antebellum [t. riddle]

l.

january 1945

"state your name and age, please."

caroline macmillian straightened her posture and pursed her lips defiantly. sicaria sighed and slumped back against the desk she had propped herself up against.

fine. "what is your name and age?" 

"caroline macmillian. 16." the ones with the most to hide always fought the hardest to conceal their words. veritaserum forced them to answer questions with truths, but the drinker could make some conscious decisions as to what they said, so long as they weren't lying, nor attempting to conceal the truth.

a good interrogator knew how to back victims into a metaphorical corner until they could do nothing but talk. they'd make mistakes, and say things that they hadn't meant to say. anything that someone was attempting to conceal would obviously be of interest.

"do you have any information that you feel could aid in the defeat of gellert grindelwald?"

sicaria had found that there was no point in continuing with proper interrogation procedure. it was tedious, and it wasn't as though any of it mattered anyway. macusa clearly didn't much care about policy, considering that her even being in this country had broken several treaties. so long as she got information, the procedure didn't matter.

the point of asking all those other questions in the beginning (parent's names, blood status, connection to grindelwald) were intended to have all bases covered in the event that time ran out before she could get to the important things, so that she could revisit the interviewee if needed. 

that had been her tactic when looking for specific people to arrest. her priorities had greatly changed since then. 

now, she was searching for general information or plans. sicaria didn't care what macusa wanted from her; she was trying to end the war, not get more publicity from the status of the people that were arrested. there was no point, in sicaria's opinion, and she was sick of just being passive. 

besides, she needed something to do. 

"yes."

"macmillian, i'll get the information either way. are you going to make me ask you direct questions, or will you answer the prompts?"

she held her chin up haughtily as the potion forced her to tell the truth. "direct questions."

sicaria tapped her quill in annoyance for a few seconds and then stood, dusting off her skirt as she raised herself from her position on the floor.

even in situations like this where she had never been more frustrated, it never even crossed her mind to torture information out of someone. 

however, she could intimidate them. 

"the purpose of intimidation is to make someone uncomfortable. people in hostile situations want nothing more than to be out of them. you give them the ultimatum, not with words, but with actions. remind them who has control in the situation."

her mothers voice rang out in her head. 

she crossed the classroom slowly, forcing caroline to keep eye contact throughout. 

sicaria walked up and stood over caroline, who was sitting on the bench sicaria had conjured from her. at her approach, macmillian attempted to stand, but sicaria used a wandless spell to make her remain seated. she struggled for a moment, but then went limp.

sicaria crouched down and then tapped the end of her wand at the base macmillian's throat.

"first, restraint. isolate them, and take away their ability to move. small interrogation rooms work well for claustrophobes, but any magically induced binding will do."