11:32 AM, 7 July
In the new Muggle Affairs Office

"Thanks again for playing host this time around," Jonas said, flashing the blond woman a smile as he closed the door behind him.  "Bit of a bedlam back on Level Two with all of the new trainees running about.  And I still don't know how I feel about making such a habit of meeting in the interrogation rooms every time we want to have a private chat," he added, with a sheepish grin that didn't quite make it clear whether or not he was kidding.  "I keep expecting someone to try and drag me off to Level Ten so they can grill me over something."

The new office of the MAO -- pronounced like the acronym, not the communist, as Dreogan had patiently pointed out at least five times -- was not nearly as spacious as the Auror Office on Level Two.  Jonas half-suspected that the Minister had found the only set of unoccupied rooms and shoved the diplomat's new division into it, simply to quiet him down and get him out of the way.  Still, he had to admit that he was impressed that Spencer at least warranted a door.  Tamis Raynor was the only member of the Corps who warranted that bit of privacy, a fact that Jonas occasionally found driving him barmy after twelve years of having his own private office.

Today was his first official visit to MAO's broom closet, after he'd accepted Dreogan's tentative offer a month before.  The purpose of the new Muggle Affairs Office was not just to provide services to Squibs, Muggles, and Muggle-borns -- as the mage had first proposed it, he hoped that his new sub-department would be able to offer aid to the other departments within the Ministry. 

Jonas had been both relieved and a bit tentative when Dreogan had told him whom his opposite within MAO would be.  He respected and trusted Daphne "Aberdeen" Spencer, and he suspected that the blonde woman felt relatively similar about him, though she might very well fall short on the latter opinion.  But things still weren't all right between them; Jonas doubted that they ever would be.  There were some sins that he could never seek forgiveness for.

But he could play the part well enough and pretend he was completely at ease, which he did as he limped over to Spencer's new desk. 

"So I know I don't need to  remind you, but just for completeness's sake," he said, pulling back the chair and easing himself gingerly into it.  Since Dugan Macduff's arrest, he'd  been able to take it much easier on his knee, but the old injury still ached sometimes.  "Everything I tell you in relation to an MLE investigation, active or shelved, is classified.  You'll need permission from meself, Raynor, or Rosier before you can share it with anyone else in Mao."  He flashed her a quick, tight smile.  "I say it because I know I'll have to give you a bit of context so that you lot can do your job.  But since this whole effort at collaboration is a bit new, I reckon we'll need to do a bit of fumbling as we sort through which procedures will work, yeah?"

'Sounds about right,' Aberdeen replied, straightening up a bit in her chair now that she had company, though she still retained the same slouch she always wore in her shoulders. 'Mustn't forget we're still a bureaucracy, after all. Lots of mistakes still to make. And I wouldn't want to make any of them without Level Two's approval.' A shadow of her old, crooked grin crossed her face. It was getting easier to smile, she decided, since joining the Muggle Affairs Office. She'd been here a little less than a month, and was still adjusting, but still, it was good to feel useful again. Good to feel the beginnings of accomplishments forming in the fledgling organisation, which was in itself a huge accomplishment to start with, especially with the current climate of anti-muggle terror.

To give Trevelyan her full attention, Aberdeen pushed away the pile of muggle newspapers she had been skimming for any potential muggle-mage overlap, somewhat relieved to take a break from some of the less savoury tabloids. 'D'you realise, by the way, that calling us Mao makes you sound like a cat?' She lifted an eyebrow. 'I prefer Mugglaff, myself. Although, not in front of Dreogan.' There were some people Aberdeen liked to tease a little from time to time, usually those that were jokers themselves. She tended to be a lot more serious with her new boss, even if she wasn't always the most formal of employees. Well, how formal could you be when your boss was the brother of your former partner and married to your best friend?

'But, anyway.' She clasped her hands in front of her on the desk and tapped her thumbs together. 'Proper pronunciations aside. Since we've clarified I don't tell tales to the other kids, did you have any "context" for me today?' Touching base with Trevelyan usually wasn't anything earth-shattering, but it was useful for the MLE and the MAO to keep each other informed. And Aberdeen, though she was loath to admit it, couldn't help but be glad of the chance to keep up with some of the goings-on on Level Two. Once you joined the Auror Corps, you never really left. 'The baby aurors haven't been threatening the Statute or the like yet?'

It wasn't if he had thought that Spencer couldn't tell a joke -- she'd been partners with Adon, after all, and no one survived more than ten minutes in the same room with the Israeli Auror without either discovering their sense of humor or attempting to strangle him -- but as far as he could remember, she'd never told one around him.  Jonas let out a startled laugh, looking as if he'd been completely taken by surprise at the attempt, and then broke into a real, genuine grin.  He flashed the witch a crooked, appreciative smile, some of the tension leaving his shoulders as he let out a quick breath.

"Yeah, I know.  Em-Ey-Oh."  He shot Spencer another grin.  One joke was hardly enough to think that the armistice between them had been called off, but it was enough to help him relax.  Unless she had been serious; the blonde witch was easily as good at deadpanning as Tamis Raynor.  "Mugglaff's got more of a ring to it, though," he admitted cheerfully, well aware that he was grinning like an idiot. "You should get that printed on the stationary.  Err, parchment."  His forehead creased.  "I'd say t-shirts, but you wouldn't be able to see them under the robes.  Shame of the Ministry, really."

'The baby aurors haven't been threatening the Statute or the like yet?'

The red-haired man cracked another grin.  "Naw, we save that for the full Aurors, usually," he replied nicely.  "We're the lot that likes to demolish buildings and run over felons with taxi cabs.  Right popular with Magical Catastrophes, we are." 

That wasn't what they were here to talk about though.  Clearing his throat, Jonas crossed his arms, taking a deep breath.  His expression settled into something more controlled.  Wary, watchful, unexpressive: that was the face of the Auror Corps. 

"Yeah."  He was watching Spencer now, his eyes following her, his forehead slightly creased as he considered his words.  "So I know you're a bit familiar with the investigation into Tawse and the WBA's movements."  If Adon had been here, Jonas had no doubt that he would have huffed and rolled his eyes at that; it was 'a bit' of an understatement.  Jonas frowned, jaw clenching for a moment as he straightened in his chair.  "You noticed any patterns?"

Aberdeen, being in a relatively good mood, chuckled good-naturedly at some of Trevelyan's quips, the mental image of the MAO employees all secretly wearing sloganed t-shirts under their official robes being particularly amusing to her, then watched patiently as his expression changed in a way she was very familiar with. Every so often, Aberdeen needed to be reminded that she wasn't the only one who put up a facade. Sensing that whatever topic the auror was about to broach was not a light-hearted one, Aberdeen mirrored his expression (or lack thereof) almost exactly.

So when Trevelyan brought up Tawse, the flicker behind her eyes in response to the name was barely detectable. There was a moment of tension in her face, and in the way she clasped her hands, as the mental barriers moved into place. The times when Aberdeen most needed to practice Occlumency, she found, were the times when it was most difficult. But once the doors all slid shut, the tell-tale emotions locked safely behind them, the moment passed as though it had been nothing but a brief gust of wind, and Aberdeen was all business once more.

'On the surface... it seems pretty anarchic, don't you think?' Aberdeen watched Trevelyan evenly, though she didn't quite meet his eye. 'Tawse-- and by extension that group of his-- hates muggleborns, and hates the Ministry. So that's where their efforts at terror go. Kidnapping Akiva, the-- assassination--' Aberdeen faltered on the word and immediately wished she hadn't. She pressed on, 'Designed to put fear into those Tawse deems unworthy to inhabit magical society, and their protectors, respectively. But to what end?' She spread her hands. 'Akiva's moving on with her life, and we got Rosier. Or, take MacDuff as another example. His entire motivation was getting under Level Two's skin. So much so that he got careless. What was his end goal? Did he even have one? Or did he figure he'd just keep making trouble for the Auror Corps and civilians alike for as long as he could get away with it?'

Aberdeen leaned her elbow on the desk and her forehead on her fingertips, looking for all the world like she was trying to stave off a headache. 'All I can figure about Tawse is that he wants attention. Hell, the only thing I've known him to do that hasn't been about getting attention, at least indirectly--' She cut herself off, but didn't manage to catch herself before her gaze flickered to the framed photograph of her, Luke and Robin she kept on her desk. Don't. It's not relevant, it won't help.

'To be honest, Trevelyan, I'm probably seeing the same pattern you are. A man who wants to stir up trouble, and has the charisma, or some kind of hold over people, to get others to help him. If he has some kind of a master plan, you know, other than "cause as much chaos as possible before facing Azkaban", then he's keeping it very well hidden. I hate to credit him as being that good at diversion, but you never know.' She massaged her temple for a moment in thought, then folded her arms on the desk and looked back at Trevelyan, head tilted in curiosity. 'That sound about right to you, or have you found a different pattern?'

It was obvious that this was not Spencer's favorite topic of conversation.  She had apparently put thought into it, into Tawse's motivations, even if Jonas couldn't quite agree with her analysis. But then, he thought uncomfortably, he was closer to it than he probably should be -- some kind of hold over people.  He did his best not to flinch.

"Yeah, well," he said, shaking his head.  That part didn't matter.  He'd leave the debate over motivation to Archer --  they were here to purely talk logistics. "I reckon it was a bit different, what I was thinking of."  Diversion or political movement -- in the long run, it didn't really make a difference. 

"It's not what Tawse has been doing, exactly, or even what his goals might be," he said with a frown.  "It's the method.  How he kidnapped Akiva, how they think he staged the run-in with that Hogwarts kid at King's Cross, even what we know about what he did to you --"  The attack on Rosier that they all suspected had been put on by Tawse was even more evidence, although that was still classified.  "He slides in and out of the Muggle world.  He's not flawless," he added, giving a dismissive wave of the hand that he'd picked up from his partner, "but he's better at it than a pureblood wizard should be.  Which I reckon makes it obvious that he's doing it on purpose."

He let out a breath, pressing his tongue against the back of his teeth.  This was something he'd been mulling over for months now.  Since Robin's kidnapping.  Since the run-in with Tait's murderer at the book fair.  Since even longer, really -- since Tamis Raynor had pulled him into the bloody Runespoor investigation, since he'd read through Adon's notes on Kabir Ahmed's near-murder.  There was a pattern.  It put the Aurors at a disadvantage.  But just like how they'd taken Dugan Macduff's strengths and turned them against him, perhaps there was a way to do that here as well.

"It's not just Tawse," he said matter-of-factly.  "It goes beyond that mess.  The Runespoor ring have been using Muggles to smuggle their snakes into the country."  Vedir Prideaux was all too familiar with mundane life as well.  It was disconcerting to think that their enemies might be able to blend in so effortlessly; worrying that the one thing he might hold as an advantage might be useless.  "And how does the Ministry even spot that?  For the most part, we're all wizards too.  We don't read Muggle newspapers regularly, we might not recognize the signs of Muggle involvement," he said, shaking his head, "but we've still got a better chance of spotting it than the Muggles.  They don't even stand a chance."

'Yes, well, we've got the Statute to thank for that,' Aberdeen replied, a little more curtly than she meant to. Realising she'd gathered some tension in her shoulders and hands over the course of Trevelyan's analysis, she exhaled, shifting her posture away from 'on edge' and back to just 'attentive'. But damn, keeping herself in check would be oh-so-much easier if they weren't talking about Tawse.

'Sorry,' she added. 'What I mean is, you're right. Even the criminals who are purists-- or traditionalists, or-- whatever the hell you want to call them-- some of them are taking the fact that wizarding society primarily concerns itself with wizarding society and using it against us. I guess the muggle world is quite the asset to those who know how to maneuver through it, I mean, what's that saying, about a one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind? Muggles have no defence against the Imperius Curse, they don't have the faintest clue about Polyjuice-- Murphy. I don't know why I'm saying any of this, you know it all already.'

Aberdeen did know partly why she was overstating the obvious; she was dancing around the issue in the back of her head, of Cinaed Tawse and his use of the two techniques she had mentioned. In her case, he had almost certainly taken Polyjuice Potion to imitate a muggle. And Aberdeen Spencer, who was always so careful, so meticulous, had been caught with her guard down. It wouldn't have happened in St. Mungo's, she was next to positive about that, but it had happened in a muggle pediatrician's. Because the wizarding and muggle worlds were separate, Aberdeen had treated them as such, had let herself believe that Robin would be the least bit safer if kept away from magical society, and it had cost her her son. These days, Aberdeen was starting to believe, no one could afford to lower their guard, no matter where they were.

'But things are going to change now, right?' she added with an air of practicality. 'That wizard-centic attitude holding the Ministry back, only concerning themselves with muggles enough to come up with excuses for them and wipe their memories, that was before Muggle Affairs.' This was what Luke would do; focus on what could be done instead of dwelling on what went wrong. 'Hell, keeping an eye out for wizard involvement in muggle society is practically right there in my job description,' she added, picking the top newspaper off the top of the pile on her desk and shaking it a little for emphasis. 'Give me time, I'll find something.' She wasn't sure she would. That gnawing feeling of self-doubt was still ever-present in the pit of her stomach. But that wasn't relevant right now.

'And-- forgive me if I'm overstepping here, but-- wouldn't you be the go-to guy for this kind of thing? Didn't you spend the best part of, what, a decade living solely in muggle society or something like that? Don't tell me you've gone cold-turkey now that you're an Auror again.' Solving the problem Trevelyan had brought up wasn't as simple as just having experience, of course, but surely knowing one's own way around the muggle world had to help.