Blood of the Moon {Remus Lupin}

Chapter 20

Enjoy :)

Auriga finished her lunch and quickly put everything away, checked her teeth and hair, and headed the short distance down the hall to Crouch's office. The scarring from Saturday night was still quite visible, but nothing a glamour charm wouldn't mask for the time being. She'd agreed to meet Crouch directly before the press conference that afternoon so they could head up together. She'd just reached the doorway when she remembered who'd be on the other side.

"Auriga!" said Toby as she arrived, standing up from his desk and hurriedly sitting back down. "Look about Saturday night - I'm really sorry. I regretted it as soon as I'd done it-"

"Then why didn't you come?" Auriga snapped, her tone filled with ice.

"I...well," Toby stammered, taken by surprise. "Augustus...I'd already agreed-"

"Do you know why Augustus paid you not to come?" Auriga asked, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes. Toby's mouth dropped open a little, and he hurriedly snapped it shut and shook his head feebly. "He attacked me. Three on one. There was a reason I called off the engagement, you know. And it wasn't some stupid romantic thing like, I want to marry for love, because I couldn't care less about love. I'm too practical. Which is why I'm glad you didn't show up - imagine if I'd ended up with someone as pathetic and wet as you."

"Auriga," Toby said again, "I-"

"Montague!" called Crouch's voice as he appeared in the doorway, frowning. "I thought I told you to let me know as soon as Malfoy got here?"

"Y-yes, sir," Toby stammered, having not recovered from Auriga's grilling just yet.

"Shall we head up, Mr Crouch?" Auriga suggested, uncrossing her arms and stepping back to allow him to pass.

"Yes, let's," said Crouch, before striding past her. She cast one last cool glare at Toby, before turning and following Crouch, well aware of her mauve-coloured robes billowing dramatically.

*****

"I'm sorry the kappa scales were held up, but you must understand there was nothing we could do!" Auriga exclaimed in Japanese, raising her voice slightly to the other five people in the room. "The borders needed closing - what would you suggest?"

"Why haven't you got any leads yet?" Nakamura, the Japanese head of trade asked, raising her eyebrows. This woman was infuriating - why couldn't she see that they had to stop trade to prevent Black escaping into the world as opposed to just the UK?

"I don't have any jurisdiction to share that information with you," Auriga said, trying to maintain what little composure she had left. "But, as I said yesterday at the I.C.W conference, we are performing extra checks in all outgoing produce. Black will not be able to leave the country, and if he tries we'll catch him. We are doing out utmost to maintain the standard trading procedures, but there will be limitations and your outgoing shipments will be held up. That does not mean you need to withhold the produce that we import from you, as we will reimburse you with the appropriate funds."

"We won't take any less than a thousand galleons per missed shipment," Nakamura said, and Ito, the Minister for Magic, nodded in agreement.

"That is an insultingly high amount," scoffed Auriga, almost slipping up on her pronunciation. "As stated in the thirty second clause of the second part of our report, we will provide you with four thirds of the original amount as long as our imports from you remain constant. That's almost double!"

"You want us to accept only six hundred and fifty galleons?" Ito said with a frown. "But Japan can't afford that - not without the regular imports we have."