RP: Surprise Party

[pb_athena]

Characters: Athena McGonagall, Charlie Weasley, George Weasley, Madam Rosmerta, others who were invited; Please add tag as you post.
Location: The 3 B's.
Date: 12 December 1999
Status/Warning: Open
Summary: Charlie's surprise party.
Completion: Closed

Comments

[pb_ron]

Ron rose from behind the bar, and brushed his knees off, grinning and looking about. Percy was there and Ron put down his hand to help pull him up, "Hey you! How are things?" he asked, turning to watch other people mugging and hugging Charlie. Ron decided he'd wait a minute or two until less people were about him, so he focused on Percy, "How's Cho? I haven't seen you in too long. You know, its all work, work, work for this auror in training. And when I'm not, I'm in the shop."

He looked about, catching sight of Hermione now, and turned to focus more on Percy, "What did you get Charlie? I got him a book, about cooking. I think he'll be really surprised. Mum's been teaching me to cook, did I tell you?" he said, in a conversational tone.

[pb_athena]

Of course he was.

"Shut up!" Athena covered his mouth quickly. "I know who the killer is, Percy, I figured it out weeks ago and don't you say a word, got it? If you do, you could end up dead." She told him seriously.

"Ron isn't stupid, he knows what he got into, don't you Ronald?" She asked, looking back at him.

[pb_ron]

Ron had blushed, catching Athena's comment to Charlie, and he had been mildly distracted by her words of 'making a good cream,' so much so that he wasn't sure he'd heard Percy correctly, "You're what? Clairvoyant? But what are you talking about?" as he looked from brother to brother and then to Athena, and back at Percy. He ignored Athena's comments about him possible being stupid, and turned to Percy, focused on the worried look on Percy's face.

"What do you mean, the kind of danger I could be in? I'm in the training program. I'm supposed to be fairly safe, well, as safe as we can be," and he turned to Athena, irritated that she was blocking Percy's mouth, "Let him talk! What do you two mean? You both know who the killer is? Why aren't you doing anything about it?" he demanded, forgetting about the party for the moment.

[pb_athena]

"Because, you need proof, Ron, which I can't find. The killer is too good and Ron, you're safer if you don't know, trust me." She looked at him. "I'm not going to let Molly lose another son; and no, you're not safe. Everyone in the Ministry is in danger; do not trust anyone, hell, don't even trust me, you need to be that on guard." She only truly trusted three people; and one of them didn't even know how to say her name properly, cute little tyke.

She turned back to Percy. "You and I are going to talk about this outside, all right? This isn't the place for this Percy, you know that." She knew full well no matter how careful, things could get out. For all they knew, someone has a fly Animagus or something.

[pb_percy]

Percy struggled a moment, managing to free himself only after muffled threats of Athena loosing a finger or two.

"I've been developing the powers of a seer, Ron." he sighed, "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want to scare you. It's never a fun or easy power to come in to," Twisting fully out of Athena's grip, Percy rounded on her. "And when should I have said something? We're at war again Athena, you may as well admit it now and get it over with. Soon enough it's not going to matter where anyone says anything." Percy was enraged--partially with worry--where was Cho--and partially with the unique frustration that came with keeping secrets...secrets that could never be betrayed no matter how many lives were at stake.

[pb_ron]

Ron looked from Athena to Percy again, and over at Charlie, "Don't leave me out of this, if my ass is on the line, please! I'm not safe? What the bloody hell does that mean? Don't trust anyone? Not even Harry? Are you mad?!" and Ron's attention was quickly turned to his brother's words.

"War?! But..but...who? He's not back! Is it.." and he trailed off, turning slightly pale, "It's Fenrir doing this all? But he's not in the Ministry? How could he affect the program?" and Ron paused, his brows drawn together tightly, "Does this have to do with the attack on Anthony as well? Is that what you are trying to say? We all need to know about it," he said, rather insistently.

[pb_athena]

"Don't talk to me about war, Percy Weasley or I will blow your bits off, do you understand me? I know about war better than any of you; you have no idea the horrors some of us Aurors have seen, not even you Ron." She told him, rounding on him. She had appreciation for all that he, Harry, and Hermione had done, but they really hadn't experiences anything in comparison to the true horrors of this world; sure, there was Voldemort, but what was even more terrifying were the things normal people did to one another

[pb_charlie]

"Could we all take a deep breath, please?" Charlie scrubbed his face. He hated this cloak and dagger shite. It was the bit that always got people killed. Give him a task and set him to it, that was so much easier.

"Gettin' worked up isn't going to solve anything." Of course telling a Weasley not to get worked up was like telling a McGonagall she couldn't do something she set her mind to.

"Percy, is there anything you're seeing that might lead Athena to the evidence she needs?" Charlie asked.

"And you're wrong, McG. Keeping things hidden until you have proof is sound for an investigation. It isn't sound for keeping people safe. Having wide exposure is the way to guarantee maximum safety because if everyone knows the secret, the willingness to do harm to cover it up is reduced. It doesn't make things safe but it helps," he said.

[pb_athena]

Athena glared at him. He did not just go there. "Oh yes, because we all know how willing everyone was to believe that Voldemort was back, they're really going to listen to Percy?" She knew that if Mafalda Hopkirk caught any wind of this, she'd kill Percy; she was good enough to have gotten away with it this far, Athena didn't think getting rid of him and a few others while in hiding would be too hard.

"If this gets out, Percy dies. We take a few days, gather the forces back up, then we can decide what to do."

[pb_charlie]

"I did not say we handout fliers proclaiming 'Percy Weasley Divines Truth' or identifies Perce in any way. I'm sayin' massive rumor and speculation solves the problem. A source close to the investigation, citing an unconfirmed report, something like that which puts your killer's name out there even if there isn't proof would solve the problem of keeping it hidden. Now, if either of you two are wrong in your thinking, you're going to destroy an innocent person. Which is really the only drawback I see to this plan," Charlie said.

"It's not sexy. It's not mysterious. It's not all this secretive shite that gets people killed. It's clean, fast and effective neutralization of a dangerous person because either they run and hide or they plead innocence. Either way, it stops the killing because they know they're being watched by everyone and judged by everyone," he glared back at her.

[pb_ron]

Ron stood there, soaking it all in. They all seemed to know about some plot at the Ministry, and it all came back to Percy, and to him. If anyone found out about this, shit,he thought,they'd be dead!

He wasn't sure what he thought about this woman, as fired up and insulting as she was. She was clearly a match for Charlie, and with her temper and vigor, he knew she was a good Auror. But to continually call him a child, and put him down was not terribly amusing. He knew that he, Harry and Hermione had only seen part of the horror that Voldemort had wielded; their perspective was very different of how the war had gone. The three of them had brushed against Voldemort's reign and time and again had managed to barely escape. There were other more sinister goings-ons that they had missed, thankfully. He was not about to argue with a full Auror about that kind of stuff

[pb_athena]

Athena closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. She sucked in a breath, slowly going from pissed off girlfriend mode into very determined Auror mode. "Fine," she seethed, seriously pissed off; especially since she had a feeling Ron was going to mess this up with his kniwledge, controlling Percy's mouth was hard enough, he at least understood real danger.

"But, we do it my way; I've made a career of not getting myself killed. We'll take this to The Quibbler, The Prophet will never print it, especially not...read the letter I gave you, Charlie. Ron, I'm sorry, but you'll need to wait until this comes out, I don't want to risk you knowing anything more than you need to, it's dangerous enough. Percy, you tell me everything you saw in your vision. I'll send the report; if anyone is going to be put in danger because of this, it's going to be the person who's job it is to get into life and death situations." She told them all in her "I'm a lead Auror and if you try to defy anything I've just said, I'll bring you in for the night" voice. She

[pb_charlie]

Charlie thought The Daily Prophet very well would print it. They'd eat it up but he wasn't going to argue. A newspaper was only one way to get a rumor circulating and it was definitely not the best. It was only the widest reaching. Word of mouth is what really got things going. The 'did you hear' and the 'you'll never believe what happened' was so very effective. The beauty of it was that it was virtually untraceable if done correctly. Charlie also knew from experience that it could work. Sure, he'd only used on poachers but it did work.

Not only that, Charlie firmly believed it was Albus Dumbledore's greatest mistake not making what he knew about Tom Marvalo Riddle public in a similar manner back when the man first started gathering supporters. Charlie had heard how charismatic and charming he was, but the younger, self-styled dark lord relied heavily on the Pure-blood rich and powerful in the beginning. Dumbledore, with a few well-placed words, could have cut the legs out from under Tom Riddle by simply exposing him as the son of