20 December 2011 @ 2:30pm
Daily Prophet Headquarters
Directly following Dragon in his Den

Figaro appeared in the street in front of the Daily Prophet back in London. He trotted up to the large glass doors and crept up to the receptionist.

"Hey, Queen G get back yet?"

The receptionist, looking blasé, pointed through the doors and into the bullpen. Figaro let out a long breath slowly and stood up from the desk. It didn't matter if he beat Queen G back to the Daily Prophet because he was showing up without her precious Dante. He scratched the back of his head and braced himself for what he feared would be a shitshow.

The receptionist just shook her head. She didn't know exactly what was going down, but considering it had to do with Queen G and Figaro Sellaphix? Yeah, that was going to be fun.

Fig hustled through the bullpen and up the staircase. He could already here raised voices. He plastered on what he hoped was a calm and casual affect, head to toe. Everything was perfectly fine, right? No reason to fuss. Dante was with his grandparents and very happy and safe and having a lovely reunion. All fine!

He could see Gen and Cuffe in the office, but he couldn't see past Gen's back to Cuffe's expression. He opened the door and peeked in with that same super-chill expression.

"Hey..."

Barnabas Cuffe stepped into view and he looked like he was in that pre-explosion deadly calm. His heavily lined face hung slack, his bushy black eyebrows were in a straight line over piercing grey eyes.

"Where is he," he demanded flatly.

Fig stayed halfway in the door. He held up a hand to stay any violence or catch any paperweights. "Funny story, actually."

“You sent my son away with Figaro Sellahpix!?” Gen breathed. It wasn’t a shout. She felt too emotionally worn out already to shout. She felt too tired to shout. But she felt the building fury. “I trusted you to look after him, not some lost forgetful bear with un-brushed hair and no verbal censor!”

But the door behind them opened and Cuffe side stepped to see the visitor. Gen spun around. She didn’t look as polished as she had this morning. She’d clearly been running her hands through her hair in anxiety. Her face was paler, her eyes tired and a little swollen. She still looked like Queen G. But a tired Queen G.

It was Figaro Sellaphix.

Figaro Sellaphix alone.

No Dante.

Gen felt her stomach plummet, smashing through the ground beneath them. She felt sick. He’d lost her son. Leo was out of Azkaban and Figaro fucking Sellaphix had lost her son.

Funny story… he needed a slap. A hard slap to wake him up.

“You have 5 seconds.” Her voice was restrained, it sounded like a stranger’s. Gen wasn’t restrained. She didn’t even know how to do restrained. But then, she’d never seen her possibly murderous husband walk free before. She’d never had her son lost by an incompetent teenager before either.

Figaro slipped fully into the office, but just barely. His calm smile faltered a moment; he's seen his own mother look like Queen G right now and he knew she was capable of anything right now, anything to defend her kid. Queen G's demand for a prompt explanation was not to be taken lightly. He'd honestly rather be getting shouted at by Cuffe at the moment.

"I left him in Godric's hollow with his da- with Mr. Gamp and his grandparents. He's completely alive and not kidnapped or run-away. Well, pretty sure. I mean, that was five minutes ago, but I think they were all going to have tea, and Mr. Gamp seemed fine and Dante seemed fine. None too happy to see me."

He was going over his five seconds, but he barrelled on. "We'd gone to the pub for food and this ogre of a bloke barges in ranting about the verdict. Congratulations, by the way? Or my condolences. Honestly, no idea where you two stand so don't hold that against me. Whatever you're feeling good for you, anyway, Dante got away from me and Floo'd to Godric's Hollow. Historical setting, really. Lovely village. Then I find him and then Mr. Gamp and grandparents show up and I ... I thought you'd like to know."

Figaro crossed his harms, then uncrossed them to clasp them in front, then scratched the back of his neck. He glanced at Cuffe who was looking down and gently massaging his temple in little circles. It was slightly comforting to see that Queen G was as pissed at Cuffe as she was at him. Fig found himself with a little smirk as he remembered the first and last time he and Queen G had met ...

"I left him in Godric's hollow with his da- with Mr. Gamp and his grandparents."

Genevieve Gacía-Gamp was not a usually pale person. Her skin usually had a lovely golden glow, a gift from her heritage. When Figaro said these words, however, Gen’s face turned almost as white as a sheet. She didn’t need the clarification of which ‘Mr Gamp’ her son was with. Figaro Fucking Sellaphix had dropped her son off with the father he’d never met, and skipped back here to tell her the whole funny fucking story.

According to the moron stood in the doorway, Dante was about to sit and have tea with his father who had only just been released from prison and was staying with his parents. The parents that, she knew, Leo couldn’t actually stand. She’d never liked them either. The only reason she’d ever let them see Dante was for their promise to keep him a secret from Leo. They’d destroyed that promise the moment they’d taken Enid Jingleberry into their employ.

Gen stared at the teenager, her mind spinning faster than she could really cope with. Leo wouldn’t hurt Dante. He wanted to meet him. He was mad at Gen for hiding him. He wouldn’t hurt him. Not his flesh and blood.

Years ago, she’d never thought he’d hurt anyone but the bad guys.
Today, she wasn’t so sure.

“My son is now with Leo Gamp and you just left him there to @(*#&@ing drink #&@*$ing tea?!” She wasn’t shouting. It was an angry hiss. Probably worse. It better have been worse. Gen turned to Cuffe, her eyes darker and more dangerous than usual. “Send him to Witch Weekly tomorrow.”

She wasn’t going to stay here and yell at Figaro. Her son was alone with Leo and his parents, there was no telling what was going to happen. Heels carried the witch past the boy in the doorway, her eyes not once leaving him as she closed the distance. But she didn’t touch him or say a word to him.

Queen G was out of the Daily Prophet Headquarters within moments and out onto Diagon Alley.

*crack*

Of all the people he didn't want to disappoint, he was kind of surprised to find Genevieve Garcia-Gamp made the list. Before when she'd got her coffee shop order wrong, it had been a laugh. But this was big. He'd let his guard down and Dante was slippery and all that Queen G must be going through, he'd added this to her plate. He took his tongue-lashing with appropriate contrition without attempting to explain the extenuating circumstances of her very clever and fast child. Or that really this was Cuffe's fault for foisting him off and putting him in the middle.

Even as the excuses rattled through his mind, Queen G stormed out with orders he report to her lair tomorrow. Great. He looked up at Cuffe, hoping for the impossible that he'd show a little culpability.

"Don't look at me to help you, idiot," Cuffe said cooly. "You've done an utterly fabulous job of completely fouling this up. Superlative. Top marks."

Figaro didn't say anything. He'd learned by now not to take anything Cuffe said personally, and that it took more than people thought to actually get fired here.

"And you're even more dull-witted than I could imagine if you think I'm getting you out of tomorrow. Thanks to you, I have my own problems now," Cuffe added beginning to go about his business.

Figaro shrugged. "Wasn't going to ask."

Cuffe snapped up his gaze. How dare the nitwit speak to him?

"Leave. Now."

fin