InsaneJournal

WHO: James Potter and Fleur Delacour
WHEN: Friday, after lunch
WHERE: Department of Magical Law Enforcement
WHAT: A demand for answers
RATING: Fleur is F for Feisty
STATUS: Completed in Docs



Of course Fleur was worried about Bill’s disappearance, worried was the biggest thing she was feeling she had at the moment. Even though she was trying to cover it up with ceaseless busywork and with and anger and the occasional outburst at the humans who happened to be in the same room with her, the worry was still there, gnawing at her from the inside. It filled every moment of every day, it kept her awake, it stole her appetite. It hurt so badly.

She couldn’t take it anymore. She couldn’t live another minute like this, sitting at her desk and pretending like paperwork was more important than the fact that someone very important to her had vanished off the face of the earth and no one seemed to have any clue what to do about it. She wasn’t even sure if anyone was actually doing anything about it.

And if they weren’t? Fleur would just have to do it herself. After she cursed every single idle body between herself and action into tiny pieces.

About an hour after her lunch break - during which she hadn’t eaten anything - she abandoned her desk and her busywork and her entire office. She marched straight to the golden lifts and ascended to the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. It was a good thing, she thought vaguely, that there weren’t any other people in the lift with her because they might have been hexed had they tried to start a conversation.

Fleur knew vaguely where the auror offices were, and found them after only a few wrong turns. Once faced with the open office and its city of cubicles, she hesitated for half a moment as she wondered which one she should choose. This was sort of ruining her momentum. She'd hoped to be able to walk right up to a person and be able to start yelling, but that just didn't seem like it was happen. She silently cursed this office for not having a proper receptionist to accept shouting.

She huffed and actually stamped her foot in frustration as she picked an aisle at random. Some poor, unfortunate soul was walking toward her and she altered her course to head straight for them. "Excuse me!" She called out when she was a good dozen feet away. "I would like to speak to someone about a missing person."

--

James had been taking a coffee break, in that he had left his office long enough to go get coffee. He was glad to be busy again, to feel like his work was important again - though he wished it wasn't because someone was missing. Not just someone, but an Unspeakable, and of all of them it was Bill. It was bad enough, but then of course piled on that was that Molly and Arthur were old friends - and he didn't have any news for them about their missing son.

He had been lost in thought about it as he walked back to his office, and he hadn't noticed anyone standing there until he was being yelled at. James looked up, his steps faltering only a moment as he registered who it was. “Yes?” he replied as he walked closer before coming to a stop. “How can I help you?”

--

Fleur huffed again. She really was excellent at huffing in agitation. She’d learned well from her father’s mother. Obviously she was a woman in distress and this fellow was not offering her the concern and urgency that she expected. She assumed he must be some peon, some poor messenger who had no idea how things were supposed to work. Well. She would have to show him.

She tossed her hair back and planted her fists on her hips. “I just told you,” she said with exasperation. “I want to speak to someone official.” She looked him up and down. He looked like he could be official, he was certainly old enough, but she’d already decided that he wasn’t because obviously he was an idiot.

“Find. Me. An. Auror.” She said loudly, slowly, and clearly.

--

He shouldn't have been amused, James knew that. Really he wasn't actually amused, but it was how indignant she was. The situation itself wasn't amusing. Nor was she. He couldn't quite put it into words so he wasn't about to try.

“Yes, again, how can I help?” he asked patiently, taking a sip of his coffee before setting it down on the nearest desk so he could hold his hand out to her. “James Potter - I'm an Auror.”

--

If Fleur was even a little bit ashamed of her outburst, she hid it well. She simply changed tactics and went on as though she had not been moments from calling him an idiot and an under qualified, overgrown intern with the brainpower of a diseased gnat. “Good,” she said quickly and grasped his hand for a firm yet brief handshake. “I’ve been looking for you.” As though this wasn’t completely obvious by her demand to see him.

She folded her arms and settled her weight on one leg and stared at James Potter, Auror through narrowed eyes. "William Weasley is my boyfriend," she said, daring him with a glare to tell her that being just a girlfriend didn’t entitle her to information. She wouldn’t leave here without a satisfactory answer. “I want to know what you know and what you’re doing about it.”

A pause. “Well, aren’t you going to invite me to sit somewhere?”

--

James’ expression remained neutral and professional as she went on. Honestly, she was tame compared to a lot of people who had come in over the years, and she had valid reasons for concern. At her last statement he reached for his coffee again, giving a nod. “Sure, come on into my office.”

He led Fleur back to his office - his new office, the department head office. Settling behind his desk, James gestured to the large, comfortable chairs across from him. “Miss Delacour, correct? I assure you, we’ve had people on the case since we realized he was missing.”

--

Despite herself, Fleur was quite impressed that this was the apparent head of things. Oh, she’d read the papers and she knew there was a big upset on the floor, but to be made the temporary Head meant something. She still didn’t feel bad for nearly calling him an idiot, though. She’d been on a mission, after all, and he had been infuriatingly slow at being useful.

“Good,” she said, dropping heavily into the chair and making herself quite comfortable in its soft depths. She folded her arms loosely and didn’t even wait for Auror Potter to take a seat. “And what exactly have they found?”

--

Ah, and there was the problem. James didn't like the answer he had for her, and he had a feeling she wouldn't like it either.

“In short, nothing,” he answered, shaking his head with a frown. “If you've read the paper, I'm sure you're aware he apprehended a known Death Eater in the Department of Mysteries. Bill delivered him here, then said he was going back to check on things. That was the last anyone saw him. We’ve done a thorough investigation of the entire Ministry, checked his home, spoken with his parents… we’re branching out in our search, but so far there are no leads.”

--

Well that wasn’t terribly helpful. Fleur wanted specifics. She wanted a course of action. She wanted to know exactly when they’d have an answer to what happened and when she would have Bill back. She could feel her eyes stinging with frustrated tears and she willed them to go right back where they came from because this was not the time for any emotions besides determination and possibly outrage.

“Well then clearly you have not looked hard enough,” she replied flatly. “I realize there’s quite a number of floors between this one and the Department of Mysteries, have you checked every cupboard? Every drawer?” These were ridiculous questions, but he had to be somewhere. “Did you question every soul that passed through the exits of this facility?”

--

“We have, in fact, checked all the floors,” James replied evenly, hoping her question hadn’t been entirely serious since he'd said they'd checked the whole building. “We’re also working with his department in an effort to find if there was anything he was working on that might have caused something to happen.”

It was times like these a department where no one talked about what they did was a hindrance.

“We spoke to everyone who was known to be here when he went missing - which wasn't many, considering how late it was.”

--

Well, she had to be sure, didn’t she? What if they’d forgotten a vital clue in a toilet someplace? Fleur sighed and settled back in her seat, folding her arms more tightly around herself because she felt suddenly quite uneasy. She hadn’t been allowing herself to accept the possibility that he was just gone and would stay that way. But if there were no leads…

“What sort of something might have happened?” She asked, troubled. “Something like an accident?” The very thought made her insides cold and she forgot, at least for the moment, about being annoyed with this man and his unhelpfulness. “They’d know if there was an accident.” They had to, because if not then they’d be irresponsible and stupid and she’d set them all on fire.

--

James didn't really know, which he was sure wasn't helpful to her. It wasn't helpful to anyone, really. “There may have been an accident, but as of right now no one knows,” he said, his tone gentle. “I assure you we have people working on this around the clock, it's just nothing's turned up.”

He paused, taking a sip of his coffee before
considering the woman sitting across from him. “He didn't say or do anything odd recently that you can recall, did he?”

--

“Well accidents don’t just happen without anyone knowing about it,” Fleur replied, resisting the urge to huff in a not-entirely-adult manner. Really, she was trying to convince herself that Bill hadn’t been turned into a turnip or whisked away into an alternate dimension or made invisible or vaporized or…. She closed her eyes and sucked in a deep, calming breath.

“So he must have left.” It was the only explanation, but it raised more questions.

Her gaze flicked up at the question and she shook her head. “No, of course not. We had a lovely Halloween and everything has been fine.” She eyed the man across from her for a moment before sitting up straight and smoothing the folds of her robes down over her knees.

“I would like to help. What can I do?”

--

James wasn't sure her first statement was true - not when it involved the Department of Mysteries. They were cooperating with the investigation but still maintaining as much classification of their work as they could at the same time. Not to mention it had been late when everything had happened, and from what he could tell, Bill had been the only one working at the time.

“I think we both know that Bill isn't exactly the type to up and leave without saying anything,” James said gently. “The Weasleys are old family friends,” he added as explanation for why he would have insight. “We’re working on finding answers, and finding him but unfortunately we haven't had any breaks yet.”

A soft smile flickered across his features at her offer. “Keep an eye out? I know that sounds simple, and maybe not helpful, but it is. You live next door to his house, correct? Check in there, let us know if anything seems off… I’m guessing you're more familiar with it than the Auror we have stationed there, so you'd be more likely to notice.”

--

Fleur waved off the repetition that his department hadn’t found anything yet. It was becoming very tiresome to hear and she just wasn’t going to accept that there was nothing to find. Clearly someone was just terrible at their job and had missed something, but unless she broke into the Department of Mysteries herself and didn’t get arrested in the process, she wasn’t going to be of much use.

Poking around an empty house that was likely to give her a number of feelings did not sound like much use, either, but it could feel like helping if she forced herself to think that way. Maybe. Or it could just drive her to collapse in sobbing pile somewhere or to drink until she didn’t feel bad anymore.

“Fine,” she said, because what was she supposed to do? Tell him no, she wouldn’t do the bare minimum? This was just awful. All of it. She rose and offered her hand to him, determined to be polite from here on. She had no faith in these people, but letting them know that wasn’t going to get her anywhere. “Assuming your Auror lets me in and allows me to look around unbothered, I can do that for you.” And, in a way, she needed to do it for herself.

--

It wasn't much, but it was something, and James understood the want and need for something to do when it felt like there was nothing to be done. Circumstances weren't great, and unfortunately there wasn't much else he could offer her.

“I’ll be sure to let them know you're to have access to the house, so there shouldn't be any problems with that,” he assured her. “And if for some reason there is, please feel free to contact me. My door is always open.”

--

“Good,” she said, standing as straight as she could. The man was taller than her, but she was well versed in pretending like she was above everyone who crossed her path. “And you’d better make it quick, I intend to head there straight after work.” Though, she might even cut out early because there was no real way she’d be able to focus for the rest of the day.

Her expression softened and she paused before going. “Thank you for all you’re doing,” she said softly, and then she turned to leave.