The meeting had been in the diary for a couple of weeks. Harper Graves and Evangeline Kuester had been working many late nights behind locked and soundproofed doors to pull their information together. Eva had even joined her friend in a meeting with Lawrence Musgrave to gain the evidence they needed. Now, they finally felt ready to let one other person into the fold.

It had taken Madam Kuester a while since joining Level 2 once more to believe that she could actually trust Solomon Carstairs. He was a stodgy bureaucrat, but stodgy bureaucrats were what she’d spent her career working with. Heck, decades ago, she’d married a stodgy bureaucrat.

Outside the office, Harper and Eva had shared in a few last-minute thoughts before Miss Reid said for them to go in. Eva rose her eyebrows at her friend and drew in a long breath. This could make their investigation or Carstairs could report them to Glass and they’d find themselves in an enormous amount of trouble. Eva had lain awake the previous night hoping sincerely for the former. With what she now knew of Glass, she didn’t want to stay in the country if this backfired.

Stepping heeled foot into the office, Kuester was carrying a rather large folder. Harper had the vial of memories, herself. It was morning, and there was already a couple of drinks on Carstairs’ desk waiting for them. Turning back to the door, Eva pulled out her wand and locked it. A few charms cast later, and the room was as immune to eavesdropping as she was capable of.

“Good morning, Solomon.” His deputy greeted with a tight smile. She sat down in one of the empty seats and placed the folder on the edge of his desk. “We come to you in confidence with this, Boss. This isn't being done lightly.”

Harper believed that the trick to being a good lawyer, or to being good at almost anything, was developing an ability to assess risks. If you didn't take risks than you advance - but you had to choose which risks to take. Which piece of evidence to present at court, which witness to bring out. Even down to the way you presented an argument.

Today, walking into Solomon Carstairs' office, she was taking a risk that could go either way. And she had no idea what the odds were. The vials[1] sitting in her bag felt like they weighed a ton.

Everything was primed to convince Carstairs. Eva and her had dug out what paperwork they could find, circumstantial or not. She had spoken to Morwenna Hopwood and hoped to convince the witch to testify, should the Head of the DMLE fall on their side of prosecution.

Eva secured the room. Harper hung up her coat before taking the other seat before the desk. Her hair was worn down, pinned back at the front to frame a serious but confident expression. It was strange to hear her friend call the wizard 'Boss'.

"It's about the Minister of Magic," she glanced from Eva to Carstairs, pausing to let the statement settle. "We have information that leads us to believe Edwin Glass has gone out of his way to conceal a history of criminal behaviour."

The whole time, Solomon had said nothing - all he did was put on his spectacles.

"And I'm not talking about small stuff," Harper added, before he could. "He has harboured dangerous criminals and was involved in the Leaky Cauldron incident."

1.	31st Dec 2011 - The Party Has Arrived

It wasn't every day that Solomon received both Eva Kuester and Harper Graves in his office. Separately, yes, but together? His first thought had been Lawrence Musgrave - perhaps his Deputy Head wanted to discuss the security situation, now that the man had returned from his little holiday in St.Mungo's to stand trial.

If so, Eva's opening seemed a tad melodramatic. But Graves clarified, and the motive behind the privacy charms became clear.

He adjusted his spectacles, leaning back in his chair as the statement hung in the air between them. Solomon respected these women as professionals; he would never assume they were coming to him without evidence of some sort. His gaze fell on the folder proffered by Kuester. He reached for it.

"Let's say I believe you," Sol flipped the folder open, keeping his tone light and casual. "What exactly is your endgame?" he scanned through the papers with a quick eye. "Or is that why you've come to me? You don't know where to go from here?"

It would be a lie to say he was surprised. Solomon long suspected wrongdoing within the Ministry - so much so that he spoke to Glass[1] about a covert operation to inform on suspicious behaviour. His operatives reported to him and weren't always aware of one another's identities.

More importantly, Edwin Glass obliviated himself of knowledge about the operation. Why would he do that? Did he not suspect the his own actions would never come other investigation?

1.	6th April 2011 - To Tinker and Toil - Plot Chapter

“Once you’ve read this file, I would be investigating you if you didn’t believe us.” The Deputy Head of the DMLE said calmly. Her tone was serious and plain. Both very good at what they did, Kuester and Graves had been diligent in amassing what they could and a clear case of evidence before considering bringing this to the man that could help file any charges. No stone had been left unturned, but now they had reached an impassable block.

Leaning forward, Eva picked up her tea, black with a squeeze of lemon. She took a sip, allowing the Head of Department to briefly scan the contents of the folder.
“Indictment.” Eva said as she lowered her teacup to her lap. “Not only has Glass been involved with the Leaky Cauldron explosion,” as had been confirmed by Harper, “he has ordered Lawrence Musgrave to try to control the dementors and we’re fairly confident of his ties with Mortimer Gamp.”

Having worked with Glass for 8 months, Eva had felt physically sick when she’d learned of his illegal acts with Lawrence Musgrave. His orders to control the dementors were surely enough in itself to convict.

“We need enough hard evidence to make sure this doesn’t blow back in our faces, but Harper and I are lawyers, not investigators. We can’t be the only people to have realised our Minister isn’t who he seems on the surface.”

Behind his spectacles, Solomon's eyes took on a pensive quality. He turned page after page - more slowly as he got on with the folder and listened to his Deputy's words. This news should have landed with a blast; instead he felt himself sinking into it instead, down to his neck and then over his head.

There were times he doubted Kuester, some deep-seated instinct, or else he would have recruited her as an operative. Perhaps his instincts had been wrong.

           "We can’t be the only people to have realised our Minister isn’t who he seems on the surface."
"To do the things he's done," Graves added, "it would be hard to cover your tracks. Even for a former Obliviator."

Solomon closed the folder and placed it lightly on his desk. He tapped the arm of his office chair, glancing from one witch to another. "Is that all you have?" he raised his eyebrows. "I'm not saying it's insubstantial. Simply... wondering."

"We have more."" Harper was never one to be daunted by his careful, offhand reactions. "We need to know where you stand before I show it to you."

He tapped the chair again, once, then sat forward with his elbows on the desk. Funny how decisions like this can happened so quickly, so unceremoniously. Three people in a room.

"You need evidence. You have provided, I believe, more than enough information to justify an investigation." Solomon smiled slightly, that dry Carstairs smile. "It would be remiss of me not to investigate. My only aim is justice."

Graves held his gaze briefly and then looked at Kuester, seeking her confirmation. He wondered what else they could possibly have to show in support of their suspicions?

Carstairs didn’t laugh them out of the room or appear to be planning an immediate visit to the Minister’s office when they were through here. Eva was, rightfully, wary of him. Since the war, she was wary of anyone that worked for the ministry. But one could only make changes to such an organisation from within. The invitation by Carstairs to take up the Deputy role in Law Enforcement had allowed Kuester to pursue the concerns that had mounted regarding Glass. Now, they only had to get their evidence pushed through to form a clandestine investigation into the corrupt criminal leading their country.

Harper and Eva shared a glance, the blonde nodding her head before she turned back to Carstairs.
“We do have more.” Now was the time to take the leap because no one expected the boss to beg for their trust. Like a true lawyer, Harper protected her client’s interests, so the process of doing as they needed had been slow. It was part of the reason Eva hadn’t been able to return to her post war career in defence. Her ability to defend those she disagreed with or didn’t believe had been kicked to the floor by the great boot of Lord Voldemort’s ministry. People like Lawrence Musgrave, who she had so much painful history with, would be impossible for her to truly defend. Now, she thrived on playing for the other side.

“Before going to St Mungo’s for the treatments, Glass ordered some of his memories to be taken. We have those memories.”

It had startled Carstairs a little when she took out the tampon applicators and placed them on his desk one by one - but of course his bewilderment cleared when she removed the illusion, revealing pensive vials containing Lawrence's memories. The department head had heaved a deep sigh and conjured a marble basin from Merlin knew where.

Asking for one to be brought in wouldn't do, she guessed. They couldn't indicate any of this externally.


            "The Leaky Cauldron explosion..." Solomon sighed heavily as he corked the last of the vials and returned it to her.

Harper went about disguising and storing Lawrence's memories. "Yeah, they're all pretty damning," she muttered. "He has his fingers in a lot of pies. I mean, Almasy and Gamp? To say nothing of the rest."

Her gaze shifted back to Carstairs once the vials were in her bag, and she admitted to herself a touch of respect for his calmness. He was paler than he'd been at the start of their meeting but nothing indicated anger or even shock; ever the cool customer. "I'll hold on to these?"

             "Yes," the wizard agreed, drumming his fingers on the arm of his chair. "On the off-chance that Glass detects a reason to search our premises. Keep them safe until I find a better place," he added reassuringly. "Soon."

"Now you must agree we'll need more evidence," Harper exchanged a look with Eva. "These won't hold up in court. And Lawrence isn't exactly a popular source of information," she smiled faintly, thinking of her client.

           "What kind of evidence are we talking about? How much of it?" Solomon looked from her to Eva.

He was a former auror, after all, not a lawyer. In this arena it was her and Evangaline who knew what they were about. It felt weird to think of Carstairs as orchestrating the grunt work on behalf of their estimations.

A stillness took Evangeline while Carstairs immersed himself in the memories taken from Lawrence Musgrave. In her opinion, the hardest part of this meeting had passed. Being taken seriously in their allegations had been the concern of both women, who had taken a long time to choose to trust the Head of Law Enforcement. Months of working with Solomon lent Eva enough confidence in the wizard to finally lay this at his feet. So, they’d come out of necessity with tentative trust. While Eva wouldn’t readily believe that they were out of the woods, for she had learned the hard way about trusting anyone in authority, she felt more comfortable than she had when they’d stepped into the office together.

When the wizard’s attention jumped to Eva, she frowned. “A colossal amount,” came the quiet reply. This would be a colossal job to topple the Minister for Magic. “This is only enough to allow us to investigate.” By ‘us’, she meant Level 2. “Glass doesn’t know these were kept, he thinks they’re destroyed and he’s in the clear. We need clandestine searches on his house, his office. We need witness statements, evidence to place him with these crimes. Until we are ready, this needs to be the most covert and thorough investigation the aurors will have done in their careers. I don’t need to tell you that one mistake, and we’ve likely lost our jobs to someone in his pocket.”

A colossal amount of evidence. How dramatic that sounded, coming from his Deputy Head. She wasn't one to exaggerate.

He got up and helped himself to a bottle of the better whisky from the cabinet. While his thoughts went about their business, he topped up their glasses.

"I... have my own operatives," Solomon began after a long pause. "There will be investigations. If there is evidence we will uncover it and direct everything to you. To make your case, as it is."

Work never intimated him. If you play it sure and steady, real things can be done. Of course he wouldn't be doing it all himself, save for perhaps the kind of thing that might benefit from his position or charm.

"I will never directly send anyone to either of your homes, myself included," he returned to his seat, sighing heavily. "Should somebody turn up, saying it's on my orders? Leave. Find me either here or my cottage by the river Cam."

       "We can't meet too often in here either," Harper added.
"I'll arrange a place," he gestured reassuringly. "Only the three of us will know of it."

These witches were smart and no doubt capable of protecting themselves but he wasn't going to rely on that. "If you think you're being watched, followed, anything at all, tell me." Sol made sure to look them in the eye, one after the other. "Don't try to handle anything like that by yourselves, if you can help it."

Secrets were often the business on Level 2. In her previous role before the war, Kuester had rarely been let in on them. She’d done the same role as Harper back then, protecting the criminals accused of various misdeeds and terrible deeds. She’d been good, but not trusted like she was now. Carstairs had brought her back to Level 2 eight months ago, only now to play for the other side. The secrets piled in, but so far, nothing about Ministry corruption. This was new, and formed part of her original reasoning for coming to work with him. Suspicions of Glass had sparked within months of his tenure as Minister, it had just taken her time to confirm her beliefs.

Now, secrets were shared with whiskey. Eva looked down to her refilled tumbler and pressed her lips together as she listened to Carstairs. Her gaze did glance sideways temporarily to meet Harper’s eye at the suggestion that no one would come to their homes. The last time an unwelcome Ministry person showed up at Eva’s front door, it was Lawrence Musgrave come to arrest her for stealing magic. Thanks to a couple of aurors, there were enough wards on her house now to keep anyone unwelcome outside.

“This is one of the reasons I stick to the quill and ink, Solomon.” Before the war, Eva hadn’t been bad with her wand, but she’d always been more bookish and academic than skilled at hexes and spells. A decade living with muggles and not using her magic had only made that worse. While she’d practised since her return years ago, she certainly didn’t feel confident if Glass were to find out about her part in this and clear her off the board.

“It won’t take a minute for him to know I’m coming for him when he finds out there’s a target on his head.” She took a sip of whiskey and leaned back in the chair.

Harper lived alone, in a muggle village and with about as much magical protection as a defense attorney is expected to have. She was not unaccustomed to the threat of danger but this was a very different kind of danger - the Minister of Magic was not an enemy anyone wanted to have. But she knew that, going into this.

        “This is one of the reasons I stick to the quill and ink, Solomon.”

Eva had more cause than anyone to avoid such trouble, yes here she was too. Harper glanced at her friend with a subtle sympathy in her eyes; the strength was on the surface. Everyone was vulnerable somewhere underneath.

       "You've trusted me so far," Solomon smiled grimly. "Trust me further. I'll have eyes on you, they won't approach."
"Except," Harper raised her eyebrows, "to help, I assume?"
       "If it comes to that."

The department head said these things so naturally. It was, she guessed, his day-in and day-out, after all. Harper got up with a sigh and extended her hand across the desk.

"Keep us updated," she was met with a firm grip as the wizard rose as well. "The sooner there's more evidence, the better."

If there was one thing Harper knew, it was that secrets were living things. They rarely kept still for long.