Order only: Business

[alt_sirius]

A while back I mentioned that I'd learned the identity of my 'stalker' and that he'd made some claims I wanted to corroborate before passing it all on to you lot.

Well, I've confirmed some of what he has to say. I wanted to report this earlier but it just never seemed the time.

The thing is, I'm not sure that it makes any difference. I knew Sabola was involved in some more shady dealings - he's a smuggler, after all - so it's not too surprising to learn how involved and in what other trades besides our relatively simple transactions. Still, I don't think it's right to keep this information to myself, not when the Order ought to know what our ventures are helping to fund.

I knew that Sabola made his name in the heroin and opium gambit. He also has a small interest in arms deals. Repackaging Muggle foodstuffs as if they're wizard-made is, of course, his 'legitimate' business cover. What I didn't know until recently is that he has some business in human traffic. Mostly Russia and China, some third-world too.

I don't know if we can afford, right now, to change anything in our arrangements. If you want me to pursue another source, I think now that I've been trading with him for a while, I may be able to go round some of his suppliers - but it would be dangerous. On the other hand, there may be a way to replicate his operation without any of his people involved - also dangerous, and much more expensive, since I'd have to recruit people here to help run things. I couldn't manage it all on my own. That's what was so attractive about Sabola's operations in the first place: He already has his network and all his packaging, labels, etc., all set up.

But I understand if the Order feels it can't continue to do business with a man who engages in a kind of slave trade so similar to the system we're trying to undo there on your side of the wards. We can pull out altogether. Of course, Moony's shop would likely go under in that case, though from the sound of it, maybe he wouldn't mind if it did. I mean, it's not like we're clearing a great deal of dosh for the Order, with all this - mainly it's keeping me busy and it provides some service to British wizards who can afford what I'm able to import to you. But I can't say we're making great loads of Galleons for our operations. By the time Sabola gets his cut, and we pay off any officials who seem fairly constantly to want bribing (three agents just last week, when the restrictions went up!), well ... there's not much left that isn't earmarked for the next shipment.

So you see it's rather a thorny problem. I've been wrestling with it for a little while now. I even spent some time as Padfoot to try to straighten it all out. (Minerva, I think you'll understand what I mean.) Have to say, hearing all the dire news from inside, the disease and the Ministry and now Xeno and seeing Reg wanting to talk to me - it all doesn't help me be able to focus much. So I spent most of yesterday as Padfoot, just thinking. It's made a few things clear, but not the whole of what to do next. It is certainly clear that, no matter what the current crisis is for you, you've also got the right to be part of this decision.

So. What do you want me to do? (And please don't say 'Whatever you think is best, Sirius' because that's not why I'm asking. And it won't be the least bit helpful. I don't have to remind you lot that my track record in deciding what's best isn't exactly full of Snitch-catching, match-saving plays.)

Comments

[alt_lupin]

I'd certainly rather the shop go under than that we support a slave trader, even if we were making money from it or if it was providing good cover for other purposes. If we're not getting any benefit apart from providing nice treats for the fortunate few and keeping the two of us occupied, I don't see any reason to continue, especially if it puts you at such risk.

Reg wants to talk to you? Is that what his message was about the other day?

[alt_sirius]

Well, so far it's given us the benefit of providing you with a false identity and something of an income, and now Tonks has another source of funds as well.

Poppy's right that part of the point was to establish our bonafides so that we could push through other items, and we've been somewhat successful in that. It's a little difficult to pass through lots of contraband, true, but we could probably try a little harder, even if I did cut the cord with Sabola.

There's also the risk to you to consider. If Junior closes up all of a sudden, will that raise eyebrows? Will anyone come looking?

I'd thought of something like Frank's suggestion, that we keep on, but with connections of our own. I'll have to see what can be done about that.

And yeah, I think that's what he meant. Or that he ... misses me, or something. Looking for the dogstar, anyway.

Don't hex me for suggesting it, but it might be a good idea to leave Laszlo's doors open just as a place for people to make contact.

[alt_alice]

That makes sense to me -- keeping the shop open, that is. Although given the recent restrictions on shipping, I don't think it would be too suspicious if Lazlo experienced a sudden (temporary) drop in stock while we get everything sorted out. And there's the shipment we got over Christmas to hold the shop over for a little.

I'm sorry about Regulus, dearest. I know it was something we all suspected, but I'd imagine it was a hard blow for you to hear it directly from Molly. He seems so lost and sad. I know it can't be enough, but I truly believe that whatever he's doing is under duress.

[alt_sirius]

It's so frustrating, Allie. Just when I think he's reaching out, like I can fathom what he's trying to say, he turns it back on me.

I don't think he's happy about what he's doing, but the point is that he's still doing it. He's still convinced he has no choice, no will of his own.

I can't

Oh, bollocks.

[alt_sirius]

Did you see what he wrote just now?

He's in trouble, Allie. Or he wants me to think he's in trouble because they're hoping I'll lead him to me.

Circe. I don't know.

[alt_alice]

I don't know either, love. And I honestly don't think he really knows either. Perhaps it's a little bit of both.

It's hard to watch, regardless, and the entire thing just breaks my heart.

I can't imagine how much more difficult it must be for you to keep talking with him, but it looks to me like he wants to hear what you have to say. How closely he's listening, Merlin only knows.

[alt_lupin]

Junius isn't dependent on the shop, though. In this difficult economic times, with so many restrictions in place, I don't know that anyone would look twice at a little shop such as ours going under. I know we both appreciate the income, but I'm quite sure we could manage without if necessary.

Thinking about what Poppy said about the contraband issue, I think we've probably been sensible to keep things low key. We needed to establish ourselves and ensure we weren't going to raise any suspicions before we started to really put ourselves at risk. It's a long game. We have time to build it up.

I don't know about the shop being a place for people to make contact. Would it be safe, for them and for us?

[alt_sirius]

We shan't have a buildup if we shut down, though.

I'm owling Fatima, as she's the one who found out how to contact him in the first place. If there's a way around his trade, without causing some kind of undue offence, we'll figure it out.

[alt_frank]

that is a hard thing, mate. all round.

I think you should get out as safely as you can without getting anyone too hacked off. as you said, not like we're making a profit at all, really, and he seems like a much more dangerous sort to associate with than I'd like.

it also depends on what Lupin thinks about what we would do if there was a bit of a dry spell. now we're taking Tonks in all official-like, maybe that would open up some new possibilities for what they could both do until you find a new connection. then again, between the damn half-blood restrictions and the camps being inaccessible, there isn't much the lot of us can do until this whole thing settles down somewhat, so just laying low for a couple of months might be our best bet.

another thought is you could find an artist that could do the labels on the cheap, budget the money you used to pay off Sabola to set up a small-time repackaging thing yourself. should have more than enough, but then again, that would tie you down a bit more than you are right now.

and long-term, we've got a way of getting stuff here without bribing a soul -- yeah, it's once a year, but if we can plan it right, we can store them and dole them out during the year.

no easy answers here, you're right on that front. but that Sabola doesn't give me a good feeling. I don't want you on his bad side, but I'd rather you're not on any side of his at all.

Order Only

[alt_poppy]

Like you, Sirius, I will need some time to pull my thoughts together, but I have a few questions for you to start off.

When you began this importing business, it was a cover that we hoped would enable us to bring certain forbidden goods in through the wards--items like fluxweed that are crucial for other Order operations--and the thought was that you would occasionally slip illegal items through customs hidden amongst a great lot of other, perfectly legal items. Has this proved true? It seems now that most of the smuggling has happened on those two occasions where you and Frank and Alice took ship and breached the wards, and those operations have little or no dependence on your continued operation as Laszlo.

Or am I wrong? Are you, in fact, sending us things in your regular business shipments that we could ill afford to do without?

And, on the other side. Is there some benefit to the shop's existence that we ought to include in our calculations? Is it true now or do we imagine there's a good possibility that in the future, that shop will put Remus in a position to hear, see, or do things for the Order that do or will make a significant contribution to our work? Even if those things seem minor, if they exist, then we should add them to our assessment (arithmantic or otherwise) of the larger problem.

[alt_bill]

I think we need to think about what our long-range plan is, the purpose of the Order, in other words. Then if our work with Sabola doesn't serve those ends, then by all means cut ties. But I'm not sure we've really looked at the question of, what, exactly, is the Order doing here? Are we settling in for a long, long war of survival, where we simply try to survive, in the shadow of the Enemy? Are we putting our hope in the next generation to change the government from within (then we'd be putting all our hopes in Moddey Dhoo.) Is it primarily a battle for hearts and minds, and the Grim Truth letters are our primary weapon? Do we merely want to change people's minds about things, or are we really for overthrowing the Ministry--treason, in other words, if we're willing to call the dragon what it is. Do we reason that it's not treason, because the government's in the hands of a a foul usurper, and so we're only trying to make right what's gone so wrong?

Well, whatever we see our long term goal to be, the really key thing, as I see it, is getting wands. Lots of wands, powerful, and untraceable by the Ministry. We need to put them into the hands of the children we're training up and all the disenfranchised wizards who've had theirs taken away. If it comes to that, we'll need wands to fight.

I wonder if there is anyone either within our ranks within the Order, or a muggleborn or half-blood we can rescue or even a child with an inbred talent that we can train to be a really crackerjack wand-maker. If we didn't have to import wands, if we could make them...why, that could change the game entirely.

[alt_sirius]

Fair enough, Bill, but it's not just the wands. It's the plants and other ingredients Stephen needs for polyjuice, it's nutrition you lot need to survive long-term and it's anything else the Death Eaters don't particularly want you to have at your fingertips.

We'd need someone to train them in making the wands, too. I think old Ollivander at least sympathised with Dumbledore, but I got the impression he's no longer around. Isn't it his nephew or son or someone running the shop now? And it sounds as if you can't even get a decent wand from Wyndewood anymore, either - are they even in business still?

For that matter, what does it take to be a licenced wand seller? I wonder if it's worth flying through a few quidditch hoops to license Junius Ponds? Then we could import practically legally.

[alt_bill]

Sorry, I don't think that's a particularly good idea. We want our source of wands to be utterly unknown to the Ministry because we don't want them coming in and putting Ministry traces on our products. Not to mention the fact that I suspect that whatever we'd have to do to get properly licensed might involve Remus meeting Ministry higher ups face to face. Maybe it's not wise to test his disguise like that.

[alt_molly]

I want my country back, but I don't want us to lose ourselves along the way. If Sabola has anything to do with slavery, then I say, cut the ties. We've managed before without him, and we'll manage again.

I've talked to Arthur when he comes home from the camps at night, when he describes what he's seen that day, and then goes up to bed and lies in bed, hour after hour, unable to sleep.

No. Please, let's not become the thing we're fighting against.

[alt_poppy]

Molly, I agree in principle. I think it's worth asking Sirius, however, what exactly he means by human trafficking. After all, what we do in getting children out of the camps could be described as human trafficking, though we ourselves would never choose such terms for it because we view that phrase as derogatory. We have discussed, too, the possibility of setting up a sort of human smuggling for those people the Sherwood group are managing to liberate from the camps.

Let's be certain we understand exactly what sort of human trade we are dealing with before we allow our worst assumptions to control this debate.

[alt_sirius]

Thanks, Poppy, and you're right. I see I've explained poorly. You're probably all wondering why I even brought it up for debate.

And you've got the right of it, in a way. Well, first off, I should explain that I'm saying 'Sabola' but really it's not even him, directly. Not his people. It's a different arm, run by someone else, though Sabola provides some of the transport as part of his other shipping. So when I say Sabola, I'm simplifying. They're really associates of his, and he makes a portion of the profit from the ventures, based on the space they use in his ships and planes and so on. It's important to understand that this is far from his primary line of business.

Now, most of the people that this organisation moves are trying to get out of situations frighteningly similar to the camps. They live in poverty, famine, even religious oppression. The difference is that these men are no philanthropists to move them and expect nothing in return. They pay a fee to be smuggled, mostly to the United States or Canada. They enter as illegal immigrants. Some of them have family there already who pay their transportation fee, but many don't have that luxury. That's when the organisation makes them work off their debt.

There are a few ways they can do that, and a few more obvious than others, but at that point, it's often a matter of convincing someone else to take the journey, or something similarly desperate.

It's not like the camps. And it's not even as if the money he makes off his spice operation is connected to the human smuggling, since as I said, as far as the Muggle authorities are concerned the spice sales are perfectly legal, so he takes care to keep it mostly separate.

The thing is, we knew Sabola's business was illicit. It's not surprising that he's into arms deals and drugs, and from there, the rest is a relatively small step. But it's not like muggleborn and muggle slavery the way Voldemort has made it for you lot.

[alt_kingsley]

Sabola's been a good source for you though, right, Sirius? He's not slipping you shoddy product or shorting your shipping manifests or anything?

To be blunt, the Order needs money. What's more, it needs cover so that we can slip the restricted items we need through, hidden within a steady supply of legitimate items that are in demand (by the likes of Narcissa Malfoy and her sort) and hard to obtain. Sabola's our best source for that sort of thing. I'd be reluctant to give him up, for a scruple over something he's not even directly involved in anyway.

[alt_molly]

But those scruples matter, Kingsley! We can't associate ourselves with people guilty of participating in something like that.

[alt_kingsley]

Does that mean you're going to make Arthur start sleeping out in the chicken coop, Molly? After all, he's guilty in participating in "something like that," too, isn't he?

[alt_molly]

What!? Oh, that's not fair, Kingsley!

[alt_kingsley]

Of course it's not. It's bloody unfair, Molly, and I'm sorry about that, my friend.

But that's my point. This is a siege, and it may become an all-out war. People have to do ugly things during war, things like dealing with people like Sabola. Arthur does them every day, and then he comes home to you, and you don't turn him away, do you? And why is that? Because you know he doesn't want to do it, and because the only reason he does it is to keep him in the position where he can do work for the Order. And it's important work, Molly. You know that. It's because of Arthur that we've rescued most of the kids here at the sanctuary. It's because of him that we've been able to get help to the Sherwood band, and they're helping, too. Every month, they're rescuing a few more.

None of that would happen if Arthur wasn't willing to go into that office at the Ministry and do things that I know he hates to do.

[alt_poppy]

I'm afraid I have to take Kingsley's part on this. I know that I've lost all objectivity on this point, Molly, but the fact is that everyday in this school, I have to recommit myself to a demon's pact I made long ago. I tell myself that my best role is to stay the course, do nothing rash, serve the children and staff here as well as I am able, support Minerva to the extent I can, and wait. If I were not persuaded that there is a reason to wait, to save my life now in order to give it more effectively later, I would not suffer Amycus and Alecto Carrow to torment the students and servants here as they have done and continue to do.

I am as deeply compromised as any, and so you must weigh that fact as you consider my advice. It is my opinion that if Sirius tells us this smuggler, Sabola, is the best source for items we need or will one day need, then we should take out our metaphorical quills and add one more codicil to the Order's pact with our peculiar devils. And we should carry on with it.

[alt_sirius]

Kingsley's making the point I've been trying to make, Molly. Perhaps a little more strongly, but still: we use other people's corruption all the time. Every time I pay off an official or send in bicorn powder, we're crossing a moral line. But we're doing it in the cause of something good.

It's not casting an Unforgivable Curse, though. And I know it's not a justification, but the human traffic side of things will continue whether or not we profit (indirectly) from it. Without men like Sabola it'd be five times as hard to get flour, sugar, chocolate, even coffee into the country. And it'd be much, much harder to get anything more restricted in, as well.

[alt_frank]

well just be bloody careful. and don't get so far in bed with him that you can't crawl your way out again.