Billy still couldn't see Greengrass, but he wished he could. He bit down hard on his lip at the last comment to prevent himself from saying anything stupid, because Billy was a lot of things but he wasn't the type to do anything at wand point. Keeping Greengrass trapped in the room via a locking spell was different than holding a wand to his back; it was passive, not outwardly aggressive, and even though he was willing to do what he needed to to ensure his secrets stay safe, he couldn't imagine threatening him with magical violence (disarmament, sure, but not violence).

"Then you'll be stuck here until I find what I'm looking for," he said through gritted teeth, "because you can't leave until I do."

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"Why?" Ford asked, and his facade of stoicism broke slightly here; his voice sounded as anxious about this as he felt. "I won't tell anyone you're stealing."

He'd said it as a bargaining chip of sorts, but as soon as he'd voiced it he knew it was a lie. It was going to be obvious to Mr. Brownhill that someone had been stealing, sooner or later. Ford, as a young man who had unfettered access to the house during the period of time in question, would have been the prime suspect. He wasn't going to let himself take the fall for Billy Darrow's thievery. What the hell was he going to do if Mr. Brownhill pressed charges against him? He couldn't go to jail, or Azkaban. He didn't know what Darrow was after exactly, but he'd said it was rare. If it had a high enough of a price tag, the consequences for stealing it could be dire. Or if it was frequently used for something not-super-legal, that would be pretty damning, too.

No, as soon as he got out of this, he was going straight to the authorities to tell them what he'd discovered about Darrow. But he had to get out first, and getting out might be predicated on pacifying Darrow, at least a little bit. At least long enough that he could make it to the exit without getting a spell in the back. Ford took a second to reorient himself in the space, then started slinking towards the door (which he still hadn't realized had been magically locked).

"I'll pretend I didn't see anything," he said. He took a step out from behind a cabinet and saw Darrow at the other end of the room, then hastily stepped back. He wasn't sure if the other man had seen him or not, but his heart was suddenly racing. What was that fucking spell again?

  

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Set by Lady!

What Greengrass said sounded like what anyone anxious to escape this sort of situation might have said, but Billy was far too paranoid to accept his word as truth. In fact, he was too paranoid to even pretend that he would. "You're lying," he challenged, an edge of aggression in his voice, "and if we're going to get through this, we can't be lying to each other." He had been mostly honest; he hadn't vocalized his motives, but he'd made his intentions clear enough.

"You're going to help me, or I will make you." He was not yet sure what that entailed, but - he would think of something.

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Ford didn't like the sound of that at all. What did he mean, if they were going to get through this? And that was before they even started to unpack that bit about making him help. The only silver lining was that Darrow didn't seem to have seen him, when he'd briefly stepped out into the open. So maybe he had the edge, if he was going to try and disarm the other man — except what was the fucking spell, he had learned this when he was eleven and it really shouldn't have been this hard to remember it — or it was possible that Darrow was smarter than he looked, and he just hadn't let on that he'd seen Ford and was waiting for him to reappear, wand already out and poised.

He hesitated, trying to weight the risk and rewards between engaging Darrow in a duel, trying to stay hidden, or making a run for the exit. Reasoning with him seemed to be a dead end; they'd reached an impasse if Darrow wasn't going to put his wand away and was going to keep making threats.

If he survived this, he was going to have to ask Noble what redeeming qualities Darrow had that made them friends, because at the moment it didn't make much sense to Ford.

"Expelliarmus," he cast as he dodged back into the open space again, but his spell went far wide of the mark. Which was probably what he deserved, trying to cast it before he'd really even had a chance to see where Darrow was after he'd jumped back out.

  

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Set by Lady!

He heard the spell before he saw the caster, but when he did his heart leapt in his chest and he pointed his own wand.

"Expelliarmus," he snapped, and the spell shot off and - there it was. Greengrass' wand shot out of his hand and into the space between them, and Greengrass might have been able to run with the hope of grabbing it before Billy reached him, but Billy still had his wand raised and his expression was plainly not friendly.

He stepped forward once, and then again, and then again, and then Billy was suddenly less than fifteen feet from the other man, narrowed eyes watching his every move. "Now you're going to sit down, and you're not going to do anything," he ground out, jaw clenched tightly.

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Well, shit. He'd chosen the wrong option. He should have run for the door. He briefly considered bolting for it anyway, but that would have been dangerous — his wand was in the opposite direction as the exit, and Darrow had his wand trained on Ford. He would have been an easy target, and he still didn't really know what Darrow was capable of.

He put his hands up defensively, eyes opened wide. He didn't know what other options he had, now that he was disarmed and Darrow was moving forward. He could have ducked behind something again, but that would have only been delaying the inevitable. He couldn't leave without a wand, and he couldn't overpower Darrow without a wand, and sooner or later the other man was going to find him.

He sat on the ground, legs crossed and hands still raised. "What are you going to do?" he asked, obviously nervous.

  

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Set by Lady!

With a pang of sympathy Billy watched Greengrass sink down the floor, and for a brief moment it was visible in his eyes. His wand still pointed at the man, he crouched down to grab the other wand and then stayed there, from a safe distance, and just looked at him.

"I don't want to hurt you," he said, the anger in his voice having been replaced by unrestrained desperation now that the threat of Greengrass' wand had been removed. "I know you have your duties, but if I don't do this I'll—" He stopped himself, taking deep, strangled breaths. His heartbeat hadn't been this quick before, and briefly he considered laying down before realizing how absurd the idea was. He needed to lay down. He needed to - stop, at least. He sat back from his crouched position and landed on his bottom, one wand in each hand.

"I need the ingredient, and I need you to be quiet about it." He spoke as if he was working this out in real time, because he was; if Greengrass hadn't been there he would have been talking to himself anyways, because the sound of his own voice was about the only thing grounding him in reality right now. "I'll have to - have to - yes." His words turned to unintelligible murmurs, and even as he looked Greengrass dead in the eye it was apparent that he was talking to himself.

"—I won't hurt him. I won't." He began to move to his knees, his gaze still fixated on Greengrass' wide eyes.

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The following 1 user Likes Billy Darrow's post:1 user Likes Billy Darrow's post
   Fortitude Greengrass

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Everything about this was unnerving, from the way he'd sat down like he was coming unraveled to the words coming out of his mouth to the way he was staring at Ford. Especially the way he was staring at Ford, because Darrow was looking right into his eyes, and he wasn't blinking. Last week when he'd been on the excursion to the haunted house Ford had briefly wondered if Cash Lestrange was a little bit mental, but the one silver lining of this scenario was he could safely put that suspicion to sleep, because now he actually knew what a crazy person looked like.

He wasn't talking to Ford, clearly, but he was talking about Ford. Darrow said he wasn't going to hurt him, which might have been encouraging if Ford had any reason whatsoever to believe him. He was fairly certainly that whatever Darrow was going to do, he wouldn't like it. But Darrow hadn't asked his opinion about it, and Ford wasn't going to intrude to offer it. He didn't want to interrupt Darrow's conversation with... himself.

The following 1 user Likes Fortitude Greengrass's post:1 user Likes Fortitude Greengrass's post
   Billy Darrow

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Set by Lady!

He made it to his knees and slid Greengrass' wand in he gap beneath them, wanting to keep it firmly out of reach in the event that Greengrass decided to make a grab for it, and then raised his own. His breathing was visibly heavy, and his gaze remained fixated, unblinking, on Greengrass as he tried to remember the incantation to the spell he intended to cast. He needed to do this right, or - the consequences would be worse than criminal charges for breaking and entering and theft.

It was not one curse, but a series of them required to make the magic work as he needed. First it was a tongue-tying curse, casting it with the explicit purpose of ensuring that Fortitude Greengrass would not be able to explicitly reveal the events of the day, the crimes committed, or the state in which he saw Billy Darrow while in the observatory. With each incantation his guilt grew, but he knew it was necessary; he could not spend a single day in Azkaban, not without his potion.

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Ford's eyes widened even further as Darrow leveled his wand at him. It wasn't the first time that he had pointed it at him today, but this felt different — like he was gearing up for something. Ford had no idea what, but he was sure he wasn't going to enjoy it. Then Darrow started in on the incantations, a series of spells that Ford didn't recognize but that seemed... ominously long-winded. But... anti-climatic. Ford didn't feel anything while the spellwork was going on, and he didn't see any spells go shooting off.

He waited a second after Darrow went quiet, wondering if there would be some sort of delayed reaction. When it seemed unlikely that would be the case, he asked with trepidation, "Wh-What did you do? What was that?"

  

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Set by Lady!

There were no immediate effects, which was good. If Greengrass had suddenly begun talking in gibberish (or worse, not able to talk at all) it would have been an indicator that something was wrong. But he could talk, and Billy tensed up at his question.

"If I told you, you might try to figure out ways around it," he said ominously before pushing himself to his feet. He glanced around the room as if he might find something to lead him into the next step of his plans, because admittedly he hadn't figured that out yet.

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That was decidedly unhelpful, and did nothing to allay the wave of nerves that had started clawing through his stomach when Darrow had first raised his wand. It was possible that this last statement should be taken at face value: that whatever Darrow had done could be undone, maybe even easily undone, and he didn't want Ford to do that so soon (though it wasn't as though he would have been able to manage it without a wand, anyway). It was equally possible that Darrow was just trying to spook him, though, and that this had nothing to do with the spells he'd cast. It was even possible that they weren't real spells at all, and this whole thing was a bluff, though he didn't think so. Or — it was possible that Darrow didn't know whether it had worked, or even what he'd done. Which — was alarming, but Ford wouldn't have put it out of the realm of possibility. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility, given the look Darrow had had in his eyes a moment ago.

"You said you were going to make me help you," he said nervously. He stayed where he was on the ground, but lowered his hands slightly as Darrow turned to look away. Was he close enough that Ford could try to tackle him before he could react? Would it be worth the risk, when Darrow currently had both their wands in hand? "What did you mean by that? What help do you need?"

  

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Set by Lady!

He still was not sure what he wanted to do, and now that he had Greengrass right there he was reconsidering how much of a help he could be. Of course, if he'd still been on the run he could have offered freedom in exchange for ingredients as they played cat and mouse through the observatory aisles, but now Greengrass was here and letting him go meant having to find him again.

And how inconvenient that would be.

"It's of no consequence now," he finally answered, raising his wand at the same time. He conjured up a rope, and then in the next spell used it to magically bind Greengrass' hands. "What I need you to do is stay put. I have something I need to do."

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A rush of adrenaline went through him as his hands were bound together — a rush that might have been much more pleasant if he hadn't still been vaguely worried that Darrow might murder him, either intentionally or not. He tugged instinctively at the ropes, but they weren't budging.

"I'm not going anywhere," he said. He was vaguely aware that he was talking to try and keep Darrow present and thinking about him as a person instead of just an obstacle, but mostly this was instinct rather than a conscious strategy. "You've got both wands. So if you wanted to force me to help you... there's not much I can do about it," he pointed out. "I wouldn't try to fight you, or anything. That'd be stupid without a wand."

The following 1 user Likes Fortitude Greengrass's post:1 user Likes Fortitude Greengrass's post
   Billy Darrow

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Set by Lady!

Of course, he could have ordered Greengrass to do something useful, but then he'd be forced to assume Greengrass wouldn't do anything to sabotage him, and - well, that wasn't a bright assumption to make after he'd bound the man and placed him under a tongue-tying curse. There was no good faith left. Billy watched him with narrowed eyes and knitted brows, trying to figure out what the best thing to do with him was.

"You want to help me?" he said, an idea finally coming to mind. "You can follow me, then." He bent down and grabbed the rope in the middle part between his tied hands and tugged him to his feet. Standing less than a foot away from him it became clear how evenly matched they might have been if Billy hadn't had possession of his wand; they were equal in height and in stature, and if the dull aching in his nose was any indication, he could have hurt him more if given the chance. Yes, it was best that he'd confiscated his wand before any more damage could be done. He held the rope tightly and gave it a small tug, testing the strength of his charm.

"I'm going to look for ingredients—the one I need and others. But don't try anything funny, because you'll be drinking it at the end of the day." He stared at him for a moment longer, trying to pick out anything in Greengrass' expression that might suggest he needed to keep a good eye on the man.

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It had... worked, he supposed, though as soon as Darrow approached and tugged him to his feet, Ford was struggling to remember why he'd thought it was a good idea to say any of that. Darrow trying to get him to do things was better than Darrow murdering him, or hurting him, or casting a slew of unknown spells on him, he supposed. So maybe he could handle this — following Darrow, that didn't seem hard, or illegal. He could do that. Then Darrow got to the part about drinking it and Ford's eyes widened slightly again. He swallowed, mouth suddenly very dry.

"Drinking what?" he asked. Did he want to know? Of course he did, because he would rather know what it was he was going to have to ingest if Darrow was going to force-feed him something. Unfortunately, he would be all too capable of it with both of the wands in his possession. Ford would rather not be forced to drink any mysterious potions or herbology refuse, though, if he'd had any say in the matter. Which, of course, he didn't.

  

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Set by Lady!