Order Only: Yaxley

[alt_bill]

Yaxley's dead.

Percy was abruptly called to the office at close to 11:00 pm last night by Lucius Malfoy with the news and has been there through the entire night. He just stopped by here at the Burrow to give me the news before heading home for a shower and going back in. No one's answering any questions about how Yaxley died; when Percy inquired, Lucius looked so thunderous that Percy didn't dare press.

Bloody hell, Minerva, do you know what's going on?

Comments

[alt_kingsley]

Who's his replacement? Did Percy say?

[alt_bill]

Guilford Braithewaite, apparently. Percy said he spent the night scrambling to contact people in order to line up support.

[alt_lupin]

What do we know about Braithewaite? Better or worse than Yaxley?

[alt_lupin]

He's not a Death Eater, at least.

[alt_bill]

No, he's not.

The rumor mill is very busy this morning. I've heard speculation drifting around about Yaxley having some kind of huge spat with Hopkirk yesterday, something about him getting outraged because the Aurors weren't answering to him. The timing is awfully suspicious, don't you think? I mean, I somehow doubt he keeled over from something as prosaic as a heart attack at his dinner table last night. More likely that someone took him out to shift the power struggle. Personally, I'd put my money on Bellatrix Lestrange.

As for Braithewaite, I dunno. Tonks is right; he doesn't have a very high public profile at all. Mid-career, and he seems to be aligned with Bella's faction in the department. I think he was involved somehow in the takedown of Dogstar, but I am not sure of the details. I'll see if I can find out more.

[alt_draco]

As it so happens, the "spat" was because Yaxley asked Marlogosia Starling for access to my Private Messages. She refused him so he went over her head to Mafalda Hopkirk, who also denied him access.

Braithewaite is no power-player but I reckon he likes being useful to powerful people. I mean, honestly, he's got to be someone like Hopkirk, who Auntie Bella knows will serve her interests first and foremost.

Everyone knows that it's Bellatrix Lestrange who makes the really big decisions in the Auror Division, right? But she can't be bothered with the minor, day-to-day things so she slots someone else in to do it.

So you might as well just start thinking of it as Bellatrix Lestange: now in charge of MLE.

[alt_ron]

Auror Lestrange in charge of MLE does not sound good. But if this Braithewaite bloke's less the type to go into rages and start wars inside his department, that could mean MLE will be a bit less... I don't know. Maybe it won't make any difference on the outside.

[alt_draco]

It won't make a difference in any way that matters. I'm not even sure why we're all worried about who's in charge when it's 99 percent likely that, you know, MLE will remain a bunch of pillocks who act like pillocks.

It's not as if they'll ever put your brother in charge, or something.

[alt_ron]

Percy Weasley, Head of MLE.

Terrifying.

Oh, you meant Bill? Yeah. No. Not bloody likely.

[alt_draco]

Haha. Percy in charge of MLE would be hilarious. There'd be so many smug, pinch-faced lectures, it would be a whole new kind of fresh tyranny.

[alt_bill]

Well, thanks for the vote of confidence on both our behalfs, but neither of us want the job, thanks.

And guess what. It isn't Braithewaite, either. I just got it from a member of the department.

It's Cadmus Mulciber. My boss's brother.

[alt_draco]

Oh, that should be perfect, then.

[alt_bill]

What's your reasoning, out of curiosity?

[alt_draco]

My father's "faction," as you put it, don't like the Mulcibers.

A divided MLE that fights amongst themselves will probably worry more about internal affairs than external ones.

[alt_nymphadora]

Afraid I think that sounds really bloody dangerous for anyone in a thousand mile radius of Mulciber's new desk.

[alt_draco]

How is "really bloody dangerous" new for anyone around here?

[alt_nymphadora]

There are different kinds of danger. And it can make a difference. That infighting could end up with lots of collateral damage. Starting at the Ministry where some of us work.

I think it's a fantasy to imagine the Death Eaters are just going to kill each other off.

It would be nice if it happened, mind you, but I think it sounds more likely there'll be a major pissing contest between Mulciber and your Aunt where the measuring posts are things like number of insurgents captured, number of confessions extracted, number of traitors ferreted out of Ministry departments and camp administrations and everywhere else.

And since it's Mulciber, I expect halfbloods are going to have fresh targets painted on our backs. It's a particular 'concern' of theirs, blood purity is.

Sorry. Didn't mean to make that personal. And maybe you know some things about Mulciber the rest of us don't. What separates the factions, do you know?

[alt_draco]

But council members do kill each other, especially when they're divided.

And the Lord Protector seems to have been offing more of them himself ever since they've been jousting around.

I live with and call your Death Eaters family. Harry has to call the Lord Protector Father, and bears the weight of responsibility if Daddy isn't pleased with him. Hydra - well, do I even need to say it? And Hermione sleeps in Buckingham Palace. Apologies if I sound unsympathetic to those of you who have to work with them, but I don't see the point in trying to predict what they'll do next because in the end, you can't. And if your prediction is right - well, good. Then you can prepare yourself for the fallout.

[alt_ron]

Is he as bad as the one you work for?

[alt_bill]

I don't know. But the brothers seem to get on quite well together, which I suppose means that they must see eye to eye on a number of things.

Not particularly reassuring.

[alt_ron]

Why did Yaxley want to read your Private Messages? That's really not good.

I mean, what would they find if they did read them?

[alt_draco]

All sorts of titillating and ribald tales that would sell to the Prophet for a handsome sack of galleons.

[alt_ron]

Maybe Yaxley had a load of gambling debts he needed to pay off.

[alt_nymphadora]

There was a huge meeting all night in MLE. They wouldn't let us in to clean. Not that I'm often the one sent over there, anyway. But we knew something was up.

I'm not sure I'd know Braithewaite if I smacked into him in the corridor. I wonder if that's a good sign? I mean, he's not any of the ones everyone's worried about getting crosswise with.

[alt_poppy]

I've just had breakfast in a little place in Torquay where all the talk was that Bellatrix Lestrange murdered Claudius Yaxley in the middle of MLE last evening. The cafe owner's nephew is an Enforcer, apparently. News travels quickly. If not unerringly.

I'll note there's not a whisper about it in the Prophet this morning.

[alt_mcgonagall]

It was the Lord Protector.

Yaxley must have come to him in a towering rage, because when we were summoned he (Yaxley, that is) was Petrified mid-shout, spittle flying.

He (the Lord Protector, that is) began to speak about something—I must admit I did not listen very closely, as it had nothing at all to do with the Petrified person in our midst. After a few minutes he stopped. Then he killed Yaxley. Then he dismissed the meeting—rather, he left, and we were left with a body and no further explanations.

It was not his most coherent evening.

[alt_bill]

Percy was wrong; I've just heard.

Voldemort's named Cadmus Mulciber instead.

[alt_nymphadora]

 
Merlin.
 
 
 
 
 

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_draco]

Weasley et al -

I don't know why Yaxley wanted to access my Private Messages. Probably more to do with my Father than me. But if he did study them he'd find a lot of messages between myself, Harry, and Hermione - and sometimes Pansy - that made clear our attitudes about the Lord Protector and his jolly Kingdom.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Um.

Yeah.

Wow.

There's no way to make old stuff disappear out of the journals, is there? Bloody awful, that.


You mean you said stuff that could get you arrested? Really?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_hermione]

Yes, we did. Back before Draco and Harry were on the lock, you know.

We told Bill and Sirius a while ago but you're right, there's no way to change what's already in the journals.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_draco]

Most likely.

Well, we did try to talk in code most of the time - calling Sirius "Sinbad," for example - but someone who read carefully could figure it out.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

So you told Bill that this Mulciber bloke and your father are in different factions. Does that mean he's likely to want your PMs, too?

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_draco]

At Hydra's birthday party Father and my Aunt talked about how he wanted to take control of journal monitoring - that's why Auntie Bella moved it over to the Auror Division in the first lace.

Father was worried (well, inside his head, as Hydra saw) about it because Mulciber was particularly interested in having a look at my journal, and my Mother's.