A/N: Hello everyone, here's the the next chapter! I'm a few days late, but better late than never.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Warning: There are a few topics mentioned in his chapter that deal with very serious, but real and topical issues. I don't think I've written it in a way that is triggering, but please let me know if you think i should give more of a warning for it.
Recap: Vic's bridal shower is just dragging on. This is the last chapter concerning it, but it definitely has a different and more serious tone than the last one.
Unconventional Sisterly Bonding
Sunday, April 28th 2024
3:26 PM
On the other side of Gabrielle's sitting room Dom was refilling her poorly-hidden bowl of special punch that she had to, on more than one occasion, convince her younger cousins Émilie and Esmé was a yucky probiotic vegetable-based drink that they wouldn't want to taste, when her cousin Alexandrie's girlfriend Stephanie came up behind her.
"How's work going Dom?" Stephanie asked the redhead in French.
Dom poured half a bottle of Shrieking Sour Lemonade into the depleted punch bowl and replied, "It's actually going really well Stephanie. My boss is going to have a baby in a few months and when that happens I'm confident that he'll end up giving me more of his important clients and cases because he'll want to cut down on his work and spend more time with his wife and wailing infant."
"Have you been taking on a lot of cases on your own lately?" Stephanie asked as she shoved her hands into the pockets of her stylish linen shift dress.
Dom shrugged and measured out a few ounces of gigglewater to add to the punch mix, "I've been flying solo on a few of them but Colton, my boss, seems to always find a way to stick his nose in to see how I'm faring. I know that it's not because he's worried that I'm going to botch the situation, but that he wants to try to ease away any issues that might come up because he's trying to look out for me. But it's still irritating sometimes."
"Ever done any criminal work?" Stephanie queried.
"A bit . . . most of it was about Vic though so it's not like I've defended a client who used an unforgivable or anything like that. Although I can't say for certain that Vic's never imperious-ed anyone before . . ."
Stephanie eyed Dom's progress mixing the punch idly, "What about civil rights cases?"
"To be honest Steph, most of my personal career experience so far has been like seventy-five percent divorces, wills, estate disputes, pre-nups, business mergers, and real estate dealings. I haven't really had the chance to dip my toes into the water of much worthier causes," Dom replied with a bit of a frown as she internally wondered whether she'd like to deal with more serious cases compared to the relatively easy ones she's be overseeing ever since graduating her law course.
"But what about that other twenty-five percent?" Stephanie pressed, a new urgency in her tone.
Dom grabbed the punch ladle and started to stir the different types of beverages into one cohesive mixture, "Well five to eight percent of that twenty-five percent was spent helping my boss get Victoire out of whatever mess she'd gotten herself into with St. Mungo's board of ethics over the past few years."
The redhead set the ladle down and turned her attention fully towards her cousin's girlfriend for the first time since their discussion began, "Why are you asking?
Stephanie seemed to consider what she was about to say very carefully. However, now that Dom was actually paying attention to her cousin's supermodel girlfriend, she noticed that Stephanie had waves of unease rolling off of her.
"I–I think I need your help. I know that this is Victoire's bridal shower and that you're her sister and maid of honour and that it's important for you to be here but-"
Dom cut her off abruptly, "I can and I will ditch this party if it's something serious. Just give me the important details."
"Okay, well I just received a message from a friend about a mutual friend of ours. I was just informed that this mutual friend was arrested a half hour ago by law enforcement because they claimed that he had been attacking someone. From what I know about the situation, my friend was defending himself from what I would easily consider a hate crime, but the person who had attacked him decided to play the victim for law enforcement. Since this faux-victim is old money and has a lot of family connections he's gotten off scot-free while my friend is sitting in a jail cell because it's a Sunday and it's impossible to get a ministry appointed public defender to bail you out on a Sunday-"
Dom interrupted Stephanie again, "Say no more. I'm definitely sober enough for this task, but it's probs best if you side-along apparate me to where they're holding your friend because I really shouldn't take chances with magical travel."
Stephanie agreed right away to transport Dom to where her friend was jailed; she was just glad that Dom agreed to help her and that it didn't take a half hour to convince her to agree to offer up her services for her friend. It was relatively easy to sneak out of Gabrielle's house without anybody noticing, although that might have been because Alexandrie had already been appraised of the situation and had told Stephanie that she'd run interference for them if needed so that they could sneak out of the party.
The pair apparated down the street from where the law enforcement station was located, and as they paced toward the correct building Dom finally asked Stephanie to share some more important details about the incident with her. Specifically why she thought that her friend's arrest could be considered a civil rights violation.
Stephanie sighed and then explained that her friend, who self identifies as a gay man, was on a public street in front of a commercial building and protesting that the owners of the business were unfairly treating their employees who were part of the LGBTQ+ community. A person who was a known member of a social group that had been known to campaign against LGBTQ+ rights in favour of championing the quickly dying-out existence of the natural nuclear heterosexual family, spotted Stephanie's friend and started an argument with him. When Stephanie's friend pointed out that he was on public property and not breaking any laws, this other person drew their wand and started to hex Stephanie's friend. The fight escalated as Stephanie's friend used magic to defend himself, and when magical law enforcement showed up to re-establish the peace they listened to the lies the other man was spewing about Stephanie's friend starting the fight, and in the end her friend was arrested while the other man got off without so much as a warning because he had a powerful last name.
By the time they had reached the building that housed that area of the city's magical law enforcement, Dom was spitting mad about the societal injustices and crushed civil liberties Stephanie had described and she was more than ready to strut into the room and kick some homophobic law enforcement arse.
Even though Dom had dressed a little more on the girly and demure side for Victoire's bridal shower –mostly because her mother would have flipped if she'd shown up to the party in her black leather mini-skirt and sequined halter-top– she was glad that she was still wearing shoes with a high enough heel to help give her the confidence to kick ass. The fact that she was dressed in a floral dress with a frilly lace trim would also help her because it would probably cause the law enforcement officers she was about to meet think that she was decorous and reserved. They wouldn't find out until it was much too late that she was actually the exact opposite.
Stephanie being an almost six-feet tall-without-even-wearing-heels lingerie model, was also rather a force to be reckoned with at first glance, and she swept up into the law enforcement building with a level of outrage and entitlement that only pretty Caucasian women with money can ever get away. Dom took a backseat to Stephanie's –totally justified in Dom's opinion– indignation over her friend's arrest and waited for the right minute to play her hand.
It was obvious after only a few minutes of Stephanie's spiel, where she demanded to have her friend released, that the less competent law enforcement officers were scheduled to work the lame Sunday afternoon shifts. The two men Stephanie had been righteously complaining to were also, apparently, rather thick in the head because they spent the first five minutes of Stephanie's rapid rant unabashedly staring at the low neckline of her dress. This caused Stephanie to snap her fingers in front of both of the officers' faces, inform them that her eyes were housed elsewhere, and then demand to see their supervisor with all of the privileged-white-girl tone she could muster.
If the situation hadn't been so serious, Dom would have started a slow-clap to illustrate to Stephanie her appreciation for the absolutely brilliant performance she was putting on. As it was, the officers' supervisor must have been able to hear Stephanie's forceful tone echo through the relatively empty floor and to his office, because he had arrived at the front desk to deal with them within only a few minutes of Stephanie threatening to file a law enforcement harassment lawsuit.
"What can I do for you young ladies?" The supervisor with the really shiny badge on his robes questioned Stephanie and Dom with what he thought was his charming smile.
Stephanie put her hands on her hips, "I came here to see my friend who I was informed is being held here without just cause all the while having his civil liberties violated-"
The supervisor interrupted her before she could call out more buzzwords, "There must be a misunderstanding Mademoiselle -"
"Ms. Paquet," Stephanie supplied for him, "And there is no misunderstanding. I am here to see Jérôme Leclair and I will not leave until I can ensure that he has appropriate legal representation and that you are not trampling all over his rights as a citizen of this country and as a human being."
"Ms. Paquet, I believe when I got here I heard one of my men explaining to you that Monsieur Leclair has been read his rights and that we have followed our normal protocol step-by-step-"
Stephanie crossed her arms over her chest, "Well I am sorry if I do not believe you Sir, because I happen to know that Monsieur Leclair has yet to be issued a proper legal advocate even though he has been in your custody for almost a whole hour now."
"The minute Monsieur Leclair indicated that he required a ministry appointed lawyer we contacted the legal aid department. Unfortunately since it is a Sunday there are not many legal aid lawyers working and they are very busy with cases and clients that they already have on their rosters. While this is unfortunate, it is not unheard of for the wheels of the free justice system to turn slowly. We abstained from speaking to Monsieur Leclair about his charges and the public incident the exact moment that he requested legal representation, as is his civil right as you previously mentioned. However it is well within our jurisdiction to hold Monsieur Leclair until his legal representation arrives, or until twenty-four hours after his initial arrest," The supervisor explained.
Stephanie turned to glance at Dom as if to silently ask if the supervisor was giving her accurate information, and Dom nodded her head to indicate that he was being honest with her even though Dom wasn't fully up to speed on the exact number of hours a person could be held by ministry law enforcement in France after an arrest.
The surprisingly socially-conscious Siren's Secret model went back to glaring at the law enforcement supervisor, "Well if that's all that's standing in Monsieur Leclair's way of getting this little issue resolved then I think I've got a solution that will help everyone here." Stephanie smiled brightly and gestured to Dom, "This is Monsieur Leclair's new legal representation."
"I am going to need proof that this young woman is a qualified legal advocate before I can allow her to meet with Monsieur Leclair," The supervisor said as he glanced disbelievingly at Dom.
Dom pulled one of her business cards out of her purse and wordlessly handed it to the man. He glanced at it and then squinted as he read the English writing on the card that stated that she was a Jr. associate lawyer at the firm of 'Cunningham and Knott Law Office and Associates'.
"An Anglophone?" The supervisor asked derisively in French.
Dom put her hands on her hips and replied in flawless French, "I can assure you that my language abilities are more than up to the task at hand. I'd like to see my client now, and I'll require Ms. Paquet to come with me so that she can make the proper introductions."
Even though Dom had yet to bring out her most bad-ass attitude, the supervisor seemed to sense that she was not to be trifled with and instructed one of his officers to take her and Stephanie to the holding cells so that they could speak with the 'offender'. It didn't take long to get to the cells, but once they were there Stephanie's anger –which Dom had thought she was doing a relatively good job restraining– was starting to leak out when she saw the lone man sitting in the last of a row of empty cells. The man looked to be about five years older than Stephanie, so in his early-mid thirties. His slightly curly chestnut-brown head was bowed down when they got there, so Dom didn't get a good look at his face until Stephanie called his attention to them. She ran towards the cell door so that she could be as close to him as the cell bars would allow, and her friend met her there with a statement already prepared to try to calm down her obvious anxiety.
Once Stephanie had assured herself that law enforcement had at least made the effort to get any injuries he might have had from the duel with the other man healed, she gestured towards Dom.
"Jérôme, this is Dominique Weasley. She's here to be your legal representation and to get you out."
Jérôme looked at Stephanie with obvious surprise, "Where in the world did you find me a lawyer on such short notice on a Sunday afternoon Steph? This must be costing you a fortune-"
"Don't worry about all of that right now," Stephanie waved off his concerns as she reached through the bars to grasp his hands, "Dom is a cousin of Alexandrie's. We were at an event together when I got the call from Emmanuel that you had been arrested."
Dom stepped forward and reached her hand out to Jérôme through the bars of the cell, "Monsieur Leclair I'm just here to do what I can to help. Stephanie has already told me what she was told about your situation, however, I'd like to hear it from you now, if that's alright?"
Jérôme nodded, waited for Dom to pull out a pen and notepad from her purse, and then launched into his story. Luckily for Monsieur Leclair, his story very closely resembled the one he had already told his friend Emmanuel (who in turn had repeated it to Stephanie, who had then told Dom) which meant that he was not changing any details of the situation in his most recent recitation; whether by accident or on purpose. Dom knew that it was important for her client to sound reliable and trustworthy in the off chance that the incident would cause him to go on trial, but it was her intent to get the charges dropped before it could even go that far.
Despite Monsieur Leclair's solid recitation skills, Dom noticed that he was getting increasingly distracted throughout his explanation and the series of questions Dom had asked him afterward. It was only a few minutes into the story of his protesting and subsequent arrest that he started cringing and clutching at his lower abdomen. He seemed to be trying to ignore his own pain as he spoke to her, but by the time they'd gotten to the part about the police arriving to arrest him after the other man lied to them, he was breathing heavy and starting to sweat and Dom couldn't allow him to ignore it anymore.
"Are you alright Monsieur Leclair?"
He groaned in pain, still clutching his lower abdomen, "Just starting to get a stomach ache."
"That's your intestines," Dom pointed out in a tone that sounded way too much like Victoire. She narrowed her gaze at him as she considered him, "What injuries from the duel did you have when law enforcement arrived and broke it up?"
From behind her Dom could hear Stephanie's worried gasp. She had to give the supermodel credit, Stephanie had been silent and content to stay in the background throughout Dom's cross-examination and this was the first time that she had visibly reacted to something Jérôme had said.
"I'd dodged all of the stunners but he got me with a few severing hexes. I had some shallow injuries to my extremities when law enforcement arrived," Jérôme explained.
Dom nodded, but the paleness of his skin and amount of sweat that was rolling down his face still worried her, "What about other spells? Maybe something that wouldn't cause outward damage but internal?"
"No. I mean, things were moving pretty fast there for a moment and it's possible that I was hit with something else, but I think if I had internal damage I would have felt it during the duel," He said.
"And the pain from the severing hexes was all you felt? There were no other sources of pain? Nothing that could have been like Cruciatus-level?" Dom enquired.
Jérôme shook his head, "No, once the emergency medics healed my injuries from the severing hexes my pain went away."
"But you're in pain now," Dom pointed out needlessly.
He groaned again and clutched harder at his stomach, "Ye – Yes . . . but I wasn't hit by a severing hex there."
"There was nothing there when the medics did a comprehensive external check on you?"
Jérôme's skin was almost paper white by that point, "Well they–they didn't do a full external check-"
"What?!" Stephanie finally interrupted as she paced up to the cell bars, "The officers didn't allow the medics to do a full exam on you?"
"It-" He had to pause so that he could breathe through a harsh stab of pain, "It wasn't necessary. I . . . ah . . . I just had a few obvious cuts from the severing curses. Once those were cleared up the ah–fficers wanted to arrest me right away and I h–ah-d no other obvious injuries to deal with. Maybe what I'm feeling now is resid-ow pain from the earlier hexes?"
Dom didn't buy it, "Roll your shirt up for me so that I can see your abdomen."
If her firm tone wasn't enough to convince him to do so, the glare Stephanie was giving him sure was.
Jérôme rolled up the bottom of his sweater and Dom instantly spotted a thin slightly jagged scar across his lower abdomen. There didn't seem to be a lot of blood congealed around it, but it also wasn't a clean cut like severing curses usually leave.
"I – I don't remember being hit here-"
Stephanie looked like she wanted to touch the injury, but a second later Jérôme was back to clutching at it and groaning in pain, "So you didn't tell the medics to heal this one?"
"I didn't kn-ah-ow about it. Maybe it was one of the first ones to hit me and it healed on its own by the time the medics had gotten there?" Jérôme suggested.
Dom frowned. She wouldn't claim to know anywhere near as much about dark arts injuries as Victoire did, but she had –begrudgingly at some points– paid attention to Defense Against the Dark Arts when she was in school. It was a rule within their family that all of the 'kids' were required to keep up at least an 'Exceeds Expectations' when it came to DADA. For every other subjects 'As' were acceptable, and sometimes even the odd 'P' or 'D' when it came to the subject of Divination, but for personal defence against dark magic it was mandatory that they were all competent enough to keep at least themselves alive.
What Dom did know about dark magic though, was that severing curses didn't just clot over and 'heal' themselves, and they definitely wouldn't continue to cause a person who had been inflicted with them pain after more than an hour had passed.
"Monsieur Leclair, I think it would be best to get you additional medical care. Right away. I'd like your permission to speak to one of the officers about this," Dom told him seriously.
He actually looked like he was going to deny her request, but then he was unable to hold in his next cry of pain and Stephanie went ahead to alert the officers that they needed help. The first cry of pain that escaped Jérôme was loud but quick, the one that escaped him right as one of the officers and their supervisor were walking towards them with Stephanie was high-pitched, keening, and painfully long.
"What-"
Dom interrupted the supervisor's exclamation of surprise, "Monsieur Leclair requires additional medical attention right away. As you can see he is in incredible pain and obviously must still be suffering from a curse he was hit with during the earlier attack-"
"Humph, I'm not going to release him just because he's got a bit of a stomach ache," The supervisor complained as he looked at Jérôme without any remorse in his expression.
It was obvious that the pain was starting to escalate and reach a whole new level, because the next time Jérôme hunched over to clutch his stomach his knees gave out and he hit the floor of his cell with a thump.
"He needs medical attention! If you're not going to release him so that he can seek it then you need to arrange for emergency medical personnel to get here post haste!" Dom demanded in her 'don't mess with me' tone of voice.
The supervisor rolled his eyes, "He's obviously faking and making this up after the fact so that it will help you when you go to spin his tale about him being the innocent victim in the situation."
Dom was almost spitting angry at this point, and Jérôme's cries of pain were just becoming louder and louder.
She turned to Stephanie, "Go to Gabrielle's and get Victoire."
Stephanie knew better than to waste time with needless questions when her friend was in so much pain, so she walked out of the room without even bothering to give either law enforcement officer a second look.
Dom wished that she could help Jérôme with his pain, but with Victoire on the way she didn't want to cast any spells on him that could interfere with whatever she was going to do. Instead she rounded on the law enforcement supervisor and unleashed hell on him.
"If it turns out that my client is suffering from a serious condition that you have been ignoring, you can bet your badge that I will file both a criminal and a civil lawsuit on his behalf for the negligence and pain you're causing him."
Even though the supervisor didn't believe that Jérôme's hastily escalating pain was real, he was starting to get worried about the fact that Dom didn't seem anywhere near as ditzy as she looked.
Dom was trying to get more information about his attack –which is what she had started calling it since he was the victim and had only ever defended himself– but he was too distracted to give her more information about what type of spell it could have been that hit him and was now, only an hour later, causing him pain. She was at her wits end when Stephanie finally showed up again, this time with Victoire in tow.
Her older sister already had her wand out and 'healer face' already in place, and she did a beautiful job of completing ignoring the flabbergasted interrogation she was getting from the law enforcement officers the moment she stepped into the room. Victoire knelt down on the other side of the cell bars from where Jérôme was curled up on the floor in pain and addressed him.
"Monsieur Leclair, I'm healer Victoire Weasley and your friend Stephanie has brought me here to assess you. May I examine you?" Victoire asked Jérôme in a no-nonsense tone. She wanted him to feel like she respected his autonomy –which she did– but the truth was that she was a healer so she had a duty to try to heal him if he was injured, even if he didn't exactly want her to.
Jérôme let out a groan of pain that sounded like an approximation of a 'yes' and Victoire thought 'what the hell that's good enough'. She cast a few routine examination spells that were reflex to her at that point, while also asking Monsieur Leclair about his pain levels and if he would show her the injury Stephanie had mentioned was on his lower abdomen.
As she did her job, the law enforcement supervisor worked up enough nerve to demand to see her qualifications. She ignored him while Dom made a scoffing sound and said something derisive about how it was so likely that a healer was going to carry her qualifications around on her during her own bridal shower.
When Victoire finally saw the jagged mark on Jérôme's lower abdomen, which had already congealed with a thin layer of blood, her first instinct was to be suspicious. One part of her mind was busy trying to search her vast mental rolodex of dark magical curses and injuries, while her mouth was busy asking questions.
"You don't recall getting hit by a spell here?"
Jérôme had reached a level of pain and suffering which made it impossible for him to offer verbal replies for each question asked of him, so he did his best to shake his head or nod when it came to Victoire's questions.
He shook his head in between a low keening scream.
"No other medical professional attended to that specific injury?"
Another shake of the head.
Victoire frowned as her mind was still running through all of the possibilities, "It only started to pain you a little while ago?"
Jérôme nodded his head this time, sweat dripping off his forehead and onto the floor next to him since he was still curled in on himself in a ball. Victoire didn't particularly enjoy the fact that her patient was laying on the floor in the foetal position and there was a wall of bars between them, but she was trying to make do with what she could before she asked for something that would further anger the law enforcement officers who Dom was still arguing with and threatening to sue in civil court.
"I know this is very difficult Monsieur Leclair, but could you do your best to describe exactly what it is you're feeling?"
Victoire hated to resort to this method of information gathering, but her lack of knowledge about what actually occurred during his attack, and the lack of helpful test results from the basic diagnostic spells she ran were really hindering her progress. She just wished that she could offer Jérôme a potion or a spell that would ease the physical pain he was feeling, but she didn't want to put any magic into his system when she wasn't sure what kind of spells she was going to need to heal the actual cause of his pain.
It took a few moments of gasping out words and starting and stopping of his explanation because of the pain he was under, but eventually Jérôme was able to describe to Victoire that at the moment it felt like his intestines were liquefying within his lower abdomen while conscious.
The description was helpful in the sense that it helped narrow down exactly what his illness was not. Unfortunately, she didn't know what it was since she'd done a diagnostic spell on his intestines already and they seemed to be working fine.
"I need to get into the cell to treat him," Victoire told the law enforcement officers, interrupting Dom's continued threats of civil liberty lawsuits in the process.
Predictably, with how the process with the law enforcement officers had been going already that afternoon, they immediately told her that she was not allowed to do that and that she'd have to cure the suspect from the other side of the bars. Victoire in turn glared at the officers in general and at the supervisor in specific, but before she could say anything Jérôme let out another agonized scream of pain that was louder than before.
Dom scowled at the sound, accioed the magic keys that unlocked the cell door (she wasn't sure that it was going to work but then they flew out of the robe pocket of the shortest officer), and she chucked them to Victoire before anybody else could figure out what was going on.
Victoire caught the keys, let herself in, and then threw the keys back towards the officers once she was able to kneel down on the floor next to a still screaming Jérôme.
"He needs to be admitted to the closest Dark Arts Reversal ward immediately," Victoire told the men who were only just catching up to the fact that Dom had sort of 'stolen' their keys.
"You can't do that!" The supervisor was yelling at Dom.
Dom put her hands on her hips, "You were obstructing and violating his right to proper medical care!"
"He's perfectly fine-"
"This man needs more medical attention than I can provide him!" Victoire yelled to purposely interrupt the law enforcement supervisor.
Everyone turned to look at her at this point and Stephanie looked like she was going to start crying when she saw how much pain Jérôme was in.
"Well-" The supervisor began to say only to be interrupted by Jérôme yelling in pain again.
Victoire scowled at the law enforcement officers, "He. Requires. Offsite. Medical. Attention."
Just when the supervisor seemed as though he was going to relent, Jérôme screams suddenly cut off and his breathing eased.
"The–the pain is going away," Jérôme told Victoire, his voice hoarse from screaming in pain.
"What?" Victoire asked shocked.
The supervisor seemed to have a different reaction, "I knew he was faking!"
Victoire growled at the law enforcement officers to give her a moment, and she went back to examining her patient.
"I–I'm feeling better, really."
"Just let me think," Victoire muttered. She put her fingers on her temples and started to rub them as if it would help her focus better. If she had no idea what was affecting him before, then she most definitely had no idea what it was now that the symptoms had mysteriously disappeared.
Outside of the jail cell, Dom was back to arguing with the supervisor.
"If he's no longer in excruciating pain then she needs to get out," The supervisor told Dom and he pointed at Victoire.
Dom replied with what Victoire wished she had the time to say to the bigoted man, "Just because his pain has disappeared all of a sudden doesn't mean that he's healed!"
"You know what? I think we've had just about enough of you," The supervisor said as he got all up into Dom's face, "We've allowed you here as a courtesy, but a few minutes ago one of my officers finally came back from checking your credentials and it turns out that you're not even qualified to practice law in this country!"
Dom wanted to argue back that in fact she had taken the test to practice law in France and passed it, mostly because Colton had been nagging her into do so for the last two years since she already spoke fluent French and he thought that her being certified in France could expand their clientele basis, but even though she had passed the test she had yet to send in her paperwork with her language fluency scores and her test scores to the governing body for law in the French Magical Ministry; so to her chagrin the supervisor was technically right.
She was about to argue back with the supervisor that technically there was a law on the books that would allow Monsieur Leclair to choose whoever he wanted to represent him in civil court –which his case would be tried in once she got his criminal charges dropped– but before she could Jérôme started screaming in pain again and had curled back into the foetal position on the floor of his cell.
His sudden screaming had startled Victoire enough that she jumped and dropped her wand, but she summoned it back to her hand and began peppering Jérôme with questions again.
"Is your abdomen hurting again?" She asked as she tried to get a good look at where he was clutching with his hands, which was very difficult considering the tight ball he was curled into.
He shook his head frantically and spat out the word, "Lower."
"Legs?" Victoire asked a little perplexedly.
"H-uh-igher."
Victoire gently tried to peel Jérôme's hands away from his body so that she could get a better look.
"Your groin area?" The question came out a little high-pitched because she was certain that that mustn't be right.
To Victoire's surprise Jérôme started frantically nodding in response to her question before he began making gagging noises and started to throw up on the floor.
Victoire used one hand to quickly move Jérôme into the recovery position so that he wouldn't aspirate on his own vomit, while the other hand was already waving her wand and casting more specific diagnostic spells.
"You need to get out of there, it's obvious what's going on now," The law enforcement supervisor commanded Victoire as he walked closer to the cell where she was still kneeling on the ground next to Jérôme.
Victoire shot him a look that clearly said she was disgusted with him, "Well if it's so obvious, why don't you explain it to me?"
"He was sweating profusely earlier and now he's vomiting. He must be on some newfangled illicit potion. It would explain the screaming too; he must have been hallucinating the pain and tweaking out."
Victoire already had her argument prepared to explain why he was both incorrect and making a grave error by socio-economically profiling Jérôme, but then one of her diagnostic spells finally responded with a positive result. She glanced down at her wand, then to Jérôme's groin, then back to her wand.
Dom recognized the look on Victoire's face and knew that it wasn't good, "What is it?"
"I'm not one-hundred percent sure yet."
The minute Jérôme finished vomiting he went back to screaming, and Victoire swore unintelligibly under her breath when she noticed a rapidly growing wet spot appear on the crotch of his pants.
"See!" The supervisor said loudly to Victoire as he pointed at wet spot on Jérôme's pants, "He's on drugs and he's tweaking. Urinating on themselves is a classic sign!"
Victoire tapped the tip of her wand to each of her wrists and a pair of sterile gloves appeared on her hands. Once her hands were covered she dove right in to Jérôme trousers.
"It's not urine," Victoire said, her voice having shifted back to its 'healer mode', "It's blood."
The supervisor shrugged his shoulders, "So he's got an STD, that's not uncommon with his type."
Dom rounded on the supervisor with fire in her eyes, "And that comment is going to lose you both your badge and your pension."
"And I already told you that your business here is finished. Now take your healer and leave before I charge you both with impeding an investigation, arrest you, and lock you up in your own cell," The supervisor threatened Dom.
Victoire scoffed under her breath when she heard this, and then a few seconds later when the door to the cell she was in suddenly closed with perfect dramatic timing and flare, she realized that she must have caused that to happen with a bit of accidental magic.
Stephanie had come up to the border of the jail cell somewhere in the middle of all of the chaos.
"What's wrong with him Victoire?"
Victoire bit her lip, "I'm still not one-hundred percent sure-"
"If you're anywhere above sixty just go ahead and do whatever you need to do," Dom interrupted her sister. Half of her attention was still focused on the law enforcement officers because she didn't doubt that the supervisor would eventually fulfill his promise to arrest her and Victoire for impeding the investigation.
"It's not that simple," Victoire said in a slow and deliberate tone so that she wouldn't snap at her younger sister, "If he's having the symptoms I think he's having then whatever spell he was hit with to cause them is a spell that I've never seen before."
"What?"
"How can you know that you've never seen the spell if you know what the symptoms are?"
Victoire gripped her wand tightly and continued to inspect Jérôme's more private areas. Once he'd started urinating blood he'd slipped into a semi-unconscious state where he was mostly just cringing and moaning in pain.
"All of these symptoms point to what must be an obscure dark spell that I think is essentially liquefying his internal reproductive system," Victoire explained.
"What?" Stephanie repeated again, only this time in a very high-pitched and slightly hysterical tone.
Dom's face went white, "Is a spell like that actually possible?"
"Well his groin area is in excruciating pain; my diagnostic test just confirmed that there's something wrong with his internal reproductive organs, specifically the seminal vesicle; and blood is now gushing out of his urethra," Victoire described in a no-nonsense tone.
Stephanie looked frightened by Victoire's description, "But why was his abdomen in pain earlier?"
"That's the percent I'm not sure about, what I am sure about though, is that I've got to stop this spell before he ends up completely impotent," Victoire said gripping her wand even harder.
Her words made Stephanie hopeful, "So you can stop the curse even though you don't know what spell caused it?"
"I'll do what I can," Victoire replied in her 'healers-aren't-supposed-to-make-promises' voice that she hated using with her patients loved ones, but was necessary sometimes.
She stared down at Jérôme and knew that in this case speed was more important than finesse, but that she had to have enough finesse so that she wouldn't ruin his chances of reproducing later on in life.
"And what about that scar on his abdomen?" Stephanie had decided that peppering questions at Victoire from outside the cell would be helpful.
"I think that's the point of access from the curse, and that it took a bit to travel to his groin where it was finally able to wreak havoc," Victoire explained mostly to herself.
Dom looked a little calmer when she heard this, "Sounds like a perfect candidate for your new spell Vic."
Victoire clenched her teeth, "I'm not supposed to use that unless I get verbal and written informed consent from the patient-"
"He's almost unconscious," Dom pointed out needlessly.
"Exactly!"
Dom watched Victoire carefully and saw that her sister seemed to be dealing with an internal struggle, "But this is an emergency."
"I know!"
"Are you honestly telling me that you of all people are now so worried about the repercussions that could come of you saving a man's life that it's going to stop you from saving this man's life?"
Victoire could feel Dom's anxiety about the issue and it made her feel like her own was doubled, "No. I just thought that I should take a little longer to consider the repercussions than I usually do."
"Who are you and what have you done to my sister?"
"Fine I'll do it!"
Victoire pushed Jérôme's shirt up enough so that she could have access to the scar on his abdomen, took a deep breath to centre herself, and then tried to think of the feeling of being loved so that she could start her scar/dark magic removal spell. She could tell before she went to move her wand that the spell wasn't going to work the first time, so she tried to think of a more specific feeling of love to make the spell work properly. Victoire found that even though Dom had just been stressing her out more than she needed to, thinking about her little sister and how much she loved her brought about a much more tangible feeling that she was able to focus into her hand and then through her wand. With all of the practice with her and Healer McDavid's spell throughout the past year, she had the wand and hand motions recorded in her muscle memory even if coming up with the right loving thought was sometimes still elusive to her.
Her magic turned the tip of her wand into almost a vacuum, and when Victoire touched the tip of her wand to the blood-congealed laceration on his lower abdomen a long thick stream of dark inky magic was sucked out of the injury and into Victoire's wand. She wasn't quite sure how to do so, but Victoire did her best to try to force her magic to suck up all of the remainder of the dark curse that was affecting the different parts of Jérôme's body. When she was done she immediately cast another diagnostic spell on his internal reproductive organs at the same time that she physically assessed his outer reproductive organs.
"Did it work?" Dom queried curiously.
Victoire shushed her as she was still waiting for the response from her diagnostic. Jérôme's urethra stopped leaking blood a few seconds before her diagnostic was complete, and she could see that even his sweating was starting to lighten up.
"Did it work now?"
"Shhh!"
Victoire cast a spell on Jérôme to bring him back to consciousness, and when he came to it became apparent that he was in much less pain than before.
Stephanie was so happy that Jérôme was on the mend that she almost started crying, and even though Victoire was trying to be calm as she explained to Jérôme the treatment she had given him, inside she was also very glad to see that her spell had worked and that his body was well and truly beginning to heal.
Once it was established that Jérôme was getting better, a few things happened in rapid succession. The law enforcement supervisor physically pulled Victoire out of Jérôme's cell, and he instructed his officers to arrest Dom and Victoire for impeding their investigation process and a few other things that Victoire knew was code for what were essentially trumped up charges. Despite Dom, Victoire, and Stephanie all arguing with the officers in French, both former women were practically manhandled into a separate room that was definitely used as an interrogation room in normal cases, while Stephanie was escorted out of the building.
Victoire called out instructions for Jérôme's care right up until the officers shut the door and locked her and Dom into the room, while next to her Dom had alternated between yelling at the officers and instructing Stephanie to get them help from anyone that wasn't their mother.
It wasn't until Victoire was well and truly locked in a French law enforcement holding room with her sister that she had time to come to terms with what exactly had happened in the last half hour of her life.
"What precisely just happened?" Victoire questioned her sister as she slowly sat down in one of the two chairs in the room.
Dom took a deep breath before summarizing, "Stephanie's friend was protesting a business that treats their LGBTQ+ employees terribly when he was attacked by an apparently well-connected and rich homophobe. He defended himself, but when law enforcement arrived the attacker played the victim and got Monsieur Leclair arrested instead. Stephanie asked me if I'd help and get the charges dropped, because it was going to take forever to get a public defender here on a Sunday afternoon. While I was discussing his case with him he started groaning in pain, and then that led to screaming, which led to Stephanie going to get you, and you trying to figure out what was wrong with Monsieur Leclair and then heal it. Once you did a brilliant job with that they decided to hold us and charge us with obstruction and other trumped up charges because they were afraid that we'd kick their arse before we could even get to Jérôme's sentencing hearing."
"Or maybe it was because someone kept threatening to sue them," Victoire suggested sarcastically and with a heated glare at the redhead.
Dom plopped down into the other chair, "It's not a threat since I fully intend on going through with it."
Victoire pursed her lips, "You think you got a case for that?"
"I've got the basis for a case for everything that just happened: to get Jérôme's magical assault charges dropped, to get his trespassing and public nuisance charges dropped, to get him a settlement from a civil lawsuit for their infringing upon his personal and constitutional rights, and especially to get that supervisor fired with the homophobic words he's said and actions he's taken," Dom listed off.
The blonde sister nodded her head while faking interest, "Wow, well that sounds nice and dandy . . . but what about us?"
Dom rolled her eyes at Victoire's derision, "Remember two Christmases ago when we all went to that Christmas festival here and that attack broke out and you ended up providing emergency medical care to that bloke?"
"Yes."
"Remember how you didn't get in trouble for that because the French wizarding ministry has rules that protects first-responders at emergencies from getting sued by the injured person, no matter the medical care that they provide?"
Victoire let out a sigh, "Yes."
"Then don't worry, you'll be fine," Dom said with a shrug.
"While I appreciate the support there Dom, I wasn't talking about my little healing interlude. What I meant was whether that charge about us impeding an investigation is going to stick?"
Dom scoffed, "Why would it?"
"Because you stole the keys to the cell and then I received that stolen item and used it to illegally enter the cell?"
"So that you could heal an injured man!"
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "They were still mad about it and told me not to do it."
"Did you forget that you were sorted into Gryffindor?" Dom asked scathingly.
Victoire ignored Dom's question and asked a question of her own, "And what was that about you not being a certified lawyer here? I thought you took those exams a few months ago?"
"I did," Dom replied, her tone suddenly sheepish as she glanced down at her hands, "But once I was done I got really busy with the biggest case Colton had ever assigned me to do on my own, and I just didn't get all of the paperwork and test scores in to the French legal association yet."
Victoire did have something to say about that, but unlike Dom she knew better than to bring it up when the tension in the room was still high, "Does Colton have anybody in the firm that's qualified in France? Because if he has to find someone through the grapevine that is to come take our case, it's going to double the amount of time it's already supposed to take."
"Someone will come and help us eventually, and while we wait I'm going to have an iron-clad legal defense all planned out in my mind," Dom explained, she was still trying to act more nonchalant than she felt, but she knew that Victoire could see through it.
"You know," Victoire said as she exhaled very loudly, "The last thing Teddy said to me before I left for Gabrielle's this morning was that I shouldn't do anything that could get me arrested. Obviously he was just teasing me, but when he finds out about this he's not going to let me go out of the country by myself anymore."
Dom scoffed, "Like he would have done anything different if he stumbled upon someone in danger."
"The difference is that he'd have legal clearance to do so," Victoire reminded her.
"I was trying to help!"
"But are you prepared to handle the consequences? Because there will be some," Victoire remarked.
Dom glared at her sister, "Are you?"
"I've been down this road before Dom. You're the one who hasn't."
"And you don't think I can handle it?" Dom asked irritated.
Victoire stood up and put her hand on her younger sister's shoulder, "I think that you may end up with more than what you'd originally bargain for, and I don't want you to be shocked when you realize that this mess might not be as easy to clean up as you imagine it is."
"Well since we'll be here for the next couple of hours at least," Dom said, not making eye contact with her big sister but not sounding angry either, "I've got plenty of time to come to that reckoning."
Victoire sat back down on her chair and mused, "Do you think we would have gotten into this mess if we'd both been sorted into Slytherin?"
"I think if I'd both been sorted into Slytherin I would have had enough ambition to get my French qualifications in on time, I would have many more resources at my disposal right now, and I would have scared those tossers into dropping all charges before I'd even had the chance to talk to Jérôme," Dom said readily.
"And me?" Victoire queried with a small smirk.
"And you what?"
"Would I be in this mess if I'd been sorted in Slytherin?"
Dom put a blank expression on her face, "You mean you weren't?"
If Victoire had had anything resembling an aerodynamic projectile she would have chucked it at her sister. Dom could read the thoughts going on in her sister's head and she started to giggle. After Dom's giggling subsided the two of them spent the next twenty minutes in relative silence. Victoire had spent half of that time staring at her watch and idly watching the minute hand ever so slowly ticking by, while Dom had started to mutter a little under hear breath. From what Victoire could gather, Dom was coming up with her defense strategy and statements.
Just when Victoire had consigned herself to watching the face of her watch for at least another hour, the door to their holding room opened and one of the officers stepped in, "Your lawyer would like to speak to you."
The two sisters glanced at each other in surprise that Colton had managed to get someone to them so relatively quickly, but before they could verbalize anything a tall man with dirty blonde hair walked into the room.
"Good afternoon ladies, lovely to see you again Victoire," The man said wryly in French as he held out his hand to the oldest sister and the one that was standing closest to him.
Victoire shook it but then she rolled her eyes and leaned forward to give the lawyer a kiss on both cheeks, "I've had better afternoons actually Greg."
Greg Line chuckled as he returned Victoire's cheek kisses, "So I can see."
When they pulled away from each other Victoire eyed the familiar blonde man interestedly. Greg Line was a cousin of her friend Kyle Line. Greg had been raised in France and the two had met for the first time when Sandra Collins and Kyle Line got married, because Greg had been one of his cousin Kyle's groomsmen while Victoire was one of the bridesmaids. She had only see and heard about him sporadically after that, mostly from Sandra and Kyle's updates, but she had easily recognized him since he hadn't changes much in looks from the last time she saw him. What she knew of Greg was that he was a lawyer who worked in the legal department of the French-based scion of the business that Kyle's father owned.
"Who sent you here?" Victoire asked curiously.
"Sandra owled me about twenty minutes ago and said she needed my help on a legal matter," He explained, "Obviously when I found out exactly what that legal matter was I found it too interesting to say no to it."
Victoire pursed her lips, "I thought your law specialty was business contracts and other deals?"
"It is," He said with a nod, "But lucky for you two and your little issue here, the right amount of money exchanging hands can turn this into a business deal."
The oldest sister frowned at hearing his words, and as her mind puzzled through it Greg turned to Dom and belatedly greeted her and shook her hand.
"Nice to see you again Greg . . . I think the last time we saw each other was at Kyle and Sandra's wedding reception."
"I believe it was, although a lot of that night is a blur after the dinner ended because I drank a little too much," Greg told Dom as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head.
Dom made a noncommittal humming sound and mumbled under her breath, "Not enough from what I remember."
Victoire was the only one to hear the words, and when she did it unfortunately reminded her that the last time Dom was around Greg, she and Spencer had been arguing over who would get to take him home at the end of the night. She grimaced at the memory and decided to hurry things along before Greg's memory of the evening could come back to him.
"So how much longer are we going to be stuck here?" Victoire asked Greg professionally.
Greg smiled, "I'm here to break you out actually. You guys can leave with me right now."
"So they're going to let us out on bail?" Dom questioned.
"I got your charges dropped," Greg said as he walked back over to the closed door of the room and knocked on it to alert one of the officers.
Victoire looked a little surprised, "Really?"
"I told you they didn't have a case," Dom reminded her sister.
"I still figured that they would make it difficult for us and keep us for a few more hours. I didn't expect Greg to get us out in under a half hour," Victoire replied.
Greg smirked, "I told you, when it's a business deal it all works out."
An officer opened the door then and Greg gestured for both women to file out before him. The officer led the three of them back to the building's main reception area where the law enforcement supervisor and three other men that weren't dressed in uniform robes were having a conversation. Their conversation stopped immediately when the supervisor spotted Dom and Victoire, and the three men Victoire didn't recognize glared at her and Dom.
"Ready to leave already Monsieur Line?" The supervisor asked Greg directly without even bothering to acknowledge Victoire and Dom.
"Indeed I am," Greg said congenially as he reached into the pocket of his dressy-casual jacket and pulled out a check book, "I'd like to thank you again for making it easy to come to an agreement on how to handle this process."
As he said the words he wrote out a number that Victoire couldn't quite see on the check and ripped it off and handed it to the supervisor in a very sly way as they went to shake hands.
The supervisor smiled, "And thank you for being so accommodating, and for this donation."
"Of course," Greg said as he slid his check book back into his pocket, he glanced quickly at Dom and Victoire to make sure that they weren't going to say anything that would interrupt how well their escape was going, "And feel free to contact me later so we can talk more about a donation for your future campaign for the wizengamot."
The supervisor smiled smarmily, "Wonderful."
Greg then turned to Victoire and Dom, placed a hand on either one of their lower backs, and ushered them out of the building. At the bottom of the building's front steps, Sandra Line stood rigidly as she waited for them to get to her.
"Thank goodness you both are alright!" Sandra said as she pulled both Victoire and Dom into a hug.
Victoire squeezed her best mate back tightly, "Thank you for contacting Greg for us."
"Of course, I'm just glad that he was able to work everything out," Sandra said as she nodded gratefully at Greg.
"How did you get everything sorted so easily?" Dom asked Greg with a raised eyebrow.
Greg put his hands in his pockets and then began to explain. He told them that when he first entered the law enforcement building he overheard someone (one of the men without a uniform) discussing with the supervisor how large their next donation to the law enforcement retirement fund would need to be to ensure that his client's name would not be mentioned aloud if Monsieur Leclair's arrest ended up going to a public trial. Greg realized very quickly that he could use his very specific skills of making business arrangements and deals to get all of Victoire and Dom's charges dropped, and that it would only cost a few hundred galleons. Once Greg had implied to the supervisor that Victoire and Dom were not without valuable resources of their own, it was easy to come to an agreement that would get them out of their holding room, and most importantly out of the supervisor's hair.
"The catch though is that Dom's no longer allowed to be Monsieur Leclair's legal counsel since she is unqualified in this country to do so," Greg explained.
"But I can't just leave him in that cell!"
Greg waved off Dom's concern, "Which is why I was also able to make a deal for him. Unfortunately at this point his charges could not get entirely dropped; but I did get him released on bail and to the nearest hospital for appropriate medical care. I've contacted a well-renowned civil rights lawyer that I initially took my law course with and she's agreed to take over his case."
"Stephanie's at the hospital with Monsieur Leclair right now," Sandra added helpfully.
Victoire's mind was spinning with all of the new developments, "Let me know how much that check you wrote and everything else was Greg, I'll repay you of course."
Greg held his hands up, "Sorry but you'll have to take this up with Sandra, she already told me to pay whatever was needed to get you and Dom out and that she'd repay me for it."
Victoire glanced at Sandra with a raised eyebrow.
"Oh don't give me that look," Sandra replied with an eye roll, "I can easily afford it."
"Well so can I," Victoire reminded Sandra indigently.
Dom snickered, "Yeah what else would she use all of her Tri-Wizard Tournament winnings for but to bail herself out of jail?"
Victoire and Sandra both ignored her.
"We can discuss this at another time Vic, right now we should probably head back to your party so that you can finally say goodbye to all of your guests and so that your mother can finally beat out of you two where exactly you've been for the past hour and a half," Sandra reasoned.
Victoire gave Sandra another big hug, and then she and Dom thanked Greg again for negotiating their release. He gave all three women cheek kisses and then told Sandra to say 'hello' to Kyle for him when she portkeyed home that evening.
"So where does our mother think we've been?" Dom questioned Sandra as the three women walked towards the apparation point down the street.
Sandra shrugged, "I'm not sure, last I heard Alexandrie and Ally said they'd run interference for you, but I'm not sure if they were able to keep it up the entire time."
"So we have to come up with a tale of our own to spin?" Dom asked.
Sandra smirked, "It's either that or tell her the truth."
Victoire and Dom shared a look, "Merde."
A/N: So please let me know what you thought about this chap because it's definitely one of the more serious chapters I've written for this new story, but once I started writing this chapter it took such a specific shape that touched on a few very important and topical issues that I personally care about, that I didn't want to change the tone, although there are a few bits of levity in it.
Obviously there are a lot more aspects of these issues that I've only just touched the surface of, but I hope I did it properly without making it seem as though I'm just trying to "capitalize" on real issues of injustice that affect a lot of people.
I would like to make it apparent that I know that it's unfair that Victoire and Dom got off easy because Greg essentially paid for their release, but that was the point. As much as they try to be good people and do good things for others, they were still born into positions of privilege and opportunity that not everybody has. This is just the first chapter touching this topic, but you will see later on that the girls are going to have to come to terms with their privilege and decide how they feel about how everything went down.
Next Update: I'm thinking it two weeks.
Next Chapter: A little aftermath from the events of this chapter, Vic tries to find out what happened to the funding from Lycanthropy support services, and Teddy does a bit more training with Jilly.
I want to thank everyone who has followed, favourited, read, and especially reviewed this story!
(Just a reminder to leave a please leave a pseudonym or identifier of some sort if you're leaving questions in a guest review so that it makes it easier to reply to them here:)
Biggest thank-yous to:
audrey3horses, Break This Spell626, Gnool, saagarika, NicoleTheSmith, Guest (1), Guest (2), Eliza, Jily71102, LilyGinnyLunaMcGonagall, Dthea33, Guest (3), Strangerdangerbaby, Guest (4), no cure for crazy, and rosesnlilies.
audrey3horses: Don't worry, last chapter wasn't the end of James/Selene interactions.
Guest (4): Cecilia's charity will be mentioned at some point, it just hasn't come up quite yet.
NicoleTheSmith: You're welcome.
Dthea33: Andromeda wasn't specifically mentioned just because there were so many other characters that needed to be in there for specific purposes. I think it's safe to assume that Teddy's told Victoire about the author, but that it just wasn't done in writing.
Guest (2): While Ginny wasn't in England to spy on James's last training session with Selene, I think it's safe to assume that she and Harry will be spying on at least one of them before James's skills are able to get up to scratch.
Strangerdangerbaby: That seems like a pretty achievable life goal ;)
I hope everyone found this chapter interesting and captivating,
If you have any questions, comments or concerns PLEASE reach out to me,
You can leave a review or a PM if you want to communicate privately,
This chapter was a bit of a change in tone so please let me know your thoughts,
Until next time, DFTBA!