[MP] Serve & Protect [Joanna]

Rhayader.  News of the attack on the little Welsh town had hit Susan hard.  It was exactly the type of tragedy she was trying to devote her life to preventing.  Yet the assault had been completely unpredictable and seemingly unprovoked so realistically there was nothing she could have done – this time.  Susan was determined that there would not be a next.  Unsatisfied with second-hand reports, she had attended the scene herself and committed every horrible detail of the destruction to memory.  The young Auror burned with anger and hatred towards the unknown culprits.  If she ever got her hands on them they would end up begging for the sweet release of a Dementor’s kiss.

The Conway family had suffered significant losses in the attack.  In fact, every Conway family member in the town had been brutally murdered.  A coincidence?  Susan thought not.  It was just the sort of savagery Lord Voldemort had inflicted upon the families that threated him during his reign.  There was presently no evidence to support her theory that the Conway family had been specifically targeted but in this instance she didn’t need proof to know in her heart that it was true.  She didn’t care if her colleagues thought she was getting ahead of herself.  She deeply feared that the name ’Conway’ could be facing the same tragic connotations in history as ’Bones’.  Susan had already requested a detail be organised to watch over the remaining relatives.  As horrible as it was, targeting the family had been the first mistake made by the self-proclaimed ’Dark Widow’.  There must be some connection between her and the Conways, which Susan was determined to figure out. 

The second mistake had been her letter to The Daily Prophet.  Clearly this ‘Dark Widow’ character wanted her agenda to be publically known.  Susan initially hadn’t wanted the letter to be published (fear mongering trash!) but it was one of the only leads they had and letting that play out could help shake up more information.  (Besides there was scary enough stuff in the paper these days).  As was always the case with any public crisis, plenty of people were contacting the Department to share their theories and paranoid ideas, but so far Susan had yet to come across anything useful.  The Department had no clue as to the Widow’s identity so far but hopefully her arrogance would be her undoing.  One day she or her followers would slip up and Susan would be waiting.  She only worried what sort of trouble the witch could get up to in the meantime.  It also caused her some concern to think that in their haste to Obliviate and cover up any breach of wizarding secrecy, the Ministry might lose important evidence.  As such she was taking a very personal interest in the investigation.

The Widow’s declaration had promised to escalate and escalate matters until the Statute of Secrecy was rendered redundant.  This made it clear that more attacks were planned.  Susan had spent a lot of time recently, preparing a profile from the little information they had about the Widow and cataloguing possible locations for her next strike.  It seemed obvious that any magical infrastructures hidden within Muggle communities could be at risk.  Even the Ministry or St Mungo’s could be targets; though Susan didn’t know if the Widow’s movement felt bold enough to hit such high-profile locations yet.  Attacking and revealing a wizarding pub in the middle of the night was one thing.  Blatantly moving against highly guarded institutions was another.  Still, it was going to be necessary for everyone in the Ministry to work together if they ever had a hope of stopping the Widow before she could gain momentum. 

The young Auror had been asked to share her report with the Head of the Hit Squad, @Joanna Hennings, so that she could organise squad member’s to monitor key locations.  Susan could have just enchanted a memo to fly across or dropped it in Joanna’s in-tray, but she greatly respected the older witch and looked forward to discussing the situation with her in person.  They shared a lot of common views – especially regarding the relaxed treatment of Death Eaters and war criminals – so Susan always enjoyed hearing what Joanna had to say.  Dressed simply in dark blue robes and with her hair tidily braided back, the young witch crossed the floor towards Joanna’s office.  She passed many empty desks as she went and shook her head in disgust.  It seemed like more than half the Ministry was out at Oktoberfest getting wasted and acting like they didn’t have plenty of more important things to do.  At only 22-years-old, it was perhaps the kind of party that should have appealed to her.  However, Susan was far too dedicated to her work to consider such an event anything more than a ridiculous waste of time and resources.  But at least the Department was quiet and she didn’t have to put up with as much non-work-related chatter as usual. 

She shuffled the stack of parchment under her arm – containing a disgustingly short and vague list of suspects as well as a long list of possible locations for the next attack – and knocked politely on Joanna’s door.  Nodding to the witch behind the desk as she entered, Susan handed over the papers and took a seat.  “My investigations into the ’Widow’ so far.  You’ll find a list of potential targets.  I’ve highlighted the ones that the Department would like to monitor.”  She grimaced apologetically as Joanna looked it over.  “I’m sorry.  I know you’re already stretched thin but we want to be as prepared as possible in case there’s another incident.”  It wasn’t really necessary for her to say, she had no doubt that Joanna would agree to do everything in her power to help, but Susan knew that the whole department was still trying to recover from the war and the Hit Squad in particular had been struggling to find resources and bodies.  Shaking her head, she looked grim as she spoke again, “Can you believe all of these radical groups that are cropping up these days?  I can hardly bear to read the paper.”  She’d never stop reading the news, it was important to stay up to date on all developments in the wizarding community, especially the unpleasant ones, but sometimes she wished she could go down to the Prophet and throttle some of those journalists with her bare hands. 

Joanna was having a good day. There had been no incidents or call outs, the squad had confiscated a container of cursed bludgers with no injuries and then completed the paperwork promptly. It was already on her desk! And there was no errors. It was truly miraculous. It definitely help that the members of the team that irritated her the most were in a different country, separated by thousands of miles of land and water. She was spending the rest of her day doing the odd things that always seemed to get forgotten about. Really gutting her mental to do list. Why, when the full squad returned they would be amazed by what had been accomplished in their absence. Joanna absentmindedly popped a gumdrop into her mouth as she completed the accident and incident stats for the year so far. Too high, but what could be expected? She wasn’t exactly working with the best anymore.

She looked up at a knock on her door. “Oh, hello Susan,” Joanna greeted, “please come in.” As the other witch entered Joanna wondered if it was a social or business call. The stacks of paper under Susan’s arms suggested this was official business, and the tight look on the auror’s face backed that up. However, Susan had a tendency to appear that way. Much like her aunt she went through work with a no nonsense attitude. Joanna has respected Amelia Bones and was happy to note that her niece shared some of her admirable qualities. Given time and experience she could be just as much of a strong figure as her late family member. Joanna looked forward to watching, and maybe helping, that happen. A Bones would never stand for the soft sentences and early releases currently being doled out to the worst in society.

“So, you’ve been left here this week too?” Joanna asked lightly. “Unlimited beer in the Bavarian Alps didn’t appeal to you?” It appealed to Joanna. The Bavarian Alps part anyway. She wasn’t fussed with unlimited beer, even though some of the varieties on offer were meant to be exceptional. The pinnacle of combining brewing methods with magic. She’d even heard they were experimenting with an every flavour beer - a different taste with every sip! - which sounded simultaneously both revolting and fascinating. But she’d stick with her already-determined flavour of drink. The Burning Beard was doing special events all week in honour of Oktoberfest so Joanna guessed the pub would have to be her Bavaria. At least for this year. One day she would go travelling though...

She took the list off Susan and looked it over. Well, that was the end of the good day! There was no way the squad had the manpower to monitor these locations until next week. And even then that was only with no other incidents drawing their attention. It looked like she would be requesting everyone pulled double shifts until the so-called Dark Widow was apprehended. As long as she didn’t have to send anyone abroad! The list of potential targets contained nearly every Wizarding site in Britain, and Joanna quickly pulled together the similarities between groupings. “I will do the best I can but I won’t be able to cover them all until next Tuesday at the earliest.” All the absentees would be back on Monday but Joanna was not about to put them straight into the field. Heck, if she had any choice in the matter there would be several that she never let out of the field. Especially given how accident prone they were in the safe environment of the office!

“Can we settle on three as priorities based on the little we know of her MO?” Joanna asked, finger running down the list and considering the limited knowledge they had of the murderer. It was not great to try and make a pattern after only one attack - she could do something completely different the next time - but they were quite restricted by staffing. And much as Joanna was skilled, she couldn’t be in multiple places at once. She was still waiting for the Department of Mysteries to develop a cloning spell. “She attacked at night, and attacked defenceless people at that. She wanted to be seen by Muggles but cleared off before officials arrived.” Cowardly b-! The attack was horrific and, unfortunately, exactly what Joanna had come to expect from the vermin of society. In fact calling them vermin was mean to rats. “I think she wants to taunt us. I mean, that letter was just another example that she sees this as a game!” Joanna had reservations that the Prophet had published the letter in the first place. Those beliefs should not be given a platform and she thought they should have treated the ‘Dark Widow’ as an attention seeking child. Ignore their pleas for attention. But the Prophet could never resist a juicy story... absolutely no morals.

“What do you think about ignoring these more prominent locations?” Joanna asked, pointing out The Leaky Cauldron and St Mungo’s on the list. “I know they’re in the magical and Muggle world but they’re never as quiet as Rhayader. And if she’s taking steps then it’s a big leap from sleepy Welsh town to central London. Certainly any attacks in London would have a response within seconds. Same with Hogsmeade.” Joanna pointed to York on the list. “Is there a particular location here or just every Wizarding premise there?”

Conscious that the younger woman was not yet as cynical about sightings as she was, Joanna kept her commentary, that it was very likely the Dark Widow would attack again. And again before they were able to build up a picture, Joanna instead asked a question that, if solved, would definitely help them. “Do we have any ideas of why she chose Rhayader to attack in the first place? Did she point her wand at a map and go for it, or do we think she had a connection to there?” It was not a very big place. If she had a connection to there then it would be easier to build a profile. And psychopaths, especially ones who sent letters, always had some reason, however awful, for what they did.

Suddenly aware that this would not be a quick visit, Joanna flicked her wand to the teapot in the corner of the room, causing it to fill with boiling water. “Tea?” She asked, not waiting for a response before the teapot poured two cups and they flew gracefully over to her desk. “Milk? Sugar?” She gestured to the jug and saucer off to the side, the jug rising in the air to pour milk into her own cup as she spoke. “I’ve also got some nice chocolates in here.” Joanna pulled out a selection box of chocolates from her desk drawer and placed them on the desk too. “Help yourself.”

Pleasantries over with, Joanna flicked her wand at the wall to the left, causing ‘alias - Dark Widow’ to appear in big letters in the middle. A line off the words led to ‘egotistical’ and ‘why Rhadayer?’ “Shall we go through what we know to possibly narrow locations down?” She asked politely, tapping her wand on the parchment to transfer the list of locations onto the opposite wall. Joanna immediately put lines through all the London locations and Hogsmeade. It was a tragic shame that half Joanna’s role was to police investigations, stopping thorough work in favour of realistic work. Susan had clearly worked hard on this and now Joanna had to strip it back.

Left here?  Joanna made it sound like being at work while so many others were off in the Alps sporting silly little costumes, dancing and drinking – drinking a lot – should come as some kind of disappointment to the 22-year-old.  It didn’t.  Susan had long since lost the enthusiasm and desire to party (if she’d ever had it to begin with).  She’d been accused before of being too serious for her age, of not knowing how to have fun.  Perhaps there should be something sad in that but she wouldn’t know how to change, even if she wanted to.  Tossing back a whiskey in The Burning Beard was as close as she got to going wild and she was ok with that.  “No thanks.” She responded simply to Joanna well-intentioned query.  “I like being here.”

Susan waited patiently as her colleague looked over the list.  “Of course.”  She inclined her head in respectful acknowledgement of the squads limitations, especially given the present absentees.  It was obvious that even at full capacity they wouldn’t be able to patrol every wizarding location in the United Kingdom, but just three?!  The young witch frowned and sighed.  She would hate to leave the Widow any opening.  However, if they didn’t have enough resources or people to maintain a large net then there was nothing much Susan or Joanna could do to change that, no matter how hard they worked.  We’ll just have to work smarter.

She could relate to how Joanna obviously felt about the attack.  Inflicting such violence upon unsuspecting and defenceless people in that manner was disgusting.  It did not reflect well on the type of people they were dealing with.  It was also clear that they wanted to undermine public opinion of the Ministry as much as possible.  “Practically defunct and extraordinarily helpless Ministry of Magic.”  Susan pulled a face and quoted from the letter that she had memorised.

“I agree her movement is not ready to hit those high profile locations – yet.”  Susan privately held reservations about the so-called security of such places.  It would not be wise for them to be too complacent.  Everyone always thought they were safe until proven they weren’t.  The Ministry itself had even fallen to Dark Wizards before and she was sure plenty of people would have considered it impossible before the fact.  Sharing such thoughts out loud however was the type of thing that saw Susan labelled as melodramatic by her peers.  This was supposedly a peacetime after all.  Leaning over, Susan looked at the spot Joanna was pointing to.  "Ah York.  Given the wide dispersion of wizarding homes and premises in that area, I decided not to specify a particular venue."

Why Rhayader?  Joanna voiced the most pertinent question and one that had been keeping Susan awake at night.  It was also potentially the key to unlocking the mystery of the Widow’s identity.  Before she could answer, the Lead Hit-Witch was offering her tea.  “Yes please.”  She replied politely.  “Just milk.  No sugar.  Thank you.”  Plucking the cup from the air she took a bracing sip.  Considering the chocolates carefully she resisted taking one just yet.  Sweets always had a way of going straight to her waistline. 

A small smile appeared briefly on her face as she watched the other witch draw up the data on her wall where they could both see it clearly.  This was evidently going to turn into a brainstorming session.  Susan always appreciated that Joanna took her seriously.  Many of her older colleagues did not show her as much respect.  “I don’t believe that Rhayader was selected by chance.”  She spoke quietly at first, easing her way into sharing one of her more unpopular opinions.  “It was the Conways.”  Light brown eyes looked up beseechingly.  She needed someone to believe her.  Given her own family history it was too easy for people to consider her biased in reaching this conclusion. 

“The Muggle deaths seem to have been incidental to the destruction.  In fact, many even reported being protected by the assailants.  The Widow wanted them to be witnesses, not casualties.”  It seemed clear that the Muggles themselves had not been targets.  “Whereas all of the wizards in the Broom & Room were killed.”  Taking a deep breath, Susan tried to keep her voice steady and emotionless as she continued.  “It seems odd that this Widow would show such restraint towards Muggles but not her own brethren.  Her demonstration could still have been effective, even without destroying the inn and those inside.  It doesn’t match with her stated goal of revealing the existence of our world to the Muggles.”

After a pause, “I believe that the Conways were specifically targeted and murdered.”

Feeling chilled by her own words, Susan picked up a chocolate and popped it into her mouth.  Whilst she knew there were plenty of counterarguments, such as that a number of unrelated witches and wizards had also perished in the same incident and they couldn’t prove specific intent to kill anyone inside the inn, she hoped that Joanna would at least consider the possibility.  If Susan was right, it could be an important clue to the Widow’s identity.  However, all of her investigations into potential enemies of the family so far had come up with nothing.  The lack of any clear motive was proving the biggest barrier to getting anyone on board with her theory.   

However, since they didn’t have enough information to substantiate personal reasons the Widow might have for selecting her next target, they would have to rely on what they knew about her agenda.  Raising her wand, Susan pointed to the locations listed on the wall and highlighted some of the entries in different colours.  “These are large population centres (orange), symbolic or historical sites (green), low ministry presence (purple) and locations with significant Muggle media presence (blue).”  The last category particularly concerned Susan.  Whilst she didn’t understand exactly how Muggle television worked, she knew that they were capable of broadcasting news worldwide.  A breach of secrecy near a media hub could prove much more difficult to cover up.   

Gesturing with her wand, she circled several names that had fallen under all of her categories of interest.  Amongst them were Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Cardiff.  Sitting back, she regarded them stonily while drinking some of her tea.  Susan had tried so hard to come up with some way to pinpoint where the next attack would fall but it all felt so hopeless.  It was unlikely they’d be able to determine the Widow’s plans until she chose to reveal more, which wouldn’t be until after further attacks and further casualties.  Or maybe, it would turn out that this so called Widow was just a hoax and Rhayader would be an isolated incident.  Feeling a headache coming on, Susan raised one hand to her temple.  “Honestly, I haven’t got a clue.”  It wasn’t in her nature to admit to uncertainty but she respected Joanna enough to allow her confident façade to slip sometimes.  “What do you think we should look for?”

“You believe the Conways were being specifically targeted?” Joanna asked in a neutral tone, even if she was slightly astonished by Susan’s revelation. “What makes you say that?” As Susan explained, Joanna listened attentively, nodding in the appropriate places. If Susan truly felt that way then it would be unwise to dismiss it, and Joanna couldn’t deny that everything Susan said was truth. “Okay,” Joanna said contemplatively, once the other witch was finished. “Then what do we know about the Conway family?”

On the wall behind her she put up the word ‘Conway’ in large letters. Enemies, feuds, debts, disagreements all surrounded the surname. “So, have you talked to the remaining family members?” She asked, “have they been able to provide any leads?” Joanna thought about what she knew of the Conways. One, Daniel or something, if she remembered correctly, she hadn’t been involved in any part of the investigation, arrest or trial, had recently been released from Azkaban having been eventually found not guilty. “What about that one that was released from Azkaban?” She questioned, “how closely was he related to the deceased?” A thought struck Joanna, “and the victim’s family? Any chance it’s their idea of payback?” Although, if Joanna had listened to the goings on correctly, then the victim had been a muggleborn.

But, it didn’t hurt to check. “If you feel that way then we should definitely go over his trial with a fine toothcomb,” Joanna started decisively. “A single comment could potentially provide a clue to the family dealings.” It certainly might help in narrowing down this massive list. If the Dark Widow was actually just going after the Conways, or her enemies, then they had a much better chance of stopping it. People could be contained and protected. She was incapable of moving locations into closer proximity. It would definitely make her life easier if she could. Imagine one raid managing to cover all the suspicious locations in Britain because they were suddenly all next to each other. That sounded amazing.

“Running with that,” Joanna continued, “have there been any other recent incidents involving the Conway family? It could be that there’s a clue in them?” She paused. “Or maybe the reason she is referring to herself as ‘Widow’ is because she somehow blames the death of her husband on them? And, if it turns out the Conways weren’t the reason behind the attack, then we should still look into that. Recent deaths that have left behind widows.” As Joanna suggested that, she groaned internally. If they were looking for something suspicious then all deaths would need to be examined, to see if anything seemed to be covered up. There would be hundreds of cases to go over. Definitely not something that could realistically be done with any efficiency. “Oh, what was the Conway family’s general opinion on blood status?” Finally deciding to mention the idea that the attack may have been blood motivated.

It horrified Joanna. It really did. The thought that after all the work that had gone in to turning Britain into a blood positive nation, that it could be so easily damaged. It demonstrated how fragile the system was and Joanna would fight tooth and nail to ensure that another war did not occur, another purist group did not rise. The fact that this attack was so reminiscent of an old style Death Eater attack did not go unnoticed. It had been in and out before Ministry officials could respond. It was the defenceless who were targeted, and both muggles and wizards alike were victims. Oh, and if Susan was correct then it had all but eliminated a family who were aligned against the Dark Widow. It couldn’t be, could it?

“Susan,” Joanna began cautiously, “is there any way this Dark Widow may be styling herself this way in honour of the evil scum Riddle? The
pseudonyms are similar after all? And the MO is familiar.” She trailed off, not willing to spend too long questioning before Susan had provided more details.

As the auror went through the list of locations, Joanna considered those in blue. If anything got on TV then it would be nearly impossible to contain. However, people tended not to believe the impossible, and to muggles real magic was just that. Therefore they would convince themselves it was a trick, and those with different opinions would be dismissed as ‘crazy’ or ‘delusional’. It certainly made statute breaks easier to cover up when the muggles provided half the lie for the Ministry. At the younger witch’s defeated expression, Joanna nudged the box of chocolates forward, gesturing her companion to take one. She had to remember that Susan was still young. Just out of training really and so not used to the complete dead end of information that came with many a case. The job was made up of considered guess work a lot of the time, rather than definite answers.

“It’s okay,” Joanna stayed reassuringly, before returning her gaze to the wall of locations. “In the absence of any credible information I would say that the priority should be gathering information on your believed lead - the Conway family - rather than monitoring a location that will essentially have to be selected at random.” She sighed, “however, if they need one monitored then I would personally pick a similarity to Rhayader. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, a family run business perhaps in a village where at least one wizarding family live and work?” She circled a few locations including Polperro and Grantown-on-Spey. “These for example. But again, until we work out how she,” Joanna pointed her wand back at the other wall, underlining the Dark Widow, “if it is a she, thinks then it will be thankless.”