Before lunchtime

She knocked on the door to the flat shared by Virgil, Ari and Nick. The last time Raine had been here was for the New Year's party - life had gotten busy on and off Two, since then, but she was mostly caught up on sorting out her late aunt's affairs by now. Hopefully.

Her purpose for visiting was... almost work-related. Raine had noticed a memo from Mysteries about some popular new drug[1] of questionable source, but Auror Childs was assigned the case and she wasn't keen on asking the odious wizard if she could join his investigation.

Instead, she had asked Virgil about the memo when she bumped into him at the Ministry. And he had directed her to Ariadne, who was interested in investigating the situation herself. Apparently the sharp-tongued Carstairs was too busy to chase down a lead. She might as well.

Why not? Raine was bored and this new contraband was interesting. Checking it out with her old housemate would give her a freer hand than with Childs - also, no paperwork, which had become the bane of her life.

The door opened and she felt herself smile slightly at Ari's familiar face. It made her think of Hogwarts and the Gryffindor common room and chocolate frogs.

"Hey," the redhead nodded in greeting. "Did Virgil say I was coming? It's about Muse."

1.	Muse (Plot Chapter)

For the first time in what felt like a small forever, Ariadne Gamp was not rushing off to report on a quidditch match. She’d spent yesterday at the Wasps-Portree game and then the evening down on the beach with an extended invitation from some younger Ministry people.

The next match wasn’t until one that afternoon, so Ariadne had risen late and was fortuitously dressed by the time there was a knock at the door. Out of habit she assumed it was someone for Nick or Virgil, her flatmates.

“Coming!” She called brightly, unravelling her legs from beneath her, brushing hair from Virgil’s feline companion off her denim legs.

“Hey!” Ariadne’s greeting to her old housemate was genuine.
“Hey - Did Virgil say I was coming? It’s about Muse.”
“Yes! Yes he did,” Ariadne, nodding as she stepped aside and extended an arm into the space in gesture. “Come in, come in. Thanks for coming over.” She swung the door shut on the hooting cacophony of the ground floor’s resident owls, and twirled her sycamore wand to cast a wordless muffliato to fade the interruption from ears.

“Do you want tea? Coffee? Virgil’s got all manner of fancy stuff,” that unspeakable job kept him very financially buoyant in comparison to Ariadne’s measly trainee income from the newspaper. Not that she was jealous. No. Merlin the thought of working in that place after everything. Eugh. “How have you been? How’s auror training?”



The rhythm of polite hosting fulfilled, the witches gravitated back to the open plan living space, and Ariadne’s wand summoned what looked like a scrapbook from her bedroom. It had oversized cuttings sandwiched between the pages, with the recognisable quality of newsprint. A book followed[1].

“So yeah,” Ariadne fidgeted on her end of the sofa, “Virgil brought it up and Nick said he’d tried it. Offered us to get some, but call me lame, I smoked gilly for the first time at Christmas and puked in a flowerpot.” She held a hand up towards Raine in vague defence of what her housemates might have teasingly claimed she was a lightweight for.

“It captures someone’s memory, so you can relive it like a random selection pensieve.” She flicked the cover open on the scrapbook, revealing a series of cuttings and notes. “Virgil was sceptical who would donate memories or be desperate enough to sell them.” There was a handwritten note in Ariadne’s handwriting of how Nick had described his first interaction with it: Summer’s day, swimming with friends. Happy.

“He reckoned they weren’t copies, because they were too authentic. So whoever it belonged to can no longer experience it. Also, that they had torn edges…” She’d stuck the torn part of the paper Virgil had illustrated with.

“Which then begs the questions who is desperate enough to sell their good memories, and what’s the going price for them?” She gestured a shrug with upturned hands. “So I thought maybe I could go offer some in Knockturn and see who wants to buy, but Nick and V thought I might have a bit of a death wish…”

1.	On Memory Magic

It was nice to slip back into things. Raine was a part of the Ministry set nowadays but she was grateful to be around Ariadne, who existed outside those walls. Even at Hogwarts her housemate had been friendly reprieve from her more intense friend groups; catty tongues of Gracie, Theo and Virgil's cousin Alex. Life was so much less intense these days, luckily.

At least on a personal level. Pentrals and full moons and werewolf attacks weren't non-intense.

They caught up on small talk quickly enough, her answers peppered by the odd complaint of Auror paperwork and mention of Quidditch news. Raine cradled a mug of tea in her hands as they drifted back to the living area for real talk. The flat was cosy and comfortable, and carried an atmosphere of camaraderie similar to the common rooms at school.

Fiery eyebrows went up when the scrapbook was presented - she was impressed by Ari's thoroughness. As well as her daring.

The redhead sat on the edge of a sofa arm, careful not to spill anything. "Death wish might be right. I think they'll mark you out as a narc if you go down to Knockturn asking to sell memories," she narrowed her eyes at Bevans' description in the book, which she had opened on her lap now. "Though... maybe you should ask Nick to get you some. Or find out who his dealer is."

Raine glanced up with a little smile and thought of her friend's aversion to gillyweed.

"And I could try Muse, if you're willing to... what's that word?" she hesitated. "Trip sit? If you trip sit me. make sure I don't throw myself off a building or whatever."

Marching into Knockturn could work but she wanted to tread lightly so that nobody - including level two - realised the witches were snooping.

"Hm..." Ariadne pouted in thoughtful agreement at the suggestion to press Nick a little more into finding out who he dealer was. She scribbled it down on her reporter's notebook with a battered pencil.

"... I could try Muse, if you're willing to... trip sit? .. Make sure I don't throw myself off a building or whatever."

Ariadne raised an eyebrow, and twisted on the sofa to look up at Raine perched on the arm of it.

"You, try Muse?" She asked rhetorically. It wasn't that she didn't imagine Raine to be into that sort of thing - but Merlin the way even her aunt Andie smoked gillyweed she (hopefully jokingly) confiscated from a criminal had taken her by surprise. "I always thought aurors had to be straightedge when it came to that stuff?"

The redhead smiled - like all of her smiles, slightly restrained, as if her mouth couldn't quite stretch wide enough.

"Technically I'm only a mere, insignificant trainee..." she flipped a page in the scrapbook, recognising old articles about Muse related accidents. "Besides, I think it's alright to break rules as long as it makes sense."

None of the articles were long or explosive, nor were they dated especially close to each other. Muse hadn't taken off just yet. And wasn't that the key word? Yet. There was something tantalisingly sensational about the concept of experiencing someone else's memories. Like a pensieve without all the bother of it.

Raine wasn't really into new age stuff, how taking hallucinogens could open up your mind and break paradigms. But she had a touch of that characteristic for which her animagus form was famous. She was curious.

"I mean, I don't want the Ministry to dictate my personal moral compass," the witch added as she shut the book and handed it back to Ari. "What do you think? Is Nick more likely to spill the beans on his dealer, or to get you some contraband?"

"... mere, insignificant trainee..." Raine reasoned, and Ariadne scoffed. Auror trainees weren't insignificant. It was bloody hard to get accepted as one, so Ariadne wouldn't have dared do something to jeapordise it so early. But she did accept and acknowledge Raine's intention to take risk to solve a puzzle.

She received her book of cuttings back, and slid it onto the cluttered coffee table.

"Is Nick more likely to spill the beans on his dealer, or to get you some contraband?"

"Well, he did offer," Ariadne recalled, narrowing her eyes as she remembered, "but he also said he wasn't turning in the person he bought it from, and neither was V, but he on the other hand had brought it up with Yavin Morgenthau." Virgil mentioned Yavin quite a bit.

"I'll ask Nick tonight after work, but, uhm," Ari shuffled a little on the couch, "I'm not hoarding galleons right now if I'm honest, Raine. Prophet only pays so much to lowly trainees."

She wrinkled her nose at mention of neither Bevans nor 'V' giving up their source. Morgenthau knowing made sense - the memo had been from the Department of Mysteries, so the head himself must have sent it flittering in their direction.

Raine had glimpsed Morgenthau as a child, when she and her sister would attend the Carstairs' garden parties with Alexandra. Small world.

            "I'm not hoarding galleons right now if I'm honest..."

Right. Money. She always forgot about money, having never wanted for it, and it annoyed her to realise she had no idea what Muse went for on the streets. Probably more than a few grams of gillyweed.

"Well if you're doing the footwork, I can at least be the purse..." the redhead peered into her chunky knit chain tote. "Keep whatever's left for future expenses I suppose?"

She took out two velvet pouches, one deep red and the other blue. Raine kept spending money in one - but the other was what her Aunt would call tipping change. So she shook a few galleons into the later and tossed it on the coffee table. "Never know if we'll need a box of doughnuts for a stake out."

A sarcastic smile tugged at her mouth. Raine was fond of the muggle police stereotype in films. "Or pumpkin pasties anyway."

"Well if you're doing the footwork, I can at least be the purse..." Raine seemed to take it well, but Ariadne still felt awkward as Hades for asking a friend for money. Nick and Virgil were so generous with things like sharing food, so she could keep up her third of the rent and buy other things they needed. They both earned more than her at the Ministry. Perhaps her mother had been right about getting a job there.

"I'll keep track of the budget." Ariadne offered immediately, feeling she had to put on some sort of grown up disguise now. "Not just the doughnut budget," she added hastily, and flipped to the back of the book of cuttings. "Got to put my arithmancy skills to good use." She shrugged it off, seizing a quill to ink budget at the top.

"Thanks." She managed to say, finding her manners to look up at Raine poised on the end of the sofa. "Not just for the money," she elaborated. "For getting involved, y'know, off duty sorta. Including me. My mum will kill me if she catches wind though, Raine. So you can't let her find out." Ariadne dropped the quill to wave both hands in discouragement of this idea. "Wait until we 'bust the case'." She winked, finding her stride again, and laughed at the silly Muggle expression. She hoped Raine didn't get into trouble, too, but the way her former dormitory-mate had suggested trying the drug suggested Raine didn't think she was at risk of that.

She was relieved to hear Ariadne volunteer to manage their budget - Raine had been dealing with money numbers[1] ever since Aunt Ira died and she was tired of it. Muggle money, wizarding money, property, stocks, assets; all hidden in little corners of Europe. At least this was one account she didn't need to look at.

Her investigating partner brought up a different subject, then. One that had slipped her by altogether, in spite of the fact that she saw Nadine Pinn's face on an almost daily basis.

"Don't worry, the older aurors never really care about what we're doing anyway." Raine shrugged, downplaying the trouble she would be in if they found out she was meddling. "I won't say anything to your mum, or to anyone who might tell her."

She liked Auror Pinn, who did most things by the book and took no nonsense. Even so she could imagine how the witch might throw a spanner into their works. Raine would need to come up with some kind of official cover, for whenever they 'busted the case'.

A thoughtful look entered her eye.  "Maybe I'll go into work and see if I can pull any cold case files to do with Muse?" she wrinkled her nose. "If Auror Childs hasn't already. He's technically in charge of investigating Muse but I doubt he'll dive deep. Not that sort of wizard."

Which was a roundabout way of calling him a cretin. Raine's expression said as much.

1.	17th Feb - Realisation Grew On Me

Ariadne nodded.
"Sounds like a good idea. You'll get further than I did with the Prophet archives." Ariadne gestured to the scrapbook. Worth the paper cuts, but never going to be quite the same as actual reports.

"Part of me isn't surprised it's not investigated. You guys must be busy with actual dark wizards and the likes. Priorities, hm? It's not like someone's turned up without their memories in the middle of Diagon." Ariadne imagined that the auror office was incredibly busy, and regrettably some of her family were to do with that.

"Besides asking Nick to source us some, I reckon I might go poking at St Mungo's. See if anyone has ended up there because of it, or has encountered it. Healers are all confidential, like?"

Ariadne drummed her fingers on her knees, a determined look in her eye. "They might give me nothing but no harm asking." She shrugged and looked back up at Raine.

"I'll let you know if Nick agrees, or when I have some. You can like pass out on my bed or I can come round your place. Your trip, you decide."

Raine was glad Ari didn't think that the aurors should be giving Muse their utmost attention - there really were dark wizards to catch, and the only reason Muse landed on Childs' desk instead of a regular MLE officer was probably because the memo had come from Morgenthau. It did seem shady, bordering on dark magic, to be stealing memories.

"How are you going to approach poking around St.Mungo's?" she asked, curious about Ariadne's methods now. "Pretend you're doing a feature for Queen G or something?"

Healers were confidential but they would probably be wary about giving out information too, after recent security breaches at the hospital. But she didn't want to bring Ari's grandfather up in conversation.

Raine crossed her legs, balancing on the couch arm. "Let's do it at mine. Not that I don't trust Nick or Virgil, I just think I'd be more comfortable with Abby around..."

And it sounded like something her flatmate would find interesting.

“For Queen G?” Ariadne asked, momentarily muddled, “Oh, so they don’t trace me back to The Prophet you mean? I can’t quite picture myself writing for Witch Weekly… I’m not … flamboyant enough for fake scandal.”

Ariadne wiggled her fingers and pulled a dramatic pose which might suggest she actually was the opposite of her claim.

“I can ask,” she shrugged, “and there are like friends of friends who are healers, or I can pretend…” She reconsidered and wrinkled her nose, disliking the idea.

Raine moved on, resolving where the testing would take place, suggesting Abby should be involved. Ariadne nodded along in agreement, fine with the suggestion. Although she didn’t know Abby well, her reputation preceded her.

“Cool, yeah, I’m down for that. Do you think Abby will want to try some too?”

As Raine spoke, Ariadne’s wand sprang to her hand and an ochre colour bag landed in her bag, commanded by magic. A slightly tatty business card rose out of it, the state of it only due to being carried around for months upon months. She extended the Deputy Head Healer’s card to Raine.

“He gave the lot of us an open invitation to go to him, you know, about the whole psycho grandparent business.” She shrugged, “I never went, of course, but perhaps now’s the time… bad idea?”

She laughed, because, well, Ari had a point. Not quite Queen G material - although Raine counted that as a point in her former housemate's favour.

The venue of their Muse trip agreed upon, she crossed her legs and took a little notepad out of her pocket to write down a reminder. Her notes were all in Russian; just to make it a little harder for snoopy eyes to read upside down, and sometimes the Cyrillic would distract people. As she did this, Ariadne produced a card out of her bag.

The redhead reached for it, raising her fiery brows. Okay. So she was impressed.

"Great idea," she grinned as she handed the card back. "Misslethorpe should be easy to handle if you play the distressed grandchild, I think? I've only really met him after he got his eyeballs reversed[1] by Spectre."

Raine wrinkled her nose. "I'm sure he's... sensible under regular circumstances, but I bet you can handle him. Grown wizards always underestimate us."

1.	24th Sept 2011 - We Are Who We Are

“.. if you play the distressed grandchild, I think?”

Ari placed the back of her hand on her forehead and tipped her head back, as if affected.

“… I’ve only really met him after he got his eyeballs reversed by Spectre.”

“His what?” Ari hadn’t quite caught the detail of ‘eye’ as she’d been a little distracted trying to perfect her distressed grandchild look. She’d missed this story somewhere along the way.

“I’m sure he’s… sensible under regular circumstances…”

“Well, here’s hoping they don’t make anyone Deputy Head Healer.” Ariadne shrugged, eyebrows raised, and tucked the card back for safekeeping. “Though he might be sick of my family.” She grinned, more at the thought of this mission than how her family had been unavoidably wrapped up in the hospital.

“Anything else we need to do now?”

She felt pleased by how efficient they were in forming a plan. Ariadne would have made a good Auror if she were into that kind of thing - but clearly journalism suited her better. Raine gave her notes another scan to make sure she had gotten everything down.

Yes. Her heart fluttered nervously for just a second - she had committed so readily to trying Muse but a part of her was frightened. What if she got into trouble? What if the vision... memory... what if it was bad one, and she couldn't escape?

What if, what if, what if.

           “Anything else we need to do now?”

"Nope." Raine flipped her notebook shut, slipping it back into her bag. "I'll owl you if I find any old case files to do with Muse, or if I hear anything else on the Ministry grapevine. Though I think Bevans or Carstairs will know before it reaches two," she added.

Her demeanour didn't always welcome Ministry gossipers. She didn't know how to fix that, Raine wasn't a social chameleon; she had her realms of rules and discipline, money and high art. Her only strength as a spy was being a fairly innocuous animagus.

"I'm going to head out," the redhead got up - she hesitated a second and then offered a hand for Ariadne to shake, smiling faintly. "Good luck. I'm glad we're working on this together."