Chapter 86. Late Lunch
… The Three Broomsticks Inn, Hogsmeade…
Hazel just finished interviewing everyone that had been a witness to the crime and ordered a mug of cherry syrup and soda to mull over her findings. She was still on the job, she very well couldn't drink alcohol.
Weston was seated beside her, his green eyes on the ceiling. The Investigative Assistants were still up in the Inn's room doing their job of cleaning up.
"Did you wipe their memories?" Hazel asked solemnly, keeping her gaze down on the papers in front of her.
Weston glanced at her. "I'm afraid that's classified information."
Hazel sighed but let the matter go. As much as she didn't feel like what was being done was the right thing, she was also well aware of the panic that could spread if the Wizarding World were to find out that the serial killer 'X' had turned her attention to them, the Majes.
The door to the pub swung open, alerting both their attention. Hazel had asked Madam Rosmerta to keep the pub closed for the rest of today, under the guise of her being unwell. So, just who could be coming in…
Hazel shot to her feet when she caught sight of who it was. Mr. Potter and the rest of her team members.
Weston watched as she immediately forgot about his presence, hurrying to report to her superiors. He didn't move from his spot as they gathered around the table, Harry Potter going through the notes that Hazel had painstakingly compiled.
A lady beelined straight for him, sitting right beside him, a little too close to be considered polite. "Well hello, West…" She leaned in his direction although she was already sitting close enough. "I wasn't expecting to see you here."
Weston shot her a blank look. "And I was hoping to not see you here."
She laughed like he had cracked a really funny joke. "Always so cold, maybe we'll get to work together on this case…"
Natali Woller…
An Obliviator who was previously assigned to the case and as she was out with the rest of the team, Weston was asked to fill in.
Obliviators were free to choose their uniforms and most of them went with formal clothing. Natali on the other hand preferred black, glossy leather. Today she was in a short leather skirt and a little white top with a leather jacket worn over it, her usual heeled boots on her feet.
Her dark hair was cut short in a bob, and dark red lipstick was on her thin lips. She was considered beautiful by the rest of the department and in Weston's opinion, she could learn more about personal space.
"The severity of the case has just shot up." Harry Potter spoke up, his eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "This is thorough work, by the way, Hamilton." He praised Hazel who seemed to light up from within at his words.
"But this time we got a proper description of her." One of the team members spoke up, looking over Harry's shoulder at the stack of files in his hand.
Harry looked to Weston, the young Obliviator that was assigned temporarily to the case. "I take it that you have the description of her."
"Of course," Weston replied coolly, crossing his arm. "I'll get it printed and distributed when we get back to the Headquarters."
Harry nodded, not bothering to question him further. He knew the Ministry would try to cover it up but if 'X' kept killing more Majes, the Wizarding World finding out would soon be the least of their problems.
"I'd like to check out the crime scene before we return to the Ministry, hopefully, we'll manage to get a lead before her next victim." He got up from the table.
The rest of the team followed behind him, Hazel inclusive, leaving the two Obliviators seated at the table.
"Want a drink? It's on me." Natali offered, giving her entire attention to Weston now that the table had emptied out.
"No, thanks." Weston brushed her off, getting up to follow the team.
When they were done gathering clues and cleaning up the site of the crime, everyone would be losing their memories of the incident. That was his orders and he was keeping to them.
The pictures that he harvested from the thoughts and memories of eyewitnesses would be used to draw a poster for her. The Ministry would probably have the Wizarding World look out for her without divulging what her crime was.
It was a temporary solution, and unless they caught her quickly, it would soon become impossible to keep her hidden from the Wizarding World. He hoped that it wouldn't get to that because the case was already messy as it was.
"Hey! West! Wait up for me!" Natali called after him, hurrying up to him to hang off his hand.
Weston didn't bother to brush her off, knowing that she would just come right back. For some reason, his painfully obvious disinterest only seemed to spur her advances on.
There was little to do on the crime scene, the Investigative Assistants were almost done cleaning up. They all finished up at the Three Broomsticks Inn and then returned back to the Headquarters.
They all parted ways on Level 1. The Investigative Assistants had to go do the proper documentation. An Auror or two from the team would have to investigate the background of the murdered Wizard and break the news to his family, while he had to go to the Obliviators Department and finish off his mission.
Hazel watched with an inscrutable expression as Weston walked off with the skanky Natali Woller hanging off his arm.
"Since you dealt with the entire scene all alone, you can take a break, we'll handle the rest," Harry said to her, bringing her attention away from Weston.
"Thank you, Mr. Potter." Hazel beamed. "I'll take my leave now." She politely informed the rest, acknowledging the other members of the team.
There were just four Aurors on the team including her, they were all highly skilled and the reason why so many Aurors were working together was because of the manner of the case. It required them to be in many places, often at the same time.
Hazel returned to her desk, sitting down with a heavy sigh. She took off her jacket and let her hair down.
The little clock in her cubicle read… 12:49 pm. She was supposed to meet with someone for lunch, she had to leave now if she wanted to make it.
"So how did it go?" Giselle's familiar husky voice came from above.
Hazel looked up to find Giselle looking over her cubicle, her wand between her slender fingers.
"It went fine." Hazel smiled, packing up her bag. "I even got an early break today."
"Someone's lucky." Giselle smiled, her smile never reaching the dark eye bags under her eyes. "I'll let you off now, get me something if you don't mind."
"Of course!" Hazel beamed, she already planned to get the kindly Auror something.
Giselle was only a couple of years older than her but she acted and sounded a lot older, she had no idea what Giselle was working on but the Auror was always busy and always had stacks of files on her table that needed to be attended to.
Hazel grabbed her bag and headed out of the Ministry again, she was supposed to be meeting with Blair in a little cafe the other had found in downtown London.
She had prepared to run late for their appointment because her lunch break was usually at 1 pm and the time she was supposed to be with Blair was 1 pm. Even if she apparated there, there was no way that she would get to the cafe on time.
But now that she had been given almost 10 minutes of extra time, she could finally get to their meeting spot before Blair for the first time.
Unsurprisingly, she had gotten closer with Blair after the death of Audric was reported. All they had was themselves, the group of terrible friends.
"Someone's early today." Blair grinned after waving her over.
Hazel groaned, slipping into the second chair. Blair had gone for a table by the window side and Hazel was grateful for that because she needed some peace and quiet to clear up her head. "Do you just sit here all day?"
"No, I actually just arrived," Blair reassured her.
Blair had gone on to apply to join the Holyhead Harpies after graduating from Hogwarts which came as a shock to everyone because she had given up playing Quidditch after Audric was announced dead.
"Sure, say what you want, it won't make me feel better." Hazel muttered dryly, picking up the menu.
"Maybe I should stand you up every now and then." Blair mused, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Please don't, I take back what I said." Hazel was quick to be contrite.
Blair laughed at this, picking up her menu as well. "We should order then, you don't have all day." She said goodnaturedly.
Blair was prone to traveling around a lot because the team wasn't based in London but there were weeks when she was free to do as she wished and she took full advantage of it. After all, she wasn't a fixed member of the team, so she didn't have to be around for every match.
"How's your boyfriend doing?" Hazel asked conversationally when their food came.
"You should know better, you work with him, don't you?..."