searching, finding [blaise]

[Deleted]

Royal tried not to hover around the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. He never wanted Adeline to feel like he was trying to look over her shoulder or like he was waiting for her to slip - because he wasn't. He wanted her to succeed, and if putting distance between them was the way to do that, then Royal was going to try his damndest not to hover. Normally, when Royal tried something, he succeeded. But today...he was not succeeding. He had needed to speak to the Head of the department as the Minister's liaison, and now that he was already on the appropriate floor, he couldn't resist the urge to take a little break and wandering around. At least it wasn't the Department of Mysteries, where he'd be booted (and possibly prosecuted) for loitering. He had an excuse to be here - several excuses, actually. Royal had to remind himself of that as he walked down the hall, trying his best to look like he belonged.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

Paperwork. That was the majority of the day’s tasks thus far. Blaise had sent other Obliviators out to clean up the smaller jobs; they didn’t need to have a dozen of them just to modify the memory of someone that saw a delivery owl land on a house. At least not yet they didn’t. The little things like that could eventually add up, revealing the existence of magic. Blaise was always in constant conflict over whether or not the easy cases were actually worth it in the end. Obviously there were things they missed, because only what was reported was what would lead to memory wipes. So here he was, on his fifth coffee of the morning, about to sit back down at his desk to continue more paperwork. Luckily the easy cases were exactly how they were supposed to be: easy. His little underlings ran along, finished up jobs, and would immediately come back and give him the paperwork, which then had to be checked over, signed, dated, and finally sent up to the head of the department. He really needed to get a more active job, because this one was too passive for his tastes.

Slowly moving down the hallway back to his office, Blaise sipped on his coffee. Just the right temperature. A few of the cups earlier had definitely been from the bottom of the pot, and he hadn’t had the heart to criticize it. That energy had to be utilized for work. Looking up from another slow sip, he noticed someone walking ahead of him that he wasn’t sure belonged on this floor. Not that it matter, it was a major thoroughfare for the entire department, so probably some assistant to a higher up wandering around. Except as Blaise got closer, he realized he recognized the boy. “Shacklebolt,” he called down the hallway. “If you’re looking for your sister, she’s out on assignment right now.” Blaise, slipped back the sleeve of his shirt to reveal his watch. “Probably be back around three I’d guess.”

[Deleted]

Royal wasn’t as good of an actor as he thought, apparently, because even though he was doing his best to act like he belonged, Blaise Zabini immediately expected that he was up to something. Royal tried not to behave like he was a child being reprimanded, which was hard, considering the professors at Hogwarts had called him Shacklebolt in that exact same tone of voice. Whether or not the similarity was intentional, it was unnerving. Blaise gave Royal the information he was looking for unhindered, but since he had to pretend that wasn’t, in fact, that he was doing here, Royal had to think quickly. “Wasn’t looking for Addie.” He said with a shrug. “Good to hear that she’s doing well, though.” Royal added, wincing a little at his own tone of voice. He knew that his sister was doing well already! He wasn’t a bad brother or anything, and he didn’t want Blaise thinking that. Desperately searching for a new topic of conversation, Royal settled on the one thing that everyone seemed to be good at talking about: their kids. “How’s your daughter been?” Was it a sufficient distraction? Royal didn’t know.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

Blaise had a hard time believing that the boy wasn’t looking for his sister. Sure, he could have other business down here, as his title demanded that sometimes, but the lack of urgency to be where he was supposed to be in that situation was completely absent right now. He could humor the kid for a little while though, since it didn’t seem like he was in a rush to get anywhere. That and Blaise so desperately wanted to avoid any more paperwork. “Wouldn’t have been a problem if you were. We’re rather relaxed down here, contrary to popular belief.” Except for when their full force was out taking care of business, like it was today. Getting days like this usually meant that the upcoming month was going to be relatively quiet. Usually. There was no telling lately though. Some members of the Ministry would have the world believing that everything was falling down around them, Blaise still liked to think that they were slightly behind what was going on, if not right on par. “She’s keeping up, which is hard to do for some.” Blaise had been intrigued by how fast the Shacklebolt girl had caught on to the job. He had heard things about her twin not fairing as well over in the Auror training, aside from helping take down the Rousseau girl. “Not that I didn’t think she would fail. Proved that skill came with the name.”

Blaise raised an eyebrow at Royal’s question about his daughter’s well-being. It shouldn’t have been as surprising as he was making it out to be; the two had been in Slytherin at the same time after all. “Quite fine. I expect she’ll master her NEWTS and proceed into the Ministry as she’s planned.” Then again, he had never planned on being an Obliviator, and here he was years later. “If you weren’t here to see your sister, than what were you doing? If you don’t mind me asking.” Blaise took a long, slow sip of his coffee, somewhat hoping he could see Shacklebolt squirm to try and come with something. All in good fun of course.

[Deleted]

Royal nodded once when Blaise said that it wouldn’t have been a problem if he wanted to see Addie, as the floor was relaxed. “I’ll keep that in mind for the future.” Royal said. At the comment about Addie keeping up, Royal’s eyes flashed dangerously. He didn’t like the implication that Addie wouldn’t have been able to do well. “We’ve always tried to do everything separate of our name.” Royal said quietly. He could really only speak for himself in that case, but he couldn’t imagine either of his sisters would be content knowing they got into their positions just for who they were related to. Of course, Royal couldn’t pretend that his surname wasn’t the reason people hadn’t given him a hard time for jumping immediately into a position in the Minister’s office, but he had other credentials to his name other than being his father’s son nonetheless.

Blaise seemed to be a little skeptical of Royal’s inquiry, but he didn’t actually say anything about it. Royal nodded when the older man said that his daughter was on track to go onto the Ministry. “Does she know which department she wants to get into?” Royal asked, deciding that if he was going to go into the whole family thing as an excuse not to talk about other things, he might as well commit and ask a lot of follow up questions. He did vaguely care about Liona, of course, since she had been around for a few years when he had been, but they had never been close, at least not close enough that he could ask her the questions himself. Blaise asked why Royal was down there if not to see his sister, and Royal was relieved that there was a question that he knew how to answer. “I actually have a meeting with the Head.” Royal answered easily. It was the truth! “I just miscalculated how long it would take to get down here. You know how the elevators can be sometimes.” Royal added for good measure. It was true that there were days that the elevators were faster or slower than their normal pace, and when Royal stayed late into the night, they were certainly quicker than at peak traffic times, but that variability wasn’t enough to account for him having arrived fifteen minutes earlier than he needed to.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

Blaise wanted to tack on a quip about Royal not being down here all the time to visit his sister because they all had work to do, but decided it wasn’t the time nor the place to be patronizing. Especially considering the look he got upon mentioning Adeline’s natural skill and the family name in the same sentence. That was quite the intriguing reaction to get from such a harmless statement. He certainly hadn’t meant to push buttons and yet he had. The Shacklebolt boy was easy to ruffle it seemed. “Interesting,” Blaise stated, more to himself than to Royal. “I don’t know much about your other sister, but you and Adeline have both shown remarkable work ethics and intelligence since starting, not far off of how your father was.” He blew on his coffee a little bit, lifting the cup to his lips before pausing and bringing it back down again. “I’d take that as a compliment.” None of what he had just said was off the mark either. Obviously there were the issues with the other twin in the auror department, but that still required a considerable amount of talent just to get into the training program. Whether Royal liked it or not, the Shacklebolt name was who the siblings were, and Blaise believed that they should be embracing that.

“Department of Mysteries. An Unspeakable, actually. Can’t say I know much about what they do over there these days since I’m not particularly privy to that information in this position. I’m sure you know more than a low-level peon like myself would.” While Blaise wouldn’t necessarily call that last bit self-deprecation, he wanted to show Royal that he meant well and wasn’t trying to stir up issues with the earlier comment about the family name and Adeline’s skills on the job. As for Liona’s potential future in the Ministry, his thoughts aligned with what he had said perfectly. He simply didn’t know what the Unspeakables were up to these days. Doing secret research and jobs was the easy way out of that question. If it kept them all safe, then for the most part, Blaise didn’t care. It was a perfect position for his daughter if she did end up going that route.

Blaise nodded his head, opening his mouth slightly as if to say ‘ah’ as Royal explained he was actually there to see the head of the department. So there was a reason he was down here after all, other than to check up on his sister. Most would say it was quite the convenience that they both things happened to be in the same place. Blaise considered it a happy coincidence that occurred when one had family members throughout the Ministry. He could only imagine what being a Weasley or Potter would be like in a few years. That family bred like rabbits. “Ah, yes the elevators. Effective on some days, troublesome the rest. I sometimes wonder why we don’t utilize stairs more here. Would certainly keep some of the desk workers in shape.”

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Blaise said the word interesting, and Royal could feel his hackles raising again. There was no shame in wanting everyone to know that he had done everything by his own merit. Blaise probably didn’t understand that, given that he was a traditional pureblood and they thrived off of status based on name. Royal wasn’t willing to get into an argument over it, though, so when Blaise suggested that he take his comment about work ethic and intelligence as a compliment, Royal just nodded stiffly. He wasn’t sure that Abby could be considered to have those same talents – sometimes she was a little too wild for her own good. But that was what made her her, and Royal wasn’t going to be upset that his sister lacked the discipline that the other two siblings shared.

Royal nodded when Blaise said that his daughter wanted to work in the Department of Mysteries, as an Unspeakable. He wasn’t sure how well that was going to work, since Liona did many things by speaking, and using her silver tongue to twist people in knots, even when she was just a kid. Not being able to talk about her work and use that as leverage against people would be interesting, to say the least. When Blaise mentioned Royal knowing more about the going-ons in the Department of Mysteries than himself, the younger man shrugged. “I’m just as clueless as you are.” Royal said with an arch of his eyebrows. “The Department of Mysteries is on a strict need-to-know basis, even with the Minister’s staff, and I don’t need to know.” He doubted that even Victoire knew everything happening in that Department, which made Royal a little uneasy. For all he knew, they were all Purifiers planning a coup. That was a new level of paranoia, Royal knew, but being paranoid had kept him alive so far, so he wasn’t one to complain.

Blaise believed Royal’s story about seeing the head of the department, which was good, because Royal wasn’t lying, but if he had had to insist that, it would have made him seem even more guilty. The older man agreed that sometimes the elevators were effective, but were overall troublesome. At the comment about the stairs and keeping the desk workers in shape, Royal looked down at his own body curiously. He had always worked behind a desk, and he wondered if, as he aged, he was going to grow a pudge like so many of the Ministry’s older employees. He certainly hoped not. “I dare say that the stairs would be even worse.” Royal said, thinking back to Hogwarts and the ever-shifting maze of staircases. Even in his seventh year Royal would sometimes get turned around by the staircases, and he couldn’t imagine that the Ministry would want people getting disoriented and accidentally opening doors that they weren’t supposed to be opening. Blaise’s job was to Obliviate Muggles, not other Ministry workers, and the whole thing sounded like a lot of lawsuits waiting to happen, and another headache for Royal to solve.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

Apparently another nerve was struck amidst Blaise’s one-sided conversation on the Shacklebolt siblings. Clearly he didn’t know what they were thinking; maybe if he had ever taken the time to learn legilimency he could have figured out what it was exactly. He had enough of that these days though, extracting people’s deepest, darkest secrets against their will. Invasiveness at its finest, and yet that was what his job description was. Anything that wasn’t important had to go as well. Sipping on his coffee satisfactorily, Blaise decided to let the family talk go, at least on Royal’s end. He didn’t gain anything by pushing the boy’s buttons, if anything he’d have a talking to by the Minister for impeding official Ministry business, or some bogus claim like that. If he ever wanted to return to being a hitwizard, keeping in the head honcho’s good graces was key.

“Need-to-know basis, or would you rather not know? I’m sure there are things in there that would make both of us drop dead just hearing about them.” The smaller divisions within the Department of Mysteries were relatively known, at least by name, but Blaise preferred not knowing what actually went on in them. Some were obvious, like the Hall of Prophecy, while others retained a certain level of secrecy that he would probably never learn about. Scary things happened when the government kept things from the public, even if it was for the greater good. “I personally wouldn’t want to know. I’m already delving into memories as it is, the last thing I need is to find out what goes on down there on a daily basis.”

Blaise nodded his head, somewhat in agreement on the fact that stairs would potentially be worse. “Maybe.” He took another sip of his coffee. At this rate, the drink was going to be gone before he got back to his desk. Nine times out of ten when that happened, he immediately went back for more. Merlin knew he’d need it today. “Ever been stuck on one of those elevators though? I have. Stairs would look like an eleven year old about to get their Hogwarts letter after being in one of those things with a group that had just gotten in after dealing with mountain trolls for the last week. Trust me, you don’t want to know what that’s like.” Blaise could feel the disgust coming across his face just remembering the smell that the group had emitted. At that point, they were probably numb to it all and didn’t even notice. He had though, and that had easily been the most painful five hours he had ever been subjected to.

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Blaise’s question about whether the Department of Mysteries was actually on a need-to-know basis or if Royal just preferred ignorance gave the younger man pause. If he was honest, a lot of what happened within the Department of Mysteries frightened him – most notably, the Hall of Prophecy. The idea that there could have been someone who had foretold of his father’s assassination was uncomfortable enough, but then when he thought that someone within the Ministry had known about it, and might have been able to stop it…Royal just got the shivers. He knew it wasn’t smart to mess with the present to avoid a future that might come to pass – and that, sometimes, in trying to avoid a prophecy one made it true – but it was the sort of thing that he couldn’t get out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried. That was the thing with having his dad die suddenly – there were a hundred million what ifs, and a hundred million more that he would discover if he ever cared to sit down and think about it, which was why, for the most part, Royal didn’t think about it. “A little bit of both.” Royal answered after ruminating over it. There was information he definitely wouldn’t be permitted to access, but he was sure if he asked after other pieces of information, they’d be given to him. But it was better not to ask at all, as far as Royal was concerned. “There are things I’d rather not know, like you said.” Royal’s former job had been to delve into minds, but in a different way than Blaise did – writing required the writer to access emotions in the reader in a way that was manipulative, but enjoyable.

“Can’t say I have.” Royal said with a raised eyebrow when Blaise asked if he’d ever been stuck in an elevator. Even if he had been, with the odd hours Royal kept, it was all but sure that the elevator wouldn’t be crowded, and that the people that were there weren’t formerly wrangling mountain trolls. “That’s when you use the Bubble Head Charm.” Royal said matter-of-factly. Maybe it sucked to breathe recycled air, but that was infinitely preferably to breathing in the scent of other people’s body odors mixed with troll dirt.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

The kid was wise already. Having your father killed did that. Blaise had been through it seven times with his mother’s ex-husbands. Not saying that she or anyone else killed them, but he understood the after effects that had on someone. He personally never cared for his ‘step-fathers’, mostly because they were all arrogant bastards. Funny how that still rubbed off on him, despite their disdain for each other. Back to the matter at hand though, Royal was making smart decisions by stating that he wouldn’t want to know about most of the things that went on within the Department of Mysteries. If he had, a job as an Unspeakable might have been more suited for him over being an assistant to the Minister. Blaise wasn’t even sure what assistants to the Minister did anyways. Get coffee? Run errands? Today the boy was going to talk to Blaise’s own department head, so probably formal things as well. That probably did beat being an Unspeakable and not having the chance to divulge information at the drop of a hat.

“Ah, a Bubble Head Charm…if only. Mountain troll smell clings to everything it comes into contact with. The whole first and second floors of the Ministry already reeked of it, so there was no escape to begin with.” Blaise took one last, long sip of his coffee, staring into the now empty cup as he continued. “This was long before your time, of course, and I don’t believe there has been an incident like that since. They send the mountain troll wranglers off to be properly sanitized before they’re allowed into the Ministry anymore.”

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Royal didn’t have any idea what mountain trolls were like, and the more Blaise talked about them, the less the Slytherin had a desire to ever encounter one. He couldn’t imagine any beast with a stench so bad that people that had just interacted with it could reek up two entire floors of a building. “Where do they go? To be sanitized, I mean?” Royal wasn’t aware of any satellite Ministry buildings, and he wasn’t sure that any place would be willing to give up their building for stinking people, no matter how much the government offered to pay them. Was this one of the things that the Department of Mysteries studied? Royal chuckled at the absurdity of the idea. An entire floor of the Ministry devoted to solving minor inconveniences? It was a bureaucracy, so honestly, Royal wouldn't put it past the Ministry to sink their money into something that stupid.

“If there’s nothing else you need, Zabini…” Royal said, trailing off. He couldn’t think of another reason to say, especially if what Blaise had said was true and Royal wasn’t going to be seeing his sister that day. If the older man had something else that he wanted to talk about, then Royal would be willing to linger a little longer, but otherwise, his work here was done.

blaise leo zabini

[Deleted]

@royal

What a funny question. Blaise had absolutely no idea where the mountain troll handlers were sent anymore. It was always a bad idea to include parts of the Magical Beasts department with the rest of the Ministry. While they all had magic capable of fixing problems caused by beasts and other creatures, there were so many negatives to allowing witches and wizards to bring them onto government property. Creatures able of actual intellect and human speech were a different story, as long as they were able to be reasonable. He had never seen any harm with centaurs waltzing around the main floors, other than the fact that their hooves had the janitors constantly rebuffing the floor. To answer Shacklebolt’s question, Blaise simply shrugged. “No clue. I’d rather not find out, if you ask me. That experience took a few years off my life.”

The boy seemed to want to get on with his business, and there really wasn’t a reason for Blaise to hold onto him anymore. The sole purpose of their conversation to begin with was because he was looking for his sister, in which Blaise had informed her already that she’d be back later. To add to that, he needed another cup of coffee before returning to the torture of his paperwork. “Carry on then. You have far more important work to do than I do right now.” Blaise turned to head back to their kitchen area. “Check back in a few hours if you want to talk to your sister. She has to come back at some point after all.” With that, Blaise headed off to finish the rest of his work.

[Blaise Out]