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Post by Emma McKenzie on May 10, 2014 15:15:25 GMT -5
The Ministry had sent several of their young Aurors to help the Head of the Department investigate the death of Headmistress Marevas. Emma and her friends Kat and Rhianna had volunteered to help, as the headmistress had been the head of the school when they all attended, just a few short years ago. Poor Kat had been stuck watching the students and their reactions to the death during the funeral in the Great Hall, while Emma had gone to help the Head Auror investigate the rooms of the deceased. She had felt odd entering the rooms, knowing that Marevas had died on the floor here just a few short days ago; the idea of finding her had a shudder run through the course of her body.
Now that the initial investigation was over, Emma had been released to go set up their headquarters in Hogsmeade. The three girls had been given rooms above the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes extension shop, which Emma had gone to many times as a student. She couldn't help herself as she walked back through the familiar store, exploring the shelves and discovering what was new and exciting. Upstairs, she unloaded a bag of tricks she had ended up purchasing onto her bed; some were for her own amusement, but she also planned to send items to her niece and nephew Bella and Spencer. They were nearly seven years old now, and already getting into trouble with their random outbursts of magic. She knew Elisa would pretend to be disapproving of the gifts, but her husband Ian would simply love them.
As she set the packages aside, she heard her door open and close. With a smile she turned and faced her friend. "Long day?" she asked her with a laugh.
TAG - Kattre Bevan Rhianna Santini
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Post by Kattre Bevan on May 14, 2014 13:42:34 GMT -5
"Don't even get me started," Kat replied with a grimace before heading over to claim the vacant bed next to Emma's. She dropped her bag noisily on the floor then flopped down onto the bed without ceremony. "I feel like I could sleep for a week. Who knew being bored out of one's mind could be so exhausting?" she quipped, draping her forearm dramatically over her eyes.
After laying there for a few seconds, Kat's curiosity got the better of her and she bolted upright, staring intently at Emma. "So?" she asked, raising her eyebrows in an impatient manner. "What did the initial investigation reveal? Did you discover anything in Marevas' rooms?" she persisted, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees and her hands clasped. Kat knew she wasn't the only one having a difficult time reconciling the cause of Marevas' death with the woman they had all known and respected.
Tag/Emma McKenzie & Rhianna Santini
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Post by Rhianna Santini on May 20, 2014 16:18:06 GMT -5
Rhianna stifled a yawn as she weaved her way through the streets of Hogsmeade, her feet aching with every step she took. Exhaustion was the only way to describe what the young Auror was currently experiencing. She had been up into the wee hours of the morning, conducting interviews with staff members, searching Marevas' personal quarters, trying to learn some personal history about Pendergrast, and briefly supervising the funeral to witness the new Headmistress in action firsthand. More Aurors were being sent to the village to help the investigation on the morrow, and Rhianna was thankful she would be relieved of her duties just long enough to catch a few hours of sleep.
Rhianna pulled open the door to the joke shop and headed straight up to the room she was sharing with her friends and coworkers, Emma and Kat. Normally, she might have stopped and let the nostalgia wash over her as she browsed a couple of the items, but not today. Upon entering the room, she saw both girls already there, discussing the events of the previous evening. She plopped herself onto the unoccupied bed and rubbed her eyes, sighing. "Well, I still think that Ravenclaw Seer is a key piece of this puzzle. I tried to talk to her after the funeral but the poor girl was still too distraught," Rhianna said with a frown.
tag/Emma McKenzie & Kattre Bevan
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Post by Emma McKenzie on Jun 7, 2014 22:24:28 GMT -5
Emma opened her mouth to speak, then paused as Rhianna came in and filled them in on her observations. She nodded in agreement. "Absolutely, the sooner we can talk to Aurora the better. I do think a softer approach might be best however," she mused, then turned to Kat. "You were in Ravenclaw, maybe she would appreciate that factor?" she suggested. Pausing, she got up and peered outside their room before closing the door.
"This obviously doesn't leave this room," she warned, then took a deep breath. "The initial investigation shows all the signs of suicide; note, poison in the wine, position of the body. There is one thing though, that makes me unsettled about the whole ordeal, and that's the look on her face. She doesn't look peaceful, like someone who is ready to end their life, or is inconsolable during the time she was dying. She almost seemed...surprised. So I went back in after the others had left and took a closer look at all the evidence." Here she paused, inadvertently sounding more dramatic than originally intended.
"I think the suicide was staged, and the Headmistress was poisoned by someone else, which wouldn't make this a suicide investigation, but a murder," she whispered.
TAG - Kattre Bevan, Rhianna Santini
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Post by Kattre Bevan on Jul 9, 2014 12:30:44 GMT -5
Kat stared at Emma in disbelief as Emma suggested that she should be the one to talk to the Seer. Before she could stop herself, she gave a derisive snort. "Softer? Me?! Have you gone bonkers?" Kat asked, standing up quickly and walking across the room to peer out of the window. "Of the three of us, I would probably be the most likely to cause her bodily harm," she quipped, growing quiet.
When she was younger, Kat definitely would have considered herself a mediator - the compassionate one who took the soft, level-headed approach to get the answers. But, too many things had happened since then and she wasn't sure she could get back to that place in her life. Kat kept her back to the other girls but listened as Emma filled them in on the initial investigation.
Her mouth lifted in a small half-smile as Emma recounted what the team had discovered. Her friend had always had a flair for the dramatic - even if she had not intended it. At the mention of the Headmistress' final facial expression, Kat swallowed hard but did not feel all that surprised. Marevas had always struck her as a woman of integrity with a huge amount of self-respect. She would never have willingly taken her life unless it was in sacrifice to save someone else. Still, a frozen facial expression discovered several hours postmortem was hardly conclusive evidence of murder.
"I have a similar gut feeling," Kat stated aloud, turning away from the window to perch on the windowsill. "However, a facial expression and gut feelings are not going to help us convince others that this was not a suicide," she added with a frown. "Pierce was there, right? What did he say?" Kat asked, leveling her gaze on Emma's face.
Tag - Emma McKenzie & Rhianna Santini
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Post by Rhianna Santini on Jul 10, 2014 1:04:20 GMT -5
"Soft or not, you were in Ravenclaw. It might seem insignificant given the current situation, but at least it's a small patch of common ground," Rhianna suggested, gathering her hair up into a ponytail to let some of the air cool her nape. The July heat was unforgiving this year. "If you don't want to, I wouldn't mind talking to the girl again. Is it weird though that she's my little sister's best friend?" she inquired, scrunching up her nose as she let her thick hair drape across her shoulders again. With a small swish of her wand, she cracked the window open just a touch to let some air in before leaning back on her bed.
Rhianna listened intently as Emma proposed a very interesting theory. "Murder," she murmured quietly, tapping her wand absent-mindedly against her mattress. "Kat has a point. The evidence is too inconclusive. We need something more concrete, or the other Aurors will laugh in our faces. But let's say that, hypothetically, this was a murder investigation. Who do we examine first? The woman who was all too eager to take the victim's place, naturally. Now, maybe she's as innocent as a unicorn and her installment was just the right political move. If she's got nothing to hide then what's the harm in digging around a little?" Rhianna suggested with a shrug. "Em, I do think we should bring this up to Pierce though. It could be something, it could be nothing, but there's no harm in trying to find out which one."
tag/Emma McKenzie & Kattre Bevan
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Post by Emma McKenzie on Jul 13, 2014 16:34:52 GMT -5
Emma frowned, twirling her wand between her fingers, lost in thought. The heat was quite bad and was beginning to get to her. "Aquamenti," she said, pointing her wand to a pitcher. It immediately filled up with cool water, and she poured herself a glass. She took several large gulps before replying to Kat and Rhianna. "Pierce was there, of course. He didn't say anything in front of the other Aurors but I could tell he was unsettled by the whole situation," she said slowly.
A tap at the window jerked her out of her slump. She saw a large barn owl with a note ted around its leg. She crossed over to the window and let the owl out of the heat. She let it sit upon her shoulder while she read the note. "It's from Pierce. He says that he believes something fishy is going on with this case, and that it could involve the new headmistress." Here she paused, her face paling as she looked up at the two of them. "I knew it was just too coincidental that she happens to turn up just as Marevas dies," she hissed, her eyes alight with fire. She continued to read the note "you must continue your investigations, but in a way so that you cannot be under suspicion by Pendergrast, or her two daughters. I have offered the three of you as protection for Hogwarts in light of the events, and she has agreed. Keep me posted by owl with the encryption we discussed, so nobody may know your true intentions."
She folded the piece of paper and left it on the desk. "Well I suppose we'll be here for awhile then," she said with a half smile. Pointing her wand at the ceiling she muttered a spell; cold air wound its' way around the room, instantly cooling the room. She grinned sheepishly. "Probably should have done that bit earlier," she said with a laugh.
TAG - Kattre Bevan, Rhianna Santini
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Post by Rhianna Santini on May 12, 2015 20:08:47 GMT -5
A few swishes of her wand was all it took for Rhianna to fill up her own glass with water and bring it to her lips. She sipped quietly as a familiar owl flew up to the window. Emma, who was closest to the window, let the owl in and retrieved the letter. Rhianna tossed an owl treat at the owl and listened quietly as Emma read the letter from none other than their boss, Pierce. Her heart began to beat a little faster as Emma kept reading. "Looks like it's time to call Hogwarts our home once more. Good thing I didn't unpack," she mused. It had been ten years since she had been a student at Hogwarts but taking one step back on the grounds had brought back dozens of memories. Sneaking out of the dorms late at night to rendezvous with her friends, playing Quidditch, and dolling up for the Yule Ball every December seemed like a lifetime ago. Now, the circumstances were much darker.
"We need to find some proof that this woman is guilty, if she is, but we all saw the way she composed herself at the funeral. She's meticulous, and if we're banking on some Freudian slip during questioning, I think we're going to be sorely disappointed. We need to investigate that office. There has to be something in there that can shed some light on her true character," Rhianna suggested.
tag >> Emma McKenzie & Kattre Bevan
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Post by Emma McKenzie on May 12, 2015 20:51:51 GMT -5
Emma looked around their cozy room and sighed contentedly. While living in London had been an amazing experience, Hogwarts would always be there calling to her to come back. She knew that Pierce knew how much Hogwarts had meant to the three of them and she had a feeling he had a second motive to assigning them to the Hogwarts detail. "I wonder where we're going to stay? Obviously we can't stay in our old dormitories because that would be odd; I wonder where the Hogwarts guest quarters are," she mused aloud, taking another dainty sip of her water. It went down the wrong way and Emma began to cough, choking and sputtering as the liquid blocked her windpipe. Feeling her face turn red from lack of oxygen she drew her wand and pointed it shakily. "A-anapneo," she gasped, and instantly she could breathe again. Taking a few deep breaths with only a small cough or two, she looked sheepishly at the others.
"Happens to the best of us," she said with a small chuckle. After Rhianna's suggestion, she frowned, trying to think of a way to get into the new Headmistresses office without seeming too suspicious. "That May Day celebration is coming up - perhaps we will be able to infiltrate then? We need to ensure that both Adelaide and her twin daughters are at the celebration though before even trying," she suggested, looking at both women for their opinions.
TAG - Kattre Bevan, Rhianna Santini
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Post by Rhianna Santini on May 13, 2015 16:16:14 GMT -5
Rhianna involuntarily shivered at the thought of being back in her old dormitory. "That would be so eerie, to have come so far since last being Hogwarts students, only to find ourselves back in the very place where our careers were started," she said, thinking about how strange it would be to be back. However, now they wouldn't have to worry about getting in trouble for being out of bed or in forbidden parts of the castle - it was their job. Her thoughts turned to her youngest sister, Brooke. The two had never attended Hogwarts together, as Rhianna had already graduated before Brooke hopped on the Hogwarts Express as a young eleven year old witch. It would be nice to at least grab a cup of tea with her one evening, but the present task at hand - the suspected murder investigation - would take precedence over family bonding.
Rhianna laughed as Emma nearly choked on her sip of water. "Emma McKenzie, Auror Extraordinaire, nearly taken down by a gulp of water," she teased lightly, carefully sipping her own so as not to make her friend's mistake. She sobered up as Emma suggested the upcoming May Day celebration, and nodded her head in agreement. "As the new Headmistress, Pendergrast will naturally want to be in attendance for her first public event since the funeral. She would want her daughters to attend as well, to give off the picture-perfect innocent family vibe to anyone still asking questions. Like us," Rhianna replied. "One of us should stay and talk to Pendergrast, who will be under the impression that we are simply security for the event, while the other two go to get into her office and take a look around. The only problem will be getting in."
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