OWL's

"You sign your life off to one thing then sometimes goes wrong and you have no fall back. Some people can live with that I cannot,” Amelia said as she started to read a boring page on Charms. She wished she could just skip studying but she knew she couldn’t.

Amelia did have goals before her brother and sisters were killed but they died with them. She didn’t even know who is anymore. She was just playing one day at a time. One day it will all fall in place. It always does. She has to believe in that otherwise she might just lose her mind.

"Perhaps we should learn how to do exactly that... Beats me but it seems that those people always have it figured out. Always a safe home, a family, an income... While the rest seem a lot more hectic I would say. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth it, pursuing what you want even if you don't know what that is. I think I would prefer if I could just pick a job for it's benefits and stay there for the rest of my life. Things would surely be easier. But I'm not really sure I can." said Alice.

She always thought of her dad and how he pursued his career. He insisted on doing something he loved and not just something that he was told to do. And he had everything he needed and wanted in life. Perhaps one day Alice could be exactly like him. That reminded her of the conversation she had with her dad a few days ago. Especially the part about the MacMillians. She wasn't sure if she should express her sympathy for Amelia's loss. Would that be the polite thing to do? Or maybe even makes things worse. She certainly didn't want to scratch unhealed wounds, but maybe she should say something at least. "I am...really sorry. For what happened...and your loss" she said a bit clumsily.

“But life is boring that way. My dad took over the family farm and he does the same thing every day. It did sort of come in the way between my parents, not saying that they can’t fix it. My mum took over the Daily Prophet and changed the entire thing, she loves her job and she choose to do much later in life. My Aunt Amelia spent her entire life in the Ministry of Magical and loved her job, she died for her job. All I want is to find a job that I really loved like they did,” she sighed. She knew she would but she had her whole life ahead of her.

“Don’t be. Claire died with her art work; she wouldn’t have wanted to die any other way. And Edgar fought to the bitter end. I saw him do so. I just wish I could remember who the person who was the attacker,” sighed she sighed. “They would hate to have me mourn them the rest of my life so I’m just moving on, like my family was done for many generations. Someone dies, we keep on living. Which people die often in my family, it’s quite depressing,” she said.

My dad does what he loves and I find that really amazing. He does research and devotes a lot of time to his field. Not a lot of people get to do what they love every day. But I think the job he cares about the most is protecting his family. I can tell that, easily." Sometimes it even seemed as his most important job. He just wanted to make sure his family is safe from all of the dangerous of this world. So his children don't have to go through the same thing he and his wife did.

It was hard listening to Amelia speak of her siblings. She remembered her father mentioning it to her and how they officially didn't find the killers but everyone already knew it was the Death Eater's. It seemed that Alice and Amelia had a common enemy, who had already done enough damage to both of their families. "My brother was very hurt when he heard the news. He was close to Edgar. But they have died fighting. And if it was me, I wouldn't want to go any other way"

“I don’t know if you know but all Bones die in battle or some sort of strange magical way. I swear it is impossible for Bones to die a normal death,” sighed Amelia. She wasn’t sure if she liked that fact or not. Maybe it wasn’t a fact but it seemed like it.

“A lot of people liked Edgar. He was one of those people that were hard to dislike,” she sighed. She missed Edgar. Drew is a sweetheart but Edgar was the protector she could Edgar anything without a single worry he would tell mum. Drew was a good listener but not too good with keeping secrets.

She was familiar with the strange way many people in Amelia's family had died. Before, she found that fact very strange. But now, after finding out many things in her past she didn't know before, she wasn't that surprised by it anymore. In fact, it seemed that Alice and Amelia shared that. A fighting family that somehow always ended their lives in battle.

At that moment, she thought of an idea. Amelia seemed very knowledgeable about her family's past and the activity of Death Eaters. Perhaps she would know something about her father. She couldn't help but be curious. Sure her dad told her everything important, but he missed so many details. And Alice wanted to know it all. "Can I ask you something? Do you...know anything about my dad? His involvement in this whole thing? Both now and in the last war?"

Amelia was a bit stunned the Alice didn’t know. Then she reminded herself most parents weren’t as open as hers were. Most kids her age didn’t even know half of the stuff she did. Most kids her age hadn’t watched their brother be killed right before their eyes.

“I know he was the leader of Dumbledore’s Army, my mum was a member of Dumbledore’s Army. He would save kids from detentions with the Carrows, which typically had torture part of them, my mum or maybe it was my pa ended up at the receiving end of one, I can’t remember. He also would tease the Carrows along with my mum and pa. They would write Dumbledore’s Army on the school walls and other things. I don’t know much about now but I’m betting he is the Order of the Phoenix along with my mum. My mum doesn’t know I know that she is part of the Order of the Phoenix. I heard my grandpa and my mum talking about the Order while I was home for my siblings’ wake, they mentioned something about your father but I didn’t hear,” she said thoughtfully.

"Sorry...did you say Carrows?" she asked, completely oblivious to what or who that was. She was surprised as to how much she really didn't know about her family's past. And it seemed to her that it would take her a long time and a lot of patience to find it all out by herself. "That was in their seventh year, right?" Alice asked. She remembered her father mentioning something about Dumbledor's Army and being a leader of it in his last year of Hogwarts, right at the time of the battles.

He did tell me he was a member of the Order once, but that was all he said about it. Do you think they are...still as active as they used to be? she asked. That was her biggest curiosity. In all honestly, she just hoped the Order would be in some kind of a hibernating state. She heard rumors of what the Order did during the war, and it definitely wasn't child's play. Having her dad involved in such a thing made her worried. But more than anything, made her want to know more about it in the first place.

“They were Death Eater teachers back during our parents’ seventh year. According to my mum they were the teachers’ from hell. Pardon my language. Their seventh year was pretty much the height of the Second War. From what my parents’ told me it sounded like it was a terrible year,” Amelia answered. She closed her Charms book; she knew she wouldn’t get any studying in.

“Well, I know my mum is still active in it. She’s been taunting the Death Eaters with the Daily Prophet. I don’t know if the Order is doing anything but my mum has been stalking Death Eaters. She’s been reporting sightings of wanted Death Eaters and hunting less lethal ones in Knockturn Alley,” she said. She honestly didn’t know. She knew her mum was always up to something.

"Oh, right." said Alice nodding her head, taking up all of the information as quickly as possible. She definitely did not know this before. Seeing Amelia close her Charms book, she did the same with hers as in a silent agreement that they had better things to discuss right now that Potions or Charms. And besides, none of them could possibly concentrate on school work right now, it would be just a waste of time and energy.

So the Order was still active, in some ways. But they didn't know exactly in which manner. Did they constantly spy and listen on to their enemies, gather information on them? Did they even go 'hunting' as Amelia just mentioned, do small or big planned searches and captures of the Death Eaters and their followers. She was just so frustrated at how little she knew. "Don't you think it's absurd that we do not know this? Any of it?" asked Alice out loud. Well she was sure Amelia knew a lot more than she did, but still she didn't know all of it.