Harry sighed, grabbed her hand, and un-twisted the pages from between her fingers. He folded the page over with exaggerated care, and then presented her his find. "The Knight Bus needs a conductor," he told her. It wasn't anything grand, but it was the first offer he felt comfortable with accepting. Maybe he would even get to meet Ernie again. He remembered the driver fondly, from his first - and thus far, only - trip with the Knight Bus. He supposed that Stan Shunpike would be too young, or perhaps not even born yet, for having a job.
"Are you kidding me?" Bellatrix disagreed with a sneer. "That job is for slugs. Aspiring young morons like yourself ought to aim higher."
He arched an eyebrow at her coolly. "I thought I told you to stop calling me that." After a short moment he determined that he wouldn't blow his lid at her namecalling again. She likely just did it to get a rise out of him, and it had worked, for the most part, and caused him to reveal things in his heated responses that he hadn't wanted her to know. It had taken him a while to realize that, and once he had, he did, indeed, feel like an utter idiot for missing such a simple concept.
"You told me to, but that doesn't mean I have to listen to you, Ashworth." Harry got the distinct feeling her snappish reply referred to more than just him telling her to stop calling him an idiot.
He decided not to grace that with a reply, and steered the conversation back on topic. "What exactly is your problem with it? I could just ride the bus all night and see the comings and goings of people I'm interested in."
"Were you fighting a war or managing the magical accident ward at St. Mungo's in the future, Ashworth? Think. Who uses the Knight Bus?"
"I've used it before," he replied defensively. Once, he added silently.
"Yeah? And did you use it because you preferred it over apparating, flooing, or using a portkey? I bet you had no choice. Did you meet anyone noteworthy on the bus?" Not waiting for a reply, she continued, "Ashworth, the only people who use the Knight Bus are squibs, people who have splinched themselves one too many times, or who've crashed their brooms into the ground. Further, they're likely to spend the entire trip sleeping. Way to keep an eye on someone and figure out what they're doing if they're bloody sleeping . You want to keep an eye on people of consequence, get yourself a better job."
"There are people of consequence, and then there's people I'm interested in," Harry argued. Though, in the confines of his own mind, he had to agree with her assessment. Most of the people who were the major players, or would become the major players, were wizards or witches of notable power - not the sort of people who were likely to crash a broom or splinch themselves.
"And do the people you're interested in ride the Knight Bus on a regular basis?" she asked smugly, already secure in her knowledge of the answer.
Harry ground his teeth together, hating to have to admit defeat to her. "No."
"Great. Now that we've established the fact that you need a job where you may associate with the folks whom you have an interest in, we can get somewhere and narrow down the list I have taken the liberty to daw up. Now, where are the majority of the people you're interestd in located at?"
"Probably Hogwarts," Harry admitted slowly, trying to think of everyone he might want to watch out for. Oddly, it seemed that everyone he knew or wanted to know was either at Hogwarts, or somehow associated with Hogwarts, the Board of Governors, or the students at Hogwarts. Some, like Orion and Cygnus Black, weren't affiliated with the school, of course, but he was already connected via Bellatrix, and they knew of him now. Voldemort's future recruits were students at Hogwarts right now. Everyone who would be fighting Voldemort was either attending Hogwarts, teaching at Hogwarts, or affiliated with someone who taught at Hogwarts. In fact, now that he thought about it, pretty much everyone and everything with the exception of Voldemort revolved around Hogwarts. It struck him as odd - surely everything that happened in Britain didn't happen at Hogwarts… right? I think I need to get a social life, Harry concluded. He had spent so much time at Hogwarts that it sure seemed like the world revolved around the ancient castle.
"Well, you're out of luck there," Bellatrix told him. "It's the middle of the term and they're not missing any professors, staff, groundskeepers, or house elves."
Harry nodded quietly, ignoring her implication that Harry might take up a house elf's duties, and considered his options associated with Hogwarts. At first glance, it seemed like an incredibly stupid idea. He had resolved to keep a low profile, changing as little as possible with the exception of ridding the world of Voldemort, but going to Hogwarts for a job would catapult him straight into the spotlight, especially after his encounters with Moody and Dumbledore. He wasn't sure he was on their watch list yet, but he didn't want to risk it.
Of course, that could work both ways. If he was at Hogwarts, he could keep a close eye on everyone there, subtly direct things to his liking while under the guise of… of what, exactly? A teacher? A groundskeeper, like Hagrid? If he could convince Dumbledore to hire him and that there wasn't anything suspicious about him, Harry could potentially even nudge and orchestrate the war on Voldemort before the dark wizard ever rose to power in the first place. Besides, Harry thought, the best place to hide something is in plain sight, right?
"I don't suppose you have any idea how much freedom the staff officially has," Harry asked, trying to appear as casual as possible. "I mean, if I were to work at Hogwarts, do you think I'd be free to run errands and leave the castle grounds in the evenings or on the weekends?"
"I already told you, there's no openings," she reminded him acidly.
"Just answer the question." That earned him a harsh glare and a suspicious look from her, which he ignored.
"Fine," she growled after a second. "The staff, as far as I know, is free to leave and do whatever they want as long as they're not teaching a class, though if you're going to take to disappearing at odd hours without being discreet about it, people are going to find it rather strange." She arched an eyebrow. "I'm curious. You know a lot about everything else, including the rest of the school. I thought you went there?"
Harry fought down the urge to shoot back the first reply that came to his mind. Of course he'd gone to Hogwarts, he wanted to shout back, but he realized that was exactly what she was after. She was still prodding him for information. "You didn't mention caretakers," he said, carefully ignoring her question. "Does Hogwarts have a caretaker?" Perhaps Filch had not been hired yet.
"Filch," she practically spat. "I suppose you could tie him up and lock him in a dungeon somewhere and use Polyjuice if you were desperate - but that would involve ingesting his hair. And you didn't answer my question."
Harry grimaced. "I think I just threw up in my mouth," he said, trying to rid himself of the thought of drinking Polyjuice with anything of Filch's in it, all the while deliberately ignoring her barb.
Bellatrix frowned at him, but decided to drop it. "Someone ought to sneak my cousin and that Potter brat a dose of that," she told him, changing the subject, herself. "They'd never be able to look at Polyjuice the same way again."
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