Wizarding Common Law

Chapter Twelve: Apprehended

A/N: I am extremely sorry that this chapter took a month… it was extremely hard to write and I wanted to get it just right. Also, for a complete Auror list, please visit chapter three. Enjoy!

Hermione & Fred. They've been living together as friends for seven years which means that according to Wizarding Commonlaw, they are now married. Hermione is Head of the Auror department, and dealing with a case involving a series of murders. How will she be able to cope with the difficult case with the wedding presents that keep appearing? Is there any way to divorce in the wizarding world, and moreover, do they want to? And what the heck does toilet paper have to do with anything?


Previously on Wizarding Common Law:

"Yes, it's Gardiner! I know it is! Gardiner who appeared to be our friend!" Hermione was stomping around the room, being caught at various points by Ron who told her to calm down, Samson Prewett, who told her that he was sorry he hadn't realized it sooner, and by Fred, who was looking as concerned as Hermione was and almost nearly as agitated too.

"I knew it!" Kingsley crowed triumphantly, "looks like being demoted didn't stop him!"

The whole room stared at the new occupant, and Kingsley remembered his mission.

"The muggle minister… he's dead… and by wizard hands."


The room seemed to buzz after that statement, and Hermione Granger found herself gaping like a fish. "Oh Merlin," was all she seemed capable of saying before sitting down abruptly in the seat next to Fred. He patted her hand and she felt a strong urge to kiss him before she controlled herself. They could do that later. Mmm… later…

Hermione was brought abruptly back to earth when Kingsley nodded and began to speak again, "Thanks to you four, I now know who the culprit is. Fred, I'm going to make you an honorary Auror- Is that all right Hermione?- because the information of the case really shouldn't go outside the office." Hermione and Fred both nodded, and Kingsley conjured an Auror badge and fastened it to the front of Fred's robes before continuing, "We can now--"

Crashes from outside interrupted Kingsley mid-speech, and the four in the room jumped to their feet, pulling their wands out in the process. Kingsley was already standing and began to advance to the door before Hermione shouldered him to the side and stood protectively in front of him, wand extended. If anything happened to the minister of magic, then England would be without two ministers. Fred moved to stand by her side, supporting her in case her newly healed leg failed her.

Moments later, Harry and Ginny stumbled through the door. It had begun to storm, and, from the charred looks of the couple's robes, the couple had narrowly missed being hit by lightning.

Fred asked the necessary questions, and, once assured of the validity of the Potter's identities, ushered them inside and performed a drying charm.

Harry was the first to speak. "We know why the doctors are being targeted."

Hermione raised an eyebrow. So the second part of her dream was true as well. Did that mean she and Fred would have children? If the situation weren't so dire she would have pulled him into her bedroom right then and there. Instead, she settled for grasping his hand quietly. He squeezed back, and her stomach did a little flip. Enough of that Hermione! Her sensible self told her. There is a situation here!

Ginny stepped forward and began to explain how only brain surgeons had been targeted, how the members of the Muggle Parliament had been in favor of the bill allowing a certain operation to become legal in the muggle world, and how the surgery somehow bequeathed the children operated on with magic.

The whole room was still once Ginny had finished and sat down next to Harry, and Hermione remembered Patricia Cote's last words.

He never did like Muggle-borns, she had said.

Coming out of her reverie, Hermione noticed the whole room's eyes on her, and realized that she had probably spoken that last out loud.

Ron, in his typical obtuse manner asked who she was speaking of, and Hermione was hard-pressed not to roll her eyes. "Gardiner. Gardiner never liked muggleborns, well, according to Patricia Cote anyways."

"Gardiner?" Harry was confused.

"Yes, he was the one behind all the attacks." Hermione replied angrily. She wanted to hunt him down and throw him in Azkaban for the rest of his life! Control yourself Hermione, the sensible part of her told herself, You are not legally allowed to take revenge. Let the courts do their work. You just get him in their hands.

Ginny's jaw dropped open before she poked Harry who had risen to his feet in anger. "Guess that explains the forty-something year old man outside the house, then."

Harry nodded, and began to pace the room. Hermione could tell that he was thinking the world deteriorated when he wasn't there to save it.

"Oh," said Ron, finally seeming to catch the drift about Gardiner and muggleborns, "But the muggle minister wasn't even a wizard, so why?"

Ginny and Harry looked at Ron strangely before Harry asked what the muggle minister had to do with anything, and Hermione was reminded that they did not know of his assassination yet. She opened her mouth to begin to tell them, but she was cut off again by several more pops outside the door and heavy knocking.

"I'll get it," she said, before opening the door to reveal Honoria Callahan and Eleanor Dudley. They burst past her, before stopping short at the company they saw she was entertaining.

"The muggle minister-" Honoria burst out before an apparent burst of pain in her wrist incapacitated her train of speech.

"Gardiner is going to get him and we need to go now!" Eleanor shrieked.

Harry and Ginny looked shocked, and stood up to follow Eleanor and Honoria back out the door, but Kingsley stood again sadly. "It's too late," he said, "The Muggle Minister was killed about five minutes ago." He paused, letting the information sink in. "We don't know what the diplomatic repercussions of this will be yet, in fact we were just going to begin discussing when you walked in." Diplomatic repercussions… hadn't thought of those, Hermione thought to herself. What on earth were they going to do?

"We still need to do something!" Eleanor said, gesticulating wildly. "We could organize a group and go after Gardiner at least… Honoria and I know where we were held, and-"

Wait, Eleanor knew where Gardiner's headquarters were and where he had was likely to be? Wonderful! Hermione stood beaming, all business now that she knew what to do.

"Good, that's settled then. Honoria, are you capable of returning to the cell? It looks like you broke your wrist." She didn't like sending them off into danger but there was really no other option.

"Wha-? No, it's only sprained. Why do you want us to go back to the cell?"

"Allright then. Did anyone see you escaping?"

Eleanor shook her head, catching on. "You want us to go back and pretend we never left?"

"Well, with a few modifications…"


"Can you do that for me?" Hermione asked Antoine Percy over her badge, five minutes after Honoria and Eleanor had left to go back to Gardiner's.

There was a crack in the connection, and a long pause.

"You understand why this is important, do you not?" Hermione asked a little louder.

"All right, all right," finally came the voice over the connection, "I'll do it. Where can I get the potion?"

"I'll be right there. Where are you?"

"Number Ten Downing Street, London. Just Apparate to the back and I'll let you in. There are security guards out front, but the ones in the back should be facing the other way and won't see you."

Hermione replied in the affirmative and was soon standing stock still in the backyard of the Muggle Prime Minister's yard. Casting a Muffliato charm so the guards wouldn't hear her, she slowly crept up the path to the back entrance, and was ushered inside by the younger Auror. Once in the parlor, she cast the charm again, just in case, and sat down to go through her back of potions.

"Draught of living death…nope, felix felicitis, gahh.., wolfsbane- why do I even have that in here anyways- ah, here we go. Twenty-five doses of Polyjuice, brewed by the master herself. She took a bow and handed him the potion. Together they walked into the minister's office and cut some hairs off of his head. The potion turned a mucky color, and, while it was not as disgusting as Crabbe and Goyle's had been, it looked none too pleasant.

Antoine looked at her pleadingly for a moment, but she didn't back down, so he reluctantly took a swig of the potion. Immediately his slender features took on the look of the balding and adipose Prime Minister, although his look of discomfort did not sit well on his new face.

"Can you forge his signature?" Hermione asked.

Antoine shook his head no, and Hermione rifled through the desk, attempting to find signed documents. Finally, after much searching she managed to find a birthday card which he had signed and not sent yet. The signature read 'Edward C. Darywimple' in an ornate script. Hermione pointed at the signature, and at Antoine's right hand with her wand before handing him a piece of paper.

"Try it now," she said, hoping her spell would work. She'd never used it before.

Antoine picked up one of the muggle pens littering the desk and wrote the signature perfectly in under thirty seconds.

"Perfect," Hermione beamed, "Do you think you could right in his handwriting then too? Try to write something above the signature."

Antoine complied, doodling 'I love the conservative party' above 'his' signature. The handwriting matched perfectly with the writing on the card. As Edward C. Darywimple had been a staunch liberal, the note was somewhat amusing.

"All right then," Hermione said, walking back out into the parlor, "Make sure you banish the body and learn the material before 'resigning' tomorrow. Fortunately, you have few friends and no family, so no one should miss you when you 'retire' to the Isle of Wight to write your 'book'."

He looked unsure for a moment. "Do you really think I can do this?" he asked.

She nodded, and propelled him back into the office where she banished the body for him with her wand. "You have been working in his office ever since you left Hogwarts. You knew him pretty well, and you know his views pretty well. You are a Muggleborn, so you won't call something the wrong name, or make the social gaffes that a pureblood would make." When he didn't reply, she pushed him down into his desk chair. "Calm down! I'll only be a call away if you need me!" she said, trying to be reassuring.

Antoine sighed, and picked up the phone to call his 'staff' together. "All right."

"You'll be fine," Hermione said as she Apparated off. It was now time to alert the Magic Law Enforcement Squad to what was going on.


"Do you think he'll even come?" a bored Eleanor Dudley asked to an equally bored Honoria Callahan. They had been waiting for three hours now.

"He'll come," assured Honoria. "He no doubt wants to rub it in my face that he has me, his superior, in the bowels of his fortress."

"That's what you keep saying," came a voice out of a seemingly empty stretch of air. Eleanor jumped, then remembered that Ron was there under the invisibility cloak.

"Hmm…" Eleanor was doubtful, but knew that this was their best bet at capturing Gardiner. And if they could get him to slip something illegal… well, then, they would have double proof.

"To be perfectly honest, I doubt this is a 'fortress' as you so wonderfully put it," Ron said to Honoria, "It looks more like a muggle basement to me."

Eleanor fell into deep thought. Muggle friend of my mother's, Gardiner had said, with a touch of resentment. Maybe the muggle friend had been unkind to him, and he had chosen this time to throw her out of her house and commandeer it. "I think it's his mum's muggle friend's," she finally said.

"His mother died when he was a baby," said Honoria, shaking her head, "And the muggle 'friend' was killed by Gardiner at seventeen in a supposed bout of accidental magic."

So great was Ron's surprise that a forehead appeared out of nowhere before vanishing back once more under the cloak. Eleanor simply scowled. "When did you find that out?" she asked.

"My parents were part of the investigation twenty-five years ago, and they decreed it an accident, so I hadn't thought of it since. I thought that he was talking about a different muggle friend before, but now we know he was a pureblood fanatic, it seems obvious that he wouldn't have too many muggle friends. Actually, I just put two and two together right now."

Eleanor gaped at her older counterpart. Really, Honoria was amazing. Perhaps this was why Gardiner had been demoted from Sqaud leader to make room for Ron? Had Kingsley been looking for an excuse to demote him?

A sound in the corridor halted their talk, and both Honoria and Eleanor put their hands up with the shackles, making it appear, to the casual observer, that they were well and truly locked up. Seconds later, the door burst open and in walked Gardiner in a fluffy white bathrobe. The sight was a disturbing one, and served to make him appear even more sinister and disturbed. It looked like he had just had a nice long soak in his bathtub.

"You can try all you like, Gardiner, but you won't be able to get the blood off your hands," Honoria taunted, distracting his attention from Eleanor, who pressed her alert badge, and the invisible Ron, who snuck out to let his team of Aurors and the Magical Law Enforcement squad in.

The distraction worked, and Gardiner lunged, wrapping his hands around Honoria's neck, cutting off all air. Apparently he didn't hate muggles enough to prevent him from using their dueling techniques, Eleanor thought wryly.

She slipped out of her shackles and sprung on his back, pulling him off Honoria. Eleanor's wand snapped in the process, forcing her to abandon all hope of a magical arrest. Instead, she settled for a huge punch to his left cheekbone and another one that hit somewhere around his collarbone. Gardiner pulled away and the two began circling. She couldn't help but hope that he hadn't seen her wand break, but this hope was soon dashed. There were none of the formal trappings of dueling: no bows and ten steps away from each other. No, what he was attempting to do was murder. He shot numerous spells at her from cutting hexes and tickling hexes to stunning spells and even a crucio or two.

His second crucio hit Honoria, and Eleanor was forced to watch as her best friend writhed in pain. Perhaps Honoria had a wand that she could use? That was it! She feinted to the left, and while Gardiner sent a spell shooting that way, she darted right, grabbed Honoria's wand, and put an end to the crucio spell.

Rounding on Gardiner, she only let two words pass her lips: "En garde,"

This was going to be interesting and she was sure looking forward to it. The wand felt a little odd in her hand, but seemed to respond well enough when she sent a fire arrow his way. He dodged the arrows, but stepped and fell. The sound of at least ten people in the corridor distracted her for a moment, and during that time Gardiner righted himself and seized her wand, pinning her to the floor.

"I have you both at last!" he said gleefully, and Eleanor couldn't help but think that he looked a little mad, "No more cowtowing to the almighty women of the Auror department. Any last words?"


Any last words indeed. Pah. That man was so overdramatic that he didn't even make a good villain.

"True, we were kind of spoiled on Voldemort," Fred said with a wink, reading Hermione's thoughts.

"Okay, okay, you're right, Gardiner is a fine villain to take down. When should we enter?" She was feeling good… another case solved and another criminal apprehended. Although she would have to be looking for several more Aurors, as she was now down two from this case, and the department hadn't been full enough to start with.

"He's had whatever drama he's going to have: we should enter now before he does anything else," Fred recommended.

"True," Hermione maneuvered to the door and leaned on the frame casually, "I could ask you the same thing, Gardiner," she said, trying to follow the code and be as pleasant as possible, "Expelliarmus. That's better. Will you come with us please?"

"Never!" Gardiner pointed his wand at everybody in turn, but only came across as comical in his white fluffy bathrobe. Hermione was left to shake her head at the type of person who thought they could rival Voldemort.

Fred stepped out from behind Hermione and lazily waved his wand. Giant ropes appeared around Gardiner, prohibiting all movement. "I love being an honorary Auror," he whispered to Hermione while nibbling her ear as members of Ron's squad secured the area and took Gardiner off to await trial.

"Are you good here?" she asked Ron distractedly, while Fred did some more nibbling, this time on her neck.

Ron laughed, "Go home. You won't get anything done with him around anyways." Ron gestured derogatorily at his older brother and pretended to shield his eyes as Fred gave him a come hither look.

Hermione took one look at Fred's face and burst into laughter.

"Let's go home, Fred," she said. The case was over, and they could worry about the trial tomorrow.


A/N: I am so sorry that this took so long to write!! Things have been absolutely crazy and I never really had a moment to sit down and write this... when it came down to it, this chapter was the most difficult and I hope I did it all right. There will be one more chapter and an epilogue, coming soon.

Like I've said numerous times, reviews really do speed the writing process: in fact the numerous supporters and well-wishers expressing themselves in reviews were the ones who kept me going and motivated me to finally sit down and write this chapter. I love hearing from all of you guys and hope you review here too!!

On that note, the 200th reviewer gets a cyber lollipop and chocolate from my cyber candy factory! So start REVIEWING!

Lady Mage