War became a job, and love became a mystery, and heart and head were rent into two

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*It's been a long day for Sirius. At least he's back on real Auror duty, and working hard despite being the greenest member of the squad still. He's taken initiative, even brought in this man--one Gilbert Kenniwick--on a variety of petty charges. Trafficking in restricted artifacts, trafficking in restricted creatures--kid stuff, enough to earn him a sentence but not really enough to interest the Auror office. It all could have been dealt through other channels if Sirius had not also been tracing a series of tenuous connections related to giant attacks. His confessed movements in and out of giant territory point right at him being involved somehow in attacks. Twice now, right after he has left giant territory, a major attack has gone down on a Muggle town. It's been more than a month since the last one and they caught Gilbert trying to catch a Portkey to Latvia this morning. Sirius'll be damned if he gets there.

But it's been five hours now and Gilbert isn't talking. His bag full of various treasures are his own, he says, and he's not taking orders from anyone. It's time, Sirius knows, to bring in someone who might just know what they're doing more than he does.

He approaches Alice's desk and drops the file on Gilbert in front of her, crossing his arms.*

Got a minute?

Comments

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*This is the first week where Alice hasn't been dashing back and forth to St. Mungo's, now that Healers and supplies have been arriving. Amazingly, her caseload hasn't backed up too than it already was before though, and she had just been about to ask Frank when he would want to leave when the file lands in front her.

She looks up at Sirius, then starts leafing through it.*

Sure. You alright?

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

Fine.

*Sirius grabs a chair from Dawlish's nearby empty desk--and sits down in it backwards.*

This bastard won't crack. Caught him on his way out for another totally social, not at all incendiary payment mission to someone who definitely isn't the giants. I can pin him to the wall for the rest of it--the trafficking and stuff, he'll end up with a couple of years, probably--but he knows stuff that he's not saying. Even if we could just get the name of who's giving him his orders . . . .

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Glancing over her shoulder to the interrogation corridor, Alice tries to piece together how long ago she saw Sirius bring him in...*

What's it been, four, five hours? What have you tried?

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

Everything I can think of. He doesn't seem to care how long he stays in Azkaban, whether I offer to try to cut it down or try to get the sentence extended, doesn't really have family or friends that I can dig up quickly enough, nothing. Letting him sit there and sweat didn't loosen his tongue up at all, just asked for some coffee. He doesn't want anything but to be let go or charged, and he's probably afraid of something much worse than Azkaban. The less he talks, the more sure I am that he's got something.

I'm at my wit's end. I spent the last hour in the damn cell with him just messing with his wand in front of him, drumming on the table and shit. Nothing. He doesn't seem to care.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*An hour of playing with a suspect's wand? If you haven't snapped it in the first ten minutes of the threat, nobody would respond, Alice thinks. Sirius has clearly been in there too long.*

I think you need a break.

*She looks over at Frank, thinking about dinner and Neville.*

I can take a shot, if you like. But I want to be home for supper.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Sirius nods sharply.*

Wouldn't dream of keeping you. I just don't want to hand him over to get processed and put on trial until I know there's nothing else I can do.

*He stands, and jerks his head.*

He's in interrogation room 3, I'll show you.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Picking up her healer bag and following behind him, Alice calculates quickly. 'Everything' to Sirius is very different to everyone else in the office - he's newer, he's younger, and he doesn't have a reputation to throw around. More to the point, he has boundaries Alice believes he still has not crossed.*

Have you tried anything physical?

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Sirius raises an eyebrow. He's no stranger to violence, and he'd readily punch this idiot in the mouth if they were on the street, but this is different. One of the reasons he came to Alice was precisely that--he could feel himself losing his patience.*

I've gotten in his face a little, yeah.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

Whispering, screaming, slaps, punches...?

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

I haven't punched him, no. But I figured it would be better to come get someone with more experience before I got too serious.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*They have stopped now, looking into the room. Alice nods and then looks him over - he's a full Auror now, the training wheels are off. She can help him, but he's still Sirius's man.*

I only go as far as you let me, Sirius. He's your suspect.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Sirius thinks, briefly, that he's not quite sure what she's talking about--and then, he does, but whatever misgivings he may be feeling are subsumed under the fact that someone is controlling those giants and giving them orders, and this man is courier for their payment. So. Fine. This is how they do things now. Sirius squares his shoulders and gestures to the door.*

Right. After you, then.

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice nods.

Looking into the room, she gives Kenniwick a look-over, then opens the door.*

Good evening, Mr. Kenniwick.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Kenniwick is still sitting, hands on the table and toying with the paper cup of cold tea Sirius had gotten him instead of the asked-for coffee. Sirius takes up a position against the wall shutting the door behind him, and instead of answering, Kenniwick turns to him and asks Sirius, a more than slightly belligerent tone in his voice:

"Who's the woman, then?"

Sirius rolls his eyes and doesn't answer, thinking it best to leave Alice to it.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice sits down across from him, picking up his wand. It's short, stumpy, like a butter knife. In her mind, the way the another person's wand feels reveals what kind of wizard they are, and this one is a blunt instrument.

Mutely, she opens her healer kit with his wand and has some of the contents spread out on the table. She hates that foreign, unnerving feeling of working with another person's wand. But the effect on a suspect witnessing another witch nonchalantly using something so intimately connected to him cannot be denied.

She turns the wand over a few times then looks up, smiling humourlessly.*

I'm the Healer.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Gilbert looks to Sirius, then back to Alice.

"I don't need a fucking Healer. Not sure what that idiot told you but I sure don't need a fucking Healer."

But he's watching Alice use his wand sharply; it's clearly annoying him, but it's not really making him sweat. Not nearly enough, anyway.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Why do they always say that? It's such a clear set up.*

Not yet.

*Toying with the wand again, Alice raises an eyebrow archly at Kenniwick.*

You tell us what we want to know, we don't have to do this.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Kenniwick screws up his face.

"Fuck off, bitch. Either suck my cock or shut your mouth."

It's all Sirius can do to not snort with derision and a tiny repressed laugh--Alice has heard worse, certainly, but it's funny all the same--but Kenniwick seems almost bored with it himself.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Now both Alice's eyebrows are up. Not from shock, but in a face that clearly reads Can't you do better than that?

Turning around to Sirius, she gives him a look asking for permission.*

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*With an insult like that, who's Sirius to refuse her? He gestures toward Kenniwick with a motion that says, be my guest.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*Alice stands, grinning down at Kenniwick.

Methodically, she shoots sparks out of his wand. Then again. With the first time they are small and meagre, she has to use more willpower to make them fly like the second time. The wand has been weighed.

When she looks down at him again, the smile is gone. Instead, there is a look that she knows he will come to fear by the end. Levelling his wand at him, she gives him the torture of not knowing her spell, as she sends ropes flying to bind his wrists to the arms of his chair.*

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*Kenniwick makes a sad little strangled noise and struggles against the bonds, but once he realizes he's stuck--with his own wand, no less--he settles for glaring up at Alice.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

I would ask you what you know about Aurors, Mr. Kenniwick. But I don't think I want to, you've been so rude.

*She Silences him with a touch of his wand to his throat.

She sits back down across from him.*

Doubtless you know we can perform any of the Unforgivables. But perhaps you didn't know that we can keep you locked in here just as long as we like.

[fleasaremurder.livejournal.com]

*He may be silenced, but Kenniwick can still struggle and mouth words like fuck you and other various, colorful epithets, but it's all for nothing: the spell holds, and he lapses into sulky stillness.*

[gummymummy.livejournal.com]

*The threats are practised, Aurors monitored specifically to make sure the words don't sound old or redundant, but that will not be Alice's problem today.

Leaning in, her eyes lock onto his.*

We can keep you here, and no one would ever know. And the Unforgivables aren't our only weapons. There are so many ways I can make you hurt, ways that you haven't seen in your darkest nightmares.

*Moving behind him, Alice raises his wand so that it is in his periphery. She lifts one potion bottle at a time.*

Do you see these? I used to be a Healer.

*She levitates one flaming orange vial.*

That's what we use for cauterising wounds.

*The little cap unstoppers as it floats towards his mouth.*

Imagine what would happen if we poured it down your throat.