Dark Necessities

[Galatea Merrythought]

There had been two instances where Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder had been used to conduct a crime, most notably the attempted burglary at the Irvingly Casino that past weekend. After interrogating the fools who'd tried to do it - because only a fool would cook up an elaborate plan to break into a place without thinking of an escape plan - they were informed that they'd purchased the powder from some chap called 'Diablo'. There was a seedy guy that the Ministry suspected of smuggling but could never find enough evidence to convict him.

De Montfault didn't think this case important or challenging enough, so he'd assigned her and Theodoric Jameshill to it. They would be investigating some warehouses that belonged to this Diablo fellow. It wasn't a first for them to be paired. They'd recently graduated from the training program, so everyone in the Auror office seemed to think that they were best friends. It wasn't like Merry disliked Jameshill - she just found him kind of inadequate. How difficult could it be to solve a murder case? Then again, she suspected that it was Enoch Rosier's pig-headedness that had kept them from making progress in the Carrow murder case.

They'd sneaked into the warehouse when the guard wasn't looking.

"Hey, Jameshill?" Merry called out to her partner. "I don't suppose you speak whatever language this is?" She gestured at a label on one of the crates. Jameshill came from a posh family, so Merry assumed he'd been taught foreign languages growing up.

@'Theodoric Jameshill' @'Ursula Black'

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

Theo quite liked Galatea. Merrythought. Argh. Her name situation had been fine at Howarts, Theo had known which was was up and which way was down where it had been concerned. Now her names had switched over which left Theo with a perplexing conundrum: call her Merrythought as was technically proper, or call her Galatea because Merrythought sounded too personal. So far, he had gone with a third option which was to avoid addressing her by name at any and all opportunities if possible.

Of course they would get paired up, wouldn't they?

Theo came over to inspect the crate label. "Uhhhhhh..." He did know more than one language but he wasn't all too sure what language he was even looking at. "Pass." He stared at it a couple moments longer before making an important revelation. "It's upside down."

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

How could he tell that it was upside down if he didn't know the language? Maybe she was struggling to understand because she didn't learn how to read and write at some posh lads school. It barely even occurred to her that English had a similar structure to the other romantic languages. She'd learned her language as a code, rather than a living 'organism' of sorts.

"Thanks," she responded to her partner's unhelpfulness. Whatever. They didn't need to read the label to find out what was in the crate. Merry cast a spell similar to Lumos, except where the light shed the crate, you could see through it.

There were pouches inside.

"Guess we'll have to open this after all," Merry murmured to her partner. There was no indication as to what the pouches contained. Could be Peruvian Darkness powder, could be unicorn intestines.

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

Theo couldn't say he was relishing the idea of snooping through the crate, as impulsive as he could be, he could actually make proper sound, mature decisions when he had the chance to stop and think about it and now that he'd seen the mysterious pouches thanks to his partner's spell, he didn't know that he wanted to get any closer to them. What if the contents were unstable and dangerous?

Then there was the writing he'd been unable to identify the language of. The more he stared at it the more convinced he felt that it looked familiar to him. He was probably imagining it now, he rationalized.

"Right then." He flicked his wand abruptly at the crate and the nails hammered into the lid to seal it wrenched themselves free of the wood and fell to the floor. With another sharp wave of his wand the top of the crate, contrary to his wand motion, gradually rose a a couple feet into the air and carefully leaned itself against the side of it. "I guess it's ladies first, Ga-" he cleared his throat a little too loudly to cover up his almost utterance of her name. He'd have to think up some sort of nickname for her to get around his conundrum.

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

While Jameshill cast the necessary spells to get the crate opened, Merry observed their perimeter to ensure that they wouldn't be caught by one of the guards. They were being quiet but one couldn't be careful enough. Those men outside wouldn't shy from an Unforgivable to protect the content of those crates.

"What?!" Merry said sharply when something seemed to have interrupted her partner. It was unfortunate timing that brought what followed. Merry caught glimpse of something which she assumed was the cause of Jameshill's shock. She hurled a hex at it only to hear a dog's whimper.

She'd assaulted someone's pet.

Soon, there was loud barking and the storage room was showered in light.

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

Theo's immediate thought was 'oh shit she thinks I'm being overly familiar' but then his second thought was 'oh SHIT we've been caught' because quite suddenly his partner-in-crimefighting was aiming a hex at someone or something. Theo tried to train his wand on this perceived enemy too but saw nothing, instead there was a yelping sound that sounded distinctly as though it came from a dog.

What was she doing?! Had she known the dog was there? She had to, surely, who aimed hexes unprovoked at nothing in particular? So the guard dog was evidently terrible at its job, was it really necessary to hex it?

Before Theo could ask any of these questions, the animal was barking and suddenly there was light. Never before had the return of light ever been so ominous. "What did you do that for?!" he hissed at her. He had instinctively lowered his voice as he went on guard, wand arm poised.  

AUGUST 1ST, 1887 | @'Galatea Merrythought'

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

Oh shit. It wasn't unusual for Merry to... overreact on the field. That was her greatest flaw. She had quick reflexes - sometimes too quick. Likely a side effect of having played as a beater for the school team. It was useful when they were actually being attacked but she could often attack 'enemies' that weren't there.

"I thought you-" Merry started but her words were cut short when a hex flew right between them. This wasn't the place or time for them to argue about whose fault it was.

Merry turned to where the 'action' seemed to be coming from. It was the two men who had been guarding the place. One of them raised his wand to hurl another hex but Merry cut its course with one of her own.

"Shield!" Merry shouted at Jameshill as she hurled another hex at the men.

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

There wasn't much time to discuss why she'd suddenly started hexing things because suddenly the favor was being returned. Great. With the failed murder case and now this he'd probably be looking at the worst start to an auror career in wizarding history.

Theo didn't need telling twice to get a shield charm going, although he didn't think he'd needed telling once either, he'd already had the intention of doing something, be it offensive or defensive. It was more than a little frustrating to be the one left holding the shield when the hand grasping his wand was itching to send a few stunners at the two wizards.

"Got any more wise ideas then?" Not the most helpful anecdote he could make but she had gotten them into this mess and if he had to be on covering their asses duty...

AUGUST 1ST, 1887 | @'Galatea Merrythought'

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

"Oh shut up, Jameshill!" Merry snapped at her partner. His snarky remarks were annoying and they were in the middle of fighting off two henchmen. Maybe it was sort of her fault for getting them in this situation, but it was him who'd made her believe they were in danger!

This had to be him getting even for all the times she had been a snarky dick to him. It was often.

Merry hurled another hex at the henchmen and managed to knock one of them out.

"Let's get out of here!" Merry stated the obvious.

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

Theo thought it was a bit rich for her to be telling him to shut up, but now really wasn't the time to argue and so he didn't pursue it.

"Best idea you've had all day!" He lowered the shield charm and quickly fired off a stunner in the direction of the other man before he turned and started to run. He hadn't really had time to aim his spell properly so he didn't hold out much hope that he'd managed to hit his mark but today might be his lucky day.

Seeing as the men had come from the direction they'd entered by, they couldn't exactly leave the way they'd come. "Come on, Garry-!" The fuck had he just called her? He slowed his pace so he could turn around and aim a spell at the floor behind her, hoping to make pursuit more challenging for the goon on their tails.

AUGUST 1ST, 1887 | @'Galatea Merrythought'

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

Merry didn't have time to be annoyed or offended by Theo Jameshill because they made a run for it. They had to find a different exit than their entrance, seeing that the henchmen were blocking their way out of that.

She didn't make much of the name he used for her.

"That way!" Merry urged when she noticed a smaller door. She forced it open with a spell and once they were both inside, she locked it behind them.

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

He was inclined to get out as fast as humanly possible despite the fact that she'd locked the door behind them. It wasn't obvious where an exit was though. Had she just lead them to a dead end? "Shit. Where's the door?" He furtively glanced in her direction as he realized he'd just cursed in front of her and not the sort of cursing that was in his job description. "Um excuse my er... I'll go look." It wasn't the sort of language one was supposed to use in front of women. He supposed his fellow auror wasn't really your typical female though, occupation considered.

He trotted off to get a good eye for the layout of the room and found a window and a door. The window would obviously guarantee them an exit but wasn't really as accessible as an actual door but he wasn't sure the door lead outside either. He approached the door and pressed his ear against it to listen for sounds on the other side.

AUGUST 1ST, 1887 | @'Galatea Merrythought'

  

[Galatea Merrythought]

Merry didn't mind swearing and, in fact, used profanity fairly often herself. She'd noticed over the course of her and Jameshill's partnership that he'd get self-consciously whenever he swore in front of her. That annoyed her.

That being said, she had more important things to worry about now.

She cast 'Lumos' and, like Jameshill, began to look around. They seemed to be in some kind of office room. Their whole operation had been to find dirt on the warehouse's owner, so it was a pity that they'd found it now that they were being chased by his henchmen.

They seemed safe in the room for now, however, so she allowed herself to investigate. "Jameshill!" she called when she found a particular notebook. It seemed like the sort that noted down imports and exports. That could be used as evidence on the case!

Before she could say anything else, however, the was a loud 'thud' on the door they'd come through. The henchmen were trying to get in!

  

[Theodoric Jameshill]

He didn't hear much through the door. At first. A few seconds of listening gave him time to tune his ear in and that was when he picked up on the sound of what sounded like approaching footfall coming towards it. Apparently everyone in the building knew they were here now.

He was about to share this deduction of his when she called to him first. Before she could get out whatever it was she'd distracted him for, there came a 'thud' on the other door.

"We're surrounded, we'll have to use the window!" He pointed his wand at the door he suspected would be under siege any moment now and added a few more charms to keep it firmly locked and safe for as long as possible. He turned to the window. "Bombarda maxima!"

The window along with a good portion of the surrounding brickwork was blown outwards. It was a little overkill considering they could have simply climbed out the window... "Come on!" he gestured at the gaping hole in the wall, eager to be gone.

AUGUST 1ST, 1887 | @'Galatea Merrythought'