we moved on.

3. Food and potions.

Molly let them know about the food supplements Poppy and Pomona put together to keep their health sound, and the plan to pass some non-perishable food by way of Severus and Pomona. They assured us they had a place to store things like this, and in fact they smuggled in a large supply of food after that last Hogsmeade weekend.

Poppy asked if Perks was low on any of the potions she'd left with her, and Perks said that she was not. However, she did note that Stephen Capper was in a rather bad way due to anxiety about OWLs, and she didn't have calming potions or sleeping draughts. Poppy asked if he couldn't go to Healer Kerr, and Perks said that Kerr tells Umbridge everything and Capper was afraid that Umbridge would find some excuse to make his life even harder, if he asked for a sleeping potion, which unfortunately is probably a legitimate concern.

Poppy said she'd think on it and we moved on. Oh, but that did remind us about Perks' predicament, given that it was the calming tea she was making for Capper that provoked Umbridge's punishment. Severus will tutor her in potions when they return to school; no one needs to steal potions ingredients for her to practise with. For some reason a few of her peers seemed mildly disappointed. There seems to be a tendency among Weasleys to welcome a moral justification for creating certain kinds of mischief.

4. Thomas Capper.

Evelyn said that she'd been thinking about the portkey problem and she wanted us to know that Thomas Capper was absolutely brilliant at Arithmancy, even if he wasn't much use at anything else, and if we could get him out of the camps he could almost certainly work out the adjustment that had been made to the charm, and we'd be able to make portkeys again.

I think they probably suspected the news wasn't good when we all fell silent and looked at Alice. Alice gave them the bad news. They took it stoically enough, although clearly they'd hoped Umbridge's cruelty to Stephen was a lie.

Poppy added, 'Speaking of lies we tell, for good reasons or bad, Miss Perks, we should tell you that the little boy with the measles didn't actually die.'

Perks said, 'You mean Jason Baker?'

Poppy said, 'Yes. When we take a muggleborn baby, we usually arrange things so that everyone other than the baby's parents thinks the baby died. It's safest that way. Jason Baker is alive and well at one of our sanctuaries.'

Perks stood up and left the room, followed by Parkinson and Ron, and we took a short break. Molly made tea and brought out some biscuits. When they returned, we reconvened and moved on to Umbridge.

5. Dolores Umbridge.

The Institute wanted to give us a rundown of her many offenses. This went on for a while. I don't think there was anything we heard that was news to us -- oh, apparently the confiscated care packages aren't thrown out, they're eaten by her favoured students. I'm not sure we knew that with certainty.

Alice asked if they had any ideas for removing her.

Ron said, 'Feed her to the giant squid,' and there were a number of glum nods. Alice said that she hoped they weren't thinking of any direct action along those lines, as suspicion would surely focus within the school, and too many people are hiding in plain sight. Dora added that MLE might catch the perpetrator, if someone killed her, and Poppy chimed in to emphasize that Umbridge was not worth getting sent to Azkaban or the camps for, 'unless you find yourself in mortal danger at her hands.'

Parkinson noted that Harry had told them that the reason none of the Death Eaters ('Council Members') at the school had killed Umbridge was that she had some information on Rabastan Lestrange and was using it for blackmail. She suggested that if we could work out what that information was, and find a way to clear Lestrange's name, the Umbridge problem would likely be solved very quickly. (She added that Malfoy -- 'Lucius' -- didn't like her any more than we did, nor did 'Professor' Dolohov.)

Perhaps we didn't look sufficiently surprised, because she quickly turned from offering information to soliciting it. What was the information being held over Lestrange's head? With some hesitation, Pomona told them that it involved accusations from a young woman and declined to elaborate.

Perks asked rather abruptly whether it was the Order that killed Healer Stint. Sirius told her that it wasn't; we certainly didn't grieve his mysterious disappearance, but we didn't have anything to do with it, either. Apparently we weren't his only enemies.

I said that while I could certainly understand the appeal of having Death Eaters take care of the dirty work, I wanted to strongly recommend against the Institute getting overly involved in Rabastan Lestrange's business. He might be amiable, he might seem friendly, but he's an extremely dangerous man. Dolohov, even more so. Don't trust him. Not ever. You could use Aurora's fire in a pinch, to escape Hogwarts, but for Merlins' sake don't make the mistake of thinking you could ever use Dolohov's. Not even if you think he likes you. Not even if you're right that he likes you. The man's a snake -- well, maybe that was not the best comparison to use in a room with three Slytherins (eh, Severus?).

I probably should have shut up about Dolohov a minute or two before I did, but it was the way they were looking at me. Teenagers. They just -- argh. Anyway, Bill and Molly were having a side conversation and George said, 'I think we should just tell them, no matter what Dad said,' and looked at Alice. And Alice said it was up to the Weasleys whether to share that bit of information or not.

So Fred looked at Ron and said, 'Professor Dolohov is the one that killed Mum's brothers.'

Molly started crying, and Bill looked furious, and George said, 'the whole point of this meeting was to share information, wasn't it?' and the Institute looked ... I'm not even sure.

At any rate it was late so we adjourned. I'm not sure whether telling them was the right idea or not, given they're going to be heading on back to school in a week and will be sitting lessons with lovely 'Professor Dolohov,' murderer of Fabian and Gideon Prewett, once again. And will need to not say a single word, or treat him in any way differently.

I hope Ron got adequate acting practice preparing for that Revue of his.