10 January 2012
Noon
Directly following Mad and Dead as Nails


Bagnold asked Bruce to meet him on Level 4 in five minutes, but she shook her head.
 
“I’Il need to speak to these relatives before news makes it to them through another means.” The Dunnigans, according to the sheet of parchment now in her robe pocket. Robert and Richard Dunnigan, probably never to be seen alive again. Bagnold suggested she take someone with her, ever the paranoid wizard that he was. She watched as Bagnold left down a corridor towards some of the law offices on Level 2, but she didn’t immediately move to leave the Department of Law Enforcement. Instead, Bruce lingered for a moment, trying to calm herself down. She couldn’t go to see this soon to be grieving family ready to snap. Time was of the essence, but so was empathy and kindness. She’d not delivered this sort of news to someone in years.
 
After lingering and double questioning herself for a moment or two, Iona chose to head towards the auror offices. Click click click of the cane as it hit the ground with more vigour than normal. She was in a lot of pain. There was yet another witch she knew that would be pretty mad should she choose to go alone. As Bagnold had suggested, anything could be waiting for her.

This was why she found herself in the auror headquarters. In all of their years together, Iona had never visited her wife in this office. After all, as she’d found out a few weeks prior, no one in red robes even knew their relationship. After a few strange looks from various aurors, and a point in the right direction from an auror trainee, Iona found her destination. Sat at the desk was the witch in question, clad in red robes with thick dark hair flowing over her shoulders and back.

“Zo?”
 
Zora looked up - no one around here called her that other than her wife.

“I was going to find you,” she said. Iona looked terrible. “I’ve been here a few hours. Just finished with the last from the safe house. You alright?”

“No” Iona muttered with a shake of her head. She stepped into the cubicle and dropped into the folding metal chair in the corner. It was crowded but hardly an issue with her wife. As she spoke, Iona’s voice was shaky and quiet. “Bagnold and I just went to find out why Carter wasn’t in work, this morning. We found him dead in his study. Mauled.”

“What?” Zora’s face twisted into a confused scowl. “A werewolf? Who? How?”

Even as the automatic questions came up, Zora’s mind raced towards Iona. “You found him.”

“I don’t know.” Now that she’d sat down with someone she trusted implicitly, Iona felt the emotion bubbling to the surface. She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. “It was clearly a werewolf. Level 2…” she paused, closing her eyes. “Level 2 knew of a vision.”

Zora sniffed. “Well, I sure as hell didn’t. Merlin.” Tension was gripping her chest and filled her stomach with acid. It was barely midday. Zora rested her elbow on the desk and rubbed at her closed eyes.

“I didn’t say you did!” Despite how uncharacteristic it was, Iona snapped back, fingernails digging into her palms.

“Sorry. So, what?” The pieces fell open before Zora. That Iona must have been pulled directly from the safe room back onto to duty, and was picking over body parts by the time Zora’d been called in to handle the Dumfries cohort.

“Two werewolves were kidnapped from the safehouse. Did you know that? Two brothers. I need to go see their relatives.”

Zora looked up and nodded. “Yeah. I spoke with some of the others. The Dunnigans were regulars. When are you going?”

“Now.” She muttered before looking a little sheepishly at Zora. “Come with me? Please?” As if protecting her ego, she continued. “Bagnold is being paranoid.”

It took Zora a moment to register but the transition between wives and warriors was fast. “Right, yeah. Of course. He would be. Is he ever not?”

Zora stood up and began to gather her things, but she paused. “You’re going to be fine.”

Iona frowned and grit her teeth, looking up at her wife. She didn’t move to stand yet.
“You think so? Carstairs just hauled me and Kurby into his office to throw the weight of his dick around. Apparently I’m unfit.”

“Oh come on,” Zora scoffed. “You know that’s rubbish and it doesn’t matter what he says. We have a job to do.” 

Zora was unsettled. This wasn’t like Iona. “Come on,” she urged more quietly.

“How you don’t hex him…” Iona muttered as she pushed herself up to stand. “You ok?” She knew what Zora would say. Of course, she was okay.

“Of course.”

---

By 12:15, Head of the Werewolf Wing Ballentyne and Senior Auror Roh were on the stoop of a respectable magical cottage in Dumfriesshire in Scotland. It was the home of the older brother Richard Dunnigan. Barely had they knocked on the door than it swung open and the two Ministry agents were met with a red-eyed older witch, who, upon seeing them, burst into tears.

“I’m Auror Roh,” Zora said flatly. Her stomach was a stone. “This is Bruce Ballentyne from the Werewolf Wing. You’re the family of Richard…” 

      ”No, no, no, not again!” she whispered and stepped away from the door. And just kept slowly walking away down the hall. Somenone came up from the ktichen and then another, and Zora realized that she and Iona were with family of both missing werewolves. When the brothers/uncles/sons/fathers hadn’t come home in the morning, the family had come together in a kind of vigil.

Iona felt the knot in her stomach tighten as several family members came towards the door to console the crying witch who was backing up down the hallway. It was one of those moments that both she and Zora had always feared happening to them. Ministry officials showing up at their apartment door to deliver the life changing news.

“May we come in? Mrs Dunnigan?” She simply had to be the mother of the two brothers.An older wizard nodded solemnly and he clumsily led them through to the living room. Iona’s mind flashed back to the other unfamiliar house she’d been in today. Covered in claw marks and catastrophe. Alec Carter with his leg ripped clean off. Images she was never going to shake.

Iona gestured for them all to sit before she dealt the news, her voice soft and calm.
“Mrs Dunnigan, Richard and Robert checked in to a ministry safe house last night. This safe house was infiltrated.” Blue eyes refused to look at anyone other than this particular witch perched nervously on the edge of her sofa. “I am so sorry, they are missing.”

The news didn’t seem to come as a surprise to the family, but that didn’t make the shock of hearing it officially confirmed any less heart-breaking. Zora tried to mimic Iona’s gentle voice.

“Have you heard anything at all from them?” the Auror asked.

     ”No, nothing. They’d never do this.”

Zora nodded holding her notebook in her lap.

“To your knowledge had either of them been threatened? Do you know if there’s anyone who’d want to hurt them?” Zora continued.

“You mean after last time?” Mrs Dunnigan asked, sniffing.

To her side, the older wizard stood, his face reddening. “This is you people. This is you.”

Iona looked like she couldn’t wait to dart from the room, but she didn’t move.
“I am so sorry. We are doing everything in our power to find them.”

“Everything in your power?!” He asked, voice rising with emotion. “Rubbish! They’re just werewolves, aren’t they? Everything in your power! If that was true, if you’d have done everything in your power, they’d be at home now, wouldn’t they?”

Zora didn’t even have to try - the greater the pressure the harder she pushed back on her emotional reactions. It wasn’t healthy. It was going to blow. It was one thing to hide her heart from violent criminals, another from victims’ aching families.

“We understand your frustration,” she said levelly, resisting the urge to jump to Iona’s defense. They had a job to do, whether the family wanted their help or not.

“We have reason to believe they’ve been harmed. Please, try to think. Had they mentioned anything unusual? Who knew they’d be at the Dumfriesshire safe house?”

Mrs. Dunnigan broke down in tears again and her husband held her protectively, glowering at the two Ministry agents. A younger family member spoke up, her voice shaky but clear.

“Nothing like that. And we all kept that secret. After the first time they changed, I thought? Didn’t they?” She looked around for confirmation. There was a tittering of disagreement. 

“They only told us in case something happened. We didn’t tell anyone else.”

Iona sat silent for a moment, at a loss for what to say. She’d dealt the news, and that was all she’d ever had experience of doing. Deal the news and get out of there. Beside her, Zora was the auror, the one who knew what questions to ask.

“Ministry records are hardly as confidential as you say, though, are they?” Mr Dunnigan accused, and Iona found her teeth biting into the inside of her cheek.

“We prize safety, Sir.”

“Clearly not!” Dunnigan shouted, his cheeks had turned a furious red, a vein bulging in his fat neck.

Iona’s grip on her cane tightened, fingernail biting into the wooden handle. She glanced sidewards at Zora. They’d delivered the message. What more, now? She chose to fix her gaze on the crying witch in the armchair.

“If you can think of anything at all, it could really help us find them.” She spoke softly, a stark contrast to the shouting man. “They aren’t just werewolves to either of us, I promise. We are doing everything we can to find them.”

Zora kept her cool but inside she was frustrated. This wasn’t the time for Iona to waste her breath defending the Ministry. It wouldn’t do any good, not now. The trauma was fresh and it only led to more arguing. Iona was making it worse. But she was right. They were done.

She stood and set her card on a side table. “Thank you all for your cooperation. We’ll be in touch.”

One of the calmer family members stood. ”I’ll show you out,” she said and stood to hurry them out.

---

“What was in your head?” Zora blurted as soon as they were out of earshot of the house. “You can’t - you kept making excuses. You can’t - Damnit, Iona.”

“What?” Iona looked like she’d just been punched in the stomach. “There are no excuses to be made! Someone broke in and kidnapped them, probably skinned them and we’re not going to find them alive. So excuse me for damned well apologising to a grieving family!” Perhaps this was the moment when she finally snapped. Iona’s eyes had teared up, blurry, but she looked as furious as she did upset.

Zora rubbed her eyes. “It’s not our job to apologize! None of that matters. We have a job to do and you can’t let emotions and guilt get in the way.”

It felt like she was talking to a trainee. “It doesn’t matter what they think of you. I can’t do my job if I have to hold hands. I know this is hard for - Merlin, Iona.”

While she hated herself for it, Iona struggled to hold back the emotion that had been building all day. Having Zora be so blunt with her only seemed to bring it to a head. All day, she’d dealt with the punch in the face that she couldn’t do her job properly. She’d never considered the safe houses, she hadn’t considered Carter, and now other people were paying for it. To have Carstairs condescending her about how she did her job was something she could deal with. But Zora after all of this? It was too much.

“Hard?” She repeated, disbelieving. “The problem with actually giving a shit, yeah.” It was a low blow, but Zora hadn’t exactly held back any punches either. Iona didn’t give her wife a chance to respond, because she pulled out her wand and apparated.

“Iona -!” There wasn’t time for Zora to stop her. This was why they didn’t work together and it had been a mistake to agree to agree to come. She swore, immediately regretting everything she’d said. Zora knew they’d find each other later and get through this, but right now, she’d never felt further apart.