All Debts Must be Paid

Chapter Nine: The Ministry - Jacks

The next morning, Jacks Flooed into the office at half eight, and this was after being up half the night trying to establish exactly what had happened. While he felt completely vindicated by events, he was appalled at the way the whole business had been cocked up.

Davis had eventually appeared and the two of them had gone back to Lupin's cottage, but he wasn't there, and there had been no sign he had come back. For once Jacks agreed with Davis that the werewolf had done a runner and wasn't going to reappear again in a hurry.

As soon as they had got back to the office, Davis had disappeared himself and now Jacks paced around the small office he shared with him, waiting for the man to come back. Ten minutes later he did. He didn't look too happy.

Without stopping to brush the dust from the chimney off himself, he announced, "Kellow wants to see us at nine. We need to get our story straight. You can brief him, this whole operation was your stupid idea."

Davis may have been the office comedian at one time but he wasn't making Jacks laugh now. Going to shaft me good and proper then, you little prick, he thought.

"It's perfectly simple," he replied sarcastically. "We arrested Lupin on the off chance he might know where Black was. Unfortunately, he proved to be allergic to Veritaserum and we had to use a lesser potion. He denied any knowledge of Black's whereabouts, past or present so we let him go. Seems he never bothered to tell Black he'd been released because Black decided to pay us a visit and do just that, thereby indicating that we'd been a bit previous in releasing Lupin. Oh and when he realised Lupin wasn't here, Black just walked out without anyone stopping him. How's that?"

"Temper, temper," Davis reproved. He walked over to where Jacks was leaning against his desk and prodded him in the chest. "You will tell Kellow something that accounts for all this."

"What!" Jacks glared at the other Hit Wizard. "The hell I will!"

Davis rolled his eyes. "No wonder you were out on your ear. No sense of self preservation, that's your problem."

"Oh I see, that's why you want me to brief him, then, so I take the flak?"

"That's right," Davis replied. "You're expendable."

"Thanks," muttered Jacks. "Perhaps you could give me a hint on what to say, given that I'm such an idiot?"

"Oh, I'm sure your fertile brain can come up with something suitably impressive, "Davis replied cheerfully and walked towards the door. "I'll be in the canteen."

Jacks sank down at his desk and swore viciously under his breath, staring at Davis' back as he left the room. Something suitably impressive. Yeah right. He was going to have to come up with some waffle about the Dark Arts to account for Black. Then he sighed. Nah, he knew Kellow would just tell him that that sort of bullshit might impress Fudge but it didn't impress him.

Then he had it, a line so original, he'd bet no one had used it in years. He was going to be honest about what had happened. And the good thing was, of course, that by doing so, he would throw Davis in the crap, which was only just.

So, a little before nine he walked along the corridor to Kellow's office, and stood waiting outside watching Joan settle down with a cup of tea. Davis breezed in, looking remarkably untroubled for someone who had been in charge of a complete cock up.

Joan waved them through, giving Davis a warm smile, while she just glared at Jacks.

Kellow was sitting behind his desk with his arms folded. He sat for a moment, looking the two of them up and down as if not quite able to believe what he saw. "I'm waiting," he said eventually.

"Jacks is going to brief you, sir," Davis told Kellow. Jacks thought that surely, Kellow wasn't going to be fooled by that eager puppy act.

"Really?" Kellow looked cynically at him. Apparently, he wasn't fooled. "You surprise me. Well Jacks, you had better proceed."

Jacks cleared his throat. "This operation achieved its objective, sir."

"Oh? Explain." The glare that Kellow gave him could have come from a basilisk.

"Yessir," Jacks replied, staring at a point in the wall above Kellow's head. "The objective of this operation was to investigate whether Remus Lupin was still a close friend of Sirius Black and assisting him to evade justice, in the expectation that he would be able to lead us to Black. While we have no confession from Lupin, we do have the fact that Black came here with the apparent intention of releasing Lupin (had we not already done so), from which I believe we can infer that they are indeed in close contact." He paused, flicking a glance down at Kellow's face.

The Head of the MLES leaned forwards. "I understand that you should leave the word 'apparent' out of your description of Black's visit to us last night," he commented dryly.

"Er, yessir." Jacks felt himself start to sweat.

Kellow leaned back again. Then he asked, "Why was Lupin released?"

Jacks said nothing, but he turned to Davis. The other Hit Wizard flashed him a murderous glance but said to Kellow, "We had no evidence upon which to hold him, sir. We'd questioned him under a truth potion, and had no reason to doubt his answers to our questions."

Kellow slammed a hand down on his desk. "And yet, since Black showed up here, he must have been bloody lying!" He stared at his two subordinates for a few seconds then said, "You used Veritaserum?"

Jacks broke in, "No, sir. He was allergic to that."

"So you used something less powerful, were happy with the answers you got and released him." Kellow was looking at Davis.

"Er, yes, sir," Davis responded after a pause.

Jacks had to remind himself not to smirk.

"So then what happened?" Kellow's voice implied that this had better be good.

Jacks took a deep breath. "The alarm in the basement gents in corridor E2 was triggered at oh three ten this morning, sir by the use of the Stunning Curse."

"Who was stunned?"

"One of the guards. He identified his attacker as Black, sir."

"How did Black get into the building?" Kellow asked, frowning.

"Er, we don't know, sir."

Kellow's frown deepened. "So Black was already down at the lock ups by the time anybody became aware of his presence? I can see we're going to have to revise security arrangements." He continued, "So what happened next?"

"I've interviewed the four security guards who were on duty, sir," Jacks replied. "As soon as the alarm was triggered, three of them went to investigate, but by the time they got down to the ground floor Black must have realised he had triggered it and was making good his escape. He was firing Curses behind him and one of the guards got hit with a Blinding Hex. The other two guards felt it was likely that Black er, Apparated away as soon as he got beyond the perimeter. There was no sign of him."

Kellow sniffed. "Right, Davis, I don't care what you have to do, I want the pair of them and I want to know how Black got into the building. Unfortunately the news of Black's escapade has filtered up to Fudge and he thinks he's going to be murdered in his office." He paused then said reflectively, "And that would probably be no bad thing."

Davis nodded and left with a slight smirk at Jacks.

"Was there something else?" Kellow demanded as Jacks was still standing there.

"Sir, you're surely not leaving that idiot in charge of this?" Jacks knew he was out of line, but he had to make some sort of a protest. "It was his idea to release Lupin dammit."

Kellow didn't see it quite like that, his eyes flashed in anger and Jacks realised he'd gone too far.

"Perhaps it's just as well he did," Kellow said icily. "Otherwise we might've been dealing with the repercussions of Black breaking him out of here, which would have been a damn sight harder to deal with." He paused and leaned back, looking Jacks up and down. "I'm prepared to give you a bit of slack here, Jacks. You've established a link between these two after all, but never forget you're on probation. Make one mistake, and you're straight back to Archives. Do you understand?"

"Yessir," Jacks responded sullenly.

Jacks walked out of Kellow's office relieved that Kellow hadn't ordered his summary incarceration in Azkaban. When he got back to his own office, Davis was sitting, feet up on his desk, reading that morning's Prophet. Jacks had an overwhelming urge to punch the man, but that would mean Archives and Records again and he managed to subdue it.

He stood looking at Davis for a moment then said, "So what are we going to do about Black and Lupin?"

Davis looked up from his paper. "I can't say I'm optimistic on that one - you'd better deal with it, Jacks." He smirked. "They'll have disappeared I should think - probably straight back to Voldemort."

Jacks was astonished, not least at this off hand acknowledgement of You-Know-Who's return.
"And what are you going to do?"

If Davis was bothered by this insubordination, he didn't show it. "I'm going to be looking into how Black got into the building, Jacks. That's a priority, can't have Death Eaters appearing in here now can we?"

Jacks wasn't sure if he was being ironic or not so he didn't comment on that. Instead, he asked, "Would you authorise a statement then, so we can put the public on their guard?"

"You really want to advertise just how vulnerable we are do you, Jacks?" Davis looked at him with obvious irony now.

Oh, good grief! Jacks thought. "I didn't mean that we should advertise that Black got into the Ministry. I meant about Lupin. We need to do something. It's not as if he's been on any wanted list."

Davis considered this. "All right, arrange to issue a statement saying he's wanted for questioning in connection with the ongoing search for Black." He put his paper down and stood up. "Keep me posted on what you find out, won't you?"

"Yeah, I'll be sure and do that," Jacks responded, and watched sourly as Davis left. Bloody hell, how had an idiot like that managed to get promoted that far, he wondered. Probably because idiots like him did most of the work. Well at least Davis had as good as told him he wasn't going to get involved with tracking down Black and Lupin. Meant he could get on and catch the bastards without interference.

He sat down and picked up the parchment lying on his desk. It was a list of the spells the alarms had detected last night. It was odd when you thought about it, he decided. There was nothing lethal at all. He didn't think he'd ever come across a Death Eater quite so well, restrained before. There was Black, charging into what had to be the most dangerous place in the country for him, with the intention of releasing his accomplice and all he did was fire a few mild curses and hexes. Didn't make sense.

Jacks put the parchment down and then re-read the guard's statement. He blinked. Black had stolen the guard's wand. Then he had knocked the man out. There was no mention of a wand until the guard said Black had stolen his. Did that mean Black had gone into the ministry building without a wand? How stupid was that? Stupid or desperate. He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath as something else occurred to him. They hadn't told anybody they had arrested Lupin so how the hell had Black known? Jacks racked his brains but the only way he could come up with was if Black had been there when Lupin was arrested. Jacks shivered as he realised just how close they must have come.

But then he perked up. He was on a trail, two even. Back doing what he did best - getting after the bad guys. Now, time to see if any of his old contacts still remembered him. There must be someone out there with a loose mouth.

Later, once he'd issued the statement about Lupin, he went out to see if he could find one. He Flooed over to the Leaky Cauldron, where Old Tom was getting ready for the lunchtime crowd. He was about to go through into Diagon Alley when he stopped. Instead, he went over and passed the time of day with Old Tom.

"Looks as if you're expecting to be busy," he commented.

Tom shrugged. "Never can tell, you know. Pint of your usual is it?"

Jacks shook his head. "Not just now, thanks. This is official, MLES." he explained, then continued, "What about at night, do you still get many people staying over?"

"Never busy at this time of year, but can't complain." Tom responded in a neutral voice, waiting for the next question.

"So," continued Jacks, "Anyone stay last night?"

Tom shrugged and said, "Several."

"They have names? They still here?"

Tom allowed himself a tight smile. "Mr and Mrs Chynoweth up from Cornwall, Jim Spence who you can see sitting over there," he pointed to a smartly dressed wizard sitting at one of the tables checking over the contents of his briefcase, "And Remus Lupin, who you just missed."

"Remus Lupin? Any idea where he went?"

"None at all." Tom shook his head, "Sorry." He didn't look sorry, Jacks thought.

"How did he leave?"

Tom shrugged, looking offended. "No idea, I don't keep a watch on how my customers come and go."

"Perhaps you should. If you do happen to remember if he said where he was going, contact us, would you? We need to find him."

"Right you are, Mr Jacks, I'll be sure and do that." Jacks was sure there was more than a hint of irony there. He left.

It only took a few minutes to get to Knockturn Alley, which even by day seemed dark and overshadowed. Jacks returned to his original task and spent a fruitless ten minutes in the Lurking Ferret but drew a blank. He then sought his quarry in Crippens. The barman at the Ferret had pretended he had never heard of Blowman, even when Jacks had greased his palm a bit, so he had let it pass. The man was a shopkeeper in the Alley, and as two faced and double-crossing as they came. Which was useful for a snout.

Crippens was a sleazy bar at the far end of the alley. Shady deals were allegedly done in the shabby booths that lined one wall. The MLES generally found it more constructive just to watch the place rather than close it down. Only the foolhardy went inside - it wasn't safe.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" The sharp-faced man standing behind the bar exclaimed, as Jacks pushed open the door.

"What? Where?" Jacks looked behind him in fake astonishment.

Sharp Face smiled displaying broken front teeth. "Very funny, Jacks. So, what can I get you? Heard you was onto the hard stuff now."

Jacks didn't smile. "Really? You heard wrong. This is business. Where's Blowman?"

"Not here."

Jacks heaved a sigh. "Well I'm not blind, I had actually noticed that. Where is he?"

Sharp Face showed his lack of teeth again. "Now see, you must have forgot, having been away for a bit, 'not here' is a polite way of saying 'he ain't here and if I knew where he was I'm not bloody telling you'.

"Hmm," responded Jacks sucking his teeth, "and you must have forgotten that 'where is he' is a polite way of saying 'where is he and you had better bloody tell me if you know what's good for you'.

The barman looked offended. "No need to take that tone. Should think he'll be along shortly. Always comes in here for a drink before he opens up. Course, it's been a while for you so likely you'd forgotten," Sharp Face sneered.

Jacks rolled his eyes, but all he said was, "I'll wait."

"Well wait over there, you'll frighten off all me customers." The barman indicated one of the booths at the far end of the row.

Half an hour later Jacks was still waiting. He was beginning to think that the barman had been stringing him along and had sent a message to Blowman warning him off. He took a small sip of the half pint of Old Curmudgeon's he'd been nursing. It was nearly finished. He had just glanced up at the clock on the wall above the bar and decided he'd give it another five minutes when the door banged open and Blowman came in.

He didn't look very happy, but then he seldom did. Jacks had always thought it went with the territory - Knockturn Alley wasn't known for being full of bright, chirpy types after all. He had one of those instantly forgettable faces - nondescript features and mousy coloured hair that made him perfect at blending into the background. No facial scars or heavy limps for Blowman, thought Jacks looking at the man with dislike.

Blowman shuffled over to the bar and spoke to Sharp Face. The barman laughed and started to pull a pint for him. As he put the glass down on the bar, he leaned forwards and said something to the informer. Blowman quickly turned round and looked over to where Jacks was sitting in the corner. He raised his glass to him, an inquiring expression on his face. Jacks looked at his near empty glass and nodded.

A few minutes later Blowman came over carrying two pints. "Well, I thought I'd seen the last of you," he remarked putting them down on the table.

"Never did have much luck, did you, Blowman," responded Jacks.

Blowman sat down and took a sip of his beer. He looked at Jacks and the Hit Wizard felt that his clothes had been valued down to the last knut and his expression considered, classified and filed away for future reference. "I mean, been quite a while, hasn't it?"

Jacks shrugged. "Look, I didn't come here to talk about old times," he said then.

"I didn't think you did. Just wondering about the sudden reappearance, thass'all."

"Wonder away. I need some information."

Blowman snorted. "Now there's a surprise." He took another sip of his beer. He seemed to make up his mind about something because he continued, "OK, what do you want to know? Oh, and in case you'd forgotten, usual terms."

Jacks rolled his eyes. "All right, I'm looking for someone, two people actually, but the first is the most important."

"Anyone I'd know?"

"Well I don't know how wide your circle of acquaintances is these days, Blowman," Jacks responded. Then he dropped the sarcastic tone and leaned forwards saying, "I'm looking for Sirius Black."

Blowman gave a great guffaw of laughter. "You and the rest of the MLES! What makes you think I know where he is?"

"It's become rather urgent that we find him," Jacks said after a pause. He wasn't going to admit the man had broken into the Ministry after all. "And I'm not suggesting you know where he is - if I was do you really think we'd be sitting here?"

Blowman ignored this last remark but said, "Tricky though. Never been so much as a whisper on the street about that one."

Jacks looked surprised. "What, not even from old friends?"

"Especially not from them. If they're not in Azkaban, or busy pretending hard they were all under the Imperius Curse, they're keeping their heads well down aren't they?" Blowman's lips stretched in a grin. "Which was a pity for you wasn't it? Didn't hear that they'd ever caught the ones who killed -"

"Leave me out of it!" Jacks snapped, rattled at this dig at his past.

Blowman backed down, clearly pleased to have scored a hit. "I'll see what I can do," he conceded, "but I'm not promising anything. Who was the other person?"

Jacks gulped down some beer before answering. "Black's friend, the werewolf, Lupin."

The informer looked incredulous. "Well that about summarises what I know about him," he said in a frank admission of ignorance.

"You've really never heard anything at all about him?"

Blowman shook his head and shuddered. "I mean, who wants to have anything to do with a werewolf, come on!"

There was that, of course. Jacks sighed in dissatisfaction. He didn't think he was going to get anything more from Blowman just then so he said, "If you do hear anything…"

"Yeah, I'll pass it on," Blowman said, and picking up his glass, drained it. "Well, gotta run, see you around, Jacks." He stood up and, nodding to Sharp Face, walked out of the bar, leaving Jacks sitting staring at the nearly full glass on the table. After a moment, the Hit Wizard got up and followed him. It was the first time in two years that he'd left a drink unfinished.