August 1st, 1890 — A muggle train, British countryside

Lachlan hated trains—specifically the muggle sort. They were slow and shaky, and they provided little opportunity to use magic if needed. Flooing was out of the question due to an appalling lack of fireplaces, and he might have gone by portkey if the office had not informed him that there wouldn't be sufficient time to process the request before the date he needed it by. It seemed the only way to get to where he needed without attracting unwanted attention from muggles was to use the train.

He'd found a spot before most of the passengers had boarded, and his long legs had prevented anyone from attempting to sit across him. All was well apart from the periodic cries of a baby trying to get its caregiver's attention in a nearby compartment. It was only when they left the city behind and headed into the sweeping hills of the countryside that he noticed something else was... off.

First it was a sound that sounded like the crack of a spell, but he'd passed it off as some mechanical muggle fixture that wasn't working properly. Then it was a smell—a very specific smell that he'd only had a whiff of once before. Amortentia. There was no possible way that anything on the muggle train could embody his every comfort and desire. Upon second thought, it had to be a potent dose, because there was no way he'd be able to smell that from where he was located... unless.

Lachlan exited the compartment and immeidately glanced in both directions. Nothing out of the ordinary—except for the smell. He wandered down the aisle, trying not to look too suspicious as he glanced into the small glass window of each compartment. Muggle, muggle, muggle, he thought as he passed, and then—witch.

He had to do a double-take, but she was clearly wielding her wand. He looked around once, and then twice, and opened the door.

He shut it behind him—immediately.

"What do you think you're doing?" he hissed. "There's muggles behind you, next to you, and presumably in the one in front of you. They can smell it."

Was he being a tad too loud? Probably.

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   Elladora Black

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Fallon had been included on the apprehension team at the last minute, as Maeve had some emergency pop up and was required elsewhere. While she respected her mentor immensely, being added to a case at the last second was infuriating. There was no time to study the file, to predict the wizard's next move and be prepared for all possibilities. All Fallon had been able to do was grab her bag and follow the team out the door.

She and three others split up upon apparating onto the train, with two of the four in search of the illegal potions. From the brief scan she did through the file, the smugglers were moving everything from amortentia to polyjuice and worse. After the amortentia tea scandal (and the pink letter scandal) the auror's office had a faster reaction time to those dealing with the love potion. After all, how many people's lives would be ruined for something as foolish as love?

All plans went to shit as soon as the whiff of amortentia hit their nostrils. Without needing prompting, Fallon had leapt into the nearest empty compartment to begin casting a series of wards designed to protect the muggles. Merlin, she prayed they didn't need to get the oblivators involved. Memory work was so finnicky.

Fallon abruptly turned and pointed her wand at the intruder. "Lower your voice, I'm with the ministry," she demanded in her best official tone. It was possible he was one of the smugglers attempting to distract her so the others could flee. Rising to her feet, Fallon made no move to redirect her wand from him as she continued, "what are you doing aboard this train?"

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   Lachlan MacFusty

His furrow brows softened at the magical words: I'm with the Ministry. He assumed that meant her purpose here was related to Ministry operations, unless she thought working for the Ministry gave her a pass to do magic in the presence of a train full of muggles. She didn't offer much of an explanation beyond that, and instead jumped to questioning him, as if he was the one who had to answer for himself. He cocked a curious brow and, for a moment, simply stared at her while he figured out how to handle the situation.

(She was up for something, he thought, and he would be the first to throw her under the bus when they were inevitably arrested for whatever she was doing here.)

"With the Ministry?" he questioned, ignoring her question altogether. He could feel his own wand in his back pocket, but didn't reach for it—not when she'd had hers pointed at him only moments ago.

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This tall oaf of a man was interfering with her vain attempt to protect the muggles from the amortentia. Already, she felt the wards she cast weakening from the lack of constant vigilance. Fuck, she thought furiously. If the wards fell and the suspects escaped they would have an even larger mess to deal with than Fallon knew how to address.

"I'm an auror, Auror Abernathy," she identified herself. If he didn't stop interfering after her identification then Fallon was going to stun him and deal with the consequences later. The muggles needed protection more than this asshole needed an explanation. Continuing to hold her wand at the ready she added, "there's a suspected dark wizard aboard this train. Have you any knowledge about that?"

  

Oh, so she was an auror—an auror working a case. That sounded infinitely more exciting than spending the entirety of his ride holed up in a lonely compartment. He might have left it at that, but the newfound knowledge that there was apparently a dark wizard roaming the train made him inclined to stick around to see how it panned out.

"If I did, don't you think I would have said as much already?" he rebutted, his gaze moving down to her wand and the folder that seemed to have been carelessly thrown about on the seat in front of her. "What is he doing? Smuggling amortentia? On a... what? A muggle passenger train?" It all seemed rather absurd.

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The first of the wards broke before she could address any of his questions (which, really, she couldn't address any since it was an active investigation) causing her to swear audibly. "Look, just sit there and give me a minute. Please." She stated, obviously frustrated. She remained facing him as she recast and strengthened the wards. Merlin, what were her partners doing if her spells were all that protected the muggles?

Fallon fucking hated being the back up.

She knew she ought to leave the compartment and try to find the action, but she wasn't yet convinced the man wasn't involved somehow. After all, he had yet to say why he was aboard the train. However, she couldn't arrest him without proof and she certainly couldn't trust him to watch her back. "You never said why you were on the train."

  

Lachlan did what he said and sat down on the seat across from her, not because he intended to allow her to boss him around for the remainder of his time on the train, but because she did have her wand in her hand, was swearing, and seemed a little... hysteric. He kept his eyes on her every move, watching her wave her wand around while muttering inaudible spells. Some sort of shield, probably.

Concerned, he glanced down to the folder beside him, wondering how easily he could get it open before he was hexed by a snappy auror. (Not long, he decided, as she seemed paranoid and possibly sleep-deprived? Unless aurors were just like that. He didn't have much experience with them, which he supposed was in his favor right about now.)

"I'm going a quidditch thing," he said, "for the British National Team." Did she even follow quidditch? She seemed like the type who would. Aurors flew around on broomsticks, quidditch players flew around on broomsticks.

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What were the odds that someone involved with the British National Team (a team which she fangirled over with Merry) while on a case? She could hardly interact with him as she would like to, given the circumstances and that she was, in fact, supposed to be here in an official capacity. Not to mention that his status on the team didn't necessarily mean he wasn't involved somehow. Fallon had to remain suspicious still, at least until he proved himself otherwise.

"Okay," she nodded. Then, for the first time since his arrival, she noticed the case file and went to move it further from his reach. However, the train decided to lurch just then, causing Fallon to lose her balance and the papers to fall about the compartment in a flurry of white.

One particular paper caught her attention and her face drained of all color. "No," she hissed as she reached for it and ignored the other pages. In her skimming, she had lost the most important detail: the smugglers were moving potions, they were abducting muggles.

"We need to move," she told him abruptly. Leaving him behind was still not an option, though she knew she would move faster without worrying about him.

  

Although her curt nod might have been enough to convince him that he wasn't about to be placed under arrest in that moment, it did not change his approach. She was still likely to handcuff him the moment he gave her a reason to doubt his innocence, but he'd still rather be at her side than in the life of fire between auror and criminal.

The train lurched, and suddenly he had his hands out to steady her. The papers went flying, and before he even noticed the extent of the mess she was crouched over flipping through the papers. There was a pause, and then she freaking out over something written.

"Need to move?" he hissed, standing straight up out of his seat. "What do you mean? What's going on?" Had she missed something, or just forgotten what she was supposed to be doing?

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Wordlessly, Fallon summoned the papers back into the file as she contemplated where to look next. The page still clutched tightly in her hand mentioned young women being targeted, which was limitless in terms of targets. Was the rest of the team aware of the method? She skimmed through the pages once again, this time looking for anything to clue her in as to how they operated.

However, it was to no avail.

"A young woman is about to be abducted," she muttered to him as she continued to scan the pages. He might be involved, he might not. Fallon had to take a leap of faith if she were to prevent the young woman being traumatized for life. "We're already behind. The train lurch was the signal." Fallon was already throwing the compartment door open and moving through the aisle. "Did you see any teenagers traveling by themselves or with an elderly chaperone?"

  

Abducted.

So this was no ordinary smuggling case. It didn't take a genius—or an auror—to put the pieces together: the abductors were likely using the amortentia to placate their victim.

The dangers of the situation aside, Lachlan wondered what the logistics of him being involved with this was.

First: could be help? Would his presence make things worse? He had a wand and was at least twice the size of the much shorter auror, which could help with the intimidation factor. Second: had his presence interrupted the mission, or had she been slacking when he arrived? And thirdly: was he going to get out of this without being yelled at in front of the entire team?

There wasn't much time for debate.

"There were plenty of girls," he scoffed, holding out his hand in an offer to hold her papers while she presumably prepared for action. "But I was only taking note of whether they had wands or potions, not if they were young or with someone." If he had that sort of memory, he might have done better in school.

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Merlin's right fucking toe, he was infuriating. Maybe it would be best to lock him in the compartment and find the smugglers herself. (Where was her team?) However, she could not shake the idea that he would somehow break free and either be a further nuisance or involved. No, she would keep an eye on him until the situation was more in hand.

"They're abducting muggle women," she informed him in a low voice as she stalked down the hallway. "Did you get your NEWT DADA?" Fallon was going to get her ass handed to her for involving a civilian, but what choice did she have?! It wasn't as though she went looking for him. Merlin, was this what they saw wrong with Merry? Was her career about to be ended because of this?

Fallon froze as a cloaked figure moved at the end of the car. There, and he had a woman in tow already. Fuck. Trusting the oaf to follow her (or run, how much easier this would be if he would run), Fallon took off chasing after the man.

  

Lachlan had struggled in school, but Defence Against the Dark Arts was one of three classes that he hadn't received poor marks in. So she was asking him to help. His common sense told him it was likely against policy to involve civilians in missions, but it would, at the very least, make for an interesting story once he finally made it to the quidditch meeting.

"I got an 'E'," he offered, and that was that. He made no promises about his current skill (it had been over a decade since he'd graduated, and his life hadn't involved much practical magic since). There wasn't much time to discuss what he wasn't and wasn't capable of, though, because moments later she took off after someone at the far end of the train.

Lachlan had once promised himself that he'd never the type to chase woman, but with a shake of his head he took off after her down the aisle.

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Well, at least he had some skill. Hopefully he had retained it through the years, though Fallon wasn't overly hopeful. So long as he didn't complicate the situation, they would hopefully save the poor woman.

Fallon reached the end of the car in record time and moved into the next, which was, thankfully, a cargo car. She threw a spell towards the crates in front of him to prevent him from moving further down the line of train cars. Shouting for him to stop, Fallon continued running until they were less than ten feet apart. A glance behind her showed the oaf but none of her team. Fuck, she was on her own.

As tempted as she was to stun the man, there was no guarantee it would hit him and not the muggle woman. "Just let her go," Fallon warned.

  

In all his years, Lachlan had never been witness to a dark wizard in action. He'd had plenty of scraps with opposing quidditch players and other students while at school (and not to mention a dragon that once), but there was a very unnerving tension that came with being ten-feet away without someone who was very likely willing to kill to achieve his purpose. Lachlan shuddered.

The wizard, of course, did not listen to the tiny auror woman (which: fair. He probably wouldn't have either, if their places were switched. The again, he had listened to her, if only because he hadn't known she was an auror at the time.) Lachlan leaned forward, just close enough that he could be heard by the auror but not the dark wizard.

"What are you going to do now?" he said quietly, slowly reaching around his backside to grab his own wand.

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If the oaf of the man would just stay out of it (which, she realized, was her own fucking fault) Fallon would figure out her plan. The woman was swooning at the man to the extent that the oaf and Fallon didn't exist. Merlin, she hated impressionable women. They always made for the least aware victims, and therefore were always the fucking target.

Before she could respond to the oaf, the cloaked man cast a stunning spell towards them, causing Fallon to throw herself onto the oaf to knock him over. Fuck, what she would give to be as tall and broad as he! "Stay down," she hissed at him as she stood and began to duel the cloaked man.

The poor muggle woman was still in the line of fire, as she was being dragged about by a tight grip on the back of her dress.