Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place

Moody, Lupin, Tonks, and the others guide Harry to a Muggle square where, after reading a secret message, Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place materializes. Inside the gloomy, serpent-adorned house, Mrs. Weasley greets them and hurries to an Order meeting, instructing Harry to wait upstairs.

In a bedroom, Hermione and Ron welcome Harry, but his month of isolation and danger erupts into anger. He accuses them and Dumbledore of keeping him uninformed, listing past dangers he faced. Calming, Harry asks about the Order. Ron and Hermione explain they can’t attend meetings but learned via Extendable Ears that members track Death Eaters, recruit allies, and guard something. They also reveal Bill and Charlie’s involvement.

The Weasleys describe Percy’s promotion to Fudge’s office and the ensuing family rift after Percy denounced Mr. Weasley and Dumbledore. Hermione explains the Daily Prophet’s ongoing smear campaign portraying Harry as deluded and attention-seeking, likely influenced by Fudge, and notes how the dementor attack has been suppressed in the press.

After the meeting, attempts to overhear more fail as Snape departs. Mrs. Weasley leads them to dinner, urging quiet. Tonks trips over a troll-leg umbrella stand, yanking open curtains that reveal a portrait of an enraged old woman who screams slurs and denounces the intruders. Lupin and Mrs. Weasley struggle to silence the portrait.

Sirius bursts in, helps force the curtains shut, and greets Harry grimly, revealing the screeching portrait is his mother. This confirms the house is Sirius’s ancestral home and the Order’s headquarters, underscoring the setting’s dark lineage and the secrecy surrounding their resistance.