Prologue
It was Justin's nineteenth birthday when he found out that his friends had been keeping something from him. After Hogwarts, his social circle changed almost as much as it did when he showed up, as witches and wizards replaced the muggles, boring adults replaced the kids. For the most part, though, that was the life he preferred. He did not have a wife or girlfriend; he felt like he was basically done with excitement, at least for a while, and then it started to feel like he just had whiplash. It all started with hanging out with Zacharias. He had not been a friend, exactly, but he had done a lot to make up for the total sacrifice of his reputation back in school, he was always funny, he always made an effort with his friends, and he was always well-dressed and well-spoken.
"I couldn't ever make it as a good person," he had said at one point, not entirely in jest. "I thought I would just be likeable."
Everyone laughed.
It was only when he went around with Fay Dunbar, the least interesting Gryffindor witch who had ever managed to exist, and Cormac McLaggen, who had been some annoying bloke in the same house, that he always made an excuse to disappear. Whether they were getting drinks after work, or whether they were at a Quidditch match on a weekend, during the season, anyway, and it always made him think it was something fun. He had broached the topic a few times, and his friend became unexpectedly evasive about it. 'Well, it could be something like a surprise party' he had said to himself once. At the same time, he had never particularly liked surprises.
"Do you ever see Zacharias in this part of town?" he asked Lisa Turpin, who had also been in Hogwarts with him. She seemed generally strait-laced and helpful, and this time was no exception.
"Oh, every so often," she said. "He doesn't come by my shop, though, he just goes down that alley over there. Come to think of it, I only see him when he's not in the shop."
"That's funny," he said, looking up and down the unassuming streets. "Romilda, you remember her, she works for the Prophet and she said she never saw him over here once, and yet I was sure that..." He was sure that he always saw his friend going off in the general direction of their current location, but he was not sure that he wanted to make his intentions obvious.
"Why are you looking, if I might ask?"
"Oh, you caught me," he said. "He just disappears, seemingly for no reason, and I wanted to figure out where he was going. It's probably nothing, but I can't help but think it is something, the way he walks rather than using the floo."
"That certainly is strange," she said. "For a moment I thought you were investigating him on behalf of a girlfriend, but I don't remember that he had one. Unless..."
"No, no, we're both bachelors," he said. "We're work mates, is all. I never held it against him, anything he did in school... we were scared, by rights we shouldn't have been there-"
"That's decent of you. I only wish that kind of attitude was more common. Romilda- you were right to think she comes over here; just last week I asked her how things were going and she told me that she couldn't justify speaking to me, at least in essence. I might not have been that interesting, none of us were, compared to some people, but I can't believe she would act that way toward me. It was like I didn't help her out with potions for three years."
"Well, you're certainly not too boring for someone like me. Thank you for your help. Again, I'm sure it's nothing, but I'll be taking advantage of my time off if you don't mind."
"Oh, sure. If it ever turns out to be anything interesting, be sure to let me know."
"Not a problem."
He headed off in the direction that Lisa indicated. Working for a potion shop under a master, she really could not afford to leave the place, not until her shift was over and she took everything off the burners. If she had any time off apart from holidays, it was probably not the most convenient, but the pay was not bad as he understood it. He crossed the less than busy street and turned down the narrow alley. There were only a few doors before it ended with a statue of all things, some other building overhanging it.
"Old Tyme Poulter... no, can't imagine why he'd be going there... Owl Treats and Fancy Rats and Both... that's a bit morbid... no description?"
Justin stopped in front of a blank wooden door. There were any number of half-remembered spells from Hogwarts that he could probably use to get a guess as to what was going on behind it, but that seemed terribly rude if he turned out to be wrong. He knocked.
"What's the password?"
"I'm a friend of Zacharias."
"Sure you are."
There was no elaborate slat to close, but he was sure whoever was beyond the door was no longer listening. Now, though, he was certain that something was going on, and he was certain that his work mate was involved in it. A touch annoyed, he thought of all the times he had asked, only to be treated like he was being funny, and he decided to do probably the first or second illegal thing he had ever done.
"Alohamora." Surprisingly, the spell worked just fine, and the door opened. He picked out some bizarre music- he never quite picked up a taste for wizarding music, but he was not sure they did either, and he simply walked inside. A witch with her nose in a magazine hardly paid him any mind as he walked past her counter. Through the next door, he went down a level of stairs, and then there was a more open room where the music was louder, there were all sorts of furniture and people everywhere. He did not see Zacharias anywhere, but he was most surprised to see a witch with nothing on except some sort of fetish gear, and she was not the only one, just the first one he noticed.
When he woke up, he realized he must have been stunned. It was lucky that he was not dead, he supposed, because he had clearly run into something he was not supposed to see. Everyone knew that witches and wizards got up to some naughty things behind closed doors, and for the most part no one cared, but if he saw someone important enough, he could at least imagine how it could be a big deal. The only question was what the three friends had to do with it? He never really wanted to disparage them, but they seemed like the least important people to ever exist. Were they just moonlighting as servants for the whole thing? Justin supposed that could make sense. Someone important, like the Minister or someone with an entirely secret position and base of power, wanted to run a secret sex club, perhaps with some illegal element or some element that might make the public turn against him, and in order to staff the place, he needed people of no repute, who would not be believed even if they told others about it.
"He hasn't seen anything."
Tied to a chair and blindfolded, he could not currently see anything, but the voice of Zacharias defending him was doing so falsely. It sounded like he was hearing it through a door, so he guessed that they had stuffed him into a closet while deciding what to do with him.
"It's not policy. We have to Obliviate him."
"Do you even know that spell?"
"No, but someone must. They say that Hermione Granger mastered it when she was seventeen."
"They say that she figured out that Hogwarts was dealing with a basilisk when she was twelve, are you Hermione Granger or not?"
No one said anything for a moment.
"You're right. We're not like them," someone else said. "Things just don't come easily to us. We don't do anything important. For the most part, that's fine, because it allows us to fade into the background, and then we can get away with things like this. That's why you never should have involved him."
"Me? I didn't tell him about this place. He must have heard about it from somewhere else. Now if you ask me, if we've got a mole- and I'm not saying we've got one, but if we've got a mole, Marietta-"
"He's a side character, Zacharias- a side character. You know what that means. You know how we classify these things. He's too likely to have a backbone. He's too likely to... do something."
"We're in no danger at all. I have a sense about these things. Worst comes to worst, we'll get someone to wipe his memory, but just let him look around. He won't even flinch. He'll just accept his surroundings as they are."
"Oh, because you already told him? I had my suspicious about you... you and Marietta- both in Dumbledore's Army-"
"Yes, and we both betrayed it. I'm no one special."
"Technically, that makes you an anti-villain- and with this-"
"You're reading too much into it again. Look, I'll show you. It will only take a moment."
The sound of a door opening heralded the removal of his blindfold and gag, so he braced himself. He could tell that he was not supposed to have heard the conversation, and it was better to act like he had not, that he knew nothing about the place already, but would accept it without making anything of it. Since it was unlikely they were actually going to find someone who could wipe his memory, that was the only way he would make it out alive. Accepting help getting out of the chair, he asked where he was.
"Sorry about the introduction, mate," Zacharias said in a completely different voice than before. "Oh, looks like they got you on the nose. Episkey. Damn. I should have figured it wouldn't work."
"Clock's ticking," the man said. Justin recognized him from nowhere.
"Very well, then, if you would like to accompany me on a little tour, I'll answer any questions you might have." The apologetic tone was convincing, and yet, in the voice there was something of a request at the same time. Sure enough, though, before anything else could be communicated, they were off, and already his work mate was pointing out someone he had seen before. He blinked and saw that it was Romilda Vane under all the fetish gear, and she was leading a wizard around on a leash.
"Are we cool?" she asked.
"He's with me." She shrugged and looked away. "For better or worse," he muttered.
"Who was that she was leading around?"
"He's a small fry, ultimately, no one important. No one who really deserves to be punished for past misdeeds. Not like Millicent here," he said, leading Justin to a couch where a tough-looking witch was getting passed around by multiple men. "If you'll believe it, she sabotaged our cause in the Battle of Hogwarts. I did not exactly fight in it myself, but what she did was beyond the pale."
"I am sure," he said, remembering the bit about how he was meant to just accept everything. In reality, he could not be any less sure about what was going on. Millicent was getting it in all three of her holes, but at least she seemed to be enjoying it. Perhaps she had long since accepted the inevitability; he could only hope that was the case. "Shall we keep moving?"
Maintaining the illusion, they came to Gilderoy Lockhart, who was getting rather aggressively ridden by none other than Dennis Creevey. It looked like he had been sucked dry and was not being allowed to so much as rest. Again, Justin did his best to maintain composure.
"Here we have another relatively minor offender, at least as it relates to truly important people. He erased several people's memories back in the day, and then basked in the light of false celebrity. In Hogwarts, he was truly an incompetent teacher who left everyone woefully unprepared, and then he attempted to erase the memories of two children in apparently a harebrained scheme to momentarily pretend to have slain Slytherin's monster."
"I see, so this is his fate, then." It seemed like the perverts were trying to motivate their actions with a sense of justice. Perhaps it would be overdoing it to cheer for how their victims were being treated, but he could at least look on generally approve of it. "I thought he was being treated in St Mungo's?"
"Oh, he was, and he's mostly better now. They estimated that if they released him, he would be perfectly functional in magical society. That was when we invited him to join our exclusive group of justice for celebrities."
"I see, so that's what this is. Well, that makes sense based on what I've been shown so far."
"Well, let's move right along, then," Zacharias decided right as the former teacher cried out again. More than anything else, he seemed confused, and wondered if anyone wanted an autograph. Justin could only suppose that even if the Healers cleared him, he could still be somewhat reality-challenged, but then, some who had never been to the hospital were.
"Who is this?" he asked as they came to a young man. Fay Dunbar had bent him over an ottoman and was filling him up with a strap-on. His face was in a mask, so it was hard to tell whether or not he was enjoying it, but it appeared that he was not resisting.
"Oh, well, we don't often do muggles here, but this is Piers Polkiss, something of a sports star in their world. He was a rather cruel bully to a young Harry Potter. He's blindfolded and he's got earplugs in to protect the Statute, see."
"I see. Was he the one who told you about this?" Out of anything he had learned that day, that would have to be the most surprising; he had never thought the leader of the DA would do such a thing.
"In an offhand comment, as I understand it. Apparently he was asked to elaborate a little more on what happened when dementors came after him in the summer of ninety five, and somehow this lout was tangentially related."
"Oh, well, is this everything?"
"Far from it. There are quite a few others, but I would like to see what Reg has to say first. Did he pass the test?" he asked the man who had been following them.
"I suppose," he said. "I never expected this... I'll keep an eye on you."
He walked off without another word.
"No way of avoiding that, mate," Zacharias said after a moment. "Come, you must have so many questions, but you'd be surprised how many the tour already answered." They went into what looked like a private room, where there was a half bottle of firewhiskey. "Oh, well, I'll be damned. Drink?"
"Please. You wouldn't believe the questions in my head all fighting to be first," he said, taking the shot glass. "I give up. What the hell was that man saying about... side characters?"
"Oh, well... let me start like this. O.W.L standards are low, right?"
"Sure. You only have to cast a decent shield charm to get an O for charms."
"Right, right. So, basically, most people can just coast if they feel like it. They won't go hungry. They won't go without a roof over their heads. That's things that you might have had to deal with in the muggle world-"
"I didn't have to deal with it."
"No, no, of course not, not you specifically, just some people. As I understand it, most people have to grow up in the muggle world. They have to take ownership of their lives."
"That's true," Justin said, seriously thinking about it for a moment. "There were wealthy people in our circle who seemed to think that they were going to be spoon-fed their entire lives. Has magic made heirs of us all, then?"
"If I understand it well enough, it absolutely has. Think about it for a moment. What made you want to do something with your life?"
"Well, some form of pride, I suppose. I couldn't live with myself if I added nothing to the family legacy. I always looked down on the wastrel heirs and I thought it would be rather miserable to end up like them. To be honest, I would not even be satisfied unless I earned more than my father did."
"That's where we get to the heart of the matter. You see, one of the things that you might have picked up in Hogwarts without anyone saying it, was that it was pretty easy to get by in the background. No one paid any special attention to you, and there was no real need to. It was a happy, sociable life where we didn't have to worry about a thing. I only joined the Defense Association in fifth year because a friend did- let me tell you, that was the single biggest mistake of my life."
"They called me a side character."
"Right. You're sort of a voyeur of both worlds. Quite a few people you know would be normal people, and then quite a few would be decidedly abnormal, people with too much going on. You know the type. I should have known better; should have stayed in the shadows. You only really cock it up when you do something. The majority of us, well, no one really cares at the end of the day, even if you're someone who could have done more."
"I suppose," he said after a moment. "So, I had the choice to do either."
"I think you made the right one, frankly. I mean, have you spoken to Potter or any of them once since graduating?"
"I spoke to Lavender Brown's parents; I think she died in the battle-"
"Wasn't important enough."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"Oh, it's really nothing. It's more of a theory than anything else. This actually would have to be filed under divination if you could call it an actual field of study."
"I know, but did you mean to imply that she died because she wasn't important enough?"
"The battle of Hogwarts was no place for someone with no personality and no discernible skills. I hate to say it old chap, but you were lucky to make it out alive. Should've swallowed your pride and made your way out before anyone would have noticed, then acted like you missed the whole thing. That's certainly what I should have done, anyway." He sighed.
"You seemed to imply that all of this was supposed to be motivated by a sense of justice," he said. "Wouldn't it just make it worse for me if I had abandoned everyone else to their fates?"
"Not if you escaped notice in the process. Sadly, that wasn't the case for me. I did my time here; had to break my back setting everything up. It was a nightmare, catching some of these offenders."
"Who started all this? Who's behind all of this?"
"I've no idea. That's by design, though. If we knew, the whole place would lose its charm. I think that it's probably someone I've passed by half a million times, but never knew. Whoever's behind this must have been the best ever."
"Right, well, as long as neither of us are going to get in any trouble for this, I think I don't want any further part in it. I think it's frankly quite ridiculous the way that someone just decided that this is a fair thing to do. If this is the way that you get your kicks, frankly, I've misjudged you. In all honestly, I don't even feel right leaving things as they are. I should go to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Well, you might not want to do that."
"Why's that?"
"They're repeat customers of ours. I thought it was absurd when I first saw it, but they just came in, no polyjuice or anything and asked where the Death Eaters were... let me tell you, it was a rather disturbing sight, even for what goes on around here. In either case, I don't think that a report would go very far."
"That's why we have newspapers. They're meant to report on corruption cases like this."
"Perhaps they're meant to do just that, but I don't think they could report on the very air they breathed, even if it had a whole broom closet full of indentured servants. Everyone who comes through here keeps quiet about this place when they leave, but there are quite a few rumors going around about the outside world. From what I understand, this place is a goldmine for investigative journalism, and even the most upright editor that the Prophet has had in decades has said that he won't go anywhere near this place, privately, anyway."
"What if I told Harry Potter himself?" Justin asked after a moment of thought.
"That's a good question. I can think of one other, though, just as a preliminary. Do you think he remembers that you exist, even now?"
"I'm sure that if I walked up to him, he would recognize me. I doubt he thinks about me every day."
"I suppose there's nothing for it, then. If this is the end for me, then I might as well go with you." He sighed and rose from the little table between them. The more he looked around the room, the more it seemed suited for a private dance or something of that nature. "Were you planning on doing this tonight, then?"
"Oh, no, I imagine he would be busy after a long day of work. I doubt that his secretary would let me speak to him if he's still in the building." He had some idea that Potter had been promoted a few times because there had been a lot of work to do and he was good at the job, so he was just under chief Auror after having been a rookie only about six months.
"In that case, then, why don't we take a look around, so that we can see what exactly you're reporting?"
"I think I already know. It's an underground sex dungeon where not all the participants are happy to be here. Do you think that the customers here all really care if these people did something and they think they should suffer for it?"
"I'm not a master of Legilimency or anything. I couldn't tell you why they're here. The club fees are rather steep, though, for someone who just wants a bit of fun-"
"This is the type of fun you can't get anywhere else because it's illegal." He took a deep breath. "That doesn't seem to bother you. Isn't this something that a decidedly bad person would do? If you're so committed to the bit of being a background character, why be so bad? Why make yourself into a villain?"
"Oh, well, in any given story, there can be assumed to be more bad people than are ever mentioned. Imagine something so dull and tired as going over all the terrible people of history just to mention that they were bad. Only the absolute worst writers would do something like that." He took a breath. "The trick of it is, to become a villain or an antagonist, you have to do something bad to the main character, or at least a side character. If you did something to a bunch of background characters, or characters who were only mentioned in the past, you would still be only a background or historical villain yourself." He shrugged. "More than anything else, though, the trick to remaining in the background is to just not get caught by the main characters."
"I would think that the truly background characters would neither be heroes nor villains."
"Oh, to be sure, but it's the most normal thing in the world to conceive of yourself as some kind of hero. By the same token, I would imagine there are plenty of people who see themselves not as villains, but the way villains see themselves, not as villains, but as rebels, or misunderstood victims of society. I don't really think either is the case for myself." He shrugged. "Be careful that no one sees you on your way out. I'll go with you to testify that they've been using me as some kind of indentured servant the whole time, so meet me at the street entrance to the atrium."
Sure enough, he did not let anyone see him on the way out; he made sure not to make eye contact with anyone. A part of him was glad that everything was getting wrapped up nicely, but at the same time, a part of him thought it was a bit sad that his most recent moment of excitement in his life was getting held like a hostage for a moment, and no one coming to rescue him. To make matters worse, he could have sworn that his life had ended up more interesting than that of Zacharias, but it seemed he was incorrect on that front.
There was, though, nothing for it. He had no choice but to turn over everything he knew to the authorities, and based on what he had witnessed so far, the only one who would take him seriously was his old friend from school, and it was fortunate; he might actually be able to do something about it. Would everyone who took part in the club become a villain, by their logic, when he took notice?
Justin supposed he would have to find out.