"Did Mr. Grindelwald make you aware of the other favor we have done for the United States today," Roger Bulstrode asked President Quahog. As he spoke, he leaned slightly forward in his chair toward the President across the large square oak desk.
"Indeed he has," Quahog said enthusiastically. "Thank you all for that, by the way! The last thing we want to do is harbor her followers here. I probably should feel that it's a pity half of them got themselves killed, but I just can't bring myself to."
"Mr. Grindelwald asked that we be briefed when the fifty your Aurors brought in have been questioned," Bulstrode said and the President nodded. "Of course. If you lot have finished with me, I will get you settled in the break room where I shall have my Head Auror, Mr. Edison, come and see you as soon as he has things wrapped up with them." He smiled. "There is coffee if you'd like and even sandwiches as well if they aren't already eaten up by those piggish Aurors."
Rod perked up and Bellatrix felt herself straightening in her chair in interest as well.
"That would be brilliant! We haven't eaten yet and I'm famished," Rod shared.
"Well, let's get you fed right now," Quahog said, grinning at Rod as he rose from his large leather chair. "The break room is just down the hall." Smiling cordially, he opened the door to his office and led them to the promised room of breaks and sandwiches… and coffee!
More coffee was a good thing considering the lack of sleep, but the turkey sandwiches were amazing. Fortunately there were six left on the snack bar. Roger, Ali, and Bellatrix each got one, Rod got three and everyone got full.
The Head Auror had yet to join them, though, so there was time for another cup of coffee. As the four caffeinated themselves, they mostly sat in silence. For her part, Bellatrix had nothing to say that she wanted to risk the Americans' hearing if they happened to have magical eavesdropping devices in their break room. Mostly, though, she just had nothing relevant to say.
Bellatrix was considering a third coffee when the door to the break room opened and a small woman with a lot of bright red curls hurried in.
"Have you all left any coffee," she asked with a cheerful grin.
"Are you Edison?" Bellatrix countered.
The woman's intense focus was on the coffee rather than Bellatrix, though. "Good, there is some left," she said with a blissful sigh as she filled a cup.
"Edison?" Bellatrix prompted.
"No, I'm MacFee. You're waiting for Edison?"
Bellatrix nodded. "We are waiting to speak to him about the fifty prisoners."
MacFee shuddered, then slurped from her coffee. "Fuck, that's hot! I just burned the fuck out of my mouth! Yeah, I just got finished questioning those poor unfortunate bastards. There were five of us, Edison included. They were a mess! All fifty of them...you'd not believe the shit she has them thinking! It's insane."
"Has them thinking," Rod asked. His voice was quiet and nearly toneless, but he arched a questioning brow.
"It's some sort of spell, but it isn't an Imperius! It also isn't anything we've been able to fix or crack even with the help of Healers. So we're just going to hold them in custody...for their own safety, of course." She took another careful sip of her coffee. "Good, that shit cooled down some!"
"What does she have them thinking, though," Rod asked.
"Weird shit like Muggles should be given reparations, we should use our magic to literally serve them so that we can all live in harmony, better treatment for Dementors, no hierarchy among wizards. One of my favorites was no law enforcement, that'd go over just brilliantly!"
"I see you've already filled our British guests in on the current situation, Hildegard." The amused words came from the average looking man who entered the room. His orange and green uniform was similar to that of Hildegard, but his nondescript brown hair and brown eyes somehow looked even duller against all the color.
"Probably not all of it, but they thought I was you, and I had to vent! That was just some weird shit. I did tell them that I'm not you, though."
"They could've just read your name tag to figure that out," Edison said.
MacFee grinned. "I'm sure they'd have gotten around to it eventually."
Ali Bulstrode leaned forward, peering at the chests of the two American Aurors for said name tags. "Eventually...they're rather small, though. And the writing is difficult to see from across the room."
"What are you doing about it," Roger Bulstrode asked. Edison and McFee exchanged a brief glance.
"Enlargement spell," McFee suggested.
"No, the prisoners and what was done to their minds. What are you doing about it?" Roger clarified querulously.
"Ah," Edison said. "We're still sorting that. Nothing has worked thus far."
"How do you know they simply don't agree with her ideals," Ali asked.
"Because we have detected several layers of magic having been used on them, just not what spells or how to remove any of them," Edison explained. He gave a frustrated sigh. "It certainly isn't anything we've ever seen before."
"Shall we request that Mr. Grindelwald come and have a look," Bellatrix asked.
"Do you think he would?" Edison looked hopeful.
Roger shrugged. "I don't see why not."
After promising to have Mr. Grindelwald get in touch with the American Aurors as soon as possible, Roger led the way out of the break room. "We can use the Floo in Auror headquarters. It's down the next hall to the right," Roger told Bellatrix and Rodolphus over one shoulder.
"It was nice venting to you," McFee called.
"Enjoy your coffee!" Bellatrix called back, for lack of anything better to say. As she liked the strange little red haired Auror, it didn't feel right not to come up with something.
Less than two minutes later they were stepping through the fireplace and into Kereston's office at the Ministry, which was dark and empty.
"Fuck," Bellatrix complained as she dusted ash from her skirt. "What time is it?" Lyra and Harold would be up in arms, Harold more politely so than Lyra, of course.
"Indeed. Grindelwald likely isn't even here anymore, and I don't have his home address," Roger grumbled, misunderstanding the reason for Bellatrix's expletive.
"My cousin has his home address. I can send the message if you like," Bellatrix told him tiredly.
Somehow the dim light served to drain all the caffeine from her system and cause her to realize just how tired she was. She was light headed, feeling almost as if she floated as she moved with Rodolphus toward the door. This international travel rubbish really did a number on one's inner clock!
"I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you, Mrs. Lestrange," Roger Bulstrode said.
Bellatrix nodded, vowing to add a few sentences of complaint into the report to Grindelwald concerning the disgusting Muggle transportation. The so-called necessity to utilize it was a disgrace to any self-respecting witch or wizard!
"Good evening and it was lovely to meet the both of you," Ali Bulstrode said warmly.
"You as well," Bellatrix said with a tired smile and Rodolphus nodded his agreement.
Ali was alright, and Roger would do if the Muggle transport bit could just be sorted. Taking Bellatrix's hand, Rodolphus Side-Along Apparated her to Raven's Nest. They were home! Bellatrix sighed. The day felt insanely long...because of course it had been.
The day played over in her mind as she walked into the library to write Gellert. It felt nearly dream-like in its strangeness from the Muggle transport to the odd yet colorful owner of the wand shop to the American Aurors.
Not so strangely, killing those twenty-five wizards each had been the most normal feeling part of the day. Considering said wizards were technically bespelled rather than willing, she wondered if they'd get into trouble for that one.
Well, they were acting under orders, so of course not, she assured herself. Working Shadow Ops for twenty years had taught her more than once that sometimes people got killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The message still needed to be sent to Delphini, and more lives would be saved in the end. Still the memory of long years spent in Azkaban made her less confident on the matter, though. If this backfired, would Kereston toss the Lestranges to the wolves for the error? No. They were following orders! Besides as far as the American Aurors knew, anyone killed had brought it on themselves by not properly surrendering.
Sitting down at the desk in the library, she flicked her new raven wand angrily at the wall sconces, causing the room to fill with a warm light. Why hadn't Harold left a bloody light on? Once again, she realized that she had no idea what time it was.
The report to Grindelwald ended up being longer than she expected. Two pages later she'd filled him in on the entire day, bitched for three paragraphs about the filth and germs they'd likely picked up in the Muggle limousine and concluded by stating that they'd better not go down for killing half of those carrying out Delphini's orders.
Rising from the desk with a tired sigh, she went searching for Harold so that he could take the letter to Kreacher and Regulus who could in turn take it to Grindelwald. After that she was having an extremely long bath to wash away any Muggle germs she'd acquired from that car, then she was going directly to bed. If Rod had already gotten into bed without bathing, he would be sorry.