RP: business
Date: 25 June 2001
Characters: Penelope, Theodore
Status: Private
Summary: Theodore joins Penelope for tea and discussion
Completion: Complete!
Happy that he had settled on Sunday because next week was looking to be more and more stressful, Penny had gotten the water for their tea ready and set out her own choice of white tea, not knowing what ( Read more... )
Characters: Penelope, Theodore
Status: Private
Summary: Theodore joins Penelope for tea and discussion
Completion: Complete!
Happy that he had settled on Sunday because next week was looking to be more and more stressful, Penny had gotten the water for their tea ready and set out her own choice of white tea, not knowing what ( Read more... )
Walking past the kitchenette into the living area, he found himself uncertain where to sit down, despite her claim he could sit 'wherever'; the lack of a distinct parlour and its accompanying accoutrements threw him slightly. There was a gratifying lack of pink and lavender frills, however, and he didn't feel instantly as though he would shatter the leather furniture by plonking his fourteen odd stone upon it. It felt rather like his study, really, with books everywhere, and after a few moments' thought, he settled into one corner of her couch and crossed his long legs with artful languor.
"I'm not certain what you've, but I'd love some white Darjeeling, 'f you stock it," he called, barely raising his voice, considering how small the place felt compared with what he was used to. "Dragon's eye Oolong? Jasmine green? Straight orange pekoe with a twist of lemon? 'm not terribly fussy."
He considered the possibility of something harder, but decided it was probably too early for anyone but himself to start in with the gin. Sighing softly, he patted his pocket to be certain he at least had his fags, then relaxed again to wait for her.
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Finally she came out of the kitchen with both their teas and set them down onto the coffee table and seating herself next to him. "It's probably a lot smaller than you're used to, but I'm afraid for now it'll have to do." Taking a sip, she looked back up at him. "So? I've been studying Wizarding curses for up to three months now. I'm pretty sure I've heard of whatever it seems to be plagueing you. What exactly is it that you're cursed with and why? Who started it and when? I'm more than eager to help; I find the topic fascinating. But of course you'll have to open up to me and tell me all the details..."
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"No milk, no sugar," Theo answered, sniffing it curiously when she brought it out.
He tasted it and found it adequate, then settled in and gave her a penetrating look.
"Do you mind terribly if we set up some sort of contractual agreement as to your involvement and your silence towards third parties about the details? Standard agreement, yeah?" Theo turned slightly to get a better look at her and give her a reassuring smile. "Certainly you sign them all the time, and it's nothing unusual."
He paused and took another sip of his tea, nodding approval at her as the flavour of the tea developed and blossomed nicely on his tongue. Then he returned his cup to its place on the coffee table and turned more fully, leaning his elbow on the back of the couch and resting his jaw in his palm. Waving his other hand in a negligent gesture, he continued.
"If you wish to consult with anyone in the course of any inquiries, you must obtain legal written permission from myself first; if you wish to publish your findings and any successes you've with my case, you must first obtain permission and then run the completed version by my solicitor and gain his approval before publishing. Is that acceptable? Shall we draw it up before I start in on my fascinating and mysterious tale of woe?"
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He really was terribly careful about this. Of course, she didn't blame him. She knew just how dangerous and horrifying these curses were, and did place a large amount of respect into the whole field. It was certainly nothing to joke about. Remembering the case of a pregnancy curse running through Germany right after the Middle Ages, Penny shuddered involuntarily.
"Of course it is. Do whatever makes you feel better about the whole ordeal. I'm not trying to get anything out of all this. I'm helping you purely based on my own scholarly curiosities, of which there are many, I'll have you know, Theodore." Taking another sip of her tea, she gestured with her free hand. "I'm ready to hear about your story whenever you're up for telling it."
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Theo summoned parchment, quill, and ink, then set them out on the coffee table and bent over it to scrawl out a contract. He wrote them every day, of all varieties, and it took him only a moment to draft an appropriate one, his elegant, old-fashioned hand delineating the terms of their agreement in the time-honoured way. He dated it and made the ecks for Penelope to sign beside and passed the parchment to her along with the quill.
When she'd read and signed it, he added his signature, then dropped a jot of ink from the quill tip upon his signet ring and pressed it to the paper, sealing the agreement. That done, Theo smiled and relaxed, feeling relieved with how easily it had gone. He'd not expected a woman to one evening offer an Unbreakable Vow -- even in jest -- and then renege to such an extent as refusal of a standard non-disclosure agreement, but one never really knew, did one?
He waited until the ink was dry and the contract rolled neatly and stowed in his pocket before proceeding.
"The details are largely unknown. A rather extensive inquiry spanning much of the globe is in effect. Terrence Higgs -- do you know of him? -- has been spear-heading the effort. He's recently returned from a tour of Spain and France and has unearthed additional pieces of the puzzle as recently as this past week. I believe in another few days he shall be leaving again in pursuit of more clues. As you might guess, this is not your ordinary incidence of cursing, hmm wot? Quite."
Theo paused, wanting to choose the perfect words even if she was bound by magical agreement to speak none of them to anyone. Reaching for his tea, he took another sip, one finger held in the air all the while to beg for silence and patience. He spoke slowly and paused often, but he hardly liked to have curious and excited persons jumping into the middle of his discourse and changing the track.
Setting his teacup back on its saucer, he recrossed his legs and continued.
"That understood, I shall give you the most basic understanding of what I believe to know. You must understand, however, that it is only what I believe to know. Further investigation may reveal the supposed 'facts of the case' to be faulty. I do not like to presume anything to be Truth until I've reason to know it so. That said...
"The Nott family has been cursed going back some four hundred years and more so far as I can tell. The curse seems -- note that I say seems, as I do not truly know -- to be communicated through the magical nature of the inheritance. Each Nott heir must marry a suitable witch before the end of his twenty-first year or be devoured by the estate. That is what my solicitor -- Mr Alain Varice, were you curious -- told me, and it is what he was told. It is all I can tell you as to a specific result for breaking the terms.
"Furthermore, I know I've at least two older brothers who were kept secret from me throughout my childhood, and whose existence I discovered on my own as recently as a few months ago. All evidence thusfar indicates that they did not succeed in securing for themselves an appropriate marriage by their twenty-second birthdays and were..."
Theo's tongue flicked nervously over his lips, and he stared into space rather than into Penelope's eyes. It was still difficult for him to discuss the matter; the curse was as much a bane to him now as it had ever been.
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"Thomas and Thaddeus died... well... hrm. I'd say circa 1930? Perhaps before. My father is still alive but, as you'll no doubt know, residing in Azkaban and not particularly inclined to talk even should he be allowed to do so. There's reason to believe my brothers lived concurrently with one another, and knew of one another's efforts to thwart the curse. They had diaries which they left behind, both... encoded, as it were? Rather than any standardised code, they were written in the Nott way, which is to say, conforming to a specific frame of mind purposefully cultivated in the sons of my family as far back as I've studied. To an outsider, the allusions and implications are buried in seemingly unrelated gibberish, but to myself -- or to another bred-in-the-bone Nott, were there one -- the writer's intent would be crystal.
"As such might lead you to expect, my own role in the unravelling of this curse is pivotal. There is no one else living who can save me if I don't move to save myself, yeah? And this is complicated by..."
Theo paused again, eyes boring into Penelope's fiercely as his body suddenly thrummed with caged intensity. Whatever else she might be, she was a Muggleborn, and though she revered his world and their traditions in a way that most of her ilk did not, it was difficult to show weakness before her. He wasted no effort on hiding his agitation, seeing no point in masking his feelings from her. His hands lifted to his temples and he rubbed them delicately before dropping one neatly to his lap as the other shifted to trail fingertips along the day-old stubble at his jawline.
"It's a compound curse," he muttered finally, his mouth hardly wanting to form the words. "The condition of supposed death in the absence of a marriage by the twenty-second birthday is compounded by steady attentuation in the months between the twenty-first birthday and the actual terminus. Do you follow?"
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Penny really wasn't one to interrupt, already feeling extensively lucky based on the fact that he was telling her all of this. Instead, she spent more of her time nodding at a few of the things he said, occasionally furrowing her brow in thought. It was a lot of information to receive in a short span of time, and she did want to keep up with it all and not have to ask him to repeat himself, figuring he wouldn't be all too pleased if it came to that.
She listened intently, not wanting to miss a word. But as he continued telling her more and more, her brain was struggling to comprehend the sheer magnitude of the weight on his shoulder. This was worse than Agnus Stevens' case in 1320; his curse hadn't been hereditary, just bad fortune to be inflicted with a pregnancy curse that would ultimately lead to his untimely death. But this...
She tried to think. Theodore had been... three, four years below her? She was hoping four, simply for his own well-being, considering that she had just recently turned twenty-five.
She'd noted him avoiding her gaze for a while, but when he finally dared to meet her eyes she was shocked at the intense emotion behind it. It was taking a lot out of him to say all this; there was no doubt about it.
Caught off-guard by his question, she just nodded briefly, trying to quickly formulate all the information into one in order to bring out some questions. Taking a deep breath, she decided to just outrightly ask, knowing there was no point in holding back. "So... I'm assuming you have yet to reach twenty-two? When exactly is that birthday coming up? Are you already beginning to feel the effects of the curse during that year between your twenty-first and twenty-second? Does... does the death happen slowly, over time, once twenty-two is reached?" She paused for a moment. "I'm so sorry, I'm not trying to act like the Spanish inquisition. If I'm becoming to pushy with my questions, please tell me, because I do have plenty more."
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Thinking back to what he'd discovered in Djenné gave him chills, and he realised he had far more to tell her than could possibly be accomplished in one go. It seemed simple to him after months of daily study and thought and living it, but even to a well-regarded historian, it must be a lot to absorb... And for a man who rarely spoke of personal things to anyone, opening up so much to a total stranger was almost more difficult than he could bear.
Theo took another sip of his tea, grateful for its lingering warmth as the mere thought of this whole thing made his blood run colder. Recalling the specific words to mind that he'd pored over so often with Varice and Higgsy, he shifted into the corner of the couch and held Penny with his gaze as he began to quote the antique arrangements of the Nott papers.
"The eldest legitimate son born of the patriarch's seed inherits the curse ab incunabulis, his fate linked to the fate of his family and its holdings inextricably in extremis. Strictures such as inhibit the liberty of the heir must be obeyed ad pedem litterae lest the curse manifest in extremis and pass post mortem to the second legitimate son born of the patriarch's seed. Thus does this condition persist in each iteration of the passing of the estates, rights, and privileges until such time as the specific wants of the curse be satisfied."
Theo shrugged and finished his tea, then placed it back upon the table, stood and stretched, then fished in the rather snug pocket of his denims for his pack of kreteks. He'd one almost to his mouth before he caught himself. Shrugging again, he stood looking at her, fag held politely unlit in his hand.
"Dura lex sed lex, eh wot, Miss Clearwater? The law is the law, and I am helpless before it. The wasting aspect of the curse did not present itself in the legal jargon nor in the histories of our family such as they are. I was not aware of it precisely until I began to... Yes, well, let us say that as you are bound by contract I might reveal to you that my current state of apparent health is due to some rather complex and dark blood magic which it was my fortune to be capable of performing.
"There is so... very much to explain, and I feel hardly able to express it all. It might go better should I show you what I mean. Are you at liberty to travel? If not this afternoon -- I should not presume what is convenient for me is convenient for you -- then perhaps soon?"
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"So basically your brothers passed the curse on to you, when they didn't fulfill its wishes? And you would pass it on to your first child - were you to have children, that is - and not any of the others? Unless of course that child does not fulfill what the curse asks for, in which case it is passed on to the next child, in turn eliminating the first. Am I following correctly then? And... and what would happen to the curse if you died, without providing an heir? Would it just die out with the death of the Nott line?" Biting her lip, she shook her head for a moment thinking. "Wait a minute. I've seen this in these, mm, sorts of curses before... isn't there something about having to provide an heir as well?" She couldn't remember the last time her mind had tried working this rapidly and thoroughly in such a short amount of time. Maybe that was a bad thing. "And so... if your brothers hadn't died and had instead fulfilled the curse... this burden wouldn't be on your shoulders at all, am I right? Did they not know of the effects of the curse, or of the curse at all? Do you know?"
She was starting to feel as if she was putting him under a light, but at this point, the questions were just swarming through her head and needed answering. Then a thought came to her. "Give me a second, let me get a notepad and pen." Then, waving her hand dismissively as she moved to stand, she told him that it was all right for him to smoke, if that's what had been keeping him. "You must be stressed enought already, telling me all of this. It's not light material to convey or take in. That reminds me. Would something, er, harder be good for you? To make you a bit more comfortable in these environs. Just ask and I'll see if I have it; I probably do..."
Back with the pad and pen, and having scribbled down some notes, her brow furrowed again as she thought of asking some certain questions, unsure of how happy he would be about answering. "I... let me start with the question of who originated this curse and why... I have the approximate time - that will help - but anything else you might know...?" she paused, taking a sip of her tea, still in thought. "Is there any chance you would be willing to tell me what sort of blood magic - explain the magic, if you may - you used to stop this deterioration of sorts? And, uh, wouldn't mind revealing what particularly led you to your awareness of the curse? What happened to you? And precisely, when, at what age?" Taking a deep shaky breath, she slowly shook her head. "I'm so terribly sorry to be asking such intrusive questions, I just... I'm not going to use euphemisms to cover up what I need to find out, see? I know what sorts of things to research, find out, ask about in order to find out more and potentially find a cure to the curse, I just haven't ever dealt with a live case before, so this is mildly different. I do apologize."
Unconsciously she began chewing her thumbnail out of nervous habit before nodding her head yes. "I am. I'm available today and, uh, most weekday evenings. However, Monday and Friday night will probably not work all too well this week, and following that, I will be out of town at a dig in Cairo on the weekend, researching the curse that led to... nevermind that. Not important. Oh, and next Monday I am also busy, but anytime else, I think would work fine. Although I certainly wouldn't mind doing it today at all."
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Grinning at Penny, Theo carried his teacup to the kitchen and opened the door.
"I'll explain as we go. You must understand that you can't possibly know all there is to know even after much explanation. I've my Phaeton waiting outside, and we can discuss things on the ride to mission central, hmm?"
This was going to be an interesting afternoon to say the least.
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When they had reached downstairs, Penny could see some sort of... carriage out front through the window already. Once they were outside, Penny crinkled her nose at him somewhat. "What... is it? And why aren't we just, uh, apparating...?"
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Theo hesitated, not quite wanting to admit to as much knowledge of certain Muggle things as he actually had. Still... Bother.
"It's rather like a sports car, hmm? This one will go something like 200km/h, yeah? It's the newest model, with improved acceleration, stablisation, and cushioning charms. A 'horseless carriage' in the most direct sense of the phrase, rather than a messy, smelly, environmentally unsound Muggle contraption with combustion engine and questionable comfort features."
Climbing in beside her and setting it off towards his Mayfair penthouse, he gave her a look, took another long drag of his kretek, and said, "As for why I don't apparate, a good number of the places I frequent disallow direct apparation, and also, I am an opium addicted alcoholic. Pleasant yeah? I find splinching to be bad for one's health. And," he added with a flat smile, "I'm certain you'll understand if I find the dust all over my clothes after Floo use to be intolerable. Besides... this has such panache, don't you think?"
As he spoke, the Phaeton rolled smoothly over the tops of cars stopped in traffic, making its merry way along completely indifferent to the Muggle world surrounding them, much like Theodore himself.
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She couldn't have said she was shocked at his mention of the addiction. However, it wasn't expected either. In fact, she was a bit confused in general what facial expression she should have been showing whatsoever, so she decided to just nod. It seemed to work just fine before. "Panache," she said softly to herself, a small smile on her lips. "Yes, certainly."
"So the Muggles don't see us, I take it?" It was more of a rhetorical question than anything else, but it had somehow slipped out anyway as she looked over the scenery as it rolled by. "And where are we going anyhow? Mission central, you said? What for, exactly?" If the situation were any different, Penny would be wondering what in Hades she was doing in a strange carriage with an even stranger man, but then again, this whole situation was unorthodox enough on its own, and she really shouldn't have been expecting any differently.
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Theo reached out to tug a lock of her hair playfully, then grinned at her.
"It's like brain candy, isn't it? Having a little puzzle to sort? Mixed in with high-stakes gambling, hmm? A life on the line, ancient lineages falling helpless victim to something insidious devouring them from within their very fastness..."
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She couldn't help but giggle when he started playing with her hair, grinning back at him. "It really is! That's why I love my job so much. I feel like a detective sometimes, piecing together the puzzle pieces of the mystery one-by-one. Except this time I'm working with a real-life case!" Her eyes were lit up, practically glowing. So this was why this was her chosen profession... With a small laugh and smile, she shook her head. "I'm sorry I seem so overtly enthusiastic. I don't normally get like this. And don't think I don't take this seriously... because I do."
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It was a Muggle building, but Theo's penthouse had been converted by (he thought) his father into the premiere residential property in Wizarding London. The gilt-and-mahogany lift with its mirrored ceiling and richly carpeted floor was really only the beginning of the opulence, and Theo rather hoped it wasn't a bad idea to bring Penelope into it. From what he'd seen thus far, she wasn't necessarily at home with the trappings of his world.
Still... she seemed as though she'd seen grander, and Hogwarts had been a castle. Any rate, she didn't act as though she'd been raised by wolves, and that was a huge improvement over the majority of Muggleborns he'd ever met.
At the top floor (which was ostensibly the 15th or so, but magically enhanced to be, in actuality, about 40 stories up), the lift opened and Theo led Penelope into the short corridor before the ornate front door of the Penthouse. He held out his hand to splay it flat against the wood, and it unlocked at his touch, yawning slowly open to reveal the decadent dwelling beyond.
Theo halted them just inside the door and turned to check that it was properly locked behind him. Then, without further ado, he focussed his attention on the arithmantic architecture and waited for the corridor to the library to present itself. With a blur of colour and the sensation of staring at mirages, the various hallways flashed in and out of being before finally settling on a marble-floored passageway with ancient tapestries decorating its walls.
"Ah, here we are then," Theo said, finally breaking his silence. "Stay close, yeah? There are... very unpleasant things here that rather love to snack on those of... erm. On the lineage challenged," he finished a bit lamely, trying to be as polite as possible, all things considered.
Slipping his arm protectively around her shoulders, he guided her down the passageway and turned to open a massive set of double doors. Beyond was the library, its ceiling hidden in shadows and rows of shelves passing out of sight on all sides. Theo himself didn't know how much was a trick of the light and how much was the sheer size of the place, but the air smelled musty and close with the breath of thousands of priceless books.
He had a feeling Penelope might like the place.
"We're just at the back," he said, not really expecting her to hear over the rush of Ravenclaw booklust he imagined she was probably experiencing. "C'mon then..."
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