It was her goal for the night to be as normal and happy as possible.

For a woman who has been abducted by death eaters, dated and fell in love with one, and continues to fight in an underground society trying to end the reign of terror the death eaters have thrust upon the United Kingdom, it really wasn't as easy as one might think.

Edward, though, made it easy to be normal. He was nice, and sweet, and didn't pressure her into anything that she might not want to do. Not that she had been pressured before, it was just nice knowing that she had some bit of control over the pace of their relationship, and with the way things went. Edward was just a good guy, and that was what she needed in her life. No drama. No anxiety. No worries.

But of course, that overwhelmed her. He was too nice, and almost naive in some ways. The attack on Diagon Alley had once again forced Emmeline to realize that her life and the lives of those around her was never going to be danger free. Even if the death eaters hadn't specifically come after her, they could because they had. If it got out that she and Edward were serious, who knew what a death eater with a vendetta against her and the Order might do? She couldn't risk being the cause of another person's pain.

Be normal! Try and be normal, "Thank you for the ice cream," she cooed, tilting her chin up toward Edward. They'd stopped at a muggle shoppe, seeing as both were still a bit wary of Diagon Alley.

It was best to take matters into his own hands. The Order of the Phoenix had been infiltrated, and to calm the nerves of its members, Albus was going to meet with each one to manage a questioning of sorts. Auror Longbottom had used the word 'interrogation' but until he could find answers, Albus was going to believe in the group he had put together. While he wasn't naive, he did know how easily people could be corrupted, he had faith in the members of the Order, knowing that they had all always shown great strength when it came to making choices between right and wrong.

He sent out a patronus to one member at a time, not wanting to create a crowd in the house for that would only cause to build more tension. Dumbledore knew that the war did not seem to be turning in their favor, but while he was a man who loved to find answers, he always had a faith that would allow him to do so. He sat in the kitchen area, going over some final reports that his professors had finished while he waited for the next Order member to arrive.

The tentative footsteps approached the table and Dumbledore kept his head bowed for a moment before lifting his gaze up to meet the next Order member.

"Have a seat. Would you like a lemon drop?" He pushed the candy dish across the table.

( OOC )

"Ex--cuse, me---move, move, move!"

Didn't people know how to act in a time of crisis? You didn't stand around screaming bloody murder, staring at the rays of hexes and jinxes while you waited to get hit by one of them. You moved, you hid, you did whatever you could to stop the bloody death eaters that were interrupting the peace. You didn't become a distraction or something that could cause even more harm. Emmeline jumped and twisted and forced herself through the crowd of people surging in every which direction. This was going to be such a disaster.

Emmeline wished she hadn't offered to take the package to Flourish and Blotts. The package was too delicate to let an owl deliver it, Patrick had to head home early because of his daughter, and seeing as it was only a five minute walk, hey! Get some sun, earn some brownie points from the cousin who was constantly harassing her to do stuff other than ogle at her nerdy boyfriend! Haa. She wished she'd just refused and taken on the extra paperwork, but that meant that Edward would have probably taken the walk to Flourish and Blotts and Emmeline knew for a fact that he would have either frozen in terror or with his bad luck been shot in the head once the first death eaters showed up.

Okay, stop the morbid thoughts.

The door of Calliope's jingled pleasantly, completely ignorant of the chaos that was going on just down the block. Emmeline knew it wouldn't be long before they reached the publisher. "Edward! We've got to go!" she shouted, trying to keep her voice from sounding too stressed. "Come on!"

This wouldn't be weird, right?

Emmeline was pretty sure that this was friendly protocol; after all, she'd received presents from friends on her birthday all the time, and none of them had wanted to snog her! Well. She assumed so, anyway! This shouldn't be any different from all those other times, then. She and Edward were coworkers who happened to enjoy each other's companion, so of course she'd get him a birthday present!

The fact that she hadn't gotten the nerve to give him the present until there were only five minutes left in the work day left something to be said.

It was just that--her cousin was there all the time, and if Patrick saw her giving Edward a present it would end up in relentless teasing and then Edward would never speak or look at her again and---not that she cared if he looked at her but sometimes it was nice and why was the clock ticking so loudly? Emmeline let out a breath and rummaged for the wrapped gift in her drawer. She turned to present it from across the room to Edward, but saw that he wasn't there. Had he gone home! Wait! No, he was in the supplies closet, he'd just said!

She hurried up and kept the gift behind her back with one hand, moving down the short hallway until she reached the door of the supplies closet and peered in, "Almost time to go," she said, feeling warm already.

Edward,

I've grown tired of the journals and I'm bored because Alice is finding all of Neville's eggs for him--. How was your Easter? Where would you like to go to lunch tomorrow?

- Emmeline

In all the excitement and hub bub of Ms. Smith's book release (Emmeline had managed an autographed copy--probably not the most professional of things, but she was no professional, not yet), she had found a few minutes to actually appreciate the novel. Emmeline had no problem stepping out into the darkness of the night and battling death eaters, but there was no way she believed she could be brave enough to slap her name on a book that so obviously insulted and attacked the way the world was being run now. The book started off with a bang; you were already immersed in a world where muggleborns were enslaved like house-elves, and muggles were hunted for sport---

Emmeline's heels dropped from her desk as a drawer, or a door, shut behind her. The book dropped to her lap and she tried to look busy by wheeling herself properly under her desk and picking up a quill. Patrick usually just snarked about nepotism or something, but Edward was always quite concerned with how her work was coming. Who knew if he was going to be ridiculously frazzled about the book release or not.

"It's such a shame how no one in this world knows how to use a semicolon," she said, swiveling her chair slightly to see that it was indeed Edward, and not her older cousin. Well, at least she wouldn't get called Emmy or something silly like that.

The library had been cutting hours, and while Emmeline didn't particularly need the money, she needed the escape into her work. It was monotonous most of the time, but it was something to keep her occupied. These full days off in the middle of her week were beginning to grow tiresome, and Emmeline was now in search of a new job. She absolutely hated that she hadn't been able to keep a job for more than a few months at a time...but she found that it wasn't her, but the job that grew boring or...well...no, a lot of it was her, too.

There was nothing out there, though, that could maybe keep her interest. Some part of her wished she hadn't been burnt out at St. Mungo's as quickly as she had been, but Emmeline knew she wouldn't have been able to handle to hospital with everything that had gone on last year. So, what? A ministry desk job? She'd want to kill herself even faster than she had at the library. Diagon Alley? A store clerk? After all of her O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s? Everything seemed like such a waste of time, and the noise of this cafe was not helping her focus.

Frustrated, she dropped her newspaper and stared up and into the crowd of the cafe. She couldn't remember how she'd found this place, but it was muggle and out of the way, so---it was a great surprise to see someone she recognized from Hogwarts. Emmeline caught Barty Crouch's gaze and she acknowledged him with a quick smile before looking back down at the paper. She'd been friendly with him, at some point, but Emmeline felt no need to start a conversation with a man whose roommate she'd singlehandedly sent to Azkaban.

EMMELINE'S PATRONUS HAS BEEN DUBBED, SIR CATFACE MEOWMERS.

Emmeline kicked at the dirt on the ground, irritated as usual. She couldn't try to hide the fact that nearly every time the Order saw her she was in a foul mood, but she couldn't try to fight it, either. The Order had nothing but failures this past year, on her part, and now with the holidays coming all she could think about was last Christmas, and last New Year's, and how everything in her world had decided to implode.

At least they were giving her something to do. Emmeline had a feeling that Frank had been secretly vocal about limiting her missions and stake-outs, but with the missing children being on the top of the Order's priorities, everyone was needed on hand. It didn't help that the Ministry was now in a twitter about this 'Order of the Phoenix,' looking for any sort of hint as to what it might meant. Thankfully the death eaters hadn't gone into more specific details when dealing out their ransom, but that just made Emmeline more concerned; there had to be a reason why they kept their information on the Order a secret from the ministry.

Sirius Black was not, and never had been, her partner of choice. Emmeline used to enjoy his company, but in recent months she'd simply found him irritating. Emmeline partially blamed herself on that, as she found most people irritating these days, but Sirius was rather good at strengthening one's dislike for him. Being stuck on this stake-out with him was confusing, and she leaned on the window sill to stare out at the complex they had been scoping. The windows she and Sirius were staring out of were charmed to be that of a family setting up Christmas ornaments to anyone looking outside, but it was really an abandoned muggle flat Edgar Bones had found a few weeks back.

"And we're sure that they can't disapparate out of the building? Potter said they'd need to head down to the corner---I suppose they could go to the roof if they really want," She craned her neck upwards, trying to get a visual of the roof.

[who] Brier and Rory Stebbins, Emmeline Vance
[what] Trick Or Treating and some booboos.
[where] Emmeline's place
[status/rating] Finished. G.
( At least the yelling had stopped, even if the tears hadn't.  )

Not for the first time, Anneliese felt like an intruder in her own home. She slid as stealthily as possible out of her own bed, moving so slowly that at one point she felt like she hadn't been moving at all while holding her breath so forcefully it felt like her lungs were going to explode all to ensure that she didn't wake up Will. No, no, that would be bad. Thank Merlin he was a heavy sleeper, or else she was sure he would've woken up to the inadvertent kick she had given him after finally getting out of his reach and falling to the floor.

Frozen, she waited to hear him snore again before continuing to creep out of the room. Of course, Anneliese made a quick stop at Henry's room to make sure he was alright, but once that was settled she silently made her way to the task at hand.

Ever since Will had come home yesterday, he had been acting--- strange. That was the only way she could describe it, even after two days of pondering over it. And then--- Anneliese shook her head roughly, as if warding the thought away while she quietly tiptoed down the stairs to the main room. She didn't know what she thought she saw on his arm earlier today, but she would have sworn she saw lines or something, and then with the way he had been acting--- it could just as well have been a new mark she didn't know about or a tattoo for all she knew! But there was something else, in the pitt of her stomach bitting at her, telling her that--- that maybe she should get a second opinion.

Finally making it downstairs, she swiftly bent down to sit her knees in front of the fireplace. Despite already having the floo powder, Anneliese curled her hands into her lap, thinking one more time about what she was about do. She just needed someone to tell her she was being silly, and that there was nothing to worry about because it was probably just nothing. Her paranoia was just because of Fabian (at the thought of him, her stomach wrenched so uncomfortably it took her a few minutes to recollect herself), because of what was happening around them. And if that she flipped Will over to look at his left arm, nothing would be there.

Emmeline would know what to do, she always knew what to do. "Emmeline---- Emmeline!" Anneliese began to hiss the second the fire turned green. It wasn't that late to be making a call: Will had been very adamant about going to bed early, and not just because he had been tired from the day. Please respond, please respond.

WHO: Antonin Dolohov and Emmeline Vance
WHAT: Antonin thinks going to his friend is a good escape plan. It might work.
WHERE: Bristol, Emmeline's flat.
WHEN: RIGHT NOW!
NOTES: ALTER you can either assume Frank's come and arrested him or that he hasn't yet, I think either's fine for the article. Whatever you want! I'm just going out and needed to get this up XD

( You look like you've killed someone. )