Jack Granger, Auror

Jack grinned as he stood in front of the mirror and flexed his muscles. He was just trying out a particularly masculine pose when a voice barked behind him.

"Granger! You better be on your way in!"

After a second of horror, Jack realised the voice had come from his fireplace in the other room, and not right behind him as he had first suspected. He winced. He was late for work again. He grabbed the nearest shirt and pulled it on before hurrying into the living room.

"Hey boss," he said hesitantly to the large head sitting in the middle of his usually dormant fireplace as he knelt before it.

"Damn Granger, you're late!" Phineas Well, the head of the Magical Law enforcement Department, or MLD, did not look in the best of moods.

"Come on boss, I was just on my way out."

Mr Well's anger was chased away by an amused surprise. "Dressed like that?"

Jack looked down at his rumpled shirt and lack of trousers. "Oh, right. So why the house call?"

"I want you to investigate this death…"

"What death?"

Mr Well's anger quickly returned. "How many times must I tell you to keep an eye on all available sources of information? On the Muggle news. An old woman was shot last night."

"You want me to investigate a Muggle crime?"

"We need to find out if this was just a random shooting or if she was killed for a reason."

"That still doesn't explain why you're giving this to me."

"Frankly, I'm sick of your irresponsible unreliability. You're good Jack but you're not irreplaceable. Why investigating this case is in our interest however… The victim was one Phyllis Sagewood. A witch. More specifically, a counsellor in the Muggle Relations Department helping Muggle parents of new Hogwarts students."

"Someone shot a witch?"

"Don't sound so surprised. Our brains are just as important to us as theirs are to Muggles."

"Yes, but how?"

"How can you stop something that you don't hear or see coming?"

"Right. So what do we know?"

"She was hit from above, I couldn't find out anything about the trajectory, so it could have been from any of the surrounding buildings. The bullet was from a rifle. If this rifle has a sniper scope it widens the search area considerably. I want you to follow the investigating detective around but don't interfere. You're only there to find out the killer's motive, not to be the hero."

"Okay, so where's this guy now?"

"You'll have to go to the station and ask." With that the fireplace was suddenly empty.

Jack wasn't surprised that Well had known so much about guns and bullets and all that. He would have been surprised if he didn't. Well believed a good Auror knew everything and used every available resource, which was why this particularly cruel punishment was possible. Well had contacts in the Muggle law enforcement. The bastard hadn't even told him where she was shot.

After leaving his flat, Jack went to the street and browsed at the Muggle newsstand.

"Oi! I no library! You buy, no read! Buy, buy, buy!"

Jack ignored the vendor and found the article he was looking for. The vendor lunged over his counter and managed to grab the top of the newspaper.

"Okay, okay! Here." Jack handed over some miscellaneous coins from his left pocket and the vendor let go.

"Thank you! Have nice day."

"Right," Jack said bitterly.

He read through the article quickly and discovered that the shooting had taken place just five blocks from the Ministry. He looked up to see a man hurrying for the stand his eye on the rack that held the newspaper Jack had just brought.

"Here have this one. I'm finished with it," Jack said, thrusting the paper into the man's hands.

It took the man a moment to realise it was the paper he wanted but when he turned to thank Jack, he was gone.

Jack had ducked down an alley and Apparated to the Ministry. As he headed towards MLD offices he saw a man coming towards him and groaned inwardly. The 5"2 athlete gave him an insincere smile and stopped in the middle of the narrow corridor.

"Jack, where have you been? It seems like it's been years since we last hung out."

"It has been years, you arrogant prick."

"Oh Jackie. What would grandmother think if she heard you use such language?"

"And what would she say if you ever managed to think of someone but yourself and visited? Do I know you?"

"Jack, here I was trying to put old differences behind us and you decide to be all hostile."

"You seduced my girlfriend, waited until I found out, then dumped her."

"History, Jack."

"Last month, Potter."

James Potter, Quidditch champion of the world, shrugged. "You take things so personally, cousin."

"That's because it is personal cousin. Get out of my way."

James stepped aside with a bow, "Remember this moment well, as this is the last time James Potter will bow to anyone."

"You're a disgrace to your name and your father," Jack said, stepping past James.

James grabbed his arm and spun Jack around. "At least my mother wasn't a Mudblood whore."

Jack walked away, leaving a dazed James on the floor, his eye quickly turning black.

He walked into the office and was immediately accosted by Mr Well.

"Granger! What are you doing here? I told you…"

"Please, sir. I thought the quickest thing to do was to ask you where the nearest police station is."

Well almost smiled. "And why would you want to know that?"

"Because the shooting happened five blocks from here."

Well slapped Jack on the back. "The boy can learn!"

"I'd hardly call myself a boy, sir."

"I'd hardly call myself fat, but that doesn't change what other people think does it?" Mr Well asked. "Stop impersonating a fish and get into my office. It'll be easier to show you on a map."

After visiting the police station and being jerked around for almost an hour, he learnt that Detective Goods was the man he wanted and he was at the scene. He arrived at the scene only to be stopped at the police tape.

"Special Agent Granger, MLD," Jack snapped holding up his identification. "Let me through."

"MLD? Never heard of it."

Jack touched his wand holster with the tip of his finger feeling a strong urge to use its contents on this smug looking constable. "How long have you been with the force?" he asked instead through gritted teeth.

"Six months," the constable answered proudly.

"I see. And how far do you expect your career to go?"

Suspecting a trick question, the constable hesitated and Jack continued, "Because you won't pass another day as an officer of the law if you don't let me through."

Panicked the young officer stepped aside and Jack strode towards three important looking men discussing something nearby, the constable close behind him.

"I'm looking for Detective Goods," Jack announced when he reached them, interrupting their conversation.

The shortest of the three turned and appraised him. He was stocky but not overweight with thinning brown hair, a bushy moustache and heavy eyebrows that his piercing green eyes glared at Jack from underneath. "Who's asking?" Goods asked gruffly.

"Special Agent Granger of MLD."

"Never heard of 'em," Goods replied dismissively with a glance at the constable.

The constable nodded hurriedly. "I'll get rid of him, sir."

"What about the name Phineas Well?"

"Well?" Goods asked, suddenly interested. "MLD, eh? I thought the boss said MI5. My mistake." This wasn't an apology. "Why this case would attract any sort of special attention is beyond me. Special lady?"

"May be," Jack replied. Now that his identity was established he had begun looking around.

He took no notice of Goods' grumbling as he examined the chalk outline. "The paper said it happened around five or six?"

"That's what it said."

"I would say closer to six."

Surprised Goods said, "Yes. How could you tell?"

"Lucky guess." Jack wasn't going to tell him that most Ministry employees left work at about five-thirty. "Do you know where the bullet came from?"

"Not for certain. But from up there most likely," Goods replied, pointing to the five-storey building to the right, directly above the outline. "One of the lower storeys would be my guess from the entry wound."

"Have you found anything?"

"In the building? We're still searching. If it was a random shooting she was just unlucky, otherwise the killer knew her pretty well."

Jack looked up at the detective. "Knew her?"

Goods nodded curtly. "Well enough to know she'd pass by here."

"Right."

Finally, Goods could take it no longer. "Is there anything I should know?"

"Know?"

"Don't play dumb with me! Do you know anything about this case you're not saying?"

"Hard to say, really." A look at the detective's face made Jack sigh. "Look, I can promise you what I know has nothing to do with the case. If we leave it at that we can all get along and I'll be out of your hair in no time."

Goods obviously wasn't convinced but he let it go for now.

There wasn't really much to learn yet so after examining the scene physically and, when no one else was looking, magically, Jack returned to the Ministry after losing the tail Goods had stuck on him.

"Hey Granger! Solved it yet?"

Jack glanced at the group of grinning Aurors on his way to his desk. "Oh yes. Ha ha."

Indra left the group and followed him. Indra Patil resembled her mother, Padma. Padma had married a Muggle man of non-Indian descent. Her family had learnt to live with it but he had taken her last name and they had given their daughter an Indian name so as not to rub salt in the wounds. "Seriously, Jack. How is it going? Do you think the killer knew she was a witch?"

Jack smiled and shook his head. "I doubt it. But it's still too early to tell much of anything. Why the interest anyway? If you want, I'd gladly let you take it off my hands."

"Oh no. I'm sure Well gave it to you because you're the man for the job. It must need your… particular skills."

"Just what are you saying, Indra?"

Indra gave him a gentle shove. "You're the detective," she said with a grin, returning to her own desk.

"Auror, Indra. We're Aurors," Jack called after her.

Indra waved his correction off and smiled back at him. Jack returned her smile with a shake of his head and spun around in his chair. A strange feeling came over him. It was getting stronger. Suddenly he was lifted off his chair and slammed into the ceiling. He hung there while the other Aurors hurried over, wands drawn. At that moment an owl landed on his desk with an official looking letter in its beak. It dropped the letter before taking off again.

"It's addressed to you Jack. From the Wizengamot," Indra said worriedly, handing it up to Jack.

Jack tore open the envelope and read the letter. "Bastard!"

"What is it?"

"My cousin, bloody James Potter!"

Jack refused to say more, other than to reassure them all that his being stuck to the ceiling was not dark magic. Two hours later, Jack fell onto his desk.

"Ow."

Now it was his turn to send a letter. Jack sent an explicit owl to James telling him exactly how he felt about the restraining order. Then he sent one to the Department of Justice to repeal it.

"I'm going to kill him," Jack muttered to himself, picking up the now broken ornament his mother had given him when he'd first gotten this job. "Bastard."