Who: Jo, Lavinia, Gaius, Aloysius, Kate When: 19 May 1980 What: Swapping hostages Where: Urra Moor, near the Face Stone in the North York Moors
Status: Complete Rating: Low
Aloysius stood on Urra Moor with the Face Stone at his back and a grim expression on his face. He wearing his Unspeakable robes again, covered with a long black cloak with the hood pulled up and over to obscure his face though a quick spell had ensured that he would not be taken unaware. Assuming that is, that Kate didn't catch any trickery first. He held Lavinia's arm tightly with one hand though he didn't expect her to attempt to run. She didn't really have the personality and where would she run to anyway? There was nothing around them except empty moor after all.
He had made sure that Kate had gotten there early, well before he arrived with Lavinia, though he was definitely on the early side as well. Now all they had to do was wait for Travers to arrive. And hope that the man didn't attempt to do anything stupid.
Heart racing, Lavinia stood beside him, but as far away as she could manage with his grip on her arm. She didn't think it was at all proper for him to be touching her (a convenient emotional reworking of the terror she'd felt towards him for days now), but couldn't muster up the courage to ask him not to, and only made a small noise of discontent as she tried to inch a little farther away. She wanted Gaius to be here. Now. Right. Now. Then she could go home and try and pretend this had never happened. Maybe he could obliviate her. That seemed preferable to remembering any of these disastrous events, and then no one would know that some strange man had been alone with her and then no one could gossip that she was no longer fit for marriage. Please hurry, Gaius, she thought fervently.
Kate felt ridiculously alert as she stood from her hiding place. She also wore the charmed Unspeakable robes and a mask to cover much of her face although she tried to keep her vision as free as possible so that she could be alert and see if there was anything that shouldn't be. They were dealing with a Death Eater after all, and they rarely played fair.
But thus far there was nothing, she'd done a check with a couple of spells and found nobody there but whom was supposed to be there and nothing that seemed amiss or out of place. So she crouched down to keep her eyes on Aloysius and Lavinia and hoped that this went well and nobody got injured during the process - particularly Aloysius or Jo, and she felt like Aloysius had been quite clear in his demands and she only hoped that Gaius Travers would take those demands and terms very seriously.
Gaius had spent the better part of the day trying to keep his heart from beating nervously out of his chest. He knew that he was potentially walking into a trap, but for his sister, it was a risk that he was willing to take. And, worst case scenario, he could still use Jo to negotiate a stand-off if necessary, though he hoped that it would not come to that for all of their sakes. The hours had passed with torturous leisure and now that the time had finally arrived, his anticipation was difficult to contain.
He had brought Jo to a location in St Mungo's from where they could safely Disapparate, but even as he put his hand on her arm to begin the side-along apparation to the moors, he paused to address her a final time. "You have done well, Ms Savage," he said, fighting to keep the anxiousness from his voice. From his robes' pocket, he drew her wand and held it out to her. "I think you deserve this." And if he showed that he trusted her, perhaps if things went badly, she would help to defend him.
Though Jo had followed Gaius quietly, she had feared that this trip would be a re-capitulation of their last outing together. She did not want to endure the Cruciatus for any prolonged amount of time. She did not want to hurt at all.
But as he offered her wand back to her, her eyes widened and as she accepted it, she nodded. She did deserve it. She had been very good. Perhaps this would be different? All she knew was that a thrill travelled down her spine, waking her latent senses.
Something was about to happen. She could feel it.
Aloysius tensed when two people suddenly appeared not too far away though he managed not to tighten his grip on Lavinia any further than it was. Jo was easy to recognise and he assumed the other was Gaius Travers but he didn't allow himself to relax in any way, shape or form. The two of them had arrived alone but that didn't mean that there weren't other Death Eaters lurking around as well.
"Let Miss Savage walk forward and I'll do the same with your sister," he said, making his voice harsher and hoarser than normal though he hoped it would be recognisable enough for Jo to work out what was going on. He couldn't rely on her to act like the old Jo but he just had to hope there was enough of the old Jo there to let her play along.
He waited until he saw Jo take that first step then he let go of Lavinia. "Go," he said, not harshly though not precisely kindly either.
Lavinia whimpered when she saw Gaius, and struggled pathetically against Croaker's vice-grip. Pathetically and pointlessly, for he released her only when Jo moved forward and not a second before. She took a step forward. Then another. Then, when she was out of reach of Aloysius's grip, broke into a desperate run towards her brother, tears already pouring down her face as she struggled to get to him.
As if the anticipation of seeing his sister again hadn't left Gaius feeling strange enough, when they reached the moors and she came into view, he felt as though the weight of a pile of bricks on his chest only amplified. He could hardly breathe and he was only vaguely aware of letting go of Jo when he was given the cue -- he was far too focused on remaining upright and not giving in to the surge of emotions he was trying to suppress.
When she was near enough to him, he took a few steps forward, leaning down so that he could loop his arms under hers and lift her up into them. It had happened some time before she had actually made it to him, but once he could, he pressed his face into her shoulder to hide that he was crying, which might have worked had it also been possible to disguise the sound and shaking of his shoulders. From somewhere in the back of his mind, he was able to conjure enough rationality to know that they needed to leave as quickly as possible. He took a deep breath and tried desperately to focus his mind -- the last thing they needed was to splinch on the way home -- and disapparated from the moor.
Jo was, for the better part of this exchange, stranded somewhere between the family reunion and her loved ones who lingered on the other side. With a furrowed brow - not in malice, merely concentration - she picked out Aloysius's features and then the smile burst full throttle over her face. He kept his promise. "Croaky," she whispered, and moved forward to wrap her arms around his neck.
Aloysius watched Travers and his sister go and finally relaxed just as Jo got to him. He returned her hug with a shuddering breath. "Jo," he said, unable to articulate anything more at the moment. It had worked. Somehow, despite the fact the entire thing had been made up on the run and he'd felt woefully inadequate to the task throughout pretty much all of it, it had all worked. He had Jo back... well, most of Jo.
He pulled back just a little, shoving his hood back then placing one hand gently against the side of Jo's face. "Hey," he said with a tired and relieved smile. He had decided to be as honest as possible with her, just as he had in the journals. He felt it was important. "I was thinking of taking you back to my basement instead of Gairloch until we can be certain that you're one hundred percent alright. Is that okay? Pepper knows where it is and Kate does as well so they can visit easily enough. Maybe Elle as well if you'd like?"
He glanced over to where Kate had been hidden and waved a hand to let her know everything was okay then he looked back at Jo. "Kate's here. She was my insurance policy in case anything went wrong." And his partner in crime but that would be fairly obvious. "Ready to go?"
Kate had watched the entire exchange with a wand clasped tightly in her fist, terrified that Travers might try something. It was fortunate she thought, that despite the fact that he seemed absolutely intent upon ruining Lavinia as a woman of any substance or intelligence, he did genuinely seem to care about her and so there had been no attempts to try anything. However, she was also certain that they did not wish to linger very long. Travers knew where they were, and it was always possible that he could send someone else into the location before to try and way lay them before they left. Thus, the instant she'd seen him Dissaparate she'd pulled her way from her hiding place and moved towards Jo and Aloysius.
"Jo it is so good to see you here and back with us," she greeted her friend and she moved into the open and towards the two. She wanted to give the woman a hug, but she did think it would be a good idea to leave and those pleasantries could wait until they returned to their safe house.
She turned her attention to Croaker. "We're ready then? I don't think we should linger at all."
How could she have ever thought that Travers was better for her? Thus surrounded by her friends - her Kate, her Aloysius - she felt whole for the first time since she had so successfully burned down Atticus Avery's house. "Whatever you think is best," she muttered, giving Kate a thankful smile as she peered out from Aloysius's arms. "I would like to go as quickly as possible."
Aloysius nodded. "Back to my basement." He grimaced, he had one potentially unpleasant task to go tonight. He wasn't particularly looking forward to it but best to get it done as soon as possible. "Once Jo's settled in, I'll let Rufus and Pepper know what's happened tonight." He smiled ruefully at Kate. "This should be fun."
He shook his head and looked down at Jo. "We're off." With that he apparated both of them back to Scotland and his basement. He supposed at some point he'd actually feel completely good about this. He did to a certain extent but it wouldn't be complete until he could do two things - send Jo back to Gairloch knowing she was back to normal and sleep without seeing that hideous look on Lavinia's face when he'd broken her wrists.