So I will walk through the fire, 'cause where else can I turn?

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*They have put up tents half a mile from a werewolf camp. It's probably the most idiotic thing Fabian has done in years, which is truly saying something, but Alice was right - all they can do is use this opportunity to try and get to the bottom of things for the Order, even if the Ministry is barking up a seriously wrong, cannibalistic tree. Greyback's folks are a problem either way. Fabian isn't happy about being here - there'd been another uncharacteristically serious conversation with Gideon this morning, and a goodbye that'd hedged on a little too final - but if they're here, they're here. He's going to do a good job of this even if Umbridge is a sadistic cow.

So. They're going to make this work. He's left Sirius and Alice to finish setting up camp while he goes to get water from the nearby river, which he's just now coming back with. They're a few miles from the village of Halkirk, but if they can stay out of the Muggles' notice, that'd be best all around. They've got a few hours left to nightfall and, Fabian's hoping, they can maybe get some poking around done before dark. As he re-appears up the hill levitating about five buckets of water with him, he flashes the pair of them a smile that's nearly up to his usual standards.*

Everything coming together alright?

Comments

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*Catching the significance of her movement, Fabian curses under his breath and looks around behind them. He keeps his voice to a murmur.*

Accio Alice's wand.

[i-swallow-odin.livejournal.com]

*He rests his chin on the top of Alice's scalp, both hands on her shoulders. They seem unbearably large, as if he could easily break Alice's collarbone, easily revenge his now injured underling - his injured family.

Instead, he nods.

What could have been a peaceful acceptance of these new terms actually unleashes all Hell. Taking the cue, a boy, no older than seven drops from a low hanging branch, landing neatly on top of Sirius. Far from innocent, he is dutifully armed with a kitchen knife - some stolen trinket from some very unfortunate household. Meanwhile, five more werewolves, a great deal older, reveal themselves from behind, barrelling toward Fabian on all fours. Bounding across undergrowth with practised ease. Somewhere in the havoc, the injured werewolf has disappeared, dragged back and replaced by a still unseen parliament of monsters.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice immediately pushes back from Greyback, trying to get free of his overpowering hands. At this proximity it is easier to aim her kicks and she tries again to go for the groin.*

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*It comes out of nowhere. The boy dropping onto Sirius is a distraction, and Fabian doesn't see the five coming at him until it's nearly too late. Alice's wand had just come soaring to his outstretched free hand but he's forced to drop it at once. Adrenalin skyrocketing, he lurches a step backward and lashes out with the first spell that comes to mind, sending a blasting curse straight for the middle of the group charging him.*

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Fuckfuckfuckfuck walk right into an ambush stupid Sirius fucking stupid.

Sirius goes down but blasts the boy off of him, twenty feet into the air, all mercy completely gone, but not before the knife sinks into his shoulder, near his neck. It's going to bleed but it didn't hit anything vital.

He springs back to his feet and casts another blasting hex after Fabian's. But he's seen what Fabian has tried to do, and most of the work is done already. He snatches Alice's wand out of the air.*

Alice--catch--

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice whips her head around and catches her wand. She's not free of Greyback yet, but her arms are. Her wand snakes up to press to his jugular.*

Call them off.

[i-swallow-odin.livejournal.com]

*Fenrir only presses closer to her, the wand tip caught in the folds of unshaven skin around his jowls. He sniffs her, a yellowing nail tapping the wood of her wand with interest.*

Disapparate. There's nothing stopping you here.

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*Two hexes and five men is still bad math. Between the two of them they get most of the group, but Fabian still catches a hard, heavy weight to his chest before he can register which one of them is on him, and then he's on his back and everything narrows down to fetid breath and filthy hair in his face. He's still got his wand but he can't get an angle, and struggles on instinct to push his heavier opponent off of him.*

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*By the time Sirius has ensured Alice got her wand, Fabian is down, but it's just one, and Sirius tosses him in the air and off Fabian with levicorpus. He almost wants to laugh at the filthy creature dangling by his ankle, and he would if it weren't so terrifying.*

We just wanted to talk, Greyback. This didn't have to be a fight.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*The moment is intimate. From far away, they might even look like lovers. Alice looks into his eyes, feeling her skin crawl, and nods.

She pushes away, almost smiling, and steps back. Her wand trails down with the movement, following her arm as she moves to go.

When it reaches the bottom of his neck, she wordlessly she casts a curse and blood oozes from the very base of his neck. She pushes her wand into the wound.*

Talk to us, or I take it all.

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*He scrambles back to his feet, furious but unhurt, and backs toward Sirius again, keeping the rest of the werewolves - still unseen numbers, he's got no idea how many they're up against, here - covered as well as he can.*

Call off your bloody dogs, while you're at it.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice digs her wand in a little further.*

Do it.

[i-swallow-odin.livejournal.com]

*Half his pack is down, its youngest member flung violently through the trees, his territory has been invaded and now his own blood has been drawn - all in the name of talking. Fenrir knows a lot about humans and their talk. They talk themselves into wars, into laws, into fear and into their own prisons. They have defined language as the pillars of their society, the height of intelligence, the differentiation between them and what they see as common animals. For this reason alone, Fenrir has never been one for talk - particularly when the terms of this new discourse have never even been stipulated. It feels like an interrogation, but to what end he has no idea. There is nothing to interrogate him about. He's made a point of being open with his activities. There's only one possibility.

He reaches a hand into the many layers of fur and stolen clothing, ripping something off from a string of twine. Opening an enormous hand he reveals several elegant finger bones.*

If you're here for her, it's too late.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice barely looks at the bones, even as her stomach turns over. She didn't really know Clover, and she doesn't want the distraction.

Instead she focuses on his face, judging him and weighing the options. There's an honesty in that moment that she's stuck on; he's trying to horrify, trying to make them all angry, but he's also talking. Greyback could easily move to disarm and kill her, but he isn't trying now. So either he's playing with his food or he is trying to protect his pack from further harm.

Watching him, Alice leans toward it being the latter of the two. If it were the first, he would still be outwardly aggressive.

Part of her begins to find itself oddly sympathetic to him. Nothing is excused or forgiven, but this brutal act exposes his personality far better than any file ever did.

If they want to deal, it's her side that needs to make the first sign of peace. She's not ready to take her wand down, but she turns her head slightly, eyes still on Fenrir's.*

Release him.

*Alice lifts her chin so that she's fully face-to-face with Greyback again. She wants him to hear her say his name, see how ineffective his show was.*

We didn't come about Clover.

Call them down and talk to us.

*She knows she has to give something in order for this to work, something related to his pack.*

And in return, I will heal your injured.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*For once, Sirius takes an order without so much as a moment of hesitation. The werewolf drops in a heap on the ground. Maybe a few scuffs or bruises, but mostly uninjured.

Unlike the boy. Sirius touches the wound on his neck. It's sticky with blood and still flowing slightly, but the boy--who knows if he's even alive, if he landed wrong, on something. He could be bleeding out right now, during this stalemate. And if he's dead, Greyback probably won't be overly interested in talking, and Sirius will have killed a child. But throwing up at a time like this, no matter how appealing, isn't really useful. So he swallows the bile in his throat and keeps his back to Fabian, trying to look as ready to kill as they are.*

[rathercareless.livejournal.com]

*Fabian keeps quiet, eyes on the woods, satisfied with letting Alice take point right now. She's the one in a position to bargain, and he's never been one to much care who's calling what shots. Right now he just wants the three of them to get out of this in one piece, and if they can get Greyback to talk in the process, well, bully for them.*