Elladora Guffy (takesnoguff) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-06-19 22:15:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-06] june, elladora guffy, gideon prewett |
Who: Elladora Guffy & Gideon Prewett
Where: Ministry Interrogation Room
When: June 19th; Early Afternoon
What: Ellie has to interrogate someone that she knows from school. Oh, no. This isn't awkward at all.
Rating: PG
Status: COMPLETE
Ellie clutched the file of information that had been provided to her as she lingered outside of the room that Gideon had been brought to. She'd done this before. She had been doing this for a few years now, and she certainly be as nervous about this as she was at the moment. But she had to admit to herself that this was the first time that she had ever known the person that she was interrogating. Gideon might have been a year older than her, but they had both been Ravenclaws so there was at least a passing familiarity there. She really should have requested that someone else take over his interrogation, but they were stretched thin enough as it was already. All she could do right now was set herself into the mindset of an objective Auror. She wasn't going to allow any biases to seep into this case.
Reaching out and opening the door, Elladora stepped into the room, closing the door back behind her with a soft click without removing her eyes from where Gideon was sitting on one side of the sparse metal table. Crossing over to the other chair, Elladora set the folder on the table between them, flipping it open as she sat down, lowering her eyes to the document only once she had gotten settled.
"I assume you've been told why you are here."
At Elladora's sudden entrance, Gideon looked up from the table, startled and blinking. He'd been... well, looking for patterns in his own fingerprints on the polished metal surface, actually, and he tugged the cuff of his shirt down over the heel of his hand to rub at the smeared marks a little abashedly. "Something about murders; which actually, I have to say, I really don't know any..." He trailed off with a faint frown as he looked more closely at the young auror across the table. Her face was very familiar, sending Gideon's brain rummaging through its not-always-impeccably-organised filing system. "Is it... Guffy, right?" Ravenclaw of course, yes, but most importantly she'd busted the twins one night during seventh year when they'd been this close to making a suit of armour conga line. It would've been epic. Gideon had just been smug about having figured out the requisite charms. "And you're an auror now," he observed, with a friendly grin. "Good for you; that's hard work."
Ellie wasn't really here to make small talk, but she also wasn't the typical type that would snap at the suspect and tell them to shut up and only answer the questions they were asked. No. She had found that you usually got more by making the other person feel comfortable...and then knocking them off balance. All she hoped was that she would be able to do the second part when she needed to. "It is," Elladora said with a very, very slight smile. "Guffy, that is. Really, sorry about this, but we have to cover all our bases," She said as she looked down at the folder for a brief moment before glancing back up at Gideon.
"Several Ministry officials were attacked last night," Elladora said. "There were causalities."
All right. This was awkward. This wasn't like she was a prefect scolding a pair of older students for turning to charm one of those bloody suits of armor. These were murder charges, and in the name of all things holy, she didn't want to have to outright accuse him of murder.
"I'll make this easy for you, Gideon. Just tell me where you were between approximately four to eight PM yesterday, and I'll see what I can do about getting you out of here quickly."
The way she said it made Gideon wonder if there was a harder way. Maybe they asked more difficult questions, like inverse arithmantic functions, though he wasn't precisely sure how that would help investigate attacks. Then again, that's probably why she was the auror, not him.
Gideon blinked. "Sorry, yes. Four to eight yesterday. Well, work obviously, at Lestrange Library. We usually close at five, but there was still some shelving and whatnot, because we had this pair in who just kept getting down new books; I did actually wonder if they were trying to build--" He broke off, cleared his throat, and continued, "I finished at about twenty past and went straight home. Cup of tea, spot of dinner, bit of reading." That bit of reading had lasted until he'd fallen asleep on the book only to be woken up when the cat jumped on his elbow and catapulted the lot of them onto the floor around half-past eleven, but she'd only asked about four-to-eight, so that didn't appear to be relevant.
"Do you have anyone that can corroborate that fact?" Elladora asked, looking up at Gideon with a slight frown. "Who isn't a relative or also in custody?"
"I work for Rodolphus Lestrange, he was there with me until I went home." After that... well, there were very few options. Especially since Fabian, as well as being related, had been out at work until later in the evening. Gideon pulled a wincing face. "My cat?" She was a very intelligent cat, most of the time at least, but somehow - call him possessed of immense powers of Divination - Gideon didn't think that was going to be at all acceptable. He shook his head. "I'm sorry. I was alone." And now he really wished he'd invited Emmeline around. "Is that going to be a problem?" It could have been concern in anyone who wasn't Gideon - and he still was concerned, it's just he was also genuinely curious about what happened next.
"It is," Elladora said quietly. "Since Mister Lestrange doesn't count as he is in custody at the moment as well," She said, furrowing her brow. He could have very well been telling the truth, but it was impossible to tell without someone to back him up. She highly doubted that the Boss man would accept the word of Rodolphus Lestrange as Gideon's alibi. Turning her eyes down to the folder, Elladora idly flicked through the information that had been provided to her, but she knew that were was nothing in his profile that would likely help in this situation. She wanted to trust him. She wanted to just tell him that he could go home, and that they would be calling him back in if necessary. But she doubted that the paper pushing bureaucrats in the upper offices would just let that slide.
"You do understand that with probable cause we are allowed to detain you for 72 hours without charging you with anything," Elladora said, a worried expression crossing her face. She really hoped it wouldn't come to that.
"I like that better than you charging me with something," Gideon replied, quickly and with absolute sincerity. He opened his mouth again to ask about what constituted probable cause, but had a (rare almost to the point of uncharacteristic) moment of reconsideration, and thought that now may not actually be the best time. Hey, Fabian would be proud of him.
Fabian. Oh.
"Are you going to detain me for 72 hours?" Gideon asked. "Because, well, my brother... We don't always see each other very often but I do live with him and these are sort of nervous times. He may wonder what's happened to me."
"I don't know," Elladora said quietly, closing the folder in front of her. It would do her absolutely no good at the moment. "It seems likely, but I will go and speak to my superiors about it," She said, hesitating for a moment before reaching forward and settling a reassuring hand on Gideon's arm, offering him a very slight smile. "Even if you are, it won't be that bad. It's not like we're going to keep you locked up with a bunch of dangerous criminals," She said, her grin widening a bit.
Gideon's answering smile was only a little distracted. "Well," he said, "that takes all the fun out of it." But the words were barely out of his mouth when he was raising a hand and saying, "No, obviously, just kidding. No dangerous criminals. That would be fine." He got enough of them at work, but he wasn't saying that, nor even thinking it very clearly. But she'd said Lestrange had been taken in as well. Had he had something to do with the attacks? Probably wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. Should he say something? That probably depended on what he planned to say in response to And how do you know that, then? Besides, he didn't know anything at all that could relate Lestrange to these attacks. Keeping quiet was the absolute best option.
"Just," he added, "if someone could let Fabian know when I'm likely to be home, once it's sorted, that'd--" probably keep him from single-handedly storming the Ministry. Actually, Gideon had no idea what Fabian would do. If their situations were reversed, Gideon would... well, probably say 'Not again' and make a pot of tea, but if Fabian were in some new and different sort of pickle, he'd definitely be very concerned. "That'd be good," he finished, somewhat anti-climactically.
"I'll tell one of the messengers to send him word about your situation," Ellie said as she stood, worrying her inner cheek. There wasn't anything else that she could do right now. Not unless she wanted to take the tactless hitwizard route, throw him up against a wall, and demand a confession. And she certainly didn't want to do that. God, what was wrong with her? "Someone else will be down to talk to you eventually. I'm sure they'll probably want to run you through the gambit."
"Goody," Gideon said, and rubbed at his eye, making a mental note that the next time he was dragged in by the DMLE for questioning regard a series of vicious attacks, he should really get a proper night's sleep beforehand. He smiled sincerely, albeit tiredly, up at his interrogator. "Thanks, Ellie."
"It's no problem, Gideon," Ellie said as she tucked the folder under her arm and walking over to the door, pulling it open before pushing in the doorway and turning back to him. "If it's an consolation, I don't think you're guilty of anything."
Not that her opinion really mattered for much in the long run. Oh, well. Now, the hard part. Trying to get through all that nasty red tape.