Here And Now [Ewan]

[Bianca Alia Rivera]

March 2025

Justice. Discipline. Restraint. These were the values of the Aurors, the principles that had been drilled into her head over the years by a revolving door of superiors that had come and gone – some into retirement, some moving up the food chain, and others into cushy desk jobs after having their nerves fried by the job. Bianca repeated the last one to herself over and over again as she stiffly waited in the line to the coffee cart behind her new arch-enemy. The man hmm’d and umm’d, changed his order, asked the barista for recommendations, debated between the value of soy milk or almond…Bianca felt her temper simmering, rising to a boil like the coffee machine should have been – except it was waiting idly for this niffler-loving moron to finish ordering.

She gripped the files in her hand tightly, repeating the value of restraint over and over again in her head as she reminded herself what the consequences would be if she broke. No coffee. She’d surely be kicked out from the Atrium and then how would she get her coffee fix? By relying on the mud they served in Floor Two? No sir. She could hold her tongue for a second or two longer. The order was finally placed, the barista finally began to prepare the drink…but then the worst happened. The man began to turn his pockets inside and out, patting himself down because he was sure he had brought his wallet with him…Bianca’s hand moved in a flash, slamming the sickles on the counter with such force that the woman behind her jumped. “Wow, t-thanks!” the man beamed at her. Bianca only stared at him with a flat expression. “Get out of the line. Now.”

Finally, finally, Bianca mercifully walked away with her coffee. She riffed through the file in her hands while she walked, frowning slightly at the Code Red stamped across the top. Red because of the color of her robes, of the authority they represented as the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Her captain hadn’t simply tossed this case onto her desk like the others – he’d called her into his office to explain the sensitivity. There might be something dirty happening in the department. Someone working with the crime family whose last three cases against them had mysteriously fallen apart. It was the worst kind of case to have crossed her desk, and she dealt with Dark wizards on a daily basis.

Visiting HR wasn’t normally a cause for celebration, but they might be the potential new lead she was looking for. They didn’t have an open-space concept like Floor Two, but rather each Ministry drone had been given their own office. Maybe they needed privacy for handling the dirty laundry of the Ministry’s personnel issues. Bianca glanced at the name her captain had written on the file, promptly located the office, and placed her coffee cup on the file so she could knock. She only did so once sharply as the only indication that she was there before opening the door. “McGonagall?” she asked abruptly, eyes focused completely on the balancing act she was doing between her files and the liquid treasure she didn’t want to drop.

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Ewan grimaced. Why on Earth he bothered to server himself a cup of the Ministry coffee was beyond him. It must have been a few moments where he blacked out and hadn’t realized, or perhaps Holly had hit him with a confundus charm when he wasn’t looking. Then again, he wouldn’t put it past Juniper either—but she wasn’t employed by the Ministry anymore. A little dramatically, Ewan picked up the small Styrofoam cup with two fingers and let it drop into the trash bin. At least he had the corner of his desk returned so he could adequately organize his paperwork.

The new use of technology had helped his work considerably, as was his ability to turn into a cat at will. His superiors had not said that he couldn’t for the sake of his work. The former solicitor took such words at face value, after all. Hearing a loud knock on his door, Ewan looked up expecting another knock, but instead, the door opened. In the doorway stood a woman holding files while precariously balancing a cup of coffee on top. Immediately, his first thought was how that coffee might land anywhere in his office. He’d witnessed firsthand what happened when coffee, especially Ministry coffee, landed on one of these computers. The damn thing began to spark and come to life.

”Yes—“ He stood and walked the short distance to the door, his fingers gently grasping the coffee before it had a chance to ruin anything. ”Please, come in.” Of course, he recognized Bianca Rivera. It was his job to know, of course, although they had not worked together on any cases. Then again, not many new Aurors lead cases. Instead, they support those with more years under their belt. Ewan returned to his seat, placing her cup on the far edge of his desk. Feeling uneasy about its proximity to his work, he grabbed a stack of files and moved it to a cabinet behind him. ”What can I help you with?” Typically, other departments didn’t visit his office specifically unless a Department Head was following up on a new hire—but even that was rare.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca’s ability to focus had always been a blessing and a curse. It proved to be highly effective at work, since Bianca could push through her paperwork or burn the midnight oil without even noticing. Nothing could speed up time like diving into a case, only to resurface hours later and realize she’d skipped lunch. But it also meant that things slipped past her radar sometimes, especially if she wasn’t particularly interested in them. In this case, she was hyper-focused on her coffee and not allowing even a drop to spill (not after what she’d suffered this morning to get it). But it also meant that she didn’t notice Ewan until he was right in front of her, putting his hands on her coffee and causing an outraged gasp to slip through her usual stony demeanor. He might as well have grabbed her badge and started stopping people on the street.

His only saving grace was that he immediately set it down on his desk and stepped away, which saved her the trouble of pulling out her wand. Bianca took a second to center herself before she followed him to the desk, because the casual way he simply decided what was going to happen was foreign to her. Nobody had tried to manage her in a long time, mostly because she didn’t allow it. It seemed unacceptable to be off-kilter before they’d even started discussing the case, so Bianca took a moment to let the oxygen reach her brain again and then sat down in front of him. Placing the files on the table, Bianca immediately reached for her coffee and took a long sip. She frowned slightly at him as she set the cup down again. His question made it seem like he hadn’t been briefed on the assignment, although that was impossible. So this was what it looked like when someone was being polite – not like the Aurors who simply plowed through conversations to get to the end (present company included).

“It doesn’t seem like the last Auror on this file came to visit, but my captain’s spoken with your supervisor,” Bianca summarized flatly. She’d gotten the case files a few days ago and had spent most of the time trying to untangle how the three Aurors before her had handled their individual cases. It was a mess. None of them had gotten far on their own case before being cut short – testimonies had been changed, evidence had gone missing, confidential witnesses had been tracked down and threatened. It didn’t leave her much to go on, so she’d shifted her attention to a new subject. “Ever heard of the Shadegroves? They’ve developed quite a reputation on my floor.” One of London’s most established, if not slippery, crime families. It all led back to them. She was sure that finding the breadcrumbs back to this family was the key to breaking her case open. Bianca didn’t open the files, though. She kept her gaze locked on Ewan to study his reaction (because really, a compromised HR drone was the last thing she needed).

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Ewan didn’t catch the surprised gasp from his guest as he quickly handled the hazardous and hot cup of coffee. Merlin that would have ruined his day if the beverage had spilled all over his desk and papers. Sure, a charm could easily clean it all up, but it was the fact that the entire situation was easily avoidable. Maybe this was why Ewan avoided coffee. It wasn’t worth the hassle. And nobody in their right mind ever spilled their tea as easily as coffee in a disposable cup. Ewan returned to his seat behind the desk while Bianca haphazardly placed her files on the edge of the desk.

His eyes lingered on the unstable pile briefly before returning to Bianca. ”No—he did.” Ewan responded humorlessly. ”Buford has a limited vocabulary.” Their work overlapped for quite some time when Ewan was part of the solicitor’s office. And Merlin, if all of them didn’t dread the task of deciphering the ruins scratched into parchment with far too much ink, that was Buford’s handwriting. He let Bianca continue, as Ewan wouldn’t have minded a refresher on the pertinent details.

”I have.” The Shadegroves were a troublesome bunch. Their international presence caused a bit of a problem at times. Jurisdictional fights were not uncommon, and Interpol arrogantly swiped the Auror’s files and all their work for their own hunts. ”I helped put a few away in my time.” Not anyone near the snake's head, but small victories nonetheless. ”I thought most of the cases were handed off to Interpol?” Either way, Ewan wasn’t sure how this involved him. It wasn’t his job anymore to legally chase this particular scum of the earth.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

She didn’t notice anything particularly alarming in his reaction to her mention of the Shadegroves, certainly nothing that set off a red flag in her mind or gut. But Bianca did follow his eye line to the files she’d casually piled onto his desk, and her head tilted slightly in consideration as she processed the fact. So he was either possessive of his space or he hated messes. Bianca could respect that since she was exactly the same way. She knew what it felt like to have a chaotic buzzing in her mind when something was out-of-order, and Bianca could be wildly possessive about the things she cared about. Like her coffee. So she saw something of an opportunity to mess with Ewan a little, and while she wouldn’t normally dream of letting herself get distracted from work for something so trivial – well. He’d touched her coffee. So he deserved anything he was going to get.

“Interpol steals cases whenever they can,” Bianca acknowledged as she casually began to take apart the tower of files on Ewan’s desk, “But the Shadegroves started as a local crime family and not every case crosses borders.” As she talked, she began to create three sub-piles of files almost randomly, spreading them out across the desk like she would’ve done back at her cubicle. “So, I’m investigating some of their smaller ventures. I don’t need to take apart the whole enterprise. Just enough to get them into Azkaban while I finish the job.” She paused to take a sip of coffee and randomly flipped open one of the files, which was full of witness statements, forensics reports, photos of the crime scene and so on. Her gaze had been focused on her files, but Bianca glanced up to take in how Ewan was reacting to all this.

Bianca leaned back into her chair and crossed her legs, picking up one of the pictures to consider it while she kept sipping at her coffee. He must still be wondering why she was here, since Bianca didn’t know of many Aurors that went to HR to solve their cases. She frowned at the picture of the victim's face and looked back at him. “They have a mole in the Ministry. Maybe more than one.” Bianca’s observation came flatly as she entered the sensitive subject. She knew the Ministry was a sprawling bureaucracy, and that came with inefficiencies at best and the potential for corruption everywhere. But she hated the thought of it happening under her watch. “I can’t possibly hope to solve any of these cases while they have an inside guy sabotaging me. That’s what happened to Smith, Abbott, and Kowalski.” Bianca paused for a moment, waited to see if Ewan would understand where she was going with this. He didn’t seem unintelligent.

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Another Human Resources employee might have felt alarmed at an auror so rapidly and consistently assessing them in real-time. But Ewan had grown accustomed to the suspicious looks and actions of Aurors. Typically, the more experienced they became, the more cynical they became until they retired or quit out of a sense of extreme nihilism. The law was a strange place where logic existed and attempted to control the often illogical due to human emotions and the like. Ewan supposed it was one reason he left that office. At least in this role, he observed and categorized things based on facts.

His eyes watched how Bianca haphazardly sorted her files across the open space on his desk. There did not appear to be any logic in her sorting, but she had to explain it as well, so he waited. The file she opened contained familiar contents. The legal paperwork he used to pick apart while legal cases were built, and they filtered what they could and couldn’t use in the trial. ”You think one of these smaller fish will lead you to a bigger one?” It was a classic law enforcement move but not one that came without risk.

But the bomb Bianca dropped so casually caused Ewan to raise an eyebrow. Well, that changed things. Leaning back in his chair, Ewan considered this new fact carefully. It now made sense why assistance was needed outside of Law Enforcement. ”And how do you know there isn’t a mole in my department?” he could be a mole for all she knew. He was not a mole for an organized crime syndicate, but humans were fallible. Much as an infamous name could prove they were ‘good’, a name like McGonagall could prove the opposite. Thankfully, that had not been the case as of late, but the question still stood because a mole in human resources could block anything Ewan had assisted with equally.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

It was a toxic case, the kind of case that could ruin careers if an Auror found themselves in over their head or caught in a trap. But there was something thrilling about the danger, too. Like walking a tightrope without a safety net, knowing that while falling meant career suicide, making it to the other side would be a big win. Either way, Bianca had been intrigued from the first moment her captain had shut the door to explain the particulars of this case. There was a lot more required than the simple legwork and hours an Auror usually put in – if only because there was someone (or multiple someones?) that badly wanted her to fail and would do their best to ensure it. She lived for that sort of competition, especially because she was sure she’d be able to come out on top.

If Ewan felt bothered by the mess she was making, he hid it well and Bianca internally rolled her eyes at the thought. So it would take a little bit more to rattle him. This type of case would take time to find and work leads, so she’d wear him down eventually. In the meantime she spread out her files over his desk and knocked his inbox tray and pens askew. “Mm,” Bianca said neutrally as he wondered about catching the big bosses, “I want to turn a threat into an opportunity.” That was what this mole was, after all. A tiny little crack in the Ministry that, if she could find them, would lead her to the hammer. And then she could work her way up the food chain like Ewan had suggested. He seemed to have some experience with it himself, although Bianca always put her own twist on things.

She let him stew over the implications of a mole while she rifled through pictures. Bianca had already gotten some time to process the bombshell and decide what strategy she wanted to take. She shrugged at his last question. “You’ll have to tell me, won’t you?” She leaned forward as she got to the heart of why she was here, placing her elbows on his desk while she looked at him intently. “You have access to the Ministry’s personnel files. All of them. I’m learning how this family operates, the sort of people they might recruit. I can work this from my end while you work it from yours. Find the likely connection points, then comb through the records until we find their spies. I don’t have to trust your entire department. Just you.” It was a tall order – in her line of work, trust was expensive and easily lost. But she’d come down to his office herself to decide whether she could work with Ewan or not, and read his body language for herself. She hadn’t seen any red flags yet, but there were still more things to learn.

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Immediately, his eyes shifted as the items on his desk moved due to her careless array of files. Merlin, at this rate, she would have all the things on his desk on the floor. Aurors, while meticulous and detailed, were also chaotic. With such disorganization, Ewan wondered how anyone managed to do efficient work. Thank Merlin for his former department and their careful paperwork, which allowed the chance for the judicial process to proceed. With great willpower, Ewan forced his mind to focus on the task at hand. The case that Bianca was describing and the new ‘opportunity.’ He was glad Holly was not here, knowing very well she would’ve used the opportunity to knock everything off his desk for a reaction.

’Just you.’ There was a forceful efficiency to the Auror sitting before him. One Ewan could respect. She didn’t mince her words, nor did she try to court him with some anecdote about his Great Aunt Minerva that was likely untrue. Not once had she brought up the fact he was a McGonagall. In fact, what Ewan knew of Rivera was that she likely would have interacted very little with the former Headmistress of Hogwarts as she had attended a different magical school. ”Done a thorough background check on me, have you?” Ewan mentally pictured both his sisters rolling their eyes at the thought of Ewan being a mole for the Shadegrove crime family. If ‘boy scout’ could’ve been stamped on his forehead, one of them would have done it years ago.

Still, aside from her file, Ewan didn’t know Rivera all that well. And since leaving the Solicitor’s office, all the Ministry employees were to Ewan—simply personnel files. A serial number on the top of a form. He paused momentarily. The obvious question came to mind, and he was supposed to be thorough; he had to ask. ”And you? How do I know you aren’t helping them?” A mole pretending to search for a mole? It sounded like some ridiculous and predictable story one might read. Again, per her file and case history—it was unlikely.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

The longer their conversation went on, the more Bianca was able to notice and appreciate the little details that revealed how Ewan managed himself and his work. He was meticulous, if the state of his desk was any indication (at least, before Bianca had decided to make herself at home to try and get him back for touching her coffee). His questions followed a particular line of thought, like he was slowly setting up his dominos before he’d try to knock them over at a time that suited him best. And he didn’t ask any stupid questions, thank Merlin and Morgana and all the knights of the Round Table. Bianca had no patience for slow thinkers that waited to be told what to do and took no initiative. She didn’t want a drone on this case – no, she wanted someone who could notice patterns and put the puzzle pieces together. She wanted to take this crime family down a peg before they tried to mess with her again.

At his question, she shrugged slightly and shot him a half-smile. She wasn’t embarrassed to have been caught checking up on any potential partners in this case and she leaned forward on her elbows to rummage through the pen holder on his desk. Background checks were routine at the Auror’s office, and any good investigator knew how to check up on a person of interest. “I’m a suspicious person. Sue me.” She found the pen she was looking for and pulled it out, admiring the Ministry Legal Department’s logo before she began to tap the pen against the desk in an uneven rhythm. It figured. He seemed like the type of person who would be reluctant to let go of things from his past, but he was too organized to leave the nostalgia lying around his attic. “But I’d rather you didn’t. It would put us behind schedule.” She might be accused of putting the cart before the horse, but his constant stream of questions suggested he was interested. Otherwise why bother asking about the case?

She was satisfied at this point that he didn’t behave like a typical mole (not that there was anything typical about spying, but it did tend to attract a certain type of person). It meant that Bianca was eager to start, because she had an arrest rate to maintain and the little itch at the back of her mind told her there was work to be done. Dark wizards and witches to catch. Ewan paused before he asked his last question, and Bianca stopped tapping the pen against the desk with the chaotic rhythm she’d been hoping would irritate him. Her expression settled into something a little harder than it’d been moments ago.

“You’ve done your homework too, haven’t you? So you know about my father.” He’d been a Muggle, but any family members who died in the line of service were automatically included in an Auror’s record. She stayed silent for a moment thinking about him (no one ever brought the subject up around her besides HR, but it wasn’t the first time she’d been grilled about her ability to objectively do her job). Despite what she’d told the last HR lackey so she could stay on active duty, she couldn’t really. Bianca had always wanted to be a cop like her dad, but his death had killed the last bit of idealism in her. She exhaled and forced herself to keep the anger out of her voice as much as possible. “We’re the only thing standing between the bad guys and the people they want to hurt. And I’d rather die than see myself turn into that. You don’t have to take my word for it. But give this a chance and you’ll see.”

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

If he were honest, Ewan would have been disappointed had Bianca Rivera walked in here with her big plan and not done a background check on him. That certainly would not have made a good first impression. Fortunately, Ewan was not the type to fear any skeletons hiding in his closet. The nose of the pens moving around the plastic container was hard to miss—as was her particular choice of writing instrument. The corner of his mouth upturned. His law background wasn’t a secret, just simply not the life for him. While Ewan had enjoyed studying the law and its practical nature, it was also constricting and limiting.

”Caution and skepticism are hardly crimes.” Ewan responded, waiting a moment before reaching forward to grab the pen from her hand. Aside from the noise she made, that was a fast way to ruin a perfectly good pen. Instead, Ewan let his forearms rest on whatever desk space Bianca had so graciously left for him, each pen end in his hands. The notes in her file were extensive—from complaints from her colleagues over “harsh” words, including her family history. Such was standard for Aurors. Ewan never saw a file that didn’t hold complaints unless they were brand new.

But it made sense. Everybody had some driving force, even if the source was not immediately obvious. It felt like that in his family, for the most part. Ewan was raised hearing stories about his Great Aunt and her work with Dumbledore to stop dark wizards. The sense of duty and justice and the ambition to excel as she did always lingered. Well, his younger sister naturally carried on that need to excel—Transfiguration. As for Holly? Well, two out of three wasn’t bad.

”Well—“ Ewan began as he appeared to consider her proposed plan. ”—you’re never going to catch anybody if this is what your files look like.” His eyes narrowed to the messy pile slowly covering his desk like a camouflaged devil’s snare. The thought was intriguing, like an expansion of his role in Human Resources mixed in with his old role with the Law. Yes, this could work. And Bianca River was, perhaps, the last person next to the Potters that Ewan would ever consider would play a double agent in Law Enforcement. That hadn’t been a concern. ”Alright.” He simply responded. Over-enthusiasm had never been his style.

Already, he had questions, some about the case and some about how all this would work. Bianca waltzing into HR every other day with her hands full of files was a quick way to raise flags. ”To start—you need to learn something about discretion.” Ewan placed the pen back in the holder before sitting back. ”Meeting with people outside your department will raise flags.” Especially HR, Aurors only dragged themselves down here because they were forced to.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca shot Ewan a dirty look at the second thing he’d grabbed out of her hands over the last few minutes. Clearly the clicking of the pen and her spontaneous drum solo had gotten annoying for him – which was sort of the point – but his solution annoyed her in an irritating twist. She wasn’t attached to the pen (not like her possessiveness over her coffee) but she kept an eye on it as she rolled her eyes and went back to fiddling with her files. Bianca had never gotten used to sitting at a desk for long stretches of time – she spent most of her time in the field like a good Auror – so she always found herself fidgeting. Lining up the edges of the folders, smoothing out creases in crime scene photographs, anything to stay in motion.

Her temporary annoyance at losing custody of the pen flared into an offended ‘hmph’ as he suggested she was disorganized. His narrowed eyes were still lingering on the files and the way she’d taken over most of his desk like it was a horror story in the making, and Bianca crossed her arms as she replied heatedly, “I’m not a rookie. I do just fine at clearing my cases.” She leaned back, crossed her legs, and avoided the urge to check whether her wand was still holstered and ready to go at a moment’s notice. “I just filed arrest paperwork for one of the Ministry’s ‘most wanted.’ One of the escapees,” she pointed out, reviewing the details of the case in her mind like she was rewatching an old movie.

The Azkaban breakout had been a disastrous way to end the year for the Ministry, and Bianca had been loaned out to the newly-formed unit responsible for finding the escapees and locking them back up. She was sort of between two bosses at the moment, still taking on regular Auror cases while also reading up on all the baddies that had gotten out. “I ended up chasing him through the sewers. Ruined my Valentine’s Day, but it was worth it.” She still held the departmental record for the quarter on most felonies bagged during a single arrest. Bianca nodded once at Ewan to finish making her point – whatever her files might look like, it didn’t interfere with her ability to solve cases. Besides, making suspects uncomfortable during their interrogation was a tried-and-true tactic. Ewan’s body language might be sharing more than he was aware of, at least.

She wondered if he was an older sibling, because it might then at least explain why he kept taking things from her and giving her lectures. She rolled her eyes at his criticism and looked away. “I can be discreet,” she muttered, taking on the same defiant tone she’d used whenever her older brother had tried telling her what to do or how to act. But it was the first lie she’d said during their conversation. Bianca tended to be as subtle as a bulldozer being used to knock on someone’s door. But she thought the overkill tended to get better results. “So we come up with a cover story,” Bianca said flatly in response to Ewan’s observation about raising red flags, “There are lots of reasons I could be coming to see you.” Nobody would bat an eye if Bianca went around telling people she’d gotten Wizengamot-mandated therapy.

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Their communication spread beyond the words they spoke. The one thing Ewan was beginning to realize about Bianca was she spoke with her expressions as she did her words. Silence may have lingered in the room, but the ways her eyebrows furrowed or her eyes moved spoke volumes, not to mention the typical impatient habit of Aurors to fidget if they sat too long. Ewan wasn’t moved by her rebuttal. Her capabilities were not in question; it was simply her paperwork and organization skills. ”Yes—and I’m sure that report didn’t have a single crease.” He responded flatly. The years he spent behind his old desk preparing court cases showed Ewan the depths of awful paperwork.

And he really didn’t care about her Valentine’s Day or what events might have comprised it. It wasn’t his business, nor was it relevant at the time. Rather than respond, Ewan looked blankly at Bianca momentarily before returning to the files. Letting out a heavy exhale, Ewan leaned back in his chair. She was right. They would need some cover story. But while he was a Human Resources employee, he was hardly in the same field as others. Nobody approached Ewan to complain about colleagues or how their feelings were affected. Thank Merlin for that.

”Legal assistants.” He spoke suddenly, though calmly. Aurors often worked with them as paperwork was organized and clarifications were required. Anything more than that, and they would deal with the solicitors themselves, as Ewan used to do. ”I’ve no doubt he will have questions—“ Ewan shifted one of the pictures aside to reveal a hastily scribbled note. At first glance, he thought it might have been some ancient runes, but it was her handwriting. ”—with handwriting like that. And I help them with investigative work occasionally.” Mainly when the hiring was slow. The legal department employed their own investigators, but Ewan’s experience was never turned away. This meant he often worked with the same Legal Assistants as before. ”And it's far more believable than an Auror dutifully appearing for all their mandated remedial training sessions on temperament in the workplace.”

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

If there was one thing that Aurors loved, it was talking about past cases. In that sense, Aurors had an easier time taking trips abroad for work than other departments. Sure, there was the occasional need to mark your territory and show the outsider who was in control – but they bonded quick enough over a pint and a round of stories about the worst baddie they’d caught, or the oldest, or the dodgiest. Sure enough, it’d be impossible to make your way through Level Two without seeing a clump of Aurors swapping stories, each trying to outdo the other. So most of Bianca’s understanding of British customs had started and ended with her coworkers, and she was used to stories starting a conversation, not dangling in awkward silence afterwards. But as Ewan sat silently and shuffled paperwork around, she began to appreciate that the bowels of the Ministry was a whole other world.

And to be honest, she was a little distrustful of people who didn’t talk about themselves. What did he have to hide? Bianca snatched back a file as Ewan eyed her handwriting and stuck it randomly back into the pile. At some point, she’d be assigned again to a long-term stakeout again, which was always the perfect time to reorganize her paperwork and put different things together in a hope that new leads would pop out at her. “No doubt,” Bianca said dryly, sipping at her coffee and trying to find that rush of dopamine that’d stop her from cursing him on the way out. “I’ve never met a solicitor who’d ran out of questions. Or outrageous demands.” To magically discover more evidence, to burn her nights and solve the case faster, to politely ask the criminal to confess in an interrogation so the barristers would have less work to do in court. Testifying was her second least favorite part of the job (the first, obviously, was talking to the press). She’d done her job right, so why should she have to answer stupid questions from the other side like they had any merit?

Bianca crossed her arms skeptically at the idea. She did have regular contact with the Ministry’s Law Department, but she still didn’t quite see the connection between them and HR. “And it’d be more believable for Legal to pop in here all the time to ask your opinion on cases?” she asked, her voice dripping with disbelief. “Or we could just stick to a more believable story,” Bianca continued, “That HR filed something wrong in my paperwork and needs to clear it up. That’d take ages to resolve, more than enough for this case to end and the criminals to die of old age in Azkaban.” She’d never forget her first week on the job. Her paperwork had been sent to Magical Games and Sports rather than to Law Enforcement, so she’d had a confusing start to her intern period before it’d all been sorted out. She raised an eyebrow at Ewan to see what kind of opinion he’d have about that.

ewan caelus mcgonagall

[ewan caelus mcgonagall]

should your drama prove sincere

do it somewhere
far away from here

March 1, 2025
Bianca Alia Rivera

Outrageous. How often had Ewan heard that word from an Auror’s mouth? It wasn’t his fault they could not recognize words of caution. An attempt to help a scrambling Auror who ran their mouth as if they were chasing a suspect through the city. But who was he to stop someone who clearly enjoyed their foot in their mouth? ”They wouldn’t be a very good solicitor if they never asked any questions, would they?” Nobody wanted a doormat, after all. Not in the Ministry, where justice was the ultimate goal. In this particular case, those who wished to infiltrate only needed such a person to let them in.

Ewan’s eyes couldn’t help but narrow at the idea. He was loathed to admit that the processes in human resources desperately needed work and optimization. However, at the moment, it was beyond his authority to change such things. Merlin forbid a line in a form change and an ancient member of some department filed a complaint. This also meant that the turnaround time was dismal, at best. ”Fine.” Ewan acquiesced reluctantly. It also meant one less person would be involved in this plan. ”To add to the credible story, you can say you have to deal with a complaint filed against you. I’d be happy to draft one if there isn’t one already.” Surely, there was something recent. Bianca didn’t make that part easy on herself.

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[Bianca Alia Rivera]

Bianca rolled her eyes at his question but didn’t dispute the point. There was no doubt in her mind that being a good solicitor meant being relentless and pointed about their lines of questioning. Just like reporters had to act the same way when they were chasing leads and pushing their way to the front of the queue. But it didn’t mean she had to like it. In fact, Bianca was perfectly fine letting the ‘enemies’ of Law Enforcement do their jobs perfectly – just from a fair distance away. And not towards her. She took another sip of coffee and purposely let the cup spill a bit once she’d finished so the takeaway cup would form a coffee ring on the random file she chose to act as a coaster. Incidentally, the same file she was planning to leave for Ewan later to start familiarizing himself with the case (just a little goodbye gift from her).

She smiled slightly at herself for winning the argument – no matter how small or petty the point had been – and nodded graciously to show she could be a good winner. “You can add a couple details about the jinxes I used for the citation. I’ve got a reputation to maintain.” And truthfully, she liked it. The toughness that people expected from her acted as a great people-buffer, keeping away cowardly interns or timid analysts that stammered through long-winding explanations without ever getting to the point. It meant less bullshit to deal with, and fewer people overall. She’d happily spend all her time in the field, except that there was always paperwork waiting at her desk and office politics to navigate.

“You should start reading up,” Bianca said, tossing the coffee-stained file so it landed in front of him while she began to pack everything else up. “Nobody’ll notice one file missing, and I intend to move fast. Next week I want to start running down leads.” She itched to get out now, doing some canvassing and interviewing friends and neighbors so she could start narrowing down the list of potential moles. But she needed names first, and that’d require a lot of desk work first. Finding members of the family that could have any sort of contrived or convoluted link to the Ministry. Unfortunately, that was where Ewan and his brain and his access to the system came in. “Guess this is your opportunity to show that you know how to ask the right questions.”

ewan caelus mcgonagall