Order meeting #3

With a side-ways look at Sawyer, James decided it was about time for him to sit. His eyes fell upon Jack, who was looking uncharacteristically disinterested in the meeting. She was usually the one in the thick of things, and he was surprised to see that she was not delving right into the fact that Nemo had gone missing, as well as Khaat.

Slightly concerned, James sat down next to Jack, trying to make it seem like a casual thing; lest she correctly assume that there was concern behind the act. He leaned slightly towards her so that their shoulders touched, wanting to remind her that she was not alone in all this. James didn't know much about Thaor; however, the possibility that his death was faked relieved James of the guilt he had felt at the man's supposed demise. Figuring that Jess would get to the kidnapping of Khaat and Nemo without his help, James remained silent, merely watching the meeting's proceedings.

(Sorry, didn't quite understand how you wanted that to go. anyway, since the thread has moved on, i'd rather just add a post now than to edit. editing now makes everyone go back.)

Michael said with all seriousness, "The Lupins are not here because Khaat is missing. Robert is looking for her. The last we know is that she was in Sparks, presumably by herself, trying to face the Fiendfyre that appeared to be targetting her specifically. She figured if she could face it herself it might buy everyone inside time enough to get out. To the best of Robert's knowledge, there hasn't been any evidence that she died in the fire, so he presumes she's missing.

"But, as to Thaor, here's some background you all need to know. Thaor and Robert and I were all in Hogwarts at the same time. He's four years younger than us, so he was behind us, but he fell into our gang that hung out together. Thaor fit in with us even back then, despite the age difference because he was unfailingly loyal and bloody brilliant. He could keep up with us.

"But he comes from a family that were purists, and that probably led him to pursue the dark arts--but that wasn't while we were in Hogwarts. Not seriously, anyway. That came later for him, at least as far as we knew, and I'm still not sure why he went that way. But, he still was staunchly loyal to those of us who were his friends, even through that rather foul business of faking his own death at the battle of Hogwarts.

"We had no reason to question him--not until he went to Robert one day very recently and told him he believed he was becoming ill. What he described to Robert was sounding like he was either bewitched or that he was becoming seriously mentally ill. Before Robert could help him, Thaor ran off and, as far as we've been able to find, he's been on the run since.

"He recently became very delusional at the gates of the school, and we did our best to contain him. Long story short, he was able to escape us and, thus, avoid any long term treatment. In this recent business of coming up 'dead' again, his will has been proccessed before he was determined to very probably not be dead, which is probably a good thing because he had far more assets than even we thought he did, and he now no longer has any property whatsoever that we can trace. That will inconvenience him significantly. Unless he has a shoebox of galleons stashed somewhere, he's stone cold broke now, and that makes him desperate to try to fit in someplace that will help him. He'll need to belong to a dark arts organization so that they wont' turn him in to the aurors, and he'll need someone to provide his basics for awhile and some financial backing. To me, that says he might well need to prove his worth. And this might--or might not--accomplish that for him.

"You're, right, Jess. We also believe the fiendfyre was his, but we can't prove it. It takes experienced hands to conjure something like we saw at Sparks. There was a time when he'd have protected Khaat like she were his own. Now, I don't honestly know. If he is as bitter as he was the night he was so delusional at the school, I wouldn't trust him anywhere within wandfire.

"Personally, as Khaat's godfather, I have every intention of finding her. Any friendship he had with Robert or me is gone. And I'll do whatever it takes to help Robert get her back, even if that means killing Thaor. I'm not above it. Not after the carnage we all saw in Diagon Alley. He'd be given at least Azkaban if not the death chamber for that, anyway, and we all know it.

"Oh, and one more afternote, it seems Thaor did have a son. We didn't know, but from what I can find, his record at least looks better on the surface than his father's. And as his heir, his son's given Thaor's galleons all away to charity. Perhaps he's a better lot. But I haven't met him, so I can't say. But he's a dead ringer for his dad, so if you go shooting, make sure you have Thaor Sr. and not Thaor Jr."

As more people trickled into the meeting Jess decided that the simplest way to deal with lateness was to ignore it. It didn't bother him too much, and he wasn't about to disrupt the meeting with more greetings. And so he kept his attention on Michael as he spoke, taking in the information which had already previously been confided in him, but others may not have known themselves. "Which leads me to my next subject of course. As you may know, but now do, Khaat was kidnapped during this attack, and as I've mentioned before I'd suspect that Thaor was the one who did this. However, as you may not know, our Head of Law Enforcement has also dropped off the radar. Nemo Omara hasn't been seen since before the fire.

"Now, I'm not one to believe in coincidence, so I believe that the two are related. The fact that two high-ranking ministry officials could each go missing in such a short space of time is incredibly suspect to me. As such, I think that we need to devote our full attention two searching for, and recovering, the two of them.

"Whilst we've had the situation about Khaat thoroughly explained to us, I'm not quite up to date with the status of Mr. Omara, so I'd like us to focus on getting information on him, as I feel that anything that we may find out about the matter ought to aid us for both," he told them. "So, does anyone have any greater information on Nemo, otherwise I'd propose we establish a team to investigate what's happened to him," he suggested to those gathered.

What Jess chose not to mention was his surprise at the lack of security that the Ministry seemed to be providing for such matters (and it would only get worse with the chief of law enforcement MIA.) Really, he was on the brink of suggesting guard duty to the Order, however he didn't believe that stretching their numbers out that far would be a good idea.

Jack looked up, finding her spirits lift a little at the sight of Michael Tremaine entering. Though she had not seen him lately, the site of his solid figure was enough to relax her a bit. Michael was a very steady force, and she felt as though there were something to anchor her as long as she had him as a friend. She even managed to give him a small smile.

James took his seat, and bumped her. She looked up at him and grimaced, glad to have his support... for now. Who knew what would happen when she 'defected'.

Jack heard it all from afar... until Jess said Nemo's name. She looked up and swallowed, preparing herself.

"I'm his roommate," she said. And I'm in love with him. "He was at a bar we usually go to on Friday nights. I was busy as I had just had the Order meeting and was out for that night and all the next day. The bar's in a small suburb a mile or so from my house, called One Far Bar, and it's all magic. He had been drinking heavily and the bartender took his wand. My gytrash tracked his scent into the alley next to the bar. The scent disappeared there." Jack looked straight at Jess, unwilling to look anywhere else. "If you have any specific questions about him, I can answer them, but I'm not willing to disclose everything about him in full public. There are parts of his life that, while possibly helpful, do not need to be known by everyone. He's a terrific Head, an excellent dueller, but he does have a drinking problem." And a suicide problem. And a foresight problem. And a name problem. But that needn't be public. Nemo had never been quiet about his alcoholism though.

((Also, would Jess know about Jack's "defection"? I mean, if Matt knows then Jess would as vice, I'm assuming? Just trying to avoid any info coming up in my posts that ought not to come up))

Jess nodded, noting "Of course, I'll talk to you later but keeping to the facts is more than enough for now. What you've told us now is enough, though I may come talk to you later about whatever else may help us," he told her, noting the tension that she seemed to be exerting at the mere mention of his name. Jess had worked with Jack long enough to recognise signs of anxiety or, at least, discomfort of some sort in her. There must have been more than she was letting on here.

So yes, they would probably have an interesting conversation sometime in the near future.

"As Nemo's roommate, would you happen to know of anyone who may have a reason to harm him?" He asked, focusing his attention on Jack before adding, "Other than the obvious one of course," hoping she'd have the sense not to reply with 'he's a head of department'

"Also, Michael, do you have any leads on where Khaat is? How we can help her?" he asked, trying to get as much information together as possible.

((I'm not sure. You might want to check with Matt but I'm okay if Jess knows.))

Jack shrugged. "Just that, the obvious, criminals and Death Eaters. Even the enemies Nemo made at bars sort of liked him. He and I did stumble upon some Death Eaters murdering some Aurors. Perhaps those Death Eaters got it into their heads that he might know something about who it was. That's the only people who spring to mind."

((Sorry its short. Just posting here for the sake of the plot but I don't have much more in me right now))

"No leads, I'm afraid," Michael admitted. "Just a lot of empty theory, which doesn't help us one bit. I could state a lot of the obvious, but that's not helpful either. I know Robert and Brian are mobilizing some of their old friends to help--people who are perhaps not as easily recognized or known who might be able to help access some of the less obvious places.

"Personally, I'd like to find her quickly. Brian said when the fiendfyre broke out she wrapped her own jacket around her daughter to try to protect her from the flames before Brian left with her. He says she's got a pair of jeans and a camisole now. Too bloody cold to be running about in that garb. Oh, wait. There was one other thing. Minor, though. Her wand was found in the street. I thought that was a tad unusual. Most of the time, wands are snapped in half in a disarming. Robert says her wand hasn't so much as a scratch. Odd, considering all the destruction around it. I'm sorry, I dont know that I've got much else."

Damon looked over at Sophia and whispered, "Aparently there's been some attacks on the order in Diagon Alley. I think i need to talk to my friend who owns the Leaky Cauldron and speak with him on this. Maybe he's seen anything or perhaps he's heard some rumors around the pub of his. He's a vampire after all and he has excellent hearing, I just want to see if there's more acurate timeline of when these attacks happen." Damon wondered if he would be willing for a late night visit from an old friend. Oded was the one who helped Damon out of a tight spot a very long time ago and wondered if he could help him once again. "This is gonna put me more in debt with him but i don't mind. I still owe him from saving my butt a few times when i was young and stupid." Damon said softly again to Sophia.

Silvyr sat quietly as the conversation moved forward around him. All of the news that was now being spoken of was new to him. While he wasn't an old member Silvyr still had learned that listening was far more important than speaking in Order meetings.

He looked around the room making eye contact in order with those that had put input into the conversation. His eyes moved past everyone in order of how they had seated themselves. Jess, James, Jack, Michael, Whight, and Damon were looking around just as he was. Silvyr wondered if everyone felt the same way he did. Just waiting for someone to speak up on the topic of 'what was the next step'.

Silvyr kept his eyes on Damon, "I think that's as good of a start as any. It's not like we have any other way of finding her at this moment." He continued speaking on allowing his gaze to move around the table, "My wounds are almost all healed thanks to the amazing work of the healers at St. Mungos and Jack. I'm ready to help where ever anyone needs me." He said finishing his simple thoughts on the matter. He didn't have any knowledge that his Lord would allow him to give away freely, but he was willing to help anyway he could.

Walking in silently, almost like a phantom, Danny casually tip-toed his way over to his usual standing spot for when these 'meetings' went down. It mostly consisted of him basically just shutting up and watching anyway, so it was possible no one would even noticed he arrived late- which he was hoping for. Yet he was curious as to what these meeting would ascertain in terms of what was to be done in the next couple of days: which he could never possible guess. So to take up his old role, he casually leaned against the wall as he began to listen more intently towards the plans of the others. Scanning the room, he noticed a few familiar faces and a couple that weren't so familiar, which was nice because it meant they were still growing. How that happened, he would never know.

After listening into the conversation for a couple more minutes, Danny began to get annoyed, and it was starting to show. Whenever he was irritated or mad, it definitely showed in his stance and his look, yet oddly enough however, he only stood with several noticeable ticks, and nothing stood out when it came to his face. "So, mainly what we're all saying here is," he said sarcastically, an added hand movement to show his amount of irritation "we have squat, we're going to continue having squat while an entire village is dead and the Death Eaters continue to remain supreme?" He shook his head and under his breath, he said "Great, just F***' great."