“I don’t think I can move.”
“Poor thing, you’ll probably be sore for days.”
“Probably? I know I’ll be feeling this for at least a week. And I’m supposed to join them again tomorrow…”
“Better get your rest then, you don’t want to try and defend yourself, even in a mock fight, against Cadmus’ men if you’re not well rested.”
“Well… now that you mention it… I suppose I’m not as tired as I thought I was,” Remus moved to wrap his arms around Kalliope, but instantly stopped, hissing in pain as his sore muscles protested.
Kalliope laughed out loud, “Oh Remus, I don’t think we’ll be doing that tonight. It would probably kill you.”
“That’s not funny. You keep sending me out with those men and all we’re ever going to do in this bed is sleep.”
Kalliope only laughed harder. One look at Remus’ forlorn face sent her over the edge. She wrapped her arms around herself as tears streamed down her face. “I’m… sorry…” she finally gasped out, “poor dear… just think, a few more weeks of this and you won’t be so sore and tired by the time the men send you back to me.”
“I’m glad you’re enjoying this.”
“I thought I was supposed to be the one who got all hormonal and irrational… you’re infringing on my pregnancy rights wizard.”
Remus glared at her.
Kalliope smiled at him, “I am rather enjoying myself at your expense, but I sense you don’t like it. Will you forgive me if I rub your back?”
“It’s going to take more than that; you’ve already dug yourself into quite a hole. I think nothing less than a full body massage will do it now.”
Kalliope rolled her eyes, “the things I do for you wizard…”
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stefan stood before the gathered Order members several hours before the sun was due to rise. He was a bit nervous about this report, the head minister, the real head minister, Arthur Weasley, had even come out of his forced exile to hear this report. But, outwardly, Stefan looked calm and collected.
“It is regrettable that you are able to stand before us for this at all, but it may be our only way to find out how things are on the inside of Voldemort’s forces,” Minerva began without preamble, “we have gone over the report you filed thoroughly, but we still have a few questions.”
“I will answer the best I can,” Stefan replied, “but as they were, unfortunately, fully aware of my status as a spy I was not let into the most inner circles. And the rest of my time with his forces was spent in a cell.”
“Circumstances that we are aware of,” Minerva assured him, “but we need to know more. We are currently fighting a losing battle, our only hope of stemming the tide is to know what he may have planned.”
Stefan nodded, well aware of all the eyes scrutinizing him, “you are already aware of his decision to send envoys to the northern countries,” he confirmed, “that was spoken of some in my presence. There are plans to go to Jutunheim and Muspelheim in hopes of recruiting the giants. There were also plans concerning Svartalfheim, I believe Malfoy had hopes of bringing the dark elves to his side.”
“I don’t believe that will happen,” Sirius interrupted, “there are already envoys headed to Alfheim on our behalf. I’ve heard rumor that if the followers of Freyr join us, their cousins, the Svartalfar, will join us too.”
“But can they be trusted?” a witch asked from the other side of the room.
Sirius nodded, “as far as I know, yes.”
“We shall have to do a great deal of trusting in the days to come if we wish to keep Voldemort from gaining more power,” Minerva said sternly as she looked over her spectacles at the member who had raised the question, “and that will involve looking outside of the wizarding community.”
“How far outside of the wizarding community?” Ron Weasley asked from his position against the wall. Years spent working as an auror meant that he always had a wall at his back when possible. He didn’t want anyone sneaking around behind him. Even in the safety of Order headquarters old habits died hard.
“As far as necessary Mr. Weasley,” Minerva said, turning her gaze on him. “We will not go down without a fight, no matter who we must ally ourselves with.”
“Kalliope’s temple has firmly allied themselves with us,” Sirius spoke up again, “Remus will be back and forth to tell us of further plans as he learns of them. But he told me before he left that from there he should be able to make quite a few alliances on our behalf.”
“What other allies will come from Greece?” another member asked.
“The Seirênês for one. About as harmless as veela to look at, but once they’ve lured in their enemy they will drive them mad. Possibly several of the families of nymphs…”
“How much use will nymphs be? I thought they were fairly harmless,” Neville Longbottom entered the conversation from his seat by the door.
“I’ve heard they fight dirty,” Sirius replied with a lopsided grin, “I’ve also been assured that they will be more than a match for any death eater who stumbles upon them.”
“If all of them come in on our side we should have no problem defeating Voldemort!” One of the younger members proclaimed.
“I think not.”
All heads craned towards the back of the room to see who had spoken. Minerva’s lips formed into a tight line and several members stood, hands going to their wands.
“He is on our side, anyone who raises a wand against him goes through me first,” Severus said darkly. He watched menacingly as the members who had risen put their wands away and sat back down.
“Thank you Severus,” Eric said as he made his way to the front of the room, leaning heavily on his cane. “Yes, we should be able to mass a large number of allies for ourselves, but so will Voldemort. His messengers, as we speak, are gathering with the followers of Seth. They alone are a force to be reckoned with. Combined with the forces Voldemort already has… the situation starts to look hopeless.”
“How do we know he’s giving us real information? He could be misleading us. Voldemort is his nephew!”
“That is enough Mr. Weasley!” Severus stood up and made his way over to the auror, glowering, “Eric is on our side, he has already lost more than you can imagine thanks to Voldemort, I assure you that he will not betray us.”
“I never thought I would see my husband stand up for Eric this way…” Morgan muttered to Sirius.
“War makes us do crazy things I suppose,” he whispered back.
“… if you are done accusing members of the Order of treason?”
Ron glared at his former potions master, “I have the safety of my family to be concerned about, it’s not a crime to be cautious.”
“We will not win this war by being cautious. We will win it by taking chances, it is our only hope,” Severus spat back.
“I have no desire to lose more lives than necessary, and my training has taught me that caution…”
“Training counts for nothing in the real world Weasley! If you want to survive you will do whatever is necessary…”
“A very Slytherin sentiment, that.”
“Perhaps that is a good think Weasley, I don’t see your Gryffindor bravery getting you anywhere. You are the one speaking of caution…” Severus spoke in a low voice that carried across the room. He smirked in satisfaction as Ron realized that he would not win this argument.
“If you are quite done?” Minerva tried to regain order, “we will get no where if we start fighting amongst ourselves. We must remain united if we are to succeed.”
“I am quite agreed,” Eric said as he sank into a chair and pulled out a pipe, “is there anyone who objects if I indulge? No… good.” He took his time lighting the pipe before settling back to get more comfortable. “Now… where was I before all the commotion…. Ah yes… the followers of Seth. We will be facing a three front war my friends. The giants from the north, the death eaters here at home, and the gods only know what from the south. There is no way of telling what creatures from along the Nile will ally themselves with Voldemort. We must try to find out what we can. Perhaps with a bit of help from those of us currently living in the location,” he nodded at Arthur Weasley.
“I will do my best to find out what I can,” Arthur replied, “it’s amazing what one can find out if you just pay attention while in the marketplace. Although that does raise another question. Should we inform the muggle authorities about the danger their own people are in?”
There were a few good natured smiles from members at the question. Everyone was well aware of Arthur’s affinity with anything and everything muggle.
“I think not,” Severus said, “it would be too hard to explain and there would be nothing they could do to protect themselves against Voldemort anyways. All it would do is create panic, and that would most certainly not help.”
“I agree,” Minerva said, “are there any who think we should inform them. No? Then for the time being we will not. Although we may have to eventually.”
There was a general agreement from everyone on that decision, for which Minerva was grateful. The further this whole thing went the less everyone agreed. It was not what they needed. Now, more than ever, they needed to be unified. Their cause, and existence as they knew it, depended on unity. They could not afford to fall apart now.
“Perhaps we had best get back to the original purpose of this meeting,” Severus suggested.
“Of course,” Minerva nodded, “Mr. MacNeill, any other news on possible alliances?”
Stefan shook his head, “nothing I can think of, I only remember them ever discussing the giants. I had no knowledge of this possible alliance with forces from Egypt.”
“Then we best move on to other topics. What do you know of the forces?”
Stefan answered all of the questions thrown at him as carefully and as completely as he could. He hoped that what he knew would be helpful. He also hoped that once this was over with he could return to his real job.
He answered questions about numbers, possibly places for the location of headquarters, the enemies’ ability to move around, their system of relaying messages, and anything else imaginable.”
“There is one other thing I am curious about Mr. MacNeill,” Minerva looked at him over her spectacles, her gaze piercing, “you mentioned in your report that there was another prisoner being kept with you, but you failed to divulge their identity or affiliation.”
Stefan locked eyes, unflinchingly, with McGonagall, “I had my reasons for that. My fellow prisoner knew nothing else that would have been valuable to our cause, and he can no longer offer any aid or threat to either side.”
“Then surely you can provide us with their name.”
Stefan shook his head, “it is a rather personal matter, one that I would rather discuss solely with the family of the person involved. I am asking that you trust my judgment on this.”
Minerva continued to look at him sternly, “very well. If that is it, then I believe this meeting is done. You will all be kept informed of how things stand.”
As the meeting broke up and the members headed on their various ways Stefan made his way to Arthur Weasley’s side, “sir, if I could have a moment of your time?”
“Of course,” Arthur smiled at the young member of the Order, “quite a time you had up there fending off all our questions, but its much appreciated.”
“Thank you sir. I was actually hoping to talk to you about something rather personal. The man I was imprisoned with… was your son, Percy.”
Arthur immediately tensed, “I do not wish to speak of him.”
“Please sir, hear me out.” Stefan laid a hand on the head minister’s arm, “Percy asked me to deliver a message to you. Yes, he betrayed you at one point, but he tried to come back over to our side, he wanted to help the Order.”
“Then why didn’t he come back?”
“Voldemort found out. Percy was imprisoned for nearly twenty years. They fed him just enough to keep him alive and kept him locked up so that he could not return. He wanted you to know that he tried to come back. He realized too late that he had joined the wrong side. He asked me to tell you that he still loved you all very much, and was sorry for the decisions he had made.”
“Thank you, for relaying his message. We thought… we have been left believing these many years that he was still on their side and was hiding somewhere within their forces.”
“I am more than happy to deliver the message; I only wish I could offer more. If it weren’t for Percy… we rather enjoyed each others company during our imprisonment.”
“What… what happened to…?”
Stefan lowered his head, “he was sacrificed in the rites to bring Voldemort back. I’m sorry.”
Tears filled Arthur’s eyes, “I’m just glad he didn’t die hating his family.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
