Mary was two shots down already and she'd barely been there ten minutes. Perched on a barstool in the corner of the Kings Head, she settled in for what was going to be a long afternoon. The dilapidated muggle pub was so filled with cigarette smoke she could barely see her own hand in front of her face. But that was okay, she didn't really need to see anything at all.
This was not just a normal day. Today wasn't part of her normal routine.
Today, Mary wouldn't be tumbling through the floo at St Mungos just in time for her shift. She wouldn't be donning her lime green healer robes and vanishing the smell of vomit every hour. Today, Mary wouldn't be comforting a family as she gave them the news their toddler was permanently deformed because they'd somehow managed to leave a wand lying around for him to play with.
No. Today wasn't that day. Tomorrow wouldn't be either and no day moving forward. She wasn't entirely sure what tomorrow would be, or the day after that. But today? Today was the day Mary sat in a muggle pub and drank. Today was the day she made terrible decisions, but arguably not as terrible as the one that had gotten her the sack from Mungos.
"Now, I know I taught you better than this." a voice interrupted her thoughts and Mary turned, struggling through bleary eyes and the smokey room to make out the slender figure taking a seat on the stool next to hers. "Vodka, Mary? Please, Muggles have better choices in alcohol than that. It's made from potatoes."
"You were always more concerned about carbs than me." she murmured, her voice flat and unenthusiastic even to her own ears. "Hello Marlene."
"Yeah well, I look at a carb and all of a sudden I'm pregnant." Marlene patted her flat stomach, and Mary narrowed her eyes to try and get a look at her through the smoke. "You look as though you could use some carbs yourself, does Mungos not feed their Healers?"
"I don't work at Mungos anymore." she mumbled, gesturing to the bartender to bring her another drink. "I would have written to inform you of my change in direction, but after the first fifteen letters I sent you four years ago went unanswered, I thought I wouldn't bother."
"That's in the past." Marlene waved a hand and Mary rolled her eyes, what was the point in being upset?
That was Marlene. Ignoring anything she didn't want to deal with.
"Why are you here?" Mary stated suddenly, reaching for her next shot only to find a pale hand placed over hers. Stilling her movements. "Aside from ruining my plans for the day?"
"You're going to have to learn to stop asking why." Marlene answered, and Mary could only watch as the other woman took the shot for herself, downing it with barely a wince. "When you work for Sirius Black, you just do, the why is a hole you don't want to go down."
"Sirius? I don't — I don't work for Sirius…."
"Oh see, but you do." Marlene smiled, her red painted lips wide and yet Mary noted it didn't quite reach her eyes. "As of today you are an employee of The Marauders. The wage is shit, you don't get holidays and you can kiss goodbye to a social life...but it's the best job you'll ever have."
"The Marauders? I don't — "
"He picked the name." Marlene rolled her eyes, "He's obviously suffering from school days nostalgia."
"But I don't — I'm not — I don't get Ministers elected. I'm not a — what is he again?"
"A fixer." Marlene stated simply.
"Right...I'm not one of those." she shrugged, feigning casual when she felt anything but. It would be a lie to say she hadn't followed the career of Sirius Black. From Azkaban to wild success on James Potters Ministerial campaign to absolute scandal when he quit a year ago as soon as James was in office.
She'd scoured the papers, but there had never been any reason as to why and Mary hadn't been in any position to ask and find out. She'd lost touch with her classmates a long time ago. Four years to be exact. War damaged people, and none of them had expected to survive it.
"You're a Healer." Marlene stated, interrupting Mary's thoughts with a sure confidence Mary had always admired. "Were a Healer, I should say. That, by definition makes you a fixer if you want to get technical."
"I don't think it's quite the same thing…"
"Somewhere inside that jaded mind, you wanted to help people." Marlene leaned in, and Mary was taken aback by the brightness of her eyes, the blue vivid even through the smoke. "We all did. Every single one of us. Sirius' strays. The dark and the damaged. The wounded ex warriors of the light. We fought and we won, but at what cost? The war didn't end, suffering and injustice isn't over and you can either sit here and feel sorry for yourself or you can consider that you were sacked for a reason. You can accept the fact that you're being called for something else, to help in ways you never imagined, to take roads you didn't even know existed. You get to walk the line between good and evil, you get to exist in a world beyond black and white and right and wrong. You get to work in the shades of grey in-between. Destiny has come knocking Mary, are you going to shut the door in its face?"
"Working for Sirius Black, that's my destiny?" she frowned, she had no idea how Marlene knew she'd been sacked and hadn't simply quit — but right now she didn't really want to ask.
"Right now it is." Marlene answered, standing and tucking her perfectly straight blonde hair behind her ears. "Right now is your chance to be a hero, to trust blindly and completely. We don't ask why, we don't question and we do whatever it takes. Whenever it's asked. We're family. We're the best of the best and highly in demand. Here's your chance and you'll only get the offer once."
Marlene raised her eyebrows, holding her hand out to Mary expectantly.
"So what's it going to be? Are you going to drink, or are you going to answer the call?"
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Minister, I have the candidates for the Order of Merlin."
James spun in his chair, frowning as he plucked the file from the air as it floated towards him, flicking through with relative dis-interest.
"Moony — you've really gotta stop calling me Minister." he shook his head, as his eyes scanned the list of names. "It freaks me the fuck out."
"You are the Minister, it's quite literally your title." Remus sighed, taking a seat in the chair opposite the desk, and James could practically feel his fond disapproval as he waited.
"I quite literally couldn't give a fuck about the title." James quipped, closing the file as he surveyed his mate and chief adviser across the desk. "Why do we have to give anyone this Order of Merlin? I thought it was y'know...when someone did something heroic, not pluck a name from a list and be done with it."
"It boosts moral." Remus shrugged, reaching across and opening the file once more, pushing it back towards James. "You just replaced Crouch as Head of the Auror Department — apparently he's doing an exclusive with the Prophet about being pushed out of his position."
"We had to give over twenty re-trials because of him! For fucks sake, what did he expect? Every fucking family had to listen, once again to the scum that killed or tortured people they loved and yet somehow he's the victim?" James laughed, loud and humourless as he shook his head. "Un-fucking believable. Maybe he should've given fair trials in the first place and he wouldn't have lost his damn job."
"I know that. You don't have to tell me. But the Prophet is claiming he's giving them information on his unfair dismissal…." Remus paused, and James could practically see the cogs turning in his brain, like he was choosing his words carefully. "He's saying it's because of Sirius...that you've got a personal vendetta and you've been trying to push him out for the year you've been Minister."
"It's not about Sirius." James mumbled, reaching for the file once more just for something to do with his hands.
"Isn't it?" Remus asked lightly and James could feel his face heating at what the other man's tone implied. "...he was the first after all — the first who didn't get a fair trial."
"He's the reason I ordered the investigation into all the trials. That's not — that's as far as it goes." he waved a hand, as though dismissing the whole conversation as he slid the file over the desk back towards Remus. "Gilderoy Lockhart. He saved that kid from a Dragon, that's pretty cool — give him the Order of Merlin, seems like a fun bloke to have a pint with after the ceremony."
"James….you need to stop basing political decisions on who won't be boring to spend time with." Remus sighed, shaking his head in fond disapproval and James could only shrug.
"Hey, I gotta take my fun where I can get it." he paused as there was a familiar knock at the door, grinning as his favourite redhead poked her head through.
"It's lunchtime James." she announced, a tray of sandwiches floating in front of her as she entered the room. "I've cleared an hour for you to eat, you'd waste away if Remus had his way."
"I resent that Molly." Remus quipped, but he dutifully lifted the file to make room for the tray as it settled on the desk. "The promise of food when we're done is the only way I can get him to concentrate."
"I resent that." James quipped, shooting Molly a charming grin before widening his eyes pathetically. "He works me too hard Mol, he's a tyrant. Who would have guessed it? Remus Lupin, slave driver to his best mate."
"Don't try that face with me James Potter." she scolded, and James couldn't help but laugh as she smacked him round the back of the head. "You're worse than my boys. Don't think Arthur didn't tell me that you had to borrow a tie from him yesterday. Honestly, I reminded you at least ten times that you had a meeting with the Muggle Prime Minister."
"She doesn't deserve a tie." James mumbled, reaching for a sandwich. "You know the Muggles call her the Iron Lady? I don't bloody blame them."
"You can't get involved in Muggle politics James, you know that." Remus reminded patiently, and James rolled his eyes through a mouthful of ham sandwich. "Molly, do you have time later to go through his schedule for next week? We need to clear an hour for him to meet with Alice about her plans for the Auror department."
"I already spoke to Alice…." James waved a hand, coughing as he swallowed too quickly. "I know her plans, they're brilliant. Nobody — least of all me — tells Alice Longbottom how to run her Department."
"Conversations over firewhisky in your office don't count James." Remus rolled his eyes and James shot a wink in his direction for the hell of it. "You have time later Molly?"
"As long as you catch me before 3, I have to take poor Ginny to the Healers today, we think she might be coming down with something. Poor mite was up all night." Molly shook her head, talking even as she directed the teapot to start pouring with her wand. "Honestly, I had to practically drag Arthur out of bed this morning, he'd spent most of the night lying on the floor of Ginny's room."
"What're you even doing here?" James frowned, reaching for the floating teapot and pouring the contents himself as he set her with his best disapproving look. "Go home. Arthur too and take tomorrow as well...Moony'll have a blast filling in for you."
"Well if you're sure…." she frowned, looking to Remus for confirmation and James wasn't sure when he required babysitters, but he had an idea it might have come with the Minister title.
"It's fine Molly….you've got his schedule planned for the next three months, I can handle any emergencies for the next two days." Remus stated kindly, and James pushed a cup of tea towards him as a reward for being such a good bloke.
"See? You never know, two days without my hard working Assistant and I might actually learn how to feed myself." James joked, reaching out and squeezing Molly's hand lightly.
He'd thought of her as soon as he'd gotten the job, upped the wage to make sure she'd have enough to cover childcare and brought her in immediately. He'd filled the place with people he trusted, people he knew would be loyal and wouldn't be afraid to tell him the truth when he needed to hear it. He'd never regretted bringing Molly for even a fucking second, but sometimes he worried she doubted herself. She'd gotten used to her identity as a stay at home mum after all, which James thought was a harder fucking job than looking after him — but anyone who looked after him would probably disagree.
"Well alright, but I'm just a floo call away if anything comes up and I'll have that lovely little lad, fresh from Hogwarts cover my desk whilst I'm gone." she nodded, reaching over to straighten James' tie and patting Remus on the head as she headed for the door. "Oh and don't forget Rita Skeeter requested comment for her article, Frank has all the details for you!"
James groaned as the door shut behind her, cursing under his breath as he took a gulp of still too hot tea.
"For fucks sake, are we giving comment to Rita Skeeter now?" he shook his head, picking up a Quill as he wrote a note to summon Frank, sending it flying off with a wave of his hand. "Doesn't she work for that girly mag?"
"...she writes lifestyle pieces, yes." Remus answered, rolling his eyes so much James couldn't help but grin in response. "Frank doesn't usually give her the time of day, there must be a reason we're entertaining her this time."
"He always has a reason, usually something I hate." James muttered, despite his fondness for his Head of Public Relations. "Should've let him stay in the Auror Department, then the public could say what they liked and we'd just ignore it."
"I love that you believe you ever ignored it." Remus quipped, taking a sip of his own tea as he raised his eyebrows. "Or do you not remember the drunk night of '84 in the middle of the campaign as you ranted for an hour because someone had dared to write into the Prophet to comment that they couldn't have a Minister who didn't brush his hair?"
"Yeah, well Sirius had a great answer for that, remember? It was bloody brilliant - "
"Sirius doesn't work for you anymore." Remus snapped, and James winced at the harshness in his tone.
"I know that." James muttered sullenly, picking at the crust of his third sandwich. "Y'know you're allowed to be the mate that lost him too right? You don't have to wear your Chief Advisor hat at all times."
"Yes. I do." Remus stated firmly and James sighed, there was no use trying to push the issue. "This isn't just a job James. This is your life now. Our life now. Everything you do or say has an impact on the country, on the entire magical population - muggle too. At some point, you're going to have to stop taking your hat off too. Merlin knows we don't need another James Potter hair scandal."
James couldn't even life at the bad joke, the sandwich destroyed by his fidgeting fingers as crumbs littered his desk. He wore the hat. He knew what the hat was. What this job was. He knew every hair on his head was watched and monitored, that every syllable he uttered was analysed. He knew because he spent hours with Frank going over his tone and his wording, spent far too long having his tie changed because the colour was too happy, or too sad, or implied he was overly confident or not confident enough.
He wore the hat. But Remus wasn't wrong, sometimes he just wanted to take it off for a second and breathe.
"I'm going to go and hunt down Frank, see if I can get a brief on what Rita is looking for." Remus interrupted his thoughts, a kind smile on his face that James half resented in that moment. "You've got a meeting with the Head of Muggle relations in fifteen minutes...try not to flirt with her again."
James laughed, shaking his head as he shot Remus a wink, forcing himself back to the present. Forcing the Minister hat back on his head as he cleared the crumbs from his desk with a wave of his hand.
"If it gets her to stop moaning about her budget, I might even take her for a drink."