The Mysterious Department
Chapter Four: Hermione's First Case
The dice lay hot in his palm and he slowly closed his fist over them, shaking with exhilaration, adrenaline, and power.
He felt like a god right now and as he surveyed the slumped over but decidedly dead bodies on the table and surrounding it, a sick smile covered his thin lips. "It works," he muttered out and a soft feminine voice chuckled off to his side. It belonged to a woman wearing a slinky and shiny golden skin tight dress. Her shoulders were bare, her blonde hair styled in the affect of a 1950s pin up girl brushing the pale skin. Smoke curled from her ruby red lips and from the cigarette holder between her gloved hands.
"Did I ever say it would not?" she asked, coming over and sitting on his lap and wrapping her arms around his neck like a lover would. "You can win any game you play. And all the money is yours, always."
His heart swelled with confidence. "I can be a millionaire," he decried, cackling madly, the world now his limit. And if anyone had still been alive they would have seen him talking to himself.
Hermione found she couldn't sleep at all this night, as she stayed up, silently practicing spells. Spells that were simple. The evening after they had returned from work, Hermione had confessed that she had wanted to learn more about spells and Dora had acquainted her with the wonders of Grimmore Manor's giant library. It was a large room, one that would make any bookworm or bibliophile jealous. Old tomes, new tomes, books in popular print, books in rare print, and books on topics ranging on anything and everything. It was a very extensive collection.
Hermione could spend hours alone in this room but there would be time for that later. Right now, she wanted to study up on beginner spells as much as she could. She knew she had been urged to attend to battle spells, but she very much did not want to do that and destroy the manor. Beside, it did not work well without a sparring partner and Hermione did not know enough to even conjure a dummy up.
So that morning she went downstairs, bags under her eyes and body a bit lethargic from the little sleep she got.
"Rough night?" Dora asked over her mug of tea.
"Busy studying," Hermione answered, glancing over at Bellatrix who as usual, was ignoring them in favor of her paper. The images on it moved and Hermione wondered how that worked. Was it magical ink? Or magical paper that made it work? "I actually wanted to ask you, could you take me to this Hogwarts place so I can learn more magic? Books are great and all, but if the option of a class exists, I'd be more than pleased to take one."
"Of course! I have no problem with that. I can only imagine if I was in your shoes and placed in the muggle world, I'd want to learn everything I could about it too."
"You don't know how the muggle world works?" To Hermione it was such common and blatant knowledge, it almost seemed absurd to know nothing of it.
"Sadly, we wizardkind have our heads stuck up our own arses and we don't care much for the learning of the muggle world. Much of our society looks down on your kind, even though I'm sure there are many reasons for why you're much brighter than given credit for."
"Well, that's insulting," Hermione commented, not sure how else to phrase it.
"It's how my kind has been for centuries and old habits die hard. That's not to say I wouldn't love to visit your world and learn more about it. Auntie Bella has seen loads of it because of her missions and you've already got a great understanding of it, so you should have no problem dealing with it."
"Sounds like I have a lot of history to read up on for this wizarding world as well," Hermione said, sitting down to eat. She didn't mind learning new things. She lived for it actually. She was only stressed about the time constraints. She was worried she wouldn't do a good job because she hadn't finished researching this world yet.
After she got over the shock of it all, it was honestly a fascinating place. Here Hermione, forever an entrepreneur of learning and discovering new worlds, was given the opportunity to study a whole new world that few of her muggle kind rarely got to.
Breakfast finished, with Dora and Hermione mildly chatting, they headed back to the department using the Floo network.
As Hermione sat at her desk, going over spell books, a loud noise from above drew her attention. It was that same boat from before, loud music and voices playing though she could see no one on it.
"Why is there a floating ship here?" she asked Luna who was the desk over. She was still working on that globe from last time, though she was putting it together now.
"That is the Caleuche, a magical artifact we captured. It used to show up near the island of Chiloe and it carries the souls of those who drowned at sea. It is always loud and party like because that is how it attracted new victims to it's deck. Once there, people would remain forever stuck, becoming one of the spirits."
"Why not keep it locked up in the Vault?" Hermione asked. This ship was dangerous. What if it dragged one of them to join it?
"It helps liven up the place, and it's pretty tame now," Luna answered casually. She turned back to her globe while Hermione watched the ship pass through the walls and continue it's ghostly journey else where. Ghosts must also be possible in the wizarding world and she decided she would need to do some research on magical beings as well.
Hours passed in this manner. Bellatrix splitting up her time between her files and the training room, Dora zipping back and forth, cleaning up the place or fixing one thing or another, Luna trained on the globe, and Hermione finishing up her books. It was a little past four when something exciting happened.
"Ah, the globe is done!" Luna announced and immediately it began to spin rapidly.
"What does it do?" Dora popped on by, stopping to admire it.
"It's supposed to automatically determine the location of rogue artifacts, or active ones." Her smile dropped when the globe stopped spinning. "Ladies, it looks like there's an artifact coming up."
The globe stopped on USA, Nevada, a small light emitting from the spot.
"Let me guess, Bellatrix and I need to go there?" Hermione asked as Luna nodded her head in confirmation. "What kind of artifact are we looking for?"
"Jasmin!" Luna called out.
Oh bloody hell, not the damn shrunken head again, Hermione worried to herself. It made her light headed and weirded out each time she saw it. But within seconds it was hoping by, a scroll rolled up in her mouth. Luna took it, while Hermione averted her eyes. The blonde unfurled it while the head hopped away.
"Ah, I figured it would be this," Luna said, though how she managed to read past her swirly glasses was a mystery. "We're hunting down the Devil's Dice."
That sounded ominous.
"Right. I'll look up information about it from the department library-"
Luna put a hand on Hermione to stop her. "There's no time. You have to go now. This artifact is a level three threat, and since it's in use, that means it's threat level has been bumped to a two."
Kingsley had explained threat levels to Hermione. The scale went from a one to a five. Five was practically harmless whereas an one was world altering.
"I'll owl you the necessary information while you and Bellatrix travel there. In the meantime, get going," Luna shooed Hermione towards Bellatrix who was already pulling on her suit jacket over her usual uniform of suspenders, pressed shirt, and tight slacks.
"You got everything?" Bellatrix asked as Hermione stood by her, not sure what to do. She hadn't expected to be thrown onto a case so early on.
"Uh, I think so. I got my gun and wand."
"But the outfit won't do," Bellatrix frowned, looking over the wizarding robes Kinglsey had gotten her.
"Am I not supposed to wear robes?" she asked, looking them over. It felt weird wearing them but she wanted to honor the wizarding culture and embrace it especially if it was hers.
"Not if you want to pretend to be an FBI agent." She pulled out her wand and with a quick swirl, Hermione's clothes had transformed into an all black outfit, complete with sunglasses. "Much better," Bellatrix said with a satisfied nod of her head. "Kingsley also created false documentation for us to use under any situation. FBI, CIA, M15, even a Kripsy Kreme identification if we would need one. They tailor to whatever case we need." Bellatrix dug out of her drawer two badges, tossing one to Hermione. "Don't lose it. Now let's get to the case. Time is a wasting."
"And how are we traveling across the pond so quickly? I doubt a fireplace can take us."
Bellatrix ignored that, instead holding out her hand. "Here we go," she said and Hermione tentatively took her arm. Their surroundings faded away and Hermione felt the sensation of being horrendously squeezed. She couldn't breath, couldn't blink, couldn't even swallow and panic filled her chest. She was robbed of sight, scent, touch and hearing.
Just when she thought she couldn't stand this sensation any longer, the world returned to her. She immediately dropped to the floor.
"Warn me before you do that!" Hermione gasped out from her position on her hands and knees. She squeezed her eyes as a wave of nausea hit her. That was terrible. Was that the teleportation Luna had been talking about? If so, Hermione much preferred the toilets and fireplaces. Though after she contemplated it later, it truly was marvelous being able to travel all those miles and all that water in mere seconds. It was just...wow.
"I did," Bellatrix said, rolling her eyes at the theatrics.
"All you said, was here we go!"
"Get up. People are going to stare." Bellatrix had no patience for Hermione.
Hermione got to her feet, dusting off her pants and saw that they had landed on a corner of downtown Las Vegas that wasn't as heavily trafficked. It was hot and she could feel the oppressing heat pressing in on all sides of her. "Now what do we do?"
"Now we have to find where the artifact is." Bellatrix discreetly pulled out her wand and uttered out, "locator artificium." A long thin line extended from the wand, and went shooting out into the air. It hovered over them, glowing brightly in the sky. "This will lead us to the artifact."
"And once we get to it?" Hermione asked as Bellatrix strode off quickly in the direction.
She frowned at Hermione, and if she weren't wearing sunglasses than Hermione would have been treated to one of her patented glares. "Have you not been listening to anything Kingsley or the Cleaner team have been telling you?"
"I have!" Hermione raced to complete. "I just want to be absolutely certain-"
"All you need to do on this mission is watch me. And don't interrupt." Bellatrix's tone was no nonsense.
"Fine," Hermione huffed out and followed in petulant silence.
They walked about three blocks before the heat started to really get to Hermione. It was just so oppressive. But whereas she was sweating through her jacket, Bellatrix looked as cool as a cucumber, almost as if enjoying this weather.
"How are you not sweating in this?" Hermione asked, pulling on the tight collar of her shirt, loosening it to get some merciful air onto her drenched skin. She pulled her wet hair up into a ponytail but it didn't do much.
A smirk lit Bellatrix's features, taking pleasure from Hermione's sodden state. "I cast a cooling charm on my clothes."
Hermione had to look that up. For she knew Bellatrix wouldn't do the charm for her if she even asked. Thankfully they didn't have to walk any further. The red line ended over a casino.
"It figures the dice would be here."
"Do you know anything about the dice?" Hermione asked.
"I do not. Luna's the one with all the knowledge on it. But she said she'd owl us information." And right on cue a barn owl fluttered past their heads, dropping down a scroll. Of course, how this was at all synced up by Luna, Hermione had no idea but she decided it would be a good idea to stop trying to make sense of these sorts of things and just go with them.
None of the people around them thought much of this. They probably saw the two women's uniforms and the owl above their heads as some part of a gimmick. Nothing out of the ordinary in Vegas than.
Bellatrix unrolled the scroll and read it. Hermione edged closer to her, almost too intimidated to stand this close least the witch snap at her. The words were in script so it took Hermione a bit of time to read. The info was to the point.
Devil's Dice, otherwise known as Lady Luck, is a figure that causes the user to have immense luck. However, this luck does not come without a cost. For each time the user utilizes the dice in a game, every person that is playing that game, will fall to the dice killer if they lose. And their loss is guaranteed for the user has all the luck.
To the scroll were attached several newspaper clippings that all detailed mysterious murders in casino's all over the USA. They started in New Jersey and had moved down to the south. Hermione's eyes bulged out. How was she going to stop something like this? With magic?
"We need to stop the game, then, if that's how the lives are being taken," Hermione said.
Bellatrix snorted. "I know that. But we won't know whose using the dice."
"Is there a spell for that? Like the one you just did?"
Bellatrix tucked the papers away into an inner pocket. "No. That spell only leads us to the general vicinity of the artifact. To find it, we'll have to do it the old fashioned way. You talk to the manager of the hotel, get on the camera feeds, and I'll do a sweep of all the floors."
"Right," Hermione confirmed, watching Bellatrix walk away before she realized she had no way of communicating with the woman once she found something. "Bugger," she grumbled to herself. Holding her back out, she decided she might as well go and get results.
She stepped up to the nearest security guard, a big stocky man and showed her the forged FBI badge, surprised it worked. "I need to speak to your casino manager now. I'm in pursuit of a suspect."
The guard called down the manager through his ear piece and Hermione stood there waiting, trying to come off as intimidating as possible so that she seemed legit. Standing with her legs stiff, her hands by her side and a scowl on her face. The manager came down within minutes.
"FBI agent Granger," Hermione flashed her badge again. "I need access to all camera feeds and recorded footage today. I am in current pursuit of a target and have reason to believe that he is on the premises."
"Is he dangerous?" the pudgy man asked, wiping his brow in worry.
"Have you heard of the casino murders?"
He nodded his head.
"I think that very person is in this casino and I need to check."
"Shouldn't we clear everyone out?"
"No. We don't want to alert him. Everything is to continue running. I have another agent canvassing the ground right now."
He took Hermione up without another word to the surveillance room. She knew that the murders hadn't happened yet, because if they had the casino would have been shut down so there was no point in looking back at that footage. So she looked at the live footage, scanning back and forth from the tiny black and white screens. But it was hard to tell where the suspect was. Was it a man? A woman? Could be anyone, young or old.
Hermione didn't even know how the rules of the dice game worked. Surely if they died in conjunction to as soon as they lost than there would be dead bodies and someone would definitely see. She only wished Bellatrix hadn't pocketed those newspaper clippings. Hermione would have to rely on her own deductions. And what she sensed was that once the game truly ended then the participants all died.
She caught a familiar figure moving in the corner of her eye and saw that Bellatrix was heading down to a restricted area. Of course!
Something clicked in Hermione's head. The casino had to be running more games. Games that were hidden and only for the really high rollers with high stakes. If the killer had won a dozen games already he was certain to have amassed enough money to do a high level killing in private where they could get away with it.
She turned to the manager so fast he flinched. "Where are your highest bidders playing today?"
"In...in.." he swallowed, clearly not wanting to relent this information, worried about the legality of it. Hermione could care less about that now. She needed to find the artifact.
"I need to know. The killer is probably with them."
He sighed. "In the basement, take the stairs on the right and through the door that looks locked."
Hermione rushed off. Bellatrix must have already figured this all out, that was why she was on the ground. So then what was the point of sending Hermione upstairs? To get her out of the way? Well, that stung. Hermione could handle solving cases. She had done so as a detective. Why did the black haired witch have qualms? Was it because Hermione was new to the wizarding world?
She raced to the location the manager had told her and found the supposedly locked door, open. Bellatrix must have forced her way through already. Hermione cautiously went through, drawing her gun to feel safer. She had no idea what she would see when she came down there. She went down the other stairs, coming to a dimly lit room. She hid behind the doorway and scanned the area. Smoke curled in the air, and men and women chattered as chips danced across the table. There were so many of them and Hermione recognized one of them as a British official. And sitting, laughing at some man's joke, was Bellatrix. Hermione almost didn't recognize her given her whole outfit had changed. She was no longer in her suit and pants but in a nice dress, hair let down and curling down her shoulders.
What the hell was she doing playing this game?! Didn't she know the consequences of doing it? Hermione wanted to run in and shake some sense into her but she couldn't. If she did she might ruin whatever cover Bellatrix had going on. Instead, she kept trying to catch Bellatrix's eye and eventually it worked. The woman saw her, and set down her glass as she got up. "Excuse me," she said. "I'm going to the bathroom. I'll be right back. No one touch my cards." They laughed at this and she made way. Once she got around the doorway, Hermione grabbed her and pulled her aside.
"What the bloody hell are you thinking?" she hissed, angry.
"I know what I'm doing. Don't get in my way," Bellatrix hissed back.
"In case you aren't aware of this, we're supposed to be working as a team. I don't appreciate being tricked in order to get brushed aside."
"And I told you to watch how I work. You don't know what you're dealing with, so be content to watch," Bellatrix wretched her arm free of Hermione's tight hold.
"Neither must you. Don't you know what entering a gam-"
"I know what I'm doing," Bellatrix cut in, her patience gone before she headed back to the game. And so all Hermione could do was stand there and hope Bellatrix wasn't about to get herself killed. The game progressed and all Hermione could do was pace and sweat and fret uselessly. Sounds of laughter sounded at wins and groans of disappointment at losses. Each time Hermione feared Bellatrix was one of them, but when she dared to look back out she saw that Bellatrix was holding her own. She was in the last three, with two other men. Hermione assumed one of them was the owner of the Devil's Dice. She analyzed both men's motions, trying to see who it could be. It was the little details that could reveal the most.
She eyed them. One looked nervous, given the slight tick of his jaw when he would swallow occasionally, and the way he shuffled his cards a bit as he decided over them. The other man looked more at ease, though he was looking at the other two players with intense looks as if deciding something about them. And his hand had the strange habit of wanting to hover over his pocket before remembering itself and relaxing. One would only do that if they had something very important there.
Hermione's eyes narrowed. That had to be him. She was sure of it.
He was an unassuming man. In his mid-thirties with salt and pepper hair. He was wearing a clearly expensive outfit, one he must have bought with all his ill gotten goods.
Hermione wondered what Bellatrix would do now. Certainly she must have figured out by now who the man was. Would she accost him after the other man dropped out? Or would she play the game to the end?
Great. Hermione felt useless and she hated that sort of feeling. And she most certainly disliked how Bellatrix had pushed her to the side, as if Hermione couldn't possibly handle such a case. She could, and she would. She had already figured out the suspect and she could have arrested him rather than endure a game with him!
Sighing she shook her head and decided to let the other woman do as she pleased. Which was something arduous for Hermione to do, considering she liked taking charge and doing things her way. She had a sneaking suspicion that Bellatrix and her were going to butt heads a lot on these cases.
Her inner musings were cut short when a scream sounded from the room, and suddenly several people stampeded out, nearly crushing Hermione in their hasty retreat. What was going on? She pushed her way into the room when they finished, drawing out her gun out of habit.
Inside she found Bellatrix seated at the poker table, coolly observing as the man with the salt and pepper hair clutched at his chest, gasping for breath on the table, his eyes bulging out and saliva dripping from his mouth. She slung an arm over the back of her seat and only looked up when Hermione came in, waving her gun around.
"Put that thing away least you shoot someone," Bellatrix warned.
"We need to get him medical attention," she put the gun away and rushed to his side.
"Nothing can save him now," was the cool assessment and Hermione turned with horror in her eyes to Bellatrix because the woman was right. The man had stopped struggling and the pulse in his neck no longer beat.
He was dead.
"Did you kill him?" she accused and Bellatrix's nostrils flared at the accusation.
"I detest being accused of something like that," she stood up, taller than Hermione by much due to the heels she was wearing. She placed her hands on her hips and glared Hermione down. "He lost the game and the artifact enacted its revenge on him by backfiring. I must admit I didn't fully suspect it would do that, but it was just for all the lives his selfish greed has taken."
There was so much wrong with that statement. "The judicial system should determine his punishment. Not us!" her hands balled up into fists as Bellatrix snorted derisively at her.
"We don't do things that way in the magical world. Magic has serious consequences and those who take the risk of tangling with the dark arts must learn to live with them, and suffer for them."
"He was just a muggle!" Hermione exclaimed, angry that such thinking of the magical world was old fashioned. It rubbed her the wrong way.
"Which makes his crimes even more egregious," Bellatrix said, before side stepping around Hermione. "Listen, we don't have time to engage in such childish debates-"
"Childish!" Hermione huffed, deeply affronted.
"-we need to neutralize the artifact and get out of here before the authorities come." She dug into his pocket and took out her wand. In her hand rested a pair of dice, blood red with black dots. They looked like nothing out of the ordinary but the power and influence they carried were scary. "Omen corrumpebant," she intoned and a soothing purple surrounded the object and wrapped around it before dissipating. "There, they are neutralized now." She pocketed them and with another wave of her wand was back to her usual outfit.
"What about his body?" Hermione asked, as Bellatrix strode out without another look behind.
"We'll leave it for the muggles to deal with. They need something to close the case of the casino killer and if we take it, it might cause more trouble for us than needed."
Hermione hated that answer too. It wasn't right to just leave him there. She sullenly followed Bellatrix out of the casino before Bellatrix traveled a bit down to a nice bar. She sat down, and ordered a drink like she hadn't just witnessed a man dying in front of her.
"Really, and now you're going to get drinks?" Hermione burst out.
"I'm in Las Vegas. I might as well enjoy some of my time here."
"Shouldn't we get the dice back immediately? Shouldn't, we you know, discuss the whole fucked up business of what you did back there?"
Bellatrix slowly turned on her chair, an almost bone chilling look in her dark eyes. "Miss Granger, let us make one thing clear," she said with a lento pace and a low tenor. "The wizarding world operates in a different manner than the muggle one. Thus, when working on these cases, we will do things my way. Is that clear?"
When Hermione didn't do anything, she leaned in, their noses an inch from brushing. "If I tell you to jump, you jump. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to shut up, you shut up. And most importantly, if I tell you to kill someone, you do it. Because magic is a serious thing, and trying to do the right thing all the time will get you killed or worse." She sat back, a drink sliding her way just as she finished. She raised it to her lips and took a hearty sip before turning to ignore Hermione, whose heart was beating with a mixture of dread and anger.
It wasn't right for this woman to boss her around like this. And killing others? Hermione blanched at that idea. She wouldn't do it, no matter what Bellatrix said. She was going to prove to her that she could do this job without losing her morals.
She raised a hand and ordered a drink as well because today had been a rough fucking day, mentally for her, and she deserved something for putting up with the ornery woman next to her.
Tense silence reigned as they drank, until Hermione broke it.
Despite her being at odds with the woman, she did have a question on how the hell Bellatrix had won the game against the man.
"How did you win," she asked and Bellatrix took a moment to answer her.
"I had magic where others didn't. Luck can only help someone so far when I can change his cards and mine to whatever I want." She grinned at this, a mischievous sort of thing.
"How did you know to do that?" Hermione asked, astounded. "How did you know to join the game to win?"
"Gut instinct," she responded with coolly and cockily. "Also, it played in with the rules of the artifact." She finished her drink and set it down harshly, taking out a few bills to pay for her and Hermione's orders. "You will find, Miss Granger, that thinking with your head isn't always the best solution. Magic is about emotion," at this she jabbed Hermione hard in the collarbone. So hard she almost fell off the stool at the intrusive touch. "It's all about what is inside of you. And if you don't have what it takes, then magic will destroy you."
And then she got up and Hermione trailed after her.
Nomine: Devil's Dice
Alia Nomina: Lady Luck
Species: A pair of red dice with black spots
Potestatum: The ability to give the user endless luck. They will win any game they play, and those who play against the user will find themselves with no luck and dead at the end of the game. Those who use the dice suffer from the apparition of Lady Luck who goads them into killing more, into utilizing the dice more, all by seducing them.
Only men can suffer from this affliction as there have been no reported cases of the dice affecting women.
Notas Additional: A game can be won when entered against them if magic is used. As Bellatrix proved, the dice are useless when magic is involved and can be tricked. However, should the user of the dice be bested in a game, they die as well. And then the dice can be bound to someone else.
A/N: Next up: Hermione visits Hogwarts and becomes more familiar with weird stuff while her and Bellatrix continue to be at odd ends with each other.
