Bertram Aubrey

“Did I not,” Mac asked with a light tone even though he knew he hadn’t. “Had some time, thought I’d check out the alley, see if there was anything worth seeing. All I found was you.” Bertie could take that however he liked. While it was good for the kid that Mac had found him, Mac wasn’t sure it was good for him. He was glad that Bertie didn’t press about the news thing. Mac had no desire for more news. The Ministry was doing jack all as far as he could tell. Death Eaters seemed to be all about death and destruction. If they had some motive aside from those two things Mac didn’t care. They’d either succeed or not,  with things as terrible as they were he didn’t need  to be worrying about their end game. And the people of Knockturn were still being used by the people with money. Readingabout any of that wasn’t gonna change things. Mac wasn’t sure there was a way. Much better was talking about stinks. He laughed at Bertie’s words. “Clearly.” Someone with a thing for dungbombs, Hogwarts really churned out some odd ones.  Given all the stuff Bertie had talked about he was a little surprised the other hadn’t dealt with garbage stink. Mac chuckled the question. “Way too much time,” he answered honestly. “I got someone to give me some good cleaning charms but it still takes doing them four or five times before the smell comes off,  especially on a hot day. I don’t want my clothes wearing out, ya know?” Mac had asked his tutor but that felt weird to say. He usually kept his work clothes separate. But sometimes, like a day like today, there was overlap. It was bad enough he’d ruined a few things thanks to Order missions he didn’t need to start having to spend money on clothes.

Despite the fact that things could go terribly wrong he laughed, clapping Bertie on the back as he moved his arm off the other’s shoulders. “Clearly or you wouldn’t be here,” was his answer. They could both be someplace not Knockturn. Maybe he’d run into someone who didn’t want to be seen in Knockturn. That’d give him a good reason to be here.  Or something.

Mac didn’t answer Bertie’s question just gave him a nod.  It was a good thing Bertie hadn’t caught on he was talking about Dawn.  He needed to not be talking, or thinking, about her. Talking about papers was not the way to do that. “Yeah?  I don’t really listen to the radio.  Or  read the papers for that matter.  I have enough real news.” Mac had his fill of Death Eater bullshit. And the rest of the bullshit too. The only thing any of  those were good for was a check  and radio lacked visuals so there was no reason to bother. He chuckled when Bertie said he was peeved at the. cousin for something else. “Like I said,  now I know not to piss you off,”  he joked again. And hopefully get a heads up if Bertie decided to give that a go again. He was surprised to hear that the stink could come off. “Lots of people are just lazy or wasteful, or both. I’ll have to remember you know the art of dung bomb stink removal, you never know.” Might come in handy if there was a  copy cat, or Bertie forgot that heads up. “How are you at dumpster stink,” he asked with a smile that made it difficult to tell if he was teasing or not.

Bertie chuckled at Mac’s answer. He probably had a good point. But -- “Yeah, speaking of, you still haven’t told me what you’re doing here,” he remarked, his tone light because he’d shared enough with Mac he felt like the older bloke would hopefully either tell him the truth or at least just bluntly tell Bertie he wasn’t gonna get an answer without getting pissed at him for asking again. 

It was disappointing to hear Mac hadn’t heard of his radio program, and apparently wasn’t into radio at all. Maybe that made it less bad he hadn’t heard of Bertie’s show; he wasn’t sure. Though he sure couldn’t blame Mac for his reasoning about why he avoided the news. “Fair enough,” he said, leaving it there lest he lay on the radio show thing too thick and give himself away, not just to Mac but to any other gang people who might be listening because apparently at least one terrible one Rotty told him to avoid had been trying to figure out who was behind it. Definitely not something Mac needed to know about. Or anyone. It would probably be fine. Or maybe being here was stupider than he’d initially thought, but he was already here. He laughed when Mac said not to piss him off. “Good call, for the sake of your nose.” He nodded at the next thing Mac said, pausing to consider the other’s question -- both the answer and why it was Mac wanted to know, because it was hard to tell from his expression. “Not sure, haven’t tried it yet. Can’t imagine it’s harder to get rid of than dung bombs, but it’s different so might take some extra experimentation and tweaking to get it right. Why? You spend a lot of time in dumpsters?” He asked with a grin, though he was curious now.

Yep, should have minded his own fucking business. Mac felt like his life had become one big mess of doing exactly what Cal always said not to since they’d moved away from Knockturn. He’d never seemed to find his footing like the rest of his family had. Mac certainly felt off kilter hearing Bertie talk about this Rotty bloke being the firmest he had feelings for. His first had ended up, well exactly like Mac had a feeling it would. Actually more painful than he’d expected but the same result, Dawn back in America. There wasn’t really much he could offer Bertie. “That makes sense,” he replied. No wonder Bertie was trying so hard. “We’ll see if we can find him.” Maybe it’d work out better for Bertie. Mac wasn’t so sure but he was committed now. Probably should be committed into the mental ward more like. Mac slung his arm around Bertie’s shoulders as he spoke again. “Couple of lads knocking around Knockturn, what could go wrong.” If they were lucky not too much.  Mac wasn’t optimistic about their luck.

Talking about dung bombs and the Prophet was a good distraction as they started passing more and more unfriendly eyes. He was surprised that Bertie had a cousin who worked for the Prophet, even more surprised to hear that Bertie hadn’t warned him. Mac laughed. “You didn’t even warn your cousin? Damn. Not surprised it’s deliberate. They’re pretty awful. A friend was always shocked by how terrible they are. How they got away with it. Pretty sure all our papers are like that though.” Mac knew Bertie knew Dawn but he didn’t wanna open that door. “If he works for the Prophet maybe your cousin did have it coming,” he added to move even further away from talking about Dawn. He clapped Bertie on the back when Bertie said he’d warn him. “Good lad! I heard the sink was so bad people had to trash their clothes, not something I want to find out for myself.” Clothes were too bloody expensive to just be tossing them for smelling bad. He’d end up just walking around stinking like a dung bomb, which given how many times he’d hidden in dumpsters that probably would’t be a huge deal. Mac would still rather not find out which smelled worse.

Bertie wasn’t sure any of what he was doing made sense, but he appreciated that Mac simply left it at that and let the topic go. And that he was still willing to stick around and help Bertie see if he could find Rotty. Though now Bertie was even more nervous about that. Maybe Rotty didn’t want to see him. He knew where Bertie lived, after all, and had only come by specifically when Bertie was out. Mac stopped him from following that train of thought too far when he slung an arm over Bertie’s shoulders. Bertie chuckled at his comment. “A lot, probably, but guess you know better than I do,” he replied, not quite joking -- it was the truth, after all -- but hoping things would be fine. He sure felt better about his odds with Mac here. 

He chuckled and brought a hand to the back of his neck when Mac asked about him not telling his cousin. But Josh was fine. A dung bomb never actually hurt anyone. He was surprised to hear Mac talk about a friend who was shocked by how bad the Prophet was. “Your friend must not be from around here,” he said with a chuckle. A second later and he wondered if the friend wasn’t Dawn. She and Mac were together a lot, from what Bertie could remember before she left. Probably back to America. Definitely best not to ask about that one. He just nodded when Mac said all their papers were probably like that. “Yeah, it’s a real problem. You hear about that radio station, though? Supposedly they’re covering real news.” He added, as casually as he could, and then chuckled when Mac said Josh had it coming. “Maybe a bit, though honestly I was mostly just peeved at him over something else. But a dung bomb never hurt anyone,” he felt compelled to add. Though he had no problem promising Mac a warning ahead of time if there were more dung bombs in his future. He laughed at the other’s response. “Yeah, I heard that too! I think those people just weren’t trying hard enough. Getting rid of dung bomb stink is an art, but it can be done.”

Mac bit back a comment about how you never knew who you’d get tired of. Clearly he was beyond minding his own business but that didn’t mean he needed to keep sticking his nose in. He didn’t even know this Rotty bloke, maybe he liked casual. Maybe he had a bunch of non-Knockturn, or both, blokes on the line. Still he found himself opening his mouth yet again when he shouldn’t. “Some things can’t be fixed.” Wasn’t too surprising that a bloke that liked putting things together wouldn’t think about that. Probably found a way to fix loads of shit Mac wouldn’t think of. But things were’t people. He should just leave it there. Which mean he wasn’t because Mac had stopped doing things he should years ago. “Is this just cause you feel guilty about lying? You said you two were just hanging out. So what’s it matter if he decides he wants to hang out or not? You’re a nice looking bloke, sure you can find plenty of like minded blokes who’d wanna hang out.” Mac wasn’t really clear on if hanging out meant what he thought of or if Bertie was just too shy to say they’d been shagging. Either way it seemed to him that he was going through a lot of trouble for this bloke.

Which really was none of his business and he didn’t know why he was getting so involved. Talking about Bertie’s dung bombs was much better. Even if he couldn’t talk about them without thinking about how Dawn had loved it. He did his best to push the image of her smiling and laughing over it out of his mind. Instead focusing on the bloke beside him. He chuckled again at Bertie’s very obvious pleasure of Mac bringing up the dungbom thing. Laughed even more when Bertie failed to hold on to the little bit of deniability he had. Despite him making the same pun Dawn had. “What the hell did the Prophet do to you? Sure it sucks but that’s a lot of dungbombs just to make a joke. Even a good one.” Or so he assumed it had taken a load of ‘em to make that stink. Mac didn’t care what the Prophet printed, only how much they’d pay for photos. Which wasn’t enough to make Mac bother trying to get any for them. They had staff photographers too so not much they’d need. It’d be a losing game. Witch Weekly was where the money was at. Their staff photographers only went out to events despite how many street photos the Weekly printed. Catching rich people being fucking assholes out and about was a lot easier too. It seemed to be all they did. For a while he’d had a pretty good run taking photos of the Minister’s delinquent son. The cheeky bastard even posed for Mac so he got a good photo often times. But Mac hadn’t been able to suss out where he was doing his bad deeds lately. Which made Mac think he was probably up to something that’d bring in a better paycheck than Tooker kissing that reporter. If only… “Do a mate a solid and let me know if you decide to do another one of those mass bombs, eh?” Mac wasn’t sure if he wanted to photograph it or stay far away from it. But it’d be nice to know.

Some things can’t be fixed. Bertie knew that. There had been plenty of failed experiments and old gadgets thrown out because they couldn’t be repaired. Even beyond that, being in the Order sort of felt like a problem Bertie couldn’t fix. Which he’d gotten himself into trying to fix a bigger problem, the Death Eaters, that also felt overwhelmingly unfixable most days. Because Bertie liked fixing things. He was good at fixing things. Things being the operative word. Machines and charms had always made more sense to him than people, though he enjoyed people plenty. They were just a lot harder to figure out since you couldn’t just take their brains apart and see how they worked. Even just taking apart his own brain to see how it worked would be helpful, because Mac was asking good questions Bertie didn’t have an easy answer to. He definitely felt guilty about lying. And they were just hanging out. And Bertie hadn’t really been sure what he wanted. It just felt like he’d blown something special. He sighed. “I dunno. Maybe you’re right,” he said glumly. “I mean, I do feel guilty about lying, but I mostly just miss him. And he’s um...well he’s the first person I’ve ever really erm...felt like that about,” he admitted, ears reddining again. Bertie wasn’t even sure why he was saying all that, except Mac was asking and it was sort of nice to get some perspective from a bloke who understood how Knockturn worked a lot better than Bertie and any of his mates did. Even if Mac wasn’t exactly making Bertie feel more optimistic, he would always rather understand whatever situation he was in. 

“That’s neat,” he replied with a chuckle. Mac thought Bertie’s skill at making things was pretty cool. Though he doubted he’d have voiced it if the bloke had acted like a prick about it. Bertie seemed chill. Mac didn’t make it a habit to be any nicer than he had to be to other Order members. He didn’t want to be there and he wasn’t looking to make friends. But Bertie actually didn’t seem half bad.  Aside from the whole going deeper into gang territory so Bertie could win back a gang member stuff. Cal would kill him if he found about this. But really what was he supposed to do, let the kid go alone, with a plan to break into gang territory? No. But he probably shouldn’t be encouraging it either. Shit. “I know I don’t know this bloke but you realize that building something so you can send him recorded messages is way more effort than anyone in Knockturn would do. Unless it involved a really big payoff.” It was amazing how much effort could happen when gold was involved. “He’s probably never even gotten an owl from anyone. Maybe that doesn’t count as effort where your’e from but it’s a lot here.” Mac couldn’t remember if he’d even seen an owl before Cal got into Hogwarts. “Maybe he’s just scared. You’re you and he’s Knockturn. Casuals fine and all but what happens if he gets attached and you get tired of Knockturn?  I might be way off but he might be thinking about that.”  Mac wasn’t sure what made him say that and he didn’t want to think about it. 

Instead he went back to what Bertie’s whole build things hobby. It wasn’t just to move the topic away from dating, he was interested. So it was with relief and actual interest that he listened as Bertie talked. He was surprised to hear the bloke had a job. That meant he had a job, Dumbledore’s shit, and NEWTs. So did Mac but that felt different. He didn’t comment on it though instead listening as Bertie continue to talk. Mac crinkled his nose up when Bertie said he experminreted with making his own dung bombs. How did that even work? He laughed in surprise when Bertie said he’d replaced some blokes’s dung bombs with glitter ones. That sounded like a mess. He couldn’t help feeling bad about whoever had to clean that shit up. Still Mac had to admit, stories like this did make him kind of wish he could have gone to Hogwarts. But wishing got you nowhere. “Bloody hell, what a mess. Surprised it was only a week. Remind me not to piss you off,” he added with another laugh. “Wait did you have anything to do with that big cloud of stink over Diagon? I heard it was a shit ton of dung bombs that did it.”

Clearly Bertie didn’t know Mac well at all, because while he’d always seemed friendly enough, Bertie would not have figured he’d be helping him out in Knockturn like this and now even apparently trying to give him bloke advice. Maybe Mac had a point that making a recorder and sending it by owl to Rotty was more than most people expected in Knockturn. But Bertie didn’t just want to be nice by Knockturn standards. Rotty had broadened Bertie’s perspective, and he sort of hoped that maybe he was doing the same for Rotty. Bertie wanted Rotty to expect more from him than whatever the Knockturn bare minimum was. But maybe that was also part of the problem. Bertie frowned as he listened to Mac’s words that made a lot of sense even though he didn’t really like them. “I wouldn’t just get tired of him,” Bertie felt compelled to say. But he couldn’t look into the future and predict if things would work out, or what working out would even look like. It wasn’t just that they were different; their worlds were different. He sighed. “But I guess I can’t blame him for being scared of that. Don’t really know how to fix it, either.” Bertie sighed again. 

It was nicer when Mac changed the subject; talking about his projects to someone who actually seemed interested in them never failed to lift Bertie’s mood. He laughed when Mac said he didn’t want to piss Bertie off, but he was even more delighted by the next thing Mac said. A wide, triumphant grin pulled at Bertie’s lips. “Well, dung bombs are my specialty, but I’ll never tell,” he said with the same wide grin that hopefully conveyed it was him and he was damn proud of it. Even more proud knowing Mac had heard about it and still remembered it. “Seemed important to make sure everyone knows how much the Prophet stinks,” he couldn’t help taking on, quite pleased with both the effects of the dung bombs and the very accurate pun that came along with it.

Mac wasn’t that great at keeping the houses straight. He’d known he wasn’t going to be going to Hogwarts so he’d only been interested in the parts that seemed to interest Cal. But if he had to guess he’d say Ravenclaw was maybe the smart one and not the other one that wasn’t Gryffindor or the insane one. He nodded at Bertie’s words. “Hogwarts does sound pretty narrow in it’s perspective.” Maybe the same could be said for Knockturn perspective. “There’s certainly not much like the Knockturn perspective either.” Mac wouldn’t argue if that was good or bad. It was nothing like anything Bertie had probably seen before. It was a surprise that Bertie was into it. Hopefully he wasn’t sugarcoating it in his mind. But he did know Rotty didn’t read, another surprise. Mac laughed when Bertie told him about the gadget. “Really? You just make stuff out of other stuff? That’s neat.” Mac wasn’t certain he could make a radio out of radio parts. He was impressed that Bertie could do this. Even if it was a sign that someone was probably in over his head. Mac didn’t press on what Bertie had made this time for this bloke. Clearly something Bertie didn’t want to say and that was a pretty good sign he didn’t need to know it. “If he’s not around maybe you can owl it. Those things are pretty good about making sure no one else gets the package, right?” Mac got more owls now thanks to work and occasionally Dumbledore’s mess involved owls but before that all he’d ever gotten was owls from Cal so he wasn’t sure if he knew exactly how they worked. Regardless sending an owl, even one that might give it to just anyone was a better plan than breaking into a gang member’s flat. “So what else do you build,” he asked with real interest.

“Yeah…” Bertie agreed thoughtfully. He’d been learning more and more lately just how narrow the Hogwarts perspective was. It was a surprise to hear Mac say the same might be true fro Knockturn. From what Bertie heard so far the Knockturn perspective did seem sort of narrow, but in a way that stemmed from necessity. And even that level of necessity was something Bertie hadn’t ever been faced with before, sheltered as he was in Hogwarts. He felt a little more familiar with it lately thanks to the Order. It was a different brand of it, but something similar. But he doubted Mac wanted to get into a philosophical discussion, and Bertie wasn’t really in the mood for it either. He grinned when Mac seemed genuinely interested -- and impressed, even -- in Bertie’s little invention. “Yeah, kinda. Most of the time I try to make stuff out of other stuff, and sometimes it works,” he added with a chuckle. He was beyond relieved when Mac did not ask him what he’d made for Rotty and instead just suggested he owl it. “Yeah, I don’t think my owl has had any problems here before. I just…” He let out a sight. “I was hoping I could, I dunno, show him I’m making more of an effort than just owling him stuff. But I guess there’s not much else I can do.” Mac was right about not going into the club or the flat, disappointing as that was. But Bertie hated not being able to do more. He was glad for the distraction Mac’s question offered. 

Maybe he was wrong and the kid had caught on to being a gang member already. Probably better to have that realization. Facing facts was better than hiding behind lies he always thought. But that didn’t mean Mac wanted to have some heart-to-heart with this kid about being stuck in Dumbledore’s gang. Instead he figured he might as well hear about what sort of bloke this Rotty was. Despite himself he chuckled at Bertie saying sort of a bad boy. He highly doubted Knockturn gangs hid behind doing good like Dumbledore’s did. Sweet and funny. A gang member? Seemed fake. The other two sounded like Knockturn traits. Might be an actual Knockturn kid and not just some kid lured into the gang. Mac wasn’t surprised to hear a Knockturn kid looked at things differently than a Hogwarts one. What was a surprise was that was something Bertie liked. “Looking at things differently doesn’t sound bad.” What did sound bad was how into this bloke Bertie was. That wasn’t going to end well. But he’d also known that he and Dawn wasn’t going to end well either. Not that it’d end as bad as it did but the Fletcher’s didn’t seem to be the dating type. Cal had never dated a bird, that he bothered telling him about anyway. Sure he was busy but it felt like a more on purpose thing. Which felt like maybe dating should be off the table. Made sense. He hadn’t meant to date Dawn it just sort of happened. He’d been so sure she’d realize that they were not going to work out that it wouldn’t get that far. Turned out she realized that a little later than he’d expected. Mac wondered which one was gonna be realizing that between Bertie and this Rotty. lad. Maybe Rotty already had if he really was avoiding Bertie. Mac really hoped that there was no scene if they saw Rotty. Bertie was a good kid and it’d be awkward to see him get hurt all over again or embarrassed over Rotty wanting nothing to do with him. “So what were you thinking about leaving him if he’s not around? Cause it’s probably a given that Rotty doesn’t know how to read or write. There’s no school in the Alley but the Alley itself. Education is cobbled together. And most of it is not the sort of stuff I hear they teach at Hogwarts. A note would be out.” Maybe knowing that Rtotty probably didn’t know how to read would turn Bertie off. Some people really cared about that sort of thing.

Bertie’s reply was enough for Mac to know he’d made the wrong decision. He should have dragged him out by those god-awful suspenders. He also should have known it was a gang member. Anyone else who would have given Bertie those suspenders would have done so because Bertie pissed them off. Only a gang member would think they made a good gift. Mac steered them to the direction of the club and shook his head. They were both in a gang but he supposed Bertie hadn’t figured that one out yet. “Not a Knockturn one no. Don’t have the complexion for all that color,” he told Bertie with a teasing grin. “And there’s no such thing as ex-gang, that’s just dead. Might wanna keep that in mind with this friendship you got going on.” No reason to sugar coat that one. Mac wasn’t one to answer too many personal questions and he debated about answering Bertie’s. “Easy to know about Knockturn when you’re from here.” Being from Knockturn wasn’t a thing to be proud of but Mac was also not embarrassed by it. If people wanted to have a problem with it that was their problem, not his business. “So what’s this bloke, Rotty, like anyway? Wouldn’t have pegged you for the bad boy type,” he added with another teasing grin. Mac did not understand the appeal of it even if he tended to look the part himself. More than just looked the part. Good blokes didn’t hang out behind dumpsters so they could take pictures of some politician leaving his mistress’s house. Their loss, his gain. If he managed to catch ‘em. Which he was pretty good at.

Not a knockturn one. Bertie’s smile faded some and he nodded grimly, though he did his best to smile at Mac’s teasing. “Right.” Hadn’t Rotty said the Order was the same thing as a gang? Lately it felt more and more like he was right; Bertie hadn’t forgotten how upset Josh had been to find out what Bertie was tied up in. And Bertie hadn’t been able to shake that feeling that he was an idiot for signing up in the first place. At least the Order he could leave if it got too bad. Sort of. Dawn did and as far as Bertie knew no one begrudged her for it. But she also hadn’t left until she was barely functioning. Until she wasn’t of use. Could Bertie really walk away? No. Or he would have, if not before that night Dung left him for dead then certainly after. And he remembered something else Rotty told him, that there was always something next. Bertie tried to shake that thought, but Mac’s comment that there was no ex-gang only dead was a grim reminder of not just his own problems but Rotty’s. His brows knit together. Rotty deserved better than that. And better than Knockturn and the awful flats Mac described. Probably deserved better than Bertie, too. Mac’s answer to Bertie’s question pulled him from that depressing train of thought and he glanced over at the other bloke in surprise. Mac was from here. Huh. But he got out. Maybe that meant Rotty could too. If he wanted too, which was a whole different question. A small smile pulled at Bertie’s lips in spite of his worries when Mac asked him about Rotty. “I guess he is sort of a bad boy,” he admitted with a chuckle. There was no sort of about it; Rotty made a job of beating people to a pulp to collect payment from them. “But he’s also really sweet. And funny. He pretty much says what he’s thinking and isn’t fazed by much.” Knockturn probably had that effect, but Rotty didn’t come out hard and cold. Instead he was sweet and gentle. When he wasn’t doing his job, Bertie supposed. “He’s got a way of looking at things that’s way different from mine and I dunno, I like that. Makes me look at things different too, ya know?” 

Mac felt kind of bad for the kid. He’d sort of been dumped too. Not that he blamed Dawn, she was better off in America. Bertie was probably better off without this gang member too. He  didn’t say that. “Sucks.” The least he could do was explain to the kid why this Rotty bloke might feel the way he did. Mac had a feeling Bertie wasn’t that sort of Knockturn visitor. Dumbledore had a knack for forcing really nice, good hearted people into the worst possible situations for nice, good hearted people. From the way he was looking it seemed that Mac had been right. Which meant the plan to find this bloke was some kind of attempt to get him back. It was absolutely insane. Mac wondered if all Hogwarts students weren’t just insane. Only Cal hadn’t come out of there a different bloke so maybe it wasn’t something to do with the school. Maybe non-Knockturn people we’re just all weird. He just hoped the younger kids didn’t turn out off. But Bertie’s answer did make him feel bad for the kid again. Bloody hell. Maybe he could just buy. Bertie a milkshake or something and get him out of the alley. Or promise to take him to that nightclub he had taken some photos outside of. Since he hadn’t seen any birds coming or going, and that singer had been real anxious to get his hands on the pictures Mac had a feeling it was the kind of place Bertie would find other blokes interested in hanging out. Only Bertie was a bit young for that so probably not. He took another look over at Bertie and sighed. “Alright, let’s go to the Crow Club,” he said and slung his arm around Bertie’s shoulder. “But we are not going in. And we’re not going into the flat. Maybe we’ll get lucky and you’ll see this bloke.” He was clearly too soft. This was a terrible idea, Mac wished he hadn’t gotten so good at those.

Sucks. It did suck. The response wasn’t the pity Bertie was expecting, and somehow it actually made him feel just the slightest bit better. Like Mac got it. Maybe he did. Now Bertie thought about it, hadn’t he been dating that American bird who quit? Had she also dumped Mac when she left? If so that was cold. Or maybe she’d just gone back home, which would make sense. And also suck for Mac. Bertie didn’t ask. Mac probably had his own mates to talk to. Or maybe he didn’t. Bertie wasn’t really sure who Mac was mates with. A small amount of guilt accompanied that thought. The Order had been lonely for Bertie and he’d come in with his three best mates. It had to be worse for Mac, who didn’t even know anyone else from Hogwarts. Maybe Bertie should have made more of an effort. It might be too late now he’d sort of accused Mac of looking for a prostitute and admitted to being a desperate loser trying to win back the bloke who dumped him. Or maybe not, because then Mac was slinging an arm around Bertie’s shoulder and saying they were going to the Crow Club. “Really?” He couldn’t help himself asking in surprise, a slight smile tugging at his lips in spite of himself even as Mac told him they were not going inside or into the flat. “Okay!” He agreed easily. Those were probably both good ideas. Truthfully Bertie wasn’t sure he’d have had the courage to do that on his own, anyways. “Thanks, Mac,” he added as the other led the way. “How come you know so much about Knockturn anyways? Are you in a gang?” He asked, curious but with no judgment in his voice -- he was the one trying to date a gang member, after all. “Or ex-gang?” That might make more sense; Mac didn’t look quite like he fit here the same as the rest of the gang kids seemed to. “Is that the business you’re here on?”

Mac was relieved when Bertie didn’t linger on prostitutes any longer. He was glad to be off that subject. The incident in Knockturn had been talked about enough that Mac had heard about it. It had even caused him a little trouble with people acting like he and Dung were the same. He didn’t know if it was because they shared a last name or because they were both from Knockturn. Didn’t care either. In Mac’s opinion the problem was less Dung and more Dumbledore. He wasn’t exactly bringing in the best and the brightest. What did he expect a crook from Knockturn to do? Be brave? That was a fucking joke. Mac didn’t know what Dumbledore, or more likely Moody had on Dung but he wasn’t in the Order cause he wanted to be brave. Not that he didn’t feel bad for Bertie. The kid should have never been out there, but especially not with fucking Dung. What hadn’t been passed around was that it had been thanks to a gang member that Bertie had gotten out okay. That was different. Might still be an angle but it was hard to work out what that angle could be. If it was just so Bertie would owe him one he wouldn’t be avoiding him or upset over being played. Mac could still just carry on and go back to minding his own business. Leave Bertie to whatever Knockturn had in store for him. Wasn’t like he was Seb or anything. Instead of doing the smart thing he did what he seemed to be getting good at, the opposite. “So you were sort of dating this bloke and he found out you were part of Dumbledore’s little gang got upset and dumped you?” He almsot wished they were talking about buying sex again. “Pretty clear why he thought you were playing him. People come to Knockturn for two reasons, a good time, whatever that implies for them, or something bad. Regardless of what brings them they don’t care about using Knockturn residents and tossing them aside once their use is up. Anybody raised here is gonna know not to trust outsiders.” Mac was surprised that the bloke let it get that far. But things happened. “I dunno that you wanna go down to the Crow Club, all the gangs in Knockturn are nasty business. Unless he’s around they’re gonna see you as a mark. And you for sure don’t wanna go where they live.” Mac had never been in one of the buildings that gang members lived in but he had heard enough as a kid. “It’s sort of like one of the world’s shittiest flat building. All the buildings in Knockturn are pieces of shit but the flats are the worst. It’s just a building full of small rooms, inhabited by gang members. That are probably not gonna be willing to show some mark the room of one of their own and even if he knows how to write it’s not like his name is gonna be on his door.” It wasn’t a great plan. “You sure you wanna do that?”

“Uh….yeah, guess so,” Bertie agreed glumly to the very blunt way Mac summed up the Rotty situation. He had been dumped, hadn’t he? He’d been dumped and he and Rotty hadn’t even really been dating. Bertie had officially gotten dumped before ever even having a boyfriend. Just brilliant. Not that a boyfriend was something he’d really thought about wanting until recently, but that didn’t ease the sting or take away from what a loser he felt like. And now someone else other than just his mates knew what a loser he was. Fantastic. What he hadn’t expected was for that someone else to have a surprising bit of insight into maybe why Rotty was upset. “Oh,” was all Bertie could think to say to that. Outsiders came to Knockturn, used people, and then left. Tossed them aside. Was that really what Rotty thought Bertie was doing? But didn’t that make it more important that he come here and show Rotty he wasn’t just looking to toss him aside? Bertie wasn’t really sure what he was looking for. And Rotty was a lot of fun. But he was pretty sure that fun was mutual and Josh had said it was okay not to know exactly what he wanted yet. Though Bertie couldn’t help thinking he’d have preferred having a better word to call Rotty than his sort-of-friend or the bloke he was hanging out with. He also wasn’t sure if that was possible, even before Rotty dumped him. This fancying blokes business was hard. Even now when he thought he had a good idea to show Rotty he wasn’t trying to toss him aside, Mac was pointing out why that was not actually a good idea. Or rather the logistics of it felt rather impossible, which had been something Bertie had deliberately ignored in the hopes things might just...work out somehow. Only things didn’t just work out; that was something the Order had taught him. “...I didn’t say it was a good plan,” he mumbled, embarrassed and upset about the whole situation. “I just don’t have a better one.”

Mac was still very offended the little punk thought he was here to buy sex. Fucking hell. Minding his own damn business was a hell of a lot better than this shit. But he also felt bad for the kid as he said he panicked. “Good! Keep to that ever part and you’ll be better for it. Only loser creeps pay for sex. You don’t wanna be that bloke.” Mac could have launched into a thing about all the stuff that could happen if Bertie ended up that bloke but he didn’t. “I never thought you were a creep,” he felt the need to add since the kid thought he had to say he wasn’t. “If I did I wouldn’t be talking to you, I’d have just pretended not to see you and minded my own damn business.”

Which he still should have done it felt like. Except the kid was looking for a gang member. And personal feelings about the sort of blokes who paid for sex and exploitation of sex workers aside that was probably worse. “Let’s try this again. Who’s this bloke you’re looking for? Why are you looking for a gang member?” A gang member who might have given Bertie a pair of awful suspenders that gang members wore. Hmmm. Didn’t sound good.

Bertie couldn’t help but feel once again mildly offended at the other bloke’s warning to not be a loser creep who paid for sex. Did he really seem like he had plans to? He was somewhat placated, at least, when Mac added that he didn’t think Bertie was a creep and he wouldn’t be talking to him if he did. Okay. Good. Apparently he just felt very strong that Bertie needed to be warned off of prostitutes. Still sort of offensive, but maybe it wasn’t personal. It felt less like it was personal when the bloke kept talking, changing the subject. If only he didn’t feel the need to change the subject back to the reason Bertie was here. “Well…” He rubbed the back of his neck. The truth was sort of awkward to talk about, but at this point it seemed very likely Mac would just assume something worse than the truth if the prostitute thing was any indication. And it was at least better than talking about prostitutes any further.  Bertie sighed, resigned to embarrassing himself further in front of this bloke. “His name’s Rotty. He’s um…” Fuck, why did Bertie keep setting himself up to have to come up with a label? “We were hanging out a bit. Not in Knockturn. Usually he’d come ‘round my neighborhood. But, er, he’s actually the reason I made it out of the alley that night Dung left me there,” Bertie added, more subdued at that memory that was painful for an awful lot of reasons. Best not to linger on it. “Um, some of the other Crows found me and Rotty helped me to a healer. But, uh, he sort of figured out I’d been lying to him and he didn’t really take it well. Which is understandable.” Bertie added glumly. “Guess he thought I was playing him or something.” Bertie was still confused about exactly what Rotty was upset about; which was not to say he didn’t think Rotty had dozens of reasons to be upset with him after that, but it had been hard to follow which reason was the one that had really gotten to Rotty. “So...he’s been avoiding me and I guess I was just hoping I might run into him, or um, leave something for him,” he added, ears reddening again as he looked down at the ground. Fuck, he was a loser. 

Mac wanted to get past the whole prostitute thing now that he knew Bertie wasn’t looking for that and focus on the gang member part. Especially because every time Bertie brought him up it was odd. Not how you’d talk about a friend. Not that he thought this bloke and Bertie were friends but what was going on there? Instead Bertie was still stuck on the prostitute part. He supposed he couldn’t’t blame the kid. He wouldn’t like someone thinking he had to pay for it. Just like Bertie just asked. “No!” It wasn’t like his sex life was well an actual thing. But that was Mac’s choice not because he needed to pay for it. “Oi! What the hell? Do you seriously think I’m some creep who pays for sex?” This was why Mac should mind his own damn business. “Look, blokes like you in Knockturn are usually looking to leave not a virgin or thinking they’re gonna leave with a bunch of gold in their pockets from a table. With all that awkward chat about a friend that isn’t a friend, sure sounded like you were trying not to let on you were looking for some action. I dunno what you expected to think.” Mac was still upset over Bertie thinking he was looking for sex. Disgusting. “Here I was trying to look out for you and find a way to keep you from going through it, outside of dragging you out of here by your suspenders and giving you a fucking talking to and you accuse me of being a creep.” Should have just not gotten involved. Or just dragged him out of there.

“Wha --?” Bertie spluttered in surprise when Mac went off on him. Was he actually mad at Bertie for asking him if he was here for the same exact thing he’d just assumed Bertie was here for? Granted, Bertie had been offended Mac thought that was what he was up to, but it hadn’t even crossed his mind that might be a thing Mac would do if he wasn’t the one who’d brought it up! All Mac’s talk about what blokes like him usually did in Knockturn did not make him feel any better. Nor did the part about a friend that was not a friend. Bertie was not looking for action. Well -- not that kind of action. He wouldn’t mind if Rotty wanted to hold his hand again. Or maybe try for a kiss without an owl interrupting them. But that was it! And not even on the list of possibilities for today, anyways. Or maybe ever. But it felt sort of unfair for Mac to think it only made sense for him to assume Bertie was looking for a prostitute but that Bertie asking if he was doing the same thing was so much worse. Maybe neither of them should have accused the other of looking for a prostitute, but it was too late for that. Bertie wasn't’ really sure what to do with that stuff Mac was saying about looking out for him and dragging him out of Knockturn by his suspenders. “Wha -- I’m sorry, but you said it so matter-of-fact when you thought I was doing that, and you also weren’t talking about why you were here so -- I wasn’t thinking it ‘till you brought it up!” That probably wasn’t helping. Bertie took a breath and tried again. “I don’t think you’re a creep, really! It’s just no one’s ever accused me of looking for a prostitute before so I panicked.” And he was still panicking, but he did also feel bad that Mac looked so offended. “And I’m not a creep either,” he felt obligated to tack on, in case that got lost in the shuffle. “Like I said, that’s not what I’m here for. Now or -- ever.” 

They were a gift? From the friend that it didn’t sound like he had. Mac was lost. “Nice!” Mac still thought they were talking about Bertie trying to buy sex. But he didn’t understand where the suspenders came in. Mac wasn’t Knockturn any more so he didn’t know all the inside stuff. Maybe it was some way to mark customers. But he didn’t get why they’d be giving them suspenders like the gang members wore. Mac was surprised to hear Bertie’s answer. “You’re looking for a Crow and not a prostitute?” That was a relief. ….Wait no it wasn’t. Fuck! “Now that we both know your uh friend is real why don’t you tell me about him? Who knows maybe I know him. That’d make it even easier to find him.”

Oh good, so Mac knew who the Crows were. Maybe he would be able to help. Or he thought Bertie was here for -- “What?” Bertie asked, horrified at the very thought of coming here to -- ugh, no, just no. Whatever else Mac had to say was not immediately registered as Bertie came to terms with the fact that Mac actually seemed to have thought Bertie was here looking for a prostitute! Did Bertie give off some kind of vibe? Was it the suspenders? Was ‘friend’ some sort of weird Knockturn slang he wasn’t aware of? “Hang on -- I was not looking for a --” Bertie’s ears reddened and he cleared his throat. “I’m looking for a...well I dunno if he counts as a friend or what but he’s a person that I know and I’m not trying to -- pay for -- well for anything” Bertie managed to get out before he frowned as another thought struck him. “Wait, is that --” He lowered his voice. “Is that what you’re here for?” Mac had said he was here on personal business and he’d been being awfully cagey about it. Suddenly Bertie wished he hadn’t asked. If that was what Mac was up to, Bertie really didn’t need to know about it. “Er -- never mind, forget I asked. Not my business.” 

Did Mac tell the kid about the two blokes pretending to not notice him or would Bertie likely look around for them and possibly cause trouble to start. “I said those suspenders sure are something,” he replied. He decided not to take a chance, Order or not Hogwarts kids were a little slower sometimes. Not their fault, it wasn’t as if the other group of Hogwarts kids were any better. Mac had a pretty good feeling without wands that any Knockturn gang could handle the Death Eaters, maybe even with wands. That could be why Knockturn wasn’t getting as hammered. Mac groaned inwardly when Bertie awkwardly talked about a friend. Please don’t be looking for a prostitute. Except it did kind of sound like that was what Bertie was getting at, especially with the awkwardness. “Just my own,” he replied so the bloke wouldn’t think he was here doing Dumbledore’s bidding. “So a friend huh? Maybe I can help. I know Knockturn pretty well.” Maybe if he made Bertie keep talking about his supposed friend the other would get embarrassed enough he’d take off. The level of awkward meant he wasn’t going to admit to he was looking to pay for sex. And maybe the fact that he was that awkward meant Mac could scare him off that for good. Mac would feel better about his chances at that if it didn’t sound like Bertie had already done it. But maybe the whole having seen lately bit was to throw Mac off from the fact that he was being a giant creep and looking to pay someone fro sex. That urge to pull Bertie out of here by his ugly suspenders was still a strong one. Only now it was shared with an urge to shake him once they were out of Knockturn and have a long talk with him about why paying for sex was not a road he wanted to go down. Not a conversation Mac wanted to have.

Where did this kid get those suspenders? Was that him trying to blend in? Bloody Hogwarts kids. Worse than the suspenders was the fact that Mac clearly was not going to be able to mind his own business. All he could hope for was that this kid wasn’t looking for a prostitute. He did not want to know that. Especially because if that was the case he was definitely gonna give the kid enough shit that he was too embarrassed to go through with it. “You’re definitely finding plenty,” Mac replied under his breath because Bertie was getting attention. Probably saw an easy mark. It was hard to say how green of a mark Bertie would be thanks to the Order but just because you knew how to defend yourself didn’t make you safe in Knockturn. Not even having a wand was a sure thing.“I’m looking for someone too, how about that. Wouldn’t it be crazy if we were looking for the same person?” Mac gave the kid a smile. They weren’t. Unless Bertie was looking for some messy rich relative hoping to avoid the public knowing their dirty little habits. That would be something. “Didn’t peg you for a Knockturn visitor, Bertie,” Mac replied, still being friendly. He’d wait and judge the kid when he heard who he was looking for. If it was Seb, Mac would be pulling him out of here by those ugly suspenders. He was tempted to do the same to Bertie.

“What?” Bertie was pretty sure Mac had just said something under his breath, but he didn’t quite catch it and he couldn’t help but wonder whether it had been something that was maybe not-so-nice. Bertie knew he was sort of an odd bloke; he was used to not-so-nice comments, thought they were usually from Slytherins and usually Bertie felt they were unwarranted. In this case he’d been caught in Knockturn, so maybe a bit of sass was deserved. Then again, Mac was also here. In Knockturn. He returned Mac’s smile with a confused look when the other bloke said he was also looking for someone. And they might be looking for the same person? Was that a coded way of saying he was here on Order business? Bertie really hoped Mac wasn’t here looking for Rotty. He seemed way more like Rotty’s type, probably. But he also had the Order thing working against him, and Rotty definitely didn’t deserve to be lied to about the same thing by a different person. “Uh, I’m not really,” he answered Mac’s statement that was more like a question sheepishly. “It’s just I’ve got a um...friend who lives around here who I haven’t seen lately so I was hoping I might, er, run into him.” Bertie brought a hand to his neck, feeling awkward talking with someone he didn’t know that well about the bloke who was more than a friend but not really a boyfriend and who was maybe nothing now but Bertie was trying to win him back. Eager to change the subject, he added, “Um, what about you? Are you here on, uh, business?” Mac had said they might be looking for the same person, after all. 

While Knockturn was supposed to be off-limits for the Fletchers, Mac had never paid attention to that rule of Cal’s. It was where he got some of his best pictures. He was a bit early for messy rich people but sometimes he got lucky so he had a habit of walking through the alley when he had the time. While Mac tended to be a little too Knockturn for normal life it was clear that he wasn’t really Knockturn anymore. Especially not with a wand in his pocket and having just finished a study session with a tutor for his NEWTs. He was still Knockturn enough to get through without running into trouble at least. It was hard to believe he’d been Ruby’s age when they’d moved out. Feeling nostalgic for Knockturn wasn’t something he tended to do. The Order was really messing with his head. So was avoiding Cal. Mac didn’t like it but he knew it was going to be harder and harder to pretend nothing was up. He was in way over his head but there was nothing Cal could do about it. Despite the fact that Cal could do just about anything. Leave it to him to get tied into something Cal couldn’t fix, all because he was just trying to be responsible like Cal. The fact Cal couldn’t fix this meant he needed to keep it from him. Cal had enough without worrying over him.

Mac was about to go and find something more productive to do with his time instead of moping around Knockturn when he spied one of the kids Dumbledore had brought in. One of Seb’s classmates. Fucking Dumbledore. He was glad he’d made it clear to Dumbledore that their deal was with him only, the other Fletchers were not to be recruited into Dumbledore’s private little army. Normally he’d have minded his business even if he did recognize someone from the Order here. He didn’t give a damn what they did with their free time. But the fact that this was a kid who went to school with Seb had him reluctantly not minding his own business.

“Hey, mate, doing alright?” Maybe the kid would get embarrassed to see someone he knew and fuck off back where he came from and leave Knockturn alone. Mac could go back to minding his own business.

Bertie was trying to take heart in the fact that Rotty had not thrown his recorder in the garbage and instead sent it back to him every time. Not just that, but Rotty had actually broken into their flat and stolen one of Bertie’s mugs. He had to have known it was Bertie’s mug, at least Bertie hoped so. Surely Rotty wouldn’t be so cold as to just break into Bertie’s flat for food when he could probably get that from breaking into anyone else’s flat. Plus Timmy had said Rotty was hanging out in his room. That had to be a good sign. What was not a good sign was that Rotty hadn’t stuck around to actually see Bertie, or been back since. Maybe Rotty was busy. Or maybe he’d decided he still couldn’t trust Bertie anymore, and that was that. 

But Bertie was hoping the more optimistic option was correct; that Rotty wouldn’t have minded if Bertie had shown up while he was in their flat, and that maybe he missed Bertie too and just needed a little bit more time. Bertie could give Rotty more time. But he also didn’t want Rotty to think Bertie had forgotten about him. But he was running out of different ways to say ‘I’m sorry and I’m an idiot’ into his voice recorder. And hadn’t Josh told him that effort was important in figuring out if someone cared about you? Bertie cared about Rotty. So he clearly needed to put in more effort. Which was how he found himself in Knockturn looking for a club with a crow on it, hopefully the same sort of crow on Rotty’s tattoo, in the hopes that would lead him to Rotty’s flat. In his pocket were some old pieces of wire he’d bent into the shape of flowers and charmed to change colors whenever someone touched them. Bertie was hoping he could slide them under the door. Or maybe break in and leave them like Rotty always did for him, but that might be getting ahead of himself. He was pretty sure Rotty had mentioned he lived with a bunch of other gang members, or near them, and Bertie did not want to get caught by a bunch of gang members. So really he probably shouldn’t be in Knockturn at all.

No sooner did he have that thought than did he hear a familiar voice. “Mac?” Bertie asked, surprised to see the other bloke here. He’d always seemed a little more rough around the edges than some of the others in the Order, but not Knockturn rough. Though he did look like he fit in here better than Bertie did; he’d worn Rotty’s suspenders, but he wasn’t sure they were really helping him blend in. “Uh...yeah, I’m alright. Just, er, looking for someone. What are you doing here?”

This time Rotty knew what to expect, mostly, when he came to his room to find that bird sitting there again. It was still confusing why Bertie was bothering but he went to the quietest spot he knew and listened to it while he ate the biscuits and wondered about the rock. It had been kind of easy to pretend he didn’t miss Bertie thanks to Kaz keeping him busy. Whatever the plan, things were ramping up there. But sitting here eating biscuits and listening to Bertie’s voice made it impossible to ignore how much he missed the bloke. So much that he didn’t even notice when the bird stole several biscuits. He almost chucked the rock at it but then Bertie was explaining the rock and Rotty was looking at closer, a sad smile on his face. He wasn’t sure how much time passed as he sat there listening to the message over and over. Feeling sad but still smiling all the same because of what Bertie was saying. Finally Rotty sent the bird off with the machine. Maybe he’d walk past Bertie’s new place, just to see how everything looked.