Chapter Fourteen – Career Advice
Eris was only carrying her wand and dressed in thin robes outside of 34 Cherryclough Lane. Utterly unsuitable for tonight's weather. Sleet blew in her face as the winds picked up, her only warmth from charming her robe. Her breath hung in the air, their smoke trails visible under the orange glow of streetlights.
She thought as she was staring into the distance, her eyes folded and eyes closed. The tears had dried on her cheeks, the blistering cold air turning her ears numb. She summoned to think of any remaining friends she could go to for aid. Her Ravenclaw friends had distanced themselves from her over the years. If she ran into them at the Ministry, they'd awkwardly answer hello and flee as quickly as possible. She knew Cathy Morrell had a tendency to gossip so knew murmurs of her true allegiance would be prevalent among their peers.
Then a dark thought entered her mind. Her only family now were fellow followers of the Dark Lord. The people her precious father Damocles Belby had thrusted upon her through manipulation were now her only solace. If only her old friend Cathy knew. A sardonic grin formed on Eris' face. Her only family left were Death Eaters. She had decided to make a detour to Cokeworth, the only place that would serve her free wine and company at such late notice. Even if the host was far from gracious and hospitable.
Cokeworth had experienced much more snow and when she apparated by the river bank, she was already ankle deep in soft white snow as a blizzard swarmed around her head. She trekked through the virgin snow as she batted away the flurry of snow ahead of her with her wand. She could not feel the cobbled street under her feet as it was covered in a thick blanket of snow. However, she recognised the boarded up house she was trying to visit and knocked loudly at the door. Her fists banging at the door barely audible over the howling wind.
A familiar pallid face answered the door and scrutinised the shivering woman at the door. He was still dressed in black robes and the smell of alcohol hit Eris' face. Without a word, he undid the latch and welcomed her into his house.
His living room was even gloomier than usual, only meagre candlelight and a humble fire kept it from entering pitch blackness. It felt more claustrophobic than it did previously as additional layers of books had been added to the bookshelves. She looked down at her feet and noticed she was dripping from melting snow. She summoned away the puddle beneath her feet and removed her shoes. He gave her shoeless feet a disapproving sneer.
"Welcoming yourself to my property again, Belby?" drawled Severus.
"I came to you for advice."
"What, again? Please tell me you haven't misplaced the book I loaned you already, not all of us can afford the luxury of burning books," smirked Severus.
She rolled her eyes and paced around the room, her cold finger tracing at the spines of books all with enticing titles. "It may be a shock but I came to you for advice."
"Are you particularly dense today, Belby? You just repeated yourself," he said as he began pacing towards the dark kitchen clutching his illuminated wand.
Eris noticed on the coffee table, an empty bottle of wine alongside a dirty wine glass. He had been drinking alone.
"Drinking alone, I see," commented Eris as she smoothed down the threadbare sofa. She sat down reluctantly.
He had returned again with the social lubricant known as wine with an additional glass for Eris. He slammed them onto the dusty coffee table. "I suppose I'm not anymore, not like I had much choice in the matter."
She helped herself to the wine, pouring a liberal glass and wolfed down a full glass in a handful of gulps. Her lips stained purple and a pang of revulsion ruminating in her stomach.
"I take it you had a bad day today."
"What's your excuse?" guffawed Eris.
"I also had a bad day."
"What happened?"
He grimaced and ignored her question, "So advice… what is it this time? Have you forgotten the incantation to the killing curse?"
"There's no need to be so rude, Severus," groaned Eris. "I came to you because I couldn't think of anyone else."
"Again, flattery, Belby…"
"I mean… you're the most like me now…"
He snorted and placed down his glass, "In what faculty am I like you?"
"I-I-I," she felt his intense black eyes staring at her coldly, "We're both outsiders now."
He shot her a perplexed look, "Outsiders?"
"I mean, I just found out something… something… utterly unapprehensiveable about my father. My friends from school have abandoned me. All I have now is the Dark Lord."
"And all I have is the Dark Lord?"
"Please don't take offence, Severus. But neither of us have family. Neither of us have pureblood and neither of us have many friends."
"Friends? You mean your friends from school?" Eris nodded and he continued, "Your friends that snickered behind your back. Your friends that didn't accept you for who you are?"
"Your friends did that too."
He nodded in acknowledgement and took another sip of wine, "Yes, but I never regarded them, or you, as friends. Just acquaintances."
"And how about now?"
"You're still the same annoying acquaintance you were when I was sixteen."
Eris sighed, "What's it like being a… Death Eater?"
His brow furrowed, "Better than not being one."
She brushed her frizzy hair from her face, "I… I… think I want to do the task sooner rather than later."
"Then, may I ask what's stopping you?"
"I did something stupid," she admitted, looking at her feet in embarrassment.
"Did you accidently cast a charm on her instead of a curse or something?"
She snorted, "No, worse than that," she shook her head and continued, "I visited her tonight."
"And was the intention to kill her?"
She took a sharp breath, "No, it wasn't. I wanted to talk to her about my father. But she knows."
"Knows what?"
"She knows I'm one of you."
He snarled, "What did you tell her? You bumbling idiot."
"I told her nothing. I don't know how she knows. But she does."
They spent until the early hours of the morning discussing appropriate methods for dealing with Cathy Morrell alongside Eris admiring his extensive book collection. He eventually began to tolerate her pawing at his precious hoard of books on the Dark Arts as more wine entered his system. They debated about the politics of the Dark Lord's takeover, the eventual plan of Lucius Malfoy to replace Barty Crouch Sr. as the Minister of Magic and how Thaddeus Nott was days away from buying all of Wizarding Britain's media.
At some point, Eris must have drifted asleep because she woke up in the early morning light peeking through cracks in the dark velvet curtains. Her neck stiff and her eyes sore. Her robes creased from her contorted sleeping frame. Three empty bottles of wine side by side on the coffee table. She looked around the room for Severus but he must have retired to bed.
She rose gawkily from the sofa and wondered barefoot into the grimy kitchen. She picked up a glass and turned the tap on. She gulped down the lukewarm glass of water whilst looking into the dismal back garden. It was a tiny garden with high cement walls but made beautiful by deep snow. The only footprints on it were of wildlife, forked feet of robins and pawprints of cats. She cracked a smile and decided to try and hunt down breakfast in the kitchen cupboards.
Inspecting each cabinet led to disappointing finds of dried rice, tins of unappetising muggle food or even more alcohol. Upon opening the fourth cupboard door, her eyes widened upon seeing some bread behind a row of cans. She bent down and pulled out the loaf of bread. But unaware of her still intoxicated state, her elbow bashed down against the tins and they all tumbled out of the cupboard with a thunderous rumble.
She gasped as she heard footsteps creaking in the floor above her. She felt a temporary jolt of fear as they became quieter. She poured herself another glass of water, still lukewarm and shuffled back towards the living room.
"Not even going to pick up after yourself, Eris?" a cold voice purred quietly.
Eris leapt in her skin and behind her was Severus. She realised that the fallen oven tins of food remained on the peeling linoleum kitchen floor. She whimpered, "Sorry," and began to pick them up from the ground.
"I wouldn't make yourself at home, I'm not accepting a lodger," he stated as his hand held onto a countertop. He watched her picking up the cans expressionless.
"Aren't you even a bit hungover?"
"No," he folded his arms, "I'm pretty sure your Ministry salary can fumble together enough for some robes and a night in the Hog's Head Inn."
Eris had placed the final tin of food back into the cupboard and quietly shut it. She rose from the ground and asked, "Is it less busy now?"
He nodded, "I think the excitement has died down about the end of the Wizarding War."
Eris finished her second glass of water, "What you getting up to today?"
"Errands."
She sighed, "You don't have to tell me specifics but you must have some sort of job."
"Freelance potioneer."
"Poor you."
"Beats being Rookwood's little piece on the side."
She huffed, "Rookwood and I aren't shagging."
"I know that."
She blinked, "How can you be so sure?"
"He… how would I put this delicately?" pondered Severus.
"Delicately… for the broomstick of Ravenclaw?" Eris laughed as she pointed towards herself.
"Hmm… Rookwood is unable to."
"Lord, what do you guys discuss in Death Eater meetings?"
"Not so much discuss… but discuss their consequences."
"You mean the cruciatus curse?"
"It does have a myriad of side-effects in overuse."
"I can read, Severus. But does it affect everyone the same way?"
"I don't think so, otherwise how could Malfoy conceive his son?"
"I… I haven't had it done to me yet, is it really that bad?"
He shot her another disappointed look, "Yes, why else would he use it?"
"How do you cope with it?"
He brushed his greasy hair from his face, "I avoid it."
"I'll try and take note."
Aberforth Dumbledore had welcomed her custom with much more gusto than before as he looked over his shoulder as various cloaked wizards cackled in his direction. Luckily, he seemed completely unaware of her tarnished reputation and still saw her pure as winter snow compared to the dark arts these wizards were shamelessly flaunting in public. Snippets of conversations include discussion of best situation for unforgiveable curses or other unique ways to kill wizards. It was peculiar that eavesdropping might prove useful for the novice assassin, Eris Belby.
"You did a good job at cleaning up the room, girl," Aberforth complimented Eris as he escorted her up the creaking stairs to the room. "Left it a bloody better state than most of my visitors recently."
He closed the door behind her and Eris was not surprised to find another dusty neglected bedroom before her. She placed her tan leather trunk onto the bedspread and opened it, revealing new robes and books that she had just purchased. She saw the dust float in the air through the sunrays shining through the murky windows.
She had spent her Sunday sleeping off her wine-induced hangover but otherwise was well enough to forcefeed herself some pumpkin soup and plenty of gillywater. She was not looking forward to work tomorrow. Rookwood still leering in her direction, probably. She shuffled to her bed and slept still dressed in her day robes.
Soon, she awoke in the darkness of a December morning. She could see that the sun had not yet rising through the window but the clock declared it to be half past seven in the morning. The pub was no longer murmuring with life below her but now was completely silent. The only noises were the creaks of the old building.
She quickly washed herself and dressed in her work robes still creased in her trunk. She grumbled out an ironing charm and the fabric smoothed over. Her stomach rumbled in hunger but she decided it would be best to head to her department as early as possible. The more hours she worked, the better the pay she'd receive and the quicker she could leave this dump.
Rummaging through her open trunk, she pulled out a large vial of glittering floo powder. She tapped her wand at the dirty fireplace in her room and threw down the powder into the fireplace floor before bellowing, "Ministry of Magic."
Her footsteps echoed through the empty atrium. It was not even eight o'clock in the morning and the only workers in the Ministry would be cleaning staff or aurors. But luckily neither was dwelling in the long hallway. She rushed up the flight of stairs and entered her Department, grumbling at the early morning puzzle of the ten doors ahead of her. She had finally remembered months later than it was always the fourth door to the entrance of the Department of Mysteries.
She walked down the long dark hallway, made of stone and only lit by blue candlelight. The workstations for each Unspeakable and their apprentice remained empty. The lack of paperwork following the weekend confused Eris. Each desk was barren of any evidence of work. She found her desk for Unspeakable Number Nine a.k.a Augustus Rookwood. Just as empty as the others. The ink on her quill dry and the logbook had absolutely nothing in it. Not even the dates she wrote into it last week.
Her ears twitched as she heard footsteps down the hall. Firm footsteps became louder and louder. She illuminated her wand and stalked down the hall, looking out for the unknown wizard. She was hoping it would be the overzealous cleaner than absconded with all their paperwork. Or some sort of power hungry bureaucrat that had made them undergo a parchment saving measure. But no, the familiar grey haired Rookwood looked upon her. Clutching onto a box filled with his belongings.
"It's over, Eris," Rookwood stated matter-of-factly.
"What?"
"It's over, the Department of Mysteries is over," Rookwood reiterated.
"What?! Why?"
"Didn't you get the owl I sent to your house?"
Eris shook her head side to side, "But why?"
"Cost-saving measures. I tried my best to argue against it, but," he sighed, "he didn't agree that our work is important."
"So, what are we going to do?"
Rookwood placed his box onto his workstation, "I've got a position back in Magical Law Enforcement, you've got to reapply for another Ministry job I'm afraid."
Eris' jaw dropped, "So I'm… I'm unemployed?"