A/N: I don't own anything you recognize, just the plot. The idea for
Arabella actually being young came from my darling Lozzy aka Draco's
Fetish. Thanks hun :O)
True Colors
Earlier that day..
A young woman marched through the hallways of the Ministry with a mission, a stack of papers tucked under one arm and her wand in the other. Her shoulder length dirty blond hair was up in a messy ponytail, pieces falling down to frame her angular face. Her thick rimmed glasses and serious face gave her a look of authority, even though she was petite and unimposing under her baggy brown robes. She was exhausted, just returning from her nap in the staff room. The Ministry of Magic had been working 18-hour shifts since the incident at Hogwarts.
As she passed by departments she leaned in and gave out orders to her half- dead coworkers quickly, without waiting for a response. "Jess I want the files on the Zabini family on my desk by three o'clock....Mika find out if there is any new information on that DE meeting...I need an autopsy report on the Diggory boy so whoever is in charge of that get a move on!....For Merlin's sake Geoff would you give the bewitched trash can to Arthur, that thing is going to hurt someone, we have enough paperwork as it is." It was already 3:00 in the morning and nothing had been done! Rolling her green eyes, she stepped into her office and tossed the files onto a chair to avoid cluttering her desk, which was already piled high with reports, files, and folders. As she pushed a particularly large pile aside, her name plate fell to the floor, with a crash.
She sighed, too lazy to walk to the front of her desk to get it she pointed her wand to the ground and lazily said, "Accio plate." With a soft whooshing sound it whizzed into her hand and she turned it over in her hands, running her thumb over the small dent on the edge before tracing the engraving with her finger lightly.
Arabella Figg Department of Magical Law Enforcement
She reached over the mess of work and placed it back in its spot at the front of her desk and leaned back in her chair. "Where to bloody start?" she muttered to herself and reached into a drawer, pulling out a stack of parchment and a new quill. She dipped it into the inkwell and began scribbling quickly across the paper as she reviewed what had been left for her the night before.
A soft knock sounded on her door and she glanced up to see the mail boy wheel the cart into her office, dropping a handful of letters onto her desk without so much as a smile. He left just as quick as he had come and Arabella untied the string holding her mail together. She flipped through them, tossing two of them into the trash without even reading them and threw the others one by one into a basket on the floor to be viewed later. When she reached the last one she hesitated, turning it over and seeing the Hogwarts seal stamped into the back in bright red wax.
She opened the envelope hesitantly, sliding the letter out and turning it over. She had met with Sirius the night before when he stopped by her home in Muggle Surrey with a letter from Dumbledore and a crack on what a sexy old woman she had made herself out to look like. Her cats of course, had not been happy with the presence of a massive black dog on the premises and had certainly reeked some havoc on her upholstery. She unfolded the letter and noticed that it lacked the elaborate letterhead that most of her mail from the school had.
Miss Figg,
I'm well aware that you must be frantic with work at the Ministry due to recent events but however I must...
"Bella! You have a press meeting in six minutes what are you still doing here?" Arthur Weasley inquired, leaning against the doorframe. She shot up from the chair in a flash, nearly knocking it over in the processes and let out a string of curses bad enough to make Mr. Weasley take a few steps back. "Thank you for reminding me Arthur you're a life saver!" she shouted, pulling her hair out of the pony tail and running her fingers through it haphazardly, trying to look some what presentable. She ran over to the chair and began flipping through the folders she had previously thrown. "Where is it where IS it?" she muttered franticly.
"This?" Arthur asked, holding up a file with P R E S S I N F O R M A T I O N written across the front flap on a messy slant. "That would be it." she answered, snatching it out of his hand and running down the corridor. "I'll make this up to you Arthur, and can you take care of Geoff's trash can when you have a moment?" she called over her shoulder. Her footsteps flew down the staircase after staircase and her muscles pulled painfully. "Almost there." she breathed as she pushed open the heavy doors to the pressroom blindly and raced up the isle between the rows of filled chairs to the front of the room. She took a seat at the long table where the other heads of the departments were already seated.
She slid into the chair, cheeks burning with embarrassment and exertion, her breath still heavy from sprinting down from her office. She gave Department of International Magical Cooperation fill in chairman a small smile and ran a hand through her hair once more nervously. Being the youngest official on the bored and showing up looking like she had run a marathon did not win her points. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the disapproving look Fudge was shooting her from the far end of the table but she focused on the folder in front of her, making a show out of flipping through the papers and straightening her glasses.
Fudge cleared his throat and then his voice rang out loudly over the dull roar of whispers and quiet conversation of their audience. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, I'm sure you'll be on time to publish this in the morning papers." he said, eliciting a polite chuckle from the press, "Let's get started shall we, I'll turn things over to my Department of Magical Law Enforcement head, Miss. Arabella Figg."
Bella swallowed and smiled as a flash from the camera went off somewhere towards the back. "As most of you have probably hearted, there was a bit of an incident during the last event of the Triwizard Turnament at Hogwarts," she began, shuffling the papers with shaking hands, "And as I'm sure you have heard there was a student murdered." A loud murmur went up through the crowd and she waited for them to quiet down before continuing. "We're looking into this at the moment and we have no reason to believe that there is reason to worry at this moment in time." Some small voice in the back of her head chided her for lying to the public but she silenced it quickly, knowing the chaos that would peruse had she told the truth.
A reporter that she recognized as being with the Daily Prophet newspaper stood, with notebook in hand and asked loudly, "Miss. Figg, can you shed some light on the rumors that this has something to do with the resurgence of the Death Eaters?" She nodded to the man and couldn't help but notice the warning looks she had received from those around her. "We have no reason to believe that at this time." she stated quietly, instantly regretting those words.
~~**~~
Remus returned to Timber End around noon, two bags of groceries in his arms and a bottle of fire whisky resting in each of his robe's pockets. He pushed open the door with his foot, sliding through and letting it slam behind him before dropping the bags onto the counter with a relieved sigh.
"Hey Remus, you got a letter from the Ministry and another one from Arabella." Sirius called out from the kitchen. Remus rolled his eyes. Of course Sirius couldn't keep from snooping through his mail. "Thank you Sirius I should pay you to go through my mail and tell me what I got before I have a chance to sit down and read it." he muttered under his breath and picked up the packaged again, bringing them into the kitchen to stock his dwindling food supply.
"You want me to unpack those?" Sirius asked, his mouth full of what looked to be a bagel, he looked up from the Daily Prophet and nodded towards the groceries. "If you promise not to eat it all." Remus answered, taking a seat at the table and picking up the letter from Arabella. He looked over the front and back of the envelope before placing it back down. "So how is Bella doing?" he inquired. Sirius glanced at him from over his shoulder and shrugged. "She's fine I suppose, those damn cats are annoying as all hell though." Remus laughed quietly.
"No I mean, did she say anything like...you know, did you talk with her at all?" It sounded dumb even to his own ears. Sirius took a seat next to him. "No I really didn't have time to catch up with her, I was on a bit of a timeframe you know. She was in her old lady mode though haha. You have no idea how funny she looks!"
"I admire her for doing that. I don't know many people who would move in and live among muggles just to watch over Harry." he said. Sirius just narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Right."
"Oh go unpack the groceries." Remus snapped, pointing to the pantry. Sirius just laughed and leaned back in his chair. "That doesn't have to be done right now. When is Snape crashing in here?" he asked and Remus couldn't help but notice the way that he spat Snape's name.
"Soon which means you better start pretending to be nice." I'm going to go take a nap because I have no doubts I'll be up all night refereeing you two." he said as he pushed his chair back and headed into his room, taking the letters and newspaper with him. Remus shut the door to his room and tossed the newspaper onto the bedside table. He held his two letters in his hands, debating about which one he wanted to open first before breaking the seal on the letter from the Ministry. The phrase save the best for last ran through his head and he chuckled to himself about how corny that line was.
"To Mister Remus J. Lupin," he read aloud. "A notice from the Werewolf Registry Department of the Ministry of Magic."
True Colors
Earlier that day..
A young woman marched through the hallways of the Ministry with a mission, a stack of papers tucked under one arm and her wand in the other. Her shoulder length dirty blond hair was up in a messy ponytail, pieces falling down to frame her angular face. Her thick rimmed glasses and serious face gave her a look of authority, even though she was petite and unimposing under her baggy brown robes. She was exhausted, just returning from her nap in the staff room. The Ministry of Magic had been working 18-hour shifts since the incident at Hogwarts.
As she passed by departments she leaned in and gave out orders to her half- dead coworkers quickly, without waiting for a response. "Jess I want the files on the Zabini family on my desk by three o'clock....Mika find out if there is any new information on that DE meeting...I need an autopsy report on the Diggory boy so whoever is in charge of that get a move on!....For Merlin's sake Geoff would you give the bewitched trash can to Arthur, that thing is going to hurt someone, we have enough paperwork as it is." It was already 3:00 in the morning and nothing had been done! Rolling her green eyes, she stepped into her office and tossed the files onto a chair to avoid cluttering her desk, which was already piled high with reports, files, and folders. As she pushed a particularly large pile aside, her name plate fell to the floor, with a crash.
She sighed, too lazy to walk to the front of her desk to get it she pointed her wand to the ground and lazily said, "Accio plate." With a soft whooshing sound it whizzed into her hand and she turned it over in her hands, running her thumb over the small dent on the edge before tracing the engraving with her finger lightly.
Arabella Figg Department of Magical Law Enforcement
She reached over the mess of work and placed it back in its spot at the front of her desk and leaned back in her chair. "Where to bloody start?" she muttered to herself and reached into a drawer, pulling out a stack of parchment and a new quill. She dipped it into the inkwell and began scribbling quickly across the paper as she reviewed what had been left for her the night before.
A soft knock sounded on her door and she glanced up to see the mail boy wheel the cart into her office, dropping a handful of letters onto her desk without so much as a smile. He left just as quick as he had come and Arabella untied the string holding her mail together. She flipped through them, tossing two of them into the trash without even reading them and threw the others one by one into a basket on the floor to be viewed later. When she reached the last one she hesitated, turning it over and seeing the Hogwarts seal stamped into the back in bright red wax.
She opened the envelope hesitantly, sliding the letter out and turning it over. She had met with Sirius the night before when he stopped by her home in Muggle Surrey with a letter from Dumbledore and a crack on what a sexy old woman she had made herself out to look like. Her cats of course, had not been happy with the presence of a massive black dog on the premises and had certainly reeked some havoc on her upholstery. She unfolded the letter and noticed that it lacked the elaborate letterhead that most of her mail from the school had.
Miss Figg,
I'm well aware that you must be frantic with work at the Ministry due to recent events but however I must...
"Bella! You have a press meeting in six minutes what are you still doing here?" Arthur Weasley inquired, leaning against the doorframe. She shot up from the chair in a flash, nearly knocking it over in the processes and let out a string of curses bad enough to make Mr. Weasley take a few steps back. "Thank you for reminding me Arthur you're a life saver!" she shouted, pulling her hair out of the pony tail and running her fingers through it haphazardly, trying to look some what presentable. She ran over to the chair and began flipping through the folders she had previously thrown. "Where is it where IS it?" she muttered franticly.
"This?" Arthur asked, holding up a file with P R E S S I N F O R M A T I O N written across the front flap on a messy slant. "That would be it." she answered, snatching it out of his hand and running down the corridor. "I'll make this up to you Arthur, and can you take care of Geoff's trash can when you have a moment?" she called over her shoulder. Her footsteps flew down the staircase after staircase and her muscles pulled painfully. "Almost there." she breathed as she pushed open the heavy doors to the pressroom blindly and raced up the isle between the rows of filled chairs to the front of the room. She took a seat at the long table where the other heads of the departments were already seated.
She slid into the chair, cheeks burning with embarrassment and exertion, her breath still heavy from sprinting down from her office. She gave Department of International Magical Cooperation fill in chairman a small smile and ran a hand through her hair once more nervously. Being the youngest official on the bored and showing up looking like she had run a marathon did not win her points. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw the disapproving look Fudge was shooting her from the far end of the table but she focused on the folder in front of her, making a show out of flipping through the papers and straightening her glasses.
Fudge cleared his throat and then his voice rang out loudly over the dull roar of whispers and quiet conversation of their audience. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting, I'm sure you'll be on time to publish this in the morning papers." he said, eliciting a polite chuckle from the press, "Let's get started shall we, I'll turn things over to my Department of Magical Law Enforcement head, Miss. Arabella Figg."
Bella swallowed and smiled as a flash from the camera went off somewhere towards the back. "As most of you have probably hearted, there was a bit of an incident during the last event of the Triwizard Turnament at Hogwarts," she began, shuffling the papers with shaking hands, "And as I'm sure you have heard there was a student murdered." A loud murmur went up through the crowd and she waited for them to quiet down before continuing. "We're looking into this at the moment and we have no reason to believe that there is reason to worry at this moment in time." Some small voice in the back of her head chided her for lying to the public but she silenced it quickly, knowing the chaos that would peruse had she told the truth.
A reporter that she recognized as being with the Daily Prophet newspaper stood, with notebook in hand and asked loudly, "Miss. Figg, can you shed some light on the rumors that this has something to do with the resurgence of the Death Eaters?" She nodded to the man and couldn't help but notice the warning looks she had received from those around her. "We have no reason to believe that at this time." she stated quietly, instantly regretting those words.
~~**~~
Remus returned to Timber End around noon, two bags of groceries in his arms and a bottle of fire whisky resting in each of his robe's pockets. He pushed open the door with his foot, sliding through and letting it slam behind him before dropping the bags onto the counter with a relieved sigh.
"Hey Remus, you got a letter from the Ministry and another one from Arabella." Sirius called out from the kitchen. Remus rolled his eyes. Of course Sirius couldn't keep from snooping through his mail. "Thank you Sirius I should pay you to go through my mail and tell me what I got before I have a chance to sit down and read it." he muttered under his breath and picked up the packaged again, bringing them into the kitchen to stock his dwindling food supply.
"You want me to unpack those?" Sirius asked, his mouth full of what looked to be a bagel, he looked up from the Daily Prophet and nodded towards the groceries. "If you promise not to eat it all." Remus answered, taking a seat at the table and picking up the letter from Arabella. He looked over the front and back of the envelope before placing it back down. "So how is Bella doing?" he inquired. Sirius glanced at him from over his shoulder and shrugged. "She's fine I suppose, those damn cats are annoying as all hell though." Remus laughed quietly.
"No I mean, did she say anything like...you know, did you talk with her at all?" It sounded dumb even to his own ears. Sirius took a seat next to him. "No I really didn't have time to catch up with her, I was on a bit of a timeframe you know. She was in her old lady mode though haha. You have no idea how funny she looks!"
"I admire her for doing that. I don't know many people who would move in and live among muggles just to watch over Harry." he said. Sirius just narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Right."
"Oh go unpack the groceries." Remus snapped, pointing to the pantry. Sirius just laughed and leaned back in his chair. "That doesn't have to be done right now. When is Snape crashing in here?" he asked and Remus couldn't help but notice the way that he spat Snape's name.
"Soon which means you better start pretending to be nice." I'm going to go take a nap because I have no doubts I'll be up all night refereeing you two." he said as he pushed his chair back and headed into his room, taking the letters and newspaper with him. Remus shut the door to his room and tossed the newspaper onto the bedside table. He held his two letters in his hands, debating about which one he wanted to open first before breaking the seal on the letter from the Ministry. The phrase save the best for last ran through his head and he chuckled to himself about how corny that line was.
"To Mister Remus J. Lupin," he read aloud. "A notice from the Werewolf Registry Department of the Ministry of Magic."