InsaneJournal

Sirius had been through this before, though the last time it was short and no one listened to a word he said. He wondered if, just maybe, this would be different. It depended, he supposed, on which Auror he got. He looked up when the door opened and squinted into the bright light of the room.

Cambina hadn't expected to get a shot at either one of them. But then again, Rufus was watching this and Bina knew she could be yanked, or they could send in someone else. But she would give it her best shot.

"Well, well, Mister Black," she said, kicking a chair out and straddling it backwards in front of him. "Given your record and the Hits assessment of the scene, I'm curious what you even have to say that might exonerate you."

He opened his arms up, nearly smiling at the sight of Cambina Bulstrode striding into the room. "Auror Bulstrode," he said in greeting. "Would you believe me if I said I was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"No." Bina leveled a glare at him. There were no smiles for Sirius Black today. He was an ex-con, with a criminal record and Bina had no sympathy for him. Hell, she wouldn't mind seeing how he reacted to an unforgivable. "It doesn't look good, Black, so start talking."

"Of course it doesn't look good," he said quickly. He wasn't stupid. He knew exactly how it looked. The problem was that that wasn't what happened. "Fabian Prewett and I were down the road at a muggle pub having a drink. We had set up an apparition point at an alleyway about three houses down from the one we were found in."

"And decided to have a bit of old vigilante fun?" she snarled. They really should have left them all to rot in Azkaban. "Did she just get 'caught in the crossfire'? I thought your sort tried to protect muggles."

He fought the urge to cross his arms and instead nodded. "We do. Which is why we're not responsible for this." Sirius frowned. "No, she didn't get caught in the crossfire. Lady Noir had already poisoned her by the time we got in. Same MO as the others."

"This is Prewett's second encounter with Lady Noir," Cambina said, her dislike of vigilantes obvious in her tone. "Trying to paint yourselves as heroes isn't going to be enough," she sneered. "You need better friends. Or to stop having such coincidences happen."

"It would seem, then, that she has it out for him. His name, and mine, did appear on a list in the Prophet, if you'll recall." Sirius shook his head. "I don't think of myself as a hero. I think of myself as someone who saw a fight and hoped to save a life. When I failed, I tried to keep Lady Noir in one place until you guys showed up. Unfortunately, that didn't happen."

Bina had her own opinions about what Prewett was trying to do, but she wasn't about to voice them here. "Unfortunately, indeed. Start your story at the beginning, Black."

He flapped a hand a bit and settled in to go through the events of the evening. "Pub. Drinks. Walking to the apparition point. That's when I caught a funny sound. It was like a choke, or a gagged scream. A flash of light. That's what alerted us to it. Then --" He paused, as if searching for the right words. "You're an auror. I'm sure you've had this happen. That feeling when the hair on the back of your neck stands up, like something is really, really wrong. We didn't know there were any wizard folk out that way, but as soon as we crossed into the garden, we felt the broken wards. The back door was open, and we went in, calling out as we did. That's where we found Lady Noir --" Sirius swallowed but kept his eyes on her. "Playing with the woman, who was foaming at the mouth and choking."

Well, at least she could add trespassing to the list of charges against these two. It might not get them sent back to Azkaban, but it would be something. "Details, Black."

She got to her feet and paced around the table, pulling him upwards by the collar. "Listen, Black. You're a convicted criminal. I'm sure I don't need to remind you that it would be all too easy to send you back to Azkaban - is that what you want? Just give me a reason, and I'll recommend that or the dementor's kiss. I know you're capable of murder and while poison doesn't seem your thing, this looks bad. And Scrimgeour is looking for a scapegoat. So, tell me something useful."

"Yes, I killed a batshit crazy witch who was a known Death Eater," Sirius said dryly. "That's exactly the same as this time." He waited a moment and then looked at her again.

"Lady Noir was torturing the woman, waiting for her to die. Fabian and I confronted her -- her being Lady Noir," he stressed, "and got quite a few good shots in, trying to keep her there until the hits could show up. We got her mask off, by the way. She's tall, pretty, dark hair and eyes. I guarantee you she's using a glamour or polyjuice though, because she wasn't recognizable and the way I see it, it's probably gotta be someone from one of a handful of families, don't you think?" He paused again. "She disapparated before the hits showed up. By that time, the woman was already dead. I imagine it was the same poison that did the others in recently, too, if the Prophet's to be believed in covering those cases." And Frank and Alice Longbottom, but he sure wasn't going to bring that up. "I couldn't tell you what the potion is or even what it smells, but it took its time. The woman's husband showed up next, before the Hits, and wouldn't listen to explanations which is perfectly understandable. What else do you want to know?"

"So I'm just supposed to believe a criminal? Do you have any proof you weren't in league with the so-called Lady Noir? How do we know you and Prewett haven't gone back to your pureblood ways?" Bina asked, tugging on his collar. "Or do I need to crucio you to get the truth out?"

"To what purpose would there be for me to work with her? To what end? Answer me that, Auror Bulstrode. What would make me change my mind after years of working against people like her, of spending a decade in Azkaban for working against purism and fanatics?"

"You're a criminal, Black. I don't much know or care what motivates you. What I care about is what you do, outside of the law," Cambina snapped, her hand tightening into a fist.

"I don't do anything outside of the law anymore, Bulstrode. And in this case, the only crime I committed was not keeping Lady Noir in check so you could be doing this to her instead of me."

"So you're no longer involved with the Order of the Phoenix? No longer think you're better than the law and take justice into your own hand?" She snarled. "In this case? And what about in other cases?"

Sirius didn't flinch. "The Order of the Phoenix disbanded over a decade ago," he said, and that was all he said.

"Bollocks," Cambina said, slamming both fists on the table before grabbing Sirius by the collar and pulling him out of his chair. She shoved him against the wall. "You expect me to believe the Order's been sitting around doing nothing while Lady Noir kills innocents? That the murder of known Death Eaters had nothing to do with you?"

He winced and grunted, but knew better than to react or fight back. But then something changed and he grimaced. "Isn't that what you lot are doing? Nothing? We're just following your example."

There was no warning as Bina's fist collided with Sirius' face. She was not in the mood to deal with insults to the Aurors. "How. Dare. You." The words were spat as her second punch went to his gut and then her wand was drawn, levelling it at Black.

Sirius's head was thrown back and he felt his nose crack. "Good -- punch," he managed to gasp out, holding his hands up when all he wanted to do was wipe the blood from his nice. "Good to see policy allows you to get physical with the unarmed prisoners. Try again sometime when it's a fair fight."

He knew this was a bad idea. But two could play at this game, and Sirius Black was always known for his temper.

"Oh, policy allows me to do a lot more to your kind. You see it doesn't matter, Order or Death Eater, you're all the same. Despicable creatures who think they know what's best and do their own thing and make our job harder." There was fire in her eyes as she threw him towards the wall. "Bring it Black. Name the time and place if you ever see the light of day again."

She brought her wand up, pressing the tip to Sirius' neck, lips starting form the words of an unforgivable.

Sirius said nothing for a moment, instead just looking at her, eyes meeting. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and yes, the blood did fall out of his face. Then, after another second, he said, "And you're no better than what you're saying I am, except you excuse it by claiming you're allowed because you're an auror."

At that moment, the door opened and Alice Longbottom stepped in, clearing her throat. "Auror Bulstrode, a word?"

Bina stood there for a moment, curse interrupted. "What is it? I'm in the middle of an interrogation."

"I'm aware of that. This will only take a moment." Alice glanced past Bina to Sirius, giving him a short nod, knowing that Bina couldn't see that from her angle, with her back turned.

Bina lowered her wand and headed for the door, keeping Sirius in her sight line until she was in the hallway and the door to the interrogation room was closed. She wasn't sure what could be so important as to pull her out of an interrogation. "What is it? Did Prewett confess?"

"No, he didn't. Did Black?" Alice asked. "I've been asked to cut this short. We have some evidence to run before we can continue interrogations. Franklin here will escort Black back to his cell."

"Not yet, but I was making progress," Cambina said, running a hand over her hair. She wanted to get back into the room, make Black a little more cooperative. "Why not run the evidence and continue the interrogations at the same time?"

"This came down from above," Alice said, apologetically. It didn't, of course, and she knew she was playing with fire. "You'll have another shot at him later."

Bina muttered something inaudible under her breath. Sometimes Rufus had the worst timing. A huff of a sigh. "Fine. So, what's this new evidence?"

Alice glanced over past her at Sirius, who had sat back down and tried to get the blood from his nose stopped. "Hair, it would seem," she said. "I have no idea why it wasn't given to us earlier, but we have it now. At first glance, it matches no one known to be at the scene. We'll know more in a while."

She nodded to Franklin. "Clean Black up and get him back to his cell. Make sure a guard is posted at all times." The man gave a jerk of his head and walked into the interrogation room.

Cambina snorted in disgust. How in Salazar's name were they supposed to make any progress on any of the cases if they didn't have all the information? "So, we just wait?"

Alice sighed. "Yes, unfortunately right now, we just wait." And hopefully give them enough time to exonerate Sirius and Fabian and get them out of here and find the real killer, who Alice had no doubt was Lady Noir.

"I'm going to train then. Get me if anything new comes up," Cambina said. She couldn't just sit around doing nothing, not when Sirius Black had just accused them of doing that.

"Of course. You'll be the first I come to," Alice said reassuringly.