Cate Scrimgeour

“No talking shop, got it,” Mundungus was quick to reply. “Oh, well…” His loss of words lasted but a moment. “How about music? What are ya listening lately?”

“I’m one of those people that likes a good variety. I like the Beatles, the Stones, Bowie, Joni Mitchell.” She listed off a few. “How about you? Who are your musical influences?”

Carolyn nodded in agreement, shrugging her shoulders. “Time will tell.”

“It was nice talking to someone who gets it. But, I’m afraid I lost track of time. I must be going. See you around.”

“Brilliant. I’ll see you around,” he replied coyly. “And it’s Sturgis, by the way. Sturgis Podmore.”

“Cate Scrimgeour. It’s nice to make your acquaintance, Sturgis Podmore.” She replied.

Well, Mundungus told himself that he had at least tried to get some information out of Cate. “Now, I object to the ‘con’ part,” he said, keeping his tone between serious and playful, “and me dad is Mr. Fletcher. I’m Mundungus. Or Gus, or Dung, anything but Mundy. I strongly object to that too.” And on that last point, he was only serious. “That said.. nothing else.” His hands raised as in conceding defeat. “Just doing a bit of chatting, that’s all.”

“Alright, Mundungus.” She conceded. “Very well. We can chat, but I insist that the topic of my job is off limits.” She informed him. She was quite familiar with people like him and she wasn’t going to allow him to obtain information illegally. “So what would you like to chat about?”

Cate’s ridiculous words made Carolyn want to roll her eyes. She didn’t. She managed not to, barely. “That’s an interesting way to see things,” she mused. “I hope you’re right.” 

“Just my own perspective.” She said, shrugging. “I suppose only time will tell.”

“Aaall I’m saying is: gumdrops actually look nothing like drops, do they?”

“I guess that technically depends on what drops actually look like. Do they have a geometric shape?”

“Yes, Ma’am, I’d be sure to tell Auror Rufus how much Hit Folks are superior to Aurors,” Mundungus replied, with a serious nod of his head. Of course, he would never dare to do something like that. Usually with Aurors, his lines were ‘I haven’t done it’ and ‘I have an alibi for that’, with the occasional ‘I know nothing about that’. “Oh, ongoing investigations. Plural. As in… ya guys are still investigating on the Gudgeon-thing?” His tone was more teasing than prying.

“No comment.” She replied. Whether or not the Gudgeon-Wilkes incident was an open investigation or not was not open for discussion. She would neither confirm nor deny. “Mr. Fletcher, are we quite done here or do you have something else to try to con me into buying?”

“I hope you’re right,” Carolyn said, shaking slightly her head. “But how long will it take?” Hopefully not too long, she had a life to get back to. “Maybe it’s just my job, but at the Prophet every day we expect something bad to happen.”

“I don’t know. But, I think for every bad thing there is a good thing. It’s yin and yang. The world has to balance itself out somehow.” She reasoned. “Of course, that doesn’t really make those who have experienced pain feel better.”

“Brill. I’ll hold you to that.”

“Hey, I have to head out, but we’ll talk again soon. See ya later, Fabian.”

“How about next Friday at Nacho Mama’s Tacos, say— seven o’clock?”

Carolyn could only agree. “Yes, it is.” She did agree with Cate’s statement, but she highly doubted her brother would be actually willing to do anything for her. His actions proved exactly that he didn’t care about his family at all. “Anyone who has that is quite lucky. Especially these days.”

“That’s fair compensation. How do you feel about Mexican food?”

“It happens to be my favorite.” She replied.

“I’m still standing. Even after all those parties.”

“All the more reason to come. I’ll see you at the next one?”

“I will be there with bells on.” She assured him.

Mundungus didn’t know if he should be offended at ‘amateur’ or ‘conman’, so he decided to be offended at both. “Pfft! Of course, and luckily I’m neither of those things. A law-abiding citizen right here. Me, meself and I.” But he was gladly reassured that she didn’t seem to have a professional interest in him. “And that is why I always appreciate Hitwitches more than Aruros. Albeit, of course, I appreciate all that you m—Enforcers of the Law do for us citizens. Like that deal with Gudgeon and Wilkes.. and the protests, too.”

She held back a snort and simply nodded. “Well, then you have excellent taste, Mr. Fletcher. Be sure if you ever encounter my brother, Rufus, to express your opinion of how Hit Witches and Wizards are better than Aurors. He needs to hear it quite often.” She said, smirking. “As far as the rest of it, I am afraid I cannot comment on ongoing investigations. But, we do our best to keep the wizarding world safe.”

“Well, I guess I’ve heard worse.”

“Aww, you poor thing.” She teased.

Ministry. Committed a very serious crime. Hit Witch. Mundungus’ life flashed in front of his eyes. 

“I’m no criminal, at all!” he said, his voice hitting a little high note there for a moment. “I did offer ya a discount on the next purchase if the item is to up to your satisfaction. That’s more than some people do around these parts, I tell ya. I saw a witch charging a little kid for something that was broken by a clear accident. Not to mention, she can mend the object just fine.. but did that stop her from extortion? Not one bit.”

“You can breathe, Mr. Fletcher. An amateur conman is of no interest to me or my department.” She told him. “I’m not an auror. I don’t go around flashing my badge and arresting people just for the hell of it.” She couldn’t resist getting in a dig at aurors, even if her brother was one. 

“Yes, it does,” Carolyn replied to Cate’s comment about stubbornness, letting out a sigh. “And yes, it definitely is. So damn frustrating,” she agreed. nodding firmly at those words. “Exactly.” She scoffed softly and rolled her eyes, a hint of a smile curling the corners of her lips. “Mine would probably say the same. It must be a brothers’ thing.”

“It must be. But, it’s nice, isn’t it? To have someone who would do anything for you? And vice-versa. I can’t imagine not having that.” Thankfully, the Scrimgeour’s were both relatively good kids and hadn’t given their parents too much difficulty growing up.