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Post by Albus Dumbledore on Jan 28, 2007 23:21:57 GMT -5
Dumbledore apparated into the Ministry with Tyler. Quickly, he hurried directly to the Auror offices, where hopefully he would be able to discuss the issue of the attack with one of the Aurors on duty.
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 29, 2007 16:42:05 GMT -5
Tyler followed Dumbledore, trudging a bit farther behind him. A few of the ministry employees gave him curious looks, no doubt wondering why he was so tired-looking and beat up.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 29, 2007 22:39:01 GMT -5
Cassidy was sitting at her desk, working on a report on Death Eater activity when she heard two people approach the office. She was the only one in the office that day, as she was most days. Vincent was in charge, but he preferred to work out of the Hog's Head, and he kept most of his Aurors on duty in that area. It was usually left to Cassidy to handle whatever issues came up in the office. Not that she minded. She'd never really been in the field before, and she was still a bit nervous about it.
Without looking up, Cassidy held up a finger to indicate that they should wait just a minute while she finished her train of thought. She quickly jotted down the rest of the sentence, then looked up. "OK, what can I do... Oh! Professor Dumbledore! I... I didn't know you were coming! I'm sorry, please forgive me, I shouldn't have made you wait. Please, sit down. In fact, here, take my chair. Please, I insist!" she said breathlessly, jumping up from her seat.
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Post by Albus Dumbledore on Jan 30, 2007 10:05:08 GMT -5
"Oh, no, that is not necessary, Miss LaRose," said Dumbledore pleasantly. "Please, sit down. I can get my own seat, thank you." He quickly conjured a chintz chair and pulled it up to the desk facing her, then summoned a chair from a nearby desk and indicated for Tyler to sit. "Now, then," he said seriously. "I'm afraid we have a rather serious matter to discuss."
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 30, 2007 14:08:00 GMT -5
Tyler sat down in the chair next to Dumbledore, and looked at the girl behind the desk. He had never met her before but she seemed nice enough to at least listen to the story about what had just happened without immediately accusing him. Tyler took a deep breath as Dumbledore prepared to tell the girl the story.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 30, 2007 14:18:30 GMT -5
Cassidy sat down slowly. "Erm, if you're sure, Professor," she said. "Um, would you like something? I could make you a cup of coffee if you like, or tea... Oh, I think I have some licorice snaps!" she added, remembering the headmaster's fondness for sweets. She looked over at the other man with Dumbledore. She had never seen him before, but he was good-looking, despite the fact that he was badly bruised and battered.
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Post by Albus Dumbledore on Jan 30, 2007 14:53:37 GMT -5
Dumbledore smiled and shook his head. "No, no, it's perfectly all right, Miss LaRose. Unless, of course, Tyler would like something. he has been through a terrible ordeal. Perhaps a glass of water would be good?"
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 30, 2007 15:00:49 GMT -5
"Sure. If its not too much trouble." Tyler replied, clearing his dry throat. He forced himself to smile briefly at the nice girl.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 30, 2007 15:06:17 GMT -5
"Oh, of course," Cassidy said, standing up and going over to the water cooler. She returned a moment later with a glass of water, which she handed to Tyler. "Are you OK now?" she said caringly. "Would you like to tell me what happened? My name is Cassidy, by the way." She gave him a friendly smile.
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 30, 2007 19:19:30 GMT -5
"Yeah, thanks." Tyler replied, taking the glass of water. He took a long drink and then paused for a moment, thinking about how he should tell his story. "Okay, well here's how this all happened. One day, I was on patrol at the downtown nightclub. I'm an auror, in case you didn't know- or better yet, was an auror." He started, frowning at the sudden realization that he was likely to be stripped of his job if this didn't go well. "And anyway, I was hiding in a dark alleyway while I kept watch around the nightclub so that I wouldn't be seen so easily. But this one guy happened to see me and thought that I was someone else- one of his enemies, a vampire of some sort. So he got walked up to me and upon seeing that I wasn't the guy he was looking for, recognized me from somewhere else."
Tyler took another short drink of water and then continued, "I...erm...used to be a death eater, a while ago. And this guy must've been a death eater too and recognized me from some meeting or something like that. And because I left them not too long after I joined them, this guy thought that he might get in Voldemort's good graces if he killed me for it. So he challenged me to a duel. I really didn't have much of a choice, so I accepted and we dueled. After a while, we both got pretty tired and had done pretty good damage to each other. The other guy fell over unconscious, and I blacked out shortly afterwards as well, unable to move anywhere. Later on- I'm not quite sure exactly how long afterwards it was- I woke up in a room in the Three Broomsticks. Claudia Morley, a former death eater, was there with me. She tricked me in to thinking that she was going to help me. And since I was so dazed and tired, I didn't recognize her or catch what she was trying to do. She tortured me into giving her information and then used the imperius curse on me. And I can't remember a whole lot after that." He shrugged. A lot of his memory of the time that he was under the imperius curse had left him once Dumbledore had freed him of the curse. "I don't know the details but, all I'm really sure of is that she made me go to the Order meetings to get information of its whereabouts and what was going on. And then she and two other guys- I'm sure that one of them was the one who dueled me in the alleyway- made me show them the way to the Order headquarters so that they could attack it. And then Dumbledore here, freed me of the curse and brought me here." He finished, hoping that the girl was convinced that he didn't do anything to hurt the Order or wizarding world under the control of his own brain. He turned to Dumbledore to see what he thought of Tyler's explanation and then waited for Cassidy's response with a hopeful expression on his face.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 30, 2007 22:26:08 GMT -5
Cassidy listened to his story quietly, her mouth open and her eyes wide. "Wow... that's so horrible!" she gasped. "You poor thing! Being tortured, then put under the Imperius Curse... And you say the Order was attacked? Was anyone hurt?" She looked at him sympathetically. "Of course, when someone does something bad and then says they did it because they were under the Imperius Curse, we're supposed to interrogate you and try to prove that you knew what you were doing... I'm not much of an interrogator, though. Dumbledore, you were there, you say you removed the curse from him yourself?"
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Post by Albus Dumbledore on Jan 31, 2007 9:46:22 GMT -5
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I did," he said. "He tried to duel me, and when I had him weakened, I was able to remove the curse. He changed immediately. There is no question in my mind he was under the Imperius Curse."
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 31, 2007 21:53:03 GMT -5
Tyler nodded, looking up at Dumbledore and then back to Cassidy. He was surprised at how much she seemed to care about his story. He scratched his head absent-mindedly, "Do you know if I'm going to need to have a trial or anything?" He asked her, calmly.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 31, 2007 22:14:31 GMT -5
"Oh, um... hold on," Cassidy said. "Let me just look something up... see, I don't do this kind of stuff a whole lot. Most of the time, I'm pretty much just a glorified secretary..." She opened a book and all the pages were blank. Murmuring an incantation, she tapped the book with her wand and words filled the page. She bent down and began to read for a moment. "Oh," she said, looking up. "I... I'm afraid so," she said. "Even in such cases as this, where a reliable witness states that a person was under the Imperius Curse, you still have to go to trial to determine the extent of your knowledge in the actions you performed while under the influence. And um... I have to take your wand away. Furthermore, I have to ground you... in other words, you can't apparate and you can't fly. You're considered a flight risk. I'm so sorry." She looked at him with genuine sympathy. "But look on the bright side, at least you don't have to go to Azkaban... yet."
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 31, 2007 22:46:50 GMT -5
Tyler frowned and then nodded. "Right. I understand." He said, sighing. He reluctantly stuck his hand in his pocket and took out his wand, handing it to her. "I suppose I'll need to know the specific date of when the trial is supposed to take place." He added, thinking about what the trial was going to be like. Other than Dumbledore, he didn't really know anyone who would be willing to aid him.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 31, 2007 22:52:54 GMT -5
Cassidy took it reluctantly. "I really am so sorry," she said. She put the wand in an envelope, on which his name appeared magically. Then she floated it over to a filing cabinet, which opened for her. Once it was filed, the cabinet closed and locked. "As for the trial... the Wizengamot is a bit backlogged right now. They will have to contact you by owl with the date of your trial. You'll also have to be investigated by one of my superiors. But since you came in here to me first, I will be your case worker until your trial. So I can check in on you and make sure you're OK. Oh, and that you don't try to get away or something. Not that you would, of course!" She frowned. "OK, well, I hate to do this, I really do, but I have to put that grounding spell on you now. I'm really sorry." She stood up and walked over to him. "I just hope I do it right, I've only done it once before..."
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 31, 2007 23:01:04 GMT -5
"Yeah...OK." Tyler replied, simply. "I understand, you're just doing your job. I won't hold it against you." He knew that he was just going to have to go to the trial and tell the full truth and hopefully, there wouldn't be any problems. But unfortunately, with his past record, he wasn't so sure it was going to go all nice and easy. The only bad side to the delay of his trial was that he was going to have to last that long without any type of magic. "Will Dumbledore be able to apparate me back to my apartment or is that strictly forbidden as well?" He asked Cassidy hopefully.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 31, 2007 23:07:05 GMT -5
"Oh, um... I'm not sure, actually." She looked back in the book for a second. "Well, it doesn't say anything about that. It just says you can't apparate yourself. Oh, but you are allowed to use the floo network, to specifically approved sites. And since Portkeys are set up by the Ministry, you can take those. But it doesn't say you can't apparate with someone. I mean, I guess you can side along apparate with someone like Dumbledore. Or, oh, I could take you, if you wanted. Since I am your case worker now. Would... you like that?" she said hopefully.
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Post by Tyler Jackson on Jan 31, 2007 23:13:23 GMT -5
"Sure, that'd be OK." Tyler nodded in response. "I guess it'll give me a chance to sort of get to know you since you are my case worker." He said. "If its not too much trouble for you then. I mean, I don't want to get you into trouble with your work or anything." He added, motioning to all of the paperwork and stuff on her desk.
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Post by Cassidy LaRose on Jan 31, 2007 23:21:47 GMT -5
"Oh, no, it's fine," she said. "I don't get out a lot, and most of this paperwork isn't even mine. The others kind of leave it here and I get so bored that I do it for them. I've never even had a case before, so this is kind of a big step for me. I really hope I don't screw it up... you seem really nice and you've been through such an ordeal, and now I have to punish you for what wasn't your fault... it's not fair, but I don't make the rules." She glanced at Dumbledore. "Um, I have some paperwork I need you to fill out as a witness. I can give it to you and you can bring it back here when you're finished with it." She shuffled through some papers on her desk and produced a long parchment. Rolling it up, she handed it to him. "Um, that's all. I guess we should go now. Oh, but I have to put the spell on you, hang on..." She tapped him lightly on the top of his hand with her wand and murmured an incantation. "I really am sorry," she said again.
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