Flying High
Her clothes still wet from walking through the muddy forest back towards Hogsmeade, Claudia snuck into her office. Once safe, away from all the prying eyes, she dropped her head back against the door. She had to smile. The hole that was left behind when Sirius was sent to Azkaban was finally beginning to heal. Her heart was fuller somehow. She could feel it every time she pictured his face.
Claudia's daydreaming, however, got interrupted by her clock striking nine and reminding her that she still had a job to do. So, she dragged herself away from the door and into the shower.
Two minutes under the boiling hot water and a fresh set of clothes (she had more of her clothes in the office than at home at this point), she was ready for whatever the day was to throw at her. Or so she thought.
Memories of the previous night and the warm shower turned her brain into jelly. She struggled to read a foot of parchment without picturing Sirius' smiling face… After an hour or so of futility, Claudia got up and began to pace around her office. Anything to get the blood flowing, make her sharp again-
On the third of fourth lap, she stopped abruptly by her safe and then, slowly, took out Crouch's explosive memo. That's what she was meant to be doing this morning! How could have she forgotten?
Gripping the memo in one hand and her invisibility cloak in the other, Claudia made her way towards the door. Few steps in, however, she froze-
It did not feel right. Passing the memo to the Prophet, it did not feel right, and Claudia had no idea why. So, she began to pace again.
The one thing she knew for certain was that Crouch deserved the memo to be plastered all over the front page of the Daily Prophet. All his dishonesty, his history of fucking up people's lives just to make himself more powerful, his arrogance… He deserved nothing more than being thrown out of the Ministry in disgrace and humiliated.
So what was stopping her? Has she gone soft?
She had to laugh. That was certainly not it… But what was it? A week ago, the mere thought of Crouch's humiliation would have made her happy. But now, after she tasted happiness again, seeing Crouch suffer just did not feel like enough.
Slowly, but with absolute certainty, Claudia placed the memo back into her safe. There had to be a better use for this. And once she figured what that was, she was not going to hesitate.
Content with her choice, Claudia shifted her attention back to her desk- "Ah, forgot about you," she mumbled, picked up Borgin's cube and went to sit with it on the sofa.
Claudia closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. There was something odd about this cube. It felt like it was alive. Like a very real soul was fighting against the metal, trying to get out.
"It couldn't be-" she whispered and her eyes shot wide open. Could this thing be one of those horcruxes she read about? Possibly Voldemort's own? Do not be ridiculous, she thought, it is probably some curse. She shoved the thing into her pocket and strode straight into Division Twelve.
"Is K.P. around?" she asked one of the Unspeakables working there.
"He's travelling."
"When is he back?"
The Unspeakable shrugged. "He's left me in charge though."
"What's your name?"
"Broderick Bode."
"Alright, Bode," Claudia said and placed the cube carefully on the table between them. "Could you look this over? Somehow did not feel right leaving this one on the black market, so I took it out of circulation."
"Sure thing," Bode replied and picked up the cube.
"Thanks."
"No problem. I'll be in touch."
Claudia smiled. She loved delegation…
On her way back to her office, Claudia saw Agrippa striding down the hall and noticed that he dropped a piece of parchment. She picked it up and glanced at the first paragraph. It was a paper for the Minister, with an update from Agrippa on tracing. She scanned it. 'No solution has been identified to monitor magical signatures.' That was all she needed to know.
"Agrippa! You dropped something," she shouted after him. "So, you think I was right, then?" she smirked when she caught up with him and handed the parchment over.
"Well, K.P. agreed with you." Agrippa grabbed the parchment from Claudia's hand. "I think you two have ganged up on me."
"Great minds think alike."
"I don't know how long we'll be able to keep this up," he sighed. "They're all getting a bit hysterical about it up on the Ministerial floor," he added, turned and strode away.
As Claudia watched his worn-out navy robes disappear around a corner, she sighed. What would she do to have her seat on the Board and Wizengamot back. It was not fair that Agrippa got to have all the fun. Especially because he hated every bloody minute of it.
Claudia began to walk back to her office. When she turned the corner, she froze, and her frustrated face melted into a smile. She picked up pace and raced towards her safe. Without any hesitation, she shoved Crouch's memo into her pocket and made her way to the Department of International Magical Cooperation. By the time she was in front of Crouch's office, she had the whole plan thought out. All she needed was a minute with the man.
Penelope was in tears at her desk. "He doesn't want visitors", she sobbed when Claudia requested a meeting with Crouch.
"He will want to see me," Claudia sad abruptly and strode past her old classmate to open the door to Crouch's office.
The scene knocked her back. Crouch's office was a mess. Every drawer was turned out, there were piles and piles of paper on the floor. And the Head of the International Magical Cooperation was on all fours, rummaging through one of them.
"I'm busy, Avery-" he barked when he noticed who had interrupted him.
Claudia reached into her pocket. "Looking for this?"
Crouch jumped to his feet. "Where did you-" he hissed but seemingly run out of air half way through that sentence. He began to hit his chest to help him breathe.
"I found it in my pack for the World Cup Task Force," Claudia said casually. "Didn't look like it belonged there."
"And you brought it to me. After-" he said between his quick breaths.
"After everything you put me through?" she completed his sentence, beginning to wonder whether he was ever going to be able to speak again, or whether she would be forced to call the healers.
"Well-" Crouch stuttered. Claudia would be lying if she did not find this satisfying. "Thank you, I suppose."
She smiled. "I'm not doing it out of the goodness of my heart."
Crouch's face changed into an angry grimace. "What do you want?" he snapped. "I'm not going to advocate for your boyfriend, even if-"
"I want my position on the Board back," she cut him off. "And the Wizengamot."
"That's not my decision."
"No, but I know that Fudge was not the one who came up with the idea to freeze me out," she said. "I know it was you. So take it back, and in the meantime-" she put the memo back to her pocket. "I'll keep this safe for you."
"That's blackmail!"
Claudia shrugged. "Better speak to Fudge sooner rather than later then." She turned to leave when-
"Should've expected this from you-" he mumbled under his breath.
"Don't get judgmental with me," she sneered. "I'm not the one who is trying to fix the Quidditch World Cup semi-final!"
Crouch said nothing. But the blood that rushed into his face spoke volumes. Satisfied with the mood she left him, Claudia left, ignoring Penelope entirely on her way out.
Two long weeks had passed since Claudia's encounter with Crouch, and she was slowly beginning to lose hope that the old man took her seriously… But then, without any kind of advance warning, Agrippa strode into Claudia's office, looking about twenty years younger than he did the last time she saw him. He dumped a sizeable pile of parchment on her desk. "The Board is yours. Fudge's forgiven you," he said.
"Really?" She jumped to her feet.
"The only stipulation is that you step out when Black is discussed."
Claudia's heart sunk a little. "Isn't that all the time?" If this was just some formality Crouch had dreamt up, she had another thing coming.
"Not anymore, really, no…" Agrippa replied with a shrug. "Bones is now running her own thing on the side, and the Board has a million other problems to deal with." He smirked. "As you will see soon enough for yourself."
A smile had returned to Claudia's face. "Thank you."
"I'm the one who should be thanking you."
Claudia grinned at him and then waited for Agrippa to leave before bouncing towards her safe. She sealed the explosive memo with her ring and instructed Auberon to put it directly into Crouch's hands. It was crucial for any future schemes that he knew that she would hold up her end of the bargain, no matter how dirty she played.
After Agrippa told her the good news, time began to run a lot faster. People stopped scowling at her in Ministery's corridors, the aurors stationed by her flat had disappeared… And the Board meeting came around in a flash.
On her way to the meeting, however, Claudia did bump into the one Ministry official who was going to scowl at her until the end of time.
"My fiancée got fired because of you," Julius hissed. "You could have given her a heads up instead of going straight to Crouch."
"Your fiancée got fired because she wasn't very good at her job," Claudia replied as calmly as she could.
"I refuse to believe Crouch would fire her over some piece of parchment. He's a good man. You had your hand in it, I just know." Julius frowned. "You were always petty. And you haven't changed one bit."
"Did she tell you what it was she lost?" she smirked. "She could've cost her boss his career, and the Ministry the whole World Cup."
Julius scoffed and turned away.
The lift arrived at the Ministerial floor and Claudia took a few steps out. "Hate me if it makes you feel better, but this is entirely Penelope's doing. She's lucky it was me who found it."
The Board, she thought once the door of the lift closed with Julius still in it. Focus on the Board. And with that, the mental picture of her ancient boyfriend dissolved and was replaced by other, much scarier and more judgemental, faces.
Claudia needed a few minutes outside Fudge's office to murder those butterflies that materialised in her stomach. When she finally summoned the courage and walked in, it was not difficult to ascertain how her colleagues felt about her return.
Fudge jumped to his feet and began excitedly pointing towards a free chair.
Crouch was staring at his papers and refused to meet her eye.
And Umbridge was so red in the face, that her skin colour was almost indistinguishable from the colour of her pink robes.
Everyone else also wore their emotions on their sleeve – Runcorn seemed disgusted, Ludo oblivious…
The only exception was Amelia Bones, who was wearing a completely unreadable expression on her face. "Welcome back," she said in a flat tone.
"Were you away?" Ludo Bagman asked.
"Barty-" Fudge interrupted, clearly unwilling to debate any of it, and turned to Crouch. "Now we have everyone here… Why don't you tell us about your latest project."
Crouch slowly looked up. "My team have been working for years to get this off the ground, and finally, that work bore fruit." There was no enthusiasm in his voice. Just flat, exhausted tone. "We have reached an agreement with the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang Institute to reinstate the Triwizard Tournament. We were trying to convince them to agree a start of next autumn to help with the current workload but someone-" he gave Ludo a furious side glance before continuing- "someone went behind my back and agreed that it should start this October."
"I believe in you, Barty-" Bagman replied excitedly. "Besides, I'm here to help."
"Indeed… Help…" Crouch's face was twitching with anger. "There are a lot of things I need to iron out, which I won't bore you with just yet. But there is one issue I want to draw to the attention of the Board now, as it could torpedo the whole tournament before the preparations even begin–" He paused and looked around the other Board members. "The headmaster of Durmstrang is Igor Karkarov…"
Silence fell over the room. No one was seemingly prepared to speak first.
"I know a lot of you have a history with Karkarov-" Fudge said. But just like Crouch, he left the sentence hanging.
"Who?" Ludo asked.
"Convicted Death Eater, Ludo-" Crouch hissed.
Ludo scratched his head and turned away.
"Anyway," Crouch uttered. "Not only we would need to invite him to this country. We will need to treat him like the guest of honour."
"Views?" Fudge asked and turned to Amelia Bones who was sitting on his left.
"You all know about the chatter we have been hearing regarding possible intensification of Death Eater activities," Bones said. "Rolling out the red carpet for Karkarov will show them the Ministry is weak. I cannot support this."
"Albert?" Fudge looked at Runcorn, who was next in line.
After a barely noticeable glance towards Dolores Umbridge, Runcorn spoke. "I presume Durmstrang will pull out if we say Karkarov is not invited?"
"That's correct," Crouch answered his question.
"We cannot risk the tournament." Runcorn paused. "Surely Amelia's people can keep an eye on him. I say we let him come."
"Claudia?"
"I've met Karkarov when I was an auror… It was me who arrested him in the first place," she began slowly. "My sense was not that he was especially dangerous, or committed to the cause." She looked at Amelia. "But- As Amelia said, this is not about Karkarov. This is about sending a message. And I don't believe in rehabilitating Death Eaters."
Umbridge chuckled, interrupting Claudia's intervention. "I think-" she looked at Fudge- "and I think the Minister will agree with me here, that this could show the Ministry has put the war behind us. That we are ready to usher in a new dawn. That we are not scared of them anymore."
"But-" Bones wanted to jump in but Fudge drew attention to himself by clearing his throat. Then, he shuffled his papers around.
"We invite Karkarov," he said finally. "We keep an eye on him, but I am not letting Death Eaters sabotage a great opportunity for the children of this country."
The remaining Board members all tried to get a word in, but Fudge them all with a gesture. He had heard enough. Karkarov was in.
"What about the coverage in the Prophet?" asked Fudge's Principal Private Secretary. "There might dredge up things if Karkarov is back in the spotlight."
Silence took over the room once more. They all remembered who Karkarov implicated in exchange for his freedom. And they all looked towards Crouch, who now resorted to tearing one of his parchments into dozens little pieces.
"Let me worry about that," Umbridge eventually put him out of his misery, giving Fudge the opening to move the meeting onto the Quidditch World Cup. Or rather, the biggest problem of the day – a nationwide shortage of tents.
"Maybe," Ludo cleared his throat and chuckled. "Maybe we could create some kind of match-making system for people to share a tent-" he struggled to get the words out. "Might help with our declining birth rate problem too."
"Bagman!" Crouch hissed at him. "If you can't he helpful then, shut your-" he stopped abruptly and looked around. It was as if he almost forgotten where he was. "My apologies," he mumbled.
"Are there really no tents left?" Runcorn asked, ignoring the tension between his two colleagues.
"There is limited stock in Hogsmeade," Crouch replied. "The importers are saying more are on their way, but they've been saying that for weeks."
"Alright," Fudge said. "Let's give them another week. If they don't deliver, we can look at more direct measures." He pushed his chair back and stood up. "In the meantime, I suggest you all get yourself a tent if you don't already have one."
Claudia collected her papers. When she turned, she found herself face to face with Amelia Bones. "I still think you were right," Claudia said in an attempt to break the awkwardness.
"Thank you for saying that," Bones replied. "Couldn't have been easy going against Umbridge in your first meeting back."
"Nothing has been easy lately."
Amelia patted Claudia's shoulder. "There was nothing personal in those measures. You have to believe me."
"Not from you- I'm sure others felt differently."
Bones shrugged. "In any case, I'm glad you're back. I need an ally in here."
Claudia said her goodbyes to Amelia and hurried home. It was the day she was meant to pop into Hogsmeade and buying a tent for the World Cup was truly the perfect excuse. She followed Sirius' instructions to find his old two-way notebook hidden in the depth of his piano. She wrapped it tightly in an old bag with a quill that refilled itself, and took Floo to Hogsmeade.
She dropped off the notebook at the appointed place, and made her way to the shop to find that there were indeed only a handful of tents left. Claudia grabbed the last basic model and walked towards the till. Right in front of her, an older gentleman was debating something with the shopkeeper.
"It seems that lady over there," the shopkeeper said and pointed towards Claudia, "managed to grab the last standard model. But we do still have a few of the deluxe tents available."
"That's on the expensive side-" the man replied.
"The deluxe model comes equipped with a fireplace, a small pool-" the shopkeeper beamed as he run through his sales pitch. "I don't know if you've ever seen the prefects bathroom in Hogwarts. It's a similar type of magic. Very impressive-"
"I don't need a pool," the man said through gritted teeth. "What I need is for this World Cup not to bankrupt me. The tickets alone…"
"Have this one," Claudia passed him her tent. "I'll grab the deluxe version." She had more money than she knew what to do with – might as well enjoy a tent with a big bath, she thought as she signed the order slip, authorising the shop to take the money out of her Gringotts account.
The time flew for the next six weeks. Every now and then, Claudia woke up to a message from Sirius and her entire week was made as a result. It did not matter that he just told her about the weather in Hogwarts, or that he was making friends with some cat. Any kind of communication with him was making her giddy. She just hoped he was not going to get sick of her rants about the World Cup preparations any time soon.
Before Claudia knew it, it was the tenth of May. When she opened her eyes on her birthday, she nearly burst into tears at the sight of her two-way notebook being covered in leaves, meaning that it contained a new message.
'Happy Birthday, Claude!
I hate that I can't wake you up with a kiss today and say those words to you myself. At least I'm not whispering them to an empty cell anymore…
Anyway, I thought we could meet on Saturday, in the hills behind Hogsmeade. I miss you, and want nothing more than to see you and to celebrate your birthday properly, how we used to! Well, maybe with less alcohol and criminal behaviour.
Speaking of, some of my memories of said criminal behaviour are coming back to me. When I woke up this morning, and realised it was your birthday, I remembered what we did to celebrate your seventeenth!
I can't transform for long with all these Dementors around, so might not write back immediately. It's not because I'm ignoring you.'
Claudia set the notebook aside, chuckling. Not immediately sure how to reply, she climbed out of bed, went to brew a fresh pot a coffee and open the birthday cards that had accumulated on her windowsill. One was unsigned with a simple 'Happy Birthday' and a galleon stuck to the middle of it. Claudia got one of these every year and it made her laugh every time. It was the most Moody thing that Moody could ever do – like an awkward dad not quite sure what to get his grown-up daughter for her birthday. She also got a sweet card from Neville and, rather shockingly, one from Augusta. Then, she reached for the last card, not entirely sure who it was from-
"Argh," she shrieked as it flew out of her hand and a huge bouquet of flowers hit her in the nose.
Once Claudia got over the initial shock, and came to the conclusion that this was not an assassination attempt, she run her fingers across the deep red petals. The roses were beautiful. It may have taken Sirius seventeen years to buy her flowers, but it was worth the wait.
Claudia had no vase, so she arranged the flowers delicately in one of her spare cauldrons and placed them on the kitchen table. She stared at them for a few minutes, trying not to cry. When did she get this bloody sentimental? Who cries over flowers? She wiped her eyes and walked back into the bedroom to grab her notebook.
'Yes to Saturday. And thank you for the roses.'
She did not have to wait long for Sirius to respond. The security risk clearly did not stop him loitering near his notebook.
'Twelve of them, for each birthday I missed.'
Claudia could not help but chuckle.
'You're trying too hard, Sirius-'
She played with the end of her quill, wondering how else she could mock him, when a fresh message appeared.
'You can't stop me trying too hard. I love you. But now I really have to go back, Claude. I hate it but I have to.'
She sighed and run her fingers over the page. "I love you," she whispered.
The weather outside of her living room window was beautiful and Claudia had nothing immediate to deal with at work, so she decided to do a spot of shopping. Maybe she would even manage to grab a fry up somewhere before heading to the office.
Pockets full of muggle money and spring in her step, Claudia set off on foot towards Oxford Street. But when she left Gower Mews, she caught in the corner of her eyes an unmistakeable sight of Granvile Lace and his people, attempting to follow her. She did not blame them; it was a fair bet that she would try to seek out Sirius on her birthday. Well, it would have been a fair bet if she was an idiot. Struggling to contain a smug smirk, she pretended not to see them. No one could blame her if she had a little bit of fun with this-
Claudia walked slowly, to make sure the aurors did not lose her, and then dived into the first department store she happened to walk past. She did not exactly had a plan, but she was sure something would come to her. So, she began browsing for some new clothes- Over the rack with some lovely coats, she saw Granville Lace, attempting to hide behind a pillar about half the width of his body. It took all her energy not to break into laughter and ruin her scheme. Whatever the scheme was going to be.
After a quick trip to the fitting rooms, she paid for a pair of trousers and some sweaters and made her way to the top floor where the cafe was. Even at this hour it was packed with people. It would be much harder for Lace to disguise himself here. He would probably get thrown out of there for being dressed like a circus clown. If only that was enough punishment for him…
And just then, by the window, Claudia saw a tall, handsome guy with long black hair. There was something eerily familiar about how nonchalantly he was leaning against the wall. Claudia bit her lip. No, she couldn't have… After a moment of contemplation, she found out that she could. Hiding a chuckle, she took out a cigarette from her pocket and walked up to him. "Do you have a lighter?" she whispered and smiled at him.
The stranger smiled back and reached into his pocket. But his response got drown out because in the exact moment he opened his mouth, Claudia felt a powerful spell hit her squarely in the back. She got thrown against him and everything went dark.
When she managed to open her heavy eyes, she was not quite sure whether what she was seeing was real. The Sirius look-alike was treated for a deep cut on his forehead. There were about half-dozen Ministry obliviators on the scene, working on everyone who was in the café. And rather unsurprisingly, the Head Auror was towering over her.
"We need to talk, Miss Avery-" he growled with his arms folded.
"Talk about what?" Claudia barked back and lifted herself up to standing. "One of your people assaulting me for no reason?"
The Head Auror took a deep breath. "What were you doing here?"
Claudia desperately wanted to be snarky, but her head was spinning. She reached for the wall to steady herself. "Shopping."
"Why here? In a muggle store?"
"Because I always shop here. You are the Head Auror. You must have noticed I were muggle clothes, right? Where do you think I get them?"
The Head Auror seemed a little taken aback. "And why did you approach that man?"
"Needed a lighter," Claudia said with a shrug.
"From someone that looks almost exactly like the most wanted man in Britain?"
"What can I say?" she smirked and caught onto the wall again, feeling rather dizzy "I have a type-" She just about managed to utter before she lost her balance and landed on the cold hard floor of the café. Rather heavily, judging by the sharp pain in her knee.
"Miss Avery?" The Head Auror reached for her arm. "What happened?"
"I'm just dizzy," she shook off his arm.
"You're going straight to St Mungo's…"
And there was no reasoning with him, and Claudia was a little too shaken up to not follow the healer that grabbed her under the arm and dragged her to the hospital.
The healers run every test, cast every spell and gave her every potion. And yet, they still would not let her go home, and insisted on keeping her overnight on the Minister's orders. Claudia could not help but shake off a feeling that this was all rather unnecessary, and probably a punishment.
As she lay bored in that sterile St Mungo's bed, she could not help but remember the times she was here before. Once with Sirius by her side, and once alone. And being alone here again, it sucked. They were not fighting or broken up this time, but it still sucked. All she could think about was how much she missed him. So, she took a deep breath, close her eyes and let her mind wonder to what it would feel like to have him curled up in that chair that stood empty in the corner of her room. To have him reach for her hand. To get her a glass of water when she needed one.
Eventually, Claudia's breathing steadied, and her consciousness began to slip away. But sleep was ripped out of her grasp by quick strides echoing through the now deserted St Mungo's corridor. They got louder and louder and then they slowed down, right outside her room.
Claudia forced her eyes open and rummaged through her things for a wand. But she was too slow… Luckily, the man was not here to kill her. It was merely Oscar…
"Can you set me free?" she mumbled and put her wand down. "I feel fine."
"No-"
"Is this some kind of punishment? Locking me up here?"
"Actually, no." Oscar said and went to sit down in the chair that Sirius was supposed to be sitting in. It made Claudia unreasonably angry. "Fudge is furious with them. He wants to make sure you don't succumb to your injuries the moment he got his favourite Board member back."
"I'm not his favourite Board member-"
"You might well be. He's suspended Granvile pending a Wizengamot hearing."
"I feel so important-" she smirked.
But Oscar was not amused. "You can tell them all you want about coincidences, but I know you. I know you engineered this to show them up."
"So what?"
Oscar jumped to his feet. "Do you know the mess you made? Do you know who Granvile Lace is?"
"An arse with an overinflated ego?"
"He's Dolores Umbridge's cousin, Claudia!" he barked. "And they're thick as thieves."
"Oh-" Claudia's mouth clasped shut. Then, her brown crunched together. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I've warned you not to piss him off. Moody's warned you."
"How was I supposed to know this time it was serious? You two are always warning me-"
"And you never listen!" he yelled.
Claudia dropped her head into the pillow, Oscar's voice still echoing through the empty corridors. She sighed. "Can you ask the healers for some sleeping draught?"
"Claudia-"
"Just get me the sleeping draught," she mumbled and turned over.
"Fine."
As Oscar's steps disappeared round the corner again, Claudia could not stop thinking about Granvile, and how she missed the fact he was Umbridge's cousin. And what they could do to her if they joined forces… Even the hospital-grade sleeping draught barely managed to banish these thoughts.
But she did not get to torture herself for long. She was out of St Mungo's and back at work in a couple days. And putting on those shiny plum Wizengamot robes was just the cherry on the cake.
Claudia could hardly contain her smile as she sat next to Agrippa on one of the benches at the back. After several uneventful items, Crouch updated the Wizengamot on the resolution of the Irish situation. The Irish federation had made a public statement about how they are fully behind Dartmoor and the Ministry's efforts to organise the final. Just as Crouch finished his update to thunderous applause by the Wizengamot, Claudia had to try very hard to supress all the unpleasant feelings that were brewing inside of her. He was ruining this for her. And just for one short moment, she regretted making the choice that she did. Crouch could have just as easily been fired, his failings exposed on the front page of the Daily Prophet for everyone to see.
The biggest draw of the Wizengamot meeting was not Crouch, however, it was Granvile's hearing-
"We are here today to consider the disciplinary charges against Granvile Lace," Fudge began. "Neither Mr Lace, nor the Ministry had elected to invite any witnesses to the stand."
Claudia frowned, she had been looking forward to the postmortem of Lace's fuck up. "Isn't that a bit odd?" she whispered into Agrippa's ear.
"Not odd if this whole thing is a stitch up. Which it is."
And as it turned out, Agrippa was not wrong. Fudge began to ask mundane questions about the chronology of the day. When did Lace got to the Gower Mews? Who were the aurors who follow Claudia? Who made the decision to restrain the man believed to be Black?
Despite the predictability of the questions, Granville looked constipated answering them. He was sorry for any misunderstanding, it was an honest mistake, anyone could have made it… If Claudia had not been there, this whole exchange would have left an impression that Lace merely spilled a coffee on some guy's pants, rather than blown up a muggle café, which led to one of the most severe breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy in years, if the overtime bill in the Obliviation Office was anything to go by.
Rather unusually, Fudge did not call on any other of the Wizengamot members to ask questions and at the end of his exchange with Lace, he decided to conclude. "I think we have heard enough from Grand-" he stuttered. "From Mr Lace. I am recommending Mr Lace be placed on probation for three months. And if there are no further missteps in that time, I propose this gets wiped from his record. All in favour?"
A few hands flew up almost immediately, Umbridge's and Runcorn's were just two of them. But then, others began to rise slowly until the motions passed; tightly, but it passed.
"What a surprise," Claudia mumbled grumpily in Agrippa's direction. She herself abstained as it would have looked odd if she had voted on a matter that directly involved her.
"Would've gotten sacked if it wasn't for Umbridge."
Claudia looked at her. Umbridge was looking around and writing rapidly on a piece of parchment, what Claudia could only assume were names of those who voted against her. She did not even want to imagine what was coming their way.