'This isn't how I imagined my well-deserved retirement,' Moody thought, as his magical eye focused on the red-haired girl, sitting together with Tonks - his apprentice. But he had agreed to help when Kingsley had told him about Sirius's murder. It was the least he owed him… Now, a year later, he was still engaged in the case.
They might have caught Aubrey, but Macnair had escaped… If only Moody had been there when his former colleagues had tried to apprehend Macnair.
He focused on the girl again as she told them how she had missed the end of the game searching for a toilet and lost her family, finally deciding to go back to their tent.
His gut instincts told him that something was wrong with her… Something about the way she acted. He had seen this before in suspects trying to hide something… not necessarily a crime, but something… It was very subtle.
Kingsley thought it was a good idea to let Tonks interview the traumatised children, since she was closer to their age and less intimidating than Moody himself or the other older Aurors.
He had watched Tonks question the boy earlier. It was obvious - at least to Moody - that he was not telling the whole story.
He would need to be in the same room to use his Secrecy Sensor, unfortunately.
Potter had told them that they had been searching for Arthur's daughter when Jorkins - under Macnair's Imperius Curse - had stepped out of the forest, looking dazed and unresponsive. Suddenly she had cast the Killing Curse on Arthur Weasley.
Shocked and acting on instinct, Potter had blasted Jorkins away with a Confringo, causing her sorry state. Then Macnair had tried to kidnap him, but Arthur's daughter had found them - Macnair pointing his wand at Potter, with Arthur lying dead next to him - and wounded Macnair from behind. Macnair had then Disapparated, leaving behind the very scene they had later discovered.
Moody had managed to extract the most recent memories from Jorkins when they brought her to St Mungo's and everything was lining up with the story Potter had told Tonks. Jorkins' wand confirmed that she had killed Arthur with the Killing Curse, too.
There were also fragmented memories of a small hooded figure beside Macnair, whom he had called 'my lord'. Moody didn't like the implication of a Death Eater calling someone 'my lord'. He would need to speak with Albus about this…
Whatever else they suggested, the memories confirmed that Jorkins had indeed been under the Imperius Curse and the first part of Potter's story.
"When I stepped out of the woods I saw…" the red-haired girl took a shuddering breath, her voice transmitted to Moody via a rune cluster in the corner of the interrogation room. "I saw Dad. Dead."
Moody noticed the slight tremor in her hand and the unfocused look in her eyes… this part seemed genuine.
"And a man was standing there pointing his wand at Harry. Harry told me later that it was the escaped murderer from the Daily Prophet… Macnair," she continued in a small voice, looking down as Tonks gently took her hand.
Moody frowned.
"I just… I was scared and angry and shocked. And Macnair stood there, with his back turned to me," she said a bit faster, as if she wanted to get this interrogation over with. "I cast the first curse that came to mind - a Reductor Curse. The curse exploded and Macnair was flung away. I think he was badly wounded by it…"
If this was an act, then Moody had to admit the girl was a convincing liar.
"It's okay, Ginny," Tonks said, squeezing her hand. "We just want to catch him… Can you tell me what happened then?" she asked gently. His apprentice didn't seem to suspect the girl was lying, at all.
Arthur's daughter nodded uncertainly.
"I… I just heard the pop sound of someone Apparating, when I checked on Harry. Then I looked in Macnair's direction and he was gone…"
Moody's magical eye rotated in his skull and he saw a clearly distressed Molly Weasley entering Auror Headquarters, demanding to see her daughter. He gave a hidden signal to Tonks to wrap the questioning up and turned around to walk away.
They were legally required to inform the guardians of underage wizards and witches in such cases, so he had sent someone to the Burrow to inform Molly, even if magical law allowed some preliminary questioning when an escaped Dark wizard, like Macnair, was involved.
If only they could question the pair under Veritaserum. He knew those two teens were hiding something, but neither Molly nor Albus would ever agree to it.
Moody made his way to the lift. Kingsley could deal with the aftermath.
Reaching the Apparition area in the Atrium of the Ministry, Moody quickly Apparated away to the venue of the Quidditch World Cup. If the girl's story was true, then Moody might find some of Macnair's blood. It wouldn't be enough to find him, but there were some tracking spells, based on blood magic, that might help him.
The area of the forest where Arthur's body was found was still cordoned off to the public with a ward. An Auror rookie stepped in front of him when he wanted to pass.
"Er, sir! I… I would need to see your wand," he stated nervously. "You know, standard procedure."
"You want to take my wand away, boy?" Moody asked menacingly , trying to intimidate him, taking out his wand slowly, as if he were ready to curse him at any moment.
"Yes," the rookie squeaked, taking a defensive step back.
Moody studied the nervous rookie. At least he was following procedure…
"Good! Constant vigilance. Never forget this," he advised as he handed him his main wand.
His second wand was ready the whole time the rookie was checking his main one. You could never be sure if someone wasn't a Death Eater using Polyjuice Potion, after all.
After the check, he stepped into the cordoned-off region and began to cast every blood detection spell he could think of, but he found nothing. Slowly, he widened his search radius, constantly switching between different detection spells.
He was almost ready to give up when one spell returned a weak signal.
There was something… faint traces of a wizard's blood, buried beneath the ground.
Several excavation spells later, a body emerged from the soil.
Moody recognised the corpse immediately.
It seemed he would be having a very long conversation with Crouch very soon.