Shadows

Wilbur had not made it to the last meeting, because he had been working all weekend over at the Ministry, and simply couldn't get out of work. However, he had made sure to catch up on all that he had missed from Jack, and he had even been given a task. Apparently, there were a few new members and, as Wilbur had been in the Order for the past two years, he had been assigned one of them as sort of a shadow.

Wilbur didn't mind. He enjoyed helping the younger generation and passing on what he had known. So he had sent this Ms Lopez an owl informing her to meet him at the corner booth in Cafe Twin Montez. He had already settled there and was drinking a lemonade as he went over some of his Ministry files. He had been informed all about her and already knew what to say. It just required the right wording, really.

Santana walked to Cafe Twin Montez in Diagon Alley. She had received a letter earlier on from a 'W. Hart' asking her to meet him in a corner booth. She was fine with this arrangement, but learnt a few extra defensive spells, in case Mr. Hart was a death eater in disguise. She had recently changed her form to a pretty blonde instead of her natural brunette and curvy figure, because she didn't know if she could trust him, she'd change back to her original self when she knew she could trust him.

She opened the door to the café, and a bell above her rang, she twisted a strand of her dirty blonde hair on her finger, and looked at an old man in a corner booth. She walked up to the counter, and asked in a quiet and casual tone, "One Banana Frappe Latte please". The lady at the counter gave her a we-don't-serve-stuff-like-that-here-go-back-to-princess-land loo, but Santana just stared at her, and the lady went back.

She walked to the booth and saw the fragile looking man, "I'm guessing your Mr.Hart, pleasure to meet you," she said, extending her hand out to him.

Wilbur saw the approach of a young, blonde-looking girl and realized this must be the girl he had been assigned to help. She held out her hand and spoke, and he smiled pleasantly at her. "Hello! Please don't call me Mr Hart- from now on, please call me Wilbur." He grinned. "Or any assortment on nicknames. You're Santana Lopez, then?" He gestured at the seat across from him. "Please sit."

He allowed her to settle and said, "Order whatever you wish, I'm picking up the tab." He smiled and settled himself. "So? What do you think of the Order thus far?" He grinned. "Unless you don't believe me. I was busy that night, unfortunately, let's see how to prove it." He rocked in his seat a little. "You probably thought Lestrange was a bit serious, Dyllan was insane, Weasley was irritable, and Potter was soooo cute." His voice got high and playful, imitating a valley girl in his description of the Potter boy.

"Why thank you Wilbur," she said gracefully sitting down, "I've ordered a Banana Frappe Latte, nothing too fancy," she said, her posture straight as a Palace Security guard. "Well, the order was very interesting, and I didn't see you there, so of course you were busy, the meeting went smoothly until," she tried to think how to place the right words, "Until Mr. Svan spoke, and I know many of you would say it was my fault, talking when I wasn't supposed to, but I was eager, and since when has eagerness ever been a crime?"

"Oh, ok" she though about his statement, or was it a question? "Well Matt Lestrange was of course serious, he is the leader for the Order, and he's serious about his job, controlling a bunch of younger adults, or some could be considered still children. Louis Weasley, was ok,
his short temper, didn't buy him any points, and Potter." she said now trying to hold in laughter, "is my cousin Mr. Har-- Wilbur, now I'm pretty sure that kind've thing is illegal in most states, but if you're all for that kind of thing, that's ok by me."

"A banana frappe latte not too fancy! The waitress must've peed herself to hear of an order with a name bigger than the product!" Wilbur announced, though a toothy smile was etched on his face. He grinned. "Don't worry about it- one meal won't bankrupt me. Feel free to order some food. The good thing about being an old coot is having the money to splurge." He chuckled good naturedly.

"I wasn't there, so I won't place any blame on you, nor Mr Svan. It's never really been in my interest to assign blame anywhere anyway anyhow." He grinned, pleased with his clever little sentence. "I'm sure every was equally at fault, and equally innocent." Yeah right, his logic chided.

She spoke and he smiled saying, "Sorry, hadn't pegged you for the Potter clan. Then again, they're attached to the Weasleys too, and the Weasleys are related to everyone!" He smiled, though it wasn't far from the truth "So... Why don't we start with any questions you might have? I've been in the Order for two years or so, so I'm your guy for any questions."

"Well, how often do they hold meetings, and how early do you have to wake up, I was so late, but not as late as others, but I guess it was my first time," she said still smiling, she still didn't know if she could trust him yet, so her appearance, was staying the sane.

"When is the right time to speak?" she asked knowledgeably, "because I reckon I missed that memo," she said laughing, "you should've seen their faces, when I was the first to speak, they thought I was a spy, me, what are the odds?" she asked.

"I'm don't get aggravated, but I want to know I can trust you, their is a member of the order, in which you might've heard how it went, but she wanted her children looked after, and I totally understand, these are my questions, what was her name, and what creature, did a member say should look after her children?".

Wilbur thought about it. "Meetings do vary, simply based on the basis for needing to discuss whatever may be going on. Sometimes they are every two weeks, sometimes once a month. But you'll rarely have a lot of time to prepare for it. You'll need an excuse ready for work at all times in case a meeting comes up. And the times vary just as much. The meeting before the one you attended was in the middle of the night."

She questioned him and Wilbur smiled. "Ah, Ms Bones. Family friend actually, adorable children. I believe Potter offered his cat, Dyllan offered her dog, and that Damon fellow had a vampire friend- I heard the vampire friend struck a bit of a nerve with everyone."

He grinned and thought back to her words about talking in turn- yes he had heard all about that. "Well, you see, the odds of you being a spy is much higher than anyone else, and the more willing you are to get involved, the more you must be suspected. What you need to realize about the Order is, we must trust each other, but we can never so so fully. Any one of them could be the death of us all. A vital step would be to realize that you must be open in demonstrating your trustworthiness without ever telling anyone to trust you. Also, sitting back and observing will catch you up quicker than getting involved in the mess. They trust an observer to someone who has a solution to for everything."

"Ok.." she said taking it all in, "I guess I can show you then," she closed her eyes, and her blonde hair change to a dark brown, and her curvy figure reappeared, "This is the real Santana," she said, for some reason feeling guilty, 'I couldn't show you the real me, until I knew I could trust you, and now I guess I can." She smiled at him, he was nice.

"So, why did you ask me here?".