visiting the headmaster

"How could I possibly help Shacklebolt when I do not have any idea where he is? Stop being so paranoid. Furthermore, he can take very good care of himself. He apparently does not need my help because he has not contacted me. The fact remains that you are here now, and so am I, even though neither one of us might like it much. Furthermore, we are stuck with each other. If you find Emof, you will need me to help you to determine if he can be cured. And I will need you just as much to contain him so I can see if I can help him. Now--can we establish some compromise that does not threaten either of us?"

Vincent nodded as she talked, once again avoiding the unbreakable vow. "Sure we can," he said calmly. "But I do not see you helping me in any way so why should I help you? I do not care for your help to find and cure Ne'os, he can die for all I care."

"I already am helping you. You know as well as I do that the ministry hides much of what it really does from the wizard pubic to avoid outrage and a dmand for reform. Otherwise, the newpapers would be honest and would not need ministry control and sanction. Regardless of what your plans are, the ministry does need the wizarding public to believe that Hogwarts is not just surviving but that it is thriving under your tenure. That cannot happen without happy students. And you know I get on with the students. They trust me. As long as I am here, they will believe Hogwarts is the same safe, wonderful utopia it has always been. If I leave, for any reason, the stuents will wonder. You do, I'm quite sure, recall, how quickly they came to my rescue when I left the hospital wing. You need positive influences like me to keep up the image Hogwarts has.

"Furthermore, if you were to have an adversary, better that you have one like me who is willing to lay her cards on the table than to have one who is more insidious. You get more help from me than you give me credit for."

"So your threatening me now? Or is this blackmail? If I don't do as you say, you will leave my school?" Vincent asked, raising his eyebrows. She was right enough to say that if the students complained against him, it would not be good for his reputation.

"Certainly not. If I were threatening you, I would tell you very plainly it was a threat. You said I was not helping you, and I was merely disagreeing with you. I think I do help you. It was merely an observation on my part. I have no intention of leaving at this point. I hadn't thought about it, honestly. Do you want to know something? In all truth, I did not take the full time teaching post here deliberately. It would have been probably easy enough to transfer from part time to full time. Did you ever ask why I did not do that? I'll tell you. I did not take it because I wanted to stay out of the way of the ministry. I have no desire to take on battling the ministry all by myself. These different political factions have been going on now for generations. At the end of the day, I still want to have a life that I love, instead of looking over my shoulder all the time. I have no battle with you. If you want to know who is on my list that I want to irradicate if I have the chance, then look at the death eaters. I want them and every trace of Voldemorts regime wiped out. And that is something I've never made any bones about."

Vincent continued nodding as Khaat talked, listening to her intently. She was making him very confused. "Well then, I do not understand Khaat. Let us go back a step, you want me to help you find the family of this child. I said that I do not see a reason to help her if you do not do anything for me. And then you said that you are helping me by staying at this school. Does that mean that if I do not help you find the family of this child, then you will leave this school? And if it doesn't, what do you have to offer to me, to make me help you? See, you said your not stepping in the way of the ministry, very well. But I still don't see a reason for myself to help you or this little girl."

"Well, perhaps I have no more to offer you than the assurance that I have no intention of leaving Hogwarts at this point. In addition, I have no intentions of stepping in your way or the ministry's unless you intentionally harm or kill a student--which we both already know you and the ministry cannot afford to do. I also have offered you my honesty, which is more than your other opponents give you. At least if we will disagree, you will know it from me directly and not someone else. I have done nothing behind your back. I am quite sure you and the ministry are not offered that by much of anybody else. I have told you quite honestly that I have no fight except with the followers of Voldemort, and I meant it. And I presume that you and I and the ministry do all agree that his followers must not be allowed to take dominion over the wizarding world. I have no reason to try to interfere. And certainly not while the ones I love are here. That would be incredibly stupid on my part. There is more at stake for me to strike up a fight with you than you know."

Vincent watched her carefully, biting his lip. He still didn't understand why he should help her, but he shrugged it off. It wouldn't matter in the long run, he knew that Khaat would not change her opinion of him, but by helping her, he would put her in his debt. Which was almost equally useful as making her swear the unbreakable vow. "I will help you, in the hope that sometime in the near future you will look back and realize that I am not as bad as you and the others believe me to be," he said calmly.

Khaat had not intended for Majere to help her. His relenting was a little unexpected. However, she had taken considerable time to think about what she was doing before she had come to his office. She knew Majere did nothing without a string attached, and she didn't know what this one would be. He had made it clear from this discussion that he expected a payback for everything he did, particularly when a request came from an enemy. He did not have altruism in his vocabularly. She would eventually pay for this meeting in some way or another, but saving another life was something her family believed was something worth dying for. So she was laying it all on the line for a child. "Thank you," was her only reply. She waited to hear what was next.

Vincent smiled, perhaps he hadn't achieved as much as he could of, but at least he had made Khaat in his debt, all for helping a stupid girl. "I don't really feel like helping her of course, as she's a drop out, but if I must," Vincent shrugged, and waved his wand at the drawer again, causing another file to come out. "Dlyanne West, works at Madam Malkins. Perhaps she lives at Diagon Alley or near there," Vincent said, pursing his lips. Clearly she was just another average witch. "I'll ask people at the ministry to locate her whereabouts."