Hot Chocolate // Site Event. Dementor Aftermath

Lucien had aided as much people as he could while balancing his attention with keeping Dementors away from him. He had tried his best to help where he could which was how he found himself at Gringott's, helping those who got too close at the Dementors. He helped pass around chocolate to the affected ones and saw a familiar face. "Mali... you alright?" he asked softly to the female he met not too long ago. Of course, he recognize Remus Lupin (who would be teaching DADA the coming term) as well as Tristan McAlister who was a former Slytherin, a year ahead of Lucien himself and a Medi-Wizard at St. Mungo's too.

"Professor Lupin, I wish to say its a pleasure to meet you however, the situation isn't as best as I wish it would. Lucien Pardaillan de Godrin, new Hogwarts Healer this term." he introduced himself to the man.

Even if the wracking sobs had died down, Mali Johar didn't seem quite ready to give him any sort of answer. She couldn't even let him know how she was feeling, though that may have just been a result of being interrupted more than anything. A young man approached the pair around Mali's cot and spoke to her like he knew her. Remus wondered if this was perhaps the Theo she spoke of earlier in the Alley. She seemed unable to answer him, as well, but the young man was introducing himself as @iamsophie. He looked to be about the right age to have been one of Remus' students in his previous brief foray into teaching, and the name certainly rang a bell. He knew who Remus was, at any rate. Remus climbed to his feet, planning on going through the polite formalities and then perhaps asking for a little privacy, as Mali didn't seem particularly inclined to talk to anyone right now - but if she did talk, Remus wanted it to be to him.

"It's good to make your acquaintance, at any rate, Lucien. I'm sure your services could be of great use at the moment." Remus turned to look around the makeshift hospital and noted that Mali was on her feet, looking very unsteady but turning to leave all the same. Damn. "I'm not sure that's the best idea right now, Mali...," he began, but trailed off into a sigh as she did indeed walk away. Remus certainly didn't want to pressure her in this state, but he couldn't let her get away from him completely - if she remembered what she revealed to him while laying in the Alley, she might make it very difficult for him to find her again. As a compromise, and to avoid looking very suspicious to Lucien, Remus let her wander away, all the while watching her from the corner of his eye.

"She's had a rough day," he said, turning back to Lucien. "But I think she'll be fine. She's just overwhelmed, I think. I'd like to check on her, alone, if you don't mind? I'm sure we'll be able to catch up another time - I'll be starting at the school again this fall, as well." Remus was shifting on his heels, eager to disengage and get back to Mali, but not wanting to look that way. Over Lucien's shoulder, he saw a worried looking man approaching them. "I believe that man could use your help," Remus said, nodding at the approaching fellow. "It was very good to meet you, Lucien."

With that, Remus turned away and hurried off in the direction Mali disappeared. He lost sight of her for several seconds, but it was no matter - he was now intimately familiar with the sound of her sobs, and soon found her weeping behind the bank counter. Oh, dear. Remus sighed and slid down next to her, scratching at his stubbly face for some moments as he worked out just how to go about this. If she just never stopped crying, he'd never get his answers. As gently as possible, Remus reached over and put a hand on her shoulder, turning his head against the wood to look at her. "Mali, I know you feel terrible right now, but...," he spoke very quietly, and sighed again even quieter. This had to be done, he could think of no other way. "Mali, Frank Longbottom was my friend. If you know what happened...I need to know. You can take your time...but I need to know before I can leave you alone."

The inside of Gringotts looked like a makeshift field hospital from a Muggle war movie. Not that Raven was really paying much attention. She had taken refuge on a hard bench on the far side of the room, well away from all the chaos. Her knees were pulled up to her chest, heels resting on the edge of the bench as she tried to stop sobbing into her knees. At least the flood of tears was silent. She had already shooed off one healer, insisting there were others in far worse shape. She would be fine. She had survived worse. Although right now it didn’t feel like it, seeing as all those carefully buried memories were once more parading around her brain. Every time she thought she had finally gotten it to stop, another flash of forgotten detail, painfully sharp in the clarity only excruciating pain could create, caused her to start crying all over again. Her breathing was hopelessly shaky, and anyone who had happened to get close would probably have noticed a tremor in her shoulders. Not that anyone was actually paying attention. There was a reason she had pulled as far away as possible. No amount of chocolate would fix this. She had been fighting this battle for three years with questionable results. All she could do was hunker down and hope the storm ended soon.

She was nearing the end of what would hopefully be the final round of crying when a hand touched her trembling shoulders. Raven’s head jerked up, eyes painfully red and face streaked with tears still flowing. To her utter mortification, she found herself staring up at Minerva McGonagall . Shit. That was all she needed. Her new boss seeing her in this state and deciding she was a basket case. Raven quickly wiped her cheeks with her hands as she tried with all her might to force her stuttering lungs into an even pattern. “I’m fine,” she insisted, although her shaking voice and the damp patches on her knees made it painfully obvious just how far that was from the truth. The slight hitch in her breathing wasn’t helping either. She pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes roaming the mess of people and cots a short distance away to avoid looking up at the Hogwarts headmistress. “Do they need any help?” It was pretty clear from her pale face and shaky state though that she wasn’t going anywhere of much use anytime soon. How the mighty had fallen. From auror to damsel, from strong asset to serious liability. She had been an idiot for ever thinking she could handle being back here. Clearly she was far too broken for that. Maybe it was time to finally admit she was beaten. Pack up her things and go back to hiding in the African wilderness. At least there no one would get hurt trying to save her.


(OOC - Hope you don't mind Gen! Everybody else she knows is occupied...)

Her getaway felt clean. Mister, no Professor Lupin had said something but she wasn't really sure what and had no desire to stick around to find out. There were too many people there and Mali found it difficult to be around both of them. A Professor that she mistreated and a Healer who would likely be appalled if he found out what she'd done. Mali hid away behind the desk, kept mostly from view. If only she could be quiet, but her sorrow betrayed her and drew the Professor in, who had no intention of letting her out of his sight for long. The hand on her shoulder startled her, and Mali shrugged it off. Not that his touch was nefarious, but because it was too good. It was a comforting measure from a man she denied comfort to. Not for long, he eventually got the medication, but to have denied him even for a second and then accept it from him was wrong. Mister Lupin couldn't be all that terrible, he came with chocolate and supportive hands on shoulders. Maybe his second story checked out... but then who on earth took on a couple of dark wizards and then hobbled off to the hospital after without notifying the Ministry? Maybe he wasn't dark, but there was definitely more to him than kindly professor.

Frank Longbottom was his friend. The name raked across her heart. No one deserved what Frank Longbottom and Mister Fischer got. One dragged from his bed to be murdered, the other slaughtered after having his mind broken years ago by a torture curse. Terrible didn't even begin to describe what she felt. The secret she and Theo kept always weighed heavly on her, but never so much as now, knowng someone who knew and cared for one of the deceased was next to her after having essentially saved her life. Dementors didn't really kill, but life as an empty shell would have been a fate worse than death. You couldn't be at peace with your soul torn from your body, you were nothing at all. No peace, no chaos, just an empty blinking, breathing vessel that would never know the afterlife.

Mali shifted, folding her legs and crossing her arms, shoulders slumping under the enormous weight of the secret she'd already half told. It was a terrible burden, but maybe it would be more tolerable if there was someone else to carry it too. Something about Lupin felt safe, and she desperately owed him. Mali didn't answer him for several long moments, biting nervously at her lower lip as she scraped up enough nerve to speak. Unfolding her arms, she fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and pointedly did not look at Mister Lupin.

Finally, she nodded. "I know what happened, I was there." There was a crack in her voice, tears threatening again but she pushed on, volume low. "I was trying to go home when it happened, but my patients are so vulnerable, I couldn't leave them. People were preoccupied with the bottom floors and protecting Stark, so I went back to the Spell Damage Unit. The door to the Janus Thickey ward was open. It wasn't supposed to be, it's s'posed to stay locked. The patients there can't be left to wander. A Death Eater couldn't have opened it, but a Healer knows better than to leave it open behind them."

This felt like a terrible betrayal to Theo, but she couldn't stop now. A sick feeling settled into her stomach, and Mali glanced up at Lupin before continuing, abandoning her shirt hem in favor of wringing her hands. "Theo was there. He's a Medi-Wizard. A really, really good one. He'd never hurt anyone on his own, maybe he'd fight you in a bar but he'd never hurt anyone. Never intentionally. He's kind, he doesn't always seem like it, but he is. A Death Eater was with him." Mali closed her eyes briefly, face scrunching as she dug through her memory. The woman's face seemed sort've familiar but not. "I'd seen her on a Wanted poster or two, but I don't know who she is other than that she's a terrible, terrible person. She had Theo under the Imperius spell." The burden of their secret didn't feel any lighter, infact it felt heavier, betrayal and confession piling on top of murder. "I didn't see her cast it, but I knew he wasn't acting himself. He had Mister Fischer, one of my patients who thought he was a troll."

The scene was playing out in her head again and it was terrible. As long as she tried to forget what happened she was reliving it for the second time in the span of hours. This time felt less vivid than before, it was easier to recall though still awful. "The woman was all over him. I'm no good at dueling, I should've went to get someone, Stark's room wasn't far, but I couldn't leave Mister Fischer. I managed to disarm him for a moment, and I tried to reason with him. He almost was there, I think, but the Death Eater just touched him again and made him do it. She made him kill Mister Fischer. He used the killing curse and he did it. Theo killed him, and he didn't understand what he did. He was confused and agitated." And now, she was getting to the part that would most interest Mister Lupin. Her voice dropped and flattened, resisting her strong urge to disintegrate into sobs again.

"And Mister Longbottom, I think he was drawn out by the noise. He used to be an Auror." Of course, as his friend Lupin must have known that bit, but it felt important to say anyway. The man deserved to have his achievements remembered. "I think maybe he recognized the woman or at least felt like he had to do something because of what he used to be. He and Mrs. Longbottom remember more than people realize, they just don't remember it for long. It comes in little fleeting moments. She wanted him dead. So Theo had to kill him, and he died the same exact way. Theo was reluctant, but he still had to. The spell made him. He would've never done it, he tried not too. The woman must've been satisfied, or she heard something--I dunno, but she left and Theo was himself again. We panicked. We didn't know what to do. I didn't even know if I believed him about the spell at the time. He wasn't acting like himself at all, but he still did it. He didn't want to, but he did. He killed them both. They're dead because of him. We left them there, because we didn't know what else to do, and we haven't told anyone else. He doesn't deserve to go to Azkaban for it. He didn't want to do it, she made him."

Mali shook her head, agitatedly running a hand through her hair. "I don't think it makes sense unless you were there, and you could've seen him but he wouldn't have hurt them without her. She forced it, he took care of those people. Mister Fischer and Mister Longbottom and everyone else. He takes care of people, that's his job." Through out the entire story, Mali didn't look at Mister Lupin or anywhere else but the floor or her hands or a spot on the far wall. It was too much, the darkest thing about the man was his chocolate, while she helped cover up murders committed by her boyfriend. How wrong she was, and how awful it made her feel.

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Remus Lupin

Mali Johar crumpled in on herself, rejecting what was meant as an outreach of comfort - though he supposed, coming from him, it might not have been very comfortable for her. She had thanked him just a moment ago, but no apologies as of yet. She might still very well think him a Dark wizard (even if he did have a pretty spectacular Patronus) and not too many people found that comforting at all. Still, Remus was trying his best. Both for her sake - so she wasn't left a lonely sobbing mess, the poor (accusatory) dear; and his - or for Frank's sake, really. For Neville. They were all left clueless in the death of the Longbottom patriarch and the temptation of answers, finally, much too strong to resist. The Order was a family as much as any of them had ever had, and justice imperative in the loss of one of their own. They all had good reason to take this war and its aftermath very personally, every single one of them.

Remus was actually surprised when she spoke. He was staring at a point beyond Mali's head, contemplating how he could at least keep track of her if she wouldn't answer him now, when she actually spoke up - making him jump a bit. He played it off as a stretch and settled in to listen, watching her closely without looking like he was watching her closely - Mali was obviously a bit fragile, and the intensity with which Remus wanted these answers could easily be intimidating. But if she tried to lie to him...he had to listen to it all, just in case. Not just her words, but her body language, her expressions. Remus learned quite a bit about the subtleties of nonverbal communication while he was busy trying not to die during his time infiltrating the werewolf packs in the war. He was no expert, but he did consider himself an observant man. He could piece the puzzle together, so to speak, as long as he got all the pieces first.

Apparently Mali was at the scene of the crime. This gave Remus a very heavy feeling in his gut, but he stayed quiet. He had to give her a chance; after a lifetime of leaps against him, Remus was very wary of jumping to conclusions. He followed the girl's story, into which a character named Theo soon entered. Remus was very interested in this Theo - because according to Mali, he was a murderer; and for some reason, he hadn't been caught yet. This was a very odd thing - made a little more understandable by Mali's next mentions, tales of Death Eaters and Imperius Curses. This time he did look her straight in the face, for any dishonesty that lurked there. Such testimony was an utter linchpin in cases such as these - lots of people lied about being under the Imperius Curse when their guy ended up losing the war. It was a very convenient out - especially when the supposed Death Eater casting the curse on them was unknown and their wand couldn't be checked.

Theo the Medi-Wizard's only salvation lay in how convincing Mali could be of his character. Remus had no reason to trust Mali, really. She accused him of things he didn't do, refused him relief, and still hadn't shown that she trusted him at all. She could be feeding him utter bullshit, for any number of reasons. Maybe she was the Dark one...For some reason, Remus just couldn't quite convince himself of that. Maybe he was just a sucker of an old man, but he thought it might lay in how very vulnerable she seemed. That was a result of the dementors, too, to be sure - but something else was there. A candidness in the way she spoke. The way she spoke about Frank and Alice, especially - she knew them, too. Cared for them. That resonated with Remus; empathy was a hard thing to fake, even for the best liars in the world.

And then she was implicating herself, and that virtually sealed the deal for Remus. It wasn't just 'Theo did it' - it was 'we'. Mali and Theo left their dead patients and didn't tell anyone what happened. Theo was a killer, but Mali was an accomplice. Remus wasn't quite sure what he was expecting to hear from the girl, but it was probably not this - so of course he had no choice but to believe it. Why else would she get herself in trouble? She wasn't covering up for anyone, finding Theo would be easy now with his name and occupation...

"Do you believe him now? Do you really believe it was the Imperius Curse? Think very hard, Mali. Did you not tell anyone because you believed him - or because you didn't?" Remus had no qualms about seeing intense or intimidating now. At least she wasn't sobbing anymore. This was imperative to Remus - if Mali truly believed Theo acted under duress, they would go from there. He was choosing to put trust in her, because these were answers and while he couldn't be totally sure they were accurate, it was more than anything else they had to go on. But if Mali had doubts about Theo's authenticity herself, that was a whole other, very dangerous can of worms to be opened.

So this was it, this is what it felt like to betray the trust of someone important, spill your soul to what was essentially a stranger. Instead of feeling lighter, like she was sharing the burden, Mali only felt heavy with betrayal and maybe a little exposed, like she'd shown her entire hand and now had nothing left. Remus listened as she spoke and to his credit he didn't run off and inform the aurors. No one was dragging Theo out of his house in chains to throw in a cell to rot. He was right there by her side. That earned him a smidge and Mali unfolded a little. Her shoulders were straight, not slumped in defeat and her legs stretched out in front of her.

That trust may have been misguided and he was asking questions. Mali looked at Mister Lupin for a moment, eyebrows knitting together as she tried to read his expression. She didn't need long to answer his question and she nodded, looking back at her hands folded in her lap. "I believe him. I trust him." Did she deserve that trust in return? Maybe not, considering she essentially sold him out but something about Remus Lupin felt genuine. Her thoughts turned to Theo and a ghost of a smile settled on her lips. Although a lot of it was in her head, she felt terribly cold even after the dementors were long gone but Theo brought her a pleasant heat that started in her chest and radiated outward, warming her right up.

Her gaze snapped up as an Auror passed by. They were all over the place, prowling rows upon rows of cots, vigilant for the first sign of trouble. Some were trailed by faint silver animals, although most of the patronuses acted as sentinels at the doors. The aurors were easy to pick out by the badges clipped to their robes or their jeans, and Mali was wary of them, watching quietly while the one passed as if she dared to breathe they'd sense her secret and slap muggle handcuffs on her. When the man passed the tension eased out of her shoulders and Mali was able to speak again. "If you knew him..." she said, back to wringing her hands. "Or if you could've seen it, it wasn't him. He was totally different. It wasn't his fault and I'd bet my life on that."

If she could tell Mister Lupin, why not the aurors? Oh, gods. What if he did go to the aurors? Mali sighed heavily, as if already resigned to that fate. As much as she dreaded it, that would put an end to the constant anticipating, on edge feeling that came from hiding something such as murder. "You don't owe me anything." Nothing at all, quite the opposite. Mali owed him a lot although she was chipping away at that debt with the truth regarding Mister Longbottom. "I know that, but I told you something that we've not told anyone and if you're going to get us arrested over it then I want to talk to Theo first, explain things."

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Remus Lupin