11/17/03: Here is a slightly longer-then-normal length chapter, at least for me. Note that I changed Chapter 5 a bit, added some to the end of Hermione and Harry's fight. It's only a few lines of dialogue, so check it out.
6. A Tangled Web
"Everyone here?" Amelia asked without preamble. Nods and murmurs of assent answered. "Let's get started then," she said, taking the seat at the head of the table. The four Chiefs and their administrative assistants took seats along the table, along with Ambassador Woods. Everyone else, Harry included, took chairs along the wall, knowing they would be called on if necessary.
Amelia looked around until everyone had settled. "Alright. Chief Kaye, you called the meeting, you start it off."
Chief Kaye nodded. "If you're agreeable, I'll let Captain Perry start it off." Amelia nodded, and the Chief gestured to Captain Perry.
The Captain cleared his throat and stood. "Late Friday, just before the last shift change, a call came in for a triple homicide. It was Potter and Toms' turn on the wheel, so they were sent out. When they-"
"Ah," Amelia interrupted. "Potter. No wonder. That explains why we're all here," she said with a slight smile, looking at Harry. Harry flushed slightly. He had always been on good terms with Madam Bones from the first time they met when he had come before the Wizengamot, and they had shared lunch a few times since Harry became an Auror. Harry was also a classmate of Amelia's niece, Susan, and Amelia had offered to set them up a few times after his relationship with Hermione had ended.
"Continue." Amelia said, turning her attention back to Captain Perry.
"Yes, well," the Captain stammered a bit, clearly thrown off his timing by Amelia's interruption. "The victims were Mr. and Mrs. Don and Laura Campbell and their daughter Melanie. Anyways, it initially looked like a Muggle was responsible for the homicides and a case for MC, who was called in as well. But Toms and Potter suspected magical involvement, a cover-up by a magical, and they requested the participation of forensics."
"'Requested the participation of forensics?'" Amelia repeated. She turned to Dr. Garcia. "Does that imply that forensics was not on the scene?"
Dr. Garcia fidgeted slightly in his chair. "Well, um, you see, forensics at the time was, er," Dr. Garcia flustered.
Amelia stared hard at him before deciding to give him a brief reprieve. "That's enough, Rich, I won't force you to lie. Meet with me after the meeting and we'll address this." An uncomfortable silence filled the room. "Continue," she said again, looking at Captain Perry.
"Um, yes. Well, at this point I'll turn it over to Detectives Toms and Potter to update the results of their investigation thus far." Captain Perry sat down and looked at Robert.
Robert stood. "Unfortunately we haven't found much. The report of the clean-up crew came up empty-"
"The clean-up crew was there, on time?" Amelia interrupted. Robert nodded. "At least the Department of Magical Catastrophes is on the ball," she said, looking pointedly at Dr. Garcia. "Continue Detective Toms."
Robert nodded. "Yes Madame Bones. The clean-up crew report indicated nothing magical was out-of-place, and the initial reports of the MC and forensics shed no light on the motive of the crime or on any possible suspects. We interviewed the employer of Mr. Campbell and found nothing of interest yet. A trip to Imagery also proved fruitless. That's all we have so far."
Amelia nodded and Robert sat down. At this point in the investigation, the details really weren't that important to her, and Amelia made it a point to not micromanage her Aurors, at least not so early in a case. She looked over at Dr. Garcia again. "What has Forensics found?"
Harry leaned forward, interested in what Dr. Garcia had to say. "Detectives Toms and Potter were correct. A thorough investigation revealed that all three Campbells were killed initially by magic, a high-powered stun at close range, enough to stop the heart, and then shot with a Muggle firearm. We took it upon ourselves to examine similar cases involving Muggles perpetrators to see if this had happened before," Dr. Garcia said, neglecting to mention that Robert had made that particular request. Harry looked over at Robert and decided that he would let that slide, knowing that Dr. Garcia was in trouble as it was. "We worked with MC," Dr. Garcia said, gesturing towards Chief Casey, "to find suspicious cases on which to test. We found two others that had the same M.O."
Harry gasped slightly. While he suspected that they were looking for a magical, not a Muggle, he didn't really think there were other cases. This perhaps explained why all four Chiefs were in the room.
Chief Casey chimed in. "That's correct. We identified several unsolved cases in which a Muggle was suspected of killing a magical and turned them over to forensics."
Amelia nodded. "Okay then. That explains why three of my four departments are involved. Chief Shacklebolt, what's your connection?"
Kingsley looked at Amelia. "One of the suspected cases involved the murder of an undercover Auror." Harry's eyes snapped up at this information, and he traded a surprised and angry look with Robert.
Amelia was also surprised. "An Auror? What was he working on?"
"Auror Verplank was investigating Malvagita," Shacklebolt said simply.
Gasps came from around the room and Harry shook his head; the surprises were getting to be too much. Malvagita was the name of a suspected Dark Wizard, a Voldemort pretender, thought to be currently located in the States somewhere. 'Thought to be' was the key phrase, since his actual existence has never been confirmed. Or denied. This was more than big; this was huge. Harry looked up; Malvagita's possible involvement explained Ambassador Woods' presence.
Amelia sat stonily. "And the other victim?"
Chief Kaye answered. "A wizard who worked for a small manufacturing company. Detective Price was the lead detective on that case, and Detective Clarke was the lead detective on the Verplank murder," he said, indicating the other two C&I Aurors.
Amelia nodded, then sighed. "And Ambassador Woods?"
"I called him. If Malvagita is responsible, we will most likely have to work in conjunction with the American ministry to find him," Chief Kay said.
"That's Department of Magic; they don't call it a ministry over there," Woods corrected gently. "Chief Kaye called me this morning, and I have made contact with their Ambassador letting them know we might require their help, if these cases are indeed linked with Malvagita."
Amelia nodded. "Alright then. Recommendations?"
The four Chiefs looked at one another before Chief Kaye spoke. "We recommend that C&I take overall responsibility; given the three murder cases." Harry looked over at Chief Shacklebolt, who bristled but did not object. "Detective Toms will take lead, and work closely with S&I on the Malvagita angle. We will keep Ambassador Woods up-to-date and bring him in if necessary."
Amelia looked to think that one over for a bit. "Alright Chief, I'll leave it to you then. I want this to be our number one priority, understand? No one kills an Auror and gets away with it," she said in a steely voice. She fixed each of her Chiefs in her stare before she stood abruptly and left without a word.
Chief Kaye stood after the door had closed. "Toms, you're in charge. You get Potter, Price, and Clarke; let me know if you need additional support. Auror Tonks was working with Verplank when he was killed, so she's on the team as well. Forensics and MC brought all their files with them; you need anything, just ask for it. If you're getting push back, just let one of the Chiefs know and we'll take care of it. This room is yours for the rest of the day. Good luck."
And with that, all four Chiefs, their assistants, and Ambassador Woods left the room, leaving a rather shell-shocked set of detectives. After a moment, Robert stood. "Well, okay then." He looked around the room at the other Aurors. "I'm hoping this is the first that we've all heard about this?" he asked. Nods greeted his statement, and he sighed in relief. "Good, then we're all in the same place: behind. Let's get started by going around and reviewing each of our cases. Darren, why don't you start?"
Price stood. "Alright. The victim, Ernie Mediate, was a manager over at General Magics. He was the day manager of the Transfiguration division in their appliances department. He was-"
"Wait a minute!" Robert and Harry said at the same time. "Did you say appliances?"
Price nodded. "That's right. He was in-charge of their Transfiguration division for appliances, dishwashers and stuff."
"There could be something there," Harry mused.
Robert nodded. "Our guy was a manager at Magical Solutions. They sell appliances. Do you recall seeing their name as one of General Magics' customers?"
Price shook his head. "No, but that doesn't mean there isn't a connection. We didn't search through GM's customer list or anything since we thought it was a Muggle killing."
Robert nodded. "Alright then, let's remember that for later. GO on."
"Okay. Well, unfortunately there's not a whole lot more. Mediate was single, no priors, well liked and respected by his employees. He's pureblood and went to a small magical academy in the south of England. Once we established, or should say, wrongly established that it was a Muggle perp, we turned it over to MC."
Harry nodded. Though part of him was still uneasy with distinguishing between purebloods and others, he knew that it was important to know: they could now rule out pureblood superiority as a motive.
"Okay. Tonks? Nick?" Robert asked after Price sat down. Clarke and Tonks looked at each other briefly. They apparently decided that Tonks should start.
"Auror Verplank was working undercover, trying to infiltrate Malvagita's organization in the UK. He-"
"Does he really exist?" Price interrupted.
Tonks looked thoughtful. "Most likely he exists. Either he exists, or he's a creation, a figurehead, for a new generation of dark wizards rallying under his name. Our problem is that no one's ever seen him in person, so we don't have a physical description. But regardless of whether or not Malvagita is one wizard or many wizards, the fact remains that his organization is very real."
Price nodded, so Tonks continued. "Like most dark wizards, including Grindelwald and You-Know-Who, Malvagita has a bias against Muggleborns and Muggles. He believes in the cleansing of the wizarding race. Our operatives had heard some rather disturbing news that Malvagita has a plan to effectively wipe out all wizards with Muggle blood." Tonks paused here, to allow the information to sink in. "Verplank had successfully infiltrated the edges of his organization. Given the nature of the new information, we ordered him to see if he could find anything out about Malvagita's plan. When his body was found, we thought perhaps someone in Malvagita's organization thought he was asking too many questions. Then C&I determined that a Muggle killed him, but now it seems we're back to the original theory." Tonks finished and sat down.
Harry thought about everything he had just heard. There had to be some connection between the three murders, and the obvious one so far was the connection between the Campbells and Mediate. Harry hoped that they would find that Magical Solutions carried General Magics appliances and that Mediate and Campbell knew each other somehow. He wasn't sure how to fit in the Malvagita angle. What possible interest would the latest dark wizard have in two working-class wizards, one of whom was a pureblood?
Robert cleared his throat, bringing Harry's attention back to the table. "Okay. Here's the plan: the rest of the day we're going to go over the files MC and forensics brought, and brainstorm a bit. Tomorrow, we're going to switch things up a bit. Harry and I will go visit Mediate's place of work, looking for a connection to Campbell. Clarke, you and your partner go visit Magical Solutions and do the same, find a connection. Price will go over the Verplank files with Tonks. Agreed?" There were no objections or questions, and the five Aurors tackled the large stack of files in front of them.
A/N: I had a nice weekend, saw Matrix and played golf on Friday. I liked Matrix, even though the ending left me wanting more. People complained that not enough time was spent in the Matrix, but I liked the real world. I won't say anything to spoil it, but ten minutes of epilogue would be nice, though I'm sure that's how they wanted it to end. The cynical part of me thinks part of the reason they ended it like that was for Matrix Online.
As I noted above, I added some to Chapter 5. The way it was before it made it seem like it was all Hermione. But really, Harry had a part in the break-up besides not wanting to quit. I tried to make it seem like he was obsessed with his job, and that his obsession created problems in their relationship.
szelij: Amelia is head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, like in the books. I haven't found the right place talk about Harry's Quidditch. It's no big deal actually.
Facade1: hehe, Rick's no secret spy, just someone fun for Hermione.
anne: Don't worry, there'll be fluff in the future, but we have to get through all the angsty bits first.
Just Visiting and sethro72 and JT: Rick's job isn't terribly dangerous as long as everything's done correctly, but it's exotic and very interesting. Besides, Hermione does like a little excitement in her life, but Harry's job was becoming too much. Your reviews made me think about that, so I changed Chapter 5 to reflect how his job affected his personality as well.
