Silent Time

This is a story I've been working on for awhile. Let me know what you think and I'll write my best! Rated M.

Chapter one- Tatia Bordoph

My eyes never left the target as he crossed the street without evening looking both ways. He was about a foot taller than I was and wearing the same suit he had worn the last three days. My instructions were to find his drop point and it seemed this laundry mat was what I was looking for because this time he didn't have any clothes going in or coming out. I pulled the keys out of the ignition and got out of my car. He was crossing down to the next block and once I saw he was out of sight I entered the suspected drop location.

"Hello? How may I help you?" an older woman with a very expensive suit approached me within a second of being inside.

"I'm a friend of the gentleman who was just in here. I was just making sure he wasn't up to trouble again, you see he has a family." I explained calmly. The woman didn't buy it for a second, but I hadn't expected her too.

"I know for a fact that any family he had are now deceased. So who are you really?" She inquired crossing her arms.

I pulled out my identification, "I'm with the Auror department." That wasn't exactly true but she bought it and told me what I needed to know. She sort of seemed like she wanted to tell me.

"He comes here every two weeks with an order. That's-

"Not all you know. Now, tell me what he wants?"

"Something called Titanium. And no I don't know who it goes to. I'm just the receptionist."

I raised an eyebrow at her almost amused, "Why would a laundry mat need a receptionist?"

Her eyes turned cold, "Get out."

"With pleasure, what's your name?" I asked, ignoring her. I saw her hand move slightly and had my wand at her throat before she finished whatever she was going to do.

"Name." I said again. Her eyes laughed but her tense stance told me she was scared, at least a little.

"Tatia. Bordoph." She hissed through her teeth.

"Now what's his name!" This was so important, that after two months of nothing I would find out his name.

She smiled, grinned even. I pressed my wand so far into her throat she started to cough. Her eyes finally had a little fear in them. Her eyes were a swirling green that I knew had the information I wanted.

"His name is Marcus. Okay now that you've got what you want, get the fuck out."

I let my wand drop and waved as I left the shop. I could have just used occlemency to take my information but I found it more enlightening to interrogate.

I wrote down her name and the address of the laundry mat before I turned the key and pulled away.

It was late, late enough to go home and sleep. So I drove home, forcing my eyes to stay open. I used the car for a few reasons. The target was a wizard who mixed his company with muggles in some kind of business arrangement. The car helped me blend in and I had always found driving peaceful. I suspected the target was even revealing himself to the muggles, violating the biggest law there was. My boss instructed me to find out at any cost. Tatia Bordoph was a witch or a squib, I wasn't sure if she had been reaching for a wand or something else. She knew what my wand meant so she knew of the magical world.

I got home just before my eyes started to close. I saw dishes that needed cleaning and my fridge was in need of stocking. I had no energy to do the latter. A quick spell and the dishes were clean and put away. I'd never fallen asleep so quickly in my life.

The next morning I got up sluggishly and brushed my teeth. My hair was a mess and a charm fixed it. I grabbed my notebook and flipped through what I'd done last night. Damn I'd forgotten to check in with my boss. We finally had a name on someone in the group and we found out our mystery guy's name too. I could remember Tatia and her laughing eyes, but not so laughy at the end. If I hadn't been so tired I would have gotten even more from her. So I got dressed and headed to the grocery store we always met.

He was there, reading something off an item. Hermione knew better than to roll her eyes. He fucking knew everything. And saw everything.

"You know better, Granger." He said casually. Any hushed or raised voices would bring attention to us.

"I passed out. But I got names, finally. When I followed him last night he went inside a plain laundry mat, yes I thought it was strange too. I took a risk and went in after he left. I met Tatia Bordoph and a moment later I found out why he was there. It's Titanium. He was ordering Titanium." I struggled to remain calm. I was immeasurably excited to have information, at last.

"What's his name, Granger?" He asked instead of commenting on my find.

"Marcus." Maybe titanium wasn't that important after all, but I had been so sure this was a lead.

"And this Tatia didn't know why they wanted it?" He asked, smiling, all part of blending in.

"No, but she is pretty shady. I should follow up."

He agreed, "Wait a few days and go back. I'll see if we have anything on Tatia or Marcus in the registry."

I walked away, having my orders. My boss was a striking man, with super sharp features that made him look too thin. His eyes were always hard, but smart. What caught my eye the first time I saw him was his uncommon shoulder length black hair.

The only thing was that I wasn't waiting a few days and I didn't think he believed I would. But he had to follow his orders and tell me to follow mine.

An hour later I was apparating to the alley behind the laundry mat. When I walked around to the front the lights were out and there was a closed sign in the window. I unlocked the door wandlessly and walked inside. I slipped and fell right on my ass, which hurt like hell.

"Lumos." The light burst into the room quickly instead of fading into brightness like it usually did. And then I saw why. Blood was everywhere; on the walls on the floor and on the ceiling and I was just sitting in a huge puddle of it. I carefully got to my feet dripping with cold blood. But it wasn't that cold, but more like cool. I cast a revealing spell but I was alone. A sinking feeling settled in my stomach, dragging despair with it. I walked behind the counter and gasped just a little because I'd known it would be bad. Tatia was sitting in an upright position and her throat had been slashed and then I noticed something else. Her left wrist had a pentagon burned into her skin. It didn't look fresh and it actually looked months if not years old. There was a piece of paper in her mouth, sticking out. I took it out and read the crinkled up message on the paper.

'Traitor.'

It was just one word and then I saw her tongue had been cut out. I felt sick to my stomach covered in blood and seeing her dead body. I didn't deal with that type of thing in my line of work and I turned around and got sick.

I had to contact my boss somehow and sent him a patronus. I was really frightened now. I talked to Tatia just mere hours ago and she'd been brutally murdered shortly after. It had to be because she talked to me and told me things. But if she knew she would die why tell me? There was no doubt in my mind that she knew her killer. The amount of rage in the room made me sure of it.

"Granger!" I spun around too quickly and slipped in the blood. It occurred to me then, I should have just used a cleaning or vanishing charm to get rid of it. Just as I fell so did my boss; he fell harder than me to ground and I even heard him swearing. I noticed then my lumos had faded away and I recast it, so he could see, see why I called him breaking so many rules by doing so.

"I don't know any protocols for this."

He glared at me but I could tell he'd never seen this kind of murder before. Any murders were a rare thing in our line of work. We dealt with time issues and misuse of spells and charms and we dealt with normal things. Not this.

"What the fuck is going on?" He swore, his face livid. What, did he think I did this?

"Meet Tatia Bordoph. " I said pointing to her dead body, my heart was still racing and I felt odd. Really off inside. I was probably going into shock.

"The name you gave me?"

I nodded, swallowing hard. "They, or he cut out her tongue and stuck this in her mouth." I handed him the note and watched his face change. He looked frightened. He was supposed to be calm and collected!

"There's a symbol on her wrist. A pentagon. What?" I asked seeing his face; the recognition on it gave me hope.

He completely surprised me by pulling me to help and apparating us away.

We landed in the ministry, I knew from the high ceilings. The room was large and more importantly, empty.

"Clean yourself up." He said and did the same. Once our clothes were back the way they were I still felt the blood, drying on my skin even though it was gone.

"Don't say a word, you hear me? Nothing." He looked dead serious so I nodded a little insulted. If he told me to shut up, I would.

The minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt walked in with a grim look on his face. He was wearing brightly colored robes and looked as tired as we felt.

"This couldn't wait until morning, Arnold?"

Apparently his name was Arnold which didn't seem to fit. "There was a murder on one of our suspects. Wiccans. It was terribly brutal; they cut out her tongue and slit her throat. My lead agent found her and like she told me, there aren't any protocols for this."

The minister was ashen in the face and it took a moment before he spoke.

"We'll need a team. Make one and include Hermione. It's no use pretending we don't know each other. You and your rules Arnold. Leave the body for the muggle police to find. Good evening."

I couldn't even smile as he left because I felt too drained and I thought she would cry the moment I was alone. But in this job you had to be professional.

"It's okay Granger, you did good now go home and wait for orders tomorrow."

I nodded mutely though I had dozens of questions. What had he meant by Wiccan? That was a muggle term. It meant, to my knowledge, muggles who thought they had magic. Muggles who thought themselves to be gifted with magic. What could they be involved with that brought them into our world of real magic? Arnold, my boss, seemed really shaken by our discovery in a way different from me. He knew a lot more than I did. Maybe I didn't have the clearance to know but I needed to know.

I was so tired and my hands still shook just a little so I went home and fell asleep, praying away any nightmares that might come.