Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: october 31 2003, character: jayne dough, npc: pandora zurlo

Rated PG
Who: Jayne Dough & Pandora Zurlo
What: Finding out what really happened to Grindelwald's second in command
Where: Department of Mysteries, MoM
When: 31 October, 2003 - 8:45 am

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We are the lucky ones
We shine like a thousand suns
When all of the colour runs together

I'll keep you company
In one glorious harmony
Waltzing with destiny forever

Dance me into the night
Underneath the moon shining so bright
Turning me into the light

Jayne knew that she had the day off, as did most Ministry employees - however, there was some work that simply couldn't wait until Monday. At the very least, with the excitement of the body being found and the Aurors' investigation, much had been left undone, and as usual, it was up to Jayne to come in and get it done.

She looked with frustration at the desks in one of the main areas. There were mysterious items left on several desks - a wooden spoon here, a mask there, even a top hat on a nother. Employees were supposed to replace the items in the storage rooms before leaving for the day, but so many of them forgot. It was a wonder nothing had been stolen recently! Perhaps that was the reason the intruder had come in - he knew how careless the employees were.

She stopped at each desk, picking up the item with its identifying sheet of parchment, and left a spell in its wake alerting the employee that the item was in its appropriate storage room. She never signed the messages, as few people cared what the admins had to say on the subject. If they thought it might have been their supervisor, then they'd listen.

She turned the top hat in her hand as she made her way down to the storage rooms, wondering what made it so special. Perhaps Voldemort had worn it to a party in his younger years, she thought with dark humour. Mercifully, they all belonged in the same storage room, which was not the one where the body had been found. She stepped inside and accidentally tripped over something on the floor, and the hat went flying. She cringed, waiting for some sort of dark magic to come out of it... but nothing happened.

With a thankful sigh, she placed it on a shelf labeled for the hat. The spoon was next, and as she was moving to put the mask on another shelf, she spotted something written on the inside. Curious, she lifted it and tried to get a better look, but whatever it was seemed to shift with the light.



It was a rather... ugly mask, she thought. It felt like some sort of leathery material - perhaps similar to what was used in quidditch equipment. An evil thought crossed her mind, and she playfully held the mask up to her face.

"I've come... to sort your files!" she said darkly, then started laughing at her own silliness. It wasn't often that she could really feel and act herself, but when she was alone, her strange sense of humour shone through. As she laughed, the mask shifted in her grip, and the edge accidentally brushed against her cheek.

Her laughter immediately stopped.

A strange feeling overcame her immediately. It wasn't pain, but it was smothering her. It was as if she was being blanketed by something or someone. The mask seemed to suction itself to her face, and... it felt like it was trying to absorb itself into her skin!

She screamed and grabbed at the mask, but to no avail. It wasn't coming off, and with every passing second, it dug deeper and deeper into her flesh. And yet there was no pain, just this sense of invasion and opppressiveness that sent her to her knees. Finally, it was as if the mask could go no deeper, and a sense of calm overcame Jayne.

And that was the last she remembered before passing out.