Chapter Twenty-Five.

Back to St Mungo's.

The four of them stepped out of the hospital, Adam and Tony supporting Gabrielle, while Holly, holding an armful of medication given to her by the doctors, brought up the rear. Adam led the way to an alley leading away from the hospital to a bin store.
"Take her to St Mungo's, then come back and get us." He said to Tony, allowing him to take Gabrielle's weight on his arm, before disappearing.
"What do we do now"? Holly asked.
"Wait for Tony to come back for us."
"I mean after that"?
"Depends on when St Mungo's will allow us to question the young girl."
She pulled her phone out, Adam took a deep breath and shook his head as he realised she was wearing her digital notebook and recording. "We could be waiting a while, is it alright if I call a friend of mine to see if she can join me in the Leaky Cauldron?"
"You've been to the Leaky Cauldron"? He asked.
"Have you?" She replied more surprised than Adam.
"A few times now."
"My mother used to leave me there while she took my brilliant brothers shopping. I never went down Diagon Alley though." She replied forlornly. "Mother said I wasn't allowed."
"It's quite an amazing place, always different every time I see it."
The phone beeped, she smiled at Adam and started talking to someone, while still juggling the bag from the hospital. Adam took it from her as Tony re-appeared in front of them.
"Ready?" He asked stopping and waiting when he saw Holly on the phone.
"Not really, Holly has her own police notebook which is on and recording. I'm at a loss how I'm going to sort this out."
"Don't worry, it's a Ministry problem."
"Another thing, the Commissioner mentioned that he had reviewed our phone information," Tony looked up, "he didn't seem particularly surprised."
Holly put her phone back in her pocket and looked at them. "That was weird. Tony, can you drop me off at the Leaky Cauldron?"
"I'm getting used to weird," Adam said. "Anything we should be worried about?"
"I don't know, but when I mentioned you two by name, my friend started sounding panicky and said she needs to meet me straight away."
I'll drop you off on route then me and Adam can go up to the hospital. We'll meet you back at the Cauldron later." He grabbed their arms and Diagon Alley appeared around them, their appearance in the busy street attracted almost no attention, except for those in the way, who went around them, continuing on their way.
Holly was now on her own as Tony and Adam disappeared. She looked around at the strange people for a moment and froze when she saw a woman come out of a shop, which wasn't a shop, but the Daily Prophets office. Holly realised that the woman's oddly embroidered, colourful hat was that of her mothers. The last thing she needed was a showdown here. She turned and ran down the little corridor and into the Leaky Cauldron, glancing back at the Alley to make sure she hadn't been seen, wishing she could browse the shops, just once.

Adam found himself standing in the now familiar foyer of St Mungo's as the wave of nausea passed almost unnoticed. In front of them was the matron, her hand on her hips and a stern look on her face.
"You two are nothing but trouble. She's on the first floor."
"Is she able to be interviewed"? Adam asked.
"Hex removal is a very delicate process, Mr Croft. By the way, Gwen is resting comfortably in my home." She turned away to leave Adam feeling bemused and a little guilty.
"Your home?" He called after her.
"You don't think I actually live in this hospital. I do have a life, sometimes." She shouted back without turning.
"Adam looked at Tony and found a young nurse standing next to them, smiling. "Miss Lynwood wishes to see you both." Adam looked at Tony.
"She wishes to see us." He turned to the nurse. "Lead on."
She walked off up the stairs to the first floor, gesturing for them to enter a small room. Gabrielle was lying in a bed much like the one she had just left in Brighton, but without the bank of machinery bleeping away.
"Thanks for bringing me here Mr Garrett." She said as they sat down on a couple of chairs that were placed ready. "Apparently the fall didn't do too much damage. I think my head might be a little tougher than I thought. My leg and arm are already fixed."
"You know Tony?" Adam asked.
"We went to Hogwarts, he's a couple of years older than me." Adam looked at Tony, his eyebrows raised.
"We're not exactly a big community, everyone sort of knows everyone, mostly, and you didn't look like that at school." He said to her.
She smiled at him. "I grew up?"
"What about the spell on your memories?" Asked Tony.
"The matron said that it was a crude attempt to hide my memories, which has been lifted, although they want me to stay just in case something else was added."
"What do you mean by added?" Asked Adam.
"Sometimes a simple spell can be put on someone, which can mask another deeper spell. Mungo's takes no chances, they've been caught before." Tony said, turning back to the girl. "What can you tell us?"
"Not a lot, me and Eric met about six months ago, we were both working in Hogsmeade, which was pretty boring most of the time. The job doesn't last all year, when the school is closed for the holidays, most of us have to go home. Eric told me about a long-term job in London, not far from here."
"Hampton Wick Station by any chance?" Adam asked.
She looked at him. "How did you know that?"
"I'm good at guessing, please continue."
"Eric said we could get a job down at some market near Hampton Wick, so we left and flew down one night. We found this girl, who Eric knew and a couple of her friends living in a disused building, they weren't living very well. Eric introduced her as Hulda and her friends were called Dulcy and Urian." Adam nodded. "Anyway, she explained that a market was about to come to town and we could get jobs that could be permanent, as long as we didn't mind travelling."
"The Moon market," Tony said.
Her head spun towards him. "You two seem to already know all this?"
"Please continue Miss Lynwood," Adam said.
"Anyway, we had little money, but it was comfortable enough, so we decided to stay, waiting for this weird market to turn up. That was when Hulda started to talk about the..." She stopped and looked at Adam.
"Muggle problem, perhaps?"
"Yes. She was going on about a prophecy that would solve the problem, but we need to help it along. She said we needed to gain followers willing to do what was needed."
"And did she?"
"A man turned up, he wasn't like your average wizard, he had money, you could tell by his clothes."
"What did he look like?"
"No idea, he wore a mask, and he didn't talk a lot, letting Hulda drone on mostly. Several more turned up, one quite large group. They never stayed, but they had plenty to say, mostly about how horrible the Muggles were."
"What did you think to all this?"
"I have Muggle friends from before I went to school, they are, hopefully, still my friends, so I didn't agree with them being bad, but I do agree with the things they are doing to the world and our lands." Her head dropped down as she thought. "Then Hulda brought an old guy to see us, he was out of work because of something to do with dragons. She started asking him to help, but he argued with her, saying she was wrong. She turned her wand on him. I think she used the imperious curse on him, I'm not sure, but that's what it seemed like. That's when I decided it was time to leave."
"Did you know the man's name?"
"I think she said it was Ramsey something." They both nodded at her. "Anyway, she and one of her friends took him away. Is he alright?"
"He was found not far from here, a little worse for wear, but fine," Adam said quietly.
"I thought she'd killed him."
"What happened when you decided to leave?"
"I didn't tell anyone, just waiting until I was alone, grabbed a broom, and flew away."
"Why didn't you apparate?" Adam asked.
"I can't apparate very far, a couple of miles at most. I find brooms easier."
"Then what happened?"
"I was flying away, not sure of the direction when I realised I was being followed, it was Eric, he was calling me, telling me to come back. I ignored him and tried to fly faster, which wasn't difficult as the broom I had was a pretty good one." She paused looking at them both. "I saw the sea ahead of me and dived down over a lot of buildings, but they weren't very tall and he followed me down. Then I realised that he wasn't alone, Hulda was with him. She was screaming at him to get me. Then he started using his wand, which was a bit pointless because I knew Eric was crap, but she wasn't, her spells were dangerous and aimed right at me. I managed to keep low and dodge around buildings, but they tried to come at me from two sides. Then I saw a bright flash and I heard Eric cry out, she had missed me and hit him. I watched him fold up and fall; he was a long way above me. Just before he hit the ground, something hit me and I can remember nothing after that until I saw you all standing around my bed."
Tony pulled his wand from his pocket and was about to touch her temple, he already had a small bottle ready in his other hand. There was a polite cough from behind them, they turned and found the Matron watching them.
"I know you both have jobs to do, but this young lady needs her rest. Would it be possible for you to come back tomorrow to take her memory and continue talking to her?"
"As long as we don't end up in Africa again," Adam said as he stood up.
She wagged her finger at him. "Come back in the morning." She turned and stepped through another doorway that had appeared on the wall beside her. They looked back at Gabrielle, who waved from her bed, then turned and left through the real door.
"I've spent the last ten years telling everyone what to do and in the last few days, she has made me feel like a rookie again," Adam said as they started descending the stairs.
"They're

bred that way."
"That does not surprise me. Anyway, we need to find somewhere quiet to sit down and work out what we know so far."
"Shall we join Holly in the Cauldron?"
"Not straight away, she's meeting a friend."
Tony placed his hand on his arm as they stepped through the main door and Diagon Alley appeared around them, looking almost the same as the first time Adam had arrived here, although a little less shocking this time. He pointed to a bench outside a small shop.
"What do you want to talk about?" Tony asked as they sat down.
"Inconsistencies." Tony looked puzzled. "Miss Lynwood stated she was waiting for the Moon market, but we both know the Moon market had been and gone before she was knocked out of the air."
"Good point, unless Hulda was lying to them about that."
"How could they miss those huge blue domes over the market?"
"She also mentioned Dulcia Woodrow and Urian Adair were both at the meeting. We need to get to a Pensive and look at her memories."
"You mentioned that before, where can we find one of these Pensive's?"
"The Ministry has the only one I know of. I think most schools have one."
"The Ministry is currently out of bounds. I wonder who the other well dressed Wizard she mentioned was?"
"If his face was masked, then a pensive won't allow us to identify him."
"One thing I've been thinking about, which Miss Lynwood seems to have confirmed, is that we might be dealing with at least two crimes. I think that whoever at the Ministry decided to get us involved, grabbed the awkward stuff and dumped it on us."
"Could very well be, but how did you work that out?"
"The murders we first investigated seem to be different to whatever Hulda Scrivens seems to be doing, different MO, different settings. The murders seem to have been a message to someone, whereas Hulda's crimes seem to be more emotionally based."
"We'd have more if we could see her two friends' memories as well. I'll have a go at contacting someone at the Ministry, who we can trust."
"Sounds good to me, but one thing before we go?" Adam said. "She mentioned a prophecy, that's the second time I've heard this."
"Who else mentioned it?"
"Botilda in the Leaky Cauldron when we met her the first time. She said to treat people how you want to be treated and avoid prophecies."
"Good advice. You carry on to the Cauldron and I'll pop into the office and see who I can contact about the Pensive."