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carewyncromwell · 17 days ago

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"We've got magic to do Just for you! We've got miracle plays to play... We've got parts to perform, Hearts to warm, Kings and things to take by storm As we go along our way..."

~"Magic to Do" from Pippin (musical)

x~x~x~x

fancasting Jeenu Mahadevan as Talbott and Taye Diggs as Kingsley because sadly there aren't enough good quality pictures online of Kingsley's movie actor!! // partially inspired by Hogwarts Mystery's "Grindelwald's Wand" Auror Case File sidequest

x~x~x~x

As much as Carewyn Cromwell became a lawyer at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement with aspirations to change the Wizarding World for the better, her first year or so at the British Ministry of Magic was actually quite unremarkable, case-wise. She had to deal with a lot of mundane cases of magical families contesting the terms of a deceased relative's will or the dividing line between neighboring properties. There were also so-called "moot cases" where pureblood supremacist families tried to cancel their young heirs' engagements to Muggles or Muggle-borns before the wedding ceremony, which quite frankly always failed since those young heirs would just run out the clock by filing different motions and so only ended up being a lot of wasted time and parchment for all parties, including Carewyn.

The first really interesting case Carewyn was asked to help with started in the winter of 1991, when Tonks stumbled into her office so badly that she ended up stepping into the wastepaper bin and then crashed into the open file cabinet.

"Tonks!" said Carewyn, alarmed.

She quickly leapt to her heeled feet. Tonks was dangling over the open file cabinet drawer with her pink pixie cut a mess, one foot in the air, and a sheepish look on her heart-shaped face.

"Heh...whoops. Sorry, Carey!"

Carewyn moved as if to help Tonks up, only to be cut off by Talbott, who'd appeared out of nowhere to grab Tonks by the back of her robes and yank her back up onto her feet.

"I told you to slow down before you hurt yourself," he chided his Auror partner lightly.

"Hey, I'm clumsy whether I'm fast or slow," Tonks laughed this off. "Don't worry, I'm fine!"

She turned to Carewyn with a huge grin.

"Carey, Talbott and I just got our first big Auror case!"

Carewyn's face brightened. "Really? That's great!"

Talbott was more restrained in his excitement than Tonks -- rather than bouncing and grinning, he merely gave Carewyn a meaningful smile as he closed the door to her office.

"We can't talk it about it in public yet, since our suspect is still on the loose," he said a bit more quietly, "but it potentially involves the childhood wand of Gellert Grindelwald."

Carewyn's brows furrowed. "You're kidding!"

"Nope," said Talbott.

"The senior Auror assigned to the case wants us to help him nab the guy!" said Tonks eagerly. "His name's Kingsley Shacklebolt -- said he heard a lot of good stuff about us from Mad-Eye and thinks our experience dealing in Knockturn Alley with the Circle of Khanna might be useful..."

"From what we've heard, though, this Dark wizard's been really good at ducking law enforcement -- he already is wanted on several counts of trespassing and yet he's ducked multiple Hit Wizards," said Talbott. "So Shacklebolt wants to have as many charges as possible fully lined up the moment we corner him. That way there's no waiting period with him at the Ministry before he's sent to Azkaban and there'll be less chance of him slipping out of Auror custody."

"And I'm guessing that's where I come in?" asked Carewyn.

"We knew there'd be no one better!" said Tonks with a grin.

"Unless you'd rather keep dealing with crazy witches fighting over their dead father's bottle cap collection," Talbott said dryly, his own mouth spread in a knowing smirk.

Carewyn bit back a small smile.

"...Well, I won't guarantee a lot of charges -- only as many as there's sufficient evidence for," she said slowly. Her red lips finally spread into that fuller, wryer smile despite herself. "But I think I can pencil you in."

x~x~x~x

Over the next two hours, Talbott and Carewyn reviewed the evidence that had been collected. At the end of her assessment, Carewyn concluded there was more than enough evidence to charge the wizard in question with multiple crimes. What held Carewyn up was how to classify the theft of the wand this person sought to steal.

"Clearly under the standard definition of the law, what this man is seeking to do would either be classified as theft, if no one is present when he takes the wand; robbery, if a bystander is present and he threatens harm upon that person to get them to surrender the wand; or burglary, if he uses violence against anyone to obtain the wand. And of course in the second two's cases, since he'll likely be armed with a wand and has already proven himself ready and willing to use Dark curses, classifying either of those as aggravated robbery or burglary would be simple enough. But depending on the value of the item in question, his possible sentencing would be more significant."

"Meaning we have to know for sure if the wand he ends up stealing was actually Grindelwald's or not," surmised Talbott.

Carewyn nodded.

"Fortunately," she said with a smile, "I think I know just who to talk to, if we want theories about what Gellert Grindelwald's childhood wand might have looked like."

x~x~x~x

And so Talbott and Carewyn headed off for Diagon Alley, to have a word with Garrick Ollivander. From the moment Carewyn walked in, though, she found herself ill at ease. Perhaps it was how quiet the shop was...or perhaps it was how unnaturally stiffly Mr. Ollivander stood behind the counter...

"Welcome to Ollivanders," he greeted in a clipped, polite voice. "How may I help you?"

Carewyn's brows knitted together a bit. No acknowledgement of who they were? That was odd...

"Hello, Mr. Ollivander," Talbott said respectfully. "We're here on behalf of the Auror Department. We were hoping to speak to you in private, if you wouldn't mind."

Ollivander blinked.

"In private?" he asked. "Whatever for?"

"Nothing criminal on your part," Talbott said calmly. "We'd merely like your input on a case."

Carewyn noted how Ollivander glanced toward the storeroom and back. Someone else was back there -- she sensed at once.

"My input?" said Ollivander brusquely. "Well, I certainly don't know how much I could be of help, young sir. Now if you'll excuse me, I really am quite busy -- "

"Silver lime and dragon heartstring, eleven-and-a-half inches, unyielding," Carewyn pronounced very loudly.

Both Talbott and Ollivander turned to Carewyn. Without looking at Talbott, Carewyn strode forward, her arms crossed as she faced Ollivander.

"The wand we're looking for is the one I received from you a few years ago," she said coolly. "Do you remember it? Patricia Rakepick purchased it for me."

Ollivander looked very tense. "...Of course, I'm -- sure I did -- but you can't really expect me to remember everyone who walks into my shop..." He glanced at the back of the shop again as he adjusted something on the inside of his robes. "Now if you don't mind, the store is closed -- you both will have to leave now -- "

"Expelliarmus!"

Ollivander just barely dodged Talbott's spell. A moment later, he lashed out at a shelf above their head, yanking it down with a curse and forcing Carewyn to summon a Shield Charm around both herself and Talbott to protect themselves from falling debris.

"That must be the suspect!" Talbott growled.

He and Carewyn chased the man into the back. More shelves full of wands were torn down as he tried to escape -- both of his pursuers, however, were excellent duelists, and soon with help from Carewyn's Shield Charms, Talbott was able to weave his way through so he could pursue the suspect out of the shop.

But when they got into the street, Talbott lost all sight of him. All he saw ordinary civilians, going about their shopping.

Talbott whirled around, looking for some sight of the man posing as Ollivander. Instead, though, who he collided with was a tall, bald dark-skinned man dressed in high-necked black robes.

"Shacklebolt?" said Talbott, startled. He'd thought the Senior Auror was with Tonks...

"Ah, there you are," said Shacklebolt. He gave Talbott a relieved pat on the shoulder. "Looking for the suspect?"

"...Yes, sir," said Talbott, his hawk-like eyes still narrowed upon the street as he looked around. "He ran out into the street, disguised as Ollivander -- "

"Then perhaps we'll continue our search for 'Ollivander' in Knockturn Alley," said Shacklebolt, grabbing hold of Talbott's arm and leading him off. "This way -- "

Before Shacklebolt could take another step, however, a series of black ropes materialized out of nowhere and lashed around all of his limbs, binding them tightly together. Losing his grip on Talbott and unable to balance, the man collapsed, his face colliding hard with the cobblestones.

"What in the -- " he swore angrily at Carewyn as she darted up beside Talbott, "what are you doing?!"

"Saving my arse, from the look of things," Talbott said with a light of understanding behind his eyes. He shot a quick look at Carewyn. "Did you sense something off about him, like back in the shop?"

"If by 'sensing something off,' you mean I sensed he planned to attack you as soon as you were both out of view."

With a grateful nod, Talbott bent down and snatched "Shacklebolt's" wand right out of the wizard's bound hand.

"You -- !" the wizard impersonating Kingsley snarled. "Give that back this instant, you filthy blood traitor -- !"

"Throwing off the act completely now, I see," said Talbott dully. "I thought you'd used Polyjuice Potion to impersonate Ollivander, but I reckon you'd have to be a Metamorphagus to change your appearance so quickly. And if so, that should make it significantly easier to identify you, considering that we have a registry of all known Metamorphagi in the British Isles..."

He examined the wand, ignoring how much more the wizard squirmed and wriggled. The more he resisted, the more his normal features -- a pale and pasty face framed by a mane of messy grayish brown hair -- reappeared.

"...Well, I don't know whose wand this is, but fortunately it's not Ollivander's or Kingsley Shacklebolt's," said Talbott. "I remember Ollivander saying his wand is hornbeam, like mine. And Shacklebolt's wand is made of a much darker wood."

"That's because my wand is Black Walnut, Mr. Winger," said a low, resonant voice. "And not a painted variant such as that."

Carewyn and Talbott looked up to see the real Kingsley Shacklebolt (dressed in dark blue and wearing a gold hoop earring) had appeared, Tonks right behind him with her wand pointed at the bound suspect.

"What kind of wand would you say this is, Mr. Ollivander?" Shacklebolt asked the real wand owner as he appeared beside him.

Ollivander reached out both hands to take the wand from Talbott, rocking it back and forth as he examined it.

"Yew and phoenix feather, fourteen inches, supple...ah," he murmured with a twinkle in his eye. "Yes, I think I see exactly why an aspiring Dark wizard would've thought to steal this wand. This is the wand I kept in the box labeled with the name 'Grindelwald.'"

All four Ministry workers straightened up immediately.

"Grindelwald?" repeated Tonks. "Then that wand did belong to Gellert Grindelwald?"

"Yes!" the Dark wizard said triumphantly, smirking from ear to ear. "A long wand of Yew, just like all the reports said! I knew it had to be somewhere in Britain, and I found it -- only I was smart enough to track it down through Godric's Hollow back to here!"

"And now you'll be dumb enough to rot in Azkaban for it," Talbott shot at him coldly.

Carewyn couldn't help but notice, though, just how amusement danced through Ollivander's features. Images of Ollivander holding the wand as a younger man -- considering it almost scornfully before filing it away in an nondescript box on an old shelf and forgetting about it -- flickered over her mind.

The red-haired lawyer raised an eyebrow at him curiously.

"...Why did you put Grindelwald's name on that box, Mr. Ollivander?" she asked pointedly.

Ollivander smiled. "Oh, I didn't write his name on that box. My grandfather did -- after a young Gellert Grindelwald returned it to him."

The Dark wizard's smug smirk faltered.

"Returned it?" said Talbott, confused.

"Yes," said Ollivander amusedly. "Gellert Grindelwald had ordered this wand from my father and asked it sent specially to his flat in Godric's Hollow, where he'd been staying at the time. One can presume he intended to give it as a gift, made out of the same wand wood he himself preferred. Instead, a mere day after it arrived, Grindelwald sent the wand right back -- presumably because the person he'd intended to give it to had soundly rejected it."

The Dark wizard's mouth fell open. Tonks couldn't bite back her laughter.

"So what you're saying is -- " she choked, " -- is that wand was a gift for Grindelwald's crush?"

"Unreciprocated crush, from the sound of things," confirmed Ollivander. "Whoever the intended recipient was, I imagine they must not have been too keen on being courted by a Dark wizard."

"As most people wouldn't be," said Shacklebolt with a dry smile.

He glanced only briefly at the wand before he turned to Tonks and Talbott.

"Well, at the very least, we needn't worry about such a wand being any kind of danger to the public. From the sound of things, it has yet to be used by any wizard at all, let alone the likes of Grindelwald. Have his charges been properly filed?"

"Yes," said Talbott promptly.

"Already on file we have five charges of trespassing, one charge of battery, three charges of evading magical Law Enforcement, and five charges of using Dark magic to inflict bodily harm," said Carewyn. "With what just happened, though, I could see adding resisting arrest, destruction of property, and aggravated theft to that list as well."

The Dark wizard sneered at Carewyn. "Careful, sweet cheeks -- go on much more, and I might think you're impressed."

Talbott and Tonks shot him thoroughly disgusted looks. Carewyn went a step further, her eyes boring into him like he was a cockroach she wanted to step on.

"Hard to be impressed with a supposed 'Dark wizard' who is so unfamiliar with the wand of Charles Cromwell, he thinks it's actually mine," she said icily. "But then again, you thought a German wizard used a wand made by the most famous wandmaker in Great Britain -- a country he didn't visit until adulthood -- back when he attended Durmstrang. So clearly your knowledge of wands and common sense overall is a bit shoddy."

The Dark wizard went red in the face. His eyes wide with both shock and irritation, he lunged forward as if to try to hit her, but Shacklebolt snatched him up by the back of his robes.

"Well said," he said in his low, resonant voice. "Well, then, Ms. Tonks -- Mr. Winger -- we'd best transport our friend here to Azkaban, to await proper sentencing."

Talbott and Tonks moved over to take hold of each of the Dark wizards' arms. Shacklebolt looked at Carewyn -- a bit of light from the nearest store window bounced off his gold earring and bright white smile as he inclined his head to her.

"We'll be in touch."

With this, the three Aurors and their prisoner Disapparated.

x~x~x~x

Later that week, Carewyn was surprised to receive a short note from Kingsley Shacklebolt --

Miss Cromwell, I thought you'd like knowing that our Metamorphagus "friend" has decided to plead guilty to all counts in an attempt to avoid his full sentence. It seems his short stint in Azkaban, as well as the thoroughness of your case against him, was more than enough to spook him. His hearing should be sometime next week. Thank you again for your assistance in this case. I understand from Tonks that you are incredibly modest and are often uncomfortable accepting gifts, but I hope that a simple cup of a coffee on me can serve as a proper "thank you" for your hard work. Regards, K. Shacklebolt

Enclosed was a Muggle gift card worth enough for a good cup of coffee and a few pastries.

Most surprising of all, though, was that on the day Carewyn decided to stop by the Jamaica Wine House to use that gift card, she noticed that among the pub's usual customers, there was a dark-skinned older gentleman with a bald head, dressed head to toe like a Muggle banker, in a perfectly crisp black suit and multiple gold rings that matched his earring.

Carewyn smiled fully and strode right over to the man's table, her off-white power suit helping her blend in just as well as his black suit did.

"Mr. Shacklebolt," she greeted.

Shacklebolt paused. Then he slowly looked up from his copy of the London News, his mouth spread in a smile.

"Why, hello, Miss Cromwell," he said, his low voice as calm and level as ever. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"I come here often, actually," said Carewyn conversationally. "It's just a few blocks from my flat."

"Then it seems that on our previous visits, we've likely walked right by each other without even realizing it," Shacklebolt said, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Unsurprising, given how different we look out of our work clothes."

Folding his paper and putting it down on the table, he indicated the chair across from him.

"Would you like to sit down?"

"Thank you," said Carewyn with a shake of her head, "but I can't stay long, I have to be at work soon."

"Yes, I heard you have a case today," said Shacklebolt.

He shot two very quick, covert looks around before he lowered his voice significantly so only Carewyn would hear.

"...Something about Walden Macnair suing for a plot of land left to him by his estranged uncle?"

Carewyn scoffed.

"I don't know if I would even call it a case," she muttered back. "That land was donated to Hogwarts as part of their Magical Creature Reserve years before the man died, so Macnair has no right to the property or any of the creatures on it. There's literally no argument to be made."

And thank Merlin for that! she thought huffily. She loathed the thought of a maniac executioner like Macnair having free reign to poach all of those poor creatures.

"I see," said Shacklebolt.

Carewyn could easily sense that Shacklebolt was no Legilimens. Even so, he seemed to pick up on Carewyn's disapproval of Macnair, and he clearly agreed with it. With some effort Carewyn could even sense some memories of Macnair from Shacklebolt, all stained with quiet suspicion and a burning sense of injustice -- one even featuring a much younger Shacklebolt, dressed in a green and silver tie, watching one of his old classmates cast a Dark Mark into the sky...

"Well, regardless of that," said Shacklebolt, "Fudge is impressed with your work ethic, Miss Cromwell. And he's not the only one. I'm certain you'll receive cases that are more of your caliber very soon."

I can only hope! Carewyn thought tiredly. I didn't imagine helping the Wizarding World by finagling over what inch of fence belongs to one brother or the other...

Instead of articulating this, though, she merely gave the older man a slight smile.

"Well, thank you. And if you, Talbott or Tonks need any further help, just let me know."

Shacklebolt inclined his head slightly. "I certainly will."

Carewyn smiled a bit more fully before turning to go.

"Carewyn."

She glanced over her shoulder in slight surprise. Shacklebolt looked a bit more serious.

"You inherited your grandfather's talent," he said slowly, "didn't you?"

Carewyn's lips knit together. Her face grew grimmer as she turned back around.

"...Yes," she admitted at last. "But I don't intend to use it like he did. Neither Jacob nor I intend to."

Shacklebolt's face visibly softened.

"Good," he said. "It's a gift far too many people have used for sinister purposes, even when it has such potential to give us greater understanding. It seems like in both your and my line of work, in particular, such a talent could be of great use, in pursuing fair and due justice."

"Spoken like someone from my old school house?" Carewyn asked dryly.

Shacklebolt's mouth spread into a grin. "Indeed. Those of us who wore green and silver back in the day know the value of helping our own, do we not? And of blending in with our environment, when necessary."

He indicated their respective suits with one of his gold-ringed hands. Carewyn grinned back.

"Yes, we do," she said. "And of never giving up on making the world we live in the one we want to see."

Shacklebolt's aura gained fresh warmth as he nodded in solemn agreement.

"...Mm, yes. Your mother said you did feel strongly that way, in her letter."

Carewyn was taken aback. "My -- ?"

"I followed up with her seeking more follow-up information on old 'Gellert,' after our case ended so anti-climatically," Shacklebolt said sleekly. A touch of mischief danced through his dark eyes. "Don't worry -- our correspondence was strictly professional in nature. Lane I just think couldn't help but gush about her daughter, when I mentioned you'd helped us."

Carewyn turned away to obscure both her blush and her proud smile.

"...Well, I suppose I can't blame you for writing to my mother," she muttered. "There's just about no one who can do her work better than she can."

I'm mostly just surprised Mum opened up to you so easily, thought Carewyn. But, she supposed, with Kingsley being as calm and sincere as he was as well as having praised Carewyn, it made some sense that Lane would warm up to him.

With a shrug, Carewyn turned on her heel, coffee in hand, and headed for the door.

"Well, now it seems you have two Cromwells ready to help, should you need us," she said lightly.

Shacklebolt opened up the Muggle newspaper again with a smile.

"It seems I do."

With this, he returned to reading the paper, and Carewyn strode quickly from the pub and down the street to work.

#yes I headcanon kingsley as slytherin you can rip that from my cold dead hands #in the books he is SO good at going undercover #he tricked fudge umbridge the muggle prime minister the ENTIRE death-eater-controlled ministry...#and yet he's also so chill and cool under pressure #he's such a good politician and damn it we need more slytherins aligned with the side of good okay #but yeah I also chose taye diggs as my fancast because he looks more how I pictured kingsley in the books #and okay as a side note?? in the game hogwarts mystery??#kingsley looks WEIRD!#I mean honestly a lot of the time the models based on the actors are bad but his eyes are crossed the WHOLE TIME #also yes that silver lime and dragon description is of charles cromwell's wand #the real ollivander would've known that AND carewyn's real wand composition easily #silver lime wood is according to potterlore associated with seers and legilimens which is very appropriate for charles #yew represents the dichotomy of life and death so yeah...of course grindelwald likes it >>#hphm #hogwarts mystery #beyond hogwarts #my fanfiction #my writing #kingsley shacklebolt #carewyn cromwell #talbott winger #nymphadora tonks #lane cromwell #jacob cromwell

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