January 4th, 1983: Frank Longbottom
The second Alice Disapparates with Neville, the flat feels utterly empty. Correction: the apartment feels empty. That's what they call them here in Canada, apparently; it's just another one of those differences Frank will have to add to the list of ways his life has radically changed in the last two weeks since the Order received political asylum.
Fortunately for Frank, when Neville's not here, he at least doesn't have to live alone. Ever since the first night they moved in here, Dirk's been cracking jokes about how their flat—apartment—is where all Alice's exes are raising her kid for her, and he's not exactly wrong, although Frank did agree to give Alice joint custody this time around. When he thinks about it, it's probably a little weird that he's living with his ex-wife's ex-boyfriend—but he and Dirk never stopped being friends just because of Alice, and Frank is long past the point of feeling self-conscious about their relationships with her. In any case, Wizarding Britain is a small community, and—
—well, technically, Frank doesn't live in Wizarding Britain anymore, he reminds himself. His new life is here, in Canada, and none of them can go back as long as Death Eaters are running the Ministry. Even if Malfoy's administration gets overthrown, they still might never get amnesty in order to go back: vigilantism was never legal, even if they were doing it for the right reasons.
At least, Frank thinks they were doing it for the right reasons. He knows that Dirk, for one, will probably never understand why they all did what they did, even if Dirk feels conflicted now that the Order has saved him from murder at the hands of Death Eaters.
"How long has she got him for?" Dirk asks now as he ventures out into the living room to join Frank now that Alice is gone.
"I said I'd take him back on Sunday. What time is your interview today?"
"Four o'clock," Dirk answers, wrinkling his nose. Frank can sympathize: they're both having trouble adjusting to a Canadian sleep schedule, and four o'clock on the west coast of Canada is midnight in London. Because some of their number are employed at nine-to-fives by now, tonight's Order meeting isn't until six o'clock, and Frank is positively dreading it.
Dirk's interview is at a bank up in Yukon, and Frank is sure he'll get the job he's applied for: before all this, he worked in the Goblin Liaison Office at the British Ministry and was well on his way to being fluent in Gobbledegook. Frank, meanwhile, hasn't been so lucky, at least not yet. Aurors may be highly respected in Britain, but the Canadian Ministry's Department of Magical Law Enforcement seems to want nothing to do with any of the displaced Aurors—nothing to do, in fact, with anyone from the Order at all. Frank knows he's got the skills and the education to get himself hired in plenty of positions, but he's still got to figure out whether there's anything else he might want to do with his life now that law enforcement is, for now, apparently out of the question.
"I'm getting lunch with Sturgis," Frank tells Dirk, stretching. "You want me to bring you back a burger or something?"
"Yeah, that'd be great, man, thank you."
Frank nods at him and Disapparates to the outside step of the—damn it all, Frank's calling it a flat—that Sturgis is sharing with Reg, Kingsley, and Mundungus. Frank was moderately surprised when Sturgis said they'd invited Dung to live with them after Alice turned them down, but he supposes it makes sense. Dung had been rooming with Snape at Grimmauld Place, but with Snape locked up with Pettigrew in indefinite detention by the Canadian Ministry, Dung needed somewhere else to go, and there weren't any other Slytherins moving to Canada with them. In any case, Dung is reasonably well-liked, at least by Sturgis and Reg. Kingsley's too much of an Auror at heart to be comfortable with Dung's, er, lifestyle choices, but Kingsley didn't have much of a leg to stand on, given that he and Dung are equally criminal in the eyes of the British Ministry these days.
Kingsley answers the door and steps backward to leave the doorway clear. "Come on in. Sturgis will be out in a second—he's just finishing up an application."
"Where to?"
"The Ministry Department of—whatever they call their Magical Accidents and Catastrophes here—specifically dealing with emergencies that threaten the Statute of Secrecy."
"We should all be shoo-ins for work like that. All we ever did at the end of every raid in Britain was try to cover the evidence, make it easier for the Ministry to mask for the Muggles what had happened."
"I don't know," says Kingsley, frowning. "More and more, I'm starting to think we'll be best off if we don't flaunt what we did in anybody's faces when trying to win favor around—" He's interrupted by the arrival of a Patronus, some kind of fish that flies in the doorway and comes to rest about a meter from Frank's face; it looks like it's swimming in midair. "Who in the Order has a fish Patronus?"
"I don't—"
But the voice that comes from the fish isn't the voice of anyone in the Order. It takes Frank a second to place it, but the Patronus reveals its owner just a split second after he does.
"Um, this message is for Frank Longbottom? It's Agatha—Agatha Savage—from the Auror Office. I don't know where you are or whether this will reach you—"
"Holy shit," mutters Kingsley. Frank shushes him.
"—but I know why the Ministry reacted to you the way it did. I know the Death Eaters are in charge, and I just—I don't know if you're getting the Prophet wherever you are, but it's bad over here, Longbottom; they're putting all of us on your case and not even letting us continue building cases against Death Eaters anymore. We need your help. I need your help. I don't know what to do—whether it would be better to quit my job or try to change people's minds from within—and I just… anyway, please get back to me as soon as you get this; it's taken me entirely long enough to figure out how to send this message as it is."
The silvery fluid figure of the fish disperses into the surrounding air, leaving Kingsley and Frank positively gaping at the thing. "Savage?" Frank marvels. "I didn't even realize she was on our side."
"I know," Kingsley agrees. "I mean, she's good at what she does and everything, but—"
"He-ey!" Sturgis calls, totally oblivious, as he meanders into the living room. He frowns at the looks on Frank's and Kingsley's faces as they turn to him. "What did I miss?"
"One of our colleagues from the Auror Office got in touch," Kingsley explains. "Should we wait until after the meeting tonight to respond? Not that anything we tell her can hurt us now that we're protected by asylum, but…"
Frank says. "I should at least send her back a message saying we got her Patronus, right? I know we shouldn't send anything sensitive, just in case—I mean, there's no telling who she'd be with when it got back to her—but—"
"It could be a trap," Sturgis points out. "Better to send something by owl."
"Owls can be intercepted just as easily as Patronuses, though, even if they have the added benefit of not announcing your message to the entire room of people you're in when you get it."
Kingsley suggests, "Send her a note saying we're safe and that you'll contact her with further instructions later so we have time to figure out how to arrange a meeting, if we do decide to arrange one. Maybe throw in a copy of the Veritaserum, too, so that she knows a little of what's going on and can circulate it—spreading information back home can't hurt us now that we have asylum."
"Right," Frank agrees. "We should dig up the copy with the story announcing that we had all moved here, so that she knows what's happened to us and knows that Canadians know what's going on back home, even if most of Britain doesn't."
"It begs the question of how she put it together herself," says Sturgis. "Word hasn't gone public, has it? Not that I'm complaining if it has, but…"
"If word about our asylum had gone public, the Aurors wouldn't still be trying to find us," Kingsley notes.
"Savage has kind of a reputation for sticking her nose where she shouldn't," Frank says fondly. "She's on the chaotic end of the Ravenclaw spectrum—can't stop herself from figuring things out even when people tell her it's none of her business."
"I'm pretty sure I still have that particular Veritaserum, if you want to write a note while I go find it for you," Kingsley offers.
It takes Frank entirely too long to write a note back to Savage, not least because he feels sort of guilty for how everything went down—how the Order ran away to Canada and abandoned everybody still stuck in the trenches in Britain. There Savage is, grappling with whether to quit her job and teaching herself how to make talking Patronuses in her desperation to get in touch, and Frank is sitting pretty with his stack of job applications and his livelihood, not even trying to fight? It's not right, and it certainly doesn't help that the Canadian Ministry seems terribly reluctant to loop the Order in at all on their plans for how to deal with relations with Britain.
"I know. It's complete bullshit, is what it is," Sturgis swears at lunch when Frank is complaining about this. "I just can't believe we're all going along with it, you know? I mean, if something doesn't give at the Canadian Ministry—"
"At least they're letting us send a couple of delegates so we can advocate for ourselves. I just wish we could count on the rest of the Order realizing how screwed up it is for us to scurry off and abandon the fight. Who d'you think people are going to vote in tonight, anyway?"
"Lily's going to want to do it—you know how she feels about international magical cooperation—and that's good; she's on our side. But people are probably going to want Reg or maybe McGonagall for the other delegate, and that will be no good at all."
Frank sighs. "I don't know how long I can stand to just sit around in a foreign country. If the Canadian Ministry sidelines us—and I'm pretty sure they're going to at this point—"
"Yeah," Sturgis agrees. "I know exactly how you feel. We're going to have to advocate for choosing both Lily and Sirius, even though not everyone is going to be happy with those choices."
It's kind of a miracle—one Frank doesn't understand—that he, Sturgis, and Kingsley have managed to become such good friends with Reg considering all their differences of opinion about how to handle the war. Frank may have chosen to live with Dirk instead of them because of Dirk's willingness to help out with Neville, but in retrospect, he's also pretty glad he's not going to be living in Sturgis's bachelor pad when shit inevitably hits the fan and he and his friends get into a blowout fight with Reg over how involved the Order is supposed to stay in fighting the war.
Tonight's meeting is at the Weasleys' house, partly because it's the largest home out of anybody in the Order and partly to make it easier for Molly and Arthur to pop out of the room and keep an eye on their kids when needed in lieu of having found themselves a proper babysitter yet. Lily and Alice bring Harry and Neville, too, which means Frank gets to catch a few extra minutes playing with his son before the meeting starts. Mum, Arthur's parents, and Professor Vector are all invited, too, which will mark the first time any of them will be able to see the entire Order at once: up until now, with all the Fidelius Charms in place, they've been relegated to interacting with only one or two other people in the organization.
"Thanks for being willing to take Neville into your home," Frank tells Lily after Neville and Harry scamper off to find Ron, with whom they've become fast friends. "I know you've already got your hands full with Harry."
"Oh, it's no trouble. I'm just glad you and Alice were able to agree to joint custody. I'm sure you know this already, but it really means a lot to her to be able to have Neville half the time—and parenting both kids with her instead of just Harry by myself means I feel a lot less alone in this."
Frank doesn't apologize for her loss, not when he's already said it a dozen times over and he doubts Lily wants the reminder of what's happened to her husband. "If you ever need an extra hand with Harry or want a break for a few hours or anything, let me know. I'm happy to return the favor."
"Thanks, Frank. Molly's already agreed to provide childcare when Alice finds a job—" Alice is doing the stay-at-home aunt thing for Harry at the moment, since Lily has been reinstated in her old position at the Canadian hospital, Zoudiams "—but I'm sure she'd appreciate not always being stuck on babysitting duty just because she's planning on staying at home with her kids."
Sirius calls the meeting to order then, and Frank pulls up a chair to sit between Lily and Sturgis. "Thanks, everybody, for making the time to come out here," Sirius starts by saying, "and thanks very much to Molly and Arthur for taking us into your home."
Arthur nods, while Molly just sits there glowering, which makes sense. Frank knows exactly what she thinks of just about every suggestion that Sirius and Lily have come up with for the Order in the last few months.
"Before we launch into the delegate situation," Frank interrupts, "I received a Patronus today that all of you need to know about."
The brief rundown he gives about Savage and the situation back in Britain is met with—well, not more skepticism than is fair, but still a little more than he was expecting. Alice, at least, takes Frank's side. "Look, I know Savage," she says, folding her hands in front of her, "and she can be reckless sometimes, but I can't imagine her taking the news that she's supposed to be hunting us instead of Death Eaters lying down."
"And how do we even know she wasn't blackmailed into contacting us on the Ministry's behalf? Who's to say nobody leaned on her to get her to make that Patronus in the first place?" demands Moody.
"For one thing, she went to the trouble of learning how to do a talking Patronus," Kingsley reasons. "That must have taken her weeks to figure out, and she can't have learned it from Death Eaters unless they went to the same trouble. Don't you think they have more—well—evil things to be doing with their time?"
"And it's not like the Death Eaters can do anything to hurt us as long as we stay in Canada, even if they Apparate over here," Frank continues.
"But there's nothing stopping them from blackmailing us if they get in contact," argues Sirius. "They may not be able to kill or maim us, but there's nothing to stop them from doing the same to innocent bystanders if we don't cave to their demands."
Reg raises his eyebrows. "I thought you didn't see a need to consider the potential consequences of being blackmailed, Sirius. After all, haven't you been saying this whole time that that's why we shouldn't forgive Peter?"
"That's not entirely fair," says Remus quietly. "After all, if we can avoid that situation altogether by staying out of contact—"
"And how long exactly are we supposed to stay off the grid?" says Lily. "We've got political asylum. We're safe. That's what you wanted, isn't it? Should we still back out of the war effort just because we're worried about saving our own skins? That's the exact opposite of why all of us joined the Order in the first place."
"That's rich, coming from you," Molly snaps.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm just saying, how many months did you spend telling James it was his responsibility to stay in hiding for Harry and not to go running off half-cocked to stop You-Know-Who?"
But Molly's crossed a line: Lily freezes, mouth open, eyebrows furrowed. When she speaks, her voice is a low, shaky growl. "Don't you drag James into this. You have no idea what I've been going through without him here."
"Then you of all people—"
"Molly, don't," mumbles Remus.
Lily covers her mouth with her hand, stands up. "I'm going to check on the kids," she says, and a second later, she's gone.
"I'll talk to her," says Alice, and she gets up, too.
There's a prolonged silence after Alice, too, steps out of the living room. Finally, Cedrella, Arthur's mum, breaks it. "Can we all agree that it would be a good thing for Britain to be aware of what's happening in their own country? I know owls and Patronuses can be intercepted, but couldn't Frank just—send his head into her flat by Floo powder to talk to her? If he doesn't go all the way over, his body should still be protected by asylum, and he can pull out right away if it turns out there are any bad actors with her there."
"That could work," says Frank, relaxing a little.
When no one objects to this, Sirius tries to move the agenda forward: "Can someone bring Lily back in here? We should talk about—"
"Actually, I have something to raise," says Reg. All eyes flick to him. "Aren't we going to do anything about Severus or Peter?"
"You mean the Death Eater scum who are both responsible for who knows how many deaths?" says Sturgis, rolling his eyes. "Reg, we've been over this. They deserve what they got."
"Snape murdered three people in cold blood just weeks ago," Moody points out.
"They both turned back to our side," Reg protests. "Severus spent months, maybe even years, feeding information back to the Order, didn't he? And Peter turned himself in expecting a lifetime in Azkaban—"
"And that's what he should have gotten!" roars Sirius. "If Canada wants to keep them both locked up for the rest of their lives—"
"It's not right, though, the way Canada's handling them," says Vector. "They can't arrest them for breaking any Canadian laws, but just because they can't send them back to Britain in good conscience, they're keeping them locked up indefinitely? That isn't how things are supposed to work."
"I still have apprehensions about us jumping in too deep with these people," McGonagall agrees. "If they've got no qualms about sending members of the Order into indefinite detention—"
"We're not talking about regular members of the Order," snaps Sirius. "We're talking about Pettigrew and Snape. They both have Death Eater loyalties, and we can't trust either of them."
Reg contends, "Severus just killed three Death Eaters for us, remember? If anyone still had any doubts about his loyalties—"
"All that proves is that he's still got no reservations about using Dark Magic," argues Lily, who's reappeared with Alice in the doorway. "As for Pettigrew—just because he didn't run when he had the chance doesn't redeem him. We can put it to a vote if you want to, Reg, but I think we all already know what the outcome of that would be if we did."
Sturgis adds, "If we're going to be putting anything to a vote tonight, it ought to be who we're going to choose as delegates to the Canadian Ministry. The sooner the Order can start to influence what decisions they make about what to do about Britain, the better. Lily, I'm guessing you want one of the spots?"
"Actually…" Reg trails off.
Lily frowns at him. "Having run for the Minister of Magic post before, I've got more political experience than anybody else here, but if you've got an objection to me representing us, then, please—I'd love to hear it."
"It's just… I heard about what happened when you went to France during your Hogwarts internship with the Department of International Magical Cooperation. You didn't exactly handle the news that they weren't going to give Britain any aid very diplomatically. For whatever reason, the Canadian Ministry is already keeping us at arms' length—we're never going to win their favor if we send in someone who's going to actively antagonize them."
"I never antagonized—"
"You kind of did," says Remus, wincing when Lily looks at him. "You had good reason for it, but Reg has a point."
"And it's not just that. Elisabeth was my friend, Lily. You're just—you're a Gryffindor. Everybody knows your cohort can be reckless—even belligerent."
"And I suppose you want the job, if you could do so much better at it?"
"What?" says Reg, looking totally thrown by this. "No. No way. I was going to suggest Moody and Professor McGonagall. They've been involved in the war effort in a hands-on way longer than anyone else here."
"Yeah, and they agree with you on just about every contentious point that's ever come up since you joined this organization," Sirius grouses.
"Look, let's just vote on it," says Arthur tiredly. "We agreed that's how we'd handle this, didn't we? If everybody can take a slip of parchment and write down a name…"
It seems to take forever for quills and parchment to get passed around the table so that everyone can write down their votes. Reg, whom Frank privately agrees is pretty certain to do it impartially, tallies the votes. In an ordinary numbers game, there's no way Lily or Sirius would win this vote—too many people disagree with them—but if everyone on their side votes for Lily, and the rest of the Order scatters their votes between Moody, McGonagall, and Reg…
"Lily and, um… and me," Reg finally announces, running a hand across his forehead. "Look, I appreciate the vote of confidence, but—"
"You can't turn it down," says Ted loudly. "We agreed."
Before Reg can argue, Andromeda adds, "We can let the Canadian Ministry know in the morning. I don't know about the rest of you, but I feel absolutely beat."
Well, it could have been worse, Frank reasons as he gathers his things and goes to say goodbye to Neville and Alice. At least Lily's going to be there—at least somebody will speak up and advocate for what's necessary to end this war sooner rather than later.