InsaneJournal

Alice moved away from the dead body in the hallway, a young Muggle man whose ex-wife was a witch who died the year before of unknown causes (no foul play, she thought, but would have to check St. Mungo's records later). She and Frank had been called out to investigate this when the initial scene analysis pointed to magic as a cause of death, and something powerful as well. She bent down, spying something stuck out of a shirt pocket, but before she could reach for it, a silvery-white wolf bounded through the open front door and stopped in front of her.

"Frank!" she called out, heart pounding, as she recognized the patronus.

It whined and then, in Sirius's voice, spoke quietly: "Alastor's been injured. Meet me immediately at the Shrieking Shack."


Since the advent of the Journals- and, really, since the end of the war- communication via patronus had mostly fallen by the wayside. So to see one now, unexpectedly, it put Frank on high alert- though Alice's own tone did that well enough, too. (Twenty years of working together would do that, of course.)

"The Shrieking Shack?" Frank wondered aloud, though the patronus didn't answer- instead just disappeared in a puff of black and silver smoke. He looked from Alice to the crime scene notes in his hands, then back to Alice. "We're not expected back at the DMLE for hours yet. We'd better go. If it's enough for Sirius to send a patronus…"


She nodded. "There's nothing else we can do here," she said, though she did take a moment to bend down and get the paper out of the man's shirt pocket -- a Lady Noir calling card, she frowned -- and then looked to her husband. "Let's go."


The Shrieking Shack was well known to just about anyone who had attended Hogwarts or even just visited Hogsmeade in the last thirty-odd years, and Frank would quite easily admit that the place gave him the willies. Still, it was this unique quality that made it rather ideal for an impromptu rendezvous- they were unlikely to be set upon by anyone else.

Apparating in- and making sure that Alice had arrived safely as well, a habit he had long since ingrained and wouldn't give up any time soon- the Shack was its typical eerie quiet. Frank raised his wand arm, standing at the ready just on the off chance that the patronus message had been a ruse… or a trap. "Sirius?"


Alice took a moment to close up the crime scene, warding it to keep Muggles out, then followed her husband, disapparating with a crack a moment after him. When she opened her eyes and stabilized herself, she found herself staring at the Shrieking Shack, She followed Frank inside.


"In here," Sirius called, his voice tired, wavering slightly, though not from fear. More from pain -- pain in his arm, in his neck, his cheek. He had Alastor on the first floor, in a back room, and he was already tending to his injuries, the bloodied, gaping eye hole, the stump on his leg. But Sirius was no healer and he couldn't risk taking him to Hogwarts. He'd have to get him to St. Mungo's. And right now, with his own left arm fairly useless, Sirius did as best he could.


Alice stifled a gasp as she entered the room. "What happened?" she breathed out.


Sirius grimaced. "James set up a meeting with Lady Noir. We were ambushed. Death Eaters everywhere. Some got the upper hand to Alastor, and I had to get him out as quick as I could. He needs Mungo's, but I couldn't just take him there without -- explanation." He looked at Frank and Alice in the hopes that they'd both catch on and have a suggestion. He noticed they were in their Auror robes, and he hoped that worked in everyone's favor.


Frank's wand arm had fallen back to his side as he surveyed the gruesome scene before them. Sirius himself looked bad enough, and would certainly need medical attention, but Alastor… Frank might have thought, before, that nothing could injure that man. He wished that he hadn't been wrong, there.

But this wasn't the time for wishing- this was time for action. Frank understood Sirius' unspoken request easily enough- as, he suspected, did Alice. It wouldn't be the first time they'd lied to either the DMLE or to St Mungo's to explain away an injury. "We'll cover it," he replied, simply. "Go- get to Edgar or… someone else who can help you." Frank had a feeling that these weren't the only injuries of the day, not if there had been a Death Eater ambush.


Sirius nodded, face pale. He held his left arm stiffly at his side. "Let me know what you find out about him, please," he said and then, with another curt nod and a glance at Moody, limped slightly for the door.


Alice waited until Sirius was gone before turning to her husband. She let out a sharp breath again. "All right. He was with us. We ran into some trouble at the crime scene." It was a stretch. The report for the crime scene had already been filed, and there wasn't anything for them to encounter. They would have to invent something. Not to mention, neither of them had any injuries. "Unless you have a better idea." She was fairly certain her idea wasn't all that good, but that was because she was staring down at an unconscious, bleeding, Alastor Moody, and she wasn't quite sure how to handle it.


Frank considered the suggestion for a moment, then shook his head. "Not unless we plan on hexing one another to look like we were attacked, too." And that, of course, was very low on his list of excuse avenues he wanted to take.

"The calling card," Frank offered, finally. "They found one at the scene with… Dawlish… didn't they?" It was still tense to talk about that of course, only a few days after the loss of one of their own. Even one that, by his own admission, Frank didn't like very much. A glance to Moody, then back to Alice, "It seems Lady Noir has been targeting Aurors. Moody fought her off, but only just…"


"We'll need to feed that to him, too," Alice agreed quickly, glancing at him, still unconscious. She held out the card she'd just picked up from the dead muggle man. "Convenient that I found this on the last victim then," she continued on dully.

She turned away and pinched the bridge of her nose. Alice loved the work she did both as an Auror and for the Order, but times like these, which required them to fabricate and lie and falsify reports … she didn't like that much. "I'm sure he'll be amenable to anything we tell him to say." After all, the three of them had all done this before, hadn't they?


Frank nodded, slowly. Unfortunately, the problem- well, one of the many problems- with fabricating stories like this was making certain that everyone who needed to know was kept duly informed. And when one such person was inconveniently unconscious… Well, it was complicated.

"If we're saving his bloody life, he damn well better be amenable," Frank grumbled a bit, then exhaled, heavily. "We found him here, after he sent us a summons." So long as no one checked his wand, that much of the story should be fairly easy to pass off. There was certainly enough debris, damage, and blood about to cover most any alibi.

"Come on, love. Best we just levitate him in, and I'll apparate us all three there."


"Good thinking on Sirius's part," Alice said softly. She noted that there was already some loosely applied charms to stem off the bleeding. "Let me fix some of these first. Everyone knows my healing charms are better than this. We need it to look more realistic." Even if all she would have had time to do was set up a few things to stop the blood. "He looks awful," she said as she bent over him and worked quickly, a bit haphazardly, as though she'd done it quickly in a panic.

When she finished, she nodded and stood, straightening. "Let's go."