Thicker than Water (Marauders Era) PART II

23 September, 1995 - Hogsmeade

Hogsmeade was crisp and clear on the bright fall day when Lavinia walked into the Three Broomsticks for the first time in more than twenty years. She had, if she was honest, absolutely no idea what she was doing here. But she also wasn't about to turn down the opportunity to have a decent conversation with Jasmine where the girl could speak candidly about what was really going on at Hogwarts. Because truth be told, Lavinia very much wanted to know.

It was becoming clearer and clearer to her and everyone else in the Order that Hogwarts had become the de facto battleground between the Ministry and Dumbledore and the more she knew about how things were going at Hogwarts, the more she would know about how Dumbledore was handling the Ministry, something the old man had been oddly hesitant to tell anyone about. Not, Lavinia reminded herself, that he'd had much chance. With so many of the Order under so much suspicion, they hadn't had a proper meeting since the children had gone off to school, purely for safety reasons. Lavinia herself had seen Dumbledore only once in that time and even that had been for only a few seconds as she had been entering Grimmauld Place to have dinner with Sirius.

She had managed only to tell Dumbledore that she wanted to talk to him and that she would be in Hogsmeade the following weekend before the man had departed with little more than an assurance that they would speak "in due course." The near complete dismissal was frustrating, for all that it was fairly expected and Lavinia and Sirius had spent the first part of that evening commiserating about Dumbledore's habit of keeping absolutely everyone in the dark before giving it up as hopeless and deciding they had better things to do with their rather limited time together.

So now Lavinia was here in the village, reduced to asking students about what on Earth was happening because Dumbledore seemed so disinclined to do so.

Of course, if Lavinia felt like being reasonable, she knew Dumbledore probably had his reasons and they were probably good ones at that. It was, after all, entirely possible that there simply wasn't much to talk about because when all was said and done there was little any of them could do about it in the first place. Then again, just because they couldn't change anything didn't mean they didn't all want to know about it anyway. All anyone in the Order knew these days was a strange combination of hearsay from their various jobs and what The Prophet reported, none of which boded well at all for Dumbledore and they would very much haved liked to have more information instead of guessing at the blank spots in their knowledge.

Then again, it was possible that there simply wasn't more to tell.

Lavinia, personally, doubted that. Instead, she thought it more likely that Dumbledore was being overcautious. The eyes of the ministry were no doubt keen on him. Just as they had been keen on Lavinia, Kingsley, Arthur and every other Order member even tangentially associated with the Ministry. Which made meeting up, especially for extended periods, rather dangerous. Lavinia was certain she was already pushing her luck by coming to Hogsmeade, which was why she had insisted that Jasmine come along for this conversation because then, at least, it looked far less like a specific meeting and more like a general visit.

Lavinia knew, of course, that this was likely to lead to some number of awkward questions because she had no idea what Hermione wanted to talk to her about and it was entirely possible that it was something Lavinia would otherwise have been inclined to keep from Jasmine's ears but... well. The privacy simply wasn't worth the risk. She couldn't afford to have anyone Ministry-related asking questions, not when too many ears were already listening in.

Which was why, after Lavinia ordered herself a butterbeer, she made her way to a table at which the two girls sat waiting for her, both cradling drinks of their own and watching her approach, Jasmine with undisguised excitement and Hermione with something like apprehension.