May 23, 1996

Fudge waved the paper around before slamming it on the table. "Who is writing this trite?"

I tilted my head slightly to look at the headline.

Government Corruption Starts with Leadership

That was not a paper I had ever seen in circulation before. I could see where Fudge's annoyance came from, another fringe newspaper he really had no control over. They just popped up all over the place but nobody really read anything other than the Daily Prophet.

"I have no idea, Minister, but I will find out," Percy responded as he added 'find insurgent paper headquarters'' to his list of things to do. It was probably not that exact thing, but the spirit was the same.

He had barely spoken to me since our argument in the break room last month. Just the barest form of nods, mumbling and occasional attempts at sign language which… I wasn't talking to him either, so that was most of our communication was pointing at things and glaring at one another.

Eddie thought it was funny. He alluded that Percy had ranted to him about our little disagreement and Eddie thought it was hilarious. I think Eddie was seeing the cracks in this administration too, even if he did not believe Potter's account.

"No, Weasley, I need you to take notes at this meeting. Audrey!"

I almost spilled my coffee.

"Yes Minister?"

"Find out who is running this paper and report back."

I could feel Percy's eyes piercing through me.

"Of course, sir."

I took the paper from the Minister as he and Percy gathered their paperwork to go to the meeting. I exchanged a look with Eddie as the door closed. We were silent for a few moments before Eddie broke it with a quip.

"Real chill in the air."

I nodded in agreement. I knew what I said all those weeks ago, but I was right, Percy was wrong and he would realize it eventually once he figured out how to use his brain.

I set my copy of the Daily Prophet aside and examined this paper the Minister had given me. It was a very slim paper, not as thick as the other papers and more of a four page newsletter.

Semper Honestus

Hm. Always honest huh?

It was a new paper, the date stated that it was established this year. Though…

The introduction of the paper's cause was to lay bare the corruption of government for the common man. They're corruption crusaders, good, we need more of those to keep political figures and administrations honest.

This front page article spoke about numerous scandals and cover-ups that had allowed unsavory political scandals to come to fruition. I was struggling to see what was so bad about this paper until I turned the page to find a series of examples of corruption within the Ministry of Magic.

Ah. That was why Fudge was angry.

I read further down the paper, there was a compilation of data to provide numbers and data to how corrupt individual governments were on what we called the Wright Scale, after Rosalind Wright who pioneered the kind of data collection to help organize corruption data. Was she a partner or supporter? I did a paper on her a couple of years- Hold on.

The name of the headline reporter caught my attention.

Alexander Graves.

My eyes flew back up to the publication date. This paper had only been active for a few weeks. The scratching of Eddie's quill faded into the background as my hands shook and a smile broke out on my face. I… I had a lead. Laughter bubbled in my chest as I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle any escaping noise as I stared at my brother's name in print.

None of my attempts to reach Alex by owlpost were successful. It would be easier to reach out to the paper itself. Though I saw no address for where the paper was even published or produced. I skimmed it for anything else I could use and froze again when I found another name familiar to me.

Editor - Valencia Talbot

My stomach flipped and my chest went cold. Was she here? Had she recruited my brother for her corruption venture, knowing he would leap at the opportunity.

I couldn't give her to the Ministry, I would say Valencia Talbot was a pen name and that I was still looking for the editor. That was not uncommon for those who dealt with these kinds of things.

I pulled out a piece of parchment and began to write a letter to Valencia Talbot.

Oo0Oo0

June 2, 1996

The park was beautiful. The small pond was had several ducks making noise and eating bread that was being fed to them by a couple of children. I took a seat at one of the nearby park tables and took in the cool evening air. I was excited. Nervous. Both emotions showing themselves though my tapping foot and tight chest.

I would be fine. I would have some sort of answer tonight, hopefully it would be an answer I wanted and not something I would have to resign myself too. Everything would be fine.

I knew about Valencia from the article my brother had written, and had seen her in passing while I was growing up, but I had never really had a real conversation with her before. She was a tall, attractive woman with short boyish auburn hair and big glasses resting on the bridge of her nose. She had a warm, trustworthy face and a cynical gaze in her brown eyes. Valencia Talbot did not fit the image of the broken woman from the news article I had read as a fourteen year old girl, she looked worn, but quietly strong like she had seen the worst of people and came out a victor.

"Audrey Graves," she reached out her hand. "I'm Valencia Talbot."

"I'm glad to meet you!"

We shook hands and Valencia took a seat across from me with an awkward smile as we sat in silence for a few moments, taking in the breeze off the pond and the view.

"I've been reading about your work," I broached the easiest topic I had. "I think what you're doing is amazing! I'm surprised no one else is doing anything like it."

"So was I. We're not different from No-Majs that way. We're all vulnerable to fascism and some power wanting to overthrow the government. If we can teach people what to look for, we can have more stable governments in the world." Valencia paused, her eyes serious as she looked into my eyes and fixed her glasses. "But that's not the only reason why you wanted to speak to me today."

"No, it's not." I took a deep breath, "It's about my brother, Alex."

Valencia tilted her head quizzically.

I began to explain about my brother seemingly disappearing, that he had stopped submitting articles over a year ago to any of his regular newspapers. That the very last article he had written was for her organization's opening newsletter.

"I need to find him, I have looked here in England for close to a year and had no sign of him. Even if he never wants to see me again afterwards, I… I need the closure and if he never wants to see me again I won't bother him. I just need to know he's okay!"

Lucinda was thrilled that I had a lead on Alex, she hugged me close and said that if I could arrange to meet him in person, she would like to go as well and apologize for whatever she had said to him all those years ago.

"If he's still working for you, can you tell me where to find him?"

Valencia nodded as I spoke, taking in everything that I said with a neutral expression that I could not read. When I finished, she seemed to be somewhere else, somewhere I could not reach, her fingers drummed on the table between us before running her hand through her hair with a heavy sigh.

"Do you really want to know everything or at least what I think about it? Because after I tell you… You clearly love your brother, maybe you can go through the rest of your life happier if you don't know. Think before you answer, because when I start you won't get to return to ignorance again."

I thought quietly, mulling over the words of this woman who looked at me with such a sad expression.

"I've come this far. Ignorance will not give me any peace." My stomach fluttered and my heart clenched as I took a deep breath. "Tell me everything."

The silence between us was not uncomfortable, it was crafted by a web of thoughts and a history that I only understood the bare bones of. I knew as much about Valencia as she knew about me. Two people on the outer edges of each other's orbits were finally colliding though their shared love for another person and all possibilities stood bare before us.

"You know about what happened to me right?"

I nodded slowly. "I know what went in the paper, but I don't know much else."

"I had gone to the law after my assault. Because I was from the foster system, they thought I was lying. That the good man they knew would not do something like that, let alone a prominent, respected politician would need to drug anyone to get them in bed. That women would be lining up to sleep with him willingly to gain favor, especially someone from my background." She paused to collect her thoughts. "I knew your brother from school and I asked him to investigate, he was always so intense and focused and he had connections to help make my case that I could only dream of. Alex showed me kindness when I was struggling to show it to myself."

"You asked Alex to investigate the man who assaulted you."

"Yes. I didn't think I was the first, but I knew that I wanted to be the last." Valencia sighed. "Alex was willing to help me and from what he told me the last time I saw him, writing that article destroyed his family." Her glasses fogged with heat from her watery eyes. "I'm so sorry!"

My hand moved to grasp her hand, clutching it tightly.

"Not your fault. It was never your fault. None of it was. My family was going to go to pieces over something, and it was never you. Alex and our father had issues for years, he knew what publishing that article would do and accepted it and I knew what I was going to lose by coming to look for him. Which was nothing. We lost nothing."

"Thank you." She wiped her eyes. "You remind me of Alex you know? You both have that same look in your eyes, a steadiness that makes people trust you. What a dangerous gift."

She gave my hand a squeeze before pulling away, I folded my hands on the table in front of me.

"Well, that article blew up and more women came forward about their assaults. I got my trial. He walked away because he was rich, powerful and I decided to leave the country and start my nonprofit. I had enough of corrupt politics."

"When did you meet Alex again?"

"We met up for the occasional lunch after I got to the country. He spoke about his latest investigations, I talked about the support for the nonprofit and lack thereof. He was very interested in my work, even in the early stages of research and elbow rubbing I had to do to get the paper off the ground."

She grew quiet and I felt an answer sitting in the air, crackling and snapping like lightning.

"I read his investigation into a fascist organization that was active in Spain a couple of years ago. He went above and beyond, infiltrating the group from information and publishing his findings afterwords. I read the article and asked him to do something for me one last time."

I leaned forward, sick with anticipation or perhaps a premonition of what Valencia was going to tell me.

"There were Death Eaters at the Quidditch World Cup, then Harry Potter came back and named several of them after the Triwizard Tournament. I thought perhaps the boy was crazy, but then I thought that even if it was crazy, it would be worth looking into even as a human interest piece." She sighed. "I asked Alex to investigate the Death Eaters and find out everything he could about who they were and how they worked, just in case Potter was right."

I slumped back in my chair, my heart thudding loudly in my chest and throat.

"W-what next?"

"He agreed."

"You asked him to investigate a potentially active terrorist organization!"

"I asked him to write a political piece, not to join, Alex made that decision on his own!"

A cold chill consumed my body, my hands clutched my jacket and shook violently. He was in danger. My brother had investigated a group of fascist blood purists for a story? By the Twelve! When I found him, I was going to kill him!

"The last I heard from him, he had been welcomed as an initiate and he never wrote to me again."

I felt like I was going to throw up…

"But… The newsletter?"

"Audrey," Valencia was pale, like telling me these things had relieved her of a burden but putting everything to words had put it all fully into prospective. "Alex wrote that for me six months ago, data like that doesn't change and he asked me to run it with my first newsletter."

"You haven't heard from him in months?"

Valencia shook her head, "I don't know who he was talking too, but they got him in. Which means the Death Eaters are active in some capacity, since Alex hasn't bailed out I have to assume Potter is right."

"What do you know about the Death Eaters?"

"They're dangerous. They're pureblood supremacists, it was part of the reason I asked Alex to look into it, he's got English pureblood credentials and is a fantastic occlumens. I thought he could at least fake it with some of those clowns who walked away from all charges with the Imperius curse excuse."

That did not matter. The mind was fully capable of breaking under the right kind of torture.

Alex did not like No-Majs, we heard a lot of stories about Scourers as children and in our history books, there a historical animosity there that he picked up from our father. He would use that to layer his mind for protection against those who could read minds. It was a trick I had read about in a book about great mind wix that was in the Byrgen House.

"Voldemort's people used the Imperius curse a lot during his rise to power. If Alex is involved, if he got caught, he could be under the Imperius curse. It may be why I haven't heard from him."

She did not voice the other option that hung over the pair of us like a dark cloud.

The Graves family had valuable international connections, but someone would have to make the connection that Alex and I were related to that fool presidential candidate from the United States and not some side branch of the family like cousin Quincy.

Oh, Merlin!

I… I had to find him!

"There… There would be a lot of value to having a Graves as a kind of hostage." I said quietly as my mind rushed with possibilities. "Even if we're not publicly known to be Jack's children, it would tie the hands of the embassy and the government… If word got out at all that he was willing, or just a hostage, it would contort Alex's image and destabilize my father should he win the election."

Valencia nodded, "We didn't know your father was planning to run when we cooked up this scheme. I would not have asked this of your brother if I knew and he would not have accepted if he did. Alex is foolish, not stupid."

My chest felt tight and I had to struggle to focus my breathing. I was able to collect myself but I still felt short of breath and sick to my stomach.

"We need to find him and get him out of whatever he's involved with." I hunched forward, pressing my forehead against my clenched fists. "Tell me everything you know about Alex from the last five years. I know he's taken a job with you, but I need to know about his personal life."

"We… didn't talk much about our personal lives. He talked about the papers he worked for, you know him, he's a workaholic."

I nodded in agreement to encourage her to keep talking.

Valencia closed her eyes and pressed her lips together in a thin line as she thought.

"I… I did ask him out on a date, but he let it slip that he had a girlfriend when he turned me down."

"Girlfriend?"

That was… new. Alex was not really interested in dating from my recollections, he wasn't really one for people of any sort. He wanted to be alone with his books or the newspapers. Family life was not something my brother seemed interested in cultivating, he was indifferent and avoidant to children and I knew that would not be an attractive quality in most women. Alex was stubborn and would never change his mind on that.

"I know! Never seemed the type," Valencia smiled wryly. "Wanted to be alone with his good quill."

"The falcon tail feather one I got him for Christmas right?"

"That's the one! He used that quill all through our last year of school. I think he wants to be buried with it."

I laughed quietly, "Did you get his girlfriend's name?"

"Hm… I asked about her. She had a weird name, Tula? No, Thalia! Her name is Thalia! He said they met during one of his investigations but that's all I know. She could be anywhere in Europe."

I doubted that. If Alex was serious about this girl then they would eventually have to be on the same continent. If Alex was serious enough to mention her by name, even by accident, then I was willing to bet she would be in the country, judging by his last publications and what was going on here in England.

"Have you tried to find this Thalia woman?"

Valencia sighed, "I did, but there's no trace of her. I can't get into the population records at the Ministry, I checked society memberships, guilds and the usual things people sign up for. She may have learned a thing or two about a low profile from your brother, though I'm starting to think it's the other way around."

Thalia. What an unusual name. Valencia did not have access to Ministry files the way I did, I might be able to talk to one of the secretaries to find out if there is one on file. It was a place to start.

"Could Thalia be her middle name maybe?"

"Could be, but I doubt it. I can't think of any names that could go in front of it smoothly. That's a first name for sure. Even if she goes by her middle name, it would still show up on social registries she signed up for."

"I'll check the Ministry records. I can at least try to get one of the secretaries there to help me if I have a good story."

I had met Miju on previous errands to the records office, she was a pleasant woman who loved flowers, had a young daughter and seemed to like me well enough. Though the head of the records office had an office manager who was a bit… overbearing. I may have to wait for the office manager to take a sick day. It was a start. Alex had tied our fates together for this moment. If he was alive or… no. I couldn't think about the other option, we would find out together in some manner. I had an ally now who knew Alex as well as, if not better, than myself.

"If war is coming," Valencia's voice was quiet. "We need to be prepared."

"I'm not leaving. Not without Alex."

"I'm not leaving either. Honest press of any sort will rally people back home." Valencia brushed her hair out of her eyes and adjusted her glasses. "Just be ready to disappear, Aud. I read the stuff on the last war and it was brutal."

Valencia got to her feet and reached out her hand for me to shake. I clasped it, but Valencia grasped it tightly in her own as she began to speak again. "I am Valencia Talbot," her hand began to glow and I saw her wand in her hand. "I reside in the Little Village in flat number sixty-two." The light crawled around our hands in a glow like the sun. "Should you have need of me, come find me."

The magic held my hand in place for a moment while I thought and grasped my own wand. "My name is Audrey Graves, I will live in Demiguse House in flat forty-five at the end of the summer."

We parted amicably, Valencia apparating away with a pop leaving me in the fading light of the evening with a rush of nerves and a sick feeling in my stomach. Spying. Death Eaters. Voldemort.

I had just gotten a real lead on my brother.

And I was beginning to think we were both in way over our heads.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: I've had half of this chapter written for three months and planned for longer.

Two chapter left on this section, I'm posting this early so I can get through the mess of canon reveals in an entertaining fashion.