Muggle Studies

Nayme's file

Let's find out what the Ministry has been up to then, shall we?

TRIGGER WARNING: Abuse of power by government.
More plot! Fluff to help it along, as usual... brace yourselves for a wild ride down magical bureaucracy and civil rights violations (any similarity with reality is NOT purely coincidental).

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"I'll put the kettle on". He said, waving his wand.

Nayme and Severus had practically run to their quarters silently, with their hands bound tight together and the folder with the prints of Nayme's file clutched against her chest.

They sat side by side on the desk, each with a hot cup of tea. Her heart warmed when she saw hers was peppermint - he knew it soothed her. She kissed him.

"I'm very nervous." She said, showing him her shaking hands.

"So am I." He replied, putting his arm around her shoulders and kissing her forehead.

Nayme opened the folder. Slowly she went through the printed pictures and passed them on to Severus. There were many photographs of her, from different angles, at different ages and in different situations, with observations of time and location. They seemed to have no purpose apart from showing her likeness through the passing years.

That alone was sickening enough. Nayme paused with one of the pictures in her hands. It was her graduation from college. The smiling girl waving to her parents in the picture had no idea some creep was stalking her. It was a happy day, a joyful moment. She felt intruded upon, violated.

It was hard for him to watch her going through those pages and feeling the horror and pain growing in her. He was holding her tight but he was himself edgy and disgusted, even if not really surprised. He wished he could make it better for her somehow. He stroked her back and kissed her head; she turned to him and he held her tight for a moment. I'm right here, he meant by that, without saying a word. You are not alone.

She was so glad Severus was there to support her through this. To think somewhere in the Ministry there was a file with his pictures in it...

Tears blotted the ink on the paper. She hadn't realised she was crying. She reached for her tea, for that nurturing flavor and sensation. Like being hugged from the inside out. Hot and yet... there was a cool note from the menthol in the peppermint - light, fresh, green. It reminded her that conciliation wasn't only possible, it was pleasurable. Opposites not cancelling each other out, but building something new together. A whole that was better than the mere sum of its parts.

Severus stroked her face and hair, looking worried. She kissed him.

"Thank you for being here with me." She said.

"As if I'd ever want to be anywhere else." He replied.

She smiled with tight lips, then kissed him again and went back to the folder.

That had been just the tip of the iceberg. What was yet to come would be much worse.

The interrogation report from the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, signed by Crouch, who ran it at the time, was disturbing. Subject uncooperative, it said. Legilimency attempts failed, resulting in serious and maybe permanent injury to casters, it said. Veritaserum required, it said. No proof of involvement, it said. Obliviation attempts failed, it said. Subject shown to be a menace to magickind, it finally said. Then there was a recommendation of further examination - and possible re-apprehension - by the Department of Mysteries.

"You know, I think we were very lucky that they didn't kill you instead of releasing you." Severus pointed out. "I believe the timing helped - Crouch was on the path to becoming Minister and wouldn't want a scandal on his hands, especially when he was already being criticised for his excesses, and you were a muggle with connections among magic folk, who couldn't simply disappear and had just been proven completely innocent."