A/N: One hour!

Chapter Twenty-One

Questioning

Ada walked into her office and saw the three sisters sitting together. They had stopped crying now but were sitting close to each other and hugging. The woman walked up to them and sighed before speaking.

"The police are here, they are going to want to take a statement from you Esmerelda" Ada told the girl not wanting it to be a shock when it came to it. The girl opened her mouth, maybe to protest, but she never got a chance to as just then two female officers walked in and Ada was thankful the wizard had thought ahead and told them not to send a male officer.

"Hello there, I am Officer Wolfsbane and this is my partner Officer Blackstone" one of the woman said. She was fairly young, probably only around her mid twenties and the other woman was around the same age, Ada smiled and greeted them before walking to the girls.

"Which one of you is Esmerelda?" Office Blackstone asked and Esmie replied 'me' in a quiet voice. The woman nodded sympathetically.

"Why don't we let your sisters go with Officer Wolfsbane and you and I can talk?" the woman suggested. Ada smiled, she was very easy going which would put Esmerelda at ease.

"No….I don't want them to go" Esmie now complained her eyes wide in fear.

"I think it is for the best isn't it Esmerelda? "You don't want your sisters to hear this do you?" Ada told her knowing Ethel and Sybil were traumatised enough without having to hear in detail what had happened to their sister. Esmie sighed and then nodded and Ethel and Sybil reluctantly left with Officer Wolfsbane.

"I will go with them" Hecate told Ada knowing the girls might be on edge with someone they don't know. Ada stayed with Esmerelda hoping the fact she knows her would stop her freaking out to much.

Officer Blackstone took a seat opposite Esmerelda and began to talk, by the look on her face she was not enjoying this at all and Ada realised how tough she must be in order to do her job.

"Right as I said I am officer Blackstone, I just want to talk to you about what happened with your father" the woman said professionally. Esmie visually flinched when she mentioned her father but the woman smiled trying to reassure her.

"Alright so prior to what occurred how was your father and yours relationship?" the woman asked the blonde starting easy, wanting her to grow comfortable with her first.

"Well….it was alright, we didn't have a strong bond, my parents tended to leave us to whatever we wanted" Esmerelda replied with a shrug and the woman nodded writing that down.

"What are you writing?" Esmerelda asked then clearly worried what she was doing.

"It is just so I can store your statement and we can look over it" the officer replied before she asked something else.

"So what was it that led up to the first assault?" Officer Blackstone then asked her.

"I lost my magic at the end of last year….long story….anyway my parents were really angry about that, it brought a lot of shame on to our family" Esmerelda replied and the woman nodded as she wrote.

"So that was the trigger for what happened?" the officer asked and Esmie nodded.

"Yes" Esmie replied playing with her hands.

"Okay so I know this is going to be difficult but can you tell me exactly what happened, I know this happened more than once but can you tell me about the first incident?" she asked Esmerelda who gulped and started slowly.

"Well….I was in my bedroom reading…..my parents were at work" Esmie started of slowly. "Then my parents came into my room and I thought it was a little odd..." Esmerelda admitted, remembering at the time she had wondered why they were there.

"Why did you find that odd?" the officer asked her her eyebrows narrowed in confusion.

"Well my parents don't really enter mine or my sisters rooms, if they need to talk to us they call us down" Esmerelda replied as the woman wrote, the sound of her pen scratching the paper frantically could be heard.

"Okay so what happened then?" The officer asked Esmerelda looking at her.

"My father started to talk to me...he was just saying how I was stupid for giving my magic away and then he said I needed to be punished..." Esmerelda went on pausing at the last word.

"Alright and then what happened?" the woman asked her.

"Well then he…...used….." Esmerelda stopped clearly getting to this part of the story was getting to much for her.

"I know this is hard Esmerelda but I need you to tell me" the officer told her.

"He….us….used a….a…. s...spell….it,...it…..it….pa…..pa….paralysed….m...me….I …..I couldn't….move" Esmerelda explained stuttering through the sentence.

"Then….h….he did….another…...t….that ….ma...made….my ….clothes….vanish" Esmerelda got out stuttering like she was just learning English. "And then …...he did it..." Esmerelda finished looking at the floor.

"I need a little more detail than that" the woman told her sympathetically.

"What more do you need? Are you stupid, do you not know how sex works?" Esmerelda rudely replied, annoyed at the stupidity of this.

"Of course I do but I need to know exactly what happened so I can help you" the officer replied not saying anything, she was used to people being rude.

"He got on top of me and….forced himself on me" Esmerelda replied still unable to say the word rape. She started to cry at this point and the officer knew pushing her would not help, she had the basic idea what had happened, she needed to let the girl heal a little before she asked her for anything more.

"Alright thank you, why don't we change our topics for a bit and tell me about the pregnancy, was he the father?" the woman asked bluntly and Esmerelda slowly nodded after a few seconds but kept her head down crying.

"And how did he react when he found out about it?" the officer now asked.

"He was angry...both my parents were" Esmerelda told the woman.

"Why were they so mad when they knew how it had happened?" the woman asked Esmerelda not understanding that.

"Because…..I refused an abortion…." Esmerelda replied crying much more now she was talking about this. Ada had not known that part of the story, so her parents had known before she was hospitalised. She had kept that part hidden.

"You were planning on keeping the child?" the officer asked the woman and Esmerelda shrugged again, her answers getting much more vague.

"But they refused to let you?" the officer asked for emphasis. "I know this is difficult but can you tell me about the days leading up to your miscarriage, do you think anything they did could have made what happened more likely?" the woman asked her expecting the girl to be upset at this question.

"I don't want to talk about it" Esmerelda told the woman still grieving over the baby and not wanting to talk about it when it was fresh.

"I know it is difficult but this can help your case, were your parents aware of the pain you were in?" the officer now asked trying to change the question slightly to see if she could get a better answer but Esmie was clearly done.

"Please ….don't..." Esmerelda said standing up in tears.

"Esmerelda sit down...you can take all the time you need I just need you to answer my questions" the woman said but Esmerelda shook her head as she burst into tears and left the room. Ada jumped up to follow her.

"Sorry" the officer said with a sigh and Ada shook her head.

"It isn't your fault, this is going to be really difficult" Ada told the woman who nodded in response sadly knowing Ada was right. "Do you think we can leave it for now?" Ada asked thinking the girl had had more than enough.

"Yes, it will probably be best" the woman agreed as Ada rushed out the room to go and find the young blonde.