Third Time's a Charm

Chapter Four: One Left Behind

When Hermione moved out of the Auror Academy and into her flat, one of the first things she did was to have the fireplace connected to the Floo Network. One night it roared to life, and she heard a voice from where she was asleep in her bed in the next room. "Granger! Granger, where are you? Get over here now!" It was Victoria Monk, a dispatcher from the Division.

She rolled out of bed and ran to the fireplace. "What's going on?"

"The Serpent Eaters attacked an off-duty Auror. Mazzerein's team went in. It was a disaster. They need backup--your team is going. You have three seconds to get in here."

"Who was it?" Hermione asked.

"What?"

"The Auror whose house they attacked?"

"Atalanta Dark. She woke up with one of them leaning over her bed. There were only two. She fended off their curses long enough for a team to Apparate in. Now go!"

Hermione threw on her robes and Apparated in to the Division. After a year as a full-fledged Auror, she was heading a team of five. She immediately gave them instructions. "Wands out, and remember, try to take them alive."

~~~

When they appeared in Atalanta Dark's bedroom, it looked like a slaughterhouse. There were dead bodies on the floor and draped over the bed, and blood on the walls. Most of the bodies were mangled by hexes and there were various body parts lying around the room. Hermione shuddered at the thought of the kinds of curses that must have been used. There was a figure standing in black robes and a mask near the door, and another who was covered in bloody gashes on the floor. When the one standing saw the fresh batch of Aurors, he Disapparated almost before Hermione could blink. Hermione focused her attention on the unconscious--or dead--Serpent Eater on the floor. "Jones--see if that one's alive," she said. "Alexander--go to the Division and have the other one's Apparation tracked." Alexander gave her an odd look, probably because he knew they would likely turn up nothing.

"I know," Hermione snapped. "Do it anyway. The rest of you--see if anyone's alive and if they are, take them to St. Mungo's."

Hermione herself found her mentor, Roy Mazzerein. He had fallen over a chair and had been killed by what looked like a strangulation curse. She looked at him, and around at the bloody walls, and sighed. For a moment she wondered what she should do, lost somewhere between rage and guilt. Why couldn't she think of anything, of how she could find these people and how she could stop them?

A voice cut through her self-depreciating thoughts. It was Jones. "Granger...this one's still alive. He's barely breathing, but. He is breathing." Jones spoke with half-disbelief. They had a Serpent Eater. The first one they every caught, and he was still alive.

"Take him to St. Mungo's."

~~~

"What were you thinking?" Emma yelled at Draco. "How could you possibly leave him? They'll interrogate him, and he'll give us away!"

Emma, Blaise, and Vincent glared at Draco.

Draco interrupted. "If I had tried to get to him, they would have had us both, instead of just Gregory. As it is, well, maybe he'll give us away. But maybe he won't. We all took the Anti-Veritaserum Lord Voldemort helped me make, and what else are they going to do? In any case, it was nearly time for you lot to move in here anyway. I dropped Dark's hair in the fighting, but we've almost got enough Aurors' hair to go through with Lord Voldemort's plan, and then it won't matter whether the world knows you're his follower or not." Draco smiled. "Besides, you don't care what happens to Gregory, you just want to make sure you're all right. And I assure you, you will be; this barely puts a kink in our plans."

~~~

A week later Hermione sat in the office of the Division's head.

"How can I help you, Granger?" Violet Quisenberry asked.

"Well...word has it that the prisoner we captured is better, and he's being transferred over here for interrogation."

"That is correct."

"And I was wondering if I could question him. I mean, I know that we have people who do that, but I think if I can just ask him a few questions I might be able to--"

"Enough, Granger. Look. I know Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore worship the ground you walk on, and you're the darling of Danon Dagmar, and the Department of Mysteries, and probably the whole goddamn Ministry, but there is no way in hell I am going to let you interrogate a prisoner, which you have not been trained how to do, so you can get revenge on him because his mate killed the Auror who trained you. That is not only childish and unprofessional, we could lose information since you, yes you, Granger, would have no idea what you were doing. This is serious, in case you haven't noticed," Quisenberry spat.

Hermione felt like she'd been slapped in the face: shocked, embarrassed, and at the same time, very angry. "You think this is about Mazzerein? I don't want revenge. I don't care about that. I only want to stop them."

"Then leave it alone. Stay out of it and just do your job, Granger."

Hermione stood up. "Fine, whatever you say."

~~~

Prisoners were always questioned by two Interrogators, trained by the Division, in a room monitored through an enchanted glass by an Auror, in case the prisoner turned violent. Hermione had paid careful attention to the gossip around the Division and found out when the prisoner was scheduled to be brought in. She wasn't on duty, so she had owled Harry to borrow his invisibility cloak--she certainly couldn't use one of the Division's--and snuck in, very carefully so as not to bump into anyone in the corridors.

She held her breath and opened the door to the observation room. Inside was Orion Buckley, whom Hermione knew because he was the head of Mazzerein's team when Hermione was still in training, before Buckley stopped doing fieldwork and Mazzerein was promoted to head of the team. The observation room was tiny, and for fear of being discovered by sneezing or bumping into him, Hermione decided to reveal herself before that could happen. She let the cloak fall with a whoosh. His head snapped around.

"Granger, what the hell are you doing in here? They're about to start an interrogation--"

"Shh, Orion. I know. I just want to see who it is. I'm curious. Just don't say I was in here and no harm done."

He thought for a moment then shook his head. "Fine. But only because I'm close to retirement and if Quisenberry ever finds out, it's your head on the block. Make sure she never finds out. And put that cloak back on in case someone comes in here to see if I'm ready to start."

Hermione grinned. "Thank you, Orion! I owe you a butterbeer for this," she said as she put the cloak back on.

"Damn straight. Nice cloak, by the way."

"Thanks, it's Harry's."

An Interrogator did indeed come in a few minutes later. "We're about to begin."

"Fine," Buckley said.

Hermione's eyes were glued to the glass through which she could see into the interrogation room, though the people inside could not see through to her side. Through a charm, she could also hear everything that was said in the other room. The Interrogators entered the room and sat in two folding chairs, but said nothing. Shortly after that, an Auror marched in the prisoner and sat him in a stationary chair, to which his hands and feet were chained. Hermione gasped.

"What?"

"T-that's Gregory Goyle."

"So?"

"He was in my year at Hogwarts. He was always a nasty piece of work, but it's just weird, that's all. He never did anything that Malfoy didn't tell him--" Malfoy.

The Interrogators administered a dose of Veritaserum to Goyle.

"What were you saying?" Buckley asked.

"Oh, nothing."

The first Interrogator asked Goyle who he was working for. Goyle said nothing. "Who are you working for?" the Interrogator yelled.

Still Goyle said nothing. The other Interrogator looked perplexed. "We gave him Veritaserum. I don't know what the problem is. Buckley, go get Quisenberry."

Orion Buckley looked at Hermione. "Oh, shit. I suppose it's too late to get you out of here without attracting attention. Just stay put."

She nodded, and fidgeted nervously for what felt like hours before he came back and Violet Quisenberry entered the Interrogation room.

"What seems to be the problem?" Quisenberry asked.

"He's not responding to the Veritaserum," one of the Interrogators said.

"Fine. I give my authorization to use other methods."

"Other methods?" Hermione breathed.