cynicism is a one-way path

The more Albus spoke the more pissed he was, but he couldn’t help it. For so long he had been with holding his anger because there was never a time where he could speak freely about it, or as freely as he could then. At that moment he could let it all out, all of the anger and the frustration that the Ministry allied people caused him. They didn’t see it, the man in front of him didn’t see it, but Albus could and he hated the fact that they were all so wilfully ignorant and bigoted.

Albus felt a chill run down his back as a knock came on the door, and listened intently into their conversation for any knowledge he could use to escape. Nothing. “Can humpty dumpty over here choose where the bite is or is this more of a wheel of fortune type of deal?” He asked once the other hit wizard left them alone. Albus thought about what Owen had said about it being an unlikely occurrence that he could knock the other out and escape, and silently agreed, although grudgingly. It hadn’t been a real offer, he knew that the werewolf wouldn’t take it but he was still trying to get more time to find a way out of his situation. Unfortunately for him that meant talking to the person who was trying to change his life forever when he’d rather have punched him in the face. “I mean, a bite to the ankle or something would show, I’d rather not promote the fact that you took my humanity away by force. Might look like I actually wanted this.” Everyone knew it was hindering in the least, being a werewolf, what with the changing and having to take wolfsbane and always being known as a public displeasure. Of course with Alexandra’s reign she had changed that, but it didn’t discount the fact that it was still troubling and a bother to care for. If it really did happen, if Albus was left a lycan, he wasn’t sure if he could handle it. But he’d have to, it was that or die because those who couldn’t control themselves were dispensable.

Owen paced one length of the room silently, his eyes locked on his feet and occasionally Albus to ensure he wasn’t taken by surprise. Then again, with the kid’s reputation Owen wouldn’t exactly be surprised by any move he made. Still, he wasn’t taking any chances – especially not now. He was so close, and there was no doubt that he’d get hell if he somehow managed to lose the kid. Now that Albus knew this area of the Ministry, he would be capable of getting back here and attempting to help the other unfortunate souls who happened to cross the Ministry. One more reason this all needed to happen, Owen told himself.

When the boy started talking, Owen listened but he wasn’t bothered about replying. He wasn’t going to reply to something that would start up an angry conversation between the two – stress wasn’t the best thing to put yourself through on the night of the full moon. But he thought about the request to have the bite somewhere inconspicuous and nodded to himself before taking a look at Albus from what he could see, figuring out a place most likely to not be seen. “Fine. Pick a place.” Owen gave in. It wasn’t something that really mattered and he wasn’t going to get in trouble for letting the kid have the bite in a place less noticeable. After all, it wasn’t the biggest ask and the whole thing wasn’t going to be pleasurable for Albus so what was the harm in saying yes? “But, if you try anything I will bite you somewhere people can see.” He needed to assert the fact he had control of this whole situation despite letting Albus have something he wanted.

The creak of the smaller door didn’t bother Owen; he knew what was happening without even looking. Soon enough, by his side was a smaller vampire with a bowl of the solution he asked for along with a rag of sorts and a vial full of wolfsbane potion. He’d never seen the girl before, but she’d known to go through the right door that Albus wouldn’t think about going back through, and she’d managed to get through there with ease so it was safe to assume she did this often. “Thanks...” Owen trailed off, hoping for a reply from the girl including her name.

“It’s my job.” She said coldly.

“Right.” Owen kept his attention on Albus. “You’ve got another choice. You can apply this thing yourself, save her from staying, or she stays and applies it. And if you choose the first one and don’t apply it because you’d rather die, we’re also fine with that option. Saves us from keeping you around. Though, it’d be a shame for you to just disappear and no-one know what happened to you. I’m sure your family would try and find out, and maybe they’d end up in this position too. Wouldn’t that be a pity?”

The vampire sharply placed her elbow in Owen’s side with a pretty big force, indicating for Owen to shut up and get on with things.

"It must be so irritating to hear people plead for their lives. I can’t imagine how annoying that would be. Merlin, people actually caring about their fate? Who would have thought.” Albus wasn’t looking at Owen, but rather at his own hands as they rested on his knees. He had them pulled up against his stomach as he sat. The only things he could hear in the area were other muffled sobs from people waiting the same fate and the steady, quick beat of his heart. “But you see this as a good thing, right? Why not force people to become something they never asked. At least in my situation there’s a reason, I get that, but turning innocent people? Where’s the humanity in that, Owen?” Albus decided he wouldn’t give the other his name, mostly because he knew that Owen already knew his name and he didn’t think someone sided with the Ministry deserved to speak to him in pleasantries.

Michael, though, Albus knew the name. He was the pack leader and had more say in the Ministry than most. Albus had seen him before but only from afar, and he wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to meet the person who ran an insidious pack of werewolves. “Why me? I’m not too important of a person, it might be better to keep me out of the limelight.” He thought for a moment, and suggested, “might make more sense to just keep me here.” He had always been good at keeping himself under the radar. Albus silently cursed himself for being silly enough to forget about how big the cloak was and being overconfident in his own abilities. James could have been a hall away from him and he’d have never known that Albus was taken away to become a lycan.

When Albus slumped to the bottom of the wall, sitting against it, Owen almost felt sorry for him. Only for a split second, then his features hardened as he remembered what needed to be done. He listened to Albus speak, knowing he was quite right. Owen hadn’t been in Albus’ position; if he had done maybe he would have empathised with him. But Owen had picked this for himself due to a need for family and belonging among all reasons. Of course it didn’t seem like a problem to Owen – his life had only improved since he’d been turned. Instead of replying, Owen kept quiet and Albus spoke on. “Where’s the humanity in slaughtering thousands, Albus?” He retorted. “I think you’ll find we, wizards, were well on our way to doing that before we positioned a new Minister. It started out as only a small army, one that would keep people at bay. A bluff. Then you lot had to come along, didn’t you? This time, we actually needed to grow an army. We had a limit, we didn’t need more people until we had a war on our hands. And if Ackerman had kept his god-damn rebellion fantasies locked away, we wouldn’t be in this state. It’s not a good thing, no, but we need stronger soldiers and sometimes people get in the way – so we use them.” Owen tried to keep his voice low and monotone, not wishing to show any signs of anger. But that had been lost in the first question he’d asked.

He rolled his eyes at the next thing Albus said, electing to ignore what was coming out of his mouth. It was only made to irritate him. Owen was really starting to wish a vampire had found him, that way he wouldn’t need to join the werewolf pack one he was turned. Which would honestly have made Owen’s life a tonne easier, not to mention less stressful at this current moment in time. There were plenty of other things on his mind that he needed to get done: paperwork, letters, shopping. It seemed he’d get none of that done before tomorrow which was highly inconvenient to say the least.

Owen would have laughed if he hadn’t just been placed into a foul mood. “You have no choice in the matter.” Just like this whole situation. It was easy to see how Annabelle, his only lycan friend, had felt in Albus’ position. Though Owen suspected she would have been bawling her eyes out. Don’t think about it. After this, Owen didn’t plan on doing this ever again. It was tedious, not to mention being alone in a place like this left his brain to wander and dwell on things he’d never usually spent over a second of thought on before pushing it to the back of his mind. At least when Albus talked Owen had something to focus on, which was why he was starting to be thankful Albus was rather chatty given his position. “I have been a trained Hit Wizard, not to mention a werewolf, for many years.” Owen answered, pacing the room now, adding: “You’re a kid who tripped over his own invisibility cloak and ended up getting captured. Do you really think that’s a likely occurrence of events?” He shook his head, listening to a rattle on the door. “Occupied.” Owen called.

“Aware.” A familiar voice Owen soon recognised as Mack’s replied. “Permission granted, go ahead. I’ll tell Michael why you’re not there tonight.”

“Alright, got it. Thanks.” Owen nodded even though Mack couldn’t see him. This was going to be a challenge – Owen had never spent a night by himself in werewolf form, always surrounded by other members of the pack. “Hey, Mack, can you get the powdered silver and dittany ready? And we're going to need a vamp, unless Humpty Dumpty over here wants to apply it himself."

“No problem. And I'll see about who's willing to help out and send them your way.Tell 'em to piss off if you don't need 'em. See you tomorrow.”

When one of the two said, “Guess what tonight is?” Albus felt a chill run down his back. The full moon. They were planning on turning him into a lycan because he knew this secret - he had to get away.

He stood up, hands behind his head and his face set in apathy. Being stunned would only make the situation worse, at least this way he could somehow distract the two and find the time to grab his wand and stun the guy who had taken to moving him somewhere else. Albus knew he’d overheard something that was obviously important if they were considering, or already planning, to turn him. If he could get away unscathed he’d have to stay at the resistance headquarters from then on, but at least he’d be able to tell them about the veelas and make staying in hiding worth it.

Albus kept moving, eyes on his feet as he walked stiffly with the other wizard. He wanted to say something, but the smarter part of his mind told him if he egged the guy on he’d only end up stunned and unable to do anything. But he needed to make some sort of distraction. “Are you, like, attracted to veelas, or something? Is that why you support them?” When his question elicited no reaction and he was turned down a route away from everyone else, Albus felt his heart rate quicken. The hallway was full of rooms and white light but there weren’t any pictures or paintings, the walls were blank, grey canvases with nothing to show. He wondered if it was the place where all the other lycans had been forcefully changed, or if other horrors usually took place in the area.

If this hadn’t been extremely sensitive information they were dealing with, Albus’ joke may have prompted a reply from Owen. But this was serious. And, if things went the Ministry’s way, Owen doubted there’d be many laughs from Albus here on out. It was going to be completely exasperating to have Albus as part of the pack, others were going to receive the same displeasure from having him there and he didn’t doubt Albus would go off on one about what they’d done for days. His own fault, really. The rebels –resistance, they liked to call themselves- were only getting their own people into trouble because they felt the need to do reckless things and send in someone clearly inexperienced. The invisibility cloak had been a nice touch, though. If he hadn’t had stumbled over, Owen knew he would have simply ignored all the signs pointing to a person being there – smells and whatnot.

He and Albus walked down the halls, slowly becoming duller and less appealing. This was the side of the Ministry he tended to avoid, though he had known the rooms were here and more often than not they were used for interrogations and changing. A special room had been set up for the lycan changing, mostly because it needed extra precautions than what vampires did. Vampires had it easy; they could turn someone whenever they pleased, it was a piece of pie for them that took a maximum of 2 days. Werewolves... well, sometimes people could be held up to three weeks in one of these cells waiting for this to happen. It was tedious for both the Ministry and the person on the other end of the bite. 

Once inside the room, Owen sealed the door and rolled his eyes at Albus’ position against the wall. “There’s no way you’re getting out of here unless I want you to, you know?” Owen shook his head, moving across the room and leaning against the other wall adjacent to the one Albus has taken to. His wand was still firmly pressed in his palm in assumption Albus would try literally anything to get out of here. He’d heard about it before, people trying to escape through all sorts of methods: the most common being hand-to-hand combat, which always ended up with the wizard or witch on the floor and/or in pain. It was a wonder they put up a fight seeing as werewolves and vampires were stronger.

“Right. You’re going to stay here until my partner comes back. When he comes back, we’ll see where we go from there. Until then, you may as well get yourself comfortable.” Comfortable may not have been the right word, considering this was practically a jail cell but with more room. And the only reason the room was there was because a wolf needed to walk through here with ease. “None of the furniture moves, by the way, in case you planned on throwing something. That door,” Owen pointed to the smaller, squarer entry, “is not a way out. The other side will be highly secure as it’s a holding cell for werewolves.”

The gleaming white floors and posters plastered to the walls, full of propaganda, had always been reason enough for Albus to stay as far away from the Ministry as possible. But he had family members who worked there, old friends and others who always ended up calling him over on his days off for lunch and other things. It was one of those days, and he had just finished eating with a friend as he walked through the department of magical law enforcement. Albus hadn’t seen his brother James in a while and he thought it would be nice to stop in and see how he was doing. That was, permitting he wasn’t on call. As he made his way over, Albus walked slowly. He was in no hurry, as it was his day off and he had his parents house to return to. He didn’t exactly feel an urgent need to go back. Albus turned a corner and heard voices, deep but quiet. As a member of the resistance, he took it as his cue to try and listen to whatever it was that was spoken in hushed conversations in the Ministry. One of the voices spoke above their whisper and Albus could hear him. ”We’re going to let those things work here?” The voice sounded somewhat incredulous. Albus stopped abruptly to press himself against the nearest wall. There was more of the conversation, but he could only hear bits and pieces.

He went on off on a form of rant, something about veelas and the Ministry’s new proposition to  employ them. “We’re going to let those things work here?” He finished it. Owen was honestly disgusted... things? Merlin, did the man have no respect?

“Why wouldn’t they? With the resistance growing in numbers, we need all the help we can get to enforce our position. Bishop needs to stay where she is and turning people isn’t exactly in favour by many. At least veelas were born that way.”

“They’re not human, Owen.” Mack replied as if it was the most obvious answer, as if what he was saying wasn’t incredibly rude.

“You know you’re a werewolf, right? You know that, technically, you don’t count as human either? But the Ministry is giving you status, equality. You owe it to the veelas to pay the same respect. They’ll be more than beneficial to us, you must know that.”

“We change once a month, Owen – they change whenever they’re off their heads.”

“Shut up, Mack. They offer abilities that we can use to our advantage. You must see the benefit to that."

“Not really. I feel like they’re going to weaken our forces if anything, make us appear like we need the help.”

“We do need the help. And the veelas will be a success, I know they will.”

Just as Mack went to open his ignorant mouth, a loud thud caught their attention. Owen and Mack turned to the door, both drawing their wands. Immediately they assumed work positions, no longer bickering about matters they weren’t supposed to talk about. Owen nodded to the door, his want pointed ahead as it swung open. If he hadn’t been half-covered by an invisibility cloak, Owen may have ignored the whole situation and assumed the boy had simply tripped. However, the cloak suggested he had been snooping. How much information had he heard? It wasn’t supposed to be let out, especially if the resistance picked up on their knowledge. “Wand down, stay on your knees. Don’t even think about sneaking under the cloak.” Mack barked.

“Albus Potter,” Owen let out a heavy sigh as he caught a glimpse of who had been scrambling around at their feet. “What are we going to do with you?” He would usually have ignored Mack in this situation, pretending he had it. But, honestly, he had no idea what he was supposed to do in this position and turned to his partner in hope of a suggestion.

A grin crept upon the man’s face. “Guess what tonight is?”

“We haven’t got per-”

“I’ll get it. Now, take him and I’ll get back to you later.”