Almost

Chapter 14: Back

Crawley's office was dark, but the light coming in from the large windows behind his desk made it easy to see. The glare of the city poured through, but it was enchanted to keep the noise of car horns and sirens out.

"Do you think he'll have anything in here about her?" Harry asked, walking back to his desk. His eyes scanned the contents, stopping only to pick up a framed photo of Ezra and Katherine.

It showed Ezra on one knee. He held a simple black ring box in one hand, Katherine's hand in his other. She was covering her mouth as her eyes seemed to turn a bright blue with her joyful tears. They were atop woven heathered grey picnic blanket, a bottle of champagne chilling in one corner. The scene was surrounded by the floating lights George had developed glittering off the reflective floor, making it look as if the room went on forever. Long vines of jasmine slunk down the marble walls and white petals were dotted along the floor. It was a wizard photograph, but the two didn't move much—Katherine was slowly nodding while a smile enveloped Ezra's whole face. They just stared at one another, radiating in a way that made the lights look dim.

"Ezra hid the camera on the wall so we could have photographs but still be alone," she said when Harry's gaze didn't drift. "We'd just left his parents' house, he told me he just wanted to visit the old training room for old times' sake. But he had decked the whole place out."

"It's a beautiful picture." Harry sat it back on the desk, looking at the neat stacks of papers.

A small smile crept across Katherine's face as she reached up and touched the delicate necklace Crawley had given her.

"It was perfect," she said quietly. But the last word fell slowly off her tongue as she became suddenly very interested in a package, complete with a red bow, sitting in his trash can. She picked it up and examined the title—Taming the Shrew. She opened the front cover, curious to see if it would give any indication of who at MACUSA would give Crawley a muggle book, let alone Shakespeare. Sure enough, there was a note tucked into a page near the back.

Some tips for your own Katherina—time to tame.

Katherine dropped the book to the ground just in time as flames sparked out of her fingers. She kept them small but let them burn a minute, catching Harry's attention.

"What is that?"

She shook her head and let the fire fade away, bending down to pick up the book and hand it to him. He opened it, read the note, and read a section that had been highlighted.

"Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?"

Katherine let out a snorting laugh. "Too bad Ezra isn't named Petruchio, would really make the joke."

"Bloody cowards didn't even sign the note," Harry muttered. "Picquery said they were getting a bit cruel."

"When I was spending more time here, I only met a few of them. Not many options."

"Aurors are still people, Katherine—they can gossip with the best of them. When you can't really talk about your cases, you talk about everything else. Tales of the girl who made Ezra Crawley focus on anything other than work would have run rampant."

"Well, let's get on with the 'froward, peevish, sullen, and sour,' shall we?" she said, plucking the book a bit too aggressively from his hand and returning it to the waste basket. "I think Hollinghunt or Picquery will have more in their offices."

Harry donned his cloak as Katherine flickered invisible. With the magic in her eyes, though, she could see the iridescent outline of the cloak. Katherine could see Crawley's magic netting like a doormat, but she easily brushed it to the side, returning it when they were in the hallway.