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Chapter 7
The Break In
Liv let Ms. Longbottom cry on her shoulder while her stomach rolled. Volunteers? Her mind balked at the implications. She put the idea in a box and put that box away from the light of day. It would eat her up inside.
She looked over at Elfie and found her green eyes wide and watery. Liv knew she was a sympathy crier and was barely holding it together herself. If Elfie started, Liv would be right behind.
Hold it together Olivia, she thought to herself. It didn't help, she was still shaking. Vega, tell me to calm down.
Calm down. The memory of Vega's order was followed my Roni's laugh.
Sort yourself. The shorter women had said, a smile on her face.
Liv let herself breathe for a moment, concentrating on the feeling of her chest rising and falling. She remembered walking into the exam room for the NEWTS and almost having a breakdown. At the time and in retrospect she knew it was silly- there she was, panicking about a test of all things after living through the Battle of Hogwarts three years before. Meanwhile, Vega was a cool as a cucumber, waiting for her friends to finish outside the exam room, exempt as she was since she was the school's TriWizard Champion. The grey-haired woman completed her NEWTS later, after the tournament had ended.
"Ms. Longbottom?" Liv started as soon as she thought she had control of herself. "I'm so sorry for making you go through this again. Could you walk us through the crime scene?" She asked as gently as possible. "As much as you can?"
Ms. Longbottom nodded. "I-I-I can point but I won't be able to do more than that."
The older woman gathered herself, wiping her face and fixing her outfit. After a moment, she looked closer to how they first saw her, though her eyes were still red.
"This way, please." Ms. Longbottom gestured to the wall as it opened and the three women exited.
Ms. Longbottom did what she could with what she had. She took them to the Chamber of Death, a large, dimly lit and rectangular room. Instead of a pool in the center, it was sunken like an old Greek Amphitheater with stone benches lining the room. In the middle of the center was a stone dais with an ancient archway, a tattered black curtain fluttering gently beneath it.
Just looking at the archway made Liv shudder.
Ms. Longbottom pointed and mimed the table and chair set up when there were experiments in the chamber as Elfie took notes in her tiny, neat penmanship. Liv had to put the archway behind her to concentrate on what the older woman was talking about- the swaying curtain seemed to call out to her.
Liv rubbed her arms, trying to sooth the goosebumps away.
They let Ms. Longbottom leave after she finished. Elfie glanced at the archway and then made a circuit of the room, tapping the walls and floor with her wand, probably checking for any secret entrances. Liv did her part and checked her half of the room.
After the attack on the Ministry, the DoM put down an Anti-Disapparation Jinx that rivaled Hogwarts'. A jinx that had not been removed during Voldemort's take over. The thief would have had to come in by foot.
"Could they have just walked in and no one knew?" Liv asked Elfie in a hushed voice. She knew it was just them but she had the strangest feeling that there was someone just on the other side of the archway and it was creeping her out.
Elfie shook her head, her blue hair swinging in its ponytail. "The main door to the outer chamber is locked by a Watchwizard each night after they do a sweep of all accessible chambers. Potter's break in showed all the holes that needed to be plugged."
Right, Liv thought. She read the file of the theft and it had that information.
"Accessible?" Liv wondered aloud.
"There is a Chamber only Mervyn as the Head of the Department has access to. And he's not supposed to open it either. That's a quick way to get removed from your position and Obliviated."
Liv felt her eyebrow rise. "Is that what happens when people leave?"
"Only if they leave in disgrace. They didn't do it to me since I left in good standing." Elfie said distantly.
Liv turned to look at Elfie. The other woman never talked about why she left.
None of us do, if I'm honest.
"Their loss, our gain. If we didn't have you, we wouldn't have looked twice at that whistle." Liv paused. "Okay, we may have looked at it again because it was shaped like a skull with fangs and no lower jaw. Which, knowing what I do now, makes sense?"
Elife laughed, turning to her.
"That's how I remembered. When I heard about them before, I thought 'they were really trying to get across that they were the bad guys, weren't they?'"
"I mean, the Death Eater's mark had a skull and a snake, didn't it?"
Elfie gave another giggle. Liv felt herself relax at little. The blue-haired woman was harder to read than the others, probably because at times Elfie just didn't know how she felt. But if she was laughing, that meant she'd be okay.
"Now, knowing Vega, she'd want us to test the other chambers we can get into to make sure they weren't a point of entry."
Elfie made a face. "Or else she'll send us back. Alright, this way."
Elfie walked back out into the main chamber, standing a little taller than when they entered it the first time.
She'll be alright, Liv thought as she followed.
Liv saw a lot of weird things in the next hour. Elfie told her to stay away from brains with tentacles levels of weird.
What she did not find was a way for someone to enter or hide from the Watchwizard.
Should we bother the Watchwizards too? Liv thought while she sipped her tea. If she didn't, Vega would. With a sigh, she finished her tea before addressing Elfie. "We'll have to talk to the Watchwizards."
The blue-haired woman made a face and Liv sympathized. Most of the Watchwizards were wizards who couldn't make it into the MLEP or they wanted to have power but none of the hard work.
"Vega is good at sweet talking them." Elfie pointed out. She was perched in Vega's chair only because Liv frowned at her drinking or eating under the desk. After finishing up typing on her laptop, she leaned back. "Didn't Roni say one of them had a crush on Vega last night?"
Liv hummed in thought. "True but Vega went with Roni outside the Ministry. They won't be back until lunch time or later." She pointed at the note Vega left for them. "Then they have to leave again. We could take care of this, go to lunch, and then go to the hospital. Easy peezy."
Elfie made a face. "Don't say things like that. You're tempting the universe."
Liv held her hands up in surrender. "Alright. But the guy Vega talked to last night used to be a 'Puff, so he should be more helpful."
Elfie huffled. "I suppose. Let me finish with this program real quick and we can go."
Of course, the Administrator for the Watchwizards kept them waiting. And the chairs she had them waiting in were not the most comfortable.
'You go.' Elfie mouthed to Liv after they'd been waiting twenty minutes.
The taller woman grimaced. Neither one of them were good at confrontation. But while she wasn't good at it, Elfie was worse. She stood up and approached the desk. Elspeth, the Administrator with a sunny smile and a sunnier disposition, greeted her.
"I'm sorry, I haven't forgotten you. I really appreciate your patience."
Liv nodded, smiling back. "Thank you. Do you have an ETA on him?"
Elspeth's dark eyes looked up at her sympathetically.
"Olivia Murphy?"
Liv turned around to see the person she was waiting for- Jeremiah Cavendish with a smile brighter than Elspeth's.
"Cavendish." Liv grinned, glad her vigil was over.
"Jeremy, please." He reached out to shake her hand.
"Jeremy." She felt herself relax. "Liv. And this is Ophelia Lewis."
"Elfie." The blue-haired woman waved.
"Oh wow! I- I read your paper about the implications of transfiguration on the atomic level." He looked so excited, a flush appearing on his ears and cheeks. "I especially like how you spoke on now that technology has advanced, we can study magic and its effects through a new lense."
He suddenly pushed his hand through his hair, trying to calm himself while looking embarrassed. Liv looked around and saw people staring.
"Is there a place we can talk privately?" She asked quietly. Jeremy nodded and lead them down a hallway to more cubicles. He stopped in front of one desk that was covered in books, parchment, and empty food wrappers.
"Sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone really." He said sheepishly as he hurried to clean up.
Liv picked up one of the books, drawn by its glossy cover. "'Inside the Minds of Serial Killers: Why They Kill.' You're studying Criminal Psychology?"
If Jeremy looked embarrassed before, he looked mortified now. "I-I-I-" He took a deep breath. "It's kind of a lifelong pursuit of mine." He lowered his voice. "I'm working on a degree at Winchester."
"The Wizarding World is behind on psychology." Elfie pointed out. "There is no shame in learning."
Jeremy brightened before gesturing to his chair. "Give me one sec, I'll grab another." He ducked back into his neighbor's cubicle and came back with his chair. "What did you want to talk about? Oh, er, did you want some tea?"
Elfie took a chair while Liv answered. "We probably won't be here long enough to warrant that." She ignored how he seemed to deflate.
"Oh?"
"I'm afraid this is a business call. We were wondering if you could help us with something." Liv took the other seat and Jeremy leaned against the wall as much as he could without breaking it. He seemed to have had practice.
"I'd be happy to help, but I'm not sure how."
"We need any notes for the Watchwizard in charge of patrolling the DoM on May 13 and 14 of 1998."
Jeremy frowned. "That's an odd request."
"Sorry, we can't tell you too much about an active investigation." Liv said, a little embarrassed.
"No, no. I get it. Why did you not request through the normal channels, if you don't mind my asking?" He held up a hand to show he wasn't angry.
"We did and we received the official file."
Jeremy nodded, understanding. "You want the 'unofficial file,' right?"
"Right." Liv answered with a smile, glad he was so agreeable.
"I'll see what I can do."
Liv was feeling pretty good about the investigation. Sure, it was of a theft over nine years ago and the items themselves were gruesome, but they weren't coming up against unscalable walls like in other investigations. They had someone willing to cooperate in the DoM and with the Watchwizards. They'd made more out of less.
Vega and Roni should be back, if not now, then soon. Then they could have lunch and go over everything. Not a bad start to a day, all things considered.
Liv's warm feelings lasted even as Potter stepped on the elevator, note in hand with Minister Kingsley right behind him. Potter saw Liv and Elfie and smiled tightly. "Were you also called?"
The taller woman blinked at Potter before snapping her head to Elfie. The blue-haired woman also looked confused and a little alarmed. Liv turned cold.
"Called? By Whom?"
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