26 Aug 09
6am

Zora Roh walked down a grey London street at Obscene-O'Clock-In-The Morning.  Even though it was still the dim light of dawn, she wore her sunglasses down.  She was called in towards the end of her on call to check out the scene of some incident the night before.

"Oh - and, Roh?  Take these two with you." Raynor had said as a tag on the end of the task. 

And so Trainees Blair and Farro were along for the ride.  So far, Roh hadn't said much to them other than a few terse instructions. 

"We'll be in Muggle-land.  Wands and badges away until we secure the area."

"It's a scene 'break-down'.  Routine. Don't need to be so damn giddy."

"You do know what a break-down is, don't you?"

Zora had a teenage daughter at Hogwarts now, and there was something unsettling about the young Trainees, she wasn't exactly sure how to deal with them.  But at least this would be easy.

And so in the early morning, the Auror and two Trainees were making their way to the scene of last night's incident to break it down and try and discover what went on.  Roh looked back over her shoulder to check on them, make sure they were still coming along.

"This was a bad morning to tag along..." Eha thought as she covered her yawn with a gloved hand. Normally, she turned up at the Auror office around seven o'clock, early enough to get in a round or two of personal combat practice before the paperwork started to flow. But this morning, Papa'd needed to come in extra early for a diplomatic business call, and Eha opted to tag along to give him company, only to be snagged by Raynor and sent along with Auror Roh without so much as a coffee.

Still, things could be worse. This was an investigation. Actual work, instead of getting pushed around as a glorified filing system. So she pushed her mind's complaints aside, banished sleep to the back of her mind, and hurried to catch up with Zora.

"Of course we know what a break-down is. We don't all sleep through our lectures." She chuckled, stopped, privately decided that the joke was lame, and decided to continue on without acknowledging this. "So, what info do we have going in? All Auror Raynor said was that something went down. Who called us in?"

The morning was not starting out well. It was the first time in a long time that Luthas had to be up this early and he had to raid his wife's stock of extra strong coffee to stay awake. Luthas smothered a yawn and grimaced as he took another swig of coffee from his tumbler. 'Needs more sugar.'

The transition from senior archivist to trainee was an... interesting transition. It didn't help things that most of his new peers were Ishane's former students, if only for a couple of months. He glanced over at his fellow trainee and then at their mentor's back. At least he and Eha had something in common even if it was only that neither of them were recent Hogwarts graduates.

"Of course we know what a break-down is. We don't all sleep through our lectures. So, what info do we have going in? All Auror Raynor said was that something went down. Who called us in?"

"Indeed. Though I could probably parrot that one in my sleep." Luthas chuckled. After being lectured for nearly a month and a half on auror procedure day in and day out he certainly hoped he'd memorized it. "I didn't get told anything by Auror Raynor about the case either. Though given they're sending out us on it, I doubt that it's anything as major as a murder." At least he hoped so. He didn't think the aurors were so unprofessional that they would send out a pair of greenhorns out on one of those cases without informing them, at least with Roh as their mentor.  Though there were others at the office that he wouldn't put it past them to set something like that up as a nasty hazing incident.

Of all the trainees Raynor could have sent along, at least she'd chosen these two.  Blair was a grown man with a proper family.  Some kind of career change a bit late in the game, but to be sure he wasn't going to be jumpy and getting caught in distracting broom cupboards like his younger cohorts still adjusting to real life.  And Farro, she was more mature as well.  Young still, but not fresh, green and seventeen. 

"Hold your brooms..."  They weren't there yet.  But they would be soon.  They came up to the address and Zora slowed.  There was supposed to be a narrow ally that opened into a secluded ...

"Here.  C'mon.  Don't touch anything." 

Zora motioned them into the narrow passage way and still near the edge.

"We've got to isolate this area so we can use magic and talk shop without some muggle wandering in," she said to them.  "What do we do?"

She raised an eyebrow and nodded at the entrance to the little courtyard.   It was barely a courtyard.  It was more like some incidental unused space, like some divot or scar on the city scape.  But whatever it was, it needed to be secured for the time being.  Your move, Trainees, she thought.  Did they have mustard?

Now that was an easy question. Eha glanced up at nearby windows to make sure they were still dark - which they were - and casually slipped her wand from inside her sleeve. She let her arm fall casually to one side, already tracing the shape of a Muggle Repelling Charm with its tip, and nodded to Luthas. 

"I'll get the wards up if you'll take the silencers." Without waiting for an answer, she flicked her wand towards the courtyard's entrance. "Repello Muggletum."

She lay the first threads of the spell along the sidewalk, coaxing into existence the invisible barriers that would remind Muggles of their Very Important Appointment if they strayed too close. Glancing at Auror Roh for approval, she began to move casually around the edge of the nook, tracing out the barrier and taking care not to touch anything. Even if her hands were gloved, it wouldn't do to smudge a single print.

This describes what the scene looks like and what evidence there is to find.  We are only 7 hours out from the fight.

"Thank Merlin," Zora said when Farro and Blair knew what to do.  This was basic.  She watched with approval as Farro cleanly and discreetly laid out the Muggle Repelling Charm.  Zora wasn't the type to be liberal with attaboy's and sweets for jobs well done, so it was a credit to them both that Zora felt comfortable allowing them to proceed on their own with that part.

"Alright, c'mon.  Watch your step."  Zora gestured they followed, voice at normal volume now.  At the end of the short narrow passage was a forgotten bit of space between the buildings and clearly, something had gone down.

Zora lifted her sunglasses and set them on top of her head as she gave a low whistle.  "Blind me!  There was a fight here!..."

It still smelled of smoke and ash! There was a dark smoldering ring where a fire had been, in a shape too clean to have been natural.  And a far wall was freshly cracked by some impact of spell - and all that Zora could see without drawing her wand.

Which she now did.  Wand out she walked along the perimeter. 

"What do you kids know about detecting the traces of spells previously cast?"  she asked them.

"I'll get the wards up if you'll take the silencers."

Luthas nodded, "On it." He pointed his wand in the direction of Eha's and followed her casting, quickly setting up the silencing wards so they could talk. Once finished he followed Auror Roh down the narrow passage and wrinkled his nose at the burning smell as he took in the scene. "With this much damage I'm somewhat surprised the commotion didn't bring the muggle authorities." He glanced at his senior who drew his wand.

"What do you kids know about detecting the traces of spells previously cast?"

Luthas cocked his head to the side, "There are several spells, which one you use depends on the crime scene or what kind of magical objects you have on hand. Like Priori Incantato is used on wands." His own wand created a phantom of the silencing ward spell he used just a bit ago. "There are also potions, but those tend to be more specialized."

Eha nodded sagely in time with Luthas's words before chiming in with her own, "Of course, for us, the first line of investigation is Revoficus charm." Her wand gave a little twitch, as though recognizing the spell, but that was all, since the proper motions had not been made. "If it's only been a few hours, we should find some trace."

She followed carefully in Zora's footsteps, following the Auror around the edge of the scene. The spell damage on the far wall seemed the best place to start, if she had to take a guess. It seemed fresher than the burned circle, and less likely to be a disguised warding line.

"This is a muggle house, isn't it?" she asked Roh as they reached the crack in the wall. "There's got to be a reason the fight broke out here instead of a wizard's neighborhood. At least one of the parties involved must have planned something out."

"Mmm," Zora acknowledged, becoming engrossed in the work.  It wasn't action-packed but it was a more interesting scene than the report had described, and her two tag-alongs were also more interesting then first check. 

Blair had made a solid point that any commotion here might have drawn a muggle authority, and Farro was also dead on - two wizards battle-ready didn't just stumble upon such a place.

"You're right.  This spot was chosen.  It's enclosed, discreet..." Looking up, there weren't any windows down into the courtyard, because it really wasn't a courtyard - more like a forelorn little nowhere.  Only one way in.  Standing there in the middle of it...

"I feel like a fish in a barrel..."

She took out her notebook and jotted down a couple of quick notes for the report and follow up later.  "Let's find out what made that spell blast there, and what made this ash.  And then we've got to do a whole sweep of this area.  There'll likely be spells cast that didn't leave a visual trace."

It would be a tedious process, but who knows what they'd find. 

"Particular, check for Apparitions."

Wand out, Zora decided to move in on the ashy ring in the middle of the area, she walked along its perimeter a few steps.  Some places of the ash were different colored, and there were footprints there as well.  From her belt pouch, she took out a black vial, removed the stopper and held it to the ground.  The ash near its mouth swirled up in a little cyclone and then zipped into the small vial.  A sample for one of their potioneers to examine.   

There were also footprints and Zora eyed them.  They were scuffled and smeared.  But, they were small.

"Foot prints here are small.  No clear print, but they're definitely not a grown wizard's - a witch or someone young.  She was in the middle here...Trapped by the fire, most likely.[1]  Let me know if you find more footprints."[2]

1.	Incorrect, but a reasonable theory.
2.	Ventus Shang's footprints may be there as well, walking in and then stopping because he Apparated up to the roof.

"Yes, Ma'am." Keeping an eye on the ground Luthas began walking in an ever widening spiral out from the ash ring until he found what he was looking for. One partial set was set in a wide casting stance with a couple of other sets of footprints indicating the person had moved quickly from that spot. "I found a set over here, Roh. Looks like whomever it was casting..." Luthas cast the Revoficus charm. "The Reductus curse..." Luthas trailed off as he noticed a series of strange markings radiating out from a point a few feet in front of the footprints.

 Curious, Luthas followed the gouge marks in the ground over to the cracked wall. Now that he was up close he could see several smaller marks on the wall, getting finer and smaller the farther they were from the wall's major crack. Pulling on a pair of gloves, he ran his hand over the wall. "No extra major damage," he muttered. "Easily fixable."

Moving his wand in the pattern for the Revoficus charm, Luthas cast the spell near the largest crack on the wall. The spell reacted revealed the damage to have been caused by a Reductus curse as well. Checking some of the other wall sections revealed the same thing. Luthas began running his fingers over the cracks idly as he thought, 'If someone had been chased with spells there should have been more variety to the  markings on the ground and a lot more damage to the wall and surroundings.'

Stepping back, Luthas tried to get a better read on the entire scene. The wall's unified crack pattern confirmed in his mind that the damage was caused by one single spell. Luthas rubbed the bridge of his nose while he continued to think, 'So a large single spell, rather than multiple.' Luthas looked down and traced the ground damage back towards Roh and the ash ring. 'From that point.'

Luthas walked back over to his mentor, pointing back behind him with his thumb, "All the damage to the wall and the surrounding areas appears to have been caused by a single Reductus curse. Cast from those footprints I located earlier."

Zora looked up from her crouching position to hear and see what Trainee Blair was talking about. She followed his point.  She was impressed.

"That's quite a Reductus..." she said.  The damage to the wall was wide, sweeping.  It would have been a very impressive cast.  Atypical of what they normally saw. 

She stood up straight and hands on hips surveyed the scene.  She looked over to where Farro was working.

"What of it, Farro.  Whatcho got there, eh?"

"Two...no, three apparitions." Eha canvassed a broad swath of the yard, occasionally mumbling an incantation under her breath that kept up the steady flow of magic through her wand. A nearly colorless curtain of dust fell from its tip, spreading in broad strokes as she waved her arm and lingering in soft blue clouds around certain footsteps. "Yes, I'm sure of it. Three apparitions within the last twenty-four hours."

Lots of variations there. Maybe two came in and one left on foot, or one didn't leave at all, or there were actually three people. Eha was about to deactivate the detection spell when she noticed a current in the dust, brushing around the remnants of another spell, this one about chest-high in the air.

With a flick, she vanished the spell and knelt next to the spot, peering at the ground. There was something there, among the dead grass - a dust that didn't match the earth beneath their feet. It looked like someone had either tried to clean it up, or that the wind had blown most of it away, but enough of the dirt and pieces lingered for her to take a guess.

"There's something else here, too. It looks like something's been...дезинтегрировать[1]." She couldn't think of a single English word that summed up what had happened so well, but guessing that Blair and Roh couldn't speak Russian, she tried to elaborate. "Like it's been both broken and powdered. It's not a disintegration spell, I don't think, but the effect was similar."

1.	de-sent-to-gri-ro-vit, meaning both "to disintegrate" and "to fragment"; a good half-way between the intention of the spell and what happened to its unusual target.