[HP AU]

[mnt_raph]

"An' you're sure this is the right address?" Raph asks again, for what Mike thinks might be the millionth time.

"Yes, I'm sure Raph. For like the millionth times. I told you," the smaller boy says sighing. "I read the map. I followed Donnie's instructions to the letter. Just...be still, look tough, and try not talk so much. Your accent kind of a dead give away that we're tourists, okay?"

"Bite me, Mikey."

"You'd probably like that too much," he says with a waggle of his eyebrows as he presses the doorbell of the Montoya's East London home.

Comments

[interrogoiterum]

There are other questions.

Where in New York?
Why are the Ministry denying involvement?
What is keeping that destruct spell from activating?
How did Professor Ross get this?

What is the deal with Professor Ross?

(How is she going to get back from America is down there.)

Renee taps her teeth with her fingernail.

"Did she say where in New York? The city, I guess?"

[mnt_leo]

"Manhattan," Leo says quietly. "And we're to Portkey into Brooklyn and make our way there on foot."

"Like fuck we are," Raph snaps back.

"Raph," Mike starts, but doesn't get to finish, because Raph interrupts him.

"Don't try to handle me here, Mikey! This is the same bullshit he pulled that Christmas. The same bullshit that got us sent here in the fucking first place, or had you forgotten? Making decisions that are supposed to be all of ours to make without any say or input from the rest of us!"

[interrogoiterum]

(There's a bookshop round the corner that might sell maps of New York.)

"Raph," says Renee sharply, without looking at him. "Shut the bloody hell up."

It's almost the same tone of voice she uses when he's arguing a point at Quidditch practice, but angrier.

[mnt_leo]

Raph stands up angrily, shoving the chair as he does so, and stomps off towards the bar, muttering something about not his soldiers to command under his breath.

"Sooo, how about them Cannons?" Mike asks once the dust from Raph's strop has settled slightly.

"He's not wrong," Leo says quietly. "And I'm sorry."

[interrogoiterum]

"For assuming your brother would have basic human decency?"

Renee shakes her head and stands, putting a hand down on the table before she leaves the smoke. There's a twenty pound note under it.

"Someone run outside to the main street. There's a bookshop around the corner, which'll sell travel guides. Get something with as large a map of New York as possible.

"And I think we'll need something of hers. Or something she gave someone."

Then she leaves them and walks right over to Raph at the bar.

[mnt_raph]

A few seconds after Renee leaves the table, Mike gets up and bolts for the door.

Raph, for his part, is seated at the bar nursing what appears to be his third firewhiskey of the day. Aaaand it looks like there might be another one hot on the heels of the one he's drinking.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee picks up the one that's waiting for him and downs half of it in one go.

"Is this going to end with us hitting each other again?"

[mnt_raph]

"Prob'ly," he fighting back the urge to smirk. Damn it, Renee.

[interrogoiterum]

"Damn."

She always loses those.

"Alright, let me finish this and then we'll go outside."

[mnt_raph]

"What do you want, Renee?"
Because he had a really good funk going on here a second ago, and she's being all...Mikey at him.

[interrogoiterum]

"Answers," she says.

And shakes her head before he can respond to that.

"Not from you. But when you're done over here you can help me get them."

[mnt_raph]

"Answers to what? What the hell are the questions?"

He gestures to the barman for a glass of water, and then at the last second orders two.

[interrogoiterum]

Ew, water, really?

"Other than 'what the bloody hell is going on?'"

Obediently she drinks it, because she supposes she should be sober for this.

"Let's go with what is that thing the message said? Why does a Hogwarts Professor even have that thing to start with? Why not go herself? What's going on with the Ministry?

"But I think I'll start with 'where's my old Quidditch team mate?'"

[mnt_raph]

"The fuck's that supposed to mean?"

The rest...eh, he could give two squats about how corrupt the government is, because let's face it: not all that surprising.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee looks at him over a pair of imaginary glasses.

"Dinah?"

Self-centered much, Raph?

[mnt_raph]

Why yes. Yes he is. It's so good of Renee to notice.
He blinks in a moment of confusion, and then realization dawns.

"Right. Yeah, that too."

Though you know, this is what happens when you start working for The Man...

[interrogoiterum]

Thing is, though, it shouldn't, which is why Renee's going to figure out how it did.

She swallows the rest of her water.

"Yeah?"

As in, is he on board?

[mnt_raph]

Raph sighs loudly as he turns to look in the direction of the table. Now granted, he can't really see the table, but he knows its there.

Truthfully, there was never any question about whether or not Raph would go. Of course he'd go. Not only would he never leave his brothers, but...give up the opportunity to kick someone ass? Especially when they deserve it?

Not a chance in hell.

It's just...he really hates it when Leo makes decisions for him. Really hates it. Asking. Would it have been too fucking hard to ask.

"Leo'd get his ass handed to him without me."

[interrogoiterum]

"Mmmmm hmmm."

Renee agrees. Because from what she's learned of Leo these last two years, he'd totally rush in and get himself killed.

Raph would too. But Raph has her to keep an eye on him

"Wait there."

She hops down from her barstool and walks over to the table.

[mnt_leo]

Mike has yet to return with the map, but Don and Leo have taken over the majority of the table and are in full on logistics mode when Renee returns.

Leo looks up at Renee as she approaches.

"How is he?"

[interrogoiterum]

Renee shrugs with one shoulder. He's Raph.

"Did you mean it when you said he was right and you're sorry?"

[mnt_leo]

Leo gives her an appraising look before answering.

"Of course."

There's precious little Leo says that he doesn't mean.

[interrogoiterum]

Grabbing a chair at the table she jerks a thumb over her shoulder.

"Then go ask the question."

To Don: "What have you got so far?"

[mnt_leo]

Leo can't help but just...blink at her. Did she just tell him what to do?

And yet, even in the midst of his confusion, Leo finds himself getting to his feet and heading towards the bar.

It's only when Leo is outside of the bubble that Don looks up from his notes.

"I can't believe that just worked," he says turning to watch Leo go. "And...Leo can't believe it either. Nice work."

He leans back in his chair, stretching as he does so.
"Well, not a whole lot, to be honest. But it's better than nothing."

A roll of parchment has been spread across the table. On it there are numerous arithmancy equations chickenscratched in the margins. In the center, a hand written note from Dinah to Leo.

It's the vaguest love letter to have ever vagued a vague.

[interrogoiterum]

"You'd be surprised how far common sense'll get you," Renee says.

She leans over and reads the note, then wrinkles her nose.

Ew, straight people.

"I feel like a creeper just reading that," she says.

"I think that there are charms that'll find the person who wrote that. It helps that it's, um.

"...that is a love letter, right?"