M for language

2 days ago Ed had become a father for the first time. He had held his baby daughter tightly in his arms and looked down into her perfectly formed face. He had cried and relied on pride to pull him back together, not that he would ever admit such a thing. 2 days ago he had led Quincy and his children to a shack in the middle of nowhere where he had left them alone and come back to work to make sure it was safe enough for them to come home as soon as possible. He had barely left work for the past few days focusing. His family weren’t safe and it was his fault.

It was 4AM and the tired auror was returning from the toilet when he heard a pecking and the flutter of feathers coming from his cubicle. He sped up his pace and found an owl sat on the desk pecking at the oversized pile of parchment. Ed frowned in confusion as his eyes fell on the letter attached to the bird’s foot. The ministry didn’t use owls and hadn’t for many years. They were terriby messy in such an enclosed environment and no doubt got caught up in the hair of the likes of Frizzy Malone.

Due to the oddity of the situation, Ed wasted no time in untying the note from the bird’s foot and opening it.

    Dear Auror Pratt,
    You should be ashamed. A son ought to visit his mother more often.

Ed blinked and re-read the letter once more. An expletive slowly formed on his tongue before he snatched up a quill and wrote two notes, one addressed to Archer Radley and one to Charlene Malone telling them his parents address and that they needed to be there now, to go straight in. He attached the letters to the bird’s ankle and shoved it on its way.

A million and one thoughts were swimming in the auror’s head at the present. None of them were good. The handwriting wasn’t one he recognised and he was certain he damn well knew who sent it. Why hadn’t he thought to send his parents away? His priorities had been too centered on his ex-wife and kids and that narrow minded concentration could’ve injured or killed his own parents.

The auror wasted no time in snatching up his red robes and pulling them on as he ran towards the exit of the department and for the fireplace to floo out of the ministry and home to his parents.


It was about five minutes later when Ed fell out of the fireplace and landed in a crouching position in the kitchen he’d known for his whole life. It was dark despite the moonlight shining through the large windows above the countertop. Everything was in it’s place, meticulous as his father was with tidying after his mum. It was silent; nothing could be heard bar a few crickets from the bushes outside.

Pratt pushed himself up to stand at his full height and withdrew his wand from the holster on his waist. He scanned the kitchen a second time before slowly walking towards the door to the small living room. He prayed to Merlin that his parents were in bed, sleeping soundly and this had been some sick joke from someone. That his dad would come down the stairs, dressing gown pulled tightly and wand out to stop any intruders.

The living room door slowly opened at the flick of Ed’s wand and he froze. The two shadowy still forms of his parents on the rug told him that that wasn’t going to happen tonight.

Archer was bent over his desk, unable to stop starring at the information that was looking back at him.  It was almost May.  April was rapidly slipping through his fingers, and last May had really been the catalyst for everything and anything that was going on.  The break between the second war and whatever was going on right now had been much needed, Archer didn’t feel like he got to sleep more than a few hours a night, if that, and if he got a full night’s sleep it was once every two weeks. 

While he understood the actual facts – those weren’t exactly hard to discern, what he couldn’t understand was how this was happening again.  Everyone seemed to be on edge, Archer included, but he didn’t have people to protect.  His whole family was basically inhabiting one town, they were living in a magic community, and certainly had protections on them – he hadn’t received any indication they were targets at all. 

Fox, Trevelyan, Pratt-  they were all on edge about their immediate families.  Maybe that was why Archer had always followed the paths of those that didn’t have families, and even then, he had his girlfriend – but she was head of aurors and had more protections on her place than Archer did on his.  He felt untouched and responsible.  He needed to figure this out  - not only for his colleagues, but their families and the people that were in danger merely by its existence.

But, with leads gone cold – new problems emerging to cover up and obscure the old ones – it was really turning out to be a cluster.  So, when Archer, in the middle of staring at his files, received a note – scrawled in Eddie’s rushed handwriting, noting it was more rushed than usual, Archer’s heart pounded in his chest – he jumped up from the desk, quickly shuffling the files together and shoving them in his charmed drawers -  only he and Tamis could get into them. 

With that, Archer ran out of the office and disapparated – stupid charms – right to the location Eddie gave him.  He clutched his wand in his hand, ready to go right into the heat of battle, just in case, and could feel the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.  If something had happened – Archer wasn’t sure where things were going to go. 

And standing outside of the house, with the door slightly cracked – a figure in the doorway, Archer approached with caution.  “Ed?” he asked quietly, hearing the sound of another figure popping into the background – he glanced over his shoulder-  the silhouette was unmistakable – Frizzy was here too.  Archer continued forward, though kept an ear behind him (just in case), “Ed…” he stopped himself short as he walked up behind the man, seeing the shadows in the room.

Feck. 

Charlene had still been in bed when the note had come.  In bed but not asleep -- normally, she was awake and fully dressed by 4:30, which gave her enough time for a run and a shower before starting in to the office.  The arrival of the message was enough to rouse her.  The Auror grabbed her wand, using it to turn on the light so that she could scan over its contents. 

As she read it, her stomach sank. 

"Ed?" Charlene called into the other room, just in case, as she swung herself out of bed. 

Pratt hadn't exactly been spending a lot of time at her house; most of the time, he stopped in just before work to change and shower, and then was off like a snitch once more.  Since Macduff had cornered him in the pub the previous weekend, her partner had been around even less.  The fact that he and her wife were currently (once again) separated didn't reduce his feelings of responsibility for the situation.  He had been spending more and more late nights at the office, staying long after everyone else and oftentimes not even making it home until morning.

It was hardly a surprise that he wasn't there now, but she still needed to be cautious.  With the WBA threatening Aurors, the last thing she wanted to do was rush straight into an ambush.  Charlene pulled on her scarlet robes, tied back her hair, and then grabbed her wand, apparating to the location that had been listed in the note with a sharp crack.

It was still dark, with probably still an hour to go before the sun would rise, when she reappeared on the wet grass.  The darkened home was up ahead, and she could just make out an enormous figure on the stoop.  Radley.  Charlene glanced back over her shoulder, watching for any movement, as she hurried up the walkway to follow the older Auror inside. 

Radley entered with barely a sound, calling quietly to her partner, but then he stopped short.  Charlene had to skid to a halt to avoid running into the man, her wand already raised as she looked past him. 

In the darkness, it was easy to miss the two figures on the floor at first.  Charlene's heart stopped as she stared at them.  All this time, Eddie had been desperate to protect his immediate family; she knew the efforts he'd gone through to make certain that Quincy and the kids were safe.  But no one had spared a thought for anyone else.  Still gripping her wand so tightly that she could barely feel her fingers, she hurried forward in a rush, dropping to one knee so that she could check the nearest body for any sign of life.

It was as if time had stopped still. The figures that lay on the rug by the fire didn’t move. They lay still, motionless for the rest of time. Ed stood stock still, starring at them with tired green eyes. The figures weren’t breathing. They weren’t groaning in pain. They didn’t even look as if they’d been injured. But Ed knew. He knew they weren’t alive. And as this realisation dawned on him, hitting him in the gut like a stunning spell, he seemed to stop breathing himself. He’d killed his parents. His stupid, bull headed ignorance had killed his parents.

“Ed…”

The younger auror hadn’t even heard his friend approach from behind him. He’d been too busy staring at the figures on the floor. He closed his eyes for a moment but the image had been superimposed onto the insides of his eyelids. There was no escaping the reality in front of him.

Things were moving in slow motion as Charlene moved past them and into the living room where she crouched near the feminine figure of his mother. Ed took in a deep breath and pushed himself to step forwards into the small living room. His eyes still remained glued to his mum’s body, to her darkened face. There wasn’t much light in the lounge but he could see enough. He could see too much.

“She’s dead, Charlene.” His voice sounded alien. Cold and distant. The words sounded like they hadn’t come from his own vocal chords. They’d come from someone emotionally disconnected. “They’re both dead.”

Ed lowered his wand as he took a few steadying breaths and tried to calm the sick feeling taking over his stomach, the quickening beating of his heart and the whoozy feeling clouding his mind as he stared at his dead parents.

“How do I tell Dan I didn’t protect them? That I let our parents die?”

As much as Eddie was an auror, he was a victim right now, and Archer did not want him to investigate.  It wasn’t right to have a family member on a case, it clouded judgment, and it made things messy.  Plus, the way Eddie’s face was set – the dark shadows under his eyes, the solemn expression, Archer could only imagine he was in some degree of shock at the discovery – everyone took this sort of news differently, and with the recent stress, Archer could only imagine Eddie wasn’t going to take it very well. 

He was thankful Charlene moved so quickly to the actual work, while Archer stayed by Eddie’s side.  He needed it.  He wasn’t in his right mind – Archer could hear it in his voice. 

Though Eddie was staying at Charlene’s place for now, she hadn’t been the first person Ed came to – and Archer knew that despite some of the circumstances that made them fight light brothers, they also had their moments where brotherly behavior was expected to be supportive.  Archer put his hand on Ed’s shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze.

Eddie didn’t seem to respond though – his face was glued to the floor – to the parents that would not wake-up.  He knew that, Eddie was quite certain of the fact, and though Charlene checked them – the atmosphere in the room just… felt like death.  Eddie looked like it.  His face paled, his eyes glazed a little and he spoke to himself.

“Ed,” he directed the auror toward a seat – they’d be able to confirm he was there and it wasn’t going to affect he scene in any major way.  Archer just treaded lightly and watched where he stepped – he didn’t want to contaminate anything, and he had to watch Eddie’s feet too.  “You didn’t know, Ed,” Archer pointed out, trying to direct him to sit without being overly forceful – there was potential he could lash back and Archer didn’t typically enjoy getting punched in the face when he was trying to do a good thing. 

Charlene could handle the crime scene for a moment.  "Sit down," Archer offered, motioning to the empty chair farthest from the bodies.  "We'll handle this part, Pratt."  He really wanted to be helpful, but he also needed to do his job.  Hopefully, his willingness to do that for his friend was going to be enough at the moment - the scene already wreaked of a similar culprit, and he suspected they wouldn't need to do much investigating to piece this together. 

He squeezed Pratt's shoulder one more time before he walked over to Charlene, using the lowest voice he could, "Avada kedavra, yeh?" he looked around - no signs of injury, a clear sign of magic.

It was obvious even before she checked the first body what had happened.  Not a mark on them that she could see -- nothing to suggest that they were dead other than their stricken faces and the fact that they were, obviously and suddenly, not living.  Charlene studied their faces for a long moment and then, swallowing the knot that was threatening to form in her throat, reached forward to close the eyes of the woman, giving her some semblance of peace.

She couldn't think of the two bodies, the two victims, as Eddie's parents.  Hearing her partner's voice when it sounded so empty made her want to break inside, to forget that this was a crime scene and hurry to his side -- or, alternatively, to give in to the cold, hardened fury that was growing deep inside her and start off with steely purpose to find Macduff.  It was so much easier to take them as two people she had never known, two more tragic victims of a dark wizard that they'd bring to justice in the end.

For the first time, collecting the evidence and following procedure seemed superfluous.  They knew who had done this.  Charlene straightened, her posture stiff, her eyes searching the floor.  The issue wasn't finding the identity of the killer -- although, in the end, they'd need to have some sort of evidence against Macduff to present to the Wizengamot.  It was finding the killer at all.

Radley had taken over with Pratt, consoling the family member of the victims as she'd checked the bodies.  Victims, consoling -- used in this context, with one of their colleagues and friends breaking down mere feet away, the words seemed too clinical, too detached.  Charlene looked back at Radley, keeping her gaze steady, and then let out a slow breath.

"It looks like it," she agreed quietly, her eyes flicking to Ed.  It felt wrong to be doing this with him here, so objectively looking at the facts when she wanted nothing more than to rage at how unfair, how ridiculously personal this was, but they needed to know. 

"Eddie, how did you find them?"  She kept her voice low, gentle, even though no intent could possibly soften the meaning behind the words.  "Were you here overnight?"

Ed allowed himself to be guided to the chair, his body moving with the listless energy of a sleepwalker. The words coming from the taller man didn’t process in the auror’s mind, his focus instead on the faces of the bodies on the floor. He’d seen bodies before. In this career it was part of the job, normal. Sometimes you even made the bodies like that through no other choice. But the faces attached to the motionless corpses were his parents. His mum’s greying blond hair spread on the floor, her lifeless eyes open in the dark, having registered the fear of an intruder as her last thought. Gripping onto Charles Pratt in her last motion. Charles Pratt’s stiff body, his scruffy grey hair framing a creased, shocked expression frozen in time.

Ed felt as if the ground had been snatched from beneath his feet. His legs resembled half set jelly, weak and wobbly before he slowly lowered himself into the seat, not yet registering whose it was. At the moment it was steadying him. But the voices in the room were still a dull murmur. Instead the voice in Ed’s head was that of MacDuff,

"and if you haven't retired, I will kill your family. And it will be your fault that they're dead."

He’d honoured his promise and it was Ed’s fault. Ed’s stubborn disbelief, his lack of thought for his parents’ welfare had caused this. And were the children safe? Was Quincy safe? The auror felt sick to his stomach as these thoughts flew into his head. But his body sat motionless in the seat, his face white as a ghost as he stared at his parents in the dim light.

"Eddie, how did you find them?"

The voice was directed at him. Ed blinked, tying to focus away from the bodies and instead pushed himself up from the chair, his father’s chair, and dug his hand into his pocket. “I got this at the office.” He said plainly, producing the scrunched up letter and stepping closer to Charlene to offer it to her.

“I need to go.” The unfamiliar voice stated as he glanced between his parents and his friends.

Archer couldn’t stand to see Eddie like this.  He couldn’t stand seeing the people here- like this.  The Pratts were good people, they were good parents and Eddie was a good guy.  He didn’t deserve this – no one deserved this, and worse than that, it was something so beyond the scope of what they would have imagined.  Archer did not want to see this happen.  He wanted to put the people responsible away. 

He just wasn’t doing it.  Archer had never questioned his efficacy as an auror, but nowadays, he was feeling the pressure to put up or shut up.  Sometimes, late at night, he would roll over and look at his badge on the nightstand, wondering if he was doing everything he possibly could, after all, he was often trying to sleep when so many things were left to do. 

He knew he couldn’t survive without sleep, but sometimes it was as though he didn’t deserve it, and right now he was feeling even worse.  Probably not as badly as Ed, though Ed’s guilt was fairly unfounded, no one saw this coming, but Archer should have worked harder  - should have got the guy before this happened.  Taking on MacDuff as an extension of the Tawse/WBA investigation – it should have lined up – but he wasn’t alwas getting it.  Maybe he was slipping. 

Running his hand through his hair, Archer sighed softly.  Charlene confirmed his suspicions, and Eddie was really not doing so hot.  It killed him to have to do this – to have to treat Eddie like a victim, but it was necessary.  They had to do what they had to do. 

Ed gave Charlene a crumpled piece of paper and tried to leave.  Sharing a glance with the female auror, Archer knew that wasn’t going to go well and he had to stop him.  Standing in front of Eddie, Archer put his hand on his shoulder, “We’ll go outside, Ed,” he said quietly, leaning down to meet his friend’s blank gaze.  “We can talk there: you just have to tell me a few things, and then we’ll get you home.” 

“Sound good?” Archer said, trying not to be patronizing, but he wasn’t exactly dealing with a totally put together Eddie right now.  They just had to get the job done, keeping their brother in maroon in mind.

She took the piece of paper gently from Ed, smoothing it out so that she could read over the words.  The message sent a chill down her spine.  A son ought to visit his mother...  Charlene took an unsteady breath, and then glanced back at her partner. 

This wasn't his fault.  Out of all the Aurors, he'd been singled out by Macduff, threatened while the rest of them went unnoticed.  Ackerly had quit under the pressure; Eddie had stayed.  No one had talked about it in the office, but they all knew what his stance had meant.  If Pratt had left as well, it would only have been a matter of time.  Every Auror they lost made them weaker.  But he had stayed and said to hell with it, and now in spite of that -- because of that -- his parents were both gone.

But it wasn't his fault, and the best she could do right now was remember whose responsibility this was.  Charlene tightened her hand around the note, letting her gaze play across the room.  There was nothing they could do for the Pratts.  Even magic couldn't cheat death.  But they could make certain that it didn't happen again, that it couldn't happen to anyone else.

She looked up at Archer's words.  "He's been staying with me," she said quietly, folding the note neatly in two and returning it to the pocket of her robe.  They could hand it over to the Unspeakables, see what they could decode, but at this point, she doubted that it was going to be anything useful.  Potions and ink could only tell so much.  "It's probably best to take him to my house or directly to the office.  I'd hate for anyone to follow us from here."

She left unspoken where they might be followed.  To the home where Quincy St. James was currently staying.  To her and Eddie's children.

She caught Radley's eye and then turned as if to step away again.  "I think Whitman's on night duty.  I'll send him word," she added, freeing her wand so that she could cast the Patronus spell once she was a few steps away.  "He can drop by discreetly to check on the rest of everything."

Archer placed a heavy hand on Ed’s shoulder and proceeded to speak to his friend as a victim. A daft, grieving victim in the way of an investigation. He even went so far as to ask if this new plan of action sounded good.

That was when the auror snapped.

He let out a gruff laugh, shaking his head as he shrugged his shoulder away from the grip of his colleague.

“Sound good?” The voice was quiet, revealing the building anger beneath the surface. “I’ve just found me mam and me dad dead on the floor of our living room because I didn’t fuckin’ well quit me bastard job like that maniac threatened. Instead I was a fuckin’ stubborn moron and I’ve killed them!” He gestured to the bodies on the floor, pale faced and shaking as his unsteady, heavily accented voice continued. “I just killed mefolks because I wouldn’t fuckin’ well back down and yer askin’ if taking me home and having a chat over a cup of tea sounds fuckin’ good, Archer? Does it heckerslike!”

The auror took a breath, before he felt a rush of hopeless grief flood his senses and he covered his mouth, trying in vain to suppress the building emotion. “Are you thick in the fuckin’ ‘ead or summit?” The hand clasped his mouth tighter as the auror’s features screwed up, revealing the internal anguish as a few tears spattered the corners of his bright green eyes.

“That!” A finger pointed at the figure of the grey haired man spread limply across the dark woven rug. “I caused that. And I am damn well gonna’ make sure that I haven’t killed my own kids as well. I ‘ent bloody well goin’ ‘ome until I know he hasn’t gotten to ‘em.”

It was normal for Eddie to explode.  Archer took a step back immediately, letting the auror get out his anger.  It was natural, completely natural that he would want to explode, and Archer gave him the opportunity.  The anger was misplaced, however, on both of them.  Eddie didn’t sign his parents death certificates, it wasn’t his fault.  If anything, Archer felt partially responsible for not having worked harder and took that into account when they were placing family and putting patrols down. 

“It wasn’t your fault, Ed,” Archer pointed out, “and we’ll get the bastards who did it – I swear.”  His voice was hard by the end of the sentence, not at Eddie, but at the whole situation. He wanted to get Tawse, he wanted to shut this down before it went any further.  They all had families to worry about, and Archer knew if they didn’t work faster, work harder, there’d be more of this. 

The least they could do was make sure the rest of the Pratt clan was in order.  Charlene was going to handle the reaching of the family, definitely not going there.  They’d apparate to the office – at least there they could be sure they wouldn’t be followed. 

“Malone,” Archer spoke quietly, looking away from Eddie who looked as though he might pull his hair out at any moment, “tell Whitman if even the slightest thing feels off, bring the family to Headquarters.”  He didn’t want to risk anything, and even with an auror on patrol, who knew how many people would be stalking about.  Quincy was a witch, of course, and a mother – which made her a volatile opponent, but an auror and a civilian weren’t going to hold off Tawse’s crew. 

He didn’t want to say so in front of Eddie, but he suspected Charlene might have the same idea. 

With a neutral face, Archer waited for Eddie to finish.  Archer could see the tears welling in his friend’s eyes, he was distressed, and Charlene had come up with the best idea so far.    Archer couldn’t let Eddie apparate on his own, but he could do side-along. 

He decided to take a different approach for the moment, and was going to treat him like a colleague.  The questions were going to sound more professional, but at least give Eddie something to dig his teeth into. “Ed, after you got the note – did you come straight here?  Did you see anything before coming in?”

Archer was at least talking to Ed now as if he was an equal, not a victim. But Ed didn’t notice. He was freaking out. No matter how cool he was trying to remain. How calm he tried to act in this situation, he was very quickly losing that calmness, that control. He had to get to the shack. He had to make sure the kids were alright. That his wife was alright. But he couldn’t go from here. Ed knew that, he wasn’t daft. If anyone was still here they could follow him and then they’d have the kids.

The first question was insulting. Ed breathed, dropping the hand from his face.
“Of course I came straight ‘ere. I owled you two and flooed.” He said, using all of his energy to keep his voice calm, prevent it from rising. “Got ‘ere only moments before you. Heard or saw nowt.”

It was getting harder to fight the emotion. But the fact that two colleagues were stood in the room was stopping him, holding him back from losing it. He got angry. That was a regular occurrence and Ed knew he was known in the office for being a short fuse. But there was a difference between flipping and breaking down in front of the people you had to work with. Those were his parents on the floor but he wasn’t going to cry. Anger was better. Anger was safer.

So the auror pointed at Charlene. “Malone, you damn well make sure he knows if anyone goes so much as a mile near my family’s house he drags ‘em straight out o’there.” Then he looked up at Archer, feeling the forced anger fading slightly.

“We need to search the house. He might not o'gone."

When people broke, they always broke the same way.  Charlene knew Eddie -- she'd known him even before Tamis Raynor had decided to pair them together, because everyone in the office had known his reputation.  Brilliant but hot-tempered, dedicated but an unpredictable maverick.  For the longest time, she had let the latter half of the blonde Auror's reputation dominate her opinion of him. 

In the months that she'd had to work with Eddie more closely, it had become obvious that there was more to the wizard than her first impression.  Ed Pratt could be angry, self-centered, and full of himself, and she was still furious with him over abusing his power as Head Auror Pro-Tem, but the waters ran deep underneath his supposed egotism.  He cared -- possibly more than any of them.  For a man who occasionally professed a lack of commitment to the Auror Corps, he had stayed when any other might have quit.  And now, seeing his parents dead -- seeing a threat manifest in a way that he hadn't predicted, that none of them could have predicted -- he was hurting horribly because of his loyalty.

Radley, never the most politic of the Aurors, clearly wasn't coming off well, and Eddie cracked.  He blew up, exploded at Archer, and Charlene held her wand still, held her breath.  But then, just as it usually did, Pratt's temper faded.  Anger was how he was dealing with this.  The least they could do was let him be angry.

"No, we need to call in reinforcements and secure the premises," she said firmly, holding her ground.  "If there's some sort of trap here, it won't do us any good to walk into it."  Coping mechanism or not, they did not need an angry Pratt storming through his parents' home.  They needed to get him out of the line of fire.

"Pratt, Radley, why don't you two go back to the Ministry?" she asked, glancing at Archer first, and then looking to Ed.  "That way, Whitman can check in with you directly once he's back.  I'll send word to Raynor, too."  Her expression softened as she met her partner's gaze.  "We'll find him, Ed," she said quietly.  "You can trust us that we will."