[Voice]

[thelestrangest]

((Bast sniffles mightily before speaking, sounding like he's about ready to burst into tears))

Bastie heard what you said! I'm a good little cat. I didn't hurt that Saint Just person! I don't even know him. I didn't kill him. I've been here longer than he has, and I never hurt anyone.

((There's a very quiet sob before he starts up again.))

Comments

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

Who said anything about squirrels?

Re: [voice]

[thelestrangest]

Don't talk to me.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

oh?

[voice]

[thelestrangest]

You ruined my reputation. You made people hate me.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

I haven't noticed anyone sowing hate except you. I guess it takes a Death Eater to know how to do that.

[voice]

[thelestrangest]

You don't know anything about me.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

Then I'd like to remind you that you know nothing about me. You don't even get my name correct.

But I do know you, and I know your brother and your sister-in-law and your friends.Poor mad things, but so destructive, like children who'd pull the wings off a fly just to watch it struggle around before dying.

[No one here has heard Armand sound so coldly contemptuous before. He's doing his best imitation of his adopted father.]

Re: [voice]

[thelestrangest]

((Bast on the other hand sounds ready to cry))

You don't know me. You know someone with my name, but you don't know me. I've been here a long time, and this was my home! Now... now it's not.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

[softens]

If you're innocent, then help the authorities find out who did this.

[voice]

[thelestrangest]

Who's going to believe me now? Who's going to take the word of stupid and crazy Bastie now? That nasty elf is already telling people that I'm guilty. He doesn't know me either.

It's people like you that makes people like the Death Eaters. People who assume and throw accusations. You're no better than the Muggles who started the witch trials because they thought something.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

[the cold voice has returned]

Monsieur Lestrange, do not antagonize me. I may not look like a dangerous person, but the St. Justs are willful. My cousin has gone down in history as being so blood-thirsty he was called The Angel of Death. His name and memory are a curse in the France of your time.

My adopted family brought war and near-destruction to their world through nothing worse than thwarted pride. I have not declared war on you. Take care that it stays that way.

Re: [voice]

[thelestrangest]

What a wonderful person then that the city takes the word of over mine.

[voice]

[sweariwontdie]

You would not know how hard I work only to defend the weak, to speak the truth and to learn from those wiser than I. You would not know the line I walk. If I had believed as he did, my cousin would have accepted me. I would have also been a powerful man in France. I chose justice and exile.

Eventually, I was lost to place like this where people like you didn't follow any rules except that the ones weaker than they were were toys to break and abuse. I came back after the Killing Curse. I survived being tortured and used by another. One such as you will not make me afraid. I've been through it all, and now I choose peace.

Can you say the same?

[rose_rapture]

Silence.