This Time, Last Time (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

22.

Well your left hand's free

And your right's in grip

With another left hand

Watch his right hand slip.

-"Left Hand Free," alt-J

July 2018

"I've had an idea," said Elise when James arrived at the office after another Monday morning spent watching Anniston walk into work and not do anything suspicious. James had not even had a chance to say hello to her.

"You have," he said, raising his eyebrows. He leaned across the desk and kissed her and then sat down in the chair opposite her.

"I have," she agreed. "That muggle stuff cart is still out there behind Gringotts, yeah?"

James nodded.

"Good. Alright, I'm going to issue a search warrant and that'll give you permission to interview the goblins working at the back entrance, ask them if they've seen anything, etc. And then you can find out how long they've been working that particular job, how long they've been a witness, right? Well it can't have been that long. We know that. So you ask who worked here before and say we need to question them to, under the pretense of trying to get this cart shut down, and that could potentially get you in and definitely get you a chance to talk with those other two goblins you used to see all the time. What do you think?"

She said all of this sitting at the edge of her seat, were her hands clasped on the desk, and her eyes wide and locked on his.

"Yeah," said James. "I think so."

"Good," she said. "So why don't you take the morning to get a general questionnaire written up, trying to get as much out of them as possible about what we're actually interested in, and show it to me when you're done. Hopefully we can send you back there this afternoon."

"Got it," said James. "Okay."

"Great. Well I'm glad you caught me," she said, reaching for her robes. "I need to head back to Magical Law Enforcement because I've got more Cleansweep people coming into question this morning but I'll be back at... quarter to twelve or something. So if you could just have it ready by then."

"No problem," said James with a bemused smile. She was already up and halfway out the door, but she turned around all of the sudden, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "Good morning," and then she was leaving again.

James laughed, calling "Always out of order with you, isn't it?"

"Shut up," said Elise over her shoulder, and he chuckled to himself and grabbed a fresh piece of parchment to get working.

---

"Sorry to interrupt, Elise, I have a- oh." Carston stopped dead when he saw Elise's chair empty and James sitting at the desk instead. He had finished up a pretty good length list of potential questions just a few minutes ago.

"She's out terrorizing some Cleansweep workers for information," James smiled. "Said she'll be back at quarter to twelve-ish."

"Sure," he said. He took a step back, but he hesitated to leave.

"Did she put you on the Berlin investigation, then?" asked James.

Carston nodded.

"That's her passion project."