The sound of a stack of parchment hitting his desk pulled Ed’s mind out of his work and he looked up to see a copy of an article. Ed’s brows knit together as he looked up at the face of the person who had dropped the parchment to his desk. Of course it’s Skeeter. He thought to himself. But a witty retort fell short on his tongue as he noticed the usual spark of “I’m better than you” didn’t seem to be flying in her eyes.
“It’s being printed as soon as possible, but I thought I’d give you a bit of a heads up.” This had Ed even further confused as she turned and walked away - she never did something like give him a heads up about one of her articles. He put his quill to the side and reached for the piece of parchment scribbled in a familiar hand. A large part of him wanted to ignore the article - there must be some ulterior motive or something of the sort. But the look in Rita’s eyes had him- dare he say worried?
The first words on the page confirmed that the look she had given him was indeed one of pity - maybe she had a heart after all. Incriminating Finds At The Bones’ Home. His gut dropped as his eyes read through the rest of the article in record speed. His gut didn’t stop dropping even as his eyes scanned the last line of the article. He couldn’t believe it one bit - this had to be one of her dumb fake scandals. He would get to the bottom of this himself.
In an instant, Ed was up from his desk and heading towards the door. The looks he got from his co-workers was pretty telling as he walked through the departments towards the front door. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the building, he spun on a foot and was gone with a loud pop.
It had been years since he had set foot on the grounds of his childhood home, but he strolled through the gates without a second thought as soon as his feet touched the ground - only to be stopped by a wizard a little bit older than him. “You can’t enter, sir, sorry. This is a crime scene.” He crossed his muscled arms as if to emphasis this fact.
“This is my home.” Ed said back, his heart skipping in his chest and brows knit together in a mix of anger and fear.
The wizard before him raised an eyebrow questioningly at this statement. “Our records only have one male living at this house and he is currently in custody, so you better come up with a better lie or get out of my sight in the next 10 seconds.”
“My name is Edgar Bones, eldest son of Edward and Clarice Bones, the residents of this home. Now let me through - I want to know what’s happened to my parents.” The anger he was feeling seeped into his voice as he spoke and his fist beside him clenched and shook.
The hit wizard in front of him narrowed his eye suspiciously before saying “Their son, eh? I think you’d better come with me then.”
If the circumstances had been different, Ed might have punched that smug smirk off the hit wizards face as he turned around, but as it was, the best chance Ed had at some answers was talking to someone higher up than this dim-witted muscle man. So Ed followed behind with his eyes narrowed in annoyance and anger to who he assumed was the officer in charge of this case. Muscles, as Ed decided to call him for lack of a real name, leaned over to whisper in the officers ear and the officer excused himself from the conversation he had been having to make his way towards Ed.
“Edgar Bones.” He said holding out a hand as he approached, baring a smile not too unlike what he expected a vampire would give right before they sucked your dry. “The name’s Smith and I’m the auror in charge of this investigation. I have a few questions for you if thats alright.”
“I’ll answer your questions if you’ll tell me what the bloody hell has happened here.” Ed spat back at the man. “This is - was - my home. It is my parents being accused. I deserve to know.”
“Now calm down. There’s no need to be upset -” The auror began before Ed cut him off sharply.
“No need to be upset? You’re accusing my own flesh and blood of heinous, dark crimes.” Ed conveniently left out the fact that he barely spoke to his own flesh and blood anymore.
“Yes. Your own flesh and blood.” Auror Smith repeated in uninterested monotone as he reached within his robes to pull out a pad of parchment and quill, not unlike the items Ed used when taking notes for an article. “Now if you could answer a few questions about your parents, I would be happy to answer some of yours.”
Ed snarled in response to this statement. “How the fuck am I supposed to answer questions if you don’t tell me what’s happened?”
The auror ignored Ed’s snappish reply and continued one, taking more notes. “Would you say that your parents showed any signs of interest in the dark arts as you were growing up with them? Any sort of dark magic items around the house? Any bitterness towards muggles or the minist-” The auror was cut off once again by Ed, but not by his words but actions.
Ed had grabbed the auror by the front of his robes, their noses only an inch from each other. “Look here ‘Auror Smith’” Ed began, the anger in his voice forcing it out as a hiss. “They may have been horrible at being parents, but there no way in hell they were dark wizards. They spent day and night in that bloody basement of a department over there at the ministry working for you and you have no reason to turn your back on them now. It’s obvious they framed my father for running for minister. It’s Rodolphus you should be questioning, not me.” Ed finished by dropping the still startled auror to the ground and turning on his heel to disapparate back to the city. It was obvious to him that this was the work of the death eaters and he would prove it.
