Details for Tensions and the MLF |
Summary: | Tension start to get high in the M.L.E. when investigating leads. |
Date: | 1939-07-29 |
Location: | Department of M.L.E. |
Plot: | For The Greater Good |
Related: | Attack on the Alleys |
Characters |
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While many people are off doing field work, many people are stuck in the office. Why? Because Between the slew of letters forwarded from Brad to Auror Cohen and the second slew of letters with any thing people have imagined as a possible lead. They are stuck sorting through letter after letter, some are useless while others are well, saying things like the it was a Ministry set up to even more extremes that it was a group of rouge goblins. Pretty much in this mess of letters, almost every theory exists.
Arthur has been out in the field, but has come back to check on a few things and concluded to resume his game of, "Move a letter to Shelley's desk." the rules are fairly simply, any letter that has ended up on Arthur's desk that is nor specifically addressed to him, he sneaks on to Shelley's desk with her pile of letters. Yes he is keeping score and actually playing against a few other Aurors in the office and the time has come to try again. Picking up the letters he moves over towards Shelley, trying to hide them in the shelves of is duster. As he gets closer he accidentally knocks over a few, "Hoy! Sorry bout dhat!" he says as he reaches down to pick the fallen letters up and try and slide his in.
"Careful, Nightengale. Last think we want is the letter that actually means something to get lost between desks," Shelley remarks, without lifting her gaze from the one she was currently reading. After finishing the rambling paragraph that has held her attention, she pulls off the wall a letter she'd lightly afixed there with a mild sticking charm. "You should take a look at this one," she remarks as she hands it over.
The letter in question is Grade A, concentrated, and unmitigated crazy. It proports that the whole thing was done by the British government, which had armed itself with invisibility cloaks and potions stolen from wizarding households to do the deed. That police officers had found homes of isolated witches and wizards in the country, captured and killed all the occupents, and covered it up. "This one's my favorite so far - hands down. You got any winners?"
There is, of course, a pool, and the person who finds the craziest letter wins the pot.
Arthur reads over the letter with a small chuckle, rolling his eyes and handing it back to Shelley, "Sorry, I'll be more careful." he says in regards to the letters. Making sure he stacks them up nice and neat. His hand moves to his lip as he taps it slowly, "Ah had un." he says nodding, "Filed it en crazy." he says with a chuckle, "Said dhat, da Dark Force Defence League had been slowly planning this. Da idea is to get more people da join an increate their numbers and donations." he says shaking his head, "Anoder un, about how Merlin had come back da life and had done all dis, da show us the error of ah ways. Dhat if we choose not da repent, Merlin would forsake us and we should embrace his beard as da one true way." he says waggling his eyebrows at the notion.
"I like the Merlin one. Sounds like a solid lead, that," Shelley remarks with dry amusement. "Hey - you heard much about the MLF? 'Muggle Liberation Front.' Because what we really need around here is more three letter acronyms. Plenty of folks are talking Unity, Preservation, and Army of Truth, but…" Reaching into a drawer, she pulls out a folder into which she's tucked three letters. "I've found three of these so far. You found any about them?"
Arthur can't help but shake his head, "Ain't never heard ah an MLF." he says slowly with a frown. "Don't dhink we have ah file on any ah dhat either." he says slowly reading over the files, "Muggle Liberation Front… I ain't heard nuffin about dis." he says shaking his head and handing the file back, "Certainly worth checking out.. ah course after we chase down da ghost ah Merlin." he says with a smirk. "What are yeh dhinking with it?" he asks.
From afar, Shelley snickers. "It's a pretty good solution for crazy-Shelley. So unless he's brought it up since - she'd have no idea he was ever there."
From behind massive walls of paperwork, what had been for some time sounds of snoring are suddenly replaced by a mans voice groggily calling out "I didn't kill him, he was like that when I found him," Several papers being scattered as the sleep addled Denny takes a look around, the shock on his face falling away back to just a rather tired expression from not much in the way of sleep, something of the twos conversation having woken the hitwizard.
"I tried looking for a file," Shelley confirms. "Well - at the very least, we ought to have someone follow up with Thomas Carrow and Jakob Anderson, to find out what they know about this group. Might be worth it to plant someone into the organization to try to find out what they're all about - properly. It's the sort of job that's right up your alley, really," she remarks. It is useful having a metamorph around, after all.
Arthur taps his chin for a few moments, offering a small shrug. "Dunno." he says with a chuckle, "Yeh know how Cohen feels bout meh." he says tapping his nose, "Can yeh imagine his face if he found out dhat yeh gave a solid lead da me instead ah him?" he says with a chuckle. "Anyway ah am stuck on following up on where dhey got da ingredients, got da information from St. Mungos." he says with a shrug, "Some crazy jazz on dhere I ain't even never head ah." he says running his hand over his head for a moment.
Denny slowly comes back to a stand muttering something in latin into his coffee mug to refill it fresh before making his way for the washroom. He looks very much out of it, a few bits of paper still stuck to the front of his grey suit, while he walks past the two at their desk.
Shelley lets out a snort. "Graham, do undercover work? Yeah. /That'll/ work well," she laughs. "It's usually you or Cooper - but she's got her hands full, too." She smirks with some amusement. "Lee's been drawing too much attention to herself - they'd never trust her. Worthington'd never authorize me to try an undercover…" She could do this one, though. With her history with Alis - they'd buy it. "Maybe Carruthers?" she muses, her eyes idly following Denny as the man stumbles past, half asleep.
Arthur lets out a small chuckle, "Ah come on, not like he got Auror tattooed on his forehead." he says trying to give Shelley a reassuring smile, but closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, before muttering, "Aye…. Cohen's got bobbie written all over him." he says slowly tapping his chin, then she says she could do it. "Aye, get out of da office for ah bit. Yeh got assigned do da letters right?" he says slowly with a small smirk, "Cause hwo can yeh not follow up on ah lead dhat may be nouffin." he says. As Denny walks past he offers him a small nod, "Morning, evening. Same dhing around here ah suppose." he
"Four days of nothing but paperwork" The hitwizard grumbles scratching the back of his head, as he makes for the bathroom, a small arsenal of muggle weapons visible under his jacket, pistol here, knife there, spiked knuckles stashed here. All stashed about in odd little corners of his jacket, to the point where his wand could easily be missed in the mess of arms fire and otherwise. "Can't wait to get back on the beet," The man adds before ducking back inside of the washroom, the door swinging closed behind him.
"Talking to Carrow and Anderson - maybe. Worthington'd forgive me that, I'm sure. But infiltrating the MLF?" Shelley shakes her head - looking a little disheartened. "I've pushed my lucky too many times, already. Worthington's already annoyed I tried to help out on North Verdic, as it stands."
Arthur can't help but chuckle, "Aye, dhink dhat most of us are rather tired ah pushed da papers." he says with a nod, "But look at ole Shell, here chuggen long." he says offering Shelley a small wink, before he considers something for a moment. "Don't know, mean Diagon pretty much ah ghost town." he says with a small shrug, "More likely da find Merlin's Ghost dhen a shop open." he says with a small shrug, "Every un is all over in Hogsmeade fer shopping. Even Knockturn's pretty quiet, 'ell as quiet as dhat scum hole can get." he says nodding. Then his attention is drawn back to Shelley, giving her ah shrug, "Getten ahead of yerself." he says smiling at her, "Can't inflitrate nuffin we iffen we don't have a clue bout dhen. All yeh got, is three letters, pretty weak." he says with a shrug, "Go da Worthington witd somedhing solid and am sure he will be has happy as a pea in ah pod." he says with a smirk.
"True enough," Shelley agrees, tapping the edge of the folder on her desk. She is getting bloody restless, trapped behind her desk with all these letters. "Suppose it can't hurt to at least track this Carrow down. I wonder where he'll be at, with his shop closed up?"
Arthur lets out a shrug, "He owns dhat muggle book store right?" he says thinking back to the chaos not that long ago, with that shop and being targeted by the Army of Truth. "Don't know, must shop owners from what I 'ave seen still in their shops." he says with a nod, "Ah say yeh go fer it, doubt Worthington 'ill get miffed bout a minor lead." he says with a smile at Shelley, trying to reassure her, "I'll back yeh up too if he gets a little irked." he says with a nod.
"It's odd, isn't it?" Shelley asks. "There's a book store right there, selling /Muggle/ books - and the Army of Truth attacks a potion shop instead? It's enough to make you wonder, anyways." She lets out a sigh. "That Sykes thing was a mess. If we don't close this one…" The public's going to lose faith.
Arthur shrugs, "Different thoughts an views be floating round." he says to Shelley, "But dhat is kinda off. Truth be told, we won't know nuffen as da why dhey picked the targets dhey did, 'il dhey tell us." he says slowly with a sigh. "Aye, the Banshee, the Skyes… now dis." he says shaking his head, "Like I told other people… da smoke?" he says shaking his head, "The time before people started da die?" he says slowly looking over at the wall with the pictures of the fallen on it, "Twas done, I promise yeh, da target us. Da MLE and Mungos was da secondary target." he says clicking his tongue against his cheek.
Shelley's gaze goes towards the pictures, her expression going grim. "You might be right about that," she agrees. "Healers and kids - can you think of more dispicable targets? We're fair game at least - we signed up for this." She hasn't been able to do a damned thing about Alis' killer - but if she can help bring Albertson's to Azkaban…
Arthur shakes his head, "Aye fair game, but da try and take us out…" he says clicking his tongue against his teeth now, his eyes looking at the pictures, "When we helpen out people… da bring our guard down like dhat…" he says, "Cowardly." he says rolling his shoulders with a frustrated sigh.
Denny comes back out from the restroom, with a bit of an unamused expression across his face. He takes a sip of coffee, from his mug, making his way over towards their desk with a bit of interest as he just manages to catch the tail end of the twos conversation. "Moody's got something to do with it" He says rather out of the blue, starting to make his way over towards his desk. "Just give me ten hours with the man, and an obliviator, and I'll tell you how."
Whatever Shelley was /going/ to say to Arthur is completely derailed by Denny's arrival. "An /obliviator/?" she asks in a disbelieving tone. "You do know how public opinion of the MLE is going - and you want to take on such a high-profile and popular figure - and then play with his memories?"
"Don't get meh wrong." Arthur says slowly, "Don't like da man or his ideas…" he says with a shrug, "But I ain't going da lock ah man up because ah dhat. I want da make sure whoever really did dis, pays." he says nodding, "I saw… wat happened to Albertson." he says shaking his head. "Da right people gotta pay… an we gotta do dis, by da books." he says as Shelley offers her input, "Aye, iffen Looney Moody, did do it, we can't make him a mardyr." he says slowly, "And iffen he didn't, we can't let da people who did… dhink dhey can do dis again cause we can't get em." he says slowly, "If da people loose faith in us, dhey will look else where da find it. People like Moody, screams safety an protection. Dhats dangerous fer us if we loose support." he says running his hand through his hair.
"You can read through my report," Denny says rather sure of himself before taking a sip of his coffee. "He might not have been the one to plant the bomb, but I know for a fact he's got something to do with it, and he had the gall to walk up to our doorstep shit on our carpet, and call it our fault for not cleaning it up fast enough" He looks back over towards the wall of fallen MLE officers, before adding on. "I've got a gut feeling about it from the way he acted, and my gut's kept me alive, and out of mungo's so far."
"We'd have no one left in this office if everyone followed their gut, grabbed their suspects, stepped /way/ over the line, and then wiped their memories after it. There's no way Solomon or Worthington'd stamp their approval to it, anyways," Shelley points out, speaking harshly. "Everyone's eyes are on us, and we damned well better do this thing /right/ or it'll turn into a bigger shit show than we're already stuck with."
Arthur tilts his head at Denny, "For eh fact?" he says waiting, for the information. Looking a little bit, depressed by the resulting information. "Gut ain't enough. Iffen we can't make it stick an stick hard." he says shrugging, "We got nuffin." he says slowly with a shrug, "Moody ain't no fool. Look wha he did da Lee." he says with a frown, "Dhen now Cohen." he says slowly, "Ah while smiling an yellen good intentions." he says looking at Shelley, "Yeh agree, Moody ain't da be daken lightly, 'ight?" he asks. "Also iffen yeh ever want yer Sergeant, yeh might wana tone it down a few notches in da office." he says with a chuckle, "Drust meh, dhings like dhat kept me an an Initiate longer dhen it should have." he says trying to offer some friendly advice.
"I lost my best friend, my partner, then I get shoved here on desk duty filing paperwork because one of yours gets in the way of me trying to find out where his killer is, and lets him stab her" Denny starts off rather calm quickly raising his voice, "Then I get people looking at me walking down the street like I'm some kind of monster," He takes a step closer "And now no one wants to let me do my job?" He raises a single hand, before just turning away saying a lot more quietly and subdued, as he starts to walk away unless impeded back to his desk "If I where half the monster your department seems to think I am…" He trails off
The only sign that Shelley might be perturbed by the way the man rails and raises his hand, is the way she slowly shifts her weight back, away from him. They're in the middle of the /MLE/, by Merlin's beard! If he's stupid enough to actually do something - well. It would be quickly dealt with. Instead, she just watches him, her expression kept neutral. "You think you're the only one to lose a friend and partner in this place?" she asks, her tone growing cool. "But you're going to lose a lot of sympathy, acting like that. Harrigan's case isn't yours to investigate, and there's a good reason for that. If you need time away from the job, you take it, but you keep on this path and you'll be out of a job, Orwell."
Arthur looks at Denny, his hair growing bright red, "Watch yer tone Constable." he says slowly and evenly, his eyes now slowly a fading into a dark dismal color. "Yeh dhink yer special?" he looks over at Shelley for a second, clicking his tongue against his cheek, as the Hit Wizard takes a step forward and tries to intimidate him. Leaning in a bit, "First, Constable. Yeh are talking da Aurors, who loose people all da time." he says softly, his face straight. "Second, Iffen ye got a problem with Lee, yeh got a problem with me." he says rolling his shoulders, "I ain't no dolt on Umber yeh can knock round." he says as the Denny goes to walk away, "Bugger off." he says shaking his head, turning back to Shelley, his hair and eyes starting to return to their normal color.
"Twenty six years I knew Harrigan" Denny mutters quietly to himself, "Fifteen of those we spent working the trail together" He says sitting down, trying to calm himself down, while also shaking off their words. He sits his coffee mug down at the corner of his desk in between two massive stacks of papers, the color faded from his face somewhat as he moves to the other side and takes a heavy seat into his chair, the rather well built man just sitting heavy into his chair.
Shelley shakes her head slightly, glancing at Denny, then back at Arthur. The guy was a loose canon, just waiting to go off. He should be on leave. She sighs, but lets it drop. "Yeah, what he did to Lee really was a thing. It was /painful/ to stand there and watch it. You really weren't there? I half expected…"
Arthur shakes his head, "Don't have dime for dhat nonsense." he says waving his head, "Politics tis all bout lyen and maken yer self look good." he says slowly, "Already 'old Lee how I felt bout dhat shit." he says slowly, "Already 'old her she needs da stay away from all dhat nonsense an focus on da job. Ain't going da do no good da anyone, iffen she gets fired." he says with a shrug, not paying any more mind to Denny, though his shoulder and body is stiff, a bit of the old street rat in him trying to break free.
Denny throws back the full contents of his mug into his mouth, whispering another latin phrase to fill it back to the brim once more. He looks over towards the two, for a moment with sleep ridden eyes, before returning to the endless piles of paperwork at hand in need of sorting shifting signing stamping and sorting again. He lets out a long breath of air through gritted teeth, while he works on the verge of doing something very stupid.
"I told her much the same," Shelley agrees. "Of course, she wasn't much inclined to listen to anything I said. She had someone else in mind." She rolls her eyes, then lets her eyes fall on the stack of letters in front of her. "Well - if you find anymore of these MLF letters…"
Arthur nods, slowly. "Lee is stubborn but she ain't daft." he says slowly, "She just ah bit impulsive." he continues, "By da dime she makes Auror, she 'ill have a good head on her shoulders." he says slowly, "Just like 'en she got stabbed, I 'old her, next dime someun tries da kill her, she better get da hell back up an try da kill em right back." he says slowly with a nod, "She's still fresh is all." he says in her defense. "Ah yeah, iffen I come across any I will sit em on yer desk." he says softly with a nod, "Looks like it could lead da somedhing." he agrees, his hand running through his hair that has returned back to it's normal shade.
Denny absorbs himself n paperwork for the time being, about smashing his inkpen in his grip before switching out for a muggle writing pen. He feels that he writes faster with one anyway.
"She's a good sort, but the /notions/ she gets in her head, sometimes…" Shelley remarks, shaking her head slightly. "Anyways. I'm sure we'll get her pounded into shape sooner or later." She looks up from a letter she had picked up, studying Arthur's features for a moment, then looking back down. "You look odd as a ginger, Nightengale. You know that, right?"
Arthur nods slowly, "Aye, but dhat comes witd being fresh." he says patting Shelley on the shoulder. "Iffen we don't, Worthington will." he says with a chuckle, "Look he has kept meh from smashed witness's head against a bar." he says with a chuckle, but then she makes the comment about his hair, "Hoy! Can't help dhat! When meh temper gets da better ah meh an I am ready fer ah fight, can't control it." he says with a chuckle, "An Prewett, don't lie yeh know ye like." he teases back with a wink.
"My word speaks only truth," Shelley says solemnly, putitng one hand on her heart. "You know that." She flashes Arthur a brief smile, then waves him off, looking back down to her stack of letters. Never get through all of this…
Arthur puts his hands behind his head looking at the letters, "Certainly seems like the stack isn't getting smaller." he says with a knowing smirk, "Like another letters are added for each letter you finish… curious." he says with a shrug, before walking over to his desk and picking up a file from a drawer and heading towards the exit.
Coming down the hall is a single man, with a massive stack of paperwork, the man looks barely old enough to be an intern, and as if he's about to fall over from the sheer weight of it all. He makes his way past Denny, past Shelly, and Arthur, and over to grahams desk, a small group of owls fallowing behind to drop more letters onto the mans desk. The sheer volume of them all is tremendously shocking in just how much 'fanmail' this one Auror can get.