'Savoury Avery'
Claudia was standing in the middle in her office, glaring at K.P. She was beyond furious with him. But she knew better than to yell, took a deep breath to compose herself and spoke, in a resolute tone. "We're going to search your office right now, and we aren't leaving until we have some idea where that thing is."
"Searching this building will do us no good," K.P. replied, then took a deep breath "It was stored at the other location."
"What other location?"
"It's one of the Division Twelve most guarded secrets. Not really appropriate for outsiders-"
"That changes today," Claudia hissed. "I have to handle this properly, or it will end the Department. Do you understand?"
"But-"
"There will be no more excuses!" The no-yelling policy was out of the window. "I can help you, but you need to be honest with me." She paused and frowned. "Actually honest with me, this time."
K.P. stood still for a long while. "Come with me," he finally whispered. Then, without another word, he marched out of Claudia's office and towards the Department of Mysteries' atrium. The door that led to Division Twelve looked just like any other door. Claudia held her breath, expecting to see something extraordinary when they entered, but instead there was just another door, and then another.
All in all, there were twelve different doors to get into Division Twelve, each with its own password or enchantment, each smaller than the next. But finally, they made it.
The infamous Division Twelve right in front of Claudia's eyes. It was nothing like what she expected. She had to blink a few times for her eyes to adjust. The room itself was bright, almost uncomfortably so, and all the equipment and furnishing were the colour of fresh snow. There were no artefact to survey, no beasts roaring in cages. Just some boring desks, where a couple Unspeakables sat buried between towers of parchment and barely raised their heads when K.P. and Claudia entered.
"This way-" K.P. muttered and nudged Claudia towards a small door. They went through it. "This is my office," he explained before casting yet another complex enchantment on a portrait of an old man that hang in the corner of the small room. Nothing happened for a moment, but then, the man's pupil grew larger and larger, swallowing everything round it until it revealed a passage. K.P. stepped through the portrait and Claudia followed him.
She did not know what she was expecting to find on the other side, but she was certainly not prepared for finding herself right in the middle of an ordinary forest clearing. Before she could ask what on Earth was all this, K.P. began to walk through the trees. He stopped by a large oak tree.
"Don't tell me," Claudia smirked. "Another ridiculously complex spell?"
K.P. gave her a small smile and raised his wand again. "We cannot be too careful."
Once K.P. completed the spell, the ground began to sink under their feet, and then- Finally! Claudia though as she covered her eyes, yet again blinded by the sheer whiteness of this, much smaller underground room.
"Welcome to the Inner Sanctum," K.P. said.
"Who knows this place exists?" she said, with her mouth slightly ajar. She had almost forgotten she was furious with K.P. This was pretty smart.
"Agrippa, me, now you, and-" he pointed at four figures cloaked in white that were slowly drawing closer – "The Keepers of the Inner Sanctum." Before Claudia could ask about what kind of Unspeakables they were, K.P. continued. "They live here now. They've been proclaimed dead, officially gone from the face of the Earth."
"Isn't that a bit extreme?"
"Precautions had to be taken after Rookwood…"
"Understood-" Claudia said curtly. The mention of the traitor brough her back to the problem at hand. She was not here to appreciate the ingenuity of Division Twelve, she was here to try and prove that their invention was not responsible for all the drama at Hogwarts.
"The storage room is that way-" K.P. gestured to a large door on their right. "That's our best bet. We don't tend to store artefacts in the laboratories or the archive."
The door opened, to Claudia's surprise, without any further enchantments. Calling it a storage room was a bit of an understatement, however, Claudia thought when her eyes accustomed to the relative darkness of this room. There were three long shelves stretching further than she could see. There must have been thousands, if not tens of thousands, of different boxes, chests, jars, each one of them meticulously labelled.
"Now," K.P. interjected. Claudia looked to where is voice was coming from. He was searching through a drawer of a cabinet that covered the whole of the entrance hall. "According to the catalogue, it should have been here." He handed her a card, no bigger than her palm.
'Title: Essence of Gorgon
Year of production: 1886
Location: I-IX-XXII-V
Description: A round copper artefact with an engraving of a nest of snakes (drawing overleaf).'
Claudia looked at the storage room. "When you said it was missing," she said with a sigh. "How much of this place have you searched to check?"
K.P. took the card from her hand. "The location means it's in aisle one," -he pointed to the aisle furthest to the right – "zone nine, section twenty-two, shelf five. We searched the whole section."
"Let's do it again. And let's check the location of every single artefact that looks even remotely similar."
"But that could take-"
Claudia shot K.P. a look that instantly shut him up. "Let's get to work."
K.P. and the Keepers searched under Claudia's watchful eye for the rest of the day and the following night and found nothing.
"We have to assume Rookwood took it," Claudia proclaimed at nine o'clock in the morning. Her eyes were burning, and her neck was stiff from bending over all night. "I'll go deal with this. You stay here and keep looking."
"But we searched the section, it's not there," one of the Keepers protested.
"Search the zone, then the aisle, and then this whole bloody place," she hissed, picked up the card with the drawing of the artefact, and showed it into her pocket.
"Let me take you back," K.P. said in a resigned tone before turning to the Keepers. "I'll come back shortly, and we'll resume. Take a break."
Claudia did not dare stop for coffee or breakfast and made her way straight towards the centre of the Department of Mysteries. It was now high time to brief Agrippa about all this mess.
"I need to see him now."
"He's not here," Agrippa's secretary replied. "He-"
"I don't care where he is," Claudia hissed. "Drag him out of bed for all I care. I need to talk to him."
"He's in St Mungo's! A cauldron just exploded in his face, and he needs to rest."
Claudia froze. This was bad. "Is he going to be alright?" she mumbled, recovering some of her humanity for a moment.
"The healers' were optimistic." The secretary paused. "And another thing. He was going to do the all-staff meeting about the pay increase. Everyone is already here-"
Claudia shook her head. This was Agrippa's territory, not hers. "You will need to postpone that."
"I can't. They are already furious."
"When does it start?"
"In two minutes…" The secretary replied and handed Claudia a piece of parchment. "This has all the details."
The letters on the parchment jumped in front of Claudia's face as she tried to comprehend what she was looking at. Pay bands, performance-linked bonuses, inflation – none of this was sinking in. There, finally, she found what she was looking for – the average pay increase in the Department of Mysteries for next year will be- "What?" she gasped. "Half a percent?"
Moving the parchment between her fingers, she tried to find any sort of justification for this. No wonder everyone was furious. She felt a push on her back, and before she understood who did that or why-
"Claudia!" Someone shouted. "Is it true? The pay figures?"
She raised her head. Dozens of Unspeakables were staring at her in a packed room.
"Look," she began. "I'm only just looking at it myself…"
"You cannot do this to us!" Someone else yelled.
The room was sweltering. Claudia could feel her sweat seeping into her already disgusting clothes.
"What justification could the Ministry possibly have?"
"You should've sorted this out-" Beresford added to the noise.
That was the last straw.
"SILENCE!" she yelled. All her goodwill to sort this completely evaporated. She took a few deep breaths. "I know you don't like it. But this is the agreement the Minister and Agrippa struck, so that is what we are going to stick with."
"We have questions-" Beresford exclaimed.
"If anyone has a real problem with it, come see me," she barked to shut him up. "My door is always open. Or you can go see Agrippa in St Mungo's."
Claudia looked around the room. Everyone's mouth clasped shut. "Thought as much," she mumbled and backed into her office.
She nearly made it, it was only a few yards after all, when her path was blocked by Édith.
"Good meeting?" Édith asked. "Sorry, I couldn't make it-"
"What do you want?" Claudia barked. Édith was either mocking her or attempting small talk. Claudia was in no mood for either.
"I just wanted to talk to you about something." Édith steered Claudia towards the end of the hallway. She took a deep breath. "I'm dating someone, and I wanted you to hear it from me first."
"Good for you."
"And you should probably know as my boss anyway, as it's Persephone," Édith said and colour rose to her cheeks.
Claudia was wrecking her brain to say something to show she really did not care who Édith was dating, when her attempt was interrupted by pain in her left fore arm. She looked to check. No one had stabbed her. It could only mean one thing… Another wave of sharp pain hit her.
"I've got to go," Claudia uttered, attempting to stop herself from screaming. Her hand shook when she opened the door to her office, and her body collapsed on the floor even before the door was entirely closed behind her. She leaned against it and closed her eyes- This one was going to be bad. She could already feel it.
Claudia clutched her throat. It was as if all air was being sucked out of her lungs. Struggling to breathe, she crawled towards her desk… Maybe some water.
Everything began to spin. Claudia just about managed to reach for a water glass.
But it slipped between her fingers and smashed on the floor.
Then, darkness.
When Claudia opened her eyes again, her face was stinging. When she touched it, she knew why. Droplets of bright red blood were rolling down her fingers. She looked around. The water glass was broken on the floor. She must have passed out and fallen onto it.
Claudia shuffled into the bathroom and tried to fix her face. The scars were going to fade soon, she thought when she surveyed her work. And just as well, she did not want to look like Moody.
Moody!
If there was anyone who could help her with Rookwood, it was him.
She set off immediately.
The rain clouds began to gather as she banged on Moody's door over and over. She was just about to give up when-
"Who do you think-" Moody yelled and the door swung open. He was in his dressing gown and his grey hair was dripping wet. "What the hell happened to you?" he growled in much less angry tone when their eyes locked.
"I need your help."
"My help?" his remaining eye narrowed, while the magical one looked somewhere far behind Claudia's shoulder. It was unnerving. "Is this you, or the Ministry asking?"
"A bit of both," she whispered.
Before she could step inside, she felt Moody's hand on her shoulder. He yanked her inside the house.
"What's going on, Claudia?"
She did not reply right away. She shuffled into the sitting room, threw the crap from one of the armchairs to the floor and collapsed into it. "What can you tell me about Rookwood?"
Slowly, Moody sat down opposite her. "Our old friend Karkarov gave him up. Otherwise, we would never have caught him."
"What did he do exactly?"
Moody shrugged. "Seemingly, nothing much. Passed information to Voldemort, mostly from the Department of Mysteries. But he also had a big network of spies he relied upon."
"Was there any evidence he ever passed any Department of Mysteries' research to Voldemort?"
Moody leaned forward and surveyed his former trainee with a slight frown. "Why are you asking all these questions?"
"We've got a dark artefact missing, and I think Rookwood may have taken it."
Moody relaxed into his armchair, even attempted a smile. "We helped your people do a thorough inventory after he was arrested. Everything was accounted for."
But Claudia was far from reassured. "The one thing I've learnt since starting this wretched job is that there's always something the Unspeakables aren't telling you."
"Aren't you supposed to be in charge?"
"Yes!"
Moody let out a half-bark, half-laugh. "It's annoying when your subordinates hide things from you, isn't it?"
"Funny-" Claudia hissed. "Now, will you help me or not? I need to know if Rookwood took it."
Moody thought for a second. "The best place to start would be the evidence the aurors took from his house. But-" he quickly added when he saw Claudia's eyes brighten. "I can't access that. Only a serving auror of a certain rank can."
"Right…" she mumbled. "Could you ask him? For me?"
"You'll have to ask him yourself."
"I don't want to-"
"Oh, grow up!"
"I-" she began to defend herself but thought better of it. Moody's stubbornness was only second to hers. "I better go, then…"
"Claudia," Moody rose to his feet with her. "When was the last time you spoke to another human being?"
"What do you mean? I speak to people all the time."
"About something that wasn't work…" Moody clarified.
Claudia's mind went blank… "I can't remember-" It's not that she did not want to answer him, she simply did not know. Could it really have been as far back as Christmas?
"Claudia, you have to-" But he did not get to finish that sentence.
"I have neither the time, nor appetite for a lecture," she growled and made her way to the front door.
When Claudia set off from Moody's house, she was sure that speaking to Oscar was the right thing to do. By the time she got to the Ministry, however, she had changed her mind. He would surely tell her to fuck off, or worse report her to Amelia Bones. And worst of it was that she could not even blame him if he did. No, she would need to find another way.
It had been a few days since Claudia had decided to do it alone and so far, she had made remarkably little progress. The Auror Office evidence room was guarded better than the Inner Sanctum, and K.P.'s people still had not found anything. With every hour this stalemate continued, Claudia's interactions were getting snappier and her demands on the Keepers, and the rest of her staff, more challenging. Mercifully, she managed to avoid Fudge. Having to lie to his face was the last thing she needed right now.
One morning, she was rushing through the department on the way to give someone a piece of her mind, when she passed a group of young Unspeakables, who went suspiciously silent as she walked by. But Claudia was too busy to care, so she ignored them. She was nearly out of earshot when she heard one of the whisper-
"Savoury Avery-"
She turned abruptly, and all the Unspeakables lowered their heads in unison to look at their shoes. Few struggled hard not to giggle.
"Good job you buggers aren't getting a raise," she muttered under her breath and picked up pace. But she did not have the time to dwell on it. The meetings that were cluttering her diary were not going to run themselves.
She sighed with relief when she got back to her office at lunchtime, having managed all her morning meetings without shouting at anyone. A great achievement! Finally, she could have some peace. Sandwich in one hand, quill in the other, Claudia got stuck into the pile of parchment that Auberon left on her desk.
First was a memo from the Head Auror addressed to Agrippa, that she had the pleasure of dealing with in her boss' absence. It was a long, whining one about that wretched veritaserum again. But at least it did cheer her up, when the Head Auror described Marcin as 'just as obstructive as his predecessor'. She was so glad she appointed him.
The second piece of parchment on her pile was an extremely well-researched paper from Griffin on potions that could potentially help a gorgon mask themselves in Hogwarts. Claudia picked up her quill-
'Good to know. I think the lost artefact is still a more likely explanation, but this is immensely useful.'
With her scribble across the top of the report, she sealed it with her signet ring and addressed it to 'Head of Creatures', before giving it to Auberon with the instruction to send it as soon as possible.
Back in her chair, Claudia was busy on another report when she froze.
Then, she slowly raised her head.
"Fuck," she hissed and dropped the quill. Ink splattered all over her desk. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."
She jumped to her feet and run out of the office as fast as she could, through the whole Department of Mysteries to where Griffin's office was located. What did she just do? Griffin did not know about the artefact. Griffin should not know about the artefact!
"Where is the report I just sent back?" she barked at the first person she encountered in the Beast and Creatures Room.
But they simply shrugged-
She barged into Griffin's office. "Where is the report?"
"What report?" he replied.
"The one you sent me, about to potions."
"You have it."
"I sent it back!"
"Not here, you haven't."
Claudia's eyes widened. Auberon would not have; he could not have. She flew out of Griffin's office and run back to her own.
"The report I just gave you," she panted. "Who did you send it to?"
"As you said, Roderick Haworth," Auberon replied. "Head Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."
Claudia growled and shot out of Department as quickly as her tiring legs caried her. This was a fucking disaster, she thought jabbing the buttons on the Ministry's elevator. Not only was Haworth going to get his hands on Griffin's secret research, what she wrote across the report was career ending. The Ministry cannot know about the artefact! Not now, and ideally not ever.
The lift finally arrived and half a nerve-raking minute later, she found herself on Level Four.
"Where is that damn office?" she cursed as she run the length of the corridor. And then, right at the very end-
Haworth's private secretary was leaning back in his chair, reading what was unmistakeably Claudia's misplaced report.
She waved her wand, and the report flew into her hand.
"Hey!" the private secretary protested. "I was reading that."
Claudia leaned across his desk until her face was barely few inches away from his. "How much do you remember!" she barked.
"Nothing much," he stuttered, shuffling his chair a little bit backwards. "Nothing really, just gorgons and artefacts. Makes no sense to me, not really."
Claudia straightened her back and looked at him. The kid could not have been older than twenty-five and was white as a sheet. She took a deep breath. He may have been terrified but this was not a risk she could take.
She looked around and slowly reached into her sleeve for her Legilimency wand.
"What are you doing?" the secretary squealed and tried to get to his feet.
"Obliviate!" Claudia whispered.
He blinked twice before breaking into a smile. "I didn't see you there. Do you have an appointment with Mr Haworth?"
Claudia forced herself to smile, as she shoved her report firmly into her pocket. "No," she said slowly. "I got the wrong office." She turned and hurried away-
"Have a good day!" the secretary shouted after her.
Just round the corner, Claudia stopped and leaned against the wall. A wave of nausea hit her, and she dived through the nearest door that mercifully happened to be a bathroom.
"There goes my lunch," she mumbled, as she slid away from the toilet bowl.
The report laid crunched up on the floor.
Claudia raised her walnut wand and the parchment burst into flames. She was not going to take any more chances.
Still sick to her stomach, Claudia shuffled back to the Department of Mysteries. She walked past Auberon like he did not exist and straight to the bathroom. She held a towel under the cold water tap for a few seconds, and then collapsed into the little bed.
With the ice-cold towel on her head, she could finally think that little bit more clearly. That was a fucking close call. A career-ending mistake. And if anyone ever found out what she did to that kid -
She pulled the towel towards her mouth, sunk her teeth into it and screamed. How could she ever have been so stupid? It was one think tormenting her father to pay what he did, but obliviating some innocent kid just to cover her mistake… She shuddered with the thought of what they would do to her if anyone ever found out.
"Are you alright, Miss Avery?" Auberon's voice was so quiet it just about penetrated the wet towel. "I'm sorry about…"
"Not your fault, Auberon," she interrupted him, still from beneath the towel. This was all too much. She could not do it anymore. "Please cancel everything for the rest of the day."
"Everything?"
"Yeah… And wake me up at four."
"Sure."
Once Claudia was sure that Auberon had left, she finally removed the towel from her head and tiptoed into the bathroom to find some sleeping draught. She downed it and was out within seconds.
She was woken up from her restless sleep by gentle shakes of her shoulder.
"I've made you some camomile tea-" Auberon said.
"No chance. Get me some-"
"Miss Avery, with the utmost respect-" he interrupted her. "I don't think you should be drinking any more coffee…"
"You're feeling brave," Claudia sat up and grimaced.
"Sorry…"
"Since you're feeling brave…" she mumbled, got up and walked into her office. he legs were in agony from the early running about the Ministry. Auberon followed her. "Tell me – did I hear them right? Are you lot calling me Unsavoury Avery?"
"Actually, it's Savoury Avery…" Auberon whispered.
"That makes no bloody sense."
Auberon went such a bright shade of red, Claudia thought for a second someone had transfigured him into a tomato. "It's nothing... It's a stupid joke… Innocent joke, really."
Claudia's eyes narrowed. "Explain it to me."
"I rather not."
Claudia said nothing. She knew he would tell her eventually. And she was right-
Auberon sighed. "Alright… There is this American muggleborn… And he said you were real salty. It's a word his dad picked up in the muggle military. And over there, it means..." he trailed off.
"Go on."
"Angry, hostile, resentful…" he said in a barely audible whisper.
"And which smart bastard came up with Savoury Avery?"
Auberon could not go on. He gave Claudia a shy smile and shrugged. "Can I go now?" he whispered. "Please?"
She decided that was quite enough torture for one day. Last thing she needed him was to quit-
"Yeah, you can," she paused. "But please bring me something I can actually drink."
Auberon began to leave but then stopped in his tracks. "Marcin asked if you had time today. He's got something to show you and I think it might cheer you up-"
Claudia sighed. "Sure, why not."
She drank the black tea that Auberon brought her as a compromise and finally managed to finish the second half of her lunch sandwich. But within ten minutes, her break was over as Marcin arrived-
"She actually did it!" he exclaimed when he crossed the threshold to Claudia's office. He was waving a small silvery object in his hand. "Hortensia managed to make that mirror!" he beamed.
Unwilling (and quite possibly unable) to stand up, Claudia extended her arm and took the mirror out of Marcin's hand. Within a second of her looking at it, Sirius' smiling face was staring back at her. She took a few deep breaths just looking into his eyes. For a moment, the world was serene. But she could not spend the whole meeting like that, so she tore her eyes away from the mirror. "How did she do it?" she whispered.
"Don't start," Marcin said and slumped into a chair. "She doesn't remember! I told her to take notes as she works… But she doesn't listen."
"Make her listen. It's your job now."
"I will do my best," he sighed and reached for the mirror.
"I'll keep that for a while. Want to study it."
"Sure."
The moment Marcin shut the door, Claudia picked up the mirror again and it did not take long before Sirius was back.
Claudia sighed. "I miss you."
He raised a sad smile. Claudia was not sure whether it was a coincidence that the mirror was reacting to what she was saying. But of course, it was not. The whole thing was in her head.
"I need you here so badly, you have no idea." She paused, searching for the right words. "I get so caught up in things… I've always needed you to keep me in check, to stop me from being an idiot-" she reached for her crisps. "Make me eat."
A smirk crossed Sirius' face.
"I know…" She could not help but chuckle, with her mouth full of the savoury snacks. "Who'd think that you of all people would be able to do that, to be my moral compass. To be the one person I don't mind relying on. And now I don't have anyone…"
He lifted his eyebrows.
"You're right," she sighed. "I have other people I could ask for help. At least with the bloody artefact. I should really..."
But this half-hearted reassurance did not work. Sirius' eyebrows were still raised, and he was shaking his head a little.
"I will ask him, I promise."
The Sirius in the mirror pointed at himself, then pressed his hand against his heart, and pointed at Claudia.
"I love you too," she whispered and wiped her tears. Even a stupid reflection of her own thoughts was too much for her. She put the mirror on the desk face down. It was torture, but at least she knew what she had to do. She had to stop pretending she did not need Oscar's help.
Claudia got up and walked out of her office to speak to Auberon…"Get me an appointment with Inspector Fernsby at the Auror Office. As soon as you can. Please."
Auberon worked with his usual effectiveness and at nine o'clock the following morning, Claudia was standing in the middle of her old room in the Auror Office. It was deserted. The furniture was all rearranged… But that did not mean that memories – good and bad – did not flood her mind. What would she give to have Barraclough's guidance in her life right now.
She took a deep breath and knocked on Moody's old door.
"Come in!"
So, she did.
"What do I owe this pleasure?" Oscar asked. His voice was so formal, it made Claudia want to run away. But she was desperate-
"I need your help," she whispered.
"What have you done?"
"Nothing for a change," she sighed and slumped on the couch. It was still the same one Moody used to have, just cleaned. "I need help to track down an artefact that Rookwood may have taken, to see if it's part of evidence against him."
Oscar folded his arms against his chest. "Why?"
"Too much to ask you to take my word for it, and to trust me?"
"Yeah…" Oscar smirked. This was all frustratingly predictable.
"Back in the day, the Department of Mysteries conducted some experiments. I need to know whether this artefact made it to the Death Eater's hands, or whether Rookwood still had it when he was arrested."
"I need more than that, Claudia. Before I stick my neck out for you, again."
She sighed. "Let's go for a walk. I can't talk about it here."
"That bad?" Oscar whispered.
"That bad…"
Side-by-side, they walked out of the Ministry building, crossed Horse Guard Parade, and found themselves in St James' Park. They stayed silent on the way around the lake, until they were sat on a solitary bench, far enough from the morning rush of Muggle civil servants that flooded this park every morning on their way to work.
"In a nutshell," she began. "The Department of Mysteries made an artefact a hundred years ago that contains the essence of a gorgon. No one really tested it recently, but we assume that it gives whoever possess it the power to petrify people."
"And you think Rookwood took it?" Oscar jumped in. "You need to tell the Minister!"
"I can't." She shook her head and looked away. "It will be the end of the Department of Mysteries."
"But if your people did this!"
Claudia looked into Oscar's eyes and reached for his shoulder. "If it isn't in Rookwood's evidence and we can't find it, I will tell," she whispered. "I promise."
It was Oscars' turn to look towards the lake.
"I know my promises mean very little to you," Claudia continued. "But I do mean it."
Oscar took a deep breath, then groaned. "What does it look like?" he asked in a resigned tone.
"Thank you," Claudia mumbled and took out a drawing of the artefact from her pocket.
"Don't thank me yet. I haven't found it."
"But you aren't yelling at me, so- that's good," she said with a resigned sigh. "Thank you, again. Really."
"Should we head back, then?" he asked with a smile and folded the drawing into the inside pocket of his jacket.
Claudia stared at his face for a few seconds. "I don't want to go back," she replied eventually. "Not yet."
Oscars' smile vanished. "What's wrong?"
"I don't even know when was the last time I went home. I just sleep in the office now. And it's still too much." She paused. "What if I can't do this job?"
"You can do anything."
"They call me names, Oscar. I lost my head at a staff meeting, yelled at everyone. Now this-"
"Come on, Claudia," he said and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "No one wants a boss that's too nice."
"Is that what you keep telling yourself?" she mumbled.
"It's true!" he said with a laugh. "They're threatening me with a promotion again. Head of Division, can you imagine?"
"Why wouldn't you take it?" She was grateful for the change of topic.
"Because I like being in the field too much. And I like my team-" he paused and looked into the distance. "Speaking off…" he mumbled and let go off Claudia's shoulders.
A young woman suddenly appeared in front of them. Despite the new haircut, Claudia quickly recognised her as Andromeda's and Ted's daughter Nymphadora.
"Inspector Fernsby, Sir.." she uttered. "They need you back-" she stopped abruptly when she saw who it was her boss was sitting with.
"Hi Nymphadora." Claudia waved awkwardly.
"I try to go by Tonks now."
"Very sensible," Claudia said with a subtle nod.
Oscar was now on his feet. "You coming too?"
Claudia shook her head. "I just need a minute. You go-"
"Don't go drown in that lake."
"Like you care…"
He laughed. "Just don't need another case on my desk."
"Thanks," she said with a chuckle. And for a moment, she felt warm on the inside. It felt so good, having Oscar back in her corner.
However, the improvement to Claudia's mood was short-lived. With every memo and report she read that day, with every meeting she sat through, her optimism about Oscar's chances dwindled. Too preoccupied with her thoughts, Claudia curled up on the tiny bed in her office and she began to doubt everything. Why would Rookwood not hand it over to Voldemort immediately? Could something like that really sit in evidence for nearly twelve years? And- No, she could not even think about it. Did Oscar really agree to do her this favour after everything?
She turned over and the bed creaked as if it was on its last legs. Who was not to say Oscar would go straight to the Head Auror and get Claudia fired, or worse. And if he did, could she really blame him?
Unable to get that thought out of her head, she tossed in bed for hours. Eventually, she gave up on sleep and went back into her office. While looking for a new inkwell, she stumbled on the Mirror of Erised.
For two hours, she stared into Sirius' face before she threw it on her desk. "You have to stop this," she mumbled.
Desperate to do anything but stay in this office with the mirror, she looked at her watch. There was one thing she needed to do before she gave that thing back to Marcin, and now was as good of a time as any.
She located the hidden set of keys to Agrippa's office, broke in to borrow his invisibility cloak, and made her way – as quietly as she could – out of the Department of Mysteries. The lifts were out of the question at this hour, so she found the door to the narrow spiral staircase that connected the Ministry's levels and began to climb it. Level eight, seven, six…
The corridors of the Department of Magical Transportation were predictably quiet, and it did not take Claudia long to find her father's office. Trying very hard not to laugh at the plaque on his door that stated he was actually in charge of broom regulation, the least prestigious division of the whole department, she took out her wand opened his door. He did not even bother using sophisticated magic to lock it. How the mighty had fallen, she thought.
Claudia hung the mirror on the wall opposite the door and then crouched behind a plant. Wrapped tightly in the cloak, she waited, fighting the urge to get up close to the mirror and spend the rest of her life staring into it.
She must have dozed off because the next thing she noticed was a creak of the door. Within seconds, her father's figure was in view. But there was something different about him. He looked shorter, more hunched over. More so than a man in his mid-sixties should be. Claudia's heart jumped with excitement – it must have been the memories she implanted in his head. They were working all this time!
Come on, go look at the mirror, she thought. And soon enough, Frederick did notice it- "Beryl, what's this mirror doing here?"
Claudia drew the cloak closer to her chest. But no Beryl appeared, and Frederick leaned closer to the mirror to examine it, just as she hoped.
This was it.
Reading someone's current mood and thoughts was the easiest form of Legilimency. Something Claudia could do without her wand, and quite possibly in her sleep. But now was not the time to take chances. She gripped her silver lime wand and closed her eyes.
And soon enough, she saw what Frederick saw-
He stood tall, dressed in exquisite robes of black and emerald silk. He was the Minister of Magic. He felt powerful, so powerful in fact Claudia could easily feel it through the mind-link.
Then, at his feet appeared a figure, someone on their knees, begging for forgiveness. She could not see their face. But this was Frederick's greatest fantasy. He knew who that poor soul was. So, Claudia knew too.
It was Voldemort.
"What magic is this?" Frederick uttered, which disrupted Claudia's concentration. The connection was broken.
"What I would give to see you on your knees, Tommy…" Frederick uttered as he continued to stare into the mirror. His voice was dripping with disgust. "Who's scared of you now, eh? Not even your muggle father would find you intimidating." He cackled and raised his hand to the mirror.
Shit, Claudia hissed. She did not think this through. The mirror needed to come back to the Department of Mysteries with her. And it needed to be intact.
"Imperio," she whispered and spun her father around. Go get yourself a sandwich from the canteen, she thought and sent him through the door back to the corridor. But before she lost sight of him, she waved her wand again and wiped any memory that he had of what he saw in the mirror. Or the mirror itself.
With Frederick gone, she took the mirror off the wall and tugged it under her cloak. She knew at this moment that she had to go straight to Marcin's office to return this thing, if she had any hope of doing something for the rest of her life other than to stare into it.
Back in her chair, and sipping a freshly brewed pot of coffee, Claudia's mind began to race. Of course, this is what her father's greatest desire was. Riddle was not a Sacred Twenty-Eight name. Far from it. Yet, this Tom Riddle was the one railing against muggleborns, preaching blood purity. Tom Riddle was the one in charge.
Yes! It made sense. And it was sure the key to her father's misery.
Before Claudia could ask Auberon to top up her coffee, he slipped into her office.
"Note for you arrived from Inspector Fernsby," he said and passed her a tiny piece of rolled-up parchment.
Claudia jumped to her feet and grabbed it.
'You better come and see me.'
Bastard, Claudia thought. Could he not have been more specific? But she raced through the Ministry corridors and, within a few minutes, barged through the door of his office.
"That was quick," Oscar said with a smirk, and reached into his pocket. The gorgon artefact was dangling on a chain, hanging from his finger. "Look what I found."
"Where was it?" she gasped and clasped it in her hands.
"The Rookwood evidence, as you said," he said and let go off the chain. The artefact dropped into Claudia's hands. "Now, what other horrors are in those archives of yours?"
"I'm too scared to look," she replied with a laugh. She suddenly felt so light. As if Oscar just took a huge boulder off her chest. "And you know that I don't get that easily shocked." But then, as she looked into Oscar's eyes, her demeanour changed. "Thank you for trusting me," she whispered, then swallowed dry. "I know that I haven't made that easy for you- I know I messed up… And if you haven't found it, I don't know-"
Oscar put his hands on Claudia's shoulders. "Just don't lose it again, alright? And try to get some sleep? You look a bit…"
"A bit what?" she smirked, happy tears fighting their way into her eyes.
He picked up a strand of hair on Claudia's forehead. "A bit grey…"
"Occupational hazard, I'm afraid-"
For a second, she contemplated hanging her arms around his neck, but the faintest of creaks stopped her, and then a loud female voice. "I'm sorry- I didn't know-"
Claudia's eyes darted to the door, where stood Nymphadora Tonks. "I'll give you privacy," Tonks added with a giggle. "Sorry-"
This is not-" Oscar exclaimed and jumped away from Claudia like she had stung him.
"You don't have to explain," Tonks babbled. "It's your office. I should've knocked."
"Tonks, this is a misunderstanding." Oscar tried to explain.
But Tonks was not listening, she backed out of the office and shut the door behind her. The giggling was still audible though.
Oscar sighed. "Could've used some help here. Last thing I need is for all of them to start gossiping."
"She won't gossip," Claudia whispered, still staring at the door.
"Just because there is nothing to gossip about? That's not going to stop them! Like you haven't worked in this place-"
"That's not why-" Claudia sighed. "It' because… Well, you know who her cousin is."
"This is fucking great…"
Claudia patted Oscar on the shoulder. "Best I get out of here, I think. And thanks again for the artefact." With that, she walked out of the office as fast as she could, but not fast enough to avoid exchanging an awkward glance with Tonks. She contemplated for a minute going to talk to her. No, Oscar should take this one, she thought to herself and scuttled back to the Department of Mysteries.
The next few days were a bliss. K.P. nearly kissed her when she returned the artefact to the Inner Sanctum. Claudia could not stop eating, and even made it home in the evenings. It felt like life was returning to normal again. Hogwarts still had a huge problem, of course, but at least there was no longer a risk it would cause the abolishment of the Department of Mysteries, and leave Claudia job-less.
After a few days filled with smiles and relief, Auberon put his head through the door. "There are a couple of Magical Law Enforcement Patrol people here to see you."
"What do they want?"
"They would not say… Look rather official though."
Claudia swallowed dry – this really could have been anything. Could her father have remembered she used Imperio on him? No, patrol did not work that fast. Had to be something else. Maybe Oscar did say something after all? It better not have been that assistant in the Creatures Department. But that would still be better than… She run out of time before she could remember all the crimes she committed against her father over the years, as the officers barged through the door.
"Are you Claudia Avery?"
"Yes." Claudia gripped the wand she was hiding behind her back just that little bit tighter.
"Good-" the older of the officers, a woman so tall she may have been a half-giant, said and smiled. "We're here to talk to you about Caspian Francey."
"Of course," Claudia said, trying not to look so relieved it would raise suspicion, and waved towards the sofa and armchairs. "Finally caught him?"
"He's going on trial, and we're interviewing potential witnesses. Would you be happy to help us?"
"Go ahead," Claudia replied before recounting her conversation with Caspian Francey.
"Could we get your mother's details?" the officer said. "We would love to speak to her."
"With pleasure."
Could this get any better? But the glee that Claudia felt at the thought of her mother being interviewed by patrol officers did not last long. As the day went by, the reality began to dawn on her more and more. They could have been there to arrest her. She had surely done enough to warrant that. And if they did, she would be on her way to Azkaban, and her father would be free once more. There was one thing for it- she needed to finish him off before she got found out.
She asked Auberon to cancel her last two meeting that day and hurried home.
Once in her attic, she threw everything off the big table and brought out her pensieve. It cost her half a year worth of salary, but with the help of the gold Sirius left in her Gringott's vault before he disappeared, she finally managed to find one on the black market a couple years ago. She did not use it often, but what she had in mind today would require all the help she could get.
What she was about to do was the pinnacle of Legilimency. She was about to make a memory.
She walked over to the cupboard where she kept all the memories she accumulated over the years. First, she needed to pick out a few of the most traumatic memories she possessed and separate out the pure anguish. That was the easy bit, she did that before. Claudia settled on three memories, three sensations to isolate: physical pain, fear, and humiliation.
Once the three sensations were shimmering in three small bowls, it was time to bring them together. But it was not quite as simple as throwing them all into the pensieve. She needed to break them down beyond recognition. Only then, they would mix properly.
She raised her wand and the first tiny thread fell into the pensieve, then another, and another… It was boring work, but half an hour later, all the sanitised memories were in the pensieve and she was ready for the next step.
Claudia closed her eyes and focused. "Colligo."
The memories started to swirl, rising higher and higher, close to the top of the pensieve. And just as quickly as they rose up, the fell flat again.
It was time to test the mixture. She leaned into the pensieve. And then-
Never could she even imagine the pain she suddenly felt. Her body began to shake violently, her head became lighter. Everything spun-
Claudia let out a solitary scream and tumbled to the floor.
"I think that worked," she uttered as she collected herself and rubbed her temples, hoping with all her heart that Sirius had not felt that through the tattoo. The last thing he needed was Claudia adding to his pain. "Now, for the Voldemort part."
She moved what she made so far into a vial. Standing in front of an empty pensive, she tried for hours to conjure Voldemort's face. It was not complex, all she wanted was for him to look superior and appear to cast the Crutiatus Curse. But even that proved beyond Claudia's abilities. All she managed to make was a blob and speech so distorted that no one could tell what was being said. No one would find that threatening.
So, she knew she would have to find another way…
If only she could find something with Voldemort, she could tweak it. But she searched her stores twice and found nothing. Then, she remembered what Moody said about that O'Doherty – she could go and take his Voldemort memory from St Mungo's.
She already had her coat on when she changed her mind. No, stealing a patient's memory was a bit too iffy, even for her…
And then. It struck her. She went back up to the attic and leaned over the pensieve. She could use her own memory of Voldemort's face, from when she saw him in that manor and her parents' house. And of course, she had a memory of what it felt like to have the Crutiatus Curse cast upon her.
She pointed her wand at her own head and soon her memories were in the pensieve. This time, they did not make her pass out. All she could see was Voldemort's face, as the words: "Crucio, Crucio, Crucio…" echoed through her head.
All it needed were a couple of tweaks. She modified the memory so that Voldemort's face was just that little more mocking, and the voice casting the curse was that of a man, not the one of Bellatrix Lestrange. Then, she mixed in the cocktail of anguish she made earlier.
Not daring to try sticking her head in there again, she simply botted her invention and went straight to Frognal Gardens. Luckily, her father was still in his study.
There was no point messing about. She raised the memories into the air – even being in the proximity of them made her nauseous – and guided them, all at once, through the open window and straight into Frederick's brain.
Instantly, her father collapsed onto the floor.
Claudia did not hang around to watch him suffer this time. "This is for Aidan and Sirius," she uttered and apparated home.