Absit Omen RPG
Role-Play Boards => More London Locations => London => Burgoyne Burbidges Lofts => Topic started by: Raine Almasy on August 14, 2023, 03:39:43 PM
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About 1400 hours
Raine Almasy had given some thought as to whether to approach her old schoolmate in uniform, or more casually. On one hand even the trainee uniform demanded a certain kind of seriousness. On the other hand... this was Waverly, of Slytherin fame, and since when did Slytherins defer to the law?
Much less one with an auror mum.
So she'd thrown on what passed for normal (https://urstyle.fashion/styles/3530037) in her eyes and made her way to the Lofts, hoping the other witch would be home on a Sunday afternoon.
Per orders, Raine was going around doing a bit of footwork for Auror Gamp, who'd been assigned the Muse case. She had volunteered because she and Ari were already, informally, investigating. It didn't make sense to do it under the radar if she might as well manage with Ministry resources. New contraband was unusual for aurors to investigate anyway - they were dark wizard catchers. This was an exception due to all the bad publicity with Rosier.
Knock - knock - !
The redhead waited at the flat door, feeling a touch unguarded without her uniform. What was Waverly up to these days? From asking around, she knew that Wav dabbled in dealing before, though nothing on record. Outside of that Raine hadn't reconnected. On occasion she'd grab a coffee with Virgil and some other old Slythies, like Xav, but that was it.
The door opened, rousing her from thought. "Hello," she greeted in the dry, formal tone that even a year on Two couldn't kill. "Do you have a minute to talk?"
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Waverly had seen Raine through the peephole, so she had a moment to process the unexpected visitor before she opened the door. It was Sunday, cozily into the autumn afternoon and Wav had music on the turntable (Queen, quietly) and a window open in her room. Gabby wasn't around. Wav was dressed down, though she'd been out to the shops in the morning so wasn't still pyjama'd.
"Merlin's bones, it's Raine Almasy," Waverly said leaning against her door frame. She had a smile for her. Waverly had always liked Raine well enough; had a warrior chick thing going on, heavy backstory and everything. After a pause, Waverly stepped aside and invited Raine in.
The apartment wasn't very big, but the exterior wall was dominated by one large arched window, from back when the place was a factory. A living area and kitchenette had been portioned off and Wav and Gabby had hung some plants and had nice rugs on the patched hardwood floor. Gabby's bedroom was off to the left, Waverly's off to the right.
"It's been ages," Waverly noted without a trace of guilt. They'd all moved on to new things, the gravity of Hogwarts no longer pulling them together. Wav sat on the window sill. Freddie Mercury was talking about breaking free.
"You're like a real Auror now."
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Waverly hadn't changed very much and that came as something of a relief. Nobody was surprised about her training to be an auror but not everyone fancied a visit from someone allied with the law, former classmate or not.
"Hardly real," she replied as she entered, giving the place a cursory look. "Just a trainee, apparently we can't wave our badges around as soon as the others."
Raine knew that Nick was already an Obliviator in name, that both Alex and Virgil had qualified as Unspeakables. It took longer with Aurors - not that she could complain. The trainees were far from being able to lead or manage workloads the likes she had seen on Andromeda's desk.
"How have you been, Waverly?" she leaned against counter that separated kitchenette from living room, hands in coat pockets. Then, before the other witch could answer: "I'm here for a case, by the way..."
The redhead smiled, shrugging. "Not on record, of course."
Better to get to the point. Raine didn't think Wav would appreciate prevarication.
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"Of course," Waverly said with mock seriousness. Her mockery wasn't for Raine but for jobs and government and all that.
"But yeah, been keeping it steady." Waverly used her wand to summon a leather wallet from her room. She didn't bring up that in the last month she'd found out her birth mother was alive and ill in Devon or that she was the one behind that new voice on the wireless or that she was itching about the news of werewolf legalization. She wasn't that close to Raine. Not for any good reason, they'd just not been around each other much since school.
"I'm on this cleanse thing," she said, even as she began sorting out some gillyweed. "No kelp, no alcohol, no vampire bites. Being a perfect ... lady."
She'd rolled the joint very fat and tight, indeed. She held it up with a coy little shrug. Raine was on the job, but off the record - maybe she'd be chill. What 'case' Raine could possibly need Waverly for, Waverly really hoped that what she'd stopped doing months ago hadn't caught up to her. She'd had her close calls; she was done with all of that.
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She laughed, instinctively glancing around as Waverly began putting a joint together. As if Solomon bloody Carstairs was lurking in the corner just waiting to pounce.
Raine smoked the odd bit of gillyweed but in truth she didn't really have much opportunity, between work and a general inclination not to smoke alone. It was one of those things the Aurors didn't take seriously as a crime; at least the ones her age, who figured that it would be legalised eventually. Hard to regulate something you could grow in a good tank.
"I hate to be a good influence..." she eyed the joint and then smiled at the other girl, mirroring her shrug.
A perfect lady. Raine tried for a long time to be that - though the Almasy definition wasn't conventional. "Anyway, it's not a dark wizard case or anything. I'm trying to get my hands on some Muse."
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Raine was still Raine, cool and independent as ever. Wav gave her an approving look. Then she left the kitchenette for the cluster of cozy seating she and Gabby had set up around a green wooden-trunk coffee table. She sat on a lush rug and stretched out her long bare legs and took a puff from the gillyweed.
Muse. Waverly tried valiantly not to react to the word.
"Never met her," she said. Nicholas Bevans had probably told. Blabbermouth. Him and Figaro Sellaphix were about as clever as a cheese grater.[1] It was silly to deny what Raine probably had on good authority, but it didn't mean Waverly wasn't a little sore at how apparently easily she was found out. Maybe she was the cheese grater.
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She slipped off her coat, draping it across the back of a sofa before joining the other witch on the floor. Raine primly tucked her own legs under her while sparing a brief glance at Wav's - she could never decide if she envied those legs or if she liked them in some other way.
The thought disappeared as quickly as it had come, replaced by an interest in Waverly's denial.
While she knew about gillyweed dealing through the grapevine, she hadn't been sure about Muse until just now. Anyone who dealt will have at least heard about the seemingly exciting new drug; especially someone who was well-connected and who appreciated the odd thrill. Besides, Wav and Virgil were close. Ari had heard about Muse through Carstairs.
"She's supposed to be rather exciting," Raine leaned against the coffee table, voice deepening into a drawl. "Everyone's new best friend. Don't suppose you know someone who has met her?"
Just like every exclusive new presence, Muse was damnably elusive. Bringing some to a party was street cred well-earned. "We're more concerned about the nature of the lady herself," she added carefully, "and not about the people who've met her."
They were going straight for the root; unlike gillyweed, which any green thumb could attempt, Muse had to be made by clever wixes indeed.
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Waverly was tickled when Raine was quick to play. Waverly just kissed the gillyweed again and then handed it to Raine. In the same motion, she slid over a little glass dish that she had Gabby used to keep from burning holes in things.
"I did mean it about the cleanse," she said, breaking the game. She had that sly self-protective smile still, but her voice was softer. "It's been, like, a big year. I had some really close calls, right? I'm not trying to get involved again. I'm doing, like, subtle now. Anonymous is my new thing."
It wasn't that Waverly didn't want to help Raine, it's that she knew that Raine had a boss. Who was her mom.
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She tapped the joint, shaking off a bit of ash in the glass dish before taking a toke. The initial head-rush had her clearing her throat and blinking - it quickly smoothed out into a more pleasant lifting sensation.
So pleasant that Wav's honesty didn't seem all that disappointing at first. Whether the other witch would be able to maintain this newfound purity remained to be seen but Raine had no reason to doubt her drive. It hadn't been necessity that drove Waverly to deal kelp anyway.
"I'm not asking for names to stick in a report," she shrugged as she passed the joint back after a second hit. "Just looking for a lead. I can make up a cock-and-bull story if I have to. Pretend we never did this."
Raine played it pretty straight and by the rule book as far as most were concerned; she did that because it was the best way to cut through her tainted surname. On a practical level, she saw no reason to give up sources or bother anyone who wasn't genuinely hurting people.
"If you know a place or even, say, a party it might turn up at..." the redhead smiled faintly. "I can be sneaky. But if that puts you at risk, I won't press."
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Waverly thought for a moment, letting her gaze wander, and knew that Raine would be patient. She'd thought it was babyish of Virgil to be so shocked about Muse, but his concern had planted a seed in Waverly that it wasn't something to be so eager to meddle with. It didn't, however, send her rushing off to the Ministry of Magic to help clean the streets of the deep-memory haze. She'd been let in and let out of the enterprise very easily; not so much with the vampires. It seemed like an unprovoked shot in the dark.
"Friend of a friend of mine," she said carefully, "has a second job at this posh hotel. The hotel is actually in Edinburgh, but there's a lobby here in London."
It was the Pendragon. Waverly had been only the one and thought it a little try-hard.
"Someone important must have gotten hung up or something," she guessed at why the Aurors had taken the case.
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She let herself enjoy the gillyweed settling in, like a gentle expansion and relaxation within her all at once. There was something nice about Wav's place - it had none of the rigour and coldness with which she grew up, and with which she unintentionally brought into her life as an adult.
When the other witch finally spoke, Raine looked away from the window to smile at her. Hotel. Yes, she knew which. That was a start.
"Thank you," she said softly, then continued in a more frank tone. "It was Kieran Rosier (https://absitomen.com/lexicon/Kieran_Rosier), in the papers[1] last month..."
Raine rolled her eyes. "Total imbecile, Wav. Took the stuff at that place in Slandermouth, the nice one. Ascendio. Started hexing thin air. There's a place and a time for everything but apparently he never got the bloody memo."
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Waverly had missed the news, but anyone with the surname Rosier was going to move quills and wands both. Raine had a surname like that, too.
"It's just embarrassing," Waverly said with a smirk. She let the gillyweed sit where it was for now. It had served its purpose well, acting as a smokey link between the two witches, a little burnt offering for their secrets. Then she drew up her legs and stood up. She only went to the fireplace, not far at all. It wasn't connected to the Floo Network, but she and Gabby lit it from time to time if the evening was cool enough. She had to half-way crouch to stick her arm up inside.
"Someone told me a ghost story," she said with a little grunt, straining to reach something she'd hidden. Her fingers found the smooth glass object and she could finally emerged.
"That the trip is too real to be an illusion. They've got to be real memories," she said as she came back. She placed a tiny empty glass phial into Raine's palm. Wav had soot on her now, ugh.
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A part of her was almost disappointed when Waverly placed the sooty bottle in her palm.
Raine had already been considering, at the back of her head, how to make herself seem like someone who was looking for an exciting new high. She conveyed a straight-laced no-nonsense impression that was hard to shake. A fun challenge.
This saved her a lot of trouble, though. She closed her hand round the gift and lifted her gaze to meet Wav's. "The final step of your cleanse, I take it."
People never failed to surprise her; especially the ones she went to school with. Raine tucked the singular spoil in an inner coat pocket, and pulled out a cream handkerchief: intriciately embroidered round the edges and with her cyrillic initials in one corner: P.A.
"In this case," she handed the handkerchief to her friend - it was enchanted to remove bloodstains, and would do soot in a heartbeat. "The ghost story is probably true. Would you want me to tell you, if that turns out to be the case?"
Not that they didn't trust Mysteries, but Two had to confirm these things for themselves.
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Waverly sat back down, on the couch this time. It was a little annoying that it felt good to help Raine, and by extension, her mother.
"Truth-telling is part of the cleanse," Waverly said, answering in the affirmative. "Unfortunately. Also," she perked forward a little.
"That phial's empty. More of a momento than weekend plans, but maybe you can still use it."
There it was again: that pesky interest in helping Raine and the Aurors clear the streets of the remarkable Muse. It could be a way to burn the bridge behind her, but either way she couldn't help but feel like she was betraying something.
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Any cleanse involving truth-telling was not destined a long life - maybe she was a cynic but Raine felt that it was quite impossible to function without lying. But she was more than happy to benefit from Waverly's current endeavours.
"Even an empty phial is useful," she shrugged with a little smile. "Phial makers to track down, residue. I'll take a lead where I can find it."
The plan to get her hands on some actual Muse was alive again, and she was much cheered by it. Maybe that was why the Aurors kept trainees so busy with boring things... so that when something actually interesting came along, it could be met with enthusiasm. Or maybe they were sadists. Also very likely.
"You know," she added thoughtfully, "it isn't really Muse that worries me. Maybe it worries Carstairs but I keep wondering about all those people whose memories are being taken."
Raine got up, leaning against the sofa arm. "Imagine if you clean forgot a clump of memories? Especially the nice ones."
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"You might not ever find out," Waverly said. She didn't want to believe Virgil was right about how the Muse visions were sourced, but Raine seemed convinced.
"If done properly, you leave something convincing in place of what's been taken," she said, unable to help herself, unaware of the irony that just such a thing had been done to her at her bidding. "You wouldn't know something's wrong unless you were staring directly at it."
There was something poetic about that. She tended to the gillyweed joint in the cup, dabbing it out, finished with it for the moment.
"Or else you'd hear about it. Like, no one's been saying St. Mungo's is overrun with amnesiacs." She stretched out on the couch, transitioning to a gently grinning liquid detective.
"So either they're not memories at all, well-stolen memories, memories freely donated, or ... memories of the dead."
That gave her a chill. Grave robbers cracking open skulls for anything good that hadn't rotted away yet.
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There was a bit of auror in Waverly after all - though she wasn't sure if the other witch would take the compliment.
Raine knew some Occlumency from her studies with Professor Storm but her knowledge of mind magic wasn't otherwise that deep; it came down to her trusting Nine. Except it was difficult to trust Nine... and Auror Gamp probably had reservations, considering her father had been party to the whole kidnapping business.
"That's a good point about St.Mungo's," she frowned slightly, because that was tugging at something at the back of her head. "I don't know if you can take dead people memories. What if they're muggle memories? That's a bigger pool of people."
Lots of possibilities, come to think of it.
"I'm sure we'll figure it out," Raine shrugged and gave up on the tug. "If they are memories, real memories, there's got to be a way to tell. We'll probably get a brain off Mysteries or St.Mungo's to have a look."
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Waverly didn't know if you could get memories out of dead people either. She had a mind to point Raine directly at Virgil Carstairs, but it would do her once-Gryffindor friend a disservice to suggest the obvious. It made sense, in fact, that Raine had already been round to the little prince on Level Nine.
Knowing that Raine could very well mean a literal brain, Waverly's scalp itched. She adjusted herself on the pillow.
"Muggle memories, though, oof," she said with a sympathetic grimace. Any trespass done across that impassible mago/mundane barrier was immediately an international-grade tire fire. It could get existential.
"Good luck with that."
Then she thought out loud, the gillyweed speaking first. "They say you can't read in a dream. Maybe that's how you tell. Maybe it's the same."
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It was all very interesting, which was more than Raine could say of the paperwork and errands she'd been doing as part of the usual gauntlet of trainee challenges. Raine appreciated Wav's sympathy - where drugs and mind magic were involved, the path was bound to be messy. Violent, too, she was willing to bet.
"Could be," she bit her bottom lip, thinking. "Real memories have to be special somehow, we need them to form patroni and whatnot."
There was a terrible thought. Not being able to cast a patronus because someone took the only memories capable of inspiring one...
Raine sighed and got up from the arm of the sofa, where she'd been perched. "I'd better be on my way," she nodded at Waverly. "If you think of anything else, owl me. Or drop by Hiraeth, I'm usually home in the evenings."
After a day of Two or footwork, she liked nothing better than to curl up at home and chat to Abby about whatever was going down the Ministry grapevine. Nevermind a social life during the weekday.
"Thanks for the smoke," Raine smiled dryly: "and the other things."
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Waverly smiled serenely.
"Yeah, babe, anything you need, cause ... I'm a snitch indeed." She gave a little snort. Gillyweed and adrenaline. The former was welcome, the latter was dangerous. She got herself up to lead the way to the door.
"We should hang out," she said, opened the door and leaned against it the edge of it. "When you're not busting drug rings."
Fin