Chapter 3
After leaving Mary, Lily had done exactly what she had asked of her. It hadn’t gone very well, at least not for him. She had waited for him to finish dealing a round Three Man Bramble to Jesper and some tourists, then asked to speak privately with him. Rojakke refused to, so she was forced to tell him Mary’s orders in public, which, as she’d anticipated, made things worse.
“It’s not fair,” he was bellowing to her, and the whole bar, “I’m no cheat!”
“Take it up with Mary.”
“And keep your voice down,” chided Sirius, glancing to the tourists at the table with him and around the club. There was a rule on the floor of the Phoenix Club that if you had a gripe, it was taken outside so as not to distract the pigeons from emptying their wallets.
“Where is Mary then?” demanded Rojakke.
“No clue.”
“I thought you knew everything about everything. Isn’t that your whole job?”
“I know you don’t want to be here when Mary gets back, and I know that I have no idea when that will be. Could be in five minutes, could be in an hour.”
“Fine, just give me my check. I’m owed for my last shift.”
“You’re not owed anything, Rojakke. Just go home.”
“Oh,” Rojakke exhaled, the smell of whiskey making itself apparent, “So she can’t even face me herself, is that what I’m hearing. She sends another little girl to give me the boot? Maybe I can shake a few coins out of you.”
He reached to grab her by her shirt, but she dodged him easily. He fumbled to grab her again. Sirius was rising out of his seat, but Lily sent him a look that said, I’ve got this. Because that was the truth. She slipped her fingers into the brass knuckles at her hip and gave Rojakke a swift punch.
He immediately stopped lunging at her, holding his cheek. “Hey,” he said, “I didn’t hurt you, it was just some words. No need to get so worked up about it.”
Almost everyone on the floor was watching now, so she punched him a second time. The Phoenix Club rules could be bent. When Mary first recruited her, she had been warned that she’d have to fend for herself because Mary wouldn’t always be there to watch out for her, and she had done just that and more. Insults, innuendos, and catcalling were more than common in the barrel, so Lily had learned to strike first and hard when it happened to her. Sometimes she’d even carve them up a bit. If nothing was sacred in Ketterdam other than secrets and trade, she was going to make the risk of insulting her much, much higher than the reward.
“I thought we were friendly, Evans,” Rojakke said with a twinge of betrayal.
Lily sighed. She wasn’t not friendly with the guy, but right now he was pissed and looking for the easiest way to have power over something or someone again. He wasn’t going to find it with her.
“You’re a good dealer, Rojakke,” she told him, “You can get a job in almost any den, so go do that and be glad Mary isn’t taking the rest of what you owe her.”
He walked out without a fight after that, stumbling and clutching his cheek. It was rather reminiscent of a wounded puppy.
“He’s got a point,” Sirius said, “It’s not right for Mary to have you do her dirty work.”
“It’s all dirty work, Sirius.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” he sighed, although it was more of a yawn.
“You should go home, get some sleep,” she advised.
“Nah, I’m good. I can’t leave while the cards are hot. You should stay and play a bit. It’ll be fun!”
“If I wanted to watch men dig themselves into holes, I’d go and watch a cemetery.”
“Come on, Lily! You’re good luck!”
He must really be desperate tonight if he sincerely believes that. She sighed, pulling her hood up, “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sirius.”
Sirius waved her good night and went to find a table with a dealer, since Lily just fired his.
Now, she was sitting in her small room at the Slat, the home of most of the Phoenixes, or at least a safe place for all of them to crash. It was one of the many buildings built on the muddy land near the canals, the ones who leaned against each other in a way that made you nervous that they were the only things keeping each other up. Crooked and cramped as it might be, however, it was still probably the best building on the block. Mary had paid to get it patched up and insulated a few years ago, so at least it was dry no matter what.
It was nearly dawn now, and the Slat was still buzzing with chatter of the night’s events. Mary had been gone for much longer than anyone expected, but Lily knew exactly when she’d returned. It was like a shockwave to the entire house to be a little more awake and aware. That, and the fact that people were waiting at the door to congratulate her on tonight’s work as soon as she walked through the front door.
Lily left her room and descended down the stairs, but stopped halfway to watch the congratulations flow in and because the stairs were terribly creaky. She knew that Mary would stop to speak to Malfoy that night, so she’d just catch her then. There was no point in interrupting all of this.
She went back up the stairs as quietly as she could, then turned down a hallway full of clutter, including a bucket of cleaning supplies. She herself had placed them there specifically because she knew that no one else would move it. Now, she moved the basket to watch through the grate with a perfect view into Malfoy’s office.
“I see you’re back and still breathing,” Malfoy said, his drawling voice clear from the chair that he was lounged in, his legs on his desk and a bottle of whiskey within arms reach.
“I am,” Mary replied. “We won’t have a problem with Fifth Harbor again.”
“Good,” he nodded, as if he was pleased with himself for his own hard work. “Close the door.”
Mary walked over and shut the door with a clear, but not too violent, slam. The sounds from the hallway muffled, all the better for her.
“You should have gotten my permission to deal with Brian,” Malfoy said.
Mary nodded, clearly having expected that.
“If I had talked to you first, it could have gotten out and we never would’ve got him.”
“You think I can’t keep a secret?”
“I think this place is like anywhere else in Ketterdam, it leaks. One more person in on a secret is like adding ten more holes for a cascade to flow out.”
“So be it, then. Brian was my soldier, my decision, not yours.”
Mary sighed, “Yes, sir.”
Malfoy raised an eyebrow, “Yes sir, no sir,” he mocked. “You only get polite when you’re up to something. What do you want?”
“I have a job lined up. I’ll be out of town for a while.”
“Big job?”
“Very.”
“So we’ll be rich.”
“Yes, you’ll get your twenty percent.”
Malfoy smiled, “Just don’t make any big moves without talking to me first, understood?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll talk to Frank. He can pick up the slack while I’m gone.”
Lily’s eyebrows furrowed. A big job? Why hadn’t Mary told her about it? And why would she have Frank in charge in her absence? That last thought bit away at her stomach, and she could feel her father shaming her for it. "So eager to be the queen of thieves, Lily?" It was one thing to do her job out of necessity and do it well, but this constant need she had to succeed at it, to be better than yesterday and good enough…It scared her. She had never envisioned a permanent place with the phoenixes, it was a means to her end of getting out of Ketterdam and to freedom.
"So why do you care so much if Mary chooses Frank instead of you?" some deep part of her chided.
She forced herself not to deign to answer that, putting the cleaning supplies back over the grate and hurried back to her room in time for Mary to find her there.
“Rojakke?” Mary inquired.
“Gone, just like you asked.”
“Did he put up a fight?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“Obviously, but I wasn’t asking that.”
“He was angry, might come back looking for trouble if he gets drunk enough.”
“Well there’s plenty to go around,” Mary said, then gestured for Lily to follow her up to the attic. She kept her pace slow to match Mary’s, who’s leg couldn’t have liked all those stairs. But a bad leg wasn’t going to stop her from having a whole floor to herself for secrecy.
“Shut the door,” she told her as they reached the office. It might as well have been Mary’s office. The only furniture was a plain desk and a chair. She had books and papers stacked up against the walls, all of which belonged to her. They were the tallies and records for the Phoenix Club, which Mary really only used because of the old man and to have evidence when someone was cheating or when she needed new investors.
That was one of the many unique things about the Phoenixes. When Mary had come on board, she brought the opportunities for ordinary shopkeepers and genuine businessmen to invest in the Phoenix Club. It was wildly successful, going from scant amounts from skeptical investors to enough money that Mary had been able to buy the Slat and refurbish it, and whatever else she does with the money. At least that’s how the story went. Mary had never told her personally, and it was hard to tell what stories were true and which were rumors planted to serve her ends or to the detriment of them. She very well could’ve swindled an honest businessman out of his life savings in order to refurbish the Slat, but Lily preferred this story. She tended to look for the good in Mary wherever she could find it, and then never let that part go.
“I have a job for you,” Mary said as she flipped through the day’s records. “What would you say to four million galleons.”
“I’d say you’re lying, and then I’d say that that kind of money is more of a curse than a gift.”
Mary smiled, “Perhaps, but I’d argue it’s more gift than curse. Especially for you.”
Lily's attention was pulled back to the Menagerie tattoo that used to be stamped on the inside of her wrist. A scar from her time as an indenture there, until Mary convinced Lucius Malfoy to buy her indenture and let her repay her debt by working for the Phoenixes. Four million galleons was more than enough to ensure her ticket to freedom.
“What’s the job?” she asked.
“It’s slightly impossible, absolutely insane of us to even attempt, near certain death or worse, but if we could pull it off…” She paused, a dreamy look in her eyes that Lily almost didn’t recognize.
“If we pull it off…” Lily prompted.
Mary grinned back at her, a true smile that Lily never thought she’d ever see, and said with unusual hope and excitement in her raspy voice, “We’d be queens, Lily. Kings and queens.”
“Wow,” Lily said, feigning nonchalantness. She fiddled with one of her tiny knives as she considered. The giddy young girl in front of her was not the true Mary, she knew that. She knew that Mary was always working an angle, that didn’t stop around her.
After a moment of watching Lily, Mary stood up and pulled off her waistcoat, then took off her vest and shirt. She was more toned than one would expect, with plenty of scars decorating her body. Lily tried her best to keep her eyes averted, shuffling with some paperwork.
“So,” she asked, “how long would we be gone?” She dared a look at Mary, who was now pulling off her leather gloves and dipping a cloth in the washbasin. She never took the gloves off outside of this room, as far as Lily knew. If she had any affliction like what the rumors said, she couldn’t see any sign of it. Just the smooth and slim hands of a lockpick with one small cord of scar tissue along his left hand.
“A few weeks to a month, I’d say,” Mary replied as she started wiping herself down with the washcloth, water dripping along her arms and torso. Lily truly blushed now and looked away. She didn’t know whether to be flattered or offended that Mary was comfortable enough to bathe naked in her presence.
She decided on both, or neither?
“A month? Is it a good idea to leave with the Black Tips so riled up?”
“This is the right gamble, trust me. Find Sirius and Alastor, I need them here by dawn. And I’ll need Remus at the Phoenix Club tomorrow night as well.”
“Remus?” Lily questioned, “If this is for a big job –”
“Just get him.”
Lily exhaled, crossing her arms. How could one person make her blush so hard and yet so murderous at the same time?
“And when will you explain all of this?”
“When we’re all together,” she answered, pulling on a new shirt and her gloves. She hesitated before doing the buttons. “This isn’t an assignment, you know, you can take or leave this job as you see fit.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed. There must be something truly different about this job if Mary was clarifying that she had a choice. She’d never done that before. Lily had taken all of her assignments as what they were – commands to be obeyed. Killing, spying, stealing, hurting both good and bad men was all done in the name of baby steps towards a free future. That was the contract she agreed to when Lucius Malfoy purchased her contract and freed her from the Menagerie.
Mary finished her buttons, tossing her something. Lily caught it without missing a beat, unfurling her hand to find a massive ruby pin with a wolf’s head adorning the bottom of it.
“Fence it,” Mary said.
“Whose is it?”
“Ours.”
“Whose was it?”
Mary sighed, “Someone who should have thought twice before having me jumped.”
“You were jumped?” exclaimed Lily.
Mary hesitated before confirming, “Yes.”
“Someone actually got the drop on you?”
Mary glared through her long, black eyelashes before nodding once. Lily bit her lip, a weird feeling twisting her gut. Nobody got the jump on Mary, she was the bastard of the barrel for a reason. Lily realized that this twisting in her gut was fear, because she still relied on Mary’s untouchability, and so did Mary herself.
“It won’t happen again,” she told Lily before grabbing her cane and walking towards the door. “I’ll be back in a few hours. While you’re here, could you move the Ravenclaw we lifted from Lupin’s mansion to a safe? It should be rolled up under my bed. Oh, and I need a new hat.”
Lily was nodding as she made mental notes of all of Mary’s requests, “And what’s the magic word?”
Mary laughed, a sound so rare and so beautiful that Lily threw herself little parties in her mind every time she made it happen. “My darling Lily, treasure of my heart, would you please do me the honor of acquiring a new hat for me?”
Lily smiled, “I think I can make that happen.”