We didn't light it but we tried to fight it

Of course in the end, Eli's had been the most obvious choice. The young entrepreneur must have been making a fortune out of his little cabaret idea. The house regulations were almost too convenient and after that horrible illness nobody would care about a couple of girlfriends getting together for a night out on the town.

Caelani turned up at eight sharp, as was her habit. Never mind that she'd spent half an hour in another cafe waiting for eight o'clock in order to be precisely on time. A quick glance around the restaurant told her that the others - the others she knew by sight at least - weren't yet here. It was hardly surprising; Sabina was the most suffocating mother Caelani had ever seen. Doubtless they were still wrangling with David.

She gave the booking name to the irritatingly bubbly waitress at the door and was ushered to a large table in a secluded corner of the room.

Now the waiting game began.

Standing outside Eli's, Frank looked upon the building with a frown. He had heard that the diner was quite popular with young people, but Frank had only once stepped inside. Coincidentally and unfortunately, the minister had been there at the same time, which meant that Frank had been forced to leave. Indeed, Eli's seemed to have a specific rule against reporters, which meant that Frank had always avoided the place. This time though, Frank happened to have an invite. True, he didn't know the person at all, Sabina Lond, or the reason why he was even invited. Still, Frank had decided to just go with it, at the very least it probably meant free food.

Stepping inside, Frank looked around the room with a critical eye, before he found himself looking down at a pretty young waitress, to whom he handed a piece of paper and was then directed to a table where only one person sat. She was a young woman and, to Frank's disappointment, didn't happen to be anyone of importance. At least, he had never seen her at the ministry. He remained curious though, so he took a seat. "Hello there, I'm Franklin O'Neil, though I'm sure you already know that!" he said with a smile.

Caelani looked up into the squinty eyes of a man whose head seemed to be growing up through his hair. She smiled indulgently and nodded along with his assumption. She had no idea who this fool was, except that he must be one of the people Sabs had thought would be sympathetic to their cause.

"Of course," she said.

"The rest of our friends will be here shortly. In the meantime, may I ask what inspired you to come along tonight?"

Neville had heard from Susan that there was going to be a meeting today. She wasn’t going to show but he told them to wish them luck for her. He didn’t blame her for not wanting to be in anymore danger. He was taking a risk by doing this. Hannah decided not to come, she wasn’t feeling good. He wasn’t worried for his kids; they were old enough to defend themselves. He wasn’t just here from his family but now for Susan’s too. The both had the same ideas of a better future. He knew what was bothering Susan, Ernie, Hannah and himself. He knew that he wouldn’t have any issues with anyone allowing him in, he was experienced in war.

Eli's was place Ne'Os had heard about but never been to. As a vampire he did not actually need to eat food. If he did it was usually because he was bored, or because it was polite. His only reason for walking through the door today was that he had been asked to come. Though he was not entirely sure why someone would want to invite a known death eater to their establishment.

He had a slight limp as he entered the restaurant. It was not long ago since he and Jack had their altercation and he did not consider it a victory. It was purely luck that his curse hit her, or he imagined he would not be alive right now. He gave the waitress a warm smile "Ne'Os Emof" he said giving her a wink.

She returned his smile but he could see her stiffen slightly as she recognized the name. She directed him to a table with a woman he knew very well and a man he recognized as a reporter though he did not know his name. He gave her a small bow and whispered "dark one," and gave the man a small nod before sitting at a empty chair at the table. He wondered just how many people would join them.

Frank looked back at the woman for a second before replying. "Didn't have anything to do tonight, thought this meeting would be interesting..." he replied with a shrug.

Thankfully, they were quickly joined by two more people, and to Frank's pleasure they were quite a famous duo. Neville Longbottom and Ne'os Emof. Everyone had heard of them. He cursed his luck, normally these two were hard to catch for an interview, but he couldn't ask any questions here. Instead, he just nodded at them as they took their seats.

The floo in Eli's flared into life as the trio appeared. It didn't take Sabina long to spot the table where Caelani sat, looking distinctly uncomfortable in the company of their new allies. If, indeed, that's what they were.

Holding David's hand, she quickly crossed the floor with Claudia keeping a close eye on both of them. The house rules should have made them safe, but Sabina hadn't felt properly safe in years.

"Welcome everyone!" she greeted them warmly upon reaching the table. "It's so lovely to see you all."

She slid into the chair alongside Caelani, with David and then Claudia taking those on the other side so they presented a united front. Oh, some people may say bringing a six year old to a meeting like this was irresponsible, but Sabina knew better. Besides, she wasn't about to let him out of her sight.

"Shall we order first or get straight down to business?" she asked, reaching for a menu.

Oh yes, Eli's was a restaurant. Sabina hadn't been to a decent restaurant since David had been born.

Neville wasn’t really saying much. He had no words. He didn’t trust himself to speak. He couldn’t get the image of Susan out of his head. Never once had he seen her cry until that night. She could break bones and never cry but whatever did happen brought her to her knees. If someone could do that to Susan what could they do to Hannah? That scared him the most. If Ernie couldn’t protect Susan how was he supposed to protect Hannah?

He still had the whole thing with Alice going on. This Andrei thing was driving him crazy. The boy was nothing but trouble but yet Alice didn’t see it. He had gotten a group of people to look into what’s going on but they weren’t getting anywhere. Ernie seemed to think it was at some level of dark magic that Andrei is doing that if affected Alice. It seemed odd since Amelia had said some things to Neville that would lead to that. He would have to bring it up.

“Meaning you wanted some sort of news to put in the Daily Prophet. Susan warned me that you might be here. I don’t think anyone is taking the Daily Prophet seriously anymore,” said Neville coldly. “When the Daily Prophet should report on something they don’t and if it’s not important they report on it. Not to mention they twist everything people say around, that one article screwed over Susan big time. She told me not everything in that article was her work,” he added. He wasn’t in the mood to deal with reporters. He had enough issues. He had never been fond of reporters. They all made him seem to be a war hero; he didn’t want to be known for that. He didn’t want to be known as a killer. He saw those faces of the people he killed every night why would he want to read about it in the paper.

He noticed the young woman with the young boy. He knew how hard it is with kids to go to meetings when they are young so he didn’t mind. He could recall bringing Frank as a toddler and Alice as an infant to Order meetings. Mind you that Hannah wouldn’t let anyone but her touch her kids. Some things about Hannah she’ll never understand.

“I suppose if anyone who is hungry should order,” said Neville. He cooled down his temper. All this stress was making him ill-tempered. Maybe Ernie and Susan had the right idea when talking about leaving the country.

Reading between the lines of the Daily Prophet it hadn't been difficult to guess that Susan Macmillan was becoming more and more disillusioned with the status quo in the wizarding world. As Longbottom began to rant at the other writer for the newspaper, Sabina inferred that he was here on her behalf.

"I'm sure everyone knows to take whatever ends up in the news with a grain of salt," Sabina interjected.

She certainly did, and she had invited the newspaperman specifically because he would no doubt go back to his little rag and tell the world of their "top secret" plans.

"Yes, I'll have the Chicken Carbonara and do you want fish and chips, David? And a Children's Fish and Chips, thank you," she diverted her attention to the waitress for a moment.

"I suppose you all know why you're here? We may not all be the best of friends but we can all agree that the Ministry of Magic is out of control and needs a complete overhaul, yes?"

Amongst the well dressed people inside Eli's, Vincent looked very out of place. Normally he looked very sharp, but today his hair was disheveled and robes looked rather patchy. Since his retirement, Vincent had not lived an easy life. His savings in the Gringotts accounts had run out rather quickly, and he had not managed to find a job since. Working in a low level position was out of question for him, and he was unlikely to find any job in the Ministry after the Grindelwald fiasco.

Vincent was directed to the table by his waitress. A few people had already arrived, and he knew a few of them. His eyes fell on Ne'os Emof first, to whom he gave a look of loathing, before turning to the others. "Good evening."

"Of course," Vincent said, almost too quickly. He was suddenly eager, for he could now guess the reason for the invitation. He was surprised too, the vast majority of the Wizarding Population were remarkably ignorant. "But it is not possible. I know, I have tried to fix the situation for years. But corruption exists in every corner of the Ministry."