it's a revolution i suppose

Maybe they should all just camp out in Satan's. It'd beat this having to leave and come back for each meeting.

Merlin, they had just convened over the random violence at the Zabini's and now even worse circumstances brought them all back together. As much as Jack had wanted to help out at Grimmauld, Michael Corner had done an impressive job of keeping her at the hospital. Her arm was still bandaged, though her jacket kept that hidden enough. She didn't need anyone worrying over nothing.

Right, because their group was full of fretting mothers. (That's the cue for the eye roll).

Fred was going to miss their meeting for the day. He had a new assignment at the Ministry that had him darting about the globe and today he had an appointment he could not reschedule. She hadn't exactly given them all great notice, having sent out the call to meet as soon as she had been discharged, asking them all to meet as soon as possible. Gabby hadn't even answered whether or not he was going to be there. Who knew with him these days.

Jack slipped into the room, surprised to find Kip already sitting in one of the chairs, leaning back as he rubbed his hands over his face. "Hey," she said, crossing to sit. He dropped his chair back to all fours and his hands slipped off his face, landing casually in his lap. He stared right back at her.

"Hey."

"Thanks for-"

"Don't mention it."

She nodded and then glanced towards the door.

Frank was fuming. Which, perhaps, was odd. Because it was Frank, and Frank just didn't care about anything, did he? Or so people would think. When he landed outside Satan's with a sharp crack, he nearly scared the life out of Keiran Hayes. The headmaster was on his way inside, and nearly ran into the younger man. Jumping, Keiran cursed under his breath and shook his head at Longbottom.

"Merlin, Frank. Watch out, mate."

Frank waved a hand, making Keiran frown as they trailed inside to find Jack. When they walked into the meeting, Frank slumped into his chair and Keiran shot the other two a confused look - raised eyebrow included as ever. My my, how their roles had flipped.

"Jack, has there been an Order meeting?" Keiran asked straight out, crossing his arms as he stood behind his chair. "'Cause, I understand Oliver wanting to find out what's going on, but he could've told me he wasn't going to be round the shop. And if he wants to play it subtle, like he's said - disappearing isn't a great bit of help, is it?"

Frank looked up at that, surprised by Keiran's frustration after he'd been so casual outside. But while Frank couldn't see the truth of the matter, it was concern for one of his mates that led to the tone and refusal to wait for the conversation to come around to the right spot.

"I know you're not meant to tell people, mate, but you've got to. This could affect all of us."

Frank was a roller coaster. Who the hell knew who he was showing up as at any given time - and then there was the literal part of that statement. Jack's mouth thinned into a line, and she began, "It'll just be-" But Keiran was pressing forward, and she could see that he meant business. She suspected that he would probably be tempted to walk out the door if she tried to sidestep it, tried to get around it.

So she cleared her throat and finished. "It'll just be us today. Usual for Fred and-"

"Gabby?" Kip asked, a bit quicker than she might have expected.

"He'll be late, I imagine."

Kip frowned, and Jack didn't like what she saw behind his eyes. Distrust. She hated to admit she had more than her share of uncertainty towards her once-friend, but she knew it was going to need to be addressed. And probably sooner rather than later.

Frank's words had an air of finality that corroborated what she had sensed out of Keiran. They wanted to know. They needed to know. Hell, they deserved to know.

Maybe one day they'd realize that she'd like nothing more than to be fully open with the group of people she had gathered in this room. It was why she had chosen them.

So she got on with it.

"There's not an Order meeting," Jack said. "Oliver's in no way fit to be seen by the Order."

These men were clever. They could put two and two together. Jack had pulled Oliver out of the swirling flames of an enchanted fire meant to devour any living matter it got in its grip. The fact that she was here before them, as briefly as she had been in the building, was a testament to the odd mix of luck and resilience that had followed her throughout her life. Jack reached up and ran a hand through her hair, wincing as she had accidentally moved the arm that bore evidence of her own sacrifice.

Not nearly as great as Oliver's.

"I don't know if you want to know exactly where he is," she said, eyes resting especially on Keiran.

"Plausible deniability," Kip murmured thoughtfully, eyes trained on a spot on the floor, quiet as he considered the implications of his sister's statement.

"Right," she said, giving Kip a grateful nod. "But there's no way anyone could track him down. As for the Order, I don't know that they will have a meeting. I think..." She paused, and she found, even with her complicated history with the organization, that the weight of history echoed in her words. "I think they did more than burn down the Headquarters. There's a good chance.." She took a deep breath, hoping to brace herself.

But there was Kip. Bringing eloquence to even the worst of situations. "That the phoenix isn't rising from the ashes."

Jack nodded, and there was something so remarkably... human about the moment.

"Yes."

Keiran, still hovering behind his chair, didn't take as long as Frank did to understand what she meant. His chin dipped and his hand came up to run down his face, pulling grievously at his features. "F*ck."

It took him a minute, but he finally felt able to sit down between Kip and Frank once she continued. Keiran's eyes jumped between the pair of them, but by the time Jack came to some sort of conclusion, Frank was staring at the ceiling. Keiran stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether he thought Frank knew something or if he was just in shock.

Apparently it was the latter.

"We don't want to know," Frank decided for him. And although Keiran nodded, Frank didn't look at them. In fact, he just closed his eyes. Order member or not, the downfall of a group like that could prove devastating. There were only four of them in the room. What could they reasonably do when it came down to it? Sure, they had Fred they could count on as well, but that still only made five.

Five against an army of Death Eaters, who basically bred their own members if they did the brainwashing parenting correctly.

"They'll rebuild," Frank added, wanting to believe it. His tone was firm, like there was nothing else for it. But that just wasn't true. "They'll rebuild and Oliver will... get better or something. And then it won't just be us and Fred against all of them."

Keiran sighed heavily. "It might not, mate. And you know that. Of all of us, you know better."

And that wasn't a slight against Jack and all she'd done, or Kip and all he could come up with. But Frank's family had such a history. Generations of it. His father had been part of the original resistance, so Keiran could understand the man's, well... resistance against the idea. Of course he wouldn't want to have to follow in those footsteps. Who could blame him?

Frank let his head roll to one side, gaze landing directly on Keiran when his eyes opened again. For a moment, he just glared. But then he said something he shouldn't have. "I'm no coward, Hayes. I just know a thing or two about odds. See, the odds are that, of the people in this room - you'd die first. And with your kids and the ex-wife you aren't really over yet, and your bloody guilt complex, you aren't going to let that happen. You'll be long gone before we have to do anything. And then where will we be?" He shrugged. "Probably wherever Oliver is right now."

And never - never - had Keiran worn a look with so much venom. Not even when he finally broke and attacked Millie for what she'd done with that other man. Not even then.

"If you want to leave this room in one piece, Frank, I suggest you shut your mouth. I doubt you've heard the story, but I've done much worse to men much stronger than you."

Jack normally wouldn’t mind being the bearer of bad news. She had taken the fall enough times in her life to know the drill, and in the end, it was always better to know anyway. But this wasn’t some distant report of tensions in Russia or rumors in America. This wasn’t a theory she was working on or a gut feeling about something nefarious coming their way. This was real. This had happened. And it had happened to one of their friends.

And none of them had the confidence that it would all turn out for the best. Maybe that was the difference between them and the Order. Jack and her band of Merry Men had no scraps of false hope.

Jack nodded firmly at Frank’s words, glad for the decision. Somehow, she sensed Oliver didn’t want her to start making exceptions to his ‘tell no one’ rule. And as much as she trusted them, it didn’t seem fair to make that call for someone else. Especially someone who was going to spend quite some time trying to reclaim any sense of trust in the world.

She supposed idealism died hard, because Frank was trying to convince them of his faith in the Order, but Jack wasn’t even sure he had convinced himself. He certainly hadn’t convinced Keiran, and Jack met the Slytherin’s eyes. Keiran, Jack, and Kip were outsiders. Keiran might have found his family ties later in life, but they weren’t like Frank, with his connections extending deep into the past and reaching forward to the future, demanding the legacy continue. They had to build their own legacies.

And maybe it was the pressure. Maybe it was the sense that he had failed his parents or grandparents. But Frank lashed out at Keiran, causing Jack to call out his name curtly, but he pressed on, and Keiran rose to the attack. Jack pounded her fist on the table, causing Kip to flinch next to her. “Goddamit, knock it off. Really?” Her eyes darted between the two of them. “If you two want to fight each other, that’s f*cking fine. Kip and I will go out and work. But I don’t think you do. Frank, if you really knew the odds, then you’d know mouthing off isn’t going to get you or us anywhere.” Her eyes wandered towards Keiran, checking in with him before she continued.

“Do you want to hear the plan or not?”

"You think I want this?" Keiran snapped, just as Frank shot out, "Oh, so there's already a plan? Good teamwork."

Keiran reached for his wand, pointing it threateningly at Frank. "I'm not kidding, you donut. Chill out. Either we're all in on this, or it could all fall to shit. So let's not make this any worse."

Frank huffed and crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. But he turned his attention on Jack without further question. His eyebrows did lift a little, trying to make a point to her that he was paying attention.

Sighing, Keiran glanced from Kip to Jack, and then towards the door. Was Gabby even coming? Without Frank or Mira or Gabby, what good were they really? Too few and too conflicted, even amongst themselves. What a mess.

"Go ahead, then," Keiran said, finally turning back towards Jack. "What's this plan you've got?"

Everyone was always talking about how this is the problem with the ________, fill in Ministry, Order, any organization here. Everyone tended to think it was unique to their cause alone, but Kip understood that the moment two people decided to work together, there was going to be friction. At three, there was trouble. At four, chaos.

It didn't make it hopeless though.

Those who persisted onward among the chaos were the ones to see real change and progress. Victories came from good groups of people making small decisions every day. It wasn't one big gesture, one show of strength. It required more patience and understanding than that.

Unfortunately, a show of hate did not play by those rules. It wasn't subtle nor patient. And this what they were up against.

"Frank, you are apart of this team. We'll let you know if that changes. Until then, you might want to remember we're on your side." Kip's voice lacked the aggression or accusation that would have leaked out from the others, had they tried. Kip gave him a bracing look and turned towards Jack.

"Plan might have been a strong word," she conceded. "I have the start of one though." She withdrew from one of her pockets a long, oak wand, placing it on the table. "A few people were disarmed during the battle. Obviously, Bishop and the Aurors took them for their investigation. I figured they could do without one."

Kip's brow furrowed. "That's-"

"From the Zabini party," Jack said, nodding. "Claire rounded most of them up. I don't think Kenna even noticed, but I lifted this off her," she said, glancing towards Keiran, who was probably trying to remember such a thing. "I figure it's probably a big jump to assume those were two unrelated incidents. Could be, but it's really the only lead we've got."

Jack cleared her throat. "Not much, but a start. If we can track down one of them, we can work our way up the line. Obviously, I don't think we want to tip them off that we're looking into it. Not yet, anyway."