Chapter 19 - Logan's Tale

Noah and Jo stayed in their side of the apartment the rest of the evening. They kissed, they cooked, sort of, they ate, they talked. Noah appreciated their time alone; it helped him get rid of a layer of tension he hadn't realized had been there for some time. He knew that things were only going to get more difficult, but maybe now they were more prepared. He offered to do the dishes and put away the food, and gently but steadily pushed Jo into the bedroom, to get some rest. He'd done more than any of them, he deserved a break.

There were two bowls of stew on the table for Daniella and Greengrass, and now he looked at them hesitantly. Part of him didn't want to go anywhere near the common room or the people in it, and it wasn't because of Greengrass. But he told himself he was no proper Gryffindor if he ran away from a girl, so he huffed out a resigned sigh, took the bowls and pushed the door open with his shoulder.

The room was quiet, except for the background voices coming from the tv; the lights were dimmed. He blinked as his eyes adjusted to the darker room, stopped in his tracks and looked around.

Daniella wasn't there; Greengrass was still on the sofa, staring at the tv. There was a wooden chair next to the sofa, probably where she'd been sitting. He hadn't thought she'd leave Greengrass's side, but maybe it was better this way.

He walked to the table closeby and put the bowls down. Then, he turned back to the sofa and looked cautiously at Greengrass. "So… feeling better?"

Daniella had left Ezra to have a shower and a change of clothes. He loved Dan very much - probably more than she could know - but he was a little relieved to be without a caretaker for the first time in hours. They hadn't been talking much, for one thing, and any exchange they had was sterile and brief.

Fortunately, he was in the same room as the television, which he hadn't had time to examine properly before now - what with the job hunting at all. It was really very ingenious, for a Muggle contraption.

He found, however, that the programs made little sense.

He didn't know how to change the channel, and so it had been stuck on the same one for hours, playing countless episodes of the same series back to back. They were only about twenty minutes long, which Ezra found ideal, and he felt that watching them constituted some form of compromise, on his part. Nobody could say that he wasn't trying to learn about Muggles now.

His eyes were torn from the glowing screen by a sound at the door; it was Ledger, and he had food. In the background, the upbeat theme song played. The word CROSSROADS flashed across the screen in large, bold yellow letters.

The Gryffindor spoke, and Ezra cut him a sideways glance that was half caution and half annoyance - he didn't want to miss the opening dialogue.

"Quite," he offered, clearing his throat. His voice was raspy from disuse. It was mostly the truth; nothing hurt unless he moved, and he had been trying to avoid moving for quite some time. He wasn't sure that standing was a good idea, but this might have been due in part to the fact that he was incredibly absorbed in the lives of four fictional hotel employees.

He thought briefly about thanking the other boy, being that he had lifted him off of the floor, but there was something very demeaning about the entire idea. Instead, he turned back to the television.

"Is that really how Muggles dress?" he asked, quietly incredulous. The bright colors and happy prints he could understand - contrary to popular opinion, he was not completely averse to color in a wardrobe. The hair, however... those pinned braids were absolutely unacceptable.

Noah looked at the screen at the Slytherin's question, finally paying attention to it. He thought he recognized the voices and the faces… some show his grandmother watched, possibly. The woman dressed in blue made him grimace. "Uh… I guess some people do. Older people," he added in a lower voice.

He watched in silence for a minute, not really out of interest, but as a mean to delay what he had to say; even if he really, really didn't want to. He had his pride, and he was giving up a great deal of it to apologize to the Slytherin.

"There's stew. In case you get hungry," he said as casually as he could manage, still looking intently at the screen where a cook with a Scottish accent went on about… something. "Since you can't get up to make something," he added.

Merlin's pants, just get it over with!' He told himself. He rubbed the back of his head.

"Look, I said some things I probably shouldn't have," he mumbled. "I don't know you, and you don't know me, so… you know…" Another long, uncomfortable silence. Or maybe it was only uncomfortable for Noah.

"So... Er, sorry..." He was looking intently at everything but Greengrass. "It's good you're back. At least now it's you who has to deal with her temper," he added quickly, nodding in the direction of the Slytherins' quarters.

Ezra pondered this tidbit of information with all the bright-eyed wonder of a child learning a new subject, although it didn't show on his naturally solemn, well-structured face. He had never taken Muggle studies - his parents had forbidden it, and he had never been keen to disobey - so all of this was incredibly foreign to his pureblood sensibilities.

"I see," he said finally, pulling the blanket closer to his chin. At the mention of food, however, he craned his neck so that he could get a better look at the bowls on the table. If he was honest with himself, he was rather peckish, but the table was slightly more than arm's length away and he wasn't about to ask the Gryffindor to serve him.

He had a feeling that wouldn't go over well.

"Thank you," he said, his voice taking on the ultra-polite quality of those who are deliberately trying to avoid any offense. "It smells... nice."

He was almost certain that the boy hadn't cooked it himself, although he dared not voice that thought out loud lest he take it as an insult and split his skull in half.

Ezra kept his eyes determinedly glued to the television until this was no longer possible, largely because Noah had unwittingly stepped partially into his view and was now obscuring part of the screen. Then, he spoke; Ezra shifted a bit, studying the blond with dark, permanently half-lidded eyes.

"Yes," he agreed, somewhat awkwardly. He did, indeed, know. "Perhaps... my judgment of you was in error."

He wasn't sure if he really thought this or not, but he was too weak to argue and he really didn't want anything to interrupt his watching of Crossroads for any extended length of time. As Noah squeezed out an apology, Ezra looked to him and then back to the television, feeling a bit overwhelmed at all the sensory stimulation.

He really rather preferred the silence to the apology, all things considered; when someone apologized to you, it was simply good manners to accept. Now he had no choice.

"That's... alright," he said slowly in his posh London accent, which was slightly exaggerated when compared with the ridiculous voices on the television. At the mention of Dan, though, he offered a wry smirk.

"Oh," he said, knowingly. "You think you've gotten off. I assure you, Ledger, there's plenty of feminine fury to go around in times like these."

Noah nodded, at the lack of something to say. He looked at the door to his side of the condo. He should leave now, that he'd done what he had to do and the conversation had remained civil. It was good progress, in his opinion.

Ezra's smirk surprised him, especially because it wasn't followed by a malicious comment towards him. He huffed out what could've been a laugh. "I'm surprised I'm not dead after the killing looks she gave me, before you returned."

He slipped his hands into his pockets and took a small step away, then stopped again, accessing his rival. "I don't know if we'll ever be friends, but we do want the same thing, I think. I want to keep Jo safe, you want to keep her safe. And they'll stick together." He offered the other boy a shrug and turned away, not before saying, "Who would've thought, maybe we'll have to work as a team."

-/-/-

"Presenting your 1978 Junior Tranmere Rovers," drawled Avery Rosier as he read a tiny headline on the back page of the sports section. The 25-year-old folded a copy of the Liverpool Echo, a Muggle paper, in his hands; the pictures didn't move, but it was still easy to spot him... that insufferable Gryffindor.

"How quaint."

He looked over at his companion, Logan Hawke, and smiled a small, feral smile. This mission hadn't been his first choice by far; he had joined up with the Death Eaters for other, bigger reasons. But as soon as he'd heard that this operation might lead to the capture of his dear cousin, he had been sold.

His aunt and uncle Greengrass were sure to pay well for the return of their only son.

"Ready?" he asked silkily, watching the younger boy carefully. He had already failed once; he was going to have to stick close.

Logan studied the picture. Oh yes, he recognized that face, he remembered seeing the boy dressed in red and gold, always in Potter's shadow. By then, Logan was too old to care much about Quidditch anymore, but he remembered him.

He met the other man's eyes. He hadn't been pleased to be assigned to a partner. He didn't need a babysitter. But he had more important things to think about, and it wasn't like he was going to complain to the Greengrasses.

He finished his beer. "Oh yes, I am ready. Who's going to approach him first, you or me? I doubt he remembers me."

"You can do the talking," said Avery, as though he was doing the other boy a favor by letting him take the spotlight. The truth was that he didn't have as much of a way with words - he was much more proficient at hexing people than reasoning with them - and he definitely didn't have the patience to deal with some thickheaded Gryffindor.

The pair left without tipping, slipping out of the small cafe and into the street. One man in a suit bumped Avery on the shoulder as he walked by; the man turned, looked momentarily bewildered, and then apologized to him.

Avery couldn't keep the disgust from his face; he brushed his shoulder with a small shudder of displeasure.

"If only the Dark Lord would rise overnight," he said darkly, falling into step behind Hawke. "The bloody things breed like rodents. Fitting, though, I suppose."

They came to a stop in front of a small, run-down building. People could be seen inside using various exercise machines. The sign hung on the inside of the glass door read OPEN.

"Shall we?"

Logan spent the time they took to get to the building thinking how to approach the boy. He had no desire of getting anywhere near him. He was a half-blood Gryffindor and he and the mudblood… his lips twisted at the thought.

He forced himself to bury those feelings; the whole plan depended on him fooling that idiot long enough to find his sister. He needed to take her away from those people as soon as possible. As long as the boy didn't get all weird on him, he could disguise his feelings long enough.

He put on his most charming smile and sweet talked the young woman behind the reception desk that they only needed to deliver a message to his buddy Mr. Ledger and she gladly and oh, so helpfully, told them where to find him. They entered the room with all the Muggle exercise machines.

It wasn't difficult to find his target. The bulky boy was standing by a row of machines, arms crossed, saying something to a woman who was propped on a machine with pedals that simulated a bicycle.

He ran his hand over his hair, ruffling it a bit and stood near another bicycle, far enough from the woman that she wouldn't hear them, and drew Ledger's attention. "Do you work here, mate?"

Ledger looked up and around, studied him for a moment and nodded. He said something else to the woman and approached.

Noah narrowed his eyes as he studied the other man, disoriented. There was something very familiar about him, but he couldn't pinpoint it.

"How long do you think I should do this?" The man asked, then lowered his voice. "Never thought I'd see Gryffindor's Quidditch Captain working for Muggles."

Noah nodded absentmindedly; he couldn't take his eyes off of the man. His eyes were piercing through him and made him slightly uneasy, but he was no trouble to look at. "Yeah, I…" He paused, shocked. His eyes widened. "How do you know…?"

"How do I know who you are? Or what you were in Hogwarts?" The man gave a lopsided smile, and Noah's stomach gave an odd little jump. He cleared his throat and nodded again.

The man offered a hand to shake his, his face all too serious now. "I'm Hawke. Logan Hawke. I suspect you recognize the name."

Noah took a step back immediately, his expression hardened. He untangled his arms, ready to fight. "What do you want?"

Hawke raised an eyebrow and his hand drooped. "I see he's been poisoning you already," he said, sounding sad and resigned. "That was quick. I've come to warn you about Ezra Greengrass. And to offer my help, because even though my sister and I have our issues," he paused for a moment, looking troubled. "I just want her to be safe."

Noah looked over the man's shoulder, to the other man approaching them. Every muscle in his body tensed. His blood was racing, his thoughts were racing. Every time instinct told him to run, suspicion made him stay. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Logan followed the younger boy's eyes and saw Avery approaching. "That's Avery. Greengrass's cousin. He has been helping me. If you come with us, we-"

"Save it, Hawke. I'm not interested." Noah looked around. There were at least a dozen Muggles in sight. He wondered if that mattered to those two. He took another step back, then another.

He started to turn away when Hawke's deep, slightly drawled out voice reached him and crawled over his skin, giving him a chill. "Did he tell you how he got hurt the other night?"

Noah stopped in his tracks. "Yes. You attacked him; you nearly killed him."

Logan chuckled without humor.

"Oh really?" He leaned back against the bicycle. "I was in London. I arrived at the Leaky Cauldron, and I saw him just outside, talking to some suspicious looking men. They didn't look trustworthy at all. And then I saw them giving him money. A lot of money. So I confronted him, because I thought my sister was with him. But when I mentioned her, he attacked me. He must've felt cornered. I hoped I had made enough damage to keep him from going too far away, but he still managed to Disapparate."

Logan made a pause, letting his words sink in. Ledger was clearly caught off balance by that story. "He's not who you think he is. Just ask his cousin," he gestured to Avery.

Avery watched the expressions on the blond boy's face shift from angry, to cautious, to interested... and really, interest was all that was required. Once the thought was there, it was all too easy to plant the seeds of doubt in a willing mind.

"I've known Ezra since he was born," Avery said, nodding at Logan and trying to look concerned. Then, he too lowered his voice and leaned forward. "He's always had a knack for magic, but recently - before he left home - he was learning some incredibly dark spells. Terrible, awful spells. He would go missing, hours at a time, lying about where he was... he broke his mother's heart."

He paused for effect, trying not to let his smugness leak into his heartfelt lying.

"We think he might be trying to join up with... with..." he pursed his lips, as though the mere thought gave him pain. He was doing quite well, really, he thought. He let the sentence trail off and die, peering up at Noah's face to see his reaction.

Noah shook his head. No, it couldn't be. Ezra was arrogant and full of himself with those pureblood ideas, but he wasn't… he wasn't really evil…

But, then again, how would he know? The Slytherin barely talked to anyone other than Daniella, and even between the two of them, things had been tense since the incident in London. But that didn't mean he would be capable of…

'with the Death Eaters', were the words left unsaid. He swallowed hard at the thought. He looked at the two men. Looked at the face of the man the others seemed so scared of. Logan disturbed him in more than one way, but he seemed sincerely worried about Daniella when he'd mentioned her. But Jo had told him about the things he'd done to Jo's family. The things he'd done teaming up with Ezra, in fact. He didn't think he could trust Logan Hawke, but something told him maybe he couldn't trust Ezra either, until they had a little talk. And the thought of a Death Eater living under their roof…

Someone called him from the entrance, snapping him out of his dark thoughts. "Ledger, your shift is over. Jones is here, you can leave when you're done."

"I have to go," he said abruptly, leaving toward the staff locker room, glad they couldn't follow him there. He had to talk to someone, he didn't know what to think. And there was only one person he could safely share his concerns with. Having made his decision, he showered and changed back into his own clothes, then left through the staff's back door, making his way to the docks.

Josiah was on break, swinging his feet over the edge of the northmost dock and enjoying a cold soda and a sandwich. It wasn't so bad, really, this job; being on the river was one of his favorite things, and he loved to watch the boats go in and out, coming home after a long sail or starting a long journey to other parts of the country.

The heat, though, he could do without.

He had almost finished his sandwich and his break when a shadow clouded the sun from behind him. He turned, feeling a jolt of panic run through him - the other night's events had left him shaken, and he almost reached for his wand in his pocket. At the sight of his boyfriend's face, however, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Hi, you," he said, smiling. "I don't get off for another hour, you know that."

He paused, shielding his eyes with one hand so he could get a better look at Noah's face. The other boy was frowning, looking troubled.

"What's wrong?"

Noah looked around and, after making sure they were alone, sat next to his boyfriend. He had been rehearsing how to explain to him what had happened without making him panic, but now he had forgotten all of his practiced speech.

"How much do you trust Greengrass? I mean, really, really trust him?"

Jo looked momentarily confused.

He thought about it.

"I don't know," he said uncertainly, wondering where this conversation was leading. "He has his flaws, sure, but I don't think he's..."

Prejudiced? Well, no, that wasn't true. The Slytherin still flinched from his touch at times; he knew it was instinctive, and a hard habit to break, but he couldn't deny that it hurt his feelings, especially since he'd gone to so much trouble to save his life.

"I mean, if he was going to murder us, I reckon he'd have done it by now?"

The inflection at the end made it a question, as though he wasn't entirely sure if it was true or not, but it was the best he could do under the circumstances.

"Why?"

"What if he's trying to keep us close or control us for some other reason?" Noah guessed. He huffed. "What if he's hiding something? I mean, first he disappears every day, to 'find a job', according to him, but he always came back with nothing; then, he disappears and returns with all that money, bleeding all over the place! If it was his all along, why didn't he get it before? And he always has that look, like he doesn't want to be there."

Noah looked away, at the river. So many theories had crossed his mind on his way there, each one worse than the other. But the things Logan had said… He hadn't seemed as bad as they'd wanted him to believe.

He looked at Josiah again. "Look, don't freak out, but I saw Daniella's brother today. Well, he found me, to be more accurate." And he told Jo about the conversation he'd had with the two strangers and their warnings.

"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say he's controlling us," Josiah said diplomatically, trying to let his reason win out over his constant, nagging fear. "He's just a... a naturally surly person, I think... some people are like that, you know..."

He trailed off and fell silent as Noah started to talk about the job hunt, and Josiah winced slightly, because the thought had already crossed his mind on more than one occasion. He'd always chalked up Ezra's inability to find Muggle employment normal - at least, for the first week or so. He knew the Slytherin needed time to adjust, but after that...

He had wondered, secretly, if Ezra had really wanted to find a job at all. But he'd never thought of it in this context.

The Ravenclaw searched for any shred of hope to cling to, but came up short. If he was rational about the entire situation, and he generally was, there was no way to know that Ezra had really been searching for a job that entire time. They had taken his word for it, mostly because Dan had taken his word for it, and he had seemed so frustrated, it hadn't been very hard to believe.

"You what?" Jo said suddenly, looking horrified. "How did he find you? Noah-"

His mouth snapped shut as he remembered that Noah had asked him not to panic, and he listened silently as he detailed the conversation that he'd had with the two men.

Josiah shook his head.

"I don't know," he said, feeling a bit desperate now. He couldn't say that Ezra was totally blameless, but at the same time... "Logan has done some... I mean, he's really..."

He shook his head again, not wanting to believe.

"We need to talk to Dan," he said finally, looking at his rippled reflection in the water with furrowed eyebrows. "She knows both of them better than either of us. I want to know what she thinks."

"Is he really that bad? I mean, I know he threatened you before and he's done some nasty stuff. I'm not saying he is a good person, or that we should trust him, but…" Noah paused, then asked, "What if we can't trust Greengrass either?"

He nodded in agreement. "You're right, she has to know. When can you leave? We should find her before she gets home. Greengrass will be there."

Josiah looked back at his coworkers, who were busy loading things onto a large fishing trawler, and sighed. He hated to leave early, because he needed the money and he liked to finish what he started, but at the same time...

This was important. Maybe even life-or-death important.

"I'll go now, just give me a moment to let the boss know," he said. His brows were still furrowed. He rose to his feet, picked up his soda bottle, and stuffed the rest of his sandwich into his mouth hurriedly. When he returned, he looked a little meek.

"Come on," he murmured, starting for the nearest street. "Gosh, he was livid, I had to tell him I was having a family emergency."

He pursed his lips worriedly, hoping that he wasn't, indeed, having a family emergency. With Logan involved, he could never be sure.

It took them about ten minutes to walk to the restaurant that Dan worked in from the docks, and the bell on the door chimed merrily as they entered. It was moderately crowded, but not packed; the smells made Josiah hungry all over again. Pushing those thoughts out of his mind, he starting looking back into the kitchens for Dan.

"Dan?" he called through the open service window.

Noah peeked into the kitchen over Jo's shoulder, but the face that showed up in front of them belonged to a scrawny young man, probably around their age. "What are you doing? You can't come in here!" He attempted to shove them out of the way.

"Where's Daniella Hawke?" Noah asked. "Can you call her for us? It's important."

The lad raised his cap slightly and scratched his head.

"The boss won't be happy with her, but I'll get her, if it's that important…" Turning his head into the kitchen, he shouted. "Hey, Dan! There's someone here for you!"

Daniella's boss was standing in the furthest corner of the kitchen, talking to one of the cooks. She looked up from the pile of potatoes and gave him a questioning glance. His eyes were partially lidded with disapproval, but he waved her off, showing her an open hand.

Five minutes. She put down the knife, dried her hands and pushed the swing doors open, wondering who would come here looking for her at this hour. She found Jo and Noah waiting, looking grim. She proceeded with caution.

"What are you doing here?"

"We need to talk," said Josiah immediately, pulling her through the back door nearby and into the back alley, which was quiet and dark. Despite all of this, Josiah pulled out his wand and quickly, non-verbally, cast a couple of Charms.

And, despite the Charms, he still lowered his voice to a whisper.

"Logan found Noah at work. He had Rosier with him, Ezra's cousin, and they said... well, they said that we shouldn't trust him, that he might have been going off places, and that he lied to us about what happened the other night, and... they said... they said that he might be trying to join up with You-Know-Who."

Josiah took a deep breath, feeling a bit winded after packing so much information into such a short span of time.

"And then I told Noah that we needed to talk to you, because you know them both better than either of us, and..."

He looked pleadingly at his best friend.

"I don't want to believe it, Dan, I really don't, but what if it's true?"

Daniella stared hazedly at the two of them. It took a few moments for the words to sink in.

"That's ridiculous!" She denied, but a strange cold settled around her heart. "It's not true. It not!" Daniella shook her head, anxiety and denial warring inside her. It's not true. "He was hurt, you saw him! He came back, and… and he ran away from his home… he wouldn't… he wouldn't join…" She shuddered at the thought.

Most of the time, she had to guess what he was thinking. He said he loved her, but he acted on his own terms, doing whatever he wanted, with no regard for her feelings. Like the night he'd disappeared; he just brushed the subject off everytime she tried to bring it up.

She backed away and sat on some haphazardly piled empty crates, closing her hands around her arms protectively. Of course it wasn't true, Logan had to be lying. Ezra wasn't like that, not anymore.

He'd changed. He had!

Hadn't he?

"Logan is lying," she said out loud, pushing away her doubts.

"I'm not lying, Dany." That voice chilled her to the bone.

Josiah wanted to comfort her, to say something to take away the pain and anxiety she was feeling now, but he couldn't think of anything worth saying. They only had their instincts, and you couldn't always rely on instincts in a war.

Then, he heard Logan's voice.

His heart skipped a beat, or several, and he whipped around with his wand out so fast that a shot of golden sparks streamed out and sizzled on the pavement. Logan - and Rosier was with him.

"What are you two doing here," he said in a low, dangerous tone. Then, his eyes widened slightly in realization before narrowing instantly.

"You followed him." He motioned towards Noah slightly. "That's not exactly innocent behavior, Logan. If ye aren't lying, prove it. Tell us why we should believe you."

He positioned himself between Logan and Daniella, suddenly feeling fiercely protective. His wand hand was shaking as he waited for an explanation.

Noah stood slightly to the side, unsure. He'd never known how to calm down upset people, so he let Jo handle the situation, but he snapped to attention at that voice. A second later, he was standing by Jo's side, wand in hand.

Logan's features hardened when they blocked Dany from his view. His hand closed around his wand, in his pocket, itchy to curse mudblood and the half-blood, but he controlled himself and forced his face to relax.

"Easy, boy. I just want to talk to my lil' sis, see if she's alright. No need to get all flustered."

There was a moment of tense silence before Daniella stood up. He smiled at the sight of her.

"Hey, Dany. You're too skinny! Aren't these blokes feeding you properly?"

"Answer him, Logan," Daniella said, coming around Jo and Noah to face her brother. He had grown a two day stubble, but otherwise he looked just like she remembered, including those cold, penetrating eyes.

Logan rolled his eyes and opened his arms. "Is that the way to greet me after all this time? Tsc, I wonder what sort of things he's been saying about me," he said sadly.

She ignored his offer, so he sighed and said more seriously, running his eyes over the trio. "My apologies, Ledger, but I had the best intentions when I followed you. You wouldn't tell me where my sister was otherwise. And I desperately needed to tell her what I found out…"

He took a step forward and wrapped his hand around Dany's arm. "You have to believe me, sis."

Daniella tensed when he grabbed her arm. "Let go of me, Logan," she said stiffly.

"She's fine," Josiah said shortly, giving Logan a steely look. He looked after Dan worriedly; he wasn't sure that letting the two meet was a good idea. He only knew vaguely of Logan, and most of his memories of the other boy were bad ones. What he knew, however, is that Logan would do anything - literally anything - to keep Daniella 'safe' from whatever he perceived to be unfit for her.

"Let go of her and answer my question, Logan," Jo echoed, feeling the muscles in his wand arm flex involuntarily. "Why should we believe you? Why did you curse Ezra? What proof do you have that he isn't trustworthy?"

Avery, who had been leaning against the brick wall of the restaurant nonchalantly, rolled his eyes. Josiah glared at him.

Logan raised his eyebrows at the mudblood, as if he was impressed. 'Trying to grow some bollocks, are you, boy?' He thought. It made him want to laugh, but he restrained himself. He only had one chance to do this.

He let go of Dany's arm, raising his empty hands in surrender. "Alright, alright."

"What I told Ledger about the other night is true. I ran into Greengrass in the Leaky Cauldron and he attacked me. He didn't like that I asked too many questions. He cursed me. Dany, he used the Cruciatus curse on me, so I had to defend myself. That's why I hit him back. Just to make him stop. But then he Disapparated before I could get up, and I lost track of him."

He gave Dany his best pleading look, that had always worked in the past. "I know I come on too strong, sometimes, but I can't help it. You're my only sister, and mother would kill me if I let something happen to you." He glanced at Johnston, then back to Dany. "I did some things I shouldn't have, in the past. I know now what happened. I was blind with concern for you, but… that concern was used against me, and I was… forced to do some of the things that I did."

He gestured to Rosier standing behind him. "Avery here was the one who opened my eyes to it. How some people had been forced to do things against their will. Being cursed to do so. So we started digging deeper into it, and we found out that your boyfriend was being trained to join…" he lowered his voice. "You-Know-Who."

He could see the resistance in Dany's eyes, the suspicion. But he could also see the fear, the doubts. If he didn't make it work now, he wasn't entirely sure what Avery could do, so he used his last card. "I know you don't believe me yet, but you will. We've found out there's going to be an attack, soon." He paused to hold their attention and looked at Johnston. "They're going to attack Stonehaven, and Greengrass is involved up to his neck in those plans."

Josiah lowered his wand slowly, brow knitted with concern. Not for Logan; to be honest, he couldn't care less whether Logan got hexed or not. But Dan cared. Dan cared about both of them. What if Ezra really had attacked Logan first? What if Logan really had been trying to keep him away from his sister?

It certainly sounded like something he would do.

Jo looked at Noah quickly, cautiously.

"You were under the Imperius Curse?" Josiah said, slightly incredulous. He'd heard of it, of course; everyone who had taken NEWT level Defense Against the Dark Arts had heard of it. He also knew that it was a very advanced bit of magic.

"It happened to me, too," said Avery, speaking for the first time. Josiah craned his neck around to see him better; he was partially hidden in the dim light. "Some nights I would come home, covered in mud and not able to remember where I had been. I don't know who cast it; I don't even have any way of remembering what I might have done. I was afraid to even tell anyone until Logan told me the same things had been happening to him..."

He trailed off, looking morose.

Josiah faltered.

"What does that have to do with Ezra?" he asked finally, not entirely convinced. "I just don't see... he's been living with us for months-"

"Ezra will make you believe whatever he wants you to believe," Avery said flatly. "He's been loyal to the cause for years. Don't you see? He was trying to run from you. He told Logan as much. If he hadn't been injured, he would have taken off with his money and joined up that very night. A man like that doesn't change."

Jo shook his head. If it was hard for him to hear...

He looked over at Dan, feeling helpless. When Logan mentioned Stonehaven, it took all of his willpower to avoid the tears that threatened to well in his eyes.

He had trusted Ezra, stood up for him. Worried about him. Cared for him.

Dan wasn't sure how she was still standing.

A man like that doesn't change.

Why was it so hard to breathe?

She listened in silence, each word another stab on an already bruised heart. There was no way to avoid it. She'd been betrayed by either her brother or by the person she had so foolishly given her heart to. And she didn't know who to believe; who to trust.

Could she really believe Logan? Had he really just been trying to help her all along?

She walked away from all of them, needing the space, and leaned against a wall, hiding her face on her hands. She remembered very vividly how she'd felt when Ezra told her Logan had attacked him, and now Logan was telling her the opposite.

A man like that doesn't change. But he had changed. In the last few months… she couldn't believe it had all been a lie, all that time together, all the times he'd said he loved her. He was changing…

The mention of Stonehaven made her snap to attention. "Why do you say that? How is he involved?" She walked up to Logan until she was inches away from his face and grabbed at the front of his shirt. "Is it Jo's family?"

Logan held her wrists carefully, releasing himself from her grip. Now that he finally had her in his reach, he wanted to just take her away from there. He could just Disapparate and they would never find his baby sister again.

But he needed to convince her or she would just run away again on the first opportunity, so instead, he said, "I don't know, Dany. I really don't know. We couldn't get any more information, it was too dangerous. But you will know, when it happens. They said it was going to be grand."

Looking in his sister's eyes, he knew he had her. The seeds of doubt had been successfully planted in her mind. Walking away now was the final, perfect touch. If that didn't convince them, nothing else would.

He looked at his partner seriously, then at the credulous group. "We should go now. And don't worry, we won't follow you. We don't want Greengrass to feel trapped by us just yet. We will try to find out more." He put his hands on each side of Daniella's face and kissed her forehead gingerly. "Be careful, Dany. Stay safe and I'll come back for you when you believe me."

Merlin's beard, he should have been an actor. He clenched his teeth to keep the serious face and let go of his incredibly upset sister.

The group of three stood in silence after the two older boys had retreated. Josiah was very still; slowly, he slid his wand back into his pocket, hiding it from view.

He remembered, painfully, the day that Ezra had come crashing into Stonehaven with Dan in tow. He had taken him to his favorite inn. He had told Frank that he was a friend from school. He had given him money, given him food, taught him to make a Patronus. He had defended him to his other friends, given him the benefit of the doubt.

He had soaked his hands with blood trying to save his life. And yet, all that time...

"Let's go home," he whispered, shaking his head lightly. They would have to confront him sooner rather than later. "If he really was trying to leave, nothing will stop him from doing it while we're away. He's already mostly healed up."

"He wouldn't go without telling m-" Daniella stopped. Hadn't he done exactly that a few days ago?

She couldn't look at any of them. She'd insisted and pleaded and practically forced Jo to accept Ezra. "I need to get changed…" she murmured tensely, disappearing into the restaurant before they could say anything.

Noah looked at Jo. "Well, that was… intense." He shook his head. He wasn't exactly an emotional person, but if he had a little sister, he would probably be as protective of her as he'd seen Logan being, just then. Except he would've gone with her to break the face of whoever was breaking her heart like that.

"What do you think she's going to do now?" he asked in a low voice.

After Dan had disappeared back into the building to change, Josiah shook his head in response to Noah's question.

"I don't know," he replied honestly. "I just can't believe... it all fits, but I really thought..."

He trailed off, not really needing to say more. Ezra had fooled all of them, even Daniella, apparently, who had been so close to him. Anyone who could lie that well was dangerous on their own, but the fact that he was trying to join You-Know-Who made him infinitely more so.

As they waited, more and more awful thoughts piled into Josiah's mind.

"He might try to run," he said to Noah, worried. "I mean, he's already tried, I suppose, but... he could try anything."

The thought gave him a chill.

It was then that Daniella came back, and Jo looked up at her sympathetically and pulled her into a hug.

"Whatever happens," he told her, speaking softly into her hair. "I won't leave you. We'll stay together no matter what, okay?"

"Maybe it would be better if he did run away. Easier for her, at least," Noah murmured, but he fell silent when Daniella returned.

Daniella clung to Jo for a long time; she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. "What do I do, Jo?" she whispered. "Ezra wouldn't do this to me. He couldn't…" Could she have been so wrong all along?

Jo's promise helped her regain some sort of composure.

"Okay," she said weakly. She pulled away and wiped the tears with a sleeve. Blinking repeatedly to clear her eyes, she finally said, "Let's ask him."