3rd of November, 2011 @ 1:15 am
Pilpher & Stride's Private Eye
Barking, London

He was getting good at this. In the past three months, he'd pulled a dozen little jobs. Some had gone hairy, one actual close call with some Magical Patrol, one brief wand fight with a sleeping tenant. Hours of practice in self-concealment charms and ward detection were paying off. It was important he didn't get cocky.  It only took a tiny mistake or stroke of bad luck to botch it. So he kept his head, worked his game, and was always careful. The money was good, but the challenge was almost irresistable.

So far it had been cash, magical reagents, artifacts, and other valuables - everything very low profile. He didn't need a reputation. This time he had a different quarry, more to his interest.

"This damn Dementor business. Market's getting hot. Foy Pilpher's got hold of some information that I'd much rather be out of circulation." 

His employer then explained to Nate exactly the sort of thing that would need extracted from the private investigators' files. Mostly anything related to unicorn blood, an illegal concoction known as Elation, and leaked information about Dementor treatments going on at St. Mungo's.

"Better too much than not enough," he'd been instructed.

And so Nate was being thorough. Pilpher & Strides's was in a muggle neighborhood and therefore very well concealed and warded. It worked to this burglar's advantage: break the wards, leave the concealment. He'd have as much time as he needed to pick through every scrap of paper methodically.

At the wave of his wand, files and folders slipped from their drawers and floated at eye level. Rolodexes bloomed for him, ledgers leafed open. Nate worked through them, licking the tips of his fingers to leaf through the forest of A4. Not every lock would open, however, not every drawer keep to open for a burglar, and so a bit of combustion was needed.

These gumshoes were good at their jobs - anything that ended up being useful was magically encrypted. A Revealing Charm quickly cast solved that problem. One by one, he stowed document after document in his pack until he felt completely sure he had anything that would be helpful.

At one point he paused, momentarily fixated on what looked like copies of invoices. They were stamped with a familiar mark - a scarab. It was the signature of the Sellaphix Apothecary. He frowned. They were old, from before the Runespoor venom business, but it would not serve the family well to be connected to what was being bought and sold here. He considered another moment, then folded it up and put it into his pocket, separate from what he was gathering for his employer.

Before Nate departed, another flick of the wand and the entire mess swirled, shuffled, and found a new home. It would take possibly days for anyone to figure out what had gone missing.