He locked eyes with Charlie, boring his gaze into those brilliant irises but holding back as he stood there. Trust. That was what the other man promised with that stare. It was something rarely given him and so, he decided to honor it. It was also something he possessed that Severus did not - perhaps a truer motivator for his action.
"We won't be unprepared." His fingers curled. "We'll do what we must, as we've always done."
As we've always done. He had refrained from using the phrase in a way that suggested intimacy - though it was truly the pair of them to which he referred. Charlie had a loyalty to the department that surpassed the others. Quentin's loyalty was to the unfolding of his own understanding. While the motivations were different, it came to the same end. He reached out, pressing one finger against a wand. Ash.