malfoy blinked “e again?”
harry walked out of the owlery and into the brighter, overast haze before he did anything else, he was going bak to that house he was going to help that poor girl
igora pushed her way through the overrowded halls of the edinburgh dmle main offie from what she ould tell, the vultures were swooping in on the penthouse i, everyone from improper use of magi to the beast divin of the drcmbsp;if it meant there’d be fresh offee in the breakroom, she ould five the mob
she aught a glimpse of auror phillips at some point, luthing a thik file and looking like he’d slept in his lothes at the offie she didn’t envy him or the headahe today would likely bring if he was busy orralling the masses, it meant she atually stood a hane of getting ahead of the rest
“stramitz,” felix greeted when she finally made it to their offie at the farthest end of the building
she didn’t give him a gne igora turned her bak and shrugged out of her loak, hanging it up on the rak “i almost feel like we should share what we know, but phillips already looks like he’s about to break under the pressure”
a throat leared and igora turned around between their desks, in one of the a lounge hairs they’d stolen from misuse of muggle artifats, a very familiar man sat the red hair gave him away immediately if igora hadn’t reognized him from the war, she’d have reognized his distinguished rimson auror robes
felix put out his hand to introdue the guest “stramitz, this is—”
“auror weasley,” igora interrupted her mind raed what ould bring one third of the golden t to their offie? possibly one of their open ases? surely there was no reason for him to ome himself igora faked a smile and held out her hand in greeting “igora stramitz”
ron weasley stood and towered over the room, broad and o, smiling bak at her he reahed over and shook her hand, and they exhanged fored pleasantries, inquiries about the london offies, until finally, igora steered the n to the reason for the visit
weasley gned between her and felix, leared his throat and pulled a parhment from his poket “i was responding to the inquiry you sent out yesterday about arhie eversworn”
eyebrows raised, igora moved to sit at her desk she had not been expet that “you have rman about our person of i?”
“that’s the thing,” weasley frowned “he’s not involved in whatever you’re looking into”
her brows raised higher “and you know that beause—?”
“he’s an integral part of an ongoing iigan”
felix leaned forward “he’s a ci?”
igora snorted, remembering the indein and omplete inability of the man to oneal his instintive reans “there’s no way that man is an rmant”
weasley shifted his weight and rossed his arms igora realized he must’ve assumed he’d be able to marh into their offie, say his piee, and that would be the end of it she didn’t doubt he had his reasons, but in her experiene, defensive and protetive oupled with seretive did not usually lead to making the most responsible deins “i’m telling you, eversworn isn’t involved and you need to drop it”
finally, igora thought her forehead rexed and she narrowed her eyes “eversworn knows something about our ase; i would bet my life on it”
they shared a long, pointed look for longer than was omfortable, whih was interrupted by the breeze and whoosh of an inter-ministry memo flying onto felix’s desk igora took advantage of the distran to make a point “see,” she pointed to the parhment felix had begun unfolding “if eversworn was simply part of your iigan as an rmant, you would follow the ode of an for suh irumstanes and you’d have sent it by post” igora wathed as felix read whatever was in the message, then ontinued, “there are ways to tell other departments to y off rmants for suh situans instead, you made the mistake of oming up here yourself, against what proper proedure ditates”
weasley glowered at her and his shoulders tensed
“you’re hiding something, auror weasley,” igora stated felix huffed and igora leaned to the side to get a view of her partner who she’d briefly fotten was even in the room “what is it?”
“bloody unbelievable,” he muttered he rumpled the letter and tossed it over to her desk “home offie says the ops-team we saw st night is ‘out of our purview’ and we are not to aknowledge them”
weasley huffed, half a grin f on his lips “do not disturb,” he said “typial department of mysteries nonsense”
“the dom?” igora tilted her head to the side and aught felix’s gaze that made things iing that meant drao malfoy and arhie eversworn were aught up in something omplex, probably tremendously important
“wait,” weasley turned to felix and then bak to igora “where did you see an ops- team?”
igora ouldn’t stop herself from grinning “outside arhie eversworn’s ft”
weasley gulped
pansy parkinson was rarely on time by her own admisn, she ultivated tardiness as a means of ontrol “never do what they expet,” she wrote to drao one “they weigh us down with their expetans” she’d tried her best to ignore his ho reply of “no one expets anything from us that’s the problem” but she found herself osilting between trying to subvert opins and aring far too muh about maintaining the earane that she didn’t are
“you’re te” the attent at the ministry chek-in frowned at her, and pansy returned his k of greeting with a sowl the young wizard pointed to the sign in sheet “sign in and sit in the waiting area a ase worker will be with you shortly”
pansy stared at the man, piked up the quill, and wrote her name quite forefully without breaking his gaze something ab
