November 4, 1996

Werewolf Activism in Yellowstone- Thirty Years in the Making

President Jack Graves is already proving himself more than his persona of standard politician and a more wildcard president than MACUSA has seen since the Civil War. He is insistent on leading the Aurors and being on the ground for the latest werewolf uprising in Yellowstone National Park, led by noted werewolf rights activist Rudina Lupe and Sassaba Lowella of the Great Smoky Mountains, both leaders of their respective werewolf packs who are continuing to fight MACUSA as the government begins to push the the Yellowstone pack back into smaller territories within the national park due to No-Majs coming closer to these remote, isolated places within them.

Lowella claimed that this action has made MACUSA no better than the colonizers of the Native American tribes. That the packs would not have these problems if MACUSA provided wolfsbane potion to allow werewolves to join wix society.

Lupe added that merely pushing the packs out of sight and mind are only removing resources from a group that gets no help from MACUSA, asking why werewolves of America should follow the rule of law for a world they are not allowed to be part of before proclaiming her thirty strong pack is willing to fight for the scraps MACUSA gave them thirty years ago and more aid is coming from the remaining packs.

Wolfsbane potion is covered by two of the three nationwide health insurance companies, Arcane and Magik, the holdout being Astratek. The providing of wolfsbane potion and other medications through these health insurance companies can only be provided through a full-time job, werewolves live apart from magical society in their packs and often those who attempt to live among society are unable to hold the full time, forty hour a week position necessary to obtain insurance through an employer.

The picture at the bottom of the article showed a picture of Rudina Lupe, a strong looking woman with olive colored skin and curly dark hair, she looked poised and confident at her pack's tactics holding the line for so long.

Sassaba Lowella was in another picture next to Lupe. Lowella was Native American, high cheekbones, straight dark hair and fierce almond eyes. She was very striking and was looking at the camera directly, not caring that the world would see her face and what she was.

I leaned against my desk and continued to read the last article Thalia had given me. It had taken me some time to start, my brother dating and clearly having deep feelings for a werewolf was a lot to wrap my head around, but I knew it had to be done. Alex saw something in Thalia and I sincerely believed it was her conviction and passion for a better world.

The articles Thalia gave me were from an underground newspaper I had never heard of that I presumed Alex subscribed her too. It had an in depth interview with the leader of the Yellowstone Werewolf Pack, Rudina Lupe, who actively discussed the lives of the pack in Yellowstone. That they lived off the land, taking advantage of the large expanse of land that made up the national park, but were preyed upon by the magical creatures we had confined to the region as well. That children were rarely born into the community, werewolf mothers had a hard time carrying pregnancies to term and their children often ended up infected with the condition as well. Rudina Lupe had a list of things she wanted for the werewolf packs of Magical America, but she needed wolfsbane first and foremost to help remove the stigma and ensure the health of the werewolves of the United States. She sounded a lot like Thalia.

I finished the article and put it in my purse. I had not told Lucinda about what Thalia was, that could wait for a time, with the gala coming up there was enough going on in Lucinda's life and finding out her great nephew was in a very serious relationship with a werewolf would send her screaming over the edge. I can't manage Lucinda until I sort my own feelings on the matter and my feelings were very complicated.

With a sigh, I pulled out my copy of the Daily Prophet to get up to speed on local politics, all of it was doom and gloom these days. Today it was about the kidnapping of an outspoken journalist who had written an article about how Britain's werewolf issue could be better handled by taking a page out of MACUSA's book and confining them to places outside of society. I hoped that he was alive, but I had my doubts. After meeting Thalia, I was not too sure what to think about the werewolf issue, but I knew there were not many werewolves like Thalia in the world.


Oo0Oo0


November 12, 1996

The Minister's Office had been slightly redone since he assumed the position. Scrimgeour had put in a nice new rug of red with white designs that was big enough to fit under his desk, his leather chair and his guest chair if he had to have an office visitor. Normally it was Percy when the two had private management matters to handle such as Scrimgeour wanting to rant over a recent meeting or recent encounter with Dumbledore, who was refusing to cooperate with the Ministry on matters of political image.

I could not say I blamed him in the slightest.

But I would keep that thought to myself.

I sat down in the hard leather chair across from the Minister, who had my file on his desk and a file about previous dealings with MACUSA. It was easy to be silent, to take in what was around me to prepare for whatever was coming, I knew it was not beneficial to me in any regard.

"Audrey."

"You wanted to see me Minister?"

"Yes," he leaned back in his chair and pushed the MACUSA folder towards me. "I was hoping you could affirm this information for me?"

I opened the file slowly, it was a collection of information on Jack Graves and the high ranking members of his administration. The general information a foreign government needed to know for international dealings. I turned the page to find a full page on Elihu, most of it notes on previous conflicts due to his sarcastic turns of phrase in the heat of the moment.

I was not sure why he was asking for my opinion. I knew most of these officials because they came to parties at the Byrgen House and would come by the house to talk about politics with my father while I was growing up. The information was as accurate as a foreign government needed it to be. Perhaps he was asking for my opinion because he did not trust Elihu to be entirely honest. It would be understandable, lawyers were not trusted in any nation, the reputation for skullduggery crossed all nations. Lawyer jokes were the greatest icebreaker in politics.

"This seems accurate," I kept my voice low. "I can't say I know Martinez well enough to confirm his opinion on the wand core crisis, but the avacado story is true."

"That's fine. I was not sure Weathers was telling the truth about anything of importance," Scrimgeour nodded sagely, adjusting his glasses."With President Graves arriving in a few weeks for the Ministry Gala, I would like for you to attend and make introductions." He slid an invitation across the desk to my hands. It was odd to receive and invitation to a party held in my own great-aunt's home. I had expected this. Scrimgeour had implied as much during our last discussion about my father a few months ago. "The rest of the office will receive theirs tomorrow."

"I'm afraid I have plans with a cousin that evening and won't be able to attend."

The lie flew from my lips as if it were escaping a cage and a dull panic grabbed my insides and refused to let go.

"I'm sure your cousin will understand if you tell them the Minister has made a personal request."

"Then I am afraid I must refuse the invitation."

"For what possible reason?"

"I have other plans that I do not have to discuss with you, or I simply have no wish to go. Take your pick."

Scrimgeour's expression darkened. I did not move, I did not flinch. In that moment he reminded me of my father and I knew he would never succeed in intimating me. I was one of the few people in the world who would refuse such an invitation from a world leader for I had no interest in power or connections, I had my own if I so desired them.

We stared at one another in a stoney silence.

"I know for a fact that you and Weathers have very different ideas about how this war is going. You will not get to use me as a bargaining chip to make one of your oldest, most powerful allies think that everything is being handled with the Voldemort-" I watched his hand clench so hard the knuckles turned white- "situation. Jack will never believe it and you will lose a valuable ally for your pride and deceit."

The Minister of Magic and I stared at each other for a moment of intense silence. He looked like he wanted to leap across the desk and wring my neck like a lion would to an antelope on the savanna. I thought about dark holes snakes liked to hide in and imagined how comfortable that would be at this moment.

"I'd like to request a transfer."

"Denied."

"Then I'll quit."

"I'll tell everyone that you are Jack Graves' daughter."

I got angry and overplayed my hand. My mistake.

He smiled a lazy, catlike smile before he continued. "I've done a lot of research, Miss Graves. You'll never have a moment's peace from the press or people who want to use you to get access to your father."

He would also put a target on my back for more nefarious schemes. I lived alone. I was a woman living alone. That son of a bitch!

"You have a choice to make, you can deal with everybody who would use you for access to the upper echelons of power for the rest of your time in Britain, or you can behave like a good First Daughter for one night and help ensure that we can send a message to any spies and hopeful interlopers about foreign aid. Not that we need it, but the idea would be enough to deter bad actors within the Ministry."

My expression felt like a stern mixture of Lucinda and Jack Graves at their most sincerely shocked and enraged. I was sure Jack Graves being here would send enough of that message, but having me there to be pleasant with him would incite Jack to play along and say the right things to make sure I was not kidnapped and murdered on foreign soil.

If I take part in this, I'm screwed both ways.

"May I ask a question, Minister?"

"Of course."

"This seems an informal introduction, the embassy would normally handle the intricacies of introductions for high ranking officials under more… pomp and circumstance. For the history books and all of that. "

"You have a lot to learn about the affairs of national leaders if you think their first meetings are in front of the cameras."

"I suppose I do. How silly of me."

I would have to ask Elihu about some of this, I may swing by the embassy after work tomorrow to do just that.

Scrimgeour smiled, "I imagine you already know the party is a formal affair. I expect you to look nice."

I wanted to kill him.

"Of course, Minister."

I rose from my chair to depart the room, thoughts of murder and politics on my mind. If Scrimgeour wanted to play games, fine! I could play games too. I was under no vow, no magic bound me to this agreement and Scrimgeour was about to find out that I was not a malleable yes man like Percy.

The Ainsley family was extinct in the male line, but the women were still holding onto everything they had ever gotten over the generations. Power, pride and familial legacy. If Lucinda was anything to go by, Ainsleys were very spiteful and had very long memories. I was going to have to dig into all of that to get through this event and come out with even a hint of a victory and I had no idea how I was going to accomplish that.


Oo0Oo0


My biweekly beatings from Lucinda were proceeding on schedule. This time she decided to enchant a sallow tree to snatch me into its branches and allow me to dangle in the air for several moments while she laughed from somewhere beneath me.

I got the impression that our little dueling lessons were stress relief for her. She divided the rest of her time between writing letters to foreign friends to inquire about Alex along with other matters and the party where she was making gleeful arrangements to make my father as uncomfortable as possible.

The impulse was one I understood very well, but the long term planning was the result of a decade of resentment on Lucinda's part. She had shown me pictures of a reception she had thrown for my parents the first time they visited Thornell after their wedding and remarked on all the little decorations that she was going to reuse for this party because they were white and matched the elegant, snowy theme she wanted.

I did not know if Lucinda was a packrat or just sentimental.

"Do you want some help?" Lucinda asked from somewhere below me, her voice tinged with laughter.

"Yes," I was currently upside down in midair, of course I wanted help.

"Did you learn anything?"

"Don't drop my guard?"

"You don't sound sure."

"Use what's around me to my advantage."

"Better."

I felt myself slowly levitate out of the tree and towards the ground and onto the soft grass below. I did not feel my dueling was getting any better, though Lucinda claimed otherwise.

Tavish had proudly informed me after one of my previous lessons with Lucinda that she had been a Hogwarts dueling club captain while I nursed my bruises. I was beginning to understand why I was having trouble beating Lucinda for her offer of Occlumency lessons, she was just that good. So far, she had buried me up to my shoulders in the ground, put me on the roof of Thornell, cornered me in the garden where Tavish kept a Devil's Snare for some reason and turned me into a mink.

Touching the ground was a welcome relief for my nerves, I was content to sit for a moment even though it was cold and frost still covered the ground. I brushed myself off when I got to my feet to meet Lucinda's eyes as she adjusted her glasses to better examine me with her hawkish expression, her long cloak caught the gentle breeze to make her look more ominous and vaguely sinister.

And she thought I looked like a crow when I first arrived at her home. She bore more of a resemblance now with her dark cloak billowing in contrast against the cold gray sky.

Lucinda smiled at me and motioned me into the house. Wordlessly stating that we were finished for the day.

I tapped my shoulders and hips, a spell on my thoughts to clean my clothes before I stepped into the house. I stomped the dirt and mud off my shoes on the mat by the door.

"You're getting better. That boiling curse missed me by an inch."

"Sorry about-"

"Don't apologize. Have you been reading those books I gave you about Occlumency?"

"Yes, I finished them last week. I thought the idea of constructing a kind of house to store your thoughts was an interesting one."

"Isn't it?" Lucinda smiled brightly as she led me into a nearby sitting room where Tavish was examining a map of the grounds on a coffee table with a notebook and sketchbook next to him as Barry and Tinsy polished vases and knickknacks that adorned the room. "Fascinating all the ways a person can protect their mind. There are so many ways to do so effectively without having your brain ripped apart by assailants."

I had tried to follow the instructions in the book, building something in my mind to retreat to but I was struggling to know if I was doing so correctly. The book said it could be a real place, or that it could be something entirely fictional, a fantasy of an individual's version of a perfect home or place in the world. For some reason, I was struggling to hold a vision in my mind consistently, it was always shifting like fog behind my eyes. My vision was not becoming richer and more detailed, it was becoming more clouded and cluttered with ideas and possibilities that straddled the line between fantasy and reality. I felt safe at Thornell, but it was too big to hold and I always knew my stay was a temporary one and the Byrgen House had ceased to be my home long before I actually left.

It was a vexing idea.

I attempted to envision my apartment, but there was so little I could manipulate to defend the castle of my mind in a deceptive way. Perhaps I was not creative that way.

In any case, I was going to have to draw on the well of my imagination to craft something that spoke to an idea of home and safety. Lucinda was a formidable witch and I wanted to impress her should I ever meet her conditions to learn Occlumency. Because even if I ever did defeat her in a duel, I doubted it would leave Lucinda impressed in any true capacity.

"'Lo ladies, 'ow was da lesson?"

All I could manage in response was a groan of discomfort as a staggered to the couch and sat next to Tavish who patted me on the head with a distracted smile.

"T'at bad?"

"She put me in a tree."

"Coulda been da roof again," Tavish laughed quietly and passed Lucinda his sketchbook as I straightened my posture to watch her expression, curious about what Tavish had been working on.

Lucinda looked at the sketches Tavish had presented for the last section of the garden with a sinister smile, her eyes gleaming as she made tiny notes in her notebook while Barry and Tinsy looked on with inquisitive stares from next to the sitting room fireplace.

"You're a wonder, Tavish. It's the most ostentatious thing you have ever come up with."

"Wai' 'til ya see da ice sculpture on da next page!"

Lucinda turned the page and smiled. "Oh, she's beautiful!"

I stood to look at the sketchbook to find an elegant sketch of a fairy queen carved from ice and magic with a hauntingly calm expression. There was a note that she would be placed on the fountain in the center of the maze Tavish and the House Elves were working on.

"She is," I breathed.

"Inspired by da most beautiful women I knew," Tavish stated with his face a soft pink from the cold air or his admission. "Took forever to get the face right."

"She's perfect! If you can do this exactly, we may save our outdoor display!"

"Ya doubt me?"

"I'll doubt everything until this party is done and that numpty leaves my home for the last time." Lucinda paused, a nasty glimmer in her eyes. "In fact, do you remember when those muggle portraits were in fashion?"

"Aye, creepy things."

"Well, I got Lucina to sit for one and I think it can go out as a display piece."

"Wait, you have a portrait of my mother?"

"Of course! I never had her enchanted to talk or move because…" Lucinda's brow furrowed. "I missed her too much, it's bad enough with Callum and he doesn't talk. I think it would look lovely in one of the main rooms."

I had a flash of concern that this portrait could cause an issue, but I pushed it aside. It was Lucinda's house. This was her power play against my father and, quite frankly, I was too entertained to say anything about it. If she wanted to make my father as uncomfortable in her home as he was going to make her by stepping in it, then good for her.

"Now," Lucinda turned towards me with a smile while handing the sketchbook off to Tavish, "there's the matter of your dress."

Tavish stood and looked at the two of us before backing away slowly with a broad grin, "'hat's well beyond me. I'll be in da back." He pulled his hat from his pocket, slipping out the door with his sketchbook under his arm and the House Elves following behind him.

I looked back at Lucinda who was looking me up and down with a careful eye.

"I really don't have to go, Auntie."

"You said the Minister wants you there. I can't see a way out of it."

"I'll have to get dragon pox then. Do you know any children?"

Lucinda raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to me to straighten my shoulders. "I'm afraid I do not know any children except you. Back straight, don't slouch."

I did as she said and looked ahead, a sick feeling in my guts as the idea of seeing my father again settled upon me. My chest was tight and I felt weightless, like a stiff breeze would knock me over and take me away.

Lucinda stopped and sighed. "I know you don't want to see your father, but we are both backed into a corner." She put her hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes, the wire rims of her glasses catching the light from the chandelier. "Listen, one way or another, this is something that has no choice but to pass. The only choice we have is to deal with it. I choose to do so by holding my head high and making Jack Graves as uncomfortable in my home as I am with him crossing the threshold. Your choice is going to be whether you hold your head high, confident in your decisions or if you crumble under the idea of your father as something oppressive and not a mortal idiot who can be managed."

"But he is!" The words fell from me unbidden and strange on my tongue. The words tasted of dry wine as they departed, a taste of fear and barely acknowledged truths. "He's the president of MACUSA. Head of one of the most magically powerful countries in the magical world and I have to play nice with him for his reputation and for my job with the Ministry! If this doesn't go well, I'll be out of a job and hounded by the press with a target on my back because Scrimgeour will throw me to the wolves for even an appearance of an alliance with President Graves."

"If this goes wrong I will help you in every way I possibly can. You need to play the Minister's game, but do it better. You know MACUSA, Scrimgeour knows it through reports and analysis, but he's so bullheaded he can't see the little pieces on the board. In that way he's very much like your father, they want to charge ahead with every certainty that they are righteous and just. Figure something out Audrey, because I have faith in you to manage this and come out the victor so he'll leave you in peace."

I nodded slowly, the knot in my chest releasing. She was right. Scrimgeour and Jack were both the same kind of person, my father would be the one more prone to fancy words and elegant lies, but Scrimgeour was like a bull in a china shop, all law and order at any cost.

If I could hold this together, my life would stay easy. Simple. Manageable.

"Who's on the guest list?"

Lucinda paused, "Well, everyone you work with to start."

I nodded, that matched what I had been told in the office, it would solidify Scrimgeour's relationships with his immediate staff.

"Any department heads?"

"Invitations have been sent for them already, but a few have already refused due to the war and sent their regards and apologies." She summoned a rolled up piece of parchment from her office upstairs and gave it to me to examine. "We can expect over two hundred guests, a lot of high ranking Ministry personnel, up and comers and favorites. Everyone is being carefully vetted. Meaning if someone provides enough money in donations, they'll get into my house." Lucinda's eyes rolled as I examined the list thoughtfully.

"I don't see that any have been sent to the Embassy Offices." Surely Elihu hasn't pissed Scrimgeour off that badly, it's only been a few months. "Is this party a locally focused event?"

"Traditionally yes. It's a chance for the powerful to rub elbows and talk policy in a more personal manner. Wizarding politics are very country isolated, Scrimgeour inviting your father as his first international visit is unusual. Do you think Scrimgeour would want help from MACUSA if the war goes on?"

"I wouldn't discount it, Scrimgeour and my father are both former Aurors, I'm sure they would find a lot to talk about. Most wizarding conflict is internal and the ICW won't step on state sovereignty unless Voldemort-"

A noise that sounded like a hissing cat came from Lucinda's throat.

I elected to ignore it, focused on my knowledge of the ICW.

"-Crosses into another country, blatantly, to commit murder and discord, the Ministry is on its own, but that doesn't mean other nations are not watching or willing to provide quiet aid in other forms. Scrimgeour is sending a message to any spies or insurgents that MACUSA's watching and an open friendship or alliance with my father, even in more private setting benefits both parties. MACUSA is famous for their large, diverse law enforcement sector and we're also… er nosy about wars in Europe."

Lucinda gave me a look, her glasses sliding down the bridge of her nose. "I swear that's the most I've ever heard you talk about anything."

"Anyway," my face was warm with embarrassment and my hand brushed strands of loose hair from my face. "It's… Stupid."

"It's not stupid. Keep going."

I looked at Lucinda blankly.

"If there is any good thing about Jack Graves, he clearly left you well educated on governmental affairs."

I glanced back down at the list. "Do we have free invitations as the hosts?"

"I have a few, do you have anyone in mind?"

"Actually," the early thread of a scheme began to stitch itself together in my mind. "I think I might."

"Good, tell me later and I'll send them out. Now, the dressmaker sent some fabrics over for us to look at and some designs she drafted. They're all up in my office and you choose whatever you like."

I nodded slowly and allowed my mind to rest. Time was inescapable. I could make an effort to enjoy myself, or be miserable on a path I had no choice in.

Jack would know I was at this party one way or another, but I could manage it if I was prepared for any and all eventualities.


Oo0Oo0


Author's Note: Alright, this is the first chapter of the three part mini arc! Nothing much to add here except for some bad timing. I had visitors last week, my pollen allergies laid me low and I have more visitors arriving to visit for several days. I do not expect to have the next chapter done on schedule due to social obligations. If I do, fantastic! I'll put the sucker up, if not, I'll post by the 29th.

Once this arc is done I'm going to take a break to sort the next section, do the next (half done) chapter of Letters, draft a side project and ride out the end of allergy season.