WHO: Joseph Bell & Dempster Wiggleswade. WHAT: Dempster accuses Joe of involvement with the Order. WHEN: 28 March. WHERE: DMLE offices. WARNINGS: None.
“Hey, buddy.” Dempster was none too gentle when she set two coffees down on top of Joe’s desk. She didn’t even wince when the liquid splashed over the edge of the cup onto her hand. This wasn’t a friendly gift of coffee — it was barely even an offering of good will. Folding her arms across her chest, she kept her even gaze on him. “We need to talk.”
"Hello…," Joe started, when the coffee was placed on his desk. He shot Dempster a quizzical look, but picked up the coffee, anyway. He looked around the room, briefly wondering if Rowle had anything to do with this, when he didn't find the useless Hitwizard anywhere nearby, he said, "Buddy? What are we talking about?"
“We need to talk about connecting the dots,” she said, gathering herself to her full height as if that gave her some higher ground to stand on. “Mostly we need to talk about how I’ve been connecting them.”
Joe looked at her with a very puzzled expression, almost expecting Dempster to reveal some sort of mini board which she was solving some elaborate puzzle. Instead, he took a sip of the coffee -- and was pleased that it had a bit of a hazelnut flavour to it… which probably was not the point of this conversation. He cleared his throat, and looked up at her. "You're going to have to explain yourself because you sound like a conspiracy theorist right now."
“Maybe I am a conspiracy theorist,” Dempster said cryptically, but she broke character to glance around the office. Once she’d taken stock of who else was within earshot, she proposed, “Let’s borrow one of the offices for a minute.”
"O… kay…," Joe was skeptical, but he dutifully got to his feet. He was now under the full assumption that this had to do with whatever case Dempster had been working on and clearly she was just asking for his input… out of earshot from their colleagues for whatever reason. But still, sure. He'd go along with it.
He lead the way to a nearby empty office (and made sure to take that coffee with him once again), popping in to make sure no one was inside. Once the pair of them were inside, he turned to her and raised a brow, taking a sip of the coffee (and enjoy the flavour once more). "What's up?"
Dempster waited until the door was fully closed behind them before she turned a frown on her coworker. Rather than launch into a detailed explanation of her suspicions, she asked him pointedly, “Are you working with the Order?”
It was a bad idea to be drinking anything when you were going to be accused of something, Joe assessed as he could see remnants of his coffee spewing from his mouth, almost in slow motion, though he couldn't actually stop himself from spitting. He'd accidentally sprayed Dempster in the process, and looked momentarily apologetic, before he offered her some stray napkins that had been left before. "Sorry, what? The Order?" He looked confused, and decided that now would be a grand time to set the coffee down. "What are you talking about?"
Dempster jumped back and tried in vain to brush the coffee off the front of her shirt. When she saw it was a fruitless effort, she sighed and shook her head at him. “Seriously?”
She folded her arms across her chest again. “I think you know what I’m talking about. Letting Hagrid get away. Lurking around Thorfinn’s desk the day he happens to fall ill — I know a prank going down when I see one. And you don’t seem that thrilled with either Montague or Yaxley.”
“You’ve got the look of someone hiding something all over you,” she concluded, and then with a smirk tagged on, “And the stench, too.”
"I'm not — that's not even — Rowle is — no one is thrilled —"
All thoughts poured out at once, causing Joe to become a blubbering idiot. He waved his arms in frustration, still grappling at all the accusations that were thrown at him. He paused, letting one arm reach to touch his temple, as he closed his eyes, trying to figure out which one to dissect. "Rowle and I have some sort of funny office rivalry going on," Joe settled on. "He throws things at me, I harmlessly got him sick for a brief amount of time. It's nothing beyond that!"
“He threw things at you and you poisoned him?” Dempster raised her eyebrows. “Under normal circumstances, I’d be impressed you had that kind of next level prank in you. But you made us look like idiots at Hogwarts.” She wrinkled her nose. “And now I can’t even eat bacon without seeing a Bambi-legged pig headed straight for my face.”
Joe didn't mean to snort, but that's exactly what he did, completely unintentionally. He attempted to turn the snort into a cough and then hid the smirk with his hand. A few seconds later, he shook his head and held his free hand up. "I was trying to make sure you were alright! Nothing I did with Hagrid was helping, and I didn't want my coworker to fall to her death!"
At that, Dempster threw up her hands. “It was just a spindly pig! I could’ve handled it!”
"And there was a lot going on, what with the kids running everywhere," Joe pointed out, with a shrug. "And no matter, we went back for him at the Forbidden Forest, remember? How were we supposed to catch him with that giant around?"
“That giant wasn’t around when he was still in his stupid hut,” she said. “Did you even try?”
"Of course I did!" Joe huffed, both affronted and shocked at that accusation. "Think about it, Dempster. If I was in the Order, why would I have agreed to go with you to arrest him instead of sending word ahead to have him get out? Why would I deliberately put children in danger if I could somehow have him get away from all of that?"
“Maybe you were trying not to be suspicious,” she said, sounding slightly exasperated. “Why would you make it that obvious if you were trying to hide it?”
"Oh my god, I'm not in the Order," he replied, crossing his arms across his chest now. "And just so you know, like 98% of the DMLE isn't thrilled with Montague or Yaxley, either. Are you questioning everyone now?" He huffed.
“Only the ones I give a shit about,” she said and contrary to her words, her expression pinched into a glare. “The ones I’d rather not see get themselves killed or thrown in Azkaban because they’re helping vigilantes break the law.”
Joe stared at Dempster with utter disbelief, but without giving away any other emotion, he lowered his voice. "I will prove it to you if you have Veritaserum. I am not a member of the Order of the Phoenix." He very intentionally pushed away any thought of his sister at this moment, not wanting to accidentally give away that he was thinking about other things, too.
“And you’re not helping them,” Dempster said, her tone somewhere between a statement and a question.
"And I'm not helping them," he echoed, without missing a beat and without letting his eyes waver away from her. Joe would just ignore the strange feeling in his stomach for a little bit longer. "You've got to trust me."
She eyed him for a long moment, even leaning across the table to look him square in the face. But she pulled back a moment later, apparently mollified. For now.
“All right,” she said and lifted a hand to pat his cheek. “You’d better be telling the truth, cause you’ve got too nice a mug to let the Death Eaters leave it smeared on the pavement.”
Joe let out a sigh of relief and half-heartedly clicked his finger guns at her, forcing a smile. "Cheers, Demps, I appreciate the concern for my nice mug on potential smear campaigns." He smirked momentarily and cleared his throat. "So we're good here?"
“I guess,” Dempster said with a one-shouldered shrug. But her tone turned almost comically grave a moment later. “I’m still watching you, Bell.”
"Consider me watched," Joe nodded, giving her a two-fingered salute.