The twenty minutes dripped away quickly like fine sand in an egg-timer.
Somewhat reluctantly Doyle brought Sirius out of the interrogation room, one guiding hand on the prisoner's elbow.
"Do we need to cuff him?" said Doyle to Bodie.
"I don't know," said Bodie, looking at Sirius, questioningly. "Do we?"
"I'll be good, promise," smiled Sirius.
It happened in a split second. As Doyle started to move forward Sirius pulled his wand from his inside pocket at a speed to rival any gunslinger and pointed it directly at Bodie, who responded by drawing his gun from his shoulder holster and aiming it with an unwavering hand.
Doyle and Annie both froze. Jack, unseen, moved in front of Annie to protect her from whatever was about to happen.
Sirius and Bodie stared at each other, unblinking. The hands on the office clock ticked, suddenly so loud they almost seemed deafening.
"I could fry you, Copper," hissed Sirius. "You and your curly haired mate, here. Before either of you could blink."
"And how far would that get you?" replied Bodie, cool and calm in the face of the enemy.
"Far enough."
"I don't think so. You'd be dead before you could get out of the building."
"And so would you."
"So maybe it's my turn to die," Bodie sounded philosophical, calm. "But even if it is, there's Doyle to worry about. Exactly how many of us are you prepared to kill?"
Sirius' grip on the wand wavered slightly as he considered the impact of Bodie's words.
"Expelliarmus!" As Annie cast the spell Sirius' wand flew out of his hand and sailed over his head to land, tidily, in a nearby waste paper bin.
"Annie!" Sirius screamed her name in despair and Doyle grabbed his hands and pulled them behind his back, snapping metal handcuffs around his wrists.
"Stop! Please, Sirius, stop," the girl begged, tears starting to fall down her face. "Listen to me. You're innocent, you and I know that. But if you kill Bodie they'll put you away for good." She stepped towards him and reached out to stroke his hair, tenderly. "You're innocent," she repeated, in a whisper. "We'll get you out of this, I promise. It'll be okay."
"I don't like this, Ray," muttered Bodie, his expression dark and thoughtful.
"We've got our orders," said Doyle, although he too looked unconvinced.
Behind them, unseen by everyone as they left the room to walk down to the car park, a window pane froze over as Jack Frost touched it, using the crisp whiteness to write with his finger..."Not Guilty."
Standing by the roadside to watch as the Ministry of Magic took over the custody of Sirius Black reduced Annie to tears again, and she wasn't the only one.
Jack sat on the kerbside, watching as Sirius was locked away in the back of the transport vehicle, unable to prevent the tears from sliding down his face. He had failed to stop the wrong man being arrested, and the only reason he had been unable to help is because Bodie and Doyle didn't believe in him. He'd tried and tried but hadn't been able to break through the lack of belief these two grown men had. True, Bodie had seen the Tooth Fairy when she appeared but that was obviously where his childhood memories stopped.
Sniffing, he listened as the two CI5 agents spoke to each other from where they were watching, just a few feet away.
"There's something not right here, Ray," said Bodie.
"I know."
"I mean, those headaches. How come you found out about Sirius when you got them?"
Doyle shrugged. "Someone's setting us up."
"Exactly."
"But we saw what he did to that Pettigrew bloke."
"Did we?" asked Bodie. "I don't know what we saw anymore. And Annie was so sure he was innocent."
"All I know is we can't prove it."
"And that's not good enough, not for us," said Bodie. Looking across at Annie he realised she was still sobbing and he walked over to her. "I'm sorry," he said, taking a handkerchief out of his pocket and offering it to her.
Annie took it from him and blew her nose, dabbing at her wet eyes. "Thank you."
"If there was any way we could have done more..."
"I know," she sniffed. "It's not your fault."
The engine of the van started up and it slowly pulled away down the street. Unable to look anymore Annie turned towards Bodie and buried her face in his chest, relieved and somewhat comforted to feel his arms closing around her shoulders.
In the background a turquoise coloured fairy sat on the kerb beside Jack and enveloped him in a glittery winged hug.
Sirius Black was gone.