Unlike a Sister (Harmione)

Chapter 3: The Callahan Matter

"Chief?"

Harry looked up at his assistant, Gwendolyn Fuller.

"Yeah, Gwen. What is it?"

Harry had felt set-upon all morning. When he apparated into the Atrium at seven, a flock of journalists greeted him. Word got out on Sunday that a high-ranking Auror had allegedly used "excessive force" against several Muggles. The Prophet and a number of other prominent publications all wanted a comment from the Chief of the Auror Department.

"New report from Stonehouse," she said, slipping a thin file onto his desk. "Nothing new."

"Thanks." He glanced at her. "Close the door. I want to ask you something."

Gwen did so, looking at him curiously, and seated herself on the worn leather couch facing his desk. The light from the mottled glass ceiling above gave her face a freckled glow.

"What's the mood out there?" he asked, sweeping a hand at the windows that encircled his office.

She sighed. "Hard to say. Some think DMLE is in the right, discharging Callahan and snapping his wand. But you know how much pull he had. A lot of people don't like how things were done, that he wouldn't have done what he's accused of...and if he did, is it really that bad? They say he's being made an example..."

"Right," said Harry, frowning. "Is that sentiment directed towards anyone in particular?"

"Not in the Auror Department, per se," said Gwen, looking apprehensive. "Just DMLE, I gather."

Harry wanted to ask if he, the Chief, was seen as pursuing the Callahan case too hard. But, he resisted. He could tell by the stiff manner of some of his fellow Aurors that they thought he was abandoning one of the Department's most trusted and effective Aurors to the crusading tendencies of the government prosecutors down the hall. Harry didn't have much choice in the matter. The Auror Department was a sub-division of the larger Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Hermione's office.

"Thanks," he said. "Keep the memos on your end, will you, unless they're urgent?"

"Will do," she said, standing. She flicked her wand at the ceiling and the memos circling the light fixture queued in a neat row behind her, like ducklings following their mother. "Counselor Granger will be here momentarily."

He nodded vaguely, already opening the file Gwen left on his desk.

The first page included a summary of Theodonus Callahan's case. The experienced Auror had been on assignment in Cainscross in Gloucestershire on August 29th, seven days ago. He was sent there to surveil the childhood home of a former Death Eater, one Deedrick Rudge, who'd recently been spotted in Diagon Alley after several years in hiding.

What happened next made no sense to Harry. In crisp typewriter face, the report said Callahan arrived at 9 Ashway Court, Rudge's former home, at eleven that night and found a Muggle family inside. The rest of the report was rather gruesome. According to Callahan's first interrogation, the Auror tied up a Muggle couple and their two children-a girl of fifteen and a boy of eleven. He performed illegal and invasive Legilimency on all four of them. At some point, Callahan used the Cruciatus on the parents, while the children watched. Before he left, he performed a violent version of the Memory Charm. Each member of the family had sustained significant memory loss and possible brain damage.

When Harry got word of the attack, he had the family quietly removed to Saint Mungo's in hopes that the Healers could restore their memories. A week later, there was no progress. The teenage girl was still in a magical coma.

Harry flipped to the interrogation transcript, one line jumping off the page:

Callahan: I was happy to do it. The regulations these days, they bind the hands of an Auror. If it were a wizard family, no one would have batted an eye if I used Legilimency or not. Only if it's Muggles does this Ministry seem to have a problem. They forget who they work for.