Marauders - Always - Part One

CLXXVI: A New Ministry

It was mostly raw or severely under-cooked meat being served at the table and the smell of it turned Remus Lupin's stomach. He sat at the head of the table, Spence and Storm to his right and left, half turned in his seat as though bored with the dinner, his fashionably expected cup of tea before him, steaming, aconite leaves floating inside, watching the other men and women at the table as they are their dinner in the loudest of silences. His eyes followed the spinning of the leaves on top of the tea as he tried to lose himself in thought - the sound of the chewing and of the other guests there making him even sicker and winding up his nerves with every moist sounding bite and swallow.

"You need to keep your strength," whispered Storm, leaning closer. "Won't you eat any of it?"

Remus shook his head, holding up a palm to push away the bowl of mash offered.

Spencer reached into a pocket and withdrew something. There was a snap and a moment later, he was offering a chunk of chocolate. He smiled as he held it out and Remus took it. Spencer looked at Storm, who stared at the chocolate with confusion, then looked to Spencer, who chuckled. "He can't resist chocolate."

Remus sighed and nodded, "It is true," he said, "I cannot resist a good bar of chocolate, whatever the moon might be doing to my interiors."

"Even the new moon weakens you, Alpha?" Greer's voice carried from across the table, where she sat, flanked by her own most trusted friends.

"As you know, the Lycanthrophy deepens each year," Remus said, "It takes its toll in many ways. For me, the New Moon means a sensitivity to the sound and smell of food... and blood." He eyed one of the roasts nearest to him which was so raw it still oozed. "Forgive my lack of appetite."

"If I had known I would not have invited you for a delegation dinner, but would have prepared a more traditional meeting area." Greer paused, then, "But that's right, too, I didn't invite you, but you invited yourself."

Greer was a beautiful woman with dark skin dappled with the milky white spots of vitiligo across her right cheek bone, curling up over her eyes and onto her forehead. Those markings, Remus knew, carried into her wolf form, as did her heterochromia iridium - two different colored eyes - the left being a dark brown and the right a piercing blue. Her black hair was twisted into a braid that fell down her back and over her shoulder, small silver beads knotted in at random intervals, which gave her an almost shining look. The scar that ran over her jawbone and down her throat to her collarbone was deep - she'd only just barely survived the swipe that had caused it - and her half-moon bite was prominent on her shoulder, close to the curve of her neck. The wide collared blouse she wore seemed chosen specifically to show her scar, as though it were being displayed upon her like jewelry.

Remus smiled, and nodded, "That's right, I did invite myself. Though I will say, I did not expect to find that I wasn't the only delegation visiting Blackburn today." His eyes strayed to the other four men at the table. 

One he recognized - an old friend of Fenrir Greyback's, a man named Ed, who had once led him through the thick trees of the Great North Woods to Greyback's home. Ed was not the delegate - no, he was too crude and harsh to be anything but a guard. The man Ed sat beside bore three scars that striped his face diagonally from temple to nose on the left side and wore a smart suit, well fitted as as tight as the smile on his face. Beside him sat a woman with wild blonde hair and eyes that seemed to see through to the very core of anyone she looked at. And past her was another guard - a bulky man who was only just barely smaller than Storm, with muscle so thick in his neck that it was nearly the same width as his head.

"And who are the others that have been invited?" Remus asked.

"Long has the Lupin pack been without leadership," replied the sharp-smiled man as he picked at the roast on his platter with his fingers - a common thing to see among werewolves, even ones of stature like this man. "The family Blackburn has need of assistance - assistance that their pack has failed to bring... but we, the wolves of Greyback and the North, we remember those who have been made by our Alpha. Despite their past disloyalties to us, we will see their needs met."