Evelyn Mulciber (bestdefense) wrote in disorderic, @ 2017-11-11 22:40:00 |
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Entry tags: | evelyn mulciber, remus lupin |
WHO: Remus Lupin & Evelyn Mulciber
WHAT: Information Gathering
WHEN: Sometime in the last few days
WHERE: A private suite in Mulciber Surveillance and Securities
WARNINGS: Violence, implied and otherwise
Over the years, Evelyn had learned all the little tics and traits of her magic. Nothing surprised her anymore. She knew just how every spell would affect its intended target; what injuries it would cause, how long effects would last. It was science more than magic, at this point, and some of the wonder was gone with it. She looked at her wristwatch. The creature should be stirring from her spell any minute now. He wouldn't know the room that held him was directly below her office at Mulciber Securities. He wouldn't know the room was soundproofed, and that no one else who came into the building, even her daughters, knew it was there. He wouldn't know that one short trip up the shielded staircase would lead him to sunlight, or even freedom. All he would see was a dark, quiet room that had been his home for an amount time she wouldn't allow him to discover. She had allowed him some freedom to move about the room after their last encounter. It wasn't successful, but it wasn't intended to be. She needed to be sure the information was good, and anything he gave her that quickly surely wouldn't be. She descended the stairs and sealed the door behind her. Seeing him still slumped in the corner, she checked her watch again and settled in to wait. Here in this room, bounded by little light and four dank walls, waking had become anathema to survival. Remus slept as a matter of course. He slept and refused food or water. When Mulciber came to him, he had first attempted dark humour as a means of coping with the reality that it was becoming statistically unlikely that he would make it through this altercation with his life intact. He talked nonsense, he gave the location and the conditions of his childhood home and described the plot of The Breakfast Club in painstaking detail. When she left, he would sleep and his dreams were crowded with James, Lily and of course, Sirius. Gradually, upon this day, he came back to waking. He inched up from the ground with his one good arm and gave Mulciber a single nod of greeting. “Do you want to hear about Sixteen Candles next?” Evelyn crossed her arms, regarding him with something that could almost be mistaken for pity -- wrapped in disgust. She didn't speak, deciding for the moment that he could have the floor to babble about whatever he pleased. With a rolled-up Daily Prophet tucked in under her arm, she knew her next move. But she would make him wait and wonder with her silence. “No?” He shrugged. “Good. I’m getting tired of talking to you, too.” Remus smiled wanly and waited, understanding Evelyn’s stance was a preamble to whatever kind of terror would come next. His lips hardened into a thin, colourless line. Evelyn unsheathed her wand, not to raise it against Remus, but to silently conjure a comfortable chair for herself. She took a seat and opened the Daily Prophet tucked under her arm as if she were reading something quite interesting inside. She kept the paper low enough that she could keep an eye on the creature, letting a certain headline stay well in his view for when he got curious. She flipped a page in the paper. Even without his glasses - lost somewhere in the cabin, between transformation and Evelyn’s handiwork - Remus could read the Prophet’s ostentatious typesetting. With eyes narrowed, he leaned forward and gathered his legs beneath him. Better to be prepared if Evelyn decided to spring. “You all thought you could tame Greyback. You thought wrong.” Evelyn glanced curiously at the werewolf, then down at the headline he was reading. "Oh, that?" she asked. "That wasn't Greyback. That was you, dear. A horrible tragedy, to be sure. Here, go ahead and refresh your memory." She tossed the paper to the ground. Before entering the room, she covered it with enough charms that there was no way she could think of, at least, that he could somehow turn it into a weapon or means of escape, should he decide to try something so foolish. The paper landed in front of him with a wet smack. He stared at it for several moments, her words ringing through his head. He had his full faculties with the Wolfsbane; he wouldn’t kill a child. Couldn't. But all the same, he identified that sickening fear in the back of his head. He picked the paper up. “Why?” "I'm sure the poor girl's family is wondering the same thing," Evelyn said, her tone a near approximation of real sadness and pity. That the girl and her family never existed in the first place was no reason not to give them the appropriate deference in their time of mourning. "I know you try to be careful. I truly do. But I'm sure you'll understand why we can't let you back out there after something like this." Remus’ brow skyrocketed. “I was in the cabin all night, you heinous …” And as the threat died off, he started to wonder. He fell into the Highlands to keep his family safe, if the potion ever failed to do its job. It was a failsafe against things like building tolerance and perhaps even his own self-loathing. And logic told him that Evelyn Mulciber would lie to him. But here it was. And he didn’t know the day, the hour, the week. He only knew that he was weak, that his arm was broken, and this woman was all the life he saw. He continued to stare at her. "It's dreadful, what people have been saying about you," Evelyn sympathized. "As if you did it on purpose." “I suppose they’re glad to give me over to —“ he paused, looking around the room. “What is this anyway? I’ve been in every cell of the DRMC. Home since five, as I’m sure you know.” Evelyn he suspected of being a Death Eater, suspected this wasn’t about what he did. Allegedly? But it required more reason than being a danger. There had to be another purpose. “I took the potion.” He said, mustering strength. “I didn’t kill anyone.” "I don't blame you for blocking it out, my dear," she replied immediately. "And … honestly, Mr Lupin, you know as well as I do that the Ministry is run by Death Eaters. Do you really think you'd still be alive if I turned you in there?" Incredulous now — “You are a Death Eater!” He lurched to his feet and focused on the door which Evelyn frequently entered and exited from. Though wandless magic was hardly a forte, and he was weak, he had to try. Honing his concentration on the door, it began to rattle in its frame. Evelyn sighed dramatically and aimed a petrifying spell at the man. Child's play, really, and one that wouldn't last long. "None of that, now," she chided. "You're not wrong, of course, but you should really consider yourself lucky, my dear. My colleagues have a very different way of approaching things." Without the proper assistance from his own wand, Remus could not deflect the curse and fell flat, his back giving the concrete a loud crack. He lay there, petrified, wondering how long she would be willing to keep this charade going. And the first thing that came unstuck was his mouth. “What do you want? Other than to gloat.” "Information, eventually," Evelyn said, "But you're the stubborn sort, and I'm in no hurry. I've got others harking in my ear to simply torture it out of you, but I've never found that to be particularly trustworthy, have you? People say anything at all under the Cruciatus just to make it stop. And there are even a determined few who have managed to build up an immunity to Veritaserum, so that won't work." She walked over to him with a purpose, her heels clicking against the hard floor as she moved. She stood above him now, looking down at his body splayed at the awkward angle from her hex. "No, I think you'll want the chance to get out there yourself. Warn everyone about the terrible Evelyn Mulciber." She rested her foot on his broken arm, putting more and more weight on it with each word she spoke. "And I'm sure you'll want to clear your name. Let everyone know that there was no little girl at all; it was all some terrible frame job." He waited, and waited. And he waited. For the bone to break through his skin, or for the pain to stop reverberating in his mind. But none and nothing came to pass but for Evelyn. And for his savagely bitten back cry of pain. “You are a singular woman,” he told her at last, his arm finally free enough of the curse to grasp her round the ankle and push. Evelyn stumbled backwards, more annoyed than anything else. She ran a shocking jinx through him as punishment for acting out. "And here I thought you'd be happy to know no one actually died to get you in this situation. You're proving more and more ungrateful, Lupin. Maybe my colleagues are right after all." The admitted fabrication rifled through him with the shocking jinx, and he retreated to his corner. The juncture of the walls supported his frame as he turned a sneer her way. “You’ll not get any information from me if that’s what you’re thinking. Methods don’t matter when it’s madness.” At that challenge, Evelyn smirked. "That's what you think." She raised her wand. |