Chapter Three

The next day when Dorcas woke up she lay in bed for several minutes before she got up, mentally preparing herself for the trying day ahead. She had literally cut herself off from the wizarding world for almost a year and a half. She left her country, her friends, and her life behind just a few days after her mother's death in June, and was only now coming back, in late October of the next year. She couldn't deal with it then, and she wasn't sure she could deal with it now. Looking at the faces of people who knew that her mother had been killed was unbearable. Their dull, ignorant eyes and small nods of sympathy only made her angry. Dorcas wasn't even quite sure what Dumbledore wanted from her. She knew he wanted her to help fight Voldemort, but she didn't know how. She didn't know what he expected, or if she could even do anything to help.

Guy was still asleep when Dorcas left, so she left a note for him on his bedside table. She had a few sickles hidden in a compartment in her bag for emergencies, so she dug them out and went into the gardens behind the Locke mansion where no one was likely to see her. She took a deep breath and wondered if she'd have trouble re-assimilating herself to the wizarding world. She had taken her wand with her when she left England, and had done the occasional spell, but for a year and a half she had, essentially, lived without magic. Dorcas took another deep breath and apparated to the post office in Hogsmeade. She scrawled a quick note to Dumbledore saying where she was, that she would like to talk with him, and setting up a time and place to do so, then sent the note off with an owl towards Hogwarts.

Then she waited. Dorcas wandered around the village for a few minutes, in awe of how little it had changed. There were still people putting up decorations for Halloween, still small children running around and chasing each other, still cheery shop owners beckoning people to come in and buy things. Every little thing reminded her of times when she was still at school. The same shops were there, with the same owners; not a thing was different; everything was familiar, yet it all seemed so alien to her. These people had been living their untouched, innocent lives for almost a year and a half. They were troubled not by evil wizards and murdered mothers. Dorcas longed to go back to their world, the world of the ignorant, the innocent.

As it grew closer to the time she was supposed to meet with Dumbledore, she slowly made her way to The Three Broomsticks. He was sitting in a booth about halfway to the back, and as Dorcas entered he beckoned her over.

"Dumbledore," she said, and nodded at him.

"Miss Meadowes," he said as he stood up to shake her hand. "I'm very happy you've finally decided to return. By your extended absence can I assume that you've been having a good time?"

"Well, er, I guess I have. But we're not here to talk about the last year and several months." However fond she was of Dumbledore, he had a tendency to be eccentric and go off topic, and Dorcas wanted to get straight to the point.

"Actually, Miss Meadowes, that is precisely why we are here; or have you not been paying attention to current events while you were gone? Voldemort has gained many more followers. Hundreds of muggles, muggle-borns, and people who oppose his cause have been killed by him or his followers, who call themselves Death Eaters."

"Death Eaters..." Dorcas mumbled quietly. This was a lot bigger than she had thought. She remembered reading about the Dark Mark and the man who called himself Voldemort in the newspaper while at school. Whenever the Dark Mark was cast it had always made the front page, but there were no more than four or five of this kind of murder before Dorcas' mother had been killed. But now, it seemed, there were killings very often. Children left parentless; lovers separated, never to be reunited. And one man had been responsible for it all.

Dumbledore continued, "I am gathering together a group of people who will fight Voldemort and his Death Eaters in addition to what actions the Ministry is taking. This is a very dangerous undertaking, and the members are very likely to get hurt, if not die. It is of the utmost importance that this group remains a secret, both from the Ministry and from Voldemort. I am asking you if you want to join this group. But because of the secrecy, I can't give you any more information unless you say yes. Dorcas, I will understand perfectly if you say no, and won't think any less of you." His blue eyes rested on her brown ones and pleaded silently for her to do the right thing.

Just as Dorcas opened her mouth to speak, Dumbledore interrupted her. "I don't want to hear your answer yet. This is a big decision, and if you decide too hastily what to do you may regret it later. Think about it for a few days, and when you've made your choice contact me again. But don't just think up more reasons to back up the decision you've already made. You need to think long and hard about this, and examine all the possibilities." He got up to leave, and as he was just about to go through the door, he looked back at her and added, "Good luck."

But Dorcas didn't know what there was to think about. Ever since she had seen the Dark Mark glittering above her house her mind had been made up. She would be fighting Voldemort, even if it was the last thing she ever did. Dumbledore had told her to examine all the possibilities, but Dorcas wanted to know what possibilities there were. The only possibility she saw was to say yes, to join in the fight against this new evil, to do the right thing, to get revenge. An opportunity had been presented to her, and she was going to take advantage of it.

Dorcas left The Three Broomsticks to wander a bit more about the village before she went back to Guy's father's house. She wandered around aimlessly, and soon found herself walking along a path that led to an abandoned house a short ways outside the village. She and her friends had often snuck into that house on dares, and looking at it brought back memories of giggling in the doorway as someone else taunted her about being scared from quite a ways down the street. Back then it hadn't been boarded up, and anyone could walk in if they wanted to. Now a forbidding iron fence surrounded the building, and the windows and doors were nailed shut by ugly pieces of wood.

"Most haunted building in Britain! Some very violent spirits reside in there. I wouldn't go anywhere near the place if I were you," an old woman replied when Dorcas asked why the house had been shut up. Dorcas didn't remember any ghosts living in the house when she had been at school, but she supposed that anything could happen in a year and a half.

When Dorcas got back to the Locke mansion, Guy was still asleep. It was only late morning, and Guy had had a stressful day, so she let him sleep on. To beat boredom, Dorcas decided to wander about the house and see if there were any interesting features. The house was old, and Mr. Locke was rich, so there were bound to be some expensive knickknacks, and perhaps even secret passageways or hidden rooms with dead bodies in them. That thought spurred her on to search in earnest, and she made her way to the attic, where all the interesting things were bound to be. About fifteen minutes into her hike, a terrorizing thought suddenly struck Dorcas. She didn't know what she would do if she ran into Guy's father. It was, after all, his house that she was wandering around in, and she wasn't exactly a welcome guest. She started to retrace her steps, but before long she started not recognizing things anymore. There were pictures on the walls that she knew she hadn't seen before, and she didn't remember turning this many corners. Hallways just led to more hallways, and all the doors looked the same. She began to panic as she realized that she was lost.

As Dorcas was turning a corner, a door in the hallway ahead of her opened and Mr. Locke stepped out of it. Dorcas quickly went back around the corner, in hopes that he wouldn't see her, but to no avail, for he called out to her and quickened his steps to catch up with her.

"Hey you! You're the girl my son knocked up. What are you doing in this part of my house?" His tone was more curious then accusatory, and Dorcas' fear was abated somewhat, but she was by all means still very scared of the man.

"I'm sorry if I'm not supposed to be here, but Guy is still asleep and I was bored, so I decided to look around. And for the record, sir, I'm not pregnant. Guy and I are just friends. Ew," she said, at the thought of sleeping with Guy entered her mind. "Having Guy's baby..." she shuddered. "That's just... uck."

"Whatever. Though I am glad to hear that Guy is not going to have a child. I'm too young to be a grandfather."

"Well sir, just because I'm not having his baby doesn't mean someone isn't. It's totally possible that he got someone else pregnant before I met him, or while I wasn't with him," she said, halfway joking. She hoped that Mr. Locke picked up on the fact that she wasn't serious.

He looked at her for a long moment, totally silent, his face devoid of emotion, before he said, "I like you. You're a funny girl. What did you say your name was?"

"Dorcas Meadowes, sir," she replied, no longer intimidated.

"Well Dorcas Meadowes, it's nice to meet you. And stop it with this 'sir' business. It makes me feel old. Call me Charles."

"Alright then, um... Charles."

A few hours later Guy appeared in the kitchen still in his pyjamas, with his hair mussed up, and rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He had clearly just woken up, even though it was the middle of the afternoon. The sight that met him in the kitchen was a very interesting one, indeed. Dorcas and Mr. Locke were sitting at the breakfast table, roaring with laughter.

"...and then he goes up to her and says, 'I think I love you. Let's get married and have six children.' And then she—this is the best part—she said something in Italian and stood up and hugged him, then kneed him in the crotch! I was rolling on the floor laughing it was so funny. Oh, hello Guy. I was just telling your dad about that time in Milan." Dorcas sniggered at the memory, and at the incredulous look on Guy's face.

"You've done some very interesting things while inebriated. And while very irresponsible of you, I still wish I had been there to watch," Mr. Locke told his son. He could hardly get the words out because he was laughing so hard.

Guy looked back and forth from Dorcas to his father several times before he turned around without saying a word and went back the way he had come. This caused another round of laughter from the people at the table.