Owl to James Bond

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

Bond,

I'm in Ravenclaw. We need to meet. Ravenclaw common room, 1830 hours.

M

Comments

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

There was no point in replying to the message.

Bond was lounging at the bar before the appointed time, nursing a scotch and waiting for M. Neither his posture nor his expression changed when she entered the room. This was strictly business, and the faster he got the unpleasantness out of the way, the better. He always thought that dealings with M were best when handled from a distance.

"Ma'am," he said at her approach. The only sign that something might be out of the ordinary was the slight twitch of his brow when a large, clanking suit of armor entered behind her. The thing was easily wider across the shoulders than he was and taller, too. It stood menacingly in the space normally occupied by her bodyguard.

"I see you've found a replacement. I must admit, this is probably a step up in personality from Mitchell."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"And only slightly less eager," she said drily. "Water, please. And then privacy."

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

Had she ever requested water before? Maybe Hogwarts was getting under her skin fairly quickly. Bond wondered how long it would take before the armor was pouring drinks like a good assistant, but got M what she wanted from behind the bar. The privacy charm went up after that.

"There is always the possibility that this one will sell you out to an underground organization supplying rust guard," he said.

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"Not if I make it a better offer," she volleyed back, and took a swallow of water. She'd have preferred something stronger, but Bond had already withheld information from her once. Best to keep her senses sharp for this meeting.

"I want a complete report from you, 007. Everyone you've met, everything you've seen, heard and encountered since you arrived here. I'll want it in writing, but the salient points you can give me now. And kindly don't insult me with a half-arsed definition of 'salient' this time."

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"The sortings are the best place to go for information on new people," he said, launching straight into the facts. Or, at least, the facts as much as they applied to M and MI6. There were some things that he was unwilling to offer up for M's inspection, no matter how hard she tried to get them.

"I can give you the names now or in the report, but that is the best time to learn what people were doing before they arrived, how they got here, and what they know about Hogwarts so far. I haven't seen anyone who has arrived here intentionally."

"My interactions with other students have been nondescript," he said. She could take that any way she wanted. To Bond's credit, he hadn't slept with half of the female student body yet. "On the surface, nobody has revealed anything more sinister than a desire to use magic to resolve an office staffing issue. However, many people are going around trying to appear that they aren't what they seem. I've met a man with clearly criminal connections, and a cat who served with 140 generations of a type of mage."

"I've attended three classes: flying, sexual education, and divination." With his normal cold detachment, he listed the unusual classes with a straight face and blank demeanor. "Nothing in those classes posed a threat. It's been the outside gatherings that have been the most interesting."

Bond thought about trying to save face, but this was one of the details that M would want to hear, and he could spare the slight embarrassment. "I ate a piece of birthday cake that had been charmed to have negative, but ultimately harmless, effects as part of a prank. The charm only lasted for a few hours, but I would be cautious. Don't eat any food left out. The same goes for drink. At the Halloween party, a potion was served that turned people into copies of somebody else."

Here was the part that he knew she was waiting for, that he'd left out in her sorting. Bond had withheld information before, but he'd argue that the breach of trust had occurred when M'd had him handcuffed and detained. Now it was the small sliver of him that wasn't part of his job, that hadn't been taken over completely by the soul-crushing work of espionage. It was a chance to keep something private and personal protected from the cruelty of his work. He was a good agent, though, and part of that required that he silence any part of himself that balked at being so open.

"Of the dead who have returned, I know two of them: Vesper Lynd and Ms. Fields. I have taken Ms. Lynd to town, and to London." M would see the credit card receipt eventually. "I have not had a chance to speak at length with Ms. Fields." If M wanted any more than that, she was in for a fight.

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

M frowned. "I am given to understand from my own conversations here that there is no controlling authority directing activities at this school. Have you learned anything to contradict that?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"No," he said. "Although, there was a petition to the Sorting Hat to have gym equipment installed in Gryffindor. The Hat has provided the equipment, but I've seen no other signs of action or authority besides that."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"For God's sake, somebody's got to be in charge," M snapped. "If I wanted to occupy a classroom and call myself Professor of Hocus-Pocus, what's to stop me? The only indication of discipline I've heard of so far is a mention of someone being given detention for sex in public -" She paused, and her eyes narrowed. "That wasn't you, was it?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"No, Ma'am," he said. For once, it hadn't been him. "And no, I don't believe anyone would stop you. It might even be encouraged."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "Clarification. Exactly what effects did this prank cake have on you and-or the other students who indulged?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"The effects varied. For myself, it was extreme clumsiness." Was it his imagination, was the suit of armor glaring at him somehow? He'd have to ask if she'd gotten it from outside the Great Hall. "Another person had their hair turned blue."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"To your knowledge, nothing particularly dangerous, then," she mused. "Was the culprit ever caught? Did anyone even try to catch the culprit?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," he admitted. "I wasn't in a position to find out."

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

M's comment bothered him, but he brushed it aside for now, because ignoring troubling emotions had always worked so well for him in the past.

"Ms. Lynd's hope is to not be approached again, and she's taking some precautions to avoid being recognized if she goes out in public. I would think that if she was contacted again, she'd want nothing to do with them." Again, an understatement. It was a habit to downplay everything.

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

One eyebrow rose sardonically. "Why ever not? Could be a profitable association for her. Surely a Treasury grind like herself must see that."

M knew why, of course. But she needed to hear Bond say it.

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"Maybe you should be asking her yourself, then," he said coldly. "She's in Slytherin. I'm sure you'd agree that it's more than slightly fitting."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"I could and no doubt will," M replied equally coldly. "But she's under no obligation to answer me, and you are. Therefore I am asking you, 007."

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"I highly doubt Ms. Lynd's motives have been profit," he said. "Nothing I have seen has benefited her personally."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"No, death generally doesn't," she agreed. "Come on, Bond, give over. Is Vesper Lynd likely to be in sympathy with Quantum's aims if approached or not?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

This he could be firm on. "No," he said.

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"You know I'm not going to be able to take your word for that. I'll have to talk to her myself," M warned, then sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I would be delighted to be able to trust her, you know, Bond. But your evasiveness is making that impossible. Why do you always have to make everything ten times more complicated than it need be?"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

"Because you refuse to accept that things are more complicated than you'd like them to be." Things were more complicated than even he liked them. "I have my reasons. They haven't failed you in the past."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

M gritted her teeth. "If I know what the complications are, then I can factor them into my instructions to you. If I don't, I risk everything turning into an enormous tangle. Damn it all, Bond, why can't you just trust me? We're on the same side!"

[blond-bondshell.livejournal.com]

Because trusting M would mean trusting somebody other than himself. He'd lived his whole adult life without that trust, and the one time he'd tried, it had blown up spectacularly. "You've tried to have me arrested," he said, "when you knew I was on your side. I'd say that might give me a reason or two. This is unfamiliar territory for both of us. Nobody knows what the complications are."

[m-otherhen.livejournal.com]

"Not by choice. I also let you get away from that arrest so you could finish what you started. Do you really think that with a small army of operatives and near-infinite surveillance capabilities I couldn't have found your next stop and brought you back in?"

She shook her head. "No, the fact is that I give you an extraordinary amount of free rein, Bond. We both get away with it to the extent that we do because that approach has so far yielded spectacular results. But for it to work we have to work together. Especially in unfamiliar territory. Who else here would you propose either of us trust more but each other?"