Order of the Phoenix Meeting 17

Annabella smiled at Jack and Mari, "Hello Jack, Mari. Nice too meet you both." She said smiling at them. She nodded at Jess chuckling. "Well yes, we bumped into each other the other day." She said giving a smile to Damon who had yet to say a thing. Annabella smiled once more as she grabbed herself a bottle of butterbeer. Annabella looked up at Jess as her asked her what made her join the order. "Well, that's quite an easy answer. Ever since I was a little girl I hated fighting between people. I liked to solve conflict also I very much don't like Death Eaters. I figured the best way to defeat them was to join something as marvelous as the Order." She said finishing her statement and taking a drink of her butterbeer. It ran down her throat and tasted delicious.

Jack's eyes flicked up and watched each person who entered. She knew it might be a little unnerving, this disshelved redheaded girl with dark circles under her eyes staring at them with a heavily-lidded gaze, and yet she did not try to correct her behavior. Jack was not exactly known for correcting her behavior- never had. She just continued drinking her Butterbeer.

Jess introduced her and Jack put up a hand in greeting to this new woman. They had not had any new people join since Silvyr- and who knew where that guy had scampered off too?! Jack listened with interest to the woman's explanantion for her motivation to join, and Jack could not help the twisted smile that appeared on her face, nor could she halt the short, clipped, bark of a laugh that escaped her mouth.

"Ha! Well, enjoy the Order of the Phoenix, where no one fights." She grinned- this was the biggest group of bicker-ers and hotheads she had ever met. She drank deeply from her Butterbeer again and said, "Man... Anyone bring some Firewhiskey?"

Damon smiled and said, "Hello Annabella. Sorry for the late response Jess's patronus didn't like me much this evening." He got up and went to the cupboard grabbing a mug that had a Chinese design on it. "Oh and the mug you own is nice Jess. I would like to know where you got it, i know someone that would love it." Damon smiled seriously meaning what he said.

Michael walked into Grimmauld Place, and the instant he did, he heard two things. First, he heard Jack asking for firewhiskey. It made him smile. And his smile was immediately interrupted by Walburga. Again. The portrait began to screech obscenities at him in a high pitched grating noise like some muggle electronic burglar alarm.

"Oh for God's sake, Walburga," he sighed. "Shut it! Believe me, there is NOTHING I want from you, you ugly old bat!" He hurled a bright fushia colored muggle paintball at the wizarding portrait, causing a rather satisfying splat sound, followed by dripping bright pink paint that caused her to curse at him at the top of her lungs, now utterly revolted at him. He figured he would have to answer to Jess for trying to mar Walburga's portrait on the wall yet another time, but oh well. Michael marred it up, and Jess fixed it up. And that was pretty much the way it went. But the old crone was irking him tonight.

He moved through to the kitchen, drawing out the bottle of firewhiskey. He sat down across from Jack and accio'd two glasses from the cabinet. He slid a glass across to Jack. "Hello, everyone. Thirty year old Italian firewhiskey," he said. It had been ridiculously expensive, but Michael decided he might as well crack the seal on it tonight. He cracked open the seal on the bottle and poured Jack some and himself some and then put the bottle in the center of the table for anyone else who wanted some.

"Thirty seconds, and I turn your alarm bat into a postage stamp, Potter," Michael said, giving Jess fair warning that he had every intention of setting Walburga's portrait on fire in less than one minute. And he wasn't kidding.

There wasn’t much to be done at the flat. Spring had begun and the blooms in brightly coloured vases that sat on the many surfaces of Rose Weasley’s flat were testament to that. The redhead adored the springtime and was putting much of her spring-time excitement into work at Sparks. It had been late but something had made her go out into London, to a just-closing florists and buy another bouquet of flowers. She figured that seeing as no one was around to buy flowers for her then she would buy them for herself. She rather liked it that way. Rose had only just come in through the door when the Patronus that she knew belonged to Jess Potter burst in through the open window beside one of the many bookcases pressed up against the walls of her flat. Regrettably, Rose discarded the bouquet for the time being, picked up her keys and donned her coat once more before closing and locking the door behind her as she stepped out into the hallway. Once she was sure the flat was secure, she Apparated with a crack.

The redhead appeared on the pavement opposite the house and hurriedly bounded up the steps, opening, entering and shutting the door behind her before anyone saw her. She sighed, her heartbeat beginning to a slow to a more acceptable pace once she found she was safe inside Grimmauld Place. Rose smiled and pulled the buttons out of their holes in her coat. She slipped it off and folded it over her arm before moving towards the door that sealed the kitchen from view, hearing the voices rise up from inside. Rose opened the door and jumped the steps, landing easily on the stone floor before letting the door close behind her. She smiled at the people inside and flicked her hair over her shoulder with a short twist of her head to the left of her.

“Ooh! Hot Chocolate!” Rose exclaimed by way of greeting. “’ello everyone. How’re we all doing? Potter, I think you woke this poor fellow up,” Rose glowered playfully at Jess as she gestured to Damon and took a seat near the head of the table, draping her coat over the back and reaching to get herself some hot chocolate. “Do you have a reason for being bloody annoying or are you just lonely in this big old house? You could have flooed me you know. I have nothing better to do with my time.” Rose told him with a wide smirk as she brought the hot chocolate to her lips; and, worryingly enough, there was probably more truth in that than she would’ve liked.

Jack must have said some magic word. No sooner had she expressed her wish for some Firewhiskey when Michael entered to fulfill her wish. He set out the glasses and described the drink. Jack placed her palms against the wood of the table and played it up- she stared up at Michael with wide, admirable eyes, saying in a hushed voice, "Are you my fairy godm-father?"

Her face cracked into a grin and she leaned back as Michael poured her a glass of the sure-to-be delectable and much-needed Firewhiskey. "Really, Michael-" she said, pausing to drink a swig, instantly warming her and relaxing her knotted muscles. "You are a life saver."

"Annnd that'll be enough for you," he said, his hand darting out and sweeping Jack's cup from her hand as his other arm worked similarly on Michael. "There was a reason I left the firewhiskey off the tables, you can have some when you're done," he told the two of them, pointing over at the row of drinks he'd already set up.

He then turned his attention back to annabelle and laughed, shaking his head a little. "Well, you may want to leave now. If someone hasn't stormed out of a meeting in a foul mood then it's not over yet," he told her, a broad grin on his face. "But good luck anyway," he added.

"I pinched it from the Ministry actually... there was a whole room full of them... it's where I got my plate set as well... I can show you after the meeting if you like," he said, a highly indignant note resting in his voice as he spoke, his mouth set in a line to show how serious he was.

"And Michael, no one else has this problem with her, maybe you should just try being a little quieter when you enter?" He suggested. "Also, where are the Lupins, Robert sent me an owl the other morning saying he needed to talk to us all... I figured I'd wait for him to arrive before starting the meeting," he told Michael

If Jess decided that he no longer thought whiskey should be served at the Order table, then he thought, Jess should have made the new etiquette information known before he changed the rules. Not to mention it was a bit oxymoronic for a bar owner to frown on some of the best firewhiskey on the planet.

"Robert is coming," Michael said tersely, without any more explanation. He cast a silent look at Jack to tell her that they could certainly find a more welcome place to share a bit of honorable fellowship. He got up, picked up the bottle of firewhiskey and returned it to his pocket. He took the glass Jess had confiscated, swallowed the drink in one swig and charmed the glass to clean itself and replace itself in the cabinet. He did not allow anyone to take anything from him. Not even Potter. Michael didn't drink butterbeer for anybody. He hadn't, not since he was about twelve or thereabouts. And he had not grieved going half a century without it. "Incidently, I did not make any noise when I came in. That old hag made the noise when I came in. Believe me, I did not invite a conversation with her."

"Michael," Robert's voice sounded from the doorway of the kitchen. He knew the tone well. Robert knew Michael was irked, and he was doing his best to swiftly reel in Michael's irritation. "I talked to her. She will try to leave you alone," Robert said gently. "Let's just do what we came here to do, shall we?"

"With pleasure," Michael said smoothly, resuming his seat as Robert came and took the seat beside Michael.

((Remember, pre-trial Khaat))

Jess grinned as he noted the look on Michael's face. "Calm down old boy, you can have it afterwards, I'd just like everyone sober for the meeting," he told his disappointed friend, smiling all the while. "I'll have words with her after you leave, if you like." Amazingly enough, now he thought about it, he'd never actually paused to talk to Walburga about her dislike of Michael - what a silly thing to do.

His train of thought was interrupted, however, when Robert arrived. "Good evening Robert, I'm glad you made it - better late than never eh," He said with a wink, walking over to his chair and taking a seat, gesturing for everyone else to do the same.

"So," he began, "Obviously we have a few new faces in our midst - I'd like to introduce Anna and Rose, I think this is the first meeting for both of you, correct?" He shrugged, before continuing. "So best of luck with it. What we're here to do is discuss something I think we're all affected by. As you may have noticed, a lot of people are quite sick right now... Well, I think we can all recognise the severity of this - as such I've been in contact with Robert and we've agreed that we need to start working on something to combat this. Robert here has a little more information on it than I do, so I'll pass you over to him," he told them, nodding at Robert to indicate that it was his turn to speak

"Thank you," Robert said. "For those of you who might not know, we are seeing an extraordinary number of witches and wizards of all ages from the elderly all the way down to infants who are being affected by a new illness. It does appear to be a contagion of some sort. It begins with symptoms of what looks like a common cold. The sore throat at first, body aches, upper respiratory congestion. Then a fever develops. Following that develops an itchy rash. As the rash develops, after several days, the rash turns green. And, I am just now starting to see the skin around the rash area itself turning green as well in some of the most severe cases.

"I don't know exactly how the disease is being passed, but it does not appear to be the traditional bodily fluid method. There does not seem to be a reason for it. Some people seem to be completely immune, some only get mild symptoms, and some...some have already died from it. What I do know is that the number of people getting this is steadily increasing. What I'm telling you is that the threat is becoming very real. It is becoming imperative to find not just things to make people feel a bit more comfortable but to honestly rid people of this--before every witch and wizard is nothing more than legend in the minds of a muggle.

"All we can do at this point is to provide symptomatic relief to provide some comfort. I have a number of potions and spells to help with that. I am spending what time I am not at the Ministry at St. Mungos and I'm spending a great deal of time in the potions lab, researching. There are some very old potions books that have potions that have not been used in hundreds of years. My thought is that some of those appear to have some promise--if we can find a way to combine some of those into one effective potion. There is one catch--None of these potions have common ingredients. Thats why they fell out of use. This may well turn into a race against time, but I think it is worth the risk to try to find these rare ingredients and try to bring them together to see if we can stop this and save ourselves."