Dark Waters

"We do need to explore him a great deal closer. My opinion of him has drastically changed. I had thought better of Krum," Michael said thoughtfully, "but I suppose I was one of the ones giving him more than a fair bit of slack too. I'd like to find out what the devil is going on with him. That's not going to be simple or without risk. But it might well be worth doing some considerable digging.

"Robert had been mentioning, before he was hurt, how absent Eli'd been from the Ministry. He had appeared to do well for awhile, and then he started to do his typical avoiding pattern. I should have perhaps been more alert but I didn't see this coming.

"He became out of sight and out of mind for me, I suppose, until the night Robert was attacked. I bet you didn't know that the Minister has his own distress signal. It supercedes most others because if the Minister is signaling distress, it most likely has dire national consequences.

"As an aside, if he ever sounds it again, you will definitely know. Its like no other distress call you will ever get. Anyway, not only did we fire patronuses, but Brian pressed his own distress signal to call the aurors. He used the distress signal for the Lupin's own security staff, and the Minister's distress signal.

"During the first few days Robert was out of action, do you know that Elijah Krum was never heard from? Lee Shepherd responded from Washington, and was a big help, but Khaat was managing without a syllable from Krum. Not even after the news broke in the newspapers.

"Nor did he show up after she was nearly killed by Blood. I didn't know that Belby had taken Robert's distress signal device because he feared for her safety. Looking back, I'm glad he did.

"Eli never showed up at the hospital in all that time she was on life support and barely alive. And we sent for him repeatedly and in every manner we knew. When she was critical, Robert sent for Shepherd again and put him on the Ministry payroll as a governmental consultant so that Robert could run things and Shepherd could do the physical footwork that Robert could not. Eli didn't contact her, didn't show up at the house...nothing. Not even finding out that she's pregnant again.

"The first she heard from him was the night Hogwarts was attacked. She managed to find him and he was quite put out by it. Poor, poor boy," his tone was sarcastic.

"His character has changed. I think he's changed quite a lot. Not sure everyone would agree with me, but even Khaat has noticed that he treats her quite differently from how he used to. She is chalking it up to his crappy stress management skills. Horsecrap. It might well be he's got more on his plate to be stressed about than we all know about.

"I had considered dropping by to see Millie Finnegan and slipping a drop--just a drop, mind you, of Veritaserum in his morning tea. I just hadn't done it. I think its still an option."

When Jack brought up her valid argument against marriage, he smiled. "Its definitely worth fighting them over., and I'd certainly use every moment of that I could if I were you.

"I would certainly guess that unless they could come up with Omara's body, with irrefutable proof that its him, they would have to wait for the legal waiting period to expire, and if they really wanted to go through all of the investigating and testings, legal hearings, paperwork, intervals between each of those things, I'd say, you could buy yourself 2 or three years at least.

"And if we can't find the mole by then and get Robert back in to repeal this nonsense, there is something seriously wrong with us all. "

Jack's ear wasn't fond of hearing too much about Elijah Krum. There had been a lot of shit to go down between the two of them, and their bitter relationship was the epitome of unresolved feelings. Jack would always resent Elijah, because he had gotten so much of Chase before she had died, and Jack would always feel that all that happened between the two of them had weakened Chase's already fragile spirit.

In short, very little needed to be said against Elijah Krum to her, for she had thought of it all. She believed that he let his few redeeming qualities overshadow the evidence of all the wrong he had done; the wrong he did admit to, he wore as a testament to the need for pity that his tortured soul required. Too many people gave Elijah Krum slack - she made up for it by giving him absolutely none.

"Perhaps his new wife could be asked to join the quest of truth. Or perhaps his dearly spurned ex-fiancée may be willing to illuminate us on what she may know." Jack did not think Elijah's character had changed - she thought he was just letting it become public.

Jack's eyes dropped and she took another sip of tea. Not looking at Michael, she said, "They won't find a body." Jack knew he was still alive. Merlot would have told her otherwise. No, they must be perfectly happy, because Jack had not heard a single thing from them. But, moving on. "I think I may have less time than that. I've begun to set a bad example. But I do have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Jack nodded. "We will get our bases covered and they won't last long against us."

Michael was about to speak when he heard someone else come in. He frowned. There hadn't been anyone here in months apparently. He hadn't been expecting anyone else. He drew his wand--just in case, and got up from the table. He had had a kneejerk thought to ask Jack to stay in the kitchen, but he resisted. It was a stupid thought.

He went out the kitchen door and down the hall to the foyer. He looked at the figure and frowned, lowering his wand.

"How the hell did you get here?" he asked.

"This," Lee Shepherd said, holding up an antique watch chain with a Victorian gold fob. It was a portkey Michael knew well.

He had been with Robert one day decades before when they had gone to Portabello Road so that Robert--who was dating Kate at the time--could find a birthday gift suitable of impressing the woman he had been completely smitten with.

Robert had found a lovely antique pendant of rubies and pearls that he'd ended up buying, and in the same trip, he'd bought himself several watch chains and fobs. What Michael remembered was thinking it was absurd because, at that time, Robert had no pocket watch.

The chain Lee dangled between them now had been pricey because of the fob. It was a very limited piece because it had been a commissioned piece to celebrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and had a diamond as the ornament in her crown. In the years since, that particular fob had become a portkey to Grimauld.

"Why did he send you?" Michael frowned.

"To bring her credentials," Lee said. "He doesn't want her to need to wait for anything. This way?" He pointed to the kitchen and made his way down the hallway.

"She wouldn't wait on a credential anyway," Michael said. "Oh, just make yourself at home, then," he laughed, shaking his head. He called ahead. "Don't kill him, Jack! He's just the messenger."

Lee found the red haired woman and smiled. "Jack Dyllan, I presume. I'm Lee Shepherd. I've heard nothing but good things about you. I'm looking forward to working with you."

Jack's legs unfolded easily beneath her, drawing her to her full height (which was admittedly short, but Jack Dyllan never felt short and few people considered her small) as she gripped her wand loosely but alertly in her right hand. Jack did not know of anyone who should be coming into Number Four Grimmauld Place today, or anytime really. As far as she knew, it had sat silently for the past months, admitting only the members who had nowhere else to go. She had always wanted the place to be considered a safe place, and Order members knew they could use it as such if they needed. Still, from the state of things, Jack didn’t think anyone had used it.

Michael moved quickly, and Jack followed, ready to do what needed to be done. However, the man entering and Michael seemed to be on amicable terms, so Jack lowered her wand. Behind her, the kettle whistled – it had been warming up, after all, so Jack pivoted and went back into the kitchen, tapping it with her wand. She summoned another mug, certain the other man had at least some notion to stay and join them for tea, and poured some tea into the mug.

She turned around as Michael entered, revealing another older gentleman – if Jack wasn’t careful, she’d be spending her Sunday afternoons drinking tea with older men and discussing political revolutions. She had to repress a smile at the thought and she approached the man, Lee. She knew the name, of course, because anyone with a brain knew the names of other Ministers. And, of course, because of his own ties to their Ministry.

She gripped his hand, giving one of her classic bone-crushing hand shakes. “I’m excited to start getting things done.”

Lee liked a woman who had a good strong handshake. It told him a lot. She was experienced, physically fit, outgoing, and confident, and that was exactly the sort of person he looked for in an agent. He saw the bright spark in her eyes and already knew she was smart.

"I can see why you were high on the short list of recruits," he smiled. "If you'd been in the States, I'd have been seeking you out myself. On Robert's behalf, welcome aboard. First things first,..." he drew out a pen and an envelope from inside his coat and opened it and drew out a form and laid it on the table with the pen.

"Standard employment agreement," he said. "He's filled in the salary amount, and obviously there are full benefits included. Feel free to read it. So you know, intelligence agents are more bound by confidentiality than a particular time period. Its not something that you're locked into for a decade. How long you do the job is between you and Robert. All your equipment and necessary expenses will be covered, and we'll get to that in a minute. All you need to do is sign at the bottom."

Lee had read the agreement and had seen for himself how well Robert protected and provided for his agents. It impressed him, and he'd made mental notes to learn from it and improve the agreements for his own agents. From what Lee had seen, the British Unspeakables were some of the highest paid staff in the Ministry, and rightly so.

He drew out a single key from the envelope and laid it on the table. She would need that, and he didn't want to forget to give it to her.

Jack nodded her head, smiling slightly. A smile had become an uncomfortable and unfamiliar expression on her face until recently. Her jaw had practically fallen off after Christmas, with all the stupid smiling she had done as she had her first family Christmas in years. She was not one to be pleased with compliments, because she liked to deal in truth. She suspected, however, that the American Minister was not one to just randomly deal compliments - what had he to profit from making subordinates feel pleased with themselves?

Still, she could not keep the small smile that kept creeping up on her off of her lips, because it was really starting to happen. She was finally getting into a position from which she could springboard into change. She was rediscovering purpose after months of Quidditch practice, balancing check books, and picking up toys. This was something she could live every day to do. Something that needed to happen, and something she could make happen.

He pulled out the contract and she read it over quickly, having always been a fairly quick reader. Besides, she had dealt with employee contracts before. She knew the phrases to beware of. She singed her chicken scratch of a signature and the then indicated the key. "What's this?"

"Don't lose that," Michael laughed when Jack about the key.

Lee picked it up. "This," he said, "is the way you access your both your paycheck and the Unspeakables safehouse. The number on the key is the account number for your paycheck. Here's the thing about that--its not in Gringotts. Too many questions there about how you'd be making so much money through the Ministry. So, the account is actually a muggle account in the Bank of England. Its not attached to a name. Its attached only to the account number.

"The key is also a portkey to the safehouse, but there's a trick to it to keep anyone else, hopefully, from using it but you. To activate it, snap the shaft backwards on the bow. Like this..." he twisted the shaft of the key backwards. It make a slight snapping sound. "Now it will port, if you want it to." He snapped it back so he didn't port himself out.

"And, its also the key to the safehouse apartment," he said, handing her the key. "I presume there are more gizmos as you need them."

"Important tip," Michael said. "Put the key in the lock backwards. Not the shaft. Put the bow in the lock. The shaft, in this case, does nothing whatsoever to get you in the door. And, yes, there are more 'gizmos' than in any muggle spy movie, for those that like that sort of thing. I don't generally use many of them, and I figured you for travelling light."

When Jack had been young, she had curled up in front of the telly to watch action and adventure movies, entranced by every move. Most of the scars and minor deformations on Jack's body were the result of her attempts to reenact the spectacular stunts within the plots of the movies. The scar on the back of her head for when she had attempted to jump off the roof into a tree; the discoloration on her knee when she attempted to jump through a handmade ring of fire; her slightly bent toe from exploring the upper loft of a crumbling barn.

It seemed she had not learned from her injuries.

Though she did not want to carry too much, she was excited to work with the gadgets. She often carried a small backpack full of essentials (a bad habit leftover from her more nomadic days) she often forgot all about them when in trouble, relying on her own physical feats and mental cunning more than tricks and devices. Still, there was some very useful things to look into.

"I'd like something like that for my family, if at all possible. I have a six-year-old niece and a cousin at Hogwarts who live with me." She paused. "My flatmate might be wrapped up in this too." Possible moreso, if things with the marriage law still required - she'd think of that later.

"Okay," Michael said. "So you need a trip to Q branch, then."

"You don't have a Q branch," Lee looked at him dryly.

"No, but you do," Michael countered, knowing the American departments much too well.

"And how would you know that?" Lee frowned.

"Oh, you'd be amazed at where I've been," Michael said. There was just about no place Michael couldn't get into if he really wanted to.

Lee looked at him with the same stony face that Michael was used to seeing from Robert when he wasn't amused.

"You learn that from Robert, did you?" Michael asked. "What part of catburglar don't you get?"

"You stay out of my Q branch," he said. "Or I'll take all my 'toys' back." He looked at Jack. "If you like toys, boy, do I have toys. And we can certainly find some things for your family that would help keep them safe as well and are easy to use."

"Give her your floo powder," Michael said.

"What floo powder?" Lee asked.

Michael looked at Jack. "He's got these amazing floo powder pencils. They look like those cheesy plastic muggle mechanical pencils that have the stackable leads. But each lead is a capsule of condensed floo powder. Crush a capsule, toss it into the floo, and, whoosh. Off you go."

"Oh. Those," Lee said. "Yeah, I've got one." He drew out a blue plastic pencil and gave it to her. " The blue plastic is as indestructable as we know how to make it, but be careful. They can be a bad thing if they get crushed in your pocket."

Jack watched the exchange between the two men with evident amusement. Michael had always been one of her most eccentric friends, beat out only by the ones with no choice for normality - the werewolf with addictive knitting hobbies, the sassiest trio of Weasley's employees, the six year old unafraid of... well, Jack was yet to find anything Sunny was afraid of. (The little girl was, however, addicted to blonde-haired women... Apparently.)

"When's the wedding?" Jack interjected. "I don't know why you're worried about the marriage law, Michael, you two already act like a married couple." She smirked - not that she would know what a married couple looked like, of course. Her parents had fallen out of loved sometime in Jack's childhood (that was assuming her mother had ever known how to love, of course) and she had honestly never really known any other married couple. She supposed that was a bit of a testament to the lack of normalcy Jack had had in her life.

What did that mean for her own future marriage? Provided she didn't destroy this law in time... or provided that she didn't scare anyone off. Whatever it was, it couldn't bode well.

Jack nodded, back to the matters at hand. "Thank you. I understand." She gently put the pencil into the side pocket of her knapsack, before surveying the men. "What now? I mean, I'd love to get started as soon as possible. Do we know how to contact Blood?"