Part Two, Chapter Seventeen

Martijn was the first to reach Gwen once he'd noticed her throwing up outside the door. The others had turned to look, but Martijn had been moving in an instant, reaching her in a matter of seconds. He placed a comforting hand on her back and began to guide her back towards the stairs. "Come on," he said softly, "I think it's best we get you out of here."

Gwen wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and took a few deep breaths to try and calm herself down. In the dim light Martijn could see the tears glistening on her cheeks. "Was…was that the Robinsons?" she said shakily.

"It's hard to be sure." Martijn tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible.

"But it was somebody wasn't it?" Her voice was filled with horror and disgust.

"Yes, it was somebody."

She choked back a sob.

Martijn kept his arm around her as they ascended the stairs, and only once they'd reached the top did he turn to glance back at the aurors still at the bottom. "What are we doing about Hanson, Ella?" he called back down.

Gwen heard the woman's voice answer. "We'll have to take him back to the Ministry for questioning, although I think a high dose of sedative potion might be in order. And the girl's going to have to give a statement."

Gwen looked at Martijn. "Me?"

He didn't have chance to respond before the blonde woman appeared through the trap door leading to the basement and spoke for him. "You saw the snake, didn't you?"

Gwen nodded.

"We'll need a statement then."

Martijn sighed. "Looks like you'll have to come back to the Ministry with us."

Gwen tried to compose herself. "Uh, yeah, that's fine," she said quietly.

Martijn looked at her and frowned, as if realising something. "Sorry, I don't believe I ever asked what your name was."

"Oh…" Gwen had forgotten he didn't know her. "It's Gwen. Gwen Coulthard."

"Ah, really?" He looked slightly surprised but at the same time quite pleased. "You're not Sander's banker, by any chance?"

She nodded. "Yeah, that's me." She was beginning to calm down now. Martijn had that way, like Sander, of putting her at ease.

"Well, looks like we got to meet sooner than expected." He was giving her one of those warm, friendly smiles that was so like his brother's.

She smiled back. "No offense, but if it meant avoiding this I think I could have waited until Thursday."

Martijn laughed at that. "Understandable. Although I'm pretty sure this was a much more exciting way for us to meet than in some stuffy old office at the bank."

She gave him a mock-offended look. "Don't knock my office until you've seen it. It's really not that bad."

He continued to grin at her. "No, perhaps not. It's situated in very convenient place near an ice cream parlour, I hear?"

"Um, yeah, actually. You can see it from the window."

"Well, remind me to buy Sander an ice cream after out meeting on Thursday. He'll be disappointed he missed all the action just now and I'll have to make it up to him."

She raised an eyebrow at him, a little surprised. "He'll be disappointed he didn't have to fight off a giant snake?"

He shrugged. "Well...maybe. He'll definitely pretend to be though if he thinks he can get a free ice cream out of me."

Gwen laughed. "He does like his ice cream, doesn't he?"

Martijn nodded. "He does indeed." He glanced behind him for a couple of seconds at the other aurors and then turned back to Gwen. "Sorry, do you mind just hanging on a moment while we sort this out?"

Gwen didn't mind. That brief conversation with him had definitely helped calm her down. Just like Sander, his natural charm and friendliness made her feel completely relaxed around him.

Martijn turned back to where Ella had been joined by Cris and another auror who were trying to get Hanson to co-operate by force-feeding him sedative potion from a vial, which he was stubbornly refusing to drink. He seemed to be half manic and half in shock, refusing to get up off the floor even though he'd been untied and was muttering gibberish to himself. Gwen watched as the other auror turned to Cris and muttered something quietly, "Parselingua."

"Sì, è probabilmente la ragione ha deciso di lavorare con i serpenti per vivere." Cris said in response.

The woman, who Gwen assumed was Ella, gave them an irritated look. "Could you two please remember we don't all speak Italian?"

Cris and the other auror glanced at her. "Sorry," Cris said, "Atalio and I just think it's interesting that he can speak parseltongue. You know, it's normally a skill you find predominante in Dark Wizards."

"Well, lets not jump to any conclusions before we've had chance to question him," Ella said before focussing again on Hanson, who had begun to make violent hissing noises as Atalio once again tried to force the vial into his mouth. Hanson wasn't having any of it, still crumpled on the floor even as the Italians tried to drag him to his feet. "Oh, for crying out loud," Ella suddenly snapped, "Petrificus totalus!" She pointed her wand at Hanson, who immediately went still as his arms snapped to his sides and he went stiff as a board, like a plank laying on the floor. He stayed completely rigid even as Atalio lifted him upright.

Gwen watched Martijn's expression, which was somewhere between an amused smile and a frown. "I'm not exactly sure that was within regulations," he said to Ella, even though he seemed to be trying hard not to show his amusement at the way Hanson now resembled a lifesize, three dimensional version of a cardboard cutout.

She shrugged, "If I didn't do something we'd be here all day. Anyhow, Frank and Petya are going to stay in the basement until we send down an investigative team, although I don't think they've got many investigators to spare at the moment. We'll see what they tell us when we get back. Depending on what we found out about the snake..." Ella said that looking at Gwen, "This may count as high priority." She then pointed her wand at Hanson's knees and Gwen watched as there seemed to be a bit of movement in them. "Ok, he can walk," she said, "Cris, poke him so he keeps moving, will you?"

"Con piacere,"said the Italian, and jabbed Hanson in the back with his wand so that he took a few steps forward.

Martijn glanced at Ella. "We're going to use this fireplace, I take it?" he asked, glancing at the shop fireplace that had been filled with odd bits of stock that had been knocked around in the fight.

"May as well," she responded, "While they've still got the apparition ban on the holding area we've not got much choice." She took a pouch out of her robes and then took a pinch of powder from inside it which she flung into the fireplace. The grate erupted with green fire. "Alright, Atalio, Cris, get him out of here please. They don't want you using the central department grate except in emergencies so you're going to have to go via the main entrance."

"Yes, boss," Atalio responded with just the slightest hint of an eye-roll, and Cris prodded Hanson forward into the fireplace. His compatriot joined him and spoke out in his thick Italian accent, "The Ministry of Magic," before the three men disappeared.

"Alright, you two next," Ella commanded, indicating Gwen and Martijn. Gwen got the impression that Ella must be the leader of this auror unit – she definitely had that bossy kind of attitude. She glanced over to Martijn, who smiled at her and guided her into the fireplace before speaking the name of their destination.

When they arrived at the other end they stepped out into the foyer of the Ministry of Magic Martijn leant in to whisper in her ear, "Sorry about Ella, she's a bit abrupt like that. Not the easiest person I've ever had to work with, but you get used to her."

Gwen jumped as she heard a voice behind her snap, "I heard that," and Ella stepped out of the fireplace before striding past her and Martijn to give more instructions to the Italians. Gwen and Martijn looked at each other, and then both smiled at the same time.

"Like I said, you get used to her," Martijn repeated.

Ella was instructing Atalio and Cris to use their lift priority, and Gwen turned to Martijn with a quizzical expression. "Isn't there way directly to the department?"

"There was," he explained, "But the problem is they've now got two dozen or so Death Eater suspects in holding cells around the fireplace, and they deemed it too much of an escape risk so they closed it off. We can still use it, but only via emergency protocol. This guy isn't really a high enough level threat to get us permission to open the central grate."

"He seemed like a pretty high level threat when I first met him."

"True, but it looks like he was probably cursed or possessed at that point. I think he's probably just harmlessly off his head now, but we'll see."

Gwen was about to ask "Cursed or possessed by who?" but she was distracted by the sound of someone calling her name.

"Gwen..."