4 September 1997
Tonks insisted that Dedalus turn off all the lights.
Early in their stay, Dedalus had set up little floating candles throughout the house. They wouldn't set anything on fire – Dudley had tested one in secret – and the Dursleys couldn't extinguish them – but they could be herded from one room to another. Dedalus had explained that if they wanted to stay up reading, they could bring a few candles into their bedrooms, and put them out in the corridor when finished. Dudley, of course, hadn't bothered with any night reading, but he'd found the candles useful enough when hunting for a late-night snack.
For the first time, the little house was completely dark.
Tonks stationed herself at the side of the sitting room window. Her wand was drawn, and she'd made her hair and skin a dark, mottled grey that blended in with the shadows. She peered out the window, tense and motionless.
Dudley found it hard to get comfortable. The armchair was the kind that looked comfortable but was too low to the ground. His knees felt tight, and his shoulders and neck fell at an awkward spot on the tufted back of the chair.
He looked at his watch again. 3:45 a.m.
Tonks hissed. "Hide that light." The reflection of the watch face had flicked across the windowpane.
Dudley pulled down his jacket sleeve to cover the watch.
He wished he'd stayed in the kitchen with Dedalus and his parents. He'd only moved in here because the hard wooden chairs made his legs numb.
He shifted and earned another hiss from Tonks.
Dudley wasn't sure what time it was. There wasn't any moon, and it was still long before sunrise.
Tonks slammed her open hand against the windowsill and let out a huff. "YES."
Through the window, Dudley could see a shower of golden sparks lighting the meadow. A few dark shapes against the stars showed that at least a few owls were on their way. Were they real owls, or biscuit owls, Dudley wondered.
Dedalus darted in from the kitchen. "See the sparks? It's worked!" he cheered.
"Have to check," Tonks said. "Wait here."
She ran to the door, and somehow caught her foot against the side table. The CRASH from the table made Petunia give out a little shriek from the kitchen, and Dudley jumped. Tonks scrabbled free of the table and wrenched the front door open.
She had to duck under the owls, then raced out across the meadow. Her camouflage made it nearly impossible to find her, but Dudley looked after her as long as he could.
The owls settled on perches all over the sitting room – up on the mantle, on the backs of chairs, on top of the open door that led to the main corridor. At least twenty, Dudley estimated. It was hard to tell exactly how many there were, as they kept shifting and hooting and flapping to trade spots. Occasionally, they'd peck at each other, or whack out with an open wing. Dudley winced as one owl landed on his shoulder, because even with his leather jacket on, the talons pricked. The owl's feathers brushed his cheek, and it leaned forward and twisted its head so that one bright eye looked straight into Dudley's.
The owl with the hurt wing waddled in from the kitchen. It tried flapping and hopping up onto the coffee table, and hissed when it lost its balance and fell back to the floor.
Remus arrived back at the house first. There were sticks and leaves tangled into the mess of shaggy brown-and-grey hair that flopped into his eyes. Dudley thought he looked a wreck.
"Welcome back!" Dedalus called. He lit a candle. "Looks like the plan worked alright."
"Get those lights off," Remus said. "And, we ought to check ourselves. You first. When did we first meet?"
Dedalus made a face. "I sold your da a Chocolate Frog for you at the Quidditch League Finals, and you asked for a second one before you'd even managed to finish the first. Really, Remus, that's not even a very good question – I could say the same thing about hundreds of young wizards. Well, one silly question deserves another. What color was my bow tie that day?"
Remus grinned. "I can't possibly remember a detail like that, from when I was three! It has to be a question I could know the answer."
"I'm too tired for this game, Remus. If you'd like to attack me, go right ahead."
"After that stunt Crouch pulled – you know there's a danger in Polyjuice…and who knows how much Snape might brew up?"
"FINE! What did that horrid House Elf of Black's say to me at our first Order meeting?"
"He didn't say anything to you," Remus said, "but he muttered that you'd be better off wearing a tea towel than that tailcoat of yours."
"So he did! And then Black threatened to make him a little tailcoat like mine, and he muttered that he hoped he did get free so he could go serve a proper family."
Remus grimaced and ran a hand over his face. "We ought to have let Sirius free him, back then. Right away."
Dedalus shrugged. "Albus thought not."
"I have a hard time seeing how he could have done more harm free, and ignorant of most of our movements than enslaved, but plotting against us at every turn." Remus kicked off his muddy shoes and set them against the wall. He flicked his wand and the mud disappeared from them, uppers and soles now clean, if worn down. His red sock had several darns in various colors, and a bit of toe was poking through.
Hestia arrived, holding five owls in her arms and another on her head. "That Elf saved my life the other day," she said. "So whatever the right call was back then, I'm grateful he seems to be on our side now. Do we really still have to do all this fol-de-rol with the questions? No one got back through the wards with us."
"Yes! At least to stay in the habit," Remus said.
"Just, I'm running out of ideas, and I'm rather tired," she said. "Never been the most creative sort. Plus, if we're to do the thing properly, we've got to ask questions that Snape can't answer."
This seemed to stump Remus for the moment.
Then Dedalus snapped his fingers and asked, "What song was playing on the radio when we drove over here with the Dursleys? The silly one, that kept playing over and over again, and bothering Vernon, so he kept turning off the radio?"
"I don't know the name of it," Hestia said. "And you liked it more than I did."
"It went like, MMM BOP BABADUOO or something like that."
"Well, there you are, then." Hestia said. "Dudley, what was the name of that song?"
Dudley had been wearing his headphones and listening to his own music, but he ventured, "Mmm Bop?"
"But you need a question Hestia can answer," Remus said. "That no one else can, and that proves who she is."
"Why don't you just use passwords?" Dudley asked.
"Because," said Tonks, who'd arrived just behind Hestia, "a very wise, very paranoid wizard pointed out that passwords can be learned by an enemy, but complex personal questions that are asked spontaneously are much harder to answer." She scrunched up her face, and her camouflage grey coloring brightened to tan skin and dull brown hair. Dudley thought it was an improvement on the bogey-colored hair she'd had earlier.
"You're all mad." That was Vernon. He and Petunia stood in the kitchen doorway. Everyone was gathered somewhere in the corridor. "It's four o'clock in the morning, and you're playing parlor games. Cryptography! Security clearance! All meaningless, to your lot, of course. Why bother with strategy and basic warfare, when we can try to remember top hat colors and radio songs?"
"Now is not the time, Vernon!" Hestia said. "Go off to bed, if you're so tired."
Vernon stumped down the corridor to the witches and wizards. "This is war, you keep saying. But you don't act like it! Has anyone debriefed anyone else after all these battles you've been having? What's the casualty count? Where are the enemy's whereabouts? What's your chain of command? If you're going to war, you ought to do so PROPERLY!"
Remus raised his eyebrows. "Taking charge, are you, Dursley? And here I'd heard your lot were scared of magic."
Vernon's mustache bristled. "I don't enjoy being here, but now we're in it, we may as well try to WIN. And we won't be doing that with all this chatter and second guessing!"
Tonks glared. "How many fights have you been in? Duels? You're no soldier, so don't expect us to salute. You haven't the foggiest idea of what we're up against – by your own volition! If and when we debrief, we won't be including you! So… looks like we're safe, for now, so get off to bed and let us be!"
"CASUALTIES! REPORT!" Vernon yelled.
"What is he talking about?" Dedalus asked Dudley. "Casualties?"
Dudley was growing more nervous by the second, and the owl digging its talons into his arm when his father yelled hadn't helped his mood. "Er – numbers of deaths?"
"And significant injuries," Vernon muttered. "Our side, their side, GET TO IT! REPORT!"
"You don't give the orders here," Tonks said. "Keep a civil tongue in your head, arite? We've got enough on our plate, I should think."
"Then who does give the orders?! Which of you is in charge?!" Vernon was purple again. "And what could be better right now than to establish BASIC FACTS about the battles you lot have supposedly been fighting?"
Hestia's black hair was a mess. Her arms were covered in owls, and there were owl droppings on her stomach and shoulders. Dudley thought that couldn't be hygienic, what with her exposed cut and burn. His boxing coach and his mother were both dead set on wound hygiene. But she was, somehow, commanding.
"Do be quiet, Vernon!" she said. "We get the point. But I'm rather laden with owls at the moment, and I have to see if any are injured. Go make yourself useful. Get out the owl treats from the cupboard, set up some newspapers round the house – we'll get them all to the attic later – and put the kettle on. Get out whatever food we've got, too. We'll have a little early breakfast. Now that we're not fighting for our lives, I'm half starving. Dedalus, did you get a Portkey made? Good, we'll keep it close just in case."
She kept her shoes on and the mud, grass, and leaves shed off in clumps and clots all the way down the corridor. Everyone followed her. Dudley hoped she'd get the owl off his shoulder for him soon.
"Incidentally – if you must know –" she walked straight ahead, without looking back, "I killed three men on Tuesday. Wizards I've known since I was a child. Their blood's still all over my robes."
It took a while before Vernon got the debriefing he'd demanded.
Hestia's announcement caused a sensation and outburst, with offers of sympathy, concern, fear, shock, from her friends. Dudley was at the back of the pack at this point, as he didn't want to look like he was shoving ahead. So, he had a good view of Hestia fending off various pats on the back, and the owls she was holding flapping and screeching.
Then there followed an argument as to whether to include the Dursleys in the conversation at all or send them packing. Hestia thought they may as well stay, and Dedalus did too. Tonks wanted them to leave. Remus was indecisive at first, then landed on letting them stay.
"After all," he said, "I think we ought to have put more effort into getting more people to join us, rather than fewer."
"You can't blame Albus, surely," Dedalus said. "Much as I would have loved Harry to have been involved from the first, it hardly made sense to give He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named the chance to –"
"That'll do, Dedalus," Tonks broke in. "We don't need to go into everything." She seemed put out to have lost the argument, and she slouched in her chair with her legs out, nearly tripping Petunia as she brought over the food.
Then there was another argument getting back to Vernon's question about who was in charge. It seemed no one was. Dumbledore had been in charge, and then Moody had taken over, but ever since he'd been dead, there was no clear leader. Kingsley, who'd helped them plan all summer, was out of communication, and had been since the fall of the Ministry. Sturgis, whoever he was, wasn't in his right mind.
Abe and Dedalus had the most seniority in their group, but, as Dedalus put it, "We aren't really the type to give orders."
Everyone else in the Order of the Phoenix was either sequestered at Hogwarts or had no magical ability or was in the Weasley family.
"And we oughtn't to put them at greater risk than we already have," Hestia said.
"It's not a bad idea to have a chain of command," Tonks said. "As long as it doesn't include him," she thrust her chin at Vernon. "The Aurors use one, and I think we ought to do the same."
"We don't need a leader, surely," Dedalus said. "We've always done fine talking things through together, I think. More friendly that way."
"No reason we can't still talk things through," Remus said. "But a chain of command would help us be more organized than we were yesterday – er, Tuesday, I mean."
"Well, I nominate you, then," said Dedalus. "You've always been rather a voice of reason."
"Thank you, Dedalus. But – my condition means I might be absent from critical moments…"
Tonks' voice was low, irritated. "That's. The. Whole. Advantage. Of. A. Chain." She leaned forward in her seat and propped her elbows on the table. "If one person goes out of commission, the next can take over, and we all know where we stand."
"Aurors have to follow orders," Hestia said with distaste. "Are we really saying we'd rather have a system of commands among the four of us, than consensus? I never followed orders as such, just did what needed doing in the moment. We always used to decide things together at the meetings. I mean, sure - Dumbledore had final call, but that was Dumbledore. The rest of us are all supposed to be equals."
Dudley felt, rather than saw, the tense, trembling posture of his father.
"Well, let's put it to a vote, at least," Dedalus said. "How many people want a chain of command?"
Tonks raised her hand. So did Vernon, followed by Petunia and Dudley.
"How many people don't?"
Hestia raised her hand. "I want a chain, just not the of command bit. Call it system of leadership, or something like that."
Dedalus wrung his hands. "I don't know what to do."
Remus also abstained. "I see the merits of both sides."
"4-1-2, then," Petunia said. "The Ayes have it. And am I to take it the two of you are going to be living here now?"
This sparked two simultaneous arguments, as to whether the Dursley votes counted, and as to whether Remus and Tonks were going to be living there, or just staying for tea.
"They're not Order members," Tonks said. "And they have a near majority!"
"We JUST voted WITH YOU!" Vernon roared. "Have you NO BRAINS AT ALL?"
Someone – Dudley couldn't tell who, as they all had their wands out still – hit Vernon with the spell that made him lose his ability to say more than MMMMMF MMFF. Undeterred, he banged on the table with his fists until Tonks said "Petrificus Totalis."
Dudley stared at his father, caught frozen with one fist high in the air and the other inches from slamming into the table. Vernon's eyes darted about the room, and his forehead veins continued to throb.
"Really, Vernon," Hestia said. "I'm embarrassed for you. That's no way to behave."
Petunia hurled her arms around her husband, sobbing, "Let him go!"
Dudley thought this was going nowhere. He stood up. "We'll just… we'll just give you some time to talk with each other." He tapped Petunia's shoulder. "We'll just … head upstairs for a bit." He pulled Vernon's chair away from the table. "He's… he's not so easy to lift, though, in this…" Dudley could feel his cheeks flushing.
"Oh, Finite, then," Tonks said. "But get upstairs and don't come down again until one of us fetches you."
"What if we're attacked again?" Dedalus said. He shot a worried glance at Dudley.
"We'll have to risk it."
Vernon was in a bit of shock, so Dudley had an easy time steering his parents upstairs and into their bedroom.
"Look," he said to them, "they're all mental, I know. Let's all go sit in the attic to listen?"
Vernon shuddered. "I can't stand it. Can't stand – the ineptitude. If they worked at Grunnings, I'd sack the lot. Hestia's the only one worth a damn, though she's no strategist. Talk it over together." He smiled a little. "Not two brain cells among them. Nevertheless, she ought to get a medal for valor in combat. FINALLY! Go look around the attic, Dudders, and try to find something suitable."
"You ought to be in command, darling," Petunia said. "You've gone to university. You've got years of managerial experience."
Vernon settled on the bed and wiped a hand across his face. "You'd be my second-in-command, Pet. We're both officer material. And then Dudley, of course."
"Who next, Vernon? Hestia, or that homeless-looking wretch?"
"She's not got the foggiest idea of how the military works," Vernon said. "And he's a dithering idiot. Indecisive. Weak. But at least Hestia can be tough. I'd put her first."
"Who next? Please tell me not the little thing with the hair!"
Vernon harrumphed. "I should say not. It's clear no one respects her – and for good reason! No, what I was thinking was …"
Dudley swung up into the attic, and his father's words were lost.
"Hominem revelio. Good, they're all well upstairs. So, who wants to go first, then?"
"I'll go. I'd – like to get my bit over with."
"Go on, then, Hestia. It'll be alright."
"Right, so. So, I got your message, Remus, and went straightaway to H.Q. Got stopped cold by the jinxes Moody'd set up – couldn't talk, couldn't move for a few seconds, and there was Bellatrix and Yaxley staring right at me. Tonks came in, and she was frozen like I was. Bellatrix seemed to be frozen too, but Yaxley – he –"
"I tried to Stun him," Remus said. "But he dodged, and then he and I started dueling, and I drew him down to the library."
"Right, so I got free a bit before Bellatrix did, thankfully. I hit her with a Stunner and tied her up as well, then ran after you. But before I could reach the library, three other people Apparated into the corridor, two in front, one behind me."
"Did you see who?" Tonks interrupted.
"It was Jugson, and then Kenneth Grimes and Oswin McCallister – the ones who'd been watching H.Q. for the last few weeks. I hit the two in front with a Tripping Jinx, ducked over whatever it was Jugson threw my way, and took that little side passageway to the kitchen. They followed, of course, and then… Well. That mad House Elf was chopping up potatoes. He looked up at all the racket and said, "Kreacher can't do it himself, Miss," and – he tossed me the cleaver. I caught it, with my wand, and as Jugson burst through the door –" she took a deep breath, "I sent it right into his throat. It stuck there, half in his neck, and then Kreacher snapped his fingers, and the cleaver went spinning back to me. Blood spurted everywhere, and distracted Grimes and McCallister, and then – well, I caught the cleaver again, and – I meant to just get Grimes to jump back, but he moved, and took it right in the forehead. The blade sank in deep as it would go, and Grimes collapsed. The two – bodies – were blocking McCallister from entering, so he aimed his wand, and he started to say the Killing Curse, and – I saw the knife block off to the side, and I sent the lot into him before he could finish it.
"I keep thinking about it, you know. I had this split second – before each of them – where I knew I could aim for their shoulders, or their knees, or I could just hit them with a Stunner. And I thought – I know I thought – I wanted them dead. And there they were, just bodies, where once had been living wizards."
"You were fighting for your life, Hestia." Tonks said. "We're trained as Aurors that if we're ever in danger, we can –"
"I'm not an Auror! I'm just – I was just an owl rearer. I sold owls to all of them, or to their families. I know them, and now they're dead, at my hand. But there's more.
"I didn't notice at first, because I was so busy fighting Grimes and McCallister, but Jugson – his body was sprawled in a pool of blood in the doorway, but… his ghost was hanging in the air, just staring straight ahead."
"Did he see you?" Dedalus whispered.
"We locked eyes, as I was leaving. He's been following me ever since."
"I saw no ghosts out in the forest tonight," Remus said. "He hasn't found this place, yet, and might never."
"I've put you all in terrible danger," Hestia said. "Up until now, the Order has refrained from bloodshed, and now I've gone and killed three Ministry employees. They've been waiting for us to break the law, and now I have. I—I'll never be free of this, never. Even if we win the War -"
"When we win the War, you'll be pardoned," Tonks said. "I'm sure of it."
"Our new ghost has a family," Hestia said. "So do the other two. They'll never stop hunting me, no matter what happens officially."
"We're safe for now," Remus said. "So it seems, at least. We'll keep you as safe as we can."
"If the ghost finds us," Dedalus said, "we can Banish him to his place of death."
"Takes H.Q. off the table for us, though," Hestia said, gloomily.
"It's rather off the table as it is," Remus said. "But, if you don't mind continuing, Hestia, what happened next?"
"Raced off to the library," she said. "The way was clear, though I could hear fights in other directions. Found you battling Yaxley and Rodolphus, and gave you cover until we could both Disapparate."
"You did the right thing, Hestia," Remus said. "We may all need to use lethal force, if we can't shake them off better."
"Remus, you were the first on the scene," Dedalus said. "What was it like for you?"
"I had gone to check on Harry," Remus said. "Arthur had said he'd been seen at the Ministry, and I wanted to find out what was going on, and if the Order could help with anything. Found Yaxley and several of the Snatchers there – that's what they're calling themselves now. I Stunned one of the wizards I was fighting, threw another into the bookcase, and tied them both up. Then I dodged into the foyer, and I called the rest of you for help. I didn't want to give up our H.Q. without a fight. I suppose, in retrospect, it might've been better just to make a quick escape when I could."
"Well, I'd been visiting Molly, and we came together. Must've arrived after you, Hestia, because Bellatrix and Tonks were fighting. As soon as Molly and I were free of the jinx, we joined the fight, and –"
"Auntie Bella Disapparated away. Not before she let me know she'd been assigned to kill me – and my family. But she had to have just gone to another part of the house, because she kept popping out of closets to ambush me. Saw her fighting Abe and Arthur at one point, too."
"Rabastan was doing the same thing. Dedalus, what did you see after Bellatrix Disapparated?"
"Three more Death Eaters arrived, and Molly and I took them out with a combination of Blood-Freezing Charms and Stunners. Then Molly had the sense to make a Portkey and send them packing. Not sure where she sent them to – we'll need to ask her whenever we get to talk to her and Arthur. She and I positioned ourselves in the corners of that little entranceway behind some transfigured furniture so we could stop the enemies who arrived in the same way." Dedalus took a deep breath. "It worked, for a little, anyway. Took out two more. But then no one else came through the entrance, except for a few more Weasleys, and we started hearing arrivals all through the house."
"That was thanks to Rowle," Remus said. "While I was fighting Rodolphus and Yaxley, I saw him destroying more of the wards on the house. Yaxley must've done something similar early on, I think, because we were all able to Apparate into the entryway, rather than the front step, and Rowle just finished the job. Then he used the Dark Mark to let all the rest of them know the house was free. Of course, the Lestranges had grown up visiting there, so they knew the place even better than we did."
"Didn't Abe end up taking out Rowle?" Tonks asked.
"No - he fought him off brilliantly, but Rowle ended up getting away. He's got hit with a nasty combination of hexes, though, so he'll be out of commission for a while. Did anyone see him while we were on the run?"
Dudley's legs had gone numb from sitting on the hard attic floor, and his back ached from twisting to hear the conversation through the copper funnel. He listened on, lost in a flurry of names – George and Fred fighting Crabbe and Goyle - Arthur, Fleur, and Bill fighting Dolohov until he set up a barrier only those with the Dark Mark could cross – more Blasting Curses, more transfiguration, more fires – Kreacher racing from room to room, trying to fix the house – the portrait of Mrs. Black yelling orders -
"Then Yaxley called in the Ministry, and we all had to escape," Remus said. "Too many of them. We barely got out before they set up anti-Disapparation wards."
"We ought to send word to the Weasleys that the Fidelius Charm is the only thing that's given us security," said Tonks.
"Already did! While you were out fetching the owls." Dedalus yawned. "Dear me, is it really five o'clock?"
"That's alright, then. Well done, Dedalus. I'll take first watch. Say four hours?"
"Thanks, Remus. I'll make up two more beds in the sitting room for Tonks and myself – Dedalus, you can take the bedroom. We can all catch up more in the morning."
Dudley meant to get up. He imagined curling his feet under him and standing, sliding down the hatch and sneaking off to his bedroom. He fell asleep sprawled on the attic floor.
A/N: We'll check in on grown-up Dudley soon. I'm bringing in more adventure from the Deathly Hallows year than I'd planned to at first, because I didn't think it make sense for Hestia and Dedalus to do nothing all year but babysit. Please comment to let me know how you're enjoying the 1997, 2008, and 2020 moments. Thank you for reading!
A/N: Edit - Travers was the original DE I picked to be the ghost, but he's in several later events in Deathly Hallows. Replacing with Jugson, whom we don't see post-OotP.
