1550 hours


Raine Almasy waited patiently, sat at their counselor's desk across from a vacant chair. The room had been left to her disposal. There was tea in a pot and two empty cups. A small green bottle of Veritaserum[1] idled closer to the edge - she had pilfered procured it after their Potions lesson[2] last month. No easy task... but then again, her circumstances were far from easy, and she'd known that long before the class.

In a way, the Gryffindor hoped she would not have to use the potion, that she could return it after all this nonsense was said and done.

Next to the Veritaserum was a sealed roll of parchment and four distinct wands[3], varied in their appearance. Raine regarded these items with more seriousness while she continued to wait for Auror Eleor's advent.

Why had nothing been done about Aunt Ira, since their last meeting? Not even a word. Nobody had come to collect the evidence from Professor Storm. The papers gave no mention of treacherous Russian aristocrats. She couldn't understand the lack of activity: either Eleor was in collusion with Ira or something had happened to him directly after she'd informed on her relative. While she trusted Maiko not to invite a malefactor into Hogwarts, Raine was beginning to wonder if Maiko had mistakenly trusted Adon.

The door creaked open and she looked up, wand in hand, frown forming like an impending storm cloud. Unlike the last time they had met, she was dressed as she normally would outside of school. Her curls were pinned back.

Most noticeably, she was alone, although Zel and Storm (and the Nightshades) knew about this meeting.

"Hello." Raine continued to sit at the desk, posture relaxed - the wand remained alert. "It's good to see you again, Auror Eleor."

1.	With permission from Tor.
2.	How to Get Away With... - 17th March
3.	Raine's testimony and evidence, as kept by Ignan previously.

Adon Eleor was in full Auror regalia: red robes, suit and tie, badge prominent on chest. There was no doubt about his acting in an official capacity. He hated it. For starters, he kept getting a glimpse of his own red cloak in his periphery as it trailed behind him and it threw him off. For second, it had brought the House Elves out, at full attention.  They lined the hallway, a couple even standing to attention and saluting. Adon gave a half-hearted salute back to a knobbly-kneed elf in a green kerchief, who seemed to gain height as he protruded his chest with pride.

Great. He now had to deal with these creepy little guys--and all because his father had been a champion of Beings' Rights. He heard them scuttling around behind him as he rounded the corner to Maiko's office. He rapped once with his knuckle before letting himself in.

Adon Eleor had not wanted this meeting to happen quite so soon. He was still trying to wrap his head around what he had read in his own case notes a matter of days ago. In the interest of not losing the biggest lead and prime witnesses to the case against Almasy, he'd agreed to the meeting, but even he himself was not sure what he wanted from this.

They'd start small. With greetings. He gave a smile.

"It's good to see you again, Auror Eleor."

"Same to you, Miss Almasy," he returned cordially.

He regarded her, took a moment to take in the scene. In the past weeks, Adon had grown accustomed to cataloguing and memorizing nearly everything new: places visited, books read, belongings, personal preferences, people of note in his life. Riordan had even put him on catologuing every last piece of evidence in Level Two's possession. It was grounding. Reaffirmed what one already knew, opened the door to new understanding.

He tried to do this now non-chalantly, as he settled himself into the empty seat across from Raine Almasy.

• She was still sitting. At ease.
• But her wand was out.
• But there was tea: inviting.
• But there was a potion.

He stopped here. Uncertain as to the cause, he felt a creeping feeling of dread. His brows knit and he regarded it. The wands--evidence--he had now read about in his own notes. The parchment he was certain would be explained. But the potion, next to the tea, seemed ready for immediate use.

"What have you got, there?" he asked, pointing to the bottle.[/list]

She watched the wizard carefully as he entered, noting his formal robes and polite mannerisms. It was all too ordinary and restrained. He was acting as if though they weren't on a time limit - it had been over a month since their last meeting, and no news from Ira was as good as bad news in her opinion.  Raine's gaze flicked to the bottle when it was pointed out, then returned to Eleor's face with her usual prickliness.

"Veritaserum," she answered simply. "Will you have some?"

The Gryffindor was in no frame of mind to dance around the subject. She needed answers, and she suffered from the disposition of one who finds it difficult not to act.

"I can't say anything unless I'm certain you're telling me the truth. And I need to know if you have been compromised. So..." the tip of her wand bowed, causing the potion to lift and pour itself into one of the teacups. "You can start by telling me why nothing has been done about my aunt."

He bit back a bitter laugh. She didn't trust him--the veritaserum was the evidence of that, not the antidote.

He revised. "Will you feel more at ease if I do?" He was at Hogwarts, with a potions professional--what was it, French. Juliette Binoche... Juliette St. J. Fuck it. Juliette was here, and a capable healer in Tulojow if it came to it. He was not likely to be poisoned here.

Did it make him feel more at ease to think as much? He'd read his notes; he knew that Ira Almasy had impersonated her niece before. Several times, really, if one took into account various mediums.

He didn't much care for the younger Almasy's tone, however. "You can start by telling me..." How many awful cop shows had Jonas forced upon Adon to know that this was tough-guy talk to get a criminal to fess up. All Raine needed was some macho posturing, some folded arms across her chest, perhaps, or hands resting on hips as she began to pace. No, no. That was what the partner did--the one observing.

Well, at least there weren't two of them.

Gritting his teeth, Adon took the teacup before throwing the drink back like a shot.

"I've done nothing wrong," he said, tightly. He gave a slight smirk of satisfaction at the ease that that came out. She wanted the truth? "So you can stop with your--"

highmindeness
self-righteousness
holier-than-

All of these were true. At least he felt it. But it wouldn't serve to say it aloud. The girl was scared. Hell, he was, too, if he was honest.

Adon sighed, shaking his head. "Well, Herr Counsellor," he said, with a dry humor, regarding her, settled in Maiko's chair. Smirk just slightly wry. "I haven't done anything because I couldn't." he said simply. Again: easily enough said. "I'd put together the information for a search warrant about a month ago.  I've been told it's probably supported enough to be actionable. But, tell me: how much do you know about an Auror's involvement in relation to trial proceedings?"

She lowered her wand slightly, the obvious tension in her shoulders melting away as soon as the wizard had taken the Veritaserum. Thank God for truth potions and the impeccable skills of Professor Vaillancourt. Raine sat a little bit straighter and to attention - prepared to hear the worst.

              "I've done nothing wrong. So you can stop with your--"

The Gryffindor raised a fiery eyebrow at the implication but didn't say anything else; of course she knew that she was being difficult. Up until this point, being cooperative had not derived results. An annoyed Auror might be more frank than one who is at ease... at least she suspected so with Eleor, whose temperament was particular.

"What do you mean you couldn't?" Raine frowned at him with what she hoped was a businesslike manner but looked more like a petulant pout. "I don't care about trials. There's been nothing in the papers, so nobody else knows..." she looked down, forcing her voice not to carry concern. "They don't know what she is and I haven't heard from my aunt. I haven't heard from Layton. I need to know what's happening, and why you didn't collect what you said you would from Professor Storm."
 

She might not care about trials right now, but she would. And even if he didn't, he did. "It's my job to investigate a case so that it can successfully lead to a conviction in court. You take a case to trial before it's ready, before you've got a solid enough case?" His eyebrows shot up for emphasis, before continuing abruptly:  "it gets thrown out. Any chance you have? Gone. Simply because someone was too quick to pull the trigger." He paused a moment, about to explain the expression before shaking his head, dismissing the analogy from the air with a wave of his hand.

"Everything has to be just right, and it hasn't been." All these crime shows--murders solved within days if not hours, someone blubbering or spilling it all in an interview room somewhere. Even once you got the suspect, it usually took months, if not years before a thing actually went to trial. It was almost as ridiculous and implausible as the fight scenes in the Bourne Identity. No, no! Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol...

Where had that come from? He wasn't sure he liked Veritaserum.

"You have to trust me on that." She wouldn't, of course. She'd done little to indicate she did, and to be fair, he'd probably done little to deserve it. But it was one of the few things he did know with any certainty. He had to keep this in the realms of certainty, to maintain some kind of control. And like it or not, she was a kid. If he let witnesses determine on impulse the outcome and progress of every case... His tone was firm.

"Now, you gave me enough to build a case for a search warrant, but things move quickly once that is laid out, and the other parts were not ready." Like figuring out if his notes and evidence were reliable. Or if there was on mole on Level 2 who would stonewall them the moment he brought this to their attention.

Adon had poured over his notes obsessively the past couple of days, dissecting them and questioning them. After February and the case with Gamp, it was clear the Adon-that-once-had-been was shaken--and convinced that the work he'd been brought to London for, to ferret out corruption, was incomplete. That didn't necessarily mean much. From what Adon could tell, Then-Adon had been convinced about a lot of other things with little enough evidence... (Unless there was evidence Adon had managed to hide well not only from the world but from himself, now.)

In his notes, Adon had felt convinced that Ira had been behind the Level 9 experimentations. That she sanctioned it, if not ordered it.
But he could not get anything from Gamp to corroborate, though he'd tried. And the moment Gamp was committed, any information from him would have been discreditable. But Adon had apparently felt sure nonetheless. Adon had also felt sure Ira Almasy was behind the poisonings, behind the kidnapping of Zel Trumble. Point to a crime, and Adon Eleor had probably at least considered Ira Almasy a suspect at some point or another. He also refused to divulge any details of his investigations to anyone on Level 2. Felt convinced there was someone on Level 2.

He'd not made a formal report for some weeks. Since he met with Ira Almasy in person, perhaps. That was likely too long. Since he learned of Gamp on Level 9 and the possibility for corruption elsewhere? Or, perhaps it was from the time Solomon Carstairs asked he question Healer Miranda Storm about the poisonings, although Adon's every instinct rebelled.

Adon Eleor's case notes--encoded and kept in a hidden panel in his drawer--listed so many possible conspiracy theories, it was hard to keep them straight.  Adon dearly, dearly hoped the Adon Eleor from his journal wasn't a madman. That would make trying to recover those memories, trying to act on them, a very poor course of action, indeed. That was what he had needed to rule out before he got here. He could not, in good conscience, take the stand and testify of things he did not believe himself to be true.

The moment he told Raine Almasy he'd suffered a Dementor's kiss, she'd either be so spooked, she'd want another Auror, or she'd be so frustrated with him she'd... want another Auror. Okay, so she'd want another Auror. And objectively, Adon knew that by keeping himself on this case, he was jeopardizing its success in the future. But the fact remained: Adon Eleor was not entirely certain that another Auror could be trusted. And he didn't want needlessly to endanger either Raine Almasy or Trumble, or Balfour Spectre, for that matter. All of whom, he knew, had confided in him to some degree. Handing over what information he had to the wrong person could end very badly for everyone involved.

He could handle it. He was up to it. He was basically back to himself, and he was certain--well, he felt nearly certain--that if this was brought to trial, he could stand as a creditable witness. Provided it never got out he'd had the momentary... lapse of self and judgement. It would call into question the reliability of anything he recollected now.

Which was why he absolutely could not tell Raine Almasy. It wasn't that he didn't trust her discretion (which, really, he wasn't sure he'd trust any teenage girl), it was that he couldn't put the burden on her to keep the secret. Especially when she stood to lose so very much. A slight squeeze from her aunt's henchmen (Moloch, he was turning full-fledged conspiracy theorist...) and it wouldn't be so hard to imagine she might let that little detail slip say, if it saved a loved family member.

Oh. That was another thing. The death of her twin. Adon Eleor from the journal, Then Adon had made a note to look into that, too, despite convincing evidence that Ira had no involvement.

He rubbed his forehead. This was majnoon.[1] Or he was majnoon.  That fact that he didn't know which was majnoon.

He had to give her something, or he was not going to lay off.

"Raine," he said, voice grave as he looked directly at her, quite serious, "until I'm certain that no one on Level 2 has been compromised, could potentially be working for or with your aunt, I can't officially request the wands." He shook his head. "I've had my doubts, but I'm ruling them out one by one. But if this evidence, if the witnesses I've gathered aren't safe or able to give testimony, we've got nothing to stand on. The moment that those wands become custody of the Ministry, the moment they're analyzed is the moment we gather strong evidence, but things move quickly from that point, and the wands and your statement alone might not be enough to win a case. I'm trying to find more, I'm trying to keep everyone safe. These things take time. Do you understand?"

1.	Hebrew/Arabic: crazy, insane, or mentally-ill.

It was surprising but, somehow, Raine was starting to miss her aunt.

If only because Ira had been the only person besides Professor Storm to speak to her like a bloody adult! Adon Eleor was full of.... vague facts. 'Things' move quickly. The 'other parts' were not ready. And all that talk about a trial, like she hadn't been to the one of her sister's murderer before. Oh, she hated being talked down to! Especially when she had done nothing incompetent to earn such behaviour.

            "I'm trying to find more, I'm trying to keep everyone safe. These things take time. Do you understand?"

Raine stood up from Counselor Biladeau-Yukawa's chair, abrupt. Of course she knew it wouldn't do to lose her temper at an Auror - she had an infamous one - but the Veritaserum had only proved Eleor to be more slippery than anticipated, even if he did mean well.

"I understand perfectly. You need me to trust you yet it's obvious you don't trust me," her eyes settled on him searchingly and with a kind of steeliness. "You would rather I kept quiet until you get your... things together, whatever that means." Merlin, were they all like this on level two?

Circumlocutory and vague. The Gryffindor walked around the desk, still keeping her distance from the wizard as she headed for the doorway. "Fine," she brandished her wand in the direction of the items she'd left out - testimony, wands. They floated neatly into the air and then dropped into her little satchel bag, which she took in hand.

"You'd best have Maiko sign off on your letter to Professor Storm, when you request these." Raine buckled the satchel, businesslike. "Have her attach her official seal to it. I don't trust you Auror Eleor but I don't have much of a choice either, apparently."

Nostrils flaring, jaw taut. She was reining it in, which he appreciated. Raine Almasy was proving to be just as stubborn as he'd suspected--from the character sketch he'd drawn after his meeting with Spectre.

Even with her anger bridled, though, he didn't like this feeling: he'd bungled it, and the relationship was standing on a precipice about to drop off. It'd happened many times before. Several with Jonas. Thea... Jacoba... sometimes the relationships survived, teetered away from the edge. Sometimes they didn't. But he had to try.

"Raine," he cut in, sharply. He cringed somewhat. The tone was too strong, and authoritative. He'd tried to make it more... open.

He shook his head, trying again, resisting the urge to stand as well. This wasn't fun to say. "I don't care if you don't l--" he word stuck in his throat. He scowled.

Fine! Fuck. He'd rephrase it. "Okay, look. I can't lie. It would be nice if you liked me, but it's not necessary for this case." Universal truth cannot be denied. Sounded like the feel-good crap Dree would probably start spouting at a moment like this. He'd probably loooooove this stuff. God-shit-damn it. He was never taking veritaserum  again. "What is necessary, though..." That wasn't exactly easy to say, either. Okay, so maybe it wasn't strictly necessary. Sweet baby Jesus.

"This will go much better if we do trust each other. Look, I want to be open with you--I do." Adon's expression brightened at how easily that had tumbled out--a pleasant surprise. Good. Maybe she'd believe that. Feeling some confidence returning, he furthered, "I don't think it's a good idea." Wasn't that the truth. "If certain details get out--come up in the trial--they have the potential to undercut everything we're trying to do." Adon began to tap a finger on his knee, restless as he thought.

The silence stretched out several moments. Moloch. He'd started this. He'd been obligated to finish it. Why had he done this? It would be have been so much easier, so much simpler to let her walk out that door.

Shit, he did care what she thought. She--a teenage girl, hurt and lashing back. He cared. It was his weakness; he knew it. He had to be so goddamned liked all the time... And even knowing it, Adon didn't care. That was, he didn't care that he cared. He still cared.

Fact was, Adon had been in her shoes, to a degree. Trying to speak to unsympathetic Aurors, being shut out of the investigation of his father's murder. He'd been bitter. He'd hated Aurors after that. And that was precisely why he'd become one. To change this for people. He took pride in his skepticism. He was critical of those in authority. He found corruption where people were supposed to trust. That was what made him good for this job. And damned if he let the red cloak ruin another childhood, already tattered.

"If you want to hear," he said, his stomach turning into itself into a tight, black knot, "you'll have to drink some of this." He held up his teacup. "And give me your word." A word under veritaserum only did so much. Raine could believe anything to be true and say it as easily as 'I hate your guts, Auror Eleor.'

There was something deeply wrong with Auror Eleor. Raine did not know what to make of a man who could not speak a straight sentence under the influence of Veritaserum - of course, she knew that there were people capable of training themselves to resist the potion's effects, so there was no way to say if this stilted speech was the wizard's method of concealing some sinister truth.

So she watched carefully, standing at the doorway with a tentative hand on the door handle.

          "If you want to hear, you'll have to drink some of this. And give me your word."

Raine's first instinct was to take up this thrown glove. It was a challenge! And she was one who rose to challenges and who trusted earnest words. Except....

Except, that was the sort of thing her aunt knew about her. How else would Ira have evaded suspicion from her own family, otherwise? What if this man was someone sent to discover just how much she knew about her aunt's crimes? The Gryffindor narrowed her eyes at Eleor and made a show of thinking about his offer. Which she was. More specifically, she was weighing her strengths and weaknesses.

"You're doing it again." Raine wrinkled her nose distastefully after another moment's thought. "You're asking me to put myself in a vulnerable position. You have nothing to lose and I have everything to lose, by drinking that potion."

Shaking her head, Raine turned around and opened the office door. "If you're telling the truth, then you can enlighten me once she's apprehended. But until then you'll get nothing from me without the Counselor's seal. Good afternoon Auror Eleor."

She left, leaving the door ajar and striding past a row of startled house elves who jumped out of the way.