malfaiteur

Moody sighed at the mention of Alex, knowing exactly what he must have done. Which in any other situation might have been a nice gesture, but he’d been leaving her alone for a bloody reason. 

“It’s not that no one’s tried, Vic. No one’s found him. You were - well you were our best shot,” He said feeling bitter enough saying it. He didn’t like recklessness, and he didn’t like fools errands but if felt half of the bloody things Dumbledore asked for were. 

“ I said I would update you if we had anything to update on and we haven’t had anything. And incase it matters, I can assure you I didn’t send Alex. If I’d known he was going to try to do that I would have stopped him.”

“I can’t go back to France without getting attacked the second I cross the border.” Victoire hated to say that, but she still hadn’t figured out how she’d gotten ambushed so quickly the last time she’d went. Intending to stay less than a day, it’d taken a month before French police had gotten her back to London. “It just seems like Dumbledore’s written him off-- I know that dude had more fuckin’ beard than he has morals, but there’s got to be something else he can do.”

She was at least somewhat reassured that Moody hadn’t sent Alex, but she still wondered if the man’s lack of knowledge had been because of Moody leaving him out of everything or just trying to sweep the one thing under the rug. “I got Sasha a leash after he tried to attack one too many mailboxes-- maybe you should look into getting one for your husband. Believe it or not, there are some people who like strangers showing up at their house even less than I do.” 

Who the fuck carries a raven around with them? Adam had had enough with weirdos when he’d finally fired Remus after being late one too many times and maybe being a werewolf and also maybe a little bit because he wouldn’t shut up about muggle authors. While he was grateful that there was at least one wizard who knew muggle mechanics he also didn’t enjoy the idea of a noisy raven hanging out inside his flat for a prolonged period of time. 

“I don’t use magic in my apartment so everything should be fine,” Adam assured her pointedly looking at Sasha before turning his attention towards Victoire. “Does it bite?” If that thing fucking bit he didn’t want it anywhere near him or his apartment.

“Of course Sasha bites, he’s a raven.” Victoire didn’t blink at the question, merely offering the bird a treat as a reward for being quiet. She didn’t go anywhere without the bird anymore, as he’d developed a good degree of separation anxiety while she’d been missing. “He’s also got a great sense for magic and electricity though, so I do need him. Unless you can sense household runes, that is.”

“She’s what?” Emmeline gasped. The Minister, dead. Oh Merlin. No wonder they were shutting everything done. No wonder she hadn’t gotten called. Nothing she could do to help a corpse after all.

“Lord above. Alright that’s… Oh Merlin.” She ran a hand through her hair as she tried to figure out what on earth even happened next. What did they do now?  “Are they shutting everything down now? I imagine they must be. I’m assuming no leads?”

“Murdered,” Vic clarified, though these days that was obvious. Sasha looked away from the window back at Vic, indicating he’d seen none of the gaps that she was looking for. She swore at the disappointment, though she’d doubted she’d find one in the first place.

“They’re locking people in, and I haven’t been able to find any gaps in their charms.” Because of course now was when the Ministry had to start suddenly being competent, wasn’t it? “They’re not saying much, and I have to admit Sasha’s language skills are limited. Unless you speak raven, neither of us can really tell you if they’ve got suspects.”

She had been put on reserve as a Healer for the event. Which mostly meant having to cancel a date with Maura. That part sucked the most honestly. She’d really been looking forward to spending time with her girlfriend. The Minister has her own Healers, and Emm’s practicality understood the need for backup but that didn’t really make it better. She’d wanted a nice night in.

Only now there was definitely no chance of getting home to the woman she adored. The whole building had just shut down.

Emm shot up, hand on her wand and on high alert. No news had trickled in yet.

“What’s happening?” She asked the first person who came in the room. “What just happened?”

Victoire held her hands up in surrender, the raven on her shoulder croaking in annoyance at the disturbance. There was work in the morning, she hoped this didn’t take any longer than it had to, but that was looking unlikely already.

“The Minister’s fuckin’ dead,” she said, transferring Sasha from her shoulder to her forearm in order to hold him up to the window. The bird had a knack for finding wards and charms, which she thought might come in handy for finding a way out in case they needed one. “Funny what you can find out when you’ve got a spy with wings.”

Adam really regretted the fact that he wasn’t a good mechanic. Despite all the books he read and all the times he tried, he could never fix any of his muggle mechanics on his own. Normally this would be an excuse to travel into Muggle London and drop it off at the shop but not this time. For starters he needed his phone fixed as soon as possible so that his parents could contact him and then there was also the fact that he had to be at the store more often because of Remus’ recent firing that left him without time to do much of anything. So he was very grateful when he could hunt down a witch that could help him and fast.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” he said politely once he’d opened the door for her. “The phone’s just in this room over here.”

@v-for-victoire

Vic hadn’t bothered to change out of her coveralls after leaving her actual job, having planned on taking care of a few calls from what was becoming her rather lucrative side business between leaving work and heading back to her flat. She didn’t claim to be able to fix everything, but just being the go-between for wizards and muggle repair shops had enough of a market as it was. Things were going well in one part of her life, at least.

“It’s no problem,” She said with a smile, ignoring the way the raven on her shoulder cawed amusedly at her fake customer service voice. “I’m Victoire, and this is my assistant Sasha.” Gesturing toward the bird, who promptly fell silent at the attention as if caught doing something he shouldn’t. “I’ve just got to ask-- is there any way the phone could have met any kind of magic that might make it dangerous to work on?”

“For fucks sake,” Moody muttered but letting the witch pass. He didn’t like that people knew where he lived, but lately it seemed to be a battle he was going to lose. He’d kept it hidden for awhile, but unlike himself Alex had a habit of actually wanting people over. 

He’d figure out the rest of it later, and shuffle things around if he needed too.  “If you want to keep your foot I recommend avoiding going near the stairs going up,” Following her in and getting ready for whatever was about to happen. 

“Don’t you dare ‘for fuck’s sake’ me,” Vic said, looking back over her shoulder to glare at Moody. She wanted to be here about as much as he seemed to want her here, but he’d left her very little choice. There was little doubt he was serious about the stairs being trapped though, so she followed the instructions to avoid. 

“To start, Jean hasn’t been found yet-- you remember, he was the whole reason I had to go to France in the first place-- and I’m starting to get the idea I’m the only one looking.” More accurately, she’d known that since the beginning. “So it was a bit of a fucking surprise when who shows up but your goddamn husband, who seemed to think food would make me forget about the whole fucking thing.”

Laure sat huddled on the very end of the couch, glad that Vic wasn’t looking so her friend couldn’t see the way her face wavered on the edge of nothingness. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do now. She’d never had to be someone who didn’t have a twin before.

When she tried to form words all that came out was a hiccupy sob. It took a few more frantic sob-coughs before anything resembling French or English made it past her lips. “I feel so lost.”

Vic managed to convince her bird to hop down onto her forearm, feeding him a treat to keep him calm. Sasha tore into the biscuit with great enthusiasm, no doubt getting crumbs on the floor. Used to his antics, Vic simply carefully moved them both to sit on the couch next to Laure.

She’d never been as close to her sisters as Laure had been to René, but she still was scared as hell by the prospect of losing them. They’d always been a unit, not until that month she’d been missing had she ever really been alone before. “I’d be surprised if you didn’t,” she said gently, reaching over to rub her friend’s back. 

Even Sasha quieted down from his biscuit induced excitement, hopping off of Vic’s arm and over to the familiar girl. He croaked something that sounded rather like Laurie, rubbing against her arm with his head in a vague imitation of Vic’s actions. 

@mlle-laurette

“That sounds fun. Maybe we’ll get some tonight,” Sanya said optimistically. Their eyes widened in delight. “Vic, I knew your muggle stuff had a purpose. I think we’ve found it.” Sanya laughed as they finally got up off the couch. “Come on, I’ll help you carry it.”

“I think there’s a fair type thing going on a few blocks west of Carkitt Market in the muggle part of town,” Vic suggested, having walked by it a few times on her way to work. She walked towards the storage bin she’d been keeping everything that shouldn’t get on the carpet in, picking up a couple jugs and holding one out for Sanya to take. “Muggle stuff has always been useful, ya dumb fuck.”

“I never said they were horrible, I only said they were loud” Sylvanie laughed, rolling her eyes. “We should swap clothes one day, see if we can still trick people. Though the hair might be the giveaway now” that and Sylvanie was sure it would be clear who Vic was because of the way she would hold herself in one of Sylv’s floral dresses. “I’d love to! Lets go to the beach. Though the beaches here arn’t really beaches. they’re just rocks, arn’t they?”

“They were fantastic because they were loud,” Vic insisted, having thought more than once about putting metal plates on the bottom to make them louder. “I bet we could still do it, if I wore a wig. I play guitar well enough to maybe last an hour around your friends, the problem would probably be you trying to ride a motorcycle.” She had an idea, suddenly grinning. “I could teach you when we have that picnic-- wanna bet on who can pull off the switch longest?”

@v-for-victoire

Moody heard a bang, and after waiting for a second got up from his desk. He didn’t hear any screaming, and it was late enough that he was sure there wasn’t anyone around to get hurt. 

Still most people didn’t know where he lived, so it was a disturbing sound. His wand up he quickly went to his door waiting for a second before quickly pulling it open and pointing his wand at whoever made the sound.

“Merlin, Fortescue.” He said the wand not wavering. “What the hell was that?”

Vic raised an eyebrow at the wand pointed at her chest, pointedly not looking sorry for what she’d done. “You weren’t answering,” she said as she tried to push past Moody into the house. Her cherry red motorcycle parked at the curb would be a dead giveaway that she’d been here if anyone looked too closely at it, but somehow she doubted many Death Eaters would notice muggle things like that. 

“We’ve got to talk, and you’re not gonna fuckin’ like it, but you’re gonna listen.”