Borrowed Time

Diagon Alley, London

10:00 am

The emergency call rang into the Ministry just a few moments after the incident. Weisel, along with Moody, fled out of the Ministry headquarters with a swarm of Aurors and other Magical Law Enforcement officers (including Crouch himself) and descended upon Diagon Alley. As they all Flooed into the Leaky Cauldron, they were greeted by masses of frightened and panicked wizards and witches, who were fleeing the winding Alley as quickly as they could. Weisel and Moody wormed their way through the crowd and exited the little pub into the Alley. What they saw struck them to the core.

Debris flowed everywhere, like a sickening fog. Screaming men, women, and children were running in all directions, too panicked to know or care where they were going. Some were bloodied and others were covered in soot. Others simply sat on the curb and cried. The din of random voices, crying, and collapsing buildings was unbearable. Towards the end of the Alley, Weisel could see a plume of black smoke rising into the air. He started to run towards it, with Moody following just behind.

Where there was once a building, there was nothing but a blackened crater littered with bits of rubble and bodies, lots of bodies. Floating above it all was the glittering apparition of a skull with a snake protruding from its screaming mouth. Weisel stopped cold. He wanted to vomit. The scene was just too disgusting. Hot, angry tears flowed silently down his cheeks, but he did not buckle. As an Auror, he could not. "Come on," he said to Moody beside him. Slowly, deliberately, he walked toward the epicenter.

"My God, my God," Moody muttered over and over again. "Who would do this, Marcus? Why?"

"That's what we're here for," Weisel replied icily. With every step, he built a wall around himself. He couldn't let the scene get the best of him. Already, his tears had begun to dry.

Stepping over the wooden, metal, and organic debris, the two Aurors reached the middle of the crater. There lay a corpse, totally intact, unlike the others around him. Still in his hand was clutched his wand. Weisel took the wand from the cold, dead hand and muttered the spell "Prior Incanto." From the wand, the ghostly image of a violent explosion along with muffled screams emerged. It was all Weisel needed to know.

"Bastard," Moody hissed after the ghost image melted away, his dark brown eyes glowing with an inner fire. "Too bad the son of a bitch perished along with his victims."

"There is no justice," Weisel muttered. He called over three Law Enforcement officials to cart the intact body of the murderer back to the Ministry. "Come, on Moody," he began, as the body was carted out of view, "let's start cleaning this up."

Moody looked astonished at his partner. "This?" he sneered. "This? What we're looking at isn't just 'this'. These are human beings, Marcus. How can you seem so cold?"

Weisel turned towards Moody, his eyes aflame with anger. "I'm cold because that's what I have to be. These people need us to be strong. If we get involved, it'll only tear us apart, like it's tearing everyone else apart. If you can't stomach it then go home."

This sudden flare took Moody aback. Seeing the truth in his friend's words, he set his jaw firmly. "Let's get to work then."

For hours they worked amidst the chaos and the gore. Weisel frequently heard the retching sound of one of his co-workers losing their control. It was understandable, at the least. It had not been since the Grindelwald thirty years ago that such terror had been inflicted upon British wizards. The grotesque audacity of this day seemed unreal to them. It seemed unreal to Weisel as well. He thought that he had finally escaped this terror and left the memories back in the now decrepit gas chambers. But here it was back in his face, like a most unpleasant nightmare. Only there was no waking up from this.

The cleanup took the rest of the day. It was long after nightfall by the time Weisel was able to return to the Ministry, and he returned to see it chaos. Everyone that could be there was there. He found the Auror headquarters under high alert with all staff present and investigating the crime. Weisel never knew that there were quite so many Aurors employed by the Ministry. Bodies and body parts were being pushed to and fro, covered by stiff white sheets to hide their mangled forms and not cause a panic. But Weisel knew that it was always what one didn't see was the most frightening. He left the Auror headquarters and sped down the hall to Crouch's office.

The office door was wide open and Weisel could see the Crouch pacing like a madman in the middle of the office, debriefing two Ministry officials. His round face was glowing with fury. He managed to catch a glimpse of Weisel hovering at the door. "Marcus! Get in here!" Weisel obeyed and stood in attention before the department head.

Crouch returned to the two officials. "I want the whole goddamned area searched!" he barked, his face splotched with red. "I want whoever was behind this found, damn it! Get to the house of this..." (He glanced at his notes on the desk behind him) "...Sextus Hamilton. Arrest everyone in sight." He gathered his notes. "Don't come back until the job's done."

"Yes, sir," the two mumbled in unison. They scurried out the door.

"What do you make of this?" Crouch asked Weisel, throwing yet another parchment his way. "It was found on Hamilton, the guy who apparently did all this."

Weisel looked it over. "Lord Voldemort, the name all wizard kind will fear! Their souls shall rest in the bowels of the earth!" "There's that name again," Weisel muttered blankly.

"Yes!" Crouch bellowed. "Now what the hell does it mean?! And what's with this skull that everyone keeps telling me about?!"

Weisel glanced up at Crouch. The other man's round head was now positively purple with frustration. "I don't know, sir," he replied in a monotone voice.

Crouch's face turned a deeper shade of purple. "Well find it out! I want this case solved as quickly as possible! Whole damned Ministry is in an uproar. If that spreads to the public, well God only knows..."

"I think it's too late for that, sir," Weisel murmured. When Crouch flashed a malignant eye his way, Weisel quickly added, "But I'll get to work on this immediately."

"You'd better," was Crouch's grumbling response as Weisel hurried out the door. He found Moody hovering in the hall outside the office, waiting for him. Moody's eyes seemed to flash with a fire that Weisel had never seen before in him and his hair was even more frazzled than usual.

"What is it?" Weisel asked.

"Hamilton's brother and mother are here," Moody replied angrily.

"Did they come in alone?"

"No," Moody growled. "An entire squad of Law Enforcement officials practically dragged them into the department. They just Apparated here a few moments ago."

"That quickly?" Weisel said, shocked. "Crouch just gave the order a few minutes ago!"

"Yeah, they just rounded them up at their own home. Poor blokes were too shocked to react. Arrested them right there and brought them in."

Weisel's face contorted into an expression of disgust. "Arrested without any cause."

"Exactly!" Moody exclaimed. "You said Crouch gave the order? Jesus, I hope we haven't sunk to the level of apprehending innocent civilians yet."

"Too late for that," Weisel muttered. "Where are they being held?"

"Courtroom Ten."

"What?! Don't tell me they're on trial already!"

"No, no, no! They're in the holding room adjacent to the courtroom. It's the only place we could think of."

Weisel hurried towards the lift with Moody right on his heels. Together they got in and slowly lowered down towards the basement level. They got out and, passing the door to the Department of Mysteries, sped towards Courtroom Ten. The court itself was empty, but on the left hand wall was a door leading to the holding chamber where the accused would stay until they are needed for their hearing. A guard was posted outside the door. Upon seeing Moody and Weisel approaching at a breakneck pace, he asked in a rumbling voice, "Identification please." Both men pulled out their identification cards and showed them to the guard. He seemed satisfied enough with them to allow both passage into the holding chamber.

The chamber itself was small and cramped, lit only by two torches on the opposing walls. A tiny cell with thick iron bars held two huddled figures, a man and a woman. Sitting across from the cell were two chairs for visitors to sit. Moody and Weisel ignored the chairs, turning their attention to the figures in the cell.

"Are you the mother and brother of Sextus Hamilton?" Weisel asked in an authoritative voice.

"Yes!" the woman barked back. Rising, she came and stood at the bars, her face coming into view. She had dignified features, with the ivory skin and heavily lidded eyes, but her long gray hair was in total disarray. He dark eyes squinted at the two Aurors. "What are doing here?"

"Just wanted to ask a few questions," Weisel replied calmly.

She let out a slew of curses. "What you're doing is illegal. You've taken us against our will and without reason!"

"Desperate times call for desperate measures, ma'am," Weisel said promptly.

She swore again in a most unladylike fashion. "What reason do you have to arrest us?"

"You don't know?" Moody asked.

"No! You bastards haven't told us anything!"

Moody and Weisel exchanged a horrified look. "Ma'am, your son, Sextus, blew up a building in Diagon Alley, killing many that were there," Moody replied quickly.

Her face suddenly became slack and her son in the cell with her whipped his head around towards the Aurors, but said nothing. She backed away slowly into the shadows, shaking her head the whole time.

"C'mon," Weisel whispered, taking Moody by the elbow, "let them rest. They're gonna need it."

Moody nodded and he and Weisel stepped out of the chamber. Weisel paused at the guard. "Nobody questions them until I get back in the morning," he ordered. "I want them left alone. If anyone asks, you were ordered by Marcus Weisel." The guard simply nodded.

"You going home?" Moody asked as they left the courtroom.

"I have to," Weisel replied. "I need the sleep."

Moody nodded. The other man looked like hell. Weisel may not have expressed how he was feeling during all this, but Moody could tell that it was starting to eat him up. He doubted that Weisel would really sleep tonight, though. He doubted that anyone would be able to sleep tonight.

They took the lift up to the Atrium and parted ways there. Moody went back up to the Auror Headquarters while Weisel Flooed back to his London apartment. The place looked like it was never lived in, which is partly true; Weisel never spent much time here except to sleep. He slumped into his armchair and switched on the television, an unusual item for a wizard to own. But Weisel needed something to get his mind off things, and late night television was mindless enough to do that. Yet even the droning of infomercials hawking the next Muggle wonder product could not prevent the horrible images of death and destruction from floating into his mind. In the end, Marcus Weisel simply broke down and cried for the first time in what seemed like years.

November 3, 1969

Ministry of Magic, London

8:45 am

When Weisel had his Daily Prophet delivered that morning, the front-page story came as no surprise to him. "All Souls Day Massacre! Terrorist Explosion Kills Hundreds in Diagon Alley! Ministry at a Loss!" it read. Weisel didn't bother to read it, he already knew more about the case than the Prophet could ever hope to provide him. He felt groggy, since he only managed to catnap the whole night. He moved about his morning routine like a zombie and arrived at the Ministry of Magic just in time not to be considered late.

"Jesus, you look like hell," Moody observed when Weisel came into the Auror Headquarters that morning.

"I certainly feel like it," Weisel muttered.

"You still up for a little interrogation?"

Weisel smiled. "Of course."

Together they started off towards the holding chamber in Courtroom Ten. As they stood in the lift, descending slowly towards the basement, Moody said, "Madam Bones will joining us."

"Why?"

"Crouch's orders. But don't worry, Madam Bones is good with this sort of thing."

"Let's hope so," Weisel muttered. He had never met Madam Bones personally, but he had heard that she was a stern, but fair woman. Nevertheless, he didn't like the idea of someone else infringing on him and his work.

By the time they arrived at Courtroom Ten, Madam Bones, a thick, confident looking woman with a monocle firmly placed over her eye, was already waiting for them, hovering outside the door to the holding chamber. The same guard was posted there as well.

"He won't let me in," Madam Bones said calmly, indicating the guard. "Says you gave the order."

"Yes," Weisel replied politely.

Madam Bones smiled. "You must be a pretty respected man around here then, Mr. Weisel."

"I like to think so." As soon as he approached the door, the guard opened it for the three. They stepped into the darkened room.

Mrs. Hamilton and her son rose to greet them, pressing their faces against the bars. Along with the two chairs already present, a table was brought in. From her pouch, Madam Bones procured a long stretch of parchment and a dictation quill, which will record any conversation here.

"Guard!" Madam Bones called. The guard entered the chamber. "Please take the boy to another holding chamber. I want to speak to the woman first." The guard obeyed and took the young man away from his mother. As soon as the guard left, Madam Bones began. She and Weisel took a seat at the table, while Moody hovered in the back of the room. As she spoke, the quill recorded her words on the parchment.

"Case number 82517, Amelia Bones, Deputy Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Marcus Weisel, Chief Auror, and Alastor Moody, Auror, presiding. Subject name: Diana Hamilton of Surrey. Mother of suspect Sextus Hamilton." She paused and looked up at Mrs. Hamilton. "Ready to talk?" Mrs. Hamilton said nothing. Madam Bones sighed. "I'll take that as a yes." She turned to Weisel. "This is your case. Go on."

Weisel nodded. He turned to Mrs. Hamilton. "Is Sextus your son?"

Her eyes bore down upon him. "He was."

"Were you aware that he had destroyed a section of Diagon Alley, killing many that were there at the time before you were brought in yesterday?" She did not reply. "Were you aware that he had plans to blow up Diagon Alley?" Again no response. "Were you?" Weisel's voice became firmer now, but Mrs. Hamilton didn't budge. "I don't have all day, Mrs. Hamilton," Weisel said in a threatening tone. "Were you or were you not aware of you son's terrorist plans for Diagon Alley."

A smug smile appeared on Mrs. Hamilton's face. "Tell me something, Mr. Weisel," she began, "what authority do you have to make me answer any one of your questions?"

"What do you mean?" Weisel replied calmly.

Her face became rigid. "You bring me and my son here without any warning or implications of what we're being charged with. You just storm into our home and take us away. Now, Mr. Weisel, I'd like to know how legal something like that is."

"That's not your concern, Mrs. Hamilton." Weisel replied.

The smug smile returned. "Then I have nothing to say to you." She backed away from the bars and sat down in the middle of the cell.

"Mrs. Hamilton," Weisel called. No answer. "Mrs. Hamilton!" Again, he met only silence. He turned to Moody and Madam Bones. "She won't budge."

Madam Bones's face became cross. "Let's try the boy."

Weisel nodded. He called the guard and had him take Mrs. Hamilton and bring her other son in for questioning. The boy was brought in, shaking, with his eyes darting about. He was placed in the cell, but unlike his mother, he did not face his captors.

"Are you Brutus Hamilton?" Weisel asked. The young man nodded. "You'll have to speak your answers, son."

"Yes," he croaked.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"In Hogwarts?"

"Yes, Slytherin House."

"Was your whole family in Slytherin?"

"Yes."

"Did you know about your brother's plans?"

This time, however, Brutus clamped up. He stared at his feet.

Weisel pressed on. "Did you have any indication that your brother was going to kill himself in a terrorist attack on Diagon Alley? Does the name Voldemort mean anything to you?" Brutus once again did not answer. "Your silence only implicates you, son. Did your mother tell you not to answer our questions?"

"I can't answer your questions," Brutus muttered.

"You can't or you won't?" Again, Brutus did not respond. Weisel turned to his coworkers. "He won't talk, just like his mother. I say bring her back and we go back to Crouch."

Madam Bones nodded. She went out to the guard. "Bring the woman back in here and lock them both up." The guard nodded and went to go get Mrs. Hamilton. Madam Bones led Weisel and Moody out.

"Well, that was productive," she sighed as they got into the lift. "Looks like we'll have to find some other way to get to the bottom of this."

"Agreed," Moody growled. "I just hope Crouch wasn't expecting too much from our interview." As they stepped off at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Moody headed towards the Auror Headquarters. "See you all later."

Weisel chuckled. "Something tells me that Crouch's not going to be too pleased."

Weisel was right. Crouch was furious when he found out. "Why the hell didn't you try harder to get them talking?!" he screeched.

"We did try, Crouch," Madam Bones replied in an exasperated tone. "The only other alternative we had was to beat the information our of them."

Crouch sighed. "I think we'll have to use Veritaserum."

"What?!" Weisel shrieked. Madam Bones looked incredulously at Crouch as well.

"You have a problem with that?" Crouch demanded.

"Yes!" Weisel exclaimed. "It only violates every ethical code we have!"

"I'm inclined to agree, Crouch," Madam Bones added sternly.

"Fine then," Crouch sneered, turning to Madam Bones, "what would you suggest?"

"We get a search warrant for the Hamilton home," Madam Bones suggested. "Maybe we'll find something there."

Crouch nodded. "Fine," he muttered. "Madam Bones, organize a team of Aurors to search the Hamilton home. I'll get the warrant as soon as I can."

"What about me?" Weisel asked, stepping forward.

"I can't let you go, Marcus," Crouch explained. "You need sleep, desperately. And I can already see that this case is going to your head."

"Fine," Weisel snapped, not wanting to admit that Crouch was right. "Send Moody then, he's good."

"Will do," Madam Bones replied. "Good day, Mr. Crouch, Mr. Weisel." With that, she headed towards the Auror Headquarters.

"See you around, sir," Weisel said as he began to leave.

"Get some sleep, Marcus," Crouch called after him.

Weisel ignored him. Instead of going home, he headed straight for his office. He sat behind the desk, at a total loss of what to do. Never before had the Ministry ever encountered anything like this. Weisel had a feeling that he wasn't the only one that was lost as to what to do next. He wrote a quick note to Moody reading: "If you find anything of interest, report it to me first." He sent it off, hoping it would meet the Auror before he left. He then sent an owl out to Albus Dumbledore, asking if there was a time and place where they could meet.