Ashes to Ashes

Oliver stepped over the low, jagged edge of what used to be the front wall of the Buckley Inn. Soon, it would be rebuilt. The Ministry had a team of volunteers, moving things around and repairing them. A blonde woman introduced herself when he entered, explaining that she was actually from the Ministry's magical creatures department but wanted to help anyway. 

So when Oliver asked what he should work on, she pointed him to the first area on the right, which was originally the ground floor living area. 

He began stepping through the rubble, starting to set things back to rights as best as he could. After all, he had never seen this room before. During the fight, he had come in through the second floor window, though the stairs up from the entry were rather dangerous now, so he saw no use in trying to head up a floor to see what had become of the place since Friday night. It was Monday, now, and Oliver had spent most of the day with Alice's father. But he couldn't avoid his obligations as the leader of the Order any longer. No word had come in over the week ended, so it was time to do some of his own digging.

James walked down the street towards Buckley Inn, he was on a mission and today everyone got out of his way. He wasn't wearing his leathers but rather a pair of jeans and a t-shirt with his black boots. He told his friend Esme that he would meet her at the inn when she was able to come. He walked in the front door and wasn't stopped. He looked over at Oliver who was in the living and strode over to him.

"We need to talk, now." James said not saying much more than that to the man. "It can't wait and today I'm not in the mood to argue. Please, Oliver."

He was seething at the face that Esme told him that she hadn't seen Hadley today. He, himself, tried to get send an owl to Hadley at the inn but the owl came back with the letter looking lost. He knew something was wrong but upon seeing the inn he didn't think it was that bad.

Esmeralda walked quickly along the sidewalk trying to make good time to get to the inn in Diagon Alley. She had thrown on clothes when she got the owl from James asking her to meet him at the inn. So she simply threw on a polka dot blue dress with blue heels and rushed out the door. As soon as she hit the sidewalk she had hailed a cab to get her close enough to the entrance to Diagon Alley.

She walked into the Leaky and through to the back then through the entrance to the alley. She rubbed a hand through her hair trying to piece together what may have happened to James' girlfriend Hadley. She was so deep in though she almost walked right past the Buckley Inn. Or at least what was left of the inn. She gasped horrified and came close to crying. She liked Hadley because she was the nicest person she had met in a long time.

Esme walked into the Inn and was unnoticed by some of the people. She looked until she found James in the front room with a man she didn't remember but had a feeling he was from the Ministry.

"James," She said by way of hello to him. "What happened here?"

Oliver looked up from the coffee table he was repairing as the footsteps sounded nearby, but when he looked up and saw James there, he was shocked. Sure, they had met on occasion, but why someone would see Oliver out after interactions like that, he just couldn't say. "I-"

A woman entered next, looking thoroughly distraught, but she knew James so that made Oliver slightly less uncomfortable around her. After all, at least he wouldn't have to give the entire story, right? He hoped not. "Oliver Connolly," he offered, his tone short as he extended his hand. Introductions were potentially unnecessary, but borne from habit.

Turning to James, he frowned. "I don't know what you're after, mate. The place caught fire during the Death Eater attack," Oliver elaborated, realizing he hadn't answered the woman's question, "and we're trying to set it all back up. Most of the Muggles have moved to the Leaky until this gets sorted, but I doubt the folks in charge of their funds over there appreciate that they're doing so for free. So, if you've come to help, brilliant. If not, explain while I keep sorting this stuff out, yeah?"

Esme took Oliver's hand and shook it, "Esmeralda Martinez. Just call me Esme." She said looking around at all the destruction done to the inn. "Death Eaters?" She looked over at James who was clenching his fists in anger. She decided to answer Oliver until James calmed down.

"I'm here because we need your help tracking down Hadley Swan. She's a muggle who lived here and is James' girlfriend. She normally stops at the shop around noon and if she's unable to make it she sends me an owl telling me. Today she didn't show up and she never sent a note, I know that the circumstances are different simply because of this." She waved her hand around indicating the condition of the inn. "She still would have sent a note back with my owl I sent her. But my owl came back with my note and looking none too happy considering he was covered in soot. If the residents are indeed over at the Leaky is there any chance that somehow she didn't make it there?" She knew that she had to ask the really hard questions because she knew James would lose it if he tried to ask them.

James' hands were clenched tightly as Esme spoke to Oliver about what was happening. He didn't know why but he had a bad feeling when he woke this morning and couldn't help but wonder what was wrong. He wrote an owl to Hadley telling her to be cautious when she went out today. He knew that he was being paranoid but with him it tends to happen. He doesn't care if he only as a slight feeling something is wrong he tells everyone in his family to be safe. It comes from not being able to protect his twin Anya from the monster that bit her.

It wasn't until the owl came back covered in soot that caused him to fully freak out. He had apparated straight to Esme and asked her if she had seen Hadley today. After talking with her, he went to his mother to check if she may have seen her. That's when he found himself standing there in front of Oliver. He didn't know if he could handle it if anything happened to Hadley.

James found a chair that survived for the most part and sat down on it putting his head in his hands. After Esme was done he lifted his head and looked at Oliver straight in the eye.

"I need your help please. She's everything to me," He said feeling grateful that his voice didn't crack at all.

Oliver didn't know whether he found their refusal to accept odd circumstances charming or odd. To be fair, he would have been worried if it were Alice, too, so he definitely couldn't blame James for panicking a bit. The fact that he had Esme with him just reminded Oliver of his other roommate, Ariel, and it made him realize very quickly that he wasn't going to be able to say no to them. Some part of his mind immediately wondered what Alice was up to, but he didn't doubt that his father would have said something if Alice hadn't shown up at work.

The only difference, he reminded himself, was that he and Alice were practically married at that point, even if nothing had actually been done yet to make it that way. How well did James know this woman he was seeing? Perhaps it was all a misunderstanding, and Oliver would find her very quickly.

Letting out a sigh, Oliver nodded - a silent agreement to help them. Of course, it didn't even register with him that the woman had the same last name as the one who had ruined everything for the Order. Ironically, however, the first question he asked was,

"Does she have any family around here? I don't know how close she is to them, of course, but perhaps they would know what happened or have a suggestion for where to look." Lifting a shoulder, he added, "Can you describe her at all? I can't tell if I saw her while the Order was here to help on Friday."


[ooc: I'm going off of the assumption that, at her parents' house in Florida, they finally caved and told Hadley about Audriana, and that's how she got in touch with them. Also, on the idea I suggested about Hadley mentioning it to Esme a couple days before.]

Esme then smacked her forehead with her hand and pulled out a piece of paper from the pocket in her skirt. She opened it and held it out towards Oliver. "She told me a few days ago about her finding out about someone named Audriana. She told me though that she would send me an owl today and let me know she's okay. I never received an owl and she's always very on time with things." She said as she paced trying to remember anything else that she may have forgotten. "She told me her parents told her about Audriana. I don't have any more information about this though. I'm worried because she's always has contacted me no matter what."

She looked at James to have him give Oliver the description of Hadley. She didn't want to take over everything completely. She wanted him to feel involved so that he wouldn't go crazy about not having an input.

James sighed softly rubbing his hands over his face in an attempt to calm himself. He waited for Esme to stop talking and looked up at her when she said he could give a better description. Taking a deep breath as he pictured Hadley from a memory of her.

"She has curly blonde hair and grey eyes depending on lights or what she's wearing. She is tall I couldn't say how tall considering I'm like a walking tree." He said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "She's slender and her skin has a healthy glow. She's really smart and very kind," He stopped there looking down thinking that Oliver had enough info on his girlfriend.

His mind went to the last time they hung out with each other. He had taken her to his house and showed her around including the one tame dragon that he had in his basement's paddocks. He remembered the look on her face when she saw the young dragon and it was equally fascinated with her.

Shaking his head James put his head in his hands and hoped that he was merely overreacting to everything. Lifting his head he looked at Oliver waiting on anything he may say on what was said to him.