Just A Warm Up Please

"I'll tell him myself," Brian said. "But I'm not sure what the message behind it is. I mean, Forbes could well have chosen to take us out with a killing curse. But she didn't. And she likes that spell entirely too much for my likings. Instead, what I saw her do was to make sure she got the man with her out safely. That suggests to me one of two things, at least off the top of my head.

"First, my best guess is that the man with her is either paying her--and paying her exhorbitantly just to get her services--or, Forbes has a new boy toy in her life. Either one is possible. But she protected him for a reason. Forbes is a potions maker, so finding her in an illegals lab is not such a surprise, but the man...I don't know. She would not need him. I can see it more likely that he would need her. If I could put that together, it might not only tell us who he is but what they're both up to."

Yeah, Chris wondered about that as well. He thought of why didn't the powerfull, very powerful witch use the Killing Curse instead of all those troubles she had. She could'a had taken out atleast Chris and maybe Brian could'a had apparated away, or maybe both, he didn't know how good she was, but she prefered to save the man who was with her, and that meant for Brian that he was the new toy for Forbes or that he was paying to receive services from the powerful witch. Both of these, if Brian could put together, he would'a know what they were both up to. Yet, they still had to think about. And the Minister himself still had to be informed about it.

"Yeah, you should tell him since you are better informed then me. But do keep me updated in this, since I'd like to help you finish it, eventually."

"I certainly will," Brian said. He was interrupted by Robert's secretary at St. Mungos, as she came in to get a cup of tea.

"Oh," Hannah said, "You're still here. Robert just arrived. I thought you'd gone. He's doing the healers' schedule for next week. He was asking about you two."

"Is he in his office?" Brian asked.

"Yes. I just came to get him some tea."

"We'll take it to him," Brian said. "We need to brief him anyway. Thank you, Hannah."

Hannah put the cup of tea in front of Brian. Brian picked it up and stood up.

"Come on, Chris. Let's go brief Robert," Brian said.

"Yeah, let's go. I'm pretty happy in believing that he himself will be relieved to know that his top Auror, you in this case, survived this small-time mission. Yeah, 'cause nothing special happened."

He said, letting out a small laugh. He was obviously beeing ironic. He still had the fresh memory of the battle he and Brian had fought just not that long ago, and the 4 victims they had brought to St.Mungos, though they let the most important persons escape, they still did their job, and the Minister of Magic, for a first-mission to Chris should be happy with the results, since he didn't have many field experience apart from the mission he had when he became a werewolf. He sighed and followed Brian, waiting to be led to the office.

Brian laughed. He had caught the humor in Chris's tone. He led the way down the hallway to Robert's office. He knocked to be plite, but he opened the door automatically without waiting for Robert's invitation. Robert was seated at the desk, signing paychecks for hospital staff. He looked up, looking over his glasses. He motioned them to come in. Brian went in and took a seat in one of the two chairs across from Robert. Once Chris had come in, Brian flicked his fingers to close the door.

"Well? You do both seem to have all your limbs attached," Robert said. "Do you have a report for me?"

"The once sentence version?" Brian asked. "It was the old Dent family lab. Its destroyed--again. His potionswenches were still in business and they are under arrest and secured in the emergency room for medical treatment. However,...the lab is under new ownership."

"That's four sentences," Robert said dryly. "Do we know who the new owner is?"

"Okay so this will be the six sentence version then, maybe. Well, we know the new owner is a man, and we know he has a bodyguard we know pretty well. He's being protected by Zada Forbes." That news got Robert's attention.

"Forbes?" Robert's interest was peaked. "Are you sure? I thought she'd left England."

"Well, if she did, she's back," Brian said. "Nobody wears Krasnaya Moskva in England. I could smell it."

"That's because it isn't a common fragrance here," Robert sighed, not happy that Forbes was back. He looked at Chris. "Congratulations. You survived an encounter with one of the coldest women you'll ever meet. That is worth being proud of. Well done. You would do well to make yourself acquainted with her. If she's back, we will run into her again. And we do need to find out who she's working for. I would start looking for the wealthy wizards."

"Gringotts won't give up a list of their creditors, though," Brian said.

"No, but you can certainly track some of their assets through property deeds and acquisitions in our own records. Try that," Robert said. "Do a bit of detective work."

The air felt slightly lighter. Chris made a little joke about how they survived the encounter with that killer witch, and it was something to be very proud of, as he would find out eventually. After beeing told by the nurse that the Minister was sitting on his Office at St.Mungos, he waited for Brian to lead the way, carefully following him, looking through the curtains that were opened on some of the rooms that they passed by, looking to see some kind of different kind of pacients he had never seen, though he didn't spot anything different, quite amusing since that new decease was starting to affect more people and he was waiting to even take a chance to look at some of the symptons. He wanted to help brew a cure, as a good pottioneer he is, but he hadn't been getting any luck with catching any sick people.

He followed Brian into the Minister's office, and laughed sligthly while he knocked on the door and then just went in without waiting for an answer, such badassery. He sat in the chair next to Brian and saw them talk about the things that they had just done, specially the fact that this new man must be of very good wealth to be able to pay such a powerfull mercenary, and that they should do some Detective Work, but most important above all, Chris should be very proud of himself for beeing able to take down 4 witches and escape the women that he know knew to be of the name of Zada. That is, with the help of Brian, but still.

"So, where do you want to start Brian?"

"Well," Brian said, "Robert's suggestion was a good one, I think."

"I do have one once in awhile," Robert rolled his eyes at Brian in amusement.

"I think we'll start looking in Ministry records for property deeds and titles. Particularly wealthy witches or wizards who have either bought property recently, or who have applied to buy any property. That might be a pretty big list, since people are trying to get restarted after Grindelwald's leaving office, but, it might at least give us some ideas."

"If they bought the land legally," Robert said. "There is a chance that it was all done under the table too."

"I suppose we could stake out Knockturn for unusual movements."

"Meh," Robert discounted that idea. "Forbes is not known to like Knockturn. You might, however, do better at staking out some of the top muggle clothing stores. Forbes has a weakness for high fashion from what I've seen. I doubt she'd be caught dead in last summer's styles unless they were timeless classics. I would figure that she should be looking for her summer wardrobe any time now if she doesnt already have it."

"Ah. That means Herrod's then," Brian said.

"Precisely. You know, you could ask Khaat to do that, covertly."

"No," Brian said quickly. "There wont' be a cent left on my muggle charge card. It will be maxxed out." Robert laughed. "We'll check the deeds and titles first, I think." He looked at Chris, "Unless you particularly like shopping in the muggle stores, Chris."

"Well, when I was a kid, I used to do some shopping around the Muggle World, and going to cinema and stuff like that. But, after my grandfather passed away I lost all my interest in going there since it always remembers me of him but, what do you need for me to do at the clothing store? 'Cause I'm not really seeing how I should approach this, and I don't even know where that store is .. Maybe we could check the titles and deeds first, maybe pull some strings at Gringotts with some Legilimency, I don't know if you're into it but I am, and then maybe we can go together to the store."

Chris was very proud of his skill as a good legilimens, and he had used it aldready sometimes as an Auror to find out a lot of information, and with that, he had been developing that skill ever since his last school years so, he'd been getting very good at it after 5 years. He smiled slightly, after letting out a laugh about the credit card joke. He then got up from his chair, a little grin showing.

"Your call though."

"Start with showing him the file on Forbes," Robert ordered Brian. "He needs to know what she looks like. It isn't likely that she will be fully cloaked in Herrods. She'll blend in." Then Brian watched Robert look at Chris. "YOu need to know what your enemy looks like before you go after her. Remember at this point you are the disadvantaged. She knows what you look like, but you don't know what she looks like. And at your age--no offense--but she would believe you were easy pickings and would delight in killing you simply because you were breathing the same air she was. Remember, she was the primary muscle behind Gellert Grindlewald. She will not be afraid.

"The legilimancy is not a bad thought," Robert said, "but it wont work in Gringotts. Legilimancy is not effective on the goblins who work there. Not so much. They've learned occlumency as a safety precaution for the bank's resources. They'd be sorely tempted to fry you for trying it. Brian, do you remember what she looks like?"

"Yeah," Brian laughed slightly, a bit of bitterness in his tone. "Tall, thin, platinum blonde. Ice queen. An from our intelligence, she has a love for Russian vodka, and the very best fashions. Hell, the best of everything."

"You might check and see if she has muggle bank accounts. Those sorts of tastes need a lot of cash to satisfy. My guess is that she has diversified and placed funds in more than one type of currency and in more than one bank. Explore muggle accounts," Robert said.

"We'll start with her dossier so that Chris can see what she looks like. Then we'l start with places like Herrod's and the top distributors of Russian vodka," Brian said. "Then we'll follow with the bank accounts."

"Stay on it, A woman like Forbes likes power. And that means she can't stay invisible forever," Robert said. "You find her, you'll find the man she's protecting."

"I wasn't thinking of using the Legilimency on the Goblins. Maybe someone inside, a wizard, security or something, knows anything about that women .. Forbes, right? And maybe they saw someone suspicous go inside, or even some dirty business and they could tell us something, but okay, your call. I'll take a look at the file on her and then hit the muggle banks to find some high bidders and maybe get info on her."

Chris made a small grin, and laughed slightly.

"I'll go and talk with the vodka distributors ... Vodka is one of my favorite things in the world, so .. Should we go together? Or maybe meet up after?"