Lieutenant Detective Lucie Degrace looked around curiously, as she Disapparated. She stumbled slightly -- Apparation always left her a bit muddled.
Rosmerta's tavern looked quite different from what she remembered during her student days. Dark and nearly empty. And so quiet! But she remembered otherwise. It seemed that if she listened hard enough, she could almost hear the echoes of clinking bottles, laughter and raised voices, even Rosmerta herself, telling someone to hold their damn horses and be patient, she was drawing their ale next. Lucie wondered where Rosmerta was -- according to Albus, no one knew. She'd just upped and went one night, and hadn't been seen since. Lucie sincerely hoped that she was all right.
She stood still for a moment, wondering what to do. She had been told that someone would meet her here, but couldn't see anyone yet. Albus had requested her presence, and considering her current circumstances, there was no reason for her to refuse. He had yet to speak to her superiors -- she knew that he was doing so within the next day or so -- but whether they granted his request or not, there was nothing stopping her from at least visiting Britain again. And it had been such a long time -- she had moved back to Canada twenty years ago, and she would have visited sooner, but her job always got in the way.
The motto of my life, she thought grimly. The job always gets in the way. Maybe it's time to get the job the hell out of my way.
She turned slowly, trying to make out her surroundings from the moonlight shining in through the dusty windows. The place must be coated in dust -- it was killing her to try not to sneeze. The air smelled a bit moldy, too. She could just sense that someone was there -- she'd always had good sensory abilities -- but her eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness. In her pocket, her hand clenched.
And then there was just a tiny movement, the smallest sound -- but she caught it, and she whipped her hand out of her pocket. "Freeze!", she yelled, in defensive stance, instinctively erecting a transparent, wavering shield around her. Stupid, she thought. Stupid, stupid, stupid rookie mistake -- never enter an unknown situation without your shield. If she'd been back on the force, she would have upbraided a rookie for being so careless.
"Hey now." A large -- no, make that enormous -- figure moved forward, slowly, and Lucie felt her lips relax into a smile, as she recognized the voice.
"Hagrid," she said, with a relieved chuckle. "Don't be sneaking up on people, now. That's not nice."
"Get real, lass," he said, and she could hear the laughter in his voice. "Since when d'yeh think I can sneak up on people?"
"True," she said.
Beside him, a young man of about twenty emerged from the shadows, into the moonlight. Lucie studied him curiously. There was something familiar about him. He reminded her of someone, but she couldn't place him. Still, that prematurely-lined thin face and overlong pale blonde hair niggled at her memory… the face of a former student, but not a classmate -- someone older, who'd always been gracious and kind to her, considering that she had been a Ravenclaw with a Slytherin boyfriend. What was the name again…Larry? Lukas? No…was it… "Lucius…?", she asked, incredulously. But it couldn't be. This man had to be too young to be Lucius Malfoy. A relation, perhaps?
"No." The young man's eyes were disturbing. They looked strangely flat, or dead. She recognized the look, however. She'd seen it in the mirror for years. "Draco. Lucius is my father."
"Oh! Right, then. Quite the resemblance." Lucie gave him a small smile, as though to reassure him. "I knew your father when I was at Hogwart's. I didn't know him very well, but just in passing. He was always quite nice to me. Is he in the Order, too?"
"No."
Lucie waited, but young Draco said nothing more, and she decided that this was a tale for another time. To cover up the awkward moment, she turned her attention to Hagrid. "Mmm. All right, then. Are we going up to the castle now? My luggage should be there."
Hagrid's black eyes -- usually warm and kind -- watched her intently. " "Yeh, it is. Jes' a mo. Draco." He turned to the younger man, who pulled a small, brown bottle from his denim jacket. Lucie watched as Draco uncorked the bottle, and she sighed resignedly.
"Oh dear. Veritaserum?"
"Cheers." Malfoy held the bottle up, waiting for her to open her mouth.
"I really hate that stuff. It always leaves me sick to my stomach afterwards, you know." She grinned at Hagrid, wrinkling her nose, and he winked at her.
"Sorry." Draco stood there, waiting patiently, the faintest expression of sympathy on his youngish-oldish face. "I don't like it either. It gives me a rash." He smirked a little. "And I won't tell you where." Beside him, Hagrid chuckled.
"Thank you for that." Lucie stifled a laugh, and opened her mouth, as young Malfoy carefully tipped the contents down her throat. He was careful not to make her choke, but she couldn't help it. "Damn," she said, gasping. Although this was an exceptionally well-made version, Veritaserum was spicy and stinging at best. Lucie always thought it tasted like a cheap, watery vodka mixed with black pepper -- not the most appealing drink. After a moment, though, she stopped coughing, and she felt that strange mellowness take over her. Her lips went tingly, as they always did from Veritaserum. A sure sign that it was working.
"Name?" Draco began to question her, as he noticed her rubbing her lips.
"Lucie Suzanne Degrace."
Draco frowned. "I thought it was Doyle," he said, looking up at Hagrid.
"Degrace is my maiden name. I'm divorced."
Malfoy nodded. "Rank, serial number, affiliation?"
"Lieutenant, Homicide Division, Canadian Magical Law Enforcement…uh, my employee number is three-two-one-one-five."
Draco looked down at the small piece of parchment in his hand. "The reason you're here?"
"Albus Dumbledore's request. To help."
"Help who, in particular?"
"The Order Of The Phoenix."
"Any secrets or information or affiliations that you're concealing, that may be detrimental to anyone here in this organization?"
"Not that I know of."
"Your favourite music?"
"Retro Swing."
"Favourite colour?"
" Black."
Malfoy scrutinized her for a moment, and re-read the information on the parchment, his face impassive. Then he said, "Got some identification?"
She raised her arms slowly. "In my left pocket." She waited as Malfoy reached into her pocket and withdrew the small folder with her badge and identification card. He studied it, carefully, and tapped it with his wand. After a moment, he handed it over to Hagrid, who treated it to the same careful examination.
"Eh, so yer a lieutenant now?"
"Yes. For the moment. I'm not on active duty."
"Eh? Why not?"
Damn it, Lucie thought, but she was helpless to keep silent. This was something that she hadn't wanted to really talk about. "Personal reasons." She could feel her face go hot -- Hagrid noticed, and hastily looked down. Malfoy peered at her suspiciously.
"What personal reasons?"
"Draco," Hagrid began, but Lucie spoke over him.
Just couldn't let it go, could you, kid? Thanks for that, she thought, bitterly. "Substance abuse," she said, with a sigh. Her face was really flaming now. This was more awkward than she had expected -- she thought that she'd be able to get by without that becoming public knowledge. She'd hoped that it would remain between just her and Albus. She could just imagine if Severus found out…
Draco raised his eyebrows and glanced over at Hagrid, who sighed unhappily. "We'll be talkin' about that later, young lady." He scowled, and slipped the folder back into her pocket.
Oh, great, she thought. Lucie lowered her arms. "Okay?", she asked.
"One more thing." Malfoy held out his wand, and the tip illuminated. The bright light dazzled Lucie's eyes momentarily, and she squinted against the glare.
"Oh," she said, "Warn me next time!"
Draco stared at her, a small frown on his face. "Hagrid? That her?"
Hagrid stared at her for a long moment, then smiled faintly. "Yeh, tha's her. Lucie, lass, wha's with th' hair colour?"
"What? Draco, lower your damn wand before I make you eat it! I've only got the one pair of eyes, they do need to last me, thank you --"
"Your hair, lass. S'not blue, or green, or pink…not like yeh," Hagrid interrupted, before Malfoy could fire back an angry retort. Not that he would, thought Hagrid sadly. He almost missed the spoiled brat, in comparison to the too-quiet young man beside him. Poor kid.
Lucie grinned. "I'm conservative now, Hagrid. Got a lot of responsibility now. Thought I'd go back to my natural colour. Time to grow up, and all that. Kind of bland, isn't it?"
"I see why yeh coloured it sae much. Doesn't suit ya."
"Oh, thank you, Hagrid, and right back at ya." She slanted him a wry glance. "Good to see you, too." He chuckled, and patted her on the back. It knocked her forward a good two feet.
"You're a Metamorphmagus?" Malfoy frowned, catching her before she fell flat on her face.
"Who, me? No. I'm a bottle blonde." She smiled at him, trying to make nice -- they were on the same team, after all, and he wasn't under her command -- but he merely stared at her. Lucie sighed.
She'd met wizards like him before. So pureblood that they didn't know which end of a muggle was up. Once again, she thanked her lucky stars that her family had been a little more open and laid-back about that sort of thing. About the most wizardly thing she'd ever done was attend Hogwart's. Even CMLE -- Canadian Magical Law Enforcement -- worked openly with muggles on many crimes, particularly in her department.
It wasn't that Canadians and Americans didn't know about witches and wizards. It's just that they didn't especially care. No one believed in magic, anyway, so for her to tell someone that she was a witch merely made for the same tired old jokes, rather than a muggle freaking out and believing her. This was the reason that every CMLE officer was fully competent in wandless magic. It was easy to perform magic in front of muggles as long as they didn't see a wand, and since they didn't believe in magic anyway, the two cultures lived side-by-side quite peacefully.
Draco stared at her a moment longer, his face puzzled, then glanced out the windows and said, "Well, we should get her up to the castle."
"Good idea," Lucie said, sarcastically. "Now that you've determined that I'm not some evil minion of Voldemort, here to murder you in your bed --"
"Aye, lad. Let's go. Lucie…here, walk between us. We're going underground." Hagrid interrupted again, loudly.
"Excuse me?"
"Tunnel."
"Ah. Lovely."
"Will you just give it a rest?" Draco swung around and snapped at her. "You complain about one more thing, and I'll hex you right back to where you came from --"
"We're with yeh, lass. Yer safe." Hagrid stepped in between the two, and spoke firmly. "An' the two of yeh, that's enough cross-talk! I'll feed yeh both to Buckbeak, yeh keep this up."
"Keep that damned chicken away from me," Draco said, his lips twitching. "He's got it in for me."
"Well, stop callin' him ugly, then. Come on, Luce. Don' worry, it's safe."
Draco Malfoy shot Hagrid a deeply-ironic glance. "Safe?" He shook his head. "I don't think I know what that word means anymore. I don't think it exists." His face grim, he led the way to a small, square trapdoor in the floor, and pulled it upwards. "I'll go first. Ms. Degrace, you follow me, and Hagrid will follow you. Keep your wand at the ready."
Lucie peered down the tunnel. "No lights?"
Draco turned back to face her, his pale face expressionless, and raised one sardonic eyebrow. "Scared?", he asked. She met his gaze, and gave him the kind of look that she used to put snotty rookies, the kind who thought that they could impress the lady cop with their masculine superiority, in their place. Draco sneered and looked away, but said nothing, before he climbed down a metal rung ladder bolted to the rough-hewn stone wall. She heard his feet hit bottom, and saw his wand tip illuminate faintly. "Come on, you're holding us up. And try not to fall."
Lucie grinned up at Hagrid, and winked. "My hero. Yeah, you'd better catch me, Malfoy, or I'll feed your guts to Hagrid's chicken!" Hagrid grinned back and swatted at her playfully, as she lightly hopped on the ladder and quickly climbed down. Four feet from the floor, the ladder ended, but Draco courteously helped her to the floor.
"Stand back." In a gentlemanly manner, he held out an arm and pushed her back slightly. "And for the record, it's not a chicken, it's a fully-grown, vicious, man-eating Hippogriff."
"Hippogriffs eat people?" Lucie said, puzzled. "Since when?"
Malfoy stared at her seriously. "You'd better believe it. This one knows the taste of human flesh. And," he leaned closer, bobbing his eyebrows for effect. "It likes it. Especially the taste of cops." He smacked his lips in mock relish. "He grinds them up with his sharp beak, and tears them with his talons "
Grunting slightly, Hagrid lowered himself down the passage, a hand braced on either side of the floor above. "Malfoy, shut yer pie hole. Buckbeak pecked at yeh once because yeh insulted him. Yeh weren't even all that hurt."
Draco laughed, and winked at her. "Hagrid, I thought I was going to lose my whole arm! Madame Pomfrey said it was a close call --"
"Ah, shut up, you."
Laughing, they moved along.
Once they arrived at the castle -- through a long, dark and smelly tunnel that left Lucie chilled to the bone -- Hagrid dismissed Draco, who winked at Lucie as he departed, and Hagrid escorted her to her room.
"It's in the dungeon, lass, hope yeh don' mind," he said, as she followed him through the familiar old corridors, a huge grin on her face. Just seeing the old castle filled her with delight. "Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are all pretty much filled up -- we've got the Ministry an' the Order livin' here now. What house were you in, again?"
"Ravenclaw, but that's fine. I don't mind Slytherin." The thought brought back both pleasant and unpleasant memories. "When are they serving dinner, though? What time is it?" She'd forgotten to set her watch ahead, and couldn't remember the time difference. They passed through dimly-lit stone hallways, and Lucie tried to ignore the dampness in the air. "Same old dungeon, cold and damp," she said.
"Sure is. It's after ten, dinner's long gone, but it's no prob to raid the kitchens for yeh. Wanna go to the Hall & grab a bite?" Hagrid smiled at her, as he opened a door to an unused classroom for her.
"I'm sleeping in here?" Lucie looked around, and shivered.
"McGonagle said she'd fix it up fer yeh, if yeh didn't wan' to do it yerself."
"Ah, no problem. Hang on." Screwing up her face, Lucie waved her hand a few times -- transfiguration had never been her strong point, but she was capable enough, and within minutes, the austere room had been transformed into a cozy flat, complete with her luggage, which she knew had been stored in the castle since that afternoon. She'd had a few last-minute things to do, so she had sent her luggage on ahead with the Can-Am Knight Bus Express. Lucie turned to see Hagrid staring at her admiringly.
"Wandless! Huh!"
"Requirement of CMLE," she said, waving her hand and causing her luggage to fly onto the large, comfortable bed. Within a few seconds, it had magically unpacked itself, and her iPod sat on a long, low table at the end of the bed, next to her laptop computer and digital camera.
"You muggle," Hagrid said, chuckling. He went over to peek at the electronics, sitting on the large chair that she conjured up for him. "You can't use this stuff here, lass."
"Oh, sure, I've got it all bewitched. It'll all work here, don't worry. Hey, Hagrid, where I come from, 'muggle' doesn't mean 'stupid'. Hang on, though. Odd how everything turned out silver and green."
"Well, you're in the Slytherin area, yeh know." He peered through her digital camera, no clue how to work it. "By the way, th' Prefects bathroom is the big green door right across the hall. Password is 'dunderhead'."
Lucie giggled. "Nice. One second." She waved her hands again, and the décor changed from Slytherin colours to black velour and fuzzy leopard print, which caused Hagrid to howl with laughter. "There, that's better," she said, satisfied. "Now give me a second so I can change. Turn around." She grabbed some clothes from the closet, and Hagrid dutifully turned away.
"If yeh want," he called out, "We can just eat here. I don't care, meself -- it's whatever you're most comfortable with." He abandoned the camera to examine the laptop.
"Yeah, that's good by me," Lucie said, sitting on the leopard print sofa across from him. She had changed into a baggy black sweatsuit covered with embroidered red flames, which caused Hagrid to snort with laughter again.
"Nice outfit, lass," he said, grinning. "It suits yeh, though. Yeh never change, do yeh?"
With her dark blonde curls flopping over her collar, and her leopard print horn-rimmed glasses, Hagrid thought that she looked rather strange, but also years younger. Lucie waved at the table, and some plates of food appeared. She waved a careless hand at the iPod, and within seconds, rambunctious big band music poured forth.
Sighing contentedly, they dug into plates of fried chicken and mashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and onions, and a large basket of warm rolls with soft butter on the side. Lucie took a long drink of her orange juice, and smiled at her old friend.
"So. You're looking good. Did you lose some weight?"
"Yeh, a few pounds. You're looking good too, lass. Look at yeh! All grown up."
"Hah. Physically, not mentally." Hagrid chuckled. "Albus tells me that you've got a lady friend." She grinned and winked. "Guess I'm out of the running, then."
"Ah, yeh were married. Couldn't wait any longer." Hagrid smiled and chugged half his wine. Lucie waved a hand, and both their glasses refilled. "Special lady, Olympe is." He got a lovesick expression on his face. "She's something else."
"Ah, the French, eh?"
"Yeh, you French ladies are something else, yeh are."
"Mais oui, ma chere Hagrid." Lucie clinked her glass with his, and tore into a chicken leg. "So how's Severus? Is he recovering?" She waved a hand, and the music volume lowered a bit; it made a nice background to their meal.
"Yeh, he's doin' good, he is. Well, mostly." Hagrid spit out a chicken bone, and Lucie tapped his plate to refill it. "His injury pains him some, but it don't slow him down. Yeh remember what he's like. A bit hardheaded sometimes." Lucie snorted into her glass of juice at that. Hagrid looked aside at her. "Lookin' forward to seein' him again?"
She shrugged as she buttered a roll. "Well, yeah. Who forgets their first love?" She blushed, and grinned at him. "But you need to remember that I just got divorced, Hagrid Fourteen years down the tube. I'm not looking to get involved with anyone. Hell, I'm not even sure I've got a job anymore, now is no time for a relationship." She shook her head, and sighed. "Who knows? Time will tell."
Hagrid finished his meal, burped, and tapped his goblet for more wine. "So what's this divorce crap? I thought yeh liked yer hubby. And substance abuse? What, drugs? Booze?" He glared at her. "Never saw that comin', not from you!"
Lucie leaned back, tucking her feet -- which were clad in fuzzy leopard print socks, which caused Hagrid to snort again -- under her, and sipped her juice. "Oh, Hagrid. It's nothing, and I'm clean. It was just…I was having a real hard time getting some time off, and things just kept building, and building." She rubbed her hand across her face, and pushed her hair back. "Just…a bad spell on the job. Homicide…it's not…well, sometimes it gets to you, you know? And, I mean, Gordie and I just weren't talking anymore, and I was hanging out with someone with his own problems. I was working with him, actually, and…well…things just got a little out of control." She closed her eyes. "I'm not proud of it, you know. But whatever. Deal with it, move along, that sort of thing. The only way to get a break from the job was to burn out, you know?"
Hagrid was silent for a moment, and Lucie studied the flicker of candlelight on the grey and black of his long hair and beard. To this day he was still the kindest person she had ever met. She knew that he could not understand the life she lived, the job that tore so much out of her soul on a daily basis. She knew that he wouldn't understand it, but she also knew that he cared about her, and cared that she'd been so unhappy. God, she'd missed that…just knowing that somewhere, someone cared. A sudden stinging in her eyes made her look down.
Merlin, she couldn't imagine going back. The things that she saw, the pitiful, pathetic, horrible things… Violent crime hurt her heart, made her want to cry…but it also made her angry, and she was especially skilled at solving those crimes and ensuring that those who committed them were punished. When it came to that, she was one of the best. It was her passion.
Things had just gotten so weird, though. Lucie had begun to feel isolated, separate from non-cops. She remembered the day in the hardware store, when her muggle husband had asked her to hand him a roll of duct tape. She couldn't even look at it, let alone pick it up off the shelf -- what seemed harmless to him, was in fact a weapon, in her point of view. The number of times that she had seen victims bound with simple duct tape, which had cut into the skin of their wrists as they had struggled…
The thing that had finally broken her -- the thing that had made the pressures of the job, the drinking, her best friend and co-worker's escalating drug problem, the divorce from Gordie -- the thing that had brought it all to a head had been the day after they'd arrested a muggle serial killer that preyed on children. He liked to perform experiments on them.
Months and months on the case, and the bastard had walked free. Well-placed connections. Free as a bird. When Lucie had heard, she went berserk, and nearly destroyed her office and everything in it. The scary thing was, she couldn't even remember doing so.
When she'd gotten control of herself, she'd stormed out of the building and went back to the hotel room that she'd been living in since her split from her husband, and had drank herself into a stupor for nearly a week. The CMLE had finally suspended her with pay, indefinitely, and tried to put her in rehab. She refused the rehab, but suspending her was the best thing that they could have done.
She'd finally gotten tired of passing out in her own puke, so she sobered up, cleaned up, checked out of that crappy hotel, and hopped a plane from Toronto to the east coast, where she'd lived as a child. Three weeks of living alone in a cabin, hiking along the Cape Breton coastline and watching the leaves slowly turn colour, had soothed her soul. She had just about been ready to quit her job and become a private investigator, when Albus had called.
And so here she was. In the last place that she had expected to be -- back at Hogwart's, ready to help fight a losing battle. Oh, but was she ever ready. And they weren't going to lose this battle. Not if she had any say in it. The music stopped, at the end of the play list, rousing Lucie from her ruminations.
"Don't worry, Hagrid," Lucie said, taking another sip of her orange juice. "I'm fine. And things are going to work out, don't you worry. It's all going to be fine. Don't you worry."
"Everything's going to be fine."