Previously in the Darklyverse: Several members of the Order went on their first raid since Azkaban, saving Dirk Cresswell and capturing and imprisoning three Death Eaters.

xx

December 1st, 1982: Septima Vector

"Four more disappearances last night," says Helen, smacking her copy of the Prophet onto the top of the Ravenclaw table where they're all sitting today. "Alecto Carrow, Dirk Cresswell, Rabastan Lestrange, and Augustus Rookwood. And get this: they're offering a reward for anyone who can provide information about what might have happened to them."

"That's new," mutters Deb.

"Yeah. Apparently, Rookwood is the Head Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries, and they're desperate to get him back?"

Vicky bites her tongue. Minerva called her in for an emergency meeting in the dead of night last night, and based on her intel, Vicky knows full well exactly where all four missing witches and wizards are right now: they're at Grimmauld Place, one as a guest and three as Death Eater prisoners. If the Ministry is offering a reward for information about their captures, it's not because they've suddenly grown a soul—it's because Death Eaters are running the lot and want to track down the first of their own to go missing in months. They could give a shit about Cresswell—it's Rookwood, Carrow, and Lestrange that they want back.

But she can't share that with War Stories, no matter how much she loves and trusts the kids she's supposed to be advising. If she does—if anybody finds out that Vicky knows too much—she'll be carted off to Azkaban, and the Order will lose one of the few pairs of eyes they have on the outside.

She wishes desperately that she could tell her kids that she's fighting for them. She wishes she could tell them that somebody—a lot of somebodies—is out there trying to figure out how to fix this world on their behalf.

Of course, that's not to say that the Order has figured out jack shit about what exactly they're going to do to improve things. Last night's raid was the first anybody in the Order conducted since before the original lot were imprisoned, and from what Minerva says, they were very much not in agreement about sending Lily, Sirius, or Frank out into the field in the first place. They've got three prisoners—four, if you count Peter Pettigrew—but they haven't got a clue how they can use them to their advantage. And Vicky doesn't know what the hell's going to happen the next time the orb goes off—though she'll probably find out soon; at the rate the Death Eaters are making attacks, it'll probably happen again tonight.

As much as Vicky is itching to get out there and hurt the bastards who locked her partner up with dementors for four months, a part of her feels grateful that the Order voted not to ask her or the other liaisons to fight—not yet, anyway. She's an Arithmancy professor, not a fighter: she hasn't had to exercise her Defense Against the Dark Arts in decades. And anyway, she can do more good here in the castle, protecting her kids and convincing as many of them as she can that the Ministry is the enemy, than she could in the three days of dueling it would probably take for her to get herself killed on the front lines.

But it's hard being stuck in this castle without even being able to be honest with the kids she's supposed to be guiding. What is the point in mentoring Hogwarts students if she can't warn them that Death Eaters are in charge of the Ministry? Every omission feels like a bald-faced lie, especially concerning the older kids who knew and loved Meredith McKinnon before Death Eaters murdered her and her whole family.

But Vicky can't drag them into this war. They're just kids; she's got her own Secret-Keeper and couldn't tell them that she's in the Order even if she wanted to; and she can't be sure that everybody in War Stories would even be on her side.

She thinks back to what happened the last time kids at Hogwarts delved into the war effort—how those two girls got killed on their first attempt to interfere in Death Eater matters. Then again, Lily Potter was with them when it went down, and she grew up to become an integral part of the Order of the Phoenix. Without her, Minerva would still be locked up in Azkaban right now.

Vicky thinks she's covering her own mixed feelings pretty well, but apparently she's not because Helen takes her aside at the end of the meeting with a great big frown, her arms crossed over her chest. "You're hiding something," she accuses. "Spill."

"I'm not hiding any—"

"You absolutely are. You've been acting shifty for weeks. Elisabeth Clearwater was my age when Death Eaters killed her, and Millie LeProut was even younger. This organization was started by school kids who were already vigilantes, as far as anybody can tell. If you're going to stand here and tell me I'm too young to know what's going on—"

"I'm sorry about Meredith. I really, really am."

"That's not good enough. I'm sick of people saying they're sorry. I'm sick of feeling like I can't do anything. There are others who feel the same way, you know. Mark, Deb—"

"Helen, I feel just as powerless as you do. Three of my colleagues—"

If looks could kill, Vicky would be dead on the floor right now. "Don't talk to me about Dumbledore and McGonagall. Dumbledore may still be in Azkaban, but at least he's alive, and Hagrid and McGonagall—well, if they had died, we would have heard about it by now, wouldn't we? Anyway, they were your coworkers, but Meredith was my best friend."

Vicky is this close to revealing that she and Minerva are partners—are so much closer than any student in this school knows—but she doesn't think Minerva would appreciate Vicky outing her to the entire castle. (After all, telling one student a tidbit of gossip like that is as good as telling it to every student in the school.) "The Prophet said they're probably using Fidelius Charms to stay hidden. Even if I knew something, which I don't—"

"Bullshit," mutters Helen. "You were in on it, weren't you? Killing You-Know-Who?"

"I—"

"You can tell me, you know. I'm not going to spread it around or—or report you or anything."

And Vicky looks into Helen's young, young face, and—you can't trust anybody these days, but she feels like she can trust Helen. Elisabeth Clearwater's and Millie LeProut's faces flash through Vicky's mind, and she has no clue what the hell she's supposed to do.

xx

"Vick, you can't. You know you can't. She's just a kid, for heaven's sake."

Minerva's lips are as thin as Vicky has ever seen them, almost as if Vicky is a student who's about to get detention—but that's ridiculous. For one thing, Minerva can't just waltz back into Hogwarts and claim her job back. For another, what Vicky is asking to do is much, much worse than anything either of them has ever given anybody a detention for.

"You said it yourself, Minerva: we need more people on the outside. I really, really believe that if we include Helen and her friends—"

"Vicky, how much do you know about what happened the last time kids at Hogwarts got involved in the war?"

It's her turn to purse her lips. "I haven't forgotten what happened to Liz Clearwater or Millie LeProut, but—"

"They weren't acting in isolation."

Vicky frowns at this. "Yeah, I know. Lily Potter—"

"It wasn't just them and Lily," Minerva whispers. Vicky freezes. "There was a whole group of them—everyone who was at Hogwarts at the time who ended up in the Order, everyone who was imprisoned this year and a whole slew of others who died in the second half of last year. Lily's Gryffindor friends and Dorcas Meadowes were the instigators. Dumbledore had mobilized a few of us by then, but they came up with the moniker 'Order of the Phoenix' and started poking around trying to find Death Eater meetings to interfere in all on their own. It wasn't until the girls died and they got caught that Dumbledore invited them to merge with us, and when they started War Stories the following year…"

"It was busywork," breathes Vicky. "Dumbledore—gave them War Stories to keep them away from the action?"

"Not exactly," says Minerva. "The organization was actually one of the kids' ideas—Emmeline Vance's. But it's a damn good thing she thought of it because, without it, it would have been a lot harder for us to… well…"

"Keep them from getting too antsy? Stop them from trying to find more action?"

Minerva shrugs helplessly. "You weren't there—you don't know—they were damn lucky only two of them died that first night. We could have lost a good fifteen students in one go. And I encouraged them. When the Gryffindors were doing those pranks all over the castle and locking everybody out of their common rooms, I told them they had my support, and then… you don't want that blood on your hands. Take it from me, because I carry that burden every day, and I can't watch you…"

Vicky pauses, then says, "You should ask the kids."

"What?"

"The ones who were still at Hogwarts when it went down. Some of them are still alive—and in this house with you, I'm assuming, even if I can't see them. They know what it's like to be where Helen is now—they should be the ones to decide whether to include her and her friends."

Minerva sighs. "I don't know, Vicky. I can't see it going over well with some people, not giving them a say. There's been… well, you know about the rift, whether to fight or not—whether to kill or not. A lot of people think the plan is reckless, and the plan is coming straight from—"

"Two of the kids who helped get Liz and Millie killed," murmurs Vicky. "Yeah, I know. But there are kids their age on the other side, too, aren't there? They're not all so reckless. In any case, they've had to live all this time with the guilt of what happened when they were still in school, I'm sure—it must have given them some perspective on both sides of where Helen is now, perspective that no one else necessarily has."

"You know that Dumbledore wouldn't want the kids in War Stories involved."

"Dumbledore's not here. He's in Azkaban, and from the sounds of it, he's not getting out until we end this war one way or another. The sooner we get more people involved, the sooner that can happen."

Minerva looks utterly defeated. "I knew I was right not to bring you into the Order before all this came out. If you would have been so careless with these kids' lives, let alone your own…"

But Minerva's wrong: the Vicky from before probably would have been a lot less reckless. It wasn't until Minerva got herself landed in Azkaban and, subsequently, on the run from the government that Vicky realized her reason to tread lightly is gone.

She kisses Minerva full on the mouth for a long yet tense moment, then allows herself to sink into her partner's side. "I just care about keeping you safe, Minerva. I don't know if I see myself in a fighting role, but if staying in my lane means educating and recruiting kids, I'm ready to do it. I just want to do what it takes to bring you back to me."

"I'm right here," Minerva murmurs, but it's not good enough. Nothing short of reinstating Minerva at Hogwarts with the wizarding world safe from Death Eaters is ever going to be good enough.