Contract Binding: Chapter Five
By RowanRhys
When Marian awoke at St. Mungo's, the MLE officers had barely given her a chance to accept the idea that she wasn't dead, before they'd swept her away, back to Diagon Alley, to the MLE Station across the street from Gringott's.
After settling her in a stark room furnished with a table and several chairs, Officer Langtry went to fetch the Inspector. The remaining officer, a far less abrasive personality than the brusque woman, who had introduced himself as Officer Jason Garrity, smiled gently at her and asked if she'd like a cup of tea. A wave of his wand, and a mug of strong-smelling brew appeared on the table in front of her. She wrapped her shaking hands around the china, feeling the tendrils of warmth ease into her fingers and palms.
"I'd add some milk and sugar to that if I were you. Or perhaps a spot of brandy."
She looked up as an older man came through the door, followed by Officer Langtry, who had a scowl on her face and was carrying a bundle of red-stained white fabric that she set to the side. Marian's assumption that he was the Inspector was borne out when Garrity greeted him by that title.
"Miss Carlyle-Tintagel. I'm Inspector Brewer and I'm handling this case." He eased himself into a seat across the table from her and nodded to the other officers to seat themselves. A stack of neatly trimmed parchment sheets and a Dict-a-Quill were produced and set before him, and he leaned his tweed-enrobed elbows on the tabletop and leaned slightly toward Marian, his gray eyes intent on her pale, now puzzled, face. "Oh. Officer Garrity looked at your ID while he was waiting for you to come around. Now." The Dict-a-Quill popped up and began to transcribe their conversation onto the parchment pages. "I would like to hear your version of tonight's events. And then, I'll need you to identify the perpetrators--yes, we've got them in custody right now." He smiled ferally. "And they'll be appropriately punished for their crimes--all of them."
Marian swallowed hard as the memories of those horrifying minutes in Knockturn Alley replayed in her mind. She reached up to touch her forehead, hardly believing that the long gash was now only a thin red line that would eventually fade. "They wanted my hair and… " Her voice trailed off and she trembled violently. "I was heading for the Leaky Cauldron after leaving Ollivander's--I'd gotten a new wand." She reached for her belt and found both wands missing.
Langtry reached in a pocket and withdrew the two shafts. "Here you are. The trauma team at St. Mungo's took them off you when you were brought in." She slid them across the table.
Marian glanced again at the bundle of cloth and realized that it was her outer robe. The blood on it glistened as if fresh and nausea roiled in her stomach--intellectually, she knew it must have been under a stasis spell, but--she tore her eyes away and took a gulp of the hot bitter tea before continuing. "I heard footsteps behind me and I thought it was my cousin following. I turned around to tell him to leave me alone, and--" Her voice shook as she haltingly described how she'd been hexed from behind while distracted by the wizard who'd followed her. "They--They dragged me into the shadows--" She shuddered convulsively.
"Go on, Miss Carlyle--" the Inspector prompted as the Dict-a-Quill paused.
"They wanted to--harvest--illegal potion ingredients--from--me. I heard one of them called by the name of Mawks. He had a knife and he cut me--." Marian touched her forehead again then buried her face in her hands, her voice rising into hysteric sobs. What else did they do to me before they were stopped? She was afraid to touch the amulet at her throat; afraid to find out what it would tell her of her fitness to serve the denizens of the Reserve. She was afraid to go out into the street again, wondering who might be lurking in the shadows who saw her only as a commodity to exploit. She wished that she could find a Time Turner and go back and warn herself. I wish I hadn't blown off Severus. What harm would it have done to have listened to him? I still could have said no...
Marian found it odd that it was Officer Garrity who provided tissues and a refreshed cup of tea as the hysteric reaction wound down. The steely-eyed Enforcer witch accros the table simply sat with her arms folded, staring, at a spot just beyond Marian's left shoulder, and the Inspector looked as if he wished that she'd just get on with things and finish her statement.
"I'm sorry," she finally choked out, blotting at her eyes, and looking up at the MLE people. "I've never experienced anything like this before in my life, not even when You-Know-Who was alive."
"Well, er, if you could please continue." The Inspector glanced down at the closely written sheets of parchment before him.
"I-I don't remember anything else until I woke up at St. Mungos. I thought I'd never wake up--that they'd intended to kill me after they'd--taken--what they were--after."
A knock on the door interrupted whatever the Inspector was about to say. "Come in!" he called testily.
A large man entered carrying an evidence bag and a sheet of parchment. "Got the lab results on that potion he was going to give her. Looks like we might have assumed too much."
Langtry's eyes narrowed and she reached for the paper. "What are you talking about, Malcolm?" she snapped. She pressed her lips together after scanning the sheet and handed it to the Inspector.
Marian stared from one Enforcer to another, bewildered.
"Damn. Just what we need." Brewer slapped the paper down on the table and got to his feet. "Come along with me, Miss Carlyle. I'd like you to see if you can identify the suspects."
"Potion? I don't remember anything about a potion," she protested as he took her arm and drew her towards the door. The other officers fell in behind them as they moved down the dingy hallway toward a warded door.
"I'll explain--after you've done the IDs." He waved his wand toward the door and muttered a distorted phrase. The portal opened, revealing two more uniformed Enforcers, and a further expanse of corridor, interrupted at regular intervals by more warded doors.
Marian was guided toward the door on the right as Garrity performed a charm to make the upper part of the door transparent. She flinched back against Brewer's side as she recognized Mawks' features on the man hunched on the bench. "That's him--Mawks--he had the knife."
"He can't see you," Garrity reassured her as he removed the spell. "It's a one-way charm."
The next two cells each held the other perpetrators. "I didn't get a clear look at them," she apologized, "I was rather concentrating on that kn-knife."
"Did they say anything when they were attacking you?" suggested Malcolm. He nodded to Garrity who performed yet another charm and the sound of the second cell's occupant grousing about being arrested was amplified into the corridor.
Flinching at the violence of his swearing and the threats against those who had incarcerated him, she nodded as she recognized the voice. The man in the third cell was likewise talking to himself, making even worse promises of vengeance, and demanding to make a floo call. "He's the other one."
Expecting to be taken out of the holding area, Marian was surprised to be guided to yet another door. She stared in shock as the door went transparent. "Severus!"
TBC