Chapter 11
Author's Note: I had a dim idea of a conclusion to the story, where one day in early June Audrey would be going about her business, worrying about Percy, but getting down to the business of living, when suddenly Percy would show up out of nowhere, tell her that the Battle of Hogwarts had been three days ago, and that the war was over. A surprising end to the war, just as it had started surprisingly. But I don't think that's going to happen.
Probably just as well.
Also, Monty Python is not mine.
000
"Which of the twins—" Audrey began, then stopped. That would be rude. It would be prying.
"That's the question everyone asks me," Angelina answered, with a rueful smile. She leaned against the wall of the corridor. "I was dating Fred for a bit in school. Of course that means I'm bound to marry him, right? His parents married their high school sweetheart, and so did my parents –"
"No," Audrey said. "That's rubbish. My parents got married straight out of school, and divorced ten years later. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked. That's just – inviting drama, that is. I'm sorry."
"I accept your apology. I shouldn't have been listening at the door." The taller woman checked her watch. "I think their tempers may have cooled down a bit by now. Ready to go down?"
"Um. Yeah." Audrey wiped the tears from her face, and tried to squish her private hope that, since she had retracted her question, Angelina would answer it. "Let's go."
Audrey went down the stairs first, at Angelina's insistence. When she entered the basement room again, she didn't look at either of the twins, but focused on taking off her father's overcoat and laying it on the couch. She gave thanks for her choice of tasteful navy blue pyjamas, instead of the rubber-ducky pattered ones that she wore at home. And for her decision to wear a bra.
"Audrey," said George, "We were talking it over, and we think that we all got a little too… heated."
"No more whiskey for us," Fred concurred, as he closed up the liquor cabinet.
"We want you to acknowledge that Percy has not been the – the easiest person to live with. And that even if he has had a crisis of conscience –"
"—or if some of our family may have been inconsiderate of his wishes," Fred added, grimacing.
"—he has a dragon's hoard worth of nastiness to account for," George finished. "That's not going to be wiped clean with a Scourgify."
"On the other hand," Fred chimed in, "the fact that he told you this, and that he put down spells for your protection, well… we frankly have no clue what to make of it. But maybe it means he's changed. Or, changing."
"Or had changed in the past," George said drily, "always leaving open the possibility that he's changed back to being a git."
"George!" Angelina said. "That's not funny."
"I would like to apologize," Audrey said, wiping a stray tear in an authoritarian way, "for yelling. And swearing. You know him longer, I should… trust your experience. It's just a lot to handle, y'know? I'm sorry."
"It is a lot to handle," Angelina said to the fireplace.
"This is the problem," George said, half to Fred and half to Audrey, "with going to school all your life with the same people, with going to a tiny school that feeds into an even smaller society. You get so used to how your situation looks, you can't explain to anyone who hasn't grown up with it."
"Insular and insufferable," Fred replied. He grinned at Audrey. "That's why we wanted to make Muggle friends. Partly to shock our Mum, to be frank… but also because in the wizarding world, you don't have that many chances to make new friends."
"Tell us, Audrey, does the old gang miss us? Are the parties the same at all?" George relaxed into his chair. He was making a conscious, slightly strained effort to lighten the tone. Audrey coughed.
"Could I get some water, please?"
"Oh, sure!" Fred – who seemed the appointed bartender – leapt up and disappeared around a partition. "Tap okay?" he called.
"'S fine," Audrey answered. To George she said, "Things have gotten quieter; to tell you the truth, I've kind of lost the zeal for get-togethers."
"Feeling down?" Angelina asked, glancing at Audrey.
"Yes."
"We feel pretty down sometimes ourselves, you know," Angelina stood up and shuffled off her jacket.
"Yes, but at least you're wizards – and a witch. You're out there actually changing things. Hell, you just know things."
"Some stuff I'd rather not know," Angelina answered, sitting back down.
"Well, I'd rather know more. Look – isn't there something I can do?"
"No," said Fred and George at the same time that Angelina said "Absolutely not."
"What? Nothing?" Audrey looked from one to the other. "There's got to be something! I work with computers – well, you don't know computers – but are you operating a whatchamacallit, an Underground Railroad? I can shelter people on the way."
"On the way to where?" Fred asked.
"France? I don't know, I have a flat in London, you could meet there, even just use it for meetings, I don't care, just make me involved!"
"We don't want to 'make you involved,' Audrey," Angelina said, "Not if we can help it. You shouldn't even be here right now. We're in this war to protect people like you, who can't protect themselves—"
"That's rubbish! Shouldn't your resistance or whatever you have got going on have at least a few of the people you're trying to protect?"
"You can't protect yourself at all, that is the point we are trying to make!"
"But—"
"Do you have training as a sniper?" Angelina asked.
"Give me something!"
"Audrey, we can't put you in danger," Fred said, at the same time that George observed, "Actually there are a couple of Muggles in the Order—"
Angelina turned to him. "You're being a bloody great help," she said sharply. "This is not the way that this evening was supposed to go."
"How was it ever supposed to go, Angelina?" George quipped back. "We take her in, interrogate her, and give her a good Memory Charm for the road?"
"Don't you dare," Audrey shrieked, and she didn't mean for it to come out so loud but it was so terrifying, "don't you dare cast a Memory Charm on me!"
They shushed her, and Audrey shushed. She clenched her jaw tight, covering her mouth with her hands. Finally she said, "You can trust me. I can contribute. Please, let me do something. I'll join your order, I want to join, I want to fight—"
There was a noise above. Audrey glanced up as Angelina said, "Must be Lee."
She headed upstairs. Audrey unclenched her jaw – she wouldn't cry again, and especially not in front of them.
When Angelina re-entered, walking behind her was a black man of medium height, with dreadlocks and two bags full of what smelled like Chinese takeout. "Happy Christmas, boys and girls!" he announced in a hushed voice as he arrived. "Here's some dim sum for you, and chow mein for you, and there's – hello, who's this?"
He stood back to survey Audrey, as she surveyed him. "I don't think we've met," she said gravely.
"Lee Jordan," he said. "It's rare we see new people here, nowadays."
"Audrey Trotwood," she replied. "Muggle."
"She's just passing through," Angelina said, as Lee took his seat on the third chair.
"Actually—"
All eyes turned to Fred. He looked straight into Audrey's eyes. "You remind me a lot of someone, someone whose importance to this whole – thing cannot be overstated. Everyone wanted to protect him, but he wanted to fight. He was chomping at the bit for it. And even though everyone said he was too young, he told them just what you told us, 'I want to join, I want to fight.'"
"Are you talking about Harry?" Angelina asked.
"Of course I am. It was Dumbledore's idea to keep Harry as much in the dark as possible, and to try and leave him out of the action. That nearly drove Harry around the bend."
"It did drive Sirius around the bend," George added.
"Amen." Fred nodded fervently. "Audrey's right – this is her war, too."
"How did she get involved?" Lee asked.
"She made herself involved," Angelina replied. "That's the short answer. Are you two in agreement about this?"
Fred and George looked at each other. "I wouldn't go that far," Fred said, "but it's something to consider."
"Dumbledore thought that sequestering people away was the best way to protect them—but Dumbledore's gone," George said. "And frankly, I never thought that was all that wise in the first place."
"Ooooh," Lee said, "them's fighting words." When everyone glared at him, he said, "Pardon me, I haven't eaten in hours upon hours, I'm a bit light-headed."
He passed out the food, and everyone dug in and ate. There was even enough for Audrey, and she made sure to thank Lee at least twice. There was nothing but silence for a few minutes as they chewed.
The first one to talk was Angelina. She swallowed a mouthful of dim sum and asked, "I'm going to regret asking this. Who are the other Muggles in the Order, George?"
Fred smiled to himself. George answered, "I only know the names of three, but I know there's more. Tonks' friend is really driven on including more Muggles. Anyway, there's two doctors out in the countryside, near Yorkshire. Tonks has gone to them to get patched up after a mission when St. Mungo's isn't an option. And there's a fisherman in Dover that helps people cross the Channel into France, if they need to get out without magic."
"That's something," Audrey said, without conviction. She stared at the dull fabric of the couch.
When no one else offered anything, Lee Jordan said, "I take it by your silence that you don't have a medical license… or a boat."
"I write programming. Code. I live between my apartment, which I share with a friend, and my cubicle, which is smaller than this room. I… I've never even taken a self defense class."
"You don't even live alone, do you?" Lee said.
"No… fine." Audrey sighed. "I give up. Just… please don't take my memory of this away."
"We won't," Angelina said, reaching over and taking Audrey's hand. "Thank you, Audrey, for… shit, not for giving up, but thank you for understanding."
Audrey nodded. She bent her head and resumed eating. The weight of their talk, of the evening, of the war, fell onto her. She felt too tired to continue arguing. Too tired to even think of fighting in this strange war.
Lee began to tell the twins and Angelina about what he had seen on his expedition, and gradually their talk turned to Christmas celebrations. Audrey found herself listening with growing interest, and smiling every time the Weasley twins started to talk about their family's Christmas traditions and mishaps. Percy felt very near as she heard those stories, and it almost made up for her giving up her right to participate in the war. Almost.
"Audrey?"
She started up. She had been leaning on Angelina's shoulder, and dozed off. Audrey started up, embarrassed, and apologized, but Angelina said, "I'm hardly surprised. It's three in the morning." Lee was already snoring, and the twins did not look much more awake than that. But Fred caught her eye.
"We had better get you home," He said. He stood up. "Ma'am, if I may?"
Audrey giggled, and took his hand, picking up her father's overcoat.
She rather rushed the goodbyes. No one was awake enough for heartfelt profusions, anyway. Again, she ascended the stairs, and again there was that terrible godawful pressure all round.
The immediate cold of the outdoors woke Audrey up, embracing her through the unbuttoned coat, its sleeves and its collar. They were standing outside of the little house on Eyamshire Street, just as they had been when they'd left.
"Well," Fred unhooked his arm from hers, "Happy Christmas, and a happy New Year, Audrey."
"Wait…"
"What." Fred's patience was limited. Could she blame him?
"Just… can you promise we'll meet again?"
"Can't do that, I'm afraid."
She sighed. "Let me know you're not dead, at least."
Fred, his face drawn and lined and older than Audrey had ever seen, gave her a wry glance, and then said in a croaky voice that would have made a senior Python proud, "I'm not dead yet."
Audrey began to giggle, stifling it behind her hands.
Fred turned away. "I'm gettin' better… Think I'll go fer a walk…" and began to walk up her front steps.
"'Ere," she said, "'e says 'e's not dead yet!"
"Ah feel happy! Ah feel… happy!"
"Sssh! Sshh!" She barely managed to smother her own laughter.
Fred smiled to see her so delighted. He doffed an imaginary hat, she curtsied. Without another word she turned away and headed towards the front steps. Fred remained where he was until Audrey entered her front door. She waved through the front windows at him. He waved back, then turned around, and vanished.
Audrey shuddered. Just like that. Just like magic. It was so simple, and now this bizarre but deeply welcome evening was over.
She hung up her dad's overcoat, just where she found it, and gratefully eased her feet out of the boots. She found her bed on the couch, and huddled up on it, craving warmth. Before long, she fell asleep again.
