Daria Ravenclaw No Country Drive to Midland
Daria is the creation of Glenn Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is owned by JK Rowling and Warner Brothers. I own neither. I neither expect nor deserve financial compensation for this story. I am writing for my own amusement and for ego gratification
Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country* Daria Ravenclaw: No Country*
"I am trying to reach Helen Morgendorffer," said Arcturus.
Iago looked at him questioningly. Arcturus raised his finger, as if to say "Wait."
"I see," he said a couple of minutes later..
"She's trying a case?" he asked.
"A federal case?" he asked. "At the federal courthouse?"
"So she'll be busy all morning? I see."
"Perhaps I'll try my luck tomorrow," he said. "Thank you."
Arcturus hung up the telephone with a smile. "We have a destination," he said. "We are going to Midland."
They went downstairs and had the valet fetch their rented car. Arcturus had thought about how he'd spend the remainder of his time in Highland if he discovered that his great-granddaughter was a witch. He'd decided that he would do well to take a closer look at his great-granddaughter's mother. He knew little Daria's personality bore scant resemblance to that of her father or of her uncle Regulus. While he thought he saw traces of Walburga's indirect genetic influence on the girl, he suspected that Helen Morgendorffer contributed far more to her daughter's body and mindset.
He was already aware that little Daria's mama was a lawyer. But while he was aware that Helen Morgendorffer was a lawyer, it might be illuminating to see clever a lawyer she was. Was she some sort of glorified legal assistant, or did she lead cases herself? How intelligent was Helen Morgendorffer, and how much of Helen Morgendorffer's cleverness was passed on to her daughter?
Arcturus had already perused the highway map and knew that Midland was some distance off, a good thirty miles away from Highland. Arcturus settled back in his seat and looked at the landscape.
The drive to Midland was not all that interesting. The countryside certainly looked dryer than what he was used to back in England. The terrain, while not flat, lacked much in the way of hills or dales. There was green grass out, which Arcturus supposed could feed more than the scattered grazing cattle he occasionally saw chewing grass, watching highway traffic, sitting down, or looking utterly bored. There were also Mesquite trees, which Arcturus surmised must be common in this part of Texas. He did see several large devices that must be oil pumps, although he thought he heard someone at breakfast at the Hotel Aylesford call them pump jacks the other morning. None of the ones he saw were working. The car first passed Sulphur Creek Draw, then Salt Lake.
Iago would have disagreed with the older wizard about the grazing had Arcturus shared his thoughts about it. The countryside reminded him a bit of North Africa. Yes, there was some grass out now, but come summer, the grass would thin out or turn brown with summer heat and lack of rain and die. He caught glimpses of irrigated fields here and there when he didn't have to mind the antics of the drivers in front or to either side of him; clearly the Muggles knew that rain was unreliable hereabouts.
Both Arcturus and Iago could see that this part of the world was tied to the petroleum industry. There were warehouses for oil drilling supplies, facilities for installing or repairing oil field equipment, and lots with used oil field machinery for sale. There were a lot of the latter. Arcturus had heard conversations at the Hotel Aylesford's restaurant that the area was going through an oil bust.
He and Iago reached the outskirts of Midland shortly after they crossed the Midland County line. Some of the houses and Muggle-style stores looked much like the ones in Highland, except somewhat larger and better kept. Others were newer, larger, and much more impressive, although here and there, a few older shops, warehouses, and shabby motels remained here and there.
Midland was different than Highland. It was larger, for one thing, it looked far more prosperous, and had a clump of tall buildings at the city center. Arcturus thought that Midland was the sort of provincial city that Highland had once aspired to be but failed to become: large, modern, and prosperous. Still, even though Midland was clearly more prosperous than Highland, there was that atmosphere of worry that had resulted from the oil bust.
The center of Midland was a collection of high-rise office buildings surrounded by smaller two- and three-story buildings and parking lots. Arcturus thought that it looked like a smaller, provincial copy of larger American Muggle cities like Chicago or New York. A thought that came off and on over the years came back to bother him: the Muggles were constructing a world that excluded magic and could probably carry on very well without it. It was not a pleasant one.
It took Iago about fifteen minutes to work out the traffic flows of downtown Midland and then find a way to navigate their way to the right block of Wall Street and the federal court house. There was a parking lot across the street. By serendipity, Iago was able to find a parking spot and took it. It was a paid lot, guarded by an old muggle sitting in a flimsy-looking wooden booth with the doors and windows up for ventilation. Iago decided that the flat rate for the remainder of the day was extortionate, but not outrageously so.
They crossed the street, feeling unnervingly exposed to automobile traffic and lunatic motorists in the comparatively wide street, then entered the court house. To their surprise they did have to pass through something called a metal detector. Arcturus thought of the daggers he had in his luggage at the Hotel Aylesford back in Highland; he would have been in a sticky wicket if the Muggle guards had found them here. The Muggles did see his and Iago's wands, but let them keep them. He felt a faint shimmer of magic, wondered about it, then dismissed the thought that it might have any significance. This was a Muggle building housing Muggle courts and dealing with Muggle law. He couldn't imagine any sort of connection to the American wizarding world.
It took a couple of tries to find the right court room. The one he was searching for was on the second floor. He and Iago let themselves in, then found seats in the vistors' gallery and sat down. Arcturus quickly guessed that the fellow sitting behind the raised dais must be the judge hearing the case. But unlike Wizarding courts at the Ministry, witnesses, counsels for the plaintiffs, and counsels for the defendants were all at the same level, with only a railing separating them from the visitors. Helen Morgendorffer was the co-counsel for the defendant in a commercial case regarding a breach of contract. Arcturus recognized her from the photographs he'd seen of her as well as from the time he'd actually seen her in person.
This was a different Helen Morgendorffer than the one he'd seen back in Highland. Mrs. Morgendorffer was not being placating or motherly. She was confidently putting forth her arguments using logic, facts and established legal precedents to make her case for the defendant. Nor was she a mere legal assistant here. In fact, she was all but the formal leading counsel. Mrs. Morgendorffer had constructed the defendant's defense, chosen what legal arguments she'd use to defend her clients, and where she hadn't researched the evidence she planned to use herself, she had directed her subordinates' research.
Arcturus decided to use his legilimency to peer into the minds of the magistrate, Mrs. Morgendorffer, and the other lawyers. The presiding judge was of the opinion that Mrs. Morgendorffer was presenting a very competent, well-constructed legal case. The counsel for the plaintiff was unhappy because the defendants' counsel was a highly competent tigress who was either checking or demolishing his own legal arguments, and wishing that he'd opted for a trial by jury instead of having the judge decide solely on its legal merits. Mrs. Morgendorffer was confident and Arcturus felt the woman's sub-conscious show the attitude of a general flattening her opposition. So engrossed was Arcturus in watching the legal proceedings that he failed to notice the five MACUSA marshals enter the courtroom and take seats to his sides, his read, and in front of him.
Judge Pound glanced at the spectators' gallery in his courtroom. Unusually, this morning's proceedings had a couple of spectators, an older man and his younger companion. The older man looked far older than the younger one. Grandfather and grandson? There was something off about them, something he couldn't put his finger on, but definitely off. He decided that they were harmless. Besides, he didn't have the time or attention to spare for speculation.
He glanced again at the spectators' gallery again about fifteen minutes later. The two oddballs were joined by a local character he recognized named James Dillon. He'd seen Dillon in his courtroom and around the court house every now and again and even chatted with him once or twice. Dillon dressed like something from the Wild West, complete with floral vest, duster, and a string tie, although he kept his hat off his head in the court room. He also carried himself like a peace officer. Despite his carriage and behavior, however, Dillon insisted that he was no lawman and that he had no ties to federal, state, or local law enforcement. Judge Pound suspected that James Dillon wasn't telling the whole truth, and occasionally wondered why.
Still, Judge Pound liked having James Dillon in his courtroom. While federal courtrooms tended to be orderly places even on the worst occasions, whenever Mr. Dillon was seated in the visitors' gallery, things seemed to be particularly orderly. Judge Pound knew he did a good job at keeping counsel for opposing sides in his cases on good behavior, and he knew that he had the bailiff at hand to handle rowdy spectators, but with James Dillon in the court room, spectators were even more likely to be well-behaved. As far as he was concerned, James Dillon was on his good books.
Judge Pound could glanced again at the visitors' gallery and could sense rising tension. The attorney for the plaintiff had opened another legal brief and was about to begin a rebuttal to Helen Morgendorffer's counter-argument.
"Mr. Cowan, a moment please," said Judge Pound. He looked at the bailiff, who'd also noted the rising tension in the visitors' gallery, and then glanced back at the judge. The bailiff looked at James Dillon, who looked back at the bailiff, who then looked back at him. It looked like the bailiff thought that Mr. Dillon had things under control.
Judge Pound turned to Mr. Cowan and said "Please proceed, Mr. Cowan."
Arcturus' concentration on Helen Morgendorffer was broken when he felt someone pull on his jacket sleeve and pass him a note. The note read "Could you come with us, please?" Arcturus looked to the men sitting to either side of them and realized that these must be the Marshals.
He slowly and carefully drew a Muggle-style ballpoint pen from his pocket and wrote "Not yet. Could you let me watch for a few minutes? Then I'll peacefully go with you."
The Marshal who'd tugged his sleeve wrote "No magic, keep your hands away from your wand, and keep your hands out where we can see them."
The judge had stopped listening to the other lawyer and was eyeing him, Iago, and the American Marshals. Arcturus realized that he'd put his foot in it. He put his hands on the bench in front of him and sighed.
Somehow, the leading Marshal communicated something to the uniformed Muggle, who communicated something to the Judge, and the Judge allowed the lawyer opposing Mrs. Morgendorffer to resume his rebuttal.
The Judge accepted the rebuttal, although Arcturus never heard whether the Judge thought it was valid or not. The counsel from the plaintiff began discussing some point of law with his assistant counsel, and Arcturus realized that that was probably all he was going to hear of today's case. He turned the piece of paper in his lap and wrote, "Very well, I shall peacefully accompany you." Then the leading Marshal rose, as did the other Marshals, as did he, and then Iago, and they all exited the court room.
"Please don't try to apparate away," the Marshal said softly. "We not only have wards that alert us whenever wizards and witches are in the Muggle court house, but we also have splinching jinxes that kick in unless you know the right countercharms. Some of those splinches can be fatal."
They went down the hallway and entered what looked like some sort of cleaning-woman's closet. Not unsurprisingly, there was a floo there.
"It's a closed system," said the Marshal. "It only goes to one place." Arcturus accepted the floo powder, threw it down, and vanished.
He reappeared—someplace else. He didn't think that the American Aurors, these Marshals, shared the same contiguous space with the Muggle federal court house. This place had the air of someplace older. Arcturus suspected that it was some distance away.
"Could you follow me, please?" said the leading American Marshal.
"I should introduce myself," said the leading Marshal. "My name is James Dillon, I'm the Senior Marshal in charge of this district for MACUSA's Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Is this the same district as Commissioner Thorngrove's, then?" asked Arcturus.
"No," the Marshal replied. "You crossed over from Commissioner Thorngrove's district over to Commissioner Fred Avery's district when you crossed the Midland county line. Not to speak ill of Commissioner Thorngrove, but things have gotten a bit slack over on his turf during the last decade or so."
"It wasn't always that way. Mister Thorngrove was quite the wizard in his day. I personally think he ought to retire now, instead of letting the clock run out."
"Are we in trouble then?" asked Iago.
"You're not being charged with anything, but MACUSA's DMLE has a policy of not allowing wizards and witches to interfere with the operation of Habanero courts and the Habanero US Department of Justice except under specific authorized circumstances. Statutes of Secrecy and all that. You fellas tripped the wards when you entered the Federal Court House."
"Are we under arrest?" Arcturus asked politely.