From the playlist:

Brother Run Fast. - KALEO

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac

Ch. 43 - Of Bones and Fractures

June 28th

Alastor stood so quiet and so still that nobody else in the clearing dared disturb him with chit chat or side conversations. Not that Mad-Eye was the picture of pep, but it was rare to watch him wait patiently rather than get right to business. At three past nine, Emmeline watched Alastor tap on his pocket watch with his wand, genuinely unsure if this was a stalling tactic or if he was just trying to get the damn thing to work. "I'll cut to the chase," he grumbled, his eyes still fixed on the watch, which he began to wipe with his sleeve. "The Bones family is dead."

Though no one had been conversing, somehow, the clearing grew more silent.

"The Bones...f-family?" James stuttered, his eyelids twitching.

"Edgar...Phoebe…" Mad-Eye pressed his lips together and huffed a breath through his nose. "And the kids…" His eyes did not leave his watch.

"They just got his parents…" Frank exhaled.

After that, nobody said a word for some time.

Until:

"Caradoc. Benjy. Gideon and Fabian. Dorcas! Now Edgar and his whole lot!" shouted Sturgis. "And how many of them have we blotted out? Two or three?"

"We have several in custody-"

"You obviously don't have enough of them in custody, Alice!"

"Sturgis is right," Sirius agreed with clenched fists. "Maybe it's time we started hunting them one by one like they are us. An eye for an eye."

"Sirius," Marlene muttered, surprised by the vindictive suggestion.

"That is not the answer," Emmeline argued.

Voices began to raise as an argument broke out over the group. Sturgis and Frank were inching dangerously close to a brawl.

"You have to leave things like this to the Ministry-!"

"Oh, the Ministry? You mean the same Ministry that you've been complaining is teeming with spies and traitors-?"

"-Podmore, if I were you-"

"-They're coming into our homes now-!"

"-Giving the Wizengamot any reason to turn on us-"

"-What else are we supposed to do?! It feels like we're the only ones-"

"-We are the only ones-! The Ministry doesn't care!"

"-Padfoot, don't-"

"They're just letting him take over!"

"-Sirius, stay out of-"

"-Well I care, Black. And we Aurors have been busting our arses-"

"-The Aurors are useless-!"

"-BLACK, shut your-!"

"-You don't see half the things we have to-!"

"-If Edgar were here-"

"SILENCE!" bellowed Dumbledore.

Everyone quieted themselves immediately, waiting for him to speak some words of wisdom or encouragement.

No such words came.

They were losing.

"...I have thought on this a great deal," Albus began in a much more tranquil tone. "We knew from the beginning that none of us would emerge from this war without having made terrible sacrifices."

"Sacrifices- They murdered his kids!" Sturgis fired back, earning him looks of horror from the rest of the group. Nobody ever talked back to Dumbledore. "His kids, Albus. They would've been your students. You tell us to be honorable, and to fight for what's right, but how are we supposed to beat them when they're not bound by the same moral code?"

"It is our morals that will win us the victory, in the end."

Sturgis scoffed.

Dumbledore paused momentarily, looking around the group to meet the eyes of each Order member - each soldier - many of them his former students.

"I have already asked so much of all of you. Some of our friends have given their very lives; but I'm afraid I must ask for more. We cannot let them make us lose sight of what we are fighting for, nor can we take the path of greatest ease by tarnishing the world we wish to see on the other side of this war. If we fall into despair and succumb to hatred, that world will never come to be."

Sturgis cast his gaze down at the ground and didn't say anything else.

Dumbledore concluded his speech and looked around the group again. "Go home. Keep yourselves safe. Hold those that are dear to you close. It is for them that we must persevere."

Gradually, members of the group began disapparating cheerlessly away from the clearing. Alastor followed Albus back up to the castle.

"Should we try to find other places to stay?" Marlene asked. "We don't know the extent of how well they can track us."

"I don't know," Emmeline mumbled distractedly.

"We might stay with my parents for a wee while," said Marlene, answering her own question; though she knew Sirius had been sleeping nearly every night outside the Potters' lately, and would probably continue to do so. "Do you and Remus have somewhere to go?"

"My mum's too far, and I doubt he'd be willing to go to his dad's." Remus was gone most of the time anyway.

Marlene turned around "James?"

James's eyes had glazed over. The news of Edgar and his family left him frozen where he stood. He was unable to think of anything but the Bones children's faces.

"...James?" Emmeline repeated his name.

He snapped out of it and stared at her.

"...Do you, Lily, and the baby need anything?" she asked, catching on.

"No, we're…" He stopped, clearing his throat. "We're going to stay at home."

"...Maybe I could help Sirius on nights when I'm off patrols-"

"No, it's okay, Em-"

"I don't need help-"

"-I just mean, you know…I could lend a hand-"

"-I got it, Em-"

"-If anyone comes knocking, I'm half decent in a fight-"

"-Ed was one of the best wizards in the Order, and that didn't help him in the end," Sirius exhorted spitefully.

A disheartened silence fell yet again.

"Where's Peter been? I haven't seen him in an age," Emmeline remarked, changing the subject. Peter hadn't come to the meeting. Peter hadn't been around much at all.

James sighed deeply. "You know how he gets. I don't think he's really left his house since he heard about Doe. Probably still won't; not when he hears about Ed. We've been checking up on him."

"Remus has been meaning to visit, but Dumbledore's kept him pretty busy."

"Yeah, we've noticed."

Emmeline turned to Sirius, put off by something about his tone.

Sirius, who'd felt a deep-seated uneasiness about these "business trips" ever since Remus missed the battle at the port, could not hide the hostility from his face.

"Padfoot, c'mon. Don't."

Emmeline frowned at him, taken aback by his rancor. "...Why do you say it like that?"

"Sirius, leave Emmeline out of it," Marlene warned him quietly.

"Leave me out of what?"

"I just think it's a bit odd that he's been gone so much, that's all I'm saying."

Emmeline straightened up taller. "...Remus is risking his life to get helpful intelligence to Dumbledore. Does something about that not sit well with you, Sirius-?"

"-It doesn't sit well with me that he's acting in secret behind our backs."

"…Behind-…What are you talking about?"

"Alright, that's enough," James urged again.

"Do you even know what he does when he's gone? Where he goes? Who he sees-?"

"I don't have to know because I trust him," Emmeline declared. "And so does Dumbledore, and so should you."

"Forgive me for blaspheming, but Dumbledore's not omniscient. He can't know for sure what Remus does when he's away. He just takes him at his word."

"Knock it off-"

"Oh- Cut the shit, James! You know as well as I do that he's been acting strange!"

"What the hell is wrong with you? You're supposed to be his friend!" Emmeline shouted.

"Friends don't keep things from their mates!"

"They do if they're ordered to-!"

"You don't find it strange that after Remus starts leaving for longer periods of time, all of the sudden the Death Eaters are carrying out well-planned assassinations!?"

"Sirius!" hissed Marlene.

Emmeline's jaw had swung open. "You son of a bitch-!" She took a step toward him, but Marlene grabbed her.

"No, Em-!"

"How long before one of us is next-?!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH, SIRIUS!" James commanded, stepping in front of him before he could get another word in edgewise.

In turn, Sirius backed himself up, not wishing to fight with James. Marlene held Emmeline back, but could not hold back the daggers she was staring into Sirius.

"This is exactly what they want!" James exclaimed. "If we can't trust each other, that's a weakness they can exploit."

Emmeline pushed herself out of Marlene's grasp, her expression shifting from animosity to anguish.

"James is right," Marlene agreed.

James looked back to his best friend. "Look, we're all scared-"

"I'm not scared," Sirius retorted, storming out of the clearing.