August 7, 1997

"He-hem."

That noise make me blanch even harder when it was under a sonarus charm, especially with the atrium's echo to make it even worse.

Percy peered down at me with a raised eyebrow as I covered my mouth to make it look like I had suppressed a sneeze.

The crowd of Ministry employees was gathered in the Ministry Atrium for a mandatory meeting and press conference. I could see the journalists from the Daily Prophet and hear the faint clicking of camera shutters as pictures were taken of the Minister and his cohort, a few were taken of the crowd of employees. It was just after lunch and I had spent the last several minutes quietly swapping notes with Percy and a few other younger Ministry members about who had been fired, who had stopped coming to work and how many outspoken purists had just gotten high ranking Ministry positions over the last few days.

Paul Carter had been quietly put on leave after his interview. I had gotten a chance to speak with him yesterday in the hallway of our building. He was a well respected wizard in his department and was on his way up the career ladder, he could not understand what exactly the issue was with his work. No one had told him anything. The only explanation he received was a letter from the Ministry, ordering him to come to a trial for stealing magic.

When he told me this, I must have looked aghast, because Paul then informed me that his wife Claire had received a letter informing her of her own scheduled trial date as well. Same day, same time. I was shocked. I had nothing to say to that. Paul was not sure he wanted to go back to the Ministry for such ludicrous charges. He and Claire had no family in the muggle world left who knew about magic, the pair would have no problem living like muggles again on their own. If they had to homeschool Eleanor, they were both fully capable of doing so, but to do that they needed a bit of time to find a place.

I was brought back to reality by another noise from Umbridge to get the remainder of the Atrium's attention.

The Minister stepped forward to speak, his loyal puppeteer Yaxley at his side and the lapdog Umbridge on his other.

How appropriate.

"For too long have we excused these self-proclaimed 'muggle-borns' declarations of having access to magic without proper magical ancestry."

I could see the back of Arthur Weasley's head through the crowd. Even with his thinning hair, the shade was still distinct enough for me to know it on sight.

"In recent weeks, it has been discovered that there is no possibility for those of nonmagical parentage to have the ability to use magic. That these are, in truth, muggles, who have stolen magic from true-born wizards!"

Oh…

There was a rapid tittering and clicking from the journalists and I pressed myself closer to Percy as I felt the crowd surge back and forth like a beach tide as I toned out the next several seconds of the Minister's speech.

"The Ministry is devoted to strengthening itself and its people by removing these deceptive elements, the threats that these mudbloods pose for impersonating true-born witches and wizards is beyond comprehension." If the man in front of me moved back to the left, I would be able to see Thicknesse's cold, vacant eyes through the gap in the crowd.

There was a faint air of something… heavy and sad that did not correspond with my emotions about this hateful speech. It lingered in the air and seemed to grow stronger as Thicknesse continued his speech, the sound of his voice was a senseless noise in my ears now.

Suddenly, the curtain that had shielded the old Fountain of Magical Brethren fell and the sight of what lay beyond the curtain brought me back to the present.

It was at first glance a mound of black stone, shapeless from where I was standing as the crowd stood in silence before murmurs of appreciation from the higher ups around me began to rise up. I stood on the tips of my toes for a better look and almost immediately regretted it.

Carved from the stone was a witch and wizard who appeared to be sitting on strangely lumpy thrones… No, that's not what I was seeing. They were sitting on bodies. They were sitting upon naked figures of men, women and children with sick, contorted faces and limbs. The statue stopped me cold, but the words at the base of the statue solidified my fear.

Magic is Might.

By the Twelve.

How did I get into this mess?

"But rest assured," Thicknesse continued, his voice droning on that would put me to sleep if I was not in a purist meeting. "Those who are able to prove magical ancestry to Madam Umbridge's new department, will be allowed back to whatever their lives were before, with our apologies and mandated back pay for any time missed."

There were Enforcers lining the sides of the Atrium, I could see the distinct color of their robes as they stood at the edge of the shows. As if on cue, a few shot into the crowd and pulled people out, binding them with magic and moving them towards the lift to the courtrooms. Those who protested or tried to stop the Enforcers were quickly stunned and dragged away themselves.

I saw Miju get elbowed and knocked to the floor in the chaos that made me lose sight of Percy. I pushed past the man in front of me to help her to her feet. Miju's face was pale, her dark straight hair was falling free of her ponytail. Percy appeared and yanked us back as a nearby enforcer grabbed one of the new secretaries, Lizzie Brown who Miju had been training, and roughly yanked her towards the edge of the crowd. To Lizzie's credit, she immediately whipped around and punched the Enforcer in the face, the crunch of his nose was not audible over the noise of the Minister's continuing speech or the shrieks of the crowd, but my brain supplied a satisfyingly crunchy noise for my own benefit. The punch knocked the Enforcer into an older gentleman from Magical Games and Sports who seemed to intentionally step on the floored Enforcer's hand as he was pulled away by the head of my department, Susanna and her husband Albert.

"LIZ!" Susanna's voice rose in warning from somewhere in the crowd, but it was too late.

Lizzie Brown was quickly restrained by another Enforcer and hauled away, the Enforcer intentionally banging her head against the wall on their way to the lift as the one who originally tried to arrest her grabbed another Muggle-born who tried to attack the one taking Lizzie away.

As suddenly as the violence came, there was an overwhelming sense of despair that destroyed any more of the sense of fight or disruption that could have been lying in wait in the crowd. There was something in this sadness that was palpable. Cold. Endless. A fear that reminded me of my entry to the Graves family columbarium, all high stone walls and whispers of the wind through the cracks that sounded like the dead in the mind of a child. I was so cold.

I could hear my mother's last rattling breath as shapeless cloaks hovered over the crowd.

Grandma Ophelia lying in state with full military honors for her funeral before her remains were sent to the crematorium.

Elaine Weathers was cold on a stone slab before the coffin emerged to hide her away from view.

There was Elizabeth Fudge, her face as serene in death as it was in life as the speakers came up to the podium to speak of her life and works in botany, the community she built of botanists and potioneers to help create high quality potions for the public.

The pale hand of my apartment doorman Walker was poking out behind his desk, standing out against the dark carpet and turning my stomach as if it were happening all over again.

Miju gripped my arm in terror, her nails sinking painfully into my arm, snapping me back to my senses as I looked up to see something hovering over me, a pale face and hint at a gaping maw that left me weak and horrified for the realization.

Dementors.

I reached for my wand, we did not have many dementors in America, too much joy and hope at the promise of a new world along with too much sunshine, but lethifolds and other dark creatures of the woods could be scared away and destroyed with a patronus charm. I knew the theory, it had been on my practical exam.

'Expecto Patronum!'

The light from my wand was embarrassingly dim, but it was enough to knock the dementor back a few feet. It recoiled quickly into the air and came back down again, angry and sensing weakness in my spell casting.

I could feel it feeding off my misery, chasing away my joy in better times…!

There was a horrific moment where I could peer through the silver light that encased me to see the mouth of the dementor come down in a clear threat before a jet of silver light leapt through the feet of the scattering crowd and threw itself against the dementor, knocking it aside with such force that it flew back into the black mass overhead. The silver creature had a long, slinky shape to it, like an elongated rodent that reminded me of a ferret that disappeared as quickly as it weaved through the crowd.

I saw the ghostly outline of a cat patronus at Umbridge's feet, weaving between her ankles (trip her!) and guarding the Minister and his cohort from the joy-sucking presence of the shapeless mass hovering overhead as he continued to speak.

A silence fell over the crowd, a kind of understanding of what protest would bring. It was best to stay quiet. The Ministry's new position was clear.

Muggle-borns were no longer welcome as employees of the Ministry of Magic.

Muggle-borns were no longer welcome in the magical world.

Oo0Oo0

I went to Percy's apartment after work, it was safe to talk about things that we could not discuss at work anymore. Current policies being the main issue. Percy had been exceptionally jittery at his desk when we returned from the meeting, his fingers drummed on the desk, his quill moving between his hands as he read over the documents to sort them for the Minister. When he was not doing that, he would stand up and pace around the office, looking at me like he wanted to say something, but knowing that we could not speak of anything valuable until we left.

Percy closed the door behind us and I pulled the hood of my cloak down as I reached for the clasp at my throat. I had enchanted the cloak to change my appearance to onlookers when I was wearing it, borrowing elements of my cousin Audrina's appearance. I put my cloak on the wall hook as my skin tingled as if I were peeling off a sweaty shirt, my hair was darkening from brown back to inky black, my eyes turning from doe brown to dark blue. Audrina was the cousin who studied old wizarding burial sites in Canada. She was… a dour personality.

Percy started ranting immediately on his way to the kitchen to make his angriest cup of tea to date.

"They can't do this!" I heard banging around the kitchen before I walked in to lean against a chair. There was tapping of china on the counter and the soft thump and tearing noise as Percy opened a new bag of sugar to refill his countertop sugar container. "It's unethical! They're people! Muggle-borns have rights! Their members of the magical community and you can't-" The kettle hit the stovetop burner with more force then Percy ever intended, he did love that kettle. "-dismiss an entire group for not coming from a magical background! If we did not marry muggles or welcome muggle-borns we would have died out centuries ago!"

I watched him pour the hot water over the steeper with the tea leaves, I focused quietly on his hands enjoying the quiet methodology of how he made tea while coming completely unglued over everything we had seen today.

"That statue was disgusting," my own voice chimed in as Percy caught his breath. Even if I did not like the non-magical, there was a level of civil tolerance to be expected from living side by side with a vastly different world. "We're people, not a ruling class to subjugate No-Majs."

"Exactly!" Percy removed his steeper with a nod and dumped four teaspoons of sugar into his tea instead of his usual two. He stirred it so quickly the spoon clinked aggressively against the sides of the cup.

"What do you think they are going to do with the muggle-borns who are in Hogwarts?" Percy voiced the question that I had not even considered in the flurry and shock of everything that had happened.

I did not have an answer to that question.

"Maybe they'll leave them be?" It was a naive idea. "Send them home? I… I honestly have no idea…"

I thought about the children I had cared for as a resident advisor for the Horned Serpent house back at Ilvermorny. Images of bright, outspoken Brian Morlock and disarmingly sweet Denise Kim being hauled away by dementors to sit in prison for the crime of existing made me want to puke. Children do not belong behind bars.

I did not want to think about it. I did not have the life experience to put my thoughts to words at the moment. I knew the word. I was just struggling to get it out of my mouth.

"What happens if we can't live under this?" I needed to change the subject, I could not analyze the political shift without knowing that Percy and I had some kind of plan. "We're both purebloods, I don't think we'll be assaulted for our blood status, but…"

Percy looked at me with a heavy expression. He did not have any kind of plan apparently. His brow was wrinkled, he sipped his tea and handed me my usual mug for my coffee, the warm touch of his hands focusing me for a moment as I began to prepare a cup of coffee.

"When we can't stay," I continued, "either because of who your family is, or the embassy tells me that any expats who remain are on their own, do we have a plan to go into hiding?"

Percy sighed, "I have savings. Not a lot. If we have to leave, there may be a chance we can't get to Gringotts to make withdrawals."

"I have a lot of jewelry from my mom," I fiddled with my bangles quietly, listening to them clink while thinking about what kind of spells I would have to put on them, preemptive spells of warding and protection. "If we need to leave I could sell it-"

"No, you keep that."

"I don't mean now."

"I mean, you hold onto it and don't worry about having to sell it. We'll never be in a position where that has to happen." Percy spoke with a kind of confidence that made me believe him. I think other people would have told me to sort the collection into things I could part with and then sort it by value. It was the practical choice, even if Percy was speaking in just the opposite.

"Okay." I put that idea aside, if an ostentatious piece has to go he will never notice. "What about staying with Lucinda?"

"If it gets to the point we have to leave, I think your great aunt will have to come with us."

Oh, Lucinda would not like that.

The image came to mind of Percy and I dragging Lucinda out of Thornell while she kicked and screamed about leaving the family home while Tavish and the elves followed behind telling her to be reasonable and take her medicine. While Hermes watched the chaos from a nearby oak tree I was particularly fond of.

I heard Hermes make a hooting noise from his perch in the living room. I peered around to look at him, he had one eye open and was watching us with an expression that was both curious and hateful, I supposed all of Percy's banging around had woken him up.

Hm. Hermes would be really cute with a little top hat. Like a little gentleman. No. Focus Audrey. That's why Erebus hates you.

"If you can get Lucinda to agree to leave her house and go on the run with us, I'll be beyond impressed."

Percy grinned, loose hair falling over his forehead in a way that made him look younger and childish in a way neither of us was really accustomed to.

The way he smiles does things to me I'm not sure I can articulate properly.

Words surged inside me like a wave in a storm, unbridled and violent in the force of forces greater than itself. Words and actions, stray thoughts that entered my mind at times of great joy now wanted to be released into the world.

I love him.

It was an easy thing to love this man. He had always put my interests over his own. The way his smile would light up his face. The way he cringed when he had not put just the right amount of sugar in his tea.

I wanted him to be safe. I wanted us to have a life together, even if that life involved upending every loose plan the two of us made about the future.

"Marry me!"

Percy's tea cup hit the floor with a bang, pieces of glass spinning in all kinds of directions on the tile floor.

"What?" His mouth was hanging open in a stupidly endearing way.

"If you marry me, we can go back to the United States together!" I was talking fast, the words needing to be spoken before Percy solidified any ideas he already had. "They won't stop you at the border for being a foreigner. We can escape and leave all of this behind!"

"I thought you didn't want to be on the same continent as your family?"

"I don't, but my father has some influence and I know a lot of people because of that." If I throw the full truth at him now he'll have a stroke. "I can introduce you to people at MACUSA. Your career would not have to come to an end or change direction."

Percy examined me with a wide eyed expression, his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. I didn't have to be a mind reader to have an idea about the thoughts swirling behind his eyes.

"I can't leave. I can't, not without…" He trailed off, unable to finish the sentence and I was not sure I could fill in the gap with confidence. His family perhaps?

There was a moment of silence.

"I won't marry you." Percy took a deep breath before I could say anything else. "When I marry you, because I can't see my life without you, it's not going to be an act of fear or desperation, I want there to be no doubt between us that we chose to marry out of love and not politics. You make it sound like a business arrangement."

Marriage was always something of a business arrangement in my eyes. Lucinda saw it that way and I always knew that my marriage would have some degree of that in its onset. I never felt I could have the opportunity to engage in romanticism and all its trappings, to be romantic and swept away would lead me to someone more interested in my family and its offerings then myself as a person and a partner. The scythe of the Graves family always seemed to be resting at my throat.

I refused to repeat my parents' mistakes. All sensibility and no sense, enthralled by the person and the idea of the person over who they were in the moment and who they could eventually grow to be.

I knew Percy would say no as the words left my mouth, but I needed him to know that if I needed to leave, he could come with me. Maybe I could have toned down the drama of such a declaration, but I needed him to understand that if I had to leave, I wanted him to come with me.

I think I would have worried about us as a couple if he had agreed with me to run away from everything immediately. Percy has the kind of spine and backbone that I am not sure I possess. My first impulses were to run, pursue things in my own hard headed manner and leave everything behind for my own morals, but I was now finding that I would do it for safety as well. If I felt danger, I would run. I had my small circle to worry over and society could crumble and burn for all I cared, as long as my people were safe from the fallout.

Percy had a broader perspective in some ways. Society was important. The public good was important and he was very committed to whatever goal or path he decided on in a way I just was not. He made his choice and he would ride it out to the bitter end. He was brave in a way I did not feel that I was.

If he was going to stay, I would stay.

But if he changed his mind, or things got worse than they already were, I was ready to pack my bags and leave. Percy could come willingly or I could shove him in a bag too.

Kidnapping could be a forgivable crime under those circumstances.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: This chapter grew out of control, there was a lot going on, so I cut it in half. It hit 6k and just kept growing, so we'll stop here and make something stronger out of the division. Instead you get horror and romance this week.

Legit, the full draft hit twenty pages.

It had to be stopped.

See you all next month!