Dust to Dust

Michael and Robert ported to Michael's Hogsmeade cottage. They were both covered in dust. They went up the path to the house and went inside.

"You've got parchment, I presume," Robert said.

"Look," Michael said. "Give yourself a minute, would you? Go shower, and get some fresh clothes. You look like hell."

"I look like you," he said dryly. "Do I still have some things upstairs?" He had had some things at Michaels when the curse kept Robert and Michael constantly together because Robert didn't have to worry about passing the curse onto him. Michael had served as the buffer between Robert and the people that sometimes attempted to get too close to Robert while he was cursed.

"Yes, but I wager they'll need to be resized. They're in the spare bedroom.. I'll put on some tea to wash that dust down with, and I'll find you some parchment. God, I hope Jack got out."

"Me too," Robert said. He went up to shower and change. His mind was racing about all the damage he had to undo, and he was forming a list of things he needed to do. The building was not his first concern. First things first, he had to take care of the laws that put people's lives in danger.

Michael went into the kitchen and put on a pot of tea. He'd found the members of the Lupin household after the disaster, but he hadn't seen Jack. That was going to be Michael's first priority. Screw Pierce for a moment. Michael took it as a given that his own mission was still to catch or eliminate Pierce. Making sure that family was alive? Yeah, that was the first thing.

Kip, Yuri, and Claire had no idea where they were headed. Jack was certain she could get them in, as the security measures had been lowered for her before. She clung to her allies as they sun through the air, whisked away from the destruction of the great institution that had been meant for protection rather than degradation. Jack wished, with all of her heart, that she could just go home. Her bag was weighed down with secrets, literally, and her friends were haggard and exhausted. Jack just wanted to get the items to safety, as they had risked their lives to secure them, and go home to her family - make sure they were okay, hug them, hold them tight, remember that they were so much more important than any government.

They jolted to the ground and began to crumple, but Yuri's strength managed to keep them all on their feet. They looked up at the path that led to Michael's cottage somberly. "Michael Tremaine's home," Jack said, illuminating her group on their location. Robert would be here, she knew it. She would be receiving her orders from here. But first, she needed to unburden herself.

She turned to Yuri, holding out her bag. "I don't think I can carry this." Her fixed gaze was not lost on him, and soon Kip held out out his bag as well. Yuri shouldered both and looked to Claire, who shook her head and clutched the satchel tighter. Yuri shrugged a shoulder, clasped hands with Kip, and turned on his heel. Jack did not know where he was taking them, but she trusted him. He had proven himself to her quickly and soundly, and she knew that, as an outsider to this country, Yuri would be able to hide Britain's secrets for her better than she could.

And then there was one more piece of business. "You might want to let your families know you're alive," she told Claire and Kip. Kip grinned, that sly little grin that told a bad joke was coming. "Hey, Jack, I'm alive."

"Shove off."

Still, Jack was grinning. She cast a Patronus, as did the other two, and gave a quick message to her family, so they knew she had not fallen under the Ministry's ceilings. Soon, their spectral guides were loping away with their messages of safety and love - a Falcon to the bar where Kip's friends would surely be waiting, a leopard to track down Elsie Norton, and a wolfhound off to Layabout Lane. With that task done, Jack was ready for anything.

She turned back to the path and gestured for her friends to follow. She reached the door and knocked twice, short little raps on the wood of the door, before her hand fell to her side.

Reinforcements had arrived.

Snidely had heard people coming.  He flung open the door and was apparently delighted to see Jack. Michael heard the hat rack flinging the door open so quickly the door hit the wall.

"Calm down, Snidely," Michael called from the kitchen.  "Unless its someone I need to shoot."  He looked at the teapot that was ready to finally boil.  "Hurry up and get the tray ready, would you?" he said.  "Living room, please."  He was hoping the pot behaved this time. The last time he trusted the pot, it had poured out on the rug and giggled profusely.

He left the teapot and the mugs to their own devices and went to the door.  He was relieved to see Jack there with her posse. He had an almost irrepressible urge to sweep her into his arms in a hug and refuse to let her go until she was good with his temporary desires to be completely and inappropriately overprotective and perhaps a bit parental. He was doing his best to reel that in. He had decided that if it came up he would rationalize it as merely because he was covered in what felt like several pounds of dust. Yeah. That ought to work, right?

"I was hoping you'd show up," he grinned, wondering when he'd last been so relieved to see her.  "Glad your two minutes were enough.  Come in. If the teapot doesn't get weird about it, we should have tea any moment.  You're all welcome to wash up, if you like.  There are three bathrooms upstairs, and Robert should be done cleaning up in a moment.  Then I'm sure there will be new orders for us."

Robert had borrowed some jeans and a shirt from Michael. He'd found them to be ridiculously too big. He had altered them, but when he came downstairs, Michael frowned.  They were still too big. Michael flicked his wand at Robert to improve Robert's alterations.  

"Never did alter them well on yourself, did you?" he said.

"Wasn't looking to tailor them," Robert shrugged. He saw Jack had arrived with allies.  "Thank heavens you're alright. You all were amazing," he smiled, relieved to see them all alive and well. "Thank you.  Stellar work.  You have no idea how glad I am that we're on the same side.  I'm sure, wherever he is, Mr. Pierce is not nearly so happy with you.  Good.  So, take a moment if you need it to breathe and decompress a bit, and then I'm quite sure you must have a whole list of questions.  Ask away.  Let's clear it up and decide where we go from here."

Michael didn't say a word.  He had only gotten more certain that Mr. Pierce would be back unless he was eliminated in a more permanent way.

Jack was beckoned into the home by a coat rack, haven gotten its permission from its master. Claire Bishop thought this was the strangest thing she had ever seen, it seemed, and brought up the rear as they stepped into the house. Jack stroked the curved wood of the rack on her way in, taking stock of herself as she entered. The three of them were covered in dust, and a small trickle of blood was coming down the back of Kip's neck, and Jack could feel a bruise forming under her chin. It was just about the average injuries of a day in the life of Jack Dyllan.

Kip was thoroughly amused by how calm and civil everyone was. A gentle smile had settled onto his face as he glanced around, taking it all in. Claire's face was easy enough to read : how did I get here?

Jack managed a smile for Michael, clapping a hand at his elbow as he greeted her. How many times had he congratulated her for being alive? It was the nature of their business, she supposed. Hell, the nature of their relationship. There would always be days where they weren't just happy to see each other, but they were happy they were both alive to see each other.

Claire glanced up at at the stairs at Michael's words and said, "I'm going to take you up on that." She disappeared upstairs to the bathroom. Jack could not be pressed to go and clean up the blood and dust, though she figured it would probably be appropriate to get rid of some of the grime. Kip seemed to be thinking the same, and with a flick of his wand, he had cleared them both of the dirt.

Jack and Kip settled down, and Jack poured them both some tea. Jack grimaced a bit, as it was sweeter than she had been expecting. The "ahhhhhh" from her right indicated that the sweetness didn't bother Kip. Claire entered and Jack poured her a cup and handed it off to her, indicating that she should settle. Her bad was still clamped to her side, but the blonde accepted the cup and sat down, looking awkward. She lifted her cup to drink and muttered, "Today is the weirdest day of my life."

Robert smiled a bit, picking up his tea cup. He took a sip and wrinkled his nose slightly.  He tapped the teapot lightly.

"Hey," he said to the teapot, "are you misbehaving with the sugar again?"  The teapot spun around backwards with the spout facing the other way away from Robert.  "That's what I thought," he said. He looked at Jack.  "You'll have to introduce me, I'm afraid."  He looked at the blond.  She looked familiar but the young man did not..  "Bishop, is it?  Glad you're here," he said.  He knew her connection to Lee, but it wasn't his place to mention it, not knowing what anyone else knew or didn't.

"This has been an odd day.  Well, at least the business at the office wasn't what I counted on, anyway," he said.  "But--you'll get adjusted to the house here.  Its just the way it is.  It started innocently enough with the hat rack and the dogs, but now Michael has decided he rather likes it, so he's enchanting bloody everything."

He frowned, a new thought coming to him.  "Speaking of dogs, where are they, Michael?" he asked.

"Hm?" Michael asked, coming in and putting out a plate of homemade toffee cookies.

"Dogs. Where are the dogs?" Robert asked.  Michael looked around, not seeing them either.  He scowled at the hat rack.  

"You need to be a pool cue," he said unhappily to the hat rack.  He opened the cellar door and the two footstools bounded out of the cellar and into the living room.  They immediately wanted to beg for the cookies.

"Jack," Robert said. "The tin beside you.  There are pieces of argyle in there. Give them a treat, would you?"  He paused a moment. "Now, then, I think we should inconvenience Mr. Pierce at once.  Aside from a whole list of charges and an arrest warrant that we need to bring, I think we should issue a search and seizure of all his properties and assets. We need those things under control so that we reduce his mobility, don't you think? I'm not so sure he is going to let himself be taken easily even without the ministry to prowl around in, but we shouldn't make anything convenient for him."

"Could be her, she shrinks at anything that doesn't have a bite in it," Kip quipped, smiling around the lip of his teacup. The smile soon twitched into a look of surprise as her elbow came out to check him in the ribs, though the smile came promptly back. Of course Kip did not mind, for he did not see her drinking as a problem, whereas Max and her closest family had seen how out of control it could get. With certain people, Jack could get shy about the almost-under-control problem. It was one of her best kept secrets and she did not need Kip going around blabbing.

Dyllan family problems.

Claire extended an arm to shake hands, smiling a little grimly. "Yes. You can call me Claire." She smiled. "It's weird circumstances, but it's nice to meet you both." Jack tilted her head, swirling her tea. "Claire almost married my roommate, so we've gotten close." She gave Claire an ironic little smile, reminding the blonde never to trust the redhead.

Jack was quick to reach for the argyle and the footstools bounded towards her. Claire withdrew her feet in surprise and minor distress, while Kip's legs lifted casually, as he took another deep drink of tea, normal as pie. She pulled out the socks and flung one out of the way, dropping another beneath her feet. The smaller footstool whipped around and barrel-rolled after the sock, while the larger settled at her feet. She rested her feet up on the footstool and rubbed her feet against its back, causing it to rumble with pleasure.

Jack sighed. "I have a small task force of sorts that have become accustomed to doing less-than-safe tasks."

"Waaaay less than," Kip muttered, looking upwards with a broad smile, eyes twinkling.

A slight grumble in her voice, Jack continued. "Thanks, brother. Yeah. We don't operate under lawful command but we would under lawful suggestion," she said, raising her eyebrows.

"Shall I get the files now?" Michael asked.

"Yes, please," Robert said. Michael nodded and headed into the study to get the paperwork Robert had entrusted to Michael. "Lawful suggestion is about all I want to do right now.  I do think we need to take care of some immediate things..."  He was interrupted by a tapping on the window.  The hat rack seemed annoyed.  Robert looked over to see Khaat's eagle on the window ledge with a parchment.  "Snidely..." Robert began.  The hat rack refused him, deciding not to let the eagle in.

"You really do need to be a pool cue," Robert scowled.  He flicked his wand at the window to let the bird in.  The bird glided in and dropped the parchment on Robert's lap.  The hat rack chased after the eagle.  "Oh, here we go," Robert sighed, knowing Archangel would choose to battle the hat rack rather than letting it get the best of him.  

Robert decided to ignore the "beastie" fight, and unroll the parchment. "Ah.  She's ahead of me.  Khaat's drawn up a search and seizure warrant to let us immediately seize all properties, monies, assets, personal posessions that Mr. Pierce has in England. And...there is an arrest warrant with just about every law on our books thrown on it. Looks like we have permission to go take his toys.  Does that interest any of you?"

Claire knew she was not supposed to be here. Of the trio who had been invited into the elder man's home, she was the oddball. She was not out to change or challenge anything. She merely wanted to go about her business, to retain her job and some of her self worth, and leave this country the first opportunity she could secure. She missed being in a place where she did not feel as though she had to construct an identity for every moment of her day. At home, surrounded by her friends, her family, her people, she could relax a little bit.

As she could have guessed, Jack and Kip were already grinning widely at each other. They did not seem at all offset by the fight between the supposed-to-be inanimate objects, and were focusing on the oncoming task. One would think that they loved the idea of putting their lives in danger, risking all for a country who had done them disservice after disservice. Claire certainly could not understand.

"If I may," she spoke, her voice sounding so disciplined and sophisticated after the rough voice of the redhead. "This is not within my line of... specialties. I'm much more of a diplomat, and a foreign one at that. I got caught up helping a friend - that's all."

Kip patted her forearm, which seemed to tense beneath his touch every so slightly. "We won't complain. More seizing for us."