They head over to the crime lab to communicate directly with the others.
Hermione shakes her head. "She hasn't been gone long. She'll be okay."
The younger Black looks at her. "She's been gone for four hours 'Mione."
Ron and Hermione give him an identical look. "What? But I talked to her just before we came here?"
"What?"
"Yeah, I called her to tell her about Remus and Tonks. She answered like she normally did. Nothing seemed out of order."
He sets down a file, a file he had on Cormac. "Nothing seemed wrong?"
"Yeah, I mean — oh. I don't know why I didn't pick up on it in the first place."
"What is it?"
She fiddles with her thumbs, "well... she said she loved me. She never said that before, at least not since school."
Aries immediately calls Penelope asking her if she can pinpoint where the call came from. "Okay, I don't have an exact location but her phone pinged off a cell tower about ten miles from you."
Nick standing in the corner speaks up. "They'd be far from us but close enough to be close to you guys. Garcia, can you narrow that down to abandoned buildings within a five-mile radius of that cell tower in all directions?"
"Running the diagnostics now. Give me a second."
With that Remus asks him. "An abandoned building?"
"Parkinson and McLaggen are a start but from how you all described them they aren't that smart. We dig into the background of that house. Last year Parkinson bought it, before then it was abandoned and looked nothing like it did. She wasn't careful enough to cover her tracks."
"You're thinking that because of how much trouble they went into to set up that house they aren't going to try hard enough to hide them."
Nick nods to Harry. "They haven't been secretive at all. Their movements are sloppy leading right to them. They're angry and their methods are slipping because of it."
"We don't have any definitive proof that McLaggen is involved. How do we prove that?"
"Well we don't have to wait any longer," says Fin walking into the room. "Brass and I have been running security cameras since Pansy left the building. We tracked the car to a bank on the other side of the city. There at the bank, we have them both on camera withdrawing a hefty amount of money."
"Any idea on where it's going?"
Morgan walks in giving them the news. "I might have an idea. When Fin told me about them going to the bank I checked their bank records. The money was transferred to an account in England."
Remus raises a brow. "They fly here to do whatever they're doing just to fly back to England afterward? That doesn't make sense."
"Sorry for breaking up the conversation but I think I found where they might be."
"Talk to me beautiful."
"There's a warehouse that's been rented for the last year. There's no sign of any contractors looking at the place or renovations. I looked into it more and found a series of offshore payments toward a bunker below the building. I pulled up the blueprints and it's right next to an elevator shaft."
"An escape route. They're building around it in secret so they can escape without anyone figuring out how."
The idea made sense. Aries nods to Ron taking in what he said. "Time is of the essence. They're waiting to draw us in. When they do they will kill them. They're loose canons."
"Then we better hurry. I'll get Brass to follow up with some of the task force. We'll make a plan to get them out then infiltrate the building."
Nobody objects to his plan. The crime team goes to get their gear. Aries holds the others back.
"They might expose magic."
"That makes me think," says Hermione, "Rose is a Phoenix. Pansy and Cormac know that. Rose is strong enough to get them both out. Why isn't she?"
Harry sighs, "Greg's there, he's a muggle. You have to understand that nobody here knows about the wizarding world. She's controlled the Phoenix, she's not about to expose herself."
"Even if it means saving her life and another? Isn't it worth the risk?"
Aries weighs her response. "You're not wrong but you forget who raised her." He looks to Remus. "She's just like you. She doesn't want to be seen differently. Plus... it's Greg."
Remus furrows his brows, "you make that sound like it's supposed to mean something."
Aries laughs, "she likes him but won't admit it."
"And he likes her but he won't admit it."
Sirius scoffs, "I think like is an understatement. Have you seen the way they look at each other? She loves him and he loves her."
"Oh." He says shocked.
Remus never expected to hear about her liking someone. Despite it being sixteen years he figured she'd never get over Fred. She adored him so much and always protected him. Now it's weird to hear that she's able to love again.
• • •
Greg stays alert while trying to keep Rose from pacing out. He takes his hand through her sweaty hair.
Her eyes slowly roll into the back of her head. He panics lightly tapping her on the cheek. "Hey hey, I need you to stay awake Rose."
"Weak. Tired."
"I know, I know. You're the strongest of the two of us. If anyone can figure a way out of here it's you. So please stay awake."
She looks around weakly. "Fire."
"What?"
"We need to make something hot. Need to cauterize the wound. Wake me up."
He follows her eyes around the room looking for anything to help. Greg sees a faulty metal pipe above them and the necessary utensils across the room.
"I might have an idea. It requires one of us getting over there." He tips his head gesturing to the board.
She scoffs, "easier said than done. We're chained to the floor. Unless you can magically get the key out of thin air I don't think we're going anywhere."
Greg huffs smoothing down her hair again. He stops releasing his hand from her head. "Ro, are those bobby pins?"
"Shit, you're right."
She takes her good arm pulling the only two bobby pins and keeping her hair up out. With her fingers, she rearranged the pins pushing them into the lock. Greg helps her with one.
"Okay, twist your way."
With a little click, the chain comes undone. She smiles over at Greg and helps him undo his chains. Rose uses the wall to help her to her feet. She runs to the other side of the room.
Meanwhile Greg figures out the proper way to get the pipe. She sets down the equipment grabbing his shoulders. He coughs looking away with a blush. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"Give me a lift."
He's about to question her, but she gets annoyed rolling her eyes. She grabs his hands putting them in the right form. "Okay, on three."
"One."
"Two."
"Three."
She pushes herself onto his hands grabbing hold of the bar above. She yanks at it feeling weaker and weaker summing down in her Phoenix strength. She looks briefly down at Greg who's encouraging her to get it. Using a little of her Phoenix strength she rips it off.
"You did it!"
"Yes!"
He lowers her down grabbing her by the waist. The contact makes her shiver. She smiles at him nervously before falling into him. It wasn't her intention but all the movement made her dizzy and weak.
He helps her sit getting started on making a little fire poker. When the metal heats up just enough he questions Rose's motives with a concerned look. She takes it from him unbothered by the fact.
"You're crazy."
She laughs without sarcasm eyeing the pipe. "You want to learn more of my past, here it is. This is not the first time I've been burned by a metal rod."
With no time to spare, she presses the metal into her shoulder. Tears trickle down her eyes as she bites back a scream and huffs out some groans.
She pulls it away tossing it to the side. It clarets to the floor. Greg cups the side of her cheek pulling her head to his chest. She shakes violently against him trying to simmer down the agonizing pain she feels.
"Rose, are you okay? Rose. Talk to me? Shit, you're scaring me."
"I-I'm okay. Pain."
"We'll get through this."
She closes her eyes breathing slowly. Gently she places a hand over his. "I-I know. We got to work on the next stage of the plan."
"The plan? There's a plan?"
"You ask too many questions, Greggo."
He smiles softly at the nickname. "What's the next stage?"
She sniffles. "We fight."
Rose sits up showing him how to hold the chain the proper way. They have to hold it a certain way without showing them being free.
Just as they placed the chains behind her back, Pansy opened the door. She leaves it open making Rose smirk. Idiot. She tightens her grip on the chain stepping closer to Greg.
"Are you going to have me meet your partner?"
Pansy's demeanor changes as Rose asked the question. Her wicked grin falters and she struggles to find the appropriate words.
"W-what partner?"
Rose's consciousness was wavering and Greg notices it. Her eyes are droopy having her appear tired and weak. He observes the weakness in her hands, the grip she holds isn't as strong as it normally is.
"I'm not an idiot, Pansy. If you think I'd believe you did this all on your own, you're stupider than I thought. And your partner, well, whoever it is is just as much a coward as you." Her eyes darken as the venom in her voice increased.
Pansy is about to respond but a voice stops her. "I didn't think you'd picture it out," a male voice says inching closer to the light. "After all you spend your time behind a desk running - what's the American term - ah, ballistics. Yes, that's it."
"I know you," she whispers.
"I hope so, after all, I did help save our wretched world after we graduated."
The comment made her switch her gaze. She peers eagerly over Pansy's shoulder getting a glimpse of the man. His dirty blonde hair is longer and his ego has surely risen since the last time she saw him.
"Somehow when lives are lost you always end up coming back from the dead."
She doesn't wince. She doesn't internally cringe. She doesn't fall back on fear. No, she stands strong against him as she comes to face with him. McLaggen.
Rose keeps a straight face coming to eye level with him. "Fortunately for me, I have died since high school."
"Yet many others have."
"That's not on me, Cormac."
"It's not? Like Fawkes, your tears heal people. You're telling me you couldn't save one life since then?"
The question hurts her but she doesn't let him see it. McLaggen looks over to her friend noticing the sheer confusion written on his face.
He chuckles lightly. "He doesn't know your little secret, does he, Lupin?"
"Leave him out of this. There's no need for casualties."
"Casualties," he muses darkly, "like my wife was a causality when the FBI was being targeted in 2008?"
Her jaw slacks. She remembers the case clear as day, her eyes facing the board. "I wasn't in New York when it happened. I didn't even know you were in the states. You dropped off the planet after '98 how was I supposed to know?"
"Last I recall you did too. Fifty deaths within our school and you ran after the war. Those hit hardest after the war went to St. Mungos. I was told not all of them survived."
Her heart shatters forgetting all the lives lost in the war aside from those she cared most for.
"I am sorry, but I can't change the past."
"I am not, you could have saved hundreds of lives but you didn't. Death Eaters attacked muggle homes and wizarding families still trying to prove the power they still held."
She fumes, "I couldn't help what we didn't expect. I couldn't stop the killings if I wanted to. If I stayed they still would have come."
He gets in her face not breaking eye contact. "But you still could have saved lives instead of running away from the grief. You'll pay for the mayhem you let terrorize our country."
"Not if I can help it." With that, she wrapped the chain around his neck.