Since he had retired from his position as an auror, Nikolai had been spending less time at the Ministry—quite obviously. He had started working with Angelo at his firm, which he thought was a better way to spend his time. It wasn’t to say that making the decision to retire had been easy. It hadn’t been. Law enforcement had been something he’d been involved in since he had been in his early twenties… since his family had been killed and he had decided that he needed to do everything he could to make sure that nothing like that ever happened to anyone again. He had wanted to help people, and so he had dedicated his life to doing just that. But when the twins were born, it had changed. He had changed. Nikolai hadn’t wanted both of them to be in a job that put them at risk, and he could never ask for Persephone for retire. It just made sense for one of them to. One of them should have a traditional job that had them home at six o’clock, and he had decided that it could be him. What Angelo did wasn’t too unlike working in law enforcement in some ways. It was something that Nikolai still enjoyed doing, but he had kept his position in the office of foreign delegates. Mostly as a favor to the man in Moscow that had gotten him this job in the first place.

But he didn’t have to be there all that often. It was usually about once or twice a week, and the rest of his time was spent at the office with Angelo. Making the decision to retire hadn’t been easy, but it hadn’t been nearly as difficult as he had thought it was going to be either. He had just known that he needed to do it, because it was the best way of feeling all right about everything. He wanted to be there for his children. He knew that Persephone did too—it wasn’t about him making the right decision and her making the wrong one. He just knew how much she loved what she did. If one of them had to retire, he was fine with it being him. Perhaps she would find something that she’d rather do as well, and would eventually retire as well—perhaps she wouldn’t. He was fine with whatever she decided to do. When he had come to the Ministry earlier that day though, he had expected business as usual. He had expected to come into the department of international magical cooperation, and have a boring day of paperwork. It was a necessary evil, paperwork. Not one he particularly cared for, but something he had to deal with all the same.

He hadn’t expected to end up here, herded into the Atrium by Death Eaters, rounded up like sheep—only to see what was very clearly a stake. Only to watch the Minister burn… He had not been able to focus on watching. Instead, his gaze had only been on the crowds, trying to find @persephone. He didn’t know if she was even here today—she had been at some point, he was sure. But she could have been out on a case. She could have been anywhere. And Merlin, he didn’t want her to be here. He could take a hell of a lot, but he couldn’t have anything happen to her. He didn’t know what he would do if he lost her. He wanted to move through the crowds to look for her; it took everything in him to not do just that, but he knew that even attempting to might draw too much attention. Nikolai knew when there was time to act, and he knew there was a time to be calm and figure out what to do next. Death Eaters in charge of the Ministry… Durant’s screams fading to nothing… and now what? Now, what was going to happen? His gaze barely even flickered toward the man as he begun to speak. Talk of old traditions, of blood right, of those who didn’t belong in the wizarding world. It was nothing unexpected. Nothing that he wouldn’t expect from their sort. When he heard the man say to get out… clearly speaking to the Muggleborns, he expected most would get out and quickly and as people began to move, he didn’t pay attention to being jostled. Instead, his attention went only to the crowds, looking for any glimpse of his wife.

Most of his life had been spent with death, and with violence. He helped to cause it, and he enjoyed every minute of it. From the moment that his father had given him his wand when he was eleven years old and told him to kill the Muggle swine in front of him, he’d found a bloodlust that he could never quite sate. It was why he had found his loyalty to the Dark Lord, he had found a cause to fight in and he had never given up on that. Even when some had thought he was gone, it had been he, and his wife, and his brother, that had gone to try to find out just what had happened. Torturing the Longbottoms had been what had gotten them caught, what had gotten them sent to Azkaban, but he had known that he would one day come back. That the Dark Lord would return, and their loyalty would be rewarded. He had not been wrong, but that era had come and gone. The Dark Lord had been killed, and by a mere child. He had been caught up in prophecies, and had gotten obsessed. That had been his downfall—that obsession. That inability to realize that, had he not made a target of Potter, if he had not tried to kill him time and time again, that prophecy might not have come to be…

This time around, he didn’t see Ares Wentzell get caught up on what was insignificant. He didn’t see him wasting time on what didn’t matter. He seemed to have a plan. He seemed to know exactly what needed to be done in order to make sure that everything happened the way that it needed to. It was what brought them here today. It was what had the workers of the Ministry surrounded by Death Eaters, watching as their former Minister was burned at the stake. Rodolphus knew that not everyone had supported the man, at least not entirely. He wasn’t necessarily a popular Minister—but anyone that didn’t fight against him, fought against them. That would not be their death sentence… it did not mean that they would die today, but it didn’t mean that they were with them either. Time would tell who would support them, who would fight back, and who would accept the change of leadership without question. Some people would not feel particularly affected by it… and perhaps they had nothing to fear. If they played their cards right and behaved, at least, because Rodolphus did not need much of a reason to kill. He looked for any excuse for it, even.

Wentzell had invited some bird onto the stage, had started talking, but Rodolphus was barely paying any attention to what he was doing. His focus was instead on the woman that was controlling the flames—the one that had been the one to actually end the former Minister’s life. She was the one that was intriguing him, and it sparked a bit of an idea in his mind. Not one that he could act on now, but one that he would have to think more about. With Wentzell in charge, everything was going to change… surely he had a favor that he could cash in at this point, but now was not that time. Wentzell continued to speak, talking about the traditions that were so important… the ones that needed to come back, before the Mudbloods and those that supported them destroyed everything good about the magical world. When the new Minister told the Mudbloods to get out, Rodolphus’s focus went back to him. It would be time now… the man might have given them two minutes, but they would not be waiting two minutes. That would be far too generous, which the Mudbloods did not deserve. He looked forward to systematically killing every single Mudblood that caught his eye… he knew what ones worked here. He had done his research, and now they needed only wait a little while longer.

She could have never expected this, when she had moved back to London. Her timing had been excellent in a way that she knew had little to do with coincidence. It had suddenly just seemed like time. Time for her to rid herself of the husband she hated, to take the company that he had, and to come back home. Once she had made that decision, there hadn’t been any coming back. That was how she knew it had been more than just coincidence. Sloane had felt an urgency in coming back here, and she came back to find that the time had come for them to rise up once more. Her father had sent her away before. He had let her contribute more than she could have hoped for, and she understood his motives behind making her leave, but she had wanted to be there. If they were going to go down, she wanted to fight… she wanted to go down with them, and take down as many people as she could in the process. Instead, she had been sent away, sent to marry a man she’d never met, and the last eighteen years of her life had been… not what she had ever wanted for herself. She knew what she was meant to do, but she had still always wanted a little bit more. Sloane had never been content to sit at home, a proper housewife. She could play that part, but it wasn’t all that she desired from her life.

Coming back here had been something she’d waited for, for many years. A part of her had never known if it would happen. Sloane knew that her father had not sent her to Ålesund as a temporary solution. He wanted her to stay there, and do what she was told. She had disappointed him in that regard. He might not be out of Azkaban, he might not know it, but she knew that she had not done what he had wanted her to do. She was supposed to marry Ralf, and have as many children as he desired of her, plan whatever parties he wanted, keep the house, and all that. She knew that was what she was meant to do the moment that she moved there, and she had failed in that. Yes, she had been the proper wife she was supposed to be… in keeping the house clean, and planning his parties, and doing what he told her to do. But she had made sure that she couldn’t do the one task that he really required of her. Keeping up with her birth control potions, making sure that she couldn’t get pregnant, that had been what she knew her father could never find out about. She knew how he would react to that, but she also knew that it wasn’t the time to worry about that.

It wasn’t the time to worry about what would happen when he was out of Azkaban, as he would inevitably be when Ares had the free time to focus on such things. There were loyal Death Eaters in Azkaban, and it was only reasonable that he would want more numbers. Sloane couldn’t claim to know his plan, but it seemed like something he would look at moving forward. Eventually, her father would be out of Azkaban. Eventually, she would have to deal with that, and hope that he didn’t find out the truth. For now, she wanted to revel in what was happening now. This time, she would be here for it all. She would do her part, and she wasn’t going anywhere. Not unless she was ordered out once more, and Merlin, she didn’t want something like that to happen again. Perhaps it wouldn’t. She could hope, even when she knew the new Minister wasn’t exactly happy with her, that he would want a seer around… not sent off to marry whomever her father might choose to try to keep her away from another war. Sloane knew that didn’t keep her from someone around here, should her father wish that—but she would still be here. And that was better than nothing. Sloane narrowed her eyes, annoyed at her inability to get those future thoughts out of her mind. When it came to her father, her worry was more than a little bit distracting.

But when the former Minister stopped screaming, when the new Minister started talking, Sloane’s attention went to him. More than a few people had tried to run when they had first herded them into the Atrium… she’d had the luck to get to shoot a few well-aimed killing curses in their direction. She had missed the familiar flash of green, in watching bodies hit the floor. But people stupid enough to run… they had learned what would happen by watching others die first, and so most had stopped. Most stayed still. Most listened to what they were supposed to listen to… which was the new Minister speaking. His words preached the way that the world was meant to be… their traditions, eliminating those that shouldn’t be here. It was the cause they had fought for before, and one that they would fight for now. This time they would be successful. This time, they would not be stopped. The two-minute warning was given… and Sloane waited. She watched. People would try to leave. But most wouldn’t be quick enough, and that was what she was most looking forward to. Seeing the Minister burn had been satisfying, but killing someone herself was what she most wanted from this… or more people, she should say. The few that she had killed thus far had not been enough for her…

Outfit

This wasn’t what she had expected—nothing that had happened recently had been exactly what she had thought, and she was attempting to adapt to that. She told herself that she’d done it before… she’d adapted. Many times in her life… though perhaps not to this extreme. When her fiancé had died all of those years ago, she had found out that she would be marrying a man forty years older than she was. But she had never doubted what her father had set up for her, and she had never protested. It was not the life that she had pictured for herself, but she had learned how to live with it. She had adapted, and her life had been all right. It hadn’t been what she had thought, but she had her children and she loved them. She had made do. The same could be said when her husband had died. It had not been as crippling of a loss as her brother’s had been… or her father, but it had been the one that had made her learn how to go forward on her own. She’d had to adapt and make her own decisions. That was what had started all of this, really. That had been what this had brought her here today.

She had been standing in the Atrium, watching her… watching Ares cut the Minister open. She had watched her friend set him on fire. Jacqueline would have never thought that she would be even able to stomach watching such a thing. But she knew she had to—she wanted to be there for them today, as silly as that might sound. They certainly did not need her here, but it hadn’t stopped her from wanting to try. She wanted to be able to handle this. When she had come here today, she had known that it was going to be difficult. The way that the Minister would die would undoubtedly be the most violent thing she had witnessed in her life… she did not know of much violence. Enzo had broken his arm once, years back. But a simple trip to the hospital had sorted that out rather quickly. Her father, back in her childhood, had a nasty temper… but a few black eyes and bruises was not violence compared to what she knew she would see today. And even what she had tried to anticipate, even what she had tried to expect, had not come close to what she had actually seen.

And yet, she had kept her expression rather calm. The only time any reaction had shown on her face was when Ares had offered her his hand and willed her to join him up on the platform. That had been surprising than anything else, but past that split second, her expression had been neutral… even as she had walked up onto the stage, of sorts, and closer to the burning body than she had been before. It had been taking his hand that had kept her even the slightest bit steady. It gave her something else to focus on, and reassured her that she would remain upright… she didn’t think that she was just going to faint because of the sight in front of her. If she was going to, she would have by now—or at least, that was what she wanted to convince herself. But as much as she wanted to think it worked like that, she still felt reassured by Ares’ hand. Jacqueline heard @anicka speak, and a nearly imperceptible nod was her only response for a moment. “Ça va,” she said quietly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. Jacqueline was unaware of just how tightly she had been holding onto Ares’ hand until he let go of hers, and so she loosened her grip and he stepped forward.

Jacqueline took another breath, as Anicka had suggested, because she needed to keep her balance and calm now that she was up on the platform and now that @ares was speaking. Her gaze was on him as he began, and it was undeniably easier to focus on him than it had been the previous execution. He spoke of what they should all believe in—their traditions, and righting everything that had been done to purebloods here over the years. She had not been witness to all of it, but she had lost family in the last war, and she had seen what had happened here in the past years. There was no denying that he was right, but she had never doubted that. The Cachette family might have mostly stayed out of wars of the past, but it did not mean they didn’t agree with what they stood for. Seemingly a warning was given, and she was quite sure they were all aware of what would happen when time was up. It put her slightly on edge—not because she thought anyone would die that didn’t deserve it, but because anything getting chaotic could end with something bad happening, even up here.

She had made fun of him—that was the thought running through her mind. She had made fun of Kieran, because he’d wanted to prepare for the absolute worst. He’d had his idea… he had wanted to make a place that would be safe for Muggleborns. Out of the country. So that if what happened when Voldemort was alive happened again, Muggleborns wouldn’t have to live day by day, in fear, worrying about Snatchers every time they set up camp or turned a corner. Portia had not been with him through that time. She couldn’t even begin to know how hard that had been on him, but from the moment she’d known he was being serious, she had supported him. But still… the thought on her mind as they had all been herded into the Ministry had been the times she had teased him. She had joked about prepping for a worst-case scenario that might not happen, and now… here they were. Here they were, all standing in the Ministry, with Dark Eaters surrounding them. The worst was happening, and there was nothing that they could do about that. Even if everyone rose up and tried to fight back then and there… the Death Eaters had a plan. No one here did. It would be chaos and it wouldn’t work.

Portia didn’t even have her wand, and she was sure she wasn’t the only one. They had all been taken by surprise, especially in the department of mysteries. No one was meant to have access, and so their own people had to show their true colors. People that had been apart of it all along—Avery, who had been her colleague for many years. The fact that he was a Death Eater and she didn’t realize it had been a shock to her. So much so that when she had been told to not take her wand, she hadn’t thought to argue. It wasn’t the time for arguing. It wasn’t the time for fighting back, as much as she wanted it to be. Portia knew that her mind could get her out of this just as much as a wand could at times, and that meant keeping calm and that meant keeping a clear head. That was just particularly difficult to do when she had watched a man be burned at the stake. Cutting him open… that had not affected her in any kind of extreme way. It had been disturbing, and a violent and painful end for the man, but she was not a squeamish individual. She worked in the department of mysteries, after all. She specialized in the brain, and was not a stranger to the human body.

It wasn’t as if her focus had been on that in the slightest. Her mind had only been on finding Kieran, from the moment she set foot in the Atrium. He was a Muggleborn. He was in danger here today. They might not be married, but she loved him, and she had the ring that he gave her on her right hand as always. They had never thought that they needed something like marriage to prove that they loved each other, but he had gotten her a gift nonetheless. It was a ring she wore every day, and her thumb kept moving to touch the ring finger, to remind herself that it was there as her eyes scanned through the crowds of people. But the Atrium was packed—she had never seen it like this, for obvious reasons. There were hundreds of people to look through, finding just one was not going to be easy… even if she felt like she could always spot him out anywhere. Her attention was drawn to the new ‘Minister’ at his words—two minutes. The implication of what would happen after those two minutes was clear and her search for Kieran began anew as she knew that chaos would set in immediately.

Outfit

Attire

Persephone didn’t expect today to be much different than any other day. Lately thing had felt strained in the Ministry, as if something wasn’t quite right but that had been happening for a long time. Taking over the auror training department had added a good bit to her workload but she enjoyed being busy. She enjoyed her work and it wasn’t that big of a deal. It added a fair bit more paperwork but she could take a lot of that home to finish so she could have more time with the twins and her husband. Now that Nikolai had retired as an auror she didn’t see him nearly as much as she used to which was a bit odd for her. They had always worked together in one way or another for several years. He was still in the Ministry from time to time because of his work as a foreign delegate, but she was never quite sure when he was there.

Today was a day where she certainly hoped he was home or with Angelo. Death Eaters over throwing the Ministry was not something she had expected. She knew that things were starting to get out of balance and that Durant would more than likely get them all in a mess, but not this. She had been in a meeting with one of her trainees when she had been forced out of her office and down into the atrium. The boy had looked as if he was ready to do or say something stupid to which she had stopped quickly, using magic to seal his lips as they reached their destination. She leaned in, a harsh whisper telling the boy not to act stupid. This was not the time, nor the place to try to be a bloody hero. That would get the boy and possibly her killed. No, She had to stand in the crowd, listening to the Death Eater in the center of the room preach the foul things her father believed in in silence.

The burning body in the middle of the atrium, the remains of the prior Minister, were still alight and the smell of burning flesh seemed to permeate everything. The moment that the crowd began to shift and muggleborns hurried to get out she released her hex from the boy and started looking out in the crowd more intently. She knew that her being a pureblood meant she wasn’t personally in any real danger, but her father had put a hit out on her husband once and the need to find him if he was there was dire. He could take care of himself but that wouldn’t stop her from worrying. As she felt the crowd almost start moving like a wave she caught sight of @nikolai and started moving slowly through the ebb and flow of the crowd towards him, being sure not to make any sudden moves in case those in law enforcement were being watched closely. She took a moment to glance around at the Death Eaters surrounding them, feeling sick knowing that there was a very real possibility that not all of those trying to flee would get out alive.