light up the sky

When Mia-Rose had begun poring through documents--through recent Prophets, mostly, though she had poked around the farmhouse for any other sort of clues to her uncle's current work--the last thing she had expected to see was the name Kallenbach. Kallenbach, after all, was best known as Isobel's sleazebag of a boyfriend, who didn't seem like much of a boyfriend at all in Mia-Rose's opinion if they were both still sleeping around.

But that was none of her business.

Except it was, because as much as the purpose of her research was to piece together intelligence on werewolves in this year, it was hard to ignore that Mr. Kallenbach had been killed by them not so very long ago. It wasn't something she would have predicted, thinking about how Wolfgang had been picking up her sister not long after that all had gone down, but there were rather odd things people did when they were grieving, she supposed. The thing was, though, Mia-Rose liked to think that she was good at observing people. After all, it was something she had plenty of practice at. It was important--to know what you were up against in any situation. And in Wolfgang Kallenbach, she saw nothing of grief, nothing to indicate that anything had changed in his life, although she certainly hadn't made a habit of hanging around him before he'd seduced Isobel, and she really didn't want that to change now.

She wasn't sure what drove her to decide to show the documents to Isobel. For their whole lives, the two sisters had rarely gotten along, their personalities clashing constantly. Isobel had been proper and willing to be stuffed into awful tiny dress robes, Mia-Rose had been prone to wandering off and getting herself covered in mud in the pastures. Nothing much had changed over the years. And so Mia-Rose felt a tiny thrill in the fact that she could mess with her sister with the information.

But, too, even if the thought of having a boyfriend made her skin crawl, she thought that if she did have one, she would like to know if he had been involved in shady dealings regarding a possible murder. The philosophy was sound: it was important to know what you were up against in any situation.

Isobel, of course, was in London, after she'd stormed out of the house right after coming home, so it would take a letter to even arrange a meeting at this point. Mia-Rose tied it firmly to the owl's leg for its long journey, waiting to see if Isobel would ignore her like she always did.

Dear Isobel, it read, in neat cursive, there's something I want to talk to you about. In person. Without Wolfgang. And don't make the face I know you're making. You'll want to hear this. I'll Floo to Diagon Alley next week if you tell me when you're free, I'll just let Mum and Dad know I'm going for ice cream.

---

The question, Mia-Rose thought as she scooped ice cream into her mouth, was whether Isobel would show up. She hadn't seen her sister since she'd left the house with Wolfgang, and the amount of tension that had caused made her guess that Isobel might not want anything to do with family for a while. Especially not Mia-Rose--so it was a pleasant surprise when the older Linwood walked in, ordering herself a simple scoop of ice cream before joining her at the table.

"Afternoon," Mia-Rose said, her hand already on her bag, ready to pull out her pile of interesting papers at any moment.

"Afternoon," Isobel replied, looking apprehensive. The air was strangely formal between them, a meeting like this a rare event.

"I'll get right to it. I've been doing some research on werewolf news recently, and I found something I think you need to know."

"I would ask you why you're doing research, but I'm not sure I want to know," Isobel said, expression still skeptical.

None of your business, Mia-Rose wanted to say, but she held her tongue, only because she knew she was messing around in Isobel's business at the moment. She undid the buckle on her backpack, sliding out a manila folder. "It doesn't matter why," she said, brushing off the topic, because Isobel was the type to run straight to Mum and Dad with the news that Mia-Rose was about to do something dangerous again, and then she'd really look like a useless kid when she couldn't help the Aurors. "It's because it's about Wolfgang," she explained, flipping the folder open. "I bet you know his father died not that long ago, but did you know he was killed by werewolves?"

"That explains..." Isobel started to say, but then she shook her head. "Never mind. I don't see why you needed to meet me to tell me this, lots of people have been killed by werewolves these past few years. It's a tragedy."

"That's not the important part, though," Mia-Rose said, flipping through a few pages. They were copies she'd made with a duplication charm, so she would give it all to Isobel if she wanted to read more--there were copies of other articles more relevant to her at home. "Here's the thing. It was super suspicious, 'cause it happened on official business. While he was working on werewolf stuff. And they said it might be that one pack that attacked St. Mungo's, but that whole investigation just--fizzled out. It just stopped being written about."

"I don't see what you're getting at," Isobel said, squinting. "What does this have to do with Wolfgang?"

"Because look at him!" Mia-Rose said. "Imagine if Dad died in some awful, mysterious way, and they couldn't figure out who did it. Wouldn't you want to know what happened? Wouldn't you be tearing down the Ministry to figure it out?"

"I'm not going to go into Wolfgang's family affairs with you," Isobel said, shaking her head. "It's just like you, poking your nose where it doesn't belong." The older girl crossed her arms, sitting back in her chair. "I'm not sure what you're implying exactly, but I don't like it. You sound like you write for the Quibbler."

"All I'm saying is that something weird happened." Mia-Rose shut the folder, sliding it across the table to rest next to Isobel's dish. "You can read it and decide for yourself."

Isobel picked it up gingerly, but she did put it into her own bag. Mia-Rose wasn't entirely sure that the whole thing wouldn't be put in the fire as soon as Isobel got to wherever she was staying now, but maybe she would read.

"You can have the rest of my ice cream," Isobel said, pushing the dish in Mia-Rose's direction. "I don't think I'll have time to eat it. I have to get back."

And there you go again, all affected by him, Mia-Rose thought. It was just like Isobel, losing her mind over boys, especially ones with questionable morality. But she, for once, would be nicer than Isobel had been to her, and not say anything about it.

After all, now it was in Isobel's hands to uncover whatever secrets there were underneath all that hair gel.

...