"I want to plan a serious attack on the prison in the eastern fields from Azkaban." James explained as he walked through the doors of the main tactics room. In the center, Rose and a man were looking down at a map of the areas surrounding the Ministry building ruins. Turning away from creating more defenses, Rose looked at James.
"Why that one?" Rose asked. "It's the farthest away from here."
"That's why." James answered and Rose let out a breath before she turned to the man beside her.
"You work on that, and we'll discuss it later." She told him and he nodded before he folded the map and turned towards the door. As he passed James, he nodded slightly before exiting the room and closing the door behind him.
"And this came for you." James said before he forgot and held out the letter to Rose. She took it from his hand and peered down at it long enough to realize it was from Ethan. With a smile she attempted to disguise, she folded the letter and put it in her pocket before she forced herself to focus on her cousin.
"What do you hope we'll find there?" Rose questioned as she retrieved the drawings Lily had sent her accompanying the main prison drawing James handed over.
"Scorpius." James answered. It wasn't a definitive answer, but more of a hopeful guess. "But we'll need as much power and force as we can possible get. I want to do this one right."
"James," Rose shook her head as she stared at him. "There's no guarantee he'll be there. Or that he's even alive." James held Rose's stare as he convinced himself that she'd meant her words to sound so harsh.
"We can't just let Lily's help go to no use." James replied and Rose scoff as she tossed the stack of Lily's letters onto the table top near her.
"Lily's help?" Rose repeated in a mocking tone as she rose an eyebrow. "We haven't seen Lily or Albus in five years, James!"
"Four, and I saw them a week ago!"
"During an attack against us."
"She healed me. And gave us those." James replied strongly as he motioned to the table.
"We had to send in our own spy before we got anything out of them!"
"It's not their fault!"
"Really?" Rose asked with a dry laugh. "Because Hugo and I and fairing just fine here. We didn't have to leave and they chose to."
"You've held a grudge against them for this long?" James asked but Rose did not respond. She averted her eyes and turned away from him. To keep her hands busy, she began to straighten the papers on the table. "Really, Rose? You're cousins?"
"They gave us no reason to believe they were still with us."
"Except for when didn't die." James snapped and Rose paused to draw in a deep breath. She knew instinctive words were never the nicest.
"Not selling us out is not the same as being with us." Rose said strongly.
"Yeah, fine." James responded. "They were scared and they didn't want our help, but that doesn't mean-"
"Don't be ridiculous." Rose snapped, stopping James mid-sentence. "We both know that was Lily's idea and Albus just went along for the ride. That's how it's always been, James! You and Lily in front of everyone else. Seeing things before the world can catch up, and Albus just sides with whoever makes sense at that point in time."
"Was she wrong?" James asked. "We've been close to dying and losing everything that I care for, Rose. Acting on survival and joining them doesn't seem like such a bad idea in hind sight."
"Well, why don't you go, and Edward and I will take over."
The room fell completely silent around the pair. Rose held James' gaze as steadily as she could, but the longer the intenseness continued, the more she realized she should've been so bold.
"Scorpius was taken, Rose." James finally said. "Albus' only real friend. Lily's… whatever he was. And we don't know the exact reason they left. They might've left to find him."
"Well, they failed at that."
"Are you saying you wouldn't have left in their situation?" James asked as he stared at his cousin. Rose was younger than him, but war had aged her to the point where he could no longer distinguish their mental ages. She stared back at him, searching his eyes, but could find no anger, only curiosity.
"No. I'd have stayed."
"Well, congratulations, Rose. You're probably the only one." James said coldly.
"You would have?"
"I don't even want to tell you how many times I've wanted to surrender." James admitted. "You might disown me the way you've casted off Lily and Albus." He scoffed before he turned and left the room, before Rose could respond. In the silence left behind him, the click of the door echoed around her and sounded as though the walls were going to collapse around her.
The longer she let the silence linger, the faster her thoughts ran through her mind. No matter how hard she had tried, she could think of no single moment she had entertained the idea of allowing the Division to take over the wizarding world and set in place their own laws and governing system. Knowing Lily and Albus had left had made her realize not everyone operated the way she did, but hearing James say the word 'surrender' had made her feel cold. Not cold in the way Christopher Adler was cold. He was cruel. Rose felt cold in a way that wasn't human. She felt almost as though she lacked all empathy.
She had only seen the logical reasons the Division should not be in control, but never had she fallen victim to emotions that governed her decisions. Knowing it affected each of her cousins, made her feel very alone in the silence James had left her in.
X
James walked into the infirmary and knocked against the door frame when he saw Hugo sitting with a man on one of the cloth covered tables. In the corner, Kate was staring into the colorful liquids held inside a few vials. She wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings, but Hugo turned to check on her every few minutes. Hugo and the man turned to see James, and Hugo smiled at him before he turned back to the man's wounds.
James though It disturbing that Kate saw injuries on a daily basis and yet it had become so normal to her that she hardly paid it attention. Hugo usually didn't pay much attention to the though reasoning that Kate's sister, Bridget, had been such a talented Healer that Kate had been around the gore long before the matters of the Division and revolution.
"One minute, James." Hugo said as he continued to work. He quickly finished and stepped back from the table to walk towards a shelf on the wall with the door James had entered through. In the middle of the shelf, a blue vial sat with several others, and Hugo retrieved it before turning towards the man.
"For the pain." He said as he held it out, "But don't overdo it."
"Thanks." He said appreciatively as he took the potion and started to walk towards the exit. He nodded respectfully to James before leaving the cousins alone.
"Did you need anything?" Hugo asked as he started to walk towards the far wall of the infirmary. James followed behind him, but gave space whenever Hugo poked his head around the curtains that surrounded the beds used to hold anybody with serious injuries requiring constant care.
"Rose is mad at Lily and Albus." James said and Hugo drew in a deep breath as he paused and looked at his oldest cousin.
"I'm sure how much help I can be in that situation." Hugo admitted as he and James reached the end of the infirmary. Hugo lead James through a door which lead to the room where he stored the majority of their supplies, and James shut the door behind them.
"She's never talked to you about them?" James asked and Hugo shook his head. He walked to the corner of the room where a small table was designated as their apothecary to make various potions.
"She was really upset about Scorpius, though." Hugo commented as he started to brew a potion. Though James had heard him, he was awestruck at how quickly Hugo worked with the ingredients. There was a potions book sitting on a shelf beneath the table, but Hugo continued measuring and adding ingredients to the pot by memory.
"She talked about him?" James asked and after Hugo had finished brewing the potion, he turned to James to allow the potion to sit.
"Yeah, a lot actually. The more time passed, the less she talked about him, and when Lily and Albus left she stopped completely," Hugo said. "I don't really know why."
"She's acting like she doesn't want to use any of the information Lily gave me."
"I don't really know what to say, James." Hugo admitted. "I mean, every time you or Edward, and even Lily, Scorpius, and Albus, had a problem you all came to me. I don't know if you came here first, but you all wanted to tell me something just for the sake of saying it. Most of the time no one wanted a real answer from me, but Rose never came to me about anything except Scorpius."
"Well, you're a good listener." James said and Hugo let out a laugh as he smiled.
"I'm the youngest. I did a lot of listening for a very long time."
"And you got very good at it." James replied and the two shared a laugh. After the moment passed, James spoke again. "Why only Scorpius?"
"I don't know." Hugo shrugged. "Of everyone we've ever lost, understandable, Scorpius was the hardest for all of us to come to terms with, except maybe Bridget, but that was mostly for Albus and I to deal with. But Rose almost never let any losses affect her, and Scorpius affected her more than I expected. Especially since they weren't nearly as close as Scorpius and Albus and Lily. I almost feel like she took it harder than they did."
"You don't think this has something to do with her and Lily, do you?" James asked and Hugo rose an eyebrow. He remained perfectly silent as he let the question and all that it entailed sink in before he let himself think of an answer.
"Please tell me you don't mean them and Scorpius." Hugo answered and James remained silent instead.
"They were always competitive." James explained when Hugo said nothing.
"Well, if that's it, then I want no part of it." Hugo answered. "Lily is not a woman I want to be around when she blows. And if you want to destroy the Division, you should just piss her off while she's still over there. That might do it."
James laughed at Hugo's logic, although it did not seem to far from the truth. "If he's dead do you think it will matter anymore?"
"I don't about you, but I don't think I can bring myself to hope he's dead for the sake of what little peace we have here."
"Does that mean you expect Lily and Albus to return?"
"I have to hope that as much as I can't hope for Scorpius' death."
James only smiled as he looked at Hugo's bright red locks falling around his freckled face. He looked so happy with life even though James could barely count the number of happy things going on around them. "Sometimes I think you should've been the one to lead us."
"I'm not nearly brave enough, James," Hugo admitted.
"Most of it isn't bravery." James admitted his own secret with a shrug. "Most of it is pretending to be brave. Pretending not to lose hope, because once I lose hope, everyone else does to. Pretending to have faith even though there's so little to have faith in now."
"I think there's a bit more to it than you give yourself credit for." Hugo said and James only smiled.
"Would you have ever done what Lily and Albus did?" James asked and Hugo shook his head.
"I told you, I'm not nearly brave enough."
"What about surrendering?" James asked and Hugo remained silent as he stared at James.
"I know there have been times where you got that close to surrendering, James, but you are brave for never giving in just yet. That's the kind of bravery I don't have and that's why you're the one leading and I'm in the infirmary."
"Take your own advice and give yourself some credit."
