Redemption

Rio awoke with a faintly pounding head, as usual, on the fifteenth of July. It had been two years ago as of the day before that her boss, the Head Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt, had come calling on her to trump her for her repeated absences on the day of her mother's death. He had warned her that day of something that she still was uncertain about, given that it hadn't happened yet: the Ministry was thinking of using her as a dual-world spy in conjunction with the Muggle Prime Minister, working for both places both within Britain and wherever they chose to send her around the globe. They were going to use blackmail against her to do it, as well: they had been close to discovering that she was Shade, a rogue witch of mysterious origins who none had seen the face of, but who hunted dark wizards and witches like a predator to its prey. Shade somehow knew where to be and what to listen for, even the subtle clues, that would point her to a meeting or a guilty party. Some said that she could read minds, she was that good.

Rio, however, had to keep from laughing aloud at the idea every time she heard it. She couldn't read minds. She just had the advantage of working for the Ministry and having contacts that most weren't aware of inside and outside of it.

Two years ago to the day, Rio had awakened with a very mild hangover, as she really didn't have severe ones no matter how drunk she got, with an idea of how to improve her situation. It had taken a year's worth of work and the aid of a few people who owed her outstanding debts and who were then mind-wiped so they wouldn't recall helping her at all, quite beneficial when one could then turn around and say that they still owed her a favour after, but she had achieved a victory. She had made certain that Rio was in her office when Shade was physically witnessed hunting down a suspected, wanted, dark wizard through London. Hundreds saw her, even the Aurors who were sent to collect her - Rio included - but she escaped a moment later. The suspect did as well, much to the Ministry's chagrin, and Rio wasn't even blamed for the loss. She had, after all, just arrived with the rest of them, and it was, after all, Shade herself.

There was no evidence, after this, to support the fact that Rio was Shade. She attributed the lack of the Ministry moving against her to bring her into their plots to that single action on her part. Whatever evidence they had could only have been circumstantial at best. Rio cleaned up after herself far too well for direct clues. She'd relaxed within a month after that, as suspicion turned away from her, and a few of the Aurors even began to act in a friendlier manner towards her. She had been part of the failure to capture Shade or the suspect, and thus they saw she wasn't infallible after all.

Her role within the Ministry's Aurors had diminished slightly as well with the relaxation. Over the last year, Rio had seen others called out for the things that she used to be. It pleased her, to a degree, but also irritated her as well. She was happy that she was becoming less "legendary" and more one of them as the younger Aurors came into their own, but there had been something to be said for that status she had been accruing for herself.

There hadn't been too many dark wizards suspected in the last twelve months as well. There were some that were outstanding, but that scant handful were so adept at hiding their actions that those suspicions had either been put aside by this point, or were still being patiently waited on. Nobody could keep from slipping up for so long.

Not even Rio, and she knew that very well. She'd done a good job of it thus far, but she was well aware it was only a matter of time before something happened so that she'd be investigated once again. She was hoping to be on such grounds that the investigation would prove false, though.

She sat up in her bed and immediately realized that something was different. The House Elves at her estates in Cardiff were good enough to drag her back into the house once she'd passed out every year, and to get her into bed, but they were also on hand the morning after to offer her the requisite potions for her mild headaches and whatnot. Said potions were indeed at her side, but the Elves were not. That in itself wouldn't have bothered her too much, as the Elves might be making her breakfast or had stepped out for a moment, but they had never once undressed her to put her into her nightgown or a close enough facsimile to be comfortable. She'd asked them not to do so, to simply bring her in and leave her on her bed, and they'd complied ever since.

She was wearing an untucked shirt this time, though, and nothing but her skivvies from the waist down. Even her hair was unbraided.

It set off alarm bells in her. Something wasn't right, and she wasn't about to lie there any longer and let it come and get her. She slithered from beneath her blankets and went in quick search for the wand she'd brought with her, finding it next to her neatly folded clothing on a night table nearby. She got into her jeans, at the very least, and then padded barefoot down the stairs. She listened as she went, silent in her steps, trying to discern voices or a presence other than her own. The headache was forgotten, but still present, hiding just at the edges of her consciousness while she prowled. Whoever it had been must have caught her the evening before, just after she'd finally accepted unconsciousness and sleep all at once and just before the Elves had come down for her. That didn't leave much of a window of opportunity, and thus she was fairly sure that whoever it had been had actually arrived while she was down at the cemetery having her annual good cry. She tried to ignore the irritation she felt that someone had actually seen her in such a weak, sniveling moment, but it only sent her into a mood that was less than wholesome. Not that she'd been in a wholesome one to begin with, of course.

Voices came to her from her living room, and she gravitated towards them as a result. Before she'd taken two steps, however, a huge-eared head popped up in front of her with a delighted squeal that nearly had her cursing him in fright before she realized who and what it was. "Mistress Redcliffe! You are awake!"

The voices immediately stopped, and Rio sighed as her heart began to slow down. She felt like strangling the elf and collapsing into a heap on the floor all at once. "Grubs," she said gently, "remind me that it's impossible to sneak around this house with you all here the next time I'm here, please?"

"Yes, Mistress," Grubs said with a bob of his head, eyes dancing. "Grubs will do so. No idea why it is important, but will remember until you come back and tell you!"

Rio straightened, but she didn't put her wand away. She had no idea who was downstairs waiting for her. Brushing back her hair a little, she casually strolled for the doorway. If they were talking and had been there the whole night, and had even slept in her home, just to see her to bed and to hang around the next morning, she was relatively assuaged as to their general benevolence. At least, for the time being.

She nonchalantly pushed open the slightly ajar door and moved into the room beyond with the silent fluidity that she had used to creep up on them. The only difference was that her movements weren't as controlled, and were definitely meant to be construed as easy and free. She glanced over as the two figures rose to their feet to greet her, and found her gaze registering on the first one before the second. Her brows lifted when she saw Shacklebolt standing there with his hands in front of him. He watched her with faint amusement as she recognized him.

Her gaze moved past him as the second man shifted just enough to draw her gaze to him, and recognition came immediately for him as well. She placed her hands at her hips and lifted her chin in defensive defiance immediately. "Kingsley Shacklebolt and Ronald Weasley," she said with slightly narrowed eyes. "The two people I'd have least expected to follow me to my estates and watch me getting drunk in the night. I suppose you found it amusing?"

Ron had the grace to blush and clear his throat, looking away from her as he did, but Kingsley matched her lifted brows with one of his own. "Actually," he replied smoothly, "we arrived late last night after you'd already slipped half into oblivion. The House Elves were told to care for you, get you comfortable and into bed. They really seemed pleased to do it, mind." He lifted a hand and examined the nails. "We actually came to find you last night because something important has come up that requires your attention."

She looked from Shacklebolt to Weasley warily. "And what, pray tell, is so important that you needed me as of last night and didn't even attempt to sober me up, oh Great Leader and Great Leader's Right Hand?"

Ron ran his hand through his red hair and glanced at Kingsley. "Well," he began, "you see, Redcliffe, it's like this…" He paused and looked a little put-off, but at last spread his hands a little. "Storm Blackwell," he stated succinctly.

Rio blinked and then lifted her brows at them both repeatedly. "You have him?" she asked in excitement that she could barely contain. "You're not taking the piss?"

Kinglsey raised his hands at her a little and pushed at her as he spoke, the gesture meant to fend her off more than anything. "It's a complicated story, but we don't have him, no." At Rio's immediate loss of enthusiasm, Shacklebolt sighed in exasperation. "But there's a chance that he may be at the expo in London, the one that they're setting up past Diagon Alley…? We're going to have a lot of folk doing duty to keep an eye on things there, and it'd be nice to have a set of eyes specifically on him. We've got a few others watching our other little figures, but…"

"But?" Rio prompted, suddenly wary again. She noticed that Weasley refused to meet her eyes, and that could only mean trouble. She braced herself for the bad news she figured was coming.

Kingsley smiled at her pleasantly. "Blackwell is a legend," he said cajolingly. "We figured our best should be set to watching him, and if said legend were able to perhaps get something on him specifically so that we could bring him in…." He shrugged lightly, innocently. "Well, I imagine that would make them a legend in their own right."

Rio was taken aback for a moment by the "but" that he offered. It wasn't so much bad news as it was a sock in the gut for surprise. They want me to go after a legend? she asked herself silently, staring at them with slightly widened eyes. I've not done anything like this in a year. Why now? There's plenty of others they could ask, and they're actually trying to make me look good if I succeed. She was left with a feeling that something wasn't quite right with all of this, but she nodded all the same. That part of her that had been starving for her former glory answered before she could stop it. "I'll do it. Let me get ready. When's the expo?"

"Starts in a few hours," Kingsley told her, ignoring the way Weasley was staring around the manor. "More than enough time to get clean clothes from your house, wash up, and Apparate to the office."

Rio nodded, but she couldn't help watching Ron with a faint bit of amusement. As she turned away, he told her with an impressed tone, "Didn't know you were rich, Redcliffe. Nice place you have."

Rio snorted a bit. "Willed to me by my grandmother," she told him quickly as she headed for the door again. "Make yourselves at home, unless you need to get going now. Hope you liked your rooms."

"There's a bloody lot of them," Ron replied immediately. She wasn't sure why, but she hadn't really understood much about the Trio, and they hadn't really paid her any heed.

"Grandmum," she said over her shoulder, pausing at the door briefly to do it, "had eight children, and came from a family of fifteen. How many would YOU need, hm?".

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Rio stood with Shacklebolt and Weasley near the Expo entrance. She wasn't dressed as an employee of the Ministry of Magic, and she wasn't really speaking to them directly. They were, however, dressed appropriately and seemed altogether intent on eyeing everyone who came past them. Rio simply pretended to be looking more at those around her, and at the wares that she could already see, than them. When they pulled her aside, she made just enough of a disturbance to seem natural, and it was in this way that they exchanged orders.

"I'm surprised Malfoy isn't here," Ron murmured as he glanced around seriously. "You know he's behind at least a part of all of these things. The apple doesn't fall far from the vine, Muggles say."

"Tree," Rio corrected, scowling to keep up appearances. "It's not a vine, but a tree. And anyway, maybe Blackwell's connected to Malfoy somehow and we'll catch them both this time?"

Kingsley snorted lightly and crossed his arms in front of him. "Doubtful. You have enough to think about without distracting yourself with Lucius Malfoy's only child, Rio. Focus on Blackwell and get going. He was spotted coming in a few minutes ago, so he's up to something."

Rio shook her head a bit. "Not sure what, is the thing," she murmured to them hesitantly. "He's a collector, isn't he? There's not much here that could be used for Dark Arts."

A chuckle erupted from Ron, which he stifled immediately when both of his companions shot him envenomed daggers from their eyes. "Ah, well," he replied, chagrined, "there is something. We figure that he'll be after the white lotus. It was grown up at Hogwarts, and so far nobody really knows where it comes from."

Rio turned as Kingsley lightly placed his hand upon her upper arm for her attention. "Only one other was found, far to the West in a small plot of land in Asia. There was only one discovered before the land that it had been discovered in was destroyed by Muggles for farming. How it was retrieved by Hogwarts isn't something anyone is privy to, nor is anyone actively offering the information themselves. But wizard herbologists have identified it as the same kind of plant, and Dumbledore has wisely offered it to the Expo under guard for the next few days.".

She shook her head a bit and withdrew from Shacklebolt's hand at her arm. "Why would anyone want to take it?" she demanded, gesturing sharply. "What does it *do*?"

Kingsley shook his head. "I don't know," he replied slowly. "Not yet, at least. But if Storm Blackwell wants it, then it must do something. He never collects anything without some major use."

Ron nodded. "He's been said to have artifacts in his collection that Voldemort would have wanted, and that his successors actually tried to get. If we had anything other than rumor to go on for that, then we'd know how they failed. As it is, it's just been what someone said to a friend of a friend."

Rio nodded once before she pulled away from them to head on her way. "Be careful," Shacklebolt sent after her with a frown, but they then turned their attentions back to the rest of the milling crowds and left her to fade into them. Rio never looked back past a quick glance to make sure she wasn't being followed, and then made her way into dead-end alley a short time later. There was only one way to move through the crowd unseen, and that was by rooftop. Hazarding a spell or charm on the ground would only set off the magical alarms that they had set up everywhere for thieves. Nobody was going to take too many chances.

She made it on top of the first roof with a modicum of silence. Nobody really expected folk to be on roofs, after all, and thus they didn't tend to look on top of them. Shade had been seen in the last couple of years, but the lack of dark wizards or their wannabes meant that her job was slow and infrequent. The fact that she had helped attribute to that decline wasn't really mentioned aloud, but it was generally known all the same.

Roof-hopping was a hard business, and not for the less physically active. There were countless ways to fall off that had to be avoided with balance and strength; innumerable shapes to climb or slide down; vast quantities of spaces to leap over or take at a run or crawl. By the time Rio got to where she needed to be within sight of the white lotus exhibit, she had a sheen of sweat on her that couldn't be denied and a heaviness of breath that she attributed to her lack of action in the last few months. She took the time to look around while she rested, using a chimney for cover and stabilization as she scanned the crowd below her. She wrapped her dark cloak around her a little to keep it from flapping in the breeze that was blowing, not wanting to draw anyone's attention.

She saw several faces that she recognized, not the least of which was Harry Potter's own, but despite the legendary figure's appearance there, she could bet and win that Blackwell wasn't the least bit impressed or intimidated. Harry Potter slew Voldemort, very true, but he hadn't been interested in fighting crime since then. He had, in fact, gone on to teach at Hogwarts as their permanent Defense of the Dark Arts instructor. Rio, in fact, expected little from him in this instance. When Blackwell made his move, he would almost certainly do it in such a cunning way that she might even have troubles discerning truth from fiction. It was a reality that she knew existed as a possibility, but she was unwilling to allow it to become more than that. She meant to catch Storm Blackwell.

She caught sight of her mark as he cut through the throngs of people like a ship's bow. Taller than most, he had a way of moving that showed more confidence than arrogance, and more grace than care. He moved and people made way for him, rather than the other way around. His lips were smiling, and despite having seen his poster up at her desk in the Ministry countless times, she found him more attractive in the flesh. There was a sharp cunning in his hazel eyes, and his features resembled nothing more or less than the typical Muggle Sidhe. He seemed somewhat fine boned and delicate, but still very male. Whatever slightly feminine touches to his features might exist, it only made him beautiful rather than weak. His hair was black and long, tied back at the nape of his neck, and shone with a bit of a blue tint in the sunlight. He wasn't pale, but remained slightly sun-touched and very much within the virility of youthful maturity. She knew enough about him to know that he was six feet in height, and every bit as athletic as she was, given his thieving lifestyle. She also knew that he wasn't her senior by more than three years, giving him nine years to make his claim to thieving royalty at the age of twenty-seven.

Dressed in a dapper set of dark green and blue robes and trousers fit to suit a Malfoy, Storm Blackwell meandered through the people around the white lotus exhibit without really speaking to any of them. The vendors around the edges and down the streets, barring any stores that were actually there, went ignored despite their calls to everyone who passed. The scent of baked goods, among other things, turned the air to a perfume that Rio's own stomach couldn't deny the interest in, but she put it all aside to wait on Blackwell's first move.

It came without warning, in truth. One moment, the handsome wizard was approaching the roped off section of the exhibit, and the next moment the wizard on guard was blinking as that same handsome wizard was inside the ropes with him. Too startled to react at first, the guard's hesitation cost him. Even as he moved to tell Storm to return to the other side of the ropes, Storm grabbed up the potted white lotus and leaped nimbly over the pedestal it sat upon to hurtle out that direction. Even the shout that was raised seemed to give the famous Harry Potter a bit of confusion as he turned from where he stood chatting with a group of mates from his House in Hogwarts. By the time he noticed the plant's disappearance and the crowd's milling and shouting after Storm's fleeing form, it was too late for anyone to catch him. Aurors did, however, start closing in by pushing through the people in the direction that they'd all seen Storm headed.

Rio even half rose to follow the blue and green dressed man, but an instant later she recognized the folly of it and settled back down near the chimney. Storm was bold to steal something in broad daylight, but he was too bold to do it in this manner, and too smart to do so as well. She searched for his hair and face away from the eyes of the crowd, somewhere other than they'd be looking, and found him once more as he hurried towards a booth that hadn't been able to see what happened due to the way it faced. He was dressed in burgundy and gold and apparently settling something heavy in a small satchel beneath his robes and cloak. No pocket was built for storing that pottery and plant, and she knew he wouldn't want it harmed.

"Tricky," she murmured, smiling just a little at his feint and grab. "I knew I could count on you for something good." She followed him with her gaze, then moved to continue watching him, and finally roof-hopped to try and keep up with him. He didn't stop until he found an out of the way set of booths set up whose owners had wandered towards the yelling a half block away. There was no reason to fear for their wares, given there were alarms there that would catch on magic used on them or on the goods, but she suddenly wondered why the lotus hadn't been guarded in such a way. She could have sworn that Kingsley or Ron had mentioned that it HAD been, in truth…

Brushing it aside for the moment, Rio realized that part two of Blackwell's plan had to be a successful escape, and she wouldn't allow him to slip into it while she sat and considered whys and wherefores. If the security had failed, it was the fault of those who had set it, and she hadn't been one of them. Watching the man move is a joy, to a degree, given he has the grace and bearing of a noble wizard with every bit of him inundated with a feline grace. Watching him also meant that she caught the ease with which he casually removed a racing broom from where it had been leaned against the booth itself. Placed there by the now-absent owner, the alarms wouldn't be set on it, and with all the attention now focused elsewhere, there was almost certainly nobody who was thinking of stealing one.

Except the cause of the ruckus, that is. The broom was the newest model of the Nimbus line, having taken the lead in the area of speed once again. Rio was almost certain that someone would recognize the same thing as she had concerning the fleeing doppelganger, and that meant her window of opportunity was shrinking rapidly. As soon as the other Aurors came to her conclusion, they would backtrack and start trying to find Blackwell, and finding him would take the honor from her.

He wasn't going to allow it, though. Even as she moved, she saw him tap himself on the head and say something, a spell most likely. The alarms went up immediately, having been set to recognize whatever he had done in case of theft, and attention began to return to that general area again. Rio wasn't sure what he'd done, but surmised that he was invisible somehow. She leaned out to get a better look at him as the broom proceeded to rise of its own accord, trying to see if he rippled at all on top of his mode of escape. She may have had sharp eyes, but they weren't a Seeker's. They were those of a Beater, and they tended to watch for large, metal, very angry Bludgers. She almost said something disparaging about Blackwell, but given that she was hanging by one hand and her booted toes from off an awning, clinging to a chimney pipe, she decided not to start muttering about how hard people could make things. Instead, Rio got a bead on him, seeing where he was going before she made a move. There was no way to get to him on a broom in time to catch him. That only left one other way to go about it.

The trouble was that the Nimbus was going straight away from her position on the roof, at an angle perhaps, but all the same too far of a distance to just leap onto it. "No time like the present," she growled, aiming for just in front of the broom. She then... Apparated. There was a clap as she vanished, perhaps heard above the din of the crowds and the chaos Blackwell had created and perhaps hidden by it, and another one that her quarry wouldn't mistake as anything BUT Apparation, given its proximity. She appeared nearly on top of him, right on the end of his broom.

There was only a moment as she swiped for him in front of her and realized that he wasn't there, and then saw him move from where his eight-inch frame had tried to hide itself near the bristles. She wouldn't have noticed him at all had he not shrieked, a high-pitched sound that cut through the crowd's roar like a needle to the ears. Her eyes widened in that fraction of a second, and though he swung his wand at her, he didn't get out his spell. Whether or not it would've worked anyway given his tiny stature became moot, as the nose of the broom plummeted towards the earth and she had to hand on with one hand for dear life. Blackwell did as well, yelling all the while as they careened around haphazardly, much to Rio's displeasure.

She thought, in the first couple of seconds after their wild ride began, to tell Storm Blackwell to shut the hell up, but then another idea came to her that immediately calmed her. Clenching her teeth as her shifting weight and inability to keep hold swung her beneath the broom on one hand, Rio did the thing that she berated herself for not rationally doing as soon as they began to fall. "Engorgio!" she shouted at Blackwell, and less than a second later, she found him seated on the end of the broom opposite of her.

She kicked her legs up in an attempt to get onto the broom again, and as such she was saved the possible harm that would've occurred had they contacted the stone wall that encompassed the fairgrounds. Making Blackwell his own size didn't do much at such a late date, and as such they landed more or less in a heap than a nosedive. He landed first due to his heavier size, but all the same their velocity sent them both rolling. The broom itself went flying, landing with a crack that meant no good.

Rio rolled a few times to absorb some of the impact, but landed heavily against a set of tree roots that she knew would leave bruises for days to come. There was no sight of Storm Blackwell as she staggered to her feet, and a wand check found both of them right as rain and in their proper places. She drew one as she listened carefully for sounds of flight or groans of pain, and ultimately heard something she didn't expect from a copse of bushes.

The sounds of broken pottery came tinkling to her, first of all, and as she headed towards it, Blackwell floundered out of the bushes holding the white lotus in his hand. Though dirt was coming off of it, and the roots were a tangled mess, it seemed unharmed. Seeing him brought Rio up short, wand poised, and she immediately saw that he was unarmed. "Toss me your wand, Blackwell," she told him darkly, padding towards him. "And hand over that lotus."

Though he went for his wand at the beginning, Blackwell watched her warily with his hands lifted. He was smirking, though. "What makes you think I won't just Apparate out of here?" he demanded softly, backing away from her. "Now that we're on the ground and whatnot, so I can do it safely. Nice aim with it, by the way."

"I always hit my target," she replied shortly, not looking away from him or stopping in her forward motion. "You'd already have gone if you could Apparate. Hand them over, or I'll take them."

"Touchy wench," he riposted, amusement in his gaze. He led her in a bit of a circle. "You and I seem to be dancing, witch. Despite the beauty of my partner or her grace in it, however, I really do need to be going."

"You're going nowhere," Rio negated, keeping him moving the way she wanted him rather than the other way around. If it had been a dance, he'd been leading, and she wasn't about to let him get away with it. It was obvious now that he was one of the many people who hadn't mastered Apparation. He would've used it at the fairgrounds if he'd had the ability, once he'd been up in the air and tiny. Or, at least she thought he would've. "Not when you're my redemption and the first step to my own freedom." The longer Blackwell stalled, the more convinced she was that he wouldn't vanish on her.

"Freedom?" he echoed dubiously. "By taking mine, you get yours? You have no idea what you're saying, let alone what you're doing. You have freedom already, and a rather cushy job at the Ministry, if I'm not mistaken, and that's no bit of slavery. But if you're that desperate, maybe I could offer you an alternative…?"

"You have no idea what I need you for," she told him with narrowed eyes. "And you can't offer me anything that your own capture won't get me in spades."

"So says the one with no eye for the finer points of deal-making," Storm sighed, sounding arrogantly weary. "All balls and no brains, it seems."

"Probably took all of yours on both accounts," she muttered to him just loud enough to be heard. She reached inside her inner pocket for her second wand, withdrawing it quickly and sending a spray of brightly colored lights in the air to show her position to Kingsley and Ron.

He didn't reply. Instead, he darted for the nearby bushes as her attention left him. Rather than darting after him immediately, she sent the "flipendo" jinx instead to stop him. He rolled backwards, flipping once, and landed on his stomach to finish. The lotus fell from his hand, and as he blinked at the abruptness of his halt and his new position, Rio sprinted towards him. Not to be outdone, he rolled back to his feet before he noticed that his prize lay just out of reach between Rio's oncoming body and himself. Making a disgusted sound, he chose his freedom over the plant, figuring she'd do the opposite.

Instead, Rio ignored the plant except to leap over it and continued to race after him for another few yards. Though he entered the bushes, she sent a spell after him to stun him, followed by a Locomotor Mortis curse to bind him. She heard a squawk ahead as the first spell barely missed him, but the curse caught him with a yelp. A crash followed the yelp, a crash that she then echoed with her own as she plunged into the bushes, but she then followed his suit and yelped as she fell. Having tripped right over him, she rolled and felt her already bruising ribs tell her where she could stick the idea of accidentally landing on them as she did.

She shot him a glare a moment later, a glare that he met directly with his own, and she demanded, "Are you always this difficult? Or just making an exception for me, personally?"

"You expected me to come quietly?" he hissed back at her, distressed that he couldn't escape at all. "I'm the best thief in the world, and you think I need to come willingly on a leash since you tried to catch me. Though I do admit you did a splendid job of ruining everything I had planned, my freaky darling, you've not won yet. I will find a way out of this, rest assured."

"I bet," Rio growled as she stood, wincing at both her head and her ribs as they snarled at her, and she shot another flare of colors into the air. She then put away her second wand quite casually, but it was enough to draw her captive's eye. Though he said nothing then, or when Kingsley and Ron arrived to help her collect him and bring him in, she could feel his gaze on her a little too often to be comfortable. She didn't give him the satisfaction of acknowledging that look, but she wondered at the scrutiny all the same. She had her redemption, and that was all that mattered.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Two hours later, Rio was stalking towards the room where Storm Blackwell was being held, Kinglsey Shacklebolt in tow. "I don't want to interrogate him," she told the Head Auror coldly. "I caught him, and he's annoying enough to warrant me topping him before I get anything out of him."

Kingsley halted at the door and opened it to let her enter first, trying to make a placating gesture and tone towards her. "Look, you're the one who caught him, so you're the first choice to find out how he thinks. You made us all look like idiots for not having caught him in so long."

"You are," Storm growled from his chair, not looking at them as they entered.

Rio stopped dead and turned a baleful look at Shacklebolt. He, in turn, shook his head at her. "Do what you have to so that he talks," he told her, motioning for the other Aurors in the room to vacate it. "But don't kill him, and try not to torture him. Just because we can use the Unforgivable Curses doesn't mean we SHOULD."

"And how will you know he hasn't died on his own if I kill him?" she asked a bit too sweetly, smiling to match it.

Kingsley gave her a look to wither Severus Snape into silence, but was spared from answering right away by the arrival of Ron Weasley. He held out a small rolled bit of parchment, and as Rio took it with a suspicious look, Shacklebolt smirked at her a little. "It will record whatever confessions he makes, and whatever you say. Just leave it to the side and we'll collect it later. And really, Redcliffe, I thought we were past all this childish sniping and whatnot?" He tsked at her once. "I'll have a chat with you once you've finished." He and Ron then turned and exited, closing the door behind them.

She felt the spell that made the room soundproof a moment before Storm said, "Redcliffe, is it? Being a touch naughty, are you? A bit of a spoiled brat amongst Aurors?"

She turned her back to him and paced to where she could set the parchment down on the ground. She touched the thing with her wand to begin the recording, and then rose to face the prisoner. "Blackwell, is it?" she asked with as much sarcasm as he had used. "A bit of an ex-legend amongst thieves?"

"Ouch, darling," he replied, his eyes narrowing. "Really, is there any need for such unpleasantries? I don't know anything that might be of use to you or the Ministry, and I've already spilled about my heists, as if I really needed to. What more are you looking for?"

Rio settled her hands behind her back and paced the floor around him. "I've sat for a few years now with your manky little mug staring and smirking at me from the wall of wanted posters that I have lining my cubicle and desk here in the Ministry," she began blandly. "All of your thefts have left you a wanted criminal, indeed, but it's what you've stolen and who you've had to come into contact with to get that information that interests us."

"Like I'd tell you who other thieves and sources are," he scoffed lightly. "I'll need them after I've escaped. Name me a few examples of items I've taken, and let's see how your logic rides."

"The white lotus," she responded immediately, her tone that of a blade. "You aren't a botanist, Blackwell. Nobody would want that lotus who didn't mean to use it somehow."

"I can't have had it simply to have it?" he asked with lifted brows. "A rare, one of a kind plant straight from Hogwarts, surrounded by mystery….? What thief wouldn't want it?"

"The discerning one," she stated calmly as she came to rest in front of him again. "One who wouldn't want to keep it for himself, but who would know someone who wanted it. There's no sense in taking things from others if you can't show them off to anyone and brag about them."

"I have all manner of exquisite and rare items in my home that I've taken from the undeserving," Blackwell huffed haughtily. "They're my collection. I have things there that would have someone like yourself, a fighter of evil, simply salivating due to their power and potential." He paused and glanced towards the busily scribbling paper. "But you won't find them," he added smugly. "My house elf is my secret keeper, and you know how loyal they are. My home is invisible to anyone's eyes that he doesn't tell, and he doesn't tell anyone that I don't want to know."

"Which means that you had to do a nice bit of dancing to keep away from Voldemort's followers, given they'd want what you had," she replied smoothly. "They'd have killed for what you had." She wasn't about to take his hinted bribe.

"Which makes hiding it away that much more important, doesn't it?" he pointed out sharply, his features victorious. "I was doing a good deed, you see, by hiding all that and stealing it away."

She nodded a fraction. "Maybe, but I doubt it. More likely, you were waiting to see who would come up as the highest bidder, and nobody was willing to deal with you for fear of alerting the wrong people to it. What use is the lotus?"

He sighed in frustration, moving a little against his invisible bonds, and sneered at her a bit. "Nothing that a botanist wouldn't appreciate," he retorted snidely. A moment later, he faced her with a calculating look. "I could get you anything from my home you wanted, if you helped me get fr--"

"Not interested," she interrupted him icily. "Why would a botanist like the white lotus?"

"A Cursebreaker might like it as well," Storm instantly replied, remaining cryptic. "Or maybe an Auror looking for glory."

Rio hesitated a moment, but shook her head at him. "Again, why?" she asked, trying to remain uninterested. "And no Auror would go after something like this when they didn't know anything about it."

"What if I could tell that Auror that she wasn't what she thought she was?" Blackwell drolly asked. "Just to prove that I was telling the truth?"

Rio rolled her eyes and turned away from him with a flippant gesture. "You'd be lying through your teeth," she told him simply. She turned around and faced him once more. "Why would a Cursebreaker or someone looking for glory be interested in the white lotus?"

Storm sighed, tilting back his head and closing his eyes. "Because it's from Asia, and yet there's something about it on an artifact from Egypt about what it does. Now, Redcliffe, how about we discuss your family and what they were hiding from each other?"

Rio lost all pretense of good humor at his words. She stalked to him and jerked back his head by his long hair, giving him a very level and very deadly look. "How about mention of my family never comes from your lips again, as I might take exception to it and rip them off myself?"

He swallowed, but didn't flinch from her dangerously dark gaze. "Pureblood families know each other," he continued despite the discomfort of her hold on him. "They also know how to hide their own dirty little secrets. But those secrets catch up to them, you've seen that. You want to know about your grandfather Redcliffe, so-called military Muggle that he was?" Rio pulled back his head a little more, and he grunted at the pain that lanced up from it. "Dammit, woman, I'm offering you true glory here! I know more about you than you think!"

She released him with a look of disgust. "You know nothing about me, or my family," she spat at him. He'd taken her off-guard, however, with the mention of her grandfather. She'd never told anyone that her long-dead grandfather had been in the military, or at least nobody who couldn't be trusted not to tell someone else. She didn't know of anyone who cared, in truth. "No more than anyone else," she added with venom. "What artifact has the lotus on it, and what does it say that it does?"

He rolled his head around with a wince at how she'd held it, glaring after her. "That's what I wanted to find out," he told her, brooding after her pacing figure. "Gringott's brought it back from Egypt years ago, back when Voldemort was still actually alive the first time. He wanted it. Was one of his pet projects."

She wheeled on him, glaring at him with a predatory look. "How did you find that out?" she demanded softly, more like the sound of a blade being drawn than a true question. "Which of his followers have you been talking to?"

"Cripes, woman, I haven't!" he shouted at her, trying to move enough to hop away from her in his chair. "Let me finish already!" He licked his lips, fully aware that she'd meant what he'd half heard as they entered, and shook his head a bit at her. "You never did figure out what the secret was that your mother was hiding in you, did you?"

"You were there," she told him succinctly. "In Hogwarts. You were a Sixth Year to my Third Year. You know I didn't, and you know I was nearly killed by Death Eaters wanting it before I got rescued." She crossed her arms at her chest, watching him stonily. "What does it have to do with the price of tea in China?"

He relaxed when she stopped advancing on him with murderous intent, and nodded a bit at the change in her. "Look, you don't have to believe me," he told her nervously, eyeing the recording going on, "but I never thought I'd actually need this until right now. No sense in discussing it, given I only found out about it once I'd left Hogwarts, right? Anyway, that artifact is still in Gringott's. My mother was the one who told me about all of this, given she was around during the Dark Times, back in the 70s. You know, before Harry was born? And the reason she knew so much was because of her own father, my grandfather, who's been dead now for a few years."

"Get to the point."

"Point, yes," he sighed, still frustrated at her in obvious ways. "My grandfather was a Muggle. What do you know of yours?" Rio simply watched him, not saying anything, but she wasn't sure of how to answer his question. It unnerved her, to a degree, to be confronted with a member of her own family that she had no idea about, let alone ask her father about. From what she'd understood, he hadn't known much about the man either.

Storm took it as exactly what she was feeling. "You don't know anything about him," he said quickly, nodding as if he were confirming it to himself. "A big, black hole. You just know that he was a Muggle, and that he met your father's mother after the war."

She started and uncoiled from her frozen position. "How did you know--" she began, but he interrupted her easily.

"I know because my grandfather was with him in the military," he told her seriously. "They served together, and he was there when Redcliffe met your grandmother, American as she was. Thing is, my grandfather had already gotten married to a witch just before he was sent off, and they knew the score when it came to families and the like. Your grandfather told him a secret there in the trenches and swore him to secrecy." He shifted a little on his seat. "It's a secret that grandmother knew about by necessity, and that my mother learned. Redcliffe wasn't your grandfather's real last name."

"Then what was?" Rio asked, a little intrigued despite herself. She remained dubious, but interested all the same. It came through in her voice, but she remained aloof, as if patiently waiting for him to quit rambling.

"Black," Storm continued firmly. "Related to the infamous Sirius in some strange, three or four times removed way, yes, but most pureblood families are related. Hell, even the Malfoys and the Blacks were related by marriage."

Rio levied a look at him that was half sneer and half disgust. "Now, there's a whopper if ever I heard one," she snorted disdainfully. "Keep spinning that yarn, though. I want it all down so that we have something to laugh at later. I'm in no way pureblood."

Blackwell made an irritated, garbled growl in the back of his throat and struggled against his bonds as if he wanted to reach up and slap her. "Of course not," he finally yelled at her, "just like your grandfather wasn't involved with any of this!" He took a few deep breaths to calm himself in the face of her implacable denial of what he was offering to her. "Fine, Redcliffe, here's the short and sweet version: he was a Black not unlike Sirius. The only difference was that he came into his at a later date, after he went for that Egyptian artifact now at Gringott's with a bunch of his Dark mates and it bloody well cursed his hide so that he couldn't use magic any more, like his line. Eternally cursed wizards. Everyone else with him died getting out, but because they used their magic and triggered every trap there, he got out relatively unscathed but for that curse. He was almost caught by the Cursebreakers, but managed to convince them he'd been kidnapped by Dark wizards for use as a shield or sacrifice if it had been required. Once back, he changed his name and tried to live a Muggle life away from the world of magic."

"So why do I use magic?" Rio asked, growing a little bored at the thief's attempts to get free. She glanced at the parchment idly. "I'm his child, just like my father is."

"Because your grandfather was a wizard," he explained hesitantly. "It removed his powers, but your father… was a Squib naturally. The curse couldn't touch him. But that doesn't mean that he wasn't part of a pureblood family, and I could bet and win that your American grandmother was too."

"And was a Squib as well?" she asked sarcastically. "How fortunate they met."

"Not fortune at all," he replied with a shake of his head. "Your grandfather had been raised to choose only pureblood families when he had to choose anyone at all to associate with. Just because he was forced to live as a Muggle doesn't mean he didn't keep tabs on the wizarding world. He just knew he couldn't reach as high as an actual witch any longer. A pureblood Squib would be his match, and he'd have been looking for one for a while. There are ways to find them."

"Right, so she actually knew him before she became a WAP and came to Normandy for the war," Rio agreed with a smirk. "Sure."

He shrugged at her. "I didn't say that her entire family was pureblood," he disagreed. "Just that your grandfather would look for a good match. Even pureblood families can have their indiscretions, as they're called. They just get covered up however possible."

Rio crossed her arms once more, shaking her head at him. "So, he arranged an international marriage and used a World War to meet his bride and bring her back to London with him, rather than doing the logical thing and just bringing her some other way."

"No," Storm said wearily. "He arranged a marriage and married her when he found she'd come over to him on her own, risking her life. They had little other choice in the matter, given neither of their families had any use for them. Your father just took after his mother more, magically, by being a Squib."

She walked towards him and bent down a bit, staring him down. "Now, why should I believe you at all in this?" she asked quietly. "All things considered, feeding me all this just so that I'd let you go isn't exactly a tactic that's unknown to Aurors. You're either trying to bribe me or flatter me, or put me off guard so that you can escape somehow."

He met her stare for stare again, something that she was finding increasingly hard to believe. "Your grandfather was cursed by something that has to do with the white lotus you were just sent to get back, and you want to keep looking over all of this just to keep your peace of mind," he stated flatly back to her. "I'd have thought anyone who could catch me would've been smarter than that."

She'd slapped him before she knew what she'd done, but she wasn't sorry for it a moment later. "You just named my grandfather a Dark wizard, from a family that was known to serve the Dark Arts whenever possible. I may just have to kill you for it no matter what you know or don't know."

"I didn't say he served it after he'd become a Muggle by choice!" he retorted, leaning as far forward as he could in anger. "But you want to know something else? Why do you think your mother became an Auror, and worked so secretly during Voldemort's days? You really think that after knowing my grandparents, your grandmother wouldn't correspond with them? Why did she never fret or worry about how strange your family was, nor how her son's wife seemed to be able to do things that shouldn't have been possible?" He narrowed his eyes at her. "Why do you think your mother's parents forgave her, pureblood as they were, for marrying a Muggle, and allowing him to remarry her in order to have you? And don't forget that your own brother is a Squib-except I doubt he is, given the curse was levied on him before your birth."

She tilted her head at him, a dangerous flashing in her eyes. "Careful what you say," she told him softly. "What have you been doing? Following me around and snooping in on my life and my family all these years?"

"Hell no," Blackwell laughed. "Distrustful little git, aren't you? I just know that your mother's side is pureblood, and thus a lot of that business is open when you listen, and that your father's side is still in contact with my mother and grandmother. If anything, I was told so that maybe I could steal the thing from Gringott's and find a way to get rid of it for good, with your help, or your family's."

"Whatever," she told him curtly. "What makes this relevant to me, anyway, now that my family's all dead? I really don't care one whit. And you didn't explain how it skipped me."

"It didn't skip you," he told her matter of factly. "Your mother was an Auror, in secret, and birthed her first son. Then she got involved in an investigation dealing with Voldemort, and suddenly she's left her husband and divorced him. Oddly enough, they remarry after she's finished with whatever it was she was doing in private, and they have you and your sister." He sat back and looked at her, nearly gloating. "Never wondered about what she was doing in Voldy's camp? I'm sure you have, though. Whatever it was came back to haunt her, though, which is what she locked up inside your head. That secret."

"Yes," Rio deadpanned. "Voldemort's my father." She watched him blink a moment, and then snorted at him. "You didn't have to look quite so much as if you believed that, you know," she told him dryly.

"Only surprised that you had a sense of humor," he returned instantly, off the cuff. "No, that secret… it has to do with what's in Gringott's. Your mum figured it out, I think, but then made sure that Voldemort couldn't have that secret at all by leaving his services and vanishing. And then after that there was no reason to worry, given that he had died." She received a squint from him. "You have the ability to use magic because your mother's work removed the curse from passing on to you. Your father wasn't cursed to begin with, and your mother had immunity. But your brother… well, had he been the one to figure it out, the immunity would have gone to him. He'd have found that he and his children could all suddenly use magic, and that you and your sister couldn't."

"Doesn't make sense," she told him seriously. "It should've hit us. We're the same line as our father, after all."

"Yes, but…" He sighed a moment and licked his lips. "Think of it this way: the curse needs someone to work through in order to work, someone it can be latent in. Your grandfather married a Squib, so it had to pass directly from him to your father. Your father was a natural Squib, so it had to go through your mother to get to your brother, and would've done the same for you and your sister. But, because your mother basically gave herself immunity to it, it had to remain on your brother and his family alone. It could no longer pass to you through her, and so had nowhere to go. If you destroy the artifact, then you'll find a lot more wizards are around in your father's side of the family. Rather disastrous, I'd assume, but…" He shrugged. "Destroying it would also guarantee that it couldn't be used."

"Ah," she replied, something about what he'd said finally sinking in for her. "Wait. So, I'm the only one who knows the secret or secrets surrounding it? What does the thing do, anyway?"

He nodded at the first question, but then paused at the second. "Well… see, that's what I'm not quite sure about," he explained hesitantly. "It could be that you could curse any number of witches and wizards to not use magic. Or it could be that it does something else horrible, like brings back the dead under your command or something equally nasty." He would've shrugged had he the ability. "Nobody knows, unfortunately. Whatever it does, the followers of all things Dark and nefarious typically want it to use for themselves. Maybe Voldy had an idea, or maybe your mother found out the truth and tried to pass it off as nothing special."

"Or maybe it really isn't anything special," Rio suggested archly.

"If that were the case," Storm answered with a smug look, "why would she have locked away that little secret inside your head, eh?"

Rio paused for a moment, and the silence seemed to be a physical blow to Blackwell. He watched her intently as that first moment stretched into several more, and finally turned towards the parchment. She watched it waiting for their next words and clasped her hands behind her back lightly. "How do I know you're not lying?" she asked at last.

"Seems strange, doesn't it," he said after another beat or two of silence, drawing it out as if in thought, "that the lotus crops up in Hogwarts just in time for you to hear about all this from me…?"

Rio frowned at his words, and then blinked and turned around to face him. "Dumbledore?" she mouthed in silence, disbelief on her features. She wasn't about to stir up trouble for the ancient Headmaster. At Storm's reluctant nod, she glanced back to the recorder just before she stopped it for a moment.

Turning to Blackwell once again, she motioned with her hands. "Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me he's actually not getting Potter to do this? I could've sworn he was the hero, or Weasley. The Trio were always his favorites."

Blackwell rolled his eyes at her. "Yeah, well, I imagine your boss and Weasley both know about it. Hence why they stuck you on the case. See everything falling into place a little too easily? You wouldn't have even thought twice about it had I not mentioned anything."

She opened her mouth to say something, but then shut it immediately and looked at him askance. "Thief, eh?" she murmured to him, eyes narrowed. "I somehow think that unlikely now. Rather like I think your words about not snooping weren't all truthful either."

"Oh, believe it," he said, puffing up proudly. "I became the greatest thief in the world." He smirked at her, and it was meant to irritate. "Thing is, I was an Auror in training before that, and they decided I should probably do a bit of listening in on things. I had to have a reason for them to come to me, though, so I could exchange a bit of information with them. It just so happens that I got a bit too good, so they had to put me on the Most Wanted list."

"I don't believe this," she muttered, rubbing at her face. "This is just… going back for decades. It's like someone planned for all this to happen, including me winding up here at the Ministry!"

Blackwell's brow furrowed at her as he frowned. "Yeah, well, they didn't expect… Shade," he said with more than a little trepidation. "There's always something that might prove a monkey wrench in things."

Rio was suddenly aghast that he knew it was her, but it warred a moment later with the terror that he hadn't actually said that her theory was stupid. He noticed her inability to put her questions into words, or which one she wanted to put into words first at least, and gave her a curiously soft look. "The two wands," he explained gently. "And the fact I snooped around some of those friends of yours who had Obliviate put on them after Shade's appearance. I'm not your guardian angel, but I was tasked with listening to anything and everything I could, so… I have been. I'm the one they were trying to use to force you into blackmail, you see, with who you were." He glanced at the door, and then back at her. "Shacklebolt and Weasley don't want to see you used, but they've been told just enough to have it forced onto them. Dumbledore had nothing to do with it, so don't worry about that. It's been mostly the Ministry higher-ups. I figure they got the idea to keep tabs on your family after your grandfather was found in that desert in Egypt by the Cursebreakers. From there, it snowballed into getting your mother to be an Auror, which made it easy for her to work undercover with Voldemort's crew concerning this artifact. You just… happened to be the one they chose to lean on the most once they figured out your mother had squirreled away her secret in your head. I doubt they would've taken much more than passing interest in you otherwise. I wonder why she never told anyone what she'd found out?"

"Except me," she said, approaching Storm and searching his face curiously. "Why did you never try to find me and tell me any of this, after Hogwarts?"

"Wasn't a good time," he said, suddenly looking away from her. As a matter of fact, he looked anywhere BUT her. "That, and they'd have known something was wrong had I done so. And Voldemort was dead again, so most of the major danger was gone. They hadn't gotten the secret from you the first time, either, right? So… I did my job and just listened and pieced together enough so that they wouldn't know how much I really did know." He glanced towards the door again. "I doubt they realize I know so much, tell the truth, but they will after they read that scroll."

"But it only says enough to help push me into doing what they want me to do," she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "I doubt they'll think anything of it."

"Except to send me to Azkaban," he noted quietly, shivering lightly. "They can't let me go given I'm such a wanted criminal, and they definitely can't tell the world what I was really up to out there."

Rio paused a moment and bit her lip in quick thought. "If I make you indispensable to me," she began slowly, "then you could make an escape at the safest opportunity. Then they'd have to try and catch you again. I brought you in this time, so that's enough to get me kudos from a lot of people. If you're used in a case of this importance to them… they may be willing to make you a deal of some form in exchange. All you would need to do is betray me in the end and then you could do what you do best."

His brows began to lift at every word that she spoke, until he was staring at her as if she'd just sprouted a dragon's head on her nose. "I swear I just thought I heard you plotting how to free me," he replied once she'd finished. "I'm not hallucinating, am I?"

"Yes, well, we'll hammer out the details later," she said briskly, waving it off. "First things first: I have to convince them to let you help me. I think a kind word in Shacklebolt's ear should do the trick. If not, then…. Well, there's more than one way to free a cat-burglar." She cut her dark eyes towards him. "Especially if Shade is involved."

She moved to the recorder and lifted it, rolling it up as she continued speaking. "You know, everyone in town will know I'm really a pureblood by this time tomorrow," she commented with a frown. "Given I was willed my grandmum's estates, and thus her money, I can only imagine how attractive I'll suddenly be to the other pureblood families."

"Careful what you wish for," Storm cautioned from his chair as she turned to make her way out of the room.

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