Order In Chaos

Remus Lupin entered the office at a quarter past five in the morning. He had been out since two thirty, chasing down invisible booby traps and nonexistent intruders. Now he wanted nothing more than to go back home to his flat and catch up on some much needed sleep.

At this hour of the day, there was only ever two people manning the office; himself, and a skinny young lad named Ernest Clearwater, currently asleep at his desk, his head resting on a pile of half finished reports. Remus shook the boy gently awake, and reached across his head to grab a form for reporting false alarms. “Ernest!”

Ernest snorted once, blinked, and then eyed Remus groggily, “Wha...?”

“Walter’s going to be back in forty five minutes-- you might want to finish writing those reports before he shows up.”

He yawned, and shook his head trying to clear it. “Ugh, I hate working graveyard shift.” Ernest stared blankly at the reports for a second before turning to address his colleague, “Thanks Remus, I was out like a rock, wasn’t I?”

“I’d say so,” Remus replied, “feel like doing the same myself to tell you the truth. Only Alastor Moody could think a lost pizza delivery boy was a dark wizard in disguise. He kept me almost two hours before agreeing that the ‘intruder’ hadn’t set up any sinister contraptions in his garden. I never would have said it before-- but the man’s a ruddy lunatic!”

That got a chuckle out of Ernest, “Poor old Mad-Eye, he must be even more paranoid than before after being locked in his own trunk for a year.” he shook his head. “What happened to the pizza boy?”

“Memory charm. And I fixed his ears back.” Ernest looked up, interested.

Remus snorted, “Believe me, you don’t want to know.” He picked up a quill and sat down at his own desk across the room. “I have to fill out one of these pointless forms- I’ll tell you the rest later.”

Luckily, Remus’s department didn’t get many of the complaints that Moody made. Most went either to Arthur Weasley, or anti-Muggle security. Crime scene investigation only got notified when he got really freaked out and insisted that Remus come and look for clues.

‘Why do we even need to write these?’ Remus wondered as he filled out his report. ‘You know your government is messed up when they need more information on false alarms than actual crime. Well, I’ve known the Ministry is waked for quite some time now, come to think of it.’

They didn’t have any more calls for almost a half hour. This was a remarkable event not because they usually got more, but because there was usually way less. A typical night consisted attempting to track down a seller of illegal artifacts or dark items, or possibly investigating some minor theft and then sitting around doing paperwork and taking turns napping. This night was proving to be different; so far that morning they’d had a report on a missing champion kneazle, a lead on a woman selling unicorn blood, Moody’s dark wizard, and now this. Needless to say, by six forty-five they were both extremely drained.

The face that appeared in the fireplace was that on a frightened young man, with red hair and prominent freckles standing out on his pale cheeks. Remus recognized him at once as Percy Weasley, Arthur’s son who had worked under Bartemious Crouch the previous year. Following his boss’s death, Percy had taken over the position himself, and was doing a surprisingly good job, even if he did take himself way too seriously and worked about fifteen hours a day. Remus was not surprised at all to see him up and about before six in the morning; chances were he had been awake at least an hour or two before.

“Remus!” Percy whispered harshly, “You have to get here right now, there’s been another attack and I don’t know what to do; if the press find out, things are going to get really hairy...”

‘You can say that again’, Remus thought. He only said, “Did you see what happen? Did the victim survive? -Where are you?” aloud.

“I’m at the Ministry.” Percy gulped, “And she was dead when I found her-- about fifteen or twenty minutes ago. I didn’t look too closely,” he shuddered, “but it looked like the killing curse. Like the others I guess.”

Remus swore. “Where did you find her? Do you know who she is?”

“I have no idea. She was right next to the East entrance, the one dad and I use when we want to avoid certain people.” Percy blushed slightly, “Dad’s been having some problems with Malfoy lately... you know how it is.”

“Yes.” Remus did know exactly how it was; he avoided the man as much as possible himself, although it usually wasn’t much of an issue. “Did you tell anyone else?”

“No, you’re the first person I’ve talked too.”

“Thank you Percy, I’ll be down as soon as possible. I’ll let you know when we find something out. Is your father there by any chance?”

“He left earlier. I think I remember something about Naylor’s enchanted lawnmower. I can send him an owl if you’d like.”

“Don’t bother.” Remus said, “I’ll have Ernest do it, it’s not a big deal.” He pocketed his wand, “Oh, I’ve been dreading something like this.... Anyway, you’re right about the press. I’m not even going to think about what could happen if Rita Skeeter gets there before we do.”

Percy nodded, “goodbye Sir, and good luck.”

“See you.” Percy’s face disappeared from the fire. Remus turned around to see Ernest staring at him bug-eyed. “What time is it?” he snapped.

“Three after six.”

“Bloody hell, he’s late again!” Remus bent over his desk and scribbled a quick note on a handy bit of spare parchment. “Send an owl to Arthur Weasley and let him know what’s happened. If Walter ever gets here, tell him to get his arse over to the Hawthorn St. entrance.” He noticed the expression on the boy’s face, “you can rephrase it if you want, and send me an owl if anything else comes up that I need to know. Got that?”

“Er, I think so sir.”

Remus made for the door, stopped, and turned to face Ernest one last time. “Whatever you do, do not tell anyone else what’s happened. If Rita Skeeter or anyone else calls while you’re on duty, tell them I still haven’t returned from Moody’s, and you haven’t heard anything.”

He pulled on his cloak, and left, Disapparating the instant he closed the door behind him, and arriving in a deserted Muggle building a split second later. Each of the Ministry offices, as well as the main building, had wards set up similar to those surrounding Hogwarts. They prevented anyone Apparating or Disapparating on the grounds, except through various designated portals and other locations, one of which was this very boarded up shop.

The door leading to the Ministry was set in a crumbling brick wall about halfway down the street. Remus waited to make sure no one was watching before opening it hesitantly, and then shutting it quickly behind him. He allowed himself a quick sigh of relief as his eyes took in the deserted corridor, but it disappeared the second he noticed the fallen corpse lying on the stone floor a few feet away. Her clipboard was lying by her side, and her right hand clutched the remains of her snapped wand.

As much as Remus hated dealing with bodies, he knew he was being counted on to record as much information as possible, so he set to work at once. He examined the corpse closely. One glance informed him that she had indeed been murdered with Avada Kedavra. There was not a mark on her body, save for the places she had hit as she fell, and from the way she was lying, she appeared to have died instantly.

The woman, Remus guessed, would have been quite tall had she been standing. She had an almost waist length mane of black hair, and her face was both striking and disturbingly familiar. Her gray eyes appeared to be staring at him insistently, an odd fact given that she was dead.

He tore away his gaze and squatted to pick up her dropped clipboard, shuddering slightly as his hand brushed the hem of her robe. Remus squinted in the dim light, unable to properly make out the words. He lighted his wand and held it in front of him, almost dropping the clipboard as the name at the top of the page seemed to pop right out at him.

Calista Flint. ‘No wonder she looked so familiar’, Remus thought, glancing one more time at the body, this time her features appeared even more familiar than before. Now that he had a name it was so much easier to remember, and so much more unnerving to look at her.

A click from behind him and a ray of light falling across the floor snapped Remus instantly out of his thoughts. He jumped to his feet and turned around swiftly, almost whacking the larger man with his brandished wand. Recognizing the oversized frame of his boss, Walter DuPré, Remus met his gaze a bit sheepishly, while stuffing his wand into the folds of his cloak. “You -er- I take it you got my message then?”

Walter took in the scene in one sweeping glance, “Yes, that’s why I’m here isn’t it. You know who she is?” he asked.

Remus handed him the clipboard pointing out her name and position where they were written neatly at the top of the front page. Walter pulled out his glasses, adjusted the paper, and read the stats out loud. “Calista R. Flint, Level A research specialist, classified documents section.” He handed it back to Remus, “now what could that goddamn nutter possibly have been thinking, wanting to kill a bloody librarian? You look through there, Remus; see if you can’t find anything that could make her a target. Might be she stumbled on something juicy by mistake and just didn’t keep her mouth shut tight enough.”

“I-” Remus opened his mouth to reply, but stopped short of actually saying anything. After all, it could just be a coincidence; couldn’t it? But he couldn’t drop the feeling that it was a very important fact indeed, no matter how far fetched it may seem now. Remus ended up finishing his sentence with a rather lame mumble of “--I knew her brother... from school.” swearing silently in his head knowing exactly what his boss would think of a comment like that.

Walter turned around and looked him in the eye. “How the hell is that supposed to help us Remus? You’re pulling at loose threads here buddy, step back and look at the big picture whydoncha, this isn’t going to sort itself out just because you were friends with some bloke at Hogwarts, a lot’s changed since then.”

Remus refrained from objecting. After all, a lot had changed since he’d been a student, but that wasn’t the point. Walter had also been dead wrong when he’d assumed they were friends, too. He hated having to keep pressing the issue, knowing that Walter was quickly loosing his patience, but he tried one more time just the same. “He was a Death Eater.” ‘There’, he thought, ‘that did it.’

“What!? Who?”

“Severus Snape. He wasn’t, I mean he did a lot of stuff for Dumbledore to make up for it; I think he was actually a spy for a longer time than he was one of Voldemort’s minions.”

Walter cringed and gave Remus a funny look. “And you were friends with this man?” He pulled out his tape measure, and set it to recording the corpse’s precise location and dimensions.

“No, I never said that,” replied Remus a bit irritably, “we more or less detested each other.” He paused. “He’s trustworthy though; he’s the man who makes my potion every month, there’s no way he’d ever go back over.”

Walter snorted and eyed Remus critically, “You’re far too trusting Remus; For goodness sakes, the man probably murdered children in their sleep! You know what a Death Eater does?”

“I think I have some idea.”

“They kill people Remus!” Walter sighed, “I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I’m afraid your hunches aren’t enough proof. For all I know you may actually be right, but I’m going to run an extensive background check just the same. This is too much just to be a coincidence. Now. Let’s finish up and call in a medical squad before that harpy gets word of this. You got a spare quill on you? I seem to have misplaced mine.”

The next couple hours passed slowly. The mediwizards and Aurors arrived about twenty minutes later, and after exhaustive amounts of paperwork and interviews Remus felt like he could sleep standing up. Now, that the initial shock had worn off, he couldn’t think of anything other than how tired he really was. With the full moon now only a little over a day away, his muscles were aching, he had a pounding headache, and he was absolutely dreading taking his monthly trip to Hogwarts the next morning.

Remus couldn’t remember Calista very well from his days at school. He had only ever seen her on a few occasions, and they had never actually said anything to each other. He remembered vaguely that she had been one of the Slytherin prefects during his first three years. He didn’t remember her being quite as nasty as her brother, but then again she had been a prefect, and five years older than him at that. Remus wondered briefly weather or not he should inform Snape of her death personally, or just let him figure it out on his own when he read the morning Prophet or at whatever time the Ministry saw fit to officially notify him. He eventually decided to just contact Dumbledore and leave it to him to deal with Snape’s overactive bad temper.

Remus headed back to the office. Their facility was one of the few departments not actually connected with the central Ministry building; something that Remus was eternally grateful for. No matter how much of a hassle it created when working on multi department projects, it would never cancel out the relief of not having to deal with Malfoy and other bigoted high-class scumbags, as well as the extra freedom they received just for not being right under Fudge’s nose.

The moment he opened the door Remus recoiled in horror at the sight of the brightly robed woman. She was seated in a spindly chair she had no doubt conjured herself- certainly nothing like that had been in the building when he left. He composed himself quickly, and entered the room looking as professional as he could manage.

Rita Skeeter practically leaped out of her seat the second she heard the door click open, launching herself at Remus with a fake, plastered on smile and her trademark smarmy tone of voice. “Why, Remus Lupin! You’re exactly the man I’ve been looking for all day.” her manicured claws clutched her notebook tightly and she followed Remus as he sat down at his desk, pulling her chair along with her, and sitting with her elbows propped on his paperwork. Remus shot a quick pleading glance towards one of his other colleagues, Iris O’Conoly, who gave him a sympathetic look before turning back to her own project, unwilling to draw unnecessary attention to herself. Remus didn’t blame her.

Skeeter fidgeted in her chair, making herself comfortable and placing her notebook and quill on the desk in front of her. Remus reluctantly met her eyes. “I’m quite busy at the moment now ma’am, if you don’t mind. I’ve been up since seven o’clock yesterday morning and frankly I don’t have time for any interviews,” He held up a hand, “no matter how important to the public they may be. I know how you work Skeeter. I don’t have the patience to argue right now. Sorry.”

“Why, I have no idea what you’re implying sir. I merely wished to ask you a few questions concerning an unfortunate rumor that’s been floating around the Ministry. You see, it appears that there may have been another murder quite recently, and the public needs to know the truth- if only for their own protection. I’m sorry if you’re tired sir, but don’t you care about public safety? After all, it is the Ministry’s most important responsibility.”

Remus scowled unable to keep his irritation in check any longer. “Don’t you start giving me any of that public interest bullshit. For you this is just another publicity stunt, and all you really care about the public is that they keep on reading your fraudulent publications.” Skeeter opened her mouth in indignation, but Remus didn’t stop talking “Whatever the public needs to know they’ll find out in tomorrow’s Prophet, and anything unconfirmed, the Ministry will release when they see fit.”

The look of fury on Skeeter’s face would have been priceless if it hadn’t been directed at Remus. She dug in her robes and pulled out an official looking business card, shoving it under his nose. “In case you’ve forgotten, I am an official Daily Prophet reporter, and therefore, anything the paper needs to know, I need to know as well.”

“I’ll inform the proper authorities then, and have them get in touch with you if anything turns up.” Remus said calmly, “I’m leaving in-” He glanced at his watch. “Seven minutes, and Walter won’t be back until later in the afternoon. If you’d like to sit over there and wait for him, by all means, be my guest.” He said the last sentence with an unarguable sense of finality, and Rita had no choice but to gather her belongings and leave, which she did in a huff.

The second she exited the room, Remus breathed a sigh of relief. The other members of the office broke into loud applause and Iris even slapped him on the back. Standing up, Remus gathered his things one last time. “Tell Walter I’ll be in around noon on Monday,” he informed Iris, who wrote the information on the memo with a nod. “If anything comes up give me a call, but only if it’s important.”