Thicker than Water (Marauders Era)

26 March, 1980 - Fear (III)

A little under a week after Lavinia and Remus had been attacked, news came that an Order member named Breon Dowrick was dead. A pall was cast over them all after that. It had been awhile, apparently, since any Order members had actually died and even longer since one had been so specifically targeted. Usually, the Death Eaters just stuck to catching them at more organized battles, when deaths were less common and no individual was really targeted.

But of course, targeted attacks seemed to be the new normal, if Remus and Lavinia's experiences were anything to judge by. And Lavinia wasn't stupid enough to think that Breon Dowrick hadn't been offered a very similar deal to the ones they'd been handed. She didn't think that rather likely possibility had escaped Dumbledore either.

A few days after the news of Dowrick's death came, both Sirius and Remus were called off on duty for the Order. Lavinia had expected this for all that she had refused to appear at the Order meetings, even after what she'd said to Dumbledore. She didn't want to see all those suspicious glances and she didn't want to learn any more about the people whose lives would be placed in her hands. She knew it was probably cowardly of her, but it was so much easier to handle the dead and dying when she didn't know them personally.

So though she'd had no idea what their jobs would be and didn't know the details of where or when, she'd expected it all the same. The death of a member was, she thought, likely to be met with renewed vigor in their response. People would want to do something about it, to make the Death Eaters pay. And Lavinia couldn't blame them. But she also didn't particularly like that it was going to leave her alone. Again.

Around this time, Mulciber's deadline also passed and Lavinia, of course, did not show up. For those first few days afterwards, she kept looking over her shoulder, certain he would come, certain he would be hunting her. Certain he would not let her go so easily.

It was two days before she saw him. Thankfully, Lavinia spent no more than about two minutes of her entire day unprotected. She did no more than step beyond the bounds of protective enchantments to apparate either home or to work. Any errands run in groups with everyone alert and careful and even then only when absolutely necessary. They took precautions, made sacrifices, anything to keep them as safe as possible.

So it was that Lavinia caught only a glimpse of Mulciber when she stepped out of the hospital to apparate home. He was standing down the alley, no double waiting for her to appear. But the alley was charmed into oblivion and it was likely this, she supposed, that held him back. The number of repulsion jinxes against anyone with ill intent towards hospital staff or patients had baffled even Lavinia when she and the other healers had been handed a list of protections put in place with the new year.

It occurred to Lavinia then that those enchantments might well have staved off an ambush by the Death Eaters even before now. Afterall, she didn't know how long Rowle and Mulciber had been hunting her down before they'd actually caught her. It was entirely possible they'd been looking for her for weeks and had had to wait until she left the boundaries of the protective magic to grab her in the first place.

But however long they'd taken to catch her that first time, Lavinia was determined never to let it happen again. So she had done no more than glance at Mulciber before she apparated home and stepped within the bounds of the now renewed and strengthened enchantments around their little home. Dumbledore had, by his own estimation, done just about everything he could short of putting them under the fidelius charm, which he claimed would only truly be useful if they decided to go completely into hiding. Besides which, at least according to Dumbledore, it was overkill unless the Dark Lord himself decided to go looking for them.

Personally, Lavinia thought overkill couldn't hurt, but Dumbledore had pointed out that the charm was inherently risky as it relied on the fidelity of a single person. It was a fair point and one that had convinced Lavinia to let the matter go and suffice with Dumbledore's promise that if they ever decided they needed to fall completely off the grid, he would perform the charm.