First Anger
Justin could begin to wrap his mind around how people who had been jerks to the great Harry Potter needed to be punished. Looking at the world like a story in classical mythology, which made sense, sort of, given that there were prophecies that apparently governed reality, just like in the old stories, their subjects were semi-divine servants of the hand of fate, and if he could say that they were pushing the world toward a better future, then perhaps, on some level, it was worse to be mean to them than the average person. He did not agree with that perspective, but he could understand how someone could come to that conclusion.
What made absolutely no sense, by contrast, was the way that Slytherins needed a justification for their very existence. He had known a few of them and he had not terribly liked any of them, but they were no worse than most other students at Hogwarts. If anything, the only problem was the fact that there was so much division, and he wondered if things would have been different at another school.
"What you've got to understand," Zacharias said as he refilled Gemma's drink. "-is that they are basically just evil. Harry Potter didn't like them."
"I saw that as sort of a moral blindspot of his that resulted from-"
"Doesn't matter. Our friend here wasn't even one of the ones who returned to fight for the castle."
"Wait, some of them returned?"
"Of course, after leading the entire house out, Slughorn turned around and led the ones who wanted to fight back in. I couldn't tell you who they were; I didn't interact with them at all."
"Okay, I... I've directed a lot of criticism at this club for not making sense, but that's almost as bad. Why would he lead some of them back in? Why not just leave them there, or try to find a way to attack from the outside?"
"No idea. I think it's because he knew about this place, though, and he realized he had to start making up for past indiscretions. He was a little reticent when he gave Harry Potter some memory that he had, and apparently he helped Voldemort one time. At that point, you have to start stacking Slytherins on a pyre if you want to get out."
"Is he in here, then?"
"Oh, no, he's managed to avoid us for years, and because of how many kids he sacrificed, we considered him to be a low priority."
"Wait, so he only led them back in in order to get some of them killed in the process?"
"What else would happen?" Zacharias shrugged. "If there really were any Slytherins who wanted to fight, they wouldn't have wanted to leave the castle with him, but they didn't have a choice. I was there long enough to hear that they were all leaving. Most likely, to keep himself out of our sights, he let a few of the uninteresting ones go and then turned back with the rest."
Justin had nothing to say back to that. The idea that Slughorn had basically just murdered several kids was horrifying, and yet, strangely... it did not surprise him. At most, he had been a side character, and a morally grey one at that. He had come to realize that they were basically all just villains for not doing anything they could to help Harry Potter, and if he went to great lengths to save his own skin, that he would sacrifice kids was perfectly expected. His internal monologue concluded right around the time that Gemma had a nice, long orgasm.
"Oh, that's really just the best thing in the world. There's nothing better than being a Slytherin who can justify her existence. It's the best of both worlds."
"Of course," his friend said. "Now, would you care for another drink on your way out?"
"Oh, no, if I have too many I'll lose track of all these sensations I'm experiencing. I don't feel anything like guilt or loss, so there's really nothing unpleasant to try to wash away."
"Well, since you seem to be so proud of it, perhaps you would enjoy explaining it to me. What is so great about being a Slytherin who can justify her existence, apart from the obvious?"
"Ah, yes, apart from the fact that I get furiously eaten out whenever I want. Basically, I know what I am. I'm a bitch. I know that my inward nature is quite awful, and yet, no one has ever really heard of me, so I get away with it without a problem. I just needed to make some kind of token effort to get on this side of things, and all of a sudden, no one cares anymore. I imagine that someone truly good wouldn't like this place at all, not that I've met anyone like that, but I get to enjoy it to the fullest. I've totally beaten the system."
She left without another word, turning sharply on her heels.
"That was a good move, Justin; she did enjoy explaining all that. I need to remember that for the next time we get a client like that."
"Does this not seem at all unfair to you?"
"It doesn't really matter. I simply can't do anything about it and I haven't thought about it in years."
"Someone from the DA would be treated just like she was treated just for turning in a random Slytherin."
"That sounds about right. We've avoided associating with people who were in the DA, though. It's too much of a risk; they're mostly generally good side characters like yourself. If we had more than one of you, who knows, the whole thing could come down."
It was a confession to not being good, but that was not surprising. Ever since they met up after Hogwarts, Zacharias had consistently said that he was trying to be likeable, not good. There was nothing usual about an even less direct confession to that fact.
"At least tell me that's our last client for the day," he said.
"I think so, as long as no one sees us when we leave."
Sure enough, they managed to get out without anyone noticing, but that was probably due to the fact that there was talk of getting Draco Malfoy, once and for all. He had been concerned ever since his father disappeared from witness protection. The most obvious thing in the world was to use his father as bait, but then, if the club managed to kidnap him as well, perhaps someone else would start to poke around. If the famous Harry Potter had already started investigating, then it was possible it would turn into a whole inquiry, even though it seemed like no one had any sympathy for their victims. That was more concerning than relieving, unfortunately- he was already starting to think that his own involvement would not be forgiven.
The information they stole said that Umbridge was being held in Horizont Alley, somewhere in magical Canada, and apparating there took no time at all once they knew the name of the place. Theoretically, no one knew her there, and no one was looking for her, but it was actually not all that hard to find her. Could the whole thing have been a trick or something?
"I don't get it," he said as they walked up to the door of the flat. "I didn't think it would be this easy."
"Perhaps, after this, it won't be." Zacharias shrugged. "Alohamora." The door opened without a problem. It was less surprising that their target was inside at the time.
"Precisely what are you doing here?" she demanded, using a sweet tone of voice, or some approximation of that.
"Stupefy."
"We could have just told her that we were there to relocate her. She might not have been suspicious of us."
"I suppose, but could you stand listening to her talk all the way there?"
"It'll only take a moment," Justin said, levitating her with the Levitation Charm. "I still can't believe it's this easy. It's hard to believe no one else has been captured."
"Well, no one really wanted to sit around monitoring Umbridge; that was why it was so important that they kept a lid on her information, and who had it. When they saw us in the office, I'm reasonably certain that they thought we had no idea what Sloper was doing when we were in that office. It doesn't really matter, though; we'll never have to deal with them again."
"I think we should apparate her straight back into the club."
"No can do, mate," Zacharias said. "The only way in is to walk down the alley and knock."
"Then we should at least get as close as we can."
"That's the plan."
As soon as they Apparated, bringing the unconscious Umbridge with them, there was a loud voice that rang out.
"DO NOT RESIST!"
It was strangely authoritative. He had become convinced that there were very few things that the Ministry took truly seriously, but apparently this was one of them.
"What do we do?" he asked his friend. "They don't pursue common criminals like this." The cracks of apparition filled the air. Clearly, they were taking no chances. "They must know something is going on."
"Well, that or they don't quite know what it is and really want to find out. It's not a matter of their knowledge, really, just their priorities."
Justin was torn between turning themselves over and running for the door. It was hard to see which was worse in the long run, precisely because it was so hard to tell how much they knew, but he was sure that if they did not know, he could never convince them. Everything that he said apparently sounded ridiculous to the main characters, and those close to them, and they were really the only ones with the power to effect change, evidently. The background characters who brought him in would act just like they could be expected to act; they would snarl accusations at him, they would make sure he didn't get away- he wouldn't be surprised if they conjured a book to throw it at him.
"Well, I hope by now you've figured out what's important to them," Zacharias said, turning back with Umbridge, still unconscious. "It should help you going forward. Expelliarmus."
"What?" he asked, turning around. He truly wanted to retrieve his wand, but he was so at a loss that he felt he would be too confused to even move. "Why?"
"Well, because you would stand around asking me why. That's the most a jumped up side character could do. If you're hoping for some other reason, well, it goes back to the same thing. I can only have one defining character trait at a time, and I decided to be likeable rather than good. I'm afraid, you'll find, that people would rather have a clever traitor than a boring goody two shoes, but, well, you should really be careful about which one of those you would pick to have behind you."
Justin could hear the door open and close as he struggled with a leg-locker trapping his feet. He begged the authorities to understand that he was a convenient hostage, but they used his previous statements against him. He was too suspicious already, and it was not a good look when he changed from someone who was in the wrong place at the wrong time to someone who got dragged along and had trouble getting out. They then asked where Dean Thomas was.
"Dean Thomas?" he asked, sitting in an interrogation room. The effect of everything crashing down around him had made the last twenty minutes or so a blur. "What does he have to do with any of this? I haven't seen him in two years or thereabouts."
"Don't try to fool us, Finch-Fletchley. You two were seen in the middle of the Ministry. They saw you in the Atrium, they saw you in the elevator, and they saw you in the offices."
"They must have been confunded," he said. "It wasn't Dean Thomas, it was Zacharias Smith. I should have known he would leave me hanging-"
"There's no way that he could have confunded that many people. It's not possible. One person might not have noticed the charm, but if he pointed his wand at every single person in the room, he would have been arrested on the spot."
"Then... then I must have been confunded." He shook his head. "He could have been using Polyjuice potion on himself, and then the confundus on me to cancel it out. the whole thing was to make it look like it's not so dangerous to use your real face and name in the Ministry."
"How do you know he was using the potion at all? How do you know he didn't just confund you into thinking he was Zacharias Smith?"
"There wouldn't have been any point. He's been working with me at my company; you can ask anyone there. I don't know Dean; I do know Zacharias. That's how all this started."
"Suppose we find that he did work with you. How do we know that Dean didn't confund you into thinking that he was a friend in order to gain your trust?"
"I... that would be a long time to confund me," he said. "It would have had to last multiple days, consecutively. He would also have to pretend to be my coworker, flawlessly, for days. I just don't think he had the information to pull it off. Even badly confunded people can tell when you're just telling a bold face lie right to their faces. It's like being in a dream. You accept most things, and you might even start to remember things that didn't actually happen, but if you start to think that it's a dream, you wake up."
The man on the other side of the table did not say anything.
"Look, do you have a record of my visit to Harry Potter?"
"No, I have a record of you paying a visit to Auror Robards."
"Robards." He frowned. "Damn, I must have been confunded again."
"Indeed."
"Was Zacharias with me that time, or did everyone see Dean again? I could have sworn we talked to Katie Bell in the elevator. She didn't really talk to him, though... would she have, if she thought he was another Gryffindor, someone she would have at least met before? I don't know if they were friends."
"Robards said that he saw Mr. Thomas. He said you were saying a bunch of things that didn't make sense, like you were being confunded."
"I was certain I made reference to Zacharias being part of the operation on which I was blowing the whistle. Did he hear that as Dean, or did I never say that?"
"I'm afraid that this isn't how interrogations are supposed to work. I'm supposed to get you to say things, and I compare that with my records. If I think that it will get you to say more, I'm allowed to reveal a few things here and there, but I don't have to be completely accurate. We are not here to wander off into the weeds of how exactly you were confunded. I'm now wondering if you ever were confunded."
"Well, I mean, let's think about it. What am I accused of doing? I at least get to know that, right?"
Justin was trying to stay calm, even though he was plainly on his wits end. At his current situation, the most he could do was to keep disclosing; his only option was to help the authorities. Even if they weren't immediately convinced, when they uncovered the operation, it would become clear that everything he had said was consistent with the facts.
"Well, you stole information about Dolores Umbridge, that was never explained; there are employees in the Department of Witness Relocation who were apparently ensured that they would receive a full explanation from one Jack Sloper, but he had no idea what you were doing."
"Yes, that was because we convinced Andrew Kirke to go along with the lie. He's involved with this too."
"About an hour ago, we got a floo call from the Canadian Minister explaining that one of their safehouses, used to house the very same, was burned to the ground."
"Burned to the ground? We left it untouched!"
"I'm sure that was what you thought. Did you ever turn your back on this partner of yours?"
"I mean, maybe, at one point. If he's so good at confunding me, then it wouldn't be surprising if he just did it again without getting caught." He shook his head right as the wizard across from him let out a sigh. "There's a limit to how much I know because I can't tell how much of my information isn't reliable, but I hope you see that I'm being as forthcoming as I can. I'm just telling you that I can't be certain about a few things for the sake of being truly honest."
"I'm being pulled elsewhere. I don't know if you'll get to talk to me again."
"Well, I'm aware that's a trick, but if you ever want to speak with me again, I would be more than happy to disclose more of what I know," Justin managed. "I'm not particular about who asks me questions at all. I just want this whole thing out in the open."
"Sure you do," the interrogator said, his eyes narrowing.
In mere moments he was alone again. He was almost certain that he had made a mistake, expecting a nameless character to help him. It was funny how quickly he had bought into all the main character/ side character/ background character behaviors, but more and more it seemed hard to deny. Perhaps it was the power of suggestion. Perhaps he had known it all along.
It was annoying, sitting there and expecting something to happen. Did things even happen in the background? He was certain that he could not be further from the main characters at the moment, and yet, he was not sure what they were doing. Was there a chance that what he was doing was more interesting than what they were doing? It was the middle of the night, probably, so they had every right to be sleeping. That presumed, though, that the focus of the story shifted rather than just skipping, and it also presumed that he would be the focus without any character introduction. And yet, what was there to introduce? If the narrator, or some other character, just said 'here is Justin Finch-Fletchley, his parents cannot do magic' that would be more than enough.
"Maybe that was where it started for me," he muttered to himself. "My family had never heard of this place, so I thought just being part of it was enough. I could have made it to the status of a decent side character, but all I ever achieved was jumped-up background character. I should've realized that there was something fishy about the third floor corridor." It was practically sitting right there to be explored, but it did not stand out, next to everything else. Being told not to go near a certain room did not really do anything to the amount of territory he had to explore in childlike wonder; certainly much less than the Forbidden Forest. To his knowledge, no one thought there was anything fishy going on out there, but then, they knew why they were not allowed.
He started to wonder, with nothing else to do, if that was how Tom Riddle got his start; he wanted to be a main character, and he realized he could only accomplish that by being the villain, a role that he played expertly. There had never been one quite like him. Everyone would remember his name for decades to come, at the very least.
"Finch-Fletchley?" a voice called out from the door. The interrogator had been telling the truth when he said they would switch tactics. A witch crossed the room and sat down across form him. "I understand you're making yourself out to be something of a victim."
"For the record, I know that's a trick too. You're insulting me and trying to get me to claim more agency in this whole thing. Well, I'm going to claim all the agency that I'm going to claim out of guilt, not being tricked."
"Did you know that it's normally regarded as suspicious when an interviewee is familiar with our procedures?"
"I did, and I also knew that if I acted like I had no idea what was going on here, that would be a waste of time and not honest. I'm going to be completely honest with you whether you like it or not. I have not told one lie to the authorities in my entire life and I am not going to start now."
"I assume you weren't asked, then, if you were ever involved with a secret group-"
"The one started by Harry Potter himself? I would have thought I had complete immunity for anything involving that. I was not, in fact, asked, though, so the answer to your question is yes."
"Since you're so committed to being honest, then, why don't you start telling me your story from the top, then? Don't worry if it's slightly different from before; we actually get slightly different accounts all the time."
"I wouldn't think you would be worried about that, but I would think you would be worried about the Confundus Charm. I told the other investigator that-"
"I know, actually; we've exchanged all information. Since you're so familiar with procedure, here, I suppose I shouldn't try to deceive you." He frowned slightly. They wouldn't have bothered trying to trick him with something so obvious, but it was entirely possible she was just trying to get him to let his guard down so she could lie to him about something else. "We have not established whether or not you were truly confunded."
"Why would I lie about that?" he asked. "The only difference is whether it's Dean or Zacharias; at least that's the only one so far."
"Yes, so far, except you also apparently thought you were talking to-"
"It makes no difference in my own narrative; I could have said 'the Auror' every time I referred to him."
"Mr. Finch-Fletchley, I'll have to ask you not to interrupt me and insist upon your complete cooperation. I'll decide if a detail is relevant or not. I also can't answer a question about your motives."
"Sorry," he said. "I'm simply frustrated. I can't believe I trusted him."
"Well, tell me about that. You've said that you were working with the other suspect, the one that you allege escaped with the victim."
"That's correct. That's how I started to think that I could trust him. I thought we had a nice, normal, working relationship."
He went ahead and started the story, to the best of his ability, making note of where he thought he might be confunded, and supplying the caveat that other parts of his testimony had a chance of being incorrect. It was hard to imagine what the point of saying everything was unless they only intended to trap him with his own words, content with the explanation that he was behind everything. It was not a sin to be a background character, and any one of them would be more noticeable if he or she had some kind of excuse to be uninvolved, like being badly forgetful. It seemed unlikely that he was going to get through everything without a blemish on his record, but there was still a chance he could get it close enough.
"That will be all that we require from you at this time," the specialist said, getting up. "Until we have more questions, or anything else, we are going to have to require you to return to your cell."
"Very well," he said. It was one thing when he was trying to decide what to do in the alley, but no option of resisting authority remained to him. As he walked through the narrow hallway, he started feeling strangely put out that no one had ever asked him whether or not he was part of Dumbledore's Army. Had it started so soon? Had he already started on turning into a background character, even back then? Perhaps the focus had never been on individual members of the club. Had he always been milling about in the background, and only for a short while convinced himself he had what it took to be a side character?
He arrived at the cell without fanfare, and it was shut for him with a strange sense of finality. It would be totally ridiculous if he were to be sent to Azkaban over what he did; if anything they should all be thanking him for how much legwork he did on their behalf. He had to believe there was still a shot.
"What did you do, then?" his cellmate asked. He looked over and none other than Mundungus Fletcher had joined him.
"You have to be joking. You stole a Horcrux. I don't remember which one, but you totally did it."
"What were those things again?"
"Oh, the Horcruxes were pieces of Voldemort's soul. I vaguely remember hearing about how they were in the old Black property and-"
"Yeah, yeah; it was lying around, okay? Most of the stuff we cleaned out of there was cursed- some of it downright dangerous- so I find a locket that doesn't seem to want to kill me. I think of it as payment for my services and the adjustment for having to risk my neck all the time."
"Really? Even here in a cell you're just going to sit around making excuses for yourself when you failed to help the main character?"
"What do you mean by that?"
"Never mind; it doesn't concern you."
The former shady businessman only stared straight ahead for a moment before looking back.
"Who are you again?"