Ethel Needlemire sat at one of the booths in Florean Fortescue's ice cream parlor, playing a game of muggle checkers with Edgar Odair as they waited for Jasper's shift to come to an end.

Edgar was kneeling on his chair, biting his lip and making a show of the game. Checkers, he thought, were rather rudimentary compared to Wizard's Chess, but Ethel was nice and he appreciated she was taking time to play with him. He rather liked her and recognized that she was good for his brother, who hadn't smiled so much as he had since meeting and courting Ethel. She treated Jasper with kindness, and loved Edgar dearly. They formed a strange, but loving family.

Jasper ran the wash cloth over the counter, other wash cloths danced over tables by magic, too. The sun was setting outside over the pikes and peaks of Diagon Alley, and Jasper was whistling a tuneless melody as he worked, turning to cover the barrels of ice cream with the glass freezer door.

The door opened, a chiming of bells sounding through the shop.

"I'm sorry, we're closed for the evening," Jasper called out, "Open again prompt in the morning, though, mates. You come back then and your cone is on the house."

"Shame," said a low, rasping voice. "I really had my heart set on something delicious tonight."

Jasper looked up from the freezer and found himself looking at a tall, lean man in a Death Eater's mask. Jasper froze. The cloths on the table tops stopped, falling limp as Edgar and Ethel looked up from their game. Jasper took a deep breath, reaching quietly under the counter for his wand. "I'm very sorry," he said, "But we closed several minutes ago."

The Death Eater walker slowly across the room, his heeled boots clicking on the tile with every step. "The Dark Lord seeks information," he said lowly, "Information that he knows you can give, Jasper."

Jasper shifted uncomfortably. An unknown, masked enemy using his name like that was quite unnerving and he discreetly tightened his fist around his wand, calculating the Death Eater's distance from the table where Ethel and Edgar sat. "What information is that?" Jasper asked.

"We recently lost many - many valuable bodies in our inferi army, it seems," the Death Eater crooned, "Burnt up by members of the Order of the Phoenix."

Jasper had heard, of course, and he'd heard about the battle in the atrium in the Ministry that had followed, about the dementors freed in the Minister's office, about the missing Caradoc Dearborn... He shifted uneasily. "And I know the Order lost at least one member themselves," he said. "What's it to do with me?"

The Death Eater smiled mundanely. "Well, you are a member of the Order of the Phoenix, are you not?"

Jasper didn't know how to answer, so he stayed silent.

The Death Eater chuckled. "I already know the answer, friend, you may as well speak up."

"Yes," Jasper said, "I am. And you are a member of the Death Eaters, are you not? One of the cowards who hides their identities behind masks and You Know Who's power?"

The Death Eater hissed.

"If you know so much about me," Jasper continued, "Then what information is it that you're needing that you think I can assist you with?"

The Death Eater walked closer, stepping right up to the cash register and smiled perfect rows of shining white teeth at Jasper. "Less information, I suppose, and more... an offer. An offer for you."

Jasper shook his head, "I don't make bargains."

"No?" the Death Eater pressed.

Jasper shook his head.

There was a shriek and suddenly Ethel was suspended upside down, her skirt falling so that she had to hold it up on her thighs, her hair hanging from her head in a great cascade of blonde hues. Behind them, Edgar had thrown himself beneath the table and was hiding his face, shaking.

"Let her down!" Jasper shouted, and he drew his wand from below the counter, face hot with anger.

The Death Eater laughed, "Put away your wand boy. I could do a lot more damage to your muggle bitch before you could do much to me. Never did get to finish up at Hogwarts, did you?" Jasper's flush was enough of an answer and the Death Eater's smile only widened, his perfect teeth all but glowing. "I think we'll be making a bargain, don't you?"

"What do you want?" Jasper asked.

"Start by putting down that wand of yours, boy," the Death Eater answered.

Ethel was sobbing, begging for help, her face red and soaked with tears. She clutched her mini skirt's hem desperately, trembling.

Jasper slowly dropped the wand onto the countertop. The Death Eater smiled. "Very good. Now. Here is my offer to you. Safety; safety for you and this filth -" he nodded at Ethel, "and the kid under the table. In exchange for information about the headquarters of the Order. Where they meet, and when." The Death Eater shrugged as though this were a fair deal, or even a cheap deal, as though giving that sort of information in exchange for safety was nothing.

Jasper stared at the masked man before him, resolute. "And if I refuse?"

The Death Eater released his spell on Ethel and she fell abruptly toward the floor, screaming, only to be caught at the last moment before her head hit the hard tiles of the floor. "I don't really feel any guilt about ending a worthless muggle's life," he said as Ethel's shrieks and cries doubled.

Jasper felt his stomach twist. "Please," he said, "Not Ethel. Not Ethel. Take me instead. Do whatever you like to me. But - not Ethel."

"I told you our terms."

"Please, I -"

"Ten."

"I can't tell you where they meet, I don't really even know, we're usually summoned -"

"Nine."

"- by patronus. Dumbledore, he usually tells us where to go, only the leaders really gather anywhere. I'm not a leader, I don't attend those meetings -"

"Eight."

"I barely know anything about the Order, really, I'm not even a real, official member - I - I've only fought along side them a couple times, I swear, I -"

"Seven."

"Please. Gods, please. I can't give you the information you're after! When we were first starting, when I was a member, we met at the school! At - at Hogwarts!"

"Six."

"B-but that was years ago, years! I haven't attended an Order meeting since before I went to Azkaban."

"Five."

"I really - really don't know!" Jasper begged. He came 'round the counter, truly fell to his knees. "Please, please!"

"Four."

Ethel was struggling, fighting, thrashing in the air. Jasper stared up at the Death Eater, his voice shaking. "We originally met in - in the Room of Requirement, when James Potter was the leader, but I would reckon that they don't do that now. I would reckon it would be here in London somewhere -"

"Three."

"Please! I don't know the answer!"

"Two."

"I can't tell you what I don't know! I can't --"

"One."

"PLEASE!"

But the Death Eater was merciless. "Avada kedavra!"

The words rang in the air, the jet of green light flashed brilliant against the pink and white tiles of the floor, reflected off the ice cream cooler's glass case. Jasper's cry was from deep within him, as though his soul was being stripped from his body. Ethel fell from the ceiling where she'd been suspended and hit the floor with a thump.

Jasper leaped to cover her, his heart shattering as he landed beside her, and the Death Eater shot several jets of red around the room. Glass shattered, the cups and lime green spoons rained to the tile along with the shards. Chocolate chips and raspberry sauce, whipped cream, cherries, and marshmallows flew into the air. Tables and chairs flipped back as though windblown, and the entire front picture glass window overlooking the patio and the alley beyond exploded outwards, bursting into the square before Gringott's.

"MORSMORDRE!"

Green shot from the Death Eater's wand again, smoke and sparks roared toward the blasted open store front, a great green skull erupted through the darkness, a tongue like a serpent falling from the gaping opened mouth of the skull, falling and curling about itself into the symbol of the dark mark - the symbol of a life taken by one of Voldemort's own.

Laughing, the Death Eater disapparated.

Dust filled the air, rubble and debris settling, water pouring from shattered pipes, and the tinkling of ice cream salts spilling from torn-open bags on high shelves behind the counter. Jasper shook, clutching to Ethel, his shoulders trembling, heart as broken as the ice cream parlor.

A checker from the board rolled on its edge across the floor, hitting Ethel's arm and falling to its side.

"J - Jasper?"

He looked up, up into Ethel's clear blue eyes, his heart leaping in disbelief. She was alive? She was ALIVE? But - how? He couldn't hold back the shout of relief that welled with in him, couldn't stop himself from leaping toward her, pulling her close and holding her tight, his nerves cascading shocks of relief all through him.

"Jasper," Ethel sobbed.

Jasper's eyes were closed, just holding her, just feeling her in his arms, feeling the beating of her pulse, praising every god he could think of.

And then he opened his eyes.

Edgar lay splayed on the floor.

Jasper's breath caught in his throat.

"Edgar..." he breathed, and he pulled away from Ethel's clutch, puller back and crawled across the floor over the broken bits of the destroyed ice cream parlor, through the settling dust... "Edgar????"

There was not a mark upon the boy, not a single mark. His eyes were open, shock on his features, mouth open slightly as though he were about to speak. But no words would ever come.

Jasper felt everything spin around him, felt the guts of him liquify and he caught the edge of a turned over table as everything - every single thing - went completely blurry except for that pale, still face of his brother.

"Edgar?" Ethel's voice trembled. "No... no! No!"

Jasper blacked out.