“you took down the address on a lost kneazle’s olr and then set it loose again?” stramitz’s eyebrows rose in disbelief
“no, it—er—it sort of attaked me and then ran off”
“i see,” stramitz said “and where were you st night?”
harry felt the blood drain from his fae
she leaned in and pressed her palms to the desk “did you hen to see or hear from your neighbor, garnd umphrey?”
“i—wait what?”
felix stood up and walked around the desk “would you mind surrendering your wand for a diagnosti?” he smiled and harry turned to ron, but he was staring at the floor zaha added, “it’s just to hek the spells you’ve ast in the st day or so”
“i—uh—” harry looked bak at ron he finally met his gaze
“i think you should, mate, just to lear your, uh, name,” ron said
harry sent stramitz a gre “you an’t possibly think i’m responsible for killing marwan zivantus!”
stramitz stood up and liked her lips “now how ould you possibly know that name? we haven’t released the vitims to the publi”
“and don’t say you reognised him,” zaha added harry felt a olletive shiver run between them the arnage in the penthouse left few defining features on the bodies
harry lied “i just knew the name on the reservan”
zaha and stramitz shared a look then zaha held out his hand “well you aren’t under suspn for that i but you are a person of i in the death of garnd umphrey”
“umphrey’s dead?” harry burst
“they’re saying the stunning spell that led to his death heted off something from your ft” stramitz was still smiling and it made harry uneasy “well? do you have an expnan for that?”
harry shook his head after a bit of deliberan and another oddlylook from ron, he agreed to let them take his wand they made him wait in the hallway while they did the proedure harry wasn’t sure what ron was doing in there, but he trusted him to have his bak if anything else would hen
pansy stepped out of the ministry floo, took one look out the window, and realized she hadn’t paked for edinburgh the mist bed the outside, and she shivered just thinking about it everything in her suitase was suited for business in brussels
“fantasti,” she muttered to herself she’d need to arate to the ashtyl as soon as she met with the iigators on bertrie’s ase, and maybe after that she ould floo home and get proper lothes she exited the floo chamber and headed straight for the main desk
after quite a bit of bak and forth whih inluded a possible slight flung at the parkinson name followed by pansy’s detailed opin on the attent’s asymmetrial fae, she reeived a visitor’s pass after expining she was there on behalf of bertrie “you ould’ve opened with that,” the attent muttered
“i’m sorry?” pansy gred “i’m a with, aren’t i? this is my ministry, is it not?” the man just tossed her pass onto the ounter and went bak to a speial edin of the quibbler on ‘the re-emergene of soul-suking soblipoms! move aside vampires! by luna lovegood’ pansy rolled her eyes “and where will i find missing persons?”
without putting down the fming rubbish bin of a publian, he said, “straight down the main hall, all the way in the bak”
“thank you for your servie,” pansy said through a sneer she followed the main hall all the way to the bak she saw the brass sign indiating it was the orret offie, but the door was losed pansy wathed a man pae bak and forth in front of it she leared her throat
the man looked up through a mess of bk hair and sighed when he saw her, stress and pani ethed aross his features is this what she was to beome? a heaping mess of worry over bertrie? she took a step forward and asked if he was alright
as if surprised, he met her stare and stammered out a quik “fine” before he duked his head down again and shoved his hands in his jeans pokets for a moment, pansy thought she’d reognized him but the longer she looked at his fae, the less she thought so
“have we met before?” she finally asked, unable to shake the feeling
he fixed his green eyes on her and her stomah dropped blinking bak the memories of another pair of fiere green eyes, and the night she’d spend her entire life trying to fet, pansy turned away just as the door to the offie opened
a man stepped out and handed the green-eyed man a wand “it heks out,” the man said “but don’t leave town”
“i won’t”
and then, as if she hadn’t been taken bak to the shadowy years of her past already, ron weasley burst out of the open door if he notied her, he didn’t aknowledge her, just quikly grabbed the green-eyed man and rushed up the hall and into another offie the door smmed and pansy jumped something wed at her, a vague thought that she’d just ome fae to fae with the start of her rekoning waves of uneasiness hit her, fear, and some sort of dark, ahing regret
“is there something i an help you with, miss?” the handsome man that had emerged from the offie was staring at her with a smile
she looked him up and down, from his delightfully fitted, well-tailored robes to his perfetly shined ferragamo loafers pansy took a breath and introdued herself, wathing the man’s fae for when the reognin would hit
it never did his smile stayed steady, and a genuine warmth radiated through her as he held out his hand and shook hers “felix zaha,” he said
“felix, i’ve just arrived from london they named me bertrie zivantus’ guardian”
his fae filled with onern “e inside, my partner and i are w on the ase”
pansy followed him into what looked like a typial ministry offie the far wall had half a dozen missing posters taped aross it she finally lost it, her eyes filling with tears as the faes on those posters l
