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Post by April Parker on Oct 24, 2008 10:41:06 GMT -5
April sat at her desk for the first time since returning from Romania on her assignment with the dragons located there. She had missed London though, but really she had nothing holding her in any one location which was one of the reasons she was often sent off on the long assignments out of the country for the Ministry when magical creatures were involved. April was spending her afternoon writing reports on the results of her assignment.
She didn't mind the paperwork, but she much prefered being on field assignments. There were few magical creature healers in the Ministry and she was one of them. Some called her a naturalist, muggles would have called her a type of vet... but healing creatures like dragons or centaurs was a dangerous line of work that few dared venture into.
She looked up as she heard footsteps approach her desk.
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Post by joseph on Oct 24, 2008 15:17:20 GMT -5
Joseph sat at his desk staring at pictures of wizarding criminals recently released from Azkaban. For months he had a hunch that this Dark Lord fellow might be recruiting from the ranks of recently released criminal, taking their will to break the laws and pointing em in a different direction so to speak. After spending all night at the office staring at mugshots Joseph definitely needed a break at the moment. Rubbing his eyes and standing up he quickly hurried out of his office and down the hall.
Deciding to check on another lead, he headed towards the creature catchers the term he so often used for those who worked in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Entering the department he saw and office with an open door and a blond lady sitting behind the desk, approaching he knocked on the door frame. "Hey my name is Joseph, i'm a hit wizard. Was hoping you could spare a few moments for some....questions." At a closer look, the girl was beautiful definitely not something you'd expect from someone who worked with animals all day.
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Post by April Parker on Oct 24, 2008 15:54:42 GMT -5
April looked up at the man standing in her doorway and sighed. She knew she was the only one in the office at this time of night but she really wasn't in the mood to be bothered by some hit wizard as he called himself. What did could he possibly want with her department at this hour? But she supposed her reports could wait for a few minutes, surely his questions wouldn't take long.
The fact that the man was handsome barely registered at first, but as she pushed her papers to the side and actually looked at him, her gaze took him in fully. Not that it really mattered what the man looked like. She didn't have time for men in her life, but he was good on the eyes. However she gave him her normal blunt look she gave most humans.
"Have a seat, what can I help you with?" It was all business, but she didn't look quite as perterbed at being disturbed as she had when he'd first appeared.
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Post by joseph on Oct 26, 2008 13:30:29 GMT -5
Realizing that this lady was probably about as tired and cranky he was, he decided that he wouldn't try to give her a reason to direct her anger towards him. Sitting down in front of the desk he removed some photographs from the pocket of his robes, placing them face down on the top of the desk. "Just so ya know it goes against my morals to let such beautiful eyes be desecrated by this horror.." Flipping the photographs over and laying them out on the desk, the gruesome image of bodies mangled and ripped to shreds by razor sharp teeth were all the photographs held.
"I have a hunch this is the work of werewolves but I don't know for sure, I wanted to run these by someone in your department before I went investigating those things."
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Post by April Parker on Oct 26, 2008 18:41:09 GMT -5
April looked at the photos as he turned them over, but surprisingly she didn't even blink. The fact that she had the stomach of steel had something to do with that but she'd seen similar images before and she intuitively knew what she was looking at. She picked one of them up, the most gruesome of the images and looked at it closely. She didn't look the least bit squeamish or upset by the images. She cared more for the carnage of animals than for humans usually but images where a creature was involved then she cared, though not necessarily for the same reasons as most would.
"Do you still have the bodies? I'd like to inspect them if you do... the photographs are not conclusive proof of what did this. But I have two suspicions of what it could be... I'd need to see the bodies to be sure." She happened to be a doctor and was perfectly qualified to study the bodies by chance. April waited for his answer but she picked up another of the photos and compared the marks on the bodies.
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Post by joseph on Oct 28, 2008 2:32:09 GMT -5
Joseph was torn between his investigation of the mysterious corpses and the beauty of the young lady who sat at the desk before him. When she asked him if he still had the corpses he lowered his head to stare at the desk. He was ashamed both because he no longer had the bodies and two because he felt like when he told her so, she would think of him as some kind of incompetent buffoon. "Well um you see.." He paused for a moment as he was overcome by nervousness, his palms became sweaty and he had to force his eyes to stay off of the luscious body before him.
"At the time there was not enough evidence to suspect foul play, so I was ordered to report it as an attack by some kind of magical creature and release the bodies to be buried." Embarrassment quickly setting in, his cheeks took on a nice rosy hue.
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Post by April Parker on Oct 28, 2008 9:27:31 GMT -5
"It should have been reported to our department as soon as the bodies were found, for any magical creature. There are protocols, Mr. Christianson, that when a death caused by any magical creature occurs we are supposed to be notified for investigation so that the creature might be found and captured. What we do with the creature depends on the situation, of course... but we should have been notified before the bodies were released." She sighed as her fingers pinched the bridge of her nose, she was thinking and considering.
"Alright, so we don't have the bodies... what do we have besides the photos? Any evidence? It looks like werewolves but there is another possibility and I don't want to jump to conclusions without knowing for sure. Any creature, in my opinion is innocent until proven guilty... despite what others in my department might think." She thought of her boss, Mr. Burke, who was not always on the same page as herself.
She was a creature healer... it was her job to save them. And in saving them, often meant saving people as nothing was worse than a hurt creature who would lash out at anything and everything in its own pain.. often destroying everything in its path. That was actually what she'd been doing her months away, finding and healing a dragon that had gone on a warpath of destruction out of it's own pain. As if a loose dragon wasn't bad enough, one that was hurt was even more dangerous.
April looked back at the photographs studying them before looking back at the man sitting before her. She had noticed him in the doorway, his handsome looks.. but this time she noticed his lips and mentally shook herself after a moment before looking back at the photographs.
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Post by joseph on Oct 29, 2008 2:08:40 GMT -5
Joseph sighed as she began to rant about Ministry policies and then began to question him about evidence. Who's investigating this her or me.. He thought to himself as he realized pretty much any chance he had of asking her out on a date had just come crashing down. "I did report this to your department, Benjamin Burke personally handed me the report from here stating the marks were unable to be identified to any magical creature. Yet I should thank you, it's always fun to relearn Ministry protocol."
"Look, this isn't an extremely important case to those who matter, but I have a hunch about this and I was hoping to maybe find some help here, but this looks like it's just gonna end up being pointless. Maybe I should just take my leave?"
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Post by April Parker on Oct 29, 2008 9:59:54 GMT -5
"Listen I'm sorry, okay... I'm not having the best night here and I don't normally handle human deaths. I'm a magical creature healer, but I can still help you. And really no one else is here this late at night. I'm only here because I just got back into town and was working on some dragon reports. If Mr. Burke already gave you a report then I'm sure the records are here somewhere, but if he didn't find evidence of magical creature attack then I doubt anything will help that is here." She paused before continuting, half thinking aloud. "You asked for my help and I'm just trying to find something that might help confirm your suspicions. What I don't understand is why the report would say it wasn't from a magical creature... this carnage is from something..."
April was perplexed, still looking at the photos.. even turning them upside down to look closer at something. A moment later she picked up a different photo and did the same with it, an odd look in her eyes. In all the shredded carnage which left little to be identified as actual claw marks, she saw what looked distinctly like a werewolf clawmarkings on a shread of clothing off the edge of the picture frame and on closer inspection the scars could be seen on the leg of the body. She would recognize those marks anywhere, she'd seen them before, with similiar carnage. "Werewolves." Her voice was almost a whisper.
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Post by joseph on Oct 29, 2008 18:00:02 GMT -5
As April apologized for her bad night, Joseph calmed down a bit, it was really late and both of them had probably been working hard since they started their shifts that day so it was safe to assume they were both a bit irritable at the moment. "I understand completely Miss Parker, don't worry one bit I am a bit on the irritable side myself, my apologies." Listening as she continued to speak he slid his hand across the desk and grasped her's gently for a moment. "That's why I am here so late at night, I think Ben Burke might of falsified that report for reasons I dont have evidence to support at the moment."
Hearing her gasp and say werewolves, Joseph knew at that moment he hated being right. He was afraid there were werewolves that killed those people, even worse was this girl didnt even need to see the body and yet amazingly Ben Burke couldn't find anything even with the bodies. Leaning in close he locked eyes with April's. "Are you positive?"
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Post by April Parker on Oct 30, 2008 9:58:13 GMT -5
"I am sure, I've seen those markings before. I.. I saw someone shreaded like this before my eyes once. I've seen what those claws can do and I would recognize this claw pattern anywhere. See.. look right here..." She turned two of the photographs around standing to bend across the table so she could lean her torso close enough and point to the upside down photograph where the claw patterns were barely visible for him to see.
She had no answer for why her boss would falsify a report, she had no reason to speculate on why he would do that unless perhaps he just hadn't noticed? Surely that had to be the reason... neglect and ignorance rather than purposeful falsification? The alternative was hard to imagine.. that Mr. Burke would have reasons to deny werewolf involvement in the murder of these people.
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Post by joseph on Oct 31, 2008 8:38:02 GMT -5
Joseph listened intently as April spoke, she seemed to take her job seriously and Joseph could appreciate someone like that. As she leaned over the table, Joseph's eyes were stuck somewhere and it wasn't on the photographs. As she pointed at the photograph, he leaned in himself, his head merely inches from her's as he looked at the photograph. "I see what you mean, what I don't see is how, why or why would Mr. Burke falsify a report to my department.."
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Post by April Parker on Oct 31, 2008 10:29:40 GMT -5
April was oblivious to what Joseph was looking at, and even if she found the man completely attractive it never occured to her that he would have interest. She never noticed when men looked at her, was usually oblivious because she was always so wrapped up in her work or took people at face value which came from working with animals and creatures so much who acted nothing like humans in many cases. The fact that someone might find her attractive never entered her mind. She was the girl next door that no one ever really tried to get close to her. She had an odd sense of humor though, and though she usually had her hair blond, it often changed to match her mood or her humor when she was having fun.
In that moment however her hair began to darken from blond to brown and her eyes darkened from blue to a dull grey as her thoughts grew dark with the possibilities that her boss might be trying to hide things and falsify reports. Why would he do something like that? It worried her and she was frowning as she slowly sank back into her chair. She didn't even notice the change in her apperance or that this man had never met her before to know what she was herself.
"I dont' know why he would do that.. even if I hadn't seen those claw patterns... I knew it was a creature attack, and so should he have. It doesn't make any sense unless he's covering something up or ... I don't know."
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Post by joseph on Nov 2, 2008 9:51:39 GMT -5
Joseph continued to stare rudely at the beautiful blond that sat across the desk from him. He was glad April hadn't noticed him staring though, better yet he was glad she couldn't hear the thoughts that were going through his head at that moment. Watching as her hair began to darken, the change of color in her eyes wasn't noticeable until she had sat back in her chair, so this woman seemed to be a Metamorphagus. Deciding that April should know of his hunch, he wasn't sure if he could trust her or not but if she went running to her boss to tell him then maybe that would give him a clue.
"April..I think your boss is..a death eater.." The words barely escaped his lips as he continued to stare across the desk at his beautiful co-worker. "Maybe we should discuss this somewhere more...private." Looking around he wondered how many ears were listening to them at this moment.
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Post by April Parker on Nov 3, 2008 9:51:45 GMT -5
"Mr. Burke? A death eater?" April visibly was frowning at this, concerned but unsure. Her boss had always seemed so perfect and upstanding that it seemed like the man might be jumping to conclusions. But then again, April was always one to try to give people a benefit of a doubt until otherwise could be proven. If Joseph was correct however, that was a very real threat and a cause for true concern.
"I think perhaps you're right. That's not something to accuse a department head of being without just cause. But that said, perhaps this is something that should be discussed outside of these walls."
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