Chapter Thirty-Two
Confronting the Faceless 💀 CompleteMarch 9, 1998
"We can't be together"
Al had stayed gone for all of a week before popping up again. Valerie is worried but has no idea how to deal with it. Yurina just finds it hilarious.
Branwen needs better not-friends.
Al at least has the wherewithal not to show up in person after she tells him off, but he sends gifts, like he's courting her all over again. Which, Branwen knows, is exactly what he's trying to do. Obviously she'd played her hurt a little too well, and she's paying for it now.
She arrives to work the second week of March to a bouquet of roses on her desk and looks of curiosity from the people with the desks around hers. She grimaces and tosses them into the bin before settling at her desk and pulling out some files, pretending to work on them as the attention from the rest of the room slowly shifts elsewhere.
This is perhaps the biggest issue of Al's idiocy - Branwen relies on people only seeing her when she wants them to, and his lavish declarations of intent continuously place her directly in the limelight in the office. She's even had to start actually doing work to avoid too much scrutiny from the others in the Minster's office. Today especially she doesn't have time for it - she needs to complete her monthly report to Yaxley on which remaining Ministry employees to keep an eye on and which have become open to their cause. With twenty eyes staring her down that becomes much harder to do.
At least she still has one person she can tease who doesn't seem to care much about her romantic life. Perhaps because he has one of his own.
"Good morning Percy, can you get the Minister to sign these for me before lunch?" She asks sweetly, dropping some random files onto his desk.
The bespectacled redhead starts slightly at her appearance, obviously having been completely lost in his work, a common occurrence that makes messing with him that much more fun.
"Of course Ms. Avery." He says quickly.
"Please Perce, call me Branwen." She grins, patting the files. "And how is your lady friend?"
She loves how his whole face lights up bright red whenever Blishwick is brought up - they really are cute, even she can admit that. Plus redirecting all the gossip twittering around the offices towards him means she's freed up to go about her real job without drawing attention.
"Audrey is doing quite well, thank you." He mumbles, smiling despite himself even as he attempts to focus on the files in front of him. "By noon yes? They'll be back on your desk then." He adds, a clear if clumsy attempt to get her to leave.
Branwen just smiles and saunters away, grinning when she makes eye contact with one of the other Ministerial secretaries who giggles and looks over at Percy again.
Perfect, attention redirected. She has rounds to get through.
She heads to the Floo Authority first - it's the easiest and quickest part of her route and she doesn't even need an excuse to show up there anymore, having established a rapport with both Channer Lindberg and one of the lower-ranked Floo Engineers Aiden Case.
She waves to Aiden as she enters the offices and he nods back with a tight smile - working, then, so she won't bother him.
She makes her way towards Channer's office, only to realize there's another woman inside already. Branwen's smile freezes on her face when she recognizes the petite figure and silky dark hair. She looks over at Aiden again, who's now looking right at her with that same tight expression. Oh. Not his work look then - he'd been trying to warn her.
Yurina Nakayashi looks up and spots her before Branwen can inch back out of sight, and the smile she gives manages to be terrifying despite the delicate features it's composed of.
"Wennie! My favorite Minister's dog, fancy running into you here!"
Branwen doesn't even need to fake the full-body flinch she gives in response. Sure she's been cultivating a friendly relationship with Yurina as of late, but that doesn't mean she actually likes the other woman in any way, shape, or form. And besides, that friendly aspect is kept very carefully behind closed doors - Branwen's cover would be irrevocably destroyed if it ever got out that Yurina isn't actually capable of getting under her skin.
And now she'll need to put on a grand performance since Yurina never tries very hard to hide Branwen's loyalties. Joy. Like her day hasn't been frustrating enough.
"Just stopping by." She mumbles, backing up quickly and grinning internally when she sees looks of pity from the Authority employees in the office. "I see you're busy so I'll just be going."
"I'll come with you!" Yurina decides with her usual off-putting cheer. More winces from the people around her, though Branwen knows at least a few of them are relieved it's her and not them. Humans can be cruel in the name of self-preservation, but that's why it's so easy to manipulate them.
Yurina tails her out, unnervingly quiet though Branwen knows that it's the other woman actually showing some restraint for once. They get a few feet from the offices before Branwen risks speaking, checking that they're truly alone in the hall with a quick spell.
"Why were you in the Floo office? That's my territory." She hisses lowly. Yurina just barks out a laugh.
"Aw come on, Lindberg squirms so nicely, you can't really be selfish enough to keep that all to yourself?" She asks, mockery dripping from every word.
Branwen rolls her eyes. Figures. "Fair enough, he's scared of women. Just maybe make it later in the day? No one talks to me about anything worth knowing after you've been by, it's just fearful complaining about whatever you did."
Yurina's laugh at that is a lot brighter and more genuine. "Well good, I like to leave an impression." She declares dramatically as they reach the lifts. No one is in there either, thankfully, so the two women can continue to speak without Branwen having to run damage control, which is exhausting enough when she isn't having a bad day. "Anyway, you only go to the office when you need a pick-me-up, and you only need those after that idiot ex of yours does something creepy. So what was it today?"
Branwen huffs and shakes her head slightly. There's someone on the other side of the lift doors as they reach Level Two, so the act has to start up again. It's easy enough honestly - she just lets Yurina drag her across the floor to her private, sound-proofed office, shooting desperate glances at the people they pass who mostly just look away guiltily. She does make eye contact with Zara Wong at one point, who grins and rolls her eyes. As if they're friends. Zara only knows about Branwen's roll because Yurina is crap at pretending and Zara had barged into one of their meetings a few weeks back to report her co-leader's desertion.
At least there had been some entertainment value to that - the memory of Yaxley's face when he heard the news still makes her grin to this day. Though it also added the Fugitive Recovery Unit to her list of departments to keep an eye on, since apparently it wasn't as solidly loyal as Yaxley had repeatedly claimed way back in October when she had suggested she look through the applications. Reworking her rounds had been less fun, particularly as it would have been far easier to do if Yaxley hadn't been such a hard- about the entire thing from the start.
They reach Yurina's office with no interruption and the other witch closes the door dramatically loudly.
"So? What happened with loverboy?"
Branwen grimaces. "Do not call him that." She growls, and Yurina, the , just laughs.
"Make me. Is he a problem yet? I'm not allowed to kill anyone in the Ministry without your say-so you know and I'm getting pretty twitchy."
"He's not technically Ministry." Branwen says, like she's not thinking but she absolutely is. If Yurina goes out on her own to deal with Al it's an easy way to rid herself of the problem without directly getting involved. Win-win scenario.
Unfortunately, for all her other idiocies Yurina continuously refuses to do what Branwen wants her to do. "He's connected though, and besides I'm not a fan of needless slaughter."
Branwen raises an eyebrow - she honestly wouldn't have called that. Another reason she needs to keep Yurina close - not being able to get a clear reading makes her very dangerous. Also it's an insult to her skills that Branwen intends to correct.
Yurina grins at her expression. "If someone is dead they can't provide any further fun Wennie~" She sing-songs, and Branwen rolls her eyes.
"You are a special brand of ed up." She informs the other woman, who just laughs and says something in Japanese. She never translates herself when she does that and it's well beyond infuriating whenever it happens. Branwen opts to just glare balefully at the other woman until she fills the silence again.
"So you still haven't told me what he did today." Yurina prompts pointedly, leaning back in her chair and regarding Branwen with a mix of curiosity and something vicious that Branwen can't quite name.
"Bouquet of roses. On the desk. Before I even arrived." She sighs. "He's getting bolder. I may take you up on that offer." She wouldn't, of course, but she needs to keep Yurina thinking she hates the attention while still allowing it to happen. Al is her ticket out of Azkaban if all the Dark Lord's plans go sideways again. Not that she can imagine they would, but then again she wouldn't have called the deus-ex-machina baby from the last war so who knows. Alway better to be prepared.
"How cliché." Yurina tuts. "No imagination at all. Why did you start in with him again? I can't imagine it was worth all this."
Branwen grimaces. "It was useful in school, but I do wish he'd stayed gone. We have more important things to be doing right now." She then spins the conversation back around onto Yurina, not needing any further focus on herself. "Speaking of, how is your expansion going?"
Yurina's eyes gleam. "Well enough." She says simply. "I'll give a full report in the meeting at the end of the month, assuming we have one."
Branwen raises an eyebrow at that, and Yurina chuckles.
"Let's just say I set some things up that, if they pan out, will speed up progress quite a bit." The Japanese woman says, then refuses to elaborate though Branwen doesn't push. She doesn't actually care, and besides she has no interest in Yurina even thinking she's gotten under her skin.
A few minutes later she musters up some tears and makes sure to tremble as she stumbles out of Yurina's office. To both her relief and annoyance the offices are empty of any witnesses to her exit. No one to trick into thinking she's just been tortured, but also no one to see her excellent acting abilities.
"Oh yeah, and Lindberg is acting weird. You might want to look into that - you're Miss People Reader, right?" Yurina says behind her, and Branwen barely stops herself from jumping in surprise. She turns to glare at the other woman, who smirks.
"There's no one here, everyone is on patrol right now. But seriously, Lindberg, take a look." She says before going back into her office.
Branwen doubts she'll stay there for long, so she quickly leaves the floor to return to the Minister's office. She has some files to pick up.
True to his word Percy has them signed and on her desk so all she has to do is grab them and check where each goes. She grins when she realizes one is for the Floo Monitor group - that means she can chat with Channer after all (and 'take a look' as Yurina said, though she would have anyway. She isn't taking orders from that Japanese , their agendas just happened to overlap on this particular matter is all).
"Thanks Perce!" She shouts over to him, waving the files with a grin. He just nods politely and returns to the parchment in front of him, and Branwen leaves him to it, heading back out into the Ministry and shoving the files into her bag. She has a different stop to make before returning to her actual job.
The Improper Use of Magic Offices are, as usual, quiet and general devoid of most employees. Travers glances up at her from his desk and gives a tight nod the she returns with just the right amount of nerves and awkwardness to avoid anyone thinking they're allies.
She runs into the elder Weasley as she moves further into the Offices, and she's internally quite pleased by this - she won't have to hunt him down later on now.
"Arthur Weasley!" She greets loudly, grinning and giving him a wave. "How are you? It's been forever I feel like, you're never in when I drop by." Which is incredibly annoying by the way, if you could quit doing that my job would be a lot easier. Of course, she already knows Weasley is up to something so his superiors keep him distracted with harmless busywork, but she likes keeping her readings updated and Arthur's continued slipperiness is frustrating despite it's obviousness.
Arthur startles, and then smiles when he sees Branwen. "Ms. Avery! It has been too long, hasn't it? What brings you to this part of the Ministry?" He asks, jovial and friendly as ever so at least Branwen knows he's still not onto her loyalties (of course he isn't, no one is unless they also work for the Dark Lord).
Branwen matches his smile and energy. "Just meeting up with my friend Valerie for lunch." She says honestly. "Then I've got a lovely afternoon full of chasing down Offices heads for their signatures so all in all I can't complain. How are you doing?"
He regales her with a tale of his twin boys setting their room on fire (the twins honestly are Branwen's kind of people. In a different world she likely would have visited their joke shop several times by now. Alas, they were born into the wrong family with the wrong values - it really is too bad how such small-mindedness can such a wide negative affect) and Branwen laughs in all the right places before wishing him luck and sending her regards to Molly. They head in opposite directions, and Branwen makes a mental note to include the story in her report tonight - if the twins are experimenting there's a good chance it's to create something to be used against the Deatheaters. Yaxley ought to send a team out to survey the shop and the Burrow to get more information.
She finds Valerie in her office, and the other woman lights up upon seeing her.
"Branwen thank Merlin. There's nothing to do today." She greets immediately, and Branwen raises an amused eyebrow.
"Really? No children stealing their parents' wands or flying animals out where they shouldn't be?" She asks. "That's uncommon."
"Tell me about it." Valerie sighs, grabbing her bag from beside her desk. "But it's been quiet all month. Barely any accidents, no experimental hexes gone wrong, nothing."
Branwen smiles as they head back out towards the lifts. "I hear the Weasley twins set something on fire recently, maybe you should ask Arthur to let you write up a report on that."
That gets Valerie to laugh, and Branwen settles into the familiar routine of their lunchtime tea breaks. After a less than ideal start to the day, Valerie is, as always, a great reminder of why Branwen enjoys her job so much.
Valerie talks about her work for most of the lunch, but she does turn the conversation onto Branwen near the end, when their tea cups are empty and Branwen is ready to wave down Madame Rosa Lee (who of course, isn't actually Rosa Lee - it's the name used for all the hostesses at the teashop in honor of it's founder).
"So anything from you-know-who today?" Valerie asks, voice dropping slightly as if trying to not be overheard.
Branwen sighs. "Unfortunately yes. A bunch of roses." She doesn't mention where they were - Valerie is a lot more protective than Yurina (which isn't difficult to be) and if she heard that Al now apparently knows which desk is Branwen's she might try to make contact with him, and Branwen can't have that. Not when she's got Valerie exactly where she needs her to play alibi in case this second war goes poorly once again. Letting her meet Al could screw up the delicate balance Branwen is maintaining, so she controls how much information she allows Valerie to have on the topic.
Valerie sighs. "Harmless at least. But really, why do men have such a hard time understanding what the words 'I'm not interested' mean?"
That gets a genuine laugh out of Branwen, and Valerie looks pleased by it. "So true." Branwen agrees. "To not dealing with idiot men, am I right?"
Valerie smiles and they toast their empty teacups as 'Rosa Lee' comes by with their bills.
Branwen is in a much better mood when they head back to the Ministry, and she immediately heads for the Floo Authority once she's dropped Valerie back off and promised her more tea on Friday.
Aiden isn't at his desk, which means he's either in Records or in the Monitor room lecturing the bunch of them on proper Floo watch techniques. Branwen decides she'll peek in after seeing Channer - Yurina's comments are still fresh in her mind and she's hoping the woman's voice will get out of her head once she speaks with Lindberg.
She taps on the door twice and Channer looks up and waves her in.
"What can I do for you Ms. Avery?" He asks, and she'd be impressed at how his voice doesn't waver at all despite his well known terror of speaking with women if he wasn't addressing his own hands when he speaks.
She smirks briefly, knowing he can't see it, before smoothing her expression into one that's open and friendly. "Just need a few things signed for the Minister." She says brightly. "And um," she drops her voice, "Are you alright? After this morning?"
He finally does glance at her, though he quickly refocuses on the files she's holding out to him. He begins reading through them as he responds. "I'm... quite alright, yes. I should ask you that."
Branwen shudders for effect. "I'm fine." It's clipped and slightly shaky and exactly right to paint a picture of horrors without Branwen having to detail them herself.
Channer just nods and finishes perusing - and signing - the files with no further comments. Honestly Branwen isn't seeing whatever Yurina had - Channer seems the same as ever: neurotic, nervous, and embarrassingly socially awkward. Honestly Branwen had been pleased when the young man became Head of the Authority prior to the takeover as she knew he'd never put up a fight.
She accepts the files with thanks and a smile that has Channer once again focusing very carefully on his own hands, then heads back out into the main office space to hopefully say hello to Aiden before she continues with her day.
She only gets a brief wave - obviously Aiden is busy today, which is alright. He's a minor fallback plan anyhow, so it's not too important to see him as regularly as she does Valerie or Yurina.
She hurries through the rest of her day, getting the last few readings she needs for her report and then clocking out just before five. She's looking forward to heading home and writing up her findings - she's got a lot to say.
She arrives back in her flat just after five and promptly drops her bag, pulls out a quill and some parchment, and sets about with her report. For the most part nothing has changed - all the major problem people were taken out within the first few weeks of the takeover, and anyone remaining is under very close watch. There has been some shuffling about with loyalties in the intervening months, mostly from neutral to supporting the cause, but generally people are stable, stagnant even. It's what makes Branwen's job so much fun. No one wants to admit they're loathe to change, and it means they think they're impossible to read when they're actually an open book.
She's about halfway through writing about her suspicions of the Weasleys when someone knocks on her door. She frowns and checks the time - she isn't expecting anyone but she supposes it could be Yurina - the other woman has dropped by unannounced a few times prior to this. Branwen isn't particularly in the mood to talk shop with the other woman but she needs to keep up the facade of their friendship so she reluctantly gets up and goes to the door.
It's not Yurina.
Aelfwine Fawley blinks at her owlishly, one hand clutching yet another bunch of roses and the other holding a short parchment.
Branwen can only stare in shock for a long moment, during which Aelfwine clears his throat and holds up the parchment to start reading off it.
"I look to the clouds, and I see your face, your eyes-"
And that's enough of that. Branwen grabs him and yanks him into the house, shutting the door quickly behind him and pulling the awful poem out of his hand before he can keep reading. She can only hope that nobody saw him on her doorstep.
"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" She hisses, to angry and flustered to pretend to be anything else.
Aelfwine looks hurt. "Well, you weren't responding to my gift so I thought-"
"I told you to leave Al." She says, mentally groaning when she realizes she'd used his nickname without meaning to. She needs to be careful with that - she can only use his nickname for emotional emphasis, she should have used his full name there. "It's not safe for either of us. That woman you met, the Deatheater? She's been picking on me specifically since you showed up. Don't make this worse. Please." She finally gets control enough to make the last word sound hurt and pleading, and Aelfwine immediately looks guilty. Good. It's the least he should be feeling showing up and nearly throwing off years of hard work.
"I... I'm sorry I didn't-"
"Don't say you didn't know Al. I told you." She says, still wrapping each word in hurt and betrayal. "I told you, you just didn't listen. Do you not trust me anymore?" She shudders for effect. "Do you think you know what it's like in there? You don't. You can't, not if you aren't working there." And isn't that the truth? Which only makes the comment that much more powerful - Aelfwine flinches away like it burned him.
He's speechless now, and she collapses back onto her couch, which she's been intentionally moving towards through the entire speech for this exact moment. She lets him stew in his own mind, pulling her knees up and staring at the carpet with an expression of exhaustion.
Finally Al finds his words.
"I'm sorry. I just... if it's that bad, can you leave? Can't you come with me?"
Branwen gives a broken, hollow laugh. She of course knew he would ask that eventually, would try to get her to run away with him sooner or later, but she admits she'd hoped it would take longer. As it stands her report is still on her desk - she needs to keep him in this room and then drive him out as quickly as possible after ensuring he won't try this against any time soon.
But she's prepared for this, and well practiced besides. "So I just what? Run away? Leave everyone else to suffer while we do what, exactly? Did you know they're already planning expansion outside of Britain? Where would we even go Al?" She shakes her head, still laughing, slightly hysterical now. "I was getting on fine. They didn't see me. I was safe. Then you. You couldn't just leave Al. Why couldn't you?"
He's shrinking back, but there's still determination in his eyes. Great, he's not leaving. She'll need to get Apparation barriers set up around her flat now and that's going to be a massive pain, but he definitely has had time to study the room enough to be able to Apparate back inside if he chooses to. Which she's starting to think he probably will, the absolute idiot.
She tells herself she's not flattered, that when her Lord wins and the world bows to the might of magic she'll enjoy having Aelfwine tortured and killed, but she isn't quite sure she believes it. Which is not the thing to focus on right now anyway so she pushes the thought aside firmly.
Aelfwine is speechless again, though this time she can see that he's trying to calculate what to say rather than being struck dumb by guilt or hurt. Which is... not ideal but perhaps she'll allow him to get his grand speech off his chest so she can shut him down entirely in one go.
Yes, she decides as he seems to come to a conclusion, that will be the best route to take. She gives a small sigh and sinks further into the couch as he clears his throat, the picture of defeat and exhaustion.
"I'm not asking you to abandon anyone." He says, slowly, clearly still feeling out the words. "Wanting to help is why I'm here."
Something in her perks up. Is he with the Order? Did she just get an inside connection without even meaning to? That would be convenient.
"Together we could make a difference Wennie." She glares weakly, partly over the nickname and partly because this isn't sounding like an Order recruitment speech, which is really too bad. It would have at least made all this grief actually worth something. "You're brilliant, you've always been brilliant, and I have lots of friends from my travels - together we could save everyone. I know that you're a good person Branwen, and I know you're scared but if anyone is capable of this it's you."
Wrong on so many levels but she gives seventeen-year-old Branwen props for so completely bamboozling this naive boy that he's still buying into her routines seventeen years later. Branwen would smile if that wouldn't give the game away - she really is good at this, isn't she?
Aelfwine isn't done, though, and Branwen keeps letting him talk. To get it all out of his system.
She doesn't listen. Not really. It's a lot of the same - Al was never the best with his words, but he's earnest and can go on for a while. As he talks (more nonsense about knowing she's a great and caring person - of course she cares about people, they just need to stay in their place is all, why is it self-righteous arseholes like the Order think themselves the only people capable of caring about anything? Really, so narrow-minded) she formulates exactly how to get him to leave and not come back until she actually needs him to.
There is of course the option of just tossing him into Azkaban - she has more than enough sway in the Ministry to get it done quick and easy, and considering he's been gallivanting around the world for the past however long she doubts there's anyone around to miss him or notice if he suddenly vanishes.
She has Valerie after all, she's Branwen's main way out if things go poorly again. Which they obviously won't - with Branwen securing the seat of political power for the Deatheaters early on their success has been certain from the start. So really just having Valerie - and Aiden, admittedly - is probably more than enough.
But still, she decides, removing Al entirely isn't really in her best interest. Multiple backup plans are always good to have - and besides, he's so utterly infatuated with her she may even be able to bring him to right side with a little more time and attention. She just doesn't have that right now since the takeover of Britain is still ongoing, and she needs to keep her focus on the Ministry for the time being.
So no incarceration, or anything else that would remove him permanently. He's too useful. She tunes back into his speech briefly to see if he's wrapping up, but he's still going which is good since she still needs to work out how to make him do what she needs him to.
Well, maybe getting all this out and then her shutting him down again will be enough? She just needs to play it right.
This is why she needs him out of the picture for now, though. She's making guesses, like she's in school all over again. It's frustrating how her years of experience don't seem to mean much in the face of her old fling. She'd asked one of the older secretaries about it - indirectly of course - and the woman had confirmed it's normal occurrence for her to act like a school girl with someone she hasn't seen since school.
Which is annoying.
She realizes that Al has fallen silent, and she quickly refocuses on him. He's looking at her hopefully, and she exhales slowly.
"I... Al I..." She hesitates. Guess we're going with plan number two then she decides before slowly sitting up on the couch, squaring her shoulders and taking another shaky breath for effect. "Aelfwine. You need to leave. Please. I... I'll reach out. If it becomes to much, if I can get away safely. Okay?" She finally looks up, locking eyes with him and giving him a look of pure exhaustion, with just the hint of tears.
Al crumbles instantly. "Of course. Of course Wennie, I'm sorry, I... I'll hear from you soon?" He says softly, hopefully.
Branwen doesn't correct the nickname this time. "...Maybe. Goodbye Al."
He lets himself out, and she sighs, taking a few moments to recollect herself. All in all she thinks that went well. At the very least he'll back off for another week.
Well then. Back to her report.
Author's Note: Ah yes, my favorite chapters, the ones featuring the most morally reprehensible POVs in the story xD So has Branwen played her cards well, or is she losing her touch? Only time will tell!
Next Time: Lying to yourself only works for so long
So I'm thinking I might do a final 'afterwords' chapter to share my thoughts and feelings on writing this story, if that's something people would be interested in? I'm also open to answering any lingering questions people might have there as well!
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