Rane remained at Shell Cottage on Bill's insistence, where the scant remainder of the Order of the Phoenix met for the first and final time the evening Harry left. The members were few now, and the gathering was decidedly grim. The gathering felt . . . Strangely futile to Rane, like the dying throes of a drowning person. The faces that gathered around the table at Shell Cottage were bleak, pallid, forlorn. Fleur put together what Rane thought was a bit of an overly lavish meal (coq au vin, stacks of scalloped potatoes, and a massive coconut pie), but even she looked peaky and not particularly well as they sat down together. Kingsley, Remus and Tonks showed up, as well as Molly, Arthur and Wade. Together with Rane, Bill and Fleur, there were just nine of them, after all this time. So many of the Order had been killed, or vanished, or tortured into madness. The Order of the Phoenix was nearly exhausted. Rane felt a jolt of discouragement as she stared around at the faces at the table: Molly and Arthur, both thinner and more careworn, none of their former joviality evident now; Remus, scarred and shabby and frowning; Tonks, back to a mouse-brown ponytail, her post-natal glow all but dissipated; Kingsley, his shoulders sagging and his mouth downturned; Wade, slumped in his seat, his sharp good looks clouded by the grayish-blonde five o'clock shadow on his cheeks and the bags beneath his eyes. There were gashes all along his forearms and one of his hands was wrapped in bandages; the scar on his face from Snape's curse was clear and pale in the dim firelight.

Bill got to his feet, grasping a flagon of ale in one hand.

"Alright, everyone," he said, "I know it's been a little while since we've met, but I thought that -"

"We," said Fleur.

"Yes, we thought," Bill amended, "that it was high time for us to get together and discuss what's happening. We all know communications have been a little restricted since the new regime, and . . . Well, it seemed like the right time."

There was a pause. No one spoke.

"Right, so let's go around and talk about what's happening," Bill said, taking his seat again.

"Wade, any news?" said Remus, looking at him.

Wade leaned forward, clasping his hands before him on the table. "Same thing since the last time we met, I reckon. Attacks on the border every two or three days. They seem to be fortifying their ranks, I'd say . . . Yesterday night there must have been a score on each side of us. We've called in reinforcements from some of the neighboring cities, but they're pretty overrun themselves." He shook his head. "It's not looking great. We're holding them off, but they've got numbers even if they don't match our skill, and eventually we'll get overtaken."

"Iliwynn can handle it," Tonks said.

"For now," Wade said.

"What about the Ministry?" said Molly, glancing around. "Kingsley?"

Kingsley shook his head, his earring flashing in the low light. "We have not been made aware of much," he said slowly. "I believe they may suspect I am involved with the Order. Perhaps others are learning more -"

"Not me," said Tonks. "I've only been back a week here and there, mind you, but they haven't said boo to me . . . All they've got the Aurors doing is chasing down Muggle-borns and helping the Snatchers stay out of Azkaban. Mind you," she added ruefully, "I think they may know about me too."

"We feel it may be best if Dora stays home with Teddy in the coming weeks," Remus put in, glancing over at her. "I don't feel the risk is worth it, personally . . ."

"Your 'usband is right," Fleur agreed, nodding. "Zat place is far too dangerous. Teddy needs you more than 'ze Ministry."

Tonks rolled her eyes, but Rane thought she looked troubled. Arthur sighed, rubbing his forehead. Rane glanced over at him, feeling a stab of sympathy. He'd been forced out of the Ministry weeks ago. The Death Eaters did not abide blood traitors.

"Rane?" Remus was looking at her. "Any word from Hogwarts?"

Rane shook her head. She'd spent several nights over the past month or two creeping around the borders of the castle trying to catch some intel, but the magical barriers in place had kept her from getting too close. Hogwarts itself was radio silence. The only thing noteworthy she'd gleaned was that the students appeared to still be taking their meals in the Great Hall en masse, judging by the lights she could see flickering from a distance in its massive windows.

She shook her head. "Snape's got the place pretty much tied down."

"Students? Staff?" said Remus.

Rane shook her head reluctantly. "I don't even know if he's letting them outside anymore. I didn't see so much as a thestral."

Another grim silence fell. Rane felt the eyes of her companions on her, and reaching over she pulled the coq au vin towards her and began to ladle some onto her plate, trying to avoid eye contact. She knew what would come next thanks to exhaustive experience; the Order meetings almost always circled back around to it.

"Rane, what about Harry?" said Tonks. "What did he say, before he left?"

Rane pushed the coq au vin back to the center of the table. The sound of the bowl rasping across the surface of the table was loud and grating in the silence. She placed her napkin in her lap and wiped her mouth before answering.

"He didn't say anything," she said at length, pushing her food around her plate with a spoon.

"Bullshit," said Wade at once. "That kid wrote to you two and three times a week after Sirius died, I know how close you are."

"What's wrong with us being close?" Rane asked, bristling.

"There is nothing wrong with it," Kingsley put in, lifting both of his large hands. "It is only natural that Harry would seek you out after Sirius passed, Rane, but you must understand that he does not trust anyone else quite as much as he trusts you."

"And?"

"And, we all know you're the only one that knows what he's up to," said Wade. "You don't think it might be time to -?"

"No," Rane interrupted, giving him a hard look. "I don't. And I'm not going to have this conversation again," she added, glancing around her. "You guys have asked me this every single goddam time we've been together, and my answer hasn't changed, and it isn't going to change. Okay?"

"But we could help him," Arthur said imploringly.

Rane shook her head. "No we couldn't. When Harry needs help, he'll ask for it. Until then, leave it alone."

Wade sighed, turning to Bill. "Did he say anything to you before he left?"

Bill shook his head, swirling the contents of his mug around and looking cross. "I tried to get something out of him, but he stonewalled me."

"Oh, I'm so worried about them!" Molly burst out. "Rane, are you speaking with them still? Regularly?"

Rane nodded, giving her a soft look. "We talk all the time," she said. "They're fine, Molly, better than you'd think. They're looking after each other."

"So how have you been contacting them?" Wade asked her suddenly. "Certainly not with owls, they'd draw attention . . ."

Rane hesitated. Wade sat back in his chair, its creak loud in the sudden silence, and folded his arms, looking at her hard.

"If you taught him Tenu'pedin, I swear to God I wouldn't even be surprised."

Rane flinched, dropping her spoon with a clang. "So what if I did?" she snapped at him. "How else is he supposed to talk to me while he's all over the place being tracked?"

"Rane!" Wade admonished. "The council would lose their shit if they - !"

"Don't 'Rane' me, you know what his situation is!" Rane retorted. "If it's between the council being pissed off and Harry needing help and not being able to contact anyone, I think you know which one I'd pick, dad. And I'd hope you'd do the same."

"I wouldn't piss off the council if I didn't have to."

"Oh, yeah? So what the fuck am I doing here, then? Did you guys come to a mutual agreement about you getting a Muggle knocked up?"

Wade slapped the table with the flat of his hand, so hard that the dishes rattled alarmingly. Fleur and Tonks recoiled, looking bewildered.

"Girl, you know the rules, you KNOW the rules!" he said loudly. "You saw what I paid when I broke them!"

"What do I care if they decide never to talk to me again?" Rane shot at him, her anger rising. "They've done nothing but piss all over me since I was a kid because I'm half human, what the fuck is the difference if they -?"

"IDRIL!" Wade shouted, his face reddening. "WHERE WOULD SHE GO? THE SEMINARY?"

Rane fell silent, returning his angry gaze. He was right, of course, but the fury she felt was as acute as his, and she was well aware that any more words exchanged on the subject would get them nowhere. She sighed, rubbing her face.

"I'm not talking about Harry anymore," Rane said flatly. "He's safe. He's doing important work. That's it."

A dense silence fell between them. Rane got to her feet, throwing her balled-up napkin onto her plate.

"Thanks for the chicken, Fleur," she said, and turning on her heel she strode out of the kitchen. A moment later the bang of the screen door came to them; she'd gone out onto the dusk-lit beach.

Wade sighed roughly, running his hands through his long hair. "That girl is going to be the death of me," he murmured.

"She's just trying to do right by Harry," said Tonks. "He's as good as a son to her, Wade. You've seen them."

"Yeah, I've seen them," Wade agreed petulantly. "I've seen her take up Sirius's mantle before he was six months in the grave. I don't think it's good for her."

"She eez a grown woman," Fleur told him, a little coolly. "It is 'er decision."

"Does anyone have any idea what he's doing?" Arthur asked flatly.

Remus cleared his throat. "He's trying to stop You-Know-Who," he said. "That much is clear. And it's clear, too, that he's doing it on Albus's orders. And Albus knew what he was doing, in case any of us need reminding."

"That doesn't excuse him from pulling Rane into it," Wade said.

Remus gave him a cold look. "Wade, Rane is the closest to Harry, she's all he's got right now besides Ron and Hermione. Is it any wonder he's confided in her? And is it any wonder she's guarded his secret?"

"Whatever else he is, Wade, he's still just a boy," Molly added. "And with no parents of his own."

Wade looked at him for a moment, then sank back, rubbing his chin.

"Maybe you ought to listen to her when she says she won't share what he's doing," Remus said slowly. "I've know Harry for many years and he's inventive, he's smart. If he says he knows what he's doing, it's likely he's telling the truth."

"It's not just his neck at stake," said Wade.

"No, it's all of ours," Remus agreed quietly. "But Albus told us to trust in him. And I think we're all trying to do that, Wade, even when it's difficult."

A dense silence fell. Wade rose, placing his goblet down.

"I'll go talk to her," he said. He glanced around at the rest of them, then, in an uncharacteristically diffident tone, added, "I cry pardon. From you all."

With this he strode from the room. The screen door banged shut behind him.

Wade padded out onto the sandy yard barefoot. Rane's figure was visible further on, ankle-deep in the wake. He approached her from the back. As he came upon her, he found himself looking at her curiously. There was something about the this-way-and-that jut of her body that suggested she wasn't listening to her surroundings, something Elves did instinctively almost always. She was bending at the waist, grasping shells and then tossing them into the waves, the wind teasing the ends of her hair gently. Not on alert, in other words. Open to attack. Almost welcoming it.

"Rane."

She turned, and Wade was stricken suddenly with how like her mother she was. The mouth was the same - full, downturned - and so were the cheekbones, high and lean, giving her face an odd heart-shaped quality beneath her wavering dark hair. But the eyes, those were all Elf. They were upturned, wide, large and bright, preternaturally aware; even in the dim light, they shone like beacons. If he ever doubted that she was his daughter, they told tales of their own.

"What?" she said, sounding disinterested and watching him warily.

"Just wanted to see what you were doing," Wade replied.

"I like the ocean at night," Rane said softly, watching the crashing waves before her. "It makes me feel . . . I dunno . . . Peaceful."

"Elbereth found peace in the sea at night," said Wade softly. "She felt that the waves were the pulse of the earth."

"I'm nothing like Elbereth."

"You're more like her than you think, Rane."

Rane looked at her father, then sighed roughly and ran a hand down her face. She drew a cigarette from her pocket and lit it with her wand, the red glow sending her features into sharp resolution.

"You've stopped writing," Wade said

"Well," said Rane, then shrugged. "I've been busy."

"Being mad at me?"

"Busy," said Rane noncommittally. Wade looked at her sharply.

"Busy drinking your fool self to death?"

"Hey!" Rane said sharply. She drew deep, blowing out smoke in a plume, watching him coolly. "Is that necessary?"

Wade shook his head, drawing one hand over his face.

"Oh, Rane," he said, muffled behind his palm. "Come on."

"Come on, what?" Rane snapped at him.

"Come on!" Wade said, his voice rising. "You won't tell me what's going on with Harry? After everything that's happened?"

"I already told you," Rane said calmly, "that I don't want to talk about him anymore."

Wade recoiled, then shut his mouth. He sighed, rubbing his forehead. Rane blew a plume of smoke out into the starry evening.

"He's got something," Rane told him. "Something big. I'm waiting for him to contact me. I feel like it's going to be soon," she added as Wade opened a mouth to protest.

"And how do you know that?"

"I feel it."

Wade was silent, chewing his lip, watching her. Finally he shook his head.

"You gotta do what you feel like you need to do," he said. He suddenly reached forward and clutched her shoulders. "Rane, I have a terrible . . . Just a bad -"

"I do too," Rane said. "For months. I tried to tell Remus about it, but he didn't understand."

"It's umbarae," Wade said, his voice dropping. He regarded her with his bright blue eyes, his eyebrows drawn. "That's what it is, as I live and breathe. So you have to be careful. Do you hear me?"

Rane nodded. Wade shook her gently.

"I don't know who it's meant for, Rane, just like I didn't know when Albus . . ." Wade shook his head. "I thought it might be you, if I'm telling the truth. But this time, I just . . ."

They looked at each other for a moment in silence, neither of them wanting to say what was on their minds. Rane dropped her cigarette, still half-cashed, and smashed it into the sand beneath her boot heel.

"Dad, I think this might be it." she said at last. "I think . . . I feel like I might be getting close to the end of -"

"Stop it!" Wade said, so sharply that Rane recoiled. "You stop that talk right now, Rane Roth, you just shut your everlasting mouth. Do you hear me?"

Rane did, looking at him solemnly, but Wade's eyes were overbright, and after a moment he sighed roughly and pulled one hand down over his face.

"Oh, girl, you just had to go and fucking say it," he said coarsely.

Rane reached out and took one of his hands in her own. He grasped it tightly, looking down at her from eyes that were damp with tears.

"Dad, I don't know, I'm just saying how it feels," she said gently.

Wade sighed again, then reached down and grasped her hand in both of his own.

"Rane, if you'd lived as long as I have, if you'd been around for this long and only had one kid to your name . . ." He shook his head. "You'd know how awful it is to hear something like that come from her mouth. Don't you ever, ever say that."

"It isn't up to us."

"Sure it is!" Wade said to her sharply. "Sure it is!"

Rane recoiled at his tone, giving him a hard look. "You're the one always talking about Eru Iluvatar and how there's a bigger plan for all of us, right -?"

Wade laughed, then buried his eyes in one hand, his face turned down in a moue of misery. Rane hesitated, then reached out and touched his forearm.

"Dad, please, don't," she said. As always the sight of her stoic and battle-hardened father at the height of emotion made her uncomfortable. "It's fine. I just . . . It's just a feeling."

Wade sighed, shook his head and ran both hands through his long hair. He fixed his red eyes on her.

"You just work on sticking around for your kid," he said to her, his tone harsh. "And that's all you focus on. And in the meantime, you keep the rest of this shit on the backburner. Idril's what you should be worrying about right now. You understand?"

Rane looked at him silently, saying nothing.

"Is she okay?" she asked at length. "I'm going to see her tomorrow."

"She's fine, she loves it there," Wade replied, shaking his head. "She'd like that, I think. Maybe you'd better."

They regarded one another for a few more moments; Wade, a tall, imposing man with his long blond hair wavering in the breeze outside Shell Cottage, his bright blue eyes flickering like beacons and the hilt of his sword glittering malignly in the dim, and Rane, lean and remarkably beautiful, her thick brows drawn, both hands stuffed into the pockets of her jeans, her shoulders smooth in the dim starlight, staring up at her father.

"I love you, dad," she said quietly.

At this Wade's mouth turned down, and he placed a hand over his eyes once again. He squatted on the sand, his shoulders shaking gently. Later, reflecting on their meeting, Rane realized that she had simply articulated what he had likely been reflecting upon for perhaps weeks; things were coming to a close, and umbarae always meant death for someone. It felt like their bond, hard-forged and thick as thieves since she was nigh on a week old, may be in jeopardy of ending at last. She knelt before him, feeling tears of her own threatening behind her eyes. How often she'd wept in the last few months. Had she ever been this way before?

She grasped both of his hands in her own, then placed a kiss on each of their palms, staring up at him.

"Ceru glenn'u'nin," he said softly, shaking his head. The tears were streaming from his eyes now, and he clasped her face in his hands. "Mist u'on'nin."

The words - Don't leave me here, don't leave me alone - were as terrible as a knife to her heart. Rane shook her head, then reaching up placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Im mel cin'adar," she said softly. "I love you, dad. I could be wrong. But if I'm not, I want you to know. You did okay. Okay?"

Wade shook his head, then bending placed a teary kiss on her forehead as well.

"You go to Ylle Thalas and see Id tomorrow, girl," he said softly. He kissed the top of her head again. "And don't you dare cut out on me yet."

He rose then, squeezing her shoulder, and strode away towards the cottage. It was the last time Rane saw him before the end.