The Son Of Misery [Claire]

[grey xavier slater]

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The news cycle for the day had been wild. The first reports of the collapsed building had come from muggle policemen and their reporters, and while normally that wouldn’t be cause for concern in the magical world, it was soon discovered that there were more fantastical reasons for said collapse: like a MACUSA auror dropping it down on top of herself. Normally Grey wouldn’t have been attached to such a story, but being the sole intern (and very near the end of that role too), he was delegated to the unit of reporters heading to Mungo’s to try and catch a word or two from the auror that had caused the destruction, or at the very least, a quick sound bite from the first responders bringing her to the hospital. His personal task, according to one of the editors, was to evade doctors and aurors alike, and to lock himself down in the hospital for as long as it took to get something out of his target. Apparently because he was still an intern, he wouldn’t be subject to nearly as much questioning as a well-known reporter would. Unless he bumped into a Quidditch player within the hospital, he was basically an invisible set of eyes and ears. They seemed to have forgotten about his short stint as an auror trainee, which would make him even more noticeable than the average Joe. Regardless, this was his job and he either completed it to the best of his ability, or he’d be looking for another place of employment.

He didn’t like the feeling of espionage that came along with this task, and it certainly brought up questions about his journalistic integrity and ethics. His superiors told him to use his title as an intern as his excuse if caught, but he doubted that would happen until he got deeper into the hospital. Grey knew about the ward specifically set aside for aurors, from both his training and Claire telling him about it. The injured auror would most likely be taken there, subject to her injuries, or at the very least end up there by the time she was healed up. Amid the chaos, his plan was to use Claire’s name to gain access to the ward. Simply dropping the fact that he knew the injured auror was young and female, he could easily bypass a frantic nurse and then find somewhere to wait until he knew where to go next.

All of this was good in theory, but executing the plan was something else altogether. Mungo’s and the Prophet were close enough in proximity that he was able to get to the hospital rather quickly, though unsure if he had beaten the first responders or not. Word had it that they had to literally dig the woman out from underneath the rubble. If she was still in one piece, he would be able to continue with his plan. The least he could return back to the office with was her name.

Getting into the hospital was easy enough as well, and Grey swiftly made his way up the floors, making sure not to show how hurried he was to get to where he needed to be. The real test was getting off the elevator at the designated auror ward, which was teeming with law enforcement. He almost stepped back into the elevator before the door closed, but a few wandering looks told him that would be more suspicious than proceeding with the plan. His fake story would at least get him to the nurse’s stand, and checking to make sure Claire wasn’t the injured party would be simple enough. He could be a concerned sibling even if they didn’t get along.

As he approached the stand, he tapped his fingers on it in a nervous manner. The frantic look of trying to be a spy would probably play off for anxious concern, oddly enough. “Excuse me,” he stated, clearing his throat so as to get the nurse’s attention. “I uhh…I heard there was an accident with one of the aurors, and that it was a young woman. I just wanted to double check that it wasn’t my sister. I haven’t been able to get into contact with her since it happened…” he let out a terribly fake anxious laugh, which he knew the nurse wouldn’t buy in the slightest. Regardless, she asked for the name, “Claire Slater.” Biting down nervously on his bottom lip, he watched in silence as the nurse flipped through her pages of notes to find the name of the auror.

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 763 ● Heat Death by Tomb Mold

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

THOUGH CLAIRE WAS NOT QUITE A 'SEASONED' auror, she had thought herself above simple 'babysitting' work. It did not appeal to her, and offended her quite completely. However, when she'd been sent the task of delivering and monitoring the injured auror at St. Mungo's, she had done as she was told. Claire always did as she was told. It was beginning to become tiring. Despite the fact that the kind, motherly healer had offered her a cup of peppermint tea and a smile upon her arrival. Claire monitored the door with a mounting anger. She heard nothing inside.

The incident had already been well documented. Stories ranging from an auror gone rogue, to a terrorist attack, and of course the ridiculous truth. That the girl had simply brought the building down on herself. The tea was strong, and Claire's face screwed up as she sipped it gingerly. It had been a gift, so she had to finish it. The healer kept smiling at her from behind her desk and her tongue was already burnt but she smiled back. Excusing herself briefly to liaise with a gruff looking auror whose name was never given. There was a lot of secrecy among aurors. He seemed as unimpressed as she was to be there. Detailing that the young auror inside was in one piece. He said this like it was a great shame that she was. 'If that were me...' he'd said to Claire. 'I'd have hoped to die.' She'd blinked back a scowl and turned away, just in time to see her brother's soft profile.

"Grey?" She called immediately, marching towards the desk he was leaning over, just in time to hear the tail end of his request. "What on earth are you doing here?!" Claire took this opportunity to abandoned her paper cup of tea as she closed the space between herself and her brother. He looked pale and scruffy, as always, but almost electric as he cast a look back at her. He looked... panicked. And he had been asking after her? She smiled complacently at the healer behind the desk and pressed a firm hand to her brothers shoulder, ushering him away from prying ears. "Grey, you can't possibly take me for such a fool!" She told him sternly, but a part of her felt warm from his concern. And also... suspicious. 

grey xavier slater

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[grey xavier slater]

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This settled it. He absolutely had a hex of some sort attached to him. As soon as Claire’s name came out of his mouth and the nurse had turned away from the desk to check her paperwork, he felt her impossibly stifling aura next to him. She radiated the energy in the worst way possible – and like when he was caught doing something he shouldn’t by his mother when he was a child, the hairs on the back of his neck standing at attention were the first signs of elder Slater’s approach. Claire had reason to be suspicious of him. He had never held a vested interest in her aside from when he first started the auror training last year, so this would have been out of the ordinary. He gave her an obviously fake look of surprise, and then back at the nurse who was still digging through her notes. “Looks like she’s fine!” he said cheerily as his sister pushed him down the hallway until it was just the two of them.

As she sort of reprimanded him for thinking that she was the auror half-dead in the hospital room, Grey straightened himself up, knowing that this was probably going to go the same way most of their ‘conversations’ did. Christmas had started all fine and dandy and look how that had turned out. “All I heard was that it was a younger female auror,” he explained, leaving out the part where he also knew it had been one of the MACUSA aurors. That certainly made the list of possible victims shorter. Before that detail had been shared with him though, the thought that it could have been Claire crossed his mind. But like she just said, he didn’t take her as the foolish type to do that. “With the office so close, I thought it couldn’t hurt to at least check that it wasn’t you. And it wasn’t.” He had no idea how convincing that was, but she had been his false pretense for being there in the first place. Leaving the hospital while still using that story would be the safest thing to do now. Claire wasn’t going to let him get any closer to that ward than he already had been.

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 376 ● Black Bear by Whitechapel

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

CORNERING HER BROTHER, CLAIRE COULDN'T decide whether she should feel insult or affection. Her eyes narrowed to slits, arms crossing as she leaned back to regard him, casting an inconspicuous glance over her shoulder to make sure they wouldn't be overheard. Reputation was everything, and Claire couldn't be seen bickering with her little brother in broad daylight. This kept her tone subdued and her expression terse, but keen.

"'Younger female auror?'" Claire sniffed, her brows lifting as she repressed a smirk. "I'd like to think if I were to end up in the infirmary..." She tittered, because she had very little sympathy for the auror who had found herself in such a predicament and it showed. "I'd think they'd at least know me by name." Because, of course, Claire had seen herself in the paper multiple times. For her ambition, for her accomplishments. Some she wouldn't name, but none that did not boost her self esteem as much as they lifted her blood pressure.

"This new job of yours," Claire began, and she could feel her preening judgement as if their mother was standing over her shoulder, pulling at her strings. "Lotta breaks..." She gave what she hoped was an easy little chuckle. "Must be nice that you can just..." She shrugged her shoulders, arms uncrossing to fall at her sides. "Pop in and check the infirmary logs as you please." And then Claire's better judgement, the kind that made her a good auror, raised its observant little head. "Are you sure you're not working, Grey?" And she tilted her head in such a way that if one were to squint, they might indeed see Mrs Grey standing resplendent and critical in all her fine glory. 

grey xavier slater

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[grey xavier slater]

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Attempting to pull the wool over Claire’s eyes was nigh impossible, and he knew that, yet he was still trying to do it. The more he talked the deeper hole he was digging himself. Grey knew that this sudden concern for his elder sister wouldn’t convince her like it would have anyone else. She was too smart for that. He was quickly being turned from concerned sibling to nosy reporter and his poor defense was picked apart every time she opened her mouth. That, unfortunately, was the flaw in his plan. There had always been the possibility that she would be lurking about in the hospital and would catch him in the middle of his information gathering. Better for it to happen now than when he was lurking outside the auror’s room. Explaining that was infinitely harder and had a multitude of graver consequences if anyone other than Claire got wise and started to question him. Journalist or assassin there to finish the job? Again, he had no idea what the injured auror was in for other than the rumors, but it didn’t take much imagination when it came to narrowing down the possibilities.

“You know they wouldn’t tell the public that at this point,” he pointed out. Or the press. They usually knew first because of…resources, but kept the names quiet until the head auror gave the say so. There was also the part where he would have most likely been contacted immediately if it had been Claire injured. Next of kin and all that. A frantic owl from their parents – or maybe not. He hadn’t talked to them since Christmas, and still wasn’t sure if that meant he was cut off completely or if they were just doing the no talking thing again. Either worked for him.

Claire finally got to the heart of her questioning as they stopped a good distance from any listening ears. Of course she wanted to jump right into it. She wasn’t stupid, and he didn’t have any better reason to be at Mungo’s. “Look…I’m just doing my job. A name hasn’t been released yet and my editor said that the details we had were close enough to be you that they could let me come over. Just in case.” His back straightened up and shoulders squared off as he finished his defense. Claire understood what it was like to follow orders from superiors, that was what she had spent her whole life doing – unwavering and unquestioning. It wasn’t like Claire was holding him at wand point, but she certainly was giving the best impression of their mother he had ever seen. The piercing gaze and stony expression matched almost perfectly, from years of yielding to it most likely; and that was terrifying. “Merlin, this is why I told them I wanted to only write about Quidditch. They have me running around like an errand boy because I’m the lowest man on the totem pole…” Grey capitulated after a few seconds of silence. “But I did want to make sure that you were okay Claire.”

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 512 ● A Whale's Tale by Post Animal

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

THERE WAS A MOMENT, A BRIEF SECOND THAT Claire was proud of her stony facade. That she could stand her ground quite firmly and pick apart her nosy little brother without even breaking a sweat. But, there was a sincerity to his expression that quickly thawed her out. That is where Claire differed from her stoic mother. She was soft in the middle. And, unfortunately, she feared that her brother knew that.

"I'm just doing my job, too, Grey." She said, her shoulders rounding slightly, a definite sign of impending defeat. "And my job is to stop nosy reporters like you from making assumptions about this incident." She reached over and gently clasped his shoulder, guiding him away from the corner and towards the front doors, her chin lifting slightly to pass a friendly smile to a passing healer, followed closely by a stern faced auror. They gave Claire a pointed look as they passed, a suspicious one. She kept her eyes straight ahead. She would not be accused as a rat.

"You can see that I'm fine." She said, her voice sharp, chin dipping to address him under her breath. As if she were ashamed to even be heard speaking with him. "So, you can just leave." They were by the doors now, and she let him go, crossing her arms and standing in front of him to try and block his way back in to the building. "I don't know if you're trying to trick me, but-" Claire cleared her throat, running a thin hand over her hair. "I think you should go." 

grey xavier slater

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[grey xavier slater]

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There it was. The part where she shut down and tried to pretend like her job was infinitely more important than anything else. To have the audacity to put on these kinds of airs just because she was around colleagues was such a Claire thing that it didn’t even phase him anymore. He had been genuinely concerned for a moment that she was the one in the hospital room – but that was out the window now that she was turning him around to kick him out. Grey was surprised that he let her guide him back towards the front door, his feet falling into line as she repeated the same line he had heard hundreds of times in police dramas over the years. Unfortunately he couldn’t fight this time, only because he had waltzed into the hospital and used her name as a guise for his own work. There was more at stake now that he was representing the Prophet as a reporter. His own career for one, and maybe a ruined reputation with other Aurors that could prove useful later on. Nobody liked a mouthy reporter anyways, and if he wanted to work solely on Quidditch coverage, he needed to keep his mouth shut for now.

The other Aurors standing guard weren’t exactly dismissive of Claire’s shooing him out, but he was sure they were happy it was her doing it and not them. He had made it through enough of the training to understand what being a low-tier Auror was like. It was standing guard and twiddling your thumbs like any run of the mill law enforcement officer. What was so great about that? At least he had come to his senses in time to make the career change. Or else he would have been just as stiff and stony as Claire was these days. Being perpetually aggrieved was in his past now.

As they stopped near the front doors to the hospital, Claire stopped him. “I’m allowed to be concerned for you, you know. I came here out of genuine concern too. It wasn’t all about figuring out who Miss…” he motioned with his hands to show that he was grasping for the name of the female Auror, “…was.” Grey immediately felt guilty for attempting a trick like that, especially after saying he wasn’t doing that to her. It felt dirty. But he also had a job to do, and Claire was his meal ticket on this one, whether she knew it or not.

Claire Evangeline Slater ● 417 ● Hard Times by Paramore

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[Claire Evangeline Slater]

never enough.

USHERING HER BROTHER TOWARDS THE DOOR proved to be a lot harder than she thought. He resisted her, speaking in that low, defiant tone that so annoyed their parent's. But, it just made Claire feel guilty as she looked over her shoulder. They were watching her, waiting to see if she would make a scene. It was expected of her by these people. She had to set an example. But, she couldn't bear to embarrass her brother. He was perfectly capable of doing that himself.

"Nottingham-" Claire answered absently, her chin turned away from him as she watched the delicate lift of another auror's brow. And then she jerked her head back, realising what she had done. Her face flushed and she blew out a breath, eyes widening momentarily before she regained composure. "I mean- Grey, I'm sure you were concerned." She gave a wobbly smile, her mind turning over what exactly she had just done. She had given him a name, filled in a blank that was no hers to fill. She hated Nottingham then. How dare she cause this terrible mess.

"I appreciate you coming here." She clasped his shoulder in an inordinately friendly way, a sweat breaking out on her palms and the back of her neck. She needed to patch this hole, and quickly. Out of desperation she used that grip to pull her brother in to a brief hug. They hadn't embraced since they were children, and even then it was often forced. It wasn't that she didn't love her brother, they were just never overly affectionate with each other. The Slater's were not an affectionate breed naturally. But, Claire had an ulterior motive.

"You're so kind, Grey." Claire smiled warmly at her brother, even using teeth. "Always thinking of others." And then she pulled away entirely, worried about laying on this affection too thickly. She clasped her hands in front of herself. Unwilling to ask her brother not to repeat what she had said, distrusting that he would side with her in any case. The Slater's were ambitious creatures, after all. And though Grey had done all he could to deny that breeding, Claire knew that deep down, they were much the same. "Bye now, Grey." She said with finality, knowing somewhere deep down that she was finished.

[END]

grey xavier slater

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