Maria carefully read over the file on her desk, a file that had not been seen by more than a handful of people. It was Auror Havershames's report on the body the Muggles had found that morning. Not usually something the MLE cared about, since the man had been a Muggle and found far outside any wizarding community. Still, something about the body had Havershames's dander up. Something about similar reports, similar circumstances. Havershames was a good Auror, for a Muggleborn. But a Muggle with whip marks on his back, no matter how emaciated the rest of his body was, was not the domain of the wizarding authorities.

Decisively, she set the file aside and opened the next one, this one a report on some Scottish wizard who had added magic to a pair of roller skates, of all things. Maria dutifully read it through and tossed it in the pile that included the dead Muggle and reports that Sirius Black was still alive. It was on days like today that she missed having Simone as her secretary. She at least would have never let such drivel make it to her desk. But the young woman was destined for bigger and better things than serving coffee and filing.

Which reminded her, she really did need to owl her to see about tea one day. It would be a welcome break from the drudgery that was life in the MLE.

Speaking of every day drudgery, Maria wondered where Auror Tonks was. The metamorphmagus was not late as of yet, but all the aurors knew that their Head liked for them to be a good five minutes early for meetings. Tonks only had three minutes to spare.

She really hoped that Narcissa's niece would be willing to take Draco's case. Maria had already interviewed several of her best and brightest about it, and the ones that did not outright refuse had all but suggested that they use it as a way to spy on the Malfoys' private activities in order to gain evidence of Dark Arts usage. It was something that she simply could not allow.

Tonks ran down the hall, her green hair flying behind her as looked at her watch. "Late late, I'm going to be late. Late. Can't be late!" Her boots echoed loudly on the tile flooring, and more than one person jumped out of the way and glared at her sharply.

"Sorry, going to be late!" she shouted over her shoulder, as she narrowly missed a secretary holding a pile of files. The paper flew everywhere, but Tonks didn't stop until she was a few doors down from the Head's door. Tonks pushed her hair off of her face, straightened her robes as best she could, and rapped sharply on the door.

"Come in," Maria called after putting her glasses away. She watched impassively as Tonks opened the door and entered. Her face was obviously flushed from running, her hair a mess. Maria blamed it on the Tonks bloodline. Slytherin knew that Andromeda had never looked so out of sorts.

"Auror Tonks, you're right on time. Please be seated." She gave her only a moment to get settled before starting the interview. "I've been told that you recently met your cousin, Draco Malfoy. How did you find him?"

Tonks tried to breathe normally. Her cousin? She hadn't spoken to him in almost a month, and hadn't owled. She needed to do that. Madam LeGrot looked impeccable, with hardly a hair out of place. Tonks envied that about the department head; her mother had had the same knack of always looking put together.

"He was polite, pleasant even. Nothing like I had heard described by former class mates or the news paper. I haven't really had that much interaction with him outside of that one meeting and during the war." How does she know I met him? Honestly, she knows everything. Spooky. "He said that he was recently back from traveling and would be in England for the time being. May I ask why?"

"He's been receiving death threats." She handed over the file that contained her interview notes and the threatening owls. "And since Narcissa Malfoy happens to be an old friend, I feel the need to make sure whoever is assigned the case treats both it and the family with the respect they deserve. Narcissa is a lovely woman, despite what your peers seems to think. If you were given the case, how would you proceed?"

Tonks flipped through the file quickly, scanning the owls and notes. They were interesting, even if they were unoriginal.

"I would want to interview Draco Malfoy myself, his peers, and then perhaps checking up on former associates of his in Azkaban. Perhaps relationships that went sour?" Tonks replied, sorting through procedures in her mind. "I think the latter two would be more likely to want to kill him, since he managed to escape relatively unscathed."

Maria nodded. It was standard procedure in this sort of case and she had at least not intimated spying in any way. "And do you think you could interact with both the Malfoys? I believe there is a great deal of bad blood between your two families, after all. I cannot assign you to the case if you're likely to be belligerent."

Tonks refrained from snorting. "The bad blood was between my mother and her family; I had little to no interaction with either living Malfoy. If assigned the case, I would treat it as any other case. If they were to be uncooperative, then that is detrimental to them, not me." She wanted this case, badly. Not just for the interest of figuring it out, she really was tired of digging through rubbish bins, but mostly for the opportunity to have to reason to interact with the rest of her family. Mustn't let the Head know though, professional at all times.

"What kind of priority would the case have?"

"The utmost. If you feel it necessary, you will be allowed to pass off any of your current open cases. And you will be focusing specifically on the threats. Carrow is not behind them; she admitted that when she attacked young Draco. As such, another Auror will be assigned the job of tracking her down."

Tonks repressed a smile and the urge to wiggle in her seat. Utmost, pass off cases? Taking this case, indeed!

"I can take this case. I don't think there is anyone else who would take this case with any kind of ... neutrality? Am I to start immediately?"

Maria leaned back in her chair and regarded Tonks. At the moment she resembled nothing more than an excited puppy that had been told to stay. But, she was right. Being a member of the family usually led to conflicts of interest, which was why aurors were automatically assigned away from cases involving their families. But in this particular case, family was more likely to look on the Malfoys with a bit more kindness, negating all of the negative rumors that surrounded the family.

"Yes, you are. I'll send an owl today, telling Narcissa and Draco that you have been assigned the case. I'm sure you will want to interview him directly? I'll let you make the arrangements for that yourself." Because, really, if the girl couldn't handle something as simple as owling her cousin for a meeting, then she never would have made it through training.

"I'll be sure to do that, Madam. I'll have a preliminary report for you at the end of next week," Tonks said replied, putting the file back in order and standing, taking the dismissal as it was. "Might there be anything else?"

"No, dear. That will be all." She watched the young woman leave, making sure that the door was fully closed behind Tonks before putting her glasses on and reaching for the next report. Vanity, thy name is Maria.

{SUMMARY: Madame LeGrot assigns Tonks the Malfoy case. This should be interesting.}