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A fortnight later, Ariadne had settled in comfortably. A part of her heart missed being in London but she would get by, it was for greater good. No. Now she sounded like them. Guess being away from home was making her insane. With a report in her hand, her heels clicked as she walked down the glum hallways of the American Congress headquarters. She ignored everyone who she passed, making her way to her office, only stopping when she spotted an empty desk.
"What happened to Goldstein?" she asked no one in particular. A few heads glanced towards each other before Achilles Tolliver spoke up.
"She's been demoted."
Rushing to the elevator, she ignored the strange looks she was getting as she picked up the pace. Demoted? For what? Tina was sweet and devoted to her work. Her life ambition was directly tied to her job, there was no way she would ever jeopardise her career over a stupid mistake. Tina was the perfect auror, hell she was the only person rivaling Ariadne for the position of Head Auror. As she made her way to the wand permit office, Ariadne almost crashed into the one person she wanted to see.
"What happened?" Ariadne asked, slightly out of breath as she stabilised herself. Tina looked terrible. Dark circles hung under her eyes as she tried to hide the disappointment that followed her. Her blouse was wrinkled and she used her long coat to cover the imperfections.
Tina sighed, "I was stupid and used magic in front of no-majs."
"Why?"
"What?"
"You wouldn't do that unless..."
"There's this boy, Credence," Tina held a hand to her head and creased her brow, "Do you remember that one woman outside of the bank?"
"The one proclaiming that we should burn all witches again?" Ariadne questioned, thinking back to her first day in America.
"Yes, she beats her children. Last night I got in the middle of it. Now I have to sit here and give out wand permits," she threw her hands up in exasperation.
Ariadne winced, "It's not that bad."
"It's pretty bad."
"It's pretty bad," Ariadne repeated, "Although I feel like you did the right thing."
Tina groaned, "That's not how everyone else sees it."
"You did break a few rules."
"Nott," a new voice called out to her. The pair turned to see Graves at the end of the corridor. "I need you now," his stern tone carried throughout the hall and Ariadne gave Tina a weak smile.
"I'll see you later," Ariadne offered and Tina nodded. Leaving her friend to return to her work, Ariadne fell in line with Graves. "What's going on?"
"There's been an attack. We need to move now," he picked up the pace as she followed him out of the room.
"Do we know anything?"
"Absolutely nothing."
☆
On a long street of identical houses, one of them had been reduced to rubble. Reporters filled the place as muggles tried to make sense of the destruction. Ariadne couldn't help but gasp at the damage. There wasn't much left, the only thing that stood was fragments of the entrance. The road was covered with wasted bricks and people started to gather around the annihilated house.
"Merlin," Ariadne breathed out, tuning out the voices of journalists. Graves was on edge as they moved closer to the site, "What do you think could have caused this?"
"I don't know."
Ignoring the muggle detectives, Ariadne and Graves made their way up the stairs. She followed him as they inspected the sight, invisible to any prying eyes. Bricks had been torn apart, the house had been shredded from the inside out. A lone chair lay sideways as the two muggles carefully stepped on top of the pile of bricks.
The breeze danced with Ariadne's hair as cracks began to form on the remaining walls. With wide eyes Ariadne almost backed into Graves. Pushing rubble out of the way, an invisible force tore open the bricked road, bashing into cars and buildings as it flew up. Screams made Grave and Ariadne follow the destruction. It flew rapidly through the air, weaving up and down, howling into the wind. Glass windows shattered as it dove down into the subway and people jolted away.
Horrified glances were thrown as people gathered around the newly created spilt on the road. Muggles backed away as Graves stalked down the fracture, Ariadne following after him. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She almost couldn't believe what she had just seen. The ruin left behind was detrimental.
'What on earth just happened?'
[765 words]
a/n
time skip because i literally could not write anything for like 2 weeks. i was so stuck on how to portray ariadne settling into america that i decided it would be best to just skip it!
hope you dont mind :)
kjlyds