25th June 09:33 – Amelia Bones's Office

While Lady Ambrosius - Meredith - was getting better acquainted with her Head Auror, her secretary, and Madam Isobel Trelawney, Amelia set about thoroughly warding her office, beyond the privacy and silencing spells that were typically embedded into the walls of the office of any Department Head. She had no intention of leaving anything to chance.

She could practically feel Rufus Scrimgeour's eyebrows rising higher and higher with each successive spell and the soft clink of Isobel's spoon stirring her tea stuttered slightly as Amelia cast a particularly nasty ward to discourage eavesdroppers.

Jacob Pritchard, bless him, didn't pause once in organising the file copies ready to pass around to the others or the arrangements he was making so that they could all take notes.

Meredith Ambrosius waited for her to finish and then waved her wand once, silently, as Amelia sat down, causing the walls to glow for a moment.

At Rufus's raised eyebrow she shrugged, "Better safe than sorry, and that particular spell is obscure enough that any attempt to unravel it will immediately set off an alarm."

"I understand the precautions," Rufus said slowly, "But don't you think this is a little over the top - you'd think we were discussing treason."

"Given some of what I've found, and the level of corruption that it indicates, not to mention Fudge's reaction should he find out we are speaking of any of this - we might as well be." Amelia told him, well aware of her populist boss's thoughts on any controversial actions, regardless of what the reasons for those actions may be, once again giving her reason to regret leaving the MJL.

"You can never be too careful." Lady Ambrosius murmured.

There was a heavy silence at her words, echoing the 'constant vigilance' motto that Alastor Moody was known for, and that many Aurors lived by, and Isobel cleared her throat, "So, you said there were about a dozen cases you wanted to reopen and re-examine, Amelia?"

"Thirteen, yes," Amelia said, "They were all mishandled in one way or another and the brief examination I've made of them suggests that there are at least a couple of cases that need to be completely reinvestigated from scratch, since they were never properly investigated in the first place."

"How are we doing this, shall we go chronologically or...?" Rufus trailed off.

Amelia reached for the pile of files. "Let's start with Black's case - chronologically speaking he was second, but his case is the reason that I looked into it and found the other twelve in the first place." she said, opening the file at the top of the pile and passing copies of the information around to the others. She'd already read through all of the files at least once but wanted to read through it with her colleagues and Lady Ambrosius - Meredith she mentally corrected - to see what they thought and also to see if they knew the answers to any of her questions.

"Arrest report, witness statements, processing forms. No investigation notes, no final report, just the preliminary, no trial transcript." Isobel noted. "Why are the names of the Investigating Aurors different from the names of the Arresting?"

"Change in procedure per Crouch," Rufus said distractedly, skimming the initial report and checking it against his own memory. "Too many people were out of the field - injury or in hiding or the like - and the numbers we did have couldn't support the constant attacks and Auror response required, so we were told that everyone that was able would be out in the field and would hand over all processing and investigative processes over to-"

"Where are the wand logs?" Lady Ambr- Meredith interrupted.

Rufus and Isobel both gaped at her, Jacob - wonderful assistant that he was - just carried on taking notes, ignoring the situation.

"According to the arrest report two wands were picked up at the scene." She said impatiently.

"Yes," Rufus said, clearing his throat, "We retrieved two wands - one that was registered to Sirius Black according to our records, and one that matched the description of the wand that Peter Pettigrew purchased from Ollivander's in '71. We turned them over to the investigating officers along with the rest of the evidence that we collected from the scene - including the removed memories of the nearly two dozen surviving muggles that had witnessed the incident. We were ordered to hand over the evidence to be processed as soon as we'd finished collecting it and cleaned up the scene – Montague said she wanted the whole thing sorted as soon as possible. We were sent out again almost as soon as we'd done so - an emergency in Reading, I believe - although I'd need to check the reports to be sure. There was no time to get the wand logs - we assumed that the investigators would do so."

"And then they didn't. Whether it's corruption or just incompetence, it cannot stand." Amelia said severely, checking the names of the offending Aurors. "Jessica Abraham, Simon Prewett, and Pearl Lowell. I only recognise the one name - remind me, Rufus."

"Uh – Jessica Abraham is dead - died summer of '82 bringing in Laurence Mulciber, Simon Prewett retired - he was her partner, couldn't cope with what happened - I think he works in MagTran now, and Pearl Lowell is still around - she's Benjamin Ogden's partner, although wasn't at the time - she was still a trainee back then." Rufus listed off. "They'd been benched for two weeks for Prewett and Lowell to recover from a nasty incident with an exploding wand."

"Right, of course. Lowell was one of the first on scene to the incident in Hogwarts this month as well, wasn't she?"

"That's right."

"It might not have been intentional that they missed it, Ma'am." Jacob said hesitantly, "With all of the confusion with handover between responders and investigators, and the general inconsistency between who was in the field and who wasn't changing every week, they may just have assumed that the Arresting Officers already took the wand logs, and so didn't do it themselves. And then later when it would have come to review, would already have been out in the field again and told that the case wasn't their problem anymore."

"It doesn't mean that they shouldn't have double checked." Amelia told him. "And this illustrates exactly why we have the procedure that we do – so that such incidents cannot slip through the cracks!"

"Is this incarceration date accurate?" Rufus asked, having reached the part of the file where Black's sentence was discussed. "Because investigation slipping through the cracks or no, there was less than two weeks between his arrest and him being placed in Azkaban - that should have raised flags there and then - the quickest turnover possible for a trial and judgement after arrest is three and a half weeks - and that's for an urgent general trial with no special circumstances or sensitive information. The Courts are obligated to give investigators at least 3 weeks to consolidate evidence for a trial with Azkaban incarceration as a possible outcome and at least two or three days is needed for them to review the preliminary reports and information themselves before the case goes to trial."

"I hadn't noticed that." Amelia admitted quietly. "I barely glanced at headlines back then - we were so busy, and I was still trying to adjust to raising Susan at the time."

Isobel glanced at Meredith and smiled wryly, "When we check the wand logs, we're going to find that it wasn't Sirius Black's wand that cast the blasting curse, aren't we?"

Meredith let out a loud breath, "No comment. I wasn't there - my family had already left the country by that point. But the evidence that I do have points to 'yes'."

"If Sirius Black didn't cast the blasting curse, then that casts the entirety of Peter Pettigrew's statement into doubt - we have no witnesses except the memories of the muggles that survived the explosion and none of them saw the confrontation properly. All we have is Pettigrew shouting at Black for betraying the Potters and then the street being destroyed by a blasting curse, presumably obliterating most of his body. If the curse came from Pettigrew's wand then Black is at the very least innocent of that crime and it brings up one very obvious question - why did Pettigrew fake his death?"

"Unless he was the traitor." said Jacob. The others all looked at him and he ducked his head down. "I mean - if Black betrayed the Potters - like Pettigrew claimed - then Pettigrew has no reason to not have come forward, and no reason to fake his death. The only person he could be hiding from would be Black who would already know that he faked his death. But if Pettigrew was the traitor then Black would have been the one to corner him because he would have known that despite the rumours that were going around, Pettigrew was the only one that could have given You-Know-Who their location - and Black was a very good duellist - Pettigrew wouldn't have been able to take him in a straight fight. On top of that, if Pettigrew was the traitor then every Death Eater that knew that would be after him - You-Know-Who died too, after all. Faking his death would have been the only option he had."

"But then how did he do it - how did he get away from the scene of the crime wandless and with a newly mutilated hand without being noticed?"

"We were there less than a minute after the alarm went out - and we checked for traces of portkeys or disapparition. If he didn't disapparate or use a portkey - and he definitely didn't use a broom and he didn't have his wand - then how the hell did he get out of there?"

Isobel hummed. "Maybe there was a hole in the ground?" she said lightly.

Amelia made a note on a piece of parchment and a glance at Jacob had him doing the same - Isobel's teasing and idle suggestions had a grain of truth in them far more often than not. It might not be obvious now - and they were definitely still missing some information - but a 'hole in the ground' was almost certainly related to how he'd done it, regardless of whether Pettigrew was innocent or guilty or some nebulous mixture of both as was too often the case.

"Lack of information notwithstanding, this speculation doesn't help us. But if Pettigrew was the traitor then that means that Black is innocent of all counts - and means that the miscarriage of justice is even larger than we could have foreseen." Amelia said, irritated. "What I want to know is how Crouch managed to get away with not putting him on trial at all - surely somebody must have noticed such a thing. And what about his friends, his family - anyone that would have noticed that they weren't called to his trial as witness or that would have wanted to know details about the proceedings upon finding out that he was sentenced to life in Azkaban? Why didn't the department get any appeals or angry letters or even simple queries from them?"

"His family disowned him when he was a teenager." said Rufus, "It was something that he was required to inform the Auror Office about when he joined. They wouldn't have known either way whether or not he did it and wouldn't have been called to a trial. Between that and the chaos that the family was rumoured to be in at the time, it's not surprising that they never appealed."

"And his friends?" Amelia asked.

"The Potters and Pettigrew were both dead." said Isobel, "As was Marlene McKinnon."

"There are several appeals and queries for information in the file," said Jacob, "One from the Longbottoms and four from a Remus Lupin. Those from Mr Lupin were all inquiries about the trial transcript, and the last also featured a request for further information about his activities before that Hallowe'en - something that the investigating Aurors should have collected evidence for." The fact that they hadn't was left unspoken but was very present in everyone's mind. "They were all dismissed almost as soon as they were filed although I can't find the reason given. That filed by the Longbottoms also inquired about the trial and his previous activities but also featured demands to know why they weren't informed sooner and had to find out from the paper despite working closely with him, why inquiries by other parties hadn't received any response, and a request to know what was being done about the cases he'd been involved in, since if he had been convicted as a traitor then it called all of his arrests and investigations into question. It was filed less than a week before the attack by the Lestranges and from what I can tell fell through the cracks pretty swiftly in the aftermath."

"What about his lover?" asked Rufus.

"His what?"

"His lover. There were several rumours throughout the Office that he had one, based off a comment made by James Potter, although Black never actually confirmed them one way or the other. If he did have one, then he kept their identity pretty quiet."

"Maybe it was Lupin?" suggested Amelia, thoughtfully. "Four appeals in less than a year is pretty significant for someone that's neither a family member nor a spouse nor lover."

Rufus shook his head, "Doubt it. From what I know they were close in school and remained as close as siblings afterwards which could account for the number of appeals. Besides, I saw them together a few times and they didn't strike me as lovers - their intimacy was platonic, familial - not the kind you normally get between lovers. It was closer to the relationship between Black and Potter than anything else - although there was some kind of unspoken tension between them towards the end that I never was able to put my finger on."

"Or it was one-sided." said Isobel, "Whatever Black had with his 'lover', I mean. That would explain why they didn't appeal - if they didn't think of him the same way."

Rufus shrugged but acknowledged the point with a hum.

"Moving on," Amelia said with a sideways glance at her colleagues, "Regardless of whether or not he did what he was accused of, it's abundantly clear that the Sirius Black case needs to be reopened if for no other reason than that it was never properly investigated, and his entire arrest was grossly mishandled. We also need to check into the work of the investigators, see whether this is the only case that something like this happened on - Rufus if you could find a way to do that that would be fantastic."

Rufus nodded and made a note to himself. Jacob wrote a final line on his parchment with a flourish and rolled it up and tapped it with his wand - labelling it with date, time, and a coded note that it was about Sirius Black. He grabbed a new sheet of parchment for the next case and Amelia smiled at him gratefully.

"Now, Royce Flint. He was chronologically the first case that was mishandled, back towards the end of September 1981."

"You think he's innocent too?" Rufus asked exasperated - one innocent man in Azkaban was a fluke and easily believable given the chaos of that November - but two or more? That signified a much greater problem and Amelia could almost have sympathy for him – if she herself hadn't already had this terrible realisation.

"I don't know about innocent, but he definitely shouldn't have been sentenced to life, and his trial was a farce. I think it was the catalyst for the twelve subsequent trial mishandlings that I found in that sixteen-month period - no one complained or made a fuss, and I don't know if anyone even noticed the case was mishandled. Crouch got away with that, why would he think twice about doing the same thing again with others? That whole period was so chaotic that most people were willing to ignore anything that wasn't directly related to them."

"Does it matter?" Rufus asked in exasperation, having taken a quick flick through the names on the dozen other files that Amelia had brought after neglecting to ask beforehand. "At least half of these names are undeniably guilty, three were caught red-handed and another was named and shamed." He continued flicking through, "This one was declared innocent, and this one was granted extenuating circumstances given that we have a dozen witnesses that saw him Imperiused." He scoffed and held up another file, "And this one's been dead for near a decade."

Amelia raised an eyebrow unimpressed. "It doesn't matter whether or not they were guilty or how they were caught. The cases weren't treated with proper procedure, the trials weren't properly handled if they even took place, and corruption was involved. What kind of Department Head would I be if I didn't try to right these wrongs?"

Rufus groaned.

"Besides," Isobel said, thoughtfully, "Didn't we come here convinced that Sirius Black was guilty on all counts and finish the discussion with the conclusion that even if he's not innocent of all of the crimes attributed to him, he's probably innocent of at least some given the sheer lack of investigation into the matter and the fact that if even one of the assumptions made about the case is wrong then it paints a very different picture to the accepted narrative?"

Rufus muttered a curse, "Robards never was completely convinced that Black did it. Fine!" He bit out. "But don't expect me to be happy about it."

. . .

1st July 10:22 – Llangors

After taking three trains, two buses, and doing more walking than should be allowed when carrying luggage, Elena had found her way to the triangle with the church and a pub in the centre of Llangors village as she had been instructed and was immediately greeted by a small, smiling man with what she thought was a reasonably strong Welsh accent. He'd ushered her into the (closed) pub after grabbing her suitcase out of her surprised hands and immediately gone behind the bar in order to call someone whilst an equally small woman, who smiled less but whose accent was significantly stronger, had presented her with a bacon bap, some toast, and a cup of tea, complete with a small jug of milk in case she didn't drink it black. Elena was so exhausted from her overnight journey that she barely remembered to thank the woman before downing the scalding hot tea. She'd eaten the bacon bap almost as quickly and was making good progress on the toast by the time the man had finished his conversation and come back over to where she was sitting.

Some brief small talk and profuse thanks for the food later Elena found herself sitting in a battered jeep with the smiling man (whose name she hadn't caught yet), a young man who seemed to be a few years older than her that the smiling man had referred to as 'Johnnybah' with a guttural sound at the end, and a woman in her mid-to-late twenties he'd addressed as 'Ree' with a rolling sound on the 'r' that looked like she was probably Johnnybah's sister, or at the very least related to him in some way.

"So are you the new one then?" the woman asked her, twisting around in her seat to see her better.

"Um… I guess…" Elena said, hoping that she meant the person coming for an apprenticeship program and not something else, "I'm Elena."

"Nice to meet you!" the woman said, "I'm Rhiannon, but everyone just calls me Rhi. The idiot sitting next to you," she nodded her head at 'Jonnybah', "Is my brother Jonny, but he's Jonny-bach to everyone round here. Cause he's the younger Jonny – thanks to our parents naming him after our great-uncle." She laughed.

Elena nodded, filing away the information.

"You'll be stuck with Em most of the time probably," Rhiannon continued, clearly not expecting an answer, "She's Uncle Caleb's niece, more or less, and she's basically in charge when he's not there. She'll be gone again in September – goes to boarding school up in Scotland, but hey, you might not last that long, so it'll probably be fine!"

Elena's eyebrows hit her hairline as Rhiannon kept chattering without pausing for breath. What was that supposed to mean?

Jonny leaned over to her and said in a low voice, "In the last four years only one of Uncle Caleb's apprentice people made it to September, and in the last seven only one made it to six months. In the fifteen years we've been doing it we've only had two people last the whole year, but I'm sure you'll be fine." He shot her a shit-eating grin and Elena leaned into the door uneasily.

He didn't say anything for the rest of the trip, Rhiannon kept talking, with occasional interjections from the smiling man, but neither seemed to require a response from Elena, so she spent the whole time looking out of the window, as they drove around the lake. Elena remembered the leaflet mentioning that Summer Lake Farm was on the 'corner' of the lake bank, across the lake from Llangors village and was mildly surprised by how long it took to get there, having assumed it would only take a couple of minutes by car, even driving slowly.

When they did get there, they were instantly greeted by a girl about Elena's age with dark hair and bright blue eyes bounding up to the car, and a large fluffy white cat following her so closely that Elena was scared that she'd trip.

"Schwmae! You must be Elena! It's so good to meet you – I've heard great things." The girl immediately grabbed her suitcase from the smiling man, thanking him and addressing him as Neil, before turning back to Elena, "I'm Em, this is Sunny, let me show you where you're staying, is there anything else or is it just the rucksack, bag, and suitcase?"

"Just the rucksack, bag, and suitcase," Elena said, somewhat taken aback – was everyone around here so chatty? And Viv thought she was bad.

"Brill, this way."

Elena followed Em into the large house that stood at the top of a slope that led down to a collection of buildings that she thought were probably the stables and barns, practically on the lakeshore.

They went in through a side door into a small room off the kitchen, complete with a pile of dirty shoes, and Em showed her into the hallway and up a set of narrow stairs through a small door, "The other stairs, at the end of the hall, lead up to Uncle Caleb's bedroom, his siblings and some of their kids have rooms there too, I'm up here with you – we're going to be sharing a bathroom until I go back to school or my aunt or family come to get me, whichever comes first."

The stairs came out onto a small landing with several doors leading off it, the cat – Sunny – was still following them, Elena noted, big blue eyes fixed on her, a low rumbling coming from his (her?) chest that Elena couldn't identify, and she was left unsure whether it was a purr or a growl.

"I'm here," Em indicated the first door on the left, that had a golden dragon outline painted on it, "You're in here," she opened the door almost directly opposite into a small room with a bed, wardrobe, dresser, and chair, that was far more spacious than Elena would have expected from the 'single room' that she'd been told she would have, "Feel free to put your stuff wherever, if you have any work or stuff to do then you're welcome to do it wherever – I like the kitchen table, there's also space in the lounge and a small table in the conservatory that you can use – and if it's nice you could probably do it outside if you don't mind being bothered by the animals," Em dumped Elena's suitcase by the foot of the bed, and Elena put her other bag next to it, before letting her rucksack drop onto the bed.

"The bathroom is next to you here," Em opened the next door along with fish swimming along the bottom and then indicated the last door, "That door goes up to the attic, don't go up there unless Uncle Caleb tells you otherwise."

Em started heading down the stairs again, taking an overly large step over Sunny the cat, presumably to avoid tripping, "There's no bedtime or anything, but you are expected to get up early to help feed the animals before breakfast – which is normally between around six-thirty and seven – we take it in turns to make it and do the dishes, although there is a dishwasher that I'll show you how to use tonight – it's my turn to clean up," Em led them down the hall away from the kitchen and towards the other side of the house, "That's the basement – you're not allowed in there – and lunch is generally around midday – again we take it turns, you won't be expected to help for the first couple of weeks – this is the lounge," she added, opening a door on the right, before moving on.

"Dinner is normally between six and seven at night but can be much later if there's tourist groups about, if you can't sleep that's fine, there's a bunch of different teas and hot chocolate mixes in the kitchen that you can help yourself to if you need them," she led them into a conservatory that led out into a pretty, hedged garden, with what looked to be several herb and vegetable beds at the back, and a large wooden table with quite a few chairs around it closer to the house, "You can spend as much as your off time as you like in the house but I do recommend the garden and conservatory – they're very peaceful.

"If you feel ill, let Uncle Caleb, his sister, Beth, or Big Jonny know – Beth has a nursing qualification and everyone round here consults her first before going to A&E if it's not an emergency, and Big Jonny's a miracle worker with his teas if you're feeling poorly," Em sat down at the table and poured two cups of some kind of pink cloudy juice from one of the jugs sitting in the centre of the table, before offering one to Elena and pouring what was presumably water into a shallow bowl and moving it to the side, right in time for the cat to jump onto the table in the perfect position to perch watching them and be able to drink from the bowl at the same time.

"The rabbits aren't allowed in the garden, and neither are the chickens – if you see either of them in here then chase them out or just pick them up and dump them back over the hedge – but they are allowed in the house so if you see them around the downstairs just ignore them if they're not making a mess – Uncle Caleb's given up on keeping them out." Em started picking at a bunch of grapes in one of the bowls in the middle of the table and Elena happily took some when she offered, "The dogs should ignore you – they won't bother with the stairs and tend to stick with Uncle Caleb around the house anyway – but they're not allowed in the kitchen when we're eating. It shouldn't be a problem since everyone eats together, but just be aware. The cats tend to do their own thing, but they're not allowed down in the stables – if you don't want them in your room just close the door and don't forget to check the bathroom when you go in – some of the cats like to hide in the bath."

Em took a large gulp of her juice and Elena copied her, only to be pleasantly surprised by the unfamiliar refreshing taste, "If you see any kittens, or a pregnant cat let Uncle Caleb know – there's nest in the lounge for the litters but the cats have a tendency to give birth in inconvenient places and it's better to know that kind of thing. Sunny's not allowed in the stables," Em ran a hand down the fluffy cat's back, causing them to arch into it slightly, "She has a tendency to spook the horses, but they're mostly fine with her as long as they're outside and have space to run. The cows shouldn't bother anybody – they're pretty laid back, but if you see them too close to the garden or the drive then try to shoo them back to the field – we don't know how they keep getting out but we're working on it.

"It probably goes without saying, but don't feed any of the animals table scraps, and if any of them look, ill let someone know asap. If you're not sure about something then you can always ask Sunny – she knows everything that goes on around here," Elena jumped when Em produced a knife from absolutely nowhere and started to cut up a nectarine, eating each piece as she cut it off, "And as a side note, if she tells you to do something, then do it, she's smarter than most of us and knows when somethings up – she's stopped three fires before they started and prevented a gas leak and two burst pipes, not to mention countless food poisoning incidents from distracted cooks – so it's always best to listen to her. When in doubt, do what Sunny says!" Em laughed, and Elena couldn't help but smile in response, despite the general exhaustion she felt – her good mood was infectious. "Uncle Caleb should be here in another couple of minutes – he'll show you around the farm and tell you all the rules – I've got a problem horse to work with that should be arriving any minute. Once that's done you've got the rest of the day off – apparently you had quite a trip – and feel free to ask if you need help or you've forgotten something at any point."

Em tapped the table with the hilt of her knife idly as she finished off the nectarine, biting at the last bits of flesh stuck to the pit, "Oh yes! – You get one day off a week – and I recommend that you spend at least a couple of them riding around the place because it's really pretty and there's lots to see and it's never a bad idea to familiarise yourself with the local area – just make sure the horse you want to go out with is free – you do know how to ride?"

"Yes, I can ride," Elena said, "And I'll keep that in mind."

"Good – I think that's everything about the house, I'll show you where we keep the keys in a sec – you'll get your own set for however long you're here," Elena again noted the reference to her not necessarily staying the year, "And if I've forgotten anything then I'm sure Uncle Caleb will fill you in." she hummed, "I guess – do you have any questions?"

Elena frowned slightly, staring at the pure white cat that if she was honest, looked anything but sunny.

The cat stared back at her, tail waving slightly.

Elena wondered if she should point out the obvious.

Em beamed at her and Elena decided that she may as well bite the bullet. She made a face, "Yeah, I have one," she paused, trying to find a way to put it delicately, before deciding that there wasn't one, "How am I supposed to, um, 'ask Sunny'" she made quotation marks with her fingers, "Or do what she says, or, uh, whatever?" Em stared at her blankly, "I mean, not to be rude, but-" Elena gestured a little helplessly, "-that's a cat!" she said bluntly, pointing at said cat, who was currently washing its paws and apparently not paying a lick of attention to either of them.

Em sent her a funny look, "Yeah – I know. But only sometimes."

Elena's jaw dropped but Em just looked at her like she was the weird one for being confused about the fact that the cat was apparently 'only sometimes' a cat.

There was the sound of a car driving up to the house, and Em lit up, grabbing the two empty glasses before she headed back into the house. Sunny stopped washing their paws, favoured Elena with the most unimpressed look that she'd ever seen on a cat, and then jumped down from the table, once again sticking to Em's heels.

Elena sighed before following them in. She'd get used to it. Now she just had to survive meeting her boss for the next year.

. . .

6th July 09:27 - Ministry of Magic, Level Two, Emmanuel Rosenberg's Office

Morgana nervously twisted her wand between her fingers, horribly conscious of the shiny silver badge on her chest reading 'Morgana Pendragon, First Day of Work'.

On the bright side, at least she wasn't one of the poor people with 'Told to Come Here' printed on their badges. She had never been more grateful that she wasn't the kind of person to stutter over her words.

She'd been waiting for nearly half an hour and the other five new hires had disappeared one by one into Mr Rosenberg's Office. Three of them had come out in tears and the other two somewhat shellshocked. The former had been kindly and swiftly escorted back to the Atrium, the latter two had been swept down the hall into the main office space by a rather large witch in bright yellow casual robes and with a grumpy expression and a short round wizard in plaid dress robes and green hair that reached the floor.

Morgana was seconds away from leaping to her feet and pacing when the door to the office opened again.

"Morgana Pendragon?" called a calm, even voice from within.

Morgana stood, tucked her wand into her sleeve and quickly brushed down the front of her new robes before nervously entering the office as gracefully as she could.

"Shut the door behind you." Emmanuel Rosenberg said. He was an older man, with greying hair and prominent frown lines, and he spoke like a man used to being heard.

Morgana did so, then sat down in the chair in front of his desk, resisting the urge to fidget.

He didn't so much as glance at her, writing something in a messy shorthand that Morgana didn't recognise. After a moment of waiting, she took out a notebook and a self-inking quill.

The silence stretched on, the only sound the scratching of Mr Rosenberg's quill.

"Your visitors badge." He said abruptly. Morgana barely managed to keep herself from startling and fumbled slightly when removing it from the front of her robes.

He glanced at it briefly, humming, and put it to one side, in a pile of other badges.

He scratched something else at the bottom of the parchment.

Finally, he looked up and stared at her.

"I don't care about your family, your blood, your connections, or how much money you have." He practically threw his quill into the inkwell. "This job is dependent on ability and competence. You get promoted by being good at it, not by holding seniority or because you have a family member in the Wizengamot. If you try to bribe your way through the ranks you will be fired. If you try to get a favour from a friend of a friend pertaining to the job you will be fired. If you let something slide because your cousin asked you to please let it go just this once? Fired. At the end of your three-year training period if you have sufficiently impressed those of us in charge with your ability and competence, you will be given a position fitting your abilities. If you prove lacking in either of those areas, you will essentially be a glorified assistant for your entire career with us."

He stared at her, as though waiting for a response.

"I'm a muggleborn, sir." she attempted.

"Hmph. Then your job just got harder." He drained the mug on his desk and continued. "We are not well liked in the ministry. In fact, I would go as far as to say that we are the single least liked office in the entire Ministry of Magic. Care to venture a guess as to why?"

Morgana bit her lip. "Because you make sure that the other offices and departments do not exceed their mandate or do something against the law?"

"Are you asking or telling me?"

"Telling." Morgana said firmly.

"You're absolutely correct, of course. The Magical Justice and Law Office makes sure that the law is followed by all other departments and offices in the Ministry. We also investigate alleged breaches, provide consultation both for and against criminal and other miscellaneous magicals that require representation. There are members of this office that are incredibly unpopular in the Auror Office and RaCoC - the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." He clarified at Morgana's confused look. "We often take the side of those that the Ministry officially deems to be less than desirable. Werewolf rights, goblin rights, and beings rights are larger areas of conflict, but those of us in the business of criminal defence are also, shall we say, less than popular."

Morgana grinned, before ducking her head.

"On paper, we are beholden to the Head of the DMLE - the current one is actually my predecessor in this office - she was only with us for twenty years - spent nearly six of them as the head, but a better Justice or Lawholder, I have rarely seen." he waved away the topic, "Anyway, on paper we are beholden to her, in practice, not even the Minister can tell us what to do – our job is to investigate corruption, along with our other duties, that's why the Head of Office has to be as no-nonsense and as unflinching in the face of intimidation as possible."

Morgana added 'NO corruption' to the notes that she was making.

She missed Emmanuel Rosenberg frowning at them.

"You'll be spending the first six to nine months in various parts of the DMLE, most notably the Auror Office and here in MJL, learning what is and is not legal and also all sorts of loopholes and precedent that our various colleagues in the other offices try to take advantage of. The six months after that you'll spend in DMAC - accidents and catastrophes - and then another six months in RaCoC - we interact a lot with those two." He paused for a moment, "I understand that you have some kind of tie to the druids?"

Morgana nodded slowly.

He smiled, "I would make an effort to examine those laws pertaining to them very closely and discuss them with those you know in the community - we don't have anyone that specifically works in those areas, and even if you don't end up there additional expertise can only help."

Morgana scribbled down a note to herself reminding her to write to Gaius and find out which druids would be best to contact about such things.

Mr Rosenberg continued without pause. "Then you'll spend six months in DIMC - International Magical Cooperation - three months in MaGaS - Games and Sports - and three months in MagTran - Magical Transport. Finally, you'll spend the last three to six months up on Level One, splitting your time between MagEd - Magical Education - the Minister's Office, and the Administrative and Maintenence Offices."

Morgana nodded.

"The exact timelines are subject to change, and you may end up visiting the various departments in a different order to what I've laid out, pending current events. You're also unlikely to end up with your final posting directly after the training period - we tend to bounce people around for the first year or two to find the best position for them. Very few people come to us knowing exactly where they will end up and most change their minds at some point through the training. You will have weekly meetings the first year with a supervisor who will be assigned to you, in the subsequent years these meetings will be bimonthly, and you are expected to continue meeting with them for up to a year after you finish your training, depending on their assessment of your abilities."

He paused. "Any questions?"

Morgana shook her head before changing her mind, "What about the Department of Mysteries?"

Mr Rosenberg rolled his eyes. "They occupy a position similar to ours - they're not beholden to the Ministry and we're not allowed to interfere unless a member of the DoM specifically asks it of us, which happens approximately once every three years." He said dismissively, then sighed. "We are without exception the hardest on our employees, a lot of employees burn out, very few come to us straight out of Hogwarts, and we get a lot of older Ministry employees attempting to transfer over. We have a stringent application process and only one in every five applicants makes it as far as you have. If we take five new candidates on in the summer, only two will make it to the end of training. On average we'll lose one by the new year, a second by the next summer, and the third in the final year of training."

Morgana lifted her chin; she didn't give up easily and she refused to be intimidated.

Mr Rosenberg's lips twitched, and Morgana dared to think it might be approval. "One last thing." he said, setting aside the parchment he'd been making notes on.

He flicked his wand and Morgana flinched as the notes she'd just taken went up in flames.

"If you're in the middle of confronting someone over how they are breaking the law or treating it too lightly, they are not going to wait for you to pull out your notes so that you can tell them exactly what they are doing wrong before they get in your face to yell at you. You have to be able to come right back at them with a list of exactly what they've done wrong without flinching when they do that. Memorisation, Miss Pendragon, is one of the greatest tools in your arsenal. Get used to it. Your training starts now."

. . .

8th July

Niamh backed away from the emerald snake approaching her but wasn't quite quick enough. It slithered its way up her body, tightening its coils until she was struggling to breathe, head coming to rest on her shoulder as the last coil tightened around her neck.

Niamh choked out something that might have been 'help me' but had too many syllables, before the snake loosened its coils and dropped to the ground, poisonous yellow eyes meeting Morgana's as Niamh was left frozen in place behind it, turned to the side as though speaking to someone.

The snake dissolved into nothingness and Niamh tipped backwards and suddenly Morgana started to fall, landing with a splash in a dark liquid.

Another splash had her turning around, only to see Merlin vanish under the surface – but it wasn't Merlin as Morgana knew her best, it was twelve-year old Emma Ambrosius that was struggling underwater.

Except it wasn't water, Morgana realised with horror, it was ink. And there were soaked pages floating everywhere.

She tried to reach for Merlin, but her hand met nothing but wet paper and ink-drenched parchment, making ink splash everywhere as she frantically tried to search for any sign of her friend in the viscous, opaque liquid.

And then suddenly she was choking, the air she was breathing turning to liquid. Inhaling saltwater and seeing blood run from scratches covering every scrap of skin that wasn't covered by fabric, she struggled wildly, and robes that weren't hers tore as bony fingers grabbed at her, even as her struggles weakened.

Morgana woke with a scream, heart pounding madly, still half convinced that something was dragging her down.

This could mean nothing good.

. . .

11th July 09:13 – Cold Fire Herbal Blends and Tea Brews, Central Caversham

Merlin hummed in delight at the taste of the lavender shortbread.

"It's good?" Rhys Watkins said, biting his lip.

"Rhys, it's delicious – how did you get it to taste so much like lavender without overwhelming the shortbread?"

"I used lavender sugar and put lavender in the flour that I used to roll out the dough."

Merlin stole another biscuit from the display plate, feeling lucky that no one else was in the shop so early. "I don't suppose you have any of these for sale?"

"For you, Emrys? Always."

"Flatterer." She accused, "But I actually did come here for a reason."

"Right, yes! Your usual order?" he swiftly wrapped a handful of the biscuits in paper and set it to one side, before automatically moving to get the containers with the ingredients for the chamomile, citrus blossom, and black tea blends that Merlin favoured.

"Yes, and something for the throat if you have it – I've been finding myself doing an awful lot of talking recently." She smiled at him winningly.

He tilted his head in amusement, pursing his lips in thought as he observed the shelves.

"Don't you always?" a light voice asked from behind her.

"Enid," Merlin said with surprise, "Fancy seeing you here – you're quite a way from Cardiff."

"Alator sent me – you know how he is, doesn't like sending messages or putting in an order when he can send someone in person."

Merlin laughed, "Oh, I know exactly what you mean." She dusted the last of the sugar and crumbs from the biscuit off of her hands, "He hasn't changed a bit since I knew him in Camelot."

"I hope he's changed at least a little, otherwise that thought is just depressing." Enid said incredulously, shaking her head a little with smile.

Merlin made a non-committal sound in response, before spotting the ingredients that Rhys was adding to the fourth blend of tea, "Whoa, hang on – is that St John's Wort?" she asked, leaning over the counter to get a better look at the label on the jar he was currently holding, "Why are you adding St John's Wort, child. That's a mood uplifter, not a throat soother."

"Not a child." He said in irritation, "I'm twenty-nine. And this blend I'm making has both." He added.

Merlin raised an eyebrow, unconvinced.

"I'll make you some before you leave," he said, "If you don't like it, I can just make you up something different."

"Firstly, you're always going to be a child to me, I was there when you were born, solstice baby, and secondly: this tea had better blow me away or I'll tell on you for diagnosing the customers again," she said, only mostly teasing.

"It will," he said confidently.

She made more small talk with both Rhys and Enid while she waited, and when she did try the tea, she had to admit that it did taste far better than she would have expected – the mallow Rhys had added giving it a sweetness that contrasted nicely with the bitterness of some of the other ingredients.

She grumbled at Rhys in a mockery of ill grace and added an extra few pounds to her payment while he was busy writing down the brewing instructions for the new tea blend.

"Does this new blend have a name yet?" she asked, distracting him whilst she gathered the teas and the package of biscuits into the magically extended bag she was carrying.

"Not yet, but I'd welcome any suggestions you have." He said, shrugging.

"I'll think about it," she hummed, hastily leaving before he could figure out she'd overpaid.

"Wait a minute-"

But she was already gone, darting out of the shop with a pleased cackle – that particular move only worked maybe three times in every twenty but that didn't mean she didn't always try something similar.

There was a skip in her step as she hummed and walked away from the shop, the twin tastes of lavender and mallow still thick on her tongue.

"Merlin?!" She heard a surprised voice say behind her barely a minute later.

In a moment of pure stupidity, she turned towards the person who had called her name.

Lancelot's shocked, disbelieving eyes stared back at her.

She hesitated for a split second. Then she turned on her heel and ran.

. . .

As you can probably tell from the prologue - this arc will have a lot more focus on the founders for various reasons, and may also include a couple of interludes based around them (I'm still undecided). You may also have noticed in the tags that Helena Ravenclaw/The Grey Lady is listed as a character for similar reasons.

The scene with Amelia was actually much much longer than what I included in the chapter because I literally wrote out the five of them going through all of the files and let me tell you it got looong. I debated keeping it all in because there is some information in the cut parts that becomes important and it introduces most of the characters that are important to the subplot, but I realised that I could also drop most of the information in correspondance or other scenes (thank God for Hermione Granger) and just introduce most of the characters later when they actually come up, so I decided not to. (Also it felt cruel to drop a huge chapter as the first chapter and have most of the content be a single scene)

In a similar vein - the scene introducing Elena to Summer Lake Farm was also cut down for more or less the same reasons (as a side note I spent a lot more time than I really needed to trying to figure out what Elena would call a bacon butty)

'bach' means 'little' in Welsh and it's often used as a dimunitive or an affectionate nickname, in this case it's used for Jonny both as a sign of affection and to differentiate him from 'big' Jonny.

'Schwmae' basically means 'how are you?' and its often used as a greeting (depending on where you're from/your family/your background)

The Magical Justice and Law Office is something of a bastardised cross between an Internal Affairs division, the Crown Prosecution Service, and a criminal defence organisation with an added dash of 'they enforce the red tape'. They base everything within the office around cabability and as a result have relatively few old name purebloods and are not well liked but they are very good at what they do. They were decimated in the First War and then built themselves back up and Amelia Bones revolutionised the whole department. Keep an eye out for them to come up in a small but significant way again at some point.

As a heads up: I'm unlikely to be able to work on this fic for a little while now even though I have most of the major events roughly planned out because I'm coming to the end of my degree and working on anything other than my dissertation is unlikely to happen before the end of September

Feel free to comment any initial thoughts and remember that you can always find me on tumblr under the same name