Date TBD
Late

The office was dark but for her green glass shaded desk lamp. In the dim light, the size and style of Quill Som's space was hard to judge, but under the umbra her desk was neat, her bookcases densely packed, and personal effects sparse.  Quill herself was just as tidy and spare.  Her glasses were down her nose, she'd doffed her over-robe and was in her white shirt-sleeves. 

She was usually home with her mother, whom she lived with, for a late dinner.  Even though her mother was perfectly fine on her own and these late nights were rare, Quill always felt guilty. It was just the two of them now, and they needed one another. There was nothing more important than family.

Quill furrowed her brow at the tightly written scroll under the lamp-light. It was the sort that had the enormous golden spindels like rolling pins and so shifting your pace took three hands. She thought she saw some faint writing running perpendicular to the main text. Was it cross-writing? Palimpsest? A hidden message with the protective enchantment wearing thin? She opened a drawer looking for a jeweler's loupe helpful in reading these things.

There was a knock at her door.  It was late, but she wasn't surprised.  She was expecting someone.  "Come."

Andromeda was working the night shift. Quill Som had sent her a memo. Quill was the Deputy Head of the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. Andromeda knew her a bit because they had both chased dementors. She liked Quill better than Edwin. People said Quill was very efficient at her job. She liked to have good reports of dementors. Andromeda had written her one about the dementor who attacked Elliot Blair in London. Then she had written one about the attack at the 3 Broomsticks. Andromeda had enough dementors for a lifetime. But here she was.

Andromeda opened the office door and shut it again. "Madam Som." She gave a little bow. Level 3 did not like Level 2 much. But if you tried to be nice to Level 3 they could let you off sometimes. "I got your memo. Is it about my reports? How can I help you?"

"Your reports are among the best, Auror Gamp" Quill Som said in a pleasant way, rising to greet her guest.  That sort of thing, good reports, went a long way with Som.  Gamp was often a part of the I.D.R.E.A.D. advance teams handling these Dementor attacks and in Quill Som's role as one of the key coordinators of the effort, she'd have plenty of opportunity to see Gamp's work.  She was young, but effective.

Quill Som hoped her reassurance about Gamp's reports would be enough to answer her question - this was not about reports. Quill left her desk and walked behind Gamp.  She clicked the lock home and cast a Silencing Charm on the door. She didn't want anyone eavesdropping.  There was nothing out of line about what she intended to discuss, but she was beginning to suspect very little had changed at the Ministry of Magic in the last decade...

"It's about Musgrave. Lawrence Musgrave."

Quill's laced-up demeanor had become somewhat more furtive.

"I know you're investigating him."

Well, that was no secret. Musgrave's name was coming up far too often.

"Thank you Madam." Andromed said in return. Writing reports could be really boring. But it was worth doing properly. She watched Quill Som walk around the office. If it was not about the reports then what did she want? Andromeda was very curious. Som locked the door and Andromeda was on her guard. "We are yes, Madam. Not just me though. I met him once. Of course! You knocked on the door when I did. I wish we had arrested him right then, but we did not have enough evidence. It was the last time we saw him report for parole. I was so annoyed." Andromeda's hands made fists. She was angry. "What do you need to know about him Madam Som?"

Auror Gamp was heated up and Quill cracked a tiny smile that looked more like a cat's snarl. She felt similarly. Quill guestered for Gamp to have a seat in the modest chair nearby. Quill sat at her desk.

"It's not what I need to know. It's what you need to know."

She sat up straighter in her chair. The past was creeping up in her memories like a seeping black ink, and as it did, she had to shore up her feelings and hold the flood at bay.  Her past haunted her to say the least, and it was never easy calling it forward.  She inhaled slowly through her nose, her nostrils slightly flaring. She said to herself her mantra. My memories are mine.  And they were hers to use as she wished.

"I know Lawrence Musgrave. I knew him."

"We began at the Ministry in the same year. Eighty-one. I might not have remembered it, but he was an Auror-in-Training, and I was a Healer for Level Three. I treated him in field. He made an impression. He was kind then. Direct. I liked that."

It wasn't easy saying pleasant things about a man who she held only contempt for now, but it was the complicated, broken truth of it.  Even wretched people were people. Whole hatred didn't seem possible, however comforting it would be.

"You're young," she sighed. "I don't know how much you remember about the nineties when the Death Eaters had control of the Ministry. Everything was dangerous. Everyone had to continue on as if nothing was different even as your colleagues simply disappeared and were replaced with strangers. Accidents and Catastrophes, were putting out fires we'd set ourselves. Our left hand wreaked havoc while the right struggled to keep up. It was an absurdity. You have to understand: I had to push on. If I'd stepped wrong..."

Quill's eyes were pleading the young Auror to forgive her. She hadn't the strength to become a martyr then. She felt complicit in the atrocities.

Andromeda took a seat. She crossed her legs. She did not stop looking at Madam Som. The Deputy Head had her full attention. Andromeda listened to her explanation. Quill and Lawrence joined the ministry in 1981. Andromeda was born in 1981! She felt young for that.

It was really strange to hear someone call Lawrence Musgrave kind. He had done a lot of staring at Andromeda. Staring and sneering. He had been very defensive.

"Madam, I fought in the Battle of Hogwarts as a student." Andromeda explained. "My father served through both wars. With respect, I did not serve, but I have heard a lot." She leaned forward. She nodded kindly to Quill. "I have heard what can be told, at least." Her father was an unspeakable. A lot of what he did Andromeda could not hear about.

"He was imprisoned for war crimes." Andromeda remembered. "You were not. Do not fear what you wish to tell me, Madam Som."

Quill Som looked towards the ceiling for breath when Auror Gamp revealed she'd one of the students at Hogwarts in the battle.  That generation were heroes, and Som believed that, but her thoughts most often went to the ghosts that must haunt them.  Andromeda Gamp was grown now and Som decided there was no need to worry for her.

Quill sniffed with derision at the fact of Musgrave being a war criminal and she was not. That she never doubted. Whatever her sins, she knew her heart.  "You're not wrong," she said darkly.

She looked again at the young Auror, who was intent. "I don't know if what I have to say will be of any help, but memories seem to be short around here. If you're looking for him, I might know where you can look. 

"He has a sister. Cynthia. Bombay's her name now, I think. We were in school together."  Quill and Cynthia were a few years apart and even though they were both Hufflepuff, they did not get on or even get to know each other well.  "They've completely cut ties from what I understand.  She's in Bewdley."

Quill had never any reason to remain in contact with Cynthia Musgrave, but a Daily Prophet clipping had made the rounds.  She had it ready for the Auror and handed it to her.

Andromeda nodded. Madam Som explained she had gone to school with Lawrence Musgrave's sister. "Younger sister?" Andromeda asked. Not sure, and also cautious not to insult the Deputy Head.

She took the newspaper clipping and read it silently. "I remember this." She nodded. She did not know Hannah or the Bombays. She did know Johann. He was a friend, sort of. "I do not think Cynthia Bombay would like to talk to newspapers these days." The quote was very excited. But since then Hannah Bombay had been on trial for biting Wolfgang Storm's leg. Then he had died. Now Lawrence Musgrave was wanted and he was Cynthia's sister. She put the newspaper down in her lap. Andromeda looked carefully at Madam Som. "Did you know Mr Musgrave at all well?"

"I thought I did."

Quill felt a little deflated that she didn't seem to have anything new to offer the Auror, but she hadn't expected much. Perhaps she'd wanted to make sure she could say she'd done all she could and that it was the truth. Perhaps it was just to feel that she was trying to atone. She wiped a hand across her face, thinking.

"I hadn't seen him since I interrupted your questioning, and haven't spoken to him since the Ministry was taken."  He had frankly been a ghost she'd been happy to see the last of, which was why it was so startling when she found out he was in the interrogation room that day.

"What are you going to do?"

"I will check if someone has spoken to Cynthia recently." Andromeda replied. "If not I will go and see her." She thought for a moment. "Do you remember who Musgrave was friends with?" She looked to Madam Som. "If he has managed to stay hidden so long he must have friends."

Quill was comforted that Auror Gamp intended to follow up regarding Musgrave's sister. It might be nothing, but it made Quill feel as if she'd done her due.

Unfortunately that was where her information ran out.

She wrinkled her brow and sighed.  "Once I might have been able to tell you, but after what happened - after what he threatened to do - I questioned everything about him. I might have thought I was his friend, or friendly at least. I don't know if he has any real friends at all.  Part of me suspects it's only his family that would have him."

It was a bitter thought, but that was more than he deserved.  She glanced at the clock.  It was late.

"I'm sorry, Auror Gamp, but that's all the reason I imposed upon you. I can't stay."  She stood and went round the desk to unlock the door.  "I appreciate all you're doing.  Follow your heart, at all costs."

It was a surprisingly sentimental thing to be heard from Quill Som, but it wasn't meant to be embroidered on a pillow. It was a harrowing directive to follow a path of brambles and solitude.

"What did he threaten to do?" Andromeda asked Quill. Perhaps that was really personal. It could be helpful. Quill was keen to help, but she had not given Andromeda very much. She was more interested in who Quill remembered Lawrence being friends with. Now the Deputy Head of the department wanted her gone. It was strange.