Reunions

Anita gave him a ride to the station. Which was both a blessing and a curse all at once, she had questions and with him locked in a moving vehicle… well what better time to answer them. 

“So you’re telling me all this time you’ve been-” She gripped the steering wheel, focusing on the road to distract herself from staring at her childhood friend slack jawed.

“I’ve been doing my best James Bond impressions yea.” He joked with her, smarmy grin and all.

She snorted but didn’t comment on his attempt at diffusing the integration she was trying to carry out.  They drove in silence for a bit approaching the station with every passing second. Before she refocused on the topic at hand, “Harry, be serious with me.” Anita risked a glance at him and his heart clenched. For her to look away from the road… well it meant a lot. “I need more to go on. We haven't seen each other in years. You pop back into my life without so much as a phone call or letter and now this? What am I supposed to think, Harry!” She gripped the steering wheel like her life depended on it.

Taking a deep breath. He did the best he could giving her what information he knew MACUSA would be sending to the PRIT team. Very clean, very clinical. He did some time with MI6 all hush hush, worked for the Queen directly, nothing he could talk about in detail as much as he would want to. It all felt like an excuse to him. He would be sure to tell her more once they weren’t at risk of being questioned for knowing each other but he knew just what cops were like. This may not be the flavor he was most familiar with but cops didn’t change just because the country he met them in did.

Anita sat there quietly letting him go off on his spiel. He eyed her from the passenger seat, the girl he remembered would have never let this go so fast. He forced himself to relax as they approached their destination but he couldn't help the feeling that this conversation wasn’t over. Not when the person he was lying to was the one who taught him how to lie successfully at such a young age. His gut churned and he knew by now if there was one thing in this world he could trust it was his gut.

Though watching as they sped past one fast food chain after the other he couldn’t help but think his stomach was telling him something else too. They didn’t stop to grab anything though. They just sat in silence even as they pulled into the station. If he wasn’t trained to face worse situations he would have been sweating bullets by now. An Anita that just went silent on you? Dangerous.

Harry trailed after her through security and to the back office where they were immediately pulled into a private office with Storr and Zerbrowski. Anita took a seat and turned to look at him. She’d expected this and hadn’t offered him any kind of heads up. Oh yea she was pissed. He’d only ever seen her pull something like this on her dad when he was being particularly stupid. He tried to convey he was more than willing to tell her the truth when they weren’t in the presence of cops he didn’t know or trust but maybe they'd been apart too long or maybe his eyes just weren’t as expressive as he thought because she ignored him. Fantastic.

Harry looked to Captain Storr as his desk plaque states and waited. This was a situation he was familiar with having sat through many grand stands before. Most people in power pulled something like this when he entered the scene, for any reason from him being too much a “nancy boy” direct quote from one angry officer to him being, the much more likely option, in the government's pocket. So knowing himself and how he’d handle the situation if an obvious foreign person showed up spouting his government's much higher credentials. Well lets just say Captain Storr was taking this much easier than he would have. Though looking around the room he did wonder what the Captain had been doing out on the field. A question to ask once they got back to the investigation. For now experience told him they weren’t just staring at each other but waiting to see what the Captains' people could find on him. That's what he would have done in any case.

Minutes went by. Zebrowski had caved to the tension a little, offering water from the cooler in the corner of Storrs office. Harry accepted a cup, it was likely better than whatever coffee or heaven forbid tea they had on stock, plus if he wasn’t going to be getting something to eat he might as well keep his fluids up. Best not to push his own luck, you honestly never know when something is going to go tits up. After what felt like hours a soft knock and a thin file was handed over. Harry didn’t even blink at the exchange. That wasn’t the real file and he wasn’t even going to think about what it would take for any one person to gain access to his entire history. He didn’t know what MACUSA and the US had decided they would use to fill out his background but he wasn’t worried. With the kind of deal he had made they wouldn’t put anything he hadn’t rightfully done in there so no use stressing over things he couldn’t control. Besides, he had a feeling he was going to learn what they knew here in a minute.

Captain Storr took a moment to read over the no doubt “informative” packet. Zerbrowski was getting antsy from all the subterfuge if his shuffling was anything to go by. Anita was looking at the folder with a look he couldn’t decipher. 

“This explains how you managed to get a Marshal license when you’ve never been on the job in the States before Mr. Potter but it doesn’t explain what you're doing at my crime scene uninvited.” Captain Storr started, closing the brief. He sat back in his chair to look at Harry from behind his seat of power.

“I got a call from my handler that I needed to shadow Marshall Blake here and that she'd been called in on the case.” Sometimes honesty was the best policy, he just hoped now was one of those times. 

Zebrowski startled, frowning. “That's not how things work around here.”

Harry agreed, if this had been one of his cases he would have booted him out the door without so much as a by your leave. There was no precedent for a foreign man with a full Marshalls license to shadow another Marshall, especially one with a history like he did… not that these gentlemen would ever be privy to his entire history. Raising his hands in the universal unarmed pose, “I know, I think they just want me to learn how your two offices cooperate before they feel safe setting me on a case. I promise I'm not under any other orders. Just watch, learn, and assist if I can.”

Talking to other officers is a dance for anyone even if everyone in the room worked for the man there were just some things to keep in mind. Don’t over explain. Don’t offer up more information than what they were asking for. Talking too much is a sign of anxiety or nervousness and that makes you look guilty. Short sweet to the point but personable. Yea, very much like dancing. Unlike dancing though this Harry was good at. He’d been playing this particular field since he was first introduced to the battlefield at the tender formative age of eleven.

Anita hummed derisively. “So I'm getting a shadow and they don’t even take a minute to tell me?”

He blushed then and reflexively ruffled his hair, something he hadn’t done in years, “That's uh that's my fault.” It was and wasn’t though. He had told his lone contact with MI6 that he was going to see his childhood friend but he damn sure hadn’t mentioned it to anyone in MACUSA. He hadn’t expected it but he knew better, people always talk. That did explain the well wishes and claps on the back he was getting from the field office when he left.

“Oh?” She raised a perfect arched brow.

“I well they knew I knew you so I was supposed to tell you before all this… but well I wasn’t expecting a case to open up so quickly…” It was a weak excuse. He hadn’t brought it up during the long awkward drive in either. Anita had every reason to call him out on his little fib but she didn’t. She did give him a very specific look though. The flames were cool but he wasn’t free yet.

“So you think you can just walk into any scene you want just because someone told you to shadow Anita without so much as a by your leave to us?” Zerbrowski was frowning at him, a pretty serious expression for someone with a crooked tie and rumpled suit.

As if by magic the Captain's secretary opens the door then with a slip of paper talking about an urgent notice that keeps calling back to make sure they get it. She looks dazed and frazzled but otherwise alright so Harry took that as a win. It was a pretty big sign that MACUSA at the very least treated the muggles better than their counterparts but that's neither here nor there. Observations like that were beyond his pay grade these days… plus he didn’t want to get into the politics on how to treat muggles again. Once was certainly enough. The woman passed Storr the paper with its note and he glanced at it probably intending to set it aside for the time being but that brief peek was very… informative to say the least. He jerked back up to look at his Secretary with angry searching eyes. “When did this first get called in?” 

If Harry was a betting man he’d put money on that being the notice that he would be shadowing Anita but with the Potter family luck being what it was best let it slide for now. Anita was giving him a searching look though, she had done the initial flicking between the two people acting out their parts but even she knew that was too coincidental. She knew him well enough not to question it for now but Harry could just feel the growing weight of her list. 

Captain Storrs' secretary had to be made of steel because she didn’t falter under the taller man's frosty gaze. No she stood tall and stared him down with her own look. They dissolved into quick bickering about the semantics on when and why such a call would be important enough to push him out in the field but in the end it was settled. Harry's superiors had given him a by your leave call. To everyone but Anita. Yeah good going Potter that was brilliant work all around. So brilliant the woman to your left may string you up by your bollocks. 

Holding in a sigh for all he was worth Harry watched as Zerbrowski joined the spat only to leave a few minutes in. Through one of the many windows around Storrs office Harry could still see Zerbrowski talking with and taking note of the things the other officer was gesturing over. Reading their lips was hard, he wasn’t used to any of the American accents yet but he’d be willing to bet they’d discovered another body.

Harry continued to watch Zerbrowski out of the corner of his eye as he studied Anita quietly seething next to him and Storr looking defeated while his secretary gave him a talking to. It was never good when Anita went silent in her rage. That was the calm before the storm and if her explosions when they were kids was anything to go off of, er well the only thing he could go off of really, then the future chat he was going to have with her was going to be awful. Not that they had time for that. Harry tensed as the door pushed open and a pressing silence fell over them.

“We’ve got another location.” Not another body, a location. Did that mean the body was too decimated to even call it that or there was no body? He didn’t know and he had a feeling asking Anita wasn’t going to get him any answers.