'If You Are Working On Something That You Really Care About, You Don't Have To Be Pushed. The Vision Pulls You.'
chapter three
the meeting
Fear.
Fear is acceptance. Acceptance that you're weaker than something else. That you're scared of it so much that it has got you chilled down to the core.
The Dark Lord lived off this fear, like a parasite. People were so afraid of him that they weren't even willing to accept the fact that he's back.
However, there were some brave enough to not let this fear gnaw off them. Those who managed to override this fear were mostly a part of The Order of the Phoenix.
Alicia obviously didn't fear Voldemort. For her he was just a notorious dark wizard who is to be defeated sooner or later.
All the wizarding history books about him didn't manage to instil a fear in her, instead she pitied his poor choices of execution. For example : waiting each year for Harry's school year to begin instead of directly attacking his muggle house when he has nobody around to defend him. Dumbledore obviously didn't sleep in the room next to him, did he?
Well, but what can she say? She is new to the timeline. Maybe only a near-death experience will be able to make her truly fear the Dark Lord.
This thought reminded her of Tonks, the woman Sirius Black was talking about, who as far as Alicia recalled died at the end of the war.
With a puzzled expression, Alicia turned to Dumbledore as to ask who this Tonks is, but of course she knew Nymphadora Tonks, the thing was, how is she similar to Tonks?
Dumbledore just cleared his throat and said, "Let's get inside, the meeting must begin."
Of course, her very first meeting with the actual Order.
"This side." Sirius motioned towards the direction he had emerged from and Alicia began following the men into the house.
They went through the door from the hall and led the way down a flight of narrow stone steps and through a door leading into the basement kitchen.
It was scarcely less gloomy than the hall above, a commodious room with stony walls. Most of the light came from a large fire on the back of the room. The air was filled with a haze of pipe smoke.
Many chairs were squeezed into the room for meeting with a long table in the middle and many witches and wizards were sitting there, talking amongst themselves.
They hushed down on hearing them enter.
Sirius and the other man with him went to acquire their seats by the end of the table, but Dumbledore motioned for her to stay where she was.
Curious gazes landed on her. Some relieved to see a new member join the cause, some bare of any reaction given they didn't know or recognise her.
Before she could begin to mentally inspect the members sitting there, Dumbledore started introducing them to her.
"This is Alastor Moody." he motioned towards a menacing looking wizard who had one fake eye about whom Alicia had been told prior her assignment.
"Yeah, I know him, Mad-Eye Moody." replied Alicia to which Dumbledore hummed and Moody grunted in response.
"Elphias Doge," Dumbledore continued. The wizard seated next to Mad-Eye nodded in reply.
"Dedalus Diggle━" a wizard wearing a violet-colored hat squeaked in response, "━Emmeline Vance━" a stately looking witch in an emerald-green shawl inclined her head, "━Sturgis Podmore━" a square-jawed wizard with thick straw-colored hair nodded, "━Hestia Jones━" a black-haired witch smiled at her, "━Nymphadora Tonks━" a violet haired witch waved at her.
"━and of course you know him, Kingsley Shacklebolt━" Dumbledore pointed at a man who was unmistakably a twenty years younger version of Kingsley,"━Molly Weasley━" Dumbledore pointed at a red-haired witch who smiled warmly towards her, "━Remus Lupin.", Dumbledore motioned towards the ill-looking man from earlier.
"And a few more members who couldn't make it to today's meeting." he finished as Alicia swept her eyes over the people crammed into the room.
"Everyone, this is Alicia Jones." Dumbledore pointed at Alicia who in response smiled warmly at all of them.
The few seconds silence was broken was a sudden sweep of curious murmur among the Order members.
"Jones? As in Hestia Jones?" questioned Sirius, wrinkling his brows.
"Um, no. Just a coincidence. I am muggleborn. This surname is quite common in muggles." Alicia replied without missing a beat.
"Miss. Jones, I would like you to show your identity card to everyone." instructed Dumbledore.
Handing her card to the nearest person, who turned out to be Mad-Eye Moody, she looked at Dumbledore who gave her a reassuring nod.
The card was passed through the table.
It was as if a bomb has been just dropped on them. Everybody was stunned, some of their mouths hanging open and then everybody spoke at once.
"If she was born in 1987, then how come she is this old?"
"Yeah! You must be only around 8 years old!!"
"What kind of joke is this?!"
"Nonsense!"
Alicia wringed her hands together, the overlapping voices were too much to take.
But, well, she should have expected this kind of reaction.
"This organisation is not any joke kiddo! Understand it!" Moody growled glaring furiously at her.
"I think that we should let her give an explanation." Remus commented trying to ease the tension.
"Playing jokes here! Such a waste of our time!" Sturgis Podmore muttered furiously.
"Is this a prank?" Tonks asked, amusement lacing her voice.
God, she was beginning to regret her decision of telling the whole Order.
"SILENCE!!" Dumbledore's voice boomed, immediately silencing everyone.
"No, it's not any joke Mr. Moody, Mr. Podmore." spoke Dumbledore calmly, turning his gaze to the said people.
"And thank you Mr. Lupin, you are quite right, there is room for explanation. And I shall be the one to answer all your questions, not her, as I am the one to bring her here." continued Dumbledore. "Who is she? As I told Ms. Alicia Jones. Where did she come from? London. But the question is from when? She is 29 years old even if her identity card says otherwise. She is from the future."
A series of curious murmurs broke across the room, overlapping the sharp breath Alicia had sucked in at Dumbledore's declaration.
"She is sent here to change certain things that turned out to be big mistakes in her present, twenty sixteen, meanwhile helping us with her knowledge of this timeline."
"How can she travel around 21 years back in time?" asked a very suspicious looking Mad-Eye Moody.
"I agree that I can't travel twenty one years back. But, it's based on this timeline's advancements. In twenty sixteen, we have achieved greater heights and have advanced quite a lot." Alicia replied calmly.
It seems like The Order had finally begun to trust her.
"So you are a time-traveller?" asked an amused looking Tonks.
"Yeah, I guess so." Alicia responded with a small smile.
"What kind of clothes do you wear in twenty sixteen?" asked Tonks.
But before Alicia could say something Kingsley cleared his throat, and eyed Tonks accusingly, "Nevermind that, Ms. Jones. What kind of things or incidents do you intend to change?"
"There are a few very minute, unnoticeable incidents which led to a series of events which had caused some major issues." Alicia began explaining, as keen ears turned to her. "In order to not meddle with the timeline, I cannot disclose the future incidents. But I would like to make everyone of you aware of the nearing calamity. Something has happened in my time, which could be only solved by my involvement in your time."
"But won't your involvement tamper the timeline?" Remus asked, voicing the question swimming in everybody's mind.
"It was already written to be this way, Mr. Lupin. This is what that is meant to happen. I know valuable information of your time. Ones that can help you indescribably. And I assure you, I'm not going to fail you. However, you all must be warned, I cannot fix everything. Some things have to go bad. Some things which were meant to happen, will happen. I'll only change the things that I am meant to change".
"And how will you know which are those things?" Kingsley inquired.
"It will be in my instinct. Because that is how the timeline works. This might sound like fiction to many of you, but, I assure you that the timeline is a well learnt and understood concept in twenty sixteen. To put it modestly, the timeline is our best friend out there in future. We—" Alicia stopped short, suddenly interrupted by the kitchen door being thrown open.
Everyone drew out their wands on instinct but lowered it on seeing a thin red-haired man with horn-rimmed glasses enter the room.
He putted his hands on his knees and drew a deep breath and then spoke in a panicked voice, "Dementor attack on Harry!"
Alicia's first Order meeting was now officially disrupted.
⊱ ────ⓛⓘⓔⓢ──── ⊰
actual publish date : 2 June 2021
republish date : 7 Oct 2022
previous word count : 956
new word count : 1482