Curious and Curiouser

4: As the Law Dictates

AUROR HEADQUARTERS

Ron sighed, Blaise had just left, the four of them had used a Pensieve to go through Blaise's memory, but it hadn't yielded anything new, the memory went black when Blaise passed out but as far as they could tell his wand was in his hand.

He, Eric and Sylvia managed to contact all the necessary people and inform them of the situation, they were trying to keep the fact that three Aurors and seven MLE officers were unconscious in the hospital- cause unknown. So only the Minister got the full story, they made something up about another conference for the other heads of departments.

That was another thing they had looked for in Blaise's memory, but there had been no sign of anything that could have been powerful enough to incapacitate that many people all at once. From what they had been able to see, Blaise and Lopez had managed to get the muggles away from the fighting and behind a shield charm, when the two of them managed to look back for the others, they couldn't see them. So Blaise dropped the shield charm, the strain of holding it had clearly exhausted him, to try and head over to where the others had been. He arrived, saw his colleagues on the ground, sent a Patronus to St. Mungo's and passed out.

As far as they could tell Lopez had been conscious when Blaise passed out so perhaps she would have more information that could help them.

Eric was organizing a team of MLE officers to guard the St. Mungo's ward where Kingsley, Stokes, Lopez and seven other officers were recovering, while Sylvia was coordinating with the Muggle Interactions department to ensure that all of the muggles had in fact been obliviated. So once again Ron was alone in the office. He dropped Harry's wand onto his desk, sinking down into his chair, hands over his eyes.

At least Lopez would be alright, he was only stunned, according to Blaise. Ron didn't know the dark-haired witch all that well but she was always ready with a smile or a joke and she had proven herself to be more than capable out in the field over the past two years when the team was tracking down former death eaters. He looked up at the sudden noise from the main office area, standing he made his way out of his office calling out a quick, "That you, Harry?" as he did.

****

Oh fuck this Draco thought to himself as he stood in front of the massive fireplace in one of the drawing rooms of the manor. Time wasn't going to make him feel any better about this, he stretched out his arm, grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the flames, stepped in and said, "Ministry of Magic."

Draco Malfoy stepped out into the atrium, drawing his black cloak tighter around his shoulders as he made his way towards the lifts at the far end of the atrium. His father had used to work here, and unless he was much mistaken the Auror offices were on the second level.

Gone were the days when people would fall away before him, leaving his path clear, now, here, he was just the same as everybody else. He felt almost bitter as he queued up with the other witches and wizards for the lift. He kept his head down, shoulders slumped, he didn't want anyone recognizing him right now, he had come here with a purpose and the fewer deviations he faced the better.

After Voldemort's death his closest followers had been put on trial, Lucius Malfoy included, he unlike his wife and son did not have the savior of the wizarding world defending him and had received the sentence of a dementor's kiss. Now this had been the original ruling on the case, Narcissa Malfoy had employed several inquisitors from America to fight this verdict, and fight it they did, but all they had managed to do was buy Lucius Malfoy some time, his sentence was constantly being pushed back as his attorneys filed appeal after appeal with the Wizengamot. Two years ago it had seemed like things were going their way, the dementors were no longer employed by the ministry as guards for the wizard prison, Azkaban.