A/N: This chapter is dedicated to reader princessyuki08, a new reader who has just begun to follow this story. Thanks for joining the ride, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
-C
At the Order meeting the following week, Emma was helping Molly clean up the table at Grimmauld Place and prepare the finishing touches for dinner after the meeting as the various Order members came filing in.
"Molly," Kingsley rumbled. "Emma. I hope you're both well."
"Fine, thank you," Molly said, a bit forced.
"As well as can be expected in times like these," Emma admitted softly, smiling tightly at Kingsley. "How are you?"
"Well enough," Kingsley sighed. "Ah, Tonks!"
Tonks walked in looking sullen and Emma saw Remus walking in right after her looking a bit hurt as well and Emma knew that there must have been an exchange in the hallway that she'd missed. She frowned slightly, wondering if she should say something to Tonks or to Remus or just leave it be and she decided it would be better to leave it be for the present. They were much older than her and Emma had no doubt that Molly and Arthur were already working on putting the couple back into shape.
At any rate, she needed to focus on the meeting, and the members had begun filing in more rapidly, Mad-Eye and Dumbledore being the last to enter, as always.
"I have some very grave news to start out with," Dumbledore said softly. "Stan Shunpike, conductor of the Knight Bus, has been arrested."
There was muttering and looking around in confusion.
"What for?" George finally asked.
"Apparently being a Death Eater," Mad-Eye growled.
Emma snorted before she could stop herself and she felt both of Mad-Eye's eyes turned on her. It was an unnerving sensation, to say the least.
"I-I'm sorry," she said softly. "Um, it's just that I knew him. Or rather, I'd met him. The idea of Stan Shunpike being a Death Eater is a bit ridiculous."
"So was the idea of Peter Pettigrew," Remus said softly, and Emma nodded, looking down at her hands.
Dumbledore shook his head.
"That is true, but I believe Emma is quite right about Mr. Shunpike. I know quite a bit about his arrest myself and it is very plain that Scrimgeour is determined to make it appear that the Ministry is doing something, making the world a safer place."
There were a few spurts of short, dark laughter at this notion. Even with Fudge out of the picture, the Ministry as a whole was little better than inept and bumbling. Not even the hardline, experienced Scrimgeour could inspire confidence in people or organize any sort of independent action in the face of Voldemort's return and the revival of the dark ages of Death Eaters.
"What do we do?" Molly asked softly.
"For Stan?" Albus said slowly. "I'm afraid there isn't anything we can do for him. But we must keep him in mind, because I do not believe this is the last we will hear of him."
Emma nodded and listened carefully and quietly to the rest of the meeting, but there wasn't much pertaining to her. She did, after all, report to Arthur regularly enough, and she worked with the Aurors more and more every day, so she often shared information with Tonks and Kingsley.
"Emma," Albus said after a moment, catching her by surprise. "Have you heard any more from or about Dolores Umbridge?"
"No," Emma admitted, shifting uncomfortably under the attention of the room again. "I have my theories as to what she's after, though, and I think we need to be especially careful about her."
There were nods around the room. She cleared her throat and continued, a bit more confidently.
"I believe her next target, unfortunately, is Muggle-borns. She's already taken much issue with part-humans, werewolves, vampires, et cetera. It's not too much of a jump from that to pureblood mania, and I've been doing a bit of research into both magical and Muggle history, and this is a very common path for sociopathic and psychopathic people when given power. She can raise herself up by putting down others. Really, it's the same path Voldemort himself follows, although I suspect he skipped a couple of steps."
There was a tense sort of silence in the room, but there it was brief before there were nods and murmurs of agreement. She could see Arthur whispering something to Kingsley, probably wondering what she was referring to in Muggle history.
"Very good, Emma," Albus whispered. "Kingsley, do you know how we might track her movement and actions within the Ministry?"
"I would say Tonks, as I'm often out of the office," Kingsley said slowly, "but I don't think that in this case it would be particularly prudent..."
"No," Tonks whispered sullenly. "No, you're right."
Emma tried not to stare at Tonks as it was agreed that Kingsley went on to say that he and Emma would be able to jointly keep track of Umbridge (which Emma absently agreed with). The strangest thing was that all Emma could think to compare Tonks with was a wrung out dishtowel. It was sad, pathetic, and a bit damp.
Remus, Emma noted, was carefully not looking at Tonks, and perhaps it was in Emma's head, but this very fact seemed to wilt Tonks even more. It wasn't until Fred's hand enclosed around Emma's that she finally realized that the meeting was coming to a close.
Dinner was the usual, delicious affair that it always was when Molly cooked, and then Emma had a very little time to say her sleepy goodbyes before Fred led her back to their flat, kissing her sweetly and helping her tired self change into her pajamas, tucking her into bed and changing himself before crawling in beside her, wrapping his warm arms around her.
"I love you," he whispered sweetly.
"I love you too," Emma answered truthfully, and as she fell into a deep sleep her brain wondered what Tonks was doing at just that very moment.
The following morning, Fred made breakfast. This was very good of him, as it had been Emma's turn to make breakfast, and if she had been fully awake or aware at the time she might have begun to wonder with maybe a hint of suspicion why he had gone out of his way to take her turn. Had he done something? Did he want something? Was he expecting some sort of favor in return? It surely wasn't her birthday or anything like that.
When she was awake enough, she gave him a curious look.
"You don't remember, do you?" he said with a cheeky sort of smile.
Oh, no.
Whatever it was, it was something she was supposed to remember. What was she forgetting? How could she forget something that Fred was going to remember? Her heart pounded wildly as she went through the possibilities, still coming up blank.
"Relax, love," he said with a chuckle. "It's our first kiss. Not a big holiday or anything like that. Just something I wanted to commemorate in a small way, since we don't spend nearly enough time together. I wanted to keep us in touch."
Emma couldn't help but smile a little at how sweet and adorable the notion was, although she held herself partially responsible for their drifting apart. She crawled into his lap as he finished his tea and nuzzled her face into his neck.
At that very moment, George walked out of his room and made a gagging sound.
"You've got a room for that sort of thing, you know," he teased. "What's for breakfast? I'm starving."
"Leave us alone," Fred whined, running his fingers soothingly through Emma's hair. "We're having a moment and you're ruining it, as always."
"Isn't that what twins are for?" George asked, as though confused, but Emma was sure that if she looked up at him she would see a mischievous twinkle in his eyes.
"You know, if we were at school it'd be Quidditch tryouts again," George said thoughtfully as he munched on his toast, spraying bits of crisp bread across the table as he did so. "It's really starting to hit me that we're never going back."
George was right, it was strange to think of life without the routines of Hogwarts, Quidditch, and the like. But they'd settled into life outside it so smoothly, so easily, that it was as if the strangeness was all in their minds.
"Maybe we should do something in honor of Quidditch trials," Emma said softly, still hugging Fred's neck. "Do you think Ginny and Ron will be playing again?"
"I'm sure they will, unless Ron's nerves get the better of him," Fred sighed. "I suppose I ought to take some responsibility for that."
It was true, Ron was a bit of a mess when it came to impressing people and the nerves of what people might think of him should he do something poorly. It wasn't entirely Fred's fault, of course. Having five successful older brothers, albeit in a variety of ways, will do that to a boy. On the other hand, Fred had gone out of his way to pick on Ron. Ron was, after all, such a very easy target, and since Ginny was a virtually impossible target, being made of very strong stuff and obviously destined to turn out like her mother, Ron was really the only option other than Percy. And after a while, teasing Percy was no longer fun, because he was smart enough, even as a child, that he could see through most things that didn't involve his pride.
Ron's fear of spiders, for example, was entirely down to Fred. As much as Emma loved him and adored George as one of her best friends, she knew that the boys had a tendency toward the cruel sometimes, especially where their brothers were concerned. Emma had never really minded it, though, as her only close friend in her own house was perhaps one of the cruelest people who hadn't been sorted into Slytherin of all time.
"Let's not bother with that," George said, realizing that they were quickly venturing to "downer territory", as he often called it. "C'mon, let's think of something fun to do."
The trio spent the rest of their day playing games from their childhood, reminiscing about various events in their school years.
"Remember when Katie blew her eyebrows of in Exploding Snap?"
"Remember when Lee swore so loudly at lunch that McGonagall gave him detention?"
"Remember when Tien levitated Professor Flitwick in Charms and tried to pass it off as an accident?"
"No, Emma, none of us remember that because we weren't there," George had retorted, and Emma blushed, but Fred insisted that he recalled hearing about it after the fact.
They drank butterbeer, even though they had a cupboard full of firewhiskey, and ate chocolate frogs as they set up a board for wizard's chess.
"Twins against Ravenclaw, it's only fair," George pointed out.
"No, it's not," Emma replied dully.
"What about boys against girls?" he tried again.
"George, stop being so mean," Fred sighed. "Why don't you play against Emma and I'll make sure neither of you cheat."
"I'm not playing her alone, she always beats me!"
"Well, then, I'll play against Emma and you can make dinner."
"But I want to play," George whined.
They gave up on trying to work out chess and played Gobstones instead, while Emma ordered in from the Leaky Cauldron, which had begun such a service for residents of Diagon Alley since the war had been officially announced, making people ever more anxious about going out of doors.
When they climbed into bed that night, Fred whispered, "Sorry about George. I would have liked to have spent the day to ourselves, but-"
"It's fine," Emma sighed honestly. "It was nice to be children again, even for a little while, don't you think?"
Fred nodded his agreement and the curled up, falling asleep.
It was mid-October before anything that could be classified as interesting or out-of-the-ordinary occurred in their lives again, as even the routines of war had become so routine as to not merit mention. But on a cold October afternoon, Tonks came to visit Emma in her office with someone Emma had never met before.
"This is Healer Stilgoe," Tonks said by way of greeting. "We've got something we'd like to discuss with you, something we've got a report about from Albus at Hogwarts that merits your attention."
Emma wanted to ask if her attention was merited because it was, or because someone had ordered her attention to be merited, but she refrained.
"What is it?" Emma asked, picking up her quill in case she had to take notes.
"Do you remember Katie Bell?" Tonks asked gently, perhaps guessing that Emma had been good friends with Katie.
"Of course," Emma said slowly. "We went to school together. I…. We…. What's happened?"
"Miss Bell has been cursed in a suspicious, round-about manner," Healer Stilgoe said, alerting Emma at once that Stilgoe was a stuffy sort of man, even if he had the look of a Muggle film heartthrob in the prime of his life.
"Is she all right?" Emma asked quickly, dropping her quill altogether. She had no fear of forgetting a word of this meeting.
"She will likely recover," Stilgoe said in the manner of discussing the removal of a bunion. "She is lucky to have only brushed the object with the tiniest patch of skin possible, and Severus Snape was able to mitigate many possible reactions very quickly, so now it's just rest and regular care and if she continues to respond as she has, she will make a full recovery with time."
"Object," Emma repeated, realizing this was why she had been called into the case. "What sort of object?"
"A cursed necklace," Tonks said with a sigh. "According to Albus, it was probably purchased at Borgin and Burkes by some unknown entity." From the way Tonks said it and from Emma's own thoughts, it was likely that Albus knew exactly who had purchased it, but was being silent on the matter for reasons of his own. "Extremely powerful. I checked into it, and apparently it's killed several Muggle owners. I was guessing you had the case files?"
"Probably," Emma replied, frowning at the large filing cabinet behind her. "I suppose you want me to find them for your report?"
"Yes," Tonks said apologetically, looking over at the cabinet herself. "When you can get it to me soonest. And I'll keep you updated on the news I get on Katie's condition, all right?"
It was a bargain, of course, for getting the work done faster, but Emma would have done it quickly anyway. If it could help Katie's recovery go quicker in any way, it was the top of Emma's lengthy priority list.
"I think that's all I'm needed for here," Stilgoe said slowly, "but if you should require further information on the curse or-"
"I'll contact you, yes," Emma said as politely as she could, wishing the man would just leave so she could talk with Tonks more freely.
Stilgoe then bowed his way out of the office and Tonks turned to Emma.
"I know you won't get anything out of him, but I need you to lean on Borgin for information on the buyer," Tonks said. "You know, for appearance's sake."
"Of course," Emma sighed, having already dealt with Borgin and Burkes on several occasions and being fully aware that there would be some sort of 'gap' in the record and the information would be 'impossible' to retrieve. How the business managed to stay open even with all the force of the Ministry working to investigate it, was a mystery to Emma, but perhaps the rest of the Ministry wasn't trying as hard as she was.
"Do you need anything else from me?" Tonks asked in the manner of someone returning favors, but Emma knew there were secrets she couldn't say out loud loaded into the question, things they'd discussed in Grimmauld Place.
"Not that I can think of," Emma said slowly. She was afraid she would forget something important, especially now that Katie's well-being was blocking her from thinking things through rationally, systematically, as she usually did at work. "I…. No, you already gave me that. No, I think that you can leave it at that for now and I'll look for those files. I'll let you know if I remember something. You can understand that I'm a bit flustered at the moment."
Tonks nodded sympathetically. Then, softly, she said, "He's not written me in weeks."
Emma gave a sympathetic look of her own, touched Tonks's hand gently and said, "I'm sure it will all work out all right in the end."
"Will it?" Tonks asked with a sad smile, but Emma didn't have an answer ready and she just stared for a moment at the older woman until Tonks said a brief goodbye and walked back out of the office, leaving Emma staring after her at the door.
Would it all work out in the end?
Emma had been working in the war effort with that dream in mind, but what if it wasn't possible? What if she was holding on to something false?
What if it didn't work out all right in the end?
Emma shivered a little as she thought about what that might mean, what would happen if everything worked out wrong for her, or worse, for the wizarding world. Could things be all right if Fred wasn't there? Would things ever be all right for Tonks if something happened to Remus, with or without the closure of knowing he loved her?
War would inevitably take people from them. It had already with Sirius, and continued to take more every day. The question became who would it take, and how, and when? And could things be okay again when all was said and done?