She whispered

by Lucas Chesterton

  ‘That’s nonsense, Jack!’ Lupin hissed sharply. ‘Where would you be today without Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix?’

  For a few seconds, Daysen did not reply. Then he sighed. ‘Dead, probably. As I should be, in all truth.’

  ‘Come off it! I don’t believe a word you say!’

  Daysen saw Lupin’s bitter and knowing grin and shot him a dark look before staring out of the window again.

  ‘What’s so interesting out there, anyway?’ Remus asked, picking up on a tension in the other man.

  However, Daysen continued to stare outside for a few more seconds, then turned away. ‘Nothing’, he said with his most impassive face.

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘Never mind’, replied Daysen and it sounded final. ‘Let’s talk about your scheme a little more. Who would you have in the Order? It’s original cast has quite thinned out ���’

  ‘So you are interested?’

  ‘I’m talking hypothetically.’

  Remus supressed a chuckle. ‘Well, I was thinking of the usual suspects. The Golden Trio, of course ���’

  ‘Of course’, sighed Daysen.

  ‘The Weasleys. Minerva McGonagall. Anyone from the original members who are still alive and dedicated, although I’d pass over Mundungus Fletcher who’d have difficulties with the secrecy aspect ���’

  Daysen cast up his eyes and murmured ‘Thank God ���’

  ‘But we need new members. People who like the new developments as little as we do, who are trustworthy and well-connected ���’

  ‘Take your pick!’ Daysen’s scoff was dry and harsh.

  ‘What about Nell Nolan, for instance?’

  Jack looked surprised and doubtful at equal measures.

  ‘She provided valuable information to the Order during the war’, Remus explained. ‘Dumbledore knew her well. And because she has suffered a lot, I’m pretty sure that she is wary about the recent course and would be prepared to take an active interest.’

  He looked challengingly at Daysen who stood unmoving and eventually gave an almost imperceptible nod of assent. ‘Who else?’

  Remus, too, took his time. ‘Eddie Hincks’, he suggested.

  ‘No bloody way!’ cried Daysen. ‘There are too many giddy Gryffindors already. I prefer to keep my breakfast in!’

  ‘Make a suggestion then’, Remus said gruffly.

  Daysen grinned crookedly. ‘What about Draco Malfoy?’

  ‘No bloody way!’ cried Remus. ‘A known Death Eater?’

  ‘Like me.’

  ‘That’s different. Draco hasn’t redeemed himself, not in my eyes. Plus, the Golden Trio would find it difficult to keep their breakfast in.’

  ‘I vouch for him’, Daysen said, ‘and certainly the Golden Trio, too, must find a way of dealing with past resentments?’

  ‘They’re doing it every day’, Remus growled. ‘Do you?’

  Daysen acted as if he hadn’t heard. ‘Here’s the deal’, he stated, ‘if Draco can’t get into it, Hincks can’t, either. If you and I are supposed to be the new founding members, we should have an equal vote.’

  Again, Remus supressed a smile. He realized that Daysen wasn’t as averse to the reopening of the Order as he tried to make Lupin believe. He would hardly have spoken of himself as a ‘new founding member’ if it had been different. But as always, Jack Daysen’s first response to any kind of suggestion was a sneering ‘No’. Remus resolved to test it further. ‘How about Elena, then?’ he suggested.

  ‘Certainly not!’ A very deep line had appeared on Jack’ forehead. ‘What are you thinking? She hardly deserves the title ‘witch’ yet, she cannot take a Blasting jinx without loosing her wand, and even when it comes to essentials, she is quite ���’

  ‘Nonsense!’ Remus broke in. ‘She saved your life, Jack. Twice!’

  ‘She was lucky.’

  ‘She was also very brave and resourceful.’

  But Daysen shook his head fiercely. ‘I do not want her to have any part in such schemes. It is too dangerous! An Order member is required to put his or her life on the line if need be. It would be unfair to ask that of her!’

  However, Lupin was not prepared to let this one go. ‘Of course, we wouldn’t send her on a perilous mission just yet! However, she has a lot going for herself, apart from being involved already by her association to you. Most of all, she blends wonderfully into the Muggle world as hardly anyone of us can, not even Hermione. This might be important.’

  ‘Important how?’

  Remus didn’t answer at once, but swayed his head from side to side. ‘There’s a lead I’m following right now ��� concerning Crowley’s money.’

  ‘A lead?’

  ‘A lead into the Muggle world. ��� Look, I wasn’t planning on telling you just yet, because I’m not certain. But I have a suspicion that the Crowleys’ money comes, to some extents, from deals with the Muggle world. In fact, I believe that he might be selling magic ���’

  ‘But that’s illegal!’

  ‘Oh, really?’ Lupin’s sardonic face made Jack twitch with chagrin at the obviousness of his remark. ‘Well, if we can prove it, the guy is finished!’

  Daysen twitched uncomfortably. ‘Maybe. But I don’t want Elena involved.’

  Remus sighed. ‘She is a grown-up, Jack. She can ��� and will ��� decide for herself.’

  ‘Don’t I know it’, the other man scoffed.

  Lupin smiled vaguely. ‘You know, there is a wild theory going round ���’

  Daysen raised his head sharply.

  ‘It’s more of a running gag, really’, Lupin went on, his eyes dancing, ‘claiming that you have put Elena Horwath under an Imperius to make her do as you please ���’ He knew very well that it would probably make Daysen flare, but he couldn’t resist. As it was, however, he was surprised, because the black-clad wizard only stared at him blankly.

  ‘She never does as I please’, he said after a few seconds and there was a marked sigh of resignation in his voice.

  ‘And yet’, Lupin said slyly, ‘just this morning a young Ministry official complained to me that for all he knows you might have given her quite a strong love potion.’

  Now the black eyes became wide. ‘Here comes’, thought Remus, ‘he’s going to explode’. But nothing happened. Instead, Daysen’s face softened and the corners of his mouth jumped. When he spoke, it was in his silkiest of purrs. ‘I have long ago ceased to comment on people’s random opinions about me.’ He turned his face to the window again and there was an expression on it that Remus found difficult to place. Sly and smug, but also thoughtful and somehow ��� serene? Of course, Jack and serenity were antitheses. However, the fact that these two terms coincided in this very short and fleeting moment registered with Remus Lupin, and he wondered. He remembered the night when he had been called by Harry to the lighthouse on a rescue mission, and how Jack had fussed over an unconscious Elena. Not fussed, really. Jack Daysen didn’t fuss. He’d been irritable, bossy, set on counselling St. Mungo’s healers who’d rolled their eyes behind his back. In short, he’d been worried to the point of despair. Had anything happened between those two? Remus’ fine lupine instincts told him that something had changed, and he could even see it in the way Daysen held himself, yes, in fact it was visible in the way he walked and moved, a litheness that hadn’t been there before, and Remus found himself thinking ��� with a certain amount of mirth ��� ‘Gee, Elena, what have you done with him?’. He didn’t find it difficult to guess at the answer. And if he was right, it explained quite a lot.

  ‘We don’t have to decide on members yet’, he said matter-of-factly. ‘At first, we should decide whether to open the Order of the Phoenix at all ���’

  ‘And where’, Daysen interjected. ‘Certainly, this address has been compromised.’

  ‘Yes. Yaxley.’

  ‘Has he been found, by the way?’

  ‘Nope. He’s still on the lo
ose. And from the way we haven’t received any tips on him for quite a long time now, I am guessing that he has left the country.’

  ‘Very likely. He might have passed on his knowledge, though. Which means that we cannot use this place as headquarters.’

  ‘I disagree. ��� Since officially the Order of the Phoenix will not exist, it doesn’t matter where we meet. This is a private house owned by Harry Potter. He can invite anyone he likes. ��� Also, I’m quite sure you could put a number of new spells on the place? After all, you made a fortress out of your own home.’

  ‘I might have an idea or two’, murmured Daysen, almost dreamily. Then, suddenly, he shook himself and said, ‘Leshnikov.’

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘I was meaning to ask you that. More than two weeks ago, I filed a report with the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement detailing how Leshnikov was on the warpath against me for weeks and months, how he had two thugs commissioned to kill me and eventually kidnapped my student to get to me. ��� I have never heard back. Was I under an illusion assuming that it was the Ministry’s job to investigate the matter?’

  ‘They tried’, Remus assured him. ‘Granted, they might have tried harder, but ��� it was a frustrating mission. Volodimir Leshnikov might as well have been a ghost.’

  ‘I assure you, he wasn’t a ghost!’

  ‘Yes. The Ministry has yours and Elena’s testimony for that.’

  Daysen glared, then narrowed his eyes. ‘Oh, I understand! No one but Elena and I has seen him! This is why he has to be a figment of our imagination, she being a little magical ing��nue, and me ��� well, being me.’

  Remus sighed. However, softening blows for Jack Daysen was useless. ‘No one has ever heard of Leshnikov. No one has ever met him. His base could not be found. To some people, your past is like a snake pit where anything could come up. And Elena ���’

  ‘Yes, yes, she’s being Imperio’d by me. She’d say anything I tell her.’ Daysen scoffed bitterly. ‘I should be so lucky ���’

  ‘We could put that on the priority list of the new Order of the Phoenix’, Remus suggested gently. ‘I’m sure Arthur Weasley could make some headway there. Anyway, all the occurrences that we think do not get proper treatment by the Ministry we could ���’

  ‘I get it, I do’, Daysen interrupted impatiently.

  ‘Do you also get how important it might be that we re-open the Order of the Phoenix?’

  Again, Lupin expected a scathing reply. It would have been characteristic. However, Jack merely said a hasty ‘I’m beginning to’ and made it clear that his final decision on the matter had not yet been taken. He was far to invested by now, anyway, into staring out of the window and Lupin sensed that inwardly Daysen had already left this sitting room and Grimmauld Place.

  They bade each other goodbye shortly afterwards, with promises of getting in touch and letting each other know about their respective findings and decisions. The manner in which they parted was almost companionable. Certainly, they had never had much time for each other, but the past they had lived through and their cooperation for the very institution they were now thinking about reinstalling had given them a connection, a common purpose and a possibility. Remus Lupin, in any case, left no. 12 Grimmauld Place with a feeling of tentative optimism. After all, having Jack Daysen as a possible ally was not half bad ���

  A few minutes later, Jack walked away from Grimmauld Place with long determined strides. The rain was again no more than a drizzle and darkness had started to fall, but he was almost oblivious to his surroundings, although moving in the Muggle world usually made him feel on edge. Now, he hardly noticed the dirty looks his out-worldly appearance, his fluttering cloak and long greasy hair earned him. In his mind, he went over the details of the conversation he’d just had.

  Re-open the Order of the Phoenix ��� He hadn’t let it on to Lupin ��� he hated to give away his thoughts too soon ��� but the idea intrigued him. He saw the opportunities such a measure might provide. Also, he grudgingly acknowledged the need for it. If only half of what Lupin had told him today was true, it would certainly not hurt to install a structure independent from the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement to ensure that the wizarding world ��� weak and confused as its present state was ��� would not again be usurped by malignant forces. He saw the self-righteousness in it, as well; after all, who were they to decide what was good for their magical peers? Yet again, didn’t they who had been at the front line of the last conflict have a certain right to decide just that, and fight against their version being edited and falsified?

  Plus, there was another argument that Daysen found difficult to disregard. A powerful wizard needed associates, to have a wider range of action, to learn and to further his abilities. Albus Dumbledore wouldn’t have been quite as powerful without the Order backing him up. After all, power was still a strong incentive for Jack Daysen. He knew very well that his past attempts at it had been too impetuous and hence doomed to fail. At the same time, he still wanted it. A new, albeit clandestine, Order of the Phoenix might help him to go about it in the right way. Walking along the pavement, he mused on all this, and with every step, Lupin’s proposal started to look brighter.

  Suddenly, Jack stopped in his tracks. He found himself standing at a crossing. Cars honked, raced by. Traffic lights switched from green to yellow to red, and back again. People under umbrellas hurried back and forth and he stood there, in the drizzle, the back of his neck itching. Carefully, he glanced over his shoulders. Nothing. Had he been mistaken?

  He walked on, but his attention was now on the uneasy feeling of being watched. He’d had it before, in fact ever since the moment he had Disapparated from Hogwarts today. He remembered what a snotty young Ministry official had told him, that these days ‘there were sure means of ascertaining a man’s whereabouts at any time’. What had it meant? Watch wards, it occurred to him. However, those were only a means of ensuring that a witch or wizard complied with certain restrictions. They didn’t account for the feeling he had now, as if someone was constantly on his heels, as if an observing shadow had tagged itself to him ���

  Daysen had an idea. There was a church nearby and he quickly checked the clock. He still had time for another call, and it wasn’t far, either, just a fifteen minutes’ walk due south ��� His pace picked up speed and he walked on, ever aware of the itch in his back. It didn’t go away, followed him at every turn.

  Since there was nothing to be done about it at the moment, Jack allowed his mind to roam. It invariably brought him to Elena. He hadn’t allowed himself to think about her too much, partly because he was afraid that the feeling of elation he’d had since the previous evening would be buried beneath fears and doubts that invariably took over once he started to analyse and rationalize his feelings. He wanted to keep all that away a little bit longer.

  And so he concentrated on the image he had of her in his mind, sitting on the other side of that table in the Hog’s Head, smiling, eyes wide and open. He mused on how, when she was with him, she was always completely and utterly ‘there’ and how this was an entirely new experience to him. He pondered on how good it had felt to talk to her, and the thought made him feel queasy. It was addictive, and he knew he had to watch it. He hated any kind dependence because it made him vulnerable and limited his freedom. Yet, he found resisting it increasingly difficult.

  He sighed, twitched, walked on. Not far now. He had to concentrate on the conversation he was about to have in a few minutes. There might be some persuasion to be done, and subtly. Meticulously, Jack went through the details of what he was going to say.

  All the same, his thoughts returned to Elena at the slightest occasion. He saw her large forest-green eyes at every turn. And he wondered what she was up to right now ���

  Unbeknownst to Jack Daysen, Elena Horwath was not so far away. She was sitting in a little caf�� off Diagon Alley, a tiny basement place with the tell
ing name ‘Persephone’s Den’, facing Cassandra Cleary over a rickety table and a steaming cup of cappuccino, and a good one, too, fancy that. They had been sitting there for the best part of an hour, chatting easily and naturally. Elena felt warm and cosy, although everything in this quiet little haven appeared crooked and dusty with formidable spider webs forming in the corners, but lately she was getting used to dodgy wizarding places and found that she liked them. She also found that she liked Cassie Cleary and wondered whether she might have found a new friend. Elena hardly dared to think about this because she didn’t make friends easily and besides, she needed one too much right now and in her experience needing anything too much usually ensured that you didn’t get it. Yet, talking to Cassie was easy. It also calmed her down.

  They had got together for tea only the other day, after the hearing, and it had turned out to be a nice surprise. They could have gone on nattering all day. However, at some point Elena had gotten restless, anticipating an encounter with Jack as soon as she got home. Where Cassie was concerned, it had been Elena’s intention to let off for a few days to not scare her new acquaintance away with too much eagerness. However, by this morning she had once again become restless. The reason was, of course, the previous evening with her ��� what, actually? teacher? lover? friend? The first category was safe enough, however, with regard to the others, she was confused. As elated as she had felt when she’d gotten home last night ��� her ears still filled with his silky voice, her eyes drunk by the sight of him ��� the morning had coldly presented her with the fact that she still didn’t know where she was with him. She might have broken some patterns, but where had it got her?

  From the moment she’d gotten out of bed, taken a lukewarm shower and prepared a breakfast basically consisting of a big pot of coffee, she had not been able to resist going over every tiny detail of the encounter. Something about her needed this analysing and ordering of facts. In that way, maybe, she was a little like him who was probably the master of achieving emotional distance by rationalization. The problem was that too much pondering killed her gut feeling and left her confused, hence restless.