Meeting No. ?

"That's where you're wrong James," Matt said. "I know exactly how to get a Death Eater out of the castle," he told them. "And for the record, this specific Death Eater I have in mind. I know everything about, tactics, favourite spells, the works." he told him. "It may be irrational yes, but breaking in is just as irrational. Yes I completely agree with your Auror reasoning, that is why I don't want them to take part in this. But let's not argue here, we need to actually get something done. Kidnapping, irrational yes, trying to break into the castle, even more irrational, sending someone into their ranks...well that's just...foolish. Sorry Mari." he said. "Kidnapping may be the only thing we have at the moment," he said, he turned to face Phaedra. "You're Phaedra right? The one Rob kidnapped..." he asked. "Well they do have weak points, and I know alot of them." he told them. "For the men, all they really want is money and women..." he said sighing. "Women, well they're a little smarter...they know when somethings a trick." he told them. "So they'll want power...they'll want material objects." he added.

''Who, Lestrange? Wasn't I clear enough the first time? Yes, we can bribe them, we can kidnap them, but sooner or later we will break into that bloody fort and sooner or later we will need a plan just for that. And, Lestrange, do you have those material objects that the Dark Army would want in order to give us what we need? The Order does not have funds and it would be unethical to give them women... tell me Lestrange, what is it that you have been hiding from Jess this whole time?'', he asked.

"My Aunt Bellatrix," he said plainly. "I know her like the back of my hand, she'll be easy for me to capture if we need to." he told him. "I'm not hiding anything from Jess, he knows everything about me." he said. "He had to if he wanted to trust me that is. However if you find a way to break into the castle you can call me. But right now, I'm sure that it's almost impossible. Hold on one minute, I can't just make these items appear." he said. "These items might take me months to get...well the higher ones on the latter that is. But I can dip into Ministry's funds I'm sure and use it to buy some of these items..or bribe the Death Eaters"

''Bellatrix Lestrange? Bloody hell, she is still alive? I truly am out of touch? Wasn't she killed in.. the Battle of Hogwarts?'', he wondered. ''Well, it is nice to know that the Ministry doesn't just care about the papers, but we need those items sooner than later. Anyone else has something to add?'', he asked.

"I realize that you understood my goals," Khaat said. "But if you want to use me, you'll do it my way or not at all. I will not, under any circumstances, lie to Vincent Majere. He would detect it instantly, and it would undo any benefit we might accomplish and only escalate the problem. He knows I will not feed him any information, but I have never once lied to him, and I refuse to start now. Anything we might accomplish will only happen if he finds there is someone he can trust. He made it clear he does not trust you now, as necessary as you are to him. So I may be considerably more valuable to him in some ways at the moment--if for nothing more than to provide him some perception that he has access of the obvious political connections I have to both the Order and the Ministry. That will, no doubt be very attractive to him right now. Now--will you trust me to handle that my way, or not? I appear to have made a successful contactt there on my own, so I suggest you trust me to handle my own relationships. Either way, though, I daresay, it will change little regarding any interactions I have with Vincent. Just so you know. It simply will not be anything I will discuss with the Order." The last thing Khaat wanted was Wilson trying to interfere and maniplate Vincent through her. She would have no part of anyone tinkering in that. The Order would either trust her, or do without what she might be able to provide.

There was definitely something in Khaat’s monologue that didn’t quite add up in Phaedra’s brain. Not much of it made sense and it wasn’t really completely logical if you really thought about it. “Hold on a minute.” She said, her eyebrows knitting together in frustration and confusion. “If you want anything done then surely you must lie through your teeth to do so? You can hardly tell him your intentions as soon as you walk through the doors. You may as well go home if that is the case. It does not take much for a lie to be believable. If you say it to yourself for a long enough period of time then it will be believed in your own brain. I think your relationship is a unique one. I think you will not lie to him because he is dominant over you and you move not to change that. I think you like being the submissive because he gives you a sense of comfort that no one else can, perhaps. There is also no reason, apart from tending to our fallen leader, for you to be in that castle unless you make social visits to the man often.” Phaedra said brazenly, carefully trying to make sense of the woman’s relationship with the Headmaster in her mind. “There has to be a sense of control from the Order’s point of view on the situation at hand. You cannot simply go off on a....” Phaedra quickly searched for the fitting word in her mind. “tangent and come up with your own plot and story ideas. It cannot work like that otherwise what we seek to achieve will be forgotten in an instant as the lines of reality become blurred and one forgets what the task is at hand. You need to be clear in your mind about what you intend on doing because otherwise,” Phaedra smirked. “It is a waste of skin.”

"With all due respect, Phaedra, you don't have a clue. And maybe that's where all this conjecture is coming from...."Khaat began. She looked again at Wilson. "Although there are some of us here who do understand at least some fundamentals on managing casual relationships with people who have different political alliances from our own. I am not the first one in the Order to do this, and I sorely doubt I will be the last. And we have not thus far, as an organization, meddled in their personal lives. Have we, Wilson?" To the best of her knowledge his relationship with Narcissa was his own and was not the subject of or run by the Order. For some reason, she was not receiving the same respect by her collegues here.

"Khaat," her father interrupted, "They don't get it, apparently. So let us put the cards clearly on the table for them, shall we? Just because we Lupins have been able to make and keep friends on both sides of the law, does not mean we allow ourselves to be double agents. Nor does it mean we allow ourselves to be walked upon. We have learned, through necessity, that we can see, generally speaking, the potential for good and for bad in people and go into those relationships openly, honestly and with our eyes wide open.

"Here is the bottom line--as clearly as we can make it for you. Khaat is a member of the Order, and she has a great many friends, both white light practitioners and dark arts practioners--as do I, and as did my brother, Sirius, Albus Dumbledore and many of our other famous founding members. The key is in the boundaries one sets in those relationships. I fail to see why so many of you seem to think Khaat cannot have a relationship with Vincent Majere without her being his puppet because she LIKES being dominated? How utterly ridiculous. The reasons she might have interaction with Vincent could be many, but boils down to one--he is her friend. Whether you all like it or not. They are friends, and although that might present both advantages and insecurities for you all, that's simply where it stands. She's not involved with him for the purpose of a mission for the Order at all. I will support her in continuing to have an independent relationship that is not run by this organization. Her conversations and choices within that do not need to be controlled by the Order. You'll all simply have to choose whether you trust her or not. But she has never given this organization reason to doubt her motives or allegience, and do not think for one moment Vincent Majere does not know where her loyalties lie. And she is well aware what his allegiences are. There is still room for them to meet on common ground in between their political beliefs. "

"He does not press me to give him information about you," Khaat said, "Unlike you lot who have done nothing but press my relationship with him since the subject came up. It seems to me that he treats me far better and is a far better friend that some of you are doing or capable of being. Perhaps I have no value here as a member here after all if none of you can trust my judgement with my own friends. "

''How stupid can you get? It seems you do not remember, or just do not listen, what I am saying'', he said, bewildered. ''I don't want to manipulate Majere, there is no need for that. He is strong, but he is not a threat, trust me. You personal relationship with Majere, whatever it may be, is of no interest to me, but your business relationship is not only of interest to me, but to the whole organization. The fact that he had allowed a registered Order member to heal Jess tells us something and even more than that. And that is always useful'', he explained. ''I do not care if he is your friend, lover, brother, sister, mother... whatever. That is irrelevant both to me and the organization. The interesting thing is that he had called you, a member of the Order, despite being his friend, into the Dark Army lair... that is what interests me and that is what I want to know about Vincent. Playing double agent would mean that you would work for them, because you are working for us and not for them, at least not obviously. but I do not believe that. I have never asked Khaat to spy on him, I have never asked her to join him nor have I asked anything but the information she has or will get during his talks. You are on no assignment, you do not have to ask him anything, just... tell me whet he does that is relevant to our goal. If you are having tea, I do not care, but if he tortures and or thinks of letting Jess escape, that is something I, well... we, need to know. I do not want you to abuse your friendship... I just want the information that could be relevant to our goal. As said, you have no mission, no assignment, nothing... just do the usual and report if he does anything unusual. That is it'', he finished.

"Khaat, don't be rash." Matt said. "Wilson, you know what I've learned in my years?" he asked. "It's that things go smoother when you're not being a prick!" he said angrily. "Calling people stupid, and bashing them doesn't help anyone here!" he finished angrily. God he was always a prick, he was determined to get this jerk out of here. "Wilson....I highly doubt anyone would want to be a double agent here." he said.

"I would never have done otherwise," Khaat said. "If he pass along anything that is that beneficial to the Order, I will certainly pass that along. But, realistically, I do not believe I will learn anything that you do not already know yourself, Wilson. You have been privvy to a great deal, at least up til now. I trust that will not change, if for no other reason than Vincent needs you.

"I also presume you have some idea or plan to keep some of the information that Jess has in his head from getting to the Death Eaters. You know as well as I do that, as the Order's secret keeper, Jess can compromise us a good deal by what he might be forced to reveal. And we know that I can only buy a certain amount of time for him. I will do my best, but I don't know how much I can do.

"I am not discounting the multiple concerns we face here, Wilson. I am merely a trifle concerned that many of those concerns could be dramatically changed or escalated depending on what they learn from Jess, and in that respect we are seriously working against time. But I trust you've considered that already. "