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Gawain Robards (sir_gawain) wrote in strugglewithin,
@ 2008-11-02 12:32:00

Entry tags:

*complete, august 1997, gawain robards, npc, percy weasley

RP: A Meeting with the New Minister
Date: 2 August 1997
Characters: Gawain Robards, Percy Weasley, Pius Thicknesse (NPC)
Location: Ministry of Magic
Status: Private
Summary: Gawain gets a summons.
Completion: Complete

Gawain held his hands in front of him, at a parade rest, they called it during training, as the lift took him up from Level Two to the first Level, where the Minister's offices were. He'd received a summons early that morning - seven o'clock, in fact - to present himself post haste to Minister Thicknesse. He'd been tempted to ball up the parchment and toss it into the fire, but he hadn't. Instead, he'd showered and dressed, trying to look more awake than he felt.

He hadn't slept much the night before. After leaving the Leaky Cauldron, he'd Apparated to Rufus' block. He'd approached the house cautiously, seeing that the lights in every room were on. He'd watched, using everything he'd picked up in Concealment and Disguise decades ago, as well as the tricks of the trade every Auror mastered within a year or two of joining up officially. So he'd seen the cadre of men - wizards, presumably - taking apart the Minister's well-ordered home; he'd seen them laughing and joking through the windows. Rufus would never allow that, especially as he saw them tossing books aside like they were nothing.

It had been all he could do to turn around and go home, retreating long enough to gives things a good, long think. Four pots of tea later hadn't enlightened him to anything in particular, except the fact that he needed to pop round the market to get more tea.

Logically, it wasn't looking good for Rufus, but a small part of him - the part that was ignoring everything his Auror senses were telling him - was hopeful that Rufus had decided to take an abrupt holiday to Majorca. He clung to that hope childishly, even as the majority of him was already beginning to grieve his lost mentor.

As he stepped off the lift, the oppressive silence settled around him, and he shook his head. It was almost palpable, and he wondered if anyone but him could sense it. Not that many were here, though he saw a few people pop their heads over the partitions to see who was getting off the lift. For a weekend, for a Sunday especially, there were many in the administrative offices.

He paused outside the outer door to the Minister's office, steeling himself. Pushing the door open, he saw the same man who'd been there the morning before. So much had changed in twenty-four hours, and yet ...

"I'm here to see Minister Thicknesse," Gawain told the boy - Weasley, he thought. Son of Arthur, if he remembered correctly.

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pompous_percy
2008-11-02 12:49 pm UTC (link)

Percy didn't intentionally make a habit of working weekends, though it happened more often than not, and while he found most weekends ticking on in the same way his weekdays did, yesterday had been an exception. It wasn't only that it was Bill's wedding, or that Percy had spent much of the morning springing out of his chair to Apparate to the Burrow, only to decide against it by the time he got to the lift. Yesterday, the inner mechanics of the Ministry had been blatantly odd. It'd started the moment Pius Thicknesse had appeared in the office, in fact. He'd needed to speak to the Minister about a private matter, one Percy could only assume had to do with Auror business, and five minutes into their meeting Minister Scrimgeour had poked his head out the door and told Percy to take the afternoon off. He had no patience for Percy's protests, barked at him to leave, and then shut the door again. Percy did what he was told, but when he'd doubled back to retrieve some important papers he'd forgotten, he'd heard raised voices through the door.

Because Minister Scrimgeour was prone to fits of temper on occasion, and because Mr Thicknesse was, well, strange, he hadn't interrupted.

When he'd received the evening Prophet, he wished he had.

It was all very unsettling. One of the reasons he'd shown up to the Ministry today was to find out if the rumors were true. They were of course, and now he wasn't Junior Assistant to Minister Scrimgeour; he was Junior Assistant to Minister Thicknesse. The haste of Minister Scrimgeour's resignation, coupled with how easily Thicknesse had settled into his newly acquired position, was disconcerting; however, Percy could no sooner voice that than apologize to his family.

The door to his office opened and another Auror was standing there. Robards, he presumed, and checked the timetable on his desk to make sure. Yes, it would be Robards.

"Yes," he said. "Auror Robards, good morning." He smiled thinly and gestured to one of the chairs. "Please have a seat. I'll let, ah, Minister Thicknesse know you're in."

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sir_gawain
2008-11-02 12:58 pm UTC (link)

It was jarring hearing 'Minister Thicknesse', and all Gawain could manage was a sharp nod as he sat. The chair wasn't any more comfortable than it had been yesterday, but he was more restless this morning.

Taking a breath, he forced himself to relax, to appear calm, collected. He was the bloody well Chief Auror, he shouldn't let his nerves get to him, even if every second that ticked by added to his certainty that he wasn't likely to see Rufus Scrimgeour alive again.

The Weasley boy seemed to have adjusted well enough to the change, though. Perhaps he'd known it was coming. It might do to question the boy subtly after the interview with Thicknesse. Gawain knew for a fact that there hadn't been any rumors about Rufus resigning prior to the announcement in the Prophet, but if others had known ... well, it hinted at something quite bit more sinister than the simple resignation the Prophet reported.

	sw_npc_1 2008-11-02 05:33 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, good. They'd be pleased, Pius knew, if Robards actually managed the task set him. "I expected nothing less. You're dismissed, Auror Robards. Keep me updated twice weekly on your progress. Weasley will see you out," he said, turning back to a pile of files and picking one off the top. "Oh, and Weasley, I need a fresh cuppa." (Reply to this) (Parent)