If anyone has been following this story I apologize for not updating for ages. This chapter and the previous were supposed to be one but they turned out to be way too long so I broke it into two chapters therefore if one of these doesn't seem to have much of a point that's the reason.
Disclaimer: Deathly Hallows is awesome, clearly I'm not as good a writer as J.K Rowling and clearly I don't own Harry Potter.
The time was five minutes to two O'clock at Freeway Street and in a small but busy Café on the corner a young teenage couple walked in. They were holding hands and whispering to each other. The mousy brunette giggled and they brought there heads together in a quick and sweet kiss the black hair mingling with brown. The girl giggled some more and they went and sat at an empty table. They propped up the menu and brought their lips together again. After some more whispered talking and giggling they kissed again for a few seconds longer. A few people around the Café watched this for a minute or so but one by one they either got bored or irritated, by the time the waitress had rolled her eyes at them as they ordered two milkshakes nobody was still watching the open but all together discreet teenage couple. Nobody noticed at least when a few minutes later middle aged women tapped the girl on the shoulder winked and then led them outside.
"That was an interesting disguise" the woman said as she led them quickly over the road to a car parking lot that was currently not being used.
"For the record Sage, I did not enjoy that!" Katie whispered to him wiping her mouth. Sage had not enjoyed it either; it had been awkward, a last minute idea, but it had worked.
"So, am I as bad a kisser as you thought?" He smirked in reply. Katie shook her head and didn't reply.
They quickly reached the parking lot and walked to the other side before the woman turned and said "We are going to go to a safe place we will need to apparate". Sage stared at the woman for a moment. She certainly resembled Katie, the mousy brown hair, the heart-shaped face and the small but pretty complexion. He drew back slightly. The woman saw his hesitation. "Sage I know it's hard but please try to trust me on this" there was a note of desperation in the voice.
He looked at Katie quickly and saw her nod. It all comes down to whether I trust Katie's judgement, he thought and I suppose I do. He reached forward and held the woman's hand and next thing he knew was feeling the unpleasant sensation of disapperation.
The feeling of constriction that disapperation brought abated had for a second when Sage felt another constriction around his torso and after a second of confusion he realised that someone had grabbed him. He panicked, this had been such an obvious trap, how could he have led himself into it? He pulled at his arms and pushed out. To his surprise the person fell back. Sages hand had already darted towards his wand in his trouser pocket before he saw the persons face fully. He gasped.
"Hermione?"
"Sage, oh Sage we were so worried when we heard about all this" Hermione replied breathlessly and as she did so she moved forward again to embrace him again.
"Hermione, you really need to stop doing that you almost gave him a heart attack" came a voice from behind Hermione. The tall red haired figure of Ron Weasley appeared in Sage's line of vision.
Katie and her mother walked forward towards a sofa and sat down. It was only now that Sage noticed that the room was rather small but well furnished with wooden panels and flooring, a warm fireplace and comfortable seating. As Hermione let go of him the door on the opposite side of the room opened and a shaggy and unkempt Remus Lupin entered with a violet haired woman whom Sage knew vaguely as the Auror Nymphadora Tonks from her patrol at Hogwarts the previous year.
"Sage," Lupin said his arms spread wide "I see Elena got you here safely"
"Professor Lupin!" Sage exclaimed "I can't say how much I'm glad to see you, all of you in fact, but what's going on?"
"Well" said Lupin as he walked over to a seat and sat down, Tonks sat down next to him "All of the people you see in this room excluding yourself and Katherine Hill are members of the Order of the Phoenix, however unofficially" he glanced at Ron and Hermione.
Katie gasped, "You never told me you were in the Order" She said at her mother.
"Well the less you knew the safer you were until now" She replied.
"Ok so where are we?" Sage asked.
"My house" Tonks replied "Or that is to say our house" she was, Sage noticed, holding Lupin's hand. He didn't comment as there was far too many things that took priority.
"And you would let a supposed Death Eater in then?" he said and instantly wished he had been more subtle. Ron snorted.
"Sage there is about as much chance of you being a Death Eater as You Know Who giving up his reign of terror in favour of a quiet life married to dearest cousin Bellatrix" Tonks said slightly bitterly. Ron laughed but Hermione shot him a stern glance and he stopped abruptly.
"How come?" Sage questioned simply.
"Because" Elena Hill spoke "I don't believe any of the Aurors investigating your case are acting on their own will, I'd guess some of them are actual Death Eaters."
"There is far too much press attention on you to be normal too; the ministry usually tries to cover these things up" Hermione inputted.
"The general attitude within the ministry is that you are innocent, that the story is too ridiculous, that the Prophet has twisted truths and yet the Auror office is still doing it's utmost to find you" Tonks continued.
"Which all ads up to this being a deeply suspicious affair with a host of Death Eaters pulling the strings." Lupin finished.
"And of course, we know you mate. We know you couldn't do any of that stuff" Ron said with a grin.
"But how could that happen? The ministry isn't controlled by Death Eaters." Katie asked, sounding to Sage slightly naïve.
"Well unfortunately they seem to be doing so almost. We can never tell who's under the imperious curse but the signs are everywhere, muggle-borns suddenly losing their jobs, sudden new legislations being passed with little notice or debate and that proposed statue for the atrium. Of course some higher officials are revelling at the chance for more power no matter how wrong it feels, people like our dear friend Dolores Umbridge. If this keeps up it's only a matter of time before the ministry is completely under You Know Who's control. That's why your case is as interesting as the ministry is putting such emphasis on it" Lupin said grimly.
"So what happens now?" Sage asked.
"Well you both have a choice" Lupin said looking at both Katie and at Sage "the ministry is after you for reasons that can't be good so we can offer you the protection of the Order meaning that you will go into hiding however we can't guarantee that you'll remain hidden and your name will not be cleared or you can join the Order by following the leads and seeing what sort of trap is sprung and furthermore work out how to stop whatever this conspiracy is. Of course that comes with all the dangers that you are fully aware of and we may be giving them exactly what they want but the Order will try to assist you wherever it's possible."
Sage knew immediately that there was no choice in the matter for him. He would not go and hide away from all of his problems like a cowardly child, he had always tried to help his friends at Hogwarts and here was no different. However he was a wizard whereas Katie wasn't.
"I won't go into hiding" he said out loud "I want to see where this is all going to come out. But it's too dangerous to bring anyone else with me."
"How can you say that?" Katie exclaimed outraged and standing up, "You wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me"
"Kate I can't let you get hurt." Sage argued back "I can barely protect myself let alone you as well" Katie looked as though he had just hit her, a sort of betrayed shock and anger. She opened her mouth to shout an angry retort but before she could her mother interrupted.
"Kate has to come with you if you're going Sage, she was with you last night and today in which time you were sure to have been seen together. It would look highly suspicious if she suddenly disappeared." She spoke with tears in her eyes showing that this was a hard thing for her herself to come to terms with. Sage couldn't deny that she was perfectly right.
"Fine then. Kate comes with me." he said shortly. Katie glared at him with a stormy look and sat back down.
"Right then" Hermione said quickly, evidently eager to preoccupy Sage and Katie both of whom were scowling at each other "We need to work out how you approach this. Have you got anything that we could use at all to give us some kind of clue?"
"Yes I have" Sage said tearing his eyes from Katie and producing the photographs and name tags from the inside of the tattered blazer "These were taken from the tent where the murder victims were". He passed the pictures first to Lupin while Tonks looked over his shoulder.
"That was awful risk you took, last night…" Hermione started.
"I know and I don't need you to tell me" Sage said gently enough to not offend Hermione but firmly enough to stop further pressing on the subject. "The pictures show the remains of two people rather than three, there were scorch marks on the floor showing indicating that the a fire spell had been used and the ashes scattered, by the looks of what was in the tent I would say with a reducto spell."
"The Prophet said…" Hermione began.
"Exactly" Sage interrupted.
"Well" said Lupin grimly "that only goes to show Death Eater involvement. If they are planning something they don't want the public involved though it seems odd that there has been such a public response. It is quite possible that they want the public interest but need them not to know too much, hence the lies." Lupin finished thoughtfully and Sage nodded.
"We also found these in the tent." Sage said passing the nametags to Lupin "There were only two bodies but three nametags and the bodies are, of course, unrecognisable" The tags were passed around in silence. It was Tonks who broke the silence.
"I knew Evangeline Steroppe but she disappeared a few weeks ago" she said.
"Strassenhouser was a Daily Prophet Editor too" said Ron "I laughed at his name once!"
"He disappeared a few weeks ago too" Lupin said "though why Death Eaters would have wanted him alludes me. He was already a nasty piece of work, anti-werewolf, anti-merpeople, anti-muggle borns."
"Unless he was a Death Eater" Sage said.
"Wouldn't surprise me" Lupin replied bitterly.
"And this Nark, Iceberg person" said Sage. Lupin, Tonks and Elena looked grim.
"I don't know why the name Fry Nark has come up but there is a well known Auror by the name of Emeret Dandlefield who goes by the name Iceberg." Elena said in a slow monotone "Thing is he disappeared too, a few weeks ago, only he turned up at St Mungos a couple of days ago covered in blood and babbling nonsensically. None of the healers has any idea what has happened to him. It's not been in the Prophet but it's caused a stir in the ministry."
"Well then" said Sage "this is our lead by the looks of it." There was a pause.
"Yes I agree" Said Lupin eventually "Though this seems like a very obvious trap"
"It does but it seems the only way that we are going see what they are planning" Katie said finally giving up her scowl.
"Won't it be dangerous to walk straight into what we know is a trap?" asked Hermione.
"The order will be at hand in case of emergency but that does mean there won't be a danger to this. Are you prepared for that?" asked Tonks.
Katie and Sage looked at each other and nodded. "But how are we going to get into St Mungos to talk to this guy?"
"Leave that to us" said Tonks" we are sure to find someone to use in a polyjuice potion. Actually we can get to that now. In the meantime you two ought to rest and leave braking and entering for the morning, there are rooms upstairs" She nodded to Lupin and they both disapperated.
"Yes we had better be getting back to the Burrow too" said Ron to Hermione and then to Sage "But before we do, here take this. A gift from Fred and George thought it might help; they said you had a good sense of humour so it's free." He passed Sage a bag that was, rather unnervingly moving by itself, which the Weasley Wizarding Whizzes.
"Thanks Ron, Tell Harry I said hi." Sage said at which point Hermione embraced him once again.
"Sage try not to do anything too dangerous would you." She said. Sage merely grinned as if they were back at Hogwarts enjoying a joke.
"You know that's a really nice tan Hermione" He said colloquially "Where did you go?" Apparently this was the wrong thing to say as Hermione's eyes suddenly welled with tears and she mumbled "Australia" before disappearing. Sage was taken aback and Ron looked grim.
"Don't worry about it, mate" he said with a nod before he too disapperated.
Clutching the moving bag Sage turned to find the room empty other than him and Elena Hill. Katie had already left Sage realised with a flash of irritation. She couldn't stand him having friends from Hogwarts. Her self-pity was really beginning to annoy him.
"Come on Sage, take the room, second on the left and get some rest." Elena smiled grimly and wearily. Smiling at the thought of a good comfortable rest Sage left the room and headed to the bedroom.
Thank you for all who have reviewed or even read this story. Reviews always make me smile, even if there negative!
Next chapter:Walking into traps always has it's complications! Sage finds just how ruthless a plan the Death Eaters have.