In The Fight To Survive (Golden Trio Era) {4}

Come Back Home

"That's right, we made a vow when we started this show that we would tell the Magical World what is truly happening throughout this war. We've discussed your part in the war since we started a few months ago, we delved into every one of your successes and failures, and we're are very grateful that you've taken the risk to participate in the show today." Mikayla bruises off the enthusiasm, claiming that she was merely trying to do the right thing. She just wanted to clear up some rumours circulating about herself and explain her own actions, why she has given herself such a prominent role in the war, and offer advice for those still on the fence.

The men in the room immediately picked up how uncomfortable Mikayla was as her appearance on Potterwatch was made out to be some epic event. She was stiff as they watch her feel the pressure build on her shoulders for her to leave a pleasant taste in people's mouths by the end of the interview, specifically for the new recruits and perhaps future allies. Fred reaches over, hovering his hand over Mikayla's but does not make contact. It was up to Mikayla to accept the touch because he didn't want to send her spirally due to a stressed sensory overload. Mikayla's hands jump up, gently grabbing a hold of Fred's hand between them, as her mind got ready for the interview to come.

"Why don't we start off with what happened on the 28th of December? From your visit to Diagon Alley to what happened in Piercestown." Lee prompted her, but Mikayla knew that if she was going to do this right, she'd have to tell the world about the attack on her house. "Well River, my day didn't start with a trip to Diagon Alley, and for the world to understand the why, the need to know the details of what lead to it. Don't you think?" This was her way to ask the room permission to disclose the information that she was attacked in her home, Remus being the present senior member of the Order verbally agreed with Mikayla's beginning statement. "It all started in the early hours of last Sunday morning..."

Mikayla didn't want to bore the listeners with an overload of information, she gave a run down of the events with a bullet point-esque approach. She explained that there was an intruder in her safe house, someone close to her, that had been under the influence of a parasitic magical insect, "called the Imperium Cimex, some of you may have heard of it, but for those who haven't, I'll let Romulus explain." Remus picked up from where Mikayla let off, giving the blonde some time to have a drink of water as her throat was becoming very dry. Fred questioned Remus on Imperium Cimex, asking how to kill them once discovered to give Mikayla more time to hydrate.

Once she gave the thumbs up that she was ready to go again, Remus asked her where people could find more information about Death Eaters practices. "I find that Cairo Reynolds' book 'Purely Poisonous: Our World's Dark History' does a thorough breakdown of Death Eaters' methods as it seems they are reviving some ancient Pureblood practices for discipline and torture. But I also suggest keeping an ear out for Potterwatch, who I will remain in contact with should I discover anything worth warning the public about. They'll be the first, and probably only, people to report any dodgy Death Eater behaviour to their beloved listeners."

Lee grinned as Mikayla just gave him a way to give the world Order updates without outing himself as a member. It conveniently adds to River's mysterious reputation, and sends the Death Eaters on a wild goose chase to track him down, as someone outside of their list of Order members. She really was on the ball today, she straightened in her seat as George asked her what occurred in Diagon Alley, why she made such a risky trip with only her boyfriend as backup. "During the attack on my home, the intruder snapped my wand in half. I went to Diagon Alley to replace the wand because we had a new recruit meeting for the Order and I didn't want to entertain a crowded space defenceless. I'm lucky enough to have a supportive boyfriend, that is immensely skilled in combative duelling and creating chaos, that offered to keep me company on my trip."

Fred jumped in to ask Mikayla if it was her intention to cause chaos by bringing her boyfriend along with her, which she immediately rejected this as her intention. "My plan was to go to Ollivander's, use my Aevus abilities to locate a wand that accepted me as it's wielder, and pay for it by adding money to Mr. Ollivander's vault." Mikayla went on to say that the trip was a statement, that no matter how much the Death Eaters wanted to scare her into hiding that she wouldn't allow them to dictate what she did with her life. That she wouldn't allow them to cut her off from the world outside of the battlefield, and that the trip was to remind herself what she was fighting for. She saw the ruins the brilliantly bright Diagon Alley had become since Voldemort's rules, that it had lost everything that gave it life.

"But by exploring outside of the battlefield, you created an entirely new one in the place you wish to bring back to life, correct? Why not take your day off to relax? You knew that you had been spotted before you even entered Gringotts, so why stay and wait for the fight to come to you?" Mikayla knew that a part of Remus was still pissed about her visit to Diagon Alley, how she not only put herself at risk, but Fred as well because she stopped him from alerting any other Order members. "Because Romulus, we must carry on and not let the Dark forces, that have taken over our World, condemn us to loneliness and isolation. We need to remind them that they can't control us, and that we will fight to the ends of the earth for an Equal World."

"Mikayla, you coyly mentioned earlier that you still are writing music whenever you need to distract yourself from our current conflict. Do you happen to have one you'd like to share with us that relates to these ideals?" Mikayla cringed at Fred's not so subtle Segway, she wanted her songs to come up naturally because she didn't want this interview to come off as a promo stunt for her music career. "Oh, I definitely do, but I'm not sure I want to take up any of your important limited time to release music." Lee pitch in saying that their show had no cut off time, and that he was sure that the listeners would want to hear an anthem of hope leading into the new year.

Mikayla tried once again to defer the idea, claiming that her songs were more ballad style as of late, but Remus stated that he loved ballads and was looking forward to hearing it. So Mikayla sighs in feigned defeat, to make it seem that it wasn't something she intentionally wanted to do, before giving into the requests for music from her. "Very well, I have a few recorded ones with me, I planned to release them under a pen name publicly tomorrow. One isn't even my song, but a song that my adoptive sister wrote and recorded in hopes that Harry might hear it one day."

George grinned feeling like he had some nice ammunition against Ginny when he got home, telling Mikayla to put the disc into their broadcasting speaker to play. "There's three songs altogether, I'm going to let them play one after the other, the one I don't own being the second song, and then we can move on to discuss what happened in Gringotts and Piercestown. Starting us off is 'Meet Me On The Battlefield' enjoy."