The Marauders - Order of the Phoenix Part Three

Where There is a Gurg

Like Dunlewey, there was a fairly well-thriving wizarding community in Letterkenny. Disillusionment charms had been put on several storefronts in the  town, and many muggles found large sections of the place repellant because of the charms protecting the wizards there. It was on the northwestern front, facing the direction of Glenveagh that the wizarding areas were concentrated. In fact, all around the range of mountains known as the seven sisters, wizarding communities had grown up in efforts to contain the giants that lived in the peaks.

It was this magical community that saw the arrival of twenty aurors and the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Mad-Eye Moody, when they apparated along the outskirt of the town in a great band, each about fifty feet away from the next, creating a chain of defensive presence. 

Among them were both of the Prewett twins, standing fifty feet apart. To Gideon's right was Edgar Bones, and to Fabian's left Mad-Eye Moody. They stood, poised and ready, wands drawn, listening - waiting for the Earth to shake.

In Dunlewey proper, a similar line of aurors had appeared, these appearing closer together than the line in Letterkenny, with a bit less ground to cover but closer to the known sighting of the giant, Frank Longbottom stood in a cluster with McKenna Alliston and Harry Underhill, their wands likewise drawn and prepared - but unlike the aurors at Letterkenny, these had a sight to behold. The giants had left their footprints traipsing through the valley at the foot of Earagail, headed south east in a diagonal path that would cut between both Dunlewey and Letterkenny, toward the border of Northern Ireland.

Quickly, Underhill sent a patronus to Mad-Eye, updating him of the trajectory.

"We follow the footprints until we find ourselves a giant," Underhill commanded and he called names of the aurors, spreading them out to create a search party line to cover the span of the giant footprints to allow them to keep precise track of the direction they had gone.

Frank Longbottom's mind was whirring with nervousness.

He glanced at McKenna. "What a way to kick off after our inauguration, huh?" he asked her.

McKenna laughed dryly, "I was thinking the same thing. At least you don't have to do it in a skirt."

"I pity you, I really do." 

McKenna laughed, "At least if I'm killed I'll look good doing it." She raised her wand.

Chase Volsung was frustrated. He glared at his trial summons, sent by owl that very morning from the office of Harry Underhill, as authorized by Mad-Eye Moody. He was requested to appear in the hearing for the trial of Sirius Black the following week in order to testify to the fact that he had received a report from Cecelia Leonard accusing Remus Lupin of being a werewolf. The request was then that he would share the subsequent dropping of those charges and to cite the provided testing results showing that Lupin was not infected with Lycanthropy. The owl had come along with documents signed by no fewer than three mediwitches who had analyzed the blood test results, and a license of clearance signed by Minchum himself.

Volsung grit his teeth in irritation.

He didn't know what, precisely, but the whole thing seemed suspicious to him and, far from ready to drop the charges against Remus Lupin, Chase Volsung wanted to investigate further. He'd argued his points to both Underhill and Mad-Eye, but he'd received no response back from either department head until he'd received this - the summons and paperwork clearing Lupin from accusation.

Not right. Chase shook his head. It stank of pushed paperwork, of some sort of deal having been made under the table. Usually it was Chase himself that collected paperwork from the mediwitches to clear accusations of lycanthropy, and he often was given the opportunity to be present during the reading of results. Usually he himself carried the license to the Minister's office to have the document signed.