Hi everyone! Thanks so much for reading the final Rose Weasley book! This is the seventh book in a series, so if you're just finding the series now, the first book is called Rose Weasley and the New Order and you can find all the books on my profile. Otherwise, I hope you like the chapter, and reviews are always welcome. Enjoy! -Kelly

CHAPTER 1

THE COBRA INFORMANT

There was only one light on at the Burrow that night. It was about a month after Rose Weasley's 17th birthday, the fourth week of July which always brought the Ministry of Magic gala. The event had drawn all the parents out of the house, even Rose's grandparents, representing the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. James was in London, sharing a flat with Fred and Alice, and the rest of the Weasley-Potter residents had been tasked with babysitting Annie Lupin. The two-year-old was currently lying on the ground of the sitting room sketching a hippogriff with Rose's brother Hugo by her side, leaving Rose to read the Prophet in relative peace. She was half-listening to the Doctor Who episode Al and Lily were engrossed in, flipping through the pages, but eventually one headline caught her full attention.

NOTT WREAKS HAVOC IN BERLIN: 12 DEAD

"Have you seen this?" she asked the two Potters, showing them the paper. Al frowned.

"No. So he's gone international, then?"

"Well, he'd already attacked New York," Lily said, but took the paper from Rose anyway. She grimaced. "Though to be fair he didn't flay anyone in New York."

"What did you say?" Hugo asked in alarm. Annie looked troubled by the tones of their voices but returned to her coloring shortly.

"Do they know anything else?" Al asked.

"Doesn't look like it," Rose said, skimming the article. "Almost all the deaths were Muggles, though."

"Maybe someone will know something at your program, Rose," Hugo said. Rose glanced at the Hogwarts letters lying on the kitchen counter, hers having included, along with her Head Girl badge, an invitation to a program for students interested in international law. The invitation was from McGonagall and basically explained that all the students there were the ones working on her and Scorpius's project at their own schools, so Rose knew she had to go. It started in a few days, though, and she was nervous in spite of herself. At least she would finally know what she'd be doing all year.

"Yeah, maybe," she replied. Her phone rang then, and she checked: it was from Lucy. "Hey," she said. "What's up?"

"There's some people I want you to meet, are you busy?" her cousin asked. She was practically shouting, and the background noise was so loud Rose could hardly hear her.

"Where are you?" Rose asked.

"Morgana's, in Diagon Alley, can you make it?"

"I'm babysitting Annie," Rose said.

"Can't Al handle it? I don't know when the next time you could meet them would be."

"I don't know, Lucy, I would, but Leah and Malcolm are babysitting us," Rose said, eyeing the windows where she knew the Order members were standing guard outside.

"Can't you just Disapparate?"

"If I just disappear my mum will make it a national security thing—"

"Okay, so take one of them with you, they're there to keep you safe, not tell your parents everything," Lucy said. Rose hesitated. "Come on, Rose."

"Fine, I'll try. Where?"

"It's usually that abandoned warehouse down past Wheezes, but it's a music venue on weekends. I'll see you there." Lucy hung up and Rose reached for her coat by the door.

"Where are you going?"

"I don't really know. You won't tell, will you?" she asked.

"No," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"I won't be long," she said, and taking her phone, walked out the door. Immediately, Leah was there. "Hi, Leah."

"Where're you going?" she asked.

"I have to talk to Lucy. Could you come with me?" Leah looked uncertain. "Come on, you'll still be watching me."

"Just go, Leah, we don't even think he's in the country right now," Malcolm said from a little further away. "I can handle this for a while."

"It won't take long," Rose said. Leah sighed.

"Fine. But I don't like this."

"Thank you!" Rose exclaimed. "We're going to Morgana's? Do you know where that is?"

"Yes, just let me take you, I don't want you getting Splinched," Leah said, and Rose grabbed onto her arm. They Disapparated quickly and appeared in Diagon Alley, where the large building that Rose remembered seeing stand empty across from the joke shop was pulsing with bright lights and loud music. A sign hung over the door, reading MORGANA'S in stenciled black ink. Leah knocked on the door four times with her wand and it swung open. "You're 17, right?"

"Yes," Rose said.

"Good. You wouldn't be able to walk in otherwise. Come on," she said, and led her inside the warehouse, where a girl band called the Red Ghouls were playing and the crowd was so large Rose wasn't entirely sure she'd ever find Lucy. Finally, she found her cousin in the back of the room, talking to two people Rose had never seen before. Lucy ran over to her when they were a few steps away.

"Hey, Rose!" she said, grinning. "Oh, and hi, Leah."

"Hi, Lucy, could you have picked a darker and more dangerous place to meet?" Leah said, sounding as if her patience was already wearing thin.

"I like this band," Lucy said sheepishly. "Er, this is Fabian," she added, looking at one of the people, a young man with red hair almost as bright as Rose's. He smiled at them.

"Fabian Wolpert, lovely to meet you," he said, shaking Rose's hand. "I'm the Muggle branch of the Weasley family tree."

"You're a Muggle?" Rose asked with interest.

"Yeah. Well, third generation Squib, but basically. I'm a secretary at the Prime Minister's office, which is why Lucy called me," he said.

"He's keeping an eye on Parliament for the Union. Seeing if people are starting to suspect, the general climate, anything like that. And he's also a Ministry informant about how the Prime Minister's operating," Lucy said. "We figured you'd want his number to be kept in the loop too when you're at school."

"You're at Hogwarts? Still?" Fabian asked. "I could owl you instead if you like."

"Oh, er, sure, you have an owl?" Rose asked.

"Oh, sure, we're really connected to the world and everything," he said. "My uncle Nigel was the last one of us to go to Hogwarts, so it wasn't that long ago."

"And this is our contact inside the Order of the Cobra," Lucy said, gesturing to the other man. He smiled at them, though was much more reserved than Fabian.

Rose's eyes widened. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah. New development, he came to us after infiltrating. Gotta hand it to him, honestly, even the Aurors hadn't been able to figure it out," Lucy said. "Well, anyway, Michael, meet Rose and Leah."

"Hi," he said. "Michael Howe."

"Lucy, I don't want to ruin your evening but I'm seeing things I don't like. I might be imagining it but I think some people are watching," Leah said nervously. "Besides, it's impossible to tell if this area's secure."

"Do you two mind if we walk down to the Union?" Lucy asked Fabian and Michael. Neither objected, and she nodded. "Right, there's a back door somewhere around here. Come on." They followed Lucy through the crowd until they left the warehouse and were back on the street, the lights on the top floor of the joke shop making Rose nervous. "Do you really think Uncle George is going to tell on you?" Lucy scoffed, noticing her gaze. Rose had to admit she had a point, and the group started walking down the street to the Progressive Union headquarters on the other side of Diagon Alley. Rose's curiosity got the best of her and she fell back to walk next to Michael.

"So you're a full member and everything?" she asked.

"Yes," he said. "I thought it'd probably be more useful to infiltrate the Followers, but I couldn't get away with that. I'd already volunteered with the Union."

"So the Order of the Cobra doesn't mind that?" she asked.

"No. They're actually in favor of exposure. Though they have different end goals in mind," he said grimly. "They want to enslave the Muggles but they would like them to know about their leaders."

"That's twisted," Rose said uncomfortably.

"Oh, you have no idea," Michael said. "They do all sorts of rituals, really ancient stuff. None of it's even remotely covered at Hogwarts. And the scariest part is most of them really do believe in it. It's totally a cult, way more than the Followers seem to be."

"Do they suspect you at all?"

"Sometimes I feel like they must, but… I've learned to be discreet," he said.

"Not discreet enough, apparently," a voice said, and the whole party froze. Out of the shadows of one of the shop fronts walked a man in a cloak, with a signature emerald glove on his right hand. Immediately, Leah had pushed Rose behind her and was raising her wand.

"Brother," Michael said, his voice shaking. "I—"

"Spare me your apologies, this betrayal is unacceptable," the man spat. "The Council of Brothers will be disappointed."

"The Council?" Michael asked, his expression horrified. "No, please…" Rose could see his hand inching towards his wand and braced herself.

The Order member looked down at Michael's wand and shook his head. "I don't think so. Avada Kedavra." Fabian jumped as Michael fell roughly to the ground, and Rose couldn't help but look away.

"Leah Shafiq, Auror Department, drop your wand!" Leah shouted, advancing towards him. The man seemed to completely ignore her and dropped the ring on his gloved hand to the ground. It started spinning and a cloud of smoke engulfed him; when it cleared, he was gone. "Let's get to the Union, quickly," Leah said, and levitated Michael's body as Rose, Lucy, and Fabian sprinted to the headquarters. Lucy unlocked the door and turned on the lights quickly to the lobby, where she cleared off a sign-in table covered in volunteer forms and posters and sunk into one of the chairs behind it. Rose heard a door open on the upper level of the building and before long, Bella Pinkstone and Will Thomas were running down the stairs.

"What's going on?" Bella asked, the Union leader looking frazzled in an oversized shirt and slippers.

"Michael's dead," Lucy said, her voice hollow. "A Cobra found him."

"Oh, my god," Bella said. Will looked down and Fabian was leaning against the table, breathing heavily. Rose was experiencing her usual numbness in response to death, something she never really wanted to recognize in herself, and felt it come on even stronger when Leah hurried in and laid Michael on the table. "I'll call the Ministry," Bella said.

"Already done," Leah said quietly. "Sorry, Rose, but I think your mum knows you're out."

"Doesn't matter," Rose said, because of course it didn't, not in this context…

"So that— that was the Killing Curse, yeah?" Fabian asked. Lucy nodded, the silence in the room stifling. "Right. I—I'd heard about it, but… he was just gone. In a second, just—how do you defend yourself from that?"

"You can't, really," Leah said. "You just kind of hope. But honestly that's kind compared to some of the things Nott's doing."

"Seriously, how do you guys not want us to know that could happen?" Fabian asked.

"Preaching to the choir," Bella said quietly.

"I need to take you home, Rose," Leah said.

"Right," she said, walking over to the Auror. "Will this mean I can't go to the program?"

"I think it means you need to even more now," Leah said. "But they don't tell me much." She looked up at the others and said, "Another Auror will be here soon, with someone from St. Mungo's."

"Thank you," Bella said.

"Ready?" Leah asked Rose. Rose nodded, still staring at Michael's body. His eyes, still frozen open in shock, were the last thing she saw before they Disapparated.