25 December 2011
Morning
The Ministry of Magic morgue


Athena Marrowbone would like to be able to say the choice between a party and working on a holiday would be an easy one, but when the assignment was a post-vampire bite mystery-victim enchanted autopsy the expected tides turned. Start without me, she'd owled, won't be long. He's already dead, poor fellow.

The body of the poor fellow in question - middle aged, fashionably shaved head, well-built, attention paid to his fingernails - was levitating gently above the stone table, and respectfully draped. He was empty of all blood and disrobed of all personals and clues. The question wasn't in how he died. The only purple and pink left in his skin was bruising at the neck around four dry punctures. The question was to his identity. If the victim had anything personally identifying on him, it was gone by the time his death was discovered. No cash, no identification cards. And the piece of the wand that was found with him couldn't be assumed to be his.

"It's harder than you think, Gamp," Athena said walking in a wide arc. Her bright eyes and long wand were trained on their subject, but she glanced back at the head of Beings to make sure she had him.

"Especially with the more cosmopolitan of us. We're all the same at the end, you reckon? Magic or lacking, we all come into the world naked and crying and hope not to leave in the same fashion."

Athena, laughed. "A thought for the coming new year. Sorry, I'm lousy at Christmas."

She didn't seem sorry at all.

1.	25 Dec 2011 - Dry Christmas

Cepheus Gamp raised his gaze to the dark vaulted ceilings of the Ministry’s morgue. It was a room he’d rarely spent time in, but knew existed. It was the smell that clung on, pickling alcohols, magical bleach. Like the hospital but much more astringent.

He’d dreamed of the room once, when he and siblings debated what to do about their mother’s disappearance, that she was presumed dead. His thoughts were only turning in that direction for the fact his Christmas plans were on hold. Andie and Ariadne would be back at Godric’s Hollow, in the family home. He’d get there later.

No, now the case in hand was this fellow, the recently deceased. Much as they were pretty sure his cause of death was the bite, they had to ascertain enough to identify him. Was he wix or muggle? Or squib? Were the two sets of fangs the same vampire, or different? Could they have drunk the whole lot or siphoned it off somehow?

These and many other thoughts Gamp had noted down at the scene and since escorting Marrowbone and the body down to Level Ten.

Marrowbone’s address brought his attention back to her, and he bobbed his head once to indicate he was listening.
“… we all come into the world naked and crying and hope not to leave in the same fashion.” His eyebrows dropped down towards his eyes at consideration of the Healer’s humour. “A thought for the coming new year. Sorry, I’m lousy at Christmas.”

“Fast away the old year passes,” Cepheus quoted a line of Deck the Halls. “This time of year is all about birth and death. You are excused.” He shrugged his shoulders and gave her a small smile.

“Thank you for moving so swiftly on this. Hopefully we might make our respective Christmas gatherings before the turkeys are burned.”

He glanced aside and back to Marrowbone, a thought passing his mind. “if one isn’t vegetarian.” He wondered if many healers who were involved in seeing the inside of their patients were vegetarian, or if their strong constitution allowed them to tuck into a liver for dinner after a shift.

“I am hoping to get to see my sister and niece, myself.” He offered polite smalltalk, if only to distract him from the fact there was a distinctly dead, frightfully pale corpse in the room with them.

Cepheus Gamp wasn't well known to Athena Marrowbone (they were always a few degrees separated by punctured patients and vampires and paperwork) so she didn't know if he was always this way, clever, kind, and adroit with the small talk.

"I'm third of five, me," Athena said. "And it's no holiday if da's not putting us to work. Dug a ditch one Boxing Day, hand to heart. If it wasn't for what that sweet old man can do with a cranberry..."

A comment not worth punctuating with a wink, but she did it anyway. She stepped away from their patient to retrieve a case from her bag. It looked long enough to be a wand box, but it wasn't.

"The best place to look for any lingering magical mustard is in the blood, or such is the current best guess. Shame our friend hasn't got much left. Luckily we have me, and I know where to look."

Inside the case was a golden healing instrument nearly as long as her forearm. It looked like a large awl with two large hoops for her fingers, and a sort of lever or plunger like a syringe. Looking at it, one had the distinct worry it was meant for the eye or nose.

"Helps he's freshly departed..." she said. The man's body began to lower and Athena came around to his left side. She turned up the cover, and looking a little giddy to be doing it, Saint Sawbones plunged the device deep into the deceased's thigh. It made exactly the sound one would expect.

Cepheus Gamp wasn’t sure he wanted to know what Marrowbones’ father could do which required a suggestive wink.

“Second of three, here.” He reciprocated. “We’re both middle children.” There were books on the baggage being the middle child could give one. Cepheus hadn’t read them, but there’d been enough suggestion since Andie had arrived on the earth. Ceph actually thought he was the mildest of the three, and certainly the least likely to get into serious trouble.

Marrowbone continued to explain what she was up to. Cepheus tucked his notes in the crook of his arm and slid his hands into his trouser pockets. He watched her assemble her equipment with trepidation. At least there’d be no gushing blood in this body, but it was the smells and sights of guts that could turn his pallor green.

The noise made Cepheus bite his bottom lip and rock on his feet. Why did a vampire have to get hungry on Christmas morning? He could have been watching Ariadne unwrap her presents from under the Christmas tree and insisting on helping Solly the house elf with the dinner.

“So blood is the best indicator of ‘magical mustard’ is it?” Cepheus asked, left eye slightly closed as he fought to hold off his grimace. It seemed rather familiar with what his parents had been up to, but Cepheus had no intention to bring up their horrific research. “And what if they’re dry there too?”

Athena glanced up, perhaps a little to interested in seeing how the nice man reacted to her methods. She found the crunch satisfying; it meant she'd found bone buried deep inside the thick leg on the first try. She had earned her namesake.

"That's the question, innit?" Athena said. Then with a mighty yank she withdrew the instrument. Pinched at the end of the awl was what looked like a blood-red worm standing at attention. At the Healer's spell, it hovered in the air gently rotating.

"Hello, baby..." she said, cocking her head. "Good enough to eat, aren't you?"

Then to Cepheus she said. "Looks like we got lucky. Even if our friend didn't. Of all the magical advancements of all the years, of everything we know... where is fancy bred, in the heart or in the head?"

She shrugged. "My gold's on blood."

For all of Athena's experience, she very rarely worked with the dead. She got them just before the end with the goal of delaying it.

“Good enough to eat-”

Argh, why did he have to glance down at it when she said that?! He dipped his head and rubbed his knuckles at the back of his neck to distract him from the scene ahead. Think of something nice. Of the smell of pine needles, mince pies and brandy. That he had friends coming round between then and new year. That he’d get to catch up with Arcturus Hollingbury at last. There, that was better. The reflex to vomit was passing.

“I don’t know,” Cepheus inhaled deeply through his nose. He forced himself to look up again, and shrugged his shoulders. “I always pondered if it had to be something that could be measured. Whether it was a … smell that a creature could sniff or an ‘energy’ that we emanated.” His hands had slipped from the pockets to gesture animatedly as he spoke, complete with air quotes. “Though I guess our friend wouldn’t necessary have that post mortem.” He gestured out with his left arm, the right going to reseat the notes which had slipped from their pinch between elbow and waist.

No, he couldn’t see Marrowbone bringing a kneazle or crup to sniff the body. That golden instrument seemed to suit her glee at this process rather more! He wondered if she was as gleeful when she was piecing someone back together from Level Four’s Beast Division…

“So, how does one know from the blood?” He asked, “Or marrow, I guess in this case?”

“Though I guess our friend wouldn’t necessary have that post mortem.”

"Auras," Athena supplied.  Cepheus looked closer to fainting than he had earlier. "Fades quickly after check-out, according to what I've read. And I'm not sure it's unique to our folk."

“So, how does one know from the blood?” He asked, “Or marrow, I guess in this case?”

The truth was, she didn't rightfully, not with certainty. The hope was that a magical person's blood was magic itself and could be coaxed to life, if only for a moment. "All I've got is a wild guess, but I'll need your assist, Healer Gamp."

She lifted her wand and held the tip close to the sample and nodded for Cepheus to do the same. "We re-attach loads of limbs. The hard bits are getting the blood flowing again, but getting the wand arm to work as well. Bit of lightning does the trick. One wand at each end: far end sends a jolt and the other end, well, it should do something."

What exactly happened seemed to vary. The results always reminded Athena of when kids tried their first wands. Snap, crackle, pop. What was this poor dead marrow sample but a detached arm?

"I'll throw, you catch. Bit closer for me. Ready?" She didn't sound exactly confident in the method, but it was worth a try.

Auras, yes, that was the word. Funny how things escaped you when you were trying to converse with someone new.

“… I’ll need your assist, Healer Gamp.”

The briefest of moments Cepheus thought someone else who shared his surname had entered the room, but no! She meant him. Grief, he was going to get involved. He set aside his notes and rolled up his sleeves, approaching the corpse with trepidation on the opposite side to the much taller Healer Marrowbone. Her wand tip held steady close to the floating marrow, and she gestured for him to do the same.

“… bit of lightning does the trick. One wand at each end: far end sends a jolt and the other end, well, it should do something. … you catch.” A little perplexed at present, Cepheus obliged, glancing to her as if to say ‘like this?’ “… bit closer for me.” He shuffled his feet, willing himself not to look down at the immobile body between them.

“Ready,” he replied, semi-automatically to her question. In reality, he was wondering exactly how he was going to catch lightning, but he supposed it would only smart as much as a hex. He glanced up at her, wand steady, for the count. “Two… one…”

A bright spark dazzled him between their wand tips. The marrow was lost in the light, and it left spots in Ceph’s eyes like someone had just taken a photograph. It wasn’t his immediate preoccupation though.

“Ahh you bas…” he managed to suppress the full bastard in response to Marrowbone’s lightning shot through the marrow into his wand and up his arm. It had made his elbow clench and he shook his arm out after, hopping from one foot to the other wriggling his fingers.

“Anything?” He asked, eyeing the marrow. What was it meant to do if it was magical? Grow a limb? Produce a pint of blood? This was not an area of his expertise. There’d definitely been lightning though.

"Bit anti-climactic, that," Athena said wrinkling her nose and looked over at Cepheus who acted like he'd never done this before. "Sorry," she offered.

The little bone shard now looked like like teeny tiny overdone breakfast sausage hovering sadly in the air, abused and spent like the doomed body from whence he came.

"I don't know," she said crossing her arms, apparently comfortable in her ignorance. "I was hoping for something grand, you know? Even a wee finger you get a bit of fireworks, bit of a jolt, right? Not even a wiggle. We've just cooked the poor bugger crispy. "

Athena thought for a moment more then shook her head with finality. "No, we should've got something. I'm seventy-seven percent sure this chap's not got a magical bone in his body. Start looking for muggles is my  magical opinion.

Then she gave the body's knee a pat. "But we won't hold it against you, Mr. Leaky, was it?"

She leaned started to pack up her things. "Think you'll catch the biter?"

Her question was more sober in tone than her macabre examination.

Marrowbone’s animated and upbeat manner had vanished. Her features had drooped with dismay at the lack of output from the experiment. Instead, there was a distinct smell of burning meat hanging in the air between them.

“I’m seventy-seven percent sure this chap’s not got a magical bone in his body.”

Cepheus let out a little sigh of dismay. If he’d been magical, then they’d have been able to track him down, perhaps identify a family, and that wand might well have belonged to him. As it was, they were more likely looking at a Muggle, which meant he had to work with Level 3 to get the poor bugger repatriated into the Muggle systems and identified that way.

“Think you’ll catch the biter?”

“Hard to know,” Cepheus admitted, drawing closer to the neck and crouching down to give it a better look at eye level. “We didn’t have much luck with the last couple of muggles with the same outcome. Lead we had dried up…” he glanced up at Marrowbone, realising he’d made an unintended pun there. “Well, it wasn’t a complete waste of time, we did inadvertently solve a missing persons file for International Magical Cooperation.”

He pressed his lips together into a straight line and stood properly again. “Can we get some data on the bite marks? See if we’re looking at the same set of teeth as any other instances. If this is the same vampire striking again after many months or a new one.”

"Lead we had dried up…"

Athena cracked a wide smile. He looked like he hadn't meant to, but she appreciated the word play. What was this grim danse without a bit of poetry. It was a shame Cepheus Gamp was about as doubtful of his task as she'd been at hers. A whole lot of uncertainty between them, and then this poor stiff on the table whose family will have only bad Christmases from here on out. She took a breath to perish the thought - she'd done her work by him, best she could.

"Oooh, what's 'at, missing person?" she asked as she began to carry out Cepheus's requests. "Sure they liked that, but how do you mean?"

Athena had a pair of curving calipers with her things and began taking measurements of the bites. They overlapped each other, one shallow, one fully deep. She took down the space between the wounds, the diameter of the holes, distance from the jaw bone, distance from the collar bane, just about any two points she could connect. At St. Mungo's they didn't collect this kind of data on bites not unless the patient filed a report with the Ministry, so they wouldn't have any data to compare it to. Actual involuntary, non-fatal vampire attacks were actually quite rare.

Next she'd snag a photograph with the coroner's camera.

“.. sure they liked that, but how do you mean?”

Cepheus moved away, allowing Marrowbone to get to work with the measurements.

“Five had a group go missing. Diplomatic mission to a vampire sect abroad. All gone, but a strong suspicion it had gone south with the vampires. Been unresolved for a couple of years. We start investigating two dry bodies and word surfaces that one of the youngest in the group, Mateo Amherst, has resurfaced as a vampire in Britain.”

Cepheus skirted round describing how he came to find that out. The visit to the the coven hadn’t been the most comfortable, and Hooker had said that the information wasn’t to be identified as coming from his coven. It would stay between him, Tristan and Andromeda.

“It took a bit of work but we tracked him down and brought him in. Not the biter, but at least the Amherst family had some answers at last. Poor chap was engaged to a Hogwarts sweetheart when it happened. I’ve no idea how that will work out, or if it could.”

When you got turned, there was the fog. Memories of the human life were gone, damaged or disconnected. Whether Amherst would have successfully recalled his former love, Cepheus had no idea. But it was probably not going to work out, owing to the fact he was now near immortal and prone to biting if aroused… A fleeting memory passed by of a conversation about such with a Hogwarts student, now colleague.

“You ever met a vampire?” Cepheus asked, curious as to what the average healer might encounter. “Other than the blood bank at new moon, I anticipate the number of visits for healing assistance are low to non-existent.”

Athena calibrated the camera. Turned some shiny knobs, tested the viewfinder, flipped a couple of tiny switches.

The tale of Mateo Amhearst. She shook her head quite amazed. "Incredible. Would make a grand Wireless program."

"Me? That's a stretch. But then at a party with the lights low and all of us getting happily, willfully impaired, who's to know?"

The toweringly tall healer, crouched down and lifted the camera to her face. The flash went off and the camera make a loud clicking noise and a high pitched whine. A photograph turned out, as pale as a sheet. Athena turned a knob and did it again.

"But really, what would I do with one?" she asked rising. "Should one come strolling in, what, bloke's got a harpy lac that needs stitching up? Probably send him off to a tailor. I'm lost if no one's bleeding. I'll admit it."

Athena knew saying such things was off-putting and she'd already squeemed out Cepheus. She shook the still processing photographs a little before handing them over with a smile.

"There you are. Howl if there's anything else."

“… Probably send him off to a tailor…” Cepheus gave a snort of humour at the description, though paused and looked thoughtfully across the room, wondering the biology of what would happen. Had to love magic.

“I suppose as Being Division Head I should know the answer to that…” he admitted as Healer Marrowbone shook the developing photos.

“There you are. Howl if there’s anything else.”

Cepheus received the photos as they began to fade onto the paper and gave an impressed nod.
“Thanks, do you do weddings too?” Poor humour joke, but there was a dry corpse in the room with them. “I’ll let you know if anything turns up with it. You’ve been a great help today.” He thanked her genuinely, thinking to shake her hand and then deciding a nod would be better, given where her hands had just been.

“I hope you’re not too late to enjoy the best of the day,” he added, “Merry Christmas.”

He had an old crime report to unwrap before he made it to Godric's Hollow...




End