All credit and deepest apologies to Ms. Rowling.
I know I have been awhile, but I have a good excuse. A rat. That's right, R-A-T. The furry, gray, pink-tailed, bubonic-plague-carrying kind. Darting across the floor of my living room. While rats are all well and good as pets in the Harry Potter world, Christina does not wish to live with vermin. So (after screaming like a banshee and staying at a friend's house for several nights), I've gotten a new apartment.
Chapter 12- Motivations
"But what's the point of trying to break the Fidelius charm? What's the motive?" James asked rhetorically, pacing a few feet back and forth in front of a large table in the Hogwart's library. He was the only one pacing, but certainly not the only one showing signs of nervousness and frustration. They were stationed about the Hogwart's library, as it was a convenient place for the Order to meet, and larger than Dumbledore's office. Though it was late, everyone was anxious to hear what Morgan and Sirius had learned from Taylor Griffin. Dumbledore had gone to consult immediately with Professor Flitwick as to whether it was likely or even possible that the Fidelius Charm could be defeated.
"I thought that Griffin fellow said it was an academic interest." Gideon said, from near the end of a row of bookshelves. Lily gave him a withering look.
"Gideon, if you believe that I've got some land in Florida you might be interested in."
"Huh? Florida?"
"Nevermind, it's a muggle saying." James interrupted quickly, cutting them both off. "But all right, let's say it's not academic interest, let's say he was doing it for Voldemort, still, what's the point? If he figures out how to break through the Fidelius Charm, we'll merely stop using it as a method of hiding information."
"But Voldemort doesn't know we know. He didn't know that Claremont told Griffin what he was working on."
Morgan and Sirius were clearly not focused on the discussion, as Morgan took a coin from her pocket, set it on the table, and with a quick flick of her wand, turned it into a beetle, which she sent scurrying across the table toward Sirius. He waited until it had nearly reached him before he turned it back into a coin. Another flick of his wand and it grew little legs, and jogged back to Morgan. A little flick of her wand and it had arms as well and started doing handsprings back towards Sirius. They both looked highly amused by this until Gideon pointed his wand at it, its arms and legs vanished in midair and it dropped back onto the table. He pocketed it.
"Will you two please pay attention?" He snapped.
"I've heard everything that was said, and frankly, most of it wasn't worth listening to." Morgan said bluntly.
"Oh? Then let's hear your brilliant insights."
"You really want to know? Fine, you're focusing on the wrong thing. The question is not why break the Fidelius charm, but why did Voldemort kill him."
They were prevented an argument by Dumbledore entering, and everyone fell silent. With him was a witch named Dorcas Meadowes. She was a senior secretary at the Ministry and very highly regarded. A brilliant witch, and a personal friend of Dumbledore, she had been eager to join the Order.
"After consulting with Professor Flitwick, and several other experts I am aquainted with, we have determined it would be impossible to break through the Fidelius Charm, not matter how advanced your learning in charms." He said, with an air of finality.
"I'm still not clear on exactly what this charm is." Admitted Frank.
"It's a highly powerful and complex spell that is often the last resort for keeping a secret. It conceals the secret, usually the location of a person or a thing, inside the soul of a secret keeper. For example, let's say that you, Frank, needed to hide from Voldemort, and Alice was your secret keeper. Voldemort could be looking right at you, but unless Alice chose to tell him where you were, he wouldn't be able to find you."
"Why is it impossible to break? I mean, if wizards invented it, it can be broken by wizards." Morgan seemed convinced of this.
"Because the secret is concealed inside a soul. And while the body, and even sometimes the mind, can be penetrated, the soul cannot."
"That leaves us nowhere on why Voldemort killed him. We still don't have a motive." James said, although it was technically good news, it only made the murder more confusing.
"Well, maybe there's another reason, or maybe it was just a random killing."
"I don't think it was random." Said Dorcas Meadowes. They all listened now. " I don't doubt for a moment that You-know-who kills for sport, but he would kill muggles or muggle borns if it was merely for entertainment, and not in the middle of Diagon Alley either."
"So there was another reason. Something else Claremont was doing, or not doing....."
"Maybe we should ask his wife?" Frank said.
"You want to interrogate a grieving widow?"
"Well, we can start by checking his Ministry file, maybe that will give us something to go on." Marlene McKinnon offered this, in a logical voice.
"Ministry file?"
"Sure, the Ministry keeps records on all witches and wizards. They have to keep track of everyone, don't they, to keep the muggles from finding out about us."
"All witches and wizards? That's kind of creepy." Morgan looked uncomfortable.
"Yeah, yours is really thick. On account of them having to keep track of all the experiments they did on you." Sirius said, and then ducked when she chucked a book at him.
"How do you get someone's Ministry file?"
"Well, I know the Aurors could look at them if they needed to for an investigation, but you don't want to just walk in and request Claremont's file now, that would raise suspicion."
"Can we sneak in and get it?"
"Not that hard actually." She reached for a scrap of parchment. "Here's how it's set up. All the files are kept in a big room." She drew a big square." There's no security, except outside the door there's a guard who sits at a desk right outside." She drew a smaller square, presumably the desk, and a stick figure, the guard. "When someone requests a file, he goes and gets it. Technically no one else is allowed in the room, but it would be easy enough for one person to distract the guard, while someone in an invisibility cloak slips in and grabs the file."
"Well, that would be a start."
"Lily and I will do it." James volunteered. "I have an invisibility cloak already."
"Better let Lily be the distraction." Marlene advised. "I believe the security guard is a young man."
******
Peter sat at a table in the Leaky Cauldron, watching the door in anticipation. He was meeting Abby, and even after several weeks of "dating" (though it had never been officially defined) he could not believe she actually wanted to see him. Despite what Sirius had said, he had not asked about her family, and she had not offered any information. He did not see anything that indicated a tendency toward the Dark Arts. Quite the opposite, she seemed perfect.
The door opened, and she stepped in. She had a trick of pausing in a doorway to let people admire her, and a good many did. How could you not, Peter thought. She marched over the table, and sat facing him, pouting a little. In fact, looking rather put out.
"Where were you Sunday night? I flooed you several times. You weren't home."
He had never heard this impatient tone before, he was a little taken aback. He thought about it, and realized that Sunday afternoon and evening he had been at Hogwarts, at a meeting of the Order, after that scientist had bought it in Diagon Alley. He wished he could tell her that, it sounded rather dangerous and exciting, a secret society, but he didn't.
"I was doing something, with my friends."
She made an impatient "tuh" sound. He knew that sound, he'd heard Lily make it at James, and he'd heard Morgan make it at anyone whose opinions differed from hers.
"What?" He said, wondering how she'd barely walked in and he was already on the defensive.
"Your friends..." She shrugged. "I don't know, sometimes they don't seem like very good friends."
"What D'you mean?"
"Well, you say yourself they're always making fun of you and saying how thick you are."
She had a point, he thought. But that was just the way Sirius and James were. And compared to them…well, he wasn't brilliant and gifted like that.
"You don't deserve that. Real friends wouldn't act like that."
"They are my real friends."
"Are they?" She shrugged again, seemingly to leave the conversation, but he worried and worried around the thought. Were they really his friends? Did he really have any friends at all?
******
Lily walked, no, sauntered was really the only word for it, down the hallway at Ministry. She could sense James behind her, under the invisibility cloak. She always hated walking with him when he was wearing that thing, she could sense he was nearby but never knew exactly where he was.
Just as Marlene had described, there was a desk at the end of the hall set squarely in front of a heavy steel door. She thought "security guard" was something of a euphemism, since the wizard sitting at the desk, reading a quidditch magazine, looked about eighteen years old.
Trying to ignore James whispering "walk sexier" in her ear, she walked up to the desk and stopped, smiling coyly. The guard swung his feet off the desk and gave her an appraising look that she was sure was giving James fits. She hoped he'd control himself and not toss off the cloak and attack the poor boy.
"Hi there." She smiled sweetly, twisting a lock of hair around her finger. "I need to see a file."
"Can I see your ID Miss?" He was trying to sound businesslike while leering at her, and not making a very good job of it.
"Sure, um, I have it here somewhere." She offered him her Ministry card, which he merely glanced at.
"So Lily, can I call you Lily? What can I get for you?"
She giggled. "Sure."
"You can call her Mrs. Potter." James hissed under his breath. She wanted to shush him but the guard didn't seem to have heard.
"Oh, well, I need a file for...........oh Dear....oh, I....I seem to have forgotten the name. I...um...I think it started with a T."
"Well, I'd need to know the name..."
"Yeah, I know, I'm sure I can remember it, if just....do you think I could just have a peek? I mean, I know I'd recognize it if I saw it. I think it started with T-O." She batted her eyelashes appealingly.
"Oh, well, that's not really allowed."
"Oh? Well, gosh, I wouldn't want you to get in trouble or anything. It's just, well..." She leaned over on the desk, a fairly effective method of distraction given she was wearing low-cut robes. Dear Merlin, when did I lose all sense of dignity? "If I have to go back and check the name my boss will really yell at me." Her bottom lip trembled.
"This is absolutely nauseating." James voice came in her ear. She kicked out and her foot came in contact with something, and she heard a sharp intake of breath. Luckily, the guard was too busy checking her out to notice.
"Well, I guess it wouldn't hurt for you have have a quick look..." He agreed slowly.
"Oh, thanks SO much." She gushed. "I really appreciate it."
He made a big show of unlocking the big door, and then took her arm protectively. "Now it's T-O you said? That would be right down this way."
He left the door wide open. What an idiot, thought James as he slipped in after them and went the opposite way, toward the beginning of the alphabet. He turned down the aisle marked "C" as he heard Lily give a shrill giggle in response to something the guard said. He slowed a little bit and looked at the marked drawers-- CH...CI...CL. He pulled open that one and quickly thumbed through the parchments....Claasen, Claimer, Clancy...Claremont, Ewan Martin. It was quite a thick file compared to the others, but he just shoved it under his robes and made his way over to the T section. Lily was pretending to look at files while that foul boy stood so close he practically had her pinned against the cabinets.
"No, not Toomey..."
He resisted the urge to push the kid off his wife and instead tugged discreetly on her robes to let her know he was finished, then went and slipped out the door as he heard her say "Toomey! Wait, that is it!".........there was a momentary pause, then she chirped. "Okay, that's all I needed to know, thanks!" And came striding out of the record room, with the boy hurrying after her saying "Hey Lily wait, are you busy tonight......?"
She pretended not to hear and kept walking.
******
Remus finally decided enough was enough. Since they had returned from Avalon, Morgan had been avoiding him, blatantly. She wasn't even being remotely subtle about it. For good reason of course, since that moment of complete idiocy when he had kissed her. Because they had the same friends, and simply could not avoid seeing each other on a regular basis, they could not go on not speaking, he knew he had to set things right. He hoped they could go back to being friends as they always had been, but then he was willing to settle for a friendly politeness. You don't really want to just be friends with her….the nagging voice in his head would not go away….and she kissed you back, remember. No, it was no good dwelling on those kinds of thoughts, he had to talk to her, to attempt to repair their relationship.
Of course it was the sort of conversation that required getting her alone, and he finally caught her Tuesday afternoon in James and Lily's living room. Everyone else was still at work, and she claimed her neighbors were reaching new levels of noisiness. She appeared totally immersed in a book.
"What are you reading?"
Okay, lame attempt at small talk……
She looked up, obviously surprised to see him and not sure how to react, then she held out the book. Very advanced transfiguration, well beyond NEWT level.
"I borrowed it from the Hogwart's library, when we were there over the week-end. I mean, Dumbledore said I could." She added quickly, as though afraid he would think she nicked it.
"You really are a closet nerd, aren't you?" He asked, trying to lighten to tension in the room. It worked, she laughed, then put on a serious face.
"At least I'm discreet, I don't flaunt my nerdom for all too see."
"Yes, but how long can you really go on living a lie?"
Her serious expression cracked and she smiled.
He felt a little better. "I wanted to talk to you."
She carefully- a little too carefully, she was stalling- marked her place in the book and set it aside, indicating she was taking this seriously. "Yes, I guess we should talk." She agreed quietly.
"I should apologize, I'm sorry." He said promptly, feeling it was best to get that out of the way.
She frowned. "For what?" She seemed genuinely confused.
"For what happened at Avalon. I know I was totally out of line."
"You weren't the only one there."
"No, that's true." He was surprised, he hadn't expected her to come right out and say that.
She stood, and started to pace, which was usually his move. "So, what now?"
"I was hoping we could just go back. Go back to being friends. Nothing changed."
"We could." He felt a rush of relief. "If that's what you want."
He was about to respond affirmatively when she spun to face him. "Can I ask a question?" She went on without waiting for an answer. "Why? Why did you kiss me? What was the motivation? Was it just the moment?"
"Well, yes, I guess I just got caught up."
She sighed. "Okay." But didn't look happy with the answer.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. I thought….nothing, nevermind."
"No, tell me. What's the matter?"
"I thought it was something more than that." She finally said, very quickly, barely above a whisper.
He felt as stunned as though she had hexed him. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing, nevermind."
"Stop saying that, it's not nothing." He took a step nearer. "What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, she crossed the space between them in two steps, and kissed him. There was nothing cautious or hesitant about it, it was insistent, demanding, aggressive….and incredibly sexy. It was as though time froze, and although he was vaguely aware there were things he should be thinking, he couldn't focus on anything but her. Her arms were tight around his neck, and he brought his hands to her waist and pulled her closer against him. He ran a hand through her hair, which fell through his fingers like cool water. Finally, to breathe more than anything else, they parted.
"Caught up in the moment again, are you?" She smiled.
He wasn't inclined to answer that now. They could discuss the situation later, but presently, he was going to kiss her again. He caught her mouth again, and then kissed her jaw, the side of her neck, the little hollow at the base of her throat. She gasped, and-
There was the soft pop of someone apparating, and they heard James and Lily's voices from the kitchen- "That was absolutely revolting I tell you!" "Well, it worked pretty well from what I could tell."
Morgan cursed softly in Gaelic, and he released her just in time as Lily and James walked into the room, James triumphantly waving a handful of parchment. "We got it! It was a beautiful operation, we're a fabulous team!"
******
"It was really the most revolting thing I've ever seen. This kid was drooling down the front of her shirt, and she was all 'Oh, I forgot oh please help me oh you big strong man.'" James put on a high voice and did a good impression of Lily talking to the guard. "And then when we got it she just walked right out. You should have seen his face!"
They had each taken a few sheets, and were carefully dissecting the Ministry's version of Claremont's life, looking for anything to link him to Voldemort.
"He was in Ravenclaw. Geek." Sirius said offhandedly.
"Bloody smart geek though. Look at all these University degrees…"
"Married ten years, no kids…"
"Employed at various research jobs, mostly lab things, too technical for me, up until……" Lily paused, frowning, and then looked up. "You're not going to believe who he's working for now."
"Voldemort?" Said Sirius hopefully.
"Aye Sir, he put that on his resume. Loyal Minion of You-Know-Who. Duties include killing, torturing, general clerical work…" Morgan trailed off as Lily held up a hand for silence.
"No, not Voldemort. The Ministry of Magic." She looked up, her eyes wide. "The Department of Mysteries."
____________________________________________
Note: It may be awhile before you hear from me again. Coming up, I have in quick succession: My birthday, a trip to London, taking my GRE, and then that bring us right into the holidays, when I will be heading home for loads of family togetherness and fighting the inclination to put duct tape over my 4-year-old sister's mouth.
I may update if I do find myself with a spare minute or two, but if I don't, it doesn't mean I've abandoned the story. Cheers.