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(Anthony) A Little Help
Author: Beck
Date: 11-07-10 14:15
Although plenty of other cases kept Anthony busy, he still pursued the unsolved Summer Solstice Murders whenever he found a moment or could convince his superiors of an urgent lead. He'd marked up a whole calendar of ritualistic dates, even though the deaths had always occurred during the summer and not other times during the year.
Since Halloween, he'd gone back to Knockturn Alley almost everyday to see which vendors had any human blood in stock. Each day he came home empty-handed.
Anthony knew that he couldn't persist in his efforts in the same manner for long without drawing suspicion to himself. He didn't want to blow his investigation, especially with summer still so far away. A lot could happen between now and then.
"You're in a daze again."
Anthony blinked and focused on Desi, who stood in front of his desk with the biggest canteen of coffee he'd ever seen. She was not a morning person and lived on caffeine to get through the day.
"Just thinking about that case again, the blood ritual."
"You read all the case histories, didn't you?"
"Yeah, but they all say the same thing, more or less, and none of them really provide any sort of clue as to who's behind the murders. I'd guess more than one person, maybe even a whole group, but it's all a big mystery," Anthony said. "It's really frustrating too."
Desi pulled up a chair and said, "Where are they?"
Anthony picked through the files on his desk and handed her a folder. "That's them, as long as they've been documented, which has only been the last few years or so."
Desi started to skim them, leaving Anthony to his thoughts again. For a while, neither said anything, but then Desi pushed one of the case histories towards Anthony and pointed to a particular sentence.
"This is different," she said.
Anthony peered at the sentence in question and then nodded.
"That's from three years ago, right? In all other cases, all of the deceased were women. This is the only time a man was among the dead, though his throat wasn't cut. He'd been hit with the Killing Curse."
"Caden Eastwick," Desi read. "Who is that?"
"I'm not really sure," Anthony said.
"You should find out. It could be important."
Anthony shrugged. "It's as good a lead as any," he said.
Desi grinned. "Then my work here is done. I need a bathroom break," she said, waving her canteen in the air. "See ya."
"See ya."
Anthony pulled the particular case history closer and reread the whole thing. He wasn't sure Caden Eastwick would necessarily bring him anywhere nearer to the truth, but since he didn't have any other bright ideas, he might as well do a little research on the wizard.
The Week's Off To A Rocky Start
Author: Christopher Chant
Date: 11-07-10 17:07
Christopher blinks rapidly several times then takes a back handed swipe at his left eye. He rubs hard then resumes with the next step for the potion he's making, dicing ginseng. He makes all of two cuts when he has to stop and wipe at his left eye again. Frustrated, Christopher turns to one of the people working right beside him, Jenny Gabble.
"Hey, Jenny, could you help me? I think there's something in my eye."
"Yeah, sure. Let me wash my hands first. I just cut up garlic."
Jenny starts to move only to stop when Professor Snape's cuttingly asks, "Are you sure you wish to abandon your cauldron at such a sensitive stage, Miss Gabble?"
"I was just," Jenny points, "trying to help Christopher."
"Do tell."
"I have something in my eye, professor," Christopher says, jumping to Jenny's aid. "She was going to see if she could get it for me."
"Resume your work, Miss Gabble. Mr. Chant, turn this way."
Christopher dutifully turns to face Professor Snape who then asks, "Which eye? The left? It's red and watering."
"Yes, sir, my left eye."
"Tilt your head up. Yes, like that. Now look up at the ceiling. Now down. Left. Right." Professor Snape's cold fingers abruptly let Christopher go. "I can't see anything evident but it's apparent something is bothering it." Professor Snape looks into Christopher's cauldron. "You are at a good simmering point. Go see Madam Pomfrey then come back here. If you are not finished with your potion by lunch, I shall allow you the time it took to see the nurse."
All around him Christopher can tell that this statement has earned the Potions profession looks of utter shock. Surprising at it is to have Professor Snape be so oddly magnanimous Christopher isn't going to say or do something - like say staring opened mouthed at the man - to have the offer yanked away. He nods and hurries to leave, remembering to say, "Thank you, professor," before he'd turned away from Snape.
Christopher walked as fast as he dared without out and out running. His day hasn't been the best so far and with the way things are going he wouldn't be at all surprised that if he were to run he'd get caught at it and get detention or points lost. It's not even noon yet on a Monday and already Christopher is wishing the weekend were here.
Reaching the hospital wing, Christopher half expects Madam Pomfrey to be so busy she can't see him for ages, which would mean Christopher would miss all of lunch or, worse, have to go back to class with his eyes still hurting like the devil, and try and finish the potion and then come back to hospital. When he ends up having to wait only about five minutes to see the nurse, Christopher is grateful and so relieved he nearly wants to hug Madam Pomfrey. After looking closely at his eye under a magnifying lens, Madam Pomfrey finds some foreign granules in his eye. She flushed his eye with some sort of solution then gives him some drops and tells him to come back the next morning for her to double check the eye or if it bothers him again to come back right then.
On the rapid walk back to Potions, Christpher ends up thinking back to breakfast when Cat and he had had a slight falling out. She'd been quiet and distant Saturday towards the end of Fall Fair and stayed that way the rest of that evening and all day yesterday. This morning Christopher finally asked what was the matter.
"My sister thinks I should date other boys. She said something to my mum and now Mum is saying the same thing."
"I thought they liked me."
"They do. They just think I'm too young to be exclusive."
"They do realize that we don't date date, right? Dances and parties here at school and we hang out together part of the day on Hogsmeade Saturdays."
"And we hang out a lot on holidays. They think I should hang out some with other boys."
"Are you?"
"I guess."
"It's all right, Cat. We're going to be friends no matter what and if your mum is telling you to do something or not to do something, I guess you have to."
For some reason that Christopher has yet to understand, saying this made Cat angry. She got all huffy with him, grabbed a muffin from her plate, got angrily up from the table, and stomped away. Maybe she'll talk to him at lunch and he can find out why him saying what he did got her knickers in a twist.
Reaching the Potions classroom, Christopher rushes back in and gets busy once more with his potion, trying to finish up in time for lunch so he can seek Cat Amherst out.
Another Sighting
Author: Furnella Hodfuffer
Date: 11-09-10 16:30
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
"Furnie? It's Prunella."
Pulling myself from the couch I make for the door. Opening it I step aside and gesture Prunella in from the cold, waiting until the door's shut again to give her a hug and to say, "Thank you so much for coming."
The older woman hugs me back saying, "You didn't say much in the owl but I got the impression something's wrong."
There's no point in beating around the bush so I tell her simply and directly, "I saw him again this morning."
Prunella doesn't ask who I mean. Instead, she moves ahead of me towards the sitting area, taking a seat on buttery soft, oversized leather chair. It's an excellent curled-up-with-a-good-book chair and pretty darn comfy for just sitting. I resume my position on the couch with a sort of wilted droop, sighing loudly as I go. "It's been such a long time since I spotted him I think we'd all concluded that I'd seen someone who is strikingly similar from certain angles."
Prunella agrees. "Those of us who saw your memories and the memories of the people who also saw him who agreed to let us have a look had mainly decided we were seeing Forest because we were wanting so strongly to believe he's alive." She leans forward and pats me on the knee. "Tell me about this morning."
"This week I'm on the afternoon and evening at the restaurant. I don't want to be last minute with Christmas presents so I've been keeping my eyes open for perfect gifts and for sales, including a few Muggle stores. I'd gone to up in Aberdeen. There's a little cafe just across from the shoppe that does an excellent tea so after I'd done my shopping, went over to the cafe. My table was by the window. I was just finishing up, sorting out the Muggle money - it confuses me - to pay the bill when I saw him. He was in front of that shoppe, looking in the window. Then he turned in the direction of the cafe as if thinking of crossing the street but then he turned and walked up the street. I got out of the cafe as fast as I could. Once outside I called to him, rushing to catch up. I called several more times but if he heard never faltered in the slightest, never looked over his shoulder."
"And then?"
"He turned a corner and by the time I reached the corner I couldn't see him. I walked up and down that stretch of road, looking for him inside shoppes and trying to determine which of them had flats above them. I rang a few bells but couldn't figure it out."
"When he turned in the direction of the cafe, you got a good look at him?"
"Very good. Full on. I was still enough in shock at seeing him that I hadn't yet moved. When I couldn't find him along that one section of street I found a good spot from which to apparate, came straight home and owled you. Since then I've been going over and over it all in my head."
Prunella stands up. "Let's get to the Ministry. I'm sure we'll be allowed to use a pensieve again but if not, Albus Dumbledore has one. I bet he'd let us."
At Prunella's words, I'm on my feet as well. "As cold as it is out, let's go by Floo."
"Excellent suggestion."
Less than a minute later Prunella's gone through the Floo and I'm throwing powder in to follow behind, clearly stating, "Ministry of Magic."
(Enid) A Visitor
Author: Ronan Eastwick
Date: 11-10-10 16:34
Enid Eastwick had already spent one year and just over three months of her fifteen year sentence in Azkaban. The time felt much longer than that, since there was little variation to her days. Imprisonment wasn't as horrible as it may have been once upon a time when the dementors had guarded Azkaban, but it was nevertheless frightfully dull.
She passed her days reading, though the book cart that occasionally passed her cell didn't have a lot of variety either. She had already read a few of the volumes twice and three times.
Sometimes Enid was allowed to leave her cell to get a little exercise or to see a visitor, but the only person who ever came to see her was Ronan, and he really didn't visit all that often. Still, she heard from him fairly regularly. All of his letters were up on the wall of her cell.
Enid was just wondering what might be for supper tonight (some variation of gruel, perhaps?), when the door at the end of the corridor clanged open. Instead of the meal cart with its squeaky wheel, she heard heavy footsteps moving down the corridor.
All of the women in her cell block climbed off of their beds and approached the bars of their cells to see what the visitor wanted, and with whom. Enid did likewise. The visitor was one of the guards, a rather heavy-set man with graying hair and a bushy mustache. He stopped in front of Enid's cell and said, "You have a visitor."
Enid asked, "Is it my son?"
The guard shook his head. "An auror." He unlocked her cell and put magical restraints around her wrists. Grabbing her by the arm, he led her back down the corridor.
Enid wondered what an auror might want with her. She caught the glances of some of the other witches in the cell block. Some were envious that she had gotten the opportunity to leave her cell, no matter the circumstance, while others wore looks of sadistic pleasure. She was probably in big trouble with that auror.
The guard led her through a maze of corridors and then through a door she recognized. He undid the magical bonds and guided her to a booth, where a young man sat opposite her.
Enid didn't recognize him. The auror looked around her son's age, give or take.
"My name is Anthony Beck," he stated. "I'm an auror with the Ministry of Magic, and I have a few questions for you, Mrs. Eastwick."
"I must confess I have no idea what you wish to discuss, Mr. Beck."
He had with him a thick sheaf of parchment. He held one up for her to see, because passing it to her would have been prohibited from the invisible barrier between them. Enid realized it was a transcript from her first court appearance, back in October of 2001, after Ronan had exposed the truth about her.
"I am interested in your son Caden."
"What of him?" Enid asked. His unexpected death was still a sore spot with her, and she still had horrible guilt over it.
"At trial, you mentioned that he gained control over a group and that he was ultimately killed by one or many of the group members. I need to know more about this group."
Enid studied the auror intently. Had it been three years ago, she probably wouldn't have told him much of anything. Now she was a changed witch.
"I don't know much," she admitted.
Anthony looked a bit crestfallen.
"But, I can tell you what I do know," she said. Her intelligence was a bit outdated and possibly inaccurate nowadays, but maybe it would be enough to help the young auror with his case.
(London, England) Late Night Visit
Author: Desdemona Diamond
Date: 11-10-10 23:15
I sit in my comfy recliner snoozing, not having made it to my bed after dinner, when I hear a loud knocking. Of course, not being completely awake, I start awake. A quick look at the clock tells me it’s already after eleven at night.
I slowly sit up, and make my way over to the front door. A quick peek through the peep hole and I open the door. The last person I ever expected to see stands in the hall.
“Sorry Dee, sorry about busting in like this, I know it’s late.”
Stifling a yawn I reply with, “Naw, it’s cool, I don’t mind getting woke up from a light snooze by my evil twin.” I moved so she could walk in. She walked in and I closed the door. By the time I had turned around her coat was tossed in my comfy chair and she was dropping on the couch.
“Make yourself at home,” I commented, “So, what brings you here Bee?”
“It’s Blane, he’s so… immature!”
“Oh… He did something stupid again. Can I at least sell this story to the tabloids this time?”
“Wha?”
“Every time you two break up and get back together, it’s in the tabloids. Well, almost every time.”
“Oh, yeah, it’s so stupid!”
I sighed and started for the kitchen, “I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?” my sister asked.
“Ice cream.”
“It’s bad for you, it’ll make you fat.”
“Hasn’t yet,” I quipped. I came back into the living room with the mostly full quart of ice cream. Hardly ever had any, but almost always had some in the freezer. I also had two spoons. My sister would eat it, even if it was bad for her.
I dropped onto the couch next to her, “So, what was it this time?”
After an hour of not listening to whatever it was that Blane did this time, Bianca had eaten my ice cream. I know she’s not going to replace it either. She probably won’t even think about it. I doubt she’ll even thank me for sitting here feigning interest in her stupid drama story, even though she’s keeping me awake.
“I mean, I never even hear about any fights between you two.”
“What?” I asked, suddenly tuning in.
“You and Xavier, you two never fight.”
“We do, just not often, or anything big or make a huge deal about them.”
“You two fight?”
“Yeah, we fight, argue, and stuff.”
“You two fight about him checking out and sleeping with other girls?”
“No, cause he doesn’t.”
“Blane can’t grasp the idea of having just one, ever… Why can’t I find a guy like Xavier?”
“You will, just takes time, that’s all.”
“Yeah…” my sister sighed, “Mind if I stay here? I don’t want Blane to find me right now.”
“Yeah, sure, make yourself comfortable. I’m going to bed.”