Order Only: Interrogation
Mar. 8th, 2010 06:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alt_billI'm through the first round of interrogation. Mum, I'm sure you'll be thankful I made it out in one piece. Fortunately, Mrs Lestrange was not there asking the questions. The interrogation was conducted by another woman, Heloise Laverty, whom I've never met before. She was certainly no slouch at covering all the possible topics I thought they would hit. Poker-faced, too. I couldn't tell what she was thinking.
I hauled in every scrap of parchment I had that had the least mention of Archer, as well as a few more with no mention of him whatsoever, just to further confuse the issue. Fortunately, I have a lot of records involving Archer, as we were continually passing memos back and forth in the entirely normal course of business, but all the Order stuff incinerated itself neatly upon his death. To show I was taking pains to be helpful, I flagged and cross-referenced every other individual mentioned in the memos, as well as all referenced locations. In theory, I'd like the MLE to waste as time as we can get them to waste by looking into as many different cauldrons as possible, but I added that I'd been through the memos myself, looking for patterns, and I didn't think there was much there. Helpful but analytically realistic, that's they way I was trying to come across. She blinked a bit at the cross-reference lists I handed her--I expect that no one else in my department had gone so much out of his way to be helpful.
I was mighty glad for the lists of questions you and Emmeline sent me, Kingsley. Between your two lists, you thought of just about every question that she threw at me. The demeanor coaching suggestions you sent along were very helpful, too. Dad and I got about four hours of practice in before they got around to me, and I was very glad of it. I took your tip about the pause, the quaver, darting the eyes away and back and then the 'blurt.' I flatter myself that it sounded quite natural rather than rehearsed. She certainly pulled aside the one file I pointed to as 'possibly indicating something interesting.' One of my best forgers stayed up twenty-four hours round the clock, creating that file. Interspersed in the parchmentwork are two ciphers, one easily broken, leading to another, a little harder, that I hope will make them think they've been given a tantalizing clue to the location of the notorious Sirius Black's next rendezvous point.
We'll see if they bite.
I hauled in every scrap of parchment I had that had the least mention of Archer, as well as a few more with no mention of him whatsoever, just to further confuse the issue. Fortunately, I have a lot of records involving Archer, as we were continually passing memos back and forth in the entirely normal course of business, but all the Order stuff incinerated itself neatly upon his death. To show I was taking pains to be helpful, I flagged and cross-referenced every other individual mentioned in the memos, as well as all referenced locations. In theory, I'd like the MLE to waste as time as we can get them to waste by looking into as many different cauldrons as possible, but I added that I'd been through the memos myself, looking for patterns, and I didn't think there was much there. Helpful but analytically realistic, that's they way I was trying to come across. She blinked a bit at the cross-reference lists I handed her--I expect that no one else in my department had gone so much out of his way to be helpful.
I was mighty glad for the lists of questions you and Emmeline sent me, Kingsley. Between your two lists, you thought of just about every question that she threw at me. The demeanor coaching suggestions you sent along were very helpful, too. Dad and I got about four hours of practice in before they got around to me, and I was very glad of it. I took your tip about the pause, the quaver, darting the eyes away and back and then the 'blurt.' I flatter myself that it sounded quite natural rather than rehearsed. She certainly pulled aside the one file I pointed to as 'possibly indicating something interesting.' One of my best forgers stayed up twenty-four hours round the clock, creating that file. Interspersed in the parchmentwork are two ciphers, one easily broken, leading to another, a little harder, that I hope will make them think they've been given a tantalizing clue to the location of the notorious Sirius Black's next rendezvous point.
We'll see if they bite.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 03:33 am (UTC)Will you have any way of knowing if they're following that lure you laid in the file?
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 03:46 am (UTC)(And yeah, I didn't miss that snarking in Minerva's journal yesterday from Lucius Malfoy about me being mixed up with Archer. Poncy git.)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 04:27 pm (UTC)Also. I'm concerned by the hints you've dropped lately about the portraits in your department. Obviously, we're to be very thankful that one of them saw fit to warn you on the day of Archer's arrest, but I fear you might be forgetting that for every portrait that does you a kindness, there may be six others giving information against you. I have two here on my ward that I know I mustn't trust, and it's been a ticklish thing, believe me, keeping them from seeing anything that could raise their suspicions about my dealings with my young muggleborn helpers. Like you, of course, I'm always on guard not to misstep before my living audiences, but it's all too easy to forget the portraits and the damage they could do were they to report something they've seen or overheard.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-09 07:20 pm (UTC)I don't particularly like the idea of putting myself out there, either, but it's the one thing I can think of that will pull them off you for certain.
I'm sure Kingsley or Frank would be willing to serve as a decoy, too, but they don't have quite the same appeal to my cousin. (No offence, lads, but with her it's personal as much as ideological.)
no subject
Date: 2010-03-10 12:38 am (UTC)