Edgar is a sparkling sight (bonesie) wrote in an_ill_wind, @ 2009-05-29 14:48:00 |
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Entry tags: | - 1980/05 may, benjy fenwick, edgar bones |
29 May 1980
Who: Ed and Benjy
What: Benjy tells Edgar about Remus' 'furry little problem', and the two discuss the Order as a whole.
When: Late afternoon, early evening, after Benjy's done work
Where: Ed's office
Rating: PG-13 for swears
Status: Completed log!
Benjy's day had been long, and it wasn't over yet. The files on Fenrir Greyback locked and warded securely in his desk at the Auror offices, he apparated first to his flat to change and then stepped out again, as if he were going off to find his supper. Instead he apparated to Edgar and Calypso's home, where she let him in and directed him back to Edgar's study. Benjy knocked briefly and entered a moment later, turning to lock and ward that door. He trusted Calypso, but this needed to be between just him and Edgar before anyone else found out.
Weary, he slumped into his seat and rubbed his hands over his face. He didn't even greet Edgar with a hello or how are you doing, instead raising an eyebrow at the bottle of Scotch whisky. "It's been a hell of a day, Ed."
"So it would seem," Edgar replied, pouring out two glasses and handing one to Benjy. Curiosity had been eating at him since Benjy's warded comment in the journals. He'd kept himself busy making lists and plans of the information discussed by everyone in his own entry (now at least feeling a little more confident in his position overseeing everything. Like most things Order related, nearly everything he'd done that day--potions lists, safehouse information, etcetera--were pinned to the wall over his desk. For all that was stuck up there, it was impossible to tell what colour the room actually was.
"I take it this is about Remus," he added, sniffing his drink before taking a small sip.
"Cheers," Benjy replied, lifting his glass and taking a drink. It burnt going down and he chased it with another. He considered the amber liquid in the glass, and nodded. "It is, yeah. It's a bloody mess. He's a werewolf, Ed. One of Greyback's victims. Happened when he was just a kid."
Benjy shook his head and took another sip, finally allowing himself to think of the ramifications of that. Things were starting to add up: Sirius's outrage over the werewolf legislation and the rest of that little group's insane attempts to protect one another.
Edgar blinked. "A werewolf," he deadpanned, and then furrowed his eyebrows. "Remus? I. Buggering hell." He allowed the information a moment to sink in properly as he took another sip of drink, the burning distracting him for a second from the realization that someone he had known for so long was bleeding werewolf. "That means. He was a werewolf while he was attending Hogwarts. I. Then Dumbledore knows."
"Jesus." Benjy didn't think, simply knocked back the rest of his drink and grimaced as it burned its way to his stomach. "Black, Potter, and Pettigrew know, too. They have to, you know? Spent seven years living in the same damned room with him." He looked to Edgar, frowning. "Now I really want to know what that lot were up to yesterday. I have my suspicions but they're all acting like this is a damned school prank."
"That explains their behavior somewhat, at the least," Edgar said, still attempting to process the information. There was a werewolf in the Order. Remus Lupin was a werewolf. "They covering up for him in some capacity, and if it's related to Greyback then I want to know what the fuck Remus is doing with known ruddy baby eater."
"There was a big to-do about Greyback kidnapping some kid and offering some sort of ultimatum. Later a boy was dropped off at St Mungo's by, and I quote, a raven-haired hero. It was anonymous and we can't get anything else out of Mungo's staff. Kid said "the bad man was going to eat him" but that this bloody hero saved him." He raised an eyebrow. "What's that sound like to you?"
Edgar clucked his tongue. "Like they traded Remus off to Greyback for a kid. What's that mean for Remus, though? Is Greyback going to... I can't imagine Sirius willingly giving up one of his best mates to be... I don't even know. Eaten? Turned feral? Brainwashed into becoming a baby eater himself? This is fucked up."
"I don't like this. I don't like not knowing what the hell's going on, especially with that lot." He paused. "They're all too damned hot-headed. Makes me nervous, thinking about them doing something as big as this without... without support. Hell, Ed... it wasn't even Order business. It was straight up them jumping to save the damned day, going around every damned authority they could to do it."
Leaning forward, he reached for the whisky, filling his glass again and topping up Edgar's. "Wish to God that Dumbledore didn't hare off like this all the time. Not that he'd give us an actual damned answer, mind."
"You're not kidding," Edgar replied with a sigh. "I kept trying to tell Sirius that it was. It should've been left to the Ministry and that's that. And you know how this is going to play out. We'll try and talk sense to them about this and we're going to be met with--from James and Sirius, anyway--more of their bullshit. This is something everyone should know, so far as I'm concerned."
"More than that. Kid's a Muggle. I'm just about duty-bound to do something more with it, because of every law that was broken by them going in, instead of one of us. And I don't want to do that because you know it'll be more focus on Black, and that might lead it to others in the Order." He was quiet, brooding. "You think that everyone really should? We need to speak with Remus first, at least. It -- He might at least deserve the honours of informing the lot of them himself."
"Oh, no, yeah," Edgar nodded, trying to fathom how it was possible for the 'Marauders', as they called themselves, to wreak so much havoc. Edgar had had enough of them when they were little twits at school, but this... this was another kettle of fish altogether. "I mean, yes, we definitely have to talk to Remus first and let him know that we know, and just. Go from there, I guess." He paused for a moment, chewing on his lip. "This doesn't change him. Remus. He's one of those few of the werewolf population who actually abides by the law and tries to keep living life. Better yet, he's committed to our cause, not traipsing about with You Know Who. I can't say I'm not going to look at him differently, but still. I do think it's something the Order should know. This kind of thing... it can't be happening, this bullshit from Peter, James and Sirius, and getting Dorcas to... to lie to me for them." That was a sore spot. He and Dorcas had been best friends since first year.
Benjy frowned, tilting his glass first one way then another. "Dorcas lied to you?" He laughed, humourlessly. "No offence, but does she not realise that this isn't a damn game we're playing? You'd think that after all the shite she's been through just in the last few months she, of all people, would think twice before agreeing to something like that. She told me that I can't arrest Black. Why? Because he's an Order member and I'm an Order member and that means that I would be... I don't know, betraying him?" He shook his head. He was an Order member, yes, but before any of that he agreed to uphold and protect the law to the best of his ability. He figured that included breaking a law if he saw that someone else was abusing a different one, but the principle was still the same. "Let's you and me... or you, if you'd rather, speak with Lupin. And then you and me both will speak with the rest. I promise not to lose my temper, although I might have to be on some sort of potion to do that."
Edgar downed what was nearly a full glass (after Benjy had topped it off a few moments ago). "Yeah, I dunno what to make of it. She's been one of the ones off flapping their gums and flailing about our lack of action. I just thought she knew better than that. And perhaps it sounds childish, but I thought her real loyalties were to me, not to them. But either way, I don't like this cliquey Order shite." Edgar heaved another sigh, set his glass down, and ran a hand through his loose hair. "And you and me, I think, if you're alright with that. I just think we're going to have to be fighting tooth and nail for actual alone time with Remus, because Sirius and James are going to think the worst automatically. As if we're going to put him down or something."
"I don't either. Not one of us trusts all the rest of them, and why should we? Don't know if all of us have acted in a completely trustworthy manner," Benjy admitted. He knew that he'd gone off pointlessly on Dorcas and Caradoc, and even Sirius, when it came down to it. "If it continues, the Death Eaters won't have to do away with us. We'll do it ourselves." He paused, thinking. "Well, they don't know that we know, yet, do they? All we have to do is talk to him first without going through the guard dogs." Or, maybe he'd just go fishing. Invite Ed along and they'd just fish for the rest of their lives.
Edgar nodded. "I think he'd be willing to talk to us alone. We might make bad judgments sometimes, but we're not bad people, right? At least that's what I keep telling myself. I'll write him a note in the journals."
"No. We're not bad people. Those others," Benjy said, waving his hand and encompassing the Death Eaters in his generalisation, "they're the bad ones. Bad mistakes, bad decisions, bad people. Do that. Maybe invite him for dinner or something." If Ed wanted the kids around Remus, that is.
"Just talk with him here, I think that'll be fine," Edgar said, suddenly feeling very, very tired. "I wish Dumbledore was here. Useless as he's been of late, I still feel as though he know exactly what to do. Age. Wisdom. That crock."
"Bullshite," Benjy said immediately. "That's bullshite, and you know it. He's left us to fend for ourselves and I'll be damned if I'm going to go to him for a solution when I know we can do it ourselves, even if we fumble it a bit at first." He looked at Edgar, eyes hard. "We're doing all right. We're getting there. He's not being a leader, so we decide for ourselves who they are, and when he comes 'round, he can guide us. It's just what he's been doing so far, and you know it."
Edgar sighed, nodding, and then rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I know. I do. I just keep hoping that he's going to wake up and actually do all the things he talked about when he dragged us into this like a bleeding kelpie. We've pretty well been running the damn thing all along, why stop now, right?"
"Right," Benjy agreed, downing half his glass at once, then swirling the rest around and around. "So what we do is do the things he talked about. He's brought us together. For now, that's enough. He's brought us together, and he's given us a purpose. So we'll take that purpose and achieve it however we can. We've not done badly, you know." There was something to be said in stating outright the plain truth to someone like-minded. Benjy felt somewhat freed, as if knowing that he could suggest a plan and not wonder what Dumbledore would think. He leaned forward. "You know what you said in your journal, about Dumbledore entrusting responsibility to you? You've taken it, Edgar. But you don't have to carry it alone. Share it with whoever you want, but share it, because it's not right that you should be expected to lead by yourself when you need guidance sometimes, too."
"You're not kidding," Edgar replied, smiled in a bemused way. "I'm twenty-four and my leadership experience is limited to Head Boy. I don't think I've got all the qualifications down. But between you, me, probably Frank and Alice, and Moody, even... that's a pretty stellar start."
"It is. As for Moody... we need to give him some time, I think. After this whole thing at the Ministry I think he might need a bit of time to get his equilibrium back. He made a bad choice and... I don't know. He's trying and he's willing but I think he needs time to catch his breath, so to speak." He sat, thinking a moment. "The other two are good. I don't want to put Alice into too much danger, and Frank'd murder me if I even thought about it. But they'll do nicely, yeah."
"Good enough," Edgar said. "I'll put up a private to Remus after supper. Though I guess we'll be waiting until after the moon to talk to him. Hungry? You're more than welcome to stay."
"Don't mind if I do," Benjy accepted. "Ta." He grinned and drained his glass. "No offence to you and the work you do here, but I don't exactly want to spend the whole night here. We've a bit of time and Evander was trying to get my attention when I came in."
"I spend enough time in here as it is. It's turning into my stuffy cave of pureblood history," Edgar said, gesturing around to the articles, notes and lists pinned to every available surface. "And Ev probably wants to show you the broom my dad just gave him. Hovers about two feet off of the ground and lets him zip around the sitting room. It's already driving Cally and I bats."
Benjy stood, straightening his shirt. "Yeah? I'll have to have a look at it. Probably have to be getting one of those for my nieces and nephews before too long. Eddie's a year old old tomorrow, so next year or the year after he'll be begging me to take him flying." He followed Edgar out of the room, the conversation continuing in a much lighter vein as the night wore on.