April 1, 1996

It took me a moment to recognize the Embassy Aurors entering the Atrium of the Ministry of Magic. It was two of them, they wore the black robes of the MACUSA Aurors like agents of death and justice, a murder of crows who scoured the battlefield to deliver the final mercy to the enemy, be that mercy life or death. MACUSA Aurors had the implicit permission to make judgment calls about if a suspect would arrive alive to trial, or if they should fall on the battlefield for being too dangerous or a threat to the isolation of the magical world.

Seeing them in the more passive, less isolationist Ministry of Magic was very odd.

I met the eyes of the younger of the two Aurors as I observed who they were escorting. It was Elihu Weathers, he was flipping through a packet of papers talking to the senior Auror with a clear irritation by the occasional wave of his arms. I remembered that there was going to be a meeting, I just did not expect it to be right after my lunch break. The younger Auror broke into a broad, happy smile that featured shiny white teeth and glittering dark eyes. The gold earring shone in the low lights on the walls.

"Audrey?"

The uniform made him look very grown up.

"Quincy?"

His face lit up and waited until he had the approval of the older woman at Weathers' other side before running across the atrium with outstretched arms and a joyous noise.

"Auror Laurent!" Quincy stopped short a few feet away from me, his back stiff and chest thrown out like a soldier at attention at the senior Auror's tone. I stumbled forward into empty air where I figured Quincy would actually end up. "Are you a giggly school girl?"

"No Chief!

"Are you representing the MACUSA Aurors abroad?"

"Yes Chief!"

"Then act like it! I've met your mother, she raised you better than to squeal like a stuck pig!"

Aunt Araminta would squeal like a schoolgirl at the drop of a hat before squeezing the life out of you in a hug. She was loving that way and also smelled of spices and candles, which was very comforting. Uncle John ran a bar in the French Quarter and was always looking for new things to put on the menu for his customers. Mostly fancy wines.

I looked at the embarrassed, but still smiling Quincy while Elihu snickered behind his hand.

"Auror Laurent?" I teased with a smug grin.

The black robes of the Aurors looked good on Quincy. He looked more grown up, bigger, stronger and more capable than he probably was at this point in his life. The collar was trimmed in white and the crest of crossed wands rested on both of his shoulders, giving him an air of authority and danger that was unusual on my sweet natured cousin.

"With Uncle Jack running for president it seemed like a good idea to use my mom's maiden name while overseas."

Ugh, that was smart. Why didn't I think of that when I got here? Right, money and paperwork. Mostly money, though I would have been unable to change my paperwork without waiting several weeks for it to come back to me and I would have done something stupid by then.

"I thought you were going to be an apprentice Auror for another few months?"

Quincy's grin widened in pride. "Cassie and I sat the exam early to take the open posts at the embassy with our mentors on their requests, since we've decided to get engaged and all and want to stay together."

I started bouncing in excitement. "Congratulations!"

Thank you! Cassie and I have bodyguard training with them here, but we're functioning Aurors in our own right to a point!"

"That's great! I'm so happy for you both!" I pulled Quincy into a hug. They were so good for each other. I would have to ask Cassandra about the proposal and the ring. Quincy would treat it like no big deal and Cassandra acted the same way to a point, but would give a lot more details.

Though I'm sure that means something is brewing back in the States if they're assigning first year Aurors to an embassy post.

Quincy noticed my furrowed brow and leaned closer to me to whisper in my ear. "There's dark cult activity going on in the states and rumors of a werewolf uprising. It seemed pointless to build new teams if Cass and I already worked so well with our mentors who signed up to work at the embassy office." He paused. "Mankiller says we'll probably see action here in any case."

There had always been cults at work in the United States, many of them were manageable and fairly easy to find. Cults of crazy tended to scream from the rooftops about conspiracies and were generally only dangerous to the statute of secrecy and exposing the community to Scourers, No-Majs who believed in, and actively hunted, wizards. Dark cults were different, they had a focus on disturbed magic, dark arts and human sacrifice tend to go together very easily. If some No-Maj goes missing in the woods, it's not uncommon to never find them again. No-Maj children who could be snatched off the street and spirited away to never be found by No-Maj law enforcement were not uncommon as they were offered to whatever god this particular cult believed in. We never seemed to hear about those cases until it was too late, we had never been very good at keeping track of those among us to were prone to such terrible actions.

I couldn't say that was exciting, but Quincy sure seemed to think so by the light in his eyes.

"It's nice to you all again! I can escort you up to the Minister's office for your meeting if you want?"

Quincy threw his arm over my shoulders and looked at his mentor with pleading eyes. "Please Temperance?"

Temperance Hanlon looked at Quincy with a perfectly raised eyebrow. I knew her from MACUSA, she was by all accounts a fine Auror whose family ran a ranch for winged horses. She was in early middle age with bright brown eyes, olive skin and thick chestnut hair; the scar on the side of her face only made her look tougher and more charming. Quincy's chipper grin seemed to win her over for a moment.

"Fine."

"Great!" Quincy squeezed me against his side, knocking my head against his shoulder in an act of cousinly violence as he pulled me towards the elevator. "Come on, Aud. I want to hear about the food here."

"It's got nothing on your Cajun gumbo."

"Please don't tell me-"

"It's as bland as you think, Q."

"Dammit!"

"Do they have sweet tea here at least?"

"No."

"What?"

The four of us stepped into the elevator, swapping notes on places to get good food while Quincy left his arm over my shoulder to be annoying and haul me around at his discretion, which I didn't mind. It was good to see a familiar face and Quincy clearly missed me as much as I missed him. The elevator opened at the Minister's floor and Quincy followed me out as the group of us continued to talk, our conversation drifting to the New York Snidgets getting knocked out of the Quadpot league in their last match before the semifinals.

"A horrible loss," Elihu lamented. "Just embarrassing."

"Evans was hungover and puked on a child from midair," Temperance rolled her eyes. "Poor kid. The family got free tickets to the Quadpot finals as compensation."

Glad they got compensation, but… Ew…

Quincy threw his arm over my shoulders again and rested his remaining hand on the wand holster on his hip with a laugh. "I'd put up with a lot of things for free Quadpot tickets, but not that. This hair takes a lot of work, I'd have to shave my head to erase the memory!"

Elihu laughed, "Yeah, Auror Queball. Greatest of all time."

I giggled while Quincy rolled his eyes with a grin. "That's what my girl tells me."

"More than I ever needed to know, Quincy." Temperance sighed and fixed her collar, "And I know way too much about you and your girlfriend to begin with."

"Because we're gonna last forever," Quincy gave a lovelorn sigh, "Right Audie?"

There was a dry cough from behind us.

"The Minister is ready to see you."

I turned as much as I was able to see Percy's red hair standing out against the white walls of the hallway.

"Good!" Elihu stepped forward with a slight grin. "We'll talk more later, Audrey."

Temperance followed after him with a solemn nod, while Quincy pulled me into a hug and planted a sloppy kiss on my cheek to be annoying before following his mentor with a happy expression into the conference room nearby leaving Percy and I alone in the hallway.

It was quiet for a moment before he broke the silence.

"I suppose I should congratulate you on your new… relationship."

I didn't recall having an old one.

I wiped the spit off my cheek. Quincy did this to annoy me, southern affection was warm and wonderful, but Quincy loved to make a target of his frigid northern cousins.

"The Ministry does have rules about public fraternizing-"

Huh? Did he think we were…?

"Quincy is my cousin."

Percy stopped talking immediately and had the good sense to look embarrassed.

"He does that to annoy me and his sister. His fiancee says he does the same thing to her."

Percy's face had turned a bright red all the way to the tips of his ears. He muttered a quick apology to me before heading into the conference room.

There is no incest here, Percy.

Oo0Oo0

April 2, 1996

"Unbelievable! Where is he hiding?" The Minister fumed and huffed as Aurors Dawlish and Shacklebolt joined our morning meeting with a chart and list of known associates of one Albus Dumbledore.

Needless to say, I was quite confused until Percy handed me the Daily Prophet where the headline stated in a bold print.

Dumbledore Confesses to Child Army

What the hell?

Percy's smile was smug as he leaned down towards me to give me the short version. I could smell the warm, spicy smell of his cologne, thankfully he used less than Nobby Clark.

"He confessed to everything," Percy's voice was low as I watched Fudge and Dawlish work through theories of where Dumbledore could have gone while Shacklebolt stood off to the side reading another map. "Fudge said he was building an army and he was right!"

"An army… of school children?"

"It's the indoctrination we want to prevent."

Do you even hear yourself?

I pinched the bridge of my nose to try and push back a fast brewing headache.

"It's the principle of the thing," his tone was pretentious and edged with pride at exposing Dumbledore for what he was in the eyes of the Ministry as he stepped away from me.

"We have already asked Aberforth and he said he's not seen him in months." Auror Dawlish said as he pointed at the list. "We do have reports that he has gone to Albania."

Albania?

What reason would he have to go to Albania?

"How many more Aurors can we send after him?" Fudge looked at Dawlish, a kind of manic glee in his eyes. It was the most energy I had seen from him since his wife passed away.

"Scrimgeour has put everyone on high alert for Dumbledore and informed our allies that he is now regarded as an enemy of the state."

I felt my stomach drop to my ankles.

"Has there been an offer of an international manhunt?"

"Minister Trembly has said they will keep an eye on the borders, per the CAM embassy representative."

"And the Americans?"

"Representative Weathers has relayed the message that MACUSA is sure we can handle this management of a former Supreme Mugwump."

Fudge rolled his eyes. "Smartarse."

I struggled to keep my face neutral.

While Dumbledore had a drop in popularity in America over his support for Harry Potter, MACUSA and the Graves family always remained quietly grateful for Dumbledore's defeat of Grindelwald after he made a martyr of my great-uncle Percival Graves. If that really was the response from MACUSA I was sure that my father or a cousin of mine had some say in the matter that was enough to sway President Cunningham on the matter of Dumbledore. We would not offer him shelter, but we would not interfere.

"Is Madam Umbridge taking over the running of Hogwarts, Minister?" Percy asked as Eddie crossed his arms in front of his chest thoughtfully.

"Yes, and she will do a wonderful job regaining control of Hogwarts. McGonagall is too close to Dumbledore to manage effectively, so we have overruled the usual procedures of Hogwarts succession."

"Really?" Eddie asked from where he stood in front of his desk, leaning against it looking far more comfortable than I felt at the moment. "Do we really have the right to overrule tradition that way? Deputy Heads are chosen for their teaching experience and management usually."

"She's said for years she's good with children," Fudge nodded his head over the papers. "That's all a teacher needs to be in any case."

There was a collection of nods around the room, though I remained perfectly still.

By. The. Twelve.

How… How stupid were these people?!

How the fuck were they leading a country?

Teaching is a respected profession, it is not just babysitting groups of children when you could pay a teenager to do it. It is providing knowledge and training to young wix in a safe environment that sometimes a home does not provide and this seat of government has the gall to just ignore that on a broken pedestal of principles?

Fudge's voice broke through my thoughts with something that set my teeth on edge. "I have given Dolores permission to administer veritaserum to the members of Dumbledore's Army to get to the bottom of the matter, no telling how brainwashed they are."

What? I'm pretty sure that is some kind of crime! Or at least the kind of questionable ethics that a government leader does not need to admit to any knowledge of!

I wanted to scream!

If Percy did not not stop bobbing his head like a chicken to every ignorant word that escaped Fudge's mouth I was going to strangle him!

Percy. Percy you are so much smarter than this.

My temper crackled and surged under my skin.

"Excuse me," I mumbled, "I'm going to go get some water."

"Oh, I need to get some more tea." He summoned his tea mug from his desk with a flick of his wand. "Long week, you know."

Yeah, and to think it's only Tuesday.

Fudge waved us off as he returned to the original topic of the army of school children led by Dumbledore and Harry Potter, while I slipped out of the office to get a glass of water so I could collect myself and bite my tongue. A task I found increasingly difficult as Percy began to fill me in on the details of the headmaster's confession of plotting against the Ministry.

"Of course I was sent off to send an owl to the Daily Prophet-"

You were probably very lucky.

"-When I returned, Dumbledore was gone! Rode a phoenix right out of Hogwarts! The cheek!"

Percy spoke like an old man or a schoolmarm once in a while, something I usually find funny but I was still too taken aback by the story he was telling me to find it so.

The fact that everyone was still alive told me a lot about the now former headmaster's patience for idiocy. If he really wanted to stage a coup and take over the Ministry, the simplest thing would have been to kill Fudge in the office, imperius the witnesses, choose someone to take a fall for killing the minister and step right into office with the support of those who could collaborate any story he told.

Though, why would he want to be the Minister of Magic? He rejected the job so many times over the last several years.

But nobody would listen to me on that count. It made too much sense.

Percy and I arrived in the breakroom, he immediately lit a fire under the kettle. The Tea Witches would come and go on their own time, sometimes it was just easier to make one's own tea instead of waiting for them to see if they needed to come for a refill. Besides, being a Tea Witch was a part-time job for elderly witches who wanted to have some reason to get out of bed in the morning.

"You don't have to worry about a thing, Audrey. We'll find Dumbledore and bring him to justice, he can't run forever."

I heard the crackle of fire on the small stovetop, which did nothing for my nerves or to slow what was quickly becoming a problem with impulse control.

I got a glass and filled it from the faucet, counting backwards from ten.

"How many places could he possibly go where we can't find him? Not many, I assure you."

I did not need assurance. I needed a pain killer.

"Let me get this straight," my voice and tone surprised me, it was far calmer than I really felt and a lower register than I ever used for speaking. I sounded like my father when he was getting ready to lecture someone for doing something… unfathomably stupid.

I had seen my father chew out a reporter for asking a question that managed to be stupid and offensive, I could not recall the question but it did end in my articulate, well spoken father using small words and speaking slowly to the fool reporter as if he were a child. It became something that had to be managed later because word got around about his vaguely... mocking and dismissive tone, even if that particular reporter was known for such stupidity.

It was said that children emulated their same sex parent in many ways, but there were points in my life where I felt more like I was becoming a more pleasant version of my father instead. Moments like these were a prime example.

Percy seemed oblivious to the quiet rage in my eyes and the low dangerous tones that seemed to reverberate through my body. He continued to make his tea with an oblivious smile as he nodded to let me know he was listening.

"Did you really think that you would waltz into the home of the most powerful wizard of the modern age, and arrest him?" Percy stopped and looked at me with a furrowed brow, his jaw set and seemingly readying to defend his point of view and thereby the Ministry. That was clearly what he was not expecting to hear. "That two Aurors, two career bureaucrats and a teenager could hold him off and arrest him as if your public enemy number two was some common Dust dealer?"

"I hardly think that's an apt description of the matter!"

"Really? I think it's perfectly apt, because that is what happened!"

Percy scoffed, "Dawlish and Shacklebolt are two of the most skilled Aurors in the Ministry's employ. Dumbledore's skills are greatly exaggerated."

"The man defeated Grindelwald!"

"Forty years ago!"

"Still one more world threat than Dawlish and Shacklebolt have managed."

"Dumbledore wants to take over the Ministry!"

"If he wants to become Minister, why hasn't he tried to do it before now? What sense does it make to ruin his entire reputation at home and abroad before trying to do it? Please explain in what world that makes any sense at all? Because I sure don't understand the logic!"

The rage in Percy's eyes did not dissipate, but he also seemed to have forgotten how to blink.

"You have a lot to learn about politics Percy, and until you learn those things you'll be used by people dumber than you for the rest of your life!"

I stormed out of the break room and back to the office, my face flushed with rage and embarrassment. I would not apologize for that. No. No I would not! I was right, he was wrong. This system was stupid and broken but it needed to function and be led by people who were actually capable of leadership and good decision making. My steps slowed as I took a couple of deep breaths to calm myself down, pushing back the stray hairs that had sprung free of my bun, my bangle bracelets tingled softly next to my ear before I stepped inside the office.

It was a short couple of steps to my desk where I reached for the headache potion that I had taken to keeping in my desk drawer, popping the disposable cork into the trash can and knocking back the vial the way Zara did her drinks while the thicket of idiots continued their congress on the matter of being outsmarted by an old, powerful wizard.

It almost made me miss MACUSA.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: Audrey is the one sane man in that office and it gives me joy to write those frustrations involved in not being a zealot. I also like the idea that the Graves family as a whole is still salty about Percival Graves getting iced by Grindelwald, even fifty some odd years later. It's a generational sore spot.

Quincy's back! I imagine there was a bit of wheeling and dealing from his Uncle Jack to get him out of the country before the real election took off, there will be no repeats of the streaker incident. The UK still seems a very safe place to store more…. Questionable relatives for the moment, though its also good for Quincy and Cassandra's careers. Two birds, one stone.