RP: At King's Cross

[pb_percy]

Characters: Percy Weasley, Lucius Malfoy
Location: King's Cross Station
Date: 15 October 1999 | Evening
Status: Private
Summary: Percy meets Lucius to tell him about his latest prediction
Completion: Incomplete

Comments

[pb_percy]

Not that he had expected it, but the idea that Malfoy hadn't found something at least passably muggle in appearance to wear was a little disconcerting.

Percy fell into direct step with Lucius, feeling more than a little conspicious himself. Around his own neighborhood the heavy cloak and slightly over-long dress shirt were nothing strange, but here, under the inquiring eyes of seemingly all of muggle-dom, the two were getting their share of odd looks and double-takes.

"I told you in our last meeting that I'd acquired a new deck," Percy began, just loud enough to be heard. "I was able to do another reading and the result was...potentially dangerous." Despite having taken his potion before leaving, the sudden press of evening commuters was making Percy's heart flutter nervously. Or maybe it was the weight of his knowledge, the words,--his words--miring his courage. "I believe I may have actually prophesied something, but is it at all possible we could find somewhere not so exposed in which to talk?"

They had only walked about half a block from the station, but in their wake they'd left a sea of curious whispers and lookers on.

[pb_lucius]

"Potentially... dangerous?" Lucius repeated quietly, catching the eye of a Muggle woman who was giving him a particularly strange look. He arched an eyebrow at her. There was a time when I would set fire to filth like you, he thought. The woman blinked several times, looked down at her feet and walked off. Lucius turned his attention back to the Weasley and did not see her looking back every so often as she hurried away.

"Indeed we could," he replied. If the Weasley was making actual prophecies, he and Lucius would need some privacy to discuss them, even in the Muggle world. Scanning the streets around them for someone to go, Lucius spotted a couple in front of him, a man and a woman, both with long hair and dressed from head to toe in black. When Lucius looked at them more closely, he noticed that one of them was wearing a long coat which almost reached the floor and appeared to be made out of something that looked rather like dragon hide. He could vaguely remember being told about Muggles who dressed in long black clothes. Someone had made a comment to Draco once about his pale skin and fondness for black clothes, and how he would "fit in" with those Muggles. Draco had not been pleased with that comparison, but the memory of it did give Lucius a thought. The black-clad Muggles looked like the sort of people that Lucius and the Weasley would have more chance of being able to blend in with, given Lucius’ black travelling cloak.

“Perhaps we should follow those two,” Lucius said, watching the two Muggles as they made their way to a pub further down the street.

[pb_percy]

Percy glanced at the couple Lucius indicated and nodded, albeit reluctantly. Although understandably stalwart in the wizarding world, a single block of muggle London may as well be another universe entirely, and Percy did not relish being there when he snapped and hexed some poor soul.

Not that Percy would ever say any of that. Not even an 'are you sure?' left his lips as they continued to walk.

Lucius's steps never faltered, a sign that he was either that desperate to hear what Percy had to say, or wanted to get the whole ordeal over with as quickly as possible. The closer they got to the pub, the more the air hummed with music and excited chatter.

At least they weren't the strangest dressed one on the block anymore. A second couple hailed the one that he and Lucius were followed just outside of the pub doors, the female half of which was wearing a shiny, artificial fabric dress that gleamed like water under the glow of the street lamps and she had what looked to be bright neon tubing coming out of her hair.

Whereas it was a mild surprise and easy enough to look away from them, the maitre 'd was another matter entirely.

A strikingly tall woman dressed head to toe in fishnets of every color, her top looking as if it was made of reflective tape and a skirt consisting of vynil, chain mail and police warning tape smiled chillily at them through a heavily pierced mouth. The smile was just enough to reveal that she had fangs.

"No cover tonight gentlemen, come on in," she waved them though the door, glancing with no small bit of envy at the bouncer who stood not far off from a portable heater of some sort.

Percy made sure that Lucius was still breathing and hadn't hexed the woman on reaction to the fangs, and when it was obvious he hadn't and wasn't going to, nodded towards a set of plush stools, intricately wrought, away from the bar further in.

[pb_lucius]

As they approached the pub, Lucius was not sure whether to be relieved that there were people who warranted more attention than himself and the Weasley, or mildly concerned by the appearance of these Muggles. This whole experience was only reinforcing the idea that Muggles were, well, odd, to put it mildly. He had to stop himself from sneering at them and their ridiculous ways.

The woman by the door had... metal things in her face, for Merlin's sake! Instinctively Lucius reached inside his robe for his wand. Not because he was going to hex anyone, but it felt more comfortable to know it was there.

Lucius caught the Weasley's nod towards the seats away from the bar, and made a beeline for them. Thankfully that section of the pub was quieter and had fewer Muggles in it. Lucius realised he could do with a drink, but there was no way he was going to that bar; he would hex the first Muggle who looked at him. He sat down and looked at the Weasley in an attempt to ignore where they were.

"You were talking about a prophecy?" he said, making a deliberate decision to get straight to the point. The quicker they got this conversation over with, the quicker Lucius could get back to the wizarding world.

[pb_percy]

"Yes, I believe that the killer may be seeking another victim." Percy could tell Lucius was doing his best to tune out what was going on around him, but if anything, the clientele in the pub was stranger. A man with a long sweeping coat, what looked like a straight-jacket underneath and hair that stuck up at least two feet from his skull in a number of violent spikes brushed by them, glass of wine in hand. "I went into trance when I made the reading and said 'demon on a lofty perch, seen by all but unperceived' whoever the killer is, they are in a position to have their pick of victims, but 'seen by all' must mean upper echelon. I have my theories as to who, but if any of them are true it would be...well," Percy sighed. "bad, to say the least and bloody catastrophic at most."

[pb_lucius]

“Another one?” Lucius said. He had considered the possibility of the killer striking again, but without knowing who it was or why they were killing in the first place, it was difficult to pinpoint who their potential targets could be, or even whether they would kill again at all. Obviously they were targeting people who occupied rather lofty positions in the Ministry - except the Muggle, but that had no doubt been a diversion to throw the Aurors off course.

“Of course I had considered that before, but what I could never fathom was who they would choose as a target, or why they would go after them,” Lucius said in a deliberate attempt to get the Weasley to tell him if he had any ideas about the identity of the killer’s next victim.

The Weasley clearly did have a few ideas about the identity of the killer, though. From what Lucius could glean from the prophecy, the Weasley thought it was someone in the Ministry, and he had previously warned Lucius that the Ministry was not safe. Even if the Weasley was mistaken, what he had previously said fitted with what Lucius suspected he believed. Lucius’ suspicions that the Weasley had ideas were confirmed when he said he had come up with theories about the killer’s identity. If it was someone in the Ministry, and they were killing those who occupied high-ranking positions, their motives could either be ideology or personal gain. Either they were unhappy with how the Ministry was running things, or they were unhappy with their own position within it. There was also the possibility that they were unhappy with both. If what the Weasley was saying was true, and they were themselves a high-ranking Ministry official, then their actions pointed to an ideological motive.

Lucius found himself hoping the killer was a Ministry official who was unhappy with the Ministry’s current ideology. Circe knows I am hardly happy with it myself, he thought. Obviously if the Weasley suspected - and correctly suspected - someone who was pro-pure-blood and anti-Mudblood, Lucius and the Weasley would end up disagreeing about the outcome being “bloody catastrophic”.

His thoughts about the killer’s identity and motive had been a welcome distraction from their surroundings, but Lucius again became acutely aware of where they were when he looked at the Weasley and saw some of the pub’s customers out of the corner of his eye. Did nobody have hair that was not some unnatural colour, or was not arranged in some sort of unusual shape, or clothes that did not have things hanging off them? Not that it really mattered what the Muggles looked like, they were still Muggles.

Lucius focused his attention back onto the Weasley. “I see,” he said, leaning forward slightly. “Percy, may I ask what your theories are?”

His use of the Weasley’s first name had been deliberate, and nobody could have heard Lucius use it as the music in the pub was so loud. He was trying to reinforce the - not the friendship, because Merlin knows there was no friendship, but the connection perhaps, between them. Lucius was also trying to gain more of the Weasley’s trust so he would be privy to as much information as possible, even it was just predictions and prophecies that could not be proven, or the Weasley’s theories. Clearly Lucius somewhat had the boy’s trust, as he had been willing to go into the Muggle world with him where nobody knew either of them. For all the Weasley knew, Lucius could be planning to lure him somewhere and kill him, and nobody would be any the wiser.

Lucius was not planning anything of the sort, but the mere fact that the Weasley had been willing to accompany him here despite knowing he had been a Death Eater counted for something. In fact it counted for rather a lot in Lucius’ opinion.

[pb_percy]

Percy didn't hesitated to launch into his theories; the music having surged in decibel; he leaned in closer to Lucius after the man had just used his first name, heedless to the small intimacy of the scene.

Although at first it had seemed that they were relatively anonymous, tucked away as they were, the music seemed to energize the crowd, and a number of empty tables had been cleared to extend a dance floor that lead off into another part of the pub. So now they were on the fringe of the dancing, if it could be called that.

Lights flashed like a number of camera going off at once, so Percy was momentarily blind-sided by the older gentleman who interrupted them. He looked to be around Lucius's age, dressed just as distinguished--if old fashioned: top hat, coat-tails, the works.

Percy's blood ran cold when the man smiled and addressed Lucius.

"You mind if I borrow that one for a dance, seeing as you're not interested?" The man put a hand on the back of Percy's chair and the young man went rigid, mortified.

Before Lucius could even process a reply, Percy shook his head vigorously, cutting off any chance Malfoy had to respond. "I beg your pardon?!" the red-head exclaimed, a mixture fear both for Malfoy and the unsuspecting muggle man rising in his mind.

"No offense intended," the man continued, "but Blondie looks like a bit of a pill."

Percy closed his eyes. The world was over. Lucius was going to whip out his wand and kill this poor, poor deluded man.

A few awkward seconds passed. There was no green light, not horrified screams. Percy found his voice somewhere near his feet.

"Sir, I highly recommend that you leave." Percy said, but saw that there was no need. Lucius had engaged the kind of death-glare-beam that often came from those rare times that no amount of proper breeding or etiquette could contain the combined sensations of horror and blood hatred.

"R-right," the man replied, although it could only be understood through reading his lips. "Sorry for the interruption." Coat-tails few out and wished mutely in a frightfully swift retreat.

For a moment, the two wizards could do nothing but stare mutely after, and wait for the tension to dissolve.

"Ah, my theories...right." Percy began again when Lucius looked a little less likely to murder the next thing that spoke. "Well, obviously there's the most recent re-working of positions at the Ministry. The question is, is the killer someone who benefited from Marcello's death or didn't? There's any number of possibilities there, but anyone with access to upper echelon activities would fit the bill. One would thing Kingsley's death would be enough if they did benefit from it, but if a more comprehensive re-organization was the goal..." Percy shrugged, "that explains why Marcello was targeted. If the killer doesn't benefit from the current head of Law Enforcement, they could be a target too."

[pb_lucius]

Lucius was starting to get even more uncomfortable as Muggles started crowding onto the dancefloor. At least nobody would hear what he and the Weasley were talking about, the music was far too loud for that, but it was still obvious that they were not in the wizarding world. It was too bright to see the Muggle approaching them until it was too late - what the Muggles did with the lights, Lucius didn’t know, but it was like a thousand Lumos spells being cast at the same time.

Thankfully the Weasley had handled the situation without Lucius needing to… intervene in any way. Lucky for the Muggle really, as all of Lucius’ ideas of how to intervene in the conversation had involved violence.

Lucius glared after the Muggle for a long time after he had retreated into the crowd. Lucius was sorely tempted to chase after the him - either now or later - and take his revenge, with the result that the impudent bastard would be left broken, bleeding, and Obliviated in an alley somewhere. Lucius abandoned that thought after giving it no small amount of consideration, but vowed to himself that if their paths crossed again, the Muggle would deeply regret his actions.

Who did he think he was, speaking to Lucius like that? Even speaking to the Weasley in such an impertinent manner was galling - despite his blood traitor family, the boy was still a wizard.

Lucius shook his head and tried to calm himself down by taking a few deep breaths. As his blood pressure began to lower again and his heart rate returned to normal, Lucius turned his attention to the Weasley’s theories. The boy had a point, and seemed to be thinking along the same lines Lucius was, that the killer wanted the Ministry to be reorganised. But how?

“Ah yes, I see what you mean,” Lucius said. He was beginning to wonder if the killer was not someone who would benefit from something more specific than a general reorganisation. Shacklebolt’s death may have only been a means to an end, and not something the killer necessarily wanted to do. He decided to keep that thought to himself as it was only a vague half-formed one that he would have to consider more carefully, not only because it gave rise to more questions than it answered. Assuming the killer was after something specific, the questions what and why would have to be answered, and Lucius had no ideas on either score.

The thought of the Head of Magical Law Enforcement being a target was more pertinent to Lucius at the moment, especially since Mafalda was the current department head. He doubted anyone would go after Mafalda, but he was biased given that he had some degree of sympathy with whoever it was who had targeted Shacklebolt and Marcello. Lucius had never had much respect for either of them.

“Do you really think that is likely? The Head of Magical Law Enforcement becoming a target? If the former Minister and Marcello had any similarities with regards to policy and ideology, perhaps that would indicate why they were killed.”

Lucius was thinking out loud more than he had been before, but he wanted the Weasley’s input on this point. “If we had more of an inkling of what the killer wanted, we could more readily predict who their next victim might be, if indeed they have one in mind. Perhaps with Marcello‘s death they got what they wanted?”

Thankfully Lucius’ thoughts were fully occupied with the Weasley’s theories, the Muggle having been forgotten. For now.

[pb_percy]

Percy shook his head. The killer most definitely did not get what they wanted if he was predicting properly-- "The way I see it, they are either a target themselves, or--and pardon this--have something to do with the previous murders. It just makes too much sense. Or someone near them--an aid or some underling with an agenda. Regardless, it's obvious that a major reorganization of the Ministry in Departments directly effected by the position of Minister would give the killer the perfect place to hide. It's close to the investigation, and from there, offers the perfect 'perch' from which to scout new victims."

Percy was smarter than to dwell on the event that had just occurred, as Lucius seemed to be calming down more by the second, although it was obvious that if he happened across the muggle man again, it would not end well. "The initial reading I made said that the reason for what was going on was an old grudge, and while it makes sense to think that with Kingsley and Marcello gone, that could be sated, but the sense of a grudge persisted into the second reading. It isn't over."

[pb_lucius]

“You think the killer could be connected with the current department head?” Lucius asked. But that would mean that either Mafalda was in danger, or… no, surely not! Surely he would have known if Mafalda was in any way involved. An underling with an agenda, then?

“Perhaps someone in one of those departments which is directly affected by the Minister?” he mused. If the killer was someone who benefited from the reorganisation, not only did they have that “perch to scout new victims”, as the Weasley put it, but it was likely that they also had access to information about the Aurors‘ investigation. That did not bode well, unless of course it was someone who felt the same way about the wizarding world as Lucius did.

A grudge? Lucius pondered that. But who could they possibly have a grudge against, and what could that reveal about the killer? Someone with a grudge against Shacklebolt, well that could be any number of people, but someone with a grudge against both Shacklebolt and Marcello narrowed things down somewhat, and brought Lucius back to his theory that the killer’s motive was personal gain. Perhaps their grudge was more complex and nebulous than any grudge against a person, or group of people? Perhaps the killer’s grudge was ideological in nature?

“Did your reading give you any indication that this was a grudge against a specific person?” Lucius asked. If it was, then why the other deaths? Did the killer have to use the deaths of Marcello and Shacklebolt to manoeuvre themselves into a position where they could strike against their real target, or were those deaths an integral part of the killer’s plan? Either they were simply a means to an end, or the killer genuinely wanted them dead for some reason.