Page 12
February 23 of 1979 - The Loss of Azkaban
The silence that had encompassed the table that the Order usually sat around was enveloping the room, and to be honest? No one quite knew what to say, or what they would even be able to say in something a situation like they were stuck in. There was nothing that could realistically be done at this point, not that wouldn't unnecessarily risk the lives of the few members that they had at this point.
Instead of speaking, however, their eyes were locked on the small eagle that was sitting on the thick wooden table that Fabian Prewett had sent to them just ten minutes earlier with the distinct, clear message that Azkaban had fallen. It was a stronghold that the Ministry had held for centuries, a place that they had put all of their prisoners and wrong doers and of everything that they thought they would experience in this war, they never thought that would be something that the Ministry would lose.
It was Lily Evans, a tall redhead that was normally so lively and energetic that it took a special brand of human to keep up with the woman, that finally broke the silence of the room, barely speaking above a whisper at first with James Potter only able to hear her until Dorcas Meadowes elbowed her in the side. "What are we going to do?"
"What do you mean, Miss Evans?" Dumbledore said, popping a lemon drop in his mouth as the group turned to look at him for a moment before back at Lily for a second.
"Azkaban. They took Azkaban, and I just… Professor Dumbledore, did you think that they had the kind of forces that would be able to take something that was guarded by Auror's so heavily?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at the elderly man for a moment before shaking her head. "This changes everything, doesn't it?"
"It does indeed, and it does not serve one well to underestimate the enemy, Miss Evans. An attack was a long time coming, and I imagine that the Minister of Magic will be to have seen that as well."
There was a moment of pause before a loud clang of sound in the halls and a shout of 'I'm fine!', a small wait of silence before Sirius Black bursted in the room with more than a slight commotion before dropping down into an empty seat next to Peter. "Sorry I'm late, mates, was at the pub," he said by way of answer to the curious looks, raising his eyebrows at Remus when his long-time friend narrowed his eyes at him and shrugged his shoulders.
The silence that followed Sirius' entrance was long and pronounced, the fact that the man's presence had somehow created a wholly new dynamic within the room was not lost to anyone, nor to Sirius as Peter leaned over and told him what was going on with the Auror's and the Ministry. The man's hand immediately had gone to threat through his hair before a heavy sigh escaped his lips.
It was Emmeline Vance that was the next to speak, her own fingers knotted together in front of her in an effort to keep herself calm as her eyes scanned over each person. Emmeline was one of the few Slytherins that were a part of the Order at the present time, and the strain that it created was keenly felt when she was the only particular one at a given order meeting, and this one was certainly no exception. "Professor? How many…" she started before fading off, sighing as she glanced around the room for a split second before looking back at the elderly man, "How much damage do you believe will be done to the Ministry by this?"
It was the Headmaster's turn to be silent as he tried to figure out how to word what it was that was running through his head. The vast majority of the students that were in front of him just then were ones that he himself had watched grow into the adults that now sat before him. It was hard to imagine that they were in the middle of when they were sitting in the Order headquarters, and it was a difficult situation for any of them to begin to comprehend. These were students who should have never had to go through this war, let alone be the ones that are fighting in it. "That is something that is yet to be determined, Miss Vance, though I do imagine that there will be a loss of manpower," Professor Dumbledore said in way of answering her previous question.
It wasn't an easy situation to be in, the Order having to sit and wait with no way of really effecting anything or helping out for fear of losing more of their numbers than they already had out and about. More than a fair portion of their members were Aurors or various other Ministry personnel, and even now there were more than their fair share unaccounted for. There was little comfort in the fact that Fabian's Patronus was the one that had brought the message given that it was nearing a half hour ago that it was sent and a man could easily be taken down in that timespan.
Marlene Mckinnon was bound to be a target of particular interest of the Death Eaters, being a Pureblood that was publicly siding with the Muggleborns and Half-Bloods, right alongside the fact that both Alice and Frank Longbottom. To those in the room, these were people that many of them were close with and that wasn't even counting every other Auror and Ministry official.
The room started when Emmeline's wand started moving across the table, the blonde taking a second to steady her hands before she moved to grab the thin stick of wood and nodded her head at Professor Dumbledore. "That would be Saint Mungo's," she said softly, her hand squeezing Dorcas' shoulder as she stood. Despite being a Half-Blood, Emmeline had managed to secure a place in the Healer's program at Saint Mungo's upon finishing Hogwarts, and was one continuing her time there despite having finished already. It were days like these that made it of particular value to the Order, given that she could sometimes get outside information that many others wouldn't for hours, particularly who was no longer living and who was just simply injured.
"I'll walk you out, Vance," Sirius suddenly said, nodding at Dumbledore and clapping Peter on the shoulder as a way of helping him stand before joining Emmeline as she walked out of the room.
Sometimes relationships were simple and clearcut, like how James and Lily's was, because after all? A couple that argued the way that they still did was something that was particularly helpful in communicating just how much they were willing to fight to make it work. Emmeline and Sirius, on the other hand, were everything complicated.
It was Emmeline that paused at the front door of the building and turned to look at Sirius, arching one of her eyebrows for a second before the man's hand was at her elbow and stepping into her personal space. Sirius was strange and complex, and for the most part Emmeline tended to just roll with whatever the man would throw at her, but this was one of those particular times that she wasn't sure what it was that he was trying to communicate with his eyes and she almost just wanted to ask him to spit it out without sounding to harsh.
She was tired, and if she was completely honest with someone, she would even said that the stress was finally beginning to get to her enough that her cousin, Mary Macdonald, was sincerely beginning to notice just how out of sorts Emmeline was these days.
It was Sirius that seemed to continually confuse her definition of friendship and blurred the lines to the point that they lingered into something romantic. Neither would say it, but the look that he was currently giving her, the one that Emmeline couldn't quite figure out what it meant, well it also made her stomach flip pleasantly and warmed her in ways that she didn't even bother trying to put to words. "You floo if anything goes wrong, do you hear me?" he finally said.
The chuckle that she let escape her lips was pitiful, and a bit sarcastic if she was completely honest with herself. Really? Of all the places and people that Sirius should be worrying about right now, Saint Mungo's and Emmeline should probably be right at the bottom of the list, but somehow he still managed to find importance in it to pull her aside to say something. His fingers were flexing against her wrist, eventually causing her to step just close enough that she could smell his aftershave and cause her to let out a heavy sigh of acceptance. "The moment anything happens, I promise you will be the first call that I make, Black."
For the most part, it was something that would placate him, that would make him worry just a little bit less so he would let Emmeline slip out of the room and go back to the real life that she led outside of these walls and away from secret organizations and lying to her family. That was for the most part, at least, but Emmeline also knew that he would certainly be high on her list of people that would know the moment something went wrong if she could get a message out, right there next to Dumbledore and her long-time best friend, Dorcas. "I need to go, Sirius," she said softly, pulling her hand away before he let the fingers of his free hand leave a trail up her arm, cupping the back of her neck and letting his fingers knot their way into her hair and wrapped his other arm around her waist and pulling her close for a moment.
There was a rough kiss against her brow and then suddenly Sirius was gone and striding back down the hallway towards the meeting room that they had long used.
The halls of Saint Mungo's were so chaotic when Emmeline had finally Apparated there, that for a moment she wondered whether or not she was in the right place before she caught sight of Healer Strout and let out a breath of relief before the woman took hold of her elbow and tugged her into what seemed to be an empty office and started to ramble.
For the most part, apparently it was relatives of those that were a part of the Ministry's attack teams, and even some of those who had family members being housed in Azkaban's prisons, that were cluttering the halls, but it also was apparently driving both Miriam and Healer Smethwyck up the walls, and Mary was still trying to sort through the first wave of Auror's that had been sent to them. There was little information that she could get out of the older woman, though she did fix her with a calming draught and instructions to start consolidating the current patients into rooms together if at all possible and making notations for each floor.
There was a lot of blood at the intake room, though there was almost a constant presence of the substance, no matter what kind of day it was that anyone had, and Emmeline found herself wishing that she wasn't wearing a pair of her favorite shoes when she stepped in and was immediately given a file and pointed in a direction saying that she had been requested.
It was hours before Emmeline even stepped back out of that particular part of the hospital and her feet were more than sore and there were specks of blood on almost every bit of exposed skin. She had to admit, there was something different about this particular battle, and the Death Eaters were definitely out to make some of the Auror's pay for things that they had done in the line of duty. There were others that she knew wouldn't make it through the evening, and those in particular were the worst for her.
The simplicity of the situation made her bones ache at the thought, the questions lingering in her head as she slipped into one of the rooms that were set aside for the Healers. Just exactly how out numbered were the Aurors with the Death Eaters? She had almost asked Frank Longbottom when he had stumbled in with a dislocated shoulder and a particularly nasty ankle that she wasn't entirely sure whether it was broken or just a bad sprain that would need to heal. Mary, however, had grabbed the man before she'd even had a chance to approach him and get more information than she already knew.
Emmeline scrubbed until her skin was raw in order to get all of the blood off of her hands before she emerged back into the halls, her body exhausted and overwhelmed when she caught sight of Benjy Fenwick. He was one of the only other Slytherin's that she knew wasn't actively in support of Lord Voldemort, and it certainly helped that she also knew that the man was involved with the Order. Then again, it also didn't hurt that the two were relatively close to each other since she had finished Hogwarts either.
It wasn't exactly… lady like for Emme to just drop next to Benjy with next to no preamble, but her feet hurt and she didn't want to stand there talking to him while he was sitting on the ground no matter how intimidating it might have made her. Emmeline ran a hand through her hair for a second before giving up and just tying it in a messy bun and looking over at her friend for a moment before nudging him gently with her shoulder, "So, that weather today is crazy, isn't it?" she said, giving him a small smile.
"You know what I hate?"
"Umm…" she said softly, pulling back slightly so she could turn and get a good look at the man. "Apparently the weather?"
"That even though I purposefully didn't sign up to be an Auror, I'm just supposed to be someone who works in the Department of Mysteries and all that, nope… the moment there is an insane breakout at Azkaban and Death Eaters flood the island, apparently that means that anyone with battlefield training is now an Auror," he growled, his arms crossed against his chest as he leaned his head back up against the wall behind him.
"Ben…" she said softly, careful not to touch him in case he rest was as angry as he was coming across in that moment.
"Nope, it's fine, because I signed my life to them," he said, turning and glaring at Emmeline when she burst out laughing and shook her head as she buried her face in her hands.
Really, it was probably one of the least appropriate times that she had run into since she'd finished school to burst out laughing, but she was so damn tired, and Benjy's reasons for being upset were a little ridiculous given the situation that they were in. "I'm — Merlin, I'm sorry," she said, clapping her hand over her mouth for a minute when she started laughing again when she looked at Benjy before she finally managed to get herself back under control. "I'm sorry, you're right, I'm just so tired and really?" Emmeline said, patting the man's shoulder now that he was a little less tense after looking at the younger woman as though she may have finally gone over the deep end. "You're complaining about having to fight when Azkaban was just taken over by Death Eaters in the middle of a war, and really? Like… job titles are a little irrelevant in my book now."
The glare that Benjy gave Emmeline in return made her chuckle again, "Oh bite me, Vance."
At that, Emmeline turned her head and sunk her teeth into Benjy's shoulder, unable to resist cracking up when the man yelped and pushed her off to the side before settling down and just simply rubbing his arm. "You did tell me to go ahead and do it, Fenwick," she said with a shrug, "Come on, we need to go find Professor Dumbledore so you can tell him what you saw, and so I can find a proper couch to fall asleep on.
Most days it was a struggle to imagine the fact that outside the Order Headquarters the world was in the midst of chaos, and that their lives were thrown into a kind of turmoil that few ever actually saw. If anyone was completely honest, they still wished beyond reason that there was no way they were actually experiencing what they were seeing.
The silence, however, that seemed to encompass the building was comforting and reliable, and Emmeline wouldn't trade it for anything after the constant noise that had engulfed Saint Mungo's since the Auror's were ordered to pull back from Azkaban. There wasn't much of anything that Emmeline could do there now, not since she got the majority of the wards sorted to give enough room to fit everyone, and the halls were crowded with Healers that were in trying to help everyone. One less pair of hands wouldn't result in anyone dying, particularly when she was well aware of their need back at the house.
For the most part, however, there wasn't much for Emmeline to even do when it came down to it. James had fallen asleep with his head buried in Lily's lap, his girlfriend's fingers still rubbing gentle motions in his hair, the black mess of hair that she used to complain so much about. Remus was nowhere to be found, though she had a sneaking suspicion that he had gone to find Mary, despite her lack of knowledge in regards to the Order at this point. Both the Prewett brothers were sitting in the corner with Caradoc Dearborn and Benjy playing one of many rounds of Exploding Snap.
Marlene Mckinnon, one of the other blonde's in their group, had yet to come back from the Ministry after being pulled back at Azkaban, though Caradoc had mentioned that the woman was apparently sorting through a mountain of paperwork that she had been neglecting as of late, so in reality? Well, of all the people that Emmeline had to worry about, Marlene had never particularly ranked high, and she was rather safe given her location anyways. It was Dorcas flitting around through every room and gathering people's teacups and making sure they had food that had peaked Emmeline's interest, even moreso than the dozing Sirius.
Although her best friend wasn't necessarily known for being the world's most calm individuals, it wasn't often that Emmeline saw her like this. It was more likely that she would see someone like Lily or even Alice trying to make sure that everyone was taken care of, but it seemed that the fellow blonde didn't quite know what to do with herself as of yet. The Ministry had surrendered Azkaban to Death Eaters though, so Emme probably shouldn't be too surprised at the fact that nothing was quite the same anymore. Still, her eyes kept gravitating towards Dorcas whenever she entered the warmth of the den with another cup of tea that she was shoving into the boys' hands. It only took a split second for Emmeline to move and snag Doe's hand when she walked by, giving the girl a soft look for a second before smiling and nodding her head, "It'll be okay, promise."
