Director Prewitt stalked down the hallway and into the main lobby of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It was empty, so his theatrics impressed no one. He entered his office and found Alastor Moody waiting for him. The auror arose from his chair and offered his hand. Prewitt shook it and assumed his spot behind his desk.
"You asked for me to come in?" Alastor said.
"I did," Prewitt said. "Orion Black has croaked, or perhaps, has been croaked."
Alastor raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Is foul play suspected?"
"By some people," Prewitt muttered.
Moody nodded. "I can see it both ways. What do you think happened?"
"I don't know," Prewitt admitted. "I don't really care, either. I'm more concerned about the consequences."
"Consequences?"
"As we speak, Minister Black is holed up with Romulus Malfoy and Harry Ashworth. You can guarantee those two are the ones calling the shots now. I imagine that Minister Black is happy that someone has already stepped into the vacancy left by his older brother," Prewitt said.
"What would you like me to do?" Moody asked. He wasn't in the mood to listen to Prewitt's scathing comments about the conniving of Malfoy and Ashworth. Prewitt himself was quite the conniver. There was also the fact that Dumbledore needed to be informed as soon as possible about the events within the Ministry and that wouldn't happen if Moody spent all morning listening to Prewitt.
Prewitt glared at Moody. "I want you to poke around into Orion's death and see if you can find any sign of foul play. Merlin knows that Minister Black will want to know. I also want you to poke your nose into the business of Romulus Malfoy and Harry Ashworth. I have it on good authority that Harry Ashworth is not an Ashworth. He is here in England on false pretenses. I warned Orion, but he apparently chose to ignore me.
"As you wish," Moody said. "If you would be so kind as to forward to my desk any information you do have about Ashworth, that would be useful." He then rose from his seat and exited the office.
.....
"All right," said Cygnus, "I think I can handle things from this end. Romulus, please keep your ear to the ground. You're more connected to folk who are likely to know the most about the dark lord. Harry, I think you'd better plan on leaving Hogwarts for good once the term is over. I will need you here at the Ministry. Is there anything else we should address before you both leave?"
"I think we've discussed all there is to discuss," Harry said, pulling a small watch from his pocket and glancing at it. It appeared that there would be enough time for him to make his morning class. "As long as you make sure the ranking Ministry officials are clean and direct them to ensure their underlings are clean, I think you'll avoid many problems."
Romulus stood and straightened his robes. "There is one last thing that I would like to bring up. From the experience of this tragedy, it has become clear to me that we need a better way to communicate. It took me far too long to get ahold of Harry, though it was no fault of his own."
"What do you propose?" Cygnus asked.
Romulus pulled from his pocket two gold rings. The bands were wide and looked heavy. Set in the top of each ring was a black stone or perhaps jewel. "These are family heirlooms," he announced. "I've of course had them purged of dark magic. The important thing is that they are tied to my own family ring." The Malfoy patriarch held up his right hand and displayed the ring that marked him as the Head of House Malfoy. It closely resembled the two rings he had produced from his pocket. He then gave one of the rings to Cygnus and the other to Harry. "Through these rings, we can communicate, or at least, you both can communicate with me. I haven't had enough time to figure out how to get your rings to communicate with each other."
Harry accepted the ring and examined it, pushing up his glasses and bringing the ring close to his eyes. "How precious," he commented as he held it. Close inspection revealed that the jewel was not quite what it seemed. Instead of a solid, crystalline color, Harry observed what seemed to a swirling mist inside of the jewel. It seemed rather like a foe glass. Abruptly, a figure coalesced inside of the jewel-Romulus's face.
"I would communicate vocally through the jewel," Romulus told Harry, putting his hand on the young man's shoulder, "but doing so right now would make me feel silly, what with us all being in the same room."
Harry smiled, "Of course. Now, how do I communicate with you?"
"It's rather simple," Romulus said, temporarily taking the ring back from Harry as Cygnus observed closely. "Take the jewel and twist it." He demonstrated, showing that the jewel could rotate on its setting. "It will send a jolt to my ring and I'll open up communication."
"Our rings can't open up communication to yours?" Harry asked.
"I'm afraid not. The Malfoy who owned and used the rings originally didn't want the other rings to be used to spy on him. Perhaps if the system works out, we can investigate ways to improve it. For now, I think this will do for our purposes," Romulus said.
Cygnus nodded. "I like it."
....
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