Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl. Chapter 5: Nosey Part 3
DISCLAIMER: Daria is the creation of Glen Eichler and is the property of MTV Viacom. Harry Potter is the creation of JK Rowling and is the property of JK Rowling, Warner Brothers, and Wizarding World. I own neither franchise, nor do I expect or deserve any financial compensation for this work of fiction. I am writing for my own amusement and ego gratification, not for financial remuneration.
Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl* Daria Ravenclaw: The Year of the Owl
Matthew Stearne pulled in to the Bagpiper's parking lot. He didn't like the apartment complex; It was old, beat-up, and he didn't like his neighbors. Some were elderly: people who lived on pensions and Social Security, others on Social Security and disability, several of them were drunks, and a couple of them were clearly the sorts his parents had told him to stay away from.
He'd not had a pleasant day at school. He'd had to report to Principal Trimble's office and then try to explain why he'd taken an interest in Mrs. Aldrete's twins and Mrs. Morgendorffer's older daughter. He'd explained that he'd received reports that they'd been participating in anti-social behavior; Principal Trimble told him that he'd received angry letters and phone calls from Mrs. Morgendorffer, an attorney who worked in Midland, calling his allegations falsehoods and threatening legal action.
He trudged upstairs to his apartment door, put his key in the lock and tried to turn it. It wouldn't budge. He tried again and he could hear the tumblers inside the lock move but it still wouldn't open.
Hot. Spit, he thought. He'd have to talk to the manager.
He walked to the manager's office and found that it was closed for the day. The manager didn't live on the premises; instead she lived at another complex and Matthew wasn't sure which one. He'd have to call a locksmith. He angrily stalked back towards his apartment. He did have a cell phone, but he left it at his apartment.
He was screwed.
A dyed-blonde girl looked at him while he was trudging towards the staircase.
"Hey!" she said. "Wassup?"
He took a closer at the girl. She looked like all those cool, hot girls he saw back when he was a high-schooler, then as an undergrad at college: the ones who looked like they were ready to go out and party all night. Most of those never gave him so much as a passing glance.
"I locked myself out," he replied.
"Bummer," said the girl. "Like can't you call the manager or somethin'?"
"I can call, but she's gone for the night and I need to get a locksmith," he replied.
"You got a cell or do you need a phone?" she said.
"I need a phone," he replied. "I left mine inside."
"That really sucks," she said.
"Hey, there's a phone in my place."
"You don't have to," said Matthew.
"It's OK," she said. "I'm cool."
He went downstairs and entered her apartment. He didn't think it was decorated the way a girl would decorate her place.
"is there some guy living here?" he asked.
"Yeah, Darryl," she said disdainfully. "This is his place. I'm house-sitting while he's away at the Cimarron."
Hey, want something to drink?" she asked.
"What is it?" he said, when she returned with what looked like a pink-colored shake in two different glasses.
"It's a Smoothie," she said. "It gives me energy and helps me keep my weight down. I drink it all the time." Well, she drank it sometimes. She'd made two before Matthew had gotten home and cut his with a potion that made its victims pliable and suggestible.
She handed him a Smoothie, then raised her glass. "Here's mud in your eye," she said cheerfully and too a sip of hers.
An older and wiser guy might have been more careful about taking drinks from strangers, but Stearne hadn't yet reached that point of wisdom. Not wanting to disappoint the pretty girl, he raised the glass to his lips He drank all of it and before too long he started gently swaying and Jenny realized that he was under the influence.
"Now Matthew, I want you to remain seated for a moment," she said.
"Sure," said Matthew who was gently swaying on the couch, clearly under the influence.
She knocked on the bedroom door to let Casales know that Stearne was under control.
"Hey, Bill, Matthew here has had a little too much," she said. "I think we need to get him to the doctor." She let Casales put his arm around Stearne's shoulder to keep him from falling, then said "See you at the Clinic."
Casales disapparated out with a loud pop, taking Stearne with him.
-(((O-O)))—
The Clinic wasn't a clinic. It was actually an interrogation room in the MACUSA's Department of Magical Law Enforcement facilities in Abilene. Casales let Matthew Stearne slide into the padded chair across from him.
"Hey, Matt," said Casales. "That Smoothie is not working out for you. Could you stay there until you come down a little?"
"Sure," said Stearne.
Jenny entered the room, her wand out. She was positive that Stearne was under the influence, but she preferred to play it safe. She'd played too close to the edge by remaining alone in a room with a person of interest like Stearne and she wanted to get back in the safety zone.
"Hey, Matt, how're you feeling?" she said.
"Weird," he said. "like I'm dizzy and that I'm walking on cushions. Was that Smoothie spiked?"
Jenny looked at Casales and smirked. Matt wasn't all dumb then.
"Matt, we have to ask you some questions," said Casales.
"Whatever," said Matt. "Could I have some water?"
"We heard about some of the students you're interested in?" said Casales.
"Which ones?" said Stearne.
"The ones over at Ferguson Elementary," said Casales.
"Oh," said Stearne, still clearly under the influence, "you mean the three girls?"
"Yeah, the older Morgendorffer and the Aldrete twins," said Jenny. She'd been briefed before the operation.
"So what inspired you to get interested in Miss Morgendorffer and Connie Aldrete?" asked Casales.
"I was trying to reach out to some of the children at the school, the ones in trouble," said Stearne. "Make a difference. I thought I could shake things up."
"So how did you pick those three girls?" asked Casales.
"The other kids helped," said Stearne. "Notes under my door. Said they were into drugs or troublemakers."
Casales and Pullman weren't the only ones listening to Stearne. The interrogation room had a see-through mirror as well as devices that acted much like Mundie speakers and microphones. Audelia Custis, the head of MACUSA's social services for the Sweetwater District, listened to Stearne's comments and frowned.
"Fool," she said, not bothering to keep her thoughts to herself. She was an administrator these days but she'd been down in the trenches for years before she moved up. She'd not only dealt with troubled magical children and parents and troubled Mundie children and parents, but also with more than a few Mundane social workers and administrators, howbeit usually undercover, not as someone working for the MACUSA. This Stearne fellow had not only violated the guidelines she was certain were in place in Highland's schools but had also set off a Mundie-style witchhunt. She was tempted to go right in and give the Stearne fellow a piece of her mind. However, she was a professional and she needed to bide her time.
The interrogation went on. Yes, there was another social worker at the young witches' school. No, Stearne had not followed school procedures when he decided to single out the three girls for attention. He'd thought that anonymous notes under his door was enough evidence to launch his inquiry.
One of the Obliviators walked in to the room and set her coffee on the small table next to Audelia.
"Are they about done with him yet?" she asked.
"Not yet," said Audelia. "I think you need to give him a hypnotic suggestion to follow procedures and to leave those girls alone."
Casales left the Interrogation Room a couple of minutes later. "We're about done with him," he said. "He doesn't appear to be a Scourer, just a nosy idiot."
"That's about what I concluded," said Mrs. Custis.
She waited a couple of more minutes, knocked on the door, then entered the Interrogation Room.
"Mr. Stearne, I'd like to have a word with you," she said.
"Whatever," said Stearne.
"You violated procedures when you bothered the Morgendorffer girl and the Aldrete sisters," she said. "That was a bad thing. You shouldn't do that."
"That was a bad thing," Stearne echoed. "I shouldn't do that."
"No, you shouldn't," said Mrs. Custis.
"Nope," said Stearne.
"The Aldrete girls and Miss Morgendorffer are none of your business," said Mrs. Custis. "Do you think you can remember that?"
"I can remember that," said Stearne. "The Aldrete girls and Miss Morgendorffer are none of my business."
Still feeling more than a little out-of-it from the potion, he asked "So what now?"
"You'll have a moment with Cloud, then we'll send you home," said Mrs. Custis.
"Home," said Stearne. "That would be nice. I'm tired. I wanna call it a day."
He didn't see Mrs. Custis motion the Obliviator into the room. Nor did he remember the Obliviator modifying his memories. He did remember seeing his turned-down sheets and pillow welcoming his arrival and fell asleep almost immediately.
-(((O-O)))—
The next morning Stearne woke up with a headache and the certainty that something had happened last night, although he didn't remember what. In any case, Daria Morgendorffer and the Aldrete sisters were no longer on his mind. He decided that maybe Ms. Javert could help him learn how to spot the school's more troubled children.