marautyr:
LOCATION : PRIMARY ORDER HEADQUARTERS, [ REDACTED ] DATE : 1 SEPTEMBER 1979 / THE MORNING AFTER THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS
THE HEADQUARTERS SEEM PARTICULARLY HOLLOW, as if the very walls themselves had somehow learnt to held their breath. Behind closed eyes, the flayed - raw figure of Hogwarts rises backlit in flame, which is to say that JAMES HASN’T CLOSED THEM ONCE in the many, many hours since. Still, the feeling of RUDDERLESSNESS doesn’t sit well, not in the wake of a BATTLE that felt, for once, as if they were finally DOING SOMETHING USEFUL ––––––– the Death Eaters’ supposed vicotry is not necessarily a close of the book, only the chapter. At least, THAT’S HOW HE WILL KEEP TELLING HIMSELF it feels.
The large, scrubbed table seems to overthink even in its own way, two occupied seats seemingly only to CALL ATTENTION to the overwhelming empty ones. James clears his throat.
❝ WE HAVE TO GO BACK. Hogwarts can’t just … ❞ A boy’s unspoken wish for a man’s war, and he knows it. Whatever fire had eaten him away in the RUN UP TO THE BATTLE seems now to have burned him clean empty and left little but the bitterness of ash behind. ❝ It can’t just be over. ❞
OPEN TO ORDER MEMBERS !
DESPERATELY, she wanted to tell him it would be okay -- that they could go back, get who they needed, do a rescue mission, or at least find a way to bring Hogwarts back to it’s former glory. Quixotic thoughts, she knew they were, but how could she help it when James Potter was in front of her nearly begging for some closure. But there was no way. His voice sounds so hopeless to her, so deflated, it sounded like defeat. Weren’t the young ones supposed to be filled with hope?
“We’re not going back, James. It’s too dangerous. It’s over.” She doesn’t mean to deliver the news so bluntly, but her voice is soft as she says it, hinting that she too wishes that it didn’t have to be this way. Still -- this mission was foolhardy at best, maybe if she had spoken up more, maybe if she had said something against it -- Elphias and Dedalus would still be here. It barely mattered then that they’d successfully unmasked two Death Eaters when they’d lost just the same amount. If anything, it felt worse.
“Are you okay? Have you been checked?”
