𝙘𝙤𝙡𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙨-𝙧.𝙖.𝙗

44- harry

DORCAS IS MISSING.

Jo wasn't concerned when Dorcas didn't show back up after a day or two. But it's been much longer than that, now. Over a week. She sits at her kitchen table, staring down at her hands and chewing on the inside of her cheek. There's something wicked burrowing in her chest, sharp teeth gnawing at her still beating heart, rattling her ribcage, twisting, and kneading her guts in its hands. Jo tastes blood.

The kitchen is quiet. Regulus sits beside Jo, silent and still, waiting on her word. The only sound that echoes throughout the room is James's footsteps creaking against the wooden floor. He won't stop pacing. Jo can't blame him though. He's got too much on his mind to sit still.

In just a few days, Dumbledore will come to the Potter house (though it's really just Jo's house now, as she's the only Potter left there). He will place a Fidelius Charm on the home, and its property. Then he will go to James's and do the same thing there. James will be Jo's secret-keeper. She will not be his. And that means that if Dorcas ever feels so inclined to return, if she even has the ability to, she wouldn't be able to. Dorcas would never be able to find the Potter home, would never be able to find her way back to Jo.

To make her home safe for Regulus, she must, in essence, cast off Dorcas.

The Order, of course, has been alerted to her disappearance. But there's not much they can do about it. Jo fears there's not much they can do about anything, anymore. Not with the rat. A squeaking, squealing rat, leaking information to Death Eaters. James suggested it was Dorcas. Jo almost slapped him. Almost. Lot on his mind, Jo repeats to herself. Too much on his mind.

Her head feels like it's splitting. She doesn't know what to do, has even less of a clue as to what's right. Jo wishes her father was here. He always had a level head, fair and judicial. Balanced. Jo grinds her teeth together. The only thing Jo can be certain of, it seems, is that things would be much easier if her parents were still around.

"I don't even know why you're still considering this, Josie," James rants, not pausing in his pacing, hands moving wildly. Jo is sure he's about to say the same point he's been repeating to her already, just to say. James never could stand the silence. Especially not in moments like this. "It's safer for him, it's safer for you, and it's not like Meadowes has no place else to go. At the very least, she's been to headquarters. She knows where she can find Remus or Vance or any of your other mates from school and really, if she's on the run from something or if she is the spy or-"

"She's not the spy," Jo interjects harshly.

"-or whatever, she's probably not going to come back here anyways. It'd be too dangerous for her," he concludes, hair straight up and eyes bloodshot. James has seen better days. He turns to Regulus. "Tell her!"

Jo looks to Regulus. He looks reluctant to speak. His hands knot together under the table. She has a feeling Regulus is a little bit too proud to consider his own safety over someone else's. Conflict is in his eyes. Regulus has always had a tendency to value Jo's wellbeing and disregard his own. No present option allows him to make a martyr out of himself. "I can't make this decision for you," he tells her. "But if you don't want to go through with it, I can't stay here with you. I won't risk your life."

It's no secret what Death Eaters do to their adversaries, given the chance. Jo's been seeing the evidence of it for as long as she can remember. She thinks of Marlene McKinnon and her family, completely annihilated. She shudders to think of it, able to admit to herself but not daring to say it out-loud, terrified of that fate.

"Even if he leaves, if it gets out that he's a defector and he's still alive, how long do you think before they start coming to you for answers?" James argues, voice raising now, face red. "And I won't be able to do anything to stop it and you'd be dead and then my family would be gone."