Alice had been unnerved by the news since Edgar had written about the mysterious owl. She'd been home with Frank at the time, taking a meal break. They didn't often get to enjoy these rare moments, not with all the work the Ministry had for them, seeking out suspected Death Eaters, monitoring certain wizards. She was set for a rotation helping monitor the Floo Network in the next few days. It wasn't the work that she preferred, but it was one of the few things other than paperwork still left to her in her condition.
To hear that the Ministry might no longer be safe... they'd feared it, all of them had, but the mysterious owl piqued her interest. Frank had been almost reluctant to go back to work, but she promised to keep him informed of anything he missed. An Order meeting was important, but they couldn't compromise their position in the Ministry. Especially if it was falling. So he left, and delivered the message that Alice wasn't feeling well and would take the rest of the day off.
The patronus call hadn't come much later. There still wasn't much she could do for the Order, but she was inside the Ministry, which made her valuable, and she could accept assignments on Frank's behalf, at least. So much for dinner with the Potters. They would at least understand why plans had changed.
Focusing, because apparation was so much trickier when she was pregnant, she disappeared and popped up at the edge of Edgar's property. It was a familiar spot, since she and Frank and come to dinner with Edgar and Calypso on more than one occasion. She wasn't surprised to find someone else had beaten her there.
"Edgar, Fabian," she said softly, smiling and nodding at the two of them. And she wasn't sure why, but she was quite glad at the moment that her pregnancy was hardly showing.