"What?" Khaat frowned. She opened the letter and read it. "What in the name of Merlin's boxer shorts is this? Who is the moron...wait...Marcus."
"Yes, Khaat," he said. She handed him the letter.
"Do you see here what I see?" she asked. He read the letter, a deep frown growing on his face. He saw very severe implications beyond Jack's distaste for forced marriages.
"I do indeed," Marcus said. "Someone is either influencing your son, or they've slipped it under his nose. Either way, he's in over his head, it seems." Someone was pulling the strings in the Ministry. Eli was either a traitor to what she thought they all believed in, which she didn't see as likely. Or there was someone pulling his strings and the strings of others inside, and it had the potential to undo all they held dear.
"Which might be part and parcel of why whoever it was needed Daddy out of the way," Khaat said very softly, momentarily overwhelmed. She looked at Jack. Maybe there was a lighthearted way to drop a bombshell or to drop one and not have it be noticed. How was she to say someone had already tried to kill the failsafe mechanism that protected them all? And, as her father's primary backup plan, she might well be next if they could easily get to someone as alert as her father was--and when he had had trained bodyguards with him at the time. And, what if Jack had never insisted on bringing her the letter? The danger suddenly felt immense to them all. And she had an obligation to tell the leader of the Order. She needed their alliance because she didn't know what would happen to the wizarding world if she had to face this threat alone. Silence would not help them now.
"My father cannot help with this," she was trying to cautiously make the revelation easier. "I'm sorry. As the leader of the Order, you are well acquainted with secure information. My father was gravely injured. He was...attacked. The speculation in the papers is, well, essentially correct. I have him well hidden out of necessity. I have no choice."
She did not want to come out and say the words precisely. Jack wasn't stupid. She would put it together immediately. Someone had, outright, attempted to assassinate the Minister of Magic and had, minimally, seriously inconvenienced him. Any enemy of the Lupins was potentially a serious enemy of the Order. And given the letter Khaat now held in her hand, she saw clearly that the greater good was being undermined swiftly, harshly. Her father somehow had made sure it stayed in balance. Now he was out of the way, and it was all going to hell much faster than they realized.
"Oh, God," she said to herself softly. She was suddenly feeling sharply inadequate. As much as she thought she knew, she still wasn't him. And a whole new fear rose up for her father's life. As serious as his situation was, it might well get drastically worse very suddenly. Had she done enough to protect him? Had she done the right thing to try to help him?
"Chief Warlock," Marcus addressed her officially and formally--something he rarely did, and it caught her attention. She looked up and saw him handing her back the letter, but she got the message. It was a reminder she was not as powerless as she felt like. "What are our options?" he asked. She picked up her coffee cup and took a sip, thinking before she spoke.
"I might be able to help," she said to Jack, trying to stay on the subject of the letter, "but contesting a new law through the Wizengamot won't do. It isn't enough. I need to know who, inside the Ministry, is serving in their own twisted interests. There's someone there who has either orchestrated this or who is taking full advantage of my father's unfortunate circumstances. I will need time. Time you might not have if you hope to remain single."
Her mind was racing. She would not stand for this. The law would allow her father to overturn the law and or write new laws to clear it up, but since Eli's signature was on it as the Deputy Minister, unless she was prepared to haul virtually him and the entire wizarding government into court, her rank meant little. And that would not catch the culprit who designed this madness.
This was not how Eli ever thought about much of anything. Someone was getting to Eli, of that she was sure. And as his mother, she did have some influence with him, but that would need to be carefully done.
"I don't know that I can promise I can keep you from needing to marry. But if I can help my father recover, that would resolve the problem in its entirety. Hopefully, it would be shortlived. And, I can get my father to draft a law allowing easy divorces on the basis of the error of the law itself for those who don't wish to stay married. We can overturn the existing law, but, again, this all depends on my father. Or, if we can find who's behind this and get them out, then Eli might be able to repair it himself."
"If you catch the culprit, then you have a rather handy prison filled with some nasty dementors for that," Marcus said. "Or you have a death chamber if it comes to it. Providing the Wizengamot would not hesitate to convict."
"No," Khaat said. "We will not hesitate, and I have more leverage there."
"With all due respect," Marcus said. "If you are to try to deal with this, Khaat, you cannot do it alone. You will need a bit of old fashioned espionage and subterfuge. You will need confederates. Ms. Dyllan might well be in a unique position to provide that for you with an alliance." If she were to do that, Jack would need to know--well, everything.