Chapter 22: The Unorthodox Meeting
Calamity was waiting in the teachers lounge at Hogwarts School or Witchcraft and Wizardry, the table magically expanded to fit the soon to arrive order members. She had been talking to Edgar Bones just yesterday and he had mentioned taking his family into hiding. There was a lot of talk of such things these days: now that so many Order member had families and the war seemed to be heating up. Calamity ran her hand across the charms book in front of her thoughtfully. How had they reached such a point? Could no one stop the force that was Lord Voldemort? Her frown deepened and she opened the cover of the charms book, scanning the table of contents to find something to distract herself.
"The Fidelius Charm is an extremely old spell, one of the most ancient of all. A dwelling whose location has been protected by this spell is then invisible, intangible, unplottable and soundproof. The extremely difficult, multifaceted and potent charm requires the secret location to be concealed inside an individual's soul, known as the Secret Keeper. Once the secret has been implanted, the only method for another to learn it is for the primary Secret Keeper to divulge it to that person directly, it cannot be discovered any other way. Passed evidence has shown that this disclosure must be voluntary. The use of coercion by means of Veritaserum, Legilimency or other dark magic will not suffice.
The people who the Secret Keeper has already divulged the information to (secondary Keepers) would not be able to pass it along even if they wanted to and the information in question can not be learned even by stumbling across it, even if one were staring the secret in the face. For example, if someone were to hide a location in this way, even if a person were to stumble into the specific area they would not be able to recognize it for what it was (i.e. as the area they were looking for) and they would not therefore learn the location accidentally."
Slowly other Order members began to trickle into the room in varying states of exhaustion. Sirius sat down right next to Calamity and waved Frank Longbottom down.
"You look like you haven't slept in a week," Sirius joked shaking his hand. Frank grinned.
"More like five months- Neville's a rowdy little bugger. Get's it from Alice's side of the family."
"I've met your mother, sure it's not from there," Sirius said with a bark like laugh. "How is Alice?"
"Lovely," Frank said, eyes dancing at the thought of his wife and son. "How are Lily and Harry? I expect James will be here tonight."
"He'll just be a tad late," Sirius said. He wrapped his arm around Calamity who turned the page. "Harry's a regular babbler. Loves telling me long winded stories about nothing and if I look away for two seconds it's just 'pafoo,pafoo,pafoo.'"
"Sounds like he's got you whipped."
Calamity smirked into her book as Sirius gave an over-exaggerated look of was true.
"The method for the primary Keeper to voluntarily tell another person the secret can be verbal or written. It is also possible that primary Keepers can reveal information to another by showing it to them. Once the secondary Keeper has received the information in either of these ways the information will still appear hidden to them until they start thinking about it, at which point the secret will reveal itself to them alone."
"Are we all present?"
Calamity closed the book and looked up to see Professor Albus Dumbledore standing before them, smiling around the room. "Fabian, if you would give us the Ministry report."
Fabian Prewett stood. Calamity had heard that his sister (Molly, she thought it was) was married to the ministry worker Arthur Weasley. She wondered if that was his connection.
"Deatheaters have attempted to destabilize the Ministry just about every week since our last debrief, but have been fairly unsuccessful as of yet," Fabian said. "But we recently discovered that the head of the Department of Misuse of Muggle Artifacts was placed under a fairly strong Imperius curse. We fixed him right up, but he's in hiding now."
"Thank you, Fabian," Dumbledore said as he took a seat next to his brother, Gideon, once again.
"What of that Goblin family in Nottingham," asked Marlene Mckinnon as she twirled a strand of platinum blonde hair nervously. "Can we confirm it was Deatheaters and not a feud with the Goblins across the way?"
"The Prophets reporting i feud," Gideon said coldly. "But when I got there just after the murders there was a dark mark over the spot. Word is that You Know Who might have tried to recruit them. Needed their skills for something, but who knows what."
"What we need is an inside man,"Frank said. "The Deatheaters are stepping up their attacks more and more. It's like You Know Who is getting more and more powerful-"
"Or cocky," said Sirius.
"Or cocky," conceded Frank. "But we need to get some information. We can't keep having these conversations based on what we heard in passing."
"Not like any of us can join ranks," James reminded him. "Certainly not us- we've met the old geezer three times, haven't we? Reckon he'd recognize us."
The room exploded in discussion with people talking over one another with ideas and retorts. Dumbledore held up his hand and the room fell silent.
"These are troubling times, indeed," he said looking around the room. "But, we are doing all we can to slow Lord Voldemort as best we can. Currently Remus Lupin is away gathering information."
Calamity felt Sirius' hand give her own an involuntary squeeze.
"And Dorcas Meadowes is also absent tonight on business. What is most important is that we remain a unified front." He looked around the room again, pausing for a moment to look at each person in turn. "If we lose trust in ourselves we will lose everything else and no one," he paused at James. "Can afford it now."
The end of Order meetings always resulted in a quick catching up as friends in secret organizations can;t necessarily meet for tea in public. Caradoc Dearborn teased Marlene as Gideon caught up on the recent Quidditch stats with James. Benjy Fenwick pushed Sirius playfully as Sirius suggested that maybe Benjy ought to try his hand at the fairer sex, since his love life was currently nonexistent. Looking around the room, Calamity could not help but smile, especially as James wrapped his arm around Sirius and they pulled away into a secretive huddle. They transformed almost instantly into their sixteen year old selves again with smiles and gaffaws as they appeared to plot in the corner.
"It is always comforting to have friends and family in such trying times."
Calamity nearly lept from her spot at Professor Dumbledore's voice. He smiled at her kindly. "I didn't mean to startle you."
"Of course not," Calamity said sheepishly. "I was just lost in thought."
"The best place to lose oneself," Dumbledore agreed. "I wonder if I might request a brief break from your wandering."
"Of course," Calamity said.
"When last we spoke you were determined not to meet with you father as his letter requested," Dumbledore said. He held his hand up quickly as Calamity opened her mouth. "And indeed I understand your feelings and reasoning. However, I must ask you to meet him. A father's desire to see his daughter must be great to risk the pureblood line of the Lestrange and Blacks in order to see her. Even though his initial meeting time has long passed I have no doubt you will be able to meet in the same place should you choose to do so."
"You want me to meet him and get information."
"I do," Dumbledore said with a nod. "We are reaching a turning point- one in which the Order will see victory or the forces of Lord Voldemort will morph our history forever. Any information can help us in this fight and so I must ask you to sacrifice your own peace of mind and pride, even to risk bodily harm, to meet with your father."
"I'm not even sure how to reach out," Calamity confessed.
"I'll be going to the Hogs Head Inn later this week to interview an applicant- Divination professor needed for next year. I will spread the word to some reliably unreliable secret keepers. Just be at the park, as was instructed, on New Years Day."
"Great way to start a new year," Calamity asked. She couldn't help her tone, but Dumbledore didn't seem to take it personally.
"It's easiest to spread holidays, rather than dates and times." Dumbledore looked up. Calamity followed his gaze to where Sirius and James sat, now joined by the Prewetts and Frank Longbottom. "I will talk with Sirius and the marauders to make sure you are not alone. Be careful."
Calamity sat at a bench next to the lake in Victoria's Park on the first day of 1981, as the letter had instructed all those months ago. She opened her Daily Prophet, which she had charmed to look like a muggle paper. As she opened it, a note fell onto her lap. She picked it up and turned it over. It was a hideous, almost neon pink card with an even more hideous cat on it's front. She opened it to see that it read "You're puur-fect to me!"
"Oh Merlin," Calamity said rolling her eyes. She spotted Sirius' familiar writing under the message.
Calamity, be careful. I'll be ready to assist if needed. I love you but I swear I'll murder your old man if he even lays a finger on you.
"I've always found death threats to be the best way to convey my affections as well."
Calamity closed the card. She hadn't heard her father's voice or seen his face in so long that for a moment she just stared at the man sitting next to her as one would a surprise stranger's greeting. He seemed unperturbed by her reaction. He leaned back against the bench and looked around at the passing muggles, his eyes narrowing in a way that Calamity found eerily familiar, despite the time passed. Prison had aged him- his once dark hair was gray, even cut so close to his head, and there were bags under his eyes- but that could be more recent.
"He's just concerned," she said coldly, "for good reason."
"Of course," her father said. "He's a smart boy. I knew it in Belfast. I suppose he's watching us somewhere with a few other Order members. I can appreciate that. There's been a development and I'm planning on leaving England."
"To go back to America?"
"No, to go somewhere else. Asia, perhaps. An island far away to spend the rest of my time relaxing away from these political times," He sighed as a second term president might, no longer bright eyed and bushy tailed by the promised of their campaign. "Regulus is dead."
"What?"
The change of subject was jarring in itself, not to mention the information.
"No one knows why, exactly. Of course there are rumors from the ordinary to the absurd: he fell out of favor with the Dark Lord (likely) or he did something to try and threaten or destroy the Dark Lord (doubtful). To kill a member of the Black family is a big deal, though. There is something coming."
"Coming," Calamity asked. Her father looked over his shoulder again.
"You trust your friends, I suppose," he said. "Everyone does, it is a silly naive thing to do in a time of war."
"Who shouldn't I trust."
"Trust no one. Clara, I have done many things in my life: some you find worthy of disowning your own father- but no matter how you feel towards me, know that I never put you or your mother in any danger. Rather than try to escape when they came to arrest me, I turned myself over. When I was busy with my experiments, I made sure to have time to be a father, to shield you from the unpleasantness of politics. Now, I'm trying to shield you again. There is a storm coming."
"The storm is here," Calamity said holding up the Daily Prophet. Her father waved his hand as if swatting away a pesky fly.
"There is a desperation to the Dark Lord's methods. His younger followers don't see it, but I can. He has learned something important- I promise you will see deaths. If you can kill Regulus Black, no one is safe."
"So, you want to warn me," Calamity said.
"I want to warn you," he said. "And remind you that you have no obligation here. You can always leave."
"To where," Calamity asked.
"To go back to America. You came here to be a healer and you were, but now you are free to go back home. Are these people, these wizards or no-maj, worth your life? Even when you could be safe and forgotten back home?" He held up his hand. "Don't answer. Just consider it." He placed his hand on Calamity's and for a moment she was surprised by the warmth. "I want only what is best for you. Trust no one."
Then with a pop he disapparated away.
A/N: REVIEW, PLEASE!
