Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by J.K. Rowling; various publishers including, but not limited to, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books; and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: This is the scene I cut from Raising Harry: La Vida Muggle. It fits in the day after the tornado in chapter six.
La Vida Muggle Bonus Scene: Puzzling Investigations
Ashley Anderson hated her job. She despised going out in the country, getting all bug-eaten and muddy, and not to mention sunburned. However, her partner, John Brown, was all for it. He liked to regale her with tales of growing up out in the sticks. If Ashley heard one more time about how his first job had been detassling, she was going to kick him.
"I don't care what your readings say, John. The action happened here, not seven miles wherever else!" She kicked a clot of dirt at him.
"But, Ash, those wards aren't like any I've ever seen before… Look here," he handed her his clipboard.
Ashley didn't bother looking. "According to Schuley's fifth law of immutable distance, John, those wards, however interesting, had nothing to do with stopping an F-4 tornado in its tracks yesterday!" She shouted the last and threw the clipboard with the tracking parchment hard enough to bounce off of John's chest. "The NWWS wants us to get to the bottom of this! If we could find out what happened, then they could see if they could duplicate it! It could potentially save billions of dollars in property damage every year!"
John, for his part, couldn't help but notice that Ashley didn't mention anything about the lives it would save. He sighed and scooped up his clipboard, recalibrating it to the immediate vicinity of the local school. "There isn't much here, Ash. Four magical signatures over the last forty-eight hours, two of which are kids. The third belongs to some woman by the name of Danielle Penbroke. H-B ranking of twenty-seven. The last must be either her mom or grandma, 'cause it says Alice Penbroke. Her H-B is thirty."
"That means nothing if she's a weather witch."
"I know that. Why don't you radio back to HQ and see if they can find an address."
An hour and a half later, Ashley was more than ready to return to her comfy air-conditioned office in Des Moines. Neither of the two Penbroke ladies – luckily found at the same address as Dani was visiting with her grandmother at the time – had any sort of weather witch capabilities. Yet another of her investigations had gone absolutely nowhere. I'm never going to get promoted, she thought, climbing back into the National Wizarding Weather Service pickup truck.
A/N2: The H-B numbers they're talking about will be addressed in 'Of Marbles Lost and Found'. (edited to fix which story they're in on September 3, 2007)