October 3, 1997

It was an easy thing to walk into work, I was now assigned to insignificant offices, places where people were being watched for insidious activity by either their bosses or their lackeys. I was not sure which category I fell under, was I here to watch and report back to prove my loyalty, or was I here to be watched myself?

Decisions, decisions…

Though, judging by the contents of the papers I was sorting for the Law Enforcement Office, I was being watched, but perhaps being provided an opportunity to prove my loyalty to the pureblood cause.

The other secretaries were glancing over at me from their flock, thinking they were covert and sneaky about how they turned away when I shifted on the floor and looked at them in turn.

Lovely bunch.

The lower ranked administrative assistants, people who were not from illustrious families, had some questionable bloodstatus or some other deficiency of pedigree were generally moved around the Ministry to keep them off balanced and discontent with a lack of real assignments or ability to make connections and obtain protection. If they disappeared one day, well, who would notice? After all, the best assignments needed to go to the daughters of illustrious purebloods who now controlled the Ministry. One cannot have a pureblood society without pureblood children afterall. It defeats the whole purpose if the ideal falls apart in a generation.

I double checked the signatures of the recently recieved documentation from the muggle-born trials before filing it away in the proper location, my eyes lingering a few moments too long on Percy's loopy signature with a shiver. Percy could try and tie up Umbridge's project as much as he liked, but that would take time and right now she could roll over everything in her path to genocide. I shook my head to try and turn my attention to other things that were more immediate concerns and threats to me and what I wanted to accomplish.

Such as the flock of giggly secretaries. I wondered which of these idiots would be going up to the Minister's Office?

Percy was not going to be much of a target for husband hunting, partially because of me, and partially because aside from being a quietly wonderful person, he had nothing to offer other than bloodstatus on initial inspection. He was also very picky about secretaries and their competence to be helpful. I still was not entirely sure how I passed muster to last as long as I did.

I really did not want it to be a matter of solely physical attraction.

Percy and I had a bet going about how long it would take for him to run off the first victim. Percy said it would take a week. I felt generous and said a month.

None of that mattered, I needed to find a way to get into the Department of Mysteries and I was ready to look at any and all avenues to accomplish that. Rookwood had implied that there were things being done down there that were particularly terrible and I was going to have to be clever, conniving and unexpected to accomplish this. I just needed some sort of way in which I did not risk Susanna's position by proxy. I had been unofficially labeled as some flavor of foreign agent and there were places in the Ministry I would not be allowed into, even if I professed loyalty to the Death Eater regime.

The family grimoire was full of odd magiks, surely there was something in there that could help me in this mission? I would have to consult the book. American magic was very diverse and there may not be as much protection against it within the Ministry. Old purebloods still believed that British magic was the only true way to practice magic.

I was not sure I had it in me to use the Imperius Curse. Dark magic was a slippery slope, even for just causes. To control another person was a dangerous plan, I would still have to concoct an excuse for myself to even be there and it would be difficult to create a true excuse for my presence. Invisibility charm perhaps, but those were not infallible and the true invisibility cloak belonged only to the Tale of Three Brothers. I always thought the cloak was the most practical of the bunch. The ability to disappear entirely seemed like such a gift, I had no care to hide from death, but the possibilities that such a cloak could offer were seemingly endless.

Could I use an Unforgivable Curse? Maybe? Dark magic left stains on the soul, it was part of the reason parselmouths were so reviled by a large part of the world, snakes were traditional sacrifices in ancient rituals in some fashion. Some part of me wondered if there was something in the Graves Family Grimoire that could help me in some fashion… That Rebekah had left something behind in its pages for her descendants, even the ones she would never meet who could potentially share her talents.

No. That was wishful thinking. It was more likely my ancestors had a note I had missed about how to best kill parselmouths. Which could still be useful if I… lost everything.

I was pulled from my thoughts as someone came up behind me.

"Well, look who has come down in the world."

Ugh, I knew that voice, I didn't even have to turn around and confirm it. Jasmine Rosier's voice just grated my nerves that way.

"Hello, Jasmine, how can I help you?"

She raised a blonde eyebrow, her mouth quirking slightly in a smug display as she peered down at me.

"Did Weasley finally run you off or did the Minister finally decide foreigners with diluted blood and questionable friendships don't have much to offer?"

"I'm not arrogant enough to claim to know the thoughts of others, let alone powerful men."

This, surprisingly, made Jasmine laugh. She threw her shoulders back, her hair swishing freely as the laughter overcame her in a fascinating way.

"You're funny," Jasmine settled back into the persona I found to be normal, manageable and not… well, human. "I do hate to see you brought down this low, though I do enjoy our little chats."

She flounced away, back to the group I recognized that contained the children of notable Sacred Twenty-Eight families and felt myself internally retch as they put their heads together and giggled like school children as they left the office after seeing everything they wanted to see in my downfall.

Okay, I was an object of amusement now. I knew this would be the case. I glanced around at the other admins of my own ranking, those of lower status than pureblood who were ignoring me, believing me to be a potential rat for the Minister and those families in power. That was understandable, I would not trust someone from the Minister's office either under these conditions.

I would have to build trust here, but some part of me doubted that would occur naturally.

If I had the narrative, maybe I could use that to construct a believable story for information from the rank and file.

Though… Perhaps there was a social angle to work in getting into the Department of Mysteries.

I would have to chew on that for a while as I tried to pretend I was a mindless laborer.

Oo0Oo0

October 4, 1997

Percy and I had very boring lives in some ways, normal twenty-somethings would not be spending their Saturday inside their flat reading old school books, practicing charms and reviewing each lesson for practical, defensive purposes with regards to curriculum. This had been a small project of ours for a few days, we were not sure how best to handle and combine our different educational experiences to something potent for wartime education. The eventual decision was to focus on practical magic, magic that could be turned to combat purposes and perhaps begin lessons on dueling when we had more students and a better idea of what we were doing. Which was very little.

Percy and I were sitting on the couch with an assortment of papers covered in notes and assorted schoolbooks on the table in front of us as we finalized educational lessons for the schoolchildren at Thornell. Percy wanted to teach potions and transfiguration, he was very proudly telling me he got a top N.E.W.T grade in the subject by turning an examiner into some spineless sea creature and conjuring various objects from nothing. He was pressing his leg against mine with a smug smile. Flirtation by braggadocio. It was kind of cute.

Wait…

"You removed a man's spine for a grade?"

Percy rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Is that ethical?"

"Well…" Percy started slowly, "Not really, but he may have said something…"

"What did he say?"

"He asked if I was number four or five. He had a tone I didn't appreciate."

"Oh."

Percy shrugged, "Besides, what other opportunity would I have to do human transfiguration?"

"Good for you." I pressed myself back against his side, taking in the warmth he provided as the cool autumn chill seemed to sneak in the closed window. Starting a fire seemed like too much work and would just make me sleepy. Even now I was stifling a yawn from the long day I had, despite it only being close to noon.

I decided a full year subscription to Transfiguration Today would be his Christmas gift.

It seemed appropriate.

Laying claim to covering Charms and Herbology, seemed a natural choice. Covering Herbology for Tavish who was generally away from the house these days. Lucinda stated that she was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts, something we all felt we had to give more time too, while supervising and tutoring in the other subjects a couple of times a day. It might do Percy and I some good to have a refresher course with Lucinda on combative magic. I remembered the defeats she had handed me during my occlumency instruction.

There was one I did refute in regards to education. I refused to allow Percy to teach these kids divination, I doubted there were going to be any seers in the group and by Naitheria I was not going to teach bone throwing! My father's Osteomancy was bad enough, I did not want these kids going around looking for dead things to grave rob, that was just grim.

Besides, to be a good bone thrower, one needed ancestral ties to the land or to feel very attached to it as a part of who you were as a person and a personal connection to their set. Osteomancy allowed the forces, spirits, of the world to speak with the caster through the bones, feathers and the like of the caster's collection. Prosecuted muggle-borns might not feel those ties to nation, land or territory to throw bones effectively. My father preferred a traditional set of animal bones with a few pieces of driftwood, a couple of teeth and a couple of personal carved pieces he had made with his father. Also, we had no sage for cleansing.

We had decided that we would do two classes, two evenings a week when we went as a practicum, keeping it spontaneous for our own safety.

I had arranged for Oliver to meet Tavish yesterday and he immediately put the younger man to work gathering information in various pubs and other public locations for the moment, chasing rumors of interest.

Lucinda had sent Katie Bell off this morning as well to act as our lighthouse keeper, managing and protecting a location for our portkeys to send people out of Britain. It would be a lonely job, but she would be safe and everything would be watched and managed under communications with an elderly friend of Lucinda's nearby who would come help Katie learn what she needed to know. This was Lucinda's project and I was not allowed to become too involved in it, I was only supposed to trust that this would be done successfully.

Though, I was kept abreast of some other things.

Such as when Tavish returned with the Creevey brothers this morning, both of whom were small, blond and unusually feisty for six in the morning, there was a pending sense of relief. This work we were doing was now beginning to feel like an accomplishment with real, tangible results.

Of course, the Creevey brothers saw this as more of a kidnapping, seeing as Tavish had scruffed the older boy by the back of his shirt collar and pinching the back of his neck while having the younger boy tucked under his arm like a Quadball. They wanted to go back out and fight more Death Eaters.

The younger boy apparently bit Tavish at one point.

As opposed to Gavin Briar stabbing Albert with a fork when he was found.

Some of these kids were feisty!

As I showed Percy the letter I had been giggling over, he merely rolled his eyes and calmly stated that the Creevey's were apparently just like that while we began to make a list of needed potions ingredients for a lesson with the school aged children. Per his account, Colin was more than a bit of a handful, he was a hobbyist photographer and had a shameless adoration of Harry Potter. The younger boy, Dennis, was not much better, per the accounts of Percy's siblings. Dennis apparently viewed falling in the lake and being rescued by the Giant Squid on his first boat ride to Hogwarts as a truly exciting event.

Oh, Morgana's pantyhose!

They sounded fun!

But also like they needed to be kept on leashes.

When I finally met the famous Creevey brothers that afternoon, I mistook Colin for being a couple of years younger than sixteen when I arrived at Thornell, but he was good natured about it and happily showed me his camera and a collection of photographs he had managed to keep with him while he was on the run. Some were from Hogwarts, there were a lot of his friends, and a few of Harry Potter who I recognized from Dumbledore's funeral. He had a very set sense of fashion apparently, it seemed he had never changed the frames of his glasses.

The flash of lionesque hair caught my attention, the shade was so familiar.

"Who's this?"

"Ginny Weasley, she's a friend of mine."

I reached out to take the picture Colin was holding out to me. I knew Ginny was a pretty girl, but I did not get a good look at the funeral. She was a bit short, but her glimmering brown eyes and confident smile in this picture gave her the air of someone much taller and imposing. There was something in the quirk of her mouth and shape of her ears that reminded me of Percy.

"She's pretty."

Colin nodded and showed me another picture of a Quidditch match and pointed out all of the players in the pictures, explaining that Ginny was playing Seeker in that match and he managed to get a picture of her catching the thing.

When Colin caught sight of Percy, his already big eyes grew larger.

"Creevey," Percy said, something authoritative in his voice that reminded me of a schoolteacher that evidently had the same effect on Colin. Who quickly bid me farewell and scampered off, grabbing his brother to tug up behind him on the way to the stairs.

"What was that about?"

"Oh, he was a bit of a menace at school. I spent a lot of time chasing him and a few other students around for detention."

"How long ago was that?"

"About three or four years."

"You must have left an impression."

"I did my best."

Oo0Oo0

Watching Percy give a safety lecture on potion brewing should not have been as interesting as I believed it to be.

The way his hands moved when he spoke, handing out different directions to the two first years and the older students to suit their skill level. I knew he had carefully picked out some very simple potions with easy to find ingredients that were practical and would have a use here.

"Quick note on cauldron safety," he started as he moved back to the front of the classroom we had made in one of the old storage rooms on the top floor of the house. There were boxes stacked in the corners, the windows had been thrown open for fresh air and we had been able to find several small tables to use along with some old, spare cauldrons. "Cauldron bottom thickness is very important."

There were giggles from the older students while the First Years just looked confused.

Percy ignored the giggles, holding his head a little higher. "I see nothing funny about safety concerns, as we don't have a lot of resources so everything we have needs to be kept in top condition, which means regular testing of the pewter. One of the ways you can test the thickness of your cauldron-"

There was a sudden wave of more giggles and I was beginning to understand what these teenagers were hearing. I was not going to laugh. If I laughed, I would have to explain it later and I was not sure Percy would understand that he was unintentionally funny. It would just confuse him.

Percy continued, his tone growing to be better compared to a professor or politician "The thickness of the pewter can be most easily tested through a simple charm I will show you today and I have written down for you to consult as needed in the future. There is no need to worry about it blowing up your cauldron, if you perform the spell incorrectly it will just turn your cauldron some shade of fuschia."

I was trying very hard to keep a straight face. Eleanor was looking at me with a raised eyebrow, quietly begging me to explain why the other students were misbehaving, which I was not going to do.

Watching Percy explain and demonstrate made me smile stupidly. He's adorable. Sociable, but vaguely clueless about social interaction in a trying too hard manner. He probably should not be a teacher, people who were never normal teenagers should not do that as a career, but the kids seem to like him. Partially for the fact he's unintentionally making a dirty joke in the guise of safety concerns and talks to them the way they think adults speak to one another.

Honestly, Percy would be a wonderful father.

Oh, put that thought away Audrey!

We've talked about it a little…

Yeah, but neither of you are even twenty-two. You both have a respectable budget. Are you even going to stay at the Ministry after this mess?

Oh… Yeah… I need to work on that.

Please do.

Shut up.

There was curiosity and doubt in what my future was going to look like. I knew I could not stay at the Ministry for a host of ethical reasons related to my father's position, I had long felt trapped there by Scrimgeour and now Yaxley in turn. Everything changed too quickly to make a real escape plan. I was not going back to America, Jack's influence was greater there and I would end up back in politics and Percy would be regarded as a suspicious foreign threat for his longevity in an unstable political office.

I had debated and wondered what I would do after the Ministry and all of my ideas seemed so stupid and risky and reliant on Percy's steady income while I pursued something that would not turn into immediate results or any at all.

The children here would be at Thornell longer than the war would last, they would grow up here, spend their summers here and become adults under Lucinda's watchful eyes. She would never kick these children out into the cold with nowhere to go, Thornell would become an orphanage again, a non-profit charity organization. Would I help run the place with Lucinda and Tavish full-time? No, I would lose so much of my career growth and I needed to carve my own path in the world somehow, it would potentially open doors for the children later down the road if I broke into something beyond Ministry work.

There was some part of me that had an urge to record everything that was happening, to put a pen to paper and talk about everything I had seen that led up to the war and the overthrow of the Ministry of Magic for a steep fall to fascism. There was something so haunting in that idea, but this could not be a dry political discourse if I wanted people to read it. It had to be something personal and maybe I was not ready to put all of that out into the world. Maybe I never would be, but my hands itched and my brain whirred to try and grasp this spinning idea of truth and story under all the pain that led me to this point in my life. How much of myself was I willing to put out there to be judged and scrutinized? I was a pureblood speaking of her suffering when Muggle-borns were the true victims in this conflict. What if this was not my story to tell? What if I was intruding on something, coloring the horrors through a privileged lens?

How can I write about something that has no ending in sight?

Instead of the future, I turned my mind to the present and guided Eleanor and Gavin through the potion they were making together, explaining the basic fundamentals of using a knife (reminding Gavin that no, I could not use magic to regrow a severed finger).

We would have to get more ingredients for the older students. Joy needed to study for her fifth year exams, even if that was delayed due to everything going on, we could at least help her get some idea and education on the matter. It would be easier to help her along in a tutoring setting we were developing here, individual attention and education should put her evenly with her peers. Dennis was supposed to be doing the essential learning for O.W.L preparation for his fourth year and Colin was only interested in potions that would make his photographs move in the wizarding fashion, which, per his own admission, was the only reason he put in the work to pass his exam. He was now doing something that involved bright blue smoke and I decided to leave that one with Percy.

I turned back to the two younger children and was careful not look in Percy's direction again, partially because Gavin seemed to be making a sincere effort to cut off one of his fingers, and because Percy being actively kind and engaging to children was doing things to me I had barely spared a thought for until the last year.

Eleanor had just taken the knife from Gavin and told him to start stirring in her best 'eldest sister' voice and I was trying not to laugh while I quickly offered them a simpler way to portion their ingredients for a simple Pepper-up potion.

The agreement to focus on practical spells was going to be fairly dry material for the students in a lot of ways, but it meant we could stockpile essential medications and ingredients that were made here on the property. It meant we would leave less often to go retrieve those things from the marketplace and would not be regarded with suspicion for frequent trips for medicines. After all, experimental potion making was a very old hobby in wizarding society.

As the potions came to a boil and I gave some well deserved praise to Eleanor and Gavin (partially for not losing a finger or strangling each other) and for managing to craft something that was not poisonous per the frog I created to test it on.

With the lack of death or poisoning, Percy declared this to be a successful lesson and the students ran out of the room at dismissal, almost running down Tinsy who apparated herself onto my shoulder like an angry housecat, tilting me sideways with the suddennes of her appearance before disappearing again to finish whatever it was do was doing in the hallway.

"I think that went well," I said quickly as I righted myself, grateful I had not knocked over any of the simmering cauldrons that Percy was putting in glass vials. "How many vials?"

"About ten doses of Pepper-up, Regrowth potion and Sleep tonic. And four vials of whatever Colin was making for his photographs."

"I'm glad you let him do that."

Percy shrugged. "It's educational and it's all he's interested in potionwise. He'll probably grow up to be a famous photographer anyway."

"We should stay on his good side, he's very talented."

Colin clearly knew what he wanted in life, and I could not help but feel a little jealous of that kind of conviction while I waffled over technicalities of money and a shared life. My hands itched have a real purpose, not the way my brother did, but in a fashion that was my own and I was absolutely frozen at the crossroads of fear and uncertainty of living a career that could be unpredictable and did not offer me the kind of stability an office job could or even just not knowing what a nonpolitical career could look like for me.

For now, my mostly filled journal was a place to sort my troubled thoughts and the events of the mundane life under fascism and perhaps that would have to be enough.

Oo0Oo0

Author's Note: This website is held together with paperclips and dreams. If goes you can find me on Ao3.

With regards to the artifacts of the Three Brothers, Annette would pick the stone- to interview the dead for their justice. Alex might pick the stone too, for the truth of a situation for his articles or the wand- it depends on what point he's at in his life, but the stone is the more consistent option. Audrey and Aldridge would choose the invisibility cloak- They're both more retiring, private personalities.

Percy would pick the wand, but I think that changes later in his life.

Sorry about the wait. Been sick. Big exam to study for. Dissertation grades are dropping as we speak. Chaos.