Disclaimer : Harry Potter - JKR's
Chapter 25 - A Bug With Information
"Harry, Melissa, Tonks! In my office!" Kingsley called out. He shut the door after Harry, who was the last to enter, "Tell me this isn't us!"
The three of them talked simultaneously like eight year olds in the principal's office, denying everything.
"Okay, stop! This is a high profile Muggle case! I was serious when I said this earlier! We were there to observe, unless absolutely necessary!"
Harry thought it wasn't really essential to shut the office door. Pretty much everyone on Level 2 heard him, possibly with the exception of Lars, one of the oldtimers, who was deaf. He said, making an attempt to make the boss less upset, "We had to talk with Dean, Kingsley."
Melissa added, "You should have seen him. He looked lost and he's really innocent."
"I take full responsibility," Tonks acknowledged, being the most senior of the group.
"All I want to hear is that none of you helped him escape! It will be a political nightmare if one of you were involved," he said, looking at Harry in particular.
Harry shook his head, "I had nothing to do with it."
He did not have a chance to call Ritchie or Hermione and was wondering if they were aware of Dean's break out. They were at the Yard half an hour ago. Did Kingsley say when exactly Dean escaped?
"The Obliviator Team is at the Yard as we speak. Witnesses are having their memories scanned but it appears they have already been modified," Kingsley shared with them.
"You mean no one can tell us what happened?" Melissa asked.
Before Kingsley could answer, Gomez barged into his office.
"Talk to me, Kingsley!" he demanded, "Where's Thomas?"
Kingsley shut his door again. He answered blandly but was looking for any unusual reaction, "We don't know where he is."
It was a very unexpected reaction indeed.
"You!" Gomez accosted Harry, grabbing him by his shirt collar, pushing him towards Kingsley's desk. In the process, a glass bottle with a miniature Muggle boat model inside was knocked loose from its stand. It bounced a couple of times and rolled on the floor. Kingsley was passionate about sailing. Too bad the bottle was unbreakable. Gomez was looking at him with piercing eyes, "You had something to do with this!"
Surprised and baffled looks were around the room. Gomez was never flustered and he just lost it completely. He had this look of being on the brink of going over the edge.
Harry kept his composure and looked back at him coldly, telling him the truth, "I had nothing to do with it," and then, in a threatening voice said, "But if you don't let go of me right now, I can promise you, you're going to get hurt!"
Gomez did not need to be told twice, letting go of Harry's shirt collar and stepping back. The threat seemed to have jogged him back to his senses and he regained control, "What do you have so far, Kingsley?"
"About half an hour ago a magical entity entered the Scotland Yard high security area, disabled most of the security cameras, petrified all the guards, and left with Dean Thomas, but not before modifying memories."
"Most of the cameras?" Gomez asked, not missing anything.
Kingsley magically turned on a Muggle computer at the corner of his office and brought up two brief repeating movie clips playing side by side.
"The Muggles sent me some clips. Two cameras caught a glimpse of the accomplice, one coming in and one going out," Kingsley explained, "Their Minister wants us involved for the obvious reason. They want Dean Thomas back in custody."
Gomez, Harry, Tonks and Melissa moved in to get a better look at the images. The first clip was quite clear. A close up, sufficient for identifying who they should be looking for. Harry was certain that the Muggles would not find this helpful because the image was that of a faceless hooded figure clad in a black robe. It was the Cardinal as Harry saw in Ron's memory. Of course Kingsley saw Ron's memory too so he knew who this was. So why was he asking him all those questions earlier?
The second clip was a more distant shot; the features of figures were not as clear. It was of Dean and the Cardinal Disapparating from view. Or was it?
His head almost collided with Melissa's and Tonks' as both also wanted a closer took at the small figures on the second clip. The Cardinal on the second clip was a couple of inches shy of Dean who was standing beside him. This Cardinal appeared to be shorter compared to Harry's recollection of the Cardinal in Ron's memory who would have been at least Dean's height. And there was something off about the way the Cardinal wore the long black robe. On the front there were two almost imperceptible identical mounds. He squinted. Were those breasts? His eyes met Tonks briefly. She saw that too.
Gomez was staring blankly at the first clip, almost paralyzed.
"Miguel," Kingsley tried to get his attention, "Do you have time now for that meeting?"
"What?" he seemed to have just come back from some other place.
"The meeting," Kingsley repeated and instead of asking, suggested, "We should have it now."
He nodded, "Let's get this over with."
Melissa left the room on Kingsley's request. Despite the adequacy of chairs, nobody sat down. The room was intense.
"You were quite cryptic about agenda, Kingsley," Gomez started, definitely on guard, "And you didn't tell me there were going to be other attendees. So, what is this really about?"
"I didn't realize you had a personal interest in the Muggle serial murders. My crew saw you there, apparently as the Muggle Michael Goodrich."
"Perhaps your crew should be more concerned about finding Granger and Thomas," came his biting reply, deftly avoiding any explanation about why he was there.
"What about finding the Cardinal?" Harry asked pointedly.
"I don't know what you're talking about. Did your friend Granger convince you to chase after a phantom?"
The bastard was obviously lying, "It seems you recognized that phantom I've been chasing. Why were you so shocked with what you saw on the clip? Was it not part of the plan to help Dean Thomas escape?"
"Mr. Potter," Gomez said deliberately, "I do not know any Cardinal, religious or otherwise. Give up the ghost. Granger is guilty and will be sent to Azkaban for the murders of Dorner, Lowes, Franks and Snape, and, if you stop interfering, perhaps the real Aurors will realize she is involved with the Muggle murders, too."
Harry remembered what Hermione asked him to do, "If you don't know the Cardinal then you should know T.M.Didler. Tell me something. Does Didler consider you family? That note on the Professor was quite a warning. If you value your life, you should turn the Cardinal in."
"I'm afraid I don't know any Didler either," Gomez forced a smile, turning his attention back to the Head Auror, "Kingsley, is there anything else you think we should talk about aside from this garbage?"
Taking Harry's lead, he replied, "We can help you, Miguel. Let us help you. Tell us who it is."
"You're all delusional! It is Granger and you can help by putting her and Thomas in Azkaban!"
Kingsley tried to appeal to him, "This murderer could be another Voldemort. Surely, you don't want that."
Gomez was resolute in his assertion, "Just work the evidence, Kingsley. Stop wasting my time!"
Then Gomez left Kingsley's office.
Tonks was observing closely the entire time and noted, "Too bad he's such a skilled Occlumens. It seems like he'll take his secrets to the grave, if he has secrets," she turned to Harry, "I just want to ask the question so we're not chasing air here. What evidence do we have right now that Gomez is involved?"
Kingsley answered, "Evidence, none. But I think there is too much coincidence going on that he knows more than he is telling us."
Harry added, "And he knows that we don't have evidence against him. Can we not do something else to get the information we need?"
Kingsley shook his head, "He will be expecting that and he's smart enough to know what we can do. Showing up at Dean's interrogation when he knew we could ID him was a risk he took because he wanted to make sure. He might be taking more risks and soon he's going to make a mistake."
"What about his Ministry entry files?" Tonks inquired, "It could have information from his past that will help us."
"Unfortunately, Scrimgeour is away until next week with his wife on vacation," Kingsley said frustrated, "The chances of Gomez giving us access voluntarily are slim to none."
Kingsley steered their conversation to Dean's escape.
"I need to make a decision on what to do about Dean. Was this the real Cardinal or was this Hermione?"
Harry had been thinking the same question when he saw the clips. If it was Hermione then Dean would be safe and Kingsley could make it appear the Ministry was doing something about it. If this were the real Cardinal, Dean would be in danger, and they would have to search more aggressively.
Tonks answered first, referring to what she and Harry noticed on the second clip, "I thought the Cardinal was a bloke. Any chance Ron and Hermione were wrong about that? The robe and the mask do hide a lot."
Harry dismissed the thought quickly. Maybe he was prejudiced to think no woman could ever commit the murders, "I suppose that's possible but the voice I heard from the memory belongs to a bloke. Besides, the clip was too far a shot it could have been just an illusion."
"Or it was Hermione." Tonks added, "If it was her why would she dress up like him?"
Harry had an idea why, "Let's ask her."
He tried her again on the cell phone and now, hers was again unavailable. It was past 3pm. Maybe she didn't take personal phone calls at work.
"If you know where she is, we should just go and talk to her," Tonks suggested.
"I'd rather not, just in case," Harry thought is would be quite unfortunate if his stupidity led to her capture, "Let me try someone else."
Ritchie would know; she was with him at the Yard half an hour ago. It was getting to be really hard not to jump to any conclusions and really frustrating to have to go through Ritchie to know what was going on.
"Don't tell me she hasn't called you yet," Ritchie sounded equally annoyed.
Harry did not want to talk to him more than he had to, "Listen, I'm with Kingsley and Tonks. Dean escaped, but you know that already. Should we be searching for him or was it her?"
"You should be searching for him," Harry heard him reply without any concern on his voice, "But not too hard and not to find him. Do you get what I mean?"
"Got it."
Harry hung up. He knew what Hermione wanted to accomplish. By rescuing Dean as the Cardinal she hoped that would flush Gomez out and maybe nudge him into turning the Cardinal in. And as a bonus, it would be giving the Cardinal a dose of his own medicine; framing him for something he did not do. Harry also understood why she decided not to tell him. He had an impending meeting with Gomez and it was better that he didn't have to lie about the escape. But he still wished he were in on it from the beginning. Ritchie was.
"Dean's with Hermione but we should appear to be searching for him convincingly," he said to Kingsley who nodded.
Just then, an interoffice urgent mail zipped into Kingsley's office and landed in his hands.
Tonks and Harry waited to see if this was related to the Dean business. Kingsley looked up with an unreadable expression.
"I don't know what this means but Gomez has just given us access to his confidential Ministry file. He says it's to prove he is not involved so we can move on and catch the real murderer."
"The file must be useless or has been meticulously vetted," Tonks concluded.
"Or his way of asking for help, giving us something to help us find the Cardinal," Harry commented. Maybe Hermione's ploy was working and Gomez now wanted to be rid of the murderer.
"Tonks, get Aimes, Melissa and Flint to work on Dean's escape. Have them put together a team to monitor trains, the Knight Bus, apparition centres, post up wanted signs, and coordinate press releases. Tell Melissa to update me every half an hour. You go home and get some rest. We'll see you tonight," then he gave Harry Gomez' note, "Here, find us the Cardinal."
Harry and Tonks left Kingsley's office and did as they were told.
A short time ago, Ritchie was at the Yard and just got off the phone after telling Harry what Jane should have; that Dean was safe.
Recalling their earlier phone conversation, Jane did say she wasn't avoiding Harry, didn't she?
"How is he?" Ritchie asked about Thomas.
"He's settled down. I finally got him to promise not to go looking for Ginny and to wait until tonight to see the twins. Nice digs, by the way."
Ritchie knew it was the exact opposite. It was a small, dingy, dirty apartment, with one window, in a part of London that most Londoners preferred not to know about. No one would think of looking for them there.
"That's the best I could do on short notice. Besides, you're fugitives. I thought it would be appropriate so you would at least feel like you're fugitives and not go to work as if you're not."
She laughed at his logical explanation. He knew convincing Jane not to go to work that afternoon, when Miranda, the owner, had begged her to, was a lost cause.
"Dean's already livening up the place from the inside. I have to leave soon and I hope he keeps his promise. Was it convincing? Are you sure the second clip was fine?"
"I thought it was good enough. The 2nd shot was taken from a distance, though, you probably should have done something about your, um, chest," a not-so-innocent memory of the night they had last week involving her, um, chest, crossed his mind, which he immediately disposed of. He wondered how many more times that would happen.
"Well, somebody messed up. You should have stuck to the plan to have only one camera working," she jibed back.
"I told you I was distracted. Which reminds me, it's none of my business but have you called Harry yet?"
It was definitely none of his business. Actually, miffed at being dragged into their argument on the phone earlier today, he had asked Jane not to involve him in any relationship discussions with or about Harry. Sure, he may have known a little bit of what it was about, and sure, she may have been really upset and needed someone to take her side at a time when even she was against herself. But surely, she must have realized that they had just broken up this morning! Why would she think he would be inclined to assist?
And now here he was with his foot in his mouth, foolishly enquiring about Harry. The truth was, he was interested in how things were. He hoped she wouldn't bring that particular conversation up.
"I'm going to be late. I'll call him from the Bookstore. If he's had that meeting with Gomez I'll tell him where Dean is."
"He's going to start thinking you're avoiding him, especially after your row this morning and probably will not be too happy you didn't tell him about Dean."
Ritchie scolded himself, 'Stop meddling. Let them implode on their own.'
"I'm not avoiding him," she clarified, "And about Dean, he would understand why."
"And if he doesn't?"
He waited as it took some time for her to answer, "Then he doesn't."
"Why are you doing this?"
"What?"
"Making it harder for you," Ritchie was hoping she would save him from making the decision and just tell Harry about the memory. Ron believed she never would, "He needs to know what happened."
She disagreed, "It's in the past, Ritchie, and it's done and over with. He doesn't need to know."
Ron was right.
"You need him to know, so you wouldn't be frustrated having to explain so much."
"I shouldn't have to explain at all."
"Why won't you tell him?"
"I'm not exactly the same person I was two years ago."
"Neither is he. So what's your point?"
"He may think that he does but what if he doesn't love me anymore? I don't want him stuck with me if he doesn't love me anymore."
"Stop worrying about what ifs. You think too much."
She hung up. He wondered why she had not called Harry from the Bookstore as she said she would and why she lost quite a bit of the enthusiasm about Harry that she had this morning. But there was definitely no escaping from the task Ron had given him.
With his bandaged right hand, Ritchie took out the piece of paper on which he had written the name of the Muggle charity Gomez named as his pension beneficiary. He cursed as his sore fingers struggled punching in the letters on the computer keyboard. The owl that Harry used to deliver the picture of Gomez had pecked at his hand quite maniacally before the Chief gave the bird a piece of chocolate to munch on. How was he supposed to know postage was due on delivery? He was sure there would be plenty of opportunity for paying Harry back for Mr. Pecker.
The search finally returned some results. Good, a London address. He had to make the same appearances of conducting a Dean Thomas search, grand scale and when that was in place, he would check this lead out.
Somewhere else in the Yard, the Cardinal was seething with rage. Granger had Thomas. Gomez had disapparated from the Ministry. Both were nowhere to be found. What were they up to?
Gomez was somewhere in London, in a Muggle restaurant, relaxing, having a very late lunch. Everything was in motion. Tonight, Granger would be in Azkaban.
Hermione was at the University Bookstore. She tried calling Harry a little bit after three but her mobile phone was dead. So was Miranda's. The Bookstore telephone was also out of service. Before she could wonder why, they were suddenly inundated with customers, keeping both her and Miranda extremely busy for the next five hours.
Harry was swamped too. He did not expect Gomez's file to be composed of five banker's boxes of documents. He was about three quarters of the way, finding nothing, thinking Tonks was right about this being a wild goose chase, when the hunger pangs couldn't be ignored anymore. He decided to take a trip to the cafeteria.
It was eight in the evening when he finished gobbling up the forgettable dinner. Strangely, the place was almost deserted. In the lift on his way back to Level 2, a bug buzzed annoyingly around the small enclosure. The wizard beside him started swatting indiscriminately to murder the flying pest but failed miserably. Harry got off on Level 2 and so did the insect, which was seemingly following him. On closer inspection, the bug looked familiar, too familiar. What did she want?
Harry led it into an empty meeting room and closed the door. Rita Skeeter appeared in a split second.
"I'm sure your readers are sick and tired of reading crap about me."
"Harry, Harry, Harry. Is this what I get for risking my life to see you?"
"I don't have time for this, Rita. Get to the point."
"Actually, I'm here because I have information you want, though you don't know you want it, yet."
He regarded her briefly and decided she was serious.
"What do you want in exchange for it?"
She smiled, almost giddy with excitement, "An interview with her."
"Her."
Rita Skeeter nodded, "Yes. An interview with the fugitive, Hermione Granger."
"You know I can't speak for her and I don't even know where she is."
Harry needed to work on lying. He was missing out on a lot because of his handicap.
"Well, I know where she is," she replied, "And it appears so does the entire Magical Law Enforcement with the exception of Aurors."
"What are you talking about?"
"University Bookstore closes in less than an hour. Tick tock, tick tock…"
"I'll talk to her, but…"
"I want your word, Harry. Believe it or not, I am rooting for the bitch."
He thought, "That's only because you can't interview the dead."
This better be good or Hermione will have his head.
"Fine. You have my word."
"She is being arrested tonight at the Bookstore. I hear Dementors are involved and that is not surprising considering how Aurors have faired against her. And there's something else; they are unveiling a new device to capture Dark Wizards. It's called," she paused and took out a notebook, "It's called the Magical Travel Containment Tunnel. All I know about it is that the late Alfred Lowes, one of her allegedly victims, designed it and everybody is being told not to disapparate or portkey out of a five mile radius. Those who violate risk death."
Harry was running to the lift even before Rita could finish. He had to find help. Maybe Tonks and Kingsley. He was trying Hermione on the phone again and all he was hearing back was 'Not In Service'.