Chapter 22

"Eva!" I glanced to find a flushed faced Claire jogging to me as I stepped out of the floo, "I don't know what happened! It's been contained but-"

"Contained? What are you going on about?" I question, my stomach lurching as I watched Claire frantically trying to get the words out.

Nearing my door, I see a flurry of activity. Other investment workers huddling near my door with concern and curiosity in their faces, a group rushed past me and in the flutter I noticed they're wearing Aurors' robes. Oh god!

"Claire." I state firmly stopping us, "What happened?"

She let out a moan, "I didn't think anything of it. I- I know I should have but, with all the paperwork between the Desmarais account and the Malfoy Company- I thought-"

"You thought what?!" I urged trying to make sense of what I was about to walk into.

"I-"

"Eva!" Turning to my right I found a furious Harry jogging straight towards me. What the hell was going on!?

"Do you realize how much danger you've put yourself in!" Harry yelled. We had moved into a conference room so no one could ease drop on our conversation.

"Danger?" I begin, "I don't even know what the hell is going on and why you're here!"

"Your whole office is contaminated! If this wasn't Gringotts the whole floor would be a mess!" Harry exclaimed, arms waving in his frustration.

"What do you mean contaminated?"

"From what we can gather from the secretary is, a package arrived here by owl. Dropped a note in her lap requesting for the package to be promptly put in your office and that it was a time sensitive matter." Harry began running a hand through his hair, "Which she promptly did - thank god."

"Package?" I remark, confused.

He rolled his eyes at my interruption, "Yes package. She assumed since you were just in two hours ago that you would be looking for it. Roughly 10 minutes after it was placed in your office, the account from the witnesses is that a large explosion went off in your office. Setting off the security alarms Gringotts has in place, which of course promptly notifies the Aurors Department."

What the hell?! Package? Mother of- of course my gut told me this had everything to do what we've been digging into. The question was, did Harry know?

"Your whole office has been contaminated. We're still investigating but it seems that the package or whatever was in the packages was incased in a countdown charm which would release the lock at 0 and ultimately some sort of variation of the Expulso Curse was emitted. It could have severely damaged you, had you been sitting with the package."

Harry continued on, all the while trying to detect my facial expression on how I was responding to the news, "Do you have any idea who sent this and why they would send this to you? On your desk where the package laid is scorched with the words BACK OFF."

"I-"

"Eva." Harry warned, "If somethings happened and you've been threatened you need to tell me."

"I don't think here is the right place to talk about this. Can we go elsewhere, and I'll try my best to tell you, but I won't be talking to you alone." I remarked warily. Already dreading having to tell Draco and how Harry is going to take all of this; especially the part where we didn't contact him for help. Since I can only assume that this attack is based purely on our investigation into the money laundering.

Harry glared for a moment, "Fine but I want an explanation."

"Come on. We'll go to the office I have at the Malfoy Company." I remarked earning a deeper scowl.

"I don't like how this is sounding." Harry noted sternly, "However, I am trusting you to give me the truth."

"I know Harry. I know." I remarked, my voice straining with the stress that was building up. Still in shock on everything he just told me and the reality that this was very serious. This Beatrice Wolf or whoever else was involved were not about to let us interfere and did not appreciate us nosing into it. I could only hope that the others won't have a similar tale of a package arriving at their office.