Where do we begin with this unhappy ending?

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

*Never mind that Remus has never been to Xeno Lovegood's home before. There's absolutely no mistaking it, no question whatsoever of it being the right place. He stands on the garden path looking at the odd structure, the orange wellies, the sign about plums - no question at all. Remus remembers Xeno, vaguely, from school; he was quite a few years older, but odd enough to make an impression, and his letters are sometimes just eccentric enough to verify he's still certainly a unique person. The house, in light of all that, seems perfectly fitting.

A little amused, not unkindly, Remus crosses the rest of the garden and knocks on the door, looking down at the delicate pink plum blossoms vining nearby. He's a bit late (he's usually a bit late), but not too much. Hopefully Xeno won't mind; somehow Remus thinks he won't.*

Comments

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

Entirely. And then the government makes us all out to be lazy thieves.

*The truth is that his friends are the only reason he isn't homeless and starving, and they all know it, but he can't bring himself to say so.*

And there are other things - Umbridge modified the Trace so that it's on all of us, whether we're of age or not. Which means everywhere I go, if I use magic, they know it. There's a log kept on all of us. When I lit this?

*He gestures with his cigarette, leaning back in his chair.*

That pinned me to here. Probably stupid, come to think of it, they could figure out who gave you all this information if they wanted, from that. Oh, and sterilization. Umbridge wasn't responsible for that, they've done it for years, but women and girls are sterilized their first Registry appointment. The Ministry likes to keep that one quiet. Bit too much like certain Muggle groups forty years ago, I wager, for it to look good.

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

*Xeno's more than a little daffy, but he wasn't in Ravenclaw for nothing. The quill keeps scratching out what Remus says, but he's only half-listening, the wheels in his head visibly turning. A month ago it might've been simple paranoia, but now he knows better: he's seen the consequences for werewolves who make a fuss, and he has no intention of that happening to Remus. And just like that, like the password to Ravenclaw tower, a solution presents itself.*

You needn't worry. I'll be throwing a loud party the instant you two leave. Plenty of witnesses.

Unless you'd rather stay.

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

*A little surprised, Remus glances up and smiles. It's faint but it's real; all of this is a level of kindness he's not used to from anyone outside his immediate circle.*

...Thank you. Even with Umbridge gone....

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's nothing. Just good business.

And about her--there's something maybe you should see.

*The words come out as if of their own accord, fighting their way past the sick lump that's suddenly bloomed in his stomach. He rises, then, lifting his wand to undo the wards on the third kitchen drawer--he'd put on every one he could think of, after stowing inside what Mrs. Tonks sent him. It wouldn't do to leave that sort of thing lying around.*

Something another source sent me. It's bad, though. Bad.

*He reaches for the copied files and for the sleeve of photographs but he doesn't withdraw them, not yet--he's looking grimly at the two of them, clearly waiting for permission.*

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

*Neither is the type to back away from something; Remus and Mona exchange a glance, and then he nods once, wondering how bad 'bad' is.*

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

*He passes the sleeve of photographs over first: they're Muggle, unmoving, clearly taken by an amateur with a steady hand. They show the labeled ward door, the rows of empty beds, and then, of course, the old man and the child, strapped in. Xeno's voice is too even, to dry to even properly belong to him.*

These were taken a week or so before the full moon. Source at St. Mungo's sent them in.

*And then, of course, the medical charts, with names and dates and details and faithful documentation. As he slides it across to them, he can't help but remember how it felt to sort through his pile of weeks-old correspondence, to take a sip of tea, put down Mrs. Gamp's submitted recipe for pumpkin-gurdyroot pasties, and pick up--this. Xeno swallows hard.*

There was apparently a third person with them, but she disappeared. And then so did they. No records. Nothing.

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

*Both of them look over the documents, Remus's eyes lingering longer on the photograph. He remembers those masks vividly - he still has nightmares about it sometimes, though not even Sirius knows that - but the bit in his mouth, the restraints, the unparallelled terror of that first-ever transformation, it all comes flooding back at that picture. It's why he has such a soft spot for children: he knows what it is to be small and helpless and afraid. Unwilling to get dragged back into those memories, he makes himself look away to the charts and swallows hard. It's not about him, and he tries to distance himself from the situation as best he can, to focus on the implications of people being strapped up so unnecessarily.

A page into the little girl's, when Xeno mentions their disappearances, he raises his eyes to the quill taking dictation.*

Can we go off the record for a moment?

[monalupin.livejournal.com]

*Mona keeps quiet, but she's no less affected than Remus; the set of her jaw's gone hard, and she reaches for one of his cigarettes without a word, lighting it with a sharp, precise jab of her wand. She doesn't make a habit of smoking, but this is exactly the problem - people being trussed up like rabid dogs just because they're ill, people just vanishing - and children - *

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

*With a swift, almost lazy flick of his wand, Xeno stills the quill. His normally ruddy face has paled visibly.*

Of course.

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

They're dead. I know it seems obvious but I can confirm it, I've seen evidence of this before. There have been other instances of her making certain...problematic...werewolves just disappear, but I've seen the Ministry paperwork. Executed. All of them.

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'm surprised.

*Xeno isn't sure he can be surprised anymore. That muscle seems to have been sprained.*

And of course when she disappeared much of the evidence seems to have gone with her. I suspect this is the only bit of incriminating material on her time at the DRCMC, or nearly.

[looneyloopy.livejournal.com]

Probably. There were memos, but the aurors forced to work with her probably destroyed those. She made tempers run a bit high all around. Understandably.

[mindtheplums.livejournal.com]

I can imagine.

*Xeno reaches over and tugs loose the long roll of parchment that's transcribed the interview, duplicating it with a flick of his wand and sliding that, too, across to Remus.*

I'd like you to take a look at this and owl it back to me with anything you'd like to edit or redact, if that's all right.