Enclosed

Chapter Four: Pumpkin

The minute Al left, Rose dove into her work. With 149 wizards and witches falling victim to Extractions, that left 149 victims with potential evidence. Rose had been working on interviewing every single one. There were still nine victims left to interview.

She was supposed to be meeting with one, Marcus Palentine, in a few weeks. The safe house put a little damper in those plans, meaning someone else would have to do the interview. That meant writing out questions and specific details, which was going to take hours. No better time than to start now.

Rose pulled out Palentine's case, studying the pieces. Palentine was one of the more recent victims. Palentine was walking through Hogsmeade when he was jumped by Pious' followers. They drug him into an Alley, before knocking him out. According to Palentine's reports, he didn't remember anything that happened after that. Next thing he knew he was in a ditch in a Muggle village with no magic.

Stories were similar for the rest of the Extraction victims. They got jumped, knocked out, and suddenly their magic was gone. Nobody could remember how the Extractions worked. They had bits and pieces but not enough to put together a complete story.

With no eyewitnesses to link Pious with the Extractions, it made Rose's job complicated. Good thing she liked a challenge.

From what she could piece together the Extraction was no easy feat of magic. Somehow Pious had figured out a way to dig into the deepest part of a wizard's soul and suck the magical essence out. It wasn't from a spell or a potion. That much she was certain of. At best guess, it was a magical contraption. One she needed proof of.

Unfortunately, the Extractions never took place at the same location. Either Pious had multiple machines or he moved them each time. They'd been able to pinpoint a few spots where Extractions had occurred. When Aurors arrived the space had been wiped out and with it, every piece of evidence was destroyed.

They'd gotten lucky a few times. Some scraps of evidence were left behind. A piece of clothing, scorch marks in the floor from torturing spells, and the biggest yet; a muggle screw.

At first glance, the screw appeared ordinary. Nothing special. An amateur Auror almost threw it away before ironically enough, Malfoy stopped them.

He was the one to discover that the screw was an illusion. Clever charm work, designed to obstruct the screw from what it was; a ring. This ring was famously known to belong to Pious. The evidence was circumstantial at best until a tracking charm tied Pious directly to the ring. It was the one solid piece of evidence she had to place Pious at the scene of the crimes. This ring was the key to putting Pious behind bars for good.

Right now the ring was with the only person she trusted - herself. Rose reached up to her neck where the ring dangled off a chain. She'd removed the disillusion charm of a screw and reworked it so that the ring transfigured into a rose pendant. When she began wearing a necklace with a rose on it, nobody questioned it. It was the perfect cover. She got to watch over the ring 24/7 and a pretty accessory to go with her robes.

Knowing she was completely alone, Rose removed the necklace laying it flat out on the desk. The silver pendant glowed in the flickers of the candlelight. Rose tapped it with her wand, changing it back into a ring.

The ring was simple. A silver band about half an inch wide and a ruby gem placed directly in the middle. There was nothing extraordinary about the ring. The Aurors ran numerous tests on it finding nothing.

Sometimes when Rose was alone she liked to look at the ring. She wasn't convinced it was regular. Pious wouldn't be so attached to it unless it had significance to him. Rose needed to find the connection. It felt important to her.