A/N: Hi everyone! I know we were expecting this update sooner, but I started work again and boy did I get thrown back into it.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Recap: Louis has been working some cases with Victoire's ex-boyfriend Adam Wescott. Cecilia's charity SPARKS is starting to pick up the pace. Ally found a potions book at the Lestrange mansion in France and Teddy told her that it needed to be assessed before she could have access to it. A few chapters ago Victoire and her friend Healer Sarah MacGregor saw a patient about a concussion, and both women were worried that the patient may have been getting magically abused by her partner.
Potions, Questionnaires, and Cortisol
Wednesday, May 22nd 2024
2:00 PM
Louis was finishing up some paperwork when Agent Alesci came by his cubicle and handed him a request that had just came in from an apothecary, saying that they had had a break in. Agent Alesci said he was putting him and Agent Westcott on the case as the specific apothecary had been one that they had investigated earlier when they were learning about the availability of wolfsbain potions.
It was the first time since their previous outing regarding the last case, that Louis had seen Adam Westcott. He had hoped they could have gone even longer without having to work together again. Louis grabbed his traveling cloak and found Adam Westcott waiting for him at the bank of lifts.
His colleague nodded at him curtly, which Louis returned before they both stepped into the lift. They were silent with each other, which was fine with Louis, and it was a silence that they kept up all the way to the apothecary they were visiting in Dorchester.
Agent Westcott let Louis take the lead, and the younger man re-introduced himself to the owner of the store who was vaguely familiar from the last time they were there.
"So, what's this about a break-in? Did it happen mid-day?" Louis asked the owner as he pulled out a book to take notes.
"I'm not sure when it occurred. I didn't realize that there must have been a break-in until a half hour ago when I checked the stock room. I spent the intervening time between then and when I owled the Department of Magical Law Enforcement making sure that it hadn't just been misplaced. Once I was sure that it was definitely gone, I sent the message," The owner explained as he wrung his hands together.
Louis asked about whether there was any evidence that would reference a break-in. The owner's proof was more of less the absence of any other explanation for the part of his stock that was missing. He showed the MLE agents to the stockroom and exactly which shelf, hidden way at the back, had held the now-missing stock. As Louis inspected the area, Agent Westcott started asking the owner more questions.
"So, what exactly was taken? Poison? Level three restricted potions?"
The owner wrung his hands together again, "Potions' ingredient actually. It was my stock of Cornus Kousalar."
Agent Westcott didn't seem to recognize the plant name. Louis, who was still casting some detection spells, could remember a few different potions that used the plant but couldn't quite figure out why someone would want to steal it.
"What is it used for? Is it an expensive ingredient?"
The owner shook his head, "It's not usually expensive. I use it in many potions, but the real reason why this is such a problem is because I presently have potions brewing that need to be completed for tomorrow and adding dried Cornus Kousalar is one of the last steps."
"Your stock of wolfsbain potion," Louis spoke up as he finished the last spell he needed to cast, "You'll need to add Cornus Kousalar tonight to have the potions ready to go out and be consumed tomorrow."
The owner nodded, "As you're aware I've been having difficulty getting certain ingredients for the potion, causing my prices to go up. I'm now getting the other ingredients from a conservatory in America, but now all of those ingredients will be going to waste as I do not have any Cornus Kousalar to finish the brewing process. I'm going to have to call all of my clients who ordered a potion and tell them that I can't fulfill their request, and I'll have to take the loss from the ingredients and time that was spent."
Agent Westcott asked the owner whether it was possible for him to order more of the ingredient in time to finish brewing, but he disagreed. Cornus Kousalar was a plant that had to be bought fresh and in bulk, only to sit in a storeroom drying out for a minimum of four months. It was impossible to purchase the plant already dried, as it only worked properly in potions when it had been dried in a room that was the exact same temperature as the room the potion was being brewed in. Even attempting to borrow it from another apothecary could result in something going wrong with the potion that could end up harming the client it was meant for.
"This also makes the resale value of the plant negligible," Louis added with a frown, "No properly trained potioneer would attempt to use Cornus Kousalar that was dried elsewhere in any of their potions."
Agent Westcott also frowned, "Well if the goal of stealing the plant wasn't to resell it for more money, what have they achieved?"
"Sabotage," Louis said quietly. He glanced at the owner, "I take it all of your employees were aware of where you kept this plant?"
"Yes, but none of them would ever steal from me. They've worked for me for years, there's no reason for them to try to sabotage me, try to sabotage our business, now."
Louis nodded but had to respectfully request that he be given the names of all of the employees anyway, just so they could double-check their backgrounds. The owner readily gave him the information, and as Louis was making a copy, Westcott asked the owner whether anybody else could have known about where he stored the ingredients.
"Anybody who's ever been in the building could have guessed that we had a storeroom at the back and that that is where we keep our ingredients," The owner replied.
Louis nodded his head sympathetically, "I know that as a robust business there are a lot of people in and out of here . . . but is there any chance that you noticed the presence of somebody new or suspicious over the past several days?"
The apothecary owner thought over Louis's words carefully.
"There are always a lot of people coming and going . . . and I do a lot of the brewing in the back rooms . . . my employees might know more."
The pair of MLE agents asked if they could interview his employees that were there that day, and the owner agreed. Only two of the three employees that rotated shifts were working that day, so Louis took one and Westcott took the other.
"Hello Miss, I'm Agent Weasley with the department of MLE, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions?"
The employee, who looked to be about a year younger than Louis, nodded her head and him. The part-veela asked her if there was anybody in the store lately who was loitering, or who perhaps seemed overly interested in familiarizing himself with the layout of the store. She really did seem as though she was trying to think hard about something that would fit with the questions Louis was asking her, but she also seemed unable to come up with any suggestions.
"I'm sorry but I really can't think of anyone who fits that description . . . the only person that was even here who wasn't one of our long-term clients was Henry . . ."
Louis pursed his lips, "Who's Henry?"
The employee's cheeks went red and she looked down at her shoes, "He's this guy that I've recently started seeing . . . he came here yesterday to see if I had time to have lunch with him, but he was only here for like ten minutes before we left for lunch."
"What's Henry's full name?" Louis asked, starting to write down the note.
She frowned at him and almost seemed as though she wasn't going to answer, but then she must have thought better of it, "Henry Dufour . . . but there's no way he could be connected to this theft. There's no reason for him to want or even need to steal the Cornus Kousalar. He could easily access his own without needing to steal it."
"How so?"
"He works for one of our ingredient suppliers. That's how I met him."
Louis felt his heartbeat race, "Which one?"
"Linnaeus's Storeroom."
Louis wrote down the information in his notebook and then thanked her. He met up with Agent Westcott, who also hadn't got anything very solid, and they agreed to go back to their department to run the other names they had been given.
To Louis's disappointment, Henry Dufour was an employee at Linnaeus's Storeroom and had been sent to the apothecary they visited two weeks ago to help the owner renew his contract for the lichens and mosses they order from them. As a last-ditch effort, he had asked the business if it was possible to get the age of Mr. Dufour or when he graduated from Hogwarts. He thought that maybe if he could narrow down what year the bloke would have been in at Hogwarts, he could ask around and find out more about the man's character. Somebody who worked at a business that sells mosses and lichens most likely studied Herbology at Hogwarts, meaning Professor Longbottom would most likely know who he was.
The person Louis was speaking to told him that he was twenty-one years old –so around Molly's age– but that he hadn't graduated from Hogwarts. His transcripts actually said that he attended Beauxbatons. Louis didn't hear much after that, instead he said a quick 'thank you' and 'goodbye' to the person on the other end of the phone (the business had embraced the new century and had the option to contact them via muggle technology), and then hung up. He had been running background checks in a conference room with Agent Westcott, so the other man noticed when Louis's expression turned into a smile.
"What'd you find?"
"The employee from the apothecary said that the only person out of the ordinary who had been by the shop the day before was a man named Henry Dufour that she had just started dating. She said he works for Linnaeus's Storeroom so I called them to check in on him. Apparently, he did not graduate from Hogwarts like we would assume of someone working in an English potions' ingredient supply store, he graduated from Beauxbatons."
Adam Westcott frowned, "That's not good news. We don't have cause to investigate a French national –which I'm assuming he is if he attended Beauxbatons– and if he has dual citizenship, we still need to go through the Department of International Magical Cooperation, and that could take days or even weeks, even with your connections."
"Luckily, I don't just have connections on one side of my family. I have a third cousin who would have been in his year at Beauxbatons. I'm going to try to floo call her and see if I can get some information about him," Louis explained, already on his feet and trying to remember which communication fireplace was unoccupied when he walked by them earlier.
Westcott tried his best not to seem impressed by his resourcefulness, "I'll check with Agent Alesci to see if he'll approve this."
Louis held in his eyeroll until after his colleague left the room. He quickly wrote down a few notes about the conversation he'd had on the phone, and by the time he was finished, both Agent Westcott and Agent Alesci had come into the room to tell him that he had permission to contact his cousin.
Marielle Bourreau was only a year older than Louis, so she was one of their part-veela cousins that he had actually spend a good amount of time with, considering that they were so close in age. She worked in finance in France, but he knew that she often worked different hours that belonged to whatever financial market she was assigned to. He was rolling the dice on catching her at her flat, but fortune must have been smiling down on him because he found her there. She was wearing a dress blazer and a skirt, so he was either catching her just going to work or having come home from it.
Marielle was surprised to see him, but was kind enough to answer all of the questions he had for her, as well as to politely ignore the fact that he couldn't tell her more details about why he wanted to know the answers to his questions. She replied as best as she could, threw in some opinionated musing for free, and promised to get in touch with him if she thought of anything else that was relevant at a latter time.
"Au revoir Marielle," Louis told his cousin before ending the floo call.
When he pulled away from the fireplace, he realized that Agents Westcott and Alesci had joined him in the room.
"Did you get anything?"
Louis dusted his hand and knees off once he got back on his feet, "Marielle had something interesting to share. As it turns out, Henry Dufour is actually Henri Dufourt, and he transferred to Beauxbatons at the beginning of his fifth year. She couldn't tell me where he transferred from because apparently it was a big secret that just added to his mysteriousness or something like that. But she did recall that he would pronounce words with an English 't' instead of a French 't'."
Both of his superior agents looked as though they had no idea what he was talking about.
"English speakers produce the sound the letter 't' makes by flicking their tongue off of the alveolar ridge on the roof of their mouth. French speakers produce the 't' sound by pressing their tongue off the back of their teeth. Most people don't pick up on the difference unless you've heard both. Victoire, Dominique, and I all produce 't' the English way. Marielle remembered noticing that Henri pronounced it the same way, and apparently, she wasn't the only one. Part of the gossip surrounding Henri was that he must have been the love child of some rich English man and his French mistress."
Agent Alesci, who had been read in on their investigation so far, nodded his head, "That would explain why the employee from the shop didn't mention that he had a French accent. He must speak English fluently as well."
"My cousin Marielle also told me that Henri Dufourt transferred out of Beauxbatons at the end of their fifth year. She has no idea where he went after that, but she does know that he did not graduate from Beauxbatons like the person from Linnaeus's was led to believe," Louis told them.
Agent Alesci told Westcott to re-contact Linnaeus's Storeroom and ask them to send over their copy of Henry Dufour's school record.
"Isn't it difficult to forge educational records from a magical school?" Westcott asked as he started to write a note.
"It would be, but not as difficult as forging one from scratch . . . he had a record from Beauxbatons even though he only attended one year. It would have been hard, but not impossible for him to alter the official record and add two more years to it," Louis mused.
Westcott set his quill down and folded the note he had written, "But is it possible for it to be good enough to convince a business like this?"
"There's been some forgeries of Beauxbaton's school records that have been good enough to convince the Auror Department in the past," Agent Alesci said quietly.
Louis's eyes snapped to the senior agent. Somehow, he knew that Agent Alesci was referring to Richard Lassoder. It made another thought run through his head.
Agent Alesci noticed it, "What are you thinking?"
Westcott left to send off the note he'd written, and Louis waited for him to be gone before he replied.
"Marielle told me that she had barely any interaction with Henri Dufourt, which I thought was a little odd considering that she's part-veela and most boys her age try to take at least one crack at trying to seduce her. But she said that the one interaction she did remember with him was when one of their other classmates brought up their school's previous Tri-Wizard champion Noelle Varens. After the conversation started, Henri began asking Marielle questions about Victoire. He knew she was her cousin, everyone at Beauxbaton's was able to do the part-veela is related to part-veela math, and he was curious about Victoire and was asking questions about her time during the tournament, and what she was doing after."
Louis rubbed his forehead and continued, "Marielle said it wasn't exactly out of the ordinary for people to ask her questions about Victoire after she won the tournament, and Henri's questions were especially timely because the year Henri attended Beauxbatons was the year after Victoire won the tournament."
"That's very convenient," Agent Alesci replied.
"Yeah, it sounds suspicious, but I don't know how it could actually be."
Agent Alesci asked Louis to go through everything they had already collected, as well as to spitball theories about why the apothecary was targeted –revenge, someone disliking the owner, a competing apothecary, someone who didn't want people afflicted with lycanthropy to get treatment– but they didn't really have much evidence that could support or disprove any of those theories.
It took Agent Westcott about twenty minutes to come back to them, but when he did, he was able to tell them that he not only sent a note to Linnaeus's Storeroom, but he had even received a reply.
"Did they send a copy of Henry's Beauxbatons transcript?" Louis asked him.
Agent Westcott nodded and pulled out a few sheets of paper, "They did. I asked the person you were speaking to whether they checked his school records before hiring him."
"And did they?"
"No. He's only been with their business for two months. They didn't check his school records, but they did check with his last employer," Adam Westcott explained.
"Which was?" Louis asked as he started to write down more notes.
"A business in America called Nova's Magical Conservatory," Westcott told Louis with a specific look.
Louis sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose.
Agent Alesci eyed the youngest MLE agent warily.
"This may need to be kicked up to the Auror Department," Louis explained to Agent Alesci.
While Agent Alesci didn't pretend to understand the significance of the business Agent Westcott had just named, he did know that Louis would never suggest bringing in the Auror Department if it wasn't necessary. Louis wasn't one of the MLE agents who was just bidding his time and waiting to see if he could re-apply to the Auror Department and 'move up in the world'. If he had wanted to join the Auror Department, he would have from the get go, and he would have been accepted too. No, Louis wouldn't suggest auror involvement just for the sake of it. It must have been serious.
"Any auror in particular I should be asked to be read-in by?" Agent Alesci questioned.
Louis shrugged and gathered his notes, "I'll tell them that you'd like the details of the case so far. I'm sure they'll share what they can."
Agent Westcott followed Louis to the lifts and up to the Auror Department and, despite the fact that Teddy had specifically asked him not to bring Adam with him the next time Louis needed to share information about the Holmwoods, Louis knew better than to ask the senior MLE agent not to come with him.
Louis and Adam Westcott travelled through the office quickly, only coming to a stop at the closed door to the office space that aurors Lupin, Donaldson, Williamson, and Summers used.
Hayden Summers was the auror that opened the door upon Louis's knock.
"What brings you here this time Weasley?" Auror Summers asked cheerily. His smile faded a little when he spotted Agent Westcott close behind him, "And Agent Douchebag."
Adam Westcott glared at the auror, "It's Agent Westcott."
"Sounds more like Agent Who is an Arse to His Ex-Girlfriends," Kurt Williamson commented as he joined his partner at the door.
"And The Littlest Part-Veela," Kurt greeted Louis with a grin.
Louis rolled his eyes at the auror, "I'm taller than both Vic and Dom."
"But you're younger."
"Ah," Louis mused, "Can we come in? Or would you like me to stand here in the hallway as I discuss my newest run in with Nova's Magical Conservatory?"
Both aurors eyes narrowed and they were immediately all business. They moved to allow both MLE agents into the room, where they began to explain their latest case.
"Have you investigated past what you've told us?" Hayden asked once Louis had finished his story.
The blonde shook his head, "No. Ted told me not to go any farther once I found even a periphery connection to the Holmwoods."
"Good," Hayden replied with a nod. His expression showed that he was thinking very deeply about something.
Agent Westcott glanced around the office that was only half filled with aurors, "Where is Lupin anyway?"
"He and Auror Donaldson have a night training session with the trainees today, they don't start their shift for another hour," Kurt explained as he walked over to a filling cabinet and started to root through it.
Agent Westcott seemed pleased that he wouldn't have to interact with Teddy, while Louis wondered whether Hayden and Kurt would contact their partners and ask them to come in early so that they could be involved in this new information.
"Was this the only apothecary that was broken into?" Hayden asked Louis.
"As far as we know, however, this break-in won't just affect this month's supply of wolfsbain potion, it takes four months to properly dry Cornus Kousalar, so it will be at least five months before they can make more wolfsbain potions. I'm worried that this may be the beginning of a trend," Louis explained.
"It could just be a personal vendetta against the owner," Agent Westcott remined Louis pointedly.
Louis nodded his head, "That's very true . . . but if someone wanted revenge against the owner there were more expensive ingredients they could have taken, more expensive potions they could have taken, and they could have just destroyed the storeroom in general and that would have done much more damage. Whoever stole the Cornus Kousalar literally walked past twenty ounces of gold that is used in rare potions, as well as dragon blood, which would get even more money if resold."
"It's still just one incidence," Westcott argued.
"It is . . . but the coincidence of somebody breaking into the apothecary and specifically messing with one type of potion, which many apothecaries are already having difficulty brewing because of potion ingredient shortages, just to mess with someone is very odd," Louis retorted.
Hayden was on Louis's side, "It's definitely worth investigating this Henry Dufour bloke, especially now that we know he's falsified a Beauxbatons transcript and claimed to work at Nova's Magical Conservatory. Anything in connection to the conservatory should be investigated, so we can check with the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. and see if they have any information on either Henry Dufour or Henri Dufourt."
"We'll obviously keep working this case to see if we can find any other evidence or motive behind the break-in . . . but I'm assuming you want us to sit on the Henry Dufour lead for now?" Louis enquired.
Kurt nodded, "Yeah, it's best to leave that thread alone until we talk to the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D. just in case Mr. Dufour does have a suspicious history. If he is connected it's best to keep it quiet so he doesn't realize that we're on to him."
"The people from Linnaeus's Storeroom were very good about sending us his information. We were quiet about the specifics, and just told them that it was standard to look into the backgrounds of anyone who could have been slightly connected to the apothecary. I told them that we didn't need to speak to him at this time and that we were just checking people off of our list," Agent Westcott added.
"Good thinking," The way Hayden said the words made it seem as though he was having a really hard time pushing the words out.
A moment later the door of the office opened and Ted Lupin walked in.
"What're you doing here so early?" Kurt asked his colleague before Teddy had even fully stepped into the office.
The metamorphmagus shrugged out of his travelling cloak, "I told Ally that-"
His words cut-off as he looked closer around the room and noticed Louis and Adam Westcott's presence, "What happened?"
"A connection to Nova's Magical Conservatory popped-up in another investigation," Louis explained succinctly.
Teddy sighed and wandered over to his desk, choosing to ignore Westcott's existence for the moment, "Of course it did. What're the details?"
Louis summarized his and Westcott's outing to the apothecary and then the resulting investigation they partook in.
"Did Marielle seem suspicious of what you were asking?" Teddy asked when Louis got to that part of the story.
His soon-to-be-brother-in-law shook his head, "Marielle's not a naturally curious person, and she's always thought I was a little odd to start with. I think she'll just chalk the interaction up to my poor English manners and then forget about it."
Teddy nodded understandingly. Having met all of Victoire's family on her mother's side before, he knew first-hand that many of them considered Fleur's children a little odd. He'd also overheard some of their relatives claiming that their behaviours must just be because they're English. Marielle probably wouldn't think to much into Louis's call.
Louis continued his recitation to the point where they found out about Henry Dufour's alleged connection to Nova's Magical Conservatory and that Agent Alesci would like to be read-in at some point. Hayden took over the explanation of what occurred once the MLE agents joined them in their office.
"Has a message been sent to the N. A. M. C. O. C. I. D.?" Was Teddy's next question.
Kurt held up a piece of paper, "Just finished it."
"There are so many odd pieces here," Hayden commented, "Any guesses to how they add up?"
The question was intended for Teddy, but Westcott was the one who answered, "Maybe they're not supposed to add up because they're separate entities."
Hayden rolled his eyes, but Teddy did his best to be impartial, "That's a valid suggestion. We'll have to look at all of the different angles."
Before Westcott could retort, there was a knock on the office door.
Kurt opened the door to the smiling face of Ally Weasley.
"Hi Kurt! I'm supposed to meet Teddy," The newcomer told him in a cheery tone.
Her gaze shifted to everyone else in the room. She sent Louis a wave and a smile. Her hand dropped when she spotted Adam Westcott.
"Hello Alexandra."
She glared at him, "Gormless Pillock."
His expression changed to offended, but Hayden interrupted the interaction.
"What are you doing here?"
"I put in a request to have an old potions book examined for Ally. I just received a response that it's been cleared under specific circumstances and I contacted Ally and asked her to come here when her work day was done so we could talk about it," Teddy explained, he glanced at Louis and Westcott, "Obviously I hadn't intended for our office to be as busy as it is."
While Teddy was explaining Ally moved farther into the room and stood near her cousin, "What're you doing here?"
"It's classified," Louis told her.
Ally rolled her eyes, "Until it's not and you reach out to someone else for their help. Like a month ago when you secretively asked me for information about St. Mungo's wolfsbain potion supplies."
Louis fidgeted with his fingers.
Ally noticed the quirk.
"What is it?"
Adam Westcott glared at the two Weasleys, "It's none of your concern Alexandra."
"Actually," Kurt interrupted as he glanced at Ally with a considering look, "How's St. Mungo's supply of Cornus Kousalar?"
Ally frowned, "It's fine. Mr. Donnelly and Kelly were just taking it out when I left, so they could add it to this month's supply of wolfsbain potion."
"Have you heard anything about other apothecaries having difficulty with their supplies of it?" Hayden asked next.
"No, but many apothecaries won't be adding their Cornus Kousalar to their brews until later this evening, or even overnight if they're an apothecary that brews twenty-four hours," Ally clarified.
Westcott, who was still frowning about involving Ally in the case, asked another question, "Is there any ingredient that can be substituted in for Cornus Kousalar in potions?"
"There are other plants that can take its place in many brews, except for wolfsbain potions. The interaction of the potions combinations for that is so specific and delicate that substituting other ingredients willy-nilly doesn't just damage the efficacy of the potion, but it could also make it dangerous for the people who take it. It's why the shortage of the ingredient you guys asked me about a few weeks ago was such a big thing," Ally continued her snap-lesson on potions.
"If you hear anything suspicious sounding about any of those topics, will you let us know?" Kurt asked her.
Ally folded her arms over her chest, "The fact that the auror department is asking me to provide them with information, as well as what happened last month, makes me think that this relates to the Holmwoods."
"Ally-" Teddy started to berate her.
She rolled her eyes at the metamorphmagus, "C'mon Teddy, everyone in this rooms knowns that I know that they are somehow related to this. Pretending that this underlying knowledge isn't here does a disservice to all of us."
"Alright, well we've already heard everything Agent Westcott and Louis have to share so this conversation can end right here," Hayden said, attempting to be a peacekeeper.
Everyone turned to stare at Adam Westcott at this point, and he frowned at all of them before turning on his heel and stalking out of the room. Louis turned to follow him, at a much slower pace, but stopped when her heard Teddy's voice asking him to.
"Yes?"
Teddy glanced back down at his watch for a second and then looked back at the blonde, "Your shift's over now, isn't it?"
His future brother-in-law nodded, "It would have ended about ten minutes ago."
"You don't have any plans for tonight, right?" The metamorphmagus asked him.
A blonde brow rose up on the part-veela's face, "What would make you say that?"
"Because I know Cecilia's at a SPARKS meeting all night," Teddy explained, "So can you do me a favour?"
Louis shrugged. With Cecilia busy at work and then going directly to the SPARKS meeting, he really didn't have any plans for the evening besides joining Baxter in making a partially-pathetic dinner.
"Depends on what the favour is."
Teddy gestured with a flourish towards Ally, "The department has made sure that there are no dark spells or curses on the potion's book she wants to study, but we were unable to find someone to help translate it yet to ensure that the content isn't darker than just blood magic."
Ally's head snapped to Teddy and she narrowed her eyes at him, "Wait, did you call me in here to tell me that the textbook hasn't been cleared enough for me to read?"
"You can read it as long as someone within the Auror Department signs off on a responsible translator. If Louis would agree to translate for you, I trust him to end things if he hits content that is too dark for you to know about," Teddy explained.
Ally's gaze turned to Louis as well, "I'm not above bribing you to help me."
Louis rolled his eyes, "Just agree to pay for the take-out we'll be having for dinner and that will be enough."
Ally smiled brightly and then immediately pounced on Teddy and informed him that she wanted the promised text-book ASAP.
Teddy sighed at her unhidden enthusiasm for researching a dark text, but he trusted Louis to be able to keep things under control, "You can't take that text off of Ministry property, so I'll find you a conference room to hole up in."
7:08 PM
"Look who's not late tonight!" Clark exclaimed happily as he held his knuckles out to fist bump his beater-partner from across the table.
Mark shook his head sadly, but knew that he needed to fist-bump his friend or Clark would spend the entirety of the night with his hand held up in the air.
Alejo Rodríguez snorted with amusement, "Today was like the first time you've ever been on time."
"I'm sorry if I end up having a nap after practice and before coming here and sometimes sleep through my alarm," Clark replied.
Katie, who had been at the other end of the table talking with Ginny Potter, Gwenog Jones, and Maksim Ignatiev, turned to glance at her team's outspoken beater.
"Cecilia already informed me that she was going to be a little late tonight. She's bringing a guest with her and needed to side-along-apparate her," Katie explained.
Mark, exhausted from a long day of quidditch practice, tiredly ran a hand through his hair, "Who's she bringing with her?"
Before Katie could reply, Cecilia –the last person of SPARKS' board that they were waiting for– finally entered the conference room with a stylishly dressed redhead close at her heels.
"Sorry that we're late everyone," Cecilia announced as she held the door open for her guest.
All of the board members waved off her concern and she continued, "I'm not sure if Mum mentioned it, but tonight I've invited Maura Monahan to join us."
Cecilia ended her statement by gesturing to the beautiful redhaired woman who smiled brightly at all of the professional quidditch players who were staring at her from the table.
"As I'm sure you're aware, Maura's an editor for Quidditch Weekly," Cecilia told the group needlessly as she gestured for Maura to take one of the two empty seats at the table. One was next to Clark while the other was next to Mark.
Maura chose the closest seat to her, which just so happened to be directly next to Clark. She gave him a nod of acknowledgement and then turned to listen to Cecilia who was explaining further her reasoning for inviting Maura to SPARKS' board meeting.
All of the retired professional quidditch players were well aware of who Maura was, and most importantly, who her father was. What Cecilia spent more time explaining was why she'd physically brought Maura with her. Apparently, Cecilia had been speaking to Grace Monahan during Brogan's party about Ally's suggestion that Quidditch Weekly may be kind enough to offer discounted advertising for some of their charity related endeavours, and while the two women had been speaking Maura had wandered over and joined their conversation.
Since Grace had no official affiliation with how her father's publications conducted their business, she had explained to Cecilia that with Maura being in England, she was the best person to talk with about the subject. Maura was intrigued by the charity project in general, and had asked Cecilia if she thought the board would mind her tagging along to their next meeting. Cecilia had ensured the redhead that the rest of the board would be happy to host her at their upcoming meeting that Wednesday.
"So, you were able to find a babysitter for Stella tonight then?" Katie asked Maura conversationally. She had been aware that Cecilia had invited the woman to their meeting, but had only known that Maura needed to find childcare before she could commit to attending.
Maura smiled at Katie, "It wasn't too difficult. Dad adores Stella, and she's equally attached to him. I'm going to be the worst person in the world in a month and a half when I have to separate the two of them and take her back to New York with me."
"I'm sure she'll get over it soon enough," Ginny told her in a reassuring tone.
Maura chuckled, "Oh, I'm not talking about Stella. Dad's going to be mad at me for breaking them apart. As happy as he is with what's getting done in the New York offices, I think he'd personally prefer if both Stella and I were living back home with him."
"There's nothing wrong with parents wanting their children to stay close to them," Katie piped up, trying and failing to hide the pout on her face.
Cecilia, who had chosen a seat next to her mother and knew her words very intentionally referred to the fact that she had moved out of the house three days ago, patted her mother's hand comfortingly.
"Nothing at all," Maura replied with another chuckle, "Only in this case, I think he's more concerned with keeping his granddaughter close to him."
She turned her gaze to Ginny, "He was so excited when he heard that I had decided to come back for Ted's wedding and that I was going to make an extended trip of it. The only problem now is that he's going to spend the next month trying to convince me to extend our stay in England through the next several months until after Xavier and Ally's wedding in August."
"And by that point he'd probably come up with another reason to convince you to stay longer?" Cecilia asked with a smirk.
"Undoubtably."
With pleasantries over, it was Gwenog's turn to chair the meeting, while it was Mark's to take down the minutes. Maura sat back quietly and listened to the different steps and processes of the meeting. Her expression was attentive the entire time, and she either had a lot of experience with board meetings (which she did), or she was very interested in what they were discussing, or both.
Once they had discussed how all of their paperwork had gone to the Ministry and had finally been embossed by the appropriate stamp, they moved on their loose preparations for what they had hoped would be their first big fundraising endeavour in September. When that was completed, Gwenog asked Clark and Mark for an update on their demographic research project.
As Mark was busy taking down the minutes, he nodded to Clark and gestured for him to give their report. Clark glanced sideways at Maura sitting next to him, who had turned to look at him and was giving him a look that said that he had her undivided attention. He realized that he should probably give her the background of their project before explaining the update so he took a deep breath and spent the next twenty minutes monologuing, ending with their updated report.
Throughout what had passed of their meeting, Maura had played the part of a silent observer. Upon Clark's finished recitation, she spoke up for the first time since the meeting had begun.
"How do you plan to expand this program to get greater demographic coverage?"
Mark, who was still busy writing down notes, gave Clark another look that said 'still your turn'.
Clark frowned a little. While the woman's words didn't sound accusatory in anyway, something about them irked him.
"If we can show how important the information we have gathered is, we're hopeful that the governing bodies will allow us to add it as an optional form to fill out during enrollment for next year's mini-league quidditch seasons," Clark explained.
Maura nodded, but instead of ending the conversation there, she asked another question, "And that will give you information about the children who do enroll for mini-league quidditch, but how do you plan to collect information on those who are interested in enrolling but are unable to?"
Clark pursed his lips.
It was a question they had asked themselves several times during this process, but they had yet to come up with a good answer. He didn't exactly want to admit that aloud though, even though he knew he should.
"That's the million-galleon question," He retorted.
In hindsight, he probably should have known that saying that to a woman whose father was worth much more than a million galleons, wasn't the best comparison he could have made.
Maura Monahan didn't even bat an eye at it.
"So, what you need is to find a way to reach children who like quidditch, but who cannot –for reasons of money or other resources– participate in the leagues as they are currently being run?"
It was a succinct summary, and if Malcolm Wood had been in the room, he would have sarcastically complimented his old housemate on her ability to both state the obvious and sound a smidge condescending at the same time.
"Which I'm sure even you can understand is a difficult task. It's not like we can go up to every child who stops to look into the window of the quidditch supply stores and ask them to fill-out the form," Clark retorted.
If he had placed any extra emphasis on the first 'you', neither Maura nor anyone else –save Mark who'd looked up from his notes to frown at his partner– had seemed to notice.
"A difficult task indeed, but not impossible if you do know where to look," Maura replied with a charming smile that was belied by a mischievously quirked eyebrow, "Are you familiar with Kid's Quidditch Monthly?"
Kid's Quidditch Monthly was a subsidiary of Quidditch Weekly's publishing house that had been created about seven years ago. It was essentially a version of Quidditch Weekly that was made for younger children and early teenagers. While there were still a lot of articles about quidditch and quidditch related content, there were a lot more pictures, more game and activity-based content, and the layout was more colourful and inviting. Considering that it was the first, and so far, only quidditch magazine written for children, it had a monopoly on that market and was extremely popular.
"Of course, we're aware of it," Clark replied.
Heck, he renewed Zach's subscription to it every year as one of his birthday gifts.
"Why not put a more child-friendly version of your questionnaire in that publication?" Maura asked.
Instead of replying with 'because we hadn't thought of it' Clark answered with a different, though still valid argument against it, "Even though subscriptions to the magazine are cheaper than enrollment for mini-league quidditch, an entire subscription can still be above the means of some of the demographics we hope to collect information on."
"Valid point," Maura offered with an authoritative tone that made it apparent that she had switched over to some sort of 'Editor in Chief' mode and was now a part of the project, "Which is why for this to work, copies of Kid's Quidditch Monthly are going to need to be given out free to those kids who do stop to stare through the windows of quidditch supply shops."
Clark raised an eyebrow in disbelief at the redhead's bold statement, "I understand that we didn't discuss our budget with you, but let me be clear now that that would not be in it."
Maura waved off his concerns, "Leave that part to me."
"What? Are you just going to go up to your dad and ask him to throw away tens of thousands of free copies of one of his magazines and sink the stock of its' specific publication?" Clark tried to say the words in a plain tone, but it came out more sarcastically incredulous than anything.
The younger woman crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a stern look that she usually reserved for her pre-schooler and Quidditch Weekly North America's board members, when they were being naughty.
"Of course not. I'm going to break out the original free-subscription proposal for Kid's Quidditch Monthly that I put together when I first pitched the entire concept to him eight years ago. I'll need to re-run the numbers, but it was soluble enough back then to start out as a free magazine, so it'll definitely be able to shift to that direction now that it's got its own stock value," Maura explained with a careless shrug as if she could see no other exertion being needed than just a sift through some old paperwork.
For the first time, Clark didn't have a retort ready. Instead, it finally allowed some of the other people at the table the chance to speak up on the subject.
"Eight years ago? You were still in your seventh-year at Hogwarts eight years ago," Katie commented.
Maura nodded, "Which is why the other members of the board didn't take the entirety of my proposal seriously. They liked the concept well enough, but they didn't believe my insistence that giving out the magazine for free would not only not run a deficit, but could actually increase our holdings. Mr. Brentwood was the worst, he contended that I had to have gone wrong somewhere in my calculations, despite the fact that I had both top Arithmancy students –Ted and Charlotte Cole– double-check my maths. Dad would have gone to bat for me but their buy-out of Spellman Publishing House was still in the works and I didn't want to create any more friction with the minority shareholders."
"However," Maure continued in a tone that was less bitter now that she was done talking about Mr. Brentwood, "Now that I have proved my worth by taking only three short years to make Quidditch Weekly North America our highest grossing subsidiary, second only to Quidditch Weekly itself, I think I'll be able to come through on the free copies of the magazine to any child who has even a passing fancy for quidditch."
"That would be amazing Ms. Monahan," Maksim Ignatiev told her on behalf of the rest of the board.
Maura smiled, "All I need is the questionnaire to be re-worked to be more kid friendly. Obviously, I'll need Legal to pop something in about children needing their guardian's permission to respond and that all information is anonymous and will be kept confidential, but I'll need the final draft of the questionnaire first."
At the end of her statement, she turned to look at Clark again, as he was running point on the project.
Clark nodded, "Mark and I can take a look at it tomorrow and re-write it to work. We don't have a game tomorrow night."
Mark stopped taking notes and quickly looked up at his beating partner, "Uh . . . actually, I'm busy tomorrow night."
Clark looked shocked, "Doing what?"
"A prior engagement."
Clark narrowed his gaze a little at the evasiveness of the answer, but chose to be professional and pivot. He turned to Cecilia, who was the other person that had been pivotal in developing the demographic questionnaire, as well as the only other professional writer on their board.
"You free to give me hand with this tomorrow?"
"Unfortunately, I'm covering a Harpies' home game tomorrow night."
"I could give you a hand with it tomorrow."
Clark glanced at the redheaded woman sitting next to him in surprise.
Before he could say anything, she replied to the expression that had crossed his face.
"I am up to this task. I did start out as a writer for Kid's Quidditch Monthly," Maura told him with an impish smirk.
Instead of arguing that that wasn't what his look had meant to imply, he sighed, "You really don't need to waste your time-"
"It wouldn't be a waste. If you bring your original questionnaire with you, we should be able to get most of the work through."
Clark sighed again but didn't say anything else. Katie and Ginny took over and thanked Maura profusely for her advice and the offer of her time and expertise, and then they moved onto the next topic on their agenda.
7:32 PM
"Where are you at with that next translation Louis?" Ally asked her cousin as she made notes on a page that held the last potion's translated instructions that he had completed for her.
The part-veela groaned and rubbed his eyes, "Ally, we've been at this for over two hours already."
"I fed you," Was Ally's somewhat terse reply.
Louis rolled his eyes and went back to looking at the centuries old potions textbook that Teddy had cleared for them to look through, "What are you even looking for in this? You didn't even know it existed until Sunday."
"Potions that use magical creature blood are often very powerful and effective because some of that creature's magic is endowed through it. Potions that use human and humanoid blood are likely just as powerful, but they're also exceedingly rare-"
"For good reason."
Ally, who had been sitting across the desk from Louis, turned in her chair and glanced at the third occupant of the room.
"Are you of all people really going to lecture me on the morality of blood magic?"
Victoire Weasley rolled her eyes at her cousin, "All blood magic and blood for potions ingredients require the blood to be taken from a creature that is alive at the time of exsanguination."
"Which can be done properly and humanely by-"
"People who have good intentions," Victoire finished what she knew would be the end of her cousin's statement. Then she gave Ally another eyeroll, "While people who have bad intentions will just tie you to an ancient stone table, slice your arms open, and let you slowly bleed to death because they think it will help conjure up the spirit of some long dead sun goddess."
Her tone of voice turned distinctly resentful at the end, but neither her cousin nor her brother dared to cut-off her rant.
Ally waited until Victoire was done reliving the past and then said, "Nonetheless, studying what people used to do with the blood of humans and humanoids in the past may help us create new concepts in the future. I'm not suggesting that we bring back any of these potions. But what I am saying is that if blood was an important aspect of one of these that works better than anything we have now . . . maybe we can come up with a synthetic that will do the same job. But we'll never know unless we at least look at what it may have been used for. Everything that even mentions blood magic is under lock and key right now, and it's almost impossible to get clearance to just read the potions instructions, it's not like I'm even suggesting we re-create them."
"It can't be that difficult if you're getting the opportunity to look through it right now," Victoire pointed out as she glanced back down at her own paperwork that she had been keeping busy with while Louis and Ally went through their translations.
Ally scoffed, "The only reason I have access to this right now is because my uncles work in the Auror Department and myself and my extended family can pass extensive background checks without any problems. The only reason I have someone who is able to have clearance to translate it for me is because of Louis, for the same reasons. Heck, I'm only allowed to look at this book in a facility that is cleared for accessing books about Dark Arts."
Originally, Ally and Louis had been looking through the old tome at the Auror Department, but soon after Uncle Harry had to kick them out because they needed the conference room. When Ally complained that she needed more time looking at the book, and that she couldn't wait until the next time she and Louis would both be free, her uncle told her that there were only two places in Britan that she could look at book about Dark Arts (which was what the text was classified as), and that was the Auror Department or the Restricted Section at Hogwarts.
Ally had immediately argued that there had to be some leeway to that statement as Dark Arts Reversal healers must have been allowed to look at books about dark arts for research purposes at their hospitals. Harry had sighed heavily at that point and acknowledged that yes, Dark Arts Reversal healers were allowed to research those types of books, but only within the walls of the D. A. R. wards at their affiliated hospitals. He had barely finished his explanation before Ally had grabbed both the tome and Louis's arm and dragged him towards the Ministry lifts. They took the Ministry floo to St. Mungo's and Ally promptly commandeered Victoire's office –the Dark Arts Reversal healer in question still in the room– with Louis slowly walking in behind her, the ancient French book enclosed in his hands.
As Victoire was working until midnight that night, she didn't mind the company that her brother and cousin offered, so besides putting up a small fuss at the beginning of the evening just for show, the three had been working in harmony in her small office space. Victoire had kindly given up her desk for Louis and Ally to work at, while she made herself comfortable on the small couch in the room and tried to finish off the last of her reports for the day.
While Louis and Ally continued to translate forbidden potions and try to find something even the slightest bit redeeming in them, Victoire effectively tuned them out and dotted the 'i' on her last report. She had just figured that she might have the time to work on her own research project, meaning looking through Florimond Lestrange's journals, when there was a knock on her closed office door followed by Healer Cassidy Hopewell popping her head into the room.
"Victoire the Emergency Ward sent up a memo asking for you-" Her words paused as she took in the scene of Louis and Ally bent over a really old book at Victoire's desk, while said healer was laid out on the couch.
Cassidy raised an eyebrow up at her colleague, "Do I want to know what's going on in here?"
Victoire replied, "Nothing." At the same time that Ally said "Researching blood magic."
Cassidy shook her head at the other blonde healer, "Your family has weird hobbies."
"You don't know the half of it," Louis muttered, not even looking up from his translation.
Victoire got up from the couch and slipped her green healing robes back on over the dress trousers and red blouse she was wearing. She walked over to the door, closing her brother and cousin into the office behind her, and following her colleague down the corridor.
"Emergency Ward you said?"
Cassidy nodded and repeated the message they'd gotten from the other ward. Apparently, a patient had been checked-in who had visited the Emergency Ward less than a month ago. Victoire had been the attending healer on the case, so the healer who had ended up with the patient just wanted to double-check with Victoire what had been written in her chart previously.
Victoire saw so many patients that the description that was written into the memo wasn't exactly enough to remind her of who they were referring to. She racked her brains for a reminder of the case as she travelled down to the Emergency Ward, but she still hadn't remembered it until after she was directed to the ninth bay and found the attending healer, Healer Patel, speaking with Healer Sarah MacGregor.
"What's the case?" Victoire asked Healer Patel after giving both her and Sarah a 'hello' nod.
"Thirty-one-year-old female admitted with mostly superficial facial lacerations after a fall into a table that resulted with cuts from a broken glass lamp," Healer Patel summarized.
Victoire didn't wait for more of an explanation before asking, "Why do you need a D. A. R. ward healer?"
"Both you and Healer MacGregor attended to her the last time she was admitted," Healer Patel explained as she read from a chart that had the patient's history, "Apparently, she had a head injury that Healer MacGregor looked at, and she contacted you because she was concerned that there may have been some domestic abuse via imperious-coercion. Neither of you could verify nor rule out the option, so there was a note made in her file to check for domestic abuse upon any further admissions."
Healer Patel looked up from her notes, "Her partner accompanied her on this trip as well, and if he was even half as charming during her first admission as he was this time, then I'm not surprised you made the note."
Victoire remembered the case now.
Young woman with a concussion and head laceration that she said stemmed from having a heavy glass piece of crockery land on her head. Sarah had initially contacted Victoire because she was worried about that the enduring cortisol levels in the patient's blood labs were suspicious and could have been indicative of either long-term unforgivable curse exposure, or heavy levels of long-term abuse.
"Super elevated cortisol levels in her labs again?" Victoire asked as she held a hand out to Healer Patel.
The other healer handed over the file, "Yes, along with several markers that indicate short-term malnutrition."
Victoire pursed her lips as she looked at the labs in surprise, "Really?"
"Yes. Patient claimed to feel light headed and then assumed she must have fainted. When pressed with these results she said that she had been working double shifts lately and must have just forgotten to eat because she was so busy today," Healer Patel explained.
"I don't remember there being any markers for malnutrition in her last set of labs," Victoire stated as she went back through the file to double-check said labs.
Sarah nodded her head, "There weren't, I checked just before you arrived. She was perfectly healthy except for what was related to her extreme stress levels."
"For what it's worth," Healer Patel told them, "I'm inclined to believe her story about not eating, feeling faint, and then passing out and hitting the table from her low blood sugar. It's her excuse for not eating that I'm not quite buying."
"Any other marks or partially healed bruises or lacerations on her body?" Victoire asked.
"Not anywhere that's visible. She denied a full body exam as it is just her face that she injured. I was able to get a look at her arms and everything below her knees as I cited concern for those areas from the fall, but they were clear."
Sarah sighed, "That's not surprising. She didn't have any other marks on her besides the head injury the last time she was admitted."
"But her cortisol levels are still extremely elevated and her partner still comes off as unrealistically controlling?" Victoire asked.
Healer Patel nodded, "The partner's tried to answer every question for her, and her cortisol levels are more indicative of someone whose been through prolonged torture than a thirty-year-old civilian."
"Can you distract the partner while Sarah and I check in on her for a few moments? Maybe a familiar face will make her feel comfortable enough to tell us how she's really doing."
"It's worth a shot."
Healer Patel expertly distracted the woman's partner with some paperwork, while Victoire and Sarah snuck into the healing bay and behind the closed curtain. Despite having a concussion the first time they met, the woman seemed to clearly remember both healers. They told her that they had been contacted by Healer Patel as they had seen her the last time she was admitted, and that they wanted to know how she was doing.
Even without her partner in the room she recited word-for-word the exact same story she had told Healer Patel about how she had fainted and received the facial lacerations, and Victoire and Sarah shared a look at her perfect rote recitation of the events. It sounded rehearsed.
Victoire conversationally asked the woman how she was doing in general, and despite a normal-sounding complaint about her work at a shop in Bromley, she didn't give away any other information that might even hint as to there being a good reason for her heightened levels of cortisol. When Victoire and Sarah told her that they were still not happy with those levels in her labs like during her last visit, the woman seemed as though she was stumped and couldn't offer any explanation as for why her labs would indicate that. Victoire and Sarah let it go, realizing that the woman really didn't understand the severity of the results they were discussing with her, and then said goodbye to her and left before her partner came back.
They waited on the other side of the ward for Healer Patel to find them again.
"Anything?"
"Nothing actionable. You?"
"Partner's controlling, but he could just be a very distraught boyfriend who just so happens to be an unpleasant person. And unfortunately, that's not illegal."
Sarah sighed sadly while Victoire pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation, "I'll have to re-read those studies connecting cortisol levels to extended exposure to unforgivables. Maybe there's something I'm forgetting to look for that may help us differentiate."
"Even if it's not unforgivables and it's not domestic abuse, I'm still worried about those levels. If they don't go down it could lead to other health problems," Healer Patel told them.
The other two healers nodded. They had thought the same thing the first time they had met the woman, but since it was a one-off admission, they couldn't prove that her heightened levels were a pattern. Even two trips weren't enough to quantify a real medical problem, not when it was still within such a short timeframe.
"I guess we'll just need to put her on the frequent flier list and make sure her name is flagged so that any other admissions will make sure to check her cortisol levels so that we can track them," Sarah said.
Healer Patel nodded, she had thought the same thing and was already writing down a note in the woman's medical history file.
A/N: Sorry again about the late update. Life's just crazy, and my FFN account hasn't been working properly. Not only am I not getting updates, but I've tried to come on here before and the desktop site wouldn't load for me. It's working now though, so I'm going to upload it.
I know this chapter isn't as exciting as others, but it does lay some important groundwork and give us more information about others.
Please let me know what you thought of this chapter.
Thanks again to everyone for following, favouriting, reading, and especially reviewing!
Big thank you as always to: