Time to Find Justice

Emmett walked into the Three Broomsticks, hitching up a tan messenger bag that was full of random necessities he usually needed. His guitar was strapped to his back, as usual, but he knew he needed to get rid of it soon. He was an informal sort of guy, but he did not want to offend the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot by acting like he was not taking this seriously. He was.

Most of his information had come by word of mouth, though casually, as he mostly picked up his information from talking to people on the street. From people who had similar versions to the people he had spoken to before, but he could not account for how they knew the information they knew. He knew the best thing was to go to the source.

He had sent Khaat Lupin a letter, requesting to meet with her to get some information on her disappearance so that they could make the public aware of the problems happening. He knew it had been a kidnapping and he had made it clear he knew so too and was intent on bringing her kidnapper to justice with the piece. Her only stipulation was that she was allowed to bring someone.

Emmett walked over to the bar and spoke with the bartender, who agreed he could store his guitar behind the bar. He ordered some iced tea, not in the mood for any sort of alcoholic beverage or even Butterbeer or something that indicated his young age like soda or something like juice. He wanted to seem professional.

He went to a booth and sat down, pulling his bag so that it rested nicely next to hip on the seat next to him. He opened it up so that he could quickly grab his notepad on the ballpoint pen that he always used when he was working on a story. He sighed and someone brought him his iced tea. He drank and silently waited for his interviewee.

Khaat was nervous today. She didn't typically give interviews. She generally didn't like them. The last skirmish she'd had with the press had had to do with Rita Skeeter's offspring. She'd found him pushy and rude and very much out of the same pod as his grandmother. This man said he would be different, and Brian and her father had both said it would be alright if she had done this, even without her voice.

She had chosen her clothing very, very carefully. She didn't want one fashion mistake. Not one. She chose a midcalf length sweaterdress with long sleeves and a scoopneck, and it had a rather full skirt for a sweaterdress. Brian had bought her a wide, chunky tan leather belt for it and some tall suede stilletto boots. The dress was a warm buttery vanilla color. It made the emerald necklace she always wore glisten.

Gone were the chipped fingernails and the bruises. Her nails were perfectly shaped now and polished, and she'd made sure not one part of her makeup and not one hair was out of place. The new diamond and emerald rings on the ring fingers of both hands shimmered. She was pleased at Brian's taste in the friendship ring she now wore on her right hand and in the oversized cluster of diamonds and emeralds that he had chosen for an engagement ring for her. She was pleased to wear it, despite the fact she was still technically married to Rob Dent. It was about time she made that engagement public news anyway. Over the sweaterdress, she wore an oversized tan colored cashmere pashmina in a wrap to keep her warm in the brish early November air as she and Brian walked the streets of Hogsmeade.

She was so pleased to be with him. She liked how professional and elegant he looked. He had chosen a very sharply tailored dark pewter gray business suit. His arm seemed to just belong around her waist as he escorted her to the Three Broomsticks. They entered, and she and Brian picked out the young reported at first sight. Brian paused at the bar and ordered two large black coffees and then led Khaat to the table.

"You're Fisher?" Brian asked.

Emmett turned when he heard the door open and he immediately recognized the woman he would be interviewing. Ms Khaat Lupin did not look like a woman recovering from a nasty kidnapping that may or may have not included torture. She was looking stunning, dressed in a modest sort of casual dress, with long boots and nice accessories. Her hair was perfectly in place, and her makeup was done well. She did not look disheveled the way someone may think she would look after such an experience.

He looked towards the man that was standing with her. Emmett personally did not recognize the man that was with her, but he had told Khaat it was perfectly fine if she had some escort her here. He knew that it must be difficult to have to talk about the events they would be discussing, so he was perfectly fine with her having some support.

The man and Khaat approached and Emmett stood, holding out a hand for them both to shake. "Yes, I'm Emmett Fisher. You must be Ms. Lupin, it's good to finally meet you, I apologize, but I'm afraid I don't know your name," he added, looking at the man. "Shall we sit? Would you like some refreshments?" He sat down across from them and held up a hand to call over a waiter.

"I'm Brian Quinn," Brian said with a warm smile, shaking hands with Fisher. "We're pleased to meet you, Mr. Fisher." Khaat followed suit and shook hands with him. Brian helped Khaat with her chair "I ordered coffee for Khaat and me already," Brian said. "Its our standard." He drew a pad of paper and a red glistening enchanted pen from his pocket and enlarged them and put them in front of her. "Shall I lay this aside for you?" he asked Khaat softly, laying his hands on her large tan pashmina. She looked up at him and nodded with a smile. He took it from around her shoulders and folded it and draped it over the back of her chair before sitting beside her himself.

"Our first obstacle, although minor, " Brian said, "is that Khaat has temporarily lost her voice. Its a minor inconvenience, but the enchanted pen she's borrowed will capture her thoughts for her on paper, and I can also help her get her thoughts across. I understand her very well."

Khaat put the pen at the ready and touched the top of it to start it capturing her thoughts. It was a bit like dictating telepathically to the pen itself. "I must say, Mr. Fisher," the pen scribbled for her, "I never thought anyone would have any interest in me. My father or something historic about my famous uncle perhaps, but not me. So what shall we talk about today? I apologize for this minor difficulty today."

The waiter came over and delivered two large mugs of strong coffee, one for Khaat and one for Brian. Khaat loved the smell of dark, strong coffee, and even though the Three Broomsticks did not specifically brew her favorite French Roast, they did have excellent coffee. She loved the dark, rich, nutty aroma as it wafted up from her mug into her face. It was a comforting aroma.

Emmett nodded respectfully, saying, "Well, it is nice meeting you as well Mr. Quinn. And good, I want you both to be comfortable." He nodded, and watched as Brian pulled out a notepad and pen. He explained why and Emmett nodded again saying, "Oh my, that is unfortunate. I apologize for the inconvenience this interview must be."

He pulled out his own tools, the pen and his notepad. He flipped a few pages until he got to a fresh one, which he titled in neat, small handwriting Khaat Lupin interview. He dated it and skipped a line. He had made a list of questions that were on the page before, but those were only if he drew a blank. He knew what he wanted to ask her.

His eyes flicked over what Khaat wrote down and he nodded, before saying, "Oh, well I viewed it quite on the contrary. I have always thought you were a powerful woman who would have intriguing things to say, Ms. Lupin, but it has not been until now that I have had the opportunity. And no need to apologize at all. It is no inconvenience on my end.

"First I would like to thank you for allowing this interview. I believe this is a very important subject I will be asking you to discuss. I do not know if you read my last story in the Prophet but I reported on your disappearance. I would like to get the truth on that, with your permission, so that the public can be aware of what is going on."

Khaat sighed. This was indeed a heavy subject. It was not going to be easy. She took a slow, thoughtful sip of her coffee first.

"Allow me," Brian said. "Let me lay a foundation for you, Mr. Fisher. The Lupin family, as you may well know, has its share of admirers, and has, since Remus Lupin's days. However, it has just as many enemies. Khaat's father, Robert, is no different in that respect. He has a great many admirers, but his tendencies to try to do the right thing has made many, many enemies. Our Minister is a strong man who tends to like to stand his ground. That creates enemies.

"Khaat was missing because she was kidnapped out from under my protection and held against her will for several days. It was when we got her back that we found her voice had disappeared," Brian said. Khaat looked at him. She was very surprised that Brian was openly admitting that his primary job right now, despite being an auror for the ministry, was serving has her bodyguard and that there had been legitimate need for it. He was, in his own way, taking full responsibility for her kidnapping, and yet, it was not at all his fault. He was willing to put himself out in front of her again, this time with the press. It only madee her more glad he was with her today. She hoped that her father had guessed something about what this interview might be asking. Khaat had not yet talked to anyone about what had happened during the time she had been missing. Was her father asking her to finally tell her story? Was that what his motivation was for endorsing this interview? The thought did cross her mind.

"So you know," Khaat wrote, "I'm fine. I just don't have my voice. I am working back at my full schedule, but Brian translates for me a lot. I did read your story in the Prophet. Thank you for treating the subject with respect. That matters to me. I appreciate it."

Emmett nodded, quickly scrawling down some of Brian's little preamble, thinking that it may make a good speculation for motive. Maybe it could also help his readers understand why he found that this war was so petty. Political differences should not be means for death and torture or kidnapping. When did any of that ever become justifiable?

He nodded, listening to all of what Brian said, scrawling a few notes and then he read what Khaat had added onto Brian's bit. He nodded, and found a few questions forming. He replied, "I would have it no other way. You do important work and it would not do for me to treat the matter with anything but respect and delicacy. Keeping that in mind, if there are any questions I ask that you are uncomfortable with, you have the right to refrain from answering. But please understand, this story is not about my own money or reputation, but about the truth and protecting the public."

When it came to reporters, Emmett was as sincere as they got. He did not have a passion for writing or a need for money. He did it to try to help people see the error of their ways, to try and make society better.

"I hate to ask you this.. but what happened when you were kidnapped? Did you know who did it? Was there one or was it a group? What did they want from you? Did they ally themselves with the Death Eaters or any other sort of faction? Please, anything you can tell me may prevent more kidnappings."

"One of my father's main goals has been to try to protect wizarding children from harm, from being exploited because of their powers and their young and vulnerable minds," Khaat wrote. "There are those who would seek to make money by taking advantage of the fact that our children reach a very delicate stage in their growth where they have power and no idea how to use it. There are some very evil wizards who would seek to find those children, take them, train them in order to corrupt them--to harness that power for their own personal gain.

"It is one of my father's greatest wishes that no wizarding child should be exploited or trained to be a weapon for someone else. He's worked for a long time to rescue those children and return them to their families where they belong and to take a stand against anything or anyone that would harm a child. That has made a handful of very wealthy people angry. Angry enough to try to move their organization underground. The more my father tries to put them out of business for good, the angrier they become.

"They focused on me because of who I am. They saw no way to get his attention quicker and to do more harm than to take Robert Lupin's daughter from him. My silence while I was gone was a way of fighting back and staying alive, and a way of giving them no sense of satisfaction whatsoever. I guess its just been hard to push past how much I had to stay silent about during those days. Does any of this make any sense?"

Emmett read over what Khaat had written carefully, making sure to miss nothing, reading and scrawling down any information her found pertinent simultaneously. He nodded as he did before finally looking up at Khaat to address her question. "Yes, I understand. I completely do. People went after you to get back at your father, to seek revenge, to send him a message, is that correct?"

He reviewed his notes and then flipped back to his questions. There was one thing he wanted to get out of the way, because it would be tough on Khaat to answer, but he needed to ask as delicately as possible. "Okay... I need to know this, but I understand if you are unable to tell me. I need to know what happened. A timeline may be helpful. Things they said to may be important too. Anything you can remember, I need to know.

"There really isn't much of a story for you there," Khaat wrote. "Not one for your readers, anyway. But..I will tell you this. They know the Unforgivables and are not afraid to use them--repeatedly. They hire a specialist in physical and emotional torturing. They pay him exhorbitantly well. He's an expert in what he does. I look forward to the day he stands before me in my courtroom. I will be sure to treat him with the full measure of the law. I do know the Ministry knows what happened and the aurors are looking for him to arrest him for his crimes. He won't walk free for very long, I"m quite sure."

She was not willing to expose that she had lost track of how many times he'd used the Cruciatus on her. She didn't want to talk about the other things he did. She wasn't willing to even look at it for herself, much less to let Brian or anyone else to know that. Truth be told, though, not even her father knew exactly what had happened in the days she was gone. The ministry didn't know. They could only guess. That was locked up inside her heart forever, as far as she was concerned. No one deserved to be exposed to that sort of horror. And that was exactly what had taken her voice. The horror of what had happened was too great for her. She had refused to utter a sound during all those days because that was what it had taken to survive, and she could not utter it now either. She wasn't trying to be uncooperative, but she didn't have the ability to talk about it. Didn't know if she ever would.

"It is much more important to me that my life moves forward now," Khaat watched the pen write, as she reached over and laid her hand in Brian's. "I want to raise my daughters and to make sure they never have to go through any sort of pain like that in their lives. And I do still stand with my father and his wish to protect our children. I wil continue to fight for that."