bait_backup | Come let the truth be shared

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Come let the truth be shared

*With yesterday's Dementor attack still fresh in everyone's mind, the Order assembles quickly and without even a breath of chit-chat, as Moody has been demanding of them for months. This improvement, coupled with copies of the Leisure Centre incident files on the coffee table, is enough to keep the room at large subdued. Most of the victims had been much too young, so many of wizarding Britain's children shuttled off to swimming lessons early Monday mornings without any mandated primary school to attend, and their small bodies lie almost completely still in the water, backs breaching the waterline as their lifeless eyes look down toward their dangling feet. Moody breaks the silence.*

Well. Time's come.

We need to use what we've got and what we know or this'll happen again, just somewhere else. The Death Eaters haven't claimed any of these, Crouch has been pointing fingers at werewolves all along, but no matter who did this, we've got to get everyone's facts on the table, see the big picture to do any good.

No more handling things on your own, or keeping sources secret. Everyone works, everyone reports. Out with it.

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*Well. Being noticed hadn't actually been part of the plan, for once. Still, Rose has nothing against Lily - she never took shit from anyone at school, and Rose respects that - so she decides not to be an ass about answering.*

Nope. Just...needed a smoke. This is all a little....

*Hestia looks around at everyone blankly, unsure of how to contribute. Her runic code she was developing had hit a plateau and was going dismally and she felt terribly out of place in the meeting, shifting her weight and knotting her fingers out of nervousness. She most certainly feels like she doesn't belong in this room, especially considering how many of them were Aurors, and she has no desire to have Moody's disapproval focus on her given her lack of progress on her communication code.

Hestia looks at Rose and offers a small smile of understanding. She knows what it's like to feel completely out of place. The feeling hasn't gone away. Hestia suspects it never will.*

*Neener neener, indeed. Gideon stifles a snigger and looks around the room. The question's hanging in the air, and he's trying to engage with as many of them as possible. Spotting a pair of fidgety witches by the wall--a sexy one with a cigarette and some other one--he shoots a warm, reassuring smile. As an Auror, he's used to this--but he imagines Moody can be a little hard-to-take for laywizards.

If the smile lingers on Hestia as if discovering her, and verges on the dopey, that isn't his fault. He's boosting morale. Wait, what were they talking about?*

*Hestia can feel the eyes looking at her and tries everything in her power to not acknowledge them. Down at the ground, between Lily and Rose, at her hands, back at Moody and Sirius. She finally looks up again and sees one of the twins (was it Gideon or Fabian?) staring at her – and smiling. She arches an eyebrow and tucks a stray lock of hair behind her ear, somewhat sheepishly. He seems friendly enough, of course, but a girl who is used to playing invisible isn't quite acclimated to being looked at, especially so intently.

She breaks their gaze and quietly steps out of the room into the hallway to collect her thoughts. She needs to update Moody, but the last thing she wants is to hear about her failures. She already knows she isn't pulling her weight and feels out of place. Did she really need to subject herself to further ridicule and disappointment?

She sighs purposefully and pushes her hair back in exasperation, leaning back against the wall.*

*Hoping to steer things back to what's important, Sirius turns to answer Gideon.*

It's useful because it tells us Regulus isn't all peaches and cream with Voldemort. And I'm going to owl him and tell him that we know what he's doing and that we want to help, and then next meeting he'll be here standing next to me.

What?

*Remus had been with him up until now, but that comes as a shock. He's staring at Sirius as though he's gone mad, and a bit angrily, besides. They were supposed to have been working together on this. That was the deal. And more than that, of course, it's a horrible idea, not for the reasons he knows Sirius is about to get lambasted with. It's horrible because there is no way Regulus will accept, and Sirius is going to end up crushed all over again, and Remus isn't honestly sure how many times those particular pieces can be put back together.*

*Arthur's been satisfied to just listen until now, but that's a push too far. He speaks up, frowning, from where he's perched leaning against the back of an armchair.*

I'm not sure that's wise, Sirius, I'm with Lupin. I understand wanting to help your brother, but exposing the entire Order when you can't know his intentions - it's dangerous.

*It's stupid and arrogant and it won't happen like that--Sirius isn't foolish or idealistic enough to really believe it'll happen like that--but the kernel of what should be done is there.*

I'm not the best man for the job, all right, I know that, if he sees me he'll bolt--but someone should go to him, try to bring him over. It's possible. We can't just not do anything with what we've got. We can act on the information in the papers, sure, but we should also act on the fact that Reg did this, he's not all death eater anymore.

And how do you know darling Reg won't go back to his pals and sell all of us out? And don't bite my head off, I'm just asking.

*Rose hadn't planned on speaking up until it was about Mulciber, but she knows exactly what that group thinks about Sirius. She's heard it all a hundred times.*

Whoever does it should be smart about it, then. I'm not saying we should stride into the house and say, "Hallo, we know what you're doing, you're on our side now." It's espionage, and fine, I'm not the man for it, but someone has to do it. We don't have to tip our hand to get things out of him. You should know that, Rose.

*And she does, it's exactly what she's trying to do to Mulciber right now. She stares at Sirius for a few seconds with the kind of direct eye contact that she normally uses to make people squirm, but right now it's just a very clear message: I'm trusting you. No small thing, from her.*

...Okay. Yeah.

*Remus, for one, isn't going to be won over nearly so quickly. He's clammed up again, but all that means is that he's upset, not that he approves. Arms folded, he's got his jaw clenched and he's staring out the window. He's not engaging in this right now, in front of everyone, but he's not okay about it.*

Alright, so Black won't be the one pitching it, agreed, but what about the information itself? It's good to have another spy around, but I still think the dirt you found could really be something. Why isn't Voldemort's background anywhere near common knowledge? What if it's more than just him trying to keep up the pure-blood sham, what if there's something we can use there? Did your brother's homework tip off anything like that?

*Remus' upset hasn't escaped his notice, but now's not the time.*

. . . I don't know. I can't make heads or tails of it. I mean, it's just genealogy, tracing Slytherin down through the ages, to some mess of a man named Marvolo Gaunt. Lives--or, well, lived, he went to Azkaban and then died soon after he got out--in a shack out in Little Hangleton. Not a very illustrious pureblood line either, the Gaunts were destitute and his daughter, Merope, ended up dying giving birth to--Tom Riddle Junior, I guess we should call him. It's not just to play up his pureblood side, it's to cover both up entirely and go further back, all the way to Slytherin. But I don't really know what to make of it beyond that. I suppose I understand why Voldemort's done that but I don't know what put Reg on it. If we find out why Reg started this, then I think we might find something valuable about Voldemort. But the only one who can answer that is Reg.

*Peter has been content to stay quiet, watching the argument and carefully processing Sirius' information. He hasn't wanted to be a part of everyone ganging up on Sirius, but there's a part of this he's failing to take into account, never mind whether Regulus is really on their side or not.*

If it gets back to Voldemort--

*It's hard for him to say the name, but harder for him to not say it and look like a coward.*

--that Regulus knows any of this, Regulus would be killed.

*Fabian mulls it over for about three whole seconds before he nods. He's aware this stance probably isn't popular, but it's potentially a good lead, and he doesn't see the point in dragging it out.*

I still say we do it. If it were any other source we wouldn't be hesitating, right? Regulus put himself in the line of fire, we're not going to be making that worse, necessarily, not if we're careful. You protect your sources, that's how this works.

*Sirius has never appreciated the Prewetts as much as he does right now, whichever one it was that's now agreeing with him.*

Protect our sources whether they like that they're our sources or not.

Exactly. Standard protocol, there's nothing biased about it.

*That's directed more for Moody's benefit, because Fabian can practically feel his hissy fits coming a mile away, after years of working with him.*

And Pettigrew's point just backs it up. If we do this, we do it right. Who do you think he'd open up to, Black?

*Sirius thinks about Regulus for a minute and shakes his head.*

A house-elf? He doesn't trust anyone besides Kreacher and Barty fucking Crouch junior. I've been in touch with him a bit, but he's not reliable or really sensible enough to lean on for that kind of thing.

*Regulus trusts house-elves more than people? Lonely prospect, but Fabian's the last one to start insulting people's brothers. He knows better.*

Fresh out of house-elves, sorry. Anybody got one who's a good liar?

*Gideon's thinking hard, his serious mien and deeply furrowed brow, as always, all that clearly separates him from his twin.*

Or trustworthy enough to ask to lie, more like. Of course they'll obey, but we'd need rather more than that.

*His lip twists, at that. He's made no secret of his opinions on house-elf enslavement but now's not exactly the time.*

*Hestia reenters the room after collecting herself and slinks back into the corner near Lily. The talk of house-elves is somewhat foreign to her, as she never had them growing up; she doesn't really understand the politics of it all. Regulus was a former classmate of hers, but she only ever saw him hanging around Barty Crouch Jr., so this news is of little surprise to her.

Hestia notices one of the twins looking rather serious regarding the house-elf issue and realizes based off his clothing that he was the one who was smiling at her before. Finding his concern for house-elves admirable, Hestia involuntarily blushes and looks down at her feet.*

Would a more confidential way of communicating with Regulus be of some use to getting more information from him? I... I've been working on a runic code for us and perhaps... perhaps he would feel comfortable working with us if he were to feel safe about doing so?

Code. Excellent.

*Fortunately for Gideon, this bit of inane Quidditch-match commentary isn't too loud--immediately, he shuts his mouth and resists the very strong urge to high-five her.*

*Fabian knows that tone. He doesn't comment - code's a great idea, he agrees - but gives Gideon a funny, knowing look, glancing at Hestia curiously*

*Hestia looks about the room at the hesitation and curiosity staring back at her. She swallows thickly and continues, speaking quickly out of nervousness.*

What I'm trying to do is develop a secret form of communication for everyone here to use. Ideally, only those of us in the Order can understand the runes. You won't need to actually be able to read the runes though. They're faux runes, in a sense.

*She pushes off against the wall and grabs a few notebooks from her satchel, flipping through pages to show her research as she talks.*

There's a Disillisionment Charm on the runes to mask the actual messages written. Simply knowing there's a charm, though, will not suffice in understanding it. As it happens, I can encrypt each member of the Order's identification into the runes that act as a security measure, including Regulus. If you pass the Disillusion Charm's security check, you can read and write any message normally and it will convert appropriately.

*She grimaces.*

The thing is, is I can't seem to figure out that encryption, as it's a magic entirely dependent on Arithmancy and… And I haven't been able to solve the issue for weeks.

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