Philip Buttons

TW - suicide mention

Claudia and Sirius were sitting at their little dining table, eating cereals for breakfast. It was a lazy Sunday morning in early May; they had their window wide open for the first time in months, and it felt like the spring. They split the Prophet in half, Claudia was reading the Quidditch pages and Sirius got the politics.

"You know what," Sirius mumbled and squinted at the papers. "I think your mad boss may have been right. A muggleborn Ministry official was found dead. Looks like he was quite high up."

"Show me," Claudia said and threw the Quidditch pages away. She leaned over and scanned the article that Sirius was pointing at.

'Philip Buttons, a muggleborn Head of the Census Office, was found dead in Hampstead Heath last week. Buttons was about to go on trial for bribery. The allegations, which the Daily Prophet can report are very convincing, centred around Buttons taking bribes for falsifying family heritage of muggleborns to show a true wizarding blood line.'

Claudia groaned. "Do you think he was set up? This sounds just like something out of their playbook. Remember Colten?"

"Keep reading," Sirius said, and Claudia submerged herself back in the article.

'There was a suicide note found next to his body. Daily Prophet has exclusive access to its content! Buttons confessed to the bribery allegations, said he could go on no longer, and apologised for bringing shame on his family.'

'An unnamed senior Ministry source observed that suicide by hanging was an exceedingly muggle way out. A true wizard would fight for their honour at the trial. The Prophet could not agree more.'

"Just disgusting," Claudia sighed. "The Prophet could not agree more," she repeated the last line with a mocking voice.

"And all Dumbledore wants to do is a letter campaign," he scoffed. "I'm starting to think all this Order stuff is boring out of sheer incompetence. All we do is talk about how we're losing the war."

"We've been one step behind all along, that's all," she replied and squeezed his shoulder. "We just need to figure out what Voldemort is up to."

"Right, seems easy."

"There are literally dozens and dozens of aurors work in intelligence, trying to figure this out." Claudia tried to reassure him. "They're bound to dig something out soon."

That did not seem to calm Sirius down at all. He grumbled about the incompetence of the Order of the Phoenix for the rest of the weekend.

Early the following week, on the tenth of May, Claudia was buried under old case reports, counting down the minutes until her workday was over, when she heard a familiar voice. "Afternoon," they said. "Does Claudia Avery work in this office?"

"Ted?" she asked and raised her head from the paperwork. Indeed, it was. Ted Tonks was standing on the threshold of her office, looking around.

"Can I talk to you?" he asked tentatively and looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening. "I don't know whether you've seen the Prophet, but it's about Buttons."

"Let's find a meeting room," Claudia whispered and ushered Ted towards the door. "Primrose, is 301 free right now?"

"Should be," Primrose replied, and she flicked through the notebook where she was keeping a record of who was using what meeting room and when.

Claudia led Ted down the corridor. "What is it?" she asked the moment they were in room 301 and she shut the door.

"I don't know if you know," Ted began and sat down at the table. "But I am… Sorry, I was Buttons' lawyer. And an old friend from school."

"Sorry he's gone." Claudia sat down at the table to join him, listening intently.

"We had a really convincing case that the allegations were bogus." Ted continued and paused. He straightened his tie and Claudia noticed his hand shaking a little. "I think he was murdered. The suicide was faked."

"Can you hold on for a second?" she asked. "This is way above my paygrade." Claudia noticed Ted was shifting slightly, so sought to reassure him. "My boss can be trusted, I promise. He's in the Order."

Ted gave a slight nod, and Claudia stood up.

"I'll be right back," she mumbled, and darted out of the room.

Claudia jogged towards Moody's office and poked her head in. Both Moody and Barraclough, as well as Adebayo, were there. "Buttons' lawyer is here. He wants to talk to us."

"Can't you handle it?" Moody barked. "We're busy."

"I could," Claudia replied impatiently. "But since he thinks Buttons was murdered, I thought you might want to hear it for yourselves."

All three of the older aurors jumped up.

"Tone it down with the sarcasm," Moody growled, as he rushed past her out of the door. "We already have Fernsby on the team. We don't need another one like him... Where is this lawyer?"

"Room 301."

"Adebayo not coming?" she whispered to Barraclough on their way there.

"None of your business," he barked, but then dropped his voice to a whisper and continued. "He's taking a step back, going undercover."

"Where?"

"I don't know," Barraclough said. "And-"

"You wouldn't have told me anyway," Claudia finished his sentence.

"Quite right."

When they got to the room, Moody and Barraclough sat down opposite Ted and Claudia pulled up a chair next to him, to make the whole setting less intimidating, and passed him a glass of water. Ted gave her a feeble smile and uttered. "Thanks." He clearly appreciated the gesture.

"How do you two know each other?" Moody began the interrogation.

"My wife is Claude's boyfriend's cousin," Ted replied with a slight shake in his voice.

Moody grimaced. "Claude?"

"Family nickname," Claudia explained with a smile. That's what Sirius always called her, and it must have caught on with the only family he had.

"What makes you think he was murdered?" Moody asked.

"The allegation was that he took bribes from muggleborns to falsify birth record to fake pureblood heritage," Ted began. "Aside from the fact, he was a proud muggleborn and would never do something like that. I have a signed confession from one of the junior staff in the department that it was indeed them that falsified the records. I tracked down couple of the people who paid the bribe to get their records altered. Couple of them had no recollection of ever doing it - I suspect they were under the Imperius Curse. Couple died five years ago, before the request supposedly came through. Some said they were threatened into doing it a young man." Ted paused and rummaged through his briefcase. "It's all here." He passed a thick file to Moody.

"What young man?" Moody asked, as he opened the file and began flicking through it.

"I got a vague description from the victims. Early twenties, well-spoken, tall, with light brown hair. Bit of a thuggish demeanour."

That sounded familiar to Claudia, but surely, it could not have been...

"We'll look through the usual suspects. To see if anyone turns up," Barraclough said. "Anyone else we should speak to?"

"Talk to Buttons' wife. You'll see why he wouldn't have a reason to take his life."

"Thank you. We will," Barraclough replied with as much courtesy as Claudia had ever seen.

"Thank you. I'll show myself out," Ted said and promptly left the room.

"Thoughts?" Barraclough asked.

"I know it's a long shot," Claudia whispered. "But that description kind of sounded familiar."

"Anyone you know from Hogwarts?"

"Not exactly." She paused and took a deep breath. "My brother. He's been doing our father's bidding for years. No reason he would've stopped after graduating."

"I'll do some digging into that, re-interview the witnesses." Moody said. "You two go talk to the wife."

"But I want to join the real investigation," Claudia protested. "You can't freeze me out forever."

"You still haven't been re-certified for combat missions," Moody explained. "And going after suspected Death Eaters is dangerous."

"I've learned my lesson," Claudia whined. "I'm starting to feel really useless."

"Fine," Moody sighed. "I'll push it with Crouch. Whatever gets you off my back. But you aren't to do anything without an explicit order, understand?"

"Yeah."

So instead of going with Moody after the person who could have been Marcus, Claudia went - rather grumpily - with Barraclough to speak to Buttons' wife. At least she saved them an awkward trip on the tube. Claudia knew a good spot to apparate into Hampstead Heath, having grown up roaming it, and it was just next door to Highgate where Buttons' now widow lived.

Mrs Buttons was a red-headed woman in her mid-thirties, who had just come back home from picking up their two children from school. They spoke to her for over half an hour but it revealed nothing - they seemed happy, well-off. There was no obvious reason for him to either take the bribes, or his own life.

"Back to the office?" Barraclough asked, as they left Buttons' house. "We should write it up and see what the boss dug out. And think about whom to speak to next."

Claudia glanced at her watch and suddenly remembered she had somewhere to be. "Shit," she mumbled. "I need to go. I'm meeting some friends."

"It's barely five!" Barraclough said with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"I know, I know," Claudia exclaimed. "But it's my birthday and they're taking me to dinner."

"Birthday? Why are you even at work?"

"It seemed important."

"Get out of here," Barraclough laughed. "I'll do the report."

Claudia thanked him and apparated home. She threw on a fresh shirt, and then walked straight to the nearby Chinese restaurant where they were all meeting.

"Sorry, I'm late," she mumbled as she dropped at the table. "I got caught at work."

"Take my beer," Sirius smiled and slid his glass in front of her. "You look like you need it."

"We just got a new case in," she replied, and took a sip. Then she looked around to make sure no one could hear them. "Did you read about the suicide of the muggleborn Ministry official? We think it's murder."

Everyone looked at each other. Sirius' eyes were twinkling with curiosity, Remus' had narrowed, and Peter's were wide with shock. Lily looked like she was fighting back tears and James was looking at her with a slight line between his eyebrows.

"What makes you-" Sirius began, but did not get to finish his question.

"No," James said resolutely. "No murders tonight. Let's do presents!" He reached into his pocket and took out an envelope. "Here, this is from me and Lily."

Claudia ripped it open to discover two tickets to see the Holyhead Harpies. "Thanks," she beamed. She had not been to see Quidditch for months and could not wait.

"Really?" Sirius groaned. "Why am I being punished?"

"Who said you were invited?" Claudia smirked and looked at James. "Want to come with?"

"Sure," he chuckled. "It's a date."

Claudia then got a lovely, personalised notebook from Remus and a box of chocolates from Peter. Last was Sirius, who reached into his pocket and took out a small jewellery box.

"Gosh, is this really happening?" gasped Lily, and clapped her hands.

Claudia's stomach turned. After all of her mother's nagging, this could not be.

Sirius looked at Lily, then at Claudia. His eyes were wide. "Good grief. No!" he shrieked and hastily opened the box. "It's just a pendant. No proposal!"

Claudia's heart rate returned to normal. "Phew," she chuckled, and picked up the pendant with her fingers. She was genuinely relieved. The pendant was vintage silver, with a female figure holding up a scale. "Who is it?"

"Themis," Sirius replied. "The Greek goddess of justice. I thought you might like it."

"It's perfect," Claudia said with a smile and gave him a kiss.

"Did they not have the goddess of revenge?" James asked, tongue-in-cheek.

Claudia kicked him in the shin. "Shut it," she hissed, and put the pendant around her neck. "It's beautiful."

Soon after, the noodles arrived, and they ate and chatted. Despite it being Claudia's birthday, she never quite got into the celebrations. Her mind kept flicking between the Buttons investigation and the earlier scare about the proposal. Both reminded her too much of her parents. She was normally fine being estranged from them, but on a day like this, she sometimes could not get out of her head that it would have been nice to have a family of some sort. To get a present, or even a card…

"Bar?" Sirius asked once he paid the bill.

"Full moon is in couple days," Remus said. "I think I'm going to head home. I'm exhausted."

"Thanks for coming," Claudia said and gave him a hug.

"Anything for you," Remus mumbled. It was so much like him, to go out of his way to be nice. Sometimes, Claudia envied his ability to do that.

The rest of them made their way to a nearby muggle bar. They fought through the crowd to find a free couch in the corner. The music was loud, and the drinks were flowing. Soon, the last thing Claudia remembered was her parents. Soon, she was having fun.

Lily and James went for a dance, and Peter disappeared too. He often did when he was in danger of finding himself alone with Sirius and Claudia.

Finally alone, Sirius put his arm around his girlfriend's shoulders and pulled her towards him. Instead of whispering, he yelled. Even then, she could just about hear him over the music. "The thing with Lily was a bit awkward. I hope you didn't think..."

Claudia had to chuckle. "Wouldn't even occur to me. Really, it's alright."

"Are you ok though?" Sirius asked. "You didn't look like you were having too much fun."

"I'm ok. It's just..." she replied. "I bumped into my mother few times recently. She said some things about us not being married."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I didn't want to talk about it," Claudia said and rub her palms with her fingers. "I know she's wrong. Just because we aren't married doesn't mean this is not real."

Sirius stared at her for a little while without speaking, so she actually caught some of the music that was playing.

Whatever this world can give to me. It's you, you're all I see.

"This..." he said finally and made a gesture to encapsulate the two of them. "You are by far the most real thing that's ever happened to me. Nothing could ever change that."

The music was becoming harder and harder to ignore. It was perfect.

You're my sunshine, and I want you to know.

That my feelings are true.

I really love you.

Claudia sunk her fingers into Sirius' hair and kissed him. "I love you."

"Love you too," Sirius whispered. "Now, let's go dance."

"I can't dance," Claudia protested.

"I know you can't, and it's adorable," he said and pulled her up to standing.

They danced, drank, and laughed. At some point, James, Lily, and Peter went home. Claudia did not know when, and she did not care. Being with Sirius right in this bar was the best birthday she could ever wish for. There was no pretence, no fuss, no expectations. It was just the two of them, and nothing else mattered.

Claudia's magical alarm clock woke her up at seven the following day. It was magical because it would not stop ringing until she was truly awake. No matter what she threw at it. Claudia vaguely remembered going home. There may have walked or taken a taxi, she was not quite sure.

She crawled out of the bed and into the shower. Her head and stomach were making her painfully aware that she had too much to drink. She just about managed to put on some clean clothes and get out of the flat. Sirius was still fast asleep.

It was very windy and the fresh air on Claudia's way to work helped somewhat, but her brain was far from fully functioning when she got to the Ministry. It was very unfortunate that Barraclough dragged her immediately to interrogate Buttons' secretary.

"You can take this one," he whispered just before they entered the meeting room. "You've watched me enough times. It's not hard."

As she pulled up her chair to begin her very first interrogation, Claudia cursed every single drink she had last night. "When did you last see Mr Buttons?" she began.

"He was going to a meeting," the secretary replied. "Something to do with helping a country somewhere to set up their own wizarding census. He was supposed to come back to pick up his papers for the following day, but he never did."

Claudia struggled to think of the next obvious question, but it came to her just in time. "Do you have a record of the meeting? Who it was with?"

"Yeah, let me get the diary," the secretary said and vanished.

"That could be promising," Claudia whispered.

"Don't get your hopes up," Barraclough groaned. "Probably had one drink too many at that meeting of his and forgot to come back."

Claudia's stomach turned somewhat by the mention of one drink too many. Luckily, she was spared further thoughts of alcohol as the secretary came back into the room, clutching a huge leather volume.

"Here it is," she said. "The meeting was about a Polish census... And it was with some people in the International Magical Cooperation Department: Mr Jones, Mr Cartwright, and Mr Avery."

Claudia did not say anything. She was now properly nauseous and desperately trying to keep the contents of her stomach inside.

Barraclough looked at her, and when her lips did not move, he spoke himself. "Frederic Avery?"

"I think so," the secretary replied. "I don't think there is another Avery working in that department."

"There is," Claudia whispered with difficulty, remembering the description of the suspect that Ted mentioned. "Marcus Avery, Frederick's son."

She felt another bound of nausea and clutched her stomach.

"Sorry," the secretary whispered. "I don't remember which one it was."

"Don't worry," Barraclough said. "This has been very helpful."

The secretary picked up the diary and disappeared, and Barraclough and Claudia were left alone in the room again. She was slightly embarrassed by what just happened.

"Are you ok?" Barraclough asked. "I know it's a lot, having to deal with relatives like that. It's ok to feel overwhelmed."

"That's not it," she mumbled. "I don't care if they end up in Azkaban. I'm just..."

"Just what?"

"It was my birthday yesterday, remember?"

"Hangover?" Barraclough said. "Unbelievable." His eyes twinkled a little though, so Claudia knew he was not as outraged as his words would imply. "The boss and I will go and interrogate them."

Claudia opened her mouth to protest. She wanted to go and face Marcus and her father! That was the reason why she studied so hard to even get this job!

Barraclough took one look at Claudia's face and shook his head. "Don't even think about it. You being there is not going to help anyone, sober or otherwise."

"Fine."

"Now, go get some bacon into you and write up the report from this."

"Bacon?"

"Trust me," Barraclough smirked. "Bacon helps."

An hour or so later, and fuller by the sum of two bacon sandwiches, Claudia was pacing the office, waiting for Moody and Barraclough to come back.

"It was your father that Buttons met with," Barraclough said with a slight sigh.

From his tone, Claudia sensed that they got nowhere. "But?"

"But he has an alibi for after the meeting. He was with the Minister. Alibis don't get more solid than that."

Claudia turned to Moody. "Maybe it was my brother. Did you find anything about him?"

Moody shook his head.

"It's just early days. We'll need to be patient," Barraclough said. "Work it hard and something will turn up."

Claudia sighed. "I'm going away this weekend. I'll give you my address, if something does turn up and you need to reach me," Claudia said anxiously.

"I'm starting to think they should test patience when picking these new aurors," Barraclough smirked.

"I'm serious," Claudia said with a frown. "I don't want to miss out just because I'm being forced to go away this weekend." The weekend away with Lily's sister and her husband was finally upon them, and Claudia was not looking forward to it.

On Saturday morning, Claudia and Sirius took the motorbike to a coastal town called Margate, where Lily's parents used to have a holiday cottage. It was now Lily's and Petunia's to share, and they were all to spend a weekend there together.

When they arrived, they realised with horror that James and Lily were not yet there. So it was Petunia who showed them to their room up in the attic.

"Twin room?" Claudia mumbled quietly, so that Petunia could not hear her. "You've got to be kidding." She was standing on the threshold looking into a room that house two tiny beds and was furnished almost entirely in pink.

"This used to be mine and Lily's room." Petunia explained loudly, although no explanation was required. The flowers on the wallpaper said it all. "Vernon and I have my parent's bedroom and my sister will be in the guest double." She added with an air of someone who was rather uncomfortable about all of this. "I'll knock on the door when the tea is ready."

Sirius fell onto the bed with a thud the moment Petunia shut the door behind her. It was not even long enough for his feet to stay on. "I cannot believe James isn't here yet."

Claudia took out her wand and tapped the bed Sirius was lying on. "Engorgio," she mumbled, and Sirius' feet fell off the headboard as the bed got bigger. She climbed in the bed to join him. "Can we stay here for the rest of the weekend?" she mumbled and cuddled up to him.

"May I remind you that you were the one who agreed to this? I did not want to go."

"Like you would've been able to say no to James."

"On this occasion, most certainly."

Claudia slid her hand under Sirius' t-shirt. "I can make it up to you," she whispered and kissed him.

He grabbed the belt of her jeans and pulled her towards him. "You can try. But I am very upset about all this," he whispered and kissed her back.

Their passionate kiss was interrupted by a knock on the door. "The tea is ready." Petunia's high-pitched voice carried through the room.

Sirius groaned and threw his head back into the fluffy pillow. "No amount of sex could ever make up for this."

"Be right down," Claudia shouted and extracted herself from the bed.

"Why?" Sirius pleaded with her. "Why do we have to do this? She clearly hates us. I can see it on her face, and I know you can too."

"Come on," Claudia said with a little smirk. "For James and Lily. This is important to them."

"Why do you care?"

"They're my friends!"

"You changed your tune," Sirius scoffed, but then he smiled, got up and hugged her. "It's nice when you say that."

"Let's go then."

They made it down to the kitchen. Petunia was fussing over the tea service, and a rather large man with a huge moustache was spread across the sitting room sofa, watching the television.

"This is my husband Vernon," Petunia said. "Vernon, dear, please turn that off and come have tea with us."

Grudgingly, Vernon complied. "Are you also...?" he asked, his face twisted with disgust.

"Also what?" Sirius snapped.

"You know what," Vernon growled. "One of their kind."

"Oh, you mean this?" Sirius smirked and took out his wand, which made Vernon jump back a little.

"Put that away!"

"Alright, alright." Sirius said with a slight eye-roll and they all sat down to tea.

"So, you know my sister from school?" Petunia tried to make the conversation more pleasant, as she passed around little sandwiches with tuna and cucumber.

"James is my best friend." Sirius explained.

Everyone was chewing on their sandwiches extraordinarily slowly, perhaps hoping that James and Lily would get there before they finished. Alas, they did not.

"And what do you do?" Petunia asked in Claudia's direction.

"I'm an auror," Claudia said but, judging by Petunia's and Vernon's expressions, that did not seem to ring any bells. "I think Lily once described it as our version of a detective."

Again, Claudia's remark was met with silence and more excruciatingly slow chewing.

"And you?" Vernon asked Sirius.

"Nothing much. Just a few things here and there."

"That's what a criminal would say," Vernon mumbled, and Claudia distinctly saw that Petunia kicked him under the table.

There was more awkward silence. But this time, it was interrupted by a loud pop from the outside of the house and within seconds, James and Lily stumbled through the door.

"Thank fuck," Sirius whispered. "This was the most painful ten minutes of my life."

"Exaggerating much?" Claudia whispered back. To which Sirius made the same grimace a three-year-old would make if they did not want to eat any more of their vegetables.

"Put your things into the downstairs room," Petunia ordered the new arrivals. "And then come and join us for tea."

James and Lily did as they were told, and the rest of the group continued to sit around the table in silence. Sirius kept glancing towards the door to the guest room. Claudia could see in his eyes just how desperate he was for James to come back.

"You aren't staying in my old room, are you?" Lily said to Sirius and Claudia when they finally emerged. She could barely suppress laughter. "The beds are tiny."

"We made one of them bigger, don't worry," Claudia smirked.

From the corner of her eye, she could see that Petunia shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, come on Tuney." Lily laughed. "They live together anyway. And so do James and I."

"At least the two of you are engaged..." Petunia whispered through lips so tightly pressed together, it was a miracle she was making any sound at all.

"Let's go for a walk!" Lily said in an unusually high voice.

"What about your tea?" Petunia protested.

"We'll have it when we're back," Lily replied.

"But it will get cold."

"I can warm it up. Magic, remember?"

That last remark from Lily was met with stone-cold silence from Petunia. Vernon clearly was not the only one who had a problem with magic. Petunia walked over to the door, picked up a coat and set off down the path from the house, ignoring her sister and everyone else.

The walk itself provided little bit of reprieve, as Vernon struggled to keep up so they did not have to talk to him or his wife, who stayed by his side.

Once they were back, it was time to start on lunch. Sirius was helping Lily and Petunia to cook, and the rest of the group were sitting at the dining table.

"He's getting quite nifty in the kitchen," James said. "When you two moved in, I was worried you might starve. Now you just have to master cleaning spells, and you might pass for actual adults."

The thought of her and Sirius passing as actual adults made Claudia laugh…

"It's very strange," Vernon mumbled. "A man in the kitchen. Didn't your mother teach you how to cook?"

"My mother doesn't cook either," Claudia replied, extremely curious about where this conversation was heading.

"Typical," Vernon scoffed. "This country is going to the dogs. One minute, there is no family dinner on the table, the next... Proper values are not passed from generation to generation. It all ends in debauchery."

"Oh, we had dinner. The servants cooked it." Claudia smirked. "The debauchery is all my own doing, I'm afraid."

Vernon went all red and flustered. He started mumbling something, but not a coherent word came out. He clearly was not expecting someone like Claudia to grow up in a house with servants and had no idea what to say.

He was saved by an owl landing on the window. James got up to pick up the message. "It's for you, Claudia."

Claudia took it out of his hand and unrolled it.

'Got a missing person case on our hands. You're cleared for combat missions. Get to the office now. AB'

Claudia jumped up from the table, her heart racing. She was cleared for combat missions! Finally! "I have to go," she said and handed Sirius the note.

"You've been cleared already?" he whispered with a slight frown.

"Apparently so," Claudia replied with a grin.

"Do you have to go?" Sirius growled before nudging her away from the crowd in the kitchen and dropping his voice into a whisper. "You can't leave me here with these people. Please!"

Vernon, who had now recovered from his previous setback, spoke again. He was clearly eavesdropping. "That's why you should get married. Then, she could quit her job and have her husband provide for her. It's a proper way of things. Not something a ruffian like you could ever understand."

"Shut your mouth." Sirius barked. "Claude's saving all our skins here, including yours!"

Claudia grabbed Sirius' arm and dragged him even further away from Vernon's prying ears. "I'm sorry," she uttered. "I really have to go."

He sunk his fingers into her shoulder in a way that was almost painful. "Please be careful," he said urgently.

"I promise. Don't wait up," Claudia said, kissed Sirius and apparated to the Ministry.

What took you so long?" Moody barked when she finally made it to the office.

"What's going on?" she asked, somewhat out of breath. She ran there from the atrium as fast as her legs carried her.

"Remember your friend, Ted Tonks? He's gone missing."

"What do you mean, missing?"

Before Moody could growl any kind of disparaging response, Barraclough and Oscar run through the door. "We found a suicide note in his office. He admits that he was Buttons' co-conspirator and that he was going to go the same way," Barraclough blurted out.

"It makes no fucking sense," Oscar mumbled. "Why bring it to us in the first place, if the allegations were true?"

No one replied. It was not necessary, as everyone knew it was another setup.

"Hampstead Heath..." Claudia whispered. It had to be. If they wanted Ted to go the same way as Buttons.

"There is no way to be sure," Barraclough said.

"It's the only shot we have," Moody growled. "Where is Dankworth?"

"Useless..." Fernsby smirked. "Last time I saw him, he was going into his room with a lady and a bottle of champagne."

"I'll deal with him tomorrow," Moody barked. "Let's go."

"Do you remember where to apparate?" Claudia asked Barraclough.

He nodded, grabbed Moody's arm, and they both vanished. Claudia did the same to Oscar and followed them.

They rushed up Hampstead Heath. Moody and Barraclough went to the place where they found Buttons and sent Claudia and Oscar to check a nearby wood just in case the murderer got innovative.

The younger aurors run towards the wood, and once on the edge of it, they moved through the undergrowth as silently as they could.

Few yards in, Oscar outstretched his arm to stop Claudia in her tracks. "Shush," he hissed. "I think I can see something."

They hid behind a trunk of an old tree and watched. Out of the shadows emerged a figure holding a rope in their hand.

Claudia strained her eyes to see what was going on. "It's Ted," she whispered.

They watched in horror as Ted tied a noose out of the rope and threw it over a thick tree-branch. Then, he began to put it around his neck.

"I think we've seen enough," Oscar barked and jumped out from behind the tree. "Mr Tonks, stop whatever it is you're doing."

Ted did nothing. He did not even acknowledge Oscar's existence and continued putting the noose around his neck. Oscar run towards him to wrestle it off him. "Mr Tonks, listen to me. We're with the Auror Department. You're to stop now."

In the corner of her eye, Claudia spotted something move in the nearby bushes. She turned her head and saw a hooded figure pointing a wand in Ted's direction. Before she could raise her wand and stun them, there was a loud 'pop' and they were gone.

"Shit," Claudia cursed. She did not get a glimpse of their face. Although they did seem shorter than her father and brother. Claudia looked back at Ted, who was now being supported by Oscar.

"What am I doing here?" Ted whispered and dropped the noose.

Claudia and Oscar looked at each other. "Looked like the Imperius Curse," she whispered. "But they're gone now. You're alright."

Ted looked at Claudia, then at the noose that was now lying on the floor. "This is how they killed Buttons too, isn't it?" he whispered. "Made him commit suicide under the Imperius Curse?"

"What did you say?" Barraclough's voice sounded from behind Claudia. There was an unusual tremble in it. He was always so assured, but not now.

"If it wasn't so horrifying, I'd be impressed," Moody, who came with Barraclough, said.

To hell with horrifying, Claudia thought, she was impressed. It was a genius way to dispose of someone.

Moody ordered Barraclough to take Ted to the Ministry to see if he could remember anything, and Claudia and Oscar were to thoroughly search the area for anything that could indicate the identity of the assailant.

For hours, they crawled through the undergrowth until…

"I've got something," Oscar exclaimed, and emerged out of the bush. He outstretched his arm and dropped something into Claudia's palm.

"A key, with Voldemort's mark on it," she whispered.

"That has to be good enough," Oscar said, and stretched his back. "My knees can't take any more crawling."

They went back to the Ministry. Ted was sent home with some patrol officers who were to guard his house twenty-four hours a day. Moody disappeared to see Crouch and, as ever, came back in a foul mood. Claudia spent hours looking through evidence records to see if there was a mention of a key similar to the one they found on the Heath, but to no avail.

"You should both go home, get some sleep," Barraclough finally said, when Claudia threw another old file to the floor in frustration.

Oscar's head popped over the barrier separating their two cubicles. "I'll speak to some locksmiths tomorrow. Maybe they recognise it," he said. "Drink?"

"It's two in the morning," Claudia replied with a yawn.

"So?"

"I'm supposed to be in Margate with some friends. I should get going."

"Suit yourself."

Claudia locked all the files up for the night and walked through the deserted Ministry corridors to the atrium from where she apparated back to Margate.

When she walked into the cottage, she spotted Sirius sitting on the sofa in the lounge. He was slouching and there was an empty bottle of something in front of him.

"Why are you still awake?" she whispered and dropped onto the sofa next to him.

"Couldn't sleep," Sirius growled. Then he sighed, closed his eyes, and dropped his head back. "I'm not sure how I'll ever be ok with this. I never again want to see you stumble into the flat covered in blood. I never want you to be in a position where you have to kill someone to save your own skin."

Claudia remembered how panicked she got when Sirius went on the Order mission just after Lily's parents died. "I worry about you too."

"I don't just worry," Sirius snapped. "I hate it! With every fibre of my body!"

"What do you want me to do? Quit?" Claudia barked. She was getting little agitated too. He was putting himself in danger all the time and had no right to lecture her about her own job.

"I don't know," Sirius said and put his hands over his face.

"Well, I'm not quitting," Claudia said and put her arms against her chest. "And if you love me, you'll accept that." She added abruptly and stood up. She was tired and more than ready to go to bed.

"Claude, I do love you," Sirius whispered, reached for her hand, and pulled her back to the sofa. "And you do an amazing job."

"Speaking of." She replied, her temper returning to normal. "We might want to swing by Andromeda's on our way home. The missing person was Ted." Upon seeing a horrified expression on Sirius' face, she hastily added. "But he's alright now."

"What happened?"

Claudia recounted the events of the previous night.

"They used Imperio to make that guy commit suicide?" Sirius whispered. "That's twisted even for them."

Claudia looked him in the eye. For the first time during this war, she saw a hint of fear. "If we got there five minutes later, Ted would've been gone."

"I really hate this..." Sirius sighed. "I know you need to keep working, but I really hate it. What if you are next? It's not like they don't have a reason!"

Claudia reached out for his hand and squeezed it. She hated it too when he was on a mission. There was no getting around that. Sirius had a point. They were both a target. "What do we do?" she whispered.

"Well, if we can't stop... We'll just need to find a way to make it survivable for whoever is left behind."

"Maybe we could convince Moody to let us do the odd Order mission together." Claudia raised a smile, remembering how fun it was to run those Linda-related errands earlier.

Sirius nodded. "And we should start taking the notebooks too. I know we said we wouldn't in case we get caught, but I think it's a risk worth taking."

Claudia leaned over to Sirius and kissed his cheek. "Alright."

Sirius wrapped his arms around her. "I'm so exhausted," he whispered. "First, whole day with those morons… Then, the waiting."

Claudia had to laugh. That sounded even worse than crawling through bushes in Hamstead Heath. "Go upstairs?"

"Way too comfortable here," Sirius mumbled, pulled a throw over them, and lowered himself to lay on the sofa. Claudia followed suit and fell asleep in his embrace within five minutes.

Claudia was woken up by a commotion. She sat up on the sofa and rubbed her eyes. Vernon and Petunia were coming down the stairs, dragging a huge suitcase rather loudly behind them. Vernon had a swollen eye and a little cut on his cheek that he certainly did not have when she left the night before.

"Forgot to mention something?" she asked Sirius, who was just waking up too. She continued to watch Petunia and Vernon as they got into the car and drove off.

Before Sirius could explain, James and Lily emerged from their room.

Sirius jumped up and briskly walked over to Lily. "I'm so sorry, Lily. I know this was important to you," he said and hugged her.

"It's ok. He deserved it. Now get to bed, you look like hell."

Sirius glanced and Claudia, as if to ask if she was coming too.

"I'll just have something to eat and be right up," she said, suddenly feeling very hungry. She had barely eaten anything since breakfast the previous day.

Sirius dragged his heels up the stairs, and the rest went into the kitchen. Claudia buttered some toast and turned to Lily. "Will someone please tell me what happened?"

"Vernon happened," Lily sighed.

"Well, I figured that out," Claudia smirked. "He's a delight."

"He was shooting his mouth off about you surely being just some secretary who was needed because the real police wanted their tea made," Lily explained. "And when Sirius told him it was more dangerous than he could even contemplate, Vernon said that Sirius should feel ashamed for letting you do it."

Claudia sighed. That was the reason behind Sirius' foul mood and anxiety. Stupid Vernon…

"So, he did what Sirius does and punched him. Really hard." James finished.

"Deservedly so," Lily nodded along. "I don't think they're coming to the wedding now."

"Can I be a little relieved?" James smirked.

Claudia suppressed a chuckle and her eyes darted towards Lily to make sure she had not crossed some sort of line. She knew her sister was important to her. But even Lily had to laugh at James' remark.

Claudia finished her toast and came up. Sirius was nearly asleep in the enlarged pink bed, surrounded by fluffy cushions with rainbow unicorns. She was contemplating taking a picture of him to ruin his rebellious reputation.

"One more thing..." Sirius mumbled, as she climbed into the bed and wrapped her arms around his torso. "Thanks for saving Ted. I'm proud of you."