Necessary Hatred

The owl had delivered the intended message efficiently.  Lorcan had read it and considered it.  He knew of its sender and he knew of a new member's need to want to prove themselves to the organization. He wasn't necessarily against that, but when it was as touchy as this was, he wanted the intel to be good.

He didn't know that this wasn't. He didn't know that it was. If it led him to Swan, he was tempted to break his own rules and fire the kill shot and dispense the B**** himself. He didn't typically kill, but to protect his world from going all to hell, would he kill? Of course. And if he missed, there was Zada. Zada had no negative emotions about death whatsoever. Zada was probably the coldest woman he'd ever met. It was also largely why he was married to her.  No messy emotions to muddle things with. It was, flat out, easier.

But then there was this letter from new member, Jane Goulding, intended to impress him. He hesitated, not because he thought the members were incapable. They certainly were capable. What he doubted waas whether they'd pay one iota of attention to any parameters he would want to set. In that respect, Death Eaters had a nasty reputation of being given and inch and taking several miles on their own accord.  

The pertinent part of Goulding's letter read:

This morning, I stopped in at the Leaky and overheard a blonde woman speaking with one of the waitresses. One of the Muggles staying at the Buckley Inn, according to the questions she asked about the history of the Wizarding World. But then she said she recently found out she was related to another witch. The waitress asked what the girl's name was, and she said Swan. That she's related to "someone named Audriana," but her parents never mentioned the sister.

I'm writing this to you in hopes of proving my intentions towards the Death Eaters, those being of an ally. The blonde says she and her parents have written to Audriana in hopes of finding her so they can meet. It’s clear they don’t know what she’s done. Apparently, Swan replied this morning. If it interests you, the muggle woman might be the key to leverage against Audriana. Undoubtedly you would rather have her in your sights than wandering who knows where. Whether the inn is protected or not I of course cannot say. I do know there are people who would protect them, though.  Hopefully this helps in your attempts to bring Audriana under control.”

Swan, he wanted. Mayhem, he did not. That made them no better than the murderous Swan that he wanted to stop. Once unleashed, though, the Death Eater hellhounds, who themselves were hungry for battle, would be almost impossible to reel back in.  With a slight calculated hesitance, he fired the mosmordre to summon them all to D'Eath Manor.

Ben wasn't convinced that he fully considered himself to be the sort of person to ever be involved in Death Eater activities. His family, for starters, would have his head if he actually went through with anything particularly on the messy side. He had to attend the meeting, though. And he was supposed to report back to the Order, at this risk of his own life. He had no idea when he came in, however, that he wouldn't be getting that chance this time.

Striding into the meeting, he found himself holding the door open for a surprised looking blonde woman. She was new, it seemed, and Ben nearly lifted an eyebrow in question. Her hair was curled and pinned, despite the fact that it was decently late in the evening, and she looked at Lorcan with a shy sort of smile. It seemed almost like a nervous one, though, when he paid more attention.

She sank into a chair and Ben followed suit, sitting next to her and extending a hand in greeting.

"Jane," she offered quietly, her motions stiff and formal as if she expected something more dangerous than usual to occur. Ben waited until she looked away to frown and lean on the left arm of his chair to wait and see what they had to be worried about.

She felt it was time for a meeting. She was not quite happy because she finally found time for her to relax and enjoy, and now she had to leave everything and come here. However, there was no way to appeal.  She wondered why he convened the meeting. She knew nothing new has happened, at least not yet. But she was sure that soon all find out.

She got ready and went. She opened the door to a large room and stepped into it. In room there were a few Death Eaters that she knew from before, but no one with who wanted to talk now. She noticed some new faces. The truth is that she was one of the newer members, but already managed to fit.

She sat down on an empty chair and watched indifferently around waiting for the meeting to start.

Andraste felt the stirring of contentment, perhaps even bordering on excitement, at the draw to D'Eath manor. A soft purring thrill, rippling up and down her spine with anticipation at the meeting. It had been some time since she had been in the company of Death Eaters-- illicit activities certainly had been her companions these last several years but the Death Eaters hardly had sole claim in such territory. But now that she was back and settled in Knockturn, the shop established and doing well, Andraste craved the group in a way she hadn't expected to. To meet fellow Death Eaters, to perhaps even become a part of the community.

There was the slightest smile curling the corner of her lips as she entered the room, black hair hanging in a braid over her shoulder, robes and dress beneath billowing with each step. She recognized few faces, hardly expected to. Some she knew only by reputation, some by passing paths. But she still felt new, felt as though she were somewhat of an outsider. As though she still had much to prove. The thought reignited the thrill to dance down her spine.

Gently nodding a greeting to those she passed, she slithered towards a seat, folding her legs over one another and quietly examining the room.

This Death Eater gig was not going down the way Angelique had hoped. She didn't enjoy these endless meetings. She didn't want to talk about how much she hated mudbloods. She couldn't care less about mudbloods.

Really, what she wanted was to be pointed at the target and left to her own devices. She didn't even need to be allowed to kill. Angelique had never killed someone in her life, but she could make people hurt just by talking to them.

So when Angelique entered the meeting, she had her head down, as befitted her lowly position as probably the least important member of the Death Eaters. She didn't greet anyone. If they found her interesting enough, they would doubtless have something to say to her.

Corrine had been back in Britain for little over a week now. She'd returned to St Mungo's to work, her and Louis were as fine as they could be given how she had disappeared without a word and her brother was probably in China by now. This moment, feeling her dark mark burn, was one that she'd been dreading since her return. It was the whole reason why she had returned to Britain, so that she could attend a death eater meeting, prove that the Redgraves were still loyal and to take any attention form the fact her brother's activity had declined.

However, it was when Corrine was walking along the driveway to Death Manor she realised that her arrival could bring attention to the fact Scott wasn't there. After all it was Scott who had joined the death eaters before Corrine, it was Scott who had done various tasks for the death eaters. In fact, Corrine hadn't done anything besides attend meetings. That was probably going to change. If she wanted to win the trust of the death eaters, just as she'd won Scott's trust and helped him leave the death eaters unknowns to them, then she would have to get involved. Corrine just dreaded what 'getting involved' could mean.

Opening the door to the dining hall where death eaters were seating themselves around the gothic table Corrine went over the story in her head: We decided to go travelling, it was spontaneous but a good trip. Her Mediterranean tan would support this and if they asked where Scott was he was still travelling. Hopefully that would squash any curiosity that the death eaters may have about their loyalty and it was truth. The pair had been travelling and Scott, technically was, still travelling. There was just that little fact of he would never be returning to Death Manor. Hopefully though they wouldn't find that out.

Lorcan had been standing in the shadows, leaning his shoulder on the fireplace mantel, simply watching them arrive.  He was quiet this evening, controlled.

"Good evening," he finally spoke.  "Thank you for coming. I have a mission for you that must be done tonight. It is of a rather urgent nature."

"The Order must be taken down, and, at the same time, I want one of its members--alive, preferably," he put extra emphasis on alive.  He knew how Death Eaters could get a bit heavy handed with the unforgiveable spells.

"The Order is definitely out of order, and its time they were stopped. As some of you may recall, at our last meeting, Mr. Rookwood brought us a guest--an Order member, althugh, not in the best of shape.  Thank you again Ms. Pyrites for addressing her needs.

"Ms. Williams, so you all know, is still here. Clearly the Order is all about resting on the laurels of its forefathers and not about doing anything of any significance. I find it hard, with their touting the 'greater good' ideology, and then knowingly leaving one of their own as a hostage this long." 

Eleanor Williams had found it heartbreaking to find that her enemy treated her far better than her friends. Now, Lorcan thought, she was here quite as much by her own will as it was that she still served as a hostage.  It had been too long, and she did not believe the Order cared about her. Owls to the Order had gone unresponded to.  For them to leave her behind was, Lorcan believed, unforgiveable--more unforgiveable than his taking her to begin with.

"Their continuous lies to the wizarding public have to stop---all the about who they are and what they want to teach everyone about what's right and wrong in the wizarding world.  Its become nothing but propaganda, and I don't want it to continue. As a parent, I, for one, don't want any wizarding children brought up to believe in empty promises.

"If that weren't bad enough, one of their own is still on the loose after attempting to poison the Minister. Frankly, for our purposes, we need Lupin right where he is, at least for the moment.  We can't afford to not support the Ministry right now. Lupin's plan is the lesser of the evils. His aurors apparently are still as incompetent as ever and have done nothing about Swan's attempt on his life, but we don't dare allow Swan another chance at it.  We don't need muggles here, but neither do we need them running about their own world with powers they don't understand and can't control. 

"Its why I gave the Ministry a property for the muggles for housing.  I want them in a safe place where we know where the devil they are. They can't be willing medical guinea pigs of we have them scampering about, now can we? I want the Ministry to have the time to find whatever's caused this and put a stop to it. Once we do, it will be a matter of a simple obliviate and send them all back to the muggle world and wash out hands of them once and for all.  Its my understanding that the Order is all good and well with some of the muggles remaining after they've been cured of whatever's plagued them.  Nonsense. Wizarding numbers are small enough without that.

"I've been given some information which suggests that the Order's murderous Ms. Swan has a muggle sister. A muggle sister who now resides at the Buckley.  How fortuitous!

"If you're skilled enough, you can go to the Buckley, apprehend Ms. Swan's sister, and, when the Order comes to defend the inn, you can deal with them appropriately.  Bring the sister to me, as unharmed as you can manage. Questions so far?"

The first thing that Ben latched onto was the fact that Lorcan mentioned wanting a hostage from the Order. Was one not good enough? He hadn't been able to mention Eleanor, if only because he knew her, and wasn't sure any word had been sent to the Order. If it had made it to its intended target - any of them, really - someone would have reacted. Ellie wasn't disliked, after all, and Ben was sure that at least one person had noticed her absence, even if he wasn't actually part of the order. The fact that Declan hadn't created a search party by now was surprising, but Ben couldn't blame him. He knew he had no right to do so, and it was just sheer luck that Eleanor didn't know about Ben's obligations to the Order yet. Otherwise he would probably already have been killed.

When the time for questions came, Ben sat forward and nodded. "I don't mean any disrespect, but I wanted to clarify. You want a new Order member brought in? Or have they not been informed about Williams yet? I find it hard to believe that Dyllan - or any of the others, really - would have ignored that. She, perhaps more than any of them, has that obvious need to rush in and fix things herself. I'm not sure what your plan is there, and that's entirely your business," he added, holding his hands up in a sort of surrender-esque motion. He didn't need to make waves, but he needed to know if the Order had truly ignored it. If they had, he had no room to interfere, particularly if she was being taken care of. If Rookwood had been in charge of her, Bentley definitely would have reacted differently.

"But, essentially, I'm asking if you want someone brought back from the Inn. I completely agree that they're going to show up and make things messy, but aside from the girl - who, by the way, do we have a name or anything to recognize her by? - are we just dealing with the others and leaving them?"

Ben, silently of course, was set off by the idea. But he had gotten himself into this mess and he wasn't about to lose his cool and rat himself out when he was still convincing the Order that he was willing to help them. It was a risk, but it made those around him feel more comfortable, and that was something at least. The only hope that Ben actually had for the Death Eaters was in the hands of Lorcan himself, as he seemed far more rational than most of the others sat around the table. Ben, of course, couldn't attest to the reactionary qualities of all of them, but at least their leader seemed to think things through. Surely that would help down the road if things got even more drastic.

"Thank you for asking, Mr. Pierson. No. I do not want another Order member. I want the sister. I want Swan's sister because I want Swan. I think you're a resourceful enough bunch to know how to extract information to find out which muggle is the one we want, aren't you? There are some time honored traditions worth hanging onto," he said.  He didn't care what they did to witches, wizards, muggles, if it got the Death Eaters the information they needed. Lorcan simply considered information extraction to be a basic skill, whether it was veritaserum or something a bit more dramatic. Results were what Lorcan wanted.


And ultimately he wanted two things. First, he wanted the destruction of the Order. Secondly, he wanted Audriana Swan. Period.  Swan wasn't exactly going to simply show up at D'Eath Manor and surrender, not without reason.  Perhaps a sister would be a bit of bait, willingly or not. Lorcan didn't care about that. 


"The sister is merely incentive. Do try not to kill her. Bait is not as effective when it's dead. If you get Swan herself, leave the sister behind. Beyond helping us get the real prey, the muggle sister has little use to us. In another day and time, she'd have been a very useful innocent that the Order would have put their lives on the line for. Now, their battles seem to be waged in terms of P.R. and verbal political rhetoric.


"But, what do I intend you to do with them when they undoubtedly show up? I don't give a jot about them. Kill them all for all I care.  I intend to break the Order of the Phoenix to bits. Its about half a century overdue, don't you agree?

"As for Ms. Williams, I did send owls. The wizarding world does not, as a rule, have a problem with our postal service, unlike the muggle world. And, as I sent more than one owl, using more than one bird, I think its safe to presume one of them got the message. 


"Even if they had not, if they are as bloody bonded as they'd like us all to think they are, it should have made the Daily Prophet's headlines, if they'd given a damn about her, saying she'd gone missing, and should have been looking under every garden rock trying to find her.  Any way you figure it, its inexcusable, except as some sort of screw up.

"As far as Ms. Williams herself is concerned, she has recovered from her wounds and is in excellent health. I've told her everything I know. I've held nothing back from her, and, as it stands, she has free access to all of the estate and is abundantly provided for. She is certainly not chained to the dungeon walls. Nor is she in any sort of distress that I can see. As I told you all when she arrived, she's my guest, and she's being treated as any other dignitary I might host. Even if the Order wanted to negotiate her release today, I'm honestly not sure she'd go, and I can't blame her. What could they offer her now? To go back to what, exactly? To go from how she's treated here to go back to being a doormat with her so-called 'friends' who didn't come for her? She can certainly choose what she wants when the time comes to let her go, but if she chooses to stay, I won't turn her down. She'll be permitted to stay."

Corrine had been apprehensive about attending the meeting, more so because of her absence the past three months and the continued absence of her brother. Thankfully, it seemed the death eaters had been too busy caught up in planning and capturing an order member to notice that a pair of amateur death eaters hadn't been at the meetings. Moreover nobody acknowledged her arrival. Did they even recognise her? Know who she was? Corrine wasn't complaining she was grateful that nobody questioned her of where she had been but it started to make her think perhaps she could have gotten away of leaving the death eaters along with her brother without the need for them to be 'travelling' as an excuse for why their activity had stopped. Still, the 'once-a-death-eater-always-a-death-eater' phrase rang in her head and for good reason.

Lorcan D'Eath had briefed them on a mission. He'd divulged their plans, what the motives of the death eaters was and it was this information that made that familiar phrase ring around Corrine's head. Even if she wasn't an overly active member of the faction she still knew stuff and there was always that risk that she would spill if they willingly let her leave. For that she reminded herself that she would have to stay. Plus they offered her protection. If the ministry had investigated the disappearance of the muggle her brother had killed then the death eaters would have helped them out. Corrine may not agree with the death eaters but if there was one reassuring thing about being a member was that she felt safer if that were possible. They treated each other like family and Corrine had almost no family at all. She would have to continue to go along with their plans and avoid the dirty stuff as best she could.

Her throat dried. Lorcan had mentioned killing order members. The last thing Corrine could do was kill an order member or anyone for that matter. Her heart was in her stomach and images of the muggles dead body flashed in her mind at the mention of the muggles and killing. Already the positive image of the death eaters she'd tried to form in her mind to protect her from the darkness of the faction had melted away. The reality was Corrine was trapped in a faction that she didn't belong. She wasn't an order member, she wasn't anything. Corrine wished to stay out of any drama but now she was tied up as a death eater and would have to continue her role, prove her loyalty.

'You said that the mission will need to be carried out today, Mr D'Eath. But, when exactly will it begin?' Corrine found her saying and blushing a ruby red in the process. The ex-Hufflepuff hadn't intended to speak out, she had told herself she would remain quiet but a fear of what could happen that night, what she would find herself involved in was a shock to her system and she needed to be prepared.

(ooc: sorry my reply is so late. I know the battle has began but I figured I'd reply to get myself in the frame of mind that Corrine will be in).