to: franklin selwyn, head of the department of aurors from: aaron duergard, auror cc: bernard cowbell , head of the department of magical law enforcement date: Aug 18, 1950 at 18:32 regarding: helena hyslop’s interview on August 18, 1950 at 8:36 concerning the sudden reappearance of mister norris, case file number: 0208FMPCANorris
could you please state your name, age, house, and wand specifications for the record ?
merlin it was nice to see cathy out in the lobby. at the very least it was comforting to hear a friend’s voice right before the interview, after all that was who had taken lena’s alibi before this whole mess had started. as they asked the first question a second time, lena blushed and mumbled out a quick apology. perhaps now wasn’t the time to attempt to self soothe and it could wait until after all this business was done. ❛ i’m helena hyslop, most people call me lena. i am twenty five and a gryffindor through and through. i have a spruce and dragon heartstring wand that is brittle and it’s nine and a half inches. ❜
who sent out your invitation to the norris’s home ?
❛ well, i would hope the norris family. i’m not familiar with the family but it looked like it was their seal on the wax. ❜
was there a signature of any kind ?
❛ yes. from what i remember it was mister norris’. the invitation burned up in my hand before i could take further stock of it. ❜
did you attend the event with anyone ?
for a moment her heart twinged with guilt as she thought about the fight that monty and odessa got in, and then anger replaced guilt as she thought about what she’d heard monty say. ❛ i did, i attended with fleamont potter. ❜
could you state, in your own words, what happened at mr. norris’s home prior to his arrival ?
well we watched lazarus avery force him into the form of a cat from underneath an invisibility cloak while trespassing on private property. though relevant, it made too many questions rise and she hadn’t had the opportunity to question lazarus about it. maybe, and merlin was it a small maybe, lazarus had done a good thing ?
❛ monty — uh, fleamont — sorry can i use nicknames here ? gave me a run down of what to expect. i haven’t been to many dinner parties hosted by purebloods and black tie has never been the level of formality that i’m comfortable with, ❜ she tried to laugh, to diffuse the tension she was feeling, but nothing was helping. everyone she knew who had attended the party had felt like their nerves were live wires just waiting to strike at someone.
❛ i didn’t really mingle with many people. truth be told i had a bit of a panic in the guest bathroom. you know we all thought mister norris was dead and to be in his home by ourselves was a bit of a foreign experience. the dinner was nice, the seance was less nice. ❜ she took a deep breath. ❛ i feel responsible for the spat between odessa bones and fleamont potter. i’m not sure if they’re still together after everything that happened. i was trying to comfort monty and — ❜ she wasn’t sure what else to say but the truth of her spiel would likely distract from the lack of anything helpful to the investigation. at least it got her to stop thinking about what she’d witnessed well before the dinner party. ❛ and my feelings got away from me. ❜
were you, at any point, aware of mr. norris’s location between the night of his alleged disappearance and the dinner party ?
❛ no. ❜ in the strangest sense it wasn’t a lie. she’d known lazarus had taken him to the norris household on the night a few weeks prior but she didn’t know what had happened to him after that and she hadn’t wanted to. apparently mister norris was fine as could be.
as far as the seance, what kind of questions were asked of the deceased, mr. cygnus black ?
❛ the kind typically asked of the dead ? ❜ she tried, wanting to bring some kind of levity to the interview. it felt far more like an interrogation than what made her comfortable. ❛ identifying questions, mostly, in the form of yes and no. do you know anyone in this room ? are you related to any of the people here ? do you have a message for anyone here ? things like that. ❜
did anyone seem particularly uncomfortable with the event during or immediately after ?
❛ everyone was uncomfortable, i think. i certainly was. ❜ well that sounded suspicious. the burial society had been involved in two too many deaths as far as lena was concerned and even if she hadn’t been present for what had happened with cygnus, after henry’s end, putting two and two together wasn’t exactly newts level arithmancy. ❛ death isn’t something i’m particularly comfortable with. ❜
do you know if there’s anyone else who might be more knowledgeable about the situation ?
❛ to be fair, here, we’re all twenty something idiots who thought a seance in the middle of august was a good idea. i’m not sure anyone is knowledgeable about the situation. ❜ said the girl who was employed by the very ministry questioning her. ❛ it was all a mess and everyone wanted to get out, being asked to leave by mister norris was the blessing of the evening. ❜
do you know anything about the necklace that was recovered ?
❛ no, i don’t remember the necklace or anything coming up about it. ❜
were you aware of any business dealings between mr. norris and mr. black ?
❛ i’m not really privy to the dealings of anyone, to be fair. ❜ lena told them honestly.
would you be willing to leave your memories with us for observation ?
❛ sure ? ❜ her hesitance was only in that she wasn’t sure what her memories would reveal. the jitters of the night wouldn’t weave their way into a pensieve, not like if they’d had someone skilled at legilimens dive into her head. surely the department of magical law enforcement didn’t have that kind of budget ? at least she could cut out the part where she destroyed monty and odessa’s relationship.
have you spoken with anyone outside of the attendees about the event ?
❛ i did. ❜
if so, who ? and what did you tell them ?
❛ my sister, felicity. i had to unpack the events of the night with someone and there’s no one i trust more than her. to be clear, it wasn’t focused on the seance or anything of importance, just something that had happened with monty. ❜
is there anything else of relevance that you can think of that i didn’t ask you about ?
the smile on her face was tired as she shook her head. the lie tumbled so easily from her as she said, ❛ not a thing that i can think of. ❜








