5 Jan 2012, 8am
Department of Magical Law Enforcement
The night after 4 Jan 2012 - In Busy Cities No One Notices


Early in Zora's career she was known for being a loose wand, quick to action. Now, ten years in, she'd mellowed. Her intensity had steadied as her confidence grew and she'd found she was good at talking to people. Well, suspects. Her salon was the interview room, her manner was her flat affect and her unflappable demeanor. Intimidation didn't come from threats or a raised voice, but the facts (or fibs) laid out on the table. It wasn't a universal tactic - they had heavies they could send in - but it was a good place to start.

And this morning the vampire Cassandra Motley, murder suspect, was going to get a front row seat. Zora had gotten a good night's sleep (albeit a late start), but Motley was nearing the end of what Zora knew had been a long 'day'. She rolled in, prepped the paperwork, and headed in. She'd had Motley transferred into the interview room first, and Zora'd ordered the wrist restraints to stay on. She wanted to set the stage for the gravity of this situation, and then, if advantageous, Zora could be the good cop liberator providing a comforting little mercy. A quick glance throught he one-way mirror confirmed the set up. A few steps later and Zora was unlatching the heavy door and strolling in.

She was dressed in her long red robes, her black hair loose around her shoulders. She tossed a closed file onto the table between them and pulled out her chair.

"Good morning," she said loudly, almost brightly and briskly. "Had some time to cool off, have you?"

This was utterly ridiculous. Lord only knew what they put out on the radio last night. Perhaps she was a news item already. Perhaps nobody cared enough to even explain her absence and they’d just spun records all night without a word.

The sun had risen, Cass could feel it in her dead bones, even if she had no real dawn to glimpse through heavy curtains. She had spent the night in one of the cells, singing what she remembered of her favourite albums with intermittent meditative half hours of silence. She didn’t do being bored. She had tried to strike up conversation with others in adjacent cells but it seemed they’d used magic to muffle her fantastic singing. What monsters.

“Oh I’m ice cold, Auror Roh.” Cass replied brightly, and went to motion the auror to touch her skin, but the magical binds hindered it. “Did you sleep well?” She asked, wondering if the auror had taken garlic bulbs to bed as a precaution, though outwardly she grinned, full fangs on show.

“Important you sleep,” she continued, “fresh faced to clear up whatever I’m meant to have done.” She shrugged, though her eyes silently added not like one of us had a job to do last night, or anything.

There was more vinegar left in Motley than Zora had expected. She lifted her eyebrows tolerantly, not fazed. Was this endless energy a quality of their kind? The only vampire she'd ever met was Tristan Vallaincourt, briefly, and he'd been languid and calm, no mania to be found.

"I slept quite nicely," Zora responded. "Helped knowing we'd nipped you up."

She stayed standing and left the folder closed and glanced at the mirror as if someone were standing behind it, referencing the 'we' in her previous statement. If she'd been cheery at all (not really), it faded.

"So tell me, how does it work?" Zora asked. "The blood-sucking, I mean. How long can you go without it?"

In the mirror, Auror Roh would have only seen herself, and nobody with her in the room.

“So tell me, how does it work? The blood-sucking, I mean. How long can you go without it?”

“You mean,” Cass began, without hesitation, “there’s not one of those lovey information pamphlets the Ministry makes, which answers this?” The Ministry made a pamphlet for everything. Cass wouldn’t be entirely surprised if there was one about wiping your arse, which was made of loo paper, somewhere.

“I’m not being facetious,” Cass clarified, gesturing towards Auror Roh. “Vampires should eat once a month, as I do, from the St Mungo’s blood bank. We’re perfectly able to survive without sucking people’s necks, legs or arms. Just like you’re able to survive on Ministry food rather than top price restaurants.”

Zora nodded in approval, apparent agreement. Motley was as chatty now as she was upon her arrest which would be much easier for them both, even if she was just blowing hot air. Something was something and it was better than nothing. Here's hoping she'd keep it up.

"That's questionable for my part," she replied, "but I get the picture. So once a month, every new moon, you all troop down to St. Mungo's to pick up your serving. Can't imagine the queues."

Zora continued on the friendlier side of droning. "Last new moon, that was Christmas Eve. You'll have been seen then at St. Mungo's, must have been. Someone to vouch for you. You've got someone to account for you, all night. Easy enough to check, just give me a name."

Cass issued Auror Roh with a toothy grin and shook her head at the suggestion of queues. It diminished at Roh’s continued droning.

“We don’t all turn up on the same night,” she informed Roh, choosing to ignore the request for an alibi. “The new moon’s just when the hunger’s keenest.” She flicked a long lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. “You get a monthly ration, like.”

Auror Roh really hadn’t done her homework. Tsk, tsk. She’d wasted a whole night for Cass, and her regular listeners wouldn’t be pleased, nor her producer.

“Merlin, no.” Cass rolled her eyes. “Christmas Eve at the hospital? Who wants to be there? I went early. They keep a record. Either you’ve not checked, or you’re waiting to see if my account differs from what you found.” She pointed with both forefingers at Roh and sat back with a sigh.

“Nah mate, I went to see family, Christmas Eve.[1]” After a rather eventful pre-Christmas eve[2] in bat form, before meeting the most striking Hogwarts student in recent history.

1.	Truth!
2.	23rd December, Turn on the Dark, I’m Afraid of the Light!

Zora Roh nodded along as Cass Motley walked her through the finer points of the Ministry's blood distribution. She was, when not shrieking, remarkably well spoken and very easy to imagine her a capable wireless voice. That kind of talent was easily applicable to talk oneself out of trouble. She jotted down a note or two about where to follow up on Motley's claims knowing she wouldn't give up anything that would implicate her, but all of this was serving to trace her movements around the murder.

"Sounds lovely," Zora said wrinkling her nose. A vampire spending Christmas with the parents. Weird.

"And after they went to bed, your parents, Christmas Eve, where did you go?"

“Downstairs, to their dining room, and wrapped a whole heap of presents.” Cass replied without hesitation. She shrugged. “Best time to do it once everyone was asleep. Also, I haven’t got a wand to magic the paper and ribbons.”

The dining room was the furthest away from the bedrooms, and if she dragged the wireless in, she could listen to it way down low. The only danger was humming along in a sea of brightly coloured paper and sparkly ribbon. But a blood pop in the mouth kept her mind off it. Was altogether the most palatable part of Christmas with her family. Her parents desperate to try and keep some semblance of normality despite her condition, and in an effort to deal with the fog of her turning.

“Takes time to write those cutesy little clues for my family to guess from.” Cass looked Auror Roh up and down, “I don’t imagine you’re into that, are you?”

Zora listened, not charmed by the young vampire's Yuletide tales of ghoulish merry-making. A vampire wasn't a person, just an occupied husk, a bedeviled theft walking and talking. The idea that her family still kept her, that she still stayed with them, it sounded to Zora like a standing wake.

"Have you ever bitten someone before?" Zora asked, ignoring Motley's invitation to swap stories. "I understand the pull is overwhelming, that really, it's unreasonable to expect someone to resist."

It might seem like there were just to the two of them alone in this room alone with Zora's reflection, but behind the mirrored window were more Aurors recording and acting on anything useful the suspect might say.

“Have you ever bitten someone before?”

The cheek of it!

“Hah, nice try.” Cass tried to keep it light, not to let Roh get a rise out of her more than she already had, but really!

“Wouldn’t you love that?” Cass laughed, “Me to conveniently give you some other reason to keep me here for something I’ve not done. Just so you can justify arresting me, holding me here overnight to your boss.” She shook her head and refolded her arms. Perhaps she wasn’t the first vampire they’d done this to. Did Roh realise what happened when you antagonised a vampire?

“Have you ever beaten someone a bit too hard in custody, Auror Roh?” Cass asked, returning the favour. “Ever accidentally sent someone to St Mungo’s?” She raised an eyebrow suggestively. “Bet it happens all the time.” She let out a tsk. “Cut to the chase: what is it exactly that you have to think I’ve got the Christmas munchies?”

Zora held back a smile and nodded a little. It had been, indeed, a nice try, but Motley wasn't as off-the-handle fired up as Zora had thought. Zora shrugged retreat. Motley could have that point.

And she'd have the next as well. There was no way for the vampire to know how spot on the accusation was: Zora had nearly earned herself an O.A.F. as recently as two years ago in the arrest of a teenager.[1] Devlin Matthews had been working for Theodora Kingstreet. And before then, well, let's say Zora had calmed down in the last several years having nothing left to prove. She was capable yet of being nasty with the wand, but employed the skill rarely now.

Motley provoked Zora to standing and pacing a circle. When she came around again, her tack began to intensify in seriousness.

"Your wand was found at the scene of a murder. A man was drained of blood on the night of Christmas Eve, killed by a vampire."

It was compelling evidence, but circumstantial. It would be easy for Motley to claim it was stolen or she'd lost it some time ago. A competent lawyer could argue for release.

"One of your kind's killing people and we reckon it's you."

1.	Overly Abusive Force citation

Her wand? Cass stared bug-eyed at Auror Roh. Her wand?!

“One of your kind’s killing people and we reckon it’s you.”

At a loss of how to react, the wireless presenter’s mind decided this had to be an elaborate wind up. So she began to laugh. Harsh, cynical laughter. They reckoned they’d found her wand. That was absolutely hilarious. Her wand was broken, it had been snapped the moment she’d registered as a vampire. What did they think she did, flit around London with it at night and look for dinner? Were they absolute crack-pot crazy? She was an effing vampire, she didn’t need a wand to do that. She had learned how to turn into a bat at Christmas for goodness sake. 

Her lonely, solo laughter lasted for more than a moment, and only stopped when it had successfully made the whole situation feel even more awkward.

Cass sobered suddenly, fixed Auror Roh with a steely stare, and uttered eight final words in her clearest tone:

“I’d like to see a lawyer now. Thanks.”

Well, shit. Cass Motley had a head on her shoulders after all. Everyone was an armchair legal expert after they listened to a few WWN crime serials. It was a pain in the ass.

"Can't say I blame you," Zora said tilting her head to one side. "You're in deep Motley. You'll need a professional to sift through the shit you're in."

Zora had been really hoping they wouldn't have to cut Cass loose, but that was looking likely. Felt to Zora that there should be different rules for non-human beings who could transform into bats, hide out in some hole, and proceed to live scot-free for a hundred years.

---

"Vampire wants a lawyer," Zora said once she was back in the bullpen. She tossed the file on the table.

     "Since when has that mattered to you?" someone asked with a scoff. Plenty of dingbat suspects kept yammering on after invoking their right and the Aurors weren't often shy about encouraging it.

"Since I don't fancy dealing with a memo from the Wizengamot at the moment," Zora responded. "Besides, it's not going to do her any good."

An hour later, a private room no cozier than a closet.

"Hello, my dear," Talisha said once she'd closed the interrogation room door. She stood just inside, holding a stack of folders and papers to her stomach. She was staring, her eyes wide and her mouth curled into a smile. She looked not unlike a fanatic. It was like Christmas. There she was: a beautiful vampire. Golden hair, skin pale and ashen, and a mouthful of teeth.

"I hope you don't mind, but I'd love to save your life."

She moved forward suddenly, tripped on her own shoe, then stuck her hand out.

"Talisha Crowe. I'm your lawyer."

How she'd come to be is a bit of a turn-about tale. Suffice it to say for the moment that Talisha keeps her eye on the docket and a diviner on retainer.

It had taken time, but Auror Roh had obliged. A witch joined her, with tightly curled, red-brown hair. There was something slightly off about the way she looked at Cass, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. That smile was just a little too brilliant. Still, it was a smile and the friendliest face she’d seen in a day. There was definite enthusiasm. A little clumsy, but enthusiasm she could work with!

“Cass Motley,” she returned the greeting, extending her hand. “You’re going to get me out of here.” That wasn’t negotiable, but she was being polite about it to begin with. She gestured for Crowe to take a seat in this broom cupboard.

“Has Roh appraised you of what she’s arrested me for?” Cass asked, “they think I bit a muggle, on Christmas eve, that one that was in the paper.” She rolled her eyes. “Roh’s claiming they have my wand, but that’s been broken. I’m a radio presenter, law abiding person, Crowe. What sort of crap vampire would I be if I bit muggles and handily left my wand behind? She’s bullshitting, or it’s clearly a plant. Don’t you think?” Cass issued a bright smile, fangs out, and tilted her head.