Let's get to work

Arryn seemed to recognize that the she meant business, taking her request seriously if silently. He went about his business of settling who was to take his tables and she looked to Christian, flicking her eyebrows upwards. Was he feeling the fire yet? Was he feeling like they could take their fate into their own hands? Was he realizing that there was always something to be done?

She hoped he did. It would mean they had hope.

(And that she had been right).

Finally Arryn led them away and Ace followed with as casual an air as possible, as though people might be watching - which, of course, wasn't true. No one was actively involved in anything anymore to care. She could talk about it right there and maybe only get in trouble for conspiring to perform underage magic. If that.

Christian, rightfully, allowed her to explain. She once again lifted her head, constantly aware that an erect chin showed she meant business. "Christian and I are hoping to revitalize the club Potter's Army. We believe that students have a right to learn to defend themselves and our school wastes time instead providing extracurriculars that add no permanent value to our education - no offense." Yeah, but her tone didn't sound apologetic. Good job. "We want to practice over the summer. We realize with the Trace we have to be very deliberate about where we do this. It has to be somewhere like Diagon that is full of magic and can thus cover multiple young people performing magic. And we need someone to help keep us hidden - vouch that we are not there when indeed we are. That is where you come in."

Christian wasn't paying very much attention to what Ace was saying. He couldn't have relayed it back to her even if he'd wanted to. Instead, he was watching ex-professor Arryn as he observed the two Hufflepuffs on the other side of his desk.

He knew, the instant she had won him over. All it had taken was mention of the club. Perhaps the shop owner had been a member in the past. Or maybe he wished he had been. Either way, he sat forward a bit, his gaze sharper and more attentive.

The teen also knew when she lost him, even if Ace didn't. And he nearly said right then that they should move on to his next idea. But it was too late, because the older man was already objecting.

"You're asking me to break the law," he confirmed slowly. "...In my workplace. You're expecting me to risk my livelihood with no return. Absolutely not. I'm going to pretend that you haven't wasted my time with this, and you're going to deny that you asked me when this whole thing goes awry. Understood?" Declan's eyebrows lifted pointedly.

Christian nearly winced at the sharpness of the response, worried that Ace would keep at it, or worse: she'd yell at him as he tried to convince her that his second idea was better.

She had made a strong argument. She had held herself well, had spoken with certainty and maturity. She had approached someone with a logical, ethical mind. She had support behind her. But more than anything, she was on the right side of the problem. There was no way she had not won him over.

Even as he began speaking, she was expecting the conversation to turn to the whole 'So these are the consequences that I understand and will eagerly take on to be apart of this noble and worthy cause.' But then-

"Absolutely not."

The unfazable Ace Longbottom immediately reacted, eyebrows pulling together and mouth tipping open to argue as he spoke, but his words gained momentum and strength and she felt that horrifying, crushing feeling of defeat flooding into her, turning her heart and gut to stone.

But her now stone-hard was nowhere near as hard as her hard-head.

She composed herself, tilting her head back and pursing her lips. "I understand. You're not willing to make the simple sacrifices others before us have. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley broke the law for the right cause - hell, Harry Potter died for it. But, yes, you're right. I wouldn't want to risk your career."

Declan Arryn had a glare that Christian was certain he wouldn't forget any time soon. He appeared nonchalant before Ace spoke, pretending to go through his files and making his point quite clear once more: they weren't to speak of this in the Leaky ever again. But he froze when she finished the first sentence. Turned his head during the second, and gave the pair of them the darkest, most furious glower that the boy had ever been on the receiving end of. Even his father hadn't been that scary. Not in years.

Maybe it was part of his feeling all weird after the accident, Christian thought to himself. But it wasn't, because Declan spread his hands out over the top of his desk before rising from his seat and leaning over it to address them with a slower, quieter voice. The kind of voice that would be used to seriously threaten someone's life before the speaker turned around and smiled like they'd said nothing.

Okay, so maybe Christian was slightly over-dramatic. But still.

"I must have missed the memo that we were at war, Ms. Longbottom. Perhaps when that alert is released, things will be different and laws will be more worth breaking. And perhaps until that day, you will recognize the fact that I could turn you in to the Ministry right this instant if I wanted to, but instead I'm letting you off. One day, you too will have something that means everything to you, and you'll be afraid of losing it more than you will be afraid of sitting around and being bored during the summer. Until you get to that point, and you've found that thing, that job, that person? I can guarantee you that whatever it is you're going after by doing this, it will be meaningless.

"Now get the hell out of my pub, and don't you dare come back."

If he thought he could scare her, he had another thing coming. Ace had heard the stories of her father and mother's troubles during the wizarding war, and nothing could scare her when she thought about the potential any wizard had to become the next Voldemort. One barman could not stop her. No one could.

But okay, he was a little intimidating.

She felt her breath catch in her throat, and she swallowed it down, clenching her jaw and blinking to try and remain composed. Her body was begging her to flinch away, aware of the immediate danger this man could pose her if she pushed him too far. Not that he would attack her... But, maybe he would. She wouldn't put it past herself to fight someone, and she tried to hold people to the same standard she held herself to.

He finished and there was a tense silence between them. She could feel Christian's discomfort radiating from her, and she hoped she had not just undone all of the progress she had made with him. So she prepared to leave. But first.

"That's the thing. That's why I came in today. I have found that thing that means everything to me."

She turned to look at Christian. "Let's go," she said, softer than she had probably ever spoken to him.

As Ace beckoned him out, Christian frowned. Not at Declan but at the whole situation. Now she probably wouldn't trust his second suggestion, and there was no guarantee that it would even end up working. But he followed her when she left the office, waving a hand towards the door of the Leaky so that she could continue to lead the way out.

"Don't pout," he warned, his voice only slightly teasing. In truth, he half expected her to snap at him in return, but Christian just took off walking, leaving her to decide if she wanted to follow or not.

If she didn't, he figured he could still check out what the bookshop had. Perhaps his mother would like something new to read. When he glanced over his shoulder, though, he felt he needed to beckon her a little just in case.

"If it helps," he called, walking backwards so he could face her as he spoke, "my next suggestion is far more amenable to missions and tactics. And he's got something to prove, so I get the feeling he'll be up for the task."

So Christian led her to a place she probably hadn't expected him to: Flourish and Blotts, the shop now owned by the Order of the Phoenix's ex-leader and current Second in Command. In part, anyway. And Christian, whether he knew it or not yet, would be a part of that group down the road, and Ace's interfering would be the first step. But in the moment, he was wondering again why he bothered.

Her arms were shaking, and though she would have chalked it up to anger, there was a part of her that truly had been shaken by being treated so. She wasn't used to it, at all. People typically rolled their eyes and let her rant and rave - someone had finally taken her seriously and she had realized that she could not accomplish anything she put her mind to.

Oh well. She wasn't done yet. She would show him.

At Christian's words, her mouth opened in indignation and she whipped towards him. "I'm not-" but he was already hurrying off, the ghost of a smirk on his face. She stopped, still the picture of pouty and indignation, and found a small smile playing at her own lips, small but there. He was still on her side.

She hurried to catch up, falling into stride just as they reached the book store. She shot him a questioning glance but stepped inside, once again finding herself falling into the ever-uncomfortable submissive role.

Oliver looked up as the door opened, only to find two students there. His eyebrows lifted, entirely confused as to how they were even here. He had been hoping to discuss the news with Keiran and the people that he trusted within the Order, but suddenly students were actually there. They must have been part of the few that left school by different means, or somehow, mercifully, they had been left when the others had been taken.

Unlikely.

Then he recognized Christian, and remembered that the Zabini boys had taken the floo back to the shop rather than the train into Kings Cross, if only because their father would have to come collect them otherwise. He didn't know about this girl that walked in with him, but she was clearly young and probably Hogwarts aged.

"Hey," he greeted, looking between the two of them questioningly.

"We need your help," Christian began immediately, knowing that - if they didn't get their way - Ace might resort to something else, something more dangerous than their current plans already were. "Can we talk?"

Oliver frowned, but knew that there was someone else there to watch the store, so he nodded silently and led them into the back office. Once there, he just waited. Waited until Christian blurted out,

"We want you to help us cover up underage magic."

The man's eyebrows lifted, bemused for a moment that a Hufflepuff was asking a fellow (though graduated) housemate for such a request. But then the confusion came over him as well. "...Why?"

Ace followed Christian, her eyes trailing over the titles of volumes big and small, wondering what true stories had made their mark on the world, been brave and true enough to be recorded for all of time. She lifted her chin - her name would be written somewhere. Not for glory, but for the sheer magnitude of how much she could contribute. She felt it deep in her bones.

She looked forward and her eyes widened a bit - this was the most recent leader of the Order. She knew, of course, as a Longbottom. Her family was active enough, was well enough regarded to stay in the loop. And she always made it her business to know.

She cleared her throat, but Christian was taking the lead on this one. She shot him a brief look of irritation. Oliver asked what the purpose for their rule breaking was and she squared her shoulders, ready to respond when she was interrupted once again.

"Half the fun is keeping the secret, Ollie."

Ace glanced over to see Jack Dyllan straightening up, abandoning the catalog of their new shipments on the counter she had been leaning on. This hit Ace hard - Jack had been leader of Potter's Army, a prominent member of the Ministry, Triwizard Champion, leader of the Order... and then she had sort of disappeared. Ace had never met the woman in person, and the exhaustion was evident in the lines of her face, even if she was managing to smirk at Oliver. Ace found herself genuinely shut up for a moment.

Jack flipped the catalog closed and shifted her weight, regarding the two. "But, I like to be in on secrets too."

Ace glanced at Christian before saying, "Potter's Army was less active than we had hoped." Oh, now it was we. "We'd like to get ahead on the new year during the summer, but we don't have a place where that many of us can do magic without alerting someone. We thought, somewhere like Diagon, not much gets noticed. But we'd need someone to help cover us." Her voice might have been a shade more uncertain after their last encounter, but it grew in strength until it had returned to her usual confidence.

It wasn't unusual for Jack to be around now, particularly after Oliver's distrust of Nick had grown because of the way he had pulled Oliver back into the Order. But he wasn't one hundred percent sure that he trusted everything about Jack, either. And maybe that was a good thing in a world like theirs. Either way, he didn't mind her commentary, though he was already thinking along the same lines.

Jack wasn't going to make his decisions for him, of course, but once the girl began talking, Oliver knew she was inevitably going to be involved.

Christian frowned at Alice, crossing his arms over his chest. Yeah. 'We.' Alright. It registered that he was involved at that point, so she wasn't quite wrong, but he squinted at her, glancing between the girl and Jack, taking her determined nature's reappearance as something to do with the woman's involvement. When Oliver didn't say anything, Christian decided he would have to add in his two cents.

"Would you be willing to make a space for us to meet with the other students who didn't get swept away to Ilvermorny? We want to help but we can't without somewhere to practice."

Oliver glanced in Jack's direction, assuming she would jump in if he didn't. But he did have an idea. Something Jack didn't even know about despite her time at the shop. He just wasn't sure if he could give up information about it. Would Keiran kill him for it? Maybe. Deciding he was more interested in finding out about the American school than in what Hayes might think, Oliver picked up his wand and swung the office door shut behind Jack.

"I have a place. It isn't technically mine, but I'll make sure you can use it without interruption." He stood from his desk, then levitated a file cabinet away from the wall. Behind it, a door swung outwards and into a pathway where it shouldn't have been. "It's pretty Grimmauld place," he said, leading a wide-eyed, eyebrow-raised Zabini and the other two into the hidden alley. "It comes out at Fleurish, at the other end of the alley. Hayes and his wife set it up so the kids could play, probably with some employee or other watching them, while they worked. All sorts of crazy wards are on this thing. And people could show up from both shops, or switch between the two so it wouldn't look suspicious."

He shrugged, leaning against one wall. "We could make it wider, check which wards are here and add whatever else we would need."

A thought struck him that would need Lupin and Krum's approval, though the organizations involved weren't attached to the government. But the Ministry would have to help him, and he didn't know if he wanted Jack or Nick involved until he trusted one of them. He doubted he could trust both. So he kept the idea to himself, deciding to owl Elijah before he made any offer he couldn't keep.

"This work?"