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Order of the Phoenix
heterosexual
Sexuality
Wishing Dorcas would take his declarations of love seriously
Relationship Status
Auror
Occupation
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Slither
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Tag me @dorian
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Post by Dorian Michael Humbert on Jan 19, 2018 20:51:51 GMT
 I promise to keep you safe always and forever
There had been another murder, a family this time. The Netherlys. Dorian had not known them personally but there were a few in the department who seemed more shaken by the family’s deaths than others. It was strange how so many agents and officers seemed to be in the same little social circles outside of the office but then Dorian had once been a part of that world, too. It seemed like ages ago when he would meet with a group of mates and go out after work on the weekends. He was never truly the wild type, but he had been fun once. Deaths like the Netherlys were just another reminder of why it was too dangerous to let people into your life in their line of work.
Despite the warnings, personal history, and the numerous loses, Dorian was becoming more social again – against every fiber of his being. He blamed Paris for his reintroduction into the world of friendships and relationships, it was both a blessing and a curse, but the cons could not outweigh the love he still held for her. He had lost Paris along with his biological mother, his half-sister, and his brother-in-law all within the last year. In return he had gained dear friends in the Meadowes, a gorgeous niece which he had adopted as his own, and a half-brother of whom he was still uncertain but hopeful. The gains could not and did not negate his recent loses but they did force him to see what Paris had worked so hard in getting him to see; the good that came in having bonds with other people. There were old friendships that had not been rekindled, nor hardly thought of in all this time as horrible as that may sound, but even if Dorian had decided to make a conscious effort to reach out to those few he had once called friends, he was not sure how they would respond after being shut out for so long.
Tensing his strong jaw and pursing his lips slightly, Dorian looked over the board where the Netherly’s photos had been tacked up, scraps of parchment underneath with information pertaining to each victim. The Netherlys were just another in a long list of people murdered by the Death Eaters and while Dorian had yet to prove it, he had a sneaking suspicion that they were a part of the vigilante group known as the Order of the Phoenix. Their intent might have been righteous, but they were breaking the law in taking on these killers themselves and where did they inevitably end up? A pine box, six feet under; leaving their teenaged daughter an orphan in a terribly cruel world. Dorian sighed and turned to face his desk.
Dorian had been advised that looking into the Order of the Phoenix was a waste of time, but there were too many similarities in the recent murders for Dorian to ignore. There were too many people in the Ministry that seemed personally affected, without ever having had made mention of a friendship with the victims or some familial relation. Dorian suspected a number of agents were also Order members, renegades, but he couldn’t prove anything definitively and without the blessing of the Head of the department, he wasn’t likely to get any support in his investigation down this path. The goal of the Ministry was to find You-Know-Who and his followers, apprehend them, set them on trial and hopefully lock them away for good. Apparently some in the department thought the Order of the Phoenix was of some use in that regard but if Dorian’s hunch was correct, then it would appear that the Order was no better prepared for an attack than the Ministry was and they were simply opening themselves up to more loses.
There was a stack of files, neatly organized on his desk, each with the name of a person or group of persons who had been recently targeted by the Death Eaters. He fanned the files on his desk to look at them when he noticed one file seemed to be thicker than it ought to be. “Unbelievable,” Dorian said exasperatedly as he shook his head. Opening the unusually large file he found a second file tucked inside, clearly by accident. “If those interns cannot organize a bloody filing cabinet they certainly are not ready to become Aurors.” He was talking to himself, a habit he had taken up some years ago after shutting out his friends and colleagues. Dorian had always preferred to work alone, but there were times when two heads were better than one and he did not waver in asking a colleague for their advice or opinion on a matter. Since his self-imposed isolation, the little chit-chats had been kept mostly as an internal monologue, but from time to time they would slip out, particularly when he was shut up at his desk buried in reports.
A cursory look at the file told him it was not a case they had linked with the Death Eaters, though not completely separate from the sort of people who associated with such disgusting ideals. Muggle traffickers. Jasper was heading the muggle trafficking cases. There were actually some sick wizards who thought muggles were theirs to buy and sell like cattle, and the evidence of what they were being sold into was none too pleasing to see. Setting the file aside, Dorian organized the rest of his desk and stuffed the Death Eater files into the top drawer of his desk, then stood and grabbed the trafficking file and headed toward Jasper’s cubicle. “I believe you might be missing this,” he said upon seeing his once best friend. Dorian extended his hand and offered the file to the older wizard. “Sloppy filing by an intern, I imagine. Looks like we’ll be going over how to use a filing cabinet at our next session.” Humor was not Dorian’s forte but he was no stranger to a joke every now and again, but then again, he might not be joking at all. Misfiling of evidence could greatly hinder due process of the law, and this would not be the first time that someone got away with something so heinous because of inter-office disorganization.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 21, 2018 9:39:40 GMT
Estranged Mates When the road looks tough ahead, you just remember
what your old pal said, You got a friend in me “ Dorian Humbert. It had been a minute. Well, not honestly. He had seen the man around the office plenty of time, but direct communication? And lingering afterward? That was a rare sight for several months. At one time the duo, despite their differences, were often seen head to head peering over cases together. If it could believed, the pair even were social outside of work. At one point, the two were really quite inseparable. Perhaps it was their differences that drew them together. Jasper was a take charge, grin in the face of death, come out ahead sort, while Dorian was a take the proper amount of time, strategize, make no mistakes type. They really were an odd pair, but together they were unbelievably successful. That all changed after the deaths of Dorian’s parents. Not that Jasper could blame his friend, hell Jasper was so close to his own parents he wouldn’t have known what to do if something had happened to them. Let alone the way the Humberts were murdered. Jasper counted Dorian’s mother in that status as well. Technically it was a suicide, but really there was no living after what had been done to her. Dorian poured himself into work and there were times Jasper worried about his friend’s health, but the more he pushed, the more Dorian – his friend – disappeared. There was really no stopping it, even though Jasper had often thought if he handled things differently that maybe the friendship wouldn’t have been lost, but they were headed down that path Jasper just effectively pushed them off the cliff. Jasper would consult Dorian with cases, offer to take the man out – not immediately of course – but anything to get Dorian to rejoin the land of the living, as opposed to becoming obsessed with his parent’s murder. And Dorian had excuse after excuse. Finally, Jasper attempted to bully his friend into action, but that was an effective death knell on their relationship. Since that point they had been cordial. Colleagues. Nothing more. Jasper grieved over it, cursed himself for being selfish, and then resigned himself to the loss. But lately Dorian had been getting better, the man had a smile now and again. And really that’s all Jasper wanted. Jasper didn’t care if the friendship was gone – well he did – but he wanted Dorian to live more than anything. He had been worried that his friend would waste away in vengeance and obsession, and tried to break him of that, but couldn’t. Paris did though. She was hope in Dorian’s eyes. Then that was snuffed out as well. To make matters worse Dorian lost his newly acquired sister and brother in law soon after. The man had every right to his solitude and depression, and amazingly enough he was still a damned fine auror. Jasper doubted he could have been half as strong to lose so many loved ones. He paused in his musings to acknowledge the reason Dorian came to his desk, “Can’t blame them too much, apprehending a dark wizard is easy, handling the monstrosity of paperwork afterward is the real nightmare.” It was no secret that Jasper hated paperwork. He took the file, “Although, yes…” he said scanning the report, “ I have been looking for this report for a while. It’s actually rather instrumental in a case I’d been working on.” He snapped the report shut and tossed it on his desk, “One I closed last month.” he stated with exasperation. The Donavon files. He had to rebuild the report from scratch after bringing the dark wizard in. It took days. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “If you want to add a little extra PT this week on top of that How to use a Filing Cabinet lesson…it wouldn’t hurt my feelings in the least.”” [/quote] |
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Order of the Phoenix
heterosexual
Sexuality
Wishing Dorcas would take his declarations of love seriously
Relationship Status
Auror
Occupation
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Slither
Offline
Tag me @dorian
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Post by Dorian Michael Humbert on Jan 24, 2018 6:21:10 GMT
I promise to keep you safe always and forever
Paperwork was hardly anyone’s favorite task around the department. Many of the wizards and witches who came to work in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement where men and women of action; they wanted to get out on the front lines to serve and protect the wizarding citizens of this great nation. Dorian was among one of those starry-eyed youths that joined up for the adventure as much as the desire to help people. He had been shocked by the amount of administrative work that was required with each arrest, each report, and each mishap but having always been the studious type, Dorian was not as put off by it all as much as Jasper was. “It is easier to only capture the dark wizard once. The paperwork ensures the wizengamot can make a conviction stick and is therefore arguably the more important component of the process.” How many times in the distant past had Jasper and Dorian had this conversation? Procedure, procedure, procedure; that was Dorian’s way. Jasper was more the ‘kick in the door’ sort. They had made a good team back in the day.
The moment of relief Dorian felt at having eased Jasper’s workload by finding the missing file quickly dissipated. The case had been closed, presumably with a proper conviction knowing Jasper, and the folder containing pertinent information to the case had been sitting in the filing cabinet for a month waiting for someone to discover where it had been misplaced. There needed to be a better system, this sort of thing happened far too often, but then one had to take a step back and recognize the scope of this one office. The Auror Department served the entire United Kingdoms, and really they were not all that large of a department. Highly trained and qualified meant that most wizards or witches who applied did not make it as far as Dorian and Jasper had in their law enforcement careers. Many went on to be MLE officers, if they weren’t too discouraged by failing out of the Academy. The requirements were far less stringent than that of an Agent but then MLE officers were comparable to muggle beat cops who dealt with the more mundane scumbags. They left the really bonkers rubbish to the Auror Department.
“I may do just that.” At hearing the outcome of this one misfiled folder, Dorian was about ready to sit the trainees down and have them recite the alphabet a hundred times to make sure they understood properly how it went. Extra Physical Training would only drive such a boring lecture home with intense exhaustion. “I have been thinking about asking Moody to come in for a few lessons with them. If they can survive a week with Alastor, they will be begging for paperwork.” Alastor Moody was arguably the best Auror the Department had. Dorian looked up to him in many regards and had taken the man’s insistence on constant vigilance to heart after the death of his parents. He was not only well respected in the Ministry, he was also really rather feared, especially by many of the newer officials around the office. Dorian distinctly remembered an incident in the Ministry cafeteria when a new cashier had been frightened out of her wits when Moody approached her when her back was turned, his gruff voice booming as he asked her if she was ready for him. Whatever the woman thought Moody was talking about being ready for, Dorian didn’t know, but the woman had to excuse herself and someone else ended up taking care of Moody’s bill. If someone could be so easily startled by a simply lunch purchase, it was easy to imagine how they might react to Moody barking at them in physical training.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 24, 2018 22:48:01 GMT
Estranged Mates When the road looks tough ahead, you just remember
what your old pal said, You got a friend in me “ Paperwork was definitely Jasper's least favorite part about work. But he had learned his lesson, as would the knucklehead trainees, about slacking when it came to writing reports. He had been told that Aurors catch the criminals, but paperwork keeps them caught. He even had a brief fling with a member of the wizengamot, that threw him a bone now and then, but got on his case if his reports got too messy. While Jasper was happy to flirt his way out of trouble, he would never jeopardize a judgement from the ministry because of a sloppy report. Dorian had also kept Jasper straight on paperwork when they would work together. The corners of Jasper's mouth lifted as Dorian recited a familiar phrase. Jasper would throw back a false bravado about catching the culprit all over again being fun, but they both knew Jasper wouldn't risk civilian lives - magical or muggle. Jasper felt a strange nostalgia well up inside of him at the familiarity. Most days he got along fine at the office. It had been a long while since he even thought about the times Dorian and he would fight sight by side, but now having the man in front of him and speaking as though no time had passed was a gentle reminder that losing Dorian from his life had hurt. Jasper cleared his head. He couldn’t afford the sentiment, not really. Whether Dorian’s visit was a one off, or a sign of reconciliation, time would tell, and really it was all up to Dorian. Jasper had left the door open on their friendship, it was just his way, it was up to Dorian if he wanted to, or was even ready to walk through it again. For the time being Jasper still couldn’t believe he was holding onto the Donavon file and how much work could have been spared had they enlisted a better system. Jasper lifted his mug of coffee to his lips, hoping the bitter brew would wash out the taste of frustration. It was a peculiarity, the Brit with an affinity for American coffee rather than proper tea, but Jasper needed the caffeine and was now addicted to the stuff. At first, he had dumped tons of creamer and sugar, but his taste buds had adjusted and he now drank the brew black. One would have assumed that having magic would mean less mishaps, but ineptitude was only magnified by magic, not cured. There was a reason becoming an Auror was as stringent as it was. With great power came great responsibility, and frankly not everyone was cut out for that kind of cloth. Jasper knew great MLE officers. He knew positively lethal hit wizards, one had even saved his life a couple of times. In some instances, it was the heavy level of paperwork required, that deterred some from entering the academy, but in most cases the average person just couldn’t cut it. The job took fire and grit and then some. Few men understood that as well as Alastor Moody. When Dorian revealed his intent to bring Moody into a training session Jasper nearly choked on his coffee. He lifted his feet from his desk – a horrible habit he had developed much to the desk’s frustration he was sure – and placed the heavy boots on the floor. “Merlin’s beard!” he exclaimed, then laughed, “I thought we were trying to recruit more members, not scare them off.” Moody was revered. Half the Dark Wizards in Azkaban were under his name, and he was a personal hero to Jasper, and just about every other Auror in the office. But the man was fierce. He redefined the term. Giving no slight to Dorian’s excellent training, it had been said that if you could survive a day of training under the man, you could probably survive anything else, let alone a week.” |
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Order of the Phoenix
heterosexual
Sexuality
Wishing Dorcas would take his declarations of love seriously
Relationship Status
Auror
Occupation
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Slither
Offline
Tag me @dorian
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Post by Dorian Michael Humbert on Jan 28, 2018 21:00:04 GMT
I promise to keep you safe always and forever
“They could use with a bit of scaring, this lot.” A few of the younger trainees, while clearly passionate about becoming Aurors and helping people, were a little too foolish for Dorian’s liking. Playing pranks on each other in the locker room and making jokes that no one else understood while sparring. Dorian did not want the recruits to lack a personality, but he had a feeling this new lot would not stand up well to the horrors of what the Ministry was currently dealing with. “Dark Wizards come and go, but this Death Eater group…” Dorian sighed.
Voldemort and his terrorist group of racist murderers was most unlike anything Dorian had experienced in his time as an Auror. The older agents likened it to something in the history books; Grindelwald, but the rumors surrounding the infamous dark wizard put him at Voldemort’s heels. Voldemort on his own was just a man, even if he was as talented as they claimed him to be. He had a way of moving the people, and that was truly where he became a threat to the safety of the United Kingdom. Dorian was certain they could track Voldemort and apprehend him, charge him with his crimes and throw him away in Azkaban to rot. Maybe even Nurmengard, for a sense of poetic justice. Those certainties hinged on Voldemort himself and despite the many boastful remarks in the leaflets that littered the streets from time to time threatening innocent citizens if they did not side with him and fight for him, but Voldemort was not alone. He had amassed an army of hateful wizards and witches who carried out Voldemort’s evil plans. Combined efforts between the MLE departments had resulted in the capture of a handful of Death Eaters but the information gained from such arrests was minimal.
Dorian’s jaw tensed and he shook his head defeatedly, pushing thoughts of terrorists from his head. “For what it’s worth, I am sorry that file was not located sooner. I feel responsible for how my trainees perform and I will be certain they have learned their lesson tenfold.” They had to be better. All of them. Dorian could not raise his niece in a world such as they lived in. Ariel deserved a happy childhood, not one marred by fear and anguish. She had already lost her parents to these heathens, Dorian would not allow them to steal her innocence, too.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 2, 2018 3:03:24 GMT
Estranged Mates When the road looks tough ahead, you just remember
what your old pal said, You got a friend in me “ Jasper didn’t particularly disagree with anything Dorian was saying. In fact, he approved wholeheartedly. It was unfortunate, but the new recruits needed to be ran hard. Even seasoned aurors were having difficulties against this latest group of psychopaths. He had no shame admitting that he would have been uncomfortable with himself stepping on this particular scene as a fresh recruit.He’d had almost fifteen years with the ministry. Went career right after school. He served in various parts of Europe, and had been all over the world chasing dark wizards. But when he was younger he was just as foolhardy as any other recruit. Ready to take on the good fight and believing himself to be invincible. He had enough near-death experiences to change his mind about the invincible part. Really, it was amazing he was still alive after the first five years with the department. He had an impressive track record, built initially upon the luck he had as fresh auror (luck because he hadn’t died, though he had rushed in halfcocked more than once) and continued with the skill age and experience had given him. He was teased often back then. The older aurors joked that he had a guardian angel that was in love with him for his Adonis-like looks. But that wouldn’t save him in the war that was brewing, nor would it have lasted much longer, no matter how good looking he was.Jasper had to apply the discipline he had learned on the farm to the work he was now doing with the department, and while he had a mind for strategy, he had to learn how to implement his plans rather than run in head first.It had been easier when Dorian had his back. He waved off the man’s guilt, “Pairing them up with Moody is more than enough punishment.” He said with a smirk. He turned serious then, thinking the same thing that Dorian had briefly mentioned, “It’ll be good for them.” He turned to look out the window lost in the thoughts that haunted him.“They can use all of his advice and then some. It’s getting bad Dorian…the Netherlys … Donavon …all of these attacks.” He sighed, “It’s getting dangerous.” He shook his head and turned back to his old friend, “You’re the last person I need to tell this to…”Dorian was well aware of the dangers, he had lost more than anyone should have to lose in so short a time, and yet he was still here, still fighting, still relatively sane. Jasper admired the man more than he could say.” |
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Order of the Phoenix
heterosexual
Sexuality
Wishing Dorcas would take his declarations of love seriously
Relationship Status
Auror
Occupation
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Slither
Offline
Tag me @dorian
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Post by Dorian Michael Humbert on Feb 8, 2018 21:57:20 GMT
I promise to keep you safe always and forever
Dorian would never admit this to a colleague, he could barely admit it to himself, but there were some days, when he was playing on the floor with his sweet little niece and watching her smile over the most simplistic things, that Dorian considered simply pulling up roots and leaving the UK. You-Know-Who and the Death Eaters seemed to be focused mainly on Britain. He could escape to a distant country and raise Ariel in relative peace away from the horrors this new group of dark wizards was raining down upon them. There was little keeping him here and the few people in his life that he cared about were probably better off without Dorian around anyway, as he seemed to be cursed with something lamely considered bad luck when it came to relationships. He had sworn to keep Ariel safe, no matter the lengths it required, and should that mean leaving the country with his niece in tow then that was what Dorian was prepared to do, though he did wonder whether these far-off plans were for his niece’s benefit or his own. Was he considering running away because it was what was best for Ariel’s safety and happiness or because he couldn’t handle losing yet another person he loved?
“It was always dangerous,” he countered, though perhaps he said this more for his own benefit than Jasper’s. The Humberts had been kidnapped, tortured, and killed by dark wizards, not Death Eaters or You-Know-Who, just an evil man hellbent on making Dorian suffer for locking the wizard’s boss away in Azkaban. It had been some of the goriest work Dorian had experienced in his time in the department, until now, but danger had always played a part. That much was nothing new. “Well, I shouldn’t keep you any longer.” Dorian nodded to his once-friend and turned to begin the small trek back to his own desk.
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