Mining for Misadventures

Tobias hadn't been in to work for several days now, because of an angry Hayes patriarch, mainly; but he stormed into his department first thing that day rather than looking through the cases he was meant to look at. He needed to find someone in particular, and his patience was nothing more than a frail, thin piece of string at that point. In his head, he imagined that it looked like a thread that someone had plucked off of their clothes after it had frayed, and the more he registered how irked he was, the more twisted and weak that thread became.

So as he stormed through the halls of the law enforcement's offices, he kept an eye out for a head of blonde hair. Supposing finally that, realistically, she would be doing something in her office if she weren't in a meeting, he swung by the long-tabled planning rooms and found no one. No one who could be helpful to him, anyway. The other employees at the Ministry may  have been good at their jobs, but he doubted that they would be as useful as Claire Bishop, Miss Large and In Charge herself.

So he gave a vague, half-hearted but really more absentminded wave in return for the greeting he realized was directed at him, but he moved on regardless. On to her office, that is.

He knocked twice, loudly, before edging it open and peeking his head in. "Do you have a few minutes? It's important."

"No, Short, we are done giving you chances."

Gabby Short gave a spectacular show of rolling his eyes, throwing his hands up. "I was in Am-er-i-ca," he drawled out, as though she were an idiot, something he knew she wasn't. "It's not fair to give me a deadline while I'm not in the country."

"I've been trying to contact you for months, Short-"

"Gabby-"

Claire pushed on, "and the fact that we were willing to offer you a deal at all is beyond what we are required. The charges are being processed. You'll be required to come into court. I'm certain you'll make bail, you always do, but it is not an empty threat that I will come after you myself if you don't show up." She raised an eyebrow at him and then sat in her chair, leaning back and tilting her chin. She did not often pull these little power moves, feeling she did not need to, but she was sick of the werewolf in front of her.

Leaning back in her chair with that air of self-assuredness... Oh no. Had Weasley rubbed off on her?

There was a knock at the door that broke the stalemate, and Claire did not take her eyes off of Gabby as she said, "Sure thing. Come on in. You are excused, Mr Short."

Gabby stared at her and then let out a growl of irritation, pushing past the other man that Claire now recognized as her captain of the Magical Law Enforcement patrol. The second Gabby was out of the room, she leaned forward, immediately beginning to shuffle through her files, looking for the warrant that would need immediate approval.

"What's going on, Tobias?" she asked, trying not to sound too distracted. "I, unfortunately, only do have a few minutes. But what's going on?"