"MINJONET MORWENNA MICHAUD! I AM VERY DES-A-PON-TED IN 'OU! ZEES WEEL NOT DO! JOHN WAS MAGNIFIQUE GENTLEMEN AND 'OU NEED 'USBAND! FIND A MAN, OR I WEL FIND ONE FOR 'OU! JE VOUS AIME! AU REVOIR!" The howler curled into ashes and my face turned the same shade as my coworker's hair.
"Your mother, I presume?" Arthur said, trying not to look too amused. "I never knew your first name was Minjonet."
"Minjonet is much too fancy for me. I prefer Peri," I said, wrinkling my nose at my real name. "It was the name of my great aunt…and my eye color, periwinkle."
"So I'm assuming your blind date with the bloke from that apothecary didn't go well," Arthur said.
"Yes…my mère's very anxious for grandkids as you could tell," I said, returning my attention to the paperwork I had been doing before the howler came. "Although I'd personally try to wait until I reach my thirties at least."
"Peri, I'm having difficulty with this thing. What are all these numbers for?" Arthur said, poking at a calculator. I rolled my eyes. It was going to be another long day.
I was taking a bathroom break when two women came in and started arguing. Curious, I placed a Disillusionment charm on myself and listened in.
"You almost blew it back there!" a woman's voice snarled, and I heard someone being pushed against the wall. "You can't go spilling your guts out to everyone! Do you want to be caught? Is that it? IS THAT IT!" The other person whimpered. "Listen to yourself! And you call yourself a Death Eater! Every time that mark burns, you squeal like a coward! You shouldn't even have that mark. Come on now, let's go. And don't goof off again."
"Arthur!" I rushed into the office as soon as I could. "Arthur, something happened—"
"Calm down, Peri. Now tell me—"
"There are Death Eaters in the building and I heard—"All of a sudden, Arthur put a silencing charm on me.
"Don't yell! You know they don't like hearing rubbish about the Dark Lord! Now what is this nonsense?" Arthur lifted the charm and I went over and put my hands flat on his desk and looked him straight in the eye.
"Listen, Arthur, I 'heard them correctly in there. They distinctly talked about being Death' Eaters and their marks burning. Now if You-Know-Who is back like Dumbledore says—"
"You would take the word of Albus Dumbledore?" Arthur said.
"Well—yes—I've never known 'him to tell an outrageous lie—"
"Come with me," Arthur said shortly and I followed him out of our office door. I wondered where he was going to take me. Was he going to get me sacked? Was he going to take me to the Minister himself? Was he going to lock me in a broom closet?
…Well…a broom closet would probably be an upgrade from our current office…
I found that he was leading me towards the Auror offices. Probably to get a good lecture, no doubt. Thank God Umbridge is at Hogwarts, she'd probably have me carve stuff into my hand if she was still here. We walked into Kingsley Shacklebolt's office and the man looked up at us as we entered.
"Could we have a word with you, Shacklebolt? It seems we need to set things in order," Arthur said. Oh great, another lecture.
"In order, you say?" Shacklebolt said. Arthur nodded. "Very well." He shut the door with his wand and conjured chairs for us to sit.
"Michaud seems to believe that Death Eaters were present today at the Ministry." Shacklebolt seemed to study me closely.
"When and where did this occur?" Shacklebolt asked me.
"Not long ago in the women's bathrooms on this floor." There was a long silence.
"Did they say anything in particular?" I told them exactly what I had told Arthur. After I finished talking, they exchanged looks.
"We won't report you, but answer us this question: Do you believe Albus Dumbledore when he says that the Dark Lord has returned?"
"Yes," I said defiantly.
"Thank you, Michaud, you may go back to work now and tell no one of this." I hurried back to the office. When I clocked out, Arthur still had not returned.
I returned home to my flat after work and plopped down in front of the television with a bowl of Butter Lover's popcorn. My mother had a TV when I was young so that she could keep up with her French and/or keep me quiet. I flipped to a show about singing Muggles and settled in.
It wasn't even half an hour when there was a knock on my door. I groaned and got up to check who it was. I was not suspecting to see none other than the Hogwarts headmaster himself through the peephole.
"Ohmyohmaohmy…" I dashed in front of the mirror to make sure that I didn't look like crap, took a deep breath and then opened the door.
"Good evening. Minjonet Michaud, I presume?" Dumbledore said, offering a hand in greeting. I shook it.
"Yes sir, but I go by Peri. Please come in and sit down. Sorry if it's a little untidy', I just came 'home." I led him to my small sitting area and waited until he sat down in my fluffy armchair before I sat on the sofa across from him. He took a look around.
"You may be wondering why I'm here," Dumbledore said.
"I'm thinking it 'as to do wit' what I told Shacklebolt and Weasley," I said.
"Yes. You said you saw Death Eaters at the Ministry?" Dumbledore asked.
"Yes—well—'heard them actually," I said.
"Do you believe Voldemort is back?" He asked. I jumped visibly at the mention of 'Voldemort.'
"If Death' Eaters are showing themselves again…yes," I said. I wondered what this was all about.
"Would you be willing help defeat the Dark side of magic if Voldemort has risen to power?" Dumbledore asked, gazing at me over his half-moon spectacles. I paused before answering.
"I would do anything I could to 'help stop him," I said. Dumbledore clapped his hands together.
"Good," He said. "Now, I'm going to ask you something up front: would you be willing to partake in a…alliance, if you will—which purpose is to seek out those associated with the Dark Lord and…well…prevent them from spreading evil."
I stared at him, wide-eyed for a while, trying to process what he just said. He waited for me by fiddling with my television remote.
"Does this—alliance—have the approval of the Ministry?" I asked, unsure.
"Does the Ministry give approval of having views about Voldemort returning?" Dumbledore countered. I thought about it for a moment.
"'How many are involved in it?"
"Quite a few. But still, we need all the help we can get," Dumbledore said.
"If we can 'help eliminate the evils in the world while the Ministry turns its back on it all…then I'm in," I said boldly.
"Excellent! Our next meeting is in an hour. Shall I escort you to our headquarters?" Dumbledore said.
"Wh—now?" I asked, quite surprised.
"Do you have any plans?"
"Well—no, but I—"
"Excellent, then! I expect you'll want to change first, so I'll just wait right here," Dumbledore said. I opened my mouth to protest, and then shut it again and went to my room to change. When I came back out again, I found Dumbledore had figured out how the remote worked and was watching a group of young Muggles break dancing.
"If I did any of that, I would surely break something," Dumbledore commented. I smiled. He jumped up. "Well, shall we adjourn?"
"Yes, Sir."
We Apparated outside a group of Muggle houses. The street was dark and deserted as I followed Dumbledore to where ever we were going. Suddenly he stopped and gave me a piece of parchment.
"Memorize this, please," he said. I looked down and read it and then looked up. A large house had appeared from between two Muggle houses.
"Welcome to number twelve, Grimmauld Place," Dumbledore said, making his way to the door. He knocked and immediately the door opened.
"Albus," Arthur Weasley inclined his head in greeting "And I see you've brought along Peri!" He stepped aside to let us in and then shut the door after us. I followed Dumbledore and Arthur until we reached a room full of people. The kitchen, I guess. A plump red-haired woman hurried toward us.
"Molly, this is Peri from the office. Peri, this is my wife, Molly," Arthur introduced.
"Pleased to meet you dear, won't you take a seat?" Molly said, pulling a chair out for me.
"Thank you," I said, smiling. Dumbledore took his place at the head of the table and the noise died down.
"First of all, we have a new member of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight. Please welcome Minjonet Michaud, better known as Peri." I turned a considerable shade of red as miscellaneous smiles and greetings came my way before Dumbledore continued.
It turns out that the Order has made quite a few accomplishments unknown to the Ministry. I listened with interest as Dumbledore spoke and wondered vaguely what I would be doing.
"Don't go yet, Peri, there are several people to meet!" Arthur said to me after the meeting. Some people had already left, but Arthur led me around to those still lingering.
"This is Emmeline Vance right here…Kingsley you've already met…right here is Nymphadora Tonks—"
"Just Tonks!" a witch with spiky pink hair said. I vaguely remember that she was in the same year as me at Hogwarts. Arthur just smiled and led me over to a group of men conversing.
"Good evening, gentlemen, this is Peri, the newest member of the Order." The men stopped their conversation just long enough to introduce themselves.
"Alastor Moody, but folks call me Mad-Eye," a rough-looking Auror said.
"Remus Lupin, pleased to meet you," a stately-looking man in tattered-looking robes said. The third man stepped up and I nearly had a heart attack.
"Sirius Black…you don't have to look all shocked, though, I'm not really a killer…" Sirius said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Sirius, I forgot to tell her…" Arthur said. He turned to me. "Sirius did not betray Lily and James after all. It was Peter Pettigrew, who made it look as if Sirius had killed him." I had the same dumbfounded look as I had earlier in my apartment.
"Um…right," I said, nodding as if I understood. Sirius laughed.
"I never get tired of seeing their faces when they find out I'm innocent!" he said. Tonks came up to me while Sirius kept on laughing.
"Come join us girls, I see my cousin's being ridiculous again," she whispered. We slipped away from the group quietly and went to join Molly and Emmeline Vance. They were busy talking about household maladies, so Tonks turned to me.
"You work with Arthur, right?" she asked. I nodded. "Ah, that explains why I've never seen you before. I'm always out working some nasty Auror job."
"Just wondering, what 'house were you in at 'Hogwarts?" I asked.
"Gryffindor. You were in Hufflepuff, Right?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah. I remember you were a chaser on your 'house team and you were good at changing your appearance without a wand. I never tried out for Quidditch though, I was just a spectator," I said. Gosh, it felt good to talk with someone your age. We talked about more stuff like what type of music we liked and what type of hobbies we did until we realized that almost everyone had gone and that the clock had struck twelve. Remus, Sirius, Arthur and Molly were the others left.
"My, it's late," Arthur yawned. Molly rolled her eyes and put her hand on her husband's shoulder and began to guide him out of the kitchen
"Off to bed with you. Goodnight, everyone," Molly said. There was an awkward silence as only four of us remained.
"I think I should be going now," I said, starting to get up from my chair.
"You don't have to go yet, Peri, the fun's just started!" Tonks said. "Stay with us and chat a while!"
So I did. We sort of continued where me and Tonks had left off and Sirius and Remus even recalled their old school days.
"I remember when we used one of Snivellus' hexes against him. There he was hanging upside down showing his knickers to everyone!" Sirius laughed. Remus chuckled quietly.
"You mean he didn't wear trousers under his robes?" Tonks said, looking revolted.
"Maybe 'e doesn't own trousers, perhaps?" I suggested. We all laughed. Before we knew it another hour had passed and we were still talking and laughing until late into the night.
"You look rough, Peri. Just how late did you stay up last night?" Arthur said when I walked into the office that morning.
"I dunno…I wouldn't be surprised if we 'ad all fallen asleep talking," I said, plopping into my chair and yawning.
"Well, I'm glad you're all getting along well," Arthur said, smiling.
"What've we got going on today?" I asked, getting to business.
"This one's a weird one. An old warlock says that someone's bewitched his old armchair and he can't sit in it without it throwing him around like he was in some sort of rodeo."
"Armchair rodeo. Interesting," I said as we headed over to check it out.
"And 'he's telling us about the chair and then 'e says 'you guys might want to sit down, this is a rather long story' so we sit down and it turns out that Arthur chose to sit in the bewitched armchair!" Tonks and Sirius bellowed with laughter while Remus and Molly tried to mask their laughter for poor Arthur. "So I'm running around trying to get the thing to stop and Arthur's going 'round and 'round trying to 'old on!"
"Yes, and it would have been an actual rodeo, except I was holding on with BOTH hands!" Arthur put in grinning amusedly. Everyone laughed.
"How did you get it to stop?" Sirius asked.
"Well, I kept throwing spell after spell, then the man yelled just to trash it, so I put a freezing charm on it. If you ask me, I should've done that in the first place," I said, shrugging at the last part.
"Are you French by any chance?" I looked around to see Remus scrutinizing me.
"Yes, my mere—mother—is French," I said. "How can you tell?"
"You have an accent…just a light one…" Remus said. I blushed.
"Oh…I guess I'm used to it…" I said.
"She does," Molly said, smiling at me. "She drops her H's just like Fleur does." I turned even redder.
"Say 'Thelma thwacked three hedges at three-thirty' three times fast," Sirius said.
"Sirius!" Molly sent him a death glare.
"…Sorry…"
"I think we're embarrassing her," Tonks said, imitating my shade of red. I laughed.
"Okay, let's talk about something else that doesn't have to do wit' French accents," I said, now self-aware of my accent.
"We can tell them what we did with the armchair afterwards…" Arthur suggested.
"Yes, that would be great…" I said.
Tonks, Sirius and Arthur had gone upstairs to get rid of some doxies that infested the shower curtain of a spare bathroom, which left Molly, Remus, and me to prepare dinner. Molly went about humming an old Celestina Warbeck song as she went about supervising various self-peeling vegetables. I was helping chop the peeled potatoes when Remus came to sit across from me at the table. He seemed fascinated by my chopping technique.
"I'm sorry if I humiliated you about your accent earlier," he said tentatively, as if I would pounce on him if he talked too boldly. I stopped chopping and looked at him.
"It's alright," I said "I was not 'humiliated."
"No, no, I could tell you were," Remus said, looking guilty.
"Remus." I looked him in the eye. "Don't worry. It's okay. It's not like being French is illegal." I smiled and winked at him. Finally he relaxed and even chuckled a little. Honestly, I think he could get worked up over nothing.