The blonde clears her throat, trying to move on from the very awkward tense environment that has settled in the men's silence. "Well, you might as well catch me up on what's been happening while I was in the dark..." And that's what they did, telling Mikayla who chose to fight by her side, and the valid excuses the others had. Remus told her all the exciting news of Tonks and Alice's pregnancy, and that the Montgomery family have joined the Order.
The Montgomery and Vane families have both moved to Blackcarra two weeks ago, so now Faolan, Eleanor and little Sammy will be joining Remus and Séan during the Full Moons. They were building there own pack in a way, and Mikayla was absolutely delighted that Remus was finally allowing himself be happy, and accepting his lycanthropy and allowing other werewolves fully into his everyday life.
"Belvine is also planning on moving to the town, alongside her new werewolf boyfriend and our newest Order member, Danny Campbell." Fred adds making Mikayla squeal excitedly at the news, "her and Danny finally got together! I swear she's been pining over him as long as I've known her." Remus nodded his head in confirmation, making a beaming grin etch it's way onto Mikayla's face. She was ecstatic that even in the heat of a war, people were still finding the time to make new connections, or form new relationships, and find love.
When Mikayla was left alone, the others needing to return home to get ready to go into hiding, she was left behind with the bittersweet peace of solitude. With all the great happy news, she is reminded of the time that Moody redid the Fidelius Charm making her the sole Secret Keeper. Moody believed that Mikayla had to be more careful with who she can truly trust, wanting her to whittle down the size of her close circle, and Mikayla did. She had blindly trusted everyone in the Order, at the time she believed that it's leader had nothing but her best interest at heart, but as her rose coloured glasses shattered, so did her circle of trust.
Mikayla had decided when Carra Manor became her own secret location, that she wouldn't share it with anyone, because she could only completely trust herself. Moody had said that everyone has a price, that loyalties can easily shift, priorities could change, and that she would have to be brutal to separate who she loved from who she trusted. Saying that being able to differentiate between trust and love was something most failed to do, because love blinds you into trusting someone that didn't deserve it.
The more those thoughts stirred and spun around in her mind, the worst she felt for ever even considering to follow that advice. Mikayla is by no means an idiot, and she will not allow history to repeat itself, because she knows that those words were exactly what planted doubt in the generation before hers. That those very words is what lead to the true destruction of the Marauders. Those words lead to the Marauders keeping secrets and withholding information from the people they considered family. They planted doubts in the loyalty of their closest of ties, their chosen family.
Remus had been sworn to not tell anyone that he was running with the Werewolves, much like Mikayla had been forced to keep secrets from her family, and it made him come off as suspicious. That made it hard for the other Marauders to trust him, his forced secrecy led to him not being told that Peter was made Secret Keeper, instead of Sirius. After hearing of Lily and James' deaths, Remus had no reason to believe that Sirius was innocent because as far as he knew, Sirius had been the Secret Keeper, he had been the betrayer.
It didn't help Sirius case that his entire family, apart from Andromeda, was openly supporting Voldemort and he had been in correspondence with Regulus before he died. As for Peter, he was left forgotten by his closest friends. They no longer focused on keeping each other safe, or interacting with each other outside of Order meetings and eventually Peter lost sight on what he had been fighting for. He was offered protection, or least the promise not to brutally murder him or his family, for whispers of information from the Order. However as the war progressed, protection began to cost more and eventually lead to him sentencing his own friends to death, prison and madness.
Mikayla doesn't think any less of Moody for what he warned her about, because she did know she had to be careful with who she trusted, outside of her family. The Weasleys, Lupins, and Tonks made up her inner circle, as well as her school friends, and it isn't as small like the time before her, but she wasn't being reckless with her trust either. Mikayla could never been mad at Moody for trying to dissuade her from trusting her loved ones, because she knew that he was merely parroting the man who could've stopped it all. Dumbledore.
He could've saved the James, Lily, Marlene, Dorcas, Sirius, etc. from their fates if he hadn't planted that doubt in each of them, or if he had been honest in what his true goal was in the first place. A man who collected followers with empty promises, big speeches about what is worth dying for, and effectively manipulating many inexperienced graduates to fight for him and die for him. It's time that Dumbledore's influence on the Order comes to an end, and that will start with those left behind with the truth of his corruption.
With those heavy thoughts weighing on her mind, Mikayla climbed into her bed, yawning wildly as she sank into the mattress. Her duvet wrapping around her small frame as she curled herself into a ball on her side, her unfocused eyes staring out her bedroom window. She picks up her alarm clock, setting it for six hours from now, before locking her bedroom door, pulling the blinds and sending her room into complete darkness. A wave of panic flooded her entire being, causing her breath to get caught in her throat before she quickly casted a Patronus.
The luminous silver dog padded along the bed, settling down by the blonde's feet and provided just enough light to calm Mikayla's racing heart. Mikayla stared at the dog, dragging in deep breaths and rhythmically tapping her hand against her stomach to centralise her mind. The dog's head lifted to stare back her, nuzzling it's nose into her calf to provide further comfort. "I-I need you t-t-to stay and watch over m-me while I sleep. C-can you do that?" The dog strangely nodded before lowering it's head to rest on top of her feet, the positive energy lulling her to a safe sleep.
Dawn seemed to follow midnight with indecent haste. Ron, Hermione and Harry were downstairs in the kitchen preparing for the mission after breakfast. They inhaled their breakfast of hot rolls and a cup of coffee that Kreacher had made them, while Hermione frantically mumbles a checklist, making sure they had everything in her beaded bag. "Robes, Polyjuice Potion, Invisibility Cloak, Decoy Detonators, Puking Pastilles, Nosebleed Nougat, Extendable Ears, Carra Curatio..."
At ten o'clock they set off upstairs, Kreacher bowing them out while wishing them good luck on their mission and final farewell to the trio that would no longer be residing with him. They made their way onto the front step with immense caution. They could see a couple of puffy-eyed Death Eaters watching the house from across the misty square. Hermione took one of each of the boys' hands before disapparating them to a tiny alleyway close to the Ministry's new entrances. Where they waited for their targets to arrive.
It took them ten minutes to get the jump on all of the people that they would be becoming; Albert Runcorn, Mafalda Hopkirk and Reginald Cattermole. Hermione grabbed a few hairs from each of the unconscious Ministry workers, putting them into three separate vials of Polyjuice Potion. When she turned to face the boys, "right, remember what we said. Don't speak to anybody, unless it is absolutely necessary." She reminded them as she handed Harry and Ron their vials of Polyjuice Potion.
Harry would be becoming Albert Runcorn, a wizard that was high up in the Ministry's ranks as he scoured the family trees of every witch, wizards and wixen to find if they had any trace of Muggle blood in their ancestry. He would bring his findings to the Minister and the Head of the Muggle-Born Registration Commission, who so happened to be Dolores Umbridge, and whoever he accused would be brought in for trial to prove they didn't 'steal' their magic. His high ranking and friendship would give Harry an opportunity to interrupt a trail to drag Ron into the courtroom to comfort his disguise's wife.
Ron was going to become Reginald Cattermole, he is a wizard that works in the Magical Maintenance Department at the Ministry. It was quite a low ranking job and didn't hold any power, but the trio believed it was necessary to become him. Reginald's wife, Mary Cattermole, was scheduled to be trial today after being accused of stealing magic from a witch as she is a Muggle-born. Spouses were allowed attend the trials, and therefore put Ron in position to steal the locket.
"Just try and act normal. Do what everybody else is doing. Do that and with a bit of luck we'll get inside. And then-" Harry cut in to say that's when their plan becomes really tricky. Hermione agreed with him as Harry says that the plan is completely mental. "The world is mental." Ron states seriously while Hermione moves in between him and Harry as they stare at the snoozing Ministry officials. "Come on. We have a Horcrux to find." Ron encourages them as they all shake their vial of Polyjuice.
Hermione was changing into Mafalda Hopkirk, a witch that worked as an assistant in the at the Improper Use of Magic Office. However, since the Ministry was secretly taken over by Voldemort and his Death Eaters, she has regularly been summoned to the court rooms to act as a Stenographer for the Muggle-Born Registration Commission trials. As Dolores Umbridge was leading the trials, it would put Hermione in a good position to obtain the locket from the wicked witches neck.
After the Polyjuice finished changing them into the Ministry officials, the trio quickly got changed into identical robes that the Ministry officials had been wearing. Thanks to Hermione's phenomenal Transfiguration skills. The three of them stepped out of the alleyway together, joining in with the crowd of Ministry members heading towards a spiked black railing. On each side of the railing was a flight of stairs, the left labelled 'LADIES' and the right-hand side labelled 'GENTLEMEN'.
The three of them slowed down as they approached the new entrances for the Ministry, mentally preparing for the mission and their brief separation where everything could fall apart. "Right, see you in there, then," Hermione whispered nervously before she walked off, down the steps towards the Ladies' restroom. Harry and Ron joined a number of oddly dressed men descending into what appeared to be an ordinary underground public toilet, tiled in grimy black and white.
"Ah Reg! Good morning." A wizard dressed in identical navy blue robes called out as he entered the bathroom. "Blooming pain in the bum, this, eh? Forcing us all to get to work this way! Who are they expecting to turn up, Harry Potter?" The wizard roared with laughter at his own wit. Ron gave a forced chuckle. "Yeah, stupid, isn't it? Maybe they're expecting Mikayla Black to show up to overthrow Thicknesse..." Ron joked, making Reginald's colleague roar in laughter, "that would be a sight. That girl sure is slippery." The man commented before it was time for the three of them to enter the cubicles.
A sound of flushing filled the air, Harry crouching down to peek through the gap beneath the cubicle. He watched as a pair of booted feet climbing into the toilet next door. He looked left and saw Ron blinking at him. "We have to flush ourselves in?" Ron whispered, his face paling slightly. "Looks like it," Harry whispered back, his voice came out deep and gravelly, "that's bloody disgusting." Ron muttered as they both straightened up and clambered into the toilet. There were knocks coming from outside their cubicles, people complaining that they were taking so long, so the pair reached up and pulled the chain.
Suddenly they were sucked down into the toilet, spinning around as they zoomed down a short chute, emerging out of a fireplace into the Ministry of Magic. The great Atrium seemed darker than the group remembered it from when they last visited for Fergal's trial, the golden fountain that had filled the centre of the hall, casting shimmering spots of light over the polished wooden floor and walls was gone.
Now there is a gigantic statue of black stone of a witch and a wizard sitting on ornately carved thrones, at least that's what they look like from where Harry stood. The words MAGIC IS MIGHT were engraved at the base of the statue in foot-high lettering. Harry received a heavy blow on the back of the legs, causing him to stumble forward as another wizard flew out of the fireplace behind him. "Out of the way! Can't y- oh, sorry, Runcorn." The balding man's eyes widened in fear before he quickly hurried away, getting lost in the sea of wizards.
Harry began walking towards the main statue, the trio had previously agreed to meet up there. As Harry got closer to the statue he realised his mistake, the stone witch and wizards weren't sitting on ornate thrones, they were sitting on mounds of carved humans. There were hundreds and hundreds of naked bodies; men, women, and children. All of them had rather stupid, ugly faces, twisted and pressed together to support the weight of the handsomely robed wizards. Hermione appeared on his left, "are those...?" Harry's whispers trailed off, unable to will the words from his mouth.
Hermione slowly nodded her face twisted in obvious distress, "Muggles, in their rightful place." The pair stared at the statue silently as Ron stopped beside Harry, tapping his elbow to alert Harry of his arrival. "Let me tell you, I'm starting to freak out a bit." Harry and Hermione agreed with Ron, this was all surreal and nerve-racking. "How long did you say this polyjuice potion will last, Hermione?" Harry asked in a whisper, pulling his eyes from the horrific statue to look at her instead. "I didn't." Hermione responded, worry evident in her tone.
"Come on, let's crack on and get out of this awful place as soon as bloody possible." Ron voiced quietly before they joined the stream of witches and wizards moving toward the golden gates in the direction of the lifts at the end of the hall. They looked around as surreptitiously as they possibly could for any sign of the wicked witch they were after, but alas Umbridge was no where to be seen.
They moved towards the closest lift, stepping inside one after the other, and just as the golden grill gates began to close a hand shot out to stop it, as a raspy voice called out, "Cattermole." The man's scowling, slightly brutish face was somehow at odds with his magnificent, sweeping robes, which were embroidered with too much gold thread. The trio immediately recognised the man, Corban Yaxley, as one of the Death Eaters who had witnessed Dumbledore's death and participated in the battle in the Astronomy Tower.
"Its still raining inside my office. That's two days now. Ron eyed Yaxley suspiciously before asking him if he had tried using an umbrella. "You think it's funny, Cattermole, do you? You realise I'm going downstairs don't you, Cattermole?" Ron's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "downstairs?" he questioned, Yaxley sternly nodding, "to interrogate your wife." Yaxley provided, staring at Ron in disgust, "now if my wife's blood status were in doubt, and the Head of Department of Magical Law Enforcement needed a job doing, I think I might just make that a priority. Wouldn't you?"
Yaxley paused waiting for Ron to give him a verbal, "yes, I'll get right on it." Ron responded, his voice barely above a whisper. "Good. You have one hour." With a nod and unpleasant smile to Harry, who was evidently expected to appreciate this treatment of Cattermole, Yaxley walked away. Now that Yaxley was no longer blocking the way, the golden frill gates of the lifts closed. Ron pressed the button for Level Two, where Yaxley office is located, and they all scrambled to grab a hold of something as the lift began to move backwards.