the girl who sees all

combattants réunis

it wasn't until a patterned knock on the door alerted the newfound member of the order how much time had passed that she remembered her father was coming. so much business was being discussed. everything from scouting new members internationally to domestic posts and who would be stationed at the hogwarts school. dumbledore had left at this point, according to him he had other matters to attend to, but he was the only one gone. the rest were all preparing to go get harry from little whinging.

the smell of dust, shoe polish and molly's cooking was filling vanessa's mind. it smelt so different than her home, she was trying to memorize it. she had never been around so many wizards and witches who are so advanced, so many who take her seriously.

vanessa would not be going, but mad-eye, nymphadora (who swore up and down she deplored the name nymphadora and insisted to be called tonks), as well as a few others would be going to retrieve harry. vanessa would be staying back to discuss how her training and skill, along with that of her father, would be a huge advantage to the ministry. seers such as vanessa and her father defied most of the laws of nature. they could have hands in all deals, all energetic and spiritual interactions, without a direct personal price. however, the price comes later. the price is your sanity. and you give up so much as you take.

kingsley and remus headed to the door, allowing the person at the door to enter. vanessa heard minerva explain before dumbledore left that they needed to teach the young witch the new ways to decipher who's a death eater and who isn't. for vanessa, it was much easier. she simply needed to peer into their soul, and see what was there.

vanessa's father stood with two bags, one at each side. he gave the young witch a wide smile before taking her into a hug.

"i am so happy you made it safe, my angel," her father whispered into her hair in french. "your mother and i worried so about you until dumbledore came to us, asking if he could keep you."

"of course i made it safe, i'm smarter than you are," vanessa laughed at her father jokingly, causing him to poke her shoulder. "i just needed to get away. i couldn't clear myself, i needed a cleanse."

this is the father she remembered. he was almost never like this. she was so happy he sobered up long enough to come and greet everyone, and get some spellwork done. it would be much more problematic if he was doing this, drunk. his work drunk, was sloppy. sloppy seer work was dangerous at best. sloppy battle magic killed people, usually the practitioner. most of it was accidental, but the young seer was thankful her father wasn't asking her to spar if alcohol was afoot.

"your mother sends her best wishes and love. she wrote you a letter, it's in the bag. i shall get it for you before i head home later." her father pushed hair out of her face before looking up to the members of the order watching the interaction.

people augustus had already remembered such as kingsley, mad eye, and sirius graciously welcomed the man. original members of the order rejoiced at augustus' return, even if only for the night. he already could sense the tainted energy coming from mundungus. however, that was very easy to decipher. he was ruined by greed, and selfishness. it was the order that redeemed him from himself, and his valuable intel that made him worth saving at all.

"it's getting late," molly said, "supper is almost finished, and vanessa, it's time you meet the other children. harry will be getting here tonight! you've been here for hours already and we've only talked ministry business!"

"she takes after her father, molly, quick to work," vanessa's father smiled. "daphne sends her love and regards, regretfully women in clovelly keep having babies or she would be here." her father turned to her, "she has much to say to her young, underage daughter for sneaking off with only a note in the middle of the night,"

"and you're telling me if i didn't give more you wouldn't have come after me," the young witch challenged, turning her nose up to her father, a smug and knowing smirk showed her pearly white teeth.

"she really is just like you, augustus. we should be careful with this one, i suppose," sirius chuckled while pouring himself a glass of whiskey, before pouring one for my father.

i was hoping we could avoid that, she thought out loud. she knew he had heard, but there was nothing else to do. augustus knew his drinking worried his only child, but with all the man has seen, who would blame him. vanessa suspected she, too, would take heavily to the bottle for some relief.

taking the glass, vanessa's father restrained himself to nurture the glass of whiskey over twenty minutes, instead of two. augustus followed sirius' pace, not making it known to the rest of the crowd how his problems had progressed since he had last seen them all. it was simply to placate his daughter. padfood knew of augustus' drinking issues, and was sure that his were just as crippling. thirteen wrongful years in azkaban will do that to a person.

vanessa was too busy socializing with her father and his old combatants that he didn't realize how many members of the order had slipped out to retrieve harry. the entire mission wouldn't have taken more than two hours, it was about a forty-five minute ride to little whinging each way, but it was bitter cold, and harry hadn't been on a broom in too long to go top speed.

outside of the kitchen and dining room where the official members of the order congregated, vanessa could hear the souls of the unofficial members. she could tell by their souls that most of them were related to molly and arthur. very likely, it was their children. there was a few odd energies, not all of them human.

grimauld place had many souls stuffed into portraits, and that's something that would keep vanessa awake at night. that would keep her suffering. she could tell that all of the energies bouncing around the tiny, locked rooms of grimauld place would rile her up like a vicious animal. that made her her most powerful, but also her most dangerous.