.
Chapter Four: Hermione Granger and the Pile of Howlers
Working with the Auror Department, you didn't see a whole lot of horrific things. At least not most of the time – they spent more time breaking up fights and tracking down stolen valuables than they did anything else. Even when there was a murder, it was far more often the perpetrator used something like Avada Kedavra or one of the quicker-acting toxic potions that didn't really leave too much visible damage. True, the frozen rictus of fear left on the victims' faces had its own kind of horror, but it was nothing like the scene she'd been called to this morning. To see something like what a blasting curse could do to a person was bad enough, but to see it inflicted on the body of someone she knew, if only in passing, was just completely dreadful.
Hermione wanted to dismiss outright the idea anyone in the department could have had anything to do with the horrible attack, but by now she'd spent enough time working on criminal investigations with the homicide team to be uncomfortably aware that people were often capable of more truly awful things than those around them suspected was possible. Still, she hated the idea, and that was why she didn't object when Harry asked her to sort through hate mail received by the Ministry after that newspaper article. She thought it was a better choice for her peace of mind than participating in questioning others in the Ministry who had worked with Todd Summers. She was also better at quickly detecting and sorting out mail jinxes than her two partners, and somebody had to do it.
The Augury had dubbed it The Innovative Investigators Program and given quite a positive slant to the piece, but it had still earned plenty of outrage regardless. Even for those who had no issues with muggleborns, many still felt allowing muggles themselves into the magical world was several giant leaps too far.
Some of what she had to go through was regular owl post that had been collected and filed in with the other various complaints received about whatever anyone wanted to complain about. The Ministry had learned ages ago keeping such letters around could sometimes be helpful in identifying someone who had complained about a landmark just before it was suspiciously covered in graffiti. Magical traces left in sealing the letter or even an actual signature on the letter were surprisingly common in such cases. Harry seemed to think that it was a matter of wizards not really thinking about ways they could be caught, but Hermione thought it was just an indication most wizards didn't think much at all. As a group they never were terribly good at logic.
The larger portion of mail in this particular case, however, was recordings of howlers that had been pouring in over the last week. The stream of angry correspondence had only just started to trickle off, according to Mr. Wicklebach, who was in charge of incoming post. Luckily for her, and not so much for Mr. Wicklebach, it was Ministry policy to transcribe the Howlers before they burst into flames. There was a job she was quite happy not to have, even on a day when they were working a case like this one.
Still, even with the annoyance of having to actually listen to the howlers herself thankfully a non-issue, it wasn't a small pile of mail she had to make her way through. Worse, even though she agreed it made sense to look through all of it, unless there were some fairly specific threats included, it wasn't likely to help them very much. Perhaps she'd get lucky, but Wicklebach and his two assistants were meant to take note of any obvious violent threats lodged against anyone at the Ministry. They hadn't previously reported nor since set aside any such post to give her. Still, there could be more oblique threats that had seemed harmless at the time, so Hermione settled in and did the work of going through all of it. Piece by badly spelled and horrifically chicken-scratched piece.
Several hours of pure tedium later, Hermione had a small pile of parchment set aside from the mass. The majority of it was simply vague implications about how the "auror department would be sorry" or "muggles should stay out of wizard business". Hermione even saved one excessively colorfully worded one about how "things were never like this in Great Aunt Mabel's day" because of how it degenerated into derogatory rambling about squibs and muggles. There was nothing that truly stood out as psychotic, however, and no specific threats that matched up with what had happened to the dead medical examiner. More than a couple did contain vague death threats, but she'd been down here to look through owl post enough times before to see that changing the hours Lumos Avenue shops were open could result in the same. Eventually she gathered up the few notes that seemed worthy of a second look and gladly left the Ministry's post station behind her.
When she got back up to the Auror Department, Hermione took the notes straight to her desk. She still needed to cast the bevy of detection and signature charms she knew on them, but she'd needed to get out of that room for a while first. Not for any good magical reason, just frustration and boredom. She took a glance around the room to see if any of her team was back, but when they're clearly still busy elsewhere, she sighed and buckled down to do the detection charms, too. Ultimately, she is able to add notes to a couple of the letters in the pile about their origins, which is better than nothing, and a few of them are signed. Of course, as at least half were transcriptions of howlers to begin with and thus had no traces, she was at least thankfully finished fairly soon. She passes off the list of names to one of the junior aurors and sends the witch off to see if any of the people on it have arrest records for violent offenses. If there was one thing the Ministry excelled at above all it was record keeping, especially for violent offenders who would have spent at least some time in Malazin, the local dementor-free equivalent to Azkaban.
Her task done and still wondering where Ron and Harry have gotten off to, she looks around the department again. Most of the aurors are back now from the early morning canvas of Lumos Avenue that had mobilized most of them to go from shop to shop looking for any witnesses. Hermione assumes her two partners must have gone off to lunch without her, which is kind of annoying, but not entirely out of character for the still sometimes absentminded duo. So she's quite surprised when she sees them coming out of one of the side rooms together and talking in low tones to a man she doesn't recognize as they're ushering him on his way out. She waits a little impatiently by their desks for the boys to finish and as soon as the man is gone and they're within reasonable speaking distance, bursts out with, "What was that about?"
"A lead," Ron volunteers cheerfully.
"Yeah," Harry agrees, and expands at her glare, "that was Mr. Nott. He's a member of the janitorial staff who doesn't come in until afternoon for the evening shift. He heard about the murder and came to talk to us on his own. It turns out he saw Summers arguing with somebody last Tuesday late in the evening hours after most of the departments had closed down for the day."
"Really," Hermione says. It's a promising lead, if for no other reason than an argument sounds far more personal than the attack had been staged to look. Now if only it's a helpful one in other ways. "Did he get a clear enough look for memory retrieval to be worth it?"
Ron nods. "Better than. He recognized the other bloke. It's a guy called Oddson who works down in Control of Magical Creatures. Who, funnily enough, called in sick this morning. I figure we need to have a chat with him."
"Definitely. We should check in with the detectives first, though," Hermione adds, knowing their joint cases always go smoother when they make an effort to keep everyone equally involved and updated. With any luck, Beckett's team has picked up their own share of useful leads and they can wrap this case up neatly and quickly. Hermione quickly filled Ron and Harry in on the mostly unhelpful mail she'd sorted through and then took it upon herself to make the call to the rest of their team, going downstairs to use the one creaky old telephone the Ministry possessed for contacting muggle departments when necessary.
When she came back upstairs after having gotten through to Beckett's cellphone, she saw Harry and Ron directing a middle aged bald wizard with a full beard into an unused office. They leave the door open as they walk inside and take a seat, and from their relaxed body language, Hermione assumes they're just passing time until the 12th's team has a chance to get there and get down to the real questioning. That assumption is backed up by her hearing Harry say they were just waiting on some of their colleagues to join them and asking the wizard if he'd like anything while they waited as she approaches the room.