MiB Chapter 18


Thursday evening, June 19, 1986

Smithson's Magic Emporium, Knockturn Alley

The door made a jingle as a customer walked into the shop. Cassandra was currently kneeling behind the counter and called out, "I'm sorry, we're closed right now!"

She did not hear a response and stood up to look at who walked in, and her jaw dropped at the sight of the man in front of her.

"Father," she nearly gasped, "what brings you here?"

Corbin Yaxley was a man who barely showed any emotion and he certainly did not show any to his daughter who had been banished from his family.

"I needed to make sure we were of the proper understanding about things, you and I, so I thought I would stop by here and check on you," came his nearly monotone response.

Cassandra stiffened at his words. "I was not aware that anything had changed between us, father."

Corbin lifted his left hand in the air and waved it around as he continued to talk. "I think you must misunderstand me. Overall, our relationship has not changed. I was just hoping that I could convince you that you needed a change of heart, a change of mindset."

As he was sure he had distracted her with his words and with his left hand movements, he then quickly snapped out his wand into his left hand and stated, "Imperio!"

A sudden and uneasy calm overtook Cassandra. "Now, you will listen carefully to what I have to say. You will follow my instructions the next time you see your boyfriend," he sneered that last word before continuing, "the next time you see him here in this store you will attack him, completely by surprise, without warning. You will not attempt to let him know of this plan, and you will definitely not tell anyone what has happened or why you are attacking him. You are a Yaxley, and he opposes everything our family stands for."

As soon as he finished casting the spell, he disapparated away so no one would see him leaving the store.


MiB


Friday, June 20, 1986

Just after twelve noon, Dru made his way to Diagon Alley. He looked into a couple of shops quickly before making his way to Smithson's Magic Emporium at the start of Knockturn Alley. He walked into the shop and have Cassandra a big grin.

Cassandra looked up from behind the counter and gazed at the man who had just entered her store.

"You!" she shouted at him as she quickly drew her wand and aimed it him.

Cassandra cast an over powered blasting hex towards the man she had been dating. However, Dru's responses were consistent with his years of training in duelling and years of magical fighting and work as an auror. He reflexively deflected the curse and then put up a shield to protect him from anything else she might do to attack him.

As he deflected the curse, the overpowered blasting hex that was redirected hit a main support of the old building which caused the building to partially collapse on the two of them, with more of the debris landing on Cassandra then on Dru. The magical shield which he had cast held up under some of the debris but it was only a matter of seconds before the shield charm gave out.

Knockturn Alley quickly became a scene of massive confusion as they had never experienced an event like this as those who were walking down the notorious street had never seen a building just suddenly collapse upon itself like this had. Someone had the sense to send a message to the DMLE and within minutes several Aurors arrived on the scene.

Amelia Bones, the DMLE director showed up at site of the collapsed building and started giving orders to people to help clear the debris. Dru was quickly found and was still barely conscious. As Amelia directed an Auror to apparate him directly to Saint Mungo's, Dru was able to call out to whomever could hear.

"Cassandra! She's also under this mess!" He was too startled to think about why she had cast the spell at him and at this point he was only concerned for her safety.

Dru tried to protest and insist that they let him stay until Cassandra was discovered, but Director Bones wouldn't allow the Aurors to wait and insisted that he be taken to the magical hospital immediately.

"He needs an emergent medical evaluation," she snapped at one of the Aurors. She then turned to the other Aurors. "You heard him, there is still at least one more person under there!"

The Aurors were able to quickly remove more debris and found the unconscious form of Cassandra Yaxley and she too was taken immediately to Saint Mungo's.

Amelia then cast a quick spell to see if there were any other bodies left under the debris, but there were none to be found. She then gave further commands to the Aurors who were present. "Search the area for any signs of magic, and figure out what happened. I will head to Saint Mungo's and continue the investigation by speaking with the two who were recovered. Kingsley," she called out to Shacklebolt. "You stay here and lead this part of the investigation. Rufus, you're coming with me to Saint Mungo's."

Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour arrived at Saint Mungo's momentarily after she gave her orders. Upon entering the main lobby, one of the women at the main desk immediately recognised them and sent them towards the intake or emergency ward. The two made their way towards the rooms where the two victims of the collapsed building were being seen when one of the Medi-witches stepped into the hall. Upon seeing the Aurors, she immediately blocked their path.

"I know you are here to speak with those two but our staff is working with them both and I can't allow either one of you to interrupt their care. As soon as they are stable and can speak with either one of you, I will have one of the staff members fetch you to bring you back," said the woman.

Amelia nodded, "Thank you, healer Davis, we would appreciate being able to speak with either one of them as soon as possible. I do believe the two people you have are Hydrae Black and Cassandra Yaxley. Do you know if anyone has contacted their family yet?"

Healer Davis nodded. "Yes, a message was sent to Lord Black, but apparently it had to be routed through Gringotts. Not sure how long that will take. A message was being sent to the Yaxley family, although they have apparently distanced themselves from the young woman."

Amelia again thanked Healer Davis and she then led Scrimgeour towards the waiting area that she was sadly all too familiar with after the many battles of the previous war.

Rufus started to grumble about being made to wait, but Amelia Bones cut him off. "They are simply doing their job, and the sooner they do that, the sooner we can actually speak with the two parties who were injured."

About twenty minutes later Healer Davis entered the waiting area. "Mister Black is awake and alert and you can speak with him now. We are still waiting on his grandfather to respond. He may arrive at any moment."

Amelia stood up and thanked the healer. "Do you have any more information on Miss Yaxley?"

Healer Davis took a deep breath. "Her injuries were more severe. She is still not awake, and the staff continues to work on healing her many injuries. She may not be able to wake up before tomorrow."

"Can we see Mister Black at this time then?" Amelia asked, just to be sure that the healer would allow them to question him.

"That should be fine," said Davis. "I can take you to him now."


18.2


Two healers were busily working over the motionless body of the young woman who had been brought to them emergently from Knockturn Alley.

"Cast that diagnostic charm again," said the first healer.

As her colleague began to cast the spell, they heard the door open behind them. There was a quick flash and the two healers dropped to the ground. An older man limped into the room, assisted by his cane.

"This won't do, no it won't do at all," said the man. "Obliviate!" he called out as he cast a spell at the unconscious woman.

He sneered as he looked at her. "You failed in the mission your father assigned to you. And you might just survive the night. But you will suffer for your actions or lack thereof," he sneered, even though no one could hear him.

He cast a spell at the woman's lower abdomen, and he cackled softly to himself. "No need for your father to worry about your ever bringing any sort of vermin into this world and further disgracing the family name more than you already have done yourself."

He then looked at the two healers on the floor. He cast spells on them to levitate their bodies and placed them in seats in the room. He then cast quick spells to obliviate the two of them about what had happened, and then he cast the imperius curse on them, telling them that they decided to take a break as they had found nothing unexpected when they evaluated their patient and they just wanted to rest as the patient was still going to sleep for the rest of the day.

A moment later, the man made his way down a back corridor and disappeared from the magical hospital building.


18.3


As Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour started to follow Healer Davis, Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived at the magical hospital to give the director an update on his investigation. The two paused on their trip to see the two injured individuals to listen to his report.

Shacklebolt began to explain that the building had apparently been magically jinxed to collapse in the event of certain types of spells being cast within it. "There was significant magical residue on parts of the building that weakened the structural supports of the building. It is clear that someone was planning for this to occur."

Amelia frowned. "Any information on who may have jinxed the building to collapse?"

Shacklebolt shook his head. "No, we were not able to determine any specific magical signatures. But there was evidence of someone having cast a blasting hex, and there was also evidence of a shield spell having been cast. We would need to examine the wands of these two injured parties to see if that gives us any more information."

Bones nodded, "Understood, but first we need to check on how they are doing. I don't think either one of these two is about to use their wands anytime soon. And apparently Mister Black is awake enough now that we may go speak with him finally."

Scrimgeour added, "Their wands were found in the rubble. We could check them both for spells now, or if you prefer we can wait on that until they are both awake."

Kingsley continued with his report. "The ministry has workers trying to continue to clean up the damage to the building. Several Aurors are still on site to continue to check for any further magical signatures or evidence of other curses. And they are also checking to make sure that none of the other buildings have been jinxed." He paused for a moment before he continued, "Whatever happened between Yaxley and Black, it seems that someone was hoping that the building collapsing on the two of them would have killed them."

Amelia sighed slightly. "Thank you, Kingsley. I presume that there is no indication about who may have cast those spells? You did mention that you haven't found any magical signatures."

Kingsley shook his head slightly, "No, there was no magical signatures on any of the debris. At least none that we could find, so far, director."

Amelia took a deep breath. "Very well, Kingsley. Perhaps young Mister Black can shed some light on all of this for us, we were just about to make our way to speak with him."


18.4


Amelia Bones and Rufus Scrimgeour were escorted into Hydrae Black's room in Saint Mungo's.

Dru was reclining on the bed when he noticed the two leaders of the DMLE enter his room, and he quickly put up some occlumency shields before they made it any further into his room.

"Good afternoon, Mister Black," greeted Amelia Bones. "We hope that you are recovering well from your most unfortunate injuries, but, as you may well have surmised, we do have many questions for you at this time."

Dru nodded in understanding.

Scrimgeour then spoke up next. "May we examine your wand?" It came across more as a demand than a question.

Dru shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you could. However, it is not in my possession at this time, on account of everything that happened. I presume that you have found it in the rubble from the building."

Amelia gave Rufus a slight glare before putting her hand out, and the Assistant Head of the DMLE removed the afore mentioned wand from within his robes and then handed it to his boss.

Amelia then cast some spells on the wand and then gently handed the wand back to its rightful owner.

"I detect that the last spell cast from this wand was a shield charm," observed Amelia. "I presume you cast that to protect the two of you from the building as it collapsed on top of you both."

Dru nodded silently in response.

Amelia gave a quick nod of acknowledgement of his reply. "So, who sent the blasting hex that we have also detected among the magic in the area? Was that Miss Yaxley? Was there anyone else present in the store?"

Dru inhaled deeply before he responded. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and then he looked up and spoke with her.

"No, there was no one else there, at least as far as I know we were alone," began Dru. "Someone might have been out back, but if they were, I wouldn't know who it was or why they would have been there. Cassandra was usually alone in the store at the time of day that I arrived."

"Any idea why Miss Yaxley would have tried to curse you with the blasting hex?" demanded Scrimgeour.

Dru narrowed his eyes at the man whose rudeness he was not about to tolerate.

"Settle down, Rufus," admonished his boss.

Dru raised an eyebrow at Amelia Bones and then turned slightly to face her assistant. "No, I do not know why she cast that spell. She may have been confused about who was entering the store, possibly under a confundus charm, or she may have been imperiused. Hell, she may have been thinking she was defending herself from someone who might have entered earlier." He took a deep breath before turning to face Bones again. "I would very much like to see her as soon as possible."

Dru and the two DMLE representatives with him in his room became aware of a sudden commotion in the hallway. Amelia turned to her assistant, "Find out what is going on out there," she commanded Scrimgeour.

Rufus immediately entered the hallway to see a couple of Medi-witches heading to another room where several people were standing in the hallway. Two healers who appeared dazed were then escorted out of the room and down the hall to another examination area. Rufus made his way down the hall to investigate just what was going on, and turned to step in the room to see that the patient there was Cassandra Yaxley who was crying out in pain.

Before he could say anything, Healer Davis, who was examining Miss Yaxley looked up and ordered Scrimgeour and any unnecessary people to leave the room immediately.

Rufus stood his ground at the entrance of the room. "What happened to her? I though you said she was stable."

Healer Davis was still casting diagnostic charms on the moaning patient and then looked up at Scrimgeour. "Somehow, someone made their way into this emergency ward, attacked the healers who were working with her, and left them obliviated about what happened. And they did something else to this poor young lady."

Rufus was pushed aside by Hydrae Black who had made his way down the hall. He stepped up to the side of the bed and placed a hand on her head. He held it their silently and then he looked up at Healer Davis. "It seems that at least two people have attacked her mind in the past day, one of them quite recently."

Healer Davis raised an eyebrow. "That much I had already determined. And they attacked her body with some strange curse that I cannot identify."

Dru snapped his wand into his hand and he silently waved it over Cassandra's abdomen. He stiffened suddenly in response to what he detected.

"You recognise what was done to her?" questioned the Medi-witch.

Dru put his hand up to his face and silently nodded 'yes' with a tear forming in the corner of his eye. "It is a type of family magic that I have encountered once before, cast on a friend of mine a number of years ago."

Healer Davis paled slightly. "I presume from what you are not saying that there is nothing more we can do for her about this particular injury."

Dru silently shook his head "no" as he leaned over and hugged the woman who was still moaning in pain. He then turned back to Healer Davis. "A calming a draught and a healing draught will help the pain but it will not undo the effects of the curse."

Several minutes later, after being given the two potions, Cassandra Yaxley was no longer moaning in pain and she was still being cradled in the arms of Dru.

Out in the hall, Amelia Bones was discussing the events with Healer Davis.

"What do you know for sure happened to her?" asked the head of the DMLE.

Healer Davis took a deep breath before she answered. "She was imperiused by someone to attack Mister Black. Then after she arrived here, she was apparently attacked again. We cannot determine who did either of these attacks or if it was the same individual. She clearly did not attack Mister Black on her own decision. And whomever attacked her while she was here, did some further internal damage which we cannot heal."

Before Amelia could ask for any more information, Healer Davis added, "And that is all I can or will tell you. Let those two alone for now and let them recover. And then, help us figure out how someone snuck in here and attacked a patient we were actively working on!"

In the room, Dru was holding Cassandra and brushed some hair out of her face. "What was done to you will not go unpunished, that much I can assure you."

Cassandra smiled weakly as tears welled up in her eyes.


AN:

Not quite a cliff hanger, but I did want to get another chapter (even if it is short) posted.