The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part Two

Passage de la Sorcière

"You know he only put himself on my team because he's keeping an eye on me, yeah?" Edgar Bones sounded tired as he dropped himself into the bar seat at the Grindyswallow Pub.

"He's keeping an eye on all three of us, I reckon," Gideon murmured darkly. Then, "At least you're not saddled with Dumbledore! Nanming me the leader on the job is a rouse - we all know Albus probably already has every detail planned and mapped out. The question is whether he'll tell me of whatever he's got planned or if he'll simply orchestrate it behind my back."

Edgar and Gideon both looked at Fabian.

"What?" Fabian asked, shrugging, "I won the jackpock, honestly. Retired head of the department, current deputy headmistress, advanced auror in training and his motivational support witch, an unhinged chaotic genius, and Remus bleedin' Lupin."

"Bugger you really did win the pot, didn't you?" Gideon looked jealous. "I mean I had and then lost the Potters on my team and what did I get to supplement? The promise that Dumbledore's as good as two men!"

"You do have the Scamanders, though," Edgar pointed out. "And all Newt's beasts."

"Because a Niffler's a right help in taking out a house full of Death Eaters if mine happens to be the one that they're actually at!" Gideon shook his head.

Edgar said, "Alright but name one redeeming quality about my bunch, will you? One of mine didn't even finish Hogwarts!"

"Hey that's not very polite," came a voice to the left and they all three turned to find Sirius Black had pulled up a chair without any prelude or instruction.

"You're part of my jackpot win," Fabian said.

"Excellent." Sirius sat down and looked between the three aurors. "So... I have to ask because this is what I do and it's what's been on my mind since Moody first started talking about this..." he paused, trying to determine how best to word what he needed to ask, then finally decided to point-blank it. "You lot checked in at my mum real good, yeah? I mean, you know she wasn't... wasn't lying to you? Setting us up?"

Gideon and Fabian looked at Edgar, so Sirius did, too.

Edgar said, "Yeah, I vetted her."

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"I did. Are you questioning my abilities to do my job, then?" Edgar snapped.

Sirius said, "More like questioning whether my dear Mother is capable of even accidentally or forcefully doing something good for a change."

Edgar shrugged, "She was very compliant. She offered information freely, too. She had heard about what happened to your brother, and she was willing to give anything to help us. The veritaserum was her idea. Said she knew we needed to know it was true coming from her."

Sirius frowned.

Edgar said, "She asked about you."

Sirius stiffened. "And? What did you tell her?"

"That you were doing alright," Edgar answered, "But that you likely wouldn't want to see her."

"Yeah like hell I would."

"Bringing you to Azkaban would be quite inappropriate anyway," Edgar said. "You don't belong in a place like that."

Sirius flipped his hair, "I'm far too gorgeous." He got up, pushing the chair he'd pulled up back where it belonged. "So when is this all going down?"

"We should have the warrants soon," Fabian said.

"And surely any information we have shall be utterly outdated by then," muttered Gideon.