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rosie_rues) wrote2005-10-29 06:08 pm
rosie_rues) wrote2005-10-29 06:08 pm
Entry tags:
A Choice of Conspiracy (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
scarvesnhats Day 24)
Title: A Choice of Conspiracy
Rating: PG (for language)
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I'm just borrowing them.
Wordcount: 1593
Prompt: This one. Sort of.
Notes: Sixth year. In which Sirius learns some interesting information. A very plotty one, for a change.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
He woke up and Remus wasn’t there.
He croaked his name, panicking. They’d taken him away.
“He’s gone to the loo,” a cheerful voice said. “Wotcher, Sirius.”
Sirius shuffled his head round on his pillow until he could see his visitor. “Ullo, Ted.”
Ted Tonks grinned at him from the chair beside the bed. In usual Ted-style he seemed about to slide onto the floor, though the chair wasn’t that small. His feet were crossed on the end of Sirius’ bed, his fingers were drumming on the bedside table and his brown hair was falling out of its dragonclaw clasp.
“You look like a wet weekend in Bognor, mate.”
“Feel worse,” Sirius muttered. “Remus.”
“Give the poor bloke a chance. You don’t want his bladder to explode. He’d be no good to anyone then.”
Sirius grinned and let his shoulders sag down. He felt feeble. “What you doing here?”
Ted shrugged and the chair creaked dangerously. “They reckoned they ought to get some family in case you popped your clogs. Andie’s out flat and I was coming this way so consider me your official visitation.”
“I’m not that ill,” Sirius croacked. “Meda?”
“Nowhere near as bad as you or Narcissa,” Ted said firmly. “Friendly sort, my sister-in-law. I stuck my head in to see how her convalescence was going and got nothing more than the patented you-are-the-worm-beneath-my-heel stare.”
“Ancient family secret, that. Taught in our cradles. What you done with Nym?”
Ted grinned and tilted the chair. “Dumped her on my sister. Kathy can put up with her for a few days, Muggle or not. How are you, seriously?”
Sirius let the pun go. He didn’t think he could move but the room wasn’t floating around anymore. Everything was fuzzy but he could think again.
“Grey,” he said.
Ted nodded. “Fair enough. Have to warn you, though – there’s a fair chance your temperature will go up again. Bastard of an illness, this.”
“Ug,” Sirius said. He wanted Remus.
He didn’t realise he’d said it out loud until Ted grinned and said, “Is he your boyfriend then?”
“No!” Sirius croaked.
“Doesn’t bother me, kid. Andie and I have a bet and I’d like to know if I need to pay up.”
“He’s not.”
“Hah,” Ted said, letting the chair crash down. “That’ll teach my grasping wife to keep her paws off my hard-earned cash.”
Sirius closed his eyes. It was such a tempting idea. “Ted?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t rush to spend the money.”
“Oh.” Ted hesitated and then said, “Look. I know the Potters are good people and everything but you know Andie and I are here, if you need to talk to someone a bit, well, younger.”
“Thanks, Ted,” Sirius said and squeezed his eyes tighter shut. “Where the hell is Remus?”
“Ah,” Ted said and his voice had changed. “I’m afraid I told him to get lost for a bit after he’d had his piss. I need to talk to you, if you’re well enough. Officially.”
Sirius cracked his eyes open, interested. Ted had swung his feet down and was leaning forward, intent. This wasn’t just Meda’s husband but Ted the Auror who, though he wouldn’t even have admitted it to Remus, Sirius wanted to be when he grew up.
“I’m well enough,” he said and tried to sit up.
When he’d finished coughing, Ted gave him a glass of water and said, “Listen and don’t move, alright. I know Andie told you a little about what’s going on out there. What I’m going to tell you now is less widely known so don’t spread it about the school, please.”
“I wouldn’t,” Sirius protested and then shut up when Ted glared.
“Influenza is a Muggle illness. It doesn’t usually affect wizards and when it does it’s easily cured. This varient can’t be treated with the standard potions. Healers are having to use Muggle remedies. That’s suspicious in itself. Then there’s the infection rates – it’s at almost a hundred percent amongst Muggleborns. Purebloods are resisting better but more of them are dying from it. You can imagine for yourself what tensions that’s creating between the two communities. Now, there’s enough of us Muggleborns in the Ministry that someone spotted what was wrong. A hundred per cent – it’s not just unlikely. It’s impossible.”
“Someone modified it?” Sirius asked and got a quelling look. “Sorry, shutting up.”
“That’s what we’re working on. There’s not many Aurors still standing so they’ve pulled all the convalescents onto this. I probably couldn’t take down a hungry hinkypunk right now but I can chase an epidemic. Problem is, we don’t know who started it. Can’t see Voldemort’s lot taking their own out but the nastiest Muggle-rights groups tend not to operate like this. They’re raze and burn types. This is too slippery.”
“Slytherin,” Sirius said.
“Too soon to judge, mate. Have to say, I think you’re right, but old Moody will have my ears if I don’t check every eventuality.”
“Moody’s on this?” He’d heard of Moody, of course. Who hadn’t?
Ted nodded, his face grim. “Do you know what else is happening, while everyone’s ill?”
“Death-eaters,” Sirius whispered. “The Pettigrews.”
“The brother’s in your year, right? There’ve been more attacks since then. No, you won’t have heard. We’ve been keeping it out of the papers. With the Ministry barely functioning and Dumbledore ill-”
“Dumbledore?” Sirius rasped. He was beginning to feel dizzy again and he didn’t think it was just the flu.
“Things are bad,” Ted said. “That’s why I’m here. I actually came to see Regulus but he wasn’t helpful.”
“He wouldn’t be,” Sirius said. “Not to you.”
“Moody thought the family connection would help.”
“He’d hate you even if you were a pureblood,” Sirius said honestly. “He’s still angry about Meda.”
“Bugger. I’ll have to pick your brains, then. This is what proved to us that this is no natural epidemic. There’s no common point of origin. It started simultaneously in six different places – two here in the UK and four elsewhere and spread rapidly. Where we’ve managed to pinpoint the original sufferer, we can tell they all went down on the same day. Within hours of each other.”
He took a sip of water and began to tick them off on his fingers. “Here, your brother Regulus. In London, me. In Cyprus, your Uncle Alphard-”
“Is he alright?” Sirius asked. He liked the sleazy, old git.
“He’s survived,” Ted said shortly. “He’s not well, though. He’s an old man. In Berlin, we believe it originated with Hieronymous Lufkin. He’s dead so he can’t help us. We can’t pin down the source in Bombay but we’re sure the Beauxbatons outbreak started with Aline Peverell.”
Sirius whistled through his teeth. “Aline’s from the disgraced branch of the family, right. Never met her – they’re not welcome at parties. Married out. Lufkin – fuck, he wrote half the Muggle protection laws. Gets ritually cursed with a toast every Christmas. Alphie – blackest of the Black black sheep. You – well, don’t need to say anything there. Bombay – did the Patils go back? Old family but there was the scandal last Christmas.”
“What scandal?” Ted asked, scrawling notes.
“Amrit Patil and Lucius Malfoy. The Malfoys always invite the various ambassadors to their Christmas ball. Seems Amrit didn’t care for the direction of the conversation after a few cups of punch. Malfoy the younger made some remark about weak-willed colonials, Patil pointed out that the Indian government had enough problems without imperialist wankers trying to exterminate Muggleborns on their soil and it ended up with fisticuffs. Last I heard the Malfoys were putting pressure on the Minister to request a new ambassador. That was early August.”
“That’s why I needed to talk to you, mate. Andie’s been out of the loop too long.”
“Don’t send me back!” Sirius blurted out and then took a breath. “I’d be a terrible spy.”
“Be a waste of your talents,” Ted said and Sirius relaxed.
“Reggie doesn’t fit,” he said.
“Ah,” Ted said and fiddled with his quill. “We’re working on the hypothesis that one was aimed at you.”
“Me?” Sirius echoed and it came out quavery. “Me?” he said again, trying to sound brave and indignant.
“I’m afraid so. Which is why I need to ask you – is there anything you can remember? Anything at all that might have been the trigger, which might have rebounded on Regulus.”
He couldn’t think. His brain was too fuzzy. He would have noticed if someone cursed him. He was sure of it. Except it wouldn’t have been him. It would have hit Reggie.
“Haven’t seen any of them for months,” he said. “Not since the wedding.”
“Wedding?”
“Bella. I, er, left before the end.”
“I know nothing about motorbikes and do not wish to,” Ted said, staring at the ceiling.
“Yeah,” Sirius said, looking away. He had only broken a handful of laws in running away. Couldn’t blame him for that, right?
“Were any of the others on my list there?”
“Um. Yeah. Patil. Alphie. Lufkin. Not sure about the Peverills. You weren’t.”
“Andie was. Polyjuiced as a waitress. Thanks, mate. I’ll look at that. Anything else you can think of?”
Sirius frowned. There was something – something he could almost think of. Why wouldn’t his brain move? Defeated, he shook his head.
“Don’t worry. I’ll let you sleep.” Ted winked. “Loverboy’s on his way back.”
“Ted! He’s not!”
“Better get a move on, mate, or our Nym will beat you to him. Can’t get his jumper away from her.”
Sirius summoned a sneer. “Do I look worried? Later, Ted.”
“Ta-ra, Sirius. Hang on to the end of the month, won't you? I'm broke.”
Rating: PG (for language)
Disclaimer: They're not mine. I'm just borrowing them.
Wordcount: 1593
Prompt: This one. Sort of.
Notes: Sixth year. In which Sirius learns some interesting information. A very plotty one, for a change.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
He woke up and Remus wasn’t there.
He croaked his name, panicking. They’d taken him away.
“He’s gone to the loo,” a cheerful voice said. “Wotcher, Sirius.”
Sirius shuffled his head round on his pillow until he could see his visitor. “Ullo, Ted.”
Ted Tonks grinned at him from the chair beside the bed. In usual Ted-style he seemed about to slide onto the floor, though the chair wasn’t that small. His feet were crossed on the end of Sirius’ bed, his fingers were drumming on the bedside table and his brown hair was falling out of its dragonclaw clasp.
“You look like a wet weekend in Bognor, mate.”
“Feel worse,” Sirius muttered. “Remus.”
“Give the poor bloke a chance. You don’t want his bladder to explode. He’d be no good to anyone then.”
Sirius grinned and let his shoulders sag down. He felt feeble. “What you doing here?”
Ted shrugged and the chair creaked dangerously. “They reckoned they ought to get some family in case you popped your clogs. Andie’s out flat and I was coming this way so consider me your official visitation.”
“I’m not that ill,” Sirius croacked. “Meda?”
“Nowhere near as bad as you or Narcissa,” Ted said firmly. “Friendly sort, my sister-in-law. I stuck my head in to see how her convalescence was going and got nothing more than the patented you-are-the-worm-beneath-my-heel stare.”
“Ancient family secret, that. Taught in our cradles. What you done with Nym?”
Ted grinned and tilted the chair. “Dumped her on my sister. Kathy can put up with her for a few days, Muggle or not. How are you, seriously?”
Sirius let the pun go. He didn’t think he could move but the room wasn’t floating around anymore. Everything was fuzzy but he could think again.
“Grey,” he said.
Ted nodded. “Fair enough. Have to warn you, though – there’s a fair chance your temperature will go up again. Bastard of an illness, this.”
“Ug,” Sirius said. He wanted Remus.
He didn’t realise he’d said it out loud until Ted grinned and said, “Is he your boyfriend then?”
“No!” Sirius croaked.
“Doesn’t bother me, kid. Andie and I have a bet and I’d like to know if I need to pay up.”
“He’s not.”
“Hah,” Ted said, letting the chair crash down. “That’ll teach my grasping wife to keep her paws off my hard-earned cash.”
Sirius closed his eyes. It was such a tempting idea. “Ted?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t rush to spend the money.”
“Oh.” Ted hesitated and then said, “Look. I know the Potters are good people and everything but you know Andie and I are here, if you need to talk to someone a bit, well, younger.”
“Thanks, Ted,” Sirius said and squeezed his eyes tighter shut. “Where the hell is Remus?”
“Ah,” Ted said and his voice had changed. “I’m afraid I told him to get lost for a bit after he’d had his piss. I need to talk to you, if you’re well enough. Officially.”
Sirius cracked his eyes open, interested. Ted had swung his feet down and was leaning forward, intent. This wasn’t just Meda’s husband but Ted the Auror who, though he wouldn’t even have admitted it to Remus, Sirius wanted to be when he grew up.
“I’m well enough,” he said and tried to sit up.
When he’d finished coughing, Ted gave him a glass of water and said, “Listen and don’t move, alright. I know Andie told you a little about what’s going on out there. What I’m going to tell you now is less widely known so don’t spread it about the school, please.”
“I wouldn’t,” Sirius protested and then shut up when Ted glared.
“Influenza is a Muggle illness. It doesn’t usually affect wizards and when it does it’s easily cured. This varient can’t be treated with the standard potions. Healers are having to use Muggle remedies. That’s suspicious in itself. Then there’s the infection rates – it’s at almost a hundred percent amongst Muggleborns. Purebloods are resisting better but more of them are dying from it. You can imagine for yourself what tensions that’s creating between the two communities. Now, there’s enough of us Muggleborns in the Ministry that someone spotted what was wrong. A hundred per cent – it’s not just unlikely. It’s impossible.”
“Someone modified it?” Sirius asked and got a quelling look. “Sorry, shutting up.”
“That’s what we’re working on. There’s not many Aurors still standing so they’ve pulled all the convalescents onto this. I probably couldn’t take down a hungry hinkypunk right now but I can chase an epidemic. Problem is, we don’t know who started it. Can’t see Voldemort’s lot taking their own out but the nastiest Muggle-rights groups tend not to operate like this. They’re raze and burn types. This is too slippery.”
“Slytherin,” Sirius said.
“Too soon to judge, mate. Have to say, I think you’re right, but old Moody will have my ears if I don’t check every eventuality.”
“Moody’s on this?” He’d heard of Moody, of course. Who hadn’t?
Ted nodded, his face grim. “Do you know what else is happening, while everyone’s ill?”
“Death-eaters,” Sirius whispered. “The Pettigrews.”
“The brother’s in your year, right? There’ve been more attacks since then. No, you won’t have heard. We’ve been keeping it out of the papers. With the Ministry barely functioning and Dumbledore ill-”
“Dumbledore?” Sirius rasped. He was beginning to feel dizzy again and he didn’t think it was just the flu.
“Things are bad,” Ted said. “That’s why I’m here. I actually came to see Regulus but he wasn’t helpful.”
“He wouldn’t be,” Sirius said. “Not to you.”
“Moody thought the family connection would help.”
“He’d hate you even if you were a pureblood,” Sirius said honestly. “He’s still angry about Meda.”
“Bugger. I’ll have to pick your brains, then. This is what proved to us that this is no natural epidemic. There’s no common point of origin. It started simultaneously in six different places – two here in the UK and four elsewhere and spread rapidly. Where we’ve managed to pinpoint the original sufferer, we can tell they all went down on the same day. Within hours of each other.”
He took a sip of water and began to tick them off on his fingers. “Here, your brother Regulus. In London, me. In Cyprus, your Uncle Alphard-”
“Is he alright?” Sirius asked. He liked the sleazy, old git.
“He’s survived,” Ted said shortly. “He’s not well, though. He’s an old man. In Berlin, we believe it originated with Hieronymous Lufkin. He’s dead so he can’t help us. We can’t pin down the source in Bombay but we’re sure the Beauxbatons outbreak started with Aline Peverell.”
Sirius whistled through his teeth. “Aline’s from the disgraced branch of the family, right. Never met her – they’re not welcome at parties. Married out. Lufkin – fuck, he wrote half the Muggle protection laws. Gets ritually cursed with a toast every Christmas. Alphie – blackest of the Black black sheep. You – well, don’t need to say anything there. Bombay – did the Patils go back? Old family but there was the scandal last Christmas.”
“What scandal?” Ted asked, scrawling notes.
“Amrit Patil and Lucius Malfoy. The Malfoys always invite the various ambassadors to their Christmas ball. Seems Amrit didn’t care for the direction of the conversation after a few cups of punch. Malfoy the younger made some remark about weak-willed colonials, Patil pointed out that the Indian government had enough problems without imperialist wankers trying to exterminate Muggleborns on their soil and it ended up with fisticuffs. Last I heard the Malfoys were putting pressure on the Minister to request a new ambassador. That was early August.”
“That’s why I needed to talk to you, mate. Andie’s been out of the loop too long.”
“Don’t send me back!” Sirius blurted out and then took a breath. “I’d be a terrible spy.”
“Be a waste of your talents,” Ted said and Sirius relaxed.
“Reggie doesn’t fit,” he said.
“Ah,” Ted said and fiddled with his quill. “We’re working on the hypothesis that one was aimed at you.”
“Me?” Sirius echoed and it came out quavery. “Me?” he said again, trying to sound brave and indignant.
“I’m afraid so. Which is why I need to ask you – is there anything you can remember? Anything at all that might have been the trigger, which might have rebounded on Regulus.”
He couldn’t think. His brain was too fuzzy. He would have noticed if someone cursed him. He was sure of it. Except it wouldn’t have been him. It would have hit Reggie.
“Haven’t seen any of them for months,” he said. “Not since the wedding.”
“Wedding?”
“Bella. I, er, left before the end.”
“I know nothing about motorbikes and do not wish to,” Ted said, staring at the ceiling.
“Yeah,” Sirius said, looking away. He had only broken a handful of laws in running away. Couldn’t blame him for that, right?
“Were any of the others on my list there?”
“Um. Yeah. Patil. Alphie. Lufkin. Not sure about the Peverills. You weren’t.”
“Andie was. Polyjuiced as a waitress. Thanks, mate. I’ll look at that. Anything else you can think of?”
Sirius frowned. There was something – something he could almost think of. Why wouldn’t his brain move? Defeated, he shook his head.
“Don’t worry. I’ll let you sleep.” Ted winked. “Loverboy’s on his way back.”
“Ted! He’s not!”
“Better get a move on, mate, or our Nym will beat you to him. Can’t get his jumper away from her.”
Sirius summoned a sneer. “Do I look worried? Later, Ted.”
“Ta-ra, Sirius. Hang on to the end of the month, won't you? I'm broke.”
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“Yeah.”
“Don’t rush to spend the money.”
Eeee! It's a good thing my boss isn't in yet so I could squeal over that bit properly. XD
I really like Ted, and the fact that Sirius looks up to him so much is so cute.
“Better get a move on, mate, or our Nym will beat you to him. Can’t get his jumper away from her.”
*does the foreshadowing dance*
I really liked this part (I know I say that for all of them but I just love them all XD). Really nice!
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Thanks. I'm glad you liked it :)
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Thanks :)
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Remus might be in for a bit of a shock when Sirius gets out.
Thanks for commenting :)
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*smiles mysteriously*
Thanks for the comments :)
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(I kept reading 'Amrit Patil' as 'Armpit Patil', though, heheh.)
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Loverboy... *giggles* (And Nym still has Remus' jumper!)
And Sirius curse that never got to him... The mysterious letter?
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Remus is never going to get that jumper back.
Thanks for commenting :)
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I love this series so rediculously much.
I'd quote quotes, but it looks like everyone else has got there before me.
And I so want this to be AU so that Regulus can become a good guy - or realize that he can't be a bad guy - sooner and everyone can be moderately happy.
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I'm glad you're enjoying it. It's been really fun to write.
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“Better get a move on, mate, or our Nym will beat you to him. Can’t get his jumper away from her.”
*chuckles*
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I think I'm going to have to let Nym make another appearance before the end of the month.
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Yeeees, you definitely have! Little Nym is such a lovely thing, and since book 6, she's the only kind of Nym I can tolerate in an R/S story anyway. *gg*
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I loved the Ted/Sirius interactions. Very sweet, and quite interesting to see Sirius' role-model.
Great line about Tonks at the end. *giggles*
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I like Tonks. Heck, if Remus had to fall for another Black she's the best option.