Up until this moment, Ford had assumed that he and the constable were vaguely allies in the battle against Mrs. Niall, but this outburst certainly set the facts clear on that. Ford had expected the local law enforcement to be antagonistic when he was here trying to defend Barnaby Wye from trouble he had almost certainly caused or mitigating another ghostly calamity, but this caught him entirely by surprise; he and his ghost hadn't contributed to the disturbing of the peace at all, so what was this bloke angry at him for?

"If I end up coming back?" Ford repeated dryly. He had never considered himself the sort of person who might get into an argument with a law enforcement officer just for the sake of it, but he'd had a long day and this remark was particularly grating, especially given that it had come from someone who was undoubtedly younger than him. "Would you like me to pop 'round and collect you any time I'm supposed to do my job, then? Or — I live three streets over, d'you want me to tell you when I come back for dinner, too?" He nearly added something along the lines of maybe you'd prefer I just left all the spirits in Hogsmeade to your office, then, since you'll handle them all so much better? but he wouldn't have wished that on the ghosts. He didn't have a particularly high opinion of the constabulary's ability to accomplish things.

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