Arrest Warrants

A faint pop cut through the silence in the dimly lit street. A slim, hooded figure appeared out of thin air on the edge of the river. The figure took in it's bearings and surroundings before setting with, light, quick strides, its long cloak rustling over the grass. It proceeded up a steep, narrow street lined with houses. All the windows were dark, the figure looked over it's shoulder as the church clock chimed midnight.

The figure turned up a steep side street, and neared a small, neat, stone house set in it's own garden, before coming to a dead stop. The figure drew his wand as he stared at the front door, which was agape. As the figure drew his wand, a shiny Ministry of Magic Badge could be seen under it's long cloak. "Thaorson Ian Elldir ~ Wizengamot". Thaor found wearing his Ministry Credentials could gain him access to many places he, otherwise, wouldn't be permitted to enter.

Thaor glanced up and down the street, which seemed quite deserted. He opened the gate and walked silently up the garden path, then pushed the front door very slowly open, and raised his wand at the ready. Make yourself known. I am Thaorson Ian Elldir, Wizengamot Member at Large, and you are intruding on private property. he said, taking a step inside the house.

He moved carefully into the middle of the room, and spun on the spot as he heard the door creak shut behind him. STUPIFY! he yelled, aiming his wand at the figure, now standing infront of the closed door.

PROTEGO The figure quickly countered, blocking the jet of light sent flying at him. Now that's no way to greet an old friend. the man said, lowering his wand, and extending his hand.

Tibbs! You're lucky I didn't shoot to kill! Thaor said with a chuckle. extending his hand and shaking Tibb's.

Yes well, you never were one to kill without attempting to stun first. the JL said, taking a seat in one of the chairs.

What brings you here at this time of night? Thaor asked, getting straight to the point. His heart still racing.

Well, I need you to call a meeting of the Wizengamot, tonight. Lorcean D'Eath came to me. I need an arrest Warrant for Henry Yewbeam. He kidnapped, and tortured Hallie Rookwood. He replied.

Is Mr. D'Eath willing to come to this meeting as a witness?

I believe so, can we get going? JL said, standing and walking to the door.

The two men turned on the spot as they stepped through the threshold and disappeared as quickly as Thaor had appeared moments earlier. They appeared with a pop, seconds later, in the dimly lit, unpopulated, Artirum of the Ministry of Magic. Their soft footsteps echoed throughout the hall as they made their way to the lifts, and descended to the courtrooms.

Once inside, Thaor sent a patronus to each member of the Wizengamot, and Lorcean D'Eath, requesting their immediate presence.

The patronus arrived at the estate after Khaat had gone to bed. Brian saw it and recognized it. He knew it was for her, but Thaor had evidently forgotten how much he was asking.  No one got to Khaat these days without Brian's advance knowledge and consent. Period. Not even Merlin himself. It was Brian's Rule Number 1.

He slipped a dark leather coat and ported to the Ministry and made his way down to the Wizengamot offices, his boots making a lonely step on the marble floors as he walked. He saw, amazingly, no one. He wasn't sure he liked this. He drew his wand and walked into the courtroom.

He looked up and saw Elldir and Tibbs. Elldir he understood. But, Tibbs? He frowned. A fellow auror, he knew Tibbs.

"Two questions. First, how come you didn't shoot him?" Brian asked Tibbs about Elldir, teasing. He looked then at Elldir.  

"I know. I'm not Khaat. And, that brings me to my second question. You do realize what you're asking, don't you, for her to come here? I can do it, if its important, but you'll need to accept her bodyguard in order to get her."

He looked back Tibbs. "No offense intended," he said, "But its my rule number 1."  He trusted that Tibbs could well take care of things, but that clearly wasn't the reason the older auror was there.  tonight.  "If you both can deal with Belby being present, then I'll allow it and I'll send for her."

Ana had long sat up after her husband went to sleep – if one could even call him that at this point. They rarely spoke, and she was absolutely certain (though without proof) that he was seeing someone else while she was at the office. It didn't really matter that much to her, though, as work had become her life as of late. It wasn't fair to either of them to expect things to stay the same. In the end, she would always love him, but perhaps not as she should.

Instead, annoyance rose in the place of affection to the point that she stayed up later than she often intended, sleeping most nights in the guest room and leaving before he woke. He probably hadn't even guessed a change in her schedule or sleeping arrangements. Once, she'd considered divorcing him, but now with her law in place, Ana was loathe to risk it. Merlin knew who she would get trapped with if she did. No, better to wait it out in a relationship she could handle. Strange, she mused, that her own law would be waiting to prod at her if things went horribly wrong with Pavel.

It was lucky, perhaps, that she had decided to read up on files for the meetings she was meant to hold the next day, because when a shimmer indicative of a patronus poured in through the window of the guest room, Ana was awake and alert enough to pay attention to it. With a quiet sigh, she gathered up her wand and jacket before apparating away. This had better be worth my going out in the cold.

By the time Ana had reached the house, apparently, someone else had already arrived. Through her years in the Auror office – more than she cared to admit, considering what it would mean for her age – Ana recognized the two men who weren't on the Wizengamot. Quinn was grumping about something in true protector fashion, though Ana was loath to comment on the fact that this often got on her nerves. Most everything got on her nerves these days.

“Calm yourself, Quinn.” She groaned, adjusting her jacket with a frown. “What exactly are we doing out this late, Thaor? What's the matter?”

Thaor turned to Brian as he entered the courtroom. Of course I know what I am asking, I however, think this is highly important, and her presence is necessary as we are one member down, after the departure of Rookwood. Send for her and Belby, and you may as well stay, as this meeting will affect you as well. he said with a frown. Of course it was important, he wouldn't have sent a patronus in the middle of the night because he wanted tea, now would he?

He was tired of being a common door mat, he wanted to be one of those deluxe ones, from that muggle store The Pottery Barn. Hopefully people would start seeing him as an asset, instead of someone unuseful.

He nearly shot me, although I suppose I was asking for it going into his house unannounced and leaving the front door open. Tibbs said, winking at Brian.

Marcus had been awakened when the patronus had been fired and when Brian had left the house. He had dressed quickly, expecting that this would not merely be a matter of Brian waving someone off.  Marcus had awakened Khaat, and her staff had helped her dress.

He did not want her unnecessarily nervous. A nervous client often made mistakes and made themselves harder to protect than necessary. Part of his job was to ease her.  All he had to do was to get her to relax about the tensions at the Ministry, about James Blood's intentions to kill her, about her inability to meet this fully under her own strength and power, and about her strong desire to hide her face from the world. Piece of cake, he sighed.

And he had been right. At Brian's signal, Marcus went over to Khaat's room. He could see the apprehension in her face, and he could sympathize. She had not been out in public, not with strangers, not like this, since before James had grotesquely disfigured the left side of her face and her neck.

She had wisely chosen to conceal her neck by wearing a black bulky cable knit sweater dress with a tall turtleneck collar. She had tried to style her hair so that it formed down around her face, and then she had added a large flowing black pashmina over her head and draped it around her face not just to protect her from the cold but also to try to hide some of the rest of the hideous scarring.

"You're working too hard at it," he smiled slightly, confident.  "Let me." He cast a glamour spell to do her makeup and then adjusted the scarf and the turtleneck. "It is what it is, Khaat.  There is no hiding it. You can minimize it, but you can't hide it." He picked up the large brace and sling for her crushed left shoulder that had very little hope of ever moving again without her father's skills. He changed the fabric of the brace and sling to black and put them back on and into place for her.

"I don't want to do this," she said softly as he went into her closet and got what he thought was a stunning pair of high heeled black knee boots, her cloak and her gloves.  He helped her on with the boots.  "What if they see my face?" she asked him, nervous. "What if they see I'm pregnant?"

"They will see your face, and you're not going to entirely hide a 5 month baby bump. ," he said gently, knowing that would be obvious, not to mention that she was still largely unable to walk, and still had no color to her face at all.

"You can't stop that, and none of it is worth your being ashamed of," he said. "We've done all we can now.  You want to try your walking stick to see if it helps give you some support?"  She nodded.

He retrieved the black walking stick with the amethyst set in the top. He helped her to her feet, fastened her cloak around her shoulders, helped her on with her gloves since her left hand was almost entirely useless, and then drew up the hood of the cloak.  He handed her wand to her, and then drew his own, tucking in a bottle of cold water into his coat pocket.  

He wrapped her tightly to him and they apparated to the ministry. He could feel how frightened she was at being seen. She said nothing, and her face was calm and all business on the outside, but he felt the shaking. And it wasn't from the cold. He knew better.  

He did most of the work in helping her get from the atrium to the courtroom, taking on her entire body weight against his own so she could at least make a pretence of being able to be on her feet and walk.

"This had better be important," she whispered to him outside the courtroom door. He smiled. Her fear was turning to anger now, anger at feeling openly humiliated. "Take a breath," he suggested. "Remember yourself. Rely on me. I've got you."  

She nodded, summoning up what grace and confidence she had. He opened the courtroom door and took her inside. Brian met them and loosened her cloak.  He saw she didn't want him to remove it, but she would get too warm in here with it. He removed it and took it from her. They helped her to her seat, and Marcus took the bottle of water and opened it and put it in front of her.

"You know everyone here, don't you?" Brian asked.

"No," Khaat said. "Forgive me, I don't. I know Thaor.  Good evening, Thaor."

"Introductions then are in order. Ms Levski and Mr. Tibbs, may I introduce Khaat Lupin. Khaat, Ana Levski and J L Tibbs," Brian said.

"Good evening, Ms. Levski and Mr. Tibbs," she said. "You obviously know my husband, and this is Marcus Belby."

"Ms. Levski and I have already met," Marcus said, not planning on going into details.  "And your reputation preceeds you, Mr. Tibbs. I've heard a great deal about you."

Ana decided that keeping quiet was probably for the best, considering both the cold and the fact that she still wasn't sure why she had been called at such a late hour. Frankly, she was a bit tired from the meetings and needed to have a chat with Gideon in the morning to see if he was available for any of the meetings. It certainly would make her life infinitely more simple. Or at least a bit less stressful. Goodness knew Ana could have used a bit less stress in her life.

Marcus arrived, making Ana frown though she knew she probably shouldn't comment. She knew why the man was there, especially since Khaat had also arrived, greeting everyone. The poor woman looked a little down, though Ana hadn't heard much about her as of late so she couldn't say what was going on in Khaat's life. She had a feeling she didn't want to ask. There was no need to upset anyone at this point.

“Evening, Mrs. Lupin.” Ana greeted with a nod and a small smile, deciding that cordiality was the way to go. She didn't even bother pointing out that she was, in fact, married. It hardly felt like it.

She passed a cold glance at Marcus, remembering both their general dislike for one another as well as their most recent meeting in the Minster's office. Ana doubted that she and Marcus would ever get on, but as long as he didn't get in her way, she would pretend she wasn't thinking about getting in his. Thanks to the introductions, though, Ana now knew the identity of the other man in the room besides Thaor who Ana had seen about now and then.

"Are we waiting on anyone else?" She asked, just to be sure. Everything was so upside down as of late and she could hardly tell who was still around and who wasn't.

The vampire half of Lorcan liked the dark, loved the night--even in the cold. He had only buttoned one of the black buttons on his black wool top coat, and he had chosen to walk a block or two to Whitehall and then take the street entrance to the atrium of the Ministry. Once inside, the attraction to the night was gone, and it was all about business once again.

He went to the Wizengamot courtrooms, disposed of the topcoat across a chair in the hallway, straightened the collar on his tailored suit jacket as he heard voices inside. They were waiting.

He knocked lightly on the chamber door. A blond man opened it. Lorcan paused, looking at him for a moment, the blond man's face appearing familiar.

"We've been expecting you," the blond man said.

Oh, yes, Lorcan remembered. Whats-his-name. Mr. Khaat Lupin. Her husband. Whatever his name is. He repressed the urge to smile. He was feeling a bit of satisfaction that he might get to answer some of his own curiosity about where the Lupin woman had been and why she wasn't at her post, and that might well help the Death Eater's cause in this whole ridiculous Marriage Law business.

"Thank you," Lorcan said to the blond man and entered. "I apologize for the late hour, but I'm here to report a crime."

Thaor yawned as he waited for Lorcean to come to the chambers. Once he arrived, he quietly counted the members of the Wizengamot, and deciding that there was a quorum, moved on with the meeting. I believe, we now have a quorum. he said, motioning to Khaat and Ana.

As I know very little on the situation, the floor is now yours Mr D'Eath and Mr Tibbs.

Tibbs stood an walked to the middle of the chambers. I asked you all here today, because Mr D'Eath here, came to me and reported a crime. I believe with his testimony, we have grounds to issue an arrest warrant. he said, motioning to Lorcean.

Lorcean, would you please tell the others what you told me earlier this evening?

ooc: just a reminder that this has not been rp'd yet. lets not actually arrest him before we give a chance for the de's to secure henry, please.

"I'm presuming you're aware that one of your own auror trainees has been injured recently. The extent of her injuries, I do not know. I only know she was hurt. What you might not know is how that apparently occurred.

"As you all probably know," Lorcan said. "I am the owner of Borgin and Burkes. It is mainly an investment property for me, and I spend most of my work time at Slugs and Jiggers. I do have house elves employed at both locations to assist in some of the duties in the shops and see to the caretaking of the buildings themselves.

"One of my elves reported to me that he hadn't been upstairs on the uppermost floor in the Borgin and Burkes building for a few days, but when he did go upstairs, he heard the sound of woman, in pain.

"He heard a man calling the woman by name--Hallie. And he saw them. He came to me and positively identified the woman as Hallie Rookwood--your injured auror, and identified her assailant--one of my Borgin and Burke clerks, Henry Yewbeam.

"Henry was at my home this evening, and my friends are encouraging him to stay for the moment," Lorcan's voice was calm and steady, businesslike. He wasn't exactly revealing that, under Lorcan's direction, the Death Eaters had apprehended Yewbeam and were holding him at Death Manor.