WHO: Amelia Bones and Edgar Bones
WHAT: Ed has something to tell his older sister :O
WHERE: Mia's place
WHEN: LMAO like a few days backdated :o The night when the Ministry posted the M.A.G.I.C. Act!
Amelia was worried.
She didn't care what words Edgar used to assure her that everything was fine--she was worried. She hadn't liked the way he had insisted that they be completely alone, or the way he had to make sure that Berk was not at home before he would come over, or the way that he said no place was private enough to tell her what he needed to say. Amelia knew her little brother, and that's why it worried her so much what he had gotten himself into. Because she knew he had gotten himself into something, he had to have, it was just---sibling intuition. And that was what worried her the most: that sense of foreboding that had set so heavily on her chest even before he had walked through the front door.
Mia came back into the living room from the kitchen, carrying a tea tray. She set it down on the small table between them and wordlessly poured them each a cup of the dark liquid. It was a tense silence between the two, and when Amelia finally looked up to regard her brother, her face did nothing to lighten the feeling--her mouth was set into a grim line.
"Alright, Ed. Out with it."
Edgar had briefly considered what James had suggested - the part about being sly around Amelia. However, that train of thought crashed after about two seconds. There was only one time he had tried to be sly with Mia, and that about ten years ago. He and Jonathan had hidden one of her stuffed animals and when she had confronted Ed about it, well - it wasn't pretty. The consequences had ended up pretty dire.
He had told Gilly about the Order. He knew that Marlie had told Melinda about the Order. Which lead to why he had always been reluctant to tell his siblings or his family about the Order - look at what happened to the their cousins. Although it was probably irrational to equate Melinda and the Order with the McKinnon deaths, he couldn't help but to feel irrational. The war was getting serious. Attacks were getting stronger, fiercer, and crueler.
He had discussed this with Gilly, and she had encouraged him to go as soon as he was able. Under cover of darkness, he set out to Mia's place, and she set out tea as usual, while he checked every ward in the place (and added a few) to make sure that they were doubly safe. However, there was a thick, uneasy tension between the two close siblings - a tension that was broken when Mia spoke. He lifted his head a fraction of an inch to look across from her, where he had been silently contemplating the dark depths of his teacup. He didn't know what to say, or how to say it - Edgar Bones had never been very good with words, nor the type of man to beat around the bush.
He supposed he was just going to have to say it. He pursed his lips and let out a slow breath he wasn't aware of holding.
"I'm in a secret society called the Order of the Phoenix, created by Dumbledore a couple years back," he said bluntly. "We're a resistance group that fights You-Know-Who from the underground. Marlie was in it."
"Well, then."
Amelia had meant to sound confident, nonchalant when she spoke, but as it were her words could barely make it out through the lump in her throat. She didn't know what amazed her more--the words that had just come out of Edgar's mouth, or how bluntly he had delivered them.
She eyed her brother warily across the coffee table, as if he were crazy. He was crazy, she thought, he had to be if any word of what he had just told her was true. He was sitting there, telling her seriously that he was part of an illegal organization, founded by Albus Dumbledore, that went out and waged battles with the bleeding Dark Lord. And that Marlie--she couldn't even think her cousin's name without feeling a stab of pain in her chest--had been a part of it before she had died.
As crazy as it all sounded, she didn't think he was lying to her. Her brothers had always been terrible at lying to her face, and Edgar looked serious--no, not just serious, he looked almost grim. And this could certainly explain all his paranoia about being so alone. This was dangerous. This was illegal. If the Ministry overheard, he could get thrown in Azkaban. If You-Know-Who overheard, he could be killed. Like Melinda. Like Marlie---
Amelia's hand flew to her mouth as it hit her at once. Her eyes widened and she shook her head a little, as she finally lowered her hand her voice only coming out a whisper. "They knew about Marlie."
Ed looked away. It had taken both him and Gilly an extraordinary amount of time to get over the McKinnons' deaths, yet it still stung whenever he had to talk about her. "They did," he finally said, after a long pause. His voice was low. "You-Know-Who has a faint idea of the people fighting against him, and Marlie and Melinda were number one on his list." He swallowed. "That's... That's why I didn't want to tell you. Or anyone else in the family. You're the only one who knows now, besides Gilly. And...
"I think you can make a great ally. I trust you completely, there's no question about it." He raised his head and looked at her, light blue eyes blazing. "You'd make a great ally to the Order, Mia. You're a member of the Wizengamot, with access to many things in the Ministry that some of the Order can't get to."
He paused again, setting his lips in a straight, grim line. "But Mia, if you say no, I completely understand, I really do. It's your choice to make."
Amelia listened to Edgar's words with a slight numbness. Her teacup had long been abandoned, steaming on the table, her hands holding each other over her stomach. She understood everything that he was saying, but there was still something about it all that she just couldn't fathom. It was like a blind man suddenly learning to see--her whole world view had just turned inside out in the course of two minutes and it was hard to know what she was supposed to make of it all.
He wanted her to join up with this group. Or well, not join, but--become associated, a difference in terminology which meant little to her.
Every law-abiding, law-respecting bone in her body was screaming that this was wrong. Not only was this wrong, but it was wrong of her, a member of the bleeding Wizengamot, to even be considering the idea. She was supposed to uphold the laws of the country, not help her brother break them, meanwhile putting himself in an insane amount of danger.
And there was that too, the danger. If she became affiliated with this--Order of the Phoenix thing, she was putting her name out there for the Death Eaters to find as well. Wasn't it bad enough to have to worry about Berk day in and day out, without having to worry about herself? Her daughter? If something like happened to her cousins happened to them, she would know that it was her fault. She would never be able to forgive herself.
"Christ, Ed--" Amelia's voice raised with her words, the similarities hitting her and pushing anger through her veins. How could he be so stupid! "Christ! Do you realize---what about Gillian and your baby, Edgar! You told her about this? You---this is no joke, Ed, what happens if they find you! Do you think they'll just leave your family be?"
Ed didn't shout or argue back with Amelia as she got grew visibly upset. He understood - he had spent many sleepless nights thinking this over, thinking about his wife and his unborn daughter. Sometimes he just wanted to grab Gilly and run - run far away, as far as he could. Sometimes he entertained the notion of taking Gilly and himself to San Francisco, their picturesque honeymoon spot in the States, until someone had defeated You-Know-Who and their followers and life would be happy again.
But.
He just couldn't do that, no matter how tempting that idea would be. he had to stay and fight, he was too involved in the Order now to just up and quit. He wanted to fight against You-Know-Who, and now that feeling intensified tenfold ever since he had witnessed first hand what the Death Eaters did to his family. To quit, to run and hide, would be cowardly, and although Edgar Bones had never been a bold Gryffindor, he was no coward.
"No, they'll never leave my family alone. But that's why we need to fight against him - when," and he was careful to emphasize the word 'when', "we defeat You-Know-Who, we'll be able to tell our children that we were brave enough to fight against this generation's great evil." There was a lot more that he could have said, but he couldn't at the moment. The distraught expression on his older sister's face was a bit distracting.
Amelia shook her head in disbelief and ran a hand through her hair. The anger was still there, but she felt somewhat more deflated after Ed spoke. The way he explained it to her made him sound so certain that they had any more than an ice cube's chance in hell of beating the most powerful dark wizard of their generation. Just--from what she gathered--a ragtag bunch of kids and a Hogwarts headmaster, who were trying to fly below the radar of the Ministry of Magic, and they thought they could beat You-Know-Who. That was what the Ministry was supposed to be for, they shouldn't have to worry enough about this to be putting themselves and their families in danger.
Of course, with the way things had been going, Amelia somewhat doubted that the Ministry was too terribly interested in toppling the Dark Lord--in fact, it felt more like it was working for him.
She shuddered a little, realizing that her thoughts were nothing short of treason--but more so that it wasn't the first time she'd thought them.
Amelia rose her head finally to look up at her brother, a frown creasing her features. "Ed," she murmured miserably. It was shocking to see how certain, how mature he looked as he sat there in front of her. "This is no joke. If I help you---" Christ, what was she saying? Was she actually considering this? "If I help you, I want to know that you honestly think there's a real chance we could beat him."
It felt as if a large lump was forming in his throat, and Ed had to swallow hard to make it go away. He knew that it really wasn't fair to ask this much of her - a high paid, high position Ministry Wizengamot official to ask him and his underground resistance fighters mostly made out of agemates like himself who had just been let out of school. But her knew that the Order could greatly use Amelia's help. Death Eaters and You-Know-Who supporters were already a step ahead of the Order in that department, so anyone that the Order could trust was an ally.
And Mia was definitely an ally.
After she spoke, sounding as miserable as she looked, Ed stood up, his hands clasped together tightly in an unconscious childhood gesture whenever he had to ask something of her in the past. "Mia, I can tell you honestly that I think that we will have a clear chance that we'll be able to defeat him. We just need all the help we can get." A beat, a look down, then an unwavering, intense gaze at his older sister. "Will you?"
What was she doing? It was the only thing Amelia could think clearly as she stiffly, silently nodded her head. The only reason she could imagine was that, beyond all reason, she believed her brother in everything he was saying. And---and she wanted to help. It felt like this was something she should be doing, even though there were hundreds of laws down in the books that said she shouldn't.
She sighed finally, slumping back into the couch and breaking the silence that had fallen between them. "Berk can't know about this, can he?" It was a statement more than a question.
A large, powerful wave of relief rushed over Ed. He walked over to the couch across from him and sat down next to Amelia. Tentatively, he placed an arm around her tense shoulders, squeezing a little. "He can't," he said with certainty. He let another moment of silence fall before them before speaking again.
"Thanks, Mia." His grim expression softened for a moment, and for the first time that evening, he gave her a small and grateful but sincere smile. "I - I can't express how grateful I am." There was a tiny part of him that was intensely fearful, for his oldest sister was the only remaining member of the Big Three - which had been her, Melinda, and Dorian Cuthbert. However, he was convinced that this time, the Order would step up on their security and guard measures. At least, Ed will, he had his family to look after, and now both his wife and older sister was aware of the Order.
He was convinced that the Order had been helped out tremendously tonight. Although the Death Eaters had already infiltrated the Ministry, the Order was going to do all they can to alleviate the present crisis at hand, and with Mia's help, he felt that they could make that one tiny step closer to victory.
