Moonlit Carvings

Ginny drank her morning coffee slowly. Savouring every drop of the slightly tasteless cheap liquid the Ministry managed to churn out.

They could market this stuff as insect repellent or something, she thought absently to herself.

But still, the longer she took 'drinking' her coffee, the less time she would have to spend with Gropey.

Robert Groppel was the director of her Potion Forensic sect and every time he called her to his office insisted on touching her arse. Or staring at her boobs. Or both, depending on what mood he was in. Therefore earning the nickname of 'Gropey' among the female staff.

She shuffled papers across her desk after earning a glare from Mrs Tate. Ginny was pretty sure Mrs Tate thought she was a slacker and a waste of money. She was also pretty sure that Mrs Tate and Mr Groppel were having an illicit affair, but that was neither here nor there.

Her last case files had been stacked neatly against the side of the tall, grey filing cabinet to her left. In fact, they were the only neat things on her desk; the rest of it was a vast array of spellotape, parchment and quills. Her partner in the potions lab was Lilith Sinclair - a neat freak in her own right - who often scolded Ginny about her work place, flat, lab etc.

"Ginevra!" cooed Mr Groppel from his office. "Here, now, please!"

Ginny grimaced to herself, the only thing worse than his slightly perverted tendencies was the tone of his voice. She grabbed the neatly stacked files - Lilith's work of course - and headed into the inimitably decorated directors office.

As she always did, Ginny ignored the fact that the room and her hair clashed terribly. But then, not many colours went with that particular shade of bright sick-green.

"These are the files from the Howarth inquiry," she said, placing the files precariously at the edge of the desk.

Gropey nodded, gesturing for her to sit. This could mean only one thing, another case for her and Lilith.

"There has been a murder," he announced melodramatically.

"Where?" Ginny inquired. She was curious, usually the two of them got stuck with long since dead and dusted cases that were generally too complicated for anyone to actually solve.

"Knockturn Alley. The rabid end." Groppel pulled a few parchments out from under a towering stack in the corner, scratching his entirely unnatural toupee thoughtfully. "Here," he added, handing them to Ginny.

She opened them to find a girl staring out at her from the first page. The girl was stunning, but not in an orthodox way. She had artificially blonde hair sticking out all around her head, like a weird sort of halo, a small, but pointed face and amazingly bright green eyes. In the photo she hardly appeared to move, almost as if in a muggle photo, from time to time she blinked or tucked invisible strands of hair behind her ears, but otherwise stayed completely still.

'Cassia Roberts' was proclaimed beneath the photo and next to it was a brief biography.

"She went to Hogwarts," Ginny marvelled out loud.

"Yes, do you recognise her?" Gropey questioned, staring pointedly at her boobs. Ginny shifted uncomfortably.

"Not really," the redhead admitted, studying the photo hard. "Although I recognise the name. When did she die?"

"This morning." The older man smirked at her shocked expression. "Yes I thought it was time to scoop you and Sinclair out of the Cold Cases and get you to use your expertise in the present world."

Ginny nodded her assent, although she barely needed to - he did whatever he pleased anyway. "How did she die?" she questioned instead.

He became unusually sombre. "She was tortured, that's all they know. The Aurors were reluctant to move the body, so you have the entire crime scene at your disposal." Groppel said the whole last sentence as he would when giving a very big Christmas present to a very small child. Ginny doubted whether she'd like this particular 'present'.

When she had finally escaped from the Directors wandering gaze, Ginny needed another cup of the murky brown caffeinated liquid before she could even think of doing anything. This earned yet another disapproving frown from Mrs Tate.

Ginny fled the office not long after; afraid that anymore glowers of condemnation from her co-worker could cause her to burst into flames.

The lab was, oh-so-usefully, on the other side of the entire Potions Forensic building to the offices, so it was a decent five to ten minute walk, most of which Ginny spent turning the picture of the girl's face over in her mind.

Cassia. Why can't I remember where I've heard that name?

Lilith Sinclair quickly strolled into view. All five-foot-ten of her. Although Ginny was loath to admit, her partner and friend towered over her, and was not frightened of Ginny's temper either. She frequently reminded Ginny of their height difference, discovering early on that it irritated the redhead no end.

The two women were, essentially, very different people. Lilith was tall and willowy, with long, flowing, blonde hair. Blue eyes took up a surprising amount of her face giving her a permanently innocent, deer-in-the-headlights, look about her. She was also a stickler for turning up on time, being neat and tidy, paying the rent promptly and not putting off things until tomorrow what could be done today.

Ginny on the other hand had never managed to get past five-foot-four, apparently inheriting her mother's genes as opposed to her fathers. Her hair, if anything, had darkened over the years that meant she could now wear considerably more coloured clothing than she could at Hogwarts. Her eyes were still the rusty - in her opinion wholly unexciting - brown they'd always been. And, in sharp contrast to Lilith, Ginny had yet to actually turn up on time for anything, liked to prevaricate and was a lot more laid back than her friend and flatmate.

"I just heard!" Lilith declared. They continued, side-by-side, down the whitewashed corridor towards the staff car park. "Anything is welcome to get out of that lab!"

"Still having Tyson problems?" Ginny inquired, winking saucily.

Lilith gave her a dark look in return, scooping blonde hair back out of her face. Tyson was a fellow lab assistant, and had had a crush on Lilith for almost three years.

"What's her name?" asked the blonde, flawlessly changing the subject.

"Cassia Roberts. Found this morning, seven fifty-three, a warehouse in the backstreets of Knockturn."

"What did she work as?" Lilith questioned, her brow furrowed.

Ginny searched the front page of the report, but couldn't find her job. She looked through the second page too and finally found it, printed in very tiny letters at the bottom. She understood why it wasn't on the front now.

"She worked as a prostitute."