Consequences
Arianna woke slowly, not entirely sure where she’d fallen asleep. Hopefully, she’d managed to make it to a bed this time, but the familiar leather of her office couch rid her of that quickly. The warmth of a blanket on her forced a resigned sigh from her lips too.
“How much trouble am I in?” she asked without even opening her eyes.
“Depends,” Sirius said mildly, instantly making her tense. That was the bad tone for Uncle Pads.
“On?” she asked, resisting the urge to hide under the blanket like she was four again and Padfoot had caught her awake at 2am.
“Whether or not you had any intention of asking for help with this ridiculous list and just how long you went without sleep to fall asleep on Ragnok during a meeting.”
She flushed in horror and embarrassment, resolve crumbling as she hid quickly.
“That long, huh?” Remus said dryly.
Oh shit…. If both of them were there, she was in more trouble than she thought. Then she remembered the meeting she was supposed to attend.
“Shit!” she shouted, bolting from the bed and searching for her wand to cast a quick Tempus. If she’d slept through the night, she had to get ready!
“Relax, pup,” Sirius said, holding her wand out as he leaned against the desk. “You only slept a couple hours. The meeting’s still tomorrow.”
She slumped in relief, then tensed again at facing the men in her office. “Oh gods,” she groaned.
Sirius and Remus were leaning against the desk, shoulder to shoulder. Graves was seated in the chair, idly playing with his wand while staring at her with an eyebrow raised. Theseus was leaning back in Sirius’ favorite chair, her ‘to do’ list in his hand as he stared at her intently. Tina was perched on the armrest. Queenie and Jacob were hidden in the corner but looked concerned for her.
“I’ll assume that was an indication that you realize just how far down the hole you’ve dug, and you’ve decided to stop digging,” Theseus said, tone icy and gaze hard.
Arianna never liked it when he got like that. She’d only lived there for a few years, but she’d learned quickly that it took a lot for Uncle Theseus to get mad. And that was a very good thing as he was terrifying when he was. She’d never seen him so mad. But that didn’t stop her mouth.
“But I haven’t reached the other side of the world yet,” she said cheerily, only to pale and clamp a hand over her own mouth, cursing herself.
“You’re centimeters away,” Grave said, just as hard and lacking any amusement.
“You do realize we’re here to help, right?” Tina asked, crossing her arms and pinning Arianna to her seat effectively.
“And it’s not lip service,” Sirius muttered. “I spotted at least six things on that cursed list that you could easily hand over to others entirely. If you think for one moment we’re working so hard to lift the weight off Harry only to gift it to you, you are barmy and I can recommend an excellent mind healer. She worked with me, after all.”
Arianna couldn’t stifle the snort of amusement, though it quickly died. Even when lecturing, Sirius managed to add his own personal sarcasm into the mix.
“I know that,” she said after a minute.
“Then show it,” Graves ordered. “Delegate your ideas. If you have to be involved, as the face of the movement, then so be it. You’ll get reports on the needed information. You’re not stupid. You’ll be able to speak about most of the issues without working on them yourself. And I know for a fact, some of these will need to wait at least until you come out as a Potter, if not longer. Such as the Recalls. The items are safe in Goblin hands. They are organized and the goblins are working on inventories still. Relax. There’s nothing you can do about them at the moment and the chances that an item will be exactly what we need are so slim as to be non-existent.”
“The training and classes are easy,” Sirius said. “Artair can reach out to Ron about setting up training and since you’ve already approached Theseus about the classes, he can set those up with Tina. He’s married to her, after all. And all you have to do is figure out the room. Which you’re already planning on talking to Harry about after the Wizengamot meeting, if your babbling about visiting more is accurate.”
“And you need to visit him more anyway,” Remus offered, putting his two sickles in. “He’s struggling. We can all see it in his letters and calls. He’s got a lot still riding on him and none of it is something we can help with. We can’t revoke his Boy Who Lived status or that both sides are determined to have him. We can only make sure he’s prepared, and we’ve not done enough lately to make him feel that way.”
“Focus on what you can do,” Theseus ordered. “Only what you can do. We’ve all been at this much longer than you, little one. We know how to do this. What we can’t do is be the face of the movement or a sister to Harry. The boy’s spent his whole life without you. That is far more important than re-writing the Prefect structure at Hogwarts before we even have a hold on the school or helping Harry achieve his Animagus when you don’t have a solid grasp on your own.”
“And for goodness sake, honey,” Queenie finally chirped up. “Sleep! Take care of yourself! You’re too thin and that gorgeous redhead is going to worry his hair off when he sees how stressed you are.”
Arianna flushed scarlet and glared at her aunt, but Queenie was unapologetic, and the rest of the room chuckled. She was pranking all of them.
“And don’t worry about my bakery,” Jacob said, hugging his wife and smiling at her in his adorable way. “I’m pretty sure the goblins will fund me for years before I’ll need investors. If I ever do. They really seem to like the dragon pastries.”
She chuckled at that but otherwise stayed silent. She knew they weren’t done, if the mischievous glint in Remus’ eyes was any indication. The threat must be quite good for the once stoic man to be holding in laughter. When the silence stretched a bit too long, she started shifting nervously. Finally, she couldn’t take it.
“What’s the threat?” she demanded, slumping on the couch and glaring at the group.
“I’ll tell Charlie, Bill, and the twins,” Remus said, laughter touching his words.
She could feel herself pale and shuddered at the thought of the combined protective fury of four Weasleys. Ron being left out was no surprise, as he’d immediately tell Harry and then she’d have to combat a dragon of a younger brother too…
“Merlin,” she muttered. “Alright! Alright! Let’s take a look at my full list and assign things…”
The combined sputtering was actually fairly entertaining, but she wasn’t going to laugh too much. It could cause them to tell the Weasleys anyway out of spite. Instead, she pushed herself to her feet and made her way to the desk, shooing the various wizards away. Then she just waved her hand over the hidden compartment on the desk and pulled out the notebook she kept her full list in, with every plan, task, possible strategy, and list of Fidelius members. Among sheets upon sheets of people she wanted to add. She’d also stuffed Charlie’s initial lists into the pages, with notes added for the people he’d listed and questions she had for some of them. In the very back were the copies of their tests.
Then she reached in again for the files she’d compiled, including copies of the tests of everyone the goblins had healed, with their permission for copies to be made, and all the charges she thought they could levy against various people. Obviously, Dumbledore’s was the largest, but the one on the Dursleys was no small matter. Neither was the one on Molly Weasley…. And she just kept having to add more files as Sirius and Theseus worked.
When she reached in for the files she had on laws to review, Sirius whined and Remus glared at her. But she needed the pages of notes from Graves, Tina, and Theseus and the full law. There were dozens that needed repealed or amended. Just in the last decade, the number of laws passed to restrict creatures and muggleborns were staggering. And much of the most harmful bits were hidden inside actually decent laws. She planned to start the work on a comprehensive review of laws at the Wizengamot meeting tomorrow, even if it raised questions about her overall plans when she was just entering the political world.
Finally, she pulled out the genealogy books. The goblins had prioritized them when doing their audits and recalls and she already had many. All but Potter were accounted for. The goblins had been excited to track down the ones for the Founders. And she wanted to review them to see just who she could add to what Houses as members and increase the magic available to the house elves. She was managing them fine, while they simply cleaned and organized, but once she started implementing her plans to convert some of the properties to other uses or opening the sanctuary, they’d need more constantly available cores to stabilize the larger bursts of magics they would need to maintain the restored properties and assist in the new uses she was planning.
When all her various plans, files, and books were piled on the already cluttered desk, she simply crossed her arms, staring at the people in the room and silently smug. Remus stared at her for a moment, then promptly turned around and walked out the door. She panicked a moment, worried he’d given up, but Sirius didn’t seem worried, so she tried to relax. Then the group started tackling the plethora of papers, diving into the organized chaos eagerly and before she knew it, over an hour had passed and everything was separated into three separate piles.
“You will put everything you add to your plots moving forward into one of these three categories,” Graves ordered once they were satisfied. “And if you put everything in one again, we’ll do the same thing and make you move things.”
“And the categories are?” she asked warily, eyeing the piles and unsure if she liked where this was going.
“Immediate threat, can wait but could turn into threat, and only when threats are dealt with,” Sirius said, gesturing to each pile as he described it.
She did panic at that, because she knew the files on the laws were in the second category while the files on charges for Dumbledore was in the immediate threat. As were the genealogy books. But the plans for the orphanage and Recalls was in the last. As were the plans for their Animagus forms.
“Breathe, Ari,” Theseus ordered. “You’re trying to do too much too quickly. You want to save everyone and, while admirable and doable, it can’t happen overnight. The orphanage can wait a few months for us to deal with Dumbledore. If you’re that committed, we can see if there are any organizations already existing that we could fund until we can get a better grasp on everything else. But doing small amounts with so many things is only going to hurt in the long run because you won’t be able to do them to the best of your ability and you’ll just have to fix issues sooner.”
“And before you protest the genealogy books, that’s non-negotiable,” Sirius growled. “You’re spreading yourself too thin in magic as well and I won’t have you collapsing trying to support so many elves on your own. The sooner you can add trusted individuals to the Houses you hold, the better. Even if none of them are anyone in this room. And I know you already accepted a number of the elves that requested time, which is only making the situation worse. What does it tell you when Zoe came to me herself to voice the concerns of the entire group?”
Arianna deflated at that…. That was very telling, and she hated she wasn’t hiding the toll everything was taking better.
Then the door opened to admit Remus again and Arianna smiled. Until the pair behind him registered. Merlin!
*****
Remus stalked to the nearest goblin carriage, bowing deeply to the driver and explaining quickly what he needed. When he mentioned Arianna, the goblin stopped him with a quick motion then practically dragged him onto a seat and set off at a frankly frightening speed. Well, that answered the question on where the Nation stood. If a lowly carriage driver wanted to help as much as possible, she was popular with more than just Ragnok and Eir. But the trip was still harrowing and did nothing for his nerves. When they slid into the stop at the platform he’d asked for, he stumbled a bit once he exited the vehicle. But he kept his food down and that was acceptable.
A quick question to one of the guards to the opened vault door had him making his way quickly to the creature habitats and it wasn’t long before he stood at the door to one of the largest Remus’d seen, staring in awe as Charlie coaxed a wounded thunderbird into letting him look at some bent feathers. Bill stood well back, wand moving constantly as he assessed wards and spells in the habitat. It was a familiar dance to Remus, how the pair of Weasleys worked. He’d come down a few times to visit the exploration teams and it was always the same with the two as they worked through the habitats. Remus spared a thought to wonder how exactly the thunderbird had managed to damage its wings, but once he spotted Newt, he understood. The man was berating a human Tharos who sheepishly shifted, causing the light to catch on the pearly scales scattered across his nose.
“Tharos play too rough?” he asked, announcing his presence as calmly as he could.
No one even so much as flinched, telling him all he needed to know about how aware the three were to their surroundings, regardless of how focused they were on what they were working on.
“To put it mildly,” Bill muttered as he finished his latest set of spells and let his arms relax.
Charlie didn’t even look at them, still focused on the thunderbird. At least he was making progress, as the creature had stopped flapping his great wings frantically and was eyeing the human warily. Then the thunderbird seemed to make a decision and sighed heavily before crouching on the dirt in the habitat. A wing was tentatively held out to Charlie and the dragon handler immediately bowed in thanks before approaching carefully to run gentle fingers along the damaged plumage.
“I hope I’m not intruding at a bad time, but I need to ask if you could both come with me for a bit,” Remus muttered softly, very well aware of how easy it would be to spook the massive creature again and cause damage to both wizard and thunderbird if the poor thing panicked.
“Now that Charlie’s got the male calmed, it shouldn’t be much longer,” Bill said, studying his brother carefully but tensed in case he had to intervene. “The female flew off and that’s probably for the best, or there is no way Charlie would have been able to get close enough to help. As it is, he’s been at it almost an hour.”
“Newt’s been yelling at Tharos for over an hour?” Remus asked with amusement evident.
“Oh, much longer than that…” Bill grumbled. “Took five seconds to separate them and Newt jumped right in. That was about five hours ago, if my guess is correct. The female only left an hour ago.”
“Ah,” Remus said, chuckling. “And the damage?”
“Not too bad,” Charlie finally spoke, loud enough for them to hear but not too loud as to spook the deadly creature under his fingers. “Just a few broken primary feathers, but they hurt and bleed, so this poor gent is in a lot of pain. His mate panicking didn’t help, but the bleed is slowing, and it shouldn’t cause too much harm. I’d be more worried if it went much longer, but he’s letting me take care of things. Should be just a few more minutes.”
“It always takes longest to get a creature to trust enough for us to help, I’m finding,” Bill muttered. “Suddenly, I have even more respect for Little Brother…”
“Like you don’t take just as long looking at curses,” Charlie called.
Remus chuckled as Bill rolled his eyes.
“I’d just take the compliment if I were you,” Remus called.
“Sorry, yes, thank you, Billy,” the younger man said with a slight blush as he approached, wiping blood off his hands on a rag. The thunderbird thrilled in gratitude before making his slow way to the back of his habitat, wing bandaged too much for flight.
“You do realize you’re the only one that still calls me that,” Bill said, nose crinkling in distaste.
“And you do realize I only do it to see you make that face,” Charlie said, eyes twinkling in amusement.
“As much as I do enjoy seeing the sibling relationship,” Remus interrupted before the two could get truly involved in verbal sparring. “I did have a reason for being here and I do hope to be getting back before things escalate.”
The pair of redheads exchanged a look then turned to him and quickly guided him to the exit of the habitat before continuing along the stone corridor to the vault door and the carriage that waited for them. He started explaining once they cleared the vault and only knowing how protective and ruthless the goblins were had him continuing along the slightly slower ride back. By the time they reached the entrance to the healing hall they claimed, both Weasleys were right pissed and stalked through the doors with scowls and wands raised. The recovering Aurors on the various beds watched the trio warily, obviously itching to grab wands and protect themselves from the pair of redheads. The smart ones were feigning sleep, having caught sight of the long hair of one and the almost entirely dragon hide dueling robes of the other.
It was always easy to tell the Weasleys apart, if one were to truly look.
When he pushed the door opened to the study, he immediately sought out their current prey and smiled evilly when he saw the exact moment she caught sight of who followed him.
“Moony!” she protested, sounding much younger than her years. “You were only supposed to tell them if I didn’t cooperate!”
“And you were meant to be allowing others to help from the start. That we didn’t catch it until now is on us, but you should have told us,” he growled. There was no sympathy as Charlie and Bill stalked the woman, eyeing the desk before pouncing on Arianna and demanding answers even as they threatened consequences.