Slop
Slop

Brown smears patterned the smart floor of Level Two in the wake of two pairs of weary feet. The owners were caked, head to toe. One carried her shoulders resolutely, proudly, despite the state they were in, and the other’s shoulders rounded, wrists bound behind the small of their back. The smell wafted from them, agricultural, distinctly … animal.

Slop

Nadine reached up and wiped one eye and then the other. Her eyes stung, but as much as she could wipe the slurry from her face, she couldn’t wipe the grin off it. Victorious! An arrest, and she’d worked hard for it. No stupid vampires, no blood covered, ungrateful students, or even dementors. Just good, old fashioned tracking and chasing, and god it felt good.

---

Open thread! Engage in banter, or feel free to bring in a prisoner of your own has part of the team Nadine was in. They’re all covered in crap, and Nadine’s normally not one to get her hands dirty.

Filling the dutiful role of chief-minion, Migs followed several strides behind Nadine.  As a first year trainee, his current duties were quite basic and lacking in glory: cover the apprehended suspect in case he attempted to use their slippery constitutional to his advantage and minimize the degree to which their mess annoyed the other Ministry employees.
 
At regular intervals, Migs would cast scourgify, limiting the trail of ‘muddy’ foot steps to the half-dozen immediately following the fully-fledged auror and her captive.
 
He had his own healthy dose of muck and mire but, after a childhood spent on a cattle ranch and deep in the rodeo circuit, it was a rather comforting familiar feeling.  The smell even made him a tad bit nostalgic. 
 
“That face plant” Migs laughed, once they were well within the aurors’ domains and beyond earshot of the non-initiated Level 2ers.  That had been their arrestee that had face planted, right?  Not Nadine.  It had been a bit hard to tell towards the end, but he hoped he hadn't just accidentally laughed at the other auror.  He was ready to start siphoning the mud off Nadine but had decided to wait until the perp had been dealt with.  One didn’t engage in frantic de-mudding in front of their query.  “I should start bringing a lasso.”

The smell denoted their arrival long before any of them were seen. Neville had left his own cubicle in search of a fresh cup of coffee. However as soon as the smell hit him the coffee was quickly forgotten. It reminded him of being back at Hogwarts, any time Hagrid had some new crazy creature for them to learn about in Care of Magical Creatures. It wasn't the nicest of recollections. He certainly would have preferred it to smell less . . . Animal-like and more plant-like.

He rounded the corner and couldn't help the smirk. Seeing Nadine covered in muck was certainly worth the smell. He made a quick note of the trainee trailing behind cleaning up the mess. At least the kid had his head on straight. There would certainly be hell to pay if the whole department was covered in muddy foot prints no matter how good of an arrest it had been.

"Do I even want to know what he was arrested for?"

“That face plant,” Nagde laughed from behind, equally caked. The trainee had done good today, though Nadine wasn’t usually one to say. “I should start bringing a lasso.”

“That,” Nadine replied, turning a little on the spot to look back at the younger auror, “would have been a class idea in the circumstances.” Her grin only intensified until a bit of the slurry on her face threatened to impede her lips and she quickly swiped at it.

“Do I even want to know what he was arrested for?” Neville asked, greeting them, and rather more clean.

Nadine shook her head.
“Let’s just say that Four will be down there for a bit yet.” She looked back to Migs and winked. “We left them interviewing the jarveys.”

Catastrophes were messy by nature. Quill Som had once heard a rumor that she was considered some kind of prim, but no kind of healer or Level Three agent would make it as many decades in the field as she had if that were true.

Even as Department Head, she got her hands dirty when she needed to. She'd joined the initial response team and it had only taken the span of a quarter hour for her to become the mess some assumed she couldn't handle. As she came through Level Two for a quick check-in, she peeled off elbow length gloves and undid the blue muggle police officer's jacket, its reflective bands smeared with the unsavory residue of the scene.

"Have a rinse off and then get back to support," she directed a pair of young Obliviators, who were on double-duty. They all were, honestly. As Department Head, she had been working a cross-training initiative to take the load of those who were more over-worked and to increase the flexibility of the response teams. Too much specialization had produced a few too many breaches when agents passed on responsibility in favor of someone they thought was more qualified.

She approached the Auror in charge. "Scene's secure enough," Som reported. "Creatures are taking over. We'll start work on rounding up muggle witnesses. Have you got the antagonists contained?"

A loose bludger on the pitch could derail containment if left unchecked.

“… We’ll start work on rounding up Muggle witnesses. Have you got the antagonists contained?”

It was unusual to have a Department Head on the ground, but not so much for Three, Nadine supposed. They’d had more than enough work lately, and Som was always a practical sort. She was now Department Head, what with Glass becoming Minister, but she definitely led the floor in a different way.

“The ones that weren’t wounded,” Nadine confirmed, gesturing to her arrest. “The other two were accompanied to St Mungo’s by Prewett and Bailey.” She looked to Nagde, “That’ll teach them for keeping an occamy at Slandermouth. We only went there to arrest one of them for unforgiveables. If we’d not been on top of that, nobody would have known it was there, unlicensed.”

Not that Nadine was a little proud of the fact their arrest had turned into a larger catch. Thank goodness Nagde had been capable, and the others had got there quickly.

"Good then."

Hearing that, Quill relaxed her shoulders a bit. She smiled at young Nagde. The mess on the scene and their robes was only superficial and belied the teams' swift and clean coordination.

"How long have you been working on this one?" Quill had only gotten a quick briefing: something about unexpected creatures catching Aurors making an unrelated arrest off guard. Could have been a real disaster.