Outfit

Contrary to popular belief, Christmas was the best time to plan any sort of criminal endeavor. People were so caught up in the holiday, fighting tooth and nail to get food for their feasts and toys for their beasts, that they didn't notice anything 'odd' going on. The same went for Mungos. With the onslaught of Holiday related injuries, chief being reindeer goring and ash inhalation from getting stuck in chimneys, Devlin was sure that he and Kitty could stroll into Mungos and plant a couple paltry runespoor eggs while they are at it. Provided that Kitty was as good at acting as she said she was.

Glancing from their alleyway hideout towards the entrance of Mungos, whose dingy and abandoned 'department store' facade was woefully ignored by the crowds milling in front of it in their attempts to get to actual stores, Devlin turned back to Kitty. "So you got the plan right?..." He asked under his breath, pausing only for a second before regaling what they were about to do. "I am gonna bite you in rat form... It will hurt but it won't do much lasting damage in the end... With me in your purse, you are going to storm in there and use whatever tactic you have to get us bumped to the head of the line. Your dads a Mungo's contributor right?" Again, he didn't pause long enough for details "... If yes, then use that to your advantage... if not, use one of his other influences. Threaten to close them down or some shit... I am sure you know what you are doing..."

Kitty Li was not a close friend of Devlins, but she had been the best possible candidate for the job for many reasons. She was a rich, affluent pureblood princess who had a mean streak a mile wide and the ambition to get what she wanted at any cost. Combine that with a general nastiness, and you had a girl that no one wanted to argue with. The only thing that remained to be seen was if she was as good of an actress as he had been told. But then, he shouldn't be worried. Bitching, Whining and using Daddies influence was something girls like Kitty did with ease. He just hoped she could keep her mouth shut if they got caught.

Ignoring getting caught as a possibility, Devlin continued "After they let you in, ask... un, no... demand that you be able to stow your bag in the locker room. Once I am in there, try to make the check up last as long as you can. I shouldn't need more then 5 minutes, but you never know...." He gave her a conspiratorial grin, obviously pleased with the plan he came up with, before adding "You ready?"

It was a gross morning.  Dripping, cold, cloudy.  Zora would have rather been at home with her wife and daughter just waking up to some late breakfast and well, it didn't matter.  Duty called.  And this was one of the greatest cases of her career - to capture one of Theodora Kingstreet's only known associates.  One step closer to putting this insanity to bed for good. 

A small plain-clothes team had surveiled the Hogsmeade Post Office after intercepting a letter from Kingstreet to this Spade character. And what had they found?

A kid! A pup! A wizard larva! A flipping teenager.  Zora smirked and shook her head from her perch in the drizzle.  She was rooftop and Disillusioned watching St. Mungo's with a spy-glass enchanted to see through invisibility and enchantments*.  That little blighter, whoever he was, his head was going to spin today. 

The Auror Corps info was solid - it was going down today.  Spade was making a move against a certain now-famous Mediwitch Moira Randall.  It was just a matter of waiting.  Waiting for Spade to show, completely unawares.  Zora was completely confident.  Not a shadow of nerves, not a sliver of hesitation.  Her wild black hair was collected up in a knit cap, her wand was ready.

"Still nothing," she reported.



*Of course, it's not a perfect tool.  It is top of the line, however.  Check it out at the Compendium!

She had arrived before her shift was scheduled to start, needing to escape the house that morning.  Something had been off lately with her spell work, and she couldn’t figure out what it was.  At least working on the first floor there was very little wand work required for healing.

The evening before she had experimented a bit with a book.  She had started by trying to levitate it only to have it fly up and hit the ceiling before crashing back to the ground.  Next she had tried to summon the book, only to have to duck as it flew at her head, barely missing her as it smacked into the wall a few feet behind her.  That had been her breaking point and she had been glad Marcus hadn’t arrived home yet to find her on the verge of hysterics.  Something was very wrong with her magic.

She didn’t want to admit it to anyone.  She was a healer, she should be able to identify what was going on, but she couldn’t.  The last thing she wanted was to alarm anyone.  So, she had slipped out early that morning.  Approaching the main desk near the waiting area she picked up a chart taking a moment to look it over.  It had the makings of a long day, but at least she could mostly forget about everything else at work.

Outfit

Kitty adjusted her sunglasses, exhaling a long breath of air as Devlin went over the plan one more. He'd approached her with his plan, and whilst most adults thought that she was the bastion of elegance, class and academic success, Kitty couldn't help but be secretly tempted onto the darker path in life. She knew that Devlin would ultimately return the favour; as a 5th year, she already had control of Hogwarts, but an alliance with the Ravenclaw renegade meant that her control would become unquestioned. She needed support from such a brutish character.

"I am sure I know what I'm doing," Kitty sighed, giving him a coy grin with her scarlet lips. "Relax, Matthews, I'll be fine." The entire plan seemed like a walk in the park - feigning anger and distress and getting your own way? It was a daily routine for Kitty Li. "If we get caught though, Devlin, I'm going to take on total ignorance. You bit me on my way past St. Mungo's, managed to get inside my bag and the fact I left it in the locker room is pure coincidence. Get it? That way, they have no evidence against me. You can cover your own back." That familiar sneer crept back onto Kitty's face - she was always looking after number one.

Putting a hand on her hip and letting her handbag fall into the crook of her arm, she nodded in response to his final question, biting her bottom lip in delight. It was nice to get away from Hogwarts and all those strait-laced bitches she ruled. Kitty didn't know why Devlin needed her help, or what he was going to do inside St. Mungo's - she just needed his alliance.

((This post is R-Rated for some cursing))

---

"I am sure I know what I'm doing, Relax, Matthews, I'll be fine."

She was confident, that was good, but perhaps too much so, which could be a problem. Dev didn't need this whole plan going to hell because she thought this was just some 'good fun' to pass the time with. He had chosen her out of all the possible candidates because he had trusted that she wasn't going to screw up because she let her ego cloud her judgment. There was already too much of his overinflated ego in this endeavor as it was, he didn't need hers as well.

"If we get caught though, Devlin, I'm going to take on total ignorance. You bit me on my way past St. Mungo's, managed to get inside my bag and the fact I left it in the locker room is pure coincidence. Get it? That way, they have no evidence against me. You can cover your own back."

With this comment, Devlin sucked in his lips and chewed on them thoughtfully for a moment. Pushing them out with a pop, he nodded as though he was in thought. "Having an alibi already planned out is quite cunning of you, Miss Li..." He said with a cool smile, though his tone was anything but admiring. The fact she already figured out how she was going to throw him under the Knight Bus was very Slytheriny of her, and not a very good indicator of her confidence in him. She needed to trust him as much as he was trusting her, otherwise her flippant disregard could spell disaster for this whole endeavor. He couldn't have that.

"...but let me make something abundantly clear..." His smile disappeared and his eyes gleamed with a rather threatening light. Grabbing her arm in a firm grip and pulling her close, he whispered in her ear "Don't take this so fucking lightly. You fuck this up by goofing around, it means so...so much more then getting grounded from shopping by daddy. This is big league shit and I am putting far more trust into you then I should be, considering that it's my ass on the line. Protect your own ass all you want, but don't act this is a damn joke you can laugh about with your friends later.... I mean it." He pulled away abruptly, his eyes boring into hers with an intensity that, considering his normal laid-back demeanor, was disconcerting.

"Okay then, let's do this!" He said, his usual smile returning with unnatural speed as he clapped his hands. Cracking his neck, he shook his body out, as though he was about to run a marathon, and closed his eyes. The transformation was thankfully quick, considering how disturbing it was to watch someone morph and shrink into a rat. Once in rat form, he looked up at her with an urgent look in his now beady eyes, as though he were saying "Come on already! We haven't all day!"

---

((Kitty, you can go ahead and godmod the bite as well as her entrance ^^ Sorry this took so long.))

Kitty was taken aback a little as Devlin lectured her, immediately bringing the Slytherin princess back down to earth. Scowling, she adjusted her sunglasses and bit her bottom lip, wrinkling her nose in disgust. Normally, she'd have never let anybody speak to her like that, but there was something unnervingly dangerous about Devlin Matthews. He was above that whole student bully persona - there was something graver about Devlin, and for that split second, Kitty was wondering whether she should've got herself into all this business.

Straightening up, she rolled her eyes.
"Give me a break, Matthews," she muttered, opening her handbag and rummaging around inside for some lipstick. "This amateur dramatics shit is a walk in the park for me." Giving him a reassuringly evil smirk, Kitty applied another layer of scarlet paint to her lips and threw it back inside her purse, patting it to invite him to stow away inside.

Watching Devlin transform into a rat was pretty grotesque, and Kitty frowned a little, choosing to look the other way. The last thing she wanted was to puke. Watching him scuttle around on the floor, Kitty stooped down with both hands cupped, watching the rat dive into her gloved hands (Kitty could only thank Merlin that she'd remembered to wear gloves; who knew where Devlin had been). Instantly, she let out a short, sharp shriek as Kitty felt two front teeth sink into her wrist.
"Jesus christ!" she whispered, biting her bottom lip; she was sure he'd done it that hard on purpose.

Kitty instantly followed her orders, and went quicker through the window of Purge & Dowse, Ltd. quicker than the flick of a wand. With Devlin safe in her handbag, she trotted into the reception, dramatically taking off her sunglasses to reveal tears - a crocodile blend of histrionics and real pain at Devlin's bite.
"I want to see a healer, NOW."

"And we've got Randall," Zora spotted from her rooftop perch.  The fetching young Mediwitch arrived... (Zora checked the time) ... well, she was early.  They didn't expect her to show for a bit longer.  But then, she hadn't been warned of the little foray.  They'd decided down at Level Two that there was no cause to alert St. Mungo's since there was no garantee that anything was going to happen.  They also didn't expect the crime to be violent.  Some punk kid was going to try and sneak in and sneak out.  It was a scoop-up mission, essentially.  No need to shake the basket.

No, Moira Randall was safe.  It was this daft little Mr. Spade who's head was going to spin.  Zora couldn't wait to find out what he was at, playing with errands for Theodora Kingstreet.  Seemed like a fool way to

"Gods, we're going to be here all day waiting on this chickenshit, aren't we?" she whispered into her wand.  "He'd better show.  The wife'll murder me for missing holiday at Gram's for no reason."

Moira jumped a little as she was making notes in the chart when a girl came in obviously in hysterics demanding to see a healer immediately.  The receptionist was scurrying about gathering the required paperwork.  At first glance the girl didn’t seem severely hurt.  There was a bite mark on her wrist and she guessed it to be rodent based on the shape.  Looking back down at the chart she allowed the clerk to do their job keeping an ear fixed on the conversation in case it was more then a simple bite.

“Alright Miss, I’ll need you to have a seat and fill out this paperwork and I can have someone with you shortly,” the other woman told the girl.

The clerk held out the standard forms for the girl to fill out along with a quill.  The waiting room wasn’t terribly crowded, although there were several patients waiting to be seen.  Initialing a final line on the chart she had been working on she picked up the one on the top of the pile for creature induced injuries.  She gave it a quick scan taking in the details that had been provided.  It was a doxie bite on a three year old, and that was rarely pleasant.

She heard the clerk add to the girl with the bite on her wrist, “I’ll also need the name of a parent or legal guardian as we will need to contact them as well.”

Kitty immediately wailed with arms outstretched, knocking the quill and papers straight out of the clerk's hands. She intentionally caught the bite with the buckle of her handbag to make it bleed more, and although the pain was minimal, Kitty sobbed like a widow.
"I need to see somebody now!" she screamed, purple tears streaming down her face. "I can't wait any longer!" Kitty was enjoying every second of this.

Storming across the waiting room, she made no effort to catch or shield the drops of blood that dramatically fell to the pristine floor of St. Mungo's, and Kitty was doing everything in her power to make everybody know just how 'excruciating' this little episode was. The clerk seemed to ask for details of legal guardians. With this, Kitty added a dash of outrage to her cocktail of raw dramatics.
"Parents?! Parents?!" she ranted, stamping a heeled foot on the ground. "My father is Chan Wook Li!" She made sure to put extra emphasis on the hallowed surname of South Korea's most powerful pureblood clan. "Li, of the Li clan, one of the biggest financial contributors to this god damn place! Get me a healer, NOW."

Moira did her best to keep any negative thoughts out of her mind as the dramatics continued.  She didn’t deny that a bite was painful, but honestly she didn’t see the need for hysterics.  A few patients shifted in annoyance as the yelling continued and the clerk did her best to maintain her composure.  The name of the girl’s father however caught her full attention and she had to fight not to sigh.

Catching a passing orderly, she handed them the chart she had been working on who was to be the next patient giving them a small apologetic smile as she said, “Can you take them to one of the empty rooms and I’ll be along in a few moments to see to them?”

The orderly called the name leading the woman off as she took a few steps towards the girl and the receptionist.  She hadn’t been raised to throw her family name around, but plenty of her relatives would have done exactly what this young woman did.  It wasn’t fair, but neither was life.  There were plenty of patients who had been waiting longer who were in much worse condition, but the last thing the hospital needed right now was one of their main contributors calling for all sorts of investigations as to why his precious child hadn’t been seen immediately.  It made her sick, but to keep the peace she’d patch the girl up and get her out of everyone’s hair as quickly as possible.

“I’ll just take the paperwork with me while I get Miss Li all fixed up,” she said, taking the paperwork from the stuttering receptionist before turning back to the girl.  “I’m Mediwitch Randall.  If you’ll follow me I’ll have you good as new and on your way in no time.”

Kitty placed the back of her hand on her forehead theatrically, crocodile tears shivering down her pale, smooth cheeks. As she felt the cogs of motion finally turn, she couldn't help but let her eyes glitter with pure selfish delight, not even caring to look at the rows of seriously injured people that were far more worthy of medical attention. Placing her sunglasses back on her face, Kitty let her bottom lip quiver through faux pain, groaning and whimpering at intervals in order to highlight the torture some little rat had put her through.

"Finally," she almost whispered, pretending to nearly faint through sheer physical shock. "A service you'd expect." Kitty didn't acknowledge the random witch introduce herself, and couldn't care less what her name was. This was about Kitty and Devlin; she knew that by helping him out to this length, she'd have his alliance. Whatever the deeper, darker plot was, Kitty didn't want to know - this task was being performed for self-preservation and elevation. After Maeve left, she'd be Queen, and with Devlin and his crew of reprobates, nobody would even dare say otherwise.

With the rat of a Ravenclaw in her handbag, she placed a firm hand on the shoulder of the orderly that passed them by, forcing him to turn around. Yes, Kitty was small in stature, and exceptionally slight, she had a commanding stare of regal authority that forcibly imposed a sense of tyranny. After shouting out the Li name, Kitty knew that the staff would be keen to attend to her every whim.
"You," she sobbed, still clutching onto her pathetically minor wound. "Take my handbag and put it in the locker room." There was no personality injected; just a stone cold tone, let alone a please or thankyou. Letting the orderly step away for a moment, she seized his attention once more, placing her mouth close to his ear.
"And make sure it is in the locker room." Her voice begun to almost hiss. "It's worth more than you are."

Turning to the mediwitch once more, Kitty stormed ahead, her heels clicking down the corridor as if obligating Mary Render (or whatever her name was) to keep-up with the beautiful monster. "Ready when you are, nurse," she said, her voice still sickeningly pathetic and victimised. She'd done her bit. And for that, Devlin should be ever thankful.

"You, Take my handbag and put it in the locker room. And make sure it is in the locker room. It's worth more than you are."

Devlin had spent several minutes cradled in Kitty's arms in nervous silence, his claustrophobia beginning to claw at the back of his mind, when he found himself jostled and tossed into the larger arms of another. Slamming into the side of the leather bag, nearly cracking the container of runespoor in the process, Devlin let out a low hiss. He had said make SURE he was in the locker room, not shove him in some person's arms and hope he ended up there. He had a feeling that they were going to have to have a looong talk about proper procedure after this mess was over, especially after the way the orderly manhandled him.

"Stupid stuck up bitch making me her errand boy..." The orderly muttered loudly, swinging the bag and sending Devlin and the contents tumbling back and forth. He grumbled in a high pitched voice that would have made Devlin laugh had he not been at the brunt of the mans anger, "I'm the daughter of Chan Wook Li, I'm a spoiled little brat who thinks that my itsy bitsy little cut is sooooo much more important then the 5 year old with Dragon Pox whose daddy is a maintenance man... bah!.."

With that, Devlin felt the bag be tossed with little care onto a hard surface, more then likely a table considering the lack of a drop. He sat in the bag, pain and fear racing through his body and mind, as he waited for the door to shut. It seemed like hours and a pile of tissues turned confetti later before the click of the door closing indicated that the orderly had gone. Pushing his way out of the purse through the gap Kitty left in the zipper, Devlin sneaked a cursory glance around the room before tumbling out. He sat on the table for several minutes, breathing as hard and fast as his tiny lungs could, until the shakes went away.

Regaining his senses, Devlin concentrated on his human form and transformed, jumping down from the short table that, only moments before, had seemed huge. Carefully digging into Kitty's bag, he found the small package containing the eggs and withdrew them cautiously, lest he unsettle the bag and draw attention to it. Sliding the zipper shut, he turned his attention to the lockers. Hazel eyes raked over the names etched in the steel until he found the one he was looking for. Brushing his fingers over 'Randall, Moira' Devlin couldn't help but give a sad smirk. "I hope whatever you did to piss her off was worth it..." he whispered before turning his attention to the lock.


(( I am at your mercy Sarah ))

"I don't like this."

Zora was still sitting watch arooftop and was damn bored about it.  She watched as a stream of nobody's trickled in and out of the disguised building (made very plain as what it was through her enchanted spyglass).  She felt ansty and anxious under the pressure.  It was absolutely imperative that they apprehend Spade or else Kingstreet would have slipped through their fingers.  Spade was such a prize that to bobble their golden egg would destroy the investigation for months.  Theodora Kingstreet had been completely hidden since Remembering Day and to be this close...

"I can't stand this.  I'm going in."

Protests came through, but she ignored them as she got to her feet and made ready.

"Just to check!  I'm going to make a sweep through the building.  We know what this little blighter looks like.  Maybe we missed him somehow."

More protests from her Senior Auror who was all but ordering her to stay at her surveillance post, that to botch this mission because of impatience would be a death knell for her career.  But Zora wasn't the waiting around type and end of career or not, she wasn't going to let some snot-nosed teenager frame the Minister of Magic's fiancee on behalf of Theodora Kingstreet.  (Of course, now that they had the letter, Randall would be in the clear.  But Kingstreet's trail would have gone cold.)

"We can't risk him getting away," she piped back and with a turn of her heel, she Apparated down to street level and strode into the hospital.  She was, of course, dressed as an Auror in her scarlet robes.  Aurors were in the Hospital from time to time, but all the same some heads looked up and the receptionist straightened as Zora approached.

"Auror Roh," she said quietly displaying her old and worn Auror's badge.  "Mediwitch Randall - where is she?"

The receptionist replied that she was treating a patient and gestured vaguely to the back.  Zora pressed.

"Has she got an office or something?"  Again the receptionist hesitated, but told her no, but the Mediwitches and Mediwizards used the locker room back there-

"Thank you."

Without a word of explanation, the tall Auror strode back down the corridor poking her head into rooms.  She moved quickly and paid not mind to any startled exclamations or quereies.  She had to set her mind at ease.  She had to know she hadn't missed something.  She'd get a round scolding for this - maybe a proper reprimand, but at least she'd know that he didn't some how slip by.

She brushed right through a heavy wooden door emblazoned with a name plate that said Staff Only and the very next door she found said Lockers.  She swung the door open, like she'd already done for so many others,  to thrust her head inside, look at each individual and then brush out.

She did not expect to find Mr. Jack Spade.  She stared at him for a second, half way in the door.  He was at one of the lockers, messing with the lock.

There were times that Moira was glad her mother had given her a hefty dose of reality.  She could imagine some of her cousins, who had been raised in the proverbial belly of the beast that was the Randall family acting as this girl was, throwing around the family name and position.  If she had carried on like this as a teen her mother would have had her hide.

She gave a little nod to the orderly who was charged with taking the girl’s bag to the locker room.  It would simply be easier to do it and get the girl in and out as quickly as possible.  The last thing anyone wanted was some big financial contributor breathing down their necks.

"Ready when you are, nurse."

Nurse…now there was a term she loved to hear in such dulcet tones.  She fixed a smile on her face that anyone who knew her would be able to tell was fake as she followed the girl, directing her into one of the rooms.  She reminded herself this should be a quick treatment and her expression become much more neutral.  The girl would be on her way and hopefully not in her care again any time in the near future.

“Why don’t you have a seat, Miss Li,” she said as sweetly as she could.  “I’ll just grab a few supplies and I’ll have you all fixed up momentarily.”

Kitty took a seat and immediately threw her sunglasses back on. The crocodile tears had a limit, it seemed, and rather than stop crying, Kitty merely shielded her eyes. Her blotchy face, reddened eyes and infrequent whimpers still gave the illusion that she was in great pain, however, and she clutched her arm as if it were about to fall off. Kitty couldn't help but think what Devlin needed in that locker room; she had no intention of asking. To be honest, she really didn't want to know.

Crossing one leg over the other, Kitty watched the mediwitch quickly assemble the needed apparatus. It would be a swift recovery as the injury was pathetic when compared to the others Kitty saw in the waiting room. It just went to show how advantageous situations could become when the 'Li' name was mentioned. It was good to be powerful.

"Thanks for fast-tracking me," she blurted out, her bottom lip still quivering with faux excruciating panic. Despite her wicked ways and intolerable attitude, Kitty knew her father would be furious if she didn't even thank those that were helping her. Holding out her wrist for the woman to tend to, Kitty offered a half-hearted smile.