Order Only: Maule

[alt_bill]

Remember Sebastian Maule, our scapegoat for the disappearance of those girls at Maidstone?

Well, my injuries have apparently been avenged, along with many other petty slights. Corax Mulciber brought a trophy into work today: Sebastian Maule's signet ring, which his brother Cadmus took off his body after dueling him to the death in the middle of Court yesterday, in Voldemort's presence. According to Corax, who was just full of boasts about his brother's performance, it was an entirely one-sided duel: Maule was dead after just one parry and return blast. Cadmus presented Maule's wand to Voldemort who graciously allowed him to keep it, with every sign of official favour. Spoke a few words of encouragement to Corax, too.

The Mulcibers' star is very much on the rise.

I'm sure you all understand, as Corax Mulciber's Senior Adjutant, how thrilled I am by this news.

Comments

Private message to Alice Longbottom and Kingsley Shacklebolt

[alt_bill]

What I'd rather not say in front of our youngest members, for fear of giving them nightmares, is that Corax has Maule's signet ring with Maule's finger still inside it. He has it in a fucking jar on his desk. Rachel Lamont told me that eyewitness reports say that Cadmus Mulciber's hex blew Maule's body to bits. She said that the rumour has it that Cadmus Mulciber's magic is much more powerful since his recovery, and she clearly wants to know if the Order has any theories as to why.

I could tell her that our suspicions about that are what makes us so anxious to get into the Department of Mysteries. Should I?

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom and Kingsley Shacklebolt

[alt_alice]

I think you should.

It ought to be carefully done -- this is not a new potential weapon that we might consider sharing with Dogstar. Rachel might understand this, but whether Ridley would is another matter altogether.

So I'd make it patently clear that we intend to completely destroy this device and the people associated with it, and prevent its ever being re-created again.

Private message to Sirius Black and Charlie Weasley

[alt_bill]

Clarification for adult ears: that's Maule's signet ring with Maule's finger still inside of it. Apparently Cadmus blew him into bits, with the shreds landing on bystanders, ruining their Court wear.

Corax was in a VERY good mood this morning.

Re: Private message to Sirius Black and Charlie Weasley

[alt_sirius]

Well. That's charming.

We did want them to squabble themselves out of existence. Shame they tend to be so drastic in their methods.

Private message to Minerva McGonagall and Walden Macnair

[alt_bill]

Minerva, perhaps you've heard some additional details by now from some other Council members. Macnair, apparently Mulciber blew Maule up, bodily. According to all reports, Voldemort enjoyed the spectacle. How do you read this? I would think he would have the head of anyone who dared to draw a wand to kill another one of his servants in his presence, but no, he didn't. Has he gone completely round the bend? Is he just setting up the Mulcibers for their own spectacular demise next week?

I'm sorry; I suppose you probably can't predict what he'll do much better than we can. But you've been in his presence more often.

If you have any theories, send 'em Alice's way.

I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_sally_anne]

What do you suppose Bill wants ALL the adults in the Order to know but NOT us?

Do you suppose he was there when Maule got killed?

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

[alt_ron]

Maybe something about Mr Malfoy that he doesn't want Draco or Pansy or Hydra to hear from him? Maybe he wet himself when it happened. Or something about Auror Lestrange. If it's about her, it's probably not that she was scared out of her mind.

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

[alt_sally_anne]

Oh, something about Mr Malfoy would make sense.

Re: I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good: Private message to Ron and Pansy

[alt_sally_anne]

Right. Jeremy told me.

It's that Maule's finger is still in the ring. The one that's on Corax Mulciber's desk.

Which is DISGUSTING. But I'm not sure I see why he's being so secretive? But maybe it would really upset Evelyn or something so I went with a PM.

[alt_cedric]

Maule’s death is clearly causing political shifts. Dolohov has had half a dozen fire calls from people he almost never speaks to. Ari Baddock was the first, late yesterday. The only piece I caught was "He's dead?!" When I asked if everything was alright, he was uninformative but did say he didn't think he would have to rush off and leave me with all the essays to grade. Savitha Desai called as I was leaving for the day, he waved me out the door so I didn’t see any result from the conversation. This morning he looked more tired and worn than I’ve seen him this year. Pennifold, one of the Glendower's, one of the Rowles and at least two others have called today. After that initial call he has layered his silencing charms, which is very unusual. He has been pensive, angry and apprehensive by turns since. He also had a long conversation with Crouch, though that is common.

[alt_bill]

Thanks for the report, Cedric. Anything more you can glean the next few days is certainly welcome.

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom and Sirius Black

[alt_bill]

Sirius, just so you know, Alice gave me permission to tell Rachel Lamont some of what we know about Mysteries. So I met with Rachel tonight, at her flat.

She said that it's been quite clear since Saltash that Cadmus' magic is demonstrably more powerful. There are others who are interested in getting their hands on a similar source of power, Lucius Malfoy being one.

I told her this is why we were wanting to get a window into Mysteries, because they were the ones responsible for the Mulcibers' new fighting ability. I didn't speak of a machine; I simply said it was a process under development, a secret that's been closely held up until now. It had an ugly enough price that we thought we had common cause with Dogstar in wishing to shut this process down. The danger is that now with Cadmus Mulciber's demonstration yesterday, buyer demand is going to go up. In turn, that means it's more likely for the secret to get out and be impossible to contain.

We fenced for a bit, while we each said as little as we could get away with, but when I told her that the process required the sacrifice of magical children, she made some intuitive leaps that filled in some of the gaps. When I pointed out that if either their people or ours were captured, their children would probably be forfeit to the process, and that's why we had a common cause in stopping this, her mind jumped quickly from that to the question of how and why the Selwyn children and their mother disappeared. She was aware that there was a break in at Mysteries last June, and she asked if that was our operation. I said we didn't plan it, but we were aware of the freelancers who did, and that they passed some of this critical intelligence onto us.

She also figured out why Strangeweale had an interest in Muggleborn teenage girls.

She seemed appalled by the information and quickly agreed when I said we wanted the process and all the associated notes destroyed. I asked her point blank if she thought that Ridley would want this same power for herself, too. She said she thought Ridley wouldn't, although possibly she would if the potion could be done with adults, volunteer or not. I told her we had confirmation that adults wouldn't work, but who knows if she believed me.

She told me that she doesn't think they have anyone in Mysteries. A disappointment, but not surprising. We talked about Strangeweale--she brought up the name, by the way, not me. Apparently, the fact that Cadmus Mulciber has been seen repeatedly in Strangeweale's company since Saltash has been noticed, so that was another deductive leap she made. She suggested that his father, Otto Strangeweale, might know about the process, too: he's at St Mungo's and had some oversight on Cadmus's care. He was Poppy's nemesis, wasn't he? We talked about the difficulties of putting the genie back in the bottle, so to speak. If we captured and questioned Strangeweale, or any co-conspirators, how could we be sure that the process for making the potion and all notes were destroyed?

She suggested that if there were any questioning to be done, that Dogstar should do it. I gather that she has the impression we're rather soft. Besides, they have a legilimens. I said we had some in our corner who were perfectly willing to crack a few eggs to make an omelet, so to speak, and in any case, we would insist on having someone from the Order present at any interrogation.

Bottom line, I made it clear we want this process stopped cold, with absolutely no souvenirs for anybody.

Oh, and just before I left, she asked me to let Sirius know that she needs the magpie.

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom and Sirius Black

[alt_alice]

Good.

I anticipate that with this rather ostentatious display of Mulciber's, we'll have to move our timeline up. This needs to be taken care of, and soon.

Sirius, where are you with Strangeweale's servant?

Bill, did Lamont have any thoughts regarding accessing the machine (along with any records of it) in Mysteries? That's still a sticking point in our current planning.

And that's a good point about his father, too.

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom and Sirius Black

[alt_sirius]

It's been a few days since I could get away to visit Timothy - sorry, Allie, it's just been a dead packed week. I can try again Sunday.

My hope is that he'll help us capture Strangeweale, and if Brodie wants to join in questioning him I've no objection. If they want their Legilimens to question him, fine, but Snape could do it, just as easily. We should be able to hold him in his own home, if Timothy helps us. (Though if she's got a better idea, that's fine, but clearly we can't bring him to Grimmauld and we don't want to take the time to move him to one of the country safehouses.)

Assuming we have him in custody, we should be able to use Polyjuice to get in to Mysteries. If we can find out where his notes are, surely we can find out if he uses any particular protections on his labs, and how to get round them.

I'm willing to put together a joint force to rescue any of his other prisoners but I think more than one or two people going into Mysteries (even if one of us is Polyjuiced) would draw attention to our activity.

And Bill, I haven't seen the magpie since it dropped off Ridley's first letter. But if it comes our way, we'll send it on a detour to Ms Brodie.

Re: Private message to Alice Longbottom and Sirius Black

[alt_alice]

Yes, a thorough questioning of Strangeweale will let us know our options regarding Polyjuice -- I recall there were some questions about the security systems in place at Mysteries.

And adding some Dogstar operatives to our list of assets would make the double issue of rescue of the prisoners and destruction of the machine more possible.