DISCLAIMER: J.K. Rowling owns most of the characters and settings here—I own the rest.
I found Travers' first name listed as Tobias on the HP Wiki, so I went with it. (There is supposed to be a Torquil Travers in the next Fantastic Beasts film, but given the timeline, I suspect that wizard would be substantially older, so I chose to not use that name.)
The title of this chapter is taken from "Heads will Roll" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
Feel free to leave a further review in the box at the end of the chapter...on with the show!
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS
Chapter 31 – Dripping with Alchemy
"So I've come to understand," Hermione said, as she sat down her napkin. "Then again, I really can't complain, I have taken advantage of his hospitality and yours, Lucinda," she added.
"It is my pleasure, really," Lucinda said. "It's lovely to have some companionship other than the servants." She paused. "Lucius did tell me he was intending to visit here at some point this month."
"Uncle Lucius is coming?" Evan piped up. "He's always very nice to me."
"That's probably because you're not old enough to be useful to him yet, bubbeleh," Rhiannon said, as she sat down her spoon.
"What does that mean?" Evan asked.
"I'll try and explain that to you tomorrow, Evan," Hermione said. "It would take too long, and we probably need to get back before it gets any later." The crowd at the Crystal had swelled during dinner hour, and was currently slowly transforming into a more rowdy, late-night, drinking version of its earlier self. Much as Hermione relished a few drinks, particularly in the present moment, she also felt responsible for Evan, and so she, Lucinda and the boy headed back to the estate.
After Evan had been tucked into bed with an introductory book on spellwork (courtesy of the Flying Witch), Hermione and Lucinda, by mutual agreement, Summoned a couple of bottles of wine from the estate's capacious wine cellar and camped out in front of the library fireplace.
"So….what's this place actually called?" Hermione said, after she'd had a couple of drinks. "Malfoy East? Lucius' Folly? Or did you rename it?"
"It's actually called the Malfoy Estate," Lucinda said. "I never bothered to change it, isn't that funny? It's not as if Lucius visits much—of course I know he couldn't during the trials. He did arrange, during that time, for a packet of funds to be sent every month via his solicitor…and I suppose I did realize that we'd made that type of arrangement when our relationship started. I was looking for a convenient way to escape from Avery, and Lucius and I had been friends since school. After Walden ended our…er…relationship…." She paused after that, and looked at Hermione.
"It's all right," Hermione said. "You can talk about him if you want."
"Well, I was quite hurt when that happened, but as I mentioned before, he'd met Rowan by that time. The mysteries of love and attraction have yet to be quantified by the Ministry."
"Quite so," Hermione replied, with a frown, as she recalled the horrible scene outside the Minister's office.
"Anyhow," Lucinda continued. "I approached Lucius at the Revels. He and his wife were romantically estranged at that time—and I believe they still are…"
"As far as I'm aware," Hermione agreed.
"So we made a mutually beneficial arrangement. Avery wasn't about to go up against Lucius. I applied for a divorce, which was finalized after the failed Ministry raid, and I moved over here secretly, along with my daughter. Avery never tried to contact me again, which is just fine with me."
"I imagine so," Hermione said. "As I said to you before, I didn't relish having him on my docket."
The conversation drifted away from Death Eaters and into calmer waters—Transfiguration theory—and the two witches realized how much they had in common by the time they decided to turn in for the night.
Hermione thoroughly appreciated the luxury and comfort of the guest room, and decided to stay up reading a bit longer, which turned into several more hours of alertness. By the time she closed her eyes, night had just about started to give way to daybreak, so when the gentle knocking came at her door the next morning, she didn't hear it right away. The knocking became more insistent, and she woke with a start, realizing that she must have put a light Silencing Charm on the door. She reluctantly climbed out of bed, ran her fingers through her hair in a vain attempt to corral the errant strands, and donned her robe before opening the door.
"Hermione," Lucinda said, with an odd look on her face. "Lucius is here visiting…a bit earlier than I expected. And he brought news. Avery is dead."
Walden waved his wand over his tent and muttered several spells—the tent obligingly rose into the air and gracefully set itself up, after which a fire pit appeared in the ground next to it. Next, he waved his wand at the fire pit and a blaze appeared, then four sturdy camp chairs appeared and settled themselves into the grass in an orderly semicircle.
Yaxley, Travers, and Selwyn, meanwhile, were pacing about the clearing, attempting to set up protective boundaries on the camp, and not doing a very good job of it. Selwyn's wand made a rather rude sort of fizzing noise, then emitted a loud pop, after which a swarm of large, animated goldfish began swimming through the air and entangling themselves in the three wizards' hair and robes.
After Walden had assisted in clearing away the fish, he stood with the rest of the group and finished up the protective enchantments. Once the last boundary had been established, a raven spiraled into being and flew up to Walden's shoulder.
"So what makes you so special, Walden?" Travers asked, while glaring at the bird. "Your magic seems to work just fine, even with your restricted wand."
"Ye just have to know how to work it," Walden said. "O'course, I recall how ye always were at the Revels…nae wonder ye're still havin' problems…."
"Fuck off!" Travers barked. "I've never had a problem with either of my wands."
"It's all a numbers game," Selwyn interjected. "The restricted wands are set up to fail twenty-five percent of the time, and that time is random. Macnair's just got lucky."
"Let's hope that luck holds out through tomorrow," Yaxley said. "We should all turn in; I've found these wands work much better when one's alert."
"'M going to have some whisky and a smoke," Walden grunted. "Just because we're infiltratin' the school doesna mean we have to tuck in ta bed like a bunch of firsties." He strode over to the chair on the far left, sat down, withdrew a flask and his pipe, and proceeded to indulge himself. The rest of the wizards followed.
"I do wish we'd have been able to get those Snatchers on board with this," Travers said, as he took the seat on the far end of the grouping from Walden. "Not happy with these odds." He waved his wand and Summoned a bottle of Firewhisky from his cloak.
"It's not as if we're going up against Dumbledore," Yaxley said, settling himself down next to Walden and pulling out his own flask. "That one Snatcher said Flitwick, Sprout and Hagrid were the only ones back until the weekend."
"How do we know we can trust him?" Selwyn asked, as he reached into his robe pocket for his flask and then sat down between Yaxley and Travers.
"I've told you. He's on our side, he just needs to stay undercover for now, which is beneficial to us, so there's no point in looking a gift thestral in the mouth."
"Speakin' of thestrals…" Walden said, with a look in Yaxley's direction.
"I'm hoping you'll be the one to take the lead with Hagrid," Yaxley said.
"Because that went so very well last time," Travers said, with a sneer.
"Screw ye," Walden said. "We'll be surprisin' him."
"The element of surprise will hardly trump the fact that he outweighs all of us and is as tall as that tree over there," Travers said, gesturing in the direction of a leafless sapling.
"So we all hit him at once with Stunners," Selwyn said. "Done deal. What then?"
"Walden steps in and does his part, and then, er, we send up a Dark Mark," Yaxley said. "Then we head for the school and take the other two out."
"Sure you want to bother with them? They're old and harmless," Selwyn said. The other three looked at him.
"Were you knocked out during the final battle?" Yaxley asked. "Flitwick is a dueling champion and Sprout single-handedly brought down most of the Snatchers with armfuls of deadly plants. They're hardly harmless!"
"Of course, you have to stick up for a fellow Badger, Corban," Selwyn chuckled. "I'll be sure to watch out for deadly plants and miniature duelists."
"If you're not going to take this seriously, you can just bugger off back home and have a wank, or whatever it is you've been doing for the last few months," Yaxley replied, after which he took a long swig off the bottle that Travers offered him.
"I've been eating full meals and wanking off in the shower, not that it's any of your business," Selwyn said. "And drinking a lot, and enjoying long sleeps in a real bed….and avoiding Lucius' owls on a regular basis."
"Come to think of it, wouldn't it make much more sense to take out Lucius, so we can put a stop to that poncy Alliance business?" Travers said. "Rather than attacking a bunch of Muggle-lovers who're close to retirement?"
"Like I said before, Tobias," Yaxley said. "I'm in charge and this is the plan."
Walden released a large puff of smoke. "I'm with ye, Corban," he said, after a rather long pause.
"Fine," Travers said. "Two blood traitors and a half-breed less works for me."
Several hours later, after the contents of all the flasks and bottles had been repeatedly drained (and magically replenished, mostly by Walden), the Resurgence members were well and thoroughly sloshed. They'd shouted "HAIL THE RESURGENCE" and sent green sparks in the air for about fifteen minutes straight, sung several verses of "Odo the Hero" (with particular emphasis on the part about Odo's wand being snapped in twain), and practiced sending Dark Marks into the nearby trees.
"Er…" Yaxley finally stood up, after he'd contemplated the fire for so long that he was beginning to get hypnotized by the flames. "We really should go off to bed. No clue what time it is…weren't we wanting to start the attack at dawn?"
"It's yer plan, brother," Walden said. "Ye said ye were in charge."
"Right…right…" Yaxley replied, as he swayed back and forth where he stood. "Er…everyone check your watches, then…." He fumbled in his robe pocket before finally pulling out his watch, which was chiming. "Shite….looks like we have about two hours to rest up….er…so everyone rest up now…" He reached up and rubbed his eyes.
Travers stood up. "I'm taking that larger room."
"It's my soddin' tent, Travers," Walden said. "Ye can have the couch."
"What about that second room with the two beds in it?"
"Already called dibs," Selwyn said. "So did I," Yaxley chimed in.
"Fuck the lot of you," Travers growled, as he flipped up the tent flap.
Meanwhile, in a secure meeting room on the top floor of the Ministry, a raven spiraled into life in the midst of the conference table.