#kshacklebolt

KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOLT 

↳ 47 / gender utp (pronouns utp) / occupation utp / fc: mahershala ali / open

     in which sacrifice is necessary for salvation–

you are the voice of reason. it’s a position that you were never planning on having to take up, but one that you will play gladly if it means you might quiet some of the madness infecting the world. all your life, you fought against corruption, working toward a safe future for the generations to come. it was a quiet job, one you performed from the background for a long, long time, silently making the smallest of moves to help push things in the right direction. after the fall of Voldemort, that changed. you were forced into the forefront, somehow becoming the acting Minister for Magic in the aftermath, charged with putting the world on the right track to peace and recovery. and for a time it worked.

for a time, you felt confident you were doing just that. but you were only acting, and eventually another Minister had to be chosen, and by that time the people were beginning to feel that maybe a bit more retribution was needed for recovery. so you let go, hoping that by positioning yourself by the side of all who came after you, you might be able to steer the course of history better than you had at the helm. now, you’re not so sure. still, you haven’t given up on the world. you know that that peace is still possible, if only you are able to open the eyes of those around you. this all feels supremely familiar, just what it felt like at the start last time, only this time around, you’re afraid that the enemies may be the very people you were fighting alongside last time. luckily, you’re in the perfect position to keep that from happening, you just have to figure out how. 

     connections

↳ Lily Evans – when you were Minister, she was there, ready to learn, to help, throwing herself into working to make the world a better place instead of lingering on her grief. at the time, you were proud of her, but looking back you wonder if you should have slowed her, given her a moment of peace. now, as her advisor, you’re trying to fix those mistakes as subtly as you can.

↳ Alastor Moody – you’ve been privately working together to try to figure out the best course of action, but as of yet you’ve both come up short. he seems to think that there’s no chance without another revolution, but there has to be something more, there has to be a spark of humanity left in those you fought with before.

It didn’t seem to matter how often she told higher ups that a case as complicated as the bombings that had taken place in London a few weeks ago didn’t get solved over night, they were chomping at the bit for results and acting as though it was her fault that the proper breaks in the case had not been made. It was times like this she wished she could remind them that she was merely the Vice Head of the department, but that wouldn’t help. All it would do would get her dragged for attempting to shift blame to Crouch. It was a lose/lose situation.

Sharp heels clicked down the corridor as Amelia made her way from her office to the Auror offices. She needed to check in on the progress of the bombings and was hoping that she would be able to speak with anyone other than Alastor Moody. It would only devolve into an argument and she simply didn’t have the energy to go toe to toe with him today. As she made her way down the hall she was oddly relieved to find the door to Alastor’s office closed. Even if it was only closed because he’d seen her coming. 

Moving past his office to the one beside it, Amelia knocked gently on the door. She nearly always preferred to speak to Shacklebolt anyway. “Kingsley? Have you got a few moments to give me some updates on the case?” she asked. Amelia didn’t bother to clarify which case, Kingsley was sure to know. 

“How do I get myself into these things?” Amelia asked her reflection as she finished fixing her hair. It was Friday evening and Aunt Rebecca had already owled twice to make sure Amelia hadn’t cancelled her date. Her fake date. Her date that had been nothing more than an impulsive lie to make Aunt Rebecca stop hounding her with questions. The woman was supposed to be gone by now, what was she doing checking up on her niece’s social life? Because of her nosy Aunt, Amelia had gone and made a fool of herself in order to force a friend (a friend who is basically your boss, let’s not forget) to take her out on a fake date. 

“Pathetic.”

Turning away from the mirror, she crossed to her bed where she had her clothing for the evening laid out. The attire was simple but elegant, a black dress that fell just above her knee paired with simple accessories that exactly matched her eyes. Slipping out of her robe, she pulled on the very set of underthings that she’d accidentally thrown at Kingsley a few weeks earlier, the irony making her smile in the midst of this awkward situation and then slid the dress over top. It had cap sleeves, a fairly high neckline, cinched in at the waist before belling out into a flared skirt, the back sheer, black lace to until the skirt. It was her favorite, but she rarely had occasion to wear it. It also gave her an excuse to wear the ridiculously expensive and impractical, but very pretty heels that, were it not for extensive comfort and stability charms, she would not be able to walk in. Good thing Kingsley was tall, the additional four inches on her height would barely be noticeable. 

She still had a few minutes before Kingsley was due to pick her up, so she double checked that she had everything ready. She’d made reservations for them at a swanky steak house and given them strict instructions to simply take the bill from her Gringott’s account. No way was she making Kingsley pay after forcing him to be a part of her ruse. He’d get a free meal, some nice wine, and an evening away from the office, not to mention a future favor from her, out of the deal -- not to shabby, all things considered. 

Amelia had been going through the records Alice gave her for days now, searching down vault owners and handing name after name over to the Auror so she could make contact. Gringots bank records were meant to be as confusing and difficult to interpret as their vaults, and nearly as dangerous. One she'd started to read aloud to help keep herself awake until she realized that a minute after she spoke each word, they disappeared from the page. Damn goblins. 

There was one, though, that didn't make sense. Many people used pseudonyms, but this one... it was insane and yet oddly familiar? It was certainly a name she'd never heard before, she'd remember if she had, but there was something that made her keep going over this particular name. If it was even a name. Sometimes the name on a vault was actually a riddle. Or, in at least one case, a dirty joke. She pulled out her note book and began scratching the name on the paper again and again. Sometimes on separate lines, sometimes all jumbled together until the page was full. Staring down at it, Amelia felt like a crazy person. 

There was something there, she just knew it. But what? Where? 

She slammed the notebook closed and tossed it onto her desk, moving on to the next vault because it, at least made sense. But when she finished, she found herself flipping back to that page in the notebook, staring at the jumbled, repeated name again. Who the hell owned this vault? 

Absently her quill tapped letters until she suddenly saw something familiar. King. King. 

"Oh sweet Merlin...it's an anagram," she breathed, circling letters and scratching the decoded name at the bottom of the page. Kingsley Shacklebolt. "Someone tried to break into Kingsley's vault." 

Hastily she ripped the page from her notebook, disintegrating it with a flick of her wand. She needed to speak to him, needed to find out why he hadn't bothered to tell anyone he had a vault under a false name in the wing where the break in occurred. But not here, they couldn't talk about it at the Ministry. She slipped the file from the stack along with all the records, making sure there was absolutely nothing anyone could find that could trace back to him -- if he'd kept it secret, there was a reason. 

Grabbing another sheet of parchment, she penned a quick note. 

KS

Found something interesting, but I could use a second set of eyes to see if it's worth keeping or discarding. Mind meeting me for coffee later to take a look? 

BTSK - MS MR

Over the course of her employment at the Ministry, Amelia had often found herself grateful that as an analyst, she wasn't required to wear the standard Auror uniform and could express a bit of her own personality with her clothing. She always kept it professional, but it was still nice to be able to wear robes that were a bit brighter and more individual, not to mention comfortable. She spent the vast majority of her time at work, and while she didn't consider herself vain, she did like to feel like she looked presentable at least. 

There were inevitably those women who used their feminity to get noticed, to get attention and get ahead, but Amelia was not one of them. She would much rather be noticed for her mental capabilities than other assets (or lack thereof).

With that in mind, she'd spent Saturday morning doing a bit of shopping. Amelia had, of course, gotten the practical things she needed -- 2 new skirts, 2 pairs of slacks,  a handful of blouses and even splurged on a gorgeous dress she'd never have a reason to wear. The color was only a few shades darker than her eyes and the cut suited her diminutive figure to a T.  It all went more quickly than she anticipated and she found herself somewhat reluctant to go back home and start thinking about her responsibilities again.

Meandering through the shop, she found herself in the intimates section and thought now was as good a time as any to replace a few items that inevitably wore out. As was her usual custom, she got a few no nonsense, functional items in muted colors that would be well suited to every day life, however as happened with the dress, found her eye drawn to the those delicate, lacy items that she had no logical business owning. She wasn't seeing anyone, there was no one to show off for, no one but herself who would see them and yet she tucked a matching set of black lace and satin underthings into her basket before heading to check out. 

As she made her purchases, Amelia couldn't help but blush. The woman who totaled the cost and put the items in the bag wouldn't stop chatting about how she loved the new line of lingerie and somehow did not notice her customer's discomfort with the topic. Who wanted to discuss their underwear with a complete stranger? In her haste to leave she tossed her coin-purse into the shopping bag and practically fled the store. 

Once out on the street, she realized she'd need that little money pouch to pay for the take out she intended to purchase. Amelia stopped on the sidewalk and rummaged through the bag, her heavy coin purse had, of course, fallen to the bottom making it rather difficult to find in the overstuffed bag. With a sigh she balanced the bag on her knee, shoving the clothing to the side until her fingers closed around the little clutch and she pulled it out, unwittingly knocking several items of clothing out of the bag and onto the ground. Unfortunately for Amelia, it was a rather windy day and a few of the lighter weight items started to blow away from her. She managed to catch a light blouse, but it was someone else's hands who caught the other items. 

"Bones!” 

A deep voice bellowed from his office, a voice that was usually kind and soft spoken. Merlin’s beard, what had she done now? Yes, she'd breached protocol, but she hadn't expected her every move to be scrutinized quite so thoroughly afterward. If anything, Kingsley seemed more upset about it than Moody. 

Amelia sighed and got up from her desk to head to Kingsley’s office, trying to figure out what the hell she’d messed up now. Mountains of paperwork had been shoved her way and some of it was unfamiliar, maybe it was nothing more than a clerical error? Yeah right... The young witch did her best to keep her chin up as she ran through a mental list of all the projects she was working on, all the possible areas she might have messed up or missed something. 

The Aurors were used to hearing Moody shout at, well, everyone, but Mr. Shacklebolt rarely felt the need to raise his voice and everyone was staring as she walked to the door of his office. 

"You bellowed?"

"Take a seat, Bones."

"I’d rather stand, thanks," she replied, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him as he closed the door to his office. "I’m not deaf, you know, you don’t have to shout at me from across the room." The disgruntled tone in her voice was not something heard often and she knew she should stop acting like a petulant teenager, but the truth was her feelings were hurt. She'd been acting with good intentions, she'd accepted her punishment and thought that it was over, but he had yet to let it go. 

"Maybe if you didn’t go out of your way to piss me off, I wouldn’t feel the need to shout," Kingsley retorted. 

"What? I didn't!"

Kingsley crossed his arms and glared down at her, taking full advantage of their height difference. He shoved a folder at her, the only item inside was a photo of her out in the field, following up on a report that she'd received. The color drained from her face. It wasn't actually outside the purview of her duties, she hadn't broken any rules this time, but she knew how it looked. 

"Where did you get this?" she asked, her voice soft. "You’re spying on me?" 

"I keep an eye on all the members of my team, that includes you," he said coldly, "What the hell were you doing?"

"My job!"

"Your job is at a damn desk. Not hauling a…what is that? A dresser? Out of Borgin and Burkes." 

"It’s a piece of evidence in an active case and they were going to destroy it, what was I supposed to do?" she asked. 

"How about call someone who is actually field rated?"

"It wasn't even dangerous! I just bought a dresser...I paid for it with my own money to keep it from being destroyed and then turned it over to evidence. I was off duty...I don't understand why that's such a big deal." She knew getting defensive wouldn't solve anything; he was her superior and arguing with him was pointless. Still, she felt utterly discouraged. "I thought you trusted me." 

"This isn't about trust, it's about safety," he snapped, moving closer with a frustrated gesture of his arms.

"You're worried about my safety?"

He didn’t answer, exactly, at least not with words. His hands tangled in her hair as he hauled her body up against his, his mouth cutting off any more questions she might have had. For a moment all she could do was stand there, completely shocked but soon her eyes slid shut and her body melted against his. She had admired him for a long time but never thought anything could ever come of it. Her arms moved to wrap around his shoulders and she was kissing him back with enthusiasm, standing on her tiptoes to try and match his height. 

"Gods, you're infuriating, Bones." 

"I learned from the best," she murmured against his mouth, nipping his bottom lip lightly. 

"You also talk too much."