The day after Oliver was fired, the Magical Congress of the United States of America ordered Gregory the tracking/magical evidence specialist and Bartholomew the chief that Oliver called in to help with the investigation to appear before them for a trial.

The entire council is present which is a rarity and they all look displeased with Bartholomew and Gregory. the president of the council, Elric Thornewood, begins the meeting with a spell of his own creation that makes the sound of a gavel whilst simultaneously calming everyone. "Chief Bartholomew and Specialist Gregory you have made an error that led to every magical society in the world being upset with us, what say you in your defense?"

Bartholomew sighs and looks towards Gregory who looks at him and nods "we have nothing to say in our defense it was our mistake, I was too trusting of Oliver one of my old subordinates from when I was a captain. And Gregory trusted me too much to question the situation enough, we apologize and will accept any punishment you decide we deserve." He says solemnly but sincerely

Elric looks pleased at their sincerity "it's good that you understand, most people would have tried to make excuses to save themselves. But I appreciate your willingness to accept when you made a mistake."

Most of the council nod in agreement, tired of having people who lie to them, though some of them grumble in displeasure though most that do are the newer members.

Elric looks at the new members with mirthful amusement, but then returns to the matter at hand looking down at Bartholomew and Gregory again. "You too are both loyal and senior members of our organization, so you will not be dismissed. But you still did make an error you shouldn't have made so you will still be punished, though most everyone has forgotten after the incident there still was a break in."

Bartholomew and Gregory realize what he's getting at, this time Gregory speaks for both of them. "And you want us to figure out what happened and catch the perpetrator? That isn't much of a punishment, what's the caveat?"

Elric smiles at them amused "yes you are correct, not only will you not be given a squad but you will be limited to second year level magic. You will also not have access to any resources that we provide most notably our information network. And of course you will not be paid for this and your pay will be decreased by 60% for two years after this."

Bartholomew and Gregory look at each other surprised but pleased with the relatively light punishment. But confused by why they would use a criminal as punishment when there is a chance for them to get away. Bartholomew decides to ask the question as he is more experienced in criminal justice. "Aren't you concerned that the person who did this could potentially get away, not that I expect we won't be able to catch them?"

Elric waves his hand dismissively "I don't think you will fail either, but the crime committed wasn't that serious so I'm willing to let them have a chance. And if you do fail to catch them you will be put into the 'dark' department, though you won't be a grunt, you will be a commanders of a squad if you fail."

Bartholomew has heard stories about the dark division but doesn't know much about it, Gregory on the other hand was in it for years because he accidentally killed a muggle while in a training exercise.

The council dismisses them, and after they exit the hall the questions immediately begin. Willam the newest member of the council but a more tame and analytical personality than most of the new members. "Sir Elric don't you think that was a little tame, they were partly responsible for the biggest reputation loss in our history."

Some of the more 'enthusiastic' members agree with him and start trying to get Elric to reconsider.

Elric calls for silence though without a spell this time "you are somewhat correct Willam the punishment was rather tame, but Oliver and his Squad were more at fault than they were. Most of you would agree, but unfortunately Oliver was fired before we could give him a proper punishment and I have been informed that Dumbledore has taken him already so it's out of our hands."

That placates most of the council but the most aggressive member Noah, ironically one of the oldest members chimes in. "Then Oliver's squad needs to be punished as well!"

Elric nods in agreement "I have already sent them to the 'dark' division as grunts most will probably die, but the ones who don't will become exceptionally good Captains." He says jovially as if he didn't just announce that he's culling an entire squad of young people who have barely joined. Though in reality this is normal in the Wizarding World.

This settles down the council and taking advantage of the entire council being present they move onto other matters…

Gregory walks with Bartholomew nervously, a weird look on the grizzled stoic man, and Bartholomew looks at his friend and colleague concerned. "Is everything alright my friend, the punishment we got was not bad so what's wrong?"

Gregory takes a deep breath and calms down a skill he learned out of necessity. "The punishment is fine but if we fail…" he trails off with a haunted far away look.

Bartholomew is intelligent enough to recognize that his friend is traumatized by his past and reassess the dark division's extremity. "How bad, was it?"

Gregory sighs and smiles at Bartholomew, happy to see his understanding. "Well obviously the division is bad, but it's underestimated by anyone who hasn't been in the detestable thing. When I was in the division most of our work was paperwork and investigations, but the problem obviously isn't that."

Bartholomew nods and puts his hand on Gregory's shoulder comfortingly. And Gregory begins his story again with a sigh "we took missions that were… well dangerous would be an understatement, you see apparently because wizards live so long it makes it easier to go 'insane' and some of them are particularly dangerous. I am not sure if that's the real reason but that's what I was told, I was told this after seeing the house of an old wizard we raided."

Gregory swallows despite his mouth being bone dry "in the raid my best friend who I've known since before school and had joined the division to help me out... she was hit by a spell that turned her inside out. I still remember the sound of every bone in her body being broken and her scream as the shards of bone tore at her muscles as her body was forced to con-torte. which on its own is bad enough, but the bastard who did it created the spell to prolong the life of the victim." He says with vitriol

Bartholomew stars getting pale but he's able to handle himself for now, Gregory laughs Hollowly "the thing is my friend she was a Metamorphmagus and she instinctively activated her powers causing a quasi rib cage to form around her organs that were now outside of her body, but because of that she inadvertently prolonged her life even more."

"She was still alive by the end of the raid and only died after we killed the wizard, during the autopsy it was discovered that her pain was even greater than the Cruciatus Curse."

Bartholomew starts feeling sick as he's seen victims of the curse before and he can't imagine how anything would be worse. But Gregory isn't done.

"Unfortunately that wasn't the end. After her death we continued our investigation and we found many horrible things such as the victims of the curse that my friend suffered. But they were preserved and clearly were the victims of the curse when he was developing his spell, each of them had words carved into them with different variations of the incantation"

Bartholomew feels like he's about to vomit so he puts a silencing spell on himself and wordlessly vanishes the vomit before it hits the floor to not interrupt Gregory, as this is likely his only chance to hear this story. Gregory doesn't notice as he is immersed in his story but still alert as he always is if Bartholomew hadn't done that he would have noticed.

"We also found that he was developing a spell to transfigure a person to have more nerves for more painful torture."

Bartholomew feels ashamed of himself for being so weak stomached even after all these years even if the story was rather grim.

"That was my second mission in the department and I've seen worse but that was certainly the most devastating experience I had, of course not everything was that bad but there were a lot more than you would expect."

Gregory chuckles again "and that's not even mentioning the suicide missions that were more common than any other type, we had to fight everything from dangerous magical creatures to budding dark lords and their organizations."

Bartholomew squeezes Gregory's shoulder pulling him out of his spiral. "Then we better not fail, let's start our preparations and planning."

Gregory nods and they walk to Bartholomew's office silently already planning on how to approach this…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok next chapter will be much longer with Noswyl being chased but don't expect Noswyl to automatically get away because he's the protagonist, If it's entertaining enough then I'll even kill him :)