Chapter 742: Hélène Lorraine (Patreon)
Content
Of course, Evan and Sirius would have noticed her beauty hadn’t she pointed a wand at them!
"What do you seek, breaking into this empty big house in the middle of the night, thieves?!" The witch raised her sharp chin, and looked at Evan and Sirius. "There used to be many valuable antiques here that can be sold for a good price, but no more!"
"We didn’t..."
"Don't lie to me. I saw the torn seal downstairs. This house is under the surveillance of the Ministry of Magic."
"We’ve been in here for over half an hour before you came. If that’s your idea of surveillance, I could only laugh," said Sirius dismissively. "I’ve always heard that French Aurors weren’t that good, but I’m honestly baffled by the true extent of your incompetence!"
"It’s not incompetence! We’re understaffed in Dijon; I’m the only one in charge of this case!" The witch blushed, a little embarrassed, but then regained her gaze, "Sir, before you question the performance of the French Ministry of Magic and its Aurors, mind yourself with your current situation and heinous acts!"
"We are committing no heinous acts!"
"Is that so?!" said the witch, squinting and looking at Sirius with interest. "A shocking murder here not too long ago, right in this room! The blood is still on the walls.... And you, you’re shredding the wallpaper! So, you’re trying to destroy evidence?!”
"We're unveiling evidence, said Sirius impatiently. "Evidence that you missed!”
“I see no way in which that paper would help solve this case!"
"Open your eyes! It isn’t the paper; it’s what’s behind it!” said Sirius, pointing to the painted wall.
"What, a child's graffiti?" said the witch, looking at the pattern on the wall in confusion, but refusing to back down. Then raised her voice, "Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I will see it later, but now, I’ll repeat this for the last time: You two are under arrest for breaking into this how! Drop your wands and get to the ground with your hands above your head! Otherwise… I’ll make you do it!”
"Look, we don’t mean any harm, and things are not like you think; we are not thieves." Sirius took a deep breath.
He restrained himself, perhaps because she was a French Auror, or maybe, because she was a woman.
"Still, the situation doesn’t look right! This child is too young, and the term isn’t over yet, is it?!" The witch glanced at Evan and turned back to Sirius. "So you are a school teacher? I heard that Madame Maxime took some students to Hogwarts because of the Triwizard Tournament."
"I'm a student from Hogwarts. The Triwizard Tournament has been canceled because Voldemort is back. We are here on an important mission for Dumbledore now, and Madame Maxime is with us,” said Evan. “She’s waiting for us at the inn. Not long ago, I was attacked by the horrible Owl-Woman, and we came to this place following the enemy. "
"You-Know-Who … Dumbledore?!" The witch hesitated for a moment before fully comprehending what Evan was saying. "Little guy, you say Madame Maxime is here, too. She came to Dijon? …No, you just mentioned the Owl-Woman… where is she? No… Answer the first question first."
Evan had just dropped too many insane facts for the auror to process, and she couldn’t even pick a question to ask him!
"We can sit down and tell you everything we know, if you put your wand down."
The Auror appeared to hesitate for a moment, but then she shook her head.
"Forget it! Once you’re unarmed, we’ll have plenty of time to talk," she said slowly, seemingly not at ease about Sirius. "Seven years ago, on my first Auror training camp, my teacher told me not to trust strangers casually, never put down my wand, never relax my vigilance!"
"Sounds like something Professor Moody would say..." said Evan to Sirius as he sighed.
"Do you mean Mad-Eye Moody?!" said the witch in surprise. "He was the teacher! The Auror training was jointly organized by the English, French and German wizarding Ministries. Moody was a very powerful Auror. I learned a lot from him."
"Yeah, he's now a professor of The Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts," said Evan, winking at Sirius. The woman they were facing was being stubborn, and they didn't have time to waste here.
Evan should be in the Owl Fortress outside the city to see the curse of the past by now, instead of being questioned by an Auror here for what seemed to be an eternity.
"Since you are Moody’s student, we’re on the same side. We are going to track down the Owl-Woman and find out the secret behind this matter. If you want to, you can follow us!" said Evan, moving a step forward.
"This is our business young man. We Aurors are professionally trained," she said. "You just have to tell me what you know."
"We will tell you everything after we deal with this matter. If things go well, we will bring you back the monster's body," said Sirius. "Now, get out of the way, we have too many things to do. Otherwise, don't blame us if things get ugly!”
"Wait, what do you want to do? Stop!" The witch shouted loudly, watching Sirius rushing over, "Damn it… Stupefy!"
The red light flew, and Sirius quickly dodged to the right, avoiding the curse.
"Expelliarmus!" He shouted loudly, waving his wand.
The next second, Sirius' disarming spell hit her, and the wand flew high and landed in his hand.
"Very well, you won, and blatantly attacked an Auror of the Ministry of Magic. What are you going to do next?" Although she had no wand, the witch didn't not show weakness, instead staring at Sirius defyingly with her wide beautiful eyes, and said, "Are you going to tie me up here or..."
"That’s not really my thing," said Sirius, and then he threw her wand back at her. "I’m just telling you: you alone can't stop us. Now, please get out of the way and don't delay us from tracking the owl monster."
The witch took the wand, stood there looking at Evan and Sirius for a while, came over and stretched out her hand.
"Well, since our goals are the same, then I’ll join you! Let me introduce myself, my name is Hélène Lorraine."