A/N: Hello everyone, I know this update is late, but I had a few extended family health issues in the past few weeks (non-Covid-19 related) so I was a busy bee.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Vic and Dom got arrested in France when they ditched her bridal shower to help bail-out and heal an acquaintance of Stephanie who'd been wrongly arrested. Kyle's cousin Greg got them out of it by practically paying off the officers.
Teddy and Jilly are still training trainee aurors and Teddy's helping an author who wants to write a fictional novel about an auror.
Victoire arranged for a meeting with a representative of the Lycanthropy Support Services to find out why funding for lycanthropes is dropping.
New Problems and Solved Problems
Monday, April 29th 2024
6:42 AM
Victoire slowly pressed kisses to the sleep-warmed skin of Teddy's shoulder, her mouth following a slow languid trail across to his collar bone and then up his throat. When she reached the edge of his jaw the light stubble that had grown in over the night began to tickle her lips and she let out an unintended giggle. She tried to keep most of the sound from her laughter in, but in the process it caused her body –which was pressed right up against the bare skin of his back and shoulder– to shake with her controlled giggles.
She wasn't quite sure if it was her kisses or the sudden shaking of her body, but when she glanced up at her fiancée's face she saw that he had woken up from sleep and his eyes –which were presently a startling violet– were watching her carefully.
"You would have failed stealth and tracking," Teddy's voice, hoarse from slumber, told her with a bit of a sardonic tone.
Victoire hid her smirk in the prickly skin of his jawline, "But I would have more than made up for it with my fabulous investigative skills."
Teddy shifted his face a bit so that he could lean towards her and press a soft kiss to her lips, "Are you still planning on going to the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures today?"
"Yes, the lady at the Lycanthropy Support Office made the mistake of arranging a meeting for me with one of her supervisors," She replied as she pushed his shoulders down onto their bed and threw one leg over one side of his stomach so that she could straddle his waist.
His hands slowly trailed up her legs and just skirted the edge of the overly-large quidditch shirt she'd fallen asleep in the night before so that they could encircle her waist, "That is a very big mistake on their part. They've got no idea what's coming at them."
One of his hands left her waist and trailed up her back, "Are you going to give them Hell today?"
"Absolutely," Victoire replied as she leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to his mouth.
Teddy kissed her back passionately and his hand that was still around her hips dug its fingers into her waist. She could feel the press of his finger nails biting into her skin, most of the force of his nails dulled by the fabric of her t-shirt, and her own fingernails dug into the firm muscles of his shoulders and upper back. As they continued to kiss his hands began to bunch up the fabric of her t-shirt in a way that signalled that he was about to pull it off of her.
Victoire pulled away before either of them could go farther in undressing the other, but when she spotted the pout that immediately slipped onto his face from her retreat she began to question why she was pulling away. Just when she was going to continue what she'd interrupted, a memory form the night before slipped into her mind and reminded her why she had pulled back in the first place.
"About last night-"
The initial pout on Teddy's face turned into a slightly more inscrutable look, "I thought we discussed everything we needed to last night before we fell asleep?"
"I was just worried that after a night's rest and so more rumination-"
Teddy's hand moved up to cup her cheek, "I already told you that I'm not mad at you for getting arrested."
"But are you sure?" She asked him as she bit her lip worriedly.
His thumb gently stroked her cheek, "You have a humongous heart and a sense of responsibility that is, sometimes, larger than it needs to be and these are some of the many things that I love about you. While I might wish that you think your actions through a little more often than you normally do, I'm not going to be angry at you for being yourself. For being the woman I love."
Her eyes watered a little at his loving words and she leaned forward to press a grateful kiss to his lips, when she pulled back she gave him a watery smirk, "And I must say that your vow writing has gotten much better over the past few months."
"So you like it enough for me to add it in then?" He asked her with a bit of a smirk of his own.
She laughed but when her thoughts travelled back to the night before once more she groaned loudly, "Ugh, if only Maman would forgive me and Dom as quickly as you did."
"It was less about you lot getting arrested and more about you ghosting your bridal shower without a word for over an hour," He reminded her as one of his eyebrows –at the moment a pale red in colour– rose up over his still violet eyes.
His hands moved back to fiddling with the edge of her sleepwear and he gave her a look that very clearly indicated he was asking permission to continue with their previous activities.
She smiled at him and then another thought from her busy day before popped into her head, "Oh, and there's something else I need to tell you from yesterday."
"Did you get into another argument with Gisèle?"
Victoire rolled her eyes, "No –although Noëlle did– but that's not what I was going to say. What I was going to tell you is that Charlotte Cabrera is four months pregnant."
"Good for her and Dimas," He replied a bit of a pained expression on his face that she felt mirrored in her own heart.
She nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, good for them."
"It's kinda bothering you though, isn't it?"
Victoire sighed and leaned forward so that she could rest her cheek on his bare chest, "If I say yes does that make me a bitch?"
"No, I get that this is a lot. First Jilly and Anastasia, then Nadia, and now my ex-girlfriend."
She burrowed a little closer into his warm skin, "I'm happy for all of them, I am. But I'm also really envious and-"
"And that's an emotion that you're not used to feeling," He replied for her as he ran a hand through her long hair, "Because you Love, are used to getting everything you want. You work hard for everything you want, but when it comes to things that you can't be in charge of, you have a hard time accepting it."
Victoire pressed a kiss to his sternum, "Another thing you love about me?"
"You are fierce in your convictions."
She moved so that she could look him in the eyes, "And so are you, which is why we bump heads sometimes, but it's a part of you that I'd never change."
He leaned forward to kiss her on the bridge of her nose, "And I can see that in your vow writing practice, you still prefer practical over flowery."
"I'll work on it, Cecilia said she'd help me," Victoire replied with a wide grin.
"So I get to enjoy the addition of quidditch stats to your vows then, lovely," Teddy replied with a smirk of his own.
She grabbed his left hand with hers and ran the tip of her finger across his bare ring finger, "Exactly two months from today."
"Mmmhum," He hummed his agreement.
"Why are we waiting so long again?" Victoire asked him.
Teddy let out a long sigh, "Because the younger kids don't finish Hogwarts until the twentieth of June and for some reason we thought it would be nice to invite them to it."
"Yeah . . . I do kinda miss the little monsters actually," She remarked.
He stroked her hair, "Well it's a good thing we'll see them this week then."
That week's upcoming Thursday was May second, Remembrance Day for the wizarding world. Since there was always a large ceremony on Hogwarts ground where ministry officials and veterans of the war would made speeches, she was guaranteed to see her four cousins left at Hogwarts since everyone from the family always went to the ceremony. With Remembrance Day always came a few more issues that Victoire would prefer to never have to worry about, or really think about for the matter. Even though she knew that after twenty-five years of life she should be over it by now, she had a hard time with May second every year. Except for that year she was unconscious at St. Mungo's after being rescued from Peru; that year went by relatively smoothly.
After Teddy's reminder about the events later in the week Victoire got quiet. Normally he would have tried to tease her into a better mood, but he had to get up and get ready for work and she had to get ready for her meeting at the ministry.
By the time Victoire stepped off one of the ministry's lifts and onto the floor that housed all of the offices connected with the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, she was back to herself and more than determined to figure out what was going on with the funding for the Lycanthropy Support Office. The lady at the front desk recognized Victoire right away and escorted her past the reception area and towards the offices. She escorted Victoire into the office of a woman whose nameplate read Mrs. Newhart, and then closed the door behind the blonde.
Victoire eyed the cramped room filled with stacks of parchment and files before she introduced herself as Healer Weasley to the forty-something year-old woman who was sitting behind the cluttered desk.
"I believe that Caroline told me that you wanted to speak with me about the changes to the funding for the Wolfsbane subsidiary program and the post-moon treatment program?" Mrs. Newhart asked Victoire after she gestured for her to sit down in the seat across from her desk.
Victoire nodded her head, "Yes, I've just recently been informed that what seems like rather drastic changes have been made to the eligibility requirements for the subsidiary program specifically, and that almost all funding for post-moon treatment has also been cut."
"Unfortunately Healer Weasley your information is correct. Our head of department noticed that during the last quarter our expenses went up dramatically and that we needed to decrease them by cutting funding for unnecessary programs," Mrs. Newhart explained with an expression on her face that told Victoire that she didn't necessarily agree with the funding cuts.
"And Mr. Isaksen has deemed the Wolfsbane subsidiary program unnecessary?" Victoire asked as she said the head of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures's name with derision.
Mrs. Newhart pursed her lips, "The Wolfsbane subsidiary program has not been defunded completely; we've just changed the criteria. We've made it so that people who can afford the potion on their own each month if they're just a little smarter with their money are no longer eligible for the program. This leaves more money for the people whose incomes are actually too low to afford any other way, and this way we can increase the room of lower-level income people in the subsidiary program."
Her recitation of her words was rote, as if she's been made to memorize them so that she could repeat it.
"Even people's whose income may make it seem as though they can afford the potion if they save a little," Victoire repeated scathingly, "Can have unexpected expenses that make it difficult to afford to buy a Wolfsbane potion out of pocket each month. These people have living arrangements to pay for as well as food, clothes, spouses and children; are you really going to make a person who is suffering from a horrible and painful disease, through no fault of their own, choose between purchasing medication and another fundamental human right such as food or clothing?"
Mrs. Newhart picked up a quill and absentmindedly started to fiddle with it, "I appreciate that this is a subject you're passionate about Healer Weasley, but we're trying to make choices that will best aid the most people with the limited resources we have."
"Like cutting all of the funding to the after-care program?"
"Those potions and salves obtained with those funds were considered superfluous and it was considered a better choice to cut that funding so that we can put it back into the more important Wolfsbane subsidising program," Mrs. Newhart explained.
Victoire frowned, "If all of that funding from the unnecessary post-full-moon care program is now going into the subsidizing program then why do you still need to make cuts?"
"Because we've had a sudden increase in clients for the program. In the past few months we've had several more names added to the subsidizing program, and all of them have incomes so low that they wouldn't be able to afford the potion without the program," Mrs. Newhart clarified.
Her words reminded Victoire of something else she needed to ask before she left the office, "I heard that a lot of names were suddenly added to the list in the last few months and that's something I'd like to discuss."
"I can't give you any specific names Healer Weasley-"
"Oh I'm not asking you to infringe on these people's confidentiality; I'm concerned about the process. Everyone who goes on to the subsidiary program needs to be recommended to it by a healer and as one of the few Healers from St. Mungo's D. A. R. ward that is qualified to do so, I can say that I haven't come across anywhere close to this many new cases of lycanthropy in the past few months," Victoire told Mrs. Newhart.
This time Mrs. Newhart didn't have any pre-rehearsed answers, "That–that does sound a little weird I will admit . . ."
"I know that you can't tell me who these new additions are, but could you maybe take a look and see which medical institution they were recommended by? If all of these new cases of lycanthropy are going to a different medical clinic instead of St. Mungo's I'd like to know why in case there is a perceived problem with how we deal with these cases," Victoire explained.
Mrs. Newhart considered her request for quite a while before she decided to open her desk door and search through a few of her files. Victoire was quiet for a while as Mrs. Newhart spent several minutes searching through a lot of her files. As she looked through the files she pulled out the odd one and created a stack of them on the only bare space left on her desk. She closed her desk drawer and then flipped through the files on her desk, spending more time than before as she scanned them. By the time she got to the end of the files she frowned.
"This can't be right."
"What's wrong?" Victoire asked her, she was suddenly much more alert.
Mrs. Newhart was re-flipping through her files, "All of these new clients that joined the program over the past two months have a blank where the specific hospital or medical clinic's name should be."
"They weren't associated with any distinguished medical or healing clinics?"
"It says they were all recommended by a private healer," Mrs. Newhart explained as she continued to read through the files.
Victoire frowned puzzled, "They were all recommended by a private healer for the subsidising program? How can they afford a private healer's fees but not a Wolfsbane potion each month?"
"It seems they were all recommended by the same healer," Mrs. Newhart said.
Victoire sat up so that her spine was ramrod straight, "What's the name of this healer?"
She wasn't quite sure if Mrs. Newhart would actually tell her the name of the healer, but she was glad to see that she seemed to be leaning towards giving up that important piece of information.
"It says here that the healer who signed off on all of these clients' applications for the subsidy program is one Healer Malachi Fabius."
Hearing the name made Victoire press her lips together into a firm line and she did her best to tamp down the emotions of anger and irritation that were starting to fill her.
"I'm sorry Healer Weasley," Mrs. Newhart began, "But I can't tell you anymore about these individuals or this other healer-"
"Don't worry about that, I won't need any more information. Thank you for your time and your help Mrs. Newhart," Victoire told the woman as she got to her feet and held her hand out to the woman.
Mrs. Newhart shook her hand, "I'm sorry that I couldn't give you better answers about the funding changes besides the basics."
"It's fine, although I do think I can offer you some help," Victoire reached into the pocket of her blazer and pulled out her business card, "I'm working on a research study at St. Mungo's that heals injuries caused by dark magic. We've already had progress with our spell healing some of the scars left behind from werewolf attacks and it's helped these patients' pain levels before and after the full moon a lot. Since this treatment is still technically in its experimental phase the cost for it is covered. It might be a good substitute for some of these people who can't afford after-care salves and potions anymore."
Mrs. Newhart nodded, "Thank you, I'll be sure to offer the option to my clients if they're looking for relief."
11:45 AM
"Protego!" Teddy yelled out as he flicked his wrist and threw the protection spell six metres away so that it would wrap around the back of an unsuspecting Jilly, who had been distracted by giving one of their trainees a tip on her full-body-bind curse, before an errant stunning spell could hit her.
The wayward stunning spell bounced off of Teddy's shield just as Jilly finally turned around.
"Where did that come from?" Jilly asked all of their trainees in a voice so stern that even Teddy felt a little scared of her despite that fact that he knew that he was pretty much the only person in the room that she wasn't presently ticked at.
Her question had caused everyone else in the large room to set their wand-arms down at their sides, causing the group's dueling practice to come to an abrupt halt.
"Well?" Jilly asked once more as she tried to stare down every auror-in-training in her vicinity.
The room was so quiet for a few moments that they could have heard a wand drop. Jilly continued to stare everyone down until the perpetrator finally broke-down. One of their aurors-in-training raised their arm up and admitted with a bit of a stutter that it was his fault.
"But I wasn't aiming at you Auror Donaldson, I was aiming for Frost but he dodged the curse and then it flew towards you. That's why you've got to be constantly vigilant, right?" The trainee auror's words came out a lot less like an apology and a lot more like an accusation.
Jilly heard it too and she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the trainee, "You're right, being constantly vigilant is important. But so is watching the backs of your fellow aurors when you're in the middle of a raid or a duel, and this includes making sure that one of your spells doesn't ricochet off and injure your partner or even a nearby civilian."
"So you expect us to watch not only the spells that are getting thrown at us but also the spells that we cast that miss the criminals?" The big-mouthed auror in training asked.
Jilly rolled her eyes, "Yes, and if you don't think you've got the concentration for it then there's the door."
Despite Jilly helpfully pointing towards the door of the large room in which they were watching their trainees practice dueling, nobody took Jilly up on her offer.
Teddy broke the bit of awkward silence that had fallen across their trainees, "C'mon guys, by the end of the week you've got individual dueling practice with some of the qualified aurors. If you can't handle dueling practice with each other properly how do you think you'll do on Friday?"
Half of their trainees looked down at their shoes a little abashedly, while the rest hid their emotions better and just nodded firmly at their instructors' words. Jilly told everyone to get back to dueling and that she and Teddy would go around 'tapping' each trainee out so that they could start their break when they'd decided that they were showing a particularly good use of magic or skill. They were still going to allow each trainee their proper allotted amount of time for their break, but the trainees that did the best would get extra time as they'd be the first dismissed.
As Teddy and Jilly had noted over the past couple weeks that they'd been training the younger aurors, auror-in-training O'Toole was above and beyond the best trainee of the group. He was quiet and diligent during lecture work, and proved to be clever and skillful in their other hands-on exercises. That day wasn't the first that they'd had their trainees dueling, but it was the first time that they'd had such a long uninterrupted block to see how the trainees were able to handle several hours of dueling practice in a row. Watching all of the trainees in the same room made it clear that O'Toole was also the best at dueling, although he had a humbleness about him that was refreshing but also startling because it was so largely lacking in the man's older brother.
Teddy moved over to O'Toole and clapped the younger man on the shoulder after he cast an excellent binding spell on his dueling partner.
"You're free to go," Teddy said as he removed his hand from O'Toole's shoulder.
O'Toole cast the counter-curse for his binding spell on his dueling partner and then looked at Teddy, "Can I stay and continue to practice until it's time for our break?"
"As commendable as that is, it's also important to take a break and recharge for the next session. Trying to give one-hundred and ten percent is great, but it'll wear your battery out real quick and it'll make it hard for you to continue to give even fifty-percent when it'll be most important," Teddy told him seriously.
O'Toole exhaled slowly but he did mutter something about how he could go for a cup of tea at least. Teddy nodded his head in the direction of the door as O'Toole moved in that direction, but before he could take a few steps there was a groan of pain from the other side of the room and Jilly's voice –loud with irritation– beginning to ask a series of questions. Teddy followed the sounds of the commotion and pushed through the wall of trainee aurors who had stopped their own dueling to watch, and saw Jilly standing with her arms angrily crossed against her chest above two trainees who were kneeling on the floor. One of the trainees had a large and deep laceration to her leg while the other was knelt down next to her muttering apologies.
"What's going on?" Jilly asked again, this time her voice loud enough to break through the apologies of the one trainee.
"My Altumis Conscidistium curse hit her and made that cut on her leg-"
Jilly interrupted the trainee, "Your what? Why in the world would you use a curse like that when we specifically told you to only use non-body-mangling spells?"
"I told him to cast the spell," The trainee with the injured leg told Jilly in her dueling partner's defense, "I was planning on throwing up my shield charm to protect me and I thought the strength of it would be impressive and-"
"And this is what happens when we lose focus of the main objective and decide to show-off," Jilly berated in a tone that Teddy idly mused was going to get a lot of use in a few years once her child was older.
She glanced at all of the trainees around her to make it clear that her words were for all of them, and then back to the two trainees still kneeling on the ground, "Heal her up and then get back to practice."
"Uh . . ." Both trainees mumbled as they stared at each other wide-eyed.
Teddy noticed their shared glance, "What's the problem?"
"I don't know how to heal that," The trainee who had cast the spell admitted.
The trainee with the injured leg let out another low groan of pain, "I don't know how to either."
Teddy knelt down to look at the trainee's leg, cast a stasis spell on it to stop the injury from bleeding at least and then frowned at both trainees, "This laceration didn't even hit nerve, tendon, or bone. This is simple to heal."
Both trainees avoided eye-contact with him.
"But you still don't know how to heal it?" Teddy asked.
They shook their heads ashamedly.
Jilly pinched the bridge of her nose and then glanced at all of the other trainees who were still standing around and watching the scene, "Show of hands, how many of you would be able to heal this injury?"
O'Toole raised his hand, it didn't surprise Teddy or Jilly, but then only two other trainees raised their hands in addition to O'Toole. That did surprise them.
"Did Aurors Smyth and Wentworth not cover medical first aid a few months ago?" Teddy asked the group in general.
The trainees looked at each other worriedly and then O'Toole raised his hand to answer the question, "Our stealth and tracking course took extra-long to complete because we had additional instructors come in from different countries law enforcement agencies to guest lecture on how their various landscapes and climates offer different challenges. Our medical first aid course ended up being a quick half hour test that was comprised mostly of knowing the counter-spells to curses and hexes."
Teddy and Jilly shared another unbelievable look and then Teddy cast two spells on the trainee's leg to heal the blood vessels that were injured and then heal the skin.
"Everyone can leave for their break now," Jilly announced to the trainees in a tired tone.
They all high-tailed it out of the room, and then Teddy and Jilly meandered out of the room at a much slower pace as they discussed the tragedy of their trainees' inability to heal simple injuries.
"I can't believe that Smyth and Wentworth just let them slide on their medical course," Teddy complained as they made their way back to their shared office.
Jilly rolled her eyes, "I can. Both Smyth and Wentworth are old school. They're manly men who would rather fight through the pain and get a healer to fix them up later instead of taking the time to learn how to heal a simple boo-boo that could actually help them in the situation they're in."
"I think that's a little harsh-"
Jilly scoffed, "But accurate. They weren't happy a decade ago when Shacklebolt first implemented the additional requirement for aurors to be versed in basic healing magic, so they're not going to strain themselves to teach it to their trainees."
"But it's important!" Teddy insisted as they entered their office.
"I know-"
"What's important?" Kurt Williamson asked curiously as he looked up from the paperwork he'd been staring at.
Teddy collapsed into his office chair, "For our trainees to learn basic healing spells so that they can heal themselves if they get injured."
"Isn't that why they added that to the curriculum like ten years ago?" Hayden Summers asked as he looked up from his own pile of paperwork.
Jilly sat down in her chair, "It seems that Smyth and Wentworth were a little remiss in covering that topic with our trainees."
"And let me guess, now Ted wants to bring Victoire or another D. A. R. ward healer in to give them a crash course in basic magical first aid so that they can properly grasp this important concept?" Hayden said tiredly.
Jilly chuckled, "Actually he hadn't gotten that far yet. Although now that you've suggested it for him there's nothing to stop him from arranging it."
"Well I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks it's a good idea," Teddy remarked with a smirk, "Tomorrow and Wednesday are probably too early to arrange something, Thursday's Remembrance Day, but maybe they can get someone in on Friday."
Jilly waved her hand airily at him, "I'll just leave this for you to handle, since you've got an in and everything."
Teddy nodded at her and then glanced beside him at Hayden's desk, "What are you guys up to?"
"Until we get an active case we're supposed to get caught up on outstanding paperwork and answer owled-in observances of dark magic use," Hayden explained.
"You can't actually be that far behind on paperwork though, you're usually only a day or two behind me in handing it in," Jilly told Kurt.
Kurt shrugged, "We're not. But if we don't catch a new case from those owled-in complaints after we finish the paperwork then we get to move on to writing notices about the next batch of convicts who are to be released from Azkaban after doing their time."
"Riveting," Teddy replied with another roguish smirk, "So you guys will be free later in the week to duel our trainees and prove to them that dueling skilled fighters is different than their own classmates?"
"Most likely, dark magic usage is usually lower the week of Remembrance Day so I doubt we'll catch a case in the next few days," Hayden told him.
Kurt and Hayden went back to their paperwork while Jilly left the room to get a caffeine-free cup of tea, and Teddy started to write up a request about bringing in a D. A. R. ward healer to teach their trainees healing magic so that he could get it signed and made official before he asked Victoire is she could arrange for her or Cassidy Hopewell to come teach it. Teddy had just finished writing his request when Auror McKenny knocked on their shared office door. Auror McKenny asked Teddy if he had some spare time available to be interviewed by Orrel Combs for his new book. Hayden and Kurt smirked at Teddy, they'd both been ribbing him about being the new main character in Orrel Combs next novel, but Teddy ignored them and told McKenny that he had some time before he needed to get back to duelling practice.
McKenny led Teddy to one of the smaller conference rooms where the author Orrel Combs was already situated with a few quills and parchment paper. They traded greetings as McKenny left the room, and then Orrel thanked Teddy about four more times for agreeing to help him flesh out his main character.
"Since I know that you are very busy Auror Lupin I will get right into my list of questions," Mr. Combs told Teddy.
The metamorphmagus nodded.
"So what made you decide to be an auror?"
"My mother was an auror, and both she and my father were members of the Order of the Phoenix. They both died during the last wizarding war. They gave their lives to make our wizarding world a place that would protect and respect all people. I admired everything they went through to try to make this world a better place and I wanted to be like them. I always did well with school, and having been around so many aurors growing up it made sense that being an auror was a path to that dream. I was a Gryffindor too, so bravery and protecting others kind of comes with the territory too," Teddy explained.
Mr. Combs wrote very quickly as Teddy spoke and then he took a minute to think over his next words, "That's quite the backstory, almost like something out of one of my own novels."
Teddy chuckled a little darkly, "Yeah it does sound dramatic, but most of the best stories are based on truth anyway, aren't they?"
"Indeed they are," Mr. Combs agreed, "So before you became an auror did you know how being a metamorphmagus would help you as an auror?"
"My mother was a metamorphmagus too and I knew that that gave her an edge when she was an auror. It helps with concealment and disguise and undercover work, but everything else I had to work on, on my own," Teddy explained.
Mr. Combs nodded, "Of course, of course. So have you been assigned a lot of undercover work because of your abilities?"
"I get a fair amount of undercover work, but like most aurors a lot of the cases are just caught by whoever was on duty or showed up to the crime scene first."
"Have you had many long-term undercover cases? Any in some interesting exotic locations?" Mr. Combs asked a little starry-eyed as he wrote down every word Teddy said.
Teddy pursed his lips as he considered how much he was allowed to say about specific cases he'd worked on, "I've worked on a few cases outside of England, but most of my undercover time is actually spent on domestic cases. Since I can change my appearance so frequently and so easily I'm more useful in this country where it's harder for me to blow my cover or be recognized than it is for most of my other colleagues."
"Good point," Mr. Combs said with another interested nod. "What's the longest you've ever gone undercover for?"
"Six months," Teddy explained, "It might have gone longer but then we had some breaks in the case and were able to work towards closing it before we had to stay there much longer."
Mr. Combs pursed his lips, "I understand that most aurors work in pair of partners, do you still do so when you're on undercover missions?"
"I always work the main part of the case with a partner, although sometimes I might be the only person undercover for a meeting or drop-off or such."
Mr. Combs was still writing when Teddy finished, and then his questions changed tracts a little, "This question is morbid, and feel free to choose not to reply if it makes you uncomfortable, but have you even been seriously injured or just-missed death while on a case?"
"I got a bad case of meningitis during that sixth-month undercover stint," Teddy said with a bit of a saturnine smile.
"Was it that bad?" Mr. Combs asked a little unbelievingly.
Teddy sighed, "The medi-witch on my case was concerned that if the disease didn't kill me, that it would still leave me deaf or with some sort of other additional health issues."
"And that's the closest you've ever gotten?"
Teddy nodded, "Yes. I'm rather good at dueling and defensive magic, so as of yet only disease has gotten to me."
Mr. Combs nodded, "I can work with that."
Teddy smiled wryly, "I'm glad."
12:12 PM
Victoire paced through St. Mungo's Dark Arts Reversal ward so quickly that the low heel of her ankle boots let out a click-clacking sound that echoed off the polished floors. The ward didn't seem too busy around Victoire, and she came to a stop just in front of the healing desk station where Healer Cassidy Hopewell was sitting with her head buried under her arms on top of the tidy work surface.
"Where's Fabius?" Victoire asked Cassidy without any preamble.
Cassidy lifted her head enough to get a glimpse of Victoire, and she flinched as Victoire began to tap her foot on the floor, "Could you keep your volume and high-heel clacking at a minimum please? Some of us are a little sensitive to sound today."
"Are you hungover from yesterday?" Victoire asked her colleague.
"Not technically. I took a Pepper-Up potion and re-hydrated properly, but the one side-effect from those potions that I always get is noise sensitivity," Cassidy explained. She rubbed her temple and then looked at Victoire with delayed surprise, "Aren't you supposed to be enjoying some time off? Your shift doesn't start until six."
Victoire crossed her arms over her chest, "I need to see Fabius."
Cassidy made another disgusted face, "Why do you want to see him?"
"I need to discuss something with him that might end up with me berating him soundly," Victoire explained.
"That sounds accurate," Cassidy said with a nod of her head. She regretted the motion a few seconds later and started to rub her temples again for relief, "He should be in his office. He doesn't have any specific appointments scheduled for the next few hours, so feel free to go rip him a new one."
Victoire snorted, "Thanks for your permission."
She patted Cassidy on the head as she walked by her, casting a short-term headache reducing charm on her as she did so, which caused her colleague to let of a groan of thanks. Then she kept course towards the direction where the full-time healers had their officers. She passed her office and then stopped in front of Fabius's and knocked very loudly on the wood of his door. He called for her to open it, but when he saw that it was Victoire he seemed to regret his choice to allow her entrance.
"Did you forget that your shift doesn't start until six?"
Victoire closed her door behind her, "Don't worry I know when my shift starts. I'm here to talk to you about something else that I discovered this morning when I went to speak to a liaison from the Lycanthropy Support Office of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
"I've lost interest," Fabius told her as he glanced back down at the patient file that was open on his desk, "You know the way out."
Instead of leaving Victoire walked closer to him and slammed her hand down on the edge of his desk in a dramatic fashion that startled him enough to make him look back up at her, "We need to talk."
"Oh no, are you breaking up with me?" Fabius asked sarcastically and with a roll of his eyes since he was used to her histrionics.
Victoire folded her arms across her chest, "Did you know that the funding for the Wolfsbane subsidy program has changed because there's been a sudden spike in the last few months in the number of people being added to the list who need their potion subsidized?"
"Is there a punchline to this joke?" Fabius asked disinterestedly.
"And then I asked the liaison why so many people were being added to the list even though I couldn't recall that many new people being recommended to the program from a healer from this ward and this hospital," Victoire continued her explanation as if Fabius hadn't said anything.
Fabius sighed and fiddled with his quill, "What can I say to get you to leave me alone?"
Victoire continued to ignore him, she wasn't anywhere close to getting down from her soapbox, "All of the new people that had been added to the list however were recommended and signed off on by a private healer . . ."
Fabius dropped his quill and his disinterested expression changed to apprehension.
"And it turned out that the name of that private healer was one Healer Malachi Fabius," Victoire finished. She watched her colleague's face closely, "How's that for a punchline?"
"I don't really get it, but that's usually par for the course with your humour," Fabius told her as he worked to put a blasé expression on his face.
Victoire scoffed and sat down in one of the chairs across from his desk, "Would you like to explain to me your part in this situation? Or should I inform that liaison from Lycanthropy support services that she and her supervisor need to look into all of the files you signed off on because I have it on good authority that they're suspicious?"
"Signing off on subsidy forms for people infected with lycanthropy is not suspicious, if anything I thought you of all people would appreciate my trying to make the Wolfsbane potion more accessible for lycanthropes who wouldn't be able to afford it any other way," Fabius told her imperiously.
"I'm suspicious about where you found such a large group of new patients who suffer from lycanthropy, who've apparently never visited this hospital in the past few years," Victoire told him.
Her colleague avoided making eye contact with her, "It's all above board, don't worry. Just because I have resources that you don't doesn't mean that what I've done is unlawful."
"You'll understand that I'm going to need more information right? Indulge the partially trained auror in me and tell me all of the details on how you found yourself rubber-stamping applications for Wolfsbane subsidies," The blonde told him.
Fabius rolled his eyes, but he obviously believed that he did nothing wrong because he went on to explain to Victoire how he ended up wrapped-up in the situation. Apparently Fabius knew some people that belonged to some charity committee that Victoire had never heard of –not that Fabius was surprised to hear that she hadn't since he swottishly explained that he ran in very different circles from her– and a few of the people from this committee asked him to do them a favour. They said that as a charity endeavour they were trying to help a number of disadvantaged lycanthropes get on the Wolfsbane subsidy program by helping them through the paperwork and getting them all of the appropriate sign-offs. All they asked was for Fabius to sign-off on the paperwork where the healer was supposed to.
"So you're telling me that out of the goodness of your heart you worked extra hours doing a charitable endeavour that included examining several people with lycanthropy and then signing-off on their subsidy forms?" Victoire asked more than a little unbelievingly.
Fabius met her gaze this time, "I might not wear my brash chivalrous intentions on my sleeves like some healers here, but one of my reasons for becoming a healer was to help people. The people from the committee said that in return for a few hours of my time they'd even get their sponsors to donate money to our ward so that we can do more good work."
Victoire felt a little ashamed at so easily assuming that Fabius was up to something nefarious, "The amount of people added to the program in the last few months was a lot Fabius. It must have taken you forever to complete full physical exams on all of them . . . I would have gladly helped you and lightened the load a little."
Despite her words being delivered in a tone that was meant to diffuse the tension between them, Fabius broke eye-contact with her again and awkwardly picked up his quill again so he could tap it against his desktop.
"I didn't have to give all of them physical examinations. The lady who asked me to sign off on the paperwork understood how valuable my time is so she said she already had some medi-witches and wizards examine the lycanthropes and that I just needed to sign on their forms because they needed to be signed off by a qualified D. A. R. healer," Fabius told her his voice getting quieter and quieter as he spoke.
Victoire stood back up, "You didn't examine all of these people? Did you ever even meet all of them?"
"It wasn't necessary. The committee streamlined the process so that we could get more people in the program in the least amount of time possible-"
"Fabius are you listening to yourself? If I was saying the same thing to you right now you'd be owling the Ethics board before I could even finish!" Victoire told him in a raised voice that wasn't quite at a yelling tone yet.
Fabius stood up as well so that she wouldn't tower over him, "I'm not a complete plank Weasley. You know the process for getting into the subsiding program as well as I do. Before a healer-signs off, the person first gets a background check from Magical Law Enforcement and the Auror Department to make sure that they don't have a criminal background which would make them ineligible for the program."
"And all of these people had clear background checks?"
"All of their files already had an Auror Department stamp of approval," Fabius explained literally.
Hearing that calmed Victoire down a little bit, but she still thought that Fabius was stupid for signing off on all of that paperwork without meeting them, and she still thought that something about the whole situation was suspicious.
"I still think you handled this incorrectly-" Victoire was interrupted from berating Fabius by the sound of her mobile phone ringing.
She sighed heavily at herself for the interruption and dug into her pocket to pull out her phone. When she saw that it was her sister calling her she knew she had to take it.
"Hell-" Her greeting was also cut-off.
"Come to the office right away. Greg's been here chatting with Colton for the past hour and they want to talk to us about our arrests."
Dom finished her request –which was definitely more of a demand– and then ended the call without even saying goodbye. Victoire glared at her phone because her sister wasn't in the room, and then she glanced at Fabius.
"We're not done with this conversation, but unfortunately I'm required elsewhere."
Fabius gestured towards his office door, "Well don't let me stand in the way of someone who actually wants your company."
Victoire sent a grimace at her colleague before leaving his office and then the hospital so that she could apparate to Colton's law firm. It didn't take her long to get into the building and then to the floor that housed both Dom and Colton's offices. She didn't bother to check in with the secretary who gaped widely at her as she strolled by her, and she didn't even bother to knock on Colton's office door before turning the knob and walking right into the room.
"I got here as quickly as I could," Victoire informed the trio of people in the office in lieu of a proper greeting.
Dom who was perched on the corner of Colton's desk instead of sitting properly in a chair, glanced at her sister with pursed lips, "I didn't tell you exactly which office to come to."
"I took a wild guess," Victoire said sardonically before stepping towards Greg and kissing him on either cheek as a hello.
When she pulled away from Greg she glanced at Colton, "Hi."
"How're you doing after your frightening stint in the slammer?" Colton asked cheekily when he nodded at her.
Victoire smirked, "If I were to do it again I'd make sure that they put me in a separate holding room without Dom."
"Oddly enough being stuck with you was what I found the worst about the situation too," Dom replied with a lazy smile.
Greg glanced at Colton, "Are they always like this?"
"Only when they're in good moods," Colton replied sardonically. He cleared his throat, "Can we talk about your cases now?"
Victoire sat down in one of the chairs Colton had arranged in front of his desk, "I thought that because Greg got our charges dropped that meant that there wouldn't be any case?"
"Greg has ensured that you both won't be charged for impeding an investigation or contempt of law enforcement," Colton relied in a rehearsed manner, "However once all the dust was settled he was certain that they might try to stick some other charges on you two, if only to get Greg to write another donation check to get you out of trouble."
Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose, "And was Greg correct?"
"Unfortunately I usually am," Greg jumped into the conversation, "Since I am on record as your legal counsel, they informed me today that they intended to charge you with using an experimental spell on their detainee without the patient's permission."
"Merde! Bloody again?" Victoire groaned.
Colton nodded, but instead of smirking at the mention of Victoire's past legal problems his expression was very serious, "Yes, which I found suspicious and makes us believe that they must have looked into your background and found out that you were reprimanded about this before, as they were so convinced that they would have a basis for this claim."
"My background aside, I did use my spell on Monsieur Leclair without his informed consent," Victoire said defeatedly.
Colton locked his gaze with Victoire and then spoke very clearly and slowly, "That is the last time you are going to utter those words."
"Why?"
"Because, according to the statement Jérôme Leclair made this morning once the hospital staff felt he was well enough to speak to law enforcement, you explained to Monsieur Leclair exactly the procedure you were going to do on him and got his verbal consent in front of a witness before he passed out and you completed the healing procedure," Colton repeated in the same measured tone of voice.
Victoire narrowed her eyes, "And why would Monsieur Leclair say that?"
"He said that because before the hospital staff would allow law enforcement to speak to him, they allowed myself and his new civil rights lawyer to speak to him. I gave him advice on how he should go about giving the officers his statement, and he agreed that he remembered you explaining everything to him and getting his consent. He signed his name to his statement, and Stephanie Paquet signed hers as the witness that heard you explain the spell procedure," Greg explained.
"But they-"
Colton interrupted whatever Victoire was going to say, "They have now helped you a lot because they felt so grateful to you for healing Monsieur Leclair. They were so grateful that they wanted to protect you. If that protective instinct has maybe muddied their recall of the exact order of how events went down, well eyewitness testimony and recall is already known to have its flaws but law enforcement still puts a lot of trust into it."
"But isn't-"
Colton interrupted her again, "You're thinking like a Gryffindor right now and I need you to think like a Slytherin. I know Slytherin Victoire is in there somewhere, so if you could just let her out for a few minutes that'd be great."
Victoire looked at him clearly offended, "It's not like I have split personalities!"
"Sometimes it feels like it though," Dom muttered not-so-quietly from her spot on Colton's desk.
"The point Victoire, is that you need to think about yourself, because right now you're the person in trouble. Or you were the person in trouble until Monsieur Leclair and Ms. Paquet gave you a spot of help. Appreciate it and move on," Colton told her.
Victoire glanced at Greg to see if he agreed with Colton's assessment, and based on the calm expression on his face it seemed he did.
"So is that all then? Or is there more?"
Colton eyed her reassuringly, "That's all you personally need to worry about. Now it's time we move onto Dom."
"Finally!" Dom exclaimed, "They wouldn't tell me anything about my case until you got here. Said they wanted a witness."
Colton exhaled, "French law enforcement has decided to charge Dom for attempting to administer legal advice without being properly qualified to do so in France."
To Victoire's ears his recitation sounded plain and without inflection, but Dom obviously heard something in her boss's voice that was enough to incite her.
"For the thousandth time, I was going to send the paperwork in . . . eventually," Dom muttered with a pout.
"And for the thousandth time in response, I'd reprimand you for taking so damn long, but the trouble you've already gotten into seems to be punishment enough," Colton replied.
Greg decided that it was up to him to explain it all if they were ever actually going to get past Dom and Colton's squabbling, "Since Dominique made such an . . . impression on the law enforcement at that office in France they were pretty firm about this charge. Unfortunately for them, when they went to inspect Dom's qualifications yesterday and found her lacking a license to practice law in France, they were mistaken in their claim."
"So Dom is licenced to practice in France?" Victoire asked confusedly.
Dom pursed her lips, "No, I'm not. At least not without a bit of fancy legal work on my behalf I assume."
"You've assumed correctly," Greg told her with a nod, "When I explained to Colton about Dom's issue we decided that easiest step to take would be to get the charge dropped. And like with Victoire, the best way to get the charges dropped is to make the problem go away."
Colton jumped in here, "What I'm about to say will never be repeated again alright?"
Victoire and Dom both nodded.
"I sent Dom's paperwork in as soon as I heard from Greg that they wanted to charge Dom with this. Obviously she more than meets all of the criteria to be given her licence in France, it was just a matter of sending in her scores and pushing it through so that it could be processed right away," Colton explained.
"Even if you pulled –or paid for– these strings to help process Dom's paperwork today it will still have today's date on it, not yesterdays," Victoire pointed out.
Colton smirked, "Well Victoire it just so happens that enough strings were pulled to have last Friday's date written on the processing forms. Which makes sense of course because according to all of that paperwork that's when it was all sent in and processed."
"So as of last Friday I was licensed in France? I take it that because it was so recent when the law enforcement building checked my qualifications their system just hadn't been updated yet?" Dom asked sardonically.
"Correct, everything was already in with the appropriate governing bodies, but sometimes it takes a while to trickle down to the lower levels of law enforcement," Colton added with an imperious nod of his head.
Victoire glanced at Greg a little disbelievingly, "And you're alright with all of this?"
"This is sometimes how things go in the world of business law Victoire. We made a few deals, donated money to the appropriate hands, and made use of a few loopholes, it's best not to question it," Greg told her.
"But-"
Colton sighed, "If Gryffindor Victoire is courageous enough to boldly break the law so that she can save someone's life, than Slytherin Victoire's self-preservation instinct should be allowed to appreciate the effort people have gone to, to protect her so that she can keep doing brash and brave things."
"Fine," Victoire retorted as she tried to consider Colton's rather fair assessment of the situation, "I'll do my best."
"Sleeping on it might help," Greg offered.
Dom scoffed, "That's not going to happen, she's working the night shift tonight."
"You got any problems with this?" Colton asked his colleague.
"You mean besides the fact that I apparently needed two men to save me like a pathetic damsel in distress?"
Colton smirked, "Yes, besides that."
"Not really," Dom replied with a shrug. She pushed herself off of Colton's desk and then glanced at Greg, "And since all of the charges were dropped, Greg's technically no longer my lawyer right?"
Colton nodded, his eyes suddenly narrowed on her.
"Excellent," Dom said as she sidled up to Greg's tall form, "So there should be no impropriety with me asking you out on a date."
Greg smiled at her, "None at all. Although, unfortunately Dom, you're not my type."
"Not into redheads?" Dom asked breezily and unconcernedly.
"Not into women."
Dom nodded understandingly and was glad to have that very old question settled in her mind, "How would you feel about a hot blonde healer?"
"I told you that I'm not attracted to women and now you're trying to set me up with your engaged sister?" Greg asked her confusedly as he shot Victoire a look.
Victoire sighed. She had already almost made it to the door of Colton's office since she had intended to make it home and get a short nap in before her night shift that was to start at six, when she heard Dom and Greg's discussion. With the change in direction of the conversation she was suddenly worried that she was going to have to forfeit even more sleep in favour for helping Dom with some new crazy scheme.
"She's not talking about me."
A/N: I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter, it was mostly about Vic and Teddy but it mentioned several storyline threads that are still active.
I know this chapter was late, but since my job has to do with working with children, and since all of those jobs are closed down in Ontario because of Covid-19, I'm going to be laid off and practicing social distancing from home for the next two weeks at least and (more likely) the next several weeks at most. This should *crosses fingers* equate to more time for writing, because it really is my intent to keep this story going especially in this stressful time so I can do my part to try to keep everyone's spirits up and to try to entertain a little.
Next Update: As soon as I have it ready!
Next Chapter: We find out if Dom did actually try to set Greg up with *someone*, more about Teddy at work, Louis finds an interesting lead on one of his cases, we get introduced to someone very interesting from Victoire and Teddy's past, and Hayden and Kurt are given yet another reason why they should be very afraid of Victoire.
I want to sincerely thank everyone again who has followed, favourited, read, and reviewed!
BIG thank yous as always to:
audrey3horses, NicoleTheSmith, Saagarika, Guest (1), Katia0203, Dakota1, Break This Spell626, LolaQueen, Jily71102, cjaben1, Guest (3), Guest (4), rosesnlilies, Elora Donovan, Norway, Guest (5), and Guest (6).
NicoleTheSmith: Trust me, we're not done with the Holmwoods yet . . as for whether something is a coincidence or not, you'll have to wait for the end of the story to find out.
Guest (1): Victoire's next birthday is coming up very soon, so we'll be able to see how she feels about them now and whether that's changed or not.
Katia0203: I appreciate your kind words. As a straight, white, middle-class female in a country colonized by my own ancestors, writing about a type of disenfranchisement it's very likely I'll never actually have to endure doesn't always quite feel like I'm doing enough, but I hope the more people discuss these sorts of things and the more people can 'see' situations like this at face-value will at least be a starting point to more serious and lasting social change down the line.
Dakota1: I always love suggestions, but you'll understand if I can't always replying with a specific yes/no answer to them. All I can say is there is still a lot left to this story.
Elora Donovan: Three weeks! Nice to know that's about the going speed, by the time this story's finished I might have an even month! It never occured to me that someone could have Siri reading this aloud (or other smart devices) and now I'm cringing a little at imagining some of my writing being read in a slightly robotic voice, and it messing up everytime there's a typo. ;)
LolaQueen: Glad to hear you're still with me, it may seem like the wedding is taking forever to happen, but there's a reason why we're focusing on a lot of stuff that happens before it does. You'll just have to be patient with me (which I see you're already inclined to be, so thank you:)
cjaben1: Two reviews! Lucky me ;) I love hearing suggestions and theories so keep them coming as long as you don't feel sad that I can't always directly answer all of them.
Lastly, I know that the world is in a very different and difficult place right now, and that it's really stressful for people who are trying to look forward and don't know what their lives will be like once this is finally all settled. I'm not sure how media outlets are handling the news of Covid-19 outside of Canada (and the US, but frankly watching news coverage from the US lately is almost enough to cause a rage apoplexy in me, so I try to limit it) but the health crisis we have now is not going to go away quickly and the impact of it on almost every aspect of society will last longer than the crisis itself.
How we handle these upcoming weeks and months and how we treat each other is going to go down in history right next to the technical facts and data of the disease, so it is important for everybody to act in a way that won't cause them deep regret later on. I'm not saying this to scare you, but to make sure that everyone is aware of the importance of following the directions of your province/state/country/territory sanctioned health officials and most importantly the World Health Organization (WHO).
Practice social distancing; wash your hands for 20 sec with soap and water; don't touch your face; cover your cough; DO NOT travel outside your country; self-isolate or quarantine if you've been out of the country, have been having symptoms, or have been incontact with someone who was out of the country; and please remember that this is a difficult time for everybody, so it's imperative that we all practice patience and kindness to those around us and to those who are more vulnerable than we are.
To those of you in areas of the world where they are getting hit much harder than we are at present in Canada, you have my deepest sympathies especially if you have been personally impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak. To those of you who are at this point still relatively healthy, please do everything you can to stay healthy and make safe and smart decisions.
I'll get off my soapbox now, but know that if anyone needs anything that it is within my power to give, you can PM me and I promise to respond back quicker than I update ;)
I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter,
Please leave me your thoughts or any questions in a review or PM,
Please stay safe and make good choices,
Until next time, DFTBA!