Re: In Hogsmeade...
'As long as they don't send me Potter.' Rodolphus snorted. 'I understand the boy is in Auror training now?' Rodolphus looked disgusted at the mere thought. Why couldn't the boy have died, together with the rest of the annoying lot they had managed to kill that eventful night? Even the awful Longbottom boy had survived. Salazar knew it would be difficult to feign indifference would one ever run into one of those little upstarts and blood-traitors. Even if Rodolphus had changed his allegiances, he had not changed the way he looked at the Order and its members.
'I am, as you may understand, not fond of force. Freedom has become a most important subject to me, and I am willing to bend, or even break, my formerly so steadfast opinions. However,' Rodolphus said, and offered Pucey a biscuit from a silver plate that probably had cost half the Auror's monthly salary, 'The Minister do have a point, and I will advice you to be... in time and scan the market, so to speak. I am very certain that it shortly won't be a matter of choice. It will be up to you to decide whether you are going to be prepared or not.' If Pucey was as clever as he tried to make Rodolphus believe, he understood that he was offered knowledge in return for his courtesy and kindness. Rodolphus rarely paid for such things. He must have gone soft in Azkaban. Nevertheless, Pucey could just as well have been rude and biased, but he had not. Rodolphus knew he had to offer something to, once more, build a net of connections. Pucey would just be the first step of many.