[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Note: source and details of recovery appear to have been charmed with a mnemonic equivalent of unplottability by the recorder. They were transcribed with great difficulty, and all efforts to cybernetically record details about the following transcription’s source have resulted in empty space.]
CRANE: So Gareth, what is it that you have that is so urgent it cannot wait, even on tonight of all nights?
GREENGRASS: I appreciate your time, sir.
CRANE: Do you? I asked you a question, Greengrass.
[Pause. Greengrass tightens his jaw, then throws a file folder on the table. Crane looks at it; then he turns up to Greengrass with raised eyebrows.]
GREENGRASS: How long have we known?
CRANE: Say that again?
GREENGRASS: How long have we known? How long have we known what they’re doing in Albania?
[Pause. Crane rests back in his chair.]
CRANE: ‘They’. Who is this ‘they’?
GREENGRASS: [leaning forward] Did you know? Did you know about all of it?
CRANE: Gareth, Gareth. I’m beginning to detect some emotionalism.
GREENGRASS: I’ve seen the evidence, Crane. Vials and vials and vials of it. Unicorn blood and snake venom. I know what they’re doing. I know what they’re trying to do.
CRANE: Try that sentence again.
GREENGRASS: [pause] What we – what we are trying to do.
CRANE: There you go.
GREENGRASS: I knew – I knew the spirit, the kukudh, I knew what it was, that is was a –
CRANE: You needn’t say the word.
GREENGRASS: And I knew they were gathering unicorn blood for some sort of purpose – but I didn’t realize, I didn’t realize until now – I know about the Rudimentary Body Potion, Crane, I know about the horcrux, I know what they’re trying to –
CRANE: Gareth, Gareth.
GREENGRASS: What is Operation Cassius?
[A lengthy pause.]
CRANE: Operation Cassius was a long-term covert operation headed by the Department. It did not begin under my leadership, but it was I who saw it to completion. It was an attempt by the Department to shift Ministry politics in a, er, necessary direction. It was by-and-large a success.
GREENGRASS: What was that direction?
CRANE: Well I suppose it’s not so simple as that, is it? To put the work of half a century into a name. But the direction was, as it were, toward the enforcement of the Statute.
GREENGRASS: The 1692 Statute?
CRANE: That’s right. You understand, yes? You understand why you are so immediately familiar when I invoke that centuries-old article?
GREENGRASS: I –
CRANE: There are men of my age, Gareth, who still remember. There were days when wizards dressed like Englishmen. They wore suits. They ate Mars Bars. They watched football. Do you know what football is, Gareth? I believe in your colonies they call it ‘soccer’. There was a time when the question of ‘integration’ was far from moot.
GREENGRASS: I’m familiar with history –
CRANE: Yes, that’s the blessing of your heritage. Wizards your age in England don’t share your – perspective. From them you’d think that Quidditch was their ancestral birthright.
GREENGRASS: Quidditch – is not?
CRANE: Damn it, no, Quidditch is not. It was resurrected in the 1950s, prior to it had been some blasted archaic hobby, no more household than Craothceann or Shuntbumps. Neither were robes, neither were owls, neither were these damnable feather quills. I remember when a Ministry wizard used a pen, Gareth – a pen. Do you even know what a pen is? A simply marvelous invention!
GREENGRASS: I – I don’t understand.
CRANE: It’s a tube that holds ink that bleeds gently from the nib –
GREENGRASS: Damn it, not the pen, the – everything.
CRANE: Everything. Everything. [Pause.] I suppose that’s it – everything. Where did the pens go, Gareth?
GREENGRASS: My understanding was that it was Grindelwald. Integration was a politically tenable position, but the rise of Grindelwald made it evident that it was impossible. Wizards returned to secrecy, the Statute was re-enforced. The use of muggle artefacts was discouraged, if not entirely outlawed.
CRANE: Yes. Yes. And how did that happen?
GREENGRASS: Cultures change in response to great events.
CRANE: [laughs] Are you really that naïve, Gareth? What is it do you think that this Department does?
GREENGRASS: We move the course of history.
CRANE: Djinn don’t go back into bottles on their own will. Nor will they be forced, much as our colleagues at the DMLE would like it to be so. No – they need to be coaxed.
GREENGRASS: Cassius was the coaxing.
CRANE: Cassius was only part of it. The Ministry as a whole did their part. Games and Sports arose to promote Quidditch. The Misuse of Muggle Artefacts office emerged to enforce the material logistics. New regulations, new norms – and education, of course, perhaps most important of all.
GREENGRASS: Hogwarts.
CRANE: Hogwarts. Robes, torches, quills, broomsticks, the Hogwarts accent – Hogwarts perhaps did more than any of it.
GREENGRASS: Dumbledore.
CRANE: Who defeated Grindelwald? It was Dumbledore indeed. You think he did it in a duel? Indeed he did – the duel was culture. Culture defeated Grindelwald, Gareth. Careful control of culture.
GREENGRASS: And what was our role?
CRANE: The stick goes so far, the carrot perhaps father. But what really gets the horse to move?
GREENGRASS: The snake.
CRANE: Fear. Fear was our part, Gareth. The Department of Mysteries. That’s what Operation Cassius was. Fear.
GREENGRASS: I still don’t understand.
CRANE: You’ve found the file, Gareth. You have it in front of you.
GREENGRASS: It’s been redacted. Concealed. I only have its commencement date and its closing.
CRANE: Then you have everything you need.
[Greengrass opens the file.]
GREENGRASS: June 1945 to November 1981. November 1981 – [He breathes in deeply.]
CRANE: Do you remember, Gareth?
GREENGRASS: The Potters. The Potters died October the 31st. October 31st, 1981.
CRANE: The Potters. And who else?
GREENGRASS: [softly] Riddle. [He looks up at Crane.] Operation Cassius – was Riddle.
CRANE: Do you need some time for it to sink in? Or was it obvious?
GREENGRASS: You – we – created Riddle.
CRANE: Oh, his slut of a mother did that. [He smirks.] No, no. We created Lord Voldemort.
GREENGRASS: June 1945. That’s –
CRANE: His graduation. He was identified early, of course. The seeds of the operation were sewn seven years before.
GREENGRASS: Dumbledore. Dumbledore did –
CRANE: We did it together, Dumbledore and I together. We were young then. But it was Dumbledore who found him.
GREENGRASS: You found him, and you raised him to become – but – I don’t understand –
CRANE: Don’t understand, Gareth? How else do you move a population underground? How else do you turn them away from integration? Every revolution needs its shock troops. We never gave a damn about the pure-blood nonsense, we never gave a damn about genetics or heritage or history – we only cared to keep the population from integration.
GREENGRASS: Because -?
CRANE: Because do you know what else came into the world in 1945, Greengrass? The Bomb. The Atomic Bomb. Do you know what happens when a wizard discovers he can split the atom? Avada kedavra becomes a pittance. Let it then remain a secret. Unspoken, sacred, kodesh hakodeshim. That’s what we do, Greengrass. That’s what we serve. It’s not power, it’s not control. It’s not a lust, one man over another. We are our own salvation. We are the protectors of the Mysteries. We keep contained what must be contained.
GREENGRASS: And Voldemort –
CRANE: There are those who seek the mysteries. Those who would become death. Voldemort kept them down. Some in fear, some in fascination – all in the shared belief that to be wizard is to remain hidden. Voldemort held the line. The only line that matters, lie though it may be. Voldemort reminded us that Magic is Might.
[Pause.]
GREENGRASS: Then why did he go?
CRANE: He became too powerful. Too hard to control. Too drunk on his close grasp of power. He wasn’t useful any more. So we ended him. We closed the mission. We couldn’t have guessed what would have happened on 31st October. But we could have stopped it.
GREENGRASS: But now. Albania. The kukudh. It’s –
CRANE: It is He Who Must Not Be Named.
GREENGRASS: Why?
CRANE: Because times have changed.
[He pulls out a new file from his desk drawer. It is labelled OPERATION ISCARIOT.]
CRANE: You’ve been promoted Greengrass. Albania is yours. Read up.
next file: FOLDER 1.7 >>
THE PENSIEVE PAPERS 