Chapter 1: It Begins
*****
The image was there just out of reach. The more she tried to get it, to see what it was, the more it slipped away from her. Finally, she sat down in the shifting landscape of her mind and waited. Slowly, it began to come closer- began to come into view… Soon, she'd be able to make out what it was and figure out the details of the message it contained. It was almost close enough, if she wasn't distracted, if she could control the impulse to reach out too soon. Almost… there…
"Ms Roane, you have flowers."
The image shattered; gone before it could be fully viewed and Alinora tried not to groan as she reluctantly let go of the effort to understand her latest vision- or what passed as such for her. Opening her eyes, she looked up into the perpetually cheerful face of the group's Stage Manager, Bob. Behind him, she could see Katie, shrugging apologetically that she'd arrived too late to stop the interruption.
Alinora slowly rose from the floor cushion she had been sitting on to meditate. "Thanks Bob." she said, finally looking at the flower arrangement he held. All the flowers were yellow- the color of caution. It seemed she wasn't the only one having bad feelings about tonight…
Smiling, she took the flowers from him and bent to smell them. There was no note, the flowers never had one, but she knew whom they were from. Alinora and Katie watched in silence as Bob left the room to complete his pre-show duties.
"I'd really hoped that you were mistaken about the trouble predicted for tonight…" Katie said slowly, running her hand through her long blonde hair. "I should know by now that your feelings are always correct, but it's our last show! We're home now- our job was supposedly done- I don't want to still be dealing with this here!" Katie's frustration was obvious.
"And they're coming to us- don't forget that little detail." another voice said. Turning, the two saw the third member of their group, Ginny, standing in the doorway, hands on her hips and brown eyes flashing. "I'd say that it appears our cover's been blown, or that we're at least highly suspected at this point. Why else would they be coming here, tonight?" Peering back through the open door to make sure they hadn't been over heard, she shut it firmly and walked into the room to join the others.
"At least the others appear to be aware of what's going on. That means we'll have back up, eventually." Alinora said with a wry grin, before burying her face in the flowers and closing her eyes for a moment. The others remained quiet, waiting for her to continue. Raising her head, she crossed the room to carefully place the flower arrangement on a table. Passing her hand over the tops of the flowers, she gave a rather goofy smile. He'd sent them personally; she could feel it…
Still smiling, Ali grabbed two pillows and tossed them to Katie and Ginny, before shifting hers over a bit so they would form a small circle once they were all seated. She resumed her seat on the floor. "Ready?"
Without a word, the other two settled themselves down as well. Once they were all seated, Katie cupped her hands in front of her, closed her eyes and bent her head in concentration. They'd seen her perform this spell many times over the past couple years, but it was still amazing to watch the glowing ball of light that formed within her grasp, before she flung it out so that it would expand and surround them all with a secure wall that they could not be spied on through.
Quirking an eyebrow at Alinora, Katie smirked as she lowered her hands to her lap. Ali grinned in response and stuck out her tongue as she began her portion of the spell. Humming softly under her breath, and ignoring Ginny's snort at their behavior, Ali began to weave their cover. Releasing it into the room, they could all hear the faint murmur of voices surround them; though the words weren't clear enough to be understood.
"So, what are we discussing tonight, Ali?" Ginny asked, straining to hear what the voices were saying, though she knew it was a lost cause.
"Same old stuff- song line up, what effects to use, whether Colin and Anna will have a boy or a girl… nothing too exciting." Ali responded, smiling at the others. "So, what is the line up for this evening? We're down a body…" This time they knew she wasn't referring to the songs they'd be performing.
Ginny considered the comment silently for a moment before nodding decisively. "Well, there's really not much to change from our normal routine, though having to fight in front of an audience could be a bit of a distraction. As we'd originally planned, Katie and I will go out and mingle with the audience before the show begins; saying 'Hi' and thanking them for supporting the hospital fund. We'll also scan them to see who's here. It may be that we have friends in the audience… and maybe some of them as well. We'll compare notes before actually beginning." She stopped and turned to look at Ali, who was grinning slightly, and inclined her head.
"I've been layering defensive spells throughout the place since I got the premonition. They're all set to be triggered when we need them. My thought is simply to protect the audience, and, if possible, keep them from knowing anything's going on at all. I also think we'd better plan on simply holding who ever shows up here tonight as well; no heroics, that's not our job. We have back up coming…" Ali trailed off as she stopped to concentrate on the feeling she'd received upon seeing the flowers earlier. "George and the rest are coming, but he'd told me previously that they had a job tonight too and he wasn't sure when they'd be finished. They won't make it here before the attack begins, but they'll be here soon enough afterwards that we won't have to hold anyone for long."
"Can you hold the audience and keep them from realizing what's happening?" Katie asked quietly.
"As long as everyone shows up as expected, I shouldn't have a problem. But it'll be close- we can't afford to waste any time. And if there is an agent in the audience, we'll have to deal with them too. Maybe Ginny can blast them at the beginning of the fight and we can just ignore them?" Ali and Katie laughed while Ginny attempted to look angry, but failed miserably. Finally, she gave in and grinned back at them. She was more likely to attack first and worry about things later than the others…
"Anyway! Katie, you're our personal defense tonight. I'll deal with our attackers, but we'll be depending on you to keep us all safe. I wish Colin were here to help, but Anna's baby comes first and we know you can handle it. Hopefully, the first half of the show will be pretty uneventful, or at least nothing more stressful than normal. I suggest we all stay on stage though until everything's been taken care of- no need to present too tempting a target. Ali, as soon as you think the time is right, signal for the start of The Lament- we'll be waiting for the signal. Then we'll strike. Try to give them as little of an advantage as possible. They have some idea of what we are, or they wouldn't be coming at all, but hopefully they'll still underestimate us."
"I would like to know how our cover was blown." Katie frowned. "We've been so careful, making sure that we couldn't be directly connected to any of the people we've been involved in bringing down. When I think about all the Apparating we've done just to keep up the appearance that we're completely consumed with our touring…"
"We have been completely consumed; we just have a rather demanding second job with the Order on top of it. I agree though, I'd like to know what we did, if anything, to make ourselves targets. With Moody being as hyper about secrecy as he is, I can't see him allowing us to make any mistakes." Ali shifted slightly on her cushion before shaking off her thoughts and looking around at the others. "Anything else to discuss, or can we break? I have a bit more to do before I'm ready to start, and you two have to get ready so you can go mix and mingle with our well paying guests."
The concert the group was performing tonight was to raise donations for St. Mungo's, whom they all had very personal reasons for being very thankful to. It was a shame the upcoming attack would mar a show they'd all been looking forward too, but hopefully things would be over quickly.
"I think that about covers it. We know the song line-up and Bob will have the stage set up before he leaves. We can seal the backstage area at that point so they can't come in through there."
"I agree. Let's get moving. As Ali said, we still have some last minute details to finish with." Katie gave Alinora a questioning look. Alinora held up a finger to stop her from moving and quickly ended the 'White Noise' charm she'd put up to cover their discussion. When she was done, Katie spread wide her hands, lowered her head and closed her eyes in concentration. Slowly drawing her hands around in front of her, they felt the walls of the protection spell flow through them and watched them gather back into a glowing ball cupped in Katie's hands. Within seconds, the orb had been dispersed and they were free to get up.
Stretching slightly as she rose to her feet, Ali picked up her pillow and went to replace it along the wall, before detouring to once again look at the flowers. Leaning down, she breathed deeply, inhaling the scents of the many different flowers contained within the arrangement.
"You're brave to do that. They come from George. Aren't you afraid that he'll have done something to them? Like make them shoot water at you, or something?" Ginny asked curiously.
Alinora turned to face the other two with a very devilish expression on her face. "Oh, he wouldn't be stupid enough to try that again, not after the first- and last- time he thought that hexing my flowers would be amusing."
Katie started to smile, "What did you do to him?"
"I gave him Writer's Pox."
"Huh? What's that?"
"It was a letter that, once he read it, caused him to break out in ink blotches all over his body. And to make it more amusing, the ink would occasionally start forming words or phrases… and they weren't always very complementary ones." Ali's grin was quite evil by this point.
"Is that where that stuff came from?!?" Ginny's eyes were blazing, "Those idiots got the entire family with them a year or two back… though I don't recall them doing all that."
"That's because they never figured out quite how to duplicate the spell. And I did tell you how to get rid of it as soon as I knew they'd sent it out!" she laughed, raising her hands to ward off an irritated Ginny. "Besides, I bought you all some wonderful gifts with my share of the proceeds from that one!" Ali laughed.
"Enough children! We have a show to put on. You can bicker over this after we've defeated the bad guys and finished the job we're here to do!" Katie interposed herself between Ali and Ginny and stretched out a hand towards each of them. They'd gotten into mock fighting stances and appeared about to go at each other, though their expressions weren't at all serious.
At Katie's words, both stood back up straight and, in unison, answered back 'Yes mother', while sticking out their tongues at each other. All three broke into laughter at that point, and it was in good spirits that they left the room to finish their preparations for the show.
*****
Katie and Ginny had each made a pass through the audience while Alinora had been sealing the backstage area. They met up for a few short minutes before it was time to go on and compared notes. Ginny was trying hard not to giggle, and waved Katie to begin while she attempted to control herself. Shooting Ginny a confused look, Katie began.
"I think most of the guests on the left side of the aisle are okay. All normal guests just here to have a good time and support a good cause. Though I was hard pressed to not look too happy when I came across Neville Longbottom sitting at a table in the back corner. Since we know he's an Auror, we know he's here to help. I did see someone suspicious in the back towards the aisle though. Take a look at him when you go out. He's sitting with some other people, but they're obviously not together."
Ginny had finally controlled her giggles enough to talk. "Okay, my side looks fine too, everything normal from what I can tell, though…" She lost it. Fighting hard, she took a deep breath and started again. "Snape's out there. Though you might not recognize him… the blond hair and blue eyes he's currently wearing…" Ginny's face was going purple in her attempt to not laugh.
"You've got to be kidding? Snape? Blonde hair, blue eyes? I'll bet you're going to tell me he's wearing something other than those black robes of his too?" Katie's look of disbelief mixed with incredibility set Ali giggling too, as she visualized Snape.
"Wait and see yourselves. It's time to go on." Ginny wiped her eyes and took a deep breath. "Ready?" and she lead them out onto the stage.
*****
"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is our great honor to be here tonight to perform for you and to support St. Mungo's. Thank you all for your gracious donations. I hope, by the end of the evening, that you will feel that you have been suitably rewarded for it! Now, as we all know you're not here to listen to me talk; so I think we'll be getting started now."
Alinora smiled around at the audience, doing her own scan of who was there and trying not to giggle at the odd picture Snape presented. Ginny had been right. His hair was currently long, blonde and wavy; his eyes were a deep blue. He was dressed in a tight pair of black pants and a blue shirt that matched his eyes. If it hadn't been for the faintly sardonic expression on his face as he surveyed his fellow audience members, she might have believed that she was imagining things. But no one was as good as he was at looking that disdainful.
Turning to glance at Katie and Ginny she nodded once and winked. They grinned back, eyes sparkling, and began to play.
The first half of the show went quickly. The audience seemed to be enjoying themselves and Ali had even noticed Snape tapping his foot with the rhythm once or twice. As they reached the half way point though, Alinora felt her muscles begin to tense up. She began testing the feeling, trying to get an idea of just when things would begin. Soon. As they finished their current song, she turned to face the others and took a sip of water.
It's time, she signaled.
