Rebuilding the Order

"Just make sure you actually ask for help should you need it, Jack," Ted advised, looking at her sideways, "We are all familiar with your tendency to refuse assistance when needed............. Oy! Wait a tick! I'm an auror! How come I'm not training anyone?!"

"You'll be busy working for the Ministry, Ted," James sighed exasperatingly, "and if I put you and Jack in the same room to learn dueling, the place would be demolished and nothing would ever get done."

"Fair 'nuff!" Teddy replied, shooting Jack a cocky wink, "We do bicker so...how in the world did she end up being your girlfriend? We're the ones who don't get along..."

Getting shot a hard look from James, Teddy quickly snapped his mouth shut and snatched a biscuit from the table, cramming it into his mouth.

"Excellent sweets, love!" he said to Chase, crumbs spraying from his mouth as a House Elf looked on, obviously annoyed at his disregard for making a mess, "Should make you my wife, I should! Cooking like that!"

"Uh...right! Onto more serious business," Teddy continued, swiftly changing the subject after another hard look from James, " 'Ol Charles Dursley...you're cousin, you might say...is falling under severe scrutiny at the ministry. I fear it is only a matter of time before they make a move on him. I'd wager that after torturing him, they'll discover he has no useful information to give them, then they'll dispose of him. Why they are so sure that he is involved with us, I don't know, but the lad cannot continue as is. I think we may need to bring him in...to save his life."

Teddy knew her too well- this became clear as he made the comment about asking for help, and her tendency to refuse to do so. She hummed quietly to herself, thinking the simple thought of These Potter boys know me too well. This may prove to be a problem.

She was spared the need to think of a response, however, for Teddy was easily distracted by his own place in training. Jack listened with mild interest, finding the meeting hadn't really done much, in her eyes, but it was a hell of a lot more than doing nothing too. Her attention was drawn back by Teddy and her eyes flashed, danger as well as some playfulness in her eyes. "Don't leave your drinks unattended."

Funnily enough, this was not the first time she had threatened to poison Teddy.

She listened patiently to Teddy's new topic and decided to put in her own input. "Would he be a useful asset to us? Would he be interested in joining the Order?"

Lenora knew she was going to be late, even though she had tried her best to get done at the office as soon as she could, but even with all her effort to get done it took hours to straighten out what had happened. The others working had decided to take a break that day to have a lovely brunch with other faculty members. In their absence, some punk kids had gone right into the offices slipping past the security. When they left the whole place was in an uproar. The kid had decided to pull a prank, because who knew why, maybe because they thought it would be fun. Otherwise, Lenora knew nothing of the incident, for she was out interviewing people for a new, non-important, article. It was luck for her to nab a front pager, but she managed with what she got.

She stood at the door unwilling to knock or wrap her hand around the knob, her fingers were sore and stiff from the large amounts of paper cuts on her hands. Curling and letting them unfurl. Lenora did this for awhile staring at her fingers. She could feel the pain running up to her arm.

"Damn those kids. And Damn my co-workers." She let the words linger in the air as well as in her head. They tasted Bitter sweet the longer they mulled, like an aged wine ready for sampling.

Lenora didn't dare to think of what her face looked like, she only knew that it might look like the rest of her skin that was exposed. Red, puffy, and scratched everywhere. The pranksters had decided to make a mess of the newspapers, interviews, and any paper not under weights sending them flying around the place as if they were paper airplanes that weren't folded. It gave the employees fits, as well as paper cuts, to get them all together and sorted properly again.

Sighing Lenora finally decided to the house, it pained her slightly as she turned the knob and let the door swing open. She put on a slight smile, one that would hurt too much and stepped inside closing the door behind her. Her heels clicked against the floor as she headed to the room that she heard the most noise coming from, though when she arrived most of the conversation was that of a more casual type and not as professional. Heat rose to her cheeks, She hadn't realized that she was that late, but no matter she was there now and hopefully they would fill her in.

"Sorry everyone I'm late, really late to be exact it seems. There was a bit of a commotion at work to let you guys know. I hope you don't mind my being tardy."

(Sorry it takes so long for me to post anything, I wont have any constant internet connection until January 13th, but I'll try whenever I can, for now)

"Can't say that I know Charles extremely well," James chimed in, "but he is family, however distant. Perhaps father is having him watched, thinking we may approach him. Could their interest in him perhaps be a trap?"

Before Ted could supply any sort of answer, Lenora walked into the meeting. Her comment about the commotion at work piqued James' interest.

"What sort of commotion?" James asked.

Lenora eased herself into a seat, before letting out a relieved sigh.

"To be honest I truthfully don't have a clue what happened. But what I heard when I got back from my interview was that some kids, possibly teenagers, had sneaked themselves into the office, and had decided to pull a prank." She paused recalling every detail that she gathered from her co-workers. "I'm not sure why any kid would want to cause all the papers to fly about. That's what baffled me. If it was children they wouldn't have been able to get out any other way except the main entry way, ending up as a paper scratched mess like myself."

Trying to relax her tender skin, her face scrunched up in confusion despite the effort."Everyone's minds were focused on the commotion, I don't think that anyone checked to see if anything was missing, if there was anything."

Jack listened to Lenora's words, not so much caring about her tardiness or the office politics of the Daily Prophet, but her mind was focused on another part. How a harmless prank could so disrupt the entire office that Kitson could escape without notice, and everyone could be put up in such agitation. And, most importantly, how no one seemed to mind the reason it was done, or by whom...

Jack stood and quickly stepped out, hurrying down the hall before she realized it would take forever to find her room again. She summoned her knapsack, caught it, and walked back into their meeting room, plopping herself down next to Curtis again. She extracted a small notepad and ink pen from her bag and flipped it open. Then, scrawling in her small chicken scratch, she wrote out an order for Weasleys Wizard's Wheezes, intently focused on her task.

Curtis watched as Jack left the meeting, highly intrigued. She had said no word to anyone, merely standing up and walking out. At first, he had thought that perhaps she had been upset by something, but she struck him as the type who would give the last word before storming out of a meeting. The girl intrigued him, that was for sure.

When Jack returned, Curtis couldn't help but glance over at what she was writing. The penmanship was atrocious, however it almost seemed to be an order form for the Weasley's joke shop.

"Think of something important you'd like to share with the rest of us?" he heard James ask a bit crossly.

Curtis sighed internally. The boy was headstrong and let his emotions guide him far too much. He worried for the Order...and how it was being led by this lad.

((I'll be NPCing Lysander until someone takes an interest in creating him.....if someone takes an interest.))

Lorcan hummed to himself vaguely as he walked up the drive, side by side with his brother, to the entrance of Headquarters. His wand was twirling lazily in his hand, mirroring his brother's own. They were quite the strange sort of twins....able to finish each other's sentences and picking up the same sorts of habits. He knew that they made many uncomfortable, but here....with the family and friends of the Potters and Weasleys.....he knew that they were completely accepted. Perhaps even loved.

Lorcan and Lysander entered the building and glided into the meeting room, just in time to hear James directing a question at Jack.

"Sorry we're late," the twins said together, gazing dreamily about the room.

"Lysander here was working on a new potion," Lorcan said....

"and Lorcan lost track of the time while fishing for freshwater plimpies," Lysander finished, smiling, "Seems we were being tailed by an Unspeakable Ultima on our way here..."

"They are the ones more secret than even the Unspeakables," Lorcan said.

"Dress only in black robes, and paint their faces so no one can describe them," Lysander added.

"...and they have, of course, magically grafted away their fingerprints. They have no identity," Lorcan continued.

"They do not technically exist," they finished together, their wide eyes staring vacantly around the room.

"We gave him the slip, though," Lorcan announced after a slight pause, "No one can contend with our methods of concealment."

Jack felt eyes on her - let the old man stare. She wasn't planning on executing anything on her own, of course, but until she had a plan formulated, why put it up to let it be shot down and completely dissembled before it could begin to help, right?

James wasn't going to let that happen though. He was irritated, surely, because she had simply left. It probably hurt that masculinity of his, which was always getting in the way. He spoke and she raised her eyes, a blank expression on her face. She could hear a faint approach, so she felt sure she could briefly get away with this. "No."

Just then, the Scamander twins entered. Jack liked the boys because they were weird, but she sort of liked them to spite all those who did not, the "normal" people she so disliked to be near. They spoke and she listened carefully to them, before saying, "That actually is pretty relevant to what I've been thinking of." She smirked at James, as though to say 'I speak when I want to, not when told.'

She tapped her notepad. "I have some good connections with Weasleys Wizard's Wheezes. My cousin and I had stock in the company for awhile, and a friend of my cousin's took it over since George died." Jack pressed on, not allowing anyone to feel the inevitable sadness that must follow. "Lenora was talking about a commotion at work, and since it appeared to be a prank, no one seemed to mind. I was just thinking, we could probably use that to our advantage. Chase and James know I have a bit of a talent for all things distracting and explosive, so perhaps in these rescue missions to extract the Dursley kid and get more information, we can use our age to our advantage - just stupid teenage kids, pulling pranks that have no meaning."

James' expression slowly softened as Jack explained the plan which had surfaced in her head, feeling slightly ashamed of himself. Would they ever again experience those carefree days where their only worry was Quidditch? James felt that even if they did, they would lose that brilliant light of happiness which could only be experienced by untainted youth. Untainted youth seemed to be exactly what Jack's plan was.

James glanced at Teddy, whose face quickly transformed from a look of concern to a cheerful grin. James knew the man worried about those he viewed as family, but he worried that eventually Teddy would break from the strain of keeping his own pain fastened deep inside himself. James quickly turned away to gauge Curtis and his reaction. Curtis was the most experienced in their little ragtag group, and James was eager to see what he thought of this plan. Curtis was smiling, and regarding Jack with a somewhat appraising look, obviously impressed that she was willing to play on the adults' tendency to view them all as mere children.

James eyes circled the room, fastening on each member of their meager Order in turn, waiting to see what the reactions would be from the others.

Jack quirked an eyebrow, glancing around to see the response. She didn't care if they thought it worked too much (she could always do it on her own) but she'd feel like less of an asshole if they all agreed. She knew there was potential, and she just wanted to start working if she could. James seemed hopeful, Teddy was stoked, and even Curtis looked a little pleased. Jack's mouth twisted and she said, "So, is that a no?", the smirking tone so evident that her smile relaxed and seemed a little more genuine.

"It's bloody brilliant, Jack!" Teddy burst out, slapping his knee with glee, "I could always arrive at the offices early as well....try to get our most reactive and dangerous blokes out of the way....then lead them astray after the commotion starts. Norman Reedus has a pretty scary reputation around the office. Very few would question me when under that guise."

Jack nodded, saying, "Yeah, I think that there's really a lot of room to stay anonymous but to become known. Which is what we need right now. People need to know that there are people fighting for their rights, but it'd probably be unwise to send in our biographies and fight plan to the Daily Prophet."

"Daresay that I am far too old to pass as a teenager," Curtis interjected, smiling slightly, "I suppose I'll be keeping a lookout....making sure you kids have a clear exit. I am not the best with disguise, and being far too recognizable, I do not think it wise for me to be a part of the party going into the Ministry. We should have a few volunteers remain here as well to take care of any wounded we may have."

"Sounds like our best shot to get Charles out of danger," James conceded, raising an eyebrow in Jack's direction to acknowledge her tactical foresight, "So, Jack....did you have any sort of plan already worked out, or should we be discussing tactics for pulling this off next?"

Jack shrugged. "We wouldn't be going as ourselves. The boys-" she glanced at the Scamanders "can help us play our parts. I may be a prankster, but they won't write it off if they see it's me."

She glanced at James and said, "I think it's as easy as finding an excuse in. Maybe Hogwarts tour or some shit excuse - see Curtis, you may have purpose yet. We come in, find Charlie, set off our diversion, make sure we keep everyone distracted while someone smuggles him out, then we can all make a break for it."

"We could try getting in as a tour group...." Curtis mused, "but I don't know about a Hogwarts tour group. They would know whether they were expecting a group of Hogwarts students. We couldn't just show up pretending. They'd see right through it. I suppose we may be able to pull off a group of potential new employees. It would be easy enough to forge papers for a fake job placement agency....I think first; however, we should concentrate on the biggest flaw in this plan. The Ministry has stringent security measures, both magical and otherwise. Physical disguises should get through okay, but how are we going to smuggle in a bunch of fireworks? It is possible that the security gate would not find them to be hazardous and let them pass unchallenged, but there is also the possibility that the gate would set off an alarm. The only way to get around the gate would be to take the employee entrance, but as a tour group, we would be required to head through the visitor's entrance and pass through the security gate. Let's not forget that mere weeks ago, I was Head Auror....I believe I could still get us through the Head Auror's personal entrance, but the trip from the Head Auror office to the atrium would be extremely difficult undetected. I'm beginning to wonder whether this should be a more subtle retrieval...leaving out the big bang distractions. A group of three. Teddy disguised as Norman could be bringing in a suspect to interrogate, and find an excuse to grab Charlie to help. A third person waits at the exit under the invisibility cloak to make sure the escape route remains clear."

"Well if we're gonna go that route," Teddy piped up, clearly disappointed that Curtis was trying to get rid of the fireworks display, "Wouldn't it make more sense for me to just go in there, nab Charlie, and bring him here myself?"

"But then what happens when Charlie doesn't return to his post?" James asked, "They could become suspicious of Teddy's Norman character, and then his position as our insider is compromised."

Curtis nodded, soaking in both man's opinions, one hand under his jaw. He looked to Jack and Chase, wondering what additional input they may have....wondering if Jack would be upset that he was questioning her plan.

Jack listened carefully to all problems, soaking them in and tallying all the problems she new she could address, and noting the problems that had arisen. She stayed calm, for it was just an idea, and she just wanted to get the Dursley boy out, regardless. Eyes turned to her, and she took that as her cue to explain her discoveries.

"The fireworks I have have no magical traces. Certain spells cause certain affects, but it renders the magic inherently dormant and mostly undetectable. And it's not just those either. A lot of Weasley's products and my own were magic inspired and then constructed like a muggle invention. And even if we're still not sold, who's to say we cannot call into the muggle office and inform them we are concerned citizens bringing in products we believe have been tampered with. Bring in an enchanted blanket over the products and make our way into the lifts. If some intern got away with a prank and the Ministry only chalked it up to that, then their defensive measures don't seem to be in peak performance right now."

"I say we combine both ideas," James said after some thought, "I already know it's no use asking anyone to stay here. This being our first 'mission'....no one will be happy about being left behind. I suggest we have two groups. One group goes through the visitor's entrance and sets off the fireworks, while another goes through the entrance reserved for Aurors. Someone can hang back by the visitor's entrance as a lookout, and someone can wear the invisibility cloak to watch the Auror entrance. We can use Patronus charms to signal one another as the fireworks are going off...everyone should be too focused on the fireworks to notice them. That way those in the thick of it know which entrances are clear. Erm....everyone can produce a Patronus, correct?"

Jack nodded, finding this satisfactory. It wasn't too complicated, and they were giving themselves some room to work with. They didn't need to be a tightly oiled ship on this one to succeed - which was good, because even tightly-oiled ships could spring a leak.

Jack inclined her head as James ensured everyone could perform a Patronus.

"I can manage a corporeal Patronus," Lorcan said, "However Lysander has yet to master the ability..."

"While it wouldn't keep me from the action," Lysander cut in, "It is good a reason as any for me to stay behind. I have a little experience in healing magic, and definitely could brew some potions to administer should anything go awry..."

James nodded his head, smiling at the slightly downtrodden twin.

"Thank you for volunteering, Lysander, it is wise for someone to stay behind to take care of any casualties there may be."

"In the meantime," Curtis added, "We can work on your Patronus."

Jack listened between all of them - she had had no idea Lysander didn't know how to wield a Patronus. Jack knew how to muster one, and she gave James the affirmation that she could. Even though she could produce a fairly strong one, her DADA instructor had mentioned to her how much it seemed to drain her. Large spells were hard to do for her after the Patronus. He had advised Jack to acquire some stronger happy memories.

"Is it just me," Jack said, "or do we actually have the skeleton of a plan here?"