"Good dreams can be hard to come by,"  Nicholas muttered as Ari asked Virgil how he knew the memory was taken.  He might not have reacted well to Virgil's legilimency and he was pretty sure he'd never apologized for how he reacted. Hearing him describe how the memories felt made him a little jealous. It would certainly make his job easier.  Not that it needed to be.

Nicholas did at least understand what he was saying about a mediocre Obliviator leaving rough edges.  He worked hard to ensure that he never left anything discernible at first glance.  Nicholas couldn't help but wonder what Virgil would feel in the mind of someone he'd obliviated.  Something for another time maybe.

"I'd never even heard of it until I bought it on Friday."  If someone was out there ripping enough memories of people for them to be selling muse that was a nightmare to say the least.  And something that surely he'd have heard about at the Ministry.  Unless the sellers were staying completely under the radar.

"Have you told someone on level two? Especially if people aren't selling the memories."

“… it feels too real…” Virgil explained. Ariadne studied him through narrowed eyes. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe him, more that she was learning to examine everything with equal suspicion when it came to possible stories in the Prophet. She could hardly go to a colleague with ‘my housemate thinks…’

“… I could feel the edges.” He tore the newspaper. “… that’s what the edge of my Muse memory felt like…”

She looked to Nick for his professional and unprofessional opinion, given she had no firsthand experience of any of it.

“I’d never even heard of it until I bought it on Friday.” He admitted, and Ariadne had no reason not to believe him. Nick was generally honest and forthcoming about most things. “Have you told someone on Level Two? Especially if people aren’t selling the memories.” He posed at Virgil.

Ariadne frowned thoughtfully and looked back.

“Where are you getting it from? Is it your usual friends or someone different?” She asked, having very little understanding of how it all worked. She maintained a blissful ignorance but was well aware her flatmates had friends. “If you speak to someone on two won’t you have to be very careful about how you go about it? Doesn’t the Ministry have … I don’t know… rules… expectations?”

He sat back, looking into his orange juice as Nicholas asked if level two had been told yet. Was he serious? Would he have told right away? If so, Virgil supposed that his flatmate had more of a moral backbone than he realised; Nick seemed rather flippant about most things but when it came down to it maybe he played it more straight than he let on.

            "If you speak to someone...the Ministry have … I don’t know… rules… expectations?” Ariadne treaded a more cautious line of enquiry.

"I'm not telling on the person who gave it to me," Virgil replied in a hard voice to her first question and looked up, now at Nicholas, "not to law enforcement or anyone else."

He drank, feeling a touch anxious. Hanging with Fauna last night had been fun and relaxing but now he was faced with the light of day, as well as certain difficult realities. Virgil was starting to wonder if he needed a better way to offset his tensions. Playing dress up and meditating under the influence of gillyweed wasn't cutting it anymore.

"There are rules. I can't just stroll in and say what happened, they'll press me for names. And if my friend's dealer finds out someone snitched?" he sighed, rubbing his neck absently. "Besides, I don't want to become a target for the kind of people who rip memories."

But... he had snitched. Just not to level two. He bit his bottom lip, gaze flicking from Nick to Ari hesitantly. They were his flatmates. Trustworthy.

"I told Yavin." Virgil admitted. "He'll probably keep an eye on it if something... I don't know, if something happens. That's the best I can do for now. I just wanted to tell you both that Muse might be more trouble than it's worth."

Virgil tried to explain his position under Ariadne’s investigative scrutiny.

“… I can’t just stroll in and say what happened, they’ll press me for names…”

Ariadne would never think to share it with her employers - she’d depersonalise it somehow. A friend, a source! Anything but saying it was her, not that she would dare partake in something like Muse. Ariadne liked keeping control of her senses.

“I told Yavin.” 
“What?!” Ariadne let slip her surprise.
“He’ll probably keep an eye on it if something… I don’t know, if something happens.”

Ariadne knew that Yavin Morgenthau was the Head Unspeakable and also someone Virgil knew from when he was young. It didn’t mean she trusted him or understood his ability to ‘keep an eye on’ a potential magical drug that used stolen memories.

“That’s the best I can do for now.” Virgil continued, “I just wanted to tell you both that Muse might be more trouble than it’s worth.”

“But you really think he’s going to do something? Like, I get not wanting to spill on your dealer, but we should like, try to find out if these memories are stolen or bought. If nothing else, to put your mind at rest .. and perhaps the people these memories are from.” She looked to Nick for sanity backup.

"I'm not turning in the person I bought it from."  Nicholas said rather defensively.  He had no problem with someone doing things that were essentially harmless.  Virgil was the one saying that someone had been harmed in the making of muse.  That was wholly a different matter from growing gillyweed or harvesting billywig stings.  Things that frankly had been done for centuries for potions.  But Waverly wasn't the one making the stuff.

Nicholas sighed as Virgil made excuses for not telling level two.  "There are ways to discretely get them involved.  Hell, we all have friends in the department."  And he'd gotten to know a few more with his extra training.  Not what he thought he'd be using those connections for, but he did agree with Virgil about not turning anyone's gaze in Waverly's direction.

"I told Yavin. He'll probably keep an eye on it if something... I don't know, if something happens. That's the best I can do for now. I just wanted to tell you both that Muse might be more trouble than it's worth."

"You want me to trust the unspeakables?"  Bottling up memories for others to smoke seemed right up their alley.  Nicholas took a deep breath, not making eye contact with Ari and doing his best not to let his mind go down that road.  "Other unspeakables."  He did trust Virgil.  Or well, he trusted Virgil to be Virgil. And Ariadne was not her grandfather.  "If you are sure that the memories are being taken, I'll talk to someone and make sure none of our names end up in a report.  If you aren't, I'll leave it alone." Either way, he wasn't partaking in the stuff anymore.

            "But you really think he’s going to do something?"
"You want me to trust the unspeakables?"

He lowered his glass, brushing a lock of hair behind his ear in irritation. Nick and Ari both clearly wanted to convey the threat of this danger to the authorities; neither of them appeared particularly keen on leaving it to the head of nine, and he couldn't blame them. Mysteries wasn't exactly trustworthy and ever since Yavin entered the Ministry, the department had been leaving its invisible fingerprints all over the place.

"Alright, fine..." he leaned back in the kitchen chair, crossing one leg over the other. "Let's say telling Yavin isn't enough. Hand in a report if you like, stating that a legilimens has detected an aberration in the way Muse is produced. I'm certain enough the memories are being taken."

Virgil glanced at all the food on the table and wished he had the appetite to consume everything he enjoyed cooking. "Just remember that the last time I went to two with a warning, they did fuck all to save Alec Carter," he added in a mutter before reaching for the apple pie with the miso glaze.

The young wizard cut himself a small slice. He was surprised by the anger accompanying his words, considering how much he was trying to process the last full moon as a tragedy of errors and no one person's fault (save for the perpetrator).

“If you are sure that the memories are being taken, I’ll talk to someone and make sure none of our names end up in a report.” Nick offered, which sounded more proactive and reassuring than telling Yavin alone. “If you aren’t,” Nick continued, looking towards Virgil, “I’ll leave it alone.”

Virgil seemed displeased that neither of his flatmates felt particularly comfortable with his relationship with Yavin Morgenthau. Ariadne had never felt entirely comfortable, given Yavin had replaced her grandfather, Mortimer, and that was without knowing he and Virgil had a deeper than professional tie. Despite how warmly Virgil spoke of Morgenthau, the relationship did not feel entirely healthy to Ariadne.

“Just remember that the last time I went to two with a warning, they did fuck all to save Alec Carter.”

“Then let’s not go with a warning.” Ariadne heard herself say as Virgil dissected the pie. “Let’s go with concrete evidence.”

Nicholas sighed, did he trust the Ministry-not really.  He trusted most of the people he worked with on a daily basis.  He trusted his friends who now worked for the Ministry.  So he understood why Virgil was reluctant.  Then again wasn't prophecy vague whereas legilimency at least in this case wasn't.  Nicholas had spent that night flying around on a broom, freezing his ass off with thankfully nothing to do.  Of course his quiet night had been an illusion shattered by howlers the next day calling him in on what was supposed to his day off.

"None of us are patrol or aurors, we don't need concrete evidence.  Just enough to get them started."  He rubbed his eyes, he was not awake enough for this.  "I can write a report that keeps your name out of it.  I should be able to translate what you felt into something I could have felt if I'd been paying attention to more than the high."

             “Then let’s not go with a warning. Let’s go with concrete evidence.”

Virgil glanced up from his slice of pie, browned sugar and chopped apples still steaming hot. He looked at Ariadne properly while Nick generously offered to make the report without involving him or his legilimency. There was something about the way Ari spoke that provoked a feeling of interest in him. It was the way she said it and cut through their collective sensibility.

"You want us to investigate this? By ourselves?" he asked her, to see if she was in earnest about this. "It wouldn't be easy, Ari. And whoever's making Muse, they're probably dangerous."

Probably? Definitely. Especially if he was right about the memories being taken. But he was already thinking about it now - about having to acquire more Muse, about peering into heads to try and figure out who was supplying the drug.

"We could submit a report regardless." Virgil picked at the pie with his fork while he waited for it to cool a bit. "I can ask Abby to find out if two has any real luck investigating and, if they aren't, we can do it ourselves. If you two want..." his thoughtful brow indicated that the notion didn't repel him. "We'll just have to take a lot of precautions."

Polyjuice level of precautions, he thought.

Nick wanted to keep it simple, and Ariadne understood why. Bevans had always wanted an easy life, motivated to do what he wanted, but otherwise content to go with the flow, in Ari’s opinion.

Working in the newspaper offices had begun to rub off on Gamp, however.

“You want us to investigate this? By ourselves?” Virgil asked, as if checking her sanity. Internally, the small voice of reason was also asking the very same. “It wouldn’t be easy, Ari. And whoever’s making Muse, they’re probably dangerous.” Quidditch Correspondent Ariadne Gamp shrugged a little and tilted her head in acknowledgement.

“I don’t think Nick is cool with this,” Ari pointed out, though it was pretty clear. “But if it’s clear we’re in over our heads, it’s not like I haven’t got a whole newspaper full of decent reporters who might take the reins.” She reached for her drink, “if we feel like letting them,” she added darkly.

Nicholas stared down at the table. They'd do something if level two wasn't getting anywhere. With everything going on, he doubted they'd even spend much time on it. He also wasn't about to let his friends do something stupid and reckless without him.

"No, I'm not okay with this.  Not at all."  He made eye contact with Aria and then Virgil, "But I'm not letting you two do something like this without me. As long as we try it the right way first."  He'd report them all otherwise, though he wasn't going to threaten them with that.  As long as they gave the proper people a chance to deal with the shit they were trained for, he'd help.

"I don't know what training they give you on nine," Nicholas held up his hand to indicate he wasn't asking, "I did get some defensive training from the aurors." He thought it was supposed to continue, but they were busy. Everyone was busy. "There are also spells to make people's memory of you fuzzy without leaving much of a trace."  He'd been using it a bunch lately. It was simpler than completely erasing himself from someone's memory but wasn't as thorough.  It was good for a busy day.  Or maybe for investigating dangerous drugs.  He'd never really used it on another wix though. "It's usually for muggles though."  He shrugged.  They'd have to test it.

They were going to get themselves killed but they could at least test the memory charm first.

Virgil, who scorned anything dull and complacent, was already thinking of ways to go about their investigation if it came to that. Yes they could ask Abby to keep them informed on the investigation, like he said, but what else could they use to their advantage? Waverly? How much did she know about her suppliers?

             "No, I'm not okay with this.  Not at all."

He had been staring at Ariadne, and finally looked over to Nick. It shouldn't have surprised Virgil that the muggleborn didn't want to do anything that might lead to real trouble; he wasn't born into the wizarding world and maybe that made him less hesitant to subvert magical authority. At least he wasn't a complete coward, though. Nick was of Gryffindor.

"I can alter memories as well." Virgil offered, in addition to Nick's delineation of their meagre arsenal. "And I can make people feel pain, in a pinch," he picked up his fork and finally began to eat the pie, "or give them migraines and whatnot."

Pain was in the head, wasn't it? He knew how to mess with heads - not that he had ever tried to, on purpose, save for when he'd given Koko Yukawa a headache[1] to stop her from bothering Abby. Virgil wasn't the most skilled dueller so he had to compensate in other ways. If you can't defeat someone with a wand, you can make it very difficult for them to use their wand.

"But this is all hypothetical..." he swallowed a bite of sweet-and-salty, turning back to Ari. "Are we agreed? We'll investigate if we hear that level two isn't making headway."

1.	4th Oct 2011 - Not-So-Private-Eye

“… I’m not letting you two do something like this without me…”

There was the good old Gryffindor Nick! He looked to Virgil suggesting that they’d need to be able to handle themselves defensively, and then suggested he knew enough to hide their presence from someone’s memories if they went asking.

Virgil added his contribution of skills to the cause.
“My mother would be proud of me putting my NEWTs to good use,” Ariadne shrugged as her offering, having excelled with outstanding in charms, and exceeds everything in transfiguration and defence. (She didn’t think arithmancy or herbology would be much use in the circumstances.)

“Are we agreed? We’ll investigate if we hear that level two isn’t making headway.”

“Sure,” she shrugged. “But let’s not give them too long, this could be fun.”

They were all going to die, Nicholas thought to himself.  Though that wasn't necessarily anything new.  At least it would be their own damn faults this time.

"Yeah, Yeah, I agree.  But I'm not calling it fun."  He still had to figure out how to report it to level two without getting anyone he liked into trouble and make it important enough not to end up at the bottom of someone's list.  He didn't want to be investigating this if he didn't have to.