October 20, 1978
It had only two days later that Althea ran into Aurelie once again. Althea was sitting in her hotel room reflecting on that visit. She had known that Aurelie and those that had been with her were weird, but she had no idea how weird until her latest encounter. Although, to be quite honest they weren't as weird as they seemed considering they lived in France. Aurelie had told her yesterday, that most of the people with her were half-Veela, and Althea realized that made sense as to why they were so guarded and why they had been so aggressive. Maybe, they could be potential allies for the Order of the Phoenix. From what she had learned so far of them, they seemed to want everyone who could be a threat to stay away and that meant the purebloods who were on Voldemort's side. Perhaps, there could be a way to convince them to join with the Order.
They needed every advantage that they could get, and while Aurelie and Althea weren't close, it didn't seem like the other girl hated her which was something that Althea could attempt to take advantage of. Immediately a sick feeling overcame her, and she dismissed the thought. Althea wasn't the type to manipulate people and to use them. If she was going to get Aurelie and the others on the Order's side, she needed to do it honestly and if they said no, she couldn't try to manipulate or force them into it. Anything else might drive them right into Voldemort's arms.
An owl flew in through the open window, landing on the desk. Delicately, Althea untied the roll of parchment from the owl's leg. She rubbed at the feathers on the owl's chest and then unrolled the paper, her eyes falling on the familiar loopy scrawl of Remus.
Thea,
Dumbledore told me to tell you that it's urgent you come back to Britain, right away. He doesn't think it's safe in France anymore, even though, as far as I know, your reports have been dull and boring. He fears that something bad is going to happen soon and he doesn't want you to be in the crossfire. As a matter of fact, neither do I. He also asked me to tell you that, your mission isn't that important and there is the possibility it can be continued at a later date but you need to get out now.
Come home and be careful. Dumbledore wants you back within an hour of receiving this missive.
- Remus
Althea huffed. One of the rare times that she gets a letter from Remus, and of course it has to do with Order business. She shouldn't have expected anything less, really, but she couldn't help herself from foolishly hoping that this time it would be different.
"Well, I suppose, I must go," Althea mumbled, rising to her feet.
She moved around the room slowly packing up her things by hand. It would be far easier to use a wand, but she needed something to occupy her hands and her thoughts. There was a reason that Dumbledore wanted her back so soon and so urgently, but she just didn't know why. If something big was going to happen in France, surely, she would have heard about it by now. Gossip travelled fast, and while she had no friends she was a skilled eavesdropper, so it was strange. But the handwriting was Remus's, and so was the owl.
Althea sighed, grabbing her duffel bag and resting the strap on her shoulder. She'd Apparate to Lily and James's, and then she would head to her apartment. Death Eaters had no idea where Lily and James resided, so if this was some ploy by Voldemort, she would know before falling right into it. Spinning on her heel, Althea Apparated right into James and Lily's living room. The redhead let out a startled shriek, at Althea's sudden appearance and the taller girl smiled a bit sheepishly, as James spluttered from where he was sitting on the couch beside Lily.
"What the bloody hell do you want, Althea?" James grumbled, a pout appearing on his face as Lily moved away from him and approached her.
"I got a letter from Remus, that Dumbledore needed to see me urgently. But it struck me as a little suspicious so I thought that I would come here," Althea answered. "A spell that replicates handwriting isn't too difficult to cast, and typically when it concerns my mission, Dumbledore would be the one to write me. Not Remus on behalf of Dumbledore."
Lily hummed, worry glittering in her green eyes. "It does sound suspicious, doesn't it? Was Remus's owl used?"
"Mm-hm," Althea hummed. "That's why I thought I would come here, rather than go straight home just in case it is a trap."
"James, contact Sirius. See if he's seen Remus." Lily told the dark-haired boy, not looking away from Althea. "I'll make you some tea, Thea. And then you can tell me how wonderful France was."
With a crack James Disapparated, leaving Lily and Althea alone in the tiny house. The two headed into the kitchen, where Lily set about making the tea. Althea leaned against the island, her arms crossed over her chest. She couldn't help but wonder if perhaps she was being a little over-cautious, but then quickly decided that considering the circumstances that no such thing existed. Lily sat a cup of Oolong tea in front of her and Althea gratefully took a sip of it, her eyes watching Lily carefully as the redhead fixed another cup of tea.
The two were quiet for a few more moments before Lily decided to break the silence. "How was France?"
"Paris is a beautiful city, although regretfully, I didn't see much of it," Althea answered, sipping delicately at the tea. "I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't doing a mission for Dumbledore, but since I was, I couldn't enjoy it to its fullest extent. I'd like to think, that perhaps, when this war is over and assuming we all survive, that all of us could take a trip there."
Lily smiled, "That'd be a lot of fun."
"I thought so," Althea agreed. "Of course, we'd all have to learn French."
"James and Sirius already know it," Lily informed her. Althea raised a brow, so Lily elaborated, "It's because they are purebloods. They are supposed to know the romantic languages, like Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish."
"Hm, then I suppose only you and I would need to learn French," Althea said.
"Indeed, but it shouldn't be too hard for us. We were the smartest witches in our year at Hogwarts."
The conversation dissolved into more lighthearted talk. Topics ranged from upcoming weddings in the Order, discussing the properties and uses of a unicorn's horn, and books – both Muggle and wizard – before the conversation once again inevitably returned to the subject of weddings. Ideally, Althea would have loved to say that her wedding with Remus was nearly ready, but that was not the case. The mission that Dumbledore had sent her on had taken up much of her time and since she was in a different country, discussing wedding details with Remus wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. She still wanted to get married in November or December, when there was fresh snow on the ground, but now she wasn't sure if that was going to be possible.
"You'll figure it out, Thea," Lily told her with a roll of her eyes. "Let's be honest, the chances of the wedding not happening this year are low, wouldn't you say? I know for a fact that Remus is just as eager to get married as you are."
"Really," Althea smiled softly.
"Really." Lily punctuated her statement with a nod. "We're witches, so it won't be that hard to come up with a dress and to get decorations ready. The only thing you really need to focus on, are your vows."
Althea flushed, "So are you saying that you'd like to be the wedding planner?"
"Well if you insist," Lily said airily, a bright smile on her face. She sobered, "On a more serious note, that's exactly what I'm trying to say. I just want to see my two best friends happy with each other."
"Thank you, Lily."
"No problem, now finish your tea and we'll go back to the room to wait for James."
It wasn't long before James returned with Sirius in tow, and the grave expressions on their faces made Althea nervous. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably, and she knew that her skin was pale and her eyes were wide with horror. It was odd seeing the grave, almost horrified expressions on their faces because typically James and Sirius were such jovial, happy-go-lucky people. Surely, if they had any sort of good news, they wouldn't be wearing expressions such as these. If they had good news, they'd be smiling and at ease. Something had happened, Althea just knew it.
"We went over to your apartment," James said, walking over to Lily and slinging an arm over her shoulder, tucking her against his side. In his other hand, he seemed to be absentmindedly twirling his wand. "The place was trashed, Thea. Holes in the wall, scorch marks, and furniture overturned. It looked bad."
Her hands started to shake and she turned panicked eyes over to Sirius who nodded somberly, confirming James's words. "What about Remus?" she asked hoarsely, her hands clenching into fists in a pitiful bid to stop them from shaking.
"We didn't find any sign of him," Sirius answered instead of James. "His clothes were in your bedroom, and his stuff could still be found inside the apartment but we didn't see him."
"So, now what?" Lily asked, seeing that Althea was in no state of mind to pursue the subject.
"We alert Dumbledore," James decided, voice grave. He looked at Althea a gleam of sadness and pity in his eyes, "I'm sorry, Thea."
Althea closed her eyes, an errant tear slipping down her cheek and falling to the floor. She knew what those words meant, she wasn't stupid. James didn't think that they were going to find Remus alive. She had to admit that the chances of actually finding him alive were small, since everyone that the Death Eaters abducted died, but she wasn't going to believe that Remus was already dead. He was a fighter, and so he had to be alive. There was no other outcome that she was going to accept.
Her eyes darted over the features of her friends, hating the looks of pity that they were giving her and she hated seeing the sadness in their eyes. She hated that they were seemingly just giving up on Remus. Did their friendship with him mean so little to them?
"I'm going home."
"Thea, maybe that isn't the best idea," Lily tried, stepping toward her with an arm extended but Althea wrenched away from her, her eyes lighting up with anger and the redhead paused in her steps.
"I said that I'm going home, and I am." Althea grabbed her bags off the floor, "I'll see you guys later."
With that she Disapparated, leaving her friends staring after her in shock. For now, she decided once she was in her apartment, she would clean and regroup but then she'd be finding Remus. Althea gripped her wand tightly in her hand, and steeled herself as she looked around at the ruins of what had once been her spotless apartment. She'd find Remus and she'd make the Death Eaters pay, that was for certain.