A/N: The sole purpose of this story, folks, is to introduce you to probably the most enigmatic character in my universe since Hershel Bennett.

Eric Matterson.

Just to let you know, so there is no question here, Eric Matterson is a Deatheater. He is NOT on Orin Bale's payroll, he is not a spy for the Ministry, and he is not working for them in any capacity. His reasons for what he does are his own and suit his own means and ends.

And as always,

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Wow! You know, as that this contains almost solely OC characters, I almost could claim it as mine. But instead, I will state that anything related to the Harry Potter series is not, and the rest is.

ONE NIGHT IN BANGKOK

"Why can't we ever go anywhere nice?" Orion complained to his partner as they headed down the corridor towards the portkey department. "Like Hawaii? I've never been to Hawaii."

"There's a reason for that, Mate." Charly replied solemnly as they walked along.

Orion turned a hopeful stare to the man next to him. "We never ask?"

"Bale hates us."

"Orin does not hate us, Charly." Orion replied firmly. "Orin loves us. No." He added, shaking his head as they stepped into the room and headed for the counter opposite the double doors. "I think the whole thing is a matter of something as simple as us asking."

A tall man behind the counter greeted them with a cheerful smile on his lips. "Right, gents." He ask. "And where are we off to then?"

Orion answered the man with his most charming smile. "Hawaii."

The tall man pulled out a clipboard and flopped it on the counter. "Right. Let's just have a look, shall we?" He added, looking over the roster of names. "Ah! Here we are. Black and Misser. Right you are! One portkey to Hawaii with a return trip included and one free Tag, just in case."

Orion leaned on the top as the man fished about in the drawer behind the counter. "I'm very excited." He stated happily. "I've never been, you know."

The tall man pulled out a newspaper from the drawer and handed it to him.

"I'm afraid you're going to be disappointed then." He stated as Orion took hold of one end of the paper as Charly grabbed the other.

"Why's that?" Orion ask, his smile fading slightly.

The tall man leaned over the counter as he tapped the newspaper with his wand. "Looks remarkably like Bangkok." He replied just before they disappeared.

--

The portkey deposited them safely in a back alleyway where no one was around.

Orion took a quick look around them, then frowned deeply. "This doesn't look anything like Hawaii!" He stated in disgust.

"How would you know?" Charly grumbled. "You've never been. Remember?"

"I've seen pictures."

"Well, this doesn't exactly look like what they would include in the travel brochures, now does it?" Charly added, just managing to sidestep a clump of garbage in the alleyway and another small pile of something dark and smelly he nearly put his foot into on the ground. "Come to Hawaii! See our lovely back alleyways, complete with..." Charly examined the pile a bit closer. "What exactly is that?"

Orion walked over and looked over the small pile. "Nothing you'd find in Hawaii, I'll bet." He grumbled, then shook his head as he stood up again and looked about once more. "No. No, I think the problem here, Charly, is that they sent us to the wrong place."

"The wrong place?!" Charly ask, turning back to face his partner.

Orion nodded quickly. "I think we should go back and let them know."

Charly sighed to himself as he studied the man in front of him for several seconds. "All right." He stated. "Tell you what. We'll go back. But first, since we're already here, why don't we just have us a quick look 'round? Might find something interesting. Like a lair of Deatheaters or something. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Orion seriously doubted find their targets would be 'fun'. This particular group they had been sent to scout were said to be a particularly nasty lot. One of the reasons, Bale had speculated, they had been sent to Bangkok was because even Voldemort was tired of dealing with them. Without doubt, they had basically been sent to some remote spot and hung out to dry. More than not, Voldemort was counting on the group to make just enough noise to attract the Ministry's notice, and send someone out to solve his problem for him.

Wandering out to the street, Charly walked slightly behind Orion as he held a small stone in his hand just out of clear view of anyone passing close. The stone glowed a soft blue color in the palm of his hand. After several blocks, the stone suddenly started to pulse, then flash, then suddenly turned red.

Charly quickly pocketed the small stone. "Oy!" He called to his partner, still a few steps a head of him, scouting the area as they walked for trouble.

Orion turned back to him and Charly quickly nodded to a small alleyway as he stepped into it.

Orion quickly followed.

"Close then?" He ask.

Charly nodded. "Bloody near burnt itself out it went red so fast. We're either standing on them, or pretty darned close to it."

Orion looked around, then looked at the ground. "Well, as that no one is complaining for me to get off of them, I'd say we're just close."

Chary pointed his wand tip to the wall just behind Orion's back. "Good a place to start as any." He stated.

Orion sighed as he turned to look at the wall. "Hate this part." He commented dryly. "Apparating into dark buildings. Never stops un-nerving the heck out of me."

Charly nodded as he placed his hand on Orion's shoulder. Unable to apparate on his own, Charly was forced to rely on a physical connection with Orion to accomplish it.

Once inside the building Orion found himself having to bring his hand up quickly to ward of a bright glare in his eyes.

"What the...! Why is it so bright in here?" He whispered to Charly, wondering what they had exactly apparated into with something akin to a spotlight on them. All he could make out was a stack of crates in front of them. "D's never have the lights on."

Charly had his hand up as well against the glare. "Maybe they started being afraid of the dark." He answered back.

"And maybe we just see better with the lights on." A cold voice added from behind them.

(--)

"What in magic's name is the matter with you!?" An irritated voice impressed itself upon Orion's foggy brain.

He knew that voice from somewhere, but couldn't quite place it. The last thing he remembered was the sharp, quick pain of a stunning spell hitting him between the shoulder blades.

"I'm up, Mum." He mumbled. "No need to yell."

A well aimed spell hit him in the upper arm, causing him to jump with a slight yelp of pain. "Ow!"

"Is that how your mother got your attention as well?" The voice ask in a low, threatening tone.

Ah! Now he knew the voice. Turning to it, Orion managed a small, hazy smile at the figure in front of the door of the cell they were currently in. "Hello, Eric." He stated.

Eric Matterson. Even given his current circumstances, the Deatheater was the last person Orion wanted to see.

Aside from Hershel Bennett, Matterson was the only other person to give Orion a genuinely uneasy feeling just by being near them. The man had an uncanny way of turning up in the most unlikely of places, and engaging in activity Orion felt was simply so out of character, it kept him up nights trying to figure the man's motives out.

Past that, Matterson was the one person Orion simply could not read. To his fine tuned senses, it was like the man didn't exist, even though he could be standing just a few feet away, as he was now. The man simply didn't 'register'. Orion never knew a person who could reign in every single emotional cue so tightly as to appear almost invisible to someone of his ilk.

Staring down at the Unspeakable from his over six foot tall, solidly built frame, two coal black eyes fixed themselves on the two men in the cell. "What are you two playing at, Black?" The man stated irritably again. "Apparating directly into a Deatheater lair? Have you and Misser completely lost your minds?"

Orion slowly pulled himself to his feet, wavering slightly. As he reached out to grab hold of something to steady himself, his hand came in contact with the bars of the cell. Instantly he snatched his hand back as a slight shock shot up his arm.

"Do try not to touch the bars." Matterson drawled slowly.

Orion rubbed his sore arm as he studied the man outside the cell. Whatever game Matterson was playing, he played it by a set of rules he never bothered letting anyone else in on.

For the most part, Orion knew the man solely as a Deatheater. An enigmatic one to be sure, but a Deatheater nonetheless.

Their current predicament was just one such example.

While any other Deatheater would hardly have care less about what the two agents were doing at the lair, and would be far more busy contemplating what sort of reward was waiting for them when they presented their prize to Voldemort, Matterson was more interested in why they were there, and even more interested in what had caused the two to be so careless as to be caught.

"Now, once more." Matterson ask. "How did the two of you manage to allow this pack of complete morons to capture you?"

"Manure occurs." Orion replied flatly.

A moan from the floor of the cell caught both men's attention as Charly slowly pulled around. Slowly opening his eyes, he slowly took in his surroundings until his eyes came to rest on the figure in front of the cell.

"Oh no." He moaned again, closing his eyes and waving his hand in front of him. "I am not ready for this."

"Perhaps we should skip the pleasantries and go straight to the torture then, Misser." The Deatheater suggested. "Would that help?"

"As long as 'torture' isn't being locked in a small room with you for company," Charly allowed, "yes."

The dark haired Deatheater regarded the two men for a moment. "Why are you here, Black?" He ask again.

Orion rubbed the back of his neck with a grimace. "We were sent here." He replied. "Got a report of Deatheaters in Bangkok."

"Well, congratulations. You found us." Matterson replied, pointing his wand at the door. "Now go home. And tell Orin I would appreciate him keeping his nose out of Deatheater business."

The door instantly swung open.

Orion wasn't even remotely surprised by the events. From the moment he laid eyes on the man, he knew the end result would be Matterson releasing them. It was just another of the man's MO's that baffled Orion. Whenever they crossed paths with him, the Deatheater was far more interested in parting company with them as quickly as possible it seemed, than capturing them. And this was the second time Matterson had out and out aided them in escape.

The first time had been in a tunnel collapse in another lair, which had inadvertently trapped Orion and Charly between a three-foot thick wall of stone and ten Deatheaters hot on their tails. While the two readied themselves for one heck of a fight, Matterson had inexplicably appeared in the tunnel and shown them a side corridor, hidden by a ward, that led to the outside after just a few yards.

This time, thanks to the tag Orion carried, they could easily have effected an escape on their own. Matterson's offer just made getting home that much easier.

"Do hurry, won't you?" He drawled again. "I have got a busy day."

Orion helped Charly to his feet and guided him towards the door, just managing to yank his hand back as Charly reached for the door to steady himself.

"Don't touch the bars." Orion stated. "It's one heck of a wake-up call."

Matterson gave the two a positively nasty smile. "No need to worry about your partner." He gave the same drawl to the statement, but dropped his voice to a lower, more condescending tone as he fixed his stare on Charly. "It doesn't effect muggles."

Orion gave the man a piercing stare of his own as he helped Charly out the door. The comment had been a slur and he hadn't missed it, just as he knew Charly hadn't either. But his partner had gotten better over the years at letting such comments go rather than react to them. But it still irked Orion whenever someone...anyone...took time out to put emphasis on the fact Charly wasn't a full-blooded wizard. Or a wizard at all, for that matter.

Charly had apparently felt Orion tense at the comment and a hand quickly grabbed the arm that was currently supporting him. "Let it go." He warned carefully. "Let's just get out of here while we can."

"So sorry to inform you that time is up." A new voice stated firmly.

All three men turned to the sound, finding themselves facing no less than ten other men, all dressed in black robes and holding wands pointed directly at them.

Orion had just had time to hear the men apparating into the area. But supporting Charly still, he hadn't had time to react. Plus, he had no idea how many he would be facing. Better to let things play themselves out until he could get himself into a better position to fight was his standard plan.

While Charly seemed to follow the same game-plan as Orion, Matterson slowly turned to face his fellow Deatheaters.

"You traitor!" The foremost man in the group addressed Matterson. "The dark lord has been after these two pig Aurors for years. Capturing them will raise us in his esteem to...we'll be made Elites!" He stated ecstatically, with a gleam in his eyes that showed Orion exactly what had gotten the man banished. Voldemort wanted dedicated followers, not fanatics.

"The only thing tonight that will guarantee you any hope of survival at all," Matterson answered in his usual drawl, "is for you to turn around and leave this room immediately."

The foremost man took another step towards Matterson. "Or want?" He ask, his wand pointed menacingly towards the other Deatheater.

Matterson seemed to take no notice at all of the threatening gesture. Instead he kept his gaze fixed on the man before him. "Or you'll die." He replied flatly.

The man stepped up closer to Matterson, until he was less than a foot from him, his wand, though lowered, was still clenched tightly in his hand.

"I'd like to see you try it, Matterson." The man practically spat in his face.

Matterson simply looked down at the other man with a small, bemused smile.

Orion couldn't see enough of the space between the men to know exactly what the taller Deatheater did. But the other man suddenly stiffened, a slight choking sound coming from his throat just before he collapsed to the ground.

"I hope you enjoyed the show." Matterson commented dryly to the corpse at his feet.

The others in the group had pulled back several feet almost as a single unit. Everyone of them had their wands out, but seemed unsure of whether or not to attack the man.

Matterson simply turned his eyes slowly to the men, but said nothing.

"You...Puller was right!" One of the other Deatheaters spoke up. "You're a traitor!"

"And you're a group of idiots. Which one of us has committed the more serious crime?" Matterson asked.

The foremost man fired off a spell which the taller Deatheater deflected with such ease he hardly seemed to even move.

Matterson remained on the defensive, deflecting each spell as it came at him. Orion wasn't eager to join in a Deatheater dispute among themselves, but it was clear Matterson was losing ground, taking several small hits as he deflected off several more spells. Tapping Charly on the arm, the other man looked up and nodded to his partner. The two quickly took up defensive positions and began picking off as many of the others as they could before they noted they now had two more targets to defend against.

But once Charly and Orion joined Matterson, the fight was over before most of the other Deatheaters even got in any shots.

Helping Matterson throw the last of the semi-conscious men into the cell, Orion paused as the Deatheater slammed the cell door shut.

"I guess I owe you a thank you." He said.

"You repaid the debt." Matterson replied in his usual flat, emotionless tone.

Orion studied the man. "No, we didn't. You may want us to think that, but you weren't as desperate as you appeared. In fact, given the option, I would say you let them gain the upper hand to force us into joining you. My question is 'why'?"

Matterson turned to the Unspeakable. "I suppose, were what you saying true, there could be several reasons." He replied. "I could have been using the situation to test you, to see if you and Misser would aid me. I could have been simply giving you the opportunity to repay me for your freedom." The Deatheater gave him a slow, mirthless smile. "Or I might have done it just for fun."

Before Orion could answer, Matterson turned his attention to the men in the cell. A quick reviving spell and the majority of them were sitting up, taking in their surroundings.

"What about this lot then?" Orion ask. "Aren't you afraid they'll report to Voldemort what happened here?"

The dark haired Deatheater regarded him past a bored expression. "No."

"Why not?" Orion wasn't the least bit surprised not to see Matterson so much as flinch at the mention of the dark lord's name.

Rather than answer him, the Deatheater reached into his robes and pulled out the newspaper that served as their portkey, then indicated the door leading back into the alleyway Orion and Charly had been in early that evening. "The time you are wasting is solely yours, Mr. Black. I have all night to finish my work here and return home. However, if you are that curious about their fate, you are welcome to join them in the cell once more and see it first hand."

Orion didn't need to hear anymore as he took the portkey from the Deatheater, nor did he need to see what Matterson had planned. He knew the man. And what he knew of him was utterly ruthless.

Helping Charly get out the door, Orion noted that the air smelled wet now. It had rained sometime during the night, and the dirty pavement under their feet, as well as the side of the building opposite them, glistened from the rain. Over all, somehow, the city seem a little cleaner.

Looking up, Orion saw the echo of the green flash of light reflect against the wet wall opposite them as they stepped out into the dark alleyway.

He didn't look back as he held the portkey newspaper out to Charly and they both disapparated.

No, it just seemed cleaner.

Q&A

MasterLupin:

Ah ending a story with some un-answered questions, how very teasing of you to do. I look forward to your next post whenever that may be.

I don't know why you honestly expected anything less of me. Good heavens, I left Family Relations with so many unanswered questions, it wasn't even funny.

ilovesiriusblack:

Ok I've changed my mind, right here right now, I do not like Orin Bale. Loudman had every right to respond to a tip off and I really doubt that Orin had nothing to do with The Daily Prophet finding out about how many Death Eaters were in the Aurors, as if his own pay roll is whiter than white.
This Eric character is interesting. He cab apparate directly into the Ministry? I know your probably going to say he isn't exactly apparating but im sure it amounts to pretty much the same thing.
I have to disagree with Master Lupin Harry Potter is not a Mudblood, that term applies only to witches and wizards who have entirely muggle parents and there is no way Draco Malfoy would offer to be friends with one.
No Family Ties wont keep me up at night it will just get me up in the morning and make me late for wherever it is I'm supposed to be going. But that is not important please make it as long as you like I love to read them.
Looking forward to your next story.

Oh, come on now. Orin isn't all that bad. I don't dispute that Martin Loudmen had every right to do what he did. But had he been within the law, he wouldn't have had to do it to begin with.

Actually, as the authoress, I can say with a great deal of certainty that Orin indeed had little to do with the Daily Prophet finding out about the Deatheaters working in the Aurors department.

No, Orin's payroll isn't whiter than white.

Actually, yes, he did apparate directly into the Ministry. And two points about that. One is Why he was able to do that, and the second is Who let him do that. Both points are dealt with in Family Ties.

I think we could bat this thing around for the next year. The problem being, Rowling never really clearly defined what some of the terms in her stories actually referred to and how far back in a families history they would reach.

Sorry I forgot to ask this in my first review, what does Eric mean when he says "we know the source of his power"? I was under the impression that Becca was a bit of a surprise.
Again looking forward to your next story.

I knew I liked you for some reason, Dear.

This one is kinda tricky to answer without saying too much.

Eric's statement that they know the source of his power says a lot, actually. Of course, the person they are referring to there is Heudros, though they don't have a name for him yet.

Was Becca a surprise? Well, keep in mind here what Becca really is. She isn't a person, par se (and I am NOT going into that again with anyone). She is a force of magic, given a body to live in in our corporeal world. Nothing more. Nothing less. That is what Eric was referring to when he made that statement, Dear. Simply that between him and Orin, they know where the wizard in the North is drawing his power source from.

And technically speaking, they still don't know about her, as that in his report at the end of Family Relations, Orion left out that little tidbit of information.

A bit confusing, Dear? Don't worry. It all works itself out in Family Ties.

Silverfox:

Oh, I just love Orin! 'Attacking my person is one thing, but attacking my men is personal.' LOL!
I can't agree with MasterLupin's conclusion that Harry is a mudblood in the eyes of the purebloods, I'm afraid. If not pureblood mudblood, then not only Voldemort himself, but also Snape (Muggle father as established in book six) would be mudbloods. Also Draco calls Hermione mudblood, but never Harry or any of the other students with at least one wizard/witch parent. I therefore believe that even the Death Eaters make a distinction between four different groups: Muggles, Muggle borns/mudbloods, halfbloods and purebloods. What is undefined is exactly where anyone sees the line between the last two.

Thank you, Dear. Orin is very defensive of his agents. And he takes responsibility for them very personally.

I do agree, Dear. The lines of what defines these groups was never clearly laid out. And even though Rowling did seem in the first book to spell out what a mugblood was, she never carried through to others. She had Draco call Hermione that, and they explained to poor clueless Harry what it meant, but then it sort of got lost in the rest of the stories and you rarely saw the term ever applied 'correctly' again.

It was all rather confusing to me.

The only distinction I could pull out of it was the fact that 'mugblood' was not a word used in polite conversation. So that might explain why it was rarely used between characters.

Again, it was all rather confusing.

All reviews are as of 06/29/2008.

And remember;

My surgery has been scheduled, folks. It is set for August 6th.

Expect delays, but lots of postings too, as I get bored sitting at home during recovery with nothing to do. Might as well work on stories.