Emmeline "miscellaneous graph things" Vance (vancey) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-24 15:39:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-05] may, adelaide quinn, emmeline vance |
RP Log; Emmeline & Riley.
Who: Emmeline and Riley.
What: Information digging. The two have a ~deep & meaningful~ conversation.
When: 23 May 1979, mid-morning.
Where: One of the archive rooms in the Department of Mysteries.
Rating: R! For Riley. No, probably PG-13 for the autopsy talk.
Warnings: Espionage, hehe. And general awesomeness, as you do.
Status: Complete. Logged.
The room had a musty, unused smell to it and dust floated up from the floor as soon as Emmeline walked into the small space. Muttering a cleaning spell so she won't suffocate, she directed her attention back to the shelves of records. Lingering on one end, she began squinting in the faint light of her wand for any words that might jump out at her from the countless spines of archived experiments and projects. Emmeline was glad that the Department of Mysteries at least had a meticulous shelving system, the Unspeakable in charge of the Astronomy division had mentioned it to her when she asked for a permit to look for background information. She told him it was for her report on the lunar cycle and the trends in magical activity, which was partly true. Emmeline quickly grabbed five dusty tomes from the shelf and placed them on one side of the desk near the entrance of the room, she'll have plenty of time to look at those later. Her footsteps echoed ominously as she walked further and further into the rows of shelves, eyes alertly scanning the small plaques on the side of the shelves for the section on charms experiments. "Right," Emmeline muttered when she finally found it and quickly glanced at the nearest titles. Defensive charms, she told herself, slowly making her way through the row. Abruptly, she stopped. While manually looking for the books themselves would ensure that she had what she wanted, Emmeline had a limited amount of time to spend whiling around in the Department's archives. She had a report to do, for one thing. Sighing, she began going through the list of keywords in her head. "Accio records on passive surveillance charms," she said tentatively. Nothing stirred. Emmeline wasn't surprised, that was probably those were the most specific keywords she could use. "Alright," she muttered to herself, tapping her foot impatiently on the dusty floor, "Accio records on surveillance charms." She smiled ruefully as a large, leather-bound book slid off one of the top shelves and float in her direction. It looked like Emmeline would break her back trying to carry the book so she let it levitate all the way back to the desk at the other end of the room. She pressed her wand tip on the end of the shelf she was at, leaving a glowing blue light on the surface of the wood before heading back. She would try and look at the others later. To say that it was a surprise to see Riley huddling next to a pile of books in the archive room, sitting on the floor, would be a complete lie – the girl was known to frequent the archive room in order to obtain whatever information she needed. But because the girl was generally a mess, she was often scolded at by the Unspeakable in charge of the archives. He took great pride in the orderliness of the archives, something Riley appreciated but never seemed to fully cooperate with. However, whether or not Emmeline was aware of Riley’s nest-making (nest? More like a cave or even mountain) tendencies when she was studying was something Riley did not know, nor did she particularly care. After all, to Riley, work was work, and today she was off studying more on the human body. The autopsy on Selwynn had left her more or less completely baffled and confused – a state of being Riley completely despised. There were too many strange pieces of evidence, too many contradictory clues. It seemed that the findings on Selwynn’s body had banded together simply to bother her out of her wits. She would figure out the answer, even if it killed her. Thus, naturally Riley hardly noticed Emmeline Vance, scuttling around her, until the woman tripped over her -- well, not exactly her, but a pile of books (the Mountain of Human Brainsauce, she called it) next to her which toppled over on top of Riley, so it was more or less the same as Emmeline actually tripping on Riley herself (not really, but it seemed passable in Riley's mind, at least). The first response elicited was a snarl of indignation -- "Hey! Blimey, watch where you're going!" before a wave of surprise. "Emmeline! What are you doing around here?" She was on the floor. One moment, Emmeline was following the floating book in front of her with the weak wandlight leading the path back to the desk, and the next moment, her foot caught on something and she fell heavily to the dusty floor. Emmeline groaned and squinted in the gloom to see what she had tripped on. She caught a glimpse of a pale face with her wand and she practically backed into the shelf behind her, causing a few awkwardly-arranged books to fall to the floor. Ghosts? Did ghosts wander around the Department of Mysteries records rooms too? Emmeline frowned, she didn't remember being told about ghosts. When she heard Riley's voice, however, the tension in her stance immediately relaxed. "Riley," she said, massaging her knees and checking if her elbows were still intact, "Sorry about that." Emmeline dusted down her robes as best as she could but she had the sneaking suspicion that her robes would have been grey in the sunlight, what with the years of accumulated dust on the floor. Nevertheless, she remained seated awkwardly across Riley. Emmeline hadn't really talked to her much in the past month or so of being employed at the Ministry aside from the occasional chat during lunch time; but then again, she had been preoccupied with the bickering that had been going on in the Order. She shrugged in answer to the other woman's question. "Looking at some background information for my report," Emmeline said simply, waving her wand so the book about defensive charms joined the others on the desk. She directed her shone her wand down to the pile of books littering the cramped-looking passage between the shelves. "And you?" Emmeline asked, picking up a book from the jumble and flipping through it in mild interest. Anatomy. She quirked an eyebrow at Riley, signalling that she was interested in the topic. "Hey doll – you alright there? Don’t worry too much about it – people trip over me all the time in the archival rooms," she said with a hesitant laugh, looking over at the now toppled over Emmeline. Her last comment was said so flippantly and ordinarily, as if it were an everyday experience, and in all honesty, it mostly was, though as of late the Unspeakables who were more accustomed to Riley’s esoteric ways were more aware of it and would generally pay more attention to whatever was on the floor in the archival rooms. She offered a hand to help pull up Emmeline, a mischievous smirk pointedly faced towards the books on the floor. Another laugh before she too smoothed down her robes that were disorderly draped over her bodies. "Don’t worry about those books – Trevor’ll get them. He might curse you for it. He’s deadly with bat bogies – I should know," she said with a meaningful eyeroll before laughing. The awkwardness that plagued Emmeline was hardly present in Riley’s demeanor; rather, Riley treated Emmeline with a simple casualness. Emmeline’s choice of a seat hardly perturbed Riley – she only briefly acknowledged her with a nod and a smile before looking back down at her book and scribbling some notes in her journal. Emmeline's question would have only briefly captured Riley's attention -- so engrossed she was in her studies -- when she noticed that the other witch was holding one of the Anatomy books up. She offered another nod and another smile, one that seemed more warm than the first. "Anatomy," she said. Unwilling to suck up her pride and admit that the topic was something she only had a superficial knowledge of, she only said, "Learning more is a good thing, no?" Ah, Trevor. That was his name. Emmeline made a mental note to write this down in her list of Department of Mysteries employees. It was hard to keep track of everyone, as if natural when new to the job but she found that her usual way of keeping notes helped with the general issues. Emmeline leaned back on the shelf with the book she had plucked from the pile and flipped through the pages more, occasionally glancing at Riley. She was glad that both Riley and Lawr had been so accepting when she got the job; she had known them from school, especially Lawrence, but it was reassuring to have friendly people around. "Trevor's very meticulous," Emmeline observed, nodding at the shelves. The sheer organisation of the place spoke for itself, really. She smiled at Riley, whether the other girl saw it or not she didn't know. "Always a good thing," Emmeline agreed. Another Ravenclaw trait. She wondered why she was not friendlier with Riley when they were still at school, they seemed to have quite a lot of things in common. Quirkiness aside, naturally. "What aspect of anatomy are you looking at today?" she asked once more, squinting to make out the fading writing on the aged parchment. It looked like notes on an autopsy report. Emmeline thought this was a rather morbid topic for normally sunshiney Riley to be exploring but she said nothing. "Meticulous? I think that’s an understatement. More like – the man is obsessed. But that isn’t too much of a bother. It’s nice to have things so supremely neat – easier to find what you’re looking for, after all!" she said brightly, lazily flipping another page of her book. Her acknowledgement of Emmeline’s presence was at most, minimal – it wasn’t meant to be rude or anything, and hopefully Emmeline fully understood that, but when Riley was absorbed with something it was hard to divert her attention. She seemed only half aware of Emmeline’s company – once again, not particularly meant to be rude, just a habit of hers – and thus, the combination of the dim light and her half aware state led her to not notice Emmeline’s smile. She nodded vaguely, the words half processing in her mind, though she was conscious enough to note that Emmeline was indeed a suitable Ravenclaw, before she seemed to notice something a hurriedly scribbled it down, emitting a slight squeal of happiness while doing so. Emmeline’s question grasped at her attention again, though, and Riley followed Emmeline’s train of sight to see that her eyes were on the Autopsy Report. Of course, it was strictly confidential, but what was a bit of confidentiality between Unspeakables? Their complete lives were confidential as it was, so she grinned in mild amusement. "An autopsy. Roman Selwyn – you know, that handsome bloke that hung himself a bit back? He was my roommate’s boyfriend, you know, and just my luck I was sent to do the autopsy," she said. The last part was somewhat of a lie – she had insisted upon doing the autopsy. "I’m just around studying a bit, learning more about the human body." Once again, she could not bring herself to admit that her knowledge was deplorably shallow, instead pretending that she was foraging for more knowledge. "The conditions of his death were somewhat strange, so I figured it would be a good idea to, y’know, forage around more, right?" She sat in companionable silence for a while before deciding that it was best that she would get along with her own research. Already comfortable on the dusty floor, Emmeline Summoned the books she had found earlier on lunar cycle patterns, and making sure that the book on defensive charms was concealed beneath the rest. The two of them sitting in the middle of two shelves and writing down notes reminded Emmeline strongly of her final two years at Hogwarts (and the inordinate amount of time she had spent in the library). She found this thought to be quite comforting, and she scribbled in the dim light happily, occasionally flicking her wand to shine on the records and on the piece of parchment she had taken out of her satchel. Emmeline did not mind the quiet at all, she found it a welcome change from the bickering and constant attempts at keeping the peace between Order members. It was nice. She refrained from humming so as not to disturb Riley's concentration. When the conversation turned back to the autopsy, Emmeline's gazed up sharply. Glad for the dim light, she composed her tone of voice to a detached sort of interest, so she did not sound as if she was too eager for the information. "Oh? Poor Roman, yeah?" she said, continuing to write on the piece of parchment before her. "Your flatmate must have been devastated." Surprised that Riley continued the topic, Emmeline became even more alert. "Erm, strange? What do you mean?" she asked, looking concerned and interested at the same time. Riley was more thinking aloud – muttering to herself – than anything. She, however, seemed to feel comfortable with Emmeline around – after all, it was only an autopsy, normal Unspeakable work. Granted, the results of the autopsy were, though inconclusive, hinting at some sort of strange development, but for the most part it was usual Unspeakable duty. She nodded at Emmeline’s remark. "Yeah, I’ve been trying to avoid the topic with Ally, but I don’t know – I reckon she’s taken it pretty hard. The poor thing," she said, musing, looking upwards and blinking slightly. It was true – she had had trouble talking to Ally after the whole thing blew over. What was she supposed to say to her? That her boyfriend was dead and that Riley just so happened to be the one that got to examine his dead body? She groaned, not wanting to think more about Roman Selwynn’s body and his autopsy and – she couldn’t continue, shaking her head slightly. "It was weird," she said slowly. "You know the drill of a normal autopsy – wave your wand a bit, determine cause of death, take a bunch of notes about generally useless stuff, but this one was just… weird. There were so many strange markings on him—" she stopped, but it wasn’t out of realization that she was talking too much but more out of confusion and bewilderment. Obviously whatever had been wrong had been plaguing her, and for quite a while. The furrow between her brows deepened again as she contemplatively rested her thumb and forefinger on lower lip. Whatever was going on was bothering her, greatly. Selwynn’s face and his abdominal region flashed in her mind again, and groaning she flipped open to the section dealing primarily with internal injuries in the abdominal region. "I don’t know how to explain without sounding completely mental…" she said slowly. Of course, one was only left to wonder how in the world Riley Quinn would ever be afraid of being mental, but her words were mostly an excuse and as it was, only half her mind was in her words so she was not really saying anything that made any bit of sense. "Ally?" Emmeline asked, more in genuine curiosity than any other form of instinct. She personally thought it would have been a difficult blow to recover from: to have a loved one die in such a condition. Perhaps even more difficult for this Ally to have her boyfriend kill himself, Emmeline considered. She listened to Riley talk for a while, trying to make sense of the fragments of conversation. While Emmeline was familiar with the mechanics of an autopsy, she had not yet been given the chance to do one herself. The thought examining a lifeless body was not appealing. As Riley continued her own train of thoughts, Emmeline began piecing together the so far limited information. Markings. There were strange markings. She was glad that it was dim down in the archival rooms so Riley would not had the chance to notice how Emmeline's expression sharpened. "What do you mean?" she asked, her tone implying for Riley to continue. "Hey," Emmeline touched the other girl's hand in a gesture of reassurance, "It's just you and me here, don't worry about what you sound like. I'll believe you." "My roommate," she clarified. "Y'know, Alecto Carrow. Very sweet girl. I live with her in Grindylow." Riley sighed, reminiscing about the times (or lack of times) with Roman Selwynn. "Handsome bloke, lovely girl -- perfect match really. A pity, a pity.." Had light shown upon her, one would be able to see the slight shadow fall over her face, but alas, there was only enough light to read, so perhaps the sadness could only be detectable in her voice. It would not be such a hard job -- Riley was not exactly the world's most skilled at concealing her emotions. It was obvious that the autopsy had left Riley rather distressed and depressed, and so it was definitely an easy job for Emmeline to try to procure information from her (though frankly, even if Riley were not distressed a spy would still have a simple job working her). At Emmeline's touch Riley pushed her non-occupied hand through her hair, a habit she did whenever she was distressed or nervous. She bit her lip slightly, a bit unnerved, the images of Selwynn's body floating back in her mind. "Well, y'know, an actual dead body is so much different from a picture," she said hesitantly, attempting a laugh which mostly failed miserably. Her efforts to lighten the situation were mostly in vain -- then again, was there really a way for one to lighten a situation as serious as this? And even if one attempted it, would that not be entirely inappropriate? Emmeline raised an eyebrow at the mention of Alecto Carrow; now there was a name the Order had not stumbled upon before. "Yes, it's very sad," she murmured quietly, echoing Riley's sentiments. Even though she was thinking more along the lines of finding any possible connections between the two. Emmeline cleared her throat and, in the same quiet manner, asked, "So how did they meet each other?" Of course, she felt extremely awkward to dig for information like this, but the opportunity to do so would probably not present itself again. Emmeline had to cease the moment (even if it made her feel too much like a Slytherin than she would want). Riley's half-hearted attempt at laughter only increased her trepidation; she felt as if she was intruding on something private. Emmeline patted Riley on the arm, hoping that the gesture would placate her a little. She was so unused to seeing the normally happy-to-the-point-of-insanity Riley looking so broken that Emmeline was unsure as to how to handle the situation. "It's okay," she said after several moments. It must have been difficult, she thought, to treat the body of someone she was acquainted with in what supposed to be a detached and clinical manner. The ethics of their job was fraught with complications. She pursed her lips slightly as she recounted her experiences with Ally and Selwynn, looking up as if a thought cloud was forming above her head with the images and the words she could think about. She shrugged her shoulders slightly, a wistful smile on her lips though barely touching her solemn eyes. Yes -- Riley was the type to try to stay happy all the time, but so much stress and death and everything was taking a toll on her mind. "Oh, I don't know. It's mostly a secret," she said with a playful wink, another weak stab at laughter. "Ally didn't even tell me about it, but they had their lovely little romance, however short it was.." Her voice trailed off slightly at the end before she felt the pat on her arm. It was reassuring, in the oddest way, perhaps because she felt that Emmeline, being a fellow Unspeakable, was the only person she could really confide to. "It's just that--" she hitched a breath, and her hand passed through her hair again "--it wasn't like a normal case, y'know? You hear of all these fancy, intricate cases on the Muggle telly, but you never actually get anything -- and if he had just normally passed on frankly it would've been fine, but no his body was.. was.. mutilated, like it was tortured or something.." There wasn't much Emmeline could say to Riley's opinion on Alecto Carrow's relationship with Roman Selwyn. It sounded far too... coincidental, there had to be something connecting those two together. But if they weren't really in a relationship, how else could they have been acquainted? Family connections? Both of them were Pureblood, to be sure, but Emmeline thought that was a rather weak link. "That is very sad that Alecto, er, Ally had to lose him so soon after they have gotten together," Emmeline said, hoping to sound comforting. "Is Ally feeling better these days?" she ventured to ask. It was not a matter of concern but she was curious and when Emmeline was curious, she had to know. "Mutilated?" the sharp edge in Emmeline's voice had returned. This was a development. "W-what do you mean?" The question hung in the air around them as she waited for Riley to answer. Did Edgar and Pepper do this? Was it someone else? Several questions roiled around Emmeline's mind, making her feel a little ill. Riley sighed in sullen agreement, running her hand through her hair yet again. She shook her head, shoulders shrugging into a low sluggish pose as she slid down an inch lower in her seat on the floor. "I know," she said, shaking her head slowly. "Poor Ally. I've -- er --" she bit her lip. She had generally avoided the topic with Alecto, skirting around it with other discussions of what color should they paint the pantry? Cream or egg-yellow? and what sort of dance should be held in the Atrium of the Ministry? -- clearly much easier topics to discuss than anything to do with Selwynn. "It's well -- She's.. well..." she stumbled over her words for a bit before finally figuring out something to say. "I reckon she's doing better, yeah, but I'm still worried about her." The next hand brush through her hair ended with a lift of eyes to the sky -- or Archive ceiling -- and another huff of a sigh. "It was... gruesome. Bodies don't naturally die in that state. I mean -- I know that he was hurt already coming in, after Diagon Alley and all, but--" she paused, still looking at the sky, almost as if she had completely forgotten Emmeline's existence, before continuing "--it just-- it was just weird." This only served to confuse and unsettle Emmeline even more. So Alecto Carrow and Roman Selwyn were involved, but did that infer that Alecto, who Riley has affectionately called 'Al', was also a Death Eater? Perhaps it was a mere coincidence and Emmeline pushed the thought away. She would not exacerbate the depressive mood Riley was clearly already in. "It must be hard," she murmured, not looking at the other woman. Her thoughts had already drifted to the Order members--if anything happened to them while she was there to put a stop to it... Emmeline rubbed the back of her neck, as if trying to ease stiffening muscles. "I hope that, in time, Alecto will..." her voiced trailed off. What? Alecto will what? What other comforting thought and reassuring words were needed? And would such seemingly flimsy things help the guilt and the pain that accompanied the untimely death of a loved one? "You know," Emmeline said weakly, gesturing vaguely with her hand. "Weird?" she said again. It was difficult trying to get Riley elaborate on her study without sounding too nosey. Emmeline did not want to seem as if she was prying but she was curious. "Do you mean aside from his injuries from... the suicide?" she asked tentatively, resting her head on her palm and watching Riley's reaction carefully. She nodded faintly before shrugging again, dropping her eyes to the floor with a sort of resigned look on her face. She all but ignored Emmeline's condolences to Alecto -- she had begun to be reabsorbed by her thoughts. Her hands and the contents they were holding dropped to her lap as she began to remember what exactly she had seen during the autopsy. Once again her mind drifted away from Emmeline, away from the archive floor, back to that dimly lit cell and floating body, to that room with three people, but only two of which were alive. "I'll tell you a story," she said, her voice faint at first but steadily growing stronger. "Once upon a time, there was a man that died. He was an awfully handsome, awfully awful young bloke, and he he chose an awful way to die -- he hung himself. Yet he was an awfully arrogant little boy, and one would never consider him to hang his own pretty little face." She stopped, her voice faltering. She was rambling -- she wasn't that stupid to realize when she was rambling. But she didn't know how to stop. It was one of those times that if she didn't talk she was sure she would break down completely, so she continued, though her voice lost much of its original eager robustness. "But before he hung himself he was locked in a cell. He was hurt before he went in, but the king of the land was supposed to be an honourable and judicial king and heal him. It didn't happen. Instead, he ended up with more injuries than he had before he got in.." They were both so quiet for a few long moments that when Riley spoke, Emmeline could feel goosebumps rising on her skin. She was a little taken aback as to how Riley was retelling her findings but then again, what was Riley if not a little unorthodox. Emmeline's gaze had drifted towards her own pile of books but she was listening so closely that she would have never missed a word. The boy was obviously Roman Selwyn and yes, he was a little too arrogant and self-possessed to take his life like he did. If he had poisoned himself, Emmeline would have been more convinced... but the manner of death: by hanging--it was far too gruesome to contemplate. Surely, surely there were other ways by magic that could have the same effect without inflicting as much damage on the physical. Who was the king? A small crease appeared between Emmeline's eyebrows as she analysed what Riley said again. Who? The Ministry? Was she suggesting that the Aurors who interrogated Selwyn were to be blamed for his death? Emmeline looked at Riley again in confusion. "Do you think that..." she paused briefly, "The king is to be blamed for Selwyn's death?" She decided it was probably best if she spoke in Riley's language. "Well maybe, though the King may have been related it is really his subordinates," she said quickly. It was obvious that this "story-telling" was much more of a comfortable region for her, and she was much more willing to divulge information without giving too much. Then again, Emmeline was an Unspeakable as well. Somehow Riley felt a strange sort of connection due to their same jobs. "The subordinates -- well they are obviously fools," she said, a hint of scorn in her voice. She shook her head slowly, her eyebrows knitting together as spoke. "Normal bodies do not get purpler on their own -- especially not this little boy's. But the King should have stopped them, should have done something, but he didn't." Both eyebrows raised as her shoulders raised and then slumped into a little, half-hearted shrug. "No, a foolish lord -- one that shouldn't be a lord, really, he doesn't deserve the title at all -- instead tried to cover it all up, cover up something that may have happened.." The King? A lord? Emmeline scratched her head distractedly, trying to fit Riley's metaphors into more concrete classifications. Her lips pursed in concentration as she regarded the other woman, if only things were slightly more straight-forward. Perhaps that was why she liked Astronomy better than the other divisions that comprised the Department of Mysteries: even while there were so many things unknown and undiscovered, complete blindspots in literature and the relative vastness of the subject area, Astronomy still had universal laws that guided planetary and heavenly movements, as if an invisible hand controlled the universes' every single minute movement. She stared into the dim space of the archival room. The King. A monarchy? It can certainly be a metaphor for an organisation and so far Emmeline could deduce that Riley could either be referring to the Ministry or the Death Eaters. The lord--again, two possibilities: a department head or the Dark Lord. But Riley's last sentence made everything fall into place. The Ministry covered something up. She stared unblinkingly at Riley for a second before saying, "What do you think might have happened?" Emmeline was careful enough to word the question neutrally. Ah -- There it was. The question. A wicked half-smirk appeared on her lips as she leaned in towards Emmeline with a mischievous glint in her eyes. It felt so much easier to refer to it all as something apart from her, though it had affected her so much. "Now, that is certainly a good question," she said, mirroring Emmeline's unblinking state. "That is a question that is hard to answer. Some might say that indeed there was something to cover up, and others might say that there was nothing. But evidence could only point to the latter." Another hopeless sigh, another second gone by. She stared at the uneven edges of her nails and fiddled with them slightly as her sense of ease began to slip away from her. The intonations of her voice were much like the surface of her beloved brains -- curved like a sine wave, with bumps and highs and lows, eventually withering out completely. "Th-there was--" and she looked back up at Emmeline with the greatest conviction in her eyes "--a possibility for some sort of unjust actions." There seemed to be a definite dip in the room's temperature since goosebumps had started to appear on Emmeline's arms. Her gaze eventually faltered and she went back to staring at the spines of the books on the opposite shelf, as if half-hoping that a title would jump out and everything would be answered. Riley's words didn't help steer Emmeline's frame of mind to something else. Instead, her thoughts sunk deeper and deeper into ruminations about torture and death. Suicide. It could have been so easy to make it look like a suicide. She would have said more but the words seemed to get stuck at the back of her throat. "I see," Emmeline finally murmured, minutes after the moment to reply had passed. |