Absit Omen RPG

She felt pleased by how efficient they were in forming a plan. Ariadne would have made a good Auror if she were into that kind of thing - but clearly journalism suited her better. Raine gave her notes another scan to make sure she had gotten everything down.

Yes. Her heart fluttered nervously for just a second - she had committed so readily to trying Muse but a part of her was frightened. What if she got into trouble? What if the vision... memory... what if it was bad one, and she couldn't escape?

What if, what if, what if.

           “Anything else we need to do now?”

"Nope." Raine flipped her notebook shut, slipping it back into her bag. "I'll owl you if I find any old case files to do with Muse, or if I hear anything else on the Ministry grapevine. Though I think Bevans or Carstairs will know before it reaches two," she added.

Her demeanour didn't always welcome Ministry gossipers. She didn't know how to fix that, Raine wasn't a social chameleon; she had her realms of rules and discipline, money and high art. Her only strength as a spy was being a fairly innocuous animagus.

"I'm going to head out," the redhead got up - she hesitated a second and then offered a hand for Ariadne to shake, smiling faintly. "Good luck. I'm glad we're working on this together."

She laughed, because, well, Ari had a point. Not quite Queen G material - although Raine counted that as a point in her former housemate's favour.

The venue of their Muse trip agreed upon, she crossed her legs and took a little notepad out of her pocket to write down a reminder. Her notes were all in Russian; just to make it a little harder for snoopy eyes to read upside down, and sometimes the Cyrillic would distract people. As she did this, Ariadne produced a card out of her bag.

The redhead reached for it, raising her fiery brows. Okay. So she was impressed.

"Great idea," she grinned as she handed the card back. "Misslethorpe should be easy to handle if you play the distressed grandchild, I think? I've only really met him after he got his eyeballs reversed[1] by Spectre."

Raine wrinkled her nose. "I'm sure he's... sensible under regular circumstances, but I bet you can handle him. Grown wizards always underestimate us."

1.	24th Sept 2011 - We Are Who We Are

Raine was glad Ari didn't think that the aurors should be giving Muse their utmost attention - there really were dark wizards to catch, and the only reason Muse landed on Childs' desk instead of a regular MLE officer was probably because the memo had come from Morgenthau. It did seem shady, bordering on dark magic, to be stealing memories.

"How are you going to approach poking around St.Mungo's?" she asked, curious about Ariadne's methods now. "Pretend you're doing a feature for Queen G or something?"

Healers were confidential but they would probably be wary about giving out information too, after recent security breaches at the hospital. But she didn't want to bring Ari's grandfather up in conversation.

Raine crossed her legs, balancing on the couch arm. "Let's do it at mine. Not that I don't trust Nick or Virgil, I just think I'd be more comfortable with Abby around..."

And it sounded like something her flatmate would find interesting.

She was relieved to hear Ariadne volunteer to manage their budget - Raine had been dealing with money numbers[1] ever since Aunt Ira died and she was tired of it. Muggle money, wizarding money, property, stocks, assets; all hidden in little corners of Europe. At least this was one account she didn't need to look at.

Her investigating partner brought up a different subject, then. One that had slipped her by altogether, in spite of the fact that she saw Nadine Pinn's face on an almost daily basis.

"Don't worry, the older aurors never really care about what we're doing anyway." Raine shrugged, downplaying the trouble she would be in if they found out she was meddling. "I won't say anything to your mum, or to anyone who might tell her."

She liked Auror Pinn, who did most things by the book and took no nonsense. Even so she could imagine how the witch might throw a spanner into their works. Raine would need to come up with some kind of official cover, for whenever they 'busted the case'.

A thoughtful look entered her eye.  "Maybe I'll go into work and see if I can pull any cold case files to do with Muse?" she wrinkled her nose. "If Auror Childs hasn't already. He's technically in charge of investigating Muse but I doubt he'll dive deep. Not that sort of wizard."

Which was a roundabout way of calling him a cretin. Raine's expression said as much.

1.	17th Feb - Realisation Grew On Me

She wrinkled her nose at mention of neither Bevans nor 'V' giving up their source. Morgenthau knowing made sense - the memo had been from the Department of Mysteries, so the head himself must have sent it flittering in their direction.

Raine had glimpsed Morgenthau as a child, when she and her sister would attend the Carstairs' garden parties with Alexandra. Small world.

            "I'm not hoarding galleons right now if I'm honest..."

Right. Money. She always forgot about money, having never wanted for it, and it annoyed her to realise she had no idea what Muse went for on the streets. Probably more than a few grams of gillyweed.

"Well if you're doing the footwork, I can at least be the purse..." the redhead peered into her chunky knit chain tote. "Keep whatever's left for future expenses I suppose?"

She took out two velvet pouches, one deep red and the other blue. Raine kept spending money in one - but the other was what her Aunt would call tipping change. So she shook a few galleons into the later and tossed it on the coffee table. "Never know if we'll need a box of doughnuts for a stake out."

A sarcastic smile tugged at her mouth. Raine was fond of the muggle police stereotype in films. "Or pumpkin pasties anyway."

The redhead smiled - like all of her smiles, slightly restrained, as if her mouth couldn't quite stretch wide enough.

"Technically I'm only a mere, insignificant trainee..." she flipped a page in the scrapbook, recognising old articles about Muse related accidents. "Besides, I think it's alright to break rules as long as it makes sense."

None of the articles were long or explosive, nor were they dated especially close to each other. Muse hadn't taken off just yet. And wasn't that the key word? Yet. There was something tantalisingly sensational about the concept of experiencing someone else's memories. Like a pensieve without all the bother of it.

Raine wasn't really into new age stuff, how taking hallucinogens could open up your mind and break paradigms. But she had a touch of that characteristic for which her animagus form was famous. She was curious.

"I mean, I don't want the Ministry to dictate my personal moral compass," the witch added as she shut the book and handed it back to Ari. "What do you think? Is Nick more likely to spill the beans on his dealer, or to get you some contraband?"

It was nice to slip back into things. Raine was a part of the Ministry set nowadays but she was grateful to be around Ariadne, who existed outside those walls. Even at Hogwarts her housemate had been friendly reprieve from her more intense friend groups; catty tongues of Gracie, Theo and Virgil's cousin Alex. Life was so much less intense these days, luckily.

At least on a personal level. Pentrals and full moons and werewolf attacks weren't non-intense.

They caught up on small talk quickly enough, her answers peppered by the odd complaint of Auror paperwork and mention of Quidditch news. Raine cradled a mug of tea in her hands as they drifted back to the living area for real talk. The flat was cosy and comfortable, and carried an atmosphere of camaraderie similar to the common rooms at school.

Fiery eyebrows went up when the scrapbook was presented - she was impressed by Ari's thoroughness. As well as her daring.

The redhead sat on the edge of a sofa arm, careful not to spill anything. "Death wish might be right. I think they'll mark you out as a narc if you go down to Knockturn asking to sell memories," she narrowed her eyes at Bevans' description in the book, which she had opened on her lap now. "Though... maybe you should ask Nick to get you some. Or find out who his dealer is."

Raine glanced up with a little smile and thought of her friend's aversion to gillyweed.

"And I could try Muse, if you're willing to... what's that word?" she hesitated. "Trip sit? If you trip sit me. make sure I don't throw myself off a building or whatever."

Marching into Knockturn could work but she wanted to tread lightly so that nobody - including level two - realised the witches were snooping.

There it was - like a little explosion. Raine sipped her tea calmly as Gris began on the little tirade. It was very self-righteous and no doubt entertaining for the other patrons, whose eyes was drawn to the spectacle of two witches: one apoplectic, the other unconcerned. She was quite relaxed the moment she realised her companion was going to storm out.

Perhaps that would teach her to think twice about being friendly towards Raine.

            "I'm sorry you have such a sad life and I wish you the best of luck serving Voldemort."

At this, the redhead couldn't help but laugh. Gris knew about as much of Raine's upbringing as she did of hers. Indeed, her muggleborn mother would be bemused to hear of her serving under a dead Purist.

Once Alohomocha was free of that outburst, most everyone else returned to their own business. The Barista Ali came to check in on her. "It's fine," she smiled at him, then at the money on the counter. "Seems you've got yourself another tip." Raine raised her eyebrows sardonically as she got up. "Don't spend it all in one place."

Ali pulled a face at her, accustomed to Raine's remarks. She took her drink and strolled out on to Diagon, where she would take her time before returning to the Ministry. For Hericho's benefit.

Ah. She was doing that thing again. Getting emotional.

"You're not special Hericho, we all get pulled off our little tasks to assist on investigations..." Raine trailed off and leaned back in the cafe chair, smiling dryly. "Have a proactive thought for once in your slow-witted life. Some of us don't need to cry in public to maintain," she raised her hands in air-quotes with a laugh, "agency and motivation for a case."

Gris was ridiculous, she decided. It was like watching a child running around playing at being a copper. Raine wasn't sure if the other girl was any better at running her own life outside of level two either.

"Fauna's brilliant with people but Fauna isn't always going to be there," her smile drew in a little, serious, clocking but ignoring a glimpse of Hericho's odd tattoo. "It's called courtesy. I understand you weren't brought up to have any but you should probably learn quick. You aren't charming enough to get away without it."

A little voice in her head told Raine that she was dangerously close to speaking the way Aunt Ira did. But what of it? Gris would bumble her way through life like a fool regardless.

Her fiery eyebrows went up, a little amused by Hericho's defence. The witch hadn't even had the presence of mind to talk to Moira about the scene of the crime - an interview that would yield more results coming from a peer than an older Auror. Perhaps by 'calm and professional', Gris meant 'obedient and mindless'.

What needed proper addressing was the fact that her colleague didn't know if it was a muggle skull.

"Godric's socks, Hericho. You know there are ways to ascertain if a skull belongs to a muggle[1], don't you? Without all that bother," she rolled her eyes and tapped her head. "I'm sure the evidence room have run the tests. Muggles are fragile, their skulls aren't as resilient."

How in Merlin's name did this twit even get to be a trainee? Raine's face expressed her sentiment but she forbore the urge to speak it out loud and sipped tea instead. "Did you write to Moira later? Rich of you to be shedding tears now if you haven't."

Graduating from Hogwarts and working at the Ministry had rather hardened her opinion of people. It wouldn't be Hericho's fault if she was raised in a barn or whatever, but she'd been living in London for several months now and should be well on her way to some refinement.

1.	Referencing Jacob Kowalski needing a helmet in the Fantastic Beasts film.

Before lunchtime

She knocked on the door to the flat shared by Virgil, Ari and Nick. The last time Raine had been here was for the New Year's party - life had gotten busy on and off Two, since then, but she was mostly caught up on sorting out her late aunt's affairs by now. Hopefully.

Her purpose for visiting was... almost work-related. Raine had noticed a memo from Mysteries about some popular new drug[1] of questionable source, but Auror Childs was assigned the case and she wasn't keen on asking the odious wizard if she could join his investigation.

Instead, she had asked Virgil about the memo when she bumped into him at the Ministry. And he had directed her to Ariadne, who was interested in investigating the situation herself. Apparently the sharp-tongued Carstairs was too busy to chase down a lead. She might as well.

Why not? Raine was bored and this new contraband was interesting. Checking it out with her old housemate would give her a freer hand than with Childs - also, no paperwork, which had become the bane of her life.

The door opened and she felt herself smile slightly at Ari's familiar face. It made her think of Hogwarts and the Gryffindor common room and chocolate frogs.

"Hey," the redhead nodded in greeting. "Did Virgil say I was coming? It's about Muse."

1.	Muse (Plot Chapter)

Her lips pulled into a dry smile as Hericho claimed that most people wouldn't make enemies. Raine felt differently, though she doubted the other witch would understand. If you didn't have enemies, it was because you didn't have the courage to live loudly by your principles. The McBoids seemed like good people but they didn't pick fights for others, as far as she knew.

"Oh, was it a muggle skull?" she raised her eyebrows, surprised by the notion of using a computer to find ransacked graves. "You're better off asking someone on Three, they have people who can help you find out."

Gris was having an emotional reaction to the case that she couldn't quite understand. Good breeding urged her not to bring this up but the emotionality annoyed the redhead, who didn't think it was very professional.

"How bad was this desecration?" Raine frowned. "I don't see why you're tearing up, if you don't even know the McBoids that well."

             "Their grave had been desecrated..."

She listened attentively, allowing her tea to cool. Raine had heard bits and pieces of the investigation but Gris delivered a more cohesive, emotional account. The grave and the tree? What significance did the tree hold, she wondered? While some crimes were blindly destructive, grave desecration was premeditated.

"So they have little idea who did it?" Raine lifted the lid of her drink and blew gently on the surface, thinking. "The McBoids don't sound like people who easily makes enemies."

Outside of the pentral business. Her mind always turned back to the pentral business, having lived with Abby since her rescue last year. "To do something like that... leave behind a skull, desecrate sacred places. It's so precise. I doubt the skull is fake, not if they've gone through all that trouble in the first place."

She sipped her tea thoughtfully - not quite looking at Gris, trying to picture the scene.

"How did they react?"

She ordered drinks, a Lapsang Souchong for herself, and lingered to chat with the barista while he made their drinks. The queue hadn't been long so she knew it wouldn't be a wait - anyway, it helped give her some time away from Gris, who was apparently starting the night with a shot of firewhiskey in her coffee.

When she approached their table with takeaway cups - just in case either of them had to dash - the redhead felt less irritated with the other trainee. The barista, Ali, was so chill he emanated it.

"So what were you saying about the McBoids?" Raine dropped into her seat and handed Gris her drink. "I haven't seen Moira since... I can't remember. Some party or other."

Wow she really didn't hang with the Hufflepuffs of her year. Maybe that needed correcting. Fauna was excellent, after all. She slid over the unused loyalty card as well as a new one with two stamps on it. "Can't imagine her or her people mixed up in level two business. They seem so normal, outside of the pentral thing."

And the pentral issue wasn't their fault.