WHO: Caradoc Dearborn, Sebastian Goldstein, and Christopher Loftus
WHAT: Sebastian finds out what has really been plaguing him, and he's not happy
WHEN: Now now!
WHERE: Goldstein Castle
Chewing on a peach, Caradoc contemplated how to tell Sebastian he had been under the Imperious Curse for the last three months. Sebastian, no doubt, would not take the news lightly, and right then, Caradoc didn’t particularly feel like dealing with the an hyper-crazed Sebastian due to finding out this information. But, the spell would start soon, and today was better than any other to end this charade Christopher Loftus had started.
Taking in a deep breath of air, he placed the half-finished fruit on the kitchen table for later. Caradoc took out his wand with his other hand and proceeded through the rest of the house until he found Sebastian. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he noted they had about ten minutes.
“Sebastian,” Caradoc spoke sternly to the other man’s back. Time to get this show on the road. At the very least, the prospect of taking out Christopher Loftus was inviting. “We have to talk.”
“Hrm?”
Life had seemed to calm down from the frantic state it had been in the past few weeks. And, by calming down, that just meant that nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Which was good! That was a good thing. Of course, he still had Caradoc Dearborn living in his basement when he was supposed to be two-years dead, but that was okay! Mackenzie was behaving as if they’d adopted a third child, with the way she was feeding him and making sure he was comfortable, and Sebastian was fine with that. As long as the only thing Dearborn needed from him was a place to sleep and eat, so be it.
As he clipped the last of his developing pictures onto the wire (Sebastian had managed to keep some muggle things in his life), he felt a great deal of dread come over him. He shut his eyes at Caradoc’s words and refused to turn around. Maybe he needed more toilet paper, or maybe he’d finally ask for he or Mackenzie to contact Emmeline and invite her over for dinner, because he’d been here far too long without visiting her and---
“What?” he said in a tone that clearly indicated he was awaiting the arrival of bad news.
Caradoc’s eyes narrowed to Sebastian’s response, and he stayed quiet for a few moments to hold his tongue. Ha, that was amusing, holding his tongue not only for a Gryffindor, but Sebastian Goldstein at that. And, furthermore, here he was helping him! Blinking slowly, he brought himself back to the task at hand.
“Are you aware you’ve been under a continuous imperious since April?” he spoke so calmly it was almost strange. Caradoc knew Sebastian had no idea about his current condition, Mackenzie neither, but at the very least this information would get his attention. Glancing at the clock again, he began to talk slower. “It’ll start again soon. Christopher has you on a schedule.”
He waited patiently for Sebastian to finally turn to him, still holding his wand lightly at his side.
“What?” Sebastian whirled around immediately, his expression absolutely scandalized and, “---the Imperious! How----” He felt his face heat up as his mind whirled, knowing that this is exactly what had been happening to him without further explanation from Caradoc. All the anxiety, Christopher must have been timing things to make it seem like he’d just fallen asleep but was in actuality---since April! Yes! Of course, it had started around his birthday, and he had believed it was because of the attacks that had started on the Order children, it was perfect, he couldn’t believe how perfect it had all been---
He fumed, however, and pointed a stiff finger at Caradoc, “How long have you known! Is that why you’re here, am I the traitor!” he shouted, feeling absolutely sick. Was he? Had he been the one to slip the information about the Potters, or the Bones? Did he tell the death eaters the location of the other members who’d been attacked? Sebastian reeled at the thought, losing his balance and dropping back onto the table behind him.
Oh God, this couldn’t be happening. How hadn’t he noticed? Was his memory being wiped after---how much of his life had he missed? The other Order members had just nodded and agreed with him about the stressful, sleepless nights. They’d even shared stories, what if they were being imperioused too? For fuck’s sake,
“How do I stop it, what do I-----” Sebastian croaked, but it felt like his words had gotten stuck in his throat, and he froze for a second in the slumped position against the table before he was jolted up right and forced to walk out the door. No, no, no! It was---how could he not remember this, no--no! Why couldn’t he stop this!
Bowing his head, Caradoc tuned Sebastian out almost immediately. Answering anything now would just be pointless, not to mention not really his problem. Fortunately, the loud chatter only lasted for a few moments, because like clock work the spell went into affect. Maybe this time.... he waited to see if anything would be different than before. He followed Sebastian to the front of the house before taking out his wand, waiting as long as possible before helping.
A jet of red light hit Sebastian in the back, and Caradoc watched as his body fell to the floor. He winced at the sound-- that would definitely make a bruise. It only took a few seconds for Caradoc to reach Sebastian and roll the man onto his back in the middle of the living room.
The plan was simple enough that Loftus wouldn’t expect it. If Sebastian didn’t show up for his daily ridiculous errand, the auror would come to check on him. He knew Christopher; he wouldn’t be able to resist not knowing what was going on with his puppet. And then--- they take care of him.
“Ennervate.” Caradoc bent down slightly, hands resting on his knees with his head titled to the side as he watched the other man’s limp body. As Sebastian finally came to, he held out a hand. “Now we wait. Do you have a shovel?”
Sebastian sucked in a deep breath as he sat up, never having been revived from being knocked out, before. His hand went to his head as it was suddenly throbbing, and he glared at Caradoc for a hard second before roughly getting to his feet. None of this was right, nothing could possibly go any more wrong, but this wasn’t right. Was he the traitor? Caradoc had never answered him and that worried Sebastian. Maybe this would put an end to the Order’s secrets being leaked, maybe they’d finally have some peace--
---but who would want a fool as sustainable to the imperious that he didn’t even notice in their ranks? Sebastian felt some sort of relief at the idea of being thrown out of the Order, but it couldn’t compete with the overwhelming feeling of failure and disgrace.
“A shovel--” Sebastian muttered, thinking. Christopher would again try to put the curse on him, and if he’d had such a good hold that he didn’t even need to be within eyesight--he would be coming in to find him, wouldn’t he? They had to knock him out...what was Caradoc going to do? At this point, Sebastian had figured that the man he was currently housing knew a lot more about this situation than he had initially let on (and this would cause problems later, not when a death eater was literally lurking outside his front door), and was just going to go along with what he felt like would keep him alive. Sebastian pushed himself to his feet and moved to the kitchen, rummaging until he found what had immediately come to mind when the idea of knocking Christopher Loftus out cold had been put into his mind.
He patted the rolling pin in his free hand with a very satisfied smile forming on his face. Oh, the anger that was bubbling up within him was so ready to be unleashed against Christopher fucking Loftus.
Caradoc’s brow rose at the sight of Sebastian, more impressed than surprised at the sight of him. At least the Gryffindor wasn’t completely incapable of darker emotions like revenge. That was always a handy trait to have when dealing with out-of-control death eaters like Christopher Loftus. Not to mention they would have the element of surprise, which was sometimes all you really needed.
“Use your invisibility cloak,” he spoke in a low tone, not wanting to set Sebastian off too early just yet. Because that’s what he needed--- a crazed Sebastian Goldstein going berserk on him. He hadn’t survived Grayson Wilkes and his psychotic glove obsession to be clubbed to death by a rolling pin. “I’ll distract him,” Caradoc finished, dragging a chair across the room to place it a few feet away from where he would stand. An item that out of place would only help them, giving Sebastian more time to strike and Caradoc keeping Christopher focused on this side of the room.
He positioned himself to the slight right of the door, making himself the first thing Christopher would see when he walked through the door. Hands to his sides, Caradoc took a deep breath before glancing back at Sebastian. Even with a glint in the corner of his eye, he spoke calmly.
“By the way-- you’re not the traitor. Loftus has just been using you do to petty things like run his errands and make you try to kill yourself. He’s doing this on his own. I doubt he even knows you’re in the Order.”
He had to do everything himself, didn’t he? Take care of the children, calm Prisca down daily, renew Goldstein’s imperious curse every week.... the list went on! Every fucking week! The mudblood was less receptive than a rock for the amount of times Christopher had to renew the spell. If he didn’t, the man just wouldn’t do anything or get lost--- just a few days ago he had managed to lock himself in a room. What a bloody fucking idiot. Rolling back his sleeves, he departed to Dumfries after waiting ten minutes with nothing happening.
Knowing that no one else would be inside, he quickly walked up the steps of the house with ease. A part of him debated whether continuing this was even worth it--- it wasn’t as if Goldstein had information or knowledge on anything he needed to know. Unlocking the door, Christopher was so deep in thought he barely noticed the form of a completely different man standing in front of him until the scrapping of wood on the floor snapped him to.
It only took a moment of staring before everything set into motion. “Dearborn!” Christopher rattled as the other man smiled at him. A deep rage filled him quickly--- he knew the whispers of Dearborn still being alive were true! How had he escaped? As he took one step forward, a smile began to form on Christopher’s face as he thought of how wonderful it would be to kill this blood traitor.
With Christopher thoroughly distracted, Sebastian didn’t waste a second before coming around the door and swinging the rolling pin as hard and fast into his brother-in-law’s chin as possibly. The crunch of breaking bones (and teeth, there were probably some missing teeth) was the most satisfying sound that had ever reached his ears. Sebastian made sure to slam the front door of his house shut before he looked at the unconscious form of Christopher Loftus, letting out a chuckle at how easily that had gone down.
“What do we do now?” Sebastian grunted, giving Christopher a quick kick to the side before flipping out his wand and levitating the body away from the door. He dropped him roughly and continued to stare daggers into his brother-in-law, waiting for the next move. Sebastian had every desire to stomp and hit and hex Christopher, but he knew that if he let himself go, he wouldn’t be able to stop, and one thing he refused to become was anything like the man lying on his kitchen floor.
He looked up at Caradoc, arms crossed over his chest. “We could interrogate him. I don’t know what the Order wants---but--we could do that.”
Christopher stirred slightly on the ground and Sebastian gave him a swift stupefy to the head.
For such a violent display, Caradoc had derived much joy from watching it unfold. He had never harbored as much hate as Sebastian obviously did for Christopher Loftus, but there had been moments of wanting nothing more than to gut the fucker. They had never gotten along, for obvious reasons; Caradoc had actually drawn a line at choosing to never be inherently evil.
So yes, maybe seeing Christopher Loftus die on a kitchen floor wouldn’t be the worst thing to happen. Seeing the auror get the shit kicked out of him was a good start. From the looks of it, though, it didn’t seem Sebastian was quiet capable of killing yet. Letting out a long breath, Caradoc quickly moved to the kitchen, watching Christopher more closely than Sebastian.
“Obliviate him,” Caradoc stated in a cold tone. Aside from doing that, Caradoc’s involvement in this issue was over as far as he was concerned. Sebastian could do... literally whatever he wanted. That was the whole point of taking revenge and knocking someone out cold. Though, there was one option he supposed Sebastian would like more than others. “Are you asking for my advice?”
Sebastian had half a mind to completely wipe away any memory Christopher Loftus might have of him, Mackenzie, Anthony--anything that could mean that this man would never be able to hurt them again. He twirled his wand between his fingers as Caradoc spoke, nodding along with the man. Maybe he could hand Christopher off to Frank, or Moody, who properly knew how to interrogate a criminal like this. It wasn’t exactly Sebastian’s place to tell the authorities that he had knocked out an auror who had seemingly not done a thing.
Hm.
“As if you wouldn’t give it anyway,” Sebastian said with a smirk, taking this time to flip Christopher onto his stomach and bind his hands behind his back. He would wait until Caradoc was gone before contacting Frank or any of the Order members, but that was what he had decided in his mind. Christopher would really have no idea where he was, who was questioning him, or how close to death he might actually be. Sebastian felt slightly queasy at the satisfaction the thoughts brought him, but he supposed this is what it took to gain some edge in the war.
Because he actually knew what he was fucking talking about. Caradoc refrained from deadpanning, not finding Sebastian amusing in the slightest way. He began to unroll his sleeves, looking down at his arms once he finally spoke.
“Give him to the Order. Bring them a legitimate death eater. No one’s been able to do that yet,” he said, shrugging slightly. Caradoc continued to shake his sleeves back down to their normal length. “Something to bring up their morale. Maybe you’ll even get some information out of him.” Though knowing Loftus, he probably had a poison potion jammed up his sleeve for a quick exit.
He let out a sigh, and shrugged again. Like he said before, he could care less what Sebastian did with Loftus. The Goldstein ‘issue’ was now appropriately taken care of, per his orders. Caradoc inclined his head toward Sebastian in a bow-like manner, gaze locking with the other man’s for a few moments. “Your choice.” He took a step back, pocketing his wand while doing so, and then another until he had slipped out of the room completely.
