Love Bites (Harry Potter: Official Dragon Tamer, Part One)

Glamours, Sandwiches, and Missed Pints

Friday Morning
16 October 2009
Hermione's POV

"Williams, Malfoy, can we go over your reports from Wednesday and maybe have you talk us through them?" Davies asked, flipping through the file before him.

Draco and Joshua had both been called on their own respective field investigations Wednesday evening, and I was really hoping we would be able to make some headway on this case today with their insights.

Aside from it being such a long-running case, it was also breaking my heart to hear about all the lives being disrupted by it, and I just wanted this idiot in Azkaban, where he belonged.

In fact, the case had dragged on for so bloody long at this point that Draco and Williams were being allowed to share details that they'd uncovered as secret agents usually only shared with the Minister and the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.

"They're a fucking nutter," Draco muttered from between his fingers, as his face was currently buried in his hands.

"I'm sorry?" Davies asked, both he and Williams looking up at my colleague, who was, save for his personal life and the sacred space within the four walls of our office, usually the epitome of decorum.

"I'm sorry," Draco apologised. "I just don't know how else to put it. This person is bloody insane."

He removed his face from his hands and looked over at Williams.

"Do you have anything to add to that?"

"I think my partner was looking for some discussion around what we actually dealt with on Wednesday," Williams replied, eyeing Draco warily.

"What I dealt with was the work of a bloody nutter," Draco repeated, crossing his arms in front of him as though daring any of us to counter him.

"Just flip through the files, you'll see," he added, nodding his head towards the folders Davies and I had before us.

"Where did you end up?" Williams asked, eyes flitting up towards Draco as he scooted his chair closer to Davies to peer at the stack of parchment covered in Draco's neat handwriting.

"Knockturn Alley," Draco replied as he also scooted closer to me, eyes reading over Williams' equally meticulous notes he'd given us to peruse.

"You?" he returned the question, eyes still focused on our file.

"Another victim. She wasn't much help," Williams sighed. "I mean, more of the same, you know."

It was true.

While Williams had taken very detailed notes on his undercover visit with another suspected victim of the app, it didn't really provide any horribly insightful information. At least at first glance, anyway, and I hunkered down with a roll of parchment and my quill at the ready, looking for any sort of clue or bit of new information to jump out at me.

"What shop did you go to in Knockturn Alley?" Williams asked, frowning, his finger holding his place in Draco's report as he glanced over at us curiously.

"Does it matter?" Draco returned, eyes not leaving our own report. "They're all the same."

I knew Draco had spent years building partnerships with several of the merchants on Knockturn Alley and wasn't about to disclose any information that would compromise their identities, even with Davies and Williams.

"The merchants you spoke with, they've both noticed an increase in activity on the alley in the past few months?" Davies clarified. "As in new customers, not the usual Knockturn Alley regulars?"