Petra basically lives in the Archives these days. Once upon a time she'd have loved this particular turn of events, but as it stands the reason for her ongoing presence in the quiet sub-basement is because she's desperately searching for any final bits of information that might prove useful for Rose and Landon at the Parliamentary meeting at the end of the month.

Or rather, the one that's going to happen in a week.

She's been down here ever since they first learned about the hearing, and the fact she feels no closer to anything new than she had before is honestly making her frantic, which she knows will negatively impact her ability to find things and result in a negative feedback loop. Which isn't helpful, but it is what it is, and she's trying to ignore it while she works.

At least she isn't alone - Alex is more often than not a constant companion these days, and other people often show up to help on a day-to-day basis. Estelle is the most common additional presence, but Edward comes around on occasion to assist as well, as does Noah (those days are often her most productive - being around her boyfriend is a major balm for her stress). The closer the date gets, the more people tend to show up as well, which overall is a good thing, and does somewhat mitigate her downward spiral of panic. Somewhat.

Eloise Taylor also occasionally offers assistance with their work, but the poor woman is generally too busy working to weed out Finn's Archive insiders to be able to dedicate much time to the search. Though she doesn't show it, Petra is familiar enough with Taylor to recognize that she's running a bit thin these days, and it's not surprising considering the massive upheaval all the Departments have had to undergo since Finn's arrest.

And that's an entire situation that Petra has honestly been trying hard to not think too hard about if she can help it. There had of course always been a suspicion that someone was out there helping Yurina out, but if she'd ever really thought about it (not that she did - she's been stressed enough about everything she's responsible for this year) she would have assumed the mole would most likely be someone she'd never heard of, not the guy in charge of actually hunting down Yurina.

Of course, hindsight is twenty-twenty and the logic does match up now that she knows the truth - Finn would obviously want to be aware of the progress being made on that front, so being right at the center gave him both control to misdirect the search as well as information to give to Yurina to keep her several steps ahead of everyone.

Petra shudders slightly and pushes that train of thought firmly back into it's box before she tumbles too far into it - she has a job to do now that needs her full focus.

"All good?" Estelle asks, and Petra nods to her mutely. Of everyone, Estelle is probably the best person to talk to about all that, but at the same time Petra can't imagine the other woman would really want to have that conversation.

"Yeah, sorry. Just worried, I guess." She offers after a moment when Estelle doesn't turn back to her work, eyes still a bit worried.

The woman hums. "Worry won't find what we need." She points out, and Petra's shoulders jump up slightly, defensively.

"Hey, we're all working hard, no need to be snippy." Alex interjects, and isn't that a weird reality, that he's the voice of reason these days? "And we've been at this longer than you have Estelle, so you really have no room to criticize." And there's the argumentative side.

Petra just sighs as the two begin traiding barbs and dives back into her own pile of documents. She really has no idea what she's looking for, but hopes that when she comes across something useful it will be immediately apparent. A vain hope, perhaps, considering the hundreds of documents she must have been through by now, but it's really all she has left to cling to at this point, so cling she does.

They've finished going through a lot of the more obviously helpful sections - the two World Wars, the Cold War, the several internal religious wars, none of it had turned up anything. Now they're chronologically moving through time, seeing if there were any smaller moments of helpful crossover during peacetimes. It will obviously be less effective than being able to proudly declare "look, we helped in the world wars!" but it would at least be something.

She's just thankful they at least have Mrs. Morgan's information on the Muggle government being kept appraised of the magical wars, otherwise they'd have nothing new to share at the hearing. And that would inevitably spell disaster - the current climate would unquestionably result in hard sanctions, despite the Initiative's best efforts to mitigate the worst of the press coverage. If she's honest with herself, Petra isn't even sure Mrs. Morgan's information will change that at all, but she has to hold out some hope, or she may just give up and go hide under her comforter for the next week

She confesses how helpless she's feeling to Noah that night as they're having dinner at his place.

"And the worst part," She adds, thinking of it on the spot, "Is that the US is having a meeting at the same time as Britain, and Yurina is absolutely going to drop some new bomb right before and we won't be able to come up with a counter before the sanctions are put down."

"There must be some way we can properly dislodge her stranglehold on all this." Noah says thoughtfully (maybe a bit desperately). "I mean, we have her main British informant in custody and are rounding up her network as we speak. Plus people know now she's a Deatheater thanks to Max back at the last Press Conference."

Petra sighs. "Yeah, and a fat lot of nothing came out of that, remember? We were all so worried and then nothing. Some people became more critical, others dug in - you have to remember this is a world where a self-proclaimed ual predator was voted as leader of the free world - after announcing he was a ual predator. People really don't like being wrong, more than I guess they like being alive."

Noah grimaces. "Still. Maybe there's something we can do to prevent her testifying? Get her arrested, or at least deemed a biased witness?"

Petra shrugs. "That would be more your department than mine," She offers after a moment, "Since she's in the States. So maybe it's something you could suggest to your boss? See if there's any way you could work with MACUSA on that? It might be too close to the hearing, though. I know we already have all of our speakers set, even if we're still adjusting the presentations right now, so she may have to testify at this point."

Noah is looking thoughtful. "I can look into it. Maybe Edward can help out too - he's got some US Muggle Law Enforcement connections who probably know the process better than we do."

Petra hums. It's a good thought for sure, she just wishes they'd thought of it earlier.

She fills Alex in the next day on what she and Noah had talked about (and she still somewhat marvels that somehow they're friends now. At least, she'd call it friendship - she isn't sure if Alex would reciprocate that term) and he has pretty much the same reaction she had.

"That's a good idea. we didn't come up with it sooner." He says gruffly. "Still, suppose we can add 'find stuff about Yurina' to the to-do list. At least we might actually be successful with that one."

Petra tilts her head in acknowledgement. "Should we just look at the last wizarding war today, then? I know we're nowhere near that point, but that's when Yurina was in England doing her thing." (And hoenstly Petra still isn't quite sure what that 'thing' is. She knows Yurina is a Deatheater, that she tortured people, but that can't really be it, can it? She recalls from school that Voldemort had sneakily taken over the Ministry, and a woman running around torturing people in broad daylight doesn't really seem to fit that narrative).

Alex hums. "Suppose we may as well." He grunts. "Not like it will really make a difference in the long run." If we were going to find something, we probably would have by now. It's not said, but the words still hang heavy between them as they pack up the files they'd been looking at and head over to the more recent history section of the Archives, Alex dragging his ladder along behind him. Once upon a time the silence between them would have caused Petra a frankly ridiculous amount of stress - now it's nice to stay quiet, knowing there's no expectation for her to fill it. Strange how much things can change, even in the sort of high-stress environments that movies seems to always blame for people becoming particularly angry and awful to each other. The Initiative seems to have done the exact opposite, pulling tighter together than ever before in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and opponents. (Well, Petra can admit she got irritable for a short time, but she rather quickly realized it wasn't helpful and just made her feel terrible, so she stopped).

The '97-'98 row of files are nostalgically familiar to Petra, and she can't help smiling as they approach the towering cabinets. "We should figure out what department Yurina worked in." She observes after a moment. "It will make finding files specifically on her a lot easier."

Alex raises an eyebrow. "I never noticed there was departmental divisions in the records." He says after a moment, and Petra grins a bit shyly.

"Well, these ones are organized a bit differently on account of them being set up under a totally different regime." She explains. "The Archive workers, at least the ones resisting, made some alterations to the way that things were filed away to make it easier to catch the Deatheaters and sympathizers once the war was over."

Alex hums. "Optimistic of them." He observes after a moment, "But I suppose that works to our favor, in this case. How do we figure out what department she was actually in, though? I don't think they had an 'evil ' department, even during the takeover."

Petra snorts, and Alex looks both amused and surprised by it but otherwise doesn't comment. Petra clears .

"Well, I guess we just start looking until we find her name?" She offers, knowing it's weak but honestly unsure what else they could possibly do.

Alex rolls his eyes. "Right, because we have the luxury of so much time to just stumble around blindly in." He drawls, and Petra fliches slightly. "Surely someone who worked here back then knows? What about Taylor? How do we find her?"

Petra blinks, and feels herself turning bright red. That... is a very obvious solution she somehow completely overlooked and she'll just be blaming her stress and the negative feedback loop that is her brain for the oversight. She clears awkwardly. "Um, yeah. That would... yeah. We can check her office and ask." She mumbles, ducking so she doesn't have to see what expression is on Alex's face.

"You go ahead, I'll get started here." He offers, and she nods in relief, scurrying away before she can embarrass herself any further. It's a bit of a walk, but she arrives at Taylor's office in good time and is glad to see the light on underneath the door - it would have been unfortunate if the Archive Head was out.

She knocks politely, waits nearly a minute, and then frowns and knocks a bit louder, wondering if she just hadn't been heard the first time.

"Give me a moment!" Taylor's voice snaps, and Petra winces away from the door, gripping her hand to her chest. Okay, so she had been heard and obviously is interrupting something important. She waits, stewing in her own nerves, until the door finally slams open and a very irritated and slightly disheveled Eloise Taylor appears, glaring. However, the woman falters and the expression shifts to surprise when she sees Petra cowering a few feet away from the door. "Oh, Ms. Clark. I apologize, I thought you were... well, someone else. It's not important. How can I help you?" She asks, and Petra eyes her warily for a moment before slowly inching closer again.

"Um, Alex and I are going through the files from the last war to try and find something that could discredit Yurina? So she won't testify in the American hearing on magical sanctions?" She offers, a bit stumblingly. "And we were wondering which department she worked in so we could focus on that section."

Taylor smiles tiredly. "Yes, that does make sense. She was head of International Cooperation for the nine months the Deatheaters were in charge. You remember the organizational system for that time?"

Petra nods, mind already sorting through memories from some months ago when she's first learned the unique system. "I believe so, and I'm confident that once we begin our search it will come back to be quickly. Thank you for your time, and I apologize for the interruption."

Taylor huffs what could be a laugh. "Don't, I'm happy for a distraction. Why don't I come with you so I can show Alex the system as well - I could use some time away from all this."

Petra doesn't protest despite knowing she definitely could have explained the system to Alex easily enough - obviously this is what Ms. Taylor wants to do, and Petra won't stand in the way of that. Everyone is stressed right now, and Petra imagines that Department Heads probably don't have the mental health breaks/days that the lower-level employees like herself enjoy so this is probably the closest Taylor gets to a proper break these days.

It's a depressing thought, and makes Petra wonder why anyone would even want to be that high up on the ladder - the benefits must be massive to outweigh the negatives. She ponders on that a bit as Taylor silently leads her back to where Alex is systematically going through a few files. He glances up at their approach, the only sign of his surprise at Taylor's presence being a momentarily raised eyebrow that drops as quickly as it had lifted.

"Archive Head Taylor, you're looking well." He greets, and the woman snorts.

"I haven't been home in nearly twenty-four hours young man, I know what I look like right now but I appreciate the thought." From there she switches to full professional mode, packing up the files Alex had out and showing them exactly which sections would house information on Yurina. For the most part it's the International Cooperation areas, which Petra had expected, but there's also a decent amount of information apparently in Magical Law Enforcement as well.

"She was head of the Snatchers." Taylor explains when Alex raises the question that Petra had been thinking but was still too nervous to actually share. "Which was technically under Law Enforcement, though no Department actually wanted to claim the group as belonging to them, for obvious reasons. They were unruly and obviously violent, and the Deatheaters were trying to pretend they were the heroes in all this."

Alex huffs. "Still are, if Nina is anything to go by." He points out. "Though she hasn't been fully successful on that front - people trust her, but are still iffy on the group, at least as I understand it." He glances over at Petra then, and she figures she's his source on that.

She hums. "Give or take." She confirms. "More people are willing to give it a chance than I really like, but it's better than people blindly accepting what she has to say too, so." She shrugs.

Taylor replies after a moment. "Would it really be better to blindly accept our side though?" She muses. "Blind belief is a fragile foundation in the long run - I'd rather know people thought through their opinions, even if it meant they didn't instantly believe me about something."

Alex frowns. "We don't really have the luxury of time for them to think it through right now." He points out, "And besides, we're right - even if it starts as blind belief, people will eventually find the data to support it."

Taylor shakes her head. "Perhaps, or perhaps they'll be accused of seeing what they want to. It's messy no matter what." She sighs. "Anyway, I need to get back to work. Come get me if you need anything else - I'll be here until an hour after closing at least."

Petra watches Taylor leave sympathetically. "She's probably swamped with everything that's happened." She says quietly as Alex turns to the filing cabinets. "I can't even imagine."

Alex snorts. "Please, you were part of Estelle's group, weren't you? You can't tell me you didn't have moments of concern during all that." He rolls his eyes when she shoots him a terrified glance. "Relax, I didn't figure it out until afterwards, but it's pretty obvious that Estelle couldn't have done all that alone, and considering your experience in the Archives you're an obvious choice to recruit."

Petra sighs. "I... yeah, I helped. Not much, though, and I didn't know enough to not be surprised when they arrested Finn. I'm not even sure I really helped, honestly. I did what I could, but Estelle figured it all out herself for the most part."

Alex kicks her slightly, and she glares at him. "What was that for?"

"No self-deprecation right now." Is all he says before turning back to the files. Petra just stares at the back of his head in slight confusion for a long moment before mentally shrugging and turning to one of the other cabinets to get to work.

It's a quiet morning, though for once Petra feels like she's actually making some progress - she's found a number of reports with Yurina's name on them, and though obviously these won't help with the Muggle end of things - people still don't know that 'Nina' is Yurina - they may be able to justify MACUSA stepping in and putting Nina on house arrest.

Alex confirms his own successes as they take the lift up to the cafeteria later to grab a quick lunch. "She was everywhere." He says. "Honestly I wish we'd thought to do this a lot earlier - I actually think we'll be able to use some of the things I've found to weed out some of her international network. I'm going to ask Taylor after lunch if I can check out some of the files for Pup to use - he'd know better than me if any of the folks Yurina was talking to twenty years ago are still active in their Ministries."

"Well, that definitely explains how she evaded capture for so long, though." Petra observes, "Though I'd imagine all the names you have were followed up with twenty years ago? We should figure out who was in charge of-"

"Probably Finn." Alex points out before she can finish, and she slumps slightly.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess they're probably already being followed up on then." She observes after a moment. "But I'm finding some good stuff too with the Snatchers that hopefully is enough to get her indited."

"I'd feel better if there was some way to connect Nina concretely to Yurina, though. We all know it's her, but without proof the public will be up in arms if we accuse her of anything. Things were shaky enough when Max accused her of being a Deatheather; saying she was actually one of the worst, one of the leaders, it wouldn't turn out well for us." Alex frowns. "I haven't any idea how we would accomplish that, though. Nina Yamaa could be a completely random alias, and Evie already said that it's possible for people to look similar without it meaning anything."

They end up running into Noah in the cafeteria, and he joins them for lunch where Alex fills him in on what they've been doing all morning. He purses his lips thoughtfully as he processes it all before nodding.

"If you can get me those files then I can definitely follow up for you, on both activity and whether or not they need to be re-investigated in light of the Finn situation." He says firmly, and Petra beams at him happily. Even if this doesn't end up helping with the hearing, at the very least they're getting something done, and maybe this thread can help eventually take down Yurina once and for all.

"I'll talk to Taylor after lunch." Alex confirms. "It should be fine since Undersecretary Weasley basically gave us a blank check for this month to get whatever we need to do our job. I'll try to have them on your desk before 5."

Noah thanks him, then diverts the conversation away from work which is fair enough. Surprising even herself, though, is Petra's disappointment with that turn of events - she actually wants to keep talking shop, see if together they can come up with another possible angle to attack this from. They only have so much time, after all, and exhausting as it is she feels rather like it's being wasted when spent doing something other than work - especially considering how much they've actually managed to accomplish today.

She doesn't speak up though, just finishes her food and occasionally offers her thoughts as Noah and Alex chat. When she's done, she excuses herself, citing a need to get back to the Archives as quickly as possible. Noah does look a bit disappointed, but she knows he understands - she's spent all of their past few date nights talking nonstop about work, so he's aware of where her focus is right now. She takes the lift back down alone and heads straight back over to the Wizarding War section, picking back up where she'd left off.

Being in the Law Enforcement section means she's seeing less of Yurina and more of someone named "Zara Wong" who was apparently a leader of the Snatchers, if not the person actually in charge. It's interesting to read some of the girl's reports (and she's obviously young - even just the way she phrases her reports screams inexperience), but more interesting to see exactly how messed up the Snatchers really were. There are enough clear connections to Yurina (and her either lacking or indifferent oversight of the gross violations of human decency perpetuated by the Snatchers) that Petra feels confident that if they can just make the final connection from Yurina to Nina then they may actually have a fighting chance in all this.

She just needs to figure out how the heck to make that connection. Unfortunately, nothing comes up for the rest of the day, and Alex heads out just before five with a bag of checked out files and a quick 'see you tomorrow' when he realized that Petra wasn't following him. The Archives are open until eight, and after accomplishing so much, Petra desperately wants one more win before she goes home. Every hour not spent here is another hour closer to the hearing.

She's so absorbed in her work she doesn't notice the figure coming up behind her until there's a hand on her shoulder. She yelps and spins, wand flying into her hand as she does.

Archive Head Taylor looks slightly amused by the reaction, and Petra blushes when she processes that she's not being attacked.

"Is it eight?" She guesses sheepishly, and Taylor nods tiredly.

"Just past. Finding everything you wanted?" The woman asks, and Petra sighs.

"Kind of? We found things today, which is already a lot more than normal. But I was hoping for a concrete lead on the Nina-is-Yurina connection to present before the hearing. But it seems to be a random name selection."

Taylor frowns. "Actually... there might be something on the 'Nina' bit. It's in the restricted areas of the Archives, but considering the circumstances I can let you in there tomorrow, if you'd like."

Petra blinks, and then nods rapidly, nearly making herself dizzy in the process. "That would be amazing! I didn't even know there was a restricted section down here - is it like in Hogwarts?"

Taylor hums thoughtfully. "...Not quite." She finally decides. "Though there are a lot of Dark witches and wizards there. It houses those files that only people of a certain security clearance are allowed to even read. They can't be checked out at all unless under extreme circumstances, which I'd say these qualify as. If you do find anything and intend to leave with it, ensure that I am the person who checks you out and who you return the scrolls to when you're finished with them."

Petra nods mutely, honestly still a little stunned by the reveal of an entire section of the Archives she had apparently never known about, and she's able to go home feeling somewhat optimistic about the future for the first time in well over a month. She sleeps deeply, but wakes up early, excitedly springing from her bed once her mind is lucid enough to recall what she'll be doing today.

She heads to the Ministry two hours earlier than she normally would, but she knows the Archives open at 7 and she wants to be there for as long as possible to maximize the chances of finding what she's looking for.

Taylor is already at the desk, and the woman manages an amused smile despite her even more haggard appearance. Petra nearly asks if Taylor had even gone home the night before, but decides it would probably be rude to say anything to that effect.

"Good morning." She settles on instead, and Taylor tilts her head instead of giving a verbal reply, and then holds out a small, square sheet of parchment.

"This allows you access to the restricted section." She explains as Petra takes the offered sheet and turns it over in her hands. It looks unassuming - doesn't even have anything written on it - but she'd bet there's likely quite a bit of complex magic woven around it. "Keep that on you at all times while in the section." Taylor continues as she turns and begins leading Petra into the Archives. It's rather reminiscent of Petra's first time down here, and she lets herself be nostalgic for those far less complicated times for a few minutes as she follows the Archive Head deep into the maze of cabinets and shelves.

Despite priding herself on having gotten to know the Archives rather well in the past year, Petra is honestly lost within five minutes. The area they're traversing is entirely unfamiliar - even the wood making up the shelving is different than what she's used to, somehow both older and better kept than the shelves holding the most ancient of the Ministry records. And the strangest thing is that she hadn't noticed them taking any sort of different turn, so she isn't even sure she'd know how to get back if she wanted to.

Hopefully Taylor isn't planning to leave her alone here.

"Alright, it should be around here." Taylor says, abruptly stopping as she does, and Petra nearly runs into her, stopping only inches from Taylor's back. She glances up, frowning, to find they're back amongst more modern cabinetry, though these are made of a black metal instead of the usual silver. "These are the interrogation transcripts from the last war. Yurina handled a lot of them, and if I'm remembering correctly one of the other Deatheaters calls her Nina. No idea where that specific file is, but if it does exist, it'll be somewhere in here." She chuckles tiredly. "I didn't even have access to this area back then - it's sheer coincidence I caught sight of that file and even remembered it. So as a warning, it may not exist, and I apologize for any undue stress that could cause."

Petra takes a deep breath, steadying herself as she gazes at the massive cabinets around her. "That's fine - if there's even a chance we have to take it." She says firmly. "That's what it means to be in the Initiative, I think. We're setting our own path since no one has ever done this before, and that means taking some risks here and there." She blushes when she realizes how cheesy that was, and glances up to find Taylor smiling at her with an expression that Petra can't quite name.

"...You sound like a good friend of mine. Always on about stuff like that. Be careful with those risks - she's dead and buried now. I'd hate to see you go the same way."

Petra swallows hard, nodding nervously as Taylor shakes her head.

"Right, well, I'll come get you again for lunch, and I can stay with you after that. I've a meeting this morning I can't miss, otherwise I wouldn't leave at all."

Petra nods, a little too overwhelmed still to properly appreciate how much trust that means Taylor is putting in her with this. She instead turns and begins digging through the first drawer she spots.

She discovers quickly that the main reason these files are hidden may not have anything to do with their content being top secret and much more to do with how utterly brutal they are. The detail in each 'interrogation' script (really, it's just torture) is nauseating, and Petra finds herself rapidly skimming through things rather than actually reading them, hoping that the word 'Nina' will pop out at her. Thankfully, this haphazard tactic actually ends up working out - she locates a file that contains a large number of references to a 'Nina' and she quickly stops her scanning and pulls the files closer, checking the top to see what exactly it is - this could, after all, be an entirely different Nina and have nothing to do with Yurina at all.

But luck still seems to be favoring her - the title of the file is Interrogation of Percy Ignatius Weasley by Yurina Nakayashi and Bellatrix Lestrange, dated to April, 1998. She swallows hard, hoping that the details in this one will somehow be less upsetting than the others she'd gone through, and begins reading.

The details aren't any better (if anything, realizing that 'Percy Weasley' is Mrs. Weasley's husband kind of makes it worse), but it does establish that Bellatrix seems to have regularly referred to Yurina as Nina rather than by her name. It's not a completely solid connection, but if they can get a link to the last name as well it may provide enough circumstantial evidence to force further inquiry.

Now that she has the file, Petra isn't sure what to do next - she still has no clue where she is or how to get back to a more familiar area of the Archives, so she ends up sitting down and just waiting for Taylor to return.

Luckily it's not too long before the familiar heels click into earshot, and then the Head herself appears. She looks down at Petra as the latter scrambles off the floor, file still clutched in one hand, and raises an eyebrow.

"Found it then?" She guesses, and Petra nods eagerly.

"Yep, Bellatrix Lestrange callsed her Nina instead of Yurina. Now we just need to figure out what to do for that last name - if Nina came from somewhere, I'm pretty confident that must have as well."

Taylor hums. "Well, perhaps that could be for another day." She observes lightly. "Your friends seem to have begun an entirely different hunt this morning - I'm sure they'll fill you in this afternoon, but I thought I should warn you."

Petra frowns. She honestly has no clue what 'entirely different' could entail, but hopefully that means someone had a breakthrough on actual information they could use to help out with the hearing.

Hopefully if it is, they'll be able to find it in time - there's only two days left before it'll be too late.

Author's Note: One more chapter before we start the final part of this story, AKA the Conclusion~ Crazy how close the end of our ride is now!