December 13th, 1888 — Richard Addle's office

Richard had eventually decided on Floo Powder for travel, though the dustiness of most fireplaces would mean their clothes had a little on them, but it would remove the uncomfortable feeling of apparation, and than, before that, asking Miss Davis if she could apparate. No, Floo was easier. When they made their way to the Ministry, he respectfully greeted those he knew, showing Miss Davis the way to his office, than grabbing a piece of parchment and a quill, his previous plans to purchase nearly forgotten

"Alright, Miss Davis. Thank you for coming here, especially on the short notice." Richard gave her a smile, he hadn't seen such an interesting way of discovering a case before, and he was, at least a little, intrigued by the way Miss Davis held onto her hope for so long. He wrote down, "disappearance and missing of Mr. Aubrey Davis, 1878" as the title, assuming that 10 years ago meant 1878, and continued. "You said your brother was at work that day? Was it close to your residence at the time, or did he have to take a carriage or other means?

  

Henry knew that her holiday shopping could wait. This was more important. An actual lead after so many years? Well... not exactly a lead, so much as someone finally listening to her. If her siblings found out, would they have hope to? Or think of this as another one of her silly day dreams of finding the truth that could never be found? There was no time for such thoughts. At least they had gone through Floo Powder. She certainly could not apparate. Thought she was jealous of those who could. Walking with him, she gave small smiles of greeting to those he greeted. Without a word.

"Of course. Thank you for so much of your help." Giving a smile of her own, she meant how grateful she was. She truly was. This was so kind of him, to not dismiss her over the case being so old. Most seemed to. Glancing down at what he wrote, she nodded to the year he had put down. "It was... May or April, one of those two months that he disappeared. Just months before I headed off to Hogwarts for my first year." She added. Maybe an approximate month would help somehow.

She had to think of his actual question a bit. Was his job close by? Had she ever even been there? Likely not. "I'm not sure where the residence was. Perhaps there might be an old file that might have better detail?" She offered. It was in the best interest of Aubrey and the rest of her family that she be as helpful as she could. She wanted her brother back... or at least to know what happened to him.

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Bree Made Magic

Good that she was happy to be here. Richard folded a roll of parchment after writing a quick message on it--get the files on Mr. Aubrey Davis. And the ones on Mr. Urquart's family--not the former Minister. He pulled out his wand, held it carefully and muttered some incantation. The parchment flew off to where the records where kept and he grinned. Magic did always amaze him, even if he'd had it for most of his life.

"May or April..." Richard repeats and writes down on the first parchment he had. That was definitely helpful, though when the file arrived with an even more specific date, "We could interview the Urquarts, though I am certain it would take a little bit of convincing...especially since it has been so long. Have you spoken to anyone, besides your siblings, about your brother's disappearance?"

The file arrived, heavy with the parchments, barely floating. Almost comical, if the matter wasn't serious. "Ah! Here we are." he opened it up, sketches of the Urquart home, a description of Mr. Davis, and a list of who was in the house at the time were inside. Servant names were highlighted with notes near them, but some of them didn't make sense. It also seemed that some of the Urquarts were in the house, though they were all, rather foolishly, written down as Mr. Urquart, making it difficult to determine which set was in the house. Rather frustrating, if he did say so himself. "Would you like to see the file, Miss Davis?"

  

Even if Henry did use magic in her daily life, it was still so fascinating to watch others do so. Watching as the paper flied away, she watched it go for a moment before it disappeared from sight. Oh, how she missed Hogwarts. If Aubrey hadn’t gone missing, she might have made it to her NEWTs. But alas, she had been too worried as the years went by to keep up by the time fourth year had ended. No OWLs for her.

Looking back at him as he repeated her words, she looked at the paper once more as he wrote. "From what I've read in the papers, the Mr and Mrs Urquart that he was being employed by passed away a few years ago. But I remember that they had at least one child." Henrietta certainly read the papers. Mentions of Urquart’s always peaked her interest. In case something tying to her brother came up. "I’ve spoken to some friends, some of the people that he was more friendly with at work, and my employers."

Looking at the file, she hadn’t realized that it would be so big. Being offered the file, she nodded and gently took it. The actual file. She looked through it, recognizing some of the staff names. "Were they able to search the house?" She asked as she saw the sketch. What is something of his was there? Or some other clues that might help.

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Bree Made Magic

The fact that the Urquarts had passed away after the event made contacting anyone involved that much more difficult. Servant had most likely gone to other positions, and those who would have known may be spread up all over the United Kingdom. He knit his eyebrows together as his eyes went over the list. It would be interesting to see the ways people had made of themselves since, and especially interesting if anybody remembered what happened to Mr. Davis. Perhaps one of them would even get guilty and tell him or whichever investigators that he sent.

"It would be best to ask the child at least once. I've found children do enjoy the company of servants at times. Did your brother enjoy spending time with children?" Richard tries to think of how Mr. Davis could have gone missing, attempting for Miss Davis' sake to think of ways that could result in him being alive after ten years of being missing. "Did your friends say anything, did your employers know the Urquarts?" Richard thinks of how women are getting more jobs, remembering his mother who was a maid.

"I'm not certain if it was searched. If it was, I am embarrassed to say, it might have been less so do to their family's heritage and status. I'm sure you've heard of ex-Minister Spavin's ways. It should say in the file, though it may not be altogether accurate..." Richard looks over at her, "I'm afraid that I was not personally involved in the investigation, though if they haven't left I'd be glad to find someone who was."

  

"Well, I have always felt that he and I were closer to each other than our siblings, and I was eleven when he disappeared. So I’d imagine that he wouldn’t mind spending time with other children." Oh, how she hoped that he was alive. She tried not to think of the possibility that he… wasn’t. But even if they only found out what happened, and not him alive… at least she would have closure. She hoped.

"My friends wouldn’t know too much on the matter. And I don’t believe the Allaway family would know the Urquart family." She didn’t know how comfortable the boys would be if she just started sharing their life stories, so she left it at that. Though, Castor now worked for the Ministry, so they might know each other by now. But that wasn’t her business… unless she bugged him about it.

She continued to look at the file as he spoke. Henry didn’t personally see any record of a search. Looking up at him when he offered to find someone who was on the original investigation, she nodded. "That would be smart. Perhaps they have even more insight into the case than what is in the file."

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Bree Made Magic

Richard nodded, circling 'young Urquart' as one to be spoken to. This would be difficult, as the child would most likely be at Hogwarts now, thankfully school would end for winter holidays and maybe they could speak to them, with their guardian's permission. That might be the tricky part, but Richard would attempt to speak to the child's guardian. Richard vaguely recalled the name Allaway, though by no means was it familiar. "Alright. This kind of situation is difficult, both because it happened so long ago and because of the deaths of those who may have been involved or have hints to lead us in the right direction" Richard gave Miss Davis what he hoped looked like an encouraging smile, "But we may still be able to solve it. Do you have any personal theories? Sometimes those can bring insight as well."

He wrote another note, this one to one of the secretaries, that said 'please bring up one of these investigators' followed by the list of names of those who worked on it. Richard looked over at the file. "No search at all? Interesting...though I'm not certain what to expect. You and your brother are not of muggle heritage, correct?" he thought to biases, and he knew at times there would be some against those who were of working classes or of less than 'pure' blood.

  

How old were those kids now? Certainly not out of Hogwarts, she was sure. At least some of them would still be in attendance, and rich kids did not tend to drop out. Unlike herself. Who did they live with now? Likely an uncle or aunt, or older cousin. Henry was a bit hesitant to point fingers when he asked her as to what her own personal theories are. But it wasn't too out there of a theory either. "Well, I've suspected the Urquart family for a while. Mainly for the fact that it was their house that he was last seen at."

It was certainly frustrating that there was no search at all. But she couldn't blame the investigators. The Urquarts that Aubrey had worked for were fairly wealthy as far as the young Henry had remembered. "No, my family are halfbloods though." Was that it? Purity? Was that really worth killing to some people?

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Bree Made Magic

"I see," he wrote this down. He personally questioned the logic, but he wasn't an investigator and typically never had been, so he couldn't say much. Damn that administration that let purebloods have their ways with everything! Richard was lucky he wasn't Muggleborn, he knew the prejudices some had against them. And he was still working against his working class background, the way society thought that working hard enough to better yourself was odd, "I think it says in the file if any houses were near, or what places were near that he could have gone to. I will talk to the Urquarts who were in the building. And I shall have some investigators talk to the footmen."

"Halfbloods? Do you know how far you can trace back until you hit a Muggle? That may have been considered somewhat important, as well as, forgive me, the fact that your brother was just a servant." Richard always wondered why people didn't care about their servants as much. Then again, he'd never been the master of the house until he got this job, and even then, didn't have servants.

  

The title of 'pureblood' seemed rather stupid. She would happily marry a halfblood or muggleborn rather than a pureblood. One of her employers was a muggleborn. And she certainly knew that he wasn't always seen in the brightest light because of this. It was rather disappointing. Both Allaway's were kind men. But her thoughts of such things drifted away briefly as Mr. Addle mentioned the file in front of her. So she continued looking through the file. It was still amazing that she could look through the file that had information into her brother's case.

Her family line? Well, she wasn't quite sure who the muggle was in her family. "I'm not sure. But some of my other siblings might know." She offered. It wasn't a shock that someone may not like servants. She was lucky, the boys were kind to her. Practically her little brothers. She didn't think negatively of Mr. Addle by his suggestion that something might have happened to her brother from the fact that he was a footman.

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Bree Made Magic

Richard looked towards Miss Davis with a bit of a bleak look. He enjoyed her bright spark of hope, even after all these years. He would hate to disappoint her, and if he was being honest with himself he felt like he would be. Cases like this weren't likely to be solved, even with the advanced magic that they had. Maybe if the parents were alive, they could use Veritaserum to glean some information. But with only the child and, if he remembered, the older woman, left in the house, they might not be able to find anything.

"I'm sure it's not too important, unless one of your parents or grandparents were Muggles." Richard said, "I personally believe that it was my great-grandmother who was a Muggle, though I may be incorrect." He thought about what else they could do, "Speaking of your siblings, Miss Davis, are they all much older than you? Perhaps they have memories that could be helpful." A long shot, for sure. But once they were in the office, Richard had come to the realization that this entire thing could be a long shot. But he wished for Miss Davis to be happy.

  

It felt as if there was even more hope now than ever. She had thought by now that she would have to do this all by herself. Trying to find a missing person while not having anything to go off of was dreadful. But now she had a Head of Department person helping her. And she was quite grateful for it. Even her siblings had shrugged her off by now. Which was disappointing. But perhaps with her having a Ministry official to help, they might have a bit of hope as well.

"Well, the closest sibling I have age-wise is Poppy, who is three years older than I am. Hugo passed four years ago, Wilhelmina is ten years older than me, and Jacob is twelve years older than I am. Jacob and Wilhelmina are possibly the most likely to remember anything." Would her siblings even be willing to talk to anyone about this anymore? She sure hoped so. It was for Aubrey.

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Bree Made Magic

Well it was interesting that none of Miss Davis' siblings cared as much about their brother. Richard also noted that he should probably say Miss Henrietta Davis so that there was no confusion when he brought it up with his investigators, though he didn't say anything out loud. "Would you mind speaking to them? I know it is getting rather close to the holidays and you may not want to bring up what must be a sensitive subject, but with a case like this any information would help."

"And I offer my condolences of your brother, however late." Richard added. Four years ago, that would be the plague. Or maybe the fire. It was unfortunate how many bad things had happened, and Richard was glad but guilty that his family was London born. It was so near in time that he wondered how many still mourned their departed family members. Richard began to theorize about Mr. Davis only being lost for six years, and then dead by plague or fire the other four. Surely tragic, but another possibility, however unlikely.

  

After all these years, Henrietta figured that it was more of a case of wanting to move on than lack of caring. She understood that, but it still made her sad. Trying to bring the subject up again would likely upset them. But if she mentioned that the Head of Law Enforcement had taken on the case, perhaps that would spark some new hope. "I’ll speak with them." She said with a nod.

Nodding softly to his statement, she gave a small, grateful smile. "Thank you." If only Hugo could be here now to possibly have closure from Aubrey’s disappearance.

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Bree Made Magic

Things were beginning to look a little more hopeful for Mr. Davis, or whatever was left of him, Richard thought pessimistically. But there were many options for them to find, even if a lot of them seemed closed off right now. Richard has to admit that it is a little strange that there has not been much research on where Henrietta's brother is, but they will try their best. That is all Richard wants to do, his best.

"We'll meet back up again, after my team sends some investigators to the Urquarts, and any other old staff we can find." Richard says, "You can be sure to look for my owl." He gives her a soft smile, "My hopes are that there will be more hope soon."