remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-06-19 19:56:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-06] june, alastor moody, remus lupin |
Who: Remus Lupin & Alastor Moody.
What: Remus has been arrested for the recent slew of Ministry employee murders, and luckily, Moody is the one chosen to interrogate him.
When: 19 June 1979
Where: Interrogation cell at the Ministry of Magic.
Moody hadn't been particularly happy when he'd seen the name on the file he'd been given. He never shrank back from interrogations -- was fairly good at them, at that -- and he supposed it was better that he question Lupin, rather than one of the Aurors who might get overzealous and get information that they didn't need and that would put the Order on precarious footing, but that didn't mean he had to like it. It also didn't mean he'd have to go easy on Lupin. What the hell had the boy been doing out? He wasn't on patrol duty, and he should damn well know better than to get caught out after curfew. Moody spent a few minutes swearing up a storm outside the interrogation room, and then unlocked the door and stumped in, slamming the file down on the table as he scowled at Lupin. Remus was not even thinking about who might be coming in to interrogate him at that moment -- no, he was far to exhausted to care, resting his head on the table in front of his chair. He had only been through the transformation recently, which left him worn out and sore, so being dragged out of his bed and into jail the very next morning was not his ideal way of spending his recovery. He wasn't even sure how civil he was going to manage to be toward the person who would be interrogating him; he had bitter feelings toward the Ministry in general as it was. His eyes were shut, and was nearly asleep by the time he heard the swearing from outside the room and the click of the lock -- Remus sighed, forcing himself to sit up so he could at least dignify his interrogator by looking them in the face while they spoke. He was half relived when he recognised Moody -- thank Merlin, at least it would be someone he knew -- but he was sure that the Auror was not pleased that he'd managed to get himself dragged into jail in the first place. Especially judging by the cursing he had heard before he came through the door. Remus relaxed in his chair, leaning back with a slumped posture and looked up at Moody with dark circles under his eyes. He didn't say anything, but just waited for what he knew was inevitably coming. Lupin looked like death warmed up. Scowling, Moody sat down opposite him, giving him a quick once-over to gauge whether it was just the aftereffects of the full moon or something more. "Do you want to tell me what you were doing last night?" he asked, his voice deceptively mild. The three Gryffindors had a nasty habit of going off on their own; he wasn't surprised that it had come back to bite them, only that it hadn't happened before now. "Not really," Remus muttered in reply, his voice bitter. "But I know you're not going to take 'no' for an answer." He was not normally this rude to people -- to their faces, anyway -- especially those in the Order. He was never in a particularly good mood after the full moons, though, and right now was much worse. He hadn't even thought of what he was going to say yet, and couldn't think of anything that might get him out of trouble. He wondered if Moody would lie for him to help him get out sooner. He took a deep breath; there really wasn't anything else he could do but tell the truth in this situation. "I arranged to meet with Marius Lestrange... for a fight," he said, thinking about how stupid the whole idea sounded even as he spoke. "I wanted to meet him someplace public, so it would be harder for him to trick me, and so I suggested Knockturn. We went someplace else from there and fought. That's -- that's really all," he finished, clenching his jaw (ow) and lowering his eyes to look down at the table's surface. "He was there at Edgar's party. He's one of the Death Eaters who helped." Remus didn't know what else he could say. He had no excuse for what he had done, and he had no proof to back up his statement except for Marlene's word, which he trusted. "You were meeting a Death Eater for a duel," Moody said flatly. He didn't doubt that Lestrange was a Death Eater, if he'd been at the party; the word of the surviving victims may not be enough for the Ministry, but Moody trusted them -- at least, some of them -- enough to take their word for it. But going out and fighting one, without backup -- more backup than James or Sirius, who had probably gone with him, Moody thought sourly -- without telling anyone else where he was going, and right before the full moon? He'd thought Lupin had more sense than that. On the other hand... "How are you holding up? You look terrible." On the other hand, it had been right before a full moon, which did tend to affect some werewolves. And if Lestrange was one of the ones who'd hurt McKinnon -- which was what Moody suspected -- then naturally Lupin would want to pay him back for it. More to the point, they'd all suffered a terrible loss recently; it wasn't unexpected that some of them would act out. He could give Lupin a dressing-down when Lupin wasn't looking as though he was about to fall over. Well, this was not what he'd expected from Moody at all. Where was the cursing and yelling? Where was the scolding? Remus blinked a few times, wondering if he had actually managed to fall asleep during any ranting, but no, it didn't seem like it -- he was pretty sure he would have been woken up. Certainly, Moody was not happy about what had happened, but Remus wasn't quite sure how to handle this. He was relieved, though, as arguing would have taken a lot of energy, especially arguing with someone much older and more experienced with fighting against dark wizards than he is. Relaxing in his chair again, Remus sighed. "I'd be holding up much better if I were at home." All he wanted was to go back to Godric's Hollow; maybe have some of Mrs Potter's cooking, or collapse back into bed, hopefully with Marlene there too, so he could at least feel she was warm and safe beside him. He had learnt, recently, that he slept much better when he wasn't alone. "How long do you think they'll keep me here?" he asked, looking up at Moody again. "Did they just drag me in because I was out after curfew -- or because I'm a werewolf?" The accusing tone in his voice was clear, even if it wasn't directed at Moody himself. "Don't think I'm not going to give you a talk that'll blister your ears," Moody warned. "It just looks like you'd fall asleep during it right now, and believe me, I'm going to want every word to sink in. As for going home..." he sighed. "I'm going to have to at least make it look like a decent interrogation, or people will put two and two together, come up with five, and cause all sorts of trouble. You really could have picked a better time, Lupin." He stood up, going out into the corridor and snagging one of the undersecretaries as she passed. "Arrange for breakfast for him," he said gruffly. "He's decided to be cooperative." You caught more flies with honey than with vinegar, after all, and while the entire department knew about his hatred for dark wizards, they also knew that he didn't go too hard on other suspects who cooperated. And it wasn't uncommon to offer food or medical treatment in exchange for answers. It wasn't a practise he approved of, but it worked in his favour for now. Returning to the interrogation room, he sat down again. "There'll be food along shortly, that should keep you going until I can get you out of this. And don't give me that crap, Lupin, I'm not in the mood to cop your flak about stupid policies. Your being a werewolf might actually help, if I can convince them that the full moon affected your judgement enough to make you forget about the curfew." Remus nodded slowly as Moody spoke; he figured he couldn't get out of being scolded completely. He understood that Moody couldn't make it seem like he was playing favourites with the prisoners, trying to get them out early, too. He looked appreciative at the promise of getting some food soon; it wouldn't compare to Mrs Potter's cooking, sure, but at least it would be something. "Thank you," he said. "I don't know if they'll accept an excuse like that, but if you think it might help... you'd know more about how the DMLE works than I do." He still felt that the prejudice against his kind wouldn't sit well with most, but what else could he do? Remus knew he could trust Moody. Still, there was something else bothering him about the situation. "When they brought me in, they said something about suspicion of murder... did someone get killed? Why would they think it was me?" "There've been some deaths," Moody said heavily. "I haven't got the details yet, but they're bringing in anyone who's out after curfew, for lack of a better damn option. It's ridiculous, anyone with a lick of sense would see that if the murderers had this planned they wouldn't be doing anything suspicious, but no, we have to look as though we're doing something." He scowled, frustrated. "Just like any idiot with the sense God gave a mayfly would know that not all werewolves are ravening killers. I know the people I'll need to talk to, they're not as bad as some when it comes to seeing sense. You'll get out of this all right." Remus sighed and leaned his elbows on the table again, wondering if his idiocy was going to get him into anymore trouble than it already has. Why couldn't he think things through first when it came to dealing with Marius? It was as if he knew exactly the right triggers to pull to set him off all recklessness and idiotic Gryffindor bravery, consequences be damned. He thought, perhaps, the worst part of it all was that he didn't regret setting up the fight, even if he regretted biting the other man. Merlin, he was too tired to be dealing with this right now. "You don't know who was murdered yet?" he asked, hoping selfishly it wasn't anyone he knew. "Ministry officials," Moody told him, getting up as there was a timid knock on the door and taking the tray from the undersecretary, giving her a gruff nod. He set the tray on the table, pushing it over to Lupin, and sat down again, running a hand over his face. God, but he was tired. "Edgecombes, Kirke. I don't know who else, but it was obviously a hit against the Ministry." Remus felt relieved that it wasn't anyone from the Order, but the news of more innocent deaths was never a welcome one, regardless. "Well, I'm locked up every night of the full moon. Dumbledore can vouch for me," he said, hoping to keep the secret of his animagus friends -- especially since they weren't even registered. "He helped to set the place up for me. It's safe. If there's anyone they could trust as an alibi for a werewolf --" and the word werewolf was spoken with a bitter tone in his voice, knowing full well how the Ministry viewed them " -- it would be him, I think." He hoped that would be enough to convince anyone that might want to keep him locked up longer to let him go free, although he felt guilty for relying on Dumbledore to help him once again. He hoped Moody would be able to get him out of trouble without asking Dumbledore though, however doubtful the chance of that was. He pulled the tray closer to himself and picked up the fork to begin eating. "I'll get in touch with him if the red tape gets too difficult to deal with," Moody said, still scowling. "Shouldn't be that difficult, though. Do me a favour, though, Lupin? Tell someone the next time you get it into your head to go duelling Death Eaters. Someone other than Black or Potter." Remus nodded humbly -- he had no valid excuse for what he had done. "Alright. I'll be more careful in the future. I'm -- sorry," he said, feeling foolish for apologising; not that it was unwarranted, but that the two simple words seemed to insignificant compared to the trouble he had caused. Maybe if he didn't feel so tired, he might have put up more of an argument, but as it were right then he didn't feel like getting into the reasons he had gone out to duel with Marius -- no matter if his reasons were acceptable or not. He'd acted recklessly, he knew, and he was damn lucky that Moody was here to interrogate him instead of someone else. He would not be getting out of this so easily otherwise, and doubted he would have been treated as well. "All right." Moody got to his feet. He was under no illusions that Lupin, Black, Potter and Pettigrew were ever going to stop doing things in their little group -- not that that was his aim -- but maybe now they'd at least be a bit more open about their plans. Secrets within the Order helped nobody. "I'll go bang some heads together and see about getting you out of here." |