Ah, but can we be sure Langtry does not have a Beige Council we do not know about of his own? Possibly with Mei. Does Martha Liberty have agents? He likely has his own feelers and agents out there ...
We can assume Langtry has an off-white Council of his personal cronies. We have seen him chafe under consensus building when things don’t go his way, and they took the younger wardens into custody to prevent them coming to Harry’s aid.
I think it likely -- virtually certain -- that Langtry has "feelers and agents". Harry has them. Eb has them. So far as we can tell,
everybody (of a certain power) has such networks of people (and... other entities).
I am dubious Langtry actually has a "council" -- he's already chafing under the strictures of one "council," and I expect his own personal group would be more a "cadre" -- top-down authority, with himself at the top, and without the limitations of needing to "play politics" to get anything done.
HOWEVER: I suspect he is (very secretly) a part of the Grey Council itself.
Wait wait ! ... bear with me here...The WC "cannot publically admit" to the possibility of a "Black Council." But the Merlin is smart, politically savvy, cynical, and realistic. If a n00b like Harry is seeing the signs, Arthur Langtry probably saw them (and saw the need for covert action) decades ago.
So when the Merlin realized the Blackstaff was building a "Grey Council," he probably said "I want in... or else."
Then he acted on the GC like a co-equal participant (instead of a bossy arsehole). After all --
Odin is on the GC: Langtry is smart enough to pull his horns in. Win-win for him: he gets to keep stability on the WC, publicly denying any "Black Council," and remain "the Merlin," the public face & voice of reason and calm... and yet
also be an activist / covert-ops wizard, not limited by "White Council" policy & legalities (make that a win-win-win, given his own cadre for when even
GC politics is too limiting).
I think Justin was one of his and Bob was his price.
I'm
highly dubious that
Kemmler's personal lab-assistant & magical notebook would be an acceptable price. The downside risk is just too high (as witness the Darkhallow that almost succeeded... because of the skull; hardly a contingency that's hard to predict!).
I suspect Justin was mostly his own agent, seeking his own power (but working with other parties (often as a "junior" (often a
very junior) ally). But I think I'll spin that into another thread, so as not to drift this one too much... Justin (& his agenda) is part of Harry's (still very mysterious & unexplained) origin-story, not merely a "first few books" topic!
