While the skeletal remains of a cat and terrier scuffle in the background during one a bone fight night, Rocio Adair comes in for a vodka on the rocks. While trying to ignore the uncouth bone fight, Rocio complains about Akiva Katz who came into her shop the day before. She talks Cináed Tawse into intimidating Akiva to encourage the woman to keep to her place. Cináed agrees to do so in exchange for Akiva's wand and a healthy supply of galleons from Rocio.
"'We met on my way to deposit the day’s earnings. She had the gall to bump into me. I almost had to burn the clothing I was wearing from the sheer stink.” She shuddered a bit and shook her head. There were few things in the world she hated as much as Akiva Katz. The foolish muggleborn was really going to get herself into trouble if she kept going in the manner she was."
"A pesky mudbloods been bothering Rocio; the village knight is riding to her aid. In exchange for a trophy or two." The excitement of the hunt and the prospects of a wand had prompted Cináed to agree to the activity without giving much thought as to the consequences. This was just the type of fool-hearty mischief that could leave him regretting it for the rest of his days in Azkaban. But, he knew, he also couldn't continue hiding under the fear of the Ministry. They all were. And, this Katz didn't sound much like a challenge. He drummed his fingers on the bar as he considered potential payment. "Well, her wand will be mine if I earn it. It'll be almost a reward in itself. But, how about two hundred and fifty galleons and you great me with a quaint little peck on the cheek when you see me, too."
Using the stolen identity of a muggle coffee server, Jason White, Cináed Tawse slips a sedative potion into Akiva Katz drink. He follows her home to her doorstep where the potion fully takes effect, leaving her unconscious. With the help of his two cronies, Manfred Ashford and Christian Colburn, Akiva is taken to a locked room in a house in the Welsh countryside.
Akiva is held and tortured for several days until, on the 17th, she's left on the porch of the shrieking shack in Hogsmeade.
She ordered some fancy drink and Cináed had set to making it. A little brewed chai, a little steamed milk, just a slight drop of a carefully concocted mixture of acromantula venom to, slowly, send her to sleep, ( Cináed would have to be sure to thank Kingstreet - if it weren't for her generous lease rates, he would never have been able to afford it), some hellibore to keep her calm and peaceful as the venom took effect and just enough powdered lovage to muddy the mind a little. It was a homemade concoction - he'd tested it on a mouse or two but, well, if it just turned out to poison her - or he had used too much venom and it digested her as well as put her to sleep - well, Rocio would have to live with the fact that Cináed didn't have to opportunity to frighten the mudblood.
“Akiva Katz has. . . Tamis,” he said, swallowing and looking about, feeling the piercing gazes of her Aurors. “Can I talk to you in your office, perhaps? It’s very urgent. A Missing Person’s Report. But I think there are some things we can – first --” Dreogan was getting ahead of himself. He swallowed once more, a shuddering sort of a breath followed. This would, he told himself, go better than last time.
“In addition to your name showing up in the Prophet, there is also rumor that a letter you sent to Covadonga Gertrudis resulted in a heated confrontation in the Minister’s Office.” One of her eyebrows arched with the statement, as if looking for verification. Raynor was neutral on the Werewolf issues, having much more important concerns to deal with in her own Office. All she cared about was the child’s growing celebrity status. “You have painted an impressive target on your forehead.”
