Just The Paperwork

Mairen let out a quiet breath of surprise at his words. It was exactly how she felt, though she'd never said it in as many words. She blinked a few times before looking away and allowing her eyebrows to tug together in thought. How was someone like him feeling the same way she did? Sure, his father was impossibly and impressively well known. But Scorpius definitely seemed to have a handle on his life and his reputation. Mairen, on the other hand, was still floating about and looking for a way to make a name for herself.

This case, it could be her chance. And he was saying no? Mairen deflated visibly, staring at him as her face fell. She could feel the pout on her face, but didn't bother wiping it away. She shook her head once,  as if it would shake up the last few moments in her brain and put them together in an image she liked. Instead of the disappointment that his words brought.

“Oh, c'mon.” She said finally, “You're really going to pass up a homicide case? This literally make my career.” Mairen frowned at her wording, not quite sure if it came off as she intended. It sounded a bit cold and detached if she was being honest with herself. But didn't lawyers sort of have to be that way? “You can't say you're not interested.” She gripped the clipboard in her lap before glaring at it, frustrated, and putting it on the edge of his desk.

“Look,” she continued, leaning forward onto his desk. He wasn't getting out of this easily. “I'll do whatever. Let you take like almost all of the credit. Work those insanely late hours people around here work. Whatever it takes to get you to say yes.”

At least he couldn't say she wasn't determined. When the redhead got something in her mind, it took a serious emergency to distract her. Unfortunately, a case like this rather was an emergency. They didn't have the time to sit around and hope someone else found out about it. Or hope that the stubborn folks that Avery knew would even ask anyone else. The blonde had accidentally mentioned it right after Christmas as an explanation for her not returning to work right away. Since then, Mairen couldn't keep it out of her mind. If no one else took up the case, that family might never know who had hurt the man of their house.

Mairen pouted, and suddenly Scorpius felt rather bad about denying the female his help. Which, all things considered, was a preposterous concept. What did he have to feel bad about? He hardly knew this girl. Sure, she was attractive and had a beautiful name and something about her interested him far more than it should have, but that was no reason for him to feel guilt like this. He was terribly busy, after all.

As she continued to speak, every word that slipped past her lips had Scorpius thinking that he might have been a little hasty with his decision. Homicide cases were, in the Malfoy's humble opinion, one of the most thrilling by far. They also, other than the ones where he recovered a large amount of money for someone influential, were the cases where one could gain the most prestige. As much as the blonde loathed to admit it, the Yewbeam case wasn't going well. Losing the case would be quite the blow to his reputation. A blow that only something like a won homicide case, for example, would be able to repair. Repair quickly, at the very least.

Then Mairen stated that the case could make her career, and the wizard only barely held back his smile. There had been a reason that he'd been drawn to this girl after all. Despite the houses they'd been sorted into at school, the two of them may be more similar than he'd first thought.

Still, Scorpius hadn't been convinced. His time was precious these days, and literally worth a great deal of money. But then Mairen had spoken again, and the words resonated inside the Death Eater's head in the same way that a drum vibrates even long after it's been hit.

"I'll do whatever," the redhead's voice said, "whatever it takes to get you to say yes."

Tugging his mind out of the proverbial gutter after a few moments, the man couldn't help but wonder if Mairen had forgotten to whom she was speaking. After all, one didn't just go and say something like that to a Slytherin, graduated or not.

Sighing, but shifting to sit up straighter all the same, Scorpius swiped his tongue over him top lip in an involuntary movement. "Tell me more about the case," the blonde ordered, carefully not agreeing to anything. Mind switching gears, the man had automatically used the voice he did in meetings and the court room. His voice was now strong and unfaltering, with only the slightest edge as if to say "I'm right, and you know it."

Mairen’s eyes moved from the blonde’s own eyes and down to his mouth when he finally moved. She had to bite her lip to keep from grinning outright, but her excitement didn’t feel very contained, if she had to admit it. She scooted her chair closer to the desk so she could lean on it more comfortably as Mairen ran through the details she had heard from the blonde a few floors away.

“Have you ever heard of the Hayes family?” Mairen asked, hardly pausing to let him think about it; she figured he probably hadn’t anyway. “The son just resigned from his position as Head of Slytherin and Transfiguration Professor at Hogwarts because of the new Ministry law, regarding the students and which couldn’t attend.” She couldn’t bring herself to say ‘half-breeds’ without feeling guilty, but talking around it didn’t feel so bad.

“That’s mostly strange because he didn’t put up any fuss about the Marriage Law – he and his new wife were the second pair to wed and according to my source, they get on famously now. The man seemed to want to go on with what the Ministry laws required of him. According to that witness, the man’s father – the one who they suspect was murdered – was the one who was the most upset about that law and his son’s wedding. But the source, Avery Ivanov, says that the son came home late one night and got into a row with his wife. The wife woke up, went to check on her husband, and found him dead in his potions lab. Apparently, the elder Mr. Hayes worked on testing and creating potions for the Ministry as well as independent firms. Mrs. Ivanov mentioned that the son thinks his father was working on something the Ministry didn’t like.”

Mairen glanced between Scorpius’s eyes, hoping he was following and understanding why she was so immediately invested in the case. But he had asked about it, seemed almost resigned to it. Had she won him over? Convinced him? Merlin, she hoped so.

“Mrs. Ivanov says that the father was almost always in his lab, rarely even showing up for dinners with the family. She also explained that she knows everyone who was around that night and that they would be willing to testify. They don’t suspect anyone close to the family at all. Apparently, the son is convinced it was a murder; Mr. Hayes had been apparently working on something big, spending more time in his lab than usual.” She paused, trying to think of anything else she had picked up during their exchange at lunch the previous day. When she came up blank, she looked at her potential partner in the case expectantly. “You can’t tell me that isn’t fishy. That something weird isn’t happening here.”

Scorpius listened as Mairen spoke, taking in all the little details for what they were worth, and painting his own larger picture. In his mind, the wizard visualized the faces that he vaguely knew. He imagined how the night would have gone, guessed at the family's reactions. The problem was, guesses were all they had.

In Scorpius's opinion, the only fact was that a man was dead. Over the years, he'd learned to question everything. He was pretty sure that Mairen was telling him what she thought was the truth, but even she was a second-hand source. Someone easily could have lied somewhere down the line. Hell, the wizard wouldn't be sure that the body was Mr. Hayes until he got someone to check it wasn't under some kind of enchantment.

If everything Mairen had told him was the truth, then she was most certainly right. There was something suspicious about the chain of events. Then again… "it could just be grief," Scorpius informed the woman bluntly. "It's common when people loose loved ones. They always want to believe that they died for a reason, or some greater cause." The blonde was well aware that he was playing devil's advocate, but couldn't help it. The statement need to be said, needed to get out there. Despite that fact they both knew it wasn't true.

"You're right," Scorpius admitted after a single moment of quiet, "something's off. However, you're seriously lacking hard facts." Sighing, the wizard ran a hand agitatedly through his hair. He really did have a soft spot for pretty women.

"Okay. Any other reasons why the son suspects murder? Who was around that night? Why were they there? Where did the man keep his notes? Are they still there? What was cause of death? Or at least, what does cause of death look like, toxic fumes, caldron blow up, what?" the man rattled off, questions spilling from between his lips before he could even register thinking them.

Leaning back in his chair, for he appeared to have leant forwards while Mairen was talking, Scorpius smirked a little. "When you know all that, come back to me. If it still looks promising, I'll help you out. I wasn't kidding when I said I'm busy," he informed the redheaded witch. Underneath the bravado, the man knew that he was already in. After all, Mairen was rather convincing.

Mairen’s face fell from excitement to annoyance. It wasn’t like she had been given time or any reason to head to the Irish home and investigate. She hadn’t even been allowed to take the case. Besides, Avery wasn’t one to open up her friends’ home to a stranger without due cause. Her eyes narrowed at the blonde leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms across her chest.

“She approached me yesterday. I haven’t had time, or reasonable cause, to go to the man’s home and check things out. She’s also a Ministry employee, so she wouldn’t suggest anything unless she believed it.” Mairen pointed out, disappointed in the reaction he’d given.

He was right, of course, but her pride and desire to take on the case and do well was clouding her judgement. He had admitted she was right, but it wasn’t enough to be right in an assumption. Lawyers had to be right about everything and seriously know their shit. Mairen couldn’t get away with assumptions. “I’ll see about going to the home, and bring a healer with me. Mrs. Ivanov can come with me. She says the family is still at home.”

Collecting her clipboard, she stood and eyed Scorpius disdainfully. “I’ll bring you some notes,” she remarked coolly, fully aware of how icy she seemed. “And when you find,” the air quotes were implied, “those papers, …come find me.” The end of the sentence trailed off, sounding almost apologetic if not inviting.

She clearly wasn’t opposed to spending time with him; in five minutes, she’d decided that she wanted to take up a case with him. Either she was mental, or he was someone she could trust. Mairen shrugged it off mentally, deciding that only time would tell if she was right or not.

She hesitated for a moment, as if he was going to say something to make her stay. In the end, though, she turned to the door and pushed it open.

Scorpius watched as Mairen's face fell and tone turned icy. Despite the fact that he'd only had one conversation with the witch, something inside his mind screamed that the whole situation wasn't right. The woman was supposed to be chatty and full of life. Her eyes were supposed to sparkle as they had when she'd been telling Scorpius about the possible case. It was all backwards, he was supposed to be the cold one.

The blonde would not apologize, however. Apologizing meant admitting that one was wrong, and Scorpius hadn't made a false statement. He had meant all the words that he'd spoken, and even the emotions of the redhead wouldn't make him retract them. As his father had drilled into his brain; a Malfoy always stands by his own words. Scorpius could still remember how much trouble he'd been in upon sarcastically asking if sticking by his previous promises was how he got the Death Eater charges dropped. Draco had been less than pleased.

Scorpius couldn't help but hope that the woman wasn't too displeased with him. After all, he had been looking forward to both the case and spending time with Mairen. He had grown quite fond of her, considering the small amount of time they'd spent interacting.

The Malfoy heir watched as Mairen walked towards the door, red hair almost glowing in the light of his office. Scorpius allowed his eyes to fully take in her figure, now that she wasn't in a position to notice. Scorpius's vision landed on the female's rear, and the man couldn't help but wonder if further perfection was possible. After all, the witch did seem pretty bloody perfect… and displeased with him.

"I will," he said, eyes already seeking out the stack where the incomplete papers were hidden.

It sounded like a promise.