Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

23 August, 1997 - Outlast

After the evening of Bill and Fleur's wedding, Lavinia did her best to keep a low profile. She steered clear of the war as a topic except to warn her coworkers of the Ministry's new leadership which The Prophet had predictably failed to report. It was hardly necessary to warn them really because anyone paying much of any attention at all would have noticed. The Ministry suddenly changed direction from warnings about dark magic and Death Eaters to warnings about the dangers of muggle borns and wanted posters of Harry and various other Order members, supposedly in relation to Dumbledore's death last summer.

Very few of the people Lavinia knew were remotely fooled. Miriam and Kama, still safely out of the country, told Lavinia to stay safe in their next letter. Lavinia called Ethan to tell him she might not be able to contact him much because the situation was... well, bad seemed like an understatement but as she hadn't been able to go into detail, she'd left it there. Elias hadn't needed to be told, really, and when Lavinia had pulled him into her office to warn him about the possibility of Death Eaters showing up as part of hit wizard squads, he hadn't waited for her to say anything at all before saying, "Low profile, right? Don't piss off the Death Eaters when they come?"

Lavinia had sighed and rubbed her temple, trying to decide whether or not she was making up the vaguely disappointed edge in his words. "We have to at least look like a neutral party," she pointed out tiredly. "Hurting them means we won't be able to help anyone else and that's not a call I can make."

For a long, long moment, Elias had simply been silent. And then he'd nodded solemnly and turned to go.

"Elias," Lavinia had interrupted and he'd turned, a single brow raised in question. Lavinia had hesitated then before continuing, hardly sure how to ask this thing she needed to ask. "There's no easy way to put this," she started after a moment, "but if you're muggle born, I need to know. I can find ways to protect you or get you out of the country but I need time and it's about to get very unpleasant for muggle borns in this country."

Again, Elias had looked at her for a long time with that unreadable expression Lavinia had once found rather eerie. She still did, really, but at least she'd gotten rather more used to it.

"Halfblood," Elias said after a moment, turning once again before pausing at the door, one hand on the knob. "But thank you."

Lavinia had smiled slightly and nodded before realizing that Elias probably couldn't see the expression, facing the exit as he was. By the time she'd opened her mouth to say something however, he had opened the door and departed.

It was almost selfishly relieving to Lavinia that her ward happened to consist of almost exclusively half bloods with the exception of herself. Perhaps it was terrible of her, but the idea of having to find a way to get someone out while the Ministry was actively hunting them... it had terrified her. She'd have done it - of course she would have - but she couldn't deny that a certain tension had eased upon learning that she would have no such responsibility on her hands.

She was also glad that Elias had been the only one she had to ask, however odd that had seemed. Heather she knew well enough to know her family history and the newest ward member was one whose hiring paperwork she had done herself so she'd known that particular detail. Elias however... well, however long she'd known Elias for, she'd often wondered how much she really knew him. And, when she'd stopped to think of it, she'd realized she had no idea what his blood status was because of course, up until now, it had never mattered. And now... now she just wanted to keep everyone as safe as she could for as long as she could.

The next step Lavinia had taken towards that particular goal had been to offer to have Heather and Jasmine move in with her. The house was, after all, plenty large enough for the three of them and it seemed to Lavinia that it would be both safer and easier to simply have one location to throw all their protective enchantments at. Besides, once Jasmine went back to school - if Jasmine went back to school - Heather would be living alone and it just... didn't feel safe. Not with the kind of people who would now be given near free reign to do as they pleased.