The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix - Part One

Contractus

"Good afternoon, Mr. Underhill."

"Afternoon Douglas."

"Afternoon, Mr. Underhill."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Tampworth."

"Good afternoon, sir."

It seemed every person who passed Mr. Underhill along the way through the Auror Training Center greeted Mr. Underhill as they went. James stared at Mr. Underhill's ankles, refusing to look up, his face hot. Sirius's boots thunked as he followed, and Frank  was near to silent behind him. Underhill led the way through the halls to his office, waved the three boys into the room, looked about the corridor, then pulled shut the door behind him, setting a charm on the door to lock it.

"Sit," Underhill said gruffly, and with a flick of his wand three chairs appeared before his desk. The boys sank into them and Mr. Underhill went 'round behind his seat and removed his jacket and hat, hanging them up on a coat rack by the door. He turned and sat down with a sigh and leaned back heavily into his seat.

Silence fell over them.

James shifted uncomfortably.

Finally Frank opened his mouth to speak and Underhill raised a palm to stop him. "No," Mr. Underhill said, shaking his head. "You do not talk. I talk."

Frank nodded.

The silence drew on again.

"You bloody should start then, shouldn't you?" Sirius burst out.

James hissed, "For the love of Merlin, be quiet Sirius."

Silence again.

Mr. Underhill steepled his fingers in front of his face and leaned forward, studying them a moment. Finally he lowered his hands, reached into his pocket and lay down the counterfeit warrant on the desk and pushed it toward them. "Imagine my surprise," he said, "When I receive an urgent owl from Mr. Ironhelm at Gringott's informing me that they had been given a warrant, signed by me, whose authenticity they were questioning. The owl indicated that they had two rather nervous acting aurors that had arrived, only one whose identification had been seen. This, combined with evidence of magical tampering with the inking of the warrant had led Mr. Ironhelm to request a formal confirmation of the investigation.

"And so," Mr. Underhill continued, "There I was in Bath, on an outing with my children, when I am whisked away to Gringott's to recommend a course of action. I arrive to find Mr. Ironhelm has possession of a document which I did, indeed, sign and upon inspection of it, I discover it is the warrant issued in one case I had worked earlier this year, involving the search of a castle owned by a suspected Death Eater, or victim of the Imperius at very least, Ned Veigler!

"Now I said to myself - where was this document last seen? When was it last mentioned to me? And I realized that it was here, in this very room, as my assistant was organizing my past case files. This very case being one he was quite impassioned by, whose disappearance from my files was overlooked for prosperity's sake, but was apparently merely a ploy to collect documents to tamper with."

James shook his head, "No, that's not --"

"Quiet, Mr. Potter, I have not finished talking."

"Yes, sir."

Underhill plucked the parchment from the desk. "Now I had precisely two options. I could ignore the allegations and allow Gringott's to keep the blundering fools who had devised such a plan - and let me tell you now, those goblins would most certainly have left you in that vault indefinitely - or, I could assume responsibility for whatever rubbish you were up to, and take you into my own custody."