Getting Closer Every Day

It had been done. Mikaela was under their control.

Jack had contacted Jess who had gone about getting the rest of the Order together, and Aaron had been in charge of getting the Death Eaters rounded up for the meeting. They had Mikaela under their thumb, yes, and Jack had sent along the information she had so easily given up to Jess, so that he could present the information. Jack was not in the business of politics, she did not want to have her fingers in this any more than necessary.

Now Jack wanted to know what the next step was. Take down Forbes? Or go for the whole kit and kaboodle, and take them all down at once. Who would stay with Grindelwald? There was Forbes, Barker, and a few others at Hogwarts, but they had all of the Death Eaters and the Order. Eventually, they'd have to gamble.

It was a pretty bad day altogether for Mariana. Everything that could go wrong that day, did and this meeting with the death eaters was not a good idea, but she had recieved a notification about it and as much as she despised the idea, she kept it for herself. When she arrived at the shrieking shack only Jack was there on her big relief.

However good the reason for the meeting was, it still didn't make it any easier to be in a presence of a death eater without having the urge to hit him. "Hi Jack honey." she said in as much cheerful tone as she could obligate herself. She hugged her friendly for a moment, then made a step back. "I hope you had a good day." she said considering how much good mood was required for being here.

The first to arrive was Mariana Diggory who Jack, honestly, barely knew at all. She had heard some whisperings that this was Jess' lady or something, making her probably more powerful than Jess since most men were whipped when they started dating and lost their- well, anyway. She had a considerable amount of influence.

She greeted Jack as 'honey' and Jack stared at her, but her apprehensive look did not stop the girl from hugging Jack. A few phrases came to mind ("Excuse me, but who are you?" "I'm sorry, you must be new.") but Jack held her tongue. However, she did not hug this stranger back and when Mariana stepped away, Jack stared at her like she was crazy. "Right."

Jack wasn't rude. She just didn't like people.

Remy was coming from work to this meeting, the first she had attended in a few weeks. Her assignment, as far as she could tell it, had been to hang around Satan’s and see what she could hear of what was going on. Being a bartender, she had heard plenty, but she wasn’t sure to what extent she was planning to share her information. In her experience, it was always best to be holding an ace when everyone thought you only had a pair (though everyone already knew Remy had a nice pair).

This whole Death Eaters/Order alliance already had Remy on edge, because to tell the truth, if they couldn’t figure out what the hell to do within their own factions, Remy wasn’t sure how adding even more dissenting voices was going to help anything. Besides, Remy liked to operate under the radar, and standing in a room with all the biggest players (who she would like to be playing) didn’t fall within her desirable situations list.

But, if you want to play with the big boys, you have to play by their rules, so Remy parked her motorcycle in the bushes near the road and hiked up to the Shrieking Shack. This was no Malfoy Mansion, but Remy couldn’t afford to be picky. For now, she was just doing as she was told.

Pushing open the door, Remy entered a room with two redheads. Vito’s freaking wet dream… Remy thought to herself as she recalled his comment about how she would look better with red hair, back when he had first hired her almost a year ago now. Remy didn’t know either of these two women – women tended to register lower on her priority list than men, in general – but she didn’t really care to know them either. She just needed to figure out which one was in charge, if either of them, while remaining as inconspicuous as possible.

“Evening, ladies,” Remy said, pushing the door closed behind her with her foot, “No one told me about the redhead dress code, so you'll have to excuse my lack of costume,” she added lightly, raising a joking eyebrow in the direction of the two younger girls who stood across the room.

Kingsley had missed out on the last order meeting with the death eaters due to illness, so he didn't plan on missing this one. He wanted to observe the death eaters, and have a chat with Ne'os Emof as well. So he apparated to Hogsmeade and made his way towards the meeting place, the Shrieking Shack.

He knew the place well. After being defeated by Majere he managed to escape to the Shrieking Shack, where he spent some six odd months in hiding, eating food delivered by owl from Wake, and rarely making a trip outside. So coming there after so long had an almost nostalgic feel. It was like entering your old home, except this was a haunted house instead.

Entering the house, he saw three women in the entrance room. They seemed to be the only ones there. So I'm early then, good, he thought. It would be quite a bad situation if Jack or Mari had been stuck alone with all the Death Eaters who would soon arrive. He didn't trust them, for obvious reasons. Even though he quite liked their new head, Ne'os Emof, and supported the alliance, Kingsley guessed that sooner or later the Death Eaters would backstab them, and they had to be ready for that.

The older woman was clearly a Death Eater, so Kingsley just gave her a curt nod before moving to his fellow order members. "Hello Jack, Mari," he greeted. "News?" Obviously referring to Mikaela and Forbes.

Ginny had been informed of the meeting. But what made her sick to her stomach was that it would consist of both Order members and Death Eaters. When she got the information, Ginny blew up half of the ice rink. It didn't hurt anyone but it showed that she was pissed. But when she found out why the two forces were teaming up, it made since. Grindelwald. Forbes. Mikaela. But still. The thought of how the two would go together didn't play well in her head. Especially her.

Deciding to get the thought out her head, Ginny apparated to Hogsmeade and before her was the Shrieking Shack. "Here goes nothing," she whispered to her self as she walked up the small but steep hill and entered the shack. As she opened the cold door knob, Ginny saw an unfamiliar woman, which she figured was a Death Eater. She didn't say anything to her, knowing if she did, it wouldn't be a greeting. She simply walked pass her and greeted her fellow Order members.

"Hey Mari," she said to Mariana with a welcoming hug. "Kingsley," Ginny said with a warm smile. And Ginny then greeted Jack. "Hello."

When Jack's patronus had first arrived before Jess, he'd felt his stomach drop, the message he was about to receive was no doubt going to sit in the extreme reaches of good or bad, for the mission she, Silvyr and Aaron were on held no acceptable middle ground.

However the moment the spectral shape had given its... her message, he'd felt a wave of happiness and relief, followed almost immediately by apprehension, for the news he'd just received meant that they were in fact well on the path to deposing their so called "Minister for Magic"

So, he'd sent out his own patronuses, sent out owls and messages through other forms before making his way to the Shrieking Shack.

Deciding to take the more roundabout approach Jess found himself sneaking through the branches of the Whomping Willow, slipping through the hole at its base (had he grown bigger, or was the hole smaller?) and following the tunnel until it opened out to the Shrieking Shack.

He rounded a corner and entered the room he could hear voices in, "Good evening everyone," he said, making a small welcoming gesture before he found a place he was content with standing. "A few unfamiliar faces here, long time no see," he added with a small grin, looking at Kingsley and Ginny in turn, before glancing at Remy, a thought stirring at the back of his mind as he realised how familiar her face appeared to him.

Brian hated the Shrieking Shack. It held ugly memories for him and the only family he really had. Nevertheless, he was responding on their very behalf tonight. It just wasn't wise for Robert and Khaat to be wandering freely at all hours. Not yet.

He had gone to St. Mungos and acted as a courier for Robert and khaat to keep the hospital running, exchanging paperwork with their very trusted administrative assistant, Hannah. From there, he had shrunken the bag of paperwork he was taking back to them. He made it about the size of a viintage muggle cigarette lighter and had stuffed it in his pocket and made his way to that infernal shack, pulling his tan suede jacket a bit closer around his neck to shut out the bitter January winds.

When he entered, he saw a few people there and wasn't sure if he were merely early or if this meeting was going to be a small one.

"'Evening," he greeted them. "My apologies if I'm late. Its good to see you all again. It feels like its been forever." Then he remembered. Michael had sent him with an oddity. He drew out from his inner jacket pocket, four pair of black argyle socks. He gave two pair to Jess and two to Jack. "I'm supposed to give these to you two," he said. "From Michael. He said you'd know what to do with them, and he said they were belated Christmas gifts. He said something about the argyle parts being the tastier bits?" He was guessing Michael had somehow gotten them to take a couple of his "dogs" and that the socks were truly not for Jess and Jack to eat.

Jess looked up as he heard the footfalls of someone approaching, only to find that it was Brian. "Good evening my friend, you're not late at all" He said calmly, "Khaat and Robert staying home tonight are they, or are they making their own way here?" He asked casually, before looking in the man's hands.

He felt his brow furrow in confusion for a moment before a moment of realisation dawned on his face. "Ah, yum... he's quite right, the argyle does go down better than the rest of the sock, it's certainly the tastier bit. Please, pass on my regards and let him know that they'll make for a good after dinner snack tonight," He said, a cryptic smile flashing on his face for a moment before he chuckled and shook his head.

"Tell me, do you know when the rest of your people will be here?" He asked, facing Remy for a moment, once again experiencing that feeling of familiarity, but not quite recognising where it came from.

The next woman that entered said something that usually would have made Jack smirk or maybe even chuckle, but the condesceneding tone was not easily ignored. Jack glanced at her and said, "I'll send you the memo next time. Must've forgot." There. Jack could be diplomatic... Sort of. Before more could happen, Kingsley Shacklebolt entered.

In regards to his question, Jack turned and nodded. "Yes, but I'll leave that to Jess." Another girl entered, a Weasley. Ginne Weasley. She ignored the Death Eater, which really hindered the alliance more than anything, and greeted Jack. So Jack blinked and lifted her chin to her, but said nothing. Before anyone else said anything, Jess entered from another room.

"Ah learning the tricks of the castle," Jack commented. Most people didn't know about the Whimping Willow entrance, and Jack assumed he had arrived via that route (as she doubted he had been just lounging around in the Shrieking Shack.) Another man entered, one of the Lupin gang. He handed Jack socks and recited a message. Jack grinned and said, "Let Michael know I'm grateful for these. My feet have been rather naked as of late."