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

Buried Secrets

CW: Dissociative PTSD episode near the end of the chapter

Over the next five weeks, the Order was in more demand than it ever has been. Death Eater attacks were happening more than once a day, all over Ireland and the UK, and Mikayla was becoming exhausted. Bill had suggested that it was possibly the Death Eaters' plan to mentally exhaust her before they do something big, or Voldemort tries to infiltrate her mind again to discover more of the Order's secrets. The young blonde was becoming increasingly frustrated over the fact that the Order was now voting before every mission whether or not Mikayla should attend. She repeatedly reminded them why it was important that she remain the biggest threat to the Death Eaters, so an agreement was made that she could attend a single attack a day.

She understands that it's important that she's in the best possible shape, physically, mentally and emotionally, but leaving her alone to worry about everything that could go wrong is doing much more damage than fighting is. A part of her wanted to disappear into the night, leaving a detailed map of some of the Death Eater attacks between now and the final battle. The idea of going rogue and fighting some of the battles alone was only appealing when she had been left behind. When she was no longer alone with only her most desperate thoughts to distract from her worry, she'd scold herself for even considering taking on the Death Eaters alone.

Months ago, before Mikayla was ever captured by Voldemort during Bill and Fleur's wedding reception, she had made a promise to not only to herself but those who care about her. Her promise being that she wouldn't allow anyone to make a martyr out of her, that she would accept help, advice, and criticism, in order to give herself the best chance at success. What she needed was a project, something to occupy her mind during those worry encompassing hours that she awaited for news on a mission that she had been voted not to attend. First she tried building a timetable of all the attacks that will take place before the final battle, but she finished that by the end of the first week in March.

She makes updates to the list after each mission because every person they save could be targeted for a second attack, but the bulk of the predictions are done. It was during the early hours of the morning on March 13th that Kingsley sent a Patronus to announce that Penelope had given birth to a 8lb 3oz baby boy at 11:53 on March 12th, who they have since named Rein Louis Shacklebolt. After Mikayla and Fred sent their congratulations via her Patronus, Mikayla was reminded that during her discussion with Sergi. How she had accidently come face to face with the realisation that there is a significant age difference between most Death Eaters and Order members. It reminded her that she had planned to try to discover why this had occurred, and thus her project was born.

In her alone time, Mikayla dove right into the vast reasons as to why Dumbledore recruited people that were marginally a lot younger and less experienced than almost all of their opponents. It's a practice he had during the First Wizarding War too, the majority of the Order back then consisted of her parents and their mates fresh out of Hogwarts. At first, you'd explain it away by a matter of accessibility, he was the Headmaster, and even the children of Death Eaters held some aspect of respect for him. It wouldn't be hard to use his influence over his students to recruit them, but Mikayla felt that seemed far too easy and straightforward for Dumbledore.

The man loved to weave complicated schemes to be perceived as all-knowing and extremely knowledgeable on all worldly matters. Mikayla initially planned to never consult Dumbledore on the matter, doing background breakdowns on every member of the Order that he had recruited, looking for a pattern. From how they were raised, their school experiences and achievements, as well as how they died. The only link for them all was Hogwarts, Ms Arabella Figg being the only exception due to her non-magical nature. Although, Ms Figg's only duty given by Dumbledore was to look out for Harry, she was merely an honorary participant/ ally to the Order instead of being an actual member.