remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-04-18 15:13:00 |
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Who: The entire Order, Agnes, Andromeda, and Ted.
What: Order meeting! Called by Alice the day after the Monday raid.
When: 17 April 1979 at night.
Where: Ted & Andromeda's house.
Status: Incomplete.
Rating: PG-13?
Agnes was in the kitchen putting together a bit of dinner for herself and Marlene. She tried to keep out of Andromeda's way as much as possible (and to inconvenience her as little as possible, even though she was the most eerily nice person Agnes had ever met). When she had something passable that didn't involve meat products of any kind, she returned to the living room, which was beginning to get cramped as people showed up, through floo, at the door (which Ted very carefully answered), and even a few apparitions from the aurorly types. She wasn't exactly nervous about the meeting, but she wasn't feeling too hot, that was for sure. With Dora around she wasn't about to bust out her weed and take a few hits to relax, and the absence of chemical stability made her antsier than usual. "Here you go lady," she whispered to Marlene, handing her a bowl of steamed veggies and warm bread before dumping herself unceremoniously into the other girl's lap. Marlene was nervous about the meeting. If she could've been anywhere else in the world at that moment, that would've been preferable. Not that the Tonkses hadn't been perfectly friendly, and their daughter was the most adorable thing to exist (second to Marlene's niece Holly, of course), and it was amazingly nice of them to let her and Dorcas and Agnes stay there, but the thought of everyone in the Order showing up and wanting details of what had happened on Monday didn't sound like an enjoyable way to spend the evening. She'd thought about it enough already, she couldn't stop thinking about it, and she wanted to get out of there. Maybe she could excuse herself to the loo and crawl out the window or something else ridiculously unnecessary. ...But then Agnes plopped in her lap, and it became very obvious she wasn't going anywhere. If Marlene had voiced her thoughts to Agnes, she probably would have found a partner in window-crawling, for if there was one thing Agnes disliked more than being cooped up in one place for long periods of time, it was having responsible types staring disapprovingly at her. She already felt guilty as fuck after writing to Edgar, and now that he was actually in the room with her, she only felt worse. However, she resisted screaming "I'M SORRY" at the top of her lungs and instead picked at her food and bothered Marlene's hair in between mouthfuls. "Oy, Sirius, you eatin' that?" And though she'd asked, she didn't wait for a reply before leaning in and stabbing at a piece of something-or-other on his plate. "Ta, darlin'" she grinned around the bite. You should never get in the way of Agnes when she decided to grab something, as her squatting on Marlene suggested, so Sirius just leaned back against the seat and snorted in amusement. He picked up another bit of roll and started eating again, for want of something better to do. He wasn't going to start this all off. While he was hardly happy about Marlene, Dorcas, Agnes and the puppy getting smoked out of what was essentially their home, he knew things were about to get a little bit tense. Things always were when you had to come clean or rather, in this case, come clean and describe a bunch of idiots knowing about it before your friends did and acting accordingly. He seriously hoped the rest of the Order was doing better than they had been. Thus far they'd had threats and invasion in their little corner and despite his mumblings about more proactive Order, he didn't fancy kicking off proceedings there either. With his habit of putting his foot in it, they'd have ended up in a bloody argument in the middle of his own cousins home. You could practically feel the tension in the house, and needless to say, it was making Remus feel uncomfortable. With the occasional comment from Agnes, no one else seemed very keen on speaking and Remus was not quite sure how to break the silence -- normally he liked the quiet every now and then, but right now? Not so much. He wished that he did have an appetite right now so that at least he could have something to do other than just sit there with everyone else. Hopefully the meeting would start soon, and then at least there would be something happening. "How are you two feeling?" he asked Marlene and Agnes, inwardly wincing because this was still touching on the topic of The Attack -- why couldn't he think of anything else to talk about? Remus cleared his throat and immediately tried to change the subject, despite having brought it up himself. "Marlene, I think I may have spotted Ms Missinteeth on my way to the Apparation point after work yesterday. As it turns out, not only can you hear her coming before you see her, you can smell her, too." There -- that was a lighter subject, wasn't it? "Aha, yeah, kind of like a french hooker or something, isn't it?" Marlene snickered, her manner very obviously much quieter than usual as she oh-so-gracefully glided over the topic of how she was feeling. If Agnes wanted to bring it back to that, she could feel free, but Marlene didn't want anyone worrying about how she personally was doing. "I'd forgotten to mention the smell before; you don't usually notice it unless the breeze catches it when the door opens. The cabbage smell usually does a pretty good job of masking it." Oh great, and now discussing the cabbage smell was reminding her of cabbage being sexy which was reminding her of Monday and why did everything keep going back to that, Marlene groaned, resting her head back against the couch and finding a spot on the ceiling to stare at while Agnes fussed with her hair. Anytime they wanted to get the meeting started would be fine by her. The sooner it started, the sooner she'd be able to leave. ...or, well, go back into the room she'd been staying in, considering that now she didn't really have anywhere to go, given that her flat was a bit on the epically destroyed side. "Are you liking the job okay so far?" she asked. Wow. Maybe next she'd start bringing up the weather. How exciting. "I'm enjoying it -- I'm just glad to have something to do now besides working for the Order." In truth, Remus was a lot more excited about the job than he let on. Sure, it was only a cashier position, but it was something and as someone in Remus' position, he wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. That someone had been willing to give him a chance was good enough. "Other than the smells, anyway. It's a bit overwhelming sometimes, but I think I'll get used to it after a while." Identifying potions was the only part Remus had been good at in school -- actually making them was another issue entirely. "What's next? The weather?" Sirius commented in a slightly sarcastic tone, putting the plate to the side and sighing. He wasn't in the mood to listen to those two prattle on about the most mundane things simply because they hadn't gotten it in their heads to have a shag yet. He supposed everyone had their ways of being nervous but he didn't want to be put to sleep by it. "Do you think we could do this or are we just going to continue making small talk?" If so, he was going to request someone wake him up when it got to the parts he actually cared about. He was happy Remus had a job, but that didn't mean he wanted to listen to shop talk from those two. Dorcas sat across from Marlene and Agnes, and she hadn't said much of anything all day. Dorcas was utterly and completely exhausted, both physically and mentally, but she had been rendered incapable of falling asleep ever since The Incident. Dorcas's two day bout of insomnia was partly to do with the fact that whenever she tried to sleep she no longer had anything to distract her from thinking about what happened on Monday, but the main cause of her sleepless nights was that the last time she had slept it hadn't gone so well for her. Dorcas hadn't been to work since Monday, but she was keeping herself busy by working on a sleeping draught, because although she couldn't sleep, she sure as hell wanted to. However, the sleeping draught which was not quite done yet was doing nothing to help Dorcas now, and so she looked quite like a zombie as she very slowly went about ripping her bread into tiny pieces and putting it into her mouth. When she finished this process and there was no longer any bread for her to rip and eat, Dorcas rubbed her eyes and looked lazily over at Remus and Sirius and attempted to listen to what they were saying. "I don't mind small talk so much," she said, her voice sounding hoarse and rather odd to her. Well, Dorcas didn't mind small talk so much at this particular moment, because if they were talking about work or the weather or whatever it meant that they had yet to breach the subject of the attack, which Dorcas was quite sick of talking and thinking about. 'Oh, fuck,' Dorcas thought, realising that just as she began to think about how she didn't want to think about the attack, she was thinking about the attack. It really was a vicious cycle. Well, there was a time and place for small talk, and right now did not seem the most appropriate moment. He cast an apologetic look at Marlene, Agnes and Dorcas after Sirius' comment, before sighing and clasping his hands together. "Alright, should we get this meeting started, then? I know that nobody really wants to discuss what happened on Monday, but we all know that we should, so let's just -- get it over and done with, then," Remus suggested reluctantly, wanting to get the difficult part out of the way first and off everyone's minds. Then they could move on to another topic. "I wasn't there, so... would anyone else like to start?" He looked around at Marlene, Agnes, Dorcas and Sirius, hoping one of them would speak up. "These blokes came in and tried to magick us off the face of the planet," piped up Agnes, and she thought that was pretty much all there was to it. "We's just mindin our own business and in they came." And that was that. She shoved a bit of asparagus into her mouth to signify that, even if she wasn't done talking, she certainly couldn't speak with food in her mouth, could she? Plus, what was there to say? She hadn't called this meeting. She didn't even like meetings. That wasn't that. That wasn't that at all, but Marlene had absolutely no desire to elaborate further. The others hadn't been there, and Marlene was relieved that they hadn't been. It was bad enough that the four of them had to go through everything that had happened. And while under any other circumstance Marlene would've been one of the first to start pushing people for information or details as to what had happened, with the roles reversed, Marlene could see just how annoying that was. Not that it would stop her from being nosey and obnoxious in the future, but she really wished that just this once they could all let it slide. "Yep, that there about covers it," Marlene agreed quietly, even surprising herself at how unlike herself she was sounding. It was a strange day indeed if Marlene McKinnon was keeping quiet. "Marlene went to get the mail or something and next thing you know, Death Eaters everywhere." Sirius elaborated, as apparently for once in her life, Marlene was keeping her mouth shut. It didn't sound particularly thrilling but terrorists running into the home of a bunch of girls wasn't exactly the adventure of the year so he supposed short and sweet was the way to go. "A few blasting curses and creative weaponry and we were out the window." That about summed it up, didn't it? "Oh, and Agnes forgot she was a witch and fucked up her hand. That was it." The place was basically unlivable, so chalk it up to a draw. No one died but damage was done and it was enough to royally piss everyone off. You had to wonder if that was the point. If they were being goaded to fight back with more force and get themselves arrested as a bizarre bit of irony. Or, perhaps, he was slightly concussed. This was his usual conclusion when Death Eaters began to make sense to him. This was going to be more difficult than Remus thought -- rather equivalent to pulling teeth. He pressed on, trying to get more information. "Is there anything about the Death Eaters who attacked you that you can tell us? Or, more importantly, why? They could have attacked anyone in the complex..." Then again, Remus supposed Marlene was not exactly the most discreet member of the Order, so perhaps it wasn't entirely surprising her and Dorcas' flat was targeted. "Unless, of course, they were going after your flat specifically. Regardless, they know Agnes is alive now -- and whoever that anonymous person Marlene was writing to over the journals seems to be affiliated with them somehow, if they know she's alive too." The familiar feeling of being compressed into a small tube immediately faded and Emmeline found herself standing in a narrow alleyway a few blocks from the Tonks' cottage. Groaning inwardly and berating herself for thinking that it would be more polite to Apparate a few ways away than at the front door. It was a good idea that morning, at least, but not so much after a full day at work. While everyone was helpful and Emmeline had been adjusting very well, the stress of moving into a new environment took up a lot of her energy. It took five minutes for her to get to the cottage's front lawn, although she hurried her pace when she saw that some people have already arrived, judging by the amount of shadows she could see through the windows. Emmeline hoped she wasn't hallucinating. Shaking her arms and slapping her face a couple of times, she finally knocked on the door. Emmeline couldn't hear any voices from inside the house and wondered if someone cast a Silencing Charm and, if someone did, if it muffled the sound of knocking. Frowning, Emmeline knocked again, louder this time. "Anyone?" she added weakly. Coffee would be a very good idea. Benjy hadn't contributed anything yet, just standing out of the circle, leaning against a wall as he watched how everyone was interacting. It would have taken an idiot to not notice the tensions that had been striking up over the last week, and needless to say, they made him a little anxious. Focusing as he was, he was probably one of the few who heard the knock on the door, and he lifted himself off the wall to go answer it. "Oh, Emmeline! You look a shocker." "Thank you, Benjy," Emmeline tried to keep the sarcasm down. Everyone was tired. Everyone had been under the same amount of pressure. No need to get shirty about small comments. Emmeline repeated this a couple of times before managing a small smile to cover the jab. "Long day at work," she explained, "Er - well, it's been a long week for everyone." Shrugging off her cloak and hanging it behind the door, Emmeline stared at the group. Silence seemed to have fallen almost instantly. "... Are we, uh, doling out punishments for being late or something?" she held up her hands, as if surrendering. "No wand, see." Dorcas merely nodded along to all that Agnes, Marlene, and Sirius were saying. "Sammie peed on one of the death eater's shoes," Dorcas said with a faint smile. That was the only somewhat light hearted event of the disaster, and Dorcas rather liked to cling to it. If she had to remember anything at all about Monday, it would be that her and Marlene's decidedly brilliant dog took a piss on one of the big bad death eaters. Dorcas rubbed her temples and then shook her head. "I don't know," she said in response to Remus's question. "Maybe we were the most...politically active amongst our neighbours?" she offered feebly. "Or perhaps they recognised us from the attack on Agnes's commune and decided to track us down, I really don't know," she said. "However, it would be foolish to say it was just a random attack. From what I could tell they had a plan," Dorcas told him. Marlene's heart stopped for a brief second after the knock on the door, only to begin pounding extremely quickly a moment later after as she flailed to grab her wand (the startled motion nearly sending Agnes toppling off her lap), keeping it aimed at the doorway as Benjy seemed to move in slow motion to let the person inside. Had he checked who was out there first? What if it was them? What if they'd tracked them here now, and the Death Eaters were back to try again? Oh. It was Emmeline. "Bloody buggering hell," Marlene whispered under her breath as she slowly lowered her wand from its position aimed at her friend's face, her voice audibly shaken from the moment of post-traumatic déjá vu. "No, they knew what they were doing," Marlene replied to both Remus and Dorcas, realising that her roommate would've been asleep at the time, and wouldn't've known how they'd gotten in either. "They... ugh." She paused, pushing her hair back out of her face and rushed through the next bit of the explanation, folding her arms across her chest and sinking back into the couch, deciding to talk at that spot on the ceiling again. "Theyknockedonthedoorandnoonewasthereand Remus was surprised at the reaction a little knock on the door had received -- he had heard the knock, but not everyone had arrived yet, so he could only assume it was another member of the Order. Of course, if it hadn't been, there would have been something seriously wrong with how the Death Eaters could keep finding them like this. "Are you alright, Agnes?" he asked, after she had been unceremoniously dumped onto the floor from Marlene's lap. He waited for Benjy and Emmeline to rejoin them before continuing. Remus was having a difficult time keeping up with Marlene's recollection of the attack, and he couldn't help but wonder how she managed not to go blue in the face while talking for so long and so quickly without pausing for a breath. It was almost impressive, had he thought about it, but his mind was too busy attempting to sort out everything Marlene was describing. "So..." he started, but paused, frowning in concentration. "So... they already knew Agnes was alive before they arrived at your flat? How could they have known? Not many people knew," and Remus didn't want to bring it up, he really didn't, but they needed to figure out how the Death Eaters were able to acquire the knowledge. "Did someone accidentally let it slip?" Or do we have someone leaking knowledge from within the Order? was a question Remus left unsaid, but hoped it was implied enough by the suggestion. As Remus posed his (entirely warranted and worth considering) questions, Gideon came out from the kitchen balancing a tray holding half a dozen cups and a cozied teapot (charmed to be bottomless, because they were really going to need this). "The information needn't necessarily have been sourced from within the group," he said vaguely, as he began dispensing cups, first and foremost to those in need of the calming and beneficial effects of tea (i.e. Marlene and then along the line). "After all, was any actual official record of her death falsified? The absence of one would be telling. Though I suppose that wouldn't have lead to that particular apartment," he added, musingly, continuing to pour into the teacups. "Oh." He blinked at the new arrival. "Hi Emm, didn't see you come in." He turned around, holding up the teapot in one hand and the depleted tray in the other. "Anyone else for tea?" Gideon domestic was always an amusing sight; Benjy accepted a cup of tea and sat down on the sofa arm next to Marlene, resting a hand on her shoulder. "People who hide things tend towards paranoia," he volunteered. "It's quite likely that they never completely believed that she was dead. I mean, these people are everywhere. If we believe Regulus is involved, there could be others from the wizarding elite. They could be in the government, in St Mungo's, they could have routes of information that we just can't match." Sirius waved off Agnes' correction of "Elbow, thank you, Blacky," for a cup of Gideons tea. He mostly wanted it to warm his hands up as he wasn't keen on drinking tea he hadn't prepared himself since the wasabi incident. "We'd be just as paranoid if it was one of them." He agreed, the involvement comment causing a simple roll of the eyes because he was sick of having that conversation. "If you follow that line of thought, Benjamin, then we are all in very big trouble. It could be simpler than that. There was a lack of mourning, everyone was cagey because a great deal of us aren't exactly world class fibbers and if you're paranoid, that's probably more than enough to get you going." Remus frowned slightly, wondering what, exactly, Benjy meant when he said that people who hide things tend towards paranoia. Was Benjy accusing him of being paranoid? Or did he think Remus was hiding something? No -- maybe he was just looking too much into it. Of course they were going to be paranoid -- who wouldn't be after the Death Eaters have been able to keep attacking them? "Alright, so there were other ways to assume that Agnes was still alive, but still -- how did they find out where she was? I'm sure that wasn't exactly public knowledge. It would have been an awfully lucky guess." Edgar had been silent for a long time. Not because he was lost for words, but because he preferred only to speak when he had something useful to say. He was tired, which was certainly something affecting him and contributing to his silence, but Edgar Bones was always tired these days. No, when he finally spoke, he always preferred to say something that people would pay attention to, and tonight was no exception. Edgar leaned forward at Remus' comment, his eyes ringed with dark circles. "If you ask me, there's no guess lucky enough to lead them right there." He glanced towards Agnes, giving her the tightest, the most forced of smiles. "Maybe someone told them? Someone who knew that she wasn't..." Edgar trailed off, not exactly thrilled at pointing out that they had been lied to again. He still felt a little guilty at having been so hostile, but a few hurt feelings were the least of their worries. Dorcas observed Remus with her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. She was getting some weird vibes about him lately, and she didn't think that they were entirely unfounded. He had been so..vague and dodgy that time she asked him over the journals where he'd been during the attack on Agnes's commune. It seemed to her like he was hiding something, and that definitely set off the red alarms in Dorcas's head, and now this. Sure, he had been the one who proposed that perhaps one of their own let Agnes's whereabouts 'slip', but it was possible he was only throwing that out there to make it seem as though it wasn't him. It was also possible that Dorcas's brain was working funny due to the lack of sleep, but in this moment she wasn't doubting her suspicions, and she felt pretty certain there was something funny about him. "Well not that many people knew she was staying with me and Marly..." Dorcas said. "So that rather limits the possibilities of people who could have told," she said and sent Remus a pointed glance. While Remus had agreed with what Edgar said, he certainly wasn't expecting that people might suspect him of being the informant. In fact, as he had nothing to hide, he didn't quite catch on to the subtle accusation from the look Dorcas gave him at first. "Yes, you're right, that does limit the number of people who could have told, if it's true someone told the Death Eaters..." but then Remus trailed off, his brow furrowed as he frowned at Dorcas. "You aren't implying that I was the one, are you?" "No one's accusing anyone," Benjy said firmly, despite the fact that Dorcas apparently was. "We do need to come up with a list of who knew, but tossing around accusations right now just isn't helpful. We're already arguing and keeping secrets, and we don't want to make that worse. It might not have even been a leak." He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. The truth was there were other ways the Death Eaters could find information, but they tended to be rather wooly, complex and highly advanced methods that your average joe off the street just wasn't capable of performing. Marlene had been greatly appreciative for the tea delivery from Gideon, as sipping that provided a wonderful distraction from focusing on things that would have preferred to never talk about again. She'd clued back in to the conversation about the point when Edgar began his Captain Guilt-Trip speech, afraid that he (as the first of the Order members who were out of their twenties who'd spoken) was going to say something else to point out how badly they'd handled everything. She couldn't quite figure out why she'd assumed that Edgar would be the one to go off on them, but the annoying bit of guilt that was still nagging at her over snapping at him right after their flat had been attacked probably had a hand in it. She'd convinced herself at first, though, that she'd been imagining things when she followed Dorcas's gaze to Remus, as there was absolutely no way that Remus would've told anyone about it. ...To Marlene's knowledge, most of the people who Remus might've told probably were already well aware of the fact. When Remus vocalised the same thing that Marlene had been thinking, though, she felt her stomach twist up, knowing that this wasn't going to go well. "Dorie, no, Remus... ha, no, there's no way," Marlene added after Benjy had tried to stabilise the situation. Remus had always been the responsible one out of the Gryffindors in their year. He was the quiet one. (But wasn't it always the quiet ones? ...No, of course not. Not this time, anyway, Marlene was convinced.) "That'd be like saying you or me did it, and Merlin knows that we were looking to redecorate but seriously. Not that badly." ...And given that Marlene had actually told Remus the truth about what had happened and that Agnes wasn't really dead even before Agnes had might have had something to do with her insistence on the matter, but she never would've told him in the first place had she not trusted him not to mention it to anyone else. Emmeline had settled herself in a corner of the room; she was leaning on the wall as she listened to the others' exchanges. It didn't take long for her to notice the pointed silences and sharp looks, which didn't really help the situation, she thought. Dorcas' statement and Remus' outburst were disconcerting moments; has it really come to the point where everyone suspected everyone else? Emmeline nodded as Benjy tried to mediate the situation, it was no use to point fingers and fling accusations. She tried reading the older Order members' faces but their identical blank, or grim in Edgar's case, expressions didn't yield any reassuring information. Marlene's words jolted her out of her train of thoughts for a moment but she didn't say a word. Was it so far removed from the current circumstances that the existence of spies and turncoats was laughable? Emmeline didn't think it wise to ignore the possibility. "Needless to say," she began, breaking her silence, "It might be a good idea to trace where the information might have been intercepted." She fidgeted with the cup of tea in her hand, "There are other means of finding out as well, you know. Scrying, for example; as long as someone has the means to do it." "I don't know," Dorcas said rather elusively. Well, Dorcas did know, actually, she just didn't feel much like explaining; not right now anyway. She could tell them that she thought Remus had been acting funny lately, but everyone seemed to be getting a bit jumpy just because she gave him a look, she didn't really want to know what their reactions would be if she actually tried to defend her stance. Although she listened intently to what Edgar and Marlene had to say, neither of their arguments did much to quell her suspicions. Marlene was wrong, accusing Remus wasn't the same thing as if she were accusing Marlene herself. Marly was like an open book, Dorcas knew Marlene inside out by now and she knew beyond a shred of a doubt that Marlene would never align herself with the death eaters in any way, but Remus? Well, Dorcas would certainly like to think that he wouldn't, but what the hell did she know? Sure, Dorcas had always thought of Remus the same way everyone else did; quiet, sweet, unassuming, and an all around good guy, but when she really thought about it, she didn't know him that well. Dorcas got the feeling there was a lot she didn't know about him, so for all she knew he could be the traitorous type. Nonetheless, now was not the time to voice all the conflicting thoughts running through her head. She had made her opinion of Remus known, more or less, and if he gave her more reason to suspect him she would be more persistent, if not she'd be more than happy to admit she was a paranoid berk and move on, but for the time being she wasn't letting her guard down. Times were changing and the line between good and bad was getting extremely blurred, and Dorcas couldn't simply rule out possible enemies just because they seemed nice and they seemed like a good guy. Dorcas may be getting a bit paranoid, but she wasn't a fool. "But we need to realise that if someone did spill information it could be anyone," she finally said after a few moments of contemplative silence. "And I would like to think they found out some other way, but could someone explain to me what that other way could be?" she asked. "We were extremely careful with Agnes," Dorcas told them. "So I just don't see how they could've found out if someone hadn't tipped them off," she said but then turned toward Emmeline and considered her suggestion. Dorcas tilted her head a bit and shrugged "Yeah, I guess so.." she said, though from the tone in her voice she wasn't completely sold on the idea. "I guess if one of them is a Divinations buff, or they could have forced a seer into doing the work for them.." she contemplated. "Still, I just think it's...wise to really give some thought as to who you can and cannot trust," Dorcas said, and cast Remus another fleeting glance before letting her gaze drift off to the corner of the room. Truth be told, Dorcas didn't really want to talk about this much more either. It was making her feel antsy and irritated and she didn't like it at all. Remus cast a grateful (and possibly relieved) look to Marlene, Benjy and Emmeline as they tried to take control of the situation. He could hardly believe that Dorcas thought he would give away the secrets of his friends, especially after he has trusted them with his own secret. Even now, after he's been more exposed to how the world outside of Hogwarts treats werewolves, it still caught him off guard at times -- and to think that someone within the Order itself could possibly feel that way, well -- he didn't know how to react to that. Why Dorcas suspected him of anything, though, he could only guess. Most of the time, he was rather level headed (for a Gryffindor, anyway). Most of the time Remus was able to keep himself under control -- unfortunately, this was not one of those times, not when it was only a few days until the full moon. It effected his mood, and he was certainly not missing the looks Dorcas kept giving him, so he did not just sit back and listen after she finished speaking. "Of course, you are right, Dorcas," Remus agreed, but his tone of voice was sharp and bitter as his temper flared up. "It would be wise to give some thought as to whom we can trust. You are a muggleborn, aren't you? I would say that's a perfectly good reason to try and make some deals with the Death Eaters in attempt to protect your family, isn't it? How do we know for sure, then, it wasn't you who told anyone, if you were offered protection for your family? If they threatened you, would you give in? Would you tell them, Dorcas?" The words were leaving his mouth before he could stop himself, and he knew he was being out of order, knew that he was just picking a fight, but he was not going to just sit back as someone accused him of selling his own friends out. Remus grit his teeth before he could say anymore, nearly biting his tongue to stop himself from making the situation worse than it was becoming -- although it was probably too late for that now. Dorcas's mouth actually dropped open a bit as she stared at Remus incredulously. "Oh, right, because the Death Eaters would be so willing to listen to and align themselves with a mudblood so that she can protect her filthy muggle family, because that's not counterproductive of them at all," she said, the tone in her voice venomous and dripping with sarcasm. "No, but really, are you fucking serious?" Dorcas asked him. "Even if they did try to make some bloody barmy deal like that with me I wouldn't go for it," she said. "Not only would I not sacrifice my friends so easily, I'm not daft enough to think they'd actually keep their word," Dorcas said. "They'd just kill me and my family after," she said, quite seriously. "And really, if that IS what happened and I was privy to this grand scheme all along, do you really think I would've been in the flat that day?" she asked. "And if I did have a deal with the Death Eaters I don't think they would have been trying to blast me to itty bitty pieces that night, do you? Because that's what they were trying to do, Remus, they were trying to kill us, myself very much included in that 'us', but I suppose you wouldn't know because you weren't there!" Dorcas said furiously, actually having to take a few deep breaths after she was finished with her tangent. Oh shit. This was bad. This was very bad. Marlene's jaw had nearly hit the ground when Remus started firing back about Dorcas making deals to protect her family because she was muggleborn. Dorcas wouldn't do that, it didn't make sense anyway, and even if she had, she would've had the perfect opportunity to stay hidden away in her bedroom from the Death Eaters the entire time they were raiding their flat. She wouldn't've jumped out there to fight along with them, nearly getting herself killed in the process, would she? OF COURSE she wouldn't, and it was completely insane that the thought would've crossed Remus's mind, even thought she could understand why he was upset and trying to defend his name, especially since he'd been accused for no reason. Marlene had just started to chime in to tell Remus to knock it off when Dorcas exploded back at him ragefully, looking almost like she was going pull her wand on him. "Bloody hell, chill out, you guys!" Marlene inveighed, the nervous noise that squeaked out sounding extremely unlike her. "You know what?! You're right! Remus wasn't there, and it's a damned good thing too, because I just don't think we could've fit one more person into that flat, and the fire escape certainly wouldn't've held. I think that more than anything this should be a major wakeup call to the landlord," Marlene nodded, wondering when the hell she became the peace-keeper here. It sounded at first as though a small bomb had gone off on one side of the room, but the absence of any death and destruction seemed to quickly suggest otherwise. Perhaps it was worse, in the long term: Edgar was sat forward, his fist clenched so hard that the knuckles were threatening to pop through his skin. He had slammed his hand down against the table so hard that a number of Ted and Andromeda's ornaments had jumped three inches into the air, and his expression was darker than most people had ever seen before. Edgar was a grim and serious wizard, but he was rarely angry. "That is enough!" he yelled, his voice echoing off the walls. He surprised even himself, but the sleep deprivation and various pressures meant that, now the floodgates were open, they couldn't be closed. "For the love of Merlin's ancient crevice, would you all pipe down?! I don't care who the Muggleborn is, who's fucking Sirius, who's making deals or any of that! Unfounded accusations will do us no good!" He glared over at Marlene, taking a moment to catch his breath. "These constant jokes, this Dementor-damned squabbling? Only serves to reinforce the fact that the one thing we don't need in this group is a pack of immature children! Am I making myself clear on this? If you insist on acting like children, then we will treat you as such." Edgar looked down, unclenching his hands with several loud pops. "From this moment onwards, I don't want any of you saying anything that's based on nothing but rumour. This group is not going to survive if we have a mole, but it won't survive any better if we tear it apart looking for the leak." Silence had descended among the group as Edgar finished talking. Emmeline was still looking at Dorcas and Remus with trepidation even after that; both made such strong statements that she couldn't believe that such thoughts had been uttered at all. The silence was uncomfortable and stretched far longer than it should have, Emmeline cleared her throat. Ignoring the possible glares shot her way, she said, "I agree with Edgar. We don't stand to gain anything from this bickering." Agnes's fingers remained wrapped around her tea through this entire exchange, and though she was boggled by the back and forth by Dorcas and Remus (though she would have been a lying liar to suggest that with Dorcas's insinuations came a trickle of double in her own mind; after all, Remus had been one of the people to know about where she was staying, and he hadn't showed up at the commune that one night), it didn't surprise her half so much as Edgar's outburst. He'd seemed strained, but she hadn't any idea until he snapped and slammed the table. "Don't you go bloody on about actin' like children when youse ain't even holdin' your own temper." Agnes didn't approve of the bickering going on, but she also didn't approve of people treating her, or her friends, like children - just about as much as she didn't approve of parents yellin' and ordering people about. "You ain't got no authority over nobody here, that's what equals is, so if you ain't gonna treat people with some common sort of decency, I ain't sittin' around to listen, yeah?" She set her tea down; it didn't seem nearly as appealing anymore. "I ain't arguin' with what you're sayin', cuz we sure as hell ain't gonna get anywhere with all this accusin' and finger pointin', but you actin' like youse some leader just cuz youse older ain't flyin' with me. You weren't nowhere to be found when me and mine were in trouble, neither was none of the rest of you old folks round here. I ain't blamin' you for havin' other shit to do, but in my book you ain't any greater or lesser part of the order, and you ain't got any business orderin' people to do nothin." It almost seemed as though a tennis match was on, the way Benjy was looking back and forth at each person in turn as they spoke. His expression was perplexed, forehead wrinkling slightly as he focused on the arguments (for that's exactly what they were), studying everyone silently. He was one of the older and previously-absent people in question, so there wasn't exactly much he could say to calm anyone down, particularly as social manipulation was not exactly his forte. Grateful for Emmeline's support, it still did nothing to calm him down. Edgar's glare could have frozen lava at fifty paces, but Agnes was made of sterner stuff than that for the most part, and her trademark mouth had dissolved any kind of good feeling that he might have had for her. He got to his feet, slowly enough to straddle that fine line between reluctance and cold fury -- this had to be serious stuff, now. He'd stood up, after all. "I have never tried to be a leader here, Agnes. I've always tried to look on everyone here as equal, a fact that you proved you didn't subscribe to when you decided to divide information amongst our group." He held up his hands, as if to deflect any protest (deserved or otherwise) that she might fire off. "You've explained your reasons for keeping some of us in the dark, and I'm content to accept them. But don't for a second think that you have any grounds to speak on treating people like equals." He had gone quiet now; whether that was better than the shouting or not was up for debate. His hand had even twitched once or twice, as though he was aching to go for his wand -- not that he would, surely. He was the one teaching classes on self-control, after all. "We have more important things to discuss than this, and even if we are all equals, someone needs to keep things on track. Unless, of course, you'd like to be the one to tell Dumbledore that you'd prefer to sit and indulge in circular arguments than actually discuss things that may help us keep our society intact?" Agnes's eyes narrowed; hypocrisy wasn't something she liked being accused of, and though she kept her tongue for the moment he was sure as bloody hell getting a piece of her mind later. Treating people with respect sure wasn't the same thing as imparting upon people information based on trust. Nice as Edgar was, he worked for the government, and she'd be fucked and buried before she brought herself to trust the Ministry. Edgar's entire attitude irritated her. She refused to be guilt-tripped, or treated like a child, or threatened with Dumbledore. Sliding off of Marlene's lap, Agnes stood at her full, utterly unimposing five feet and looked Edgar dead in the eye. "I'm goin' out for a smoke. You got anything else to say to me we can hash it out in private. But I ain't sittin' here and listenin' to you act like youse got any right to yell or disrespect nobody." Edgar growled in response, channelling Moody more clearly than ever before. If his response about paranoia hadn't sufficiently evoked the old man's je ne sais quoi, then his non-verbal, non-human dismissal of Agnes' remonstration was almost eerie. This time, his wrist did flex -- the holster strapped to his forearm delivering his wand directly into his hand. Fortunately, perhaps for all of them, his hand was hidden inside the sleeve of his robe, and Edgar thought better of himself less than a second later. "Does anyone else have a problem with moving this meeting forward?" he asked, the barest hint of a sneer on his lips: this was about as persnickety as a Hufflepuff got, and it would no doubt pass soon. "As much as I'm sure we all enjoy intruding on Ted and Andromeda's generous hospitality, I do have a family to get home to." He glanced around guilty, searching for one of the house's owners. "Sorry about the...the ornathings, by the way." He sat back down, taking a few deep breaths. "If I remember what Alice briefed me on, someone has something to say about the...Protean charm? Sounds interesting." The chair received him again and Edgar exhaled gratefully, glad of a chance to yield. It took a moment for Benjy to realise that he was going to have to speak now and he cleared his throat awkwardly, standing up and holding his mug in both hands, just for something to do with them. "Well, we finished them, though there are still, uh, certain functionalities we couldn't quite get working. What they do have, is that they can be activated by anyone with your wand, and your name and location will be sent to everyone else. The alert is a kinetic charm to avoid problems with audible sounds, so it's advisable to wear them around your wrist or neck, somewhere against your skin so you can feel it move. We'd still like to work on building in a set of automated portkeys, but at the moment they're rather too hard to control and we decided it would be safer to leave them simple for now." They were like a big, bickering, mostly dysfunctional family. It was like being right back at home, getting yelled at for something Harlan had instigated while not being as responsible as Sophie and setting a bad example for Felicity. Instead of trying to fight back snickers while getting yelled at (as she usually did during arguments, all while throwing amused looks across the room at her brother which only would make her parents yell more), all the in-fighting within the Order was nervewracking as hell. Families were stuck with each other, though. Marlene wasn't even sure if most of the people in the Order liked each other enough to continue sitting in the same room together. If they had anything working for them at that night's meeting, it was probably that Dung hadn't shown up. She'd winced all through Edgar's tirade, especially when his focus had briefly turned to her and the fact that she'd attempting to change the subject. So what, she'd tried to lighten the mood to keep Remus and Dorcas from hexing each other over something pointless and wrong on both of their accounts. Sorry if she didn't enjoy the idea of her friends being convinced that they were out for each other's murders. This is why she hated the meetings. Nothing was getting DONE, and now everyone was ticked off at each other. What fantastic progress they were making. As Benjy rolled through the details of the Protean charmed communication thinger that they'd been working on, Marlene nodded along with the information, asking questions where it seemed appropriate ("so you need your wand on you for them to work, yeah?"), all the while fidgeting in her seat, trying to decide if she should stay put or go after Agnes. Finally, the fact that the twilight sky was very close to nightfall won out. "I'll be right back," Marlene excused herself, keeping her wand in one hand while setting her teacup on the carpet, following Agnes outside. It had been a good thing when Edgar finally stepped in to the argument when he did -- Remus had been more than ready to continue his argument with Dorcas. Of course it was ridiculous, and that had been the point of his accusations (and partly because he'd been offended she would think to accuse him). Remus wanted her to see how wrong she was, but he did not get the chance to continue. He was clearly still put off by the entire conversation, and likely would be for some time now, despite the new topic of discussion. He watched, silently, as both Agnes and Marlene walked out (and hoped Dorcas would be joining them) but Remus himself stayed put in his seat, not wanting to miss any part of the meeting. Even so, he was having difficulty concentrating on what they were talking about, and Remus pinched the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on. He couldn't believe what he'd just said and it was only now he was starting to feel ashamed about it -- unfortunately, Remus didn't think a simple 'I'm sorry' would cut it right now, nor did he think it would fix anything. Instead, he just kept his head down, elbows on the table as he kept his clasped hands up in front of his face so he wouldn't have to speak to anyone right now, let alone look at them. Now they were yelling at each other again. When it got to the point when Sirius Black thought things were getting immature, that's when you knew it was time to step back and think before you speak. He hadn't particularly wanted to listen to people pointing the fingers at Remus, of all people; Remus the reliable, Remus the prefect and Remus who he could be sure of was an absolutely rubbish liar. Of course, Edgar Bloody Bones opened his mouth and decided to scold them like children. It did provide a temporary wondering on what exactly where he put his tackle had to do with the Order and he wasn't exactly running around buggering and boning everyone and anyone. Of course, then Agnes calls him on it before he can open his mouth and this is probably a good thing. While things seem to boil to the point where everyone was snapping at everyone else, he didn't want to add an incendio to the flames. Mostly because if he started, he was going to blow everything up again and he didn't feel like being given 'detention' at his age. He was half tempted to throw something at Remus to get him to look at him but chances are, he'd hit someone else and that wouldn't help either. He'd already watched Marlene and Agnes blow the hell out of here, he didn't need the rest of the place getting knocked over. He wasn't sure his cousin would forgive him. He just sighed irritably and sat forward. "So we have a system so we're not going to get stuck by ourselves again?" He looked around the room. "What are we supposed to do about those of you with Day Jobs? I'm sure a vibrating whatever is going to be fine for getting my attention but if someones chest starts to wriggle, you might have some explaining to do." Frank had somewhat zoned out for a good portion of the meeting. Sleep deprivation was weighing on him heavily, though he was trying his best to appear alert. He was, to an extent in that he'd heard everything that was going on around him. It's just that it wasn't all quite processing as quickly as it normally would have. It wasn't until Edgar's outburst that Frank jolted into reality and regained his focus. He was thankful for it; while Frank had been sort of deemed as the Dad of the group, he did not find much pleasure in coming down on his fellow Order members. He agreed with Edgar about the matter. It was going to be hard enough continuing forward progress if they had a mole with everyone getting along. If they were at each other's throats then that could lead to false accusations and wrongful suspicions, among other things. For the time being, he stayed quiet. At the moment, he didn't have the answers to the situation. His mind was still playing catch up, and he didn't want to say anything if he couldn't contribute. He was tempted to suggest implementing the "buddy system" into their daily lives, but thought better of it. That seemed a little extreme and it would be very inconvenient to some. Of course, it would probably make fishing a potential mole out a lot easier, but Frank didn't think the situation had come down to that yet. Bloody, sodding fu--, Emmeline was trying very hard not to start bashing her head on the wall. The meeting was going very, very badly. This wasn't to say she didn't see this coming: she did. It would have been quite a feat for the meeting go through without a hitch; especially with all their different personalities. But it seemed she counted too much on everyone keeping their tempers in check, Emmeline thought as she watched Agnes stroll out of the room with Marlene following soon after. She still felt incredibly uncomfortable when Edgar tried to move the conversation along to the charmed communication objects. The questions were pretty basic and Emmeline answered what she could, glad that the focus was on something she actually understood, on something she was sure of. "We've made sure that only the wearer notices when the article is activated, Sirius," she said, glancing at Benjy and the Prewett brothers for affirmation. She then added that they had noted before they started experimenting that identical bracelets would give too much away so they settled on random articles of jewellery that could be worn discreetly. Emmeline shifted in her spot and glanced at the door where Agnes and Marlene disappeared, hoping they'd come back soon. Fractures between members didn't bode well for everyone. TO BE CONTINUED |