Disclaimers: The world of Harry Potter and it's characters belongs to J.K.
Rowling and whatever publishers own the rights. (Scholastic, etc.) I on the
other hand, am only a fan writing about mainly original characters that I'd
like to think of as my own intellectual property.
- - -
Part 5
Illegible Handwriting and Necessary Information
- - -
"Whatever my ancestors of old where, they weren't very good at writing in legible print." Julianne muttered as she flipped through the yellowed pages, "All of them seem to like writing in this thin, fancy script that's near impossible to decipher."
She wasn't muttering for the benefit of anyone else, of course. Number 12 Grimmauld place seemed to be rather empty today, with everyone off, probably doing something useful or whatnot. Whether or not they were allowed to disclose the nature of their activities to her, it was obvious that most of the ones who ever dropped by were rather busy people. Always coming in and out, and often forgetting that it was unwise to ring the doorbell to herald their arrival, so that the woman's painting on the first floor was always screaming unkind things at odd moments of the day. The heavy wooden door of the basement kitchen, where she had taken to doing her research in, wasn't quite enough to block out those screaming rants but thankfully the painting was currently silent.
Someone had mentioned, while trying to silence it, that the painting was all that was left of someone's mother. Which led her to thinking, for just a moment, about what her own parental relations were up to at the moment. They'd written each other a few times over Muggle post since her parents had made their own decision to retreat from the world of magic, whizbangs and such, but they hadn't spoken or even met face-to-face since Julianne took her leave of everything connected to the wizarding world. Personally, she felt it was better for all involved this way. Norman Adhlar and Lani Wang had been loving parents, and Julianne in her childhood had never suffered for lack of love or attention, but people grew up, and circumstances changed. Seeing Pyrane's suffering as a result of the Adhlar 'curse' had shocked them all, and Julianne just hadn't been able to look at anything in her life the same way.
Father and mother had been a bit shocked, but not overly stunned when she finally told them of her decision. Back then, they'd been rethinking what their wizarding world life meant to them as well. For no lack of parental love, they'd still been far too preoccupied with their own doubts to put up much of a protest. Julianne hadn't ever been overly fond of the occasionally cloying attention of parents, and for a moment, she regretted that. When all this quieted down, whether or not she managed to succeed in her promised task, she decided with a sudden burst of resolve, she would go and actually pay them a long overdue visit. It was the least she could do for people who had raised her through early life. After all, how much could it remind her of all - this, she thought as she examined her wand absently, they'd taken to living a 'normal' non-magic life just like she herself had chosen to do. Even if things might be rather distant and strained between them, something was better than nothing. If she never saw them again, it'd be the sort of thing to drive her insane with guilt the next time anything terrible happened to either herself or either of them.
Throughout the exactly twenty-three mid-sized tomes, there were many mentions of 'the olde gift of House Adhlar', but seperating the pertinent information from the frivolities of those old journals wasn't the most simple task. Technically, they weren't journals as much as written records of major family happenings, labeled on the spines as being "Notes Regarding Familial Matters of the Adhlar Line", and the only thing closely resembling possibilities for how-tos on soul-chasing left in the entire house. It had taken some four hours, and those had been the only books that seemed a likely source for the information Julianne had been seeking, out of all the books scattered throughout the libraries and studies at the Adhlar 'manor'. (She had been very thankful that there didn't seem to be any live pest infestations, despite the fact that no one had gone into that house for cleaning since her parents left it some years back.)
By no means had it been a complete sweep of the old family home, that would certainly have taken days more than Julianne was willing to impose on Trevan or Remus Lupin. Just a quick skim over all the books still stored on the crowded wooden shelves, just about groaning with the weight of books no one had read for years since the last of the Adhlars had left for other things, just a quick search through some of the many boxes labeled 'books'. Trevan had done a quick once-over of all the volumes, to ensure they wouldn't fall apart if Julianne read through them, before he'd left of further 'business' somewhere. She still didn't trust herself with the wand, especially when it came to delicate preservation spells on such old books. Judging from the dates written in, some of these were from several centuries ago, and not a single entry from less than fifty years before now.
Knowing all the implications of the Adhlar gift, and the nature of it and it's curse was one thing. Trying to figure out how it was basically done was another, not even accounting for the obvious added difficulty of pulling the physical body out through the Veil as well. All the progress Julianne had been able to make as of yet was to learn that 'soul-chasing' was not a simple matter of congenital instinct.
She knew it was rather selfish of her, but Julianne was beginning to regret her decision to even consider pulling Sirius Black back to the world of living. For one thing, it was already causing quite a disruption to her previously well-ordered Muggle life. By now, she was being so strongly pulled back to her old world, that in her heart of hearts she knew it would be more than she could manage to just step back into that normal Muggle life without looking back.
Provided that she would still have the ability to make that choice. If one thing was made clear through all the accounts of 'the olde gift', it was the price one could easily have to pay somewhere down the line. For some of those ancestors, one incidence of utilizing the gift to pull a loved one from the brink of death was enough to give them 'the incurable fever' and 'the eating away of mind and sanity within a moon'. Yet others in the past had apparently used the Adhlar gift multiple times, yet gotten off scot-free to live a life a relative normalcy. Still others soul-chased once, even twice, then 'cut ties from the family' as most Adhlars had taken to doing these days. As far as family names seemed to go, it seemed that those who were Adhlars through their mother's side noted themselves as so- and-so Adhlar at least in these records. They weren't really journals, per se, just a sort of inconsistent account with a few pages dedicated to recounting some major events of familial importance that had occurred. Besides record of births, deaths, marriages, uses of the gift, and such there were also accounts of things such as children who had gone off to Hogwarts and which house they'd been sorted into. (An observation to be made was that Adhlars seemed to be divided rather evenly between the four Houses, but with a very slight leaning toward Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw most of all.)
This was beginning to be rather frustrating. Not only was she already going to need to figure out her own way to retrieving someone physically from through the Veil, there wasn't even the faintest clue here as to the more basic form of soul-chasing; the mere returning of a life that hadn't yet crossed that line figuratively. She could already tell that this day, and many of the ones following it would be aggravatingly long.
- - -
"Hold on, Remus. Please, I just have to know something. Wait!" He'd seen the other man heading toward Grimmauld Place, but now was as good a time as any to ask; this wasn't the most crowded and/or pleasant neighborhood around here, and he was sure they wouldn't be overheard.
Trevan stopped himself from actually running to overtake the other man, though he was reasonably certain he could, that just gave away how important this was to him; he didn't like showing all his cards unless he had to. Instead, he kept up his brisk walking pace, no faster but no slower than fellow Order member, Remus Lupin was going. This wasn't exactly necessary. But Remus Lupin did have a sort of predatory grace even when going on at a brisk walking pace - probably carried over from his alternate form as an (unwilling) werewolf. It was something Trevan tended to notice, in lieu of 'sizing up' potential opponents. When Remus Lupin was angry at you, one was well advised to be very careful. Werewolves in human form still had more stregnth than the norm for a plain human, wizarding blood or not, and Trevan knew personally that Remus was no exception. (He'd seen the other man at work when hand-to-hand combat had become a passing necessity. Trevan had not envied his opponents in the least. Being thrown into a very solid wall was never much fun.) He did recall that Remus Lupin was still angry at him for acting as an unforgivably daft idiot during that Apparition-with-another-person incident, and not exactly trusting or respecting him, Trevan at the present moment.
"What is it that you want?" Remus might be a bit shorter than Trevan, but when he was obviously not very happy and spacing out his words like that, it was easy to forget.
"However I affronted you, I apologize." Trevan said in a rush, though he wasn't all that out-of-breath after that brisk walk to catch up with him, "I just want very much to know exactly why Julianne needed escorts when she was off looking for things yesterday."
Now the other man just stared, openly incredulous, probably thinking Trevan was far more vacant in the brains department than he seemed, "Isn't it obvious? That in these troubled times, we must take all possible precautions-"
Trevan cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand, "Don't parrot that 'everything is a risk' banter to me, I'm on the receiving end of it all too often. There has to be more to it, I notice enough to understand that at least." He felt himself shifting subtley into 'focused and dangerous' mode, and part of him wondered absently whether or not the man opposite him noticed that in the least, "Perhaps I could have accepted that far overused explanation if it was only me assigned to watching Julianne. After all, why would I believe there to be anything amiss with my keeping an eye on her as an old friend? However, since you accepted that paticular assignment also, I'm thinking that there's more of a concrete reason why."
"Now what on earth would cause you to think that?" Remus looked into his eyes, not yielding to anything he said, "If you must believe it, take it up with someone else. I'm certainly not of such position that I have whatever answers you seem to be seeking."
Trevan kept his urge to start yelling tightly leashed. There was certainly no reason to lose his temper, whether Remus was obliging his request or not, especially while out on a public Muggle street. Still, he was rather accustomed to being obeyed when he let a bit of his more focused side come through, and he was admittedly 'spoiled' by that. Letting himself calm and slip back into the image of the slightly-dim but friendly Trevan, he decided that he could still ask one more time without too much incident. After all, one didn't want to reveal too much when they themselves were seeking information.
"Please, I know there has to be something more." He said with open and sincere worry apparent in his tone of voice and facial expression, "I'm worried about Julianne, she is a very close friend of many years, even if we were quite estranged for so long. If there's any reason at all why there's a possibility of danger to her. It's important to me as a friend to know."
Remus looked rather skeptical, but the expression on his face softened a bit. It was noteworthy how almost everyone seemed to be aging faster than they used to these days. For many, strenuous mental and physical activity on a regular basis could be exhausting, and make one seem older than they were. That seemed to be the case with Remus Lupin. His brown hair now contained much more gray than it had this time last year, and his face was lined with all the worry and emotional strain of this past year's events. While previously, it had always seemed that Remus had things a bit more difficult than most, having to live with all of society's prejudice against his lycanthorpic affliction, he was also one who had suffered possibly the most emotional strain in the past few months also. To lose a true friend who'd been close since childhood. Trevan could not understand how that felt, and he knew it. Most of those he actually considered friends were still fully entangled in their 'normal' lives in the wizarding world, still far from any danger, something he put all his heart into protecting them from.
Finally, Remus sighed, but he seemed to think it would be alright to tell Trevan something, at least, and he said, "Well, seeing the nature of the Adhlar abilities, they are a sort of wild-card in anyone's plans if they're in the right place ant the right time?"
Trevan nodded wordlessly, that was true even if it was highly unlikely that any of Julianne's family would help anyone out whether it was imperative or not. The only situation of the sort Remus was describing that Trevan could think up went along the lines of Death Eaters rendering some important figure of goodness greivously injured, while someone with the ability of soul-chasing was nearby and willing to assist said figure of goodness. Basically, it was a highly unlikely situation, especially considering that any self-respecting figure of darkness would just put the killing curse to good use if their dastardly plans were of any sort of importance. Still, one never knew what was possible.
"Then there's your reason. Being an institution of beauracratical inefficiency that they are, the old Registry of Cursed Families is now public information even if it's been out of use for more than a century at least, and prominent among them is the Adhlar family. Dark forces have been building up their forces lately, but they've also been out to eliminate potential threats to their plans." Remus looked him in the eyes, as if searching for evidence that the supposedly dim Trevan was understanding at least some of his words.
Once again Trevan nodded curtly, "Right, go on."
"There's been some indication that others related to the Adhlar family have been targeted. One of Julianne's cousins, even as he has not been in contact with the wizarding world, was almost attacked, although those responsible left before they got tangled up with Muggle law enforcement. As of yet, we can't be certain that it wasn't just conincidence. Dumbledore doesn't want to take uneeded risks." Remus frowned slightly, though at what Trevan couldn't be certain, "I'm not as up to more active assignments currently, you know why, so there wasn't any reason why I shouldn't also keep an eye on Miss Adhlar." With that, Remus continued toward Grimmauld place, now pointedly ignoring Trevan, leaving him to try making sense of what the other man had just told him.
To take it at face value, there wasn't any sign of their being a true threat to Julianne as a result of her abilities that could supposedly make anyone's plans a mess. Reading between the lines, however. He wondered if it would be altogether out of bounds to run his own covert check on whether or not the rest of Julianne's relatives of the paternal side had been victims of Death Eater activity lately. Perhaps not, at the very least he could get it done quickly with the rest of the Order none the wiser, just a quick popping in and out through Apparition and make sure they were all still living peaceful and mundane Muggle lives uninterrupted. Provided, of course, that he could manage discovering their current location.
As far as he remembered from his futile search for Julianne when she'd first left the wizarding world, most of her relatives had likewise dissapeared from said world before then and the ones left within his reach had been entirely recalcitrant and declined giving him any information regarding their relatives' whereabouts. Especially Julianne's parents; they had refused to owl him any replies to his polite letters, and wouldn't even open the gate when he came to call in person. (When he'd persisted in pounding the gate, yelling out loud for all to hear that he refused point- blank to give them any peace until they gave him some answers, they'd set a rather spectacular pair of show-quality large hounds on him.) Certainly, seeing as they left the wizarding world to hide from it, none of them would leave word with the Ministry if they could avoid it, and as far as Trevan knew all but the most distant cousins to the Adhlar family had long since vanished into the Muggle world. (Incidentally, those who lived relatively standard wizard or witch lives were the ones that likely didn't have the soul-chasing ability or the Curse that came with it. None of them were the sort who wished to test that theory out.)
He sighed heavily, then walked off slowly in the opposite direction. Suddenly, there just wasn't any desire for going back to headquarters. At least, not until he'd figured out a few things. Perhaps it was a bit less than normal for him to put so much of himself in protecting Julianne, old friend from school days or not. But he wouldn't be the last to admit that he really didn't have much of a 'life', as some might say. Besides, he mused, it was this sort of thinking that had gotten him involved in the Order in the first place. Feeling as if everything would be satisfactory as long as he was able to do his part in looking out for the safety of those who were less predisposed to fighting against the forces of darkness.
- - -
Author's Notes: No, Julianne's maybe being a potential target isn't much of an issue that's of great importance to the plot. Although I would assume that any of the Cursed families would be worth recruiting or eliminating because it's horribly inconvenient to have veritable wild-cards with unique powers running around when one is making plans on a very large scale. (Most Cursed individuals would avoid taking a side though, preferring to deny their more unique abilities because of the potential consequences for themselves.) Besides trying to bring back poor Sirius, though, I don't think 'soul-chasing' will be of much use this time around. Since their last failure, I'm suspecting that 'when in doubt, Avada Kadavra' is the general Death Eater rule of thumb for the Second Great War they're starting up at this point in the story.
In a world post-Order of the Pheonix, I'd suspect that almost any grown wizard whose competent but hasn't sided with Voldemort at all is a 'potentially sizable threat' to the Death Eaters' agenda though. At least, if we assume the wizarding world isn't too expansive in terms of population, any wizard of top-half-percentile would be a highly probable future risk since I'm thinking the self-proclaimed Dark Lord is going about his plans with plenty of paranoia and caution.
Thanks once again to all the kind reviewers! And yes, choco-chan I'll send an email notification on the story when I post new chapters. And thanks especially to MWPP and Lily whose been loyally reviewing every chapter. I put chapter-by-chapter feedback on your Daniel Potter story, it's going well so far, I think!
As always, more feedback in the form of reviews is always appreciated!
- - -
Part 5
Illegible Handwriting and Necessary Information
- - -
"Whatever my ancestors of old where, they weren't very good at writing in legible print." Julianne muttered as she flipped through the yellowed pages, "All of them seem to like writing in this thin, fancy script that's near impossible to decipher."
She wasn't muttering for the benefit of anyone else, of course. Number 12 Grimmauld place seemed to be rather empty today, with everyone off, probably doing something useful or whatnot. Whether or not they were allowed to disclose the nature of their activities to her, it was obvious that most of the ones who ever dropped by were rather busy people. Always coming in and out, and often forgetting that it was unwise to ring the doorbell to herald their arrival, so that the woman's painting on the first floor was always screaming unkind things at odd moments of the day. The heavy wooden door of the basement kitchen, where she had taken to doing her research in, wasn't quite enough to block out those screaming rants but thankfully the painting was currently silent.
Someone had mentioned, while trying to silence it, that the painting was all that was left of someone's mother. Which led her to thinking, for just a moment, about what her own parental relations were up to at the moment. They'd written each other a few times over Muggle post since her parents had made their own decision to retreat from the world of magic, whizbangs and such, but they hadn't spoken or even met face-to-face since Julianne took her leave of everything connected to the wizarding world. Personally, she felt it was better for all involved this way. Norman Adhlar and Lani Wang had been loving parents, and Julianne in her childhood had never suffered for lack of love or attention, but people grew up, and circumstances changed. Seeing Pyrane's suffering as a result of the Adhlar 'curse' had shocked them all, and Julianne just hadn't been able to look at anything in her life the same way.
Father and mother had been a bit shocked, but not overly stunned when she finally told them of her decision. Back then, they'd been rethinking what their wizarding world life meant to them as well. For no lack of parental love, they'd still been far too preoccupied with their own doubts to put up much of a protest. Julianne hadn't ever been overly fond of the occasionally cloying attention of parents, and for a moment, she regretted that. When all this quieted down, whether or not she managed to succeed in her promised task, she decided with a sudden burst of resolve, she would go and actually pay them a long overdue visit. It was the least she could do for people who had raised her through early life. After all, how much could it remind her of all - this, she thought as she examined her wand absently, they'd taken to living a 'normal' non-magic life just like she herself had chosen to do. Even if things might be rather distant and strained between them, something was better than nothing. If she never saw them again, it'd be the sort of thing to drive her insane with guilt the next time anything terrible happened to either herself or either of them.
Throughout the exactly twenty-three mid-sized tomes, there were many mentions of 'the olde gift of House Adhlar', but seperating the pertinent information from the frivolities of those old journals wasn't the most simple task. Technically, they weren't journals as much as written records of major family happenings, labeled on the spines as being "Notes Regarding Familial Matters of the Adhlar Line", and the only thing closely resembling possibilities for how-tos on soul-chasing left in the entire house. It had taken some four hours, and those had been the only books that seemed a likely source for the information Julianne had been seeking, out of all the books scattered throughout the libraries and studies at the Adhlar 'manor'. (She had been very thankful that there didn't seem to be any live pest infestations, despite the fact that no one had gone into that house for cleaning since her parents left it some years back.)
By no means had it been a complete sweep of the old family home, that would certainly have taken days more than Julianne was willing to impose on Trevan or Remus Lupin. Just a quick skim over all the books still stored on the crowded wooden shelves, just about groaning with the weight of books no one had read for years since the last of the Adhlars had left for other things, just a quick search through some of the many boxes labeled 'books'. Trevan had done a quick once-over of all the volumes, to ensure they wouldn't fall apart if Julianne read through them, before he'd left of further 'business' somewhere. She still didn't trust herself with the wand, especially when it came to delicate preservation spells on such old books. Judging from the dates written in, some of these were from several centuries ago, and not a single entry from less than fifty years before now.
Knowing all the implications of the Adhlar gift, and the nature of it and it's curse was one thing. Trying to figure out how it was basically done was another, not even accounting for the obvious added difficulty of pulling the physical body out through the Veil as well. All the progress Julianne had been able to make as of yet was to learn that 'soul-chasing' was not a simple matter of congenital instinct.
She knew it was rather selfish of her, but Julianne was beginning to regret her decision to even consider pulling Sirius Black back to the world of living. For one thing, it was already causing quite a disruption to her previously well-ordered Muggle life. By now, she was being so strongly pulled back to her old world, that in her heart of hearts she knew it would be more than she could manage to just step back into that normal Muggle life without looking back.
Provided that she would still have the ability to make that choice. If one thing was made clear through all the accounts of 'the olde gift', it was the price one could easily have to pay somewhere down the line. For some of those ancestors, one incidence of utilizing the gift to pull a loved one from the brink of death was enough to give them 'the incurable fever' and 'the eating away of mind and sanity within a moon'. Yet others in the past had apparently used the Adhlar gift multiple times, yet gotten off scot-free to live a life a relative normalcy. Still others soul-chased once, even twice, then 'cut ties from the family' as most Adhlars had taken to doing these days. As far as family names seemed to go, it seemed that those who were Adhlars through their mother's side noted themselves as so- and-so Adhlar at least in these records. They weren't really journals, per se, just a sort of inconsistent account with a few pages dedicated to recounting some major events of familial importance that had occurred. Besides record of births, deaths, marriages, uses of the gift, and such there were also accounts of things such as children who had gone off to Hogwarts and which house they'd been sorted into. (An observation to be made was that Adhlars seemed to be divided rather evenly between the four Houses, but with a very slight leaning toward Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw most of all.)
This was beginning to be rather frustrating. Not only was she already going to need to figure out her own way to retrieving someone physically from through the Veil, there wasn't even the faintest clue here as to the more basic form of soul-chasing; the mere returning of a life that hadn't yet crossed that line figuratively. She could already tell that this day, and many of the ones following it would be aggravatingly long.
- - -
"Hold on, Remus. Please, I just have to know something. Wait!" He'd seen the other man heading toward Grimmauld Place, but now was as good a time as any to ask; this wasn't the most crowded and/or pleasant neighborhood around here, and he was sure they wouldn't be overheard.
Trevan stopped himself from actually running to overtake the other man, though he was reasonably certain he could, that just gave away how important this was to him; he didn't like showing all his cards unless he had to. Instead, he kept up his brisk walking pace, no faster but no slower than fellow Order member, Remus Lupin was going. This wasn't exactly necessary. But Remus Lupin did have a sort of predatory grace even when going on at a brisk walking pace - probably carried over from his alternate form as an (unwilling) werewolf. It was something Trevan tended to notice, in lieu of 'sizing up' potential opponents. When Remus Lupin was angry at you, one was well advised to be very careful. Werewolves in human form still had more stregnth than the norm for a plain human, wizarding blood or not, and Trevan knew personally that Remus was no exception. (He'd seen the other man at work when hand-to-hand combat had become a passing necessity. Trevan had not envied his opponents in the least. Being thrown into a very solid wall was never much fun.) He did recall that Remus Lupin was still angry at him for acting as an unforgivably daft idiot during that Apparition-with-another-person incident, and not exactly trusting or respecting him, Trevan at the present moment.
"What is it that you want?" Remus might be a bit shorter than Trevan, but when he was obviously not very happy and spacing out his words like that, it was easy to forget.
"However I affronted you, I apologize." Trevan said in a rush, though he wasn't all that out-of-breath after that brisk walk to catch up with him, "I just want very much to know exactly why Julianne needed escorts when she was off looking for things yesterday."
Now the other man just stared, openly incredulous, probably thinking Trevan was far more vacant in the brains department than he seemed, "Isn't it obvious? That in these troubled times, we must take all possible precautions-"
Trevan cut him off with a dismissive wave of his hand, "Don't parrot that 'everything is a risk' banter to me, I'm on the receiving end of it all too often. There has to be more to it, I notice enough to understand that at least." He felt himself shifting subtley into 'focused and dangerous' mode, and part of him wondered absently whether or not the man opposite him noticed that in the least, "Perhaps I could have accepted that far overused explanation if it was only me assigned to watching Julianne. After all, why would I believe there to be anything amiss with my keeping an eye on her as an old friend? However, since you accepted that paticular assignment also, I'm thinking that there's more of a concrete reason why."
"Now what on earth would cause you to think that?" Remus looked into his eyes, not yielding to anything he said, "If you must believe it, take it up with someone else. I'm certainly not of such position that I have whatever answers you seem to be seeking."
Trevan kept his urge to start yelling tightly leashed. There was certainly no reason to lose his temper, whether Remus was obliging his request or not, especially while out on a public Muggle street. Still, he was rather accustomed to being obeyed when he let a bit of his more focused side come through, and he was admittedly 'spoiled' by that. Letting himself calm and slip back into the image of the slightly-dim but friendly Trevan, he decided that he could still ask one more time without too much incident. After all, one didn't want to reveal too much when they themselves were seeking information.
"Please, I know there has to be something more." He said with open and sincere worry apparent in his tone of voice and facial expression, "I'm worried about Julianne, she is a very close friend of many years, even if we were quite estranged for so long. If there's any reason at all why there's a possibility of danger to her. It's important to me as a friend to know."
Remus looked rather skeptical, but the expression on his face softened a bit. It was noteworthy how almost everyone seemed to be aging faster than they used to these days. For many, strenuous mental and physical activity on a regular basis could be exhausting, and make one seem older than they were. That seemed to be the case with Remus Lupin. His brown hair now contained much more gray than it had this time last year, and his face was lined with all the worry and emotional strain of this past year's events. While previously, it had always seemed that Remus had things a bit more difficult than most, having to live with all of society's prejudice against his lycanthorpic affliction, he was also one who had suffered possibly the most emotional strain in the past few months also. To lose a true friend who'd been close since childhood. Trevan could not understand how that felt, and he knew it. Most of those he actually considered friends were still fully entangled in their 'normal' lives in the wizarding world, still far from any danger, something he put all his heart into protecting them from.
Finally, Remus sighed, but he seemed to think it would be alright to tell Trevan something, at least, and he said, "Well, seeing the nature of the Adhlar abilities, they are a sort of wild-card in anyone's plans if they're in the right place ant the right time?"
Trevan nodded wordlessly, that was true even if it was highly unlikely that any of Julianne's family would help anyone out whether it was imperative or not. The only situation of the sort Remus was describing that Trevan could think up went along the lines of Death Eaters rendering some important figure of goodness greivously injured, while someone with the ability of soul-chasing was nearby and willing to assist said figure of goodness. Basically, it was a highly unlikely situation, especially considering that any self-respecting figure of darkness would just put the killing curse to good use if their dastardly plans were of any sort of importance. Still, one never knew what was possible.
"Then there's your reason. Being an institution of beauracratical inefficiency that they are, the old Registry of Cursed Families is now public information even if it's been out of use for more than a century at least, and prominent among them is the Adhlar family. Dark forces have been building up their forces lately, but they've also been out to eliminate potential threats to their plans." Remus looked him in the eyes, as if searching for evidence that the supposedly dim Trevan was understanding at least some of his words.
Once again Trevan nodded curtly, "Right, go on."
"There's been some indication that others related to the Adhlar family have been targeted. One of Julianne's cousins, even as he has not been in contact with the wizarding world, was almost attacked, although those responsible left before they got tangled up with Muggle law enforcement. As of yet, we can't be certain that it wasn't just conincidence. Dumbledore doesn't want to take uneeded risks." Remus frowned slightly, though at what Trevan couldn't be certain, "I'm not as up to more active assignments currently, you know why, so there wasn't any reason why I shouldn't also keep an eye on Miss Adhlar." With that, Remus continued toward Grimmauld place, now pointedly ignoring Trevan, leaving him to try making sense of what the other man had just told him.
To take it at face value, there wasn't any sign of their being a true threat to Julianne as a result of her abilities that could supposedly make anyone's plans a mess. Reading between the lines, however. He wondered if it would be altogether out of bounds to run his own covert check on whether or not the rest of Julianne's relatives of the paternal side had been victims of Death Eater activity lately. Perhaps not, at the very least he could get it done quickly with the rest of the Order none the wiser, just a quick popping in and out through Apparition and make sure they were all still living peaceful and mundane Muggle lives uninterrupted. Provided, of course, that he could manage discovering their current location.
As far as he remembered from his futile search for Julianne when she'd first left the wizarding world, most of her relatives had likewise dissapeared from said world before then and the ones left within his reach had been entirely recalcitrant and declined giving him any information regarding their relatives' whereabouts. Especially Julianne's parents; they had refused to owl him any replies to his polite letters, and wouldn't even open the gate when he came to call in person. (When he'd persisted in pounding the gate, yelling out loud for all to hear that he refused point- blank to give them any peace until they gave him some answers, they'd set a rather spectacular pair of show-quality large hounds on him.) Certainly, seeing as they left the wizarding world to hide from it, none of them would leave word with the Ministry if they could avoid it, and as far as Trevan knew all but the most distant cousins to the Adhlar family had long since vanished into the Muggle world. (Incidentally, those who lived relatively standard wizard or witch lives were the ones that likely didn't have the soul-chasing ability or the Curse that came with it. None of them were the sort who wished to test that theory out.)
He sighed heavily, then walked off slowly in the opposite direction. Suddenly, there just wasn't any desire for going back to headquarters. At least, not until he'd figured out a few things. Perhaps it was a bit less than normal for him to put so much of himself in protecting Julianne, old friend from school days or not. But he wouldn't be the last to admit that he really didn't have much of a 'life', as some might say. Besides, he mused, it was this sort of thinking that had gotten him involved in the Order in the first place. Feeling as if everything would be satisfactory as long as he was able to do his part in looking out for the safety of those who were less predisposed to fighting against the forces of darkness.
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Author's Notes: No, Julianne's maybe being a potential target isn't much of an issue that's of great importance to the plot. Although I would assume that any of the Cursed families would be worth recruiting or eliminating because it's horribly inconvenient to have veritable wild-cards with unique powers running around when one is making plans on a very large scale. (Most Cursed individuals would avoid taking a side though, preferring to deny their more unique abilities because of the potential consequences for themselves.) Besides trying to bring back poor Sirius, though, I don't think 'soul-chasing' will be of much use this time around. Since their last failure, I'm suspecting that 'when in doubt, Avada Kadavra' is the general Death Eater rule of thumb for the Second Great War they're starting up at this point in the story.
In a world post-Order of the Pheonix, I'd suspect that almost any grown wizard whose competent but hasn't sided with Voldemort at all is a 'potentially sizable threat' to the Death Eaters' agenda though. At least, if we assume the wizarding world isn't too expansive in terms of population, any wizard of top-half-percentile would be a highly probable future risk since I'm thinking the self-proclaimed Dark Lord is going about his plans with plenty of paranoia and caution.
Thanks once again to all the kind reviewers! And yes, choco-chan I'll send an email notification on the story when I post new chapters. And thanks especially to MWPP and Lily whose been loyally reviewing every chapter. I put chapter-by-chapter feedback on your Daniel Potter story, it's going well so far, I think!
As always, more feedback in the form of reviews is always appreciated!