A crowded courtroom saw what happened. Andromeda saw weeks of work go to waste. She had seen Hannah Bombay. Hannah did not show shock or remorse. That spoke volumes.

A few months ago, Andromeda and Omari had interviewed Lawrence Musgrave in the same room. They had let him go in the end. Andromeda regretted listening to Pratt. He had said that everyone would claim to see Musgrave. She had let the Head Auror's judgement cloud her own.

"I expect you are used to this by now," Andromeda broke the silence at the other side of the table. She had to keep an open mind. Many people were already saying Hannah killed Wolfgang. She readied the verbatis quill.
"Auror Andromeda Gamp interviewing Healer Hannah Bombay, 27th September 2010. The time is four-forty-five pm." She called Hannah healer because that's what she was. She was still a person.
"Ms Bombay," Andromeda began. She clasped her hands loosely before her on the table. "Please will you explain in your own words, the events of this morning, Monday 27th September, in courtroom nine?"

"I expect you are used to this by now," The auror began. Hannah stared across the table at her. She looked exhausted, eyes hollow, face pale. She’d thought the last time they’d been through this, the last time she’d been dragged into court for the appeal that there’s been nothing left in her[1]. Now it was true. There was nothing left to give.

Hannah hadn’t been horrified to see the wizard’s death. She hadn’t been shocked. She hadn’t been scared. She had felt nothing.
Now she was paying the price.

Her arms were folded and she remained silent while Gamp set up the quill and began to speak. Hannah’s tired eyes watched it dance across the page, neatly inking the auror’s words. She wasn’t so sure she wanted hers inked. The ministry twisted things. They made criminals out of the innocent. She was living proof.

“Please?” The witch asked calmly. “I have a choice?”
A weak laugh escaped her throat and Hannah looked up at Gamp.
“Please implies I have a choice,” Her voice was weak, quiet, distracted. She spoke quietly, piecing thoughts together. “That you’re requesting something of me. If you were, though…if you were I wouldn’t have been removed from court by two hitwizards and taken to a cell.”

Hannah’s lips pursed tightly as she thought and shook her head. “You don’t mean please, auror.”

1.	Court appeal with Wizengamot

Adon Eleor was enjoying a blessed day off--and, lamentably, spending it looking for permanent accommodations--when the summons came.  Like all summons from Level Two, it ultimately meant something was on fire, or someone was dead.

Level Two did not disappoint.  The Ministry, for one, seemed to be on lockdown.  Hit wizards everywhere. Some arriving, just like him, others already testing wands.  They nodded Adon in with only a cursory inspection.  "[You're busy," he muttered to one.  "What's happening?"

"Wolfgang Storm fell down dead in the courtroom."

Adon's eyes widened--almost tempted to ask that information to be repeated, but neither he nor the hit wizard likely had the time, now. 

"Moloch," he managed to hiss as he lengthened his stride to the elevators.  Those were on lockdown, too.  He took the stairs two at a time, burst through Level Two's doors only for the welcome witch to jab her way into the interview room.  "Gamp's got Hannah Bombay in questioning. We need another Auror in there."  Well, at least someone knew what to do.  But... Hannah Bombay? Good hell, this place was a mess.  Adon didn't bother to slip his crimson cloak on, nor did he bother with a briefing.  If the interview was underway, he wanted to be there from the get-go.

He opened the door, blustering in--it could not be helped--and looked between the two.  The tension was--as one might expect--palpable.  A righteously indignant Bombay--straight-backed and wan-looking--was all but baring her teeth at Auror Gamp.

"--I wouldn’t have been removed from court by two hitwizards and taken to a cell.  You don’t mean please, auror.”

Oh hellfire.  What could have possibly happened only seconds into this?  Gamp was sharp, but there was no denying that she had the ability to run her mouth off sometimes, where opinions were concerned. He rubbed the back of his neck, trying to process this.  Wolfgang Storm died in the middle of a trial, and Hannah Bombay was escorted out of the courtroom with two hit wizards.  One would presume with just cause.

But Adon Eleor was beginning to feel like the only person who remembered that once--and for quite some time--Hannah Bombay had been, and in some sense always would be one of their own.  "Hannah, Andromeda," he greeted with a nod and a faint smile, trying to dispel some of sheer, heavy-laden resentment that seemed to be going around. 

"Well, 'please' is a courtesy implying an indirect hope that what's being requested is pleasing."  He looked between the two again, sitting himself at the table, taking the opportunity to scan quickly over what Gamp's verbatis quill had already transcribed.  Running his mouth off like that was also not likely to make him popular, but he'd be in good company this way.  They could all level the playing field by being righteously indignant together.

"But," he tilted the parchment slightly to get a better angle as he finished reading the brief transcript, "I hope you will give a brief recap, Bombay--pleasing or no." he said before giving a more pleading smile.  "I only just arrived--and it'd be helpful to hear your perspective."

The opening of the door and the entrance of another auror didn’t cause Hannah to look away from Gamp. Her gaze was intent, unrelenting. The more she found herself thinking about the new situation she’d been thrown into, the angrier Hannah was beginning to feel. Greyfriar had spent hours over the past couple of years berating her for a temper that she couldn’t control. The wolf had taken over, driving her wild with rage on countless times and he’d implored her to try to control it. She was a werewolf, she didn’t need to give people further more reason to hate and fear her.

But being here, being locked in a cell and then interrogated by a pair of aurors was certainly not helping her to remain calm and collected. Clearly, it didn’t matter what Hannah did; she was going to be treated like a monster if she played nice or bared her claws.

"Hannah, Andromeda,"
Now Hannah’s eyes followed the familiar voice and her gaze fell on the second auror in the room. Eleor was a recognisable face, one that had spent time trying to get to know the cold and distanced witch that had once inhabited a lab on Level 2. She’d not seen him since he’d been lying in a St Mungo’s bed calling her an angel of death in his delirium.

"I only just arrived--and it'd be helpful to hear your perspective." Upon finishing his reading of the script, Eleor looked up to offer Hannah what appeared a strained smile. She didn’t return it, instead continuing to stare down at the parchment and verbatis quill, trying to quell the anger threatening to take over. She gazed at the tip of the quill, poised to record her words that the ministry would only twist; anything to make the werewolf guilty.

“Perhaps you should read the notes, Auror Eleor.” Tired eyes flashed up to the newest arrival, the anger giving an edge to her voice.
A deep breath was taken, her hands balling into fists.
“Wolfgang Storm came into the courtroom. Before he could say anything, he coughed up blood and died.” Her tone was matter of fact, not once had she demonstrated any particular emotion over the wizard’s death. “Because I didn’t seem to show any shock at the death of the bastard who kidnapped me and locked me in a cage to starve until I was fit and ready to rip apart a muggle, your people think me guilty.”

Her hands started to shake, as she glared at Eleor.
“I wouldn’t have done it with poison, Auror. I’d have ripped his throat out.”

Andromeda was trying to be polite and give the witch a fair hearing. Hannah Bombay was mocking her for saying please. Andromeda stared at her. She tried not to show her surprise.
"That was for your own safety Healer Bombay." Andromeda reassured her. She was pretty sure Hannah ignored her. Auror Eleor came through the door and interrupted anyway. Andromeda looked round at him in surprise. They were short staffed today what with the usual crap and now this. She preferred it when criminals went to Azkaban. Less paperwork. The quill was writing Adon's words now, rushing on the parchment. He was asking for a recap. Bombay was telling him to read the notes. Andromeda was inclined to agree.
"How did you know it was poison?" Andromeda asked. Head Healer Elliot had assessed it was. But Hannah Bombay had been taken downstairs before.

"How did you know it was poison?" Auror Gamp jumped on Hannah’s statement, as if eager to smoke her out, to show Hannah had slipped up, to get the healer to admit guilt.

“Anyone with healing training could see it was poison, Auror.” She tried to limit the scathing tone to her voice but it didn’t work. Hannah had worked in the ministry finding causes of death that were sometimes similar to what they’d witnessed in the courtroom. She’d been able to spot poisons, hexes, curses, accidental murders, suicides. Now this auror was questioning her and making her a suspect in a murder.

The healer gave a sigh and started to count the signs on her fingers,
“Blood bile, most commonly caused through inner erosion, a finely tuned poison used to cause an evacuation of any traces. Some poisoners have been known to clear away any blood after. No trace of the poison can be found then.
Sweating; perhaps a nervous response to his situation considering he was sitting trial but his body heat was rapidly increasing. There’s a poison that causes your insides to burn.
Storm’s pallor was not natural. A lack of food and sunlight over the last couple of months can only do so much. He looked yellow.
His lips were nearly white, his blood basically being attracted to one place before it was expelled through his mouth.”

Now in her usual mode of explaining reasoning in a blunt and factual manner, Hannah continued.
“He had a stitch. He was rubbing his side,” She indicated with her own hand.

"How did you know it was poison?"

As soon as Adon heard the words, he could guess how they would go over with the former Level 2 mortician. To be fair, Hannah Bombay seemed to be in a frame of mind such that nearly any question put to her would have brought out the same, clipped, clinical words.

He knew that he only had so much time before Hannah--already terse at best--shut down completely.  She already seemed to be baring her teeth in preparation for what he said next.  There were a few things Adon wanted to know.  And it was time to choose:

- What the chief ingredients of such a potion might be--particularly the rare ones.  Hannah would no doubt have access to any and all of those ingredients through Mungo's, but so might other suspects and it could be a lead, if he spoke to Sellaphix's, Slug & Jiggers, and Mr Mulpepper's. 

- How fast-acting that potion might be, which would determine if the culpable party needed to be within the courtroom--or just out side, or if it could have been dispensed minutes or even hours beforehand.  Or, really, even a gradual build-up...

- The last time Hannah had seen her uncle. 

Hannah had the most motive, but it had been Lawrence Musgrave who had reacted most violently to Wolfgang Storm.  Hannah had not been herself.  Lawrence Musgrave most certainly had been, and had demonstrated not just a crime of passion, but a predisposed viciousness that couldn't be attributed to an underlying medical condition.  It was Lawrence Musgrave that Adon had his sights most keenly set on. 

He suspected that the leading theory would be collusion and co-conspiracy between uncle and niece.  Hannah Bombay had the medical knowledge to concoct the potion and Musgrave had a god enough knowledge of how Level 2 was run to at least guess at any potential weaknesses, lapses in security--a switching of the guards.  Hell, Lawrence could still have a couple of faithful friends on Level 2 for all he knew, though that was not likely.  He probably wouldn't gotten out of the parole and the heckling if so.

Gut instinct told him that the type of violence--the fact that Musgrave and Storm had been in close proximity at all during the werewolf match--betrayed more than a passing knowledge of each other.  Storm was doubtless involved in the running of the ring, and Musgrave may be, too, for all he knew.

But gut instinct told him that Bombay looked tired. Worn down.  Defeated, even.  Dissatisfied.  She did not look like a woman who had rid herself of one of her greatest enemies.

Adon rubbed his chin, thinking.  That last question would put her more on her guard than she already was.  He could get to that, perhaps, later. 

"A poison like that," he said, acknowledging her theory as valid, "would it be administered gradually, or would one dose suffice?" He paused again, tapping his fingers on the table. They needed to get rid of this table.  It was a literal barrier between themselves and the witness. But anyways-- "In your opinion, could this have been accomplished gradually with multiple doses, or would the person administering the potion need to be within reach--within minutes of the court room in order for the effects to have taken place?"

A lot of information had been given to the aurors in Hannah’s last response. She’d shown herself as knowledgeable on the topic but as Eleor asked the next question, she found herself wondering if she’d been too knowledgeable. Would being able to describe in detail the effects of such a poison make her look even more suspect? Because that was what she was in this room. Hannah was under no illusion that they wanted her here because of her competencies. She was currently a murder suspect and she had more motive than anyone to kill Wolfgang Storm.

She wished wholeheartedly that she had been the one with enough guts to kill him.

When would the poison have needed to be administered?
There was a lengthy pause after the auror had fallen silent. Hannah stared down at the table between them. She didn’t want to make herself look anymore suspect. The more fuel she gave them the larger the fire would be. The more chance they would have to convict her.

“I don’t know the poison. I wouldn’t be able to say.” Her gaze bore into Eleor’s, refusing to look away. Her tone had been pointed, she knew nothing.

The words from earlier on in the afternoon were ringing in her ears, Knox’s question “ Hannah - are you even under arrest?” Were they even right to hold her here? What proof did they have that she was responsible other than an incredibly strong motive?

“Am I under arrest? Are you going to charge me? Because if you aren’t I should be able to walk straight out of here.”

Andromeda agreed with Hannah. Yes it was clear that the death was from poison. But how Hannah answered, that was important too. If she was too clever, they would be able to see. The werewolf gave a healer's answer. All symptoms and observations. Andromeda looked at Eleor beside her.

Strange that Bombay would not answer his question in as great detail. "Do you feel you should be under arrest?" Andromeda asked. This question reminded her of Musgrave. Frustrating to have interrogated him just before the event. He too had walked free. No arrest. Bombay had been under full supervision for the hours before. If she had poisoned Wolfgang Storm, she had help. They could not prove such straight away. "Anything you can think to help prove you had nothing to do with it, we want to hear."