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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 22, 2008 22:31:58 GMT -5
Ted had walked slowly to Vincent's new office. He wasn't sure if he saw this going better than his encounter with Angelique or worse. It was to his advantage that he had trained with Vincent, but then again, so had Andromeda.
He came into the area, hoping to by pass his secretary (and wondered how irritated she'd be if he called her a secretary) but it was near impossible anymore to get straight to Vincent.
He gave her a wry smile as he came by, and spotted a copy of the Prophet nearby. He sighed. "Is Mr. Corrigan busy?"
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 22, 2008 22:39:04 GMT -5
The secretary narrowed her eyes at him and blew a bubble from the chewing gum in her mouth. After a minute of giving him the evil eye, she nodded. "He's been expecting you. If you took another five minutes, he was gonna come get you."
Narrowing her eyes at him again, she pointed to the door. "Go on." Under her breath, she mumbled, "cad."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 22, 2008 22:43:17 GMT -5
Ted heard the word anyway and forced himself to smile at her. "Thanks. Have a lovely day."
His forced smiled dropped when he turned around, and he closed his eyes for a moment. No wonder Voldemort was so successfully doing his work. One article that says he doesn't exist, and Ted knew first hand how many people believed it.
Squaring his shoulders, he stepped forward and knocked on the door to alert Vincent that he was there, and then opened the door, stepping inside.
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 22, 2008 22:57:34 GMT -5
It was only 9:30 and already Vincent had a splitting headache. Since the moment he came in this morning, he'd been constantly assaulted with angry letters from readers of the Daily Prophet, demanding that Ted Tonks be fired for his scandalous attack on the illustrious Black family. He was running out of ideas for how to answer them. He had no desire to fire Ted, despite the damning article. After all, he knew full well that the Daily Prophet was quickly becoming a disgrace. And he didn't know the whole story.
So when Ted arrived at his office, he was mildly relieved, but still highly annoyed. "Tonks!" he barked. "Get in here!"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 2:14:19 GMT -5
"I'm here," Ted said softly, closing the office door behind him as he stepped into the rom. This time, he did not wait to be told to sit down. He had a feeling he was going to be here a while, and took a seat on the opposite side of the desk as Vincent.
The potion he took had finally made the entire hangover disappear. Thank Merlin; he didn't know how much more of the day he could go through with that headache. Especially if it continued like this.
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 10:28:09 GMT -5
Vincent looked at Ted quietly for a moment. As angry as he was, he couldn't quite believe the article that he'd read. He knew Ted fairly well, or so he'd thought, and the article just didn't sound like him. He knew about the relationship between Ted and Andromeda, of course. He remembered spotting them at the meeting, sitting close to each other and talking in low voices. They'd been so cute, smiling and blushing and trying to keep control of their feelings. In no way did any of that seem like it had been a manipulation on Ted's part. It had seemed genuine, even to the casual observer.
So what the hell had happened? There had to be at least some truth to the article; Ted and Andromeda must have broken up. But why? It didn't make sense to him.
Clearing his throat, Vincent waved at the letters strewn all over his desk. "Ted, do you have any idea what these are?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 10:31:26 GMT -5
Ted was quiet until spoken to, though the question wasnt exactl the first one he thought he would hear.
He glanced at the pieces of parchment and nearly groaned. "I can imagine," he said softly running a hand over his eyes. This was going to be a very long day. He wanted to tell Vincent his side of the story, or some version of it, but he kept quiet until he was asked for it.
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 10:38:50 GMT -5
Vincent kept his eyes on Ted, taking in his appearance. He seemed ragged, his appearance disheveled, and his eyes sunken and hollow. "They're calls for you to be sacked. And a few of them are death threats." He sighed heavily. "Look, I'm not going to fire you. And I imagine you've already spoken to Angelique about your job... if she was going to fire you, you wouldn't even be in here right now. So I'm not here to talk about that. What I want to know is, how am I to explain this situation to the people who now think you're the devil incarnate? What the hell happened?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 11:00:48 GMT -5
Ted took a deep breath.
"Hardly anything in that article happened as she painted it. Actually, nothing happened quite the way she said it did," he started. "Rita Skeeter is a 17 year old girl with an extra flair for the dramatic. On top of that, my relationship with Andromeda is no one's business but our own."
He paused. While all of this was true, the damage had been done, and he needed to help Vincent fix it, at least so that the Ministry didn't look like fools for hiring him.
"Yes, we were seeing each other. Yes we broke up. I had no intention of tearing apart her family, or breaking her or whatever else the article claims."
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 11:12:00 GMT -5
Vincent frowned. "I can believe that this article wasn't exactly painted truthfully," he said. "And I don't want to pry in your relationship with Andromeda. But this does make us look bad. I can't defend you, unless I know exactly what happened. Since I've not heard a word from Andromeda, right now, you're the only one I can ask. Please explain to me what happened. I swear the details of this will not leave this room, but I need to know ho I can defend you, and where she stands in all this. I'm going to have to pay her a visit later, I think; I don't think she has any intentions of coming in here."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 11:20:42 GMT -5
Ted ran a hand over the stubble on his chin... he hadn't shaved this morning. His head had hurt too badly.
He regarded Vincent. How was he supposed to defend Ted if he wouldn't repeat what he said? Still, he trusted Vincent. And he needed someone to believe he wasn't capable of that kind of manipulation.
"I did something really stupid," he said, leaning back in her chair. "I went to see Andi on her first day of teaching. I wanted to give her flowers. I ran into Skeeter first, and she threw herself at me. She kissed me. That's what Andi saw."
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 11:26:04 GMT -5
Vincent listened to Ted's explanation. So far, it made sense. "OK, but didn't you try to explain yourself to Andromeda? Tell her that what she was seeing wasn't what was happening? If you two were close enough, she probably would have believed you."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 11:32:04 GMT -5
"No," he said, his voice soft and his eyes down. "I did not try to explan it to her."
Here's where the stupid part came in, he thought.
"There were a lot of things that played into this decision, Vincent," he said, speaking with the Minister on friendly terms. "Not the least of which was the fact that she was with someone else too. But the article doesn't mention that, now does it?"
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 12:55:50 GMT -5
Vincent frowned. "No.... no, the article doesn't mention that. Are you sure you weren't just doing the same thing she was doing... assuming something that wasn't there? You probably could have fixed things if you two had just talked to each other and found out what was really going on."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 23, 2008 14:51:13 GMT -5
Ted sighed. He had been told that she was seeing the boy, but then, it was Rita who told him. It was Rita who had told him everything. Oh, god, he had made a terrible, terrible mistake.
But she had let rabastan hold her. That had been a punch to the gut. Much like her seeing him kiss Rita.
"Either way, the damage is done," Ted replied. "First priority now is saving the name of the ministry and the department, right?"
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 23, 2008 15:01:25 GMT -5
Vincent sighed. He was right, of course, the important thing now was responding to the article and preventing the Ministry and the auror department from being dragged down by a broken relationship.
"Absolutely. We need to respond to this article and we need to do it fast. It's best if we come out on the offensive, rather than the defensive. If we just say this was no one's business but those involved, it will make things look worse for us, like we're preventing freedom of the press. What we need to do is attack the credibility of the writer, the article, and the paper itself. How do you propose we do that?"
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 24, 2008 3:30:56 GMT -5
Ted took a deep breath, considering the question. "Well, we should point out that Rita is seventeen, still a student. Like most seventeen year old girls, she creates drama where it doesn't exist... and creates more of it where it does. The paper should not be hiring writers who are still students and have no experience in the world."
He made a slight growling noise in his throat. "None of this helps," he murmured, looking off to the side, his eyes finding anything to just stare at.
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 24, 2008 12:29:09 GMT -5
Vincent sighed. "You're right. It doesn't. But it's a start. I don't think there's much that can be done to salvage your reputation for the time being, just hope that it blows over. Andromeda's reputation doesn't appear to be suffering too badly, if my letters are any indication. She's getting most of the sympathy in this. So for now, my priority has to be restoring the public's faith in the Ministry. I just want to do it in a way that doesn't add further blame on you, or Andromeda."
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Post by Ted Tonks on Sept 24, 2008 12:54:17 GMT -5
Ted nodded. "I know. I just don't know how to do that. Unless there are... minor details of sucessful missions from the Auror Department that we could share..." That might help, but that too was only a start, and Ted felt miserable for not knowing how to fix this.
He sighed. "Just... tell me what we need to do... what you need me to do, and it's done," he said. "I want to make this right again."
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Post by Vincent Corrigan on Sept 24, 2008 15:04:58 GMT -5
Vincent arched an eyebrow at him. "Well, probably the best thing you could do to make this right is to make things right with Andromeda. A public apology of some sort." he let that suggestion hang in the air for a minute, trying to gauge Ted's reaction. "Barring that, the best thing you can do is keep a low profile for a while. I will take care of the Ministry's reputation, but you'll need to keep your nose clean. Normally, I wouldn't even think I'd have to ask you to do something like that, but under the circumstances..."
He sighed. He could already tell it was going to be a long day. Was it even 10 am yet?
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