Watching Your Future Leader

[Yevheniy Kharchenko]

Yevheniy adjusted his position against the wall, he moved the cigarette from one side of his mouth to the other. He was watching Ioan Finch from where he stood. The man was greeting people, and doing what appeared to be campaign business. He couldn't hear what was being said, but that wasn't the point, he was there merely to observe. He was watching the people who surrounded him, hoping to catch a glimpse of who the auror was that was tailing him, if there was more than one. They needed that information. Ever since his conversation with Esme, Yev had gathered a few loyal members of his sect to start paying more attention and digging into Ioan and his campaign. Yevheniy knew that there would be no way to get Ioan to play along with them if they didn't have the necessary proof of what might happen. They needed to be certain, so Yev had sent out two people to do some general digging, and they took the occasional shift to watch the man go about his business whenever they could. He took the cigarette out his mouth and blew out the smoke, throwing the stub on to the ground and glancing at his watch, any longer and they'd both have been late.
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[Fenris Lancaster]

News of Esme's potential prophecy was troubling, but not at all surprising. Exposure of the Scitorari's members was the risk men such as Metrophanes and Ioan took when they ran for a position like the Minister of Magic. It wasn't the first time they'd done this, and failed, but still they'd tried. Idiots. Who would have thought it would be the young ones who knew what was good for them all? All those years worth of supposed wisdom, and yet none of these old men were showing an ounce of it. Now Metrophanes, or Roman, whatever the sh*t his name is, was headed straight for Azkaban. Fenris had no plans on joining him. They were lucky that the man hadn't spilled any beans, but that didn't mean they'd continue to be so lucky as more of their group were locked away for making stupid decisions. If what the Scitorari Seeress was predicting turned out to be true, they could all take the fall for one man's arrogance.

When it came to aurors and candidates, doing some digging wasn't an easy task. It was hard to gather information without rousing any suspicion or being noticed. So far, Ioan walked a free man, and his facade remained intact, but the reality was that he was more likely than not to be a ticking time bomb. Esme's recent predictions weren't always accurate, but if history had proven anything, it was that a Scit trying to take over the Ministry did not go down well.

Fenris' eyes found Finch long before they found Yevheniy. The potions master was hard to miss, out and about in public and pushing his politics to try gain favour. The younger wizard ignored him for the time being, but his attention lingered on the people around him, trying to match up any recurring faces from the photos he'd seen in the papers. With two candidates out of the race, and one revealed as a Scitorari, security was bound to be tighter on those who remained. He passed on by after a moment, circling around to where his own leader stood waiting. The Lancaster warlock acknowledged him with a nod of his head, uncertain and uncaring as to whether he'd turned up on time. Fenris was far from the most organised. A couple of minutes late never hurt anybody. "Ey, Yev." He said, slumping against the wall. "Arlo not here yet?" Huh, maybe he wasn't so late after all. That would be a first.

 

[Yevheniy Kharchenko]

Yevheniy immediately spotted Fenris when he arrived, he kept his gaze away from the younger man, focused instead on the minister or potential minister working away at the other side of the street. They were hidden enough that there wouldn’t be much suspicion on what they were doing, they were just two guys at the end of the street. He looked at the man as a small greeting and shook his head. Arlo hadn’t arrived yet, but there was no reason to be worried, after all, the only people who knew anything about what they were doing, were the three of them and of course Esme. Though the latter didn’t know what they were doing, just that they were looking into it. The Scit leader kept his gaze on the candidate for a few more minutes before glancing round, ”We can think about that later, if he shows or not,” He kept his voice low, allowing his accent to mask it more than he would usually allow.

There was less of a present alcohol smell radiating off him too, there was a part of the man who knew when to slow down a little, though the hip flask in his pocket was still filled for if he wanted it, there were just more pressing things currently, ”Find much?” Yev had to assume there was nothing much to find or that it would be rather difficult to find much, they were three guys going up against a ministry surrounded by secrets that held all the knowledge away from them. They were just focusing all of their attention on one section, one person, that had to help their chances of exposing something. Surely. Yevheniy remained as calm as he could manage in waiting for a reply, he trusted that Arlo was all fine, but he knew they were dancing with a fire none of them could probably control. Outwith the rest of the Scits, and alone. Yev didn’t like the power structure of the scits anyway, but the fact they were working so alone, so independently was enough to really put anyone on edge.
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[Fenris Lancaster]

Yevheniy may have been comfortable worrying about Arlo's appearance later, but Fenris briefly entertained the scenarios involving the man's lack of appearance. Just for fun. Knowing who to trust came with the territory, so his imagination wandered to thoughts of betrayal, of the Ministry being tipped off and arresting the two anarcho-magicians while Arlo reaped the rewards. It was exaggerated, and unlikely, but one could never truly know what another person would do with the right incentives, or pressure. A small part of Fenris almost welcomed that particular outcome, the danger and the drama, any excuse to dust off his wand and take down a couple of Ministry lackeys at the same time. Violence could have solved a lot of the problems the Scitorari faced, if only they had the balls to bring the fight where it counted.

"What do you think?" Fenris responded with a slight suck of his teeth. "I'd have an easier time breaking into Gringotts. Ministries got too many f***ing aurors following the candidates like sick pups instead of doing some actual work." It's not like the candidates were all worthwhile targets. They didn't need any protection, half of them were barely even a threat, it was all just a big waste of time. Sure, they'd caught old Metrophanes, but he was honestly a bit of a wildcard to begin with, with one brother sitting pretty as the deputy Minister, and another in Azkaban. That history was way too risky to run with.

 

[Yevheniy Kharchenko]

Yevheniy rolled his eyes at the other man but he knew that Fenris was right, actually finding anything was never going to work. They would never find what they needed, they were too few, with too few points of entry to it. He knew that with the arrest of Metrophanes, which Yev couldn't admit to be too pleased about, though he was, they were tighter with security of the ministry and the candidates. He sighed at the man, rubbing a hand over his face. Yev reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a flask, taking a quick drink and offering it to Fenris, "Where the f#cks Arlo?" Yev muttered as he held it out to him. he could assume that Arlo had had about as much success as they had both had. He had spent more of his time watching the man, not willing to get overly close. All he knew was that the auror was always close by. They were close enough that Yev knew that him getting close to the man, could cause accidentally alarm bells, or at the very least any conversation he tried to have with Ioan, their precious candidate would go south quickly. He'd be arrested before they could say their peace.

Yevheniy didn't like this at all, "The auror they've got on him is always close, we'd need to get him alone, Ioan will eventually get bored of being followed around. No doubt the prick's going insane being tailed constantly." Yevheniy trailed off as he looked away from Fenris and up to the future leader of the wizarding world. If he had learned anything from leadership of the scits was that they didn't like being followed by aurors, even in his position, Yev had to assume that Ioan would eventually split from the guy or try to. "Keep doing what you're doing, try to get any information, there's gotta be someone in the ministry close enough who likes alcohol a bit much, I'll keep trailing him as much as I can, and if you see Arlo before I do, tell the lazy shite to keep an eye on his watch," Yevheniy gave the instructions with his clearest voice. They didn't have the time to be standing around, they had to keep acting.
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[Arlo Carson]

</FONT></SIZE>

<SIZE size="50"><FONT font="Verdana">In one quick motion, the man in the long brown coat cast aside the bottle that had been clasped in his right hand for last fourth-three minutes, the glass landing in the trash can ready to be disposed of. If only everything was dealt with as efficiently when it had run its course. He may have been late for a meeting with the only two other people who knew the true dangers of the Finch candidate, but he was close to finding out a fact that could potentially improve their situation and spending a few more minutes stood a short distance away from the man that threatened their existence would be worthwhile regardless if it meant being late for a mere chat. His eyes travelled the space between himself and his associates, and while Arlo was careful to keep to himself conspicuous as to not be alerted by the high security in the area, the others would just have to trust that he knew what he was doing. The Scit himself had never been someone to put much faith in another human being, but the Anarchos had become a cause that deserved his efforts, and he wasn't going to go down easily if it came to being exposed.

After much too time was spent straining to cling on to any exchange of words that could be of use for their team, the man had given in to his frustrations and moved across to find Yev and Fenris, hiding any hint of disappointment in his face. He really didn't think it was such a good idea for the three of them to be in such close proximity to one another in public, but he wasn't in a place to challenge the decisions of his leader. They just needed to do what the came for so they could continue with whatever drone of a life they were pursuing before the drama of politics had sucked it from them. Approaching from the side of the pair, Arlo managed to catch the end of their latest communications, and he could already feel the sudden anger building up inside him, although years of training his facial muscles not to flitch had proved good use of his time and choosing to try and ignore Yev's comment for the greater good he pressed on. "There's nothing." Hushed tones and wizards stepping on one another's toes was all that the Scit had managed to pick out. If they were going to get anywhere with this at all it was needed to be primarily directed at Finch. "He's got them wrapped around his little finger, it's going to take more than just watching." Arms now crossed in front of his chest, Arlo had no plans on lingering between them for any longer than was necessary, his eyes glancing between them to gauge if either of them had something useful to add before he returned to trying to find a fresh source.​

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