WHO: Owen Dearborn and @clay_theguard WHAT: Pest removal WHEN: Late tonight WHERE: The DMLE Auror department WARNINGS: Everything is fine!!
It was easier for Owen to work the night shift these days. With Zef gone, single fatherhood was starting to take its toll. At least at night he could drop Kevin off at Jeremy's place or their mother's house and Owen would know that his son would be safe without him there. That didn't mean that Owen particularly enjoyed overnight shifts, especially considering how little the Auror department had to do these days. A man could only comb through old case files without being allowed to actually work on them for so long.
Outside of the DMLE main offices, Ministry Security Guard Clay Wheatbuck had just finished updating his hooter handle (@clay_theguard) announcing his presence on shift, and included a fun factoid about the new MAGIC IS MIGHT statue in the atrium. He wasn’t particularly sure about his directive, but it checked out, and so he entered the offices, making a bee-line past sleepy Hitwizards and towards the Auror Offices.
“Auror Dearborn? It’s Clay, the guard. I’m going to need you to come with me, sir.”
Owen blinked a few times to wake himself from his boredom haze, looking up at Clay with confusion. "Yeah, I… I know who you are, Clay. What's going on?" he asked, making no immediate efforts to go anywhere. Auror instinct had him looking over Wheatbuck for any potential signs of his personality being off, but from what he could recall, Clay had always been a bit of an odd duck. "Is everything okay?"
“Well, that’s the thing, sir,” Clay said, free hand coming up to scratch the back of his neck nervously, “I’ve got orders to escort you out of the building.” His other hand clutched what passed for the magical version of a walkie-talkie: a small charmed gramophone. “Sorry, I don’t know any more than that.”
Any amusement in Owen's face vanished as he frowned up at Clay, his mind already racing as to the million of reasons as to why this was happening. They'd found Zef. They were going to use him to find Zef. Something had happened to Jeremy. Something had happened to Kevin. Umbridge had finally put in a complaint about him. Yaxley was up to something. One of the Lestranges had done something to this guy. "Am I being fired?" he asked cautiously, not wanting to cause a stink in front of the already barebones night crew in the DMLE. Somehow, that seemed like the safest option.
The change in Auror Dearborn’s expression only served to make Clay a little more nervous. He was doing night watch at the Ministry! Nothing was supposed to happen then, and if it did the DMLE was supposed to take care of it. Not him… what, taking care of the DMLE? “I don’t think so, sir,” Clay said, looking around as his nerves spiked some. “I wasn’t asked to take any of your ID or anything… just to get you out tonight.”
That made even less sense. "Who's the order coming from? I can't leave the department unstaffed or then I will get fired, haha," Owen noted, trying to seem as good natured about how weird this was as possible, even when he felt like his suspicion was flying from all cylinders.
“Through the Wart himself,” Clay responded before he caught himself, eyes widening, “Wartley that is, Merlin you can’t anyone I used that ruddy nickname… haha…” The Wart, head of Ministry Security, was noted for the disgustingly large and garish wart on the side of his left nostril, and also his lack of sense of humour. “He said it came from higher than him so I guess that’s like, level 1 stuff like the Minister or maybe Mista Yaxley.”
"From Yaxley's wart," Owen grumbled under his breath. Great. "Fine. Lemme get my stuff, I guess," he said, already starting to dump case files into his bag as slowly as possible. "You can go on ahead, I'll be out as soon as I'm done."
Clay looked around, foot tapping a bit on the floor out of nerves rather than impatience. “Look sir I don’t like this anymore than you, but you know I gotta get you outta here and I can do that…” he held up his gramophone. “Don’t make me use this to get back-up.”
Owen gave Clay a look that clearly asked are you kidding without saying a word. "You're going to gramophone me, mate? Put that away," he laughed, sitting back down at his desk as he dug through his desk drawers. "My shift ends in three hours. I'll leave then."
“I don’t want to, sir, but I have a job to do,” Clay said, edging closer to the Auror dressed in crimson robes. “I got two kids at home, I can’t get fired for not making you leave when I’m supposed to.”
"And I can't leave when I'm on shift. Looks like we're at an impasse."
Clay swore under his breath, and then raised the gramophone to his lips. Pressing the needle gave a clicking sound, and he spoke into the horn. “Gonna need back up, Jerry. Dearborn isn’t moving like he needs to.”
"Clay, come on," Owen frowned, his hand tightening around his wand in his pocket. "You don't need to call Jerry. If this is coming from Yaxley, go get Yaxley. Let me talk to him. This isn't the Auror you're looking for," he said, doing the motion of a Jedi mind trick with his free hand, as if that would lighten the mood.
“Yaxley doesn’t work nights and I’m not calling him at home,” the guard replied, trying and failing to suppress a shudder. Corban Yaxley just had a vibe about him that told him not to mess with the guy. A nervous laugh escaped Clay’s lips at the hand motion. “Look Owen-Wan, I can’t budge on this.”
"I'm sorry you're stuck between a rock and a guy who isn't willing to let the department go unstaffed," Owen shrugged, honestly sympathetic to Clay's plight, but also knowing that somebody needed to be there. "A call could come in at any time and I'm sure neither of us wants that resting on our shoulders when no one's here to give them the help they need. I'm not budging from this chair."
“No sir, I don’t want that at all,” Clay said, but there was a rustle of his robes that resulted in him hanging the gramophone -- call complete -- back into his belt and withdrew his wand. He didn’t hold it in a threatening manner or anything. “That’s fine, sir, you can sit there.” Clay sometimes was a genius, or at least, not a person of lackluster intellect. With a little flick of his wand he cast a sticking charm.
That was when Jerry, the hulking security guard that was on shift with him, entered the Auror office. “Wassat, Clay? Gotta get Dearborn out?”
Owen couldn't help but start laughing when Jerry showed up, the ridiculousness of the situation growing with every moment. "You guys, this is insane," he said, snickering at the absurdity. "There's no reason to send security to escort out an Auror if they're not being fired."
He moved to get out of his chair -- despite earlier claims that he refused to -- only to find that now he was stuck in his seat. "Oh come on. You're joking, right? Guys. Come on."
“I’m not insane, I’m just followin’ orders, even if I don’t like ‘em,” Clay reiterated, growing more nervous by the moment. His brow was sweaty and furled now at the whole scene. It wasn’t like he wanted this. “It isn’t personal. Jerry, wheel him out.”
Jerry grunted in the affirmative and began pushing the chair, with auror stuck, towards the door.
“I wish I was joking,” Clay muttered under his breath. He had no idea what was happening at the Ministry in recent months, but he knew he was just going to keep his head down and follow orders. He had a family to think of.