Chapter 10
Interlude
- MJ Sinclair-
To be completely clear: this was the second worst day of MJ’s life, right after the day when she came back from hanging out with her primary school friends to find the place trashed, her sister unconscious, and her parents missing.
Lucy probably thought this was great, but Lucy was also more forgiving than MJ was, and also didn’t remember how sad their dad was during holidays in their childhood. MJ did though, and like their Mum said, she could hold a grudge until the end of time.
“Right,” Auror Potter, because MJ refused to call him anything else, even in her head, because that would mean he was growing on her, said. “Uh, here we are. Ron and Charlie should be here shortly."
Ron, who had made the worst first impression on the planet, what with his face and his inability to form sentences right after Lucy had made the dubious decision to inform them of their relation, and Charlie, who MJ knew knew about them, but not how old they were or anything else. Charlie was possibly the only one she’d talk to, so she was glad Lucy had at least had the good sense to ask for him and not another aunt or uncle, or worse, their grandparents.
“Neat.” MJ said flatly. “Are we meeting them out here, or can we go inside?” Normally she wouldn’t ask, but there was a slight chill in the air, and Lucy was shivering, and MJ would be damned before she let her little sister get sick because of a slight chill of all things.
“Oh yeah,” Auror Potter said, like he wasn’t a full grown adult with a job. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.” He started towards the door and winced. “Um, Ginny’s home, and our two youngest. Probably only Ginny's up though. Are you okay with meeting them?”
“They’ll find out eventually,” Lucy said, kinder than MJ would have. Story of MJ’s life, Lucy did things kinder than she did. “Best to tear the bandaid off now, don’t you think?”
Auror Potter shrugged, “Yeah, probably best.” He knocked on the door to his own house, and MJ cast her eyes towards the sky.
“Harry?” An actually stunning woman opened the door, and MJ recognized her as Ginny Potter, an absolutely killer quidditch player, and unfortunately her aunt. “Harry, why are you knocking on our front door, did you lose your key again? And why are you home, I thought you were on the overnight shift?”
MJ also had all of those questions. She also wondered why Ginny Potter was up at this hour. It was well past one in the morning at this point.
“Why are you up?” Auror Potter asked in confusion. “Gin, it’s 1am.”
“The wards alerted me when people got here,” Ginny peered beyond him. “Harry, who’s that?”
“Uh,” Auror Potter said. MJ sighed.
“I’m MJ Sinclair, and this is my sister Lucy,” She said, taking pity on the man after at least fifteen seconds of awkward silence. “We’re the daughters of your older brother, Percy. He and our mum are missing, and the Ministry of Magic just decided to go mental about it. We’re meeting our new guardian here apparently.”
Ginny Potter blinked, and MJ hoped she performed better than her brother when faced with this information. She was pleased when a few seconds later Ginny spoke.
“Right.” She took a fortifying breath. “Why don’t you come in, can I make you both some tea?” She ushered the girls inside, Lucy accepting the offer for tea kindly for them both. “Harry James,” MJ heard her hiss behind her. “Why was I not given any sort of heads up that my nieces would be coming into our house tonight?”
“I didn’t know until like ten minutes ago,” Auror Potter defended himself. “And uh, they’re not staying, they’re just meeting Charlie here.”
“You’re giving custody of Percy’s children to Charlie?” Ginny hissed. “What on earth has possessed you?”
“Lucy said her dad liked him best.”
“Oh, and that’s how we make decisions now, based on the information given to us by traumatized fourteen year olds?”
“I’m fifteen,” Lucy piped up. Ginny glanced at her.
“Fifteen?” She asked, clearly doing math and not liking it. “And you, MJ, how old are you?”
“I turned eighteen in September,” MJ said, aware that she would like that math even less. “Uh, I’m going with because I’m not leaving Luce by herself with a stranger.”
“As you should,” Ginny said. “And you’re both sure Charlie is the right choice? Are you aware he’s a little…”
“Crazy?” Lucy said. “Yeah, Dad said he left in the middle of the night to go train dragons and never really came back, but he also said that he was the only one who at least knew we existed, sooo.” She shrugged. “Uncle Charlie it is.”
“Don’t call him that,” MJ snapped. Lucy rolled her eyes. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut and exhaled slowly.
“He knew about you?” She asked, her voice sounding dangerous. MJ would have loved causing this family drama if it was not her family. “How long has he known about you two? And why didn’t he tell the rest of us? Did he know Percy was alive?”
Look at that, a lot of questions that MJ did not want to answer. “Uh, yes.” She said. “And I don’t know, I think our whole lives. You should definitely ask him that next one, and probably, since Lucy was born after Mum and Dad went muggle.”
“Went muggle?” Harry Potter asked. “Like, gave up magic?”
“Mostly,” Lucy glanced at the table like she wanted to sit. “I mean, we were raised knowing Mum and Dad were magical, and visiting friends who did magic. And we knew all about the war and Department 14 and all that, and Hogwarts, and knew we’d go someday, but I never say Mum and Dad do magic except the day our house was attacked.” MJ pursed her lips. Lucy ignored her. “Um, can I sit?”
“Oh yes, dear, so sorry.” Ginny hustled forward, pulling out the chairs at the table and waving her wand to put the kettle on. “Okay, so that explains why we could never track Percy down.”
“You tried?” MJ asked skeptically. Ginny glanced at her from where she was pulling biscuits out of the cupboard.
“Of course we tried, he’s my older brother. Tried for years, hired a PI even. Couldn’t find head or tail of him. I think Bill’s still looking, drives Fleur crazy, but I know he felt guilty about the whole thing. Especially once Dad admitted he’d told him to leave and never come back, the whole family was a mess, but Bill especially. Oldest sibling guilt I think.” She blew a strand of hair out of her face.
“Oh,” MJ said, thinking back to her childhood, and all the times Dad had looked sad about his family, all the times they’d danced around the subject of his side. “I don’t think he knew about any of that.”
“No?” Ginny asked. “Did he miss us at least?”
“Horribly,” MJ said. “He never told us the whole story, but you could always tell he missed you, and regretted that fight. I think he thought he’d never be welcomed home.”
Ginny looked like she was on the verge of tears, so of course that’s when Charlie and Ron arrived, forcing MJ to start this part of the conversation off grateful to them. Ew. She scanned the two of them in favor of speaking, and saw that Charlie was shorter than her dad, with burns on his face and arms, as her father had described him when Lucy had asked once. He had some gray hairs, but less than MJ anticipated.
“MJ! Lucy!” He said, boisterously. “Lovely to finally meet you, your father stopped answering my letters before I was able to worm my way in as your favorite uncle when you were kids!”
“What do you mean?” MJ asked, standing as the man bustled over to give them a hug, deciding it was better to look at least a little bit grateful to the man for taking them in. “You stopped sending letters. Dad answered every one he got.”
Charlie blinked. “What?” He said. “No, I didn’t, I sent letters for years, tried to contact your dad through every method under the sun. Hell, I even tried to go through Wood at one point, but he never got back to me.”
MJ and Lucy shared a look. “Dad stopped receiving your letters before I was born.” Lucy said slowly. “He sent one last letter and gave up, said he had to focus on the family he had, not the family he’d lost.”
Charlie frowned, sharing a look with her siblings. “I can promise that's not true." Charlie said. "But I think we're all missing a bit of the story. Would you mind telling us your side. I know your parents are missing."
"They are. Probably related to their work during the war," MJ said, mostly to be difficult.
"Why don’t you start from the beginning,” Charlie replied. “I know a bit about Department 14, Percy’s work during the war, and I knew you two existed,”
“Which we’ll be having a discussion about later,” Ginny interrupted.
Charlie winced, “But I never had all the details.” He finished. “Start from the beginning, whatever you know from the day your dad left the house. Or actually, before, when your dad met your mum. We’ll fill in what we can from there.”
“It’s a long story,” MJ warned.
“I’ve got time,” Charlie grinned. “How about this, you tell us this story, and I’ll tell you all the ones I’ve got from when your dad was a kid, so you have some blackmail for when he comes back.”
Lucy and MJ shared a look. “Fine. No talking until the end.” MJ said, accepting the cup of tea from Ginny. “It started in 1992…”
It started in 1992, when Audrey Sinclair took an exchange year, from a small, private wizarding school in the Southern United States, to Hogwarts. She met Percy Weasley there, a 6th year, like her, Gryffindor, unlike her, and unfortunately dating Penny Clearwater. Penny Clearwater was, however, incredibly unhappy in that relationship, and saw her new best friend staring at her boyfriend a moment too long, and so she dumped Percy. She got petrified three days later, which was tragic timing.
Percy and Audrey started dating towards the end of that year, which was spent with Audrey fighting her parents in a desperate attempt to stay at Hogwarts, which she had fallen in love with, despite the petrifications. They had finally agreed for her to permanently transfer on the condition that when someone died, she moved home.
Audrey was grateful, despite herself, that no one died until after she graduated, and she told her daughters this with a wistful smile. Cedric Diggory had been a friend of Percy’s, and she wished he hadn’t died at all, but at least he’d done it in 1995.
So, Audrey stuck around, and Percy didn’t tell his family about her, after the summer of torment that was his siblings getting with the program about his last girlfriend. Penny laughed herself silly when she found out about the torment he was getting for a relationship that had ended months prior, and developed the habit of referring to Percy as “smookims” in his sibling’s presence. Audrey thought it was the funniest thing to ever happen at Hogwarts, and played along.
They graduated in 1994, and immediately Percy, Audrey, and Penny, as well as many of their other friends, including Liza Ouray, got a job in the ministry. It was convenient, but many of them also saw a storm coming, and thought the best place to be was in the ministry.
They were right. 1995 rolled around, the Triwizard tournament was many of their biggest problems (Audrey and Percy eloped in the middle of February, for no reason at all except for they were drunk and thought it was a good idea. They didn’t tell anyone until that summer), until Cedric Diggory died and Voldemort rose. Then Percy was suddenly promoted, which everyone thought was suspicious, and when he went to tell his parents about that and the fact that he’d gotten married without telling anyone to a girl they’d never met, things were said that couldn’t be taken back and suddenly Audrey went from his secret family to his only family. They’d told their friends about their elopement that night, and were forced to have a ceremony a month later. Percy changed his name to Sinclair during it, saying that he could always take Weasley back after the war.
He never did. The war started in the ministry that fall, with incompetency being slowly replaced by maliciousness, and everyone burrowed themselves in deeper. There were thirteen of them - Percy, Audrey, Liza, Penny, Marcus (who was at this point lying to his family about being in love with Liza), Walter Robbins, Ramona Greengrass, TJ Meyers, Annie and Erik Foxx, Emilie Ellis, Ben Proudfoot, and Gwen Olson in the ministry. There were fourteen of them if you counted Oliver Wood, who played quidditch, and everyone did. He got a job in the ministry in 1997, just before the New Regime rose.
As time went on, it became clear to everyone with half a brain cell that something bad was on the horizon, and it was going to be related to blood supremacy. Audrey was the one who suggested they started Department 14.
Department 14. Department 14 was this odd little group, that was originally just the 14 of them, hence the name, but grew into something much larger. They forged family trees and documents, erased names from records, and snuck people out of the country. They even staged prison breaks when they failed at stopping the people from getting arrested in the first place. It was a dangerous game, and Ramona and TJ lost their lives to it, but they kept going until the very end.
And while Department 14 was growing, so was the Sinclair family. MJ was born a little less than two months after the fall of the ministry in early August of 1997. Audrey had quit her job by then, and Percy had erased her from the records. He’d kept the Weasley name on all official ministry documents, and he was glad he did. Purebloods were the only ones not questioned, and he was only safe because of the Weasley name and his estrangement, and even then, safe was a relative term.
The war ended with a whimper, not a bang. The battle at Hogwarts was mirrored in the ministry, except for after Voldemort fell at Hogwarts, all the Deatheaters in the ministry fled. Percy, Penny, Oliver, and Ben had taken that time to tie up all remaining loose ends, erasing any evidence of their involvement from ministry records, unless you were looking for it. They were banking on the idea that those coming in after the war would think that those running the place during the war were incompetent, and wouldn’t look too hard.
They were lucky, if the survivors of a war could be called lucky. Audrey had thrown the towel in, the stress of raising a baby while running a secret organization and worried about her husband’s life getting to her, and asked Percy to give up magic and move to the muggle world with her. He’d agreed, and they’d left a forwarding address for their friends. Their friends visited often, bringing news and their children with them, but slowly over the years the group had dwindled back to those first fourteen, now eleven. Walter had gone missing after the war, and was found dead in Paris a few weeks later. Police called it a suicide, Audrey called him the last victim of the war.
Until Percy and Audrey went missing in July. Penny, had gone missing soon after them, and then Oliver. Liza followed Oliver, and Marcus followed her, and then Ben and Gwen and Annie and Erik. When Percy and Audrey had gone missing MJ and Lucy had panicked and called the muggle cops before getting themselves together and calling Penny who told everyone else. The remaining members had decided to keep it quiet, certain it was a Deatheater from their ministry days who wanted the names of the muggleborns who’d decided not to come back, or their location, or just plain old revenge. They’d told the girls they’d handle it, and when they’d started going missing too, the girls had decided to keep it quiet. They were children of a rebellion, after all, and didn’t have a strong love for the government, especially the magical government which had so badly betrayed their families. But then it got to the point where Department 14 couldn’t handle it, and obviously Emilie had agreed, because here they were, asking for help from the government.
“I’d like to say,” Harry coughed as MJ finished speaking. They'd all listened and kindly not asked questions, although Charlie, Ginny, and Ron looked like they had thoughts, especially when MJ mentioned when her dad married her mum. “I am not the government.”
“You work for it,” MJ shrugged. “Same difference.”
“It’s really not,” Harry watched as Ginny stood and paced. “Uh, Gin?”
Ginny turned. “I’m processing,” She snapped. Harry blinked. “Percy really did all that?”
“Yes, why, think we’re lying?” Lucy was the one to answer, which was only surprising if you didn’t know the Sinclairs. Lucy hated being called a liar.
“No, just...” Ginny sighed.
“It’s just a lot to take in.” Charlie supplied. “You have to remember, we’ve been wondering what happened to Percy for the last twenty years-”
“You weren’t.” Ron muttered. Charlie glared at him.
“I knew he was alive, not where he was,” He snapped. “Anyway, we’ve been wondering where Percy was, and then his teenage daughters show up, with a Mum we’ve never met but apparently should’ve, and say their parents are missing and oh by the way it’s probably related to the secret organization you knew nothing about.”
“It does sound bad when you put it like that,” Lucy hummed. “So, can you help us find our parents?”
Harry and Ron shared a look. “We can take this to the aurors, it’ll certainly help, but unless you know who personally hated them it’ll take a while yet.” Ron warned. MJ rolled her eyes.
“They failed to share the information of enemies they’d had before we were born with us during family dinners,” MJ drawled. “So that’s a no.”
“It’s not a no,” Ginny said, coming back to the table. “It’s just a ‘it’ll take a bit’.”
“Brill,” Lucy muttered, clearly disappointed. MJ wondered if she was hoping their parents would be found tonight. “Can we go to the safehouse now? It’s nearly 3am and I’d like to get some sleep before class.”
Charlie blinked. “You uh, you can definitely skip class tomorrow.” He said.
“No, thank you,” Lucy said. MJ nodded in agreement. “So about that safehouse?”
“Yeah,” Ron rose. “Thanks Gin, for letting us use your kitchen.” He said. “I’ll get these three to the safehouse now.”
“Okay,” Ginny sighed. “Be safe. I’ll update Mum and Dad.”
The adults in the room winced in unison. “Thanks,” Charlie said. “Uh, leave me out of it?”
“Not a chance,” Ginny said. “You’re getting thrown so far under the bus you’ll be tasting tire tracks.”
Charlie swore, and followed his little brother out, muttering. “Coming, girls?” He asked, and MJ was hit for a moment with the similarities between him and her father. She shared a look with Lucy, who’d obviously had the same moment.
“Sorry,” Lucy muttered to MJ, before raising her voice. “Right behind you.” She gathered her stuff and followed him out, and MJ gathered her own before turning to Ginny.
“Thanks for letting us use your house,” She said stiffly. Ginny smiled warmly.
“Of course, hun. Feel free to write, I’ve got twenty years of being your aunt to catch up on.” She leaned forward and gave MJ a quick hug. “And if you don’t, I’ll write. We Weasleys are persistent.”
“Yeah,” MJ said. “I kinda knew that. Why do you think I was so insistent we stayed out of it?” She turned towards the door. “I’ll write though.”
Ginny laughed. “Welcome to the family, MJ.” She said. “Have a good night.”
“You too,” MJ left the house to meet her sister and uncles on the front lawn, and wished it didn’t take her parents going missing for her to meet her extended family. She definitely liked them more than she liked the Sinclairs, but she would never admit that.