The Atrium, Ministry of Magic
20 December 2011 at 10am

The young American witch stepped out of a towering heart, green fire licking at her checkered Vans. She took a few steps and stopped, overcome by the grand institutional space. The smooth black stone, the cathedral-like cielings, the ornate fountain that had to be two stories tall, the subterranian compound was a testament to the might of magic folk and ancient government. Nemo'd never seen anything like it; it was ominously threatening somehow and Nemo felt at the same time defiant and small.

She squared her shoulders and began the long walk down the Floos towards the front desk. Nemo had dressed for the occasion, feeling a bit of a smartass. She had a red military-style jacket with epaulets, and tight black jeans. She wore her straw-blonde hair down, her bangs falling in her face.

The queue to check in wasn't very long. When it was her turn, the welcome witch (who looked like a very sour person dolled up to look like a decent human being) gave her a long look.

        "No unaccompanied minors, dear. Where are you parents?"

"I'm not a minor."

After another long look, she flipped a book around for Nemo to sign.

        "Name and your business here. Sign there. And I'll need to see your wand."

"What do you need my wand for?" Nemo asked and quickly scribbled in the page.

Last Name, First Name	Reason for visiting	Wand
NEMO	Abby Reid

       "So we know it's not stolen." said the welcome witch and slid the book back around. "Need your full name, dear. And the wand. Look, there's a queue of serious people behind you with important matters to attend. Follow my instructions or I'll call security."

Nemo rolled her eyes. This was stupid. With a heavy sigh, she slapped her wand on the counter and took the quill back. She wrote out "MORROW" after in the name line and crossed her arms. She didn't count on them knowing her real name. The welcome witch placed her wand on a fancy stand of some kind and it ticked out some kind of read out.

A few moments more and she was admitted through the turnstyles into the atrium proper. People rushed around her like a river current. Shit, where was Abby?

Abby stood by the fountain, listening to the falling water that muffled the echoing footsteps of the mid-morning crowd. The atrium often felt crowded, but it wasn't too busy between the morning arrivals earlier and the noon-time rush. The smell of spiced cider still lingered in the air from the holiday party, when the atrium had been lit with candles and shimmering fairy lights. The days were passing so, so quickly. She normally enjoyed the whole hustle and bustle this time of year, when even the dourest Ministry denizens cracked a smile before they locked up their desks and floo'd home.

Abby just wanted time to stop. To hit pause before the 22nd rolled in.

It felt much like the dread leading up to Calix's birthday in August. She'd been so aware of the time, the days that had passed before then, the short summer they'd had to try and escape. She'd kept running, kept trying. She hadn't given up even when he had. Then his birthday had come and they'd fought back, in their own way. Pretend-paladins slashing at paintings, unleashing the pentrals and drawing in the dementors.

She wasn't supposed to fight this, and couldn't stop time. But the dread roiled with nowhere to go.

So she'd try to focus on Nemo this morning. Nemo needed a favor. If she could do it before the 22nd, maybe it would help take her mind off of things.

Abby fiddled with her red hair, braided at one side. Her hair looked a Ministry-shade of red against her jewel-tone green dress. Despite her reservations, no one could say she lacked Christmas spirit.

The checkered sneakers on the dark wood floor and amidst the sea of black heels and boots caught her eye first. Then the red, military-style jacket. Then the bright blond hair.

"Nemo!" Abby called loudly over the din, waving happily. She hurried over to her.

She laughed, giving her a hug.

"Wow, Nemo. Wow. You've really dressed up to visit Level Two. I love it. Is that where you wanna go? Want to see my desk? It's decorated almost as obnoxiously as my flat. Bet you can't believe it. Or there's tea," Abby gestured at the tea shop next to the library entrance.

Nemo was visibly relieved to see Abby. She was feeling more nervous about being here than she'd thought, and certainly more nervous than she usually had reason to be. It was annoying and uncomfortable. She flashed Abby a hesitating smile and well-recieved compliment on her carefully-selected ensemble. It had been meant to help her feel like a wee badass, but the welcome witch had totally thrown her off.

"Level two, that's the Aurors? Yeah.  ... Okay, hey, what's with them checking wands? That witch at the front, little queen of a little castle..."  Nemo looked back over her shoulder across the fountain to the front desk where the line to get in was moving along quickly now, robots handing over their wands and signing their names like widgets on a factory line.

With a little shake of her head, Nemo threaded her arm into Abby's and made to move them away.

"Whatever." Nemo grinned and gave Abby a squeeze. She did want to her friend's cubicle and what would have to be truly dripping with merriment, what would certainly be a bizarre juxtaposition to this very strange, stodgy and self-important place.

"Gosh Nemo, it stops the smartest of criminals, and gives people time to critique each other's outfits. Obviously," she gave her arm a gentle squeeze, picking up a bit on her hesitation. The Ministry was an intimidating place for young, wandering bards!

They entered the lifts, Abby and Nemo making a funny pair. Both petite with bright hair and decked out in holiday colors.

At the welcome desk in Level Two's foyer, Abby picked up a visitor's badge for Nemo, and instead of going straight into Carstair's waiting area, she pulled her friend to the side.

"Let's take the roundabout way."

She just couldn't resist. Nemo was here, and would get a short tour.[1]

In the hall, they passed the loos to their right, and turned the corner.

"The Hitwizard den," she gestured at the always buzzing rows of open desks. The Hitwizards were having some holiday decorating contest which consisted of making sculptures out of beer caps. Some were Christmas trees, others were less traditional, and most of them had gotten knocked down by accident already.

Another corner, and they were at the Auror bullpen. Abby poked her head in, and made room for Nemo to as well.

"Behold, your new job," Abby teased, glancing at Nemo's red jacket.

From the doorway, they glimpsed a few paltry decorations of string lights over the front cubicles.

On Monday, Abby had come in relatively early and hung little sprigs of mistletoe over the cubicles of her favorite, mostly single Aurors and Auror trainees. Some of the Aurors had taken them down as soon as they'd arrived, but a few hadn't noticed yet, or hadn't bothered, and she was greatly enjoying the flurry of inappropriate jokes being flung across the halls. She'd hung a whole bunch right over Pratt's door, just to make him more insufferable.

"Ready, Nemo? Onwards!"

Down the hall, turning another corner, they were back at Solomon Carstair's office. Abby opened the first door, which led into the waiting area before his office proper.

"So, like, I'm pretty sure Carstairs feels like he can't say anything against this right now," she gestured around the room in which Christmas had thrown up in.

Two large candy cane sculptures framed Abby's desk, and the front of the desk was completely covered in layers of green garlands and twinkling lights. A little Christmas tree sparkled on one side of the desk's surface, and on the other, a unicorn was in a mid-prance with a red reindeer nose and a glittering horn. Her chair had one of those ubiquitous Ikea shag rugs hung over the back, very fancy! She'd hung a colorful, sculptural advent calendar on the wall behind her chair.

Though she'd made every effort to keep her decorations at and around her desk, there was no doubt that anyone walking in would be assaulted by glitter and cheer.

Abby giggled and rolled her chair out, flopping into her seat.

"Take a seat!" She pointed her foot at the two plain visitor's chairs.

1.	Level Two Map. Sometimes I forget this exists or just make things up, but here we go!

Nemo's jaw dropped in delight and put her hand on her chest in her growing amazement at Abby's skill and prolificacy in decorating. There was just massive amounts of it, dripping with a mixture of joy and tradition, but yet it didn't seem like too much. Well, no, it definitely was too much, but it was a very deliberate, pretty, controlled too much. It did made the place feel more like a Nebraska mall than a heartless bureaucratic monolith, and she honestly felt cheered.

"I feel proper cheered," she said, giving like to the thought in a fair mimic of Abby's accent. They'd come into the relative quiet of Abby's little corner of the world and Nemo took a seat, hanging her leg over the arm rest.

This was all very impressive. She had a hard time imagining Kurby Bagnold fitting in here. He seemed like an outdoor cat and this place was very tamed and tethered. Nemo might have enjoyed finding out about everything Abby did here. It was all so serious and Abby so wasn't. And this office she tended, it was very important-feeling. However, she had business.

Nemo steepled her fingers.

"So. You remember the other night when I came over and told you about that tailor shop and the flute. That's what me and Kurby were talking about yesterday. It's been, like, more than week and neither of us can stop thinking about it."

Nemo checked over her shoulder at the door - she'd thought she'd heard her name in the hall. She continued in a lowered voice.

"He told me that a girl died that shop."

She let that hang, wondering if Abby knew that. If she did, Nemo thought, she wouldn't told her the other night, right?

Oh wow! An urgent favor then. Abby had been about to ask how she was doing when Nemo basically told her how by bringing up the creepy tailor shop. Hm. Abby remembered how freaked out Nemo had been over losing the flute. More so than her violin, strangely. It didn't bode well that neither Nemo nor Bagnold could get it out of their minds. She was just about to ask how tea had gone with such a grumpy sort when Nemo mentioned a girl.

A dead girl?

Some of the cheer went right out of the room as Abby leaned back an inch in her seat, her expression troubled. She held up a finger, went to the door, and flipped over the 'go away' sign and shut the door again. She called it the 'go away' sign, anyway. It was much more polite.

She sat back down. Which dead girl? A name didn't immediately come to mind. Could murderers please just stop murdering young women?

"Which girl?" Abby wondered bluntly. "Wasn't there a whole bunch of bones beneath the floor?"

Nemo watched as Abby summoned them some privacy. It was probably a good idea and she had a stroke of admiration for Abby's professional ease in this structured, hierarchical space. It did add to the gravity which Nemo appreciated as well, always a fan of a little added drama. But also, a girl was dead. Nemo could have been next. Gravity was appropriate.

When Abby asked for more details, Nemo had only a few to provide.

"I don't know. Kurby said they found her[1] in the basement of Grimshaw's a couple years ago. That she was about our age and maybe a runaway."[2]

The implication was probably clear. She and Kurby thought that that poor dead girl could be connected to the shop. The bone pit. The Ossuary.

"There were bones down there, but ..." Nemo shrugged. Time for the Ask.

"Kurby said the Aurors would have a file. Do you think you could get it?" Nemo raised her eyebrows, her instinct was to look innocent like she'd be no trouble in situations like these. A habit that probably wasn't necessary for someone like Abby, but it almost came naturally, that little impulse to manipulate.

1.	Rosemary Hampton
2.	19 Dec 2011 - Holly and Ivy, Wood and Stone

Baggynold somehow knew about a runaway found in the basement just a few years ago. Abby was sad to say she couldn't recall the girl. She had overheard some of what Faun and Trevelyan had talked about before they'd left to investigate Grimshaw's yesterday, but she'd been more focused on whether they'd find a clue about unicorn blood dealings from the 1980s.

Or any recent dealings.

Of course, she'd told them about her friend Nemo without naming Nemo, and without even mentioning Bagnold. Just a lit up shop and creepy flute and skulls below, by the way. Fauna had relayed it all to Trevelyan, from what Abby understood, and then they'd gone and investigated and incurred Grimshaw's wrath in another round of Angry Shop versus Aurors.

And Nemo was here now, with very little preamble, asking for a dead girl's file.

Abby raised her eyebrows and gave her an innocent look in return.

"I don't know who that is. I'd have to look."

Would she?

She cocked her head and smiled, "Is this an official request?"

Abby knew the answer already, but this was all very strange and abrupt and not what she'd imagined when Nemo had asked for a favor.

A smile crept over Nemo's face and she giggled a little in spite of herself.

"Super official. All the way from the top. Brass are on my ass about this case." She tapped her fist on the desk from where she was sitting. For emphasis. But Nemo worried that she sensed a hesitation in Abby's eyes. Nemo settled into her seat a little bit more and brought her other foot up onto chair.

"I just need to look through it. Doesn't even need to leave the building."

Nemo picked at her fingernail and sighed away the creeping nerve that Abby might not ... be able to help her. Which would kinda suck. If she couldn't deliver on this promise, nothing would stop Kurby Bagnold from ever thinking of her as not some flaky kid. That, and how was she ever going to be free of this haunting, nagging pull? Shit. Shit. Shit. She and Abby where friends.

A grin flickered over Abby's face as Nemo joked back, though it faded quickly. Sitting here in Carstairs' waiting area reminded her strongly of her role here, and that definitely did not involve sneaking around and taking advantage of their trust in her. Hanging mistletoe in the cubicles was one thing. Spiking the Ministry chocolates was one thing. Peeking at files to satisfy her own curiosity was one thing. But giving out classified information was totally another.

"Nemo," she leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees.

"Why do you need to, though? I told Faun what you found and what you saw without naming you. They checked things out yesterday, and more creepy stuff happened. It's dangerous. I'm sure the girl you mentioned is someone that they're thinking about. That's their job."

Really, Nemo and Bagnold should have reported their spooky experience when it had happened earlier in the month, given full details, but Abby could totally understand why they hadn't. It sounded wackadoo even by wizarding standards. Yet now they'd met up and wanted to poke their noses in again. Why?

Abby described what the Aurors were already doing, that she'd passed on some things Nemo had told her to the authorities; Nemo shifted uncomfortably in her seat. That all made her uneasy. Suddenly this thing that had happened, that had happened to her, this thing that was hers and Kurby's was out in the open. Aurors sniffing around. Getting it under control. Out of her hands.

She was beginning to worry that she'd misjudged Abby. Not in some horrible way, but, like, Nemo thought she was cool. Like. Down. Not important enough at the Ministry to be so concerned about rules. Someone who'd help her under the table. She frowned a little at how confidently she'd told Kurby that she could get the file. How confident she'd been trying to get that unicorn blood.[1]

'That's their job,' she'd said.

"I tried to explain it." The other night. "How it ...  I need to know if what happened to us is what happened to her. All I can think about is going back. Cops are just going to complicate things."

Nemo imagined she'd get about as far as, "what's your name," before things started getting complicated with Aurors.

"I need to sort this out on my own," she said firmly. "And I need your help."

1.	22 Oct 2011 - Calamity's Child

Their roles had reversed. The shop had a pull on Nemo. Abby flashed to the night she'd wandered down Diagon Alley, possessed by her pentral to follow the old man home, and how kindly and bravely Nemo had stuck by her. Them. The house they'd reached, the one with a blue door, had shone a light in the window. She still dreamed of it at times, that lamp in the window. It called her, but it hadn't been dangerous. The man they'd followed was Iona McBoid's father. Not dangerous. Only a curmudgeon.

Nemo had fallen into a bone pit, broken her violin, and she wanted to go back?

"Nemo," Abby shook her head. "I just said that more creepy stuff has happened and that it's dangerous. I know you're brave and you don't care, but I care. I don't want you getting hurt."

Cops were involved in this already complicated situation. A girl had died. Girls had died. Nemo wanted to know if what had happened to her had happened to the others, the dead others, but to know could make her next. Couldn't it? Wouldn't Abby be encouraging this strange compulsion?

"If you're asking me to give you this information so that you can go back to the shop and figure it out, I can't do that."

She curled in on her chair, rubbing at the side of her face.

Nemo bristled and shook her head. She couldn't escape it. Everyone was always trying to tell her what to do, what was best for her. It sucked coming from the vampires (oh god, that had been mortifying) and she expected it from Kurby. Virgil had stung.[1] But Abby, she'd not have guessed.

"I'm not going back," she insisted. She and Kurby had agreed. She knew better to return to the light. She itched to ask about the 'creepy stuff', itched to know what all Abby had told them. But more than that, she was feeling territorial. Grimshaw's was hers. No. No, Nemo. That's what it wanted.

"I'm not going back," she repeated for her benefit and Abby's both. "What if you look at the file and tell me what it says?"

She almost said she didn't want to put Abby in an uncomfortable position, but that's exactly what she wanted to do. But maybe Nemo could make it easier.

"I want to know who she was. Why she was there. How she died. She was our age, Abbs."

Our age. Her age, Kurby had said. A runaway, Kurby had said.

1.	22 Oct 2011 - Don't Cry, Bone Dry

Abby stared at Nemo, expression a mixture of stunned guilt, feeling so torn. She wanted to know who she was. Why she was there. How she died. She was their age. Iona McBoid had felt, at times, just like Abby's own age. Nemo had helped her. Nemo was such a good friend and it was such a simple thing to get up, walk over to cold cases, and see if the girl's file was there. What she was suggesting was exactly what Abby would have done had Nemo perhaps approached this with more subtlety. If Abby hadn't seen firsthand Nemo's confusion and upset at the missing bone flute.

She'd be looking at the file right now, deciding what, if anything, to tell her.

She gave a very slight shake of her head. Her arms moved to cross in front of her. Her feet remained curled in.

Abby shifted uncomfortably. Oh. Great. Her feet wouldn't move. Just like in the cafe, Iona had an opinion, agreeing strongly enough to keep her in her chair.

She glanced away and shot a very strong flash of annoyance at her pentral, then refocused on Nemo.

"Once you know, can you really stay away? What if the answer is yes, she was lured in the same way? Is that going to like, settle you? What if it remains a mystery, what then?"

Her words came rapidly, the only outlet as her feet remained still.

"And why the hell can't Bagnold wix-up," she made a jerky swish and flick gesture, "and work with Level Two on it?"

She'd already forgotten about whoever he'd seen in the ledger, and was just assuming Nemo felt obligated, responsible, and... compelled.

Nemo's offense was rising like bile in her gut. Abby wasn't moving, she was questioning her, lecturing her.

"You're supposed to believe me, Abby," she snapped, almost a growl. "I told you, I'm not going back. You can trust me or not."

She lifted her chin. "If I don't know, can I really stay away? If I don't now, will it be able to trick me - us - again? Would you have rather not known about ..."  Nemo debated moving forward with the thought. She wasn't out to hurt Abby, but it was the same thing. The very same thing.

"Your ... passenger?" Nemo knew she was in there with Abby right now, probably. Listening, still.

And she didn't want to talk about Kurby. Now she was starting to worry that if she did, Abby might tell. Tell more than she already had. Everyone's got a boss around here, don't they.

"Are you going to help me?" Nemo asked. She felt like she already knew the answer.