The FBI's Secret Involvement

Special Agent Jade Walker trudged up to the FBI Director's office. She carried her report from her last case to "show and tell" under her arm. The secretary waved her through to the door, without interrupting her phone call. The agent knocked twice on the door.

An older man, mid 60s, with thick white hair immediately opened the door. Jade had thought he had only gotten handsomer with age, sort of like Sean Connery. He was a highly capable director for the FBI and everyone's opinion of him was positive.

"Come in," he greeted her warmly with a professional handshake.

She handed him her report on the operative she had just returned from in LA.

He scanned over the papers with his typical poker face. But Jade could tell from the softening around his eyes that he was pleased.

"Well done! I'm very thankful for the arrest of Levi Croft and his terrorist cell. His constantly slipping through our fingers had gotten a tad frustrating. I suppose you will be demanding a raise now, huh?" He chuckled good-humoredly, showing his relief of the success.

"Yeah, Starboy, that'd be nice," she agreed, calling her father the nickname she had used since childhood.

The smile faded from his lips. He looked weary, as if a shadow had fallen over his face.

"So what's the mission?" Jade prompted.

He nodded. "Well, you know every agent in GMSS is swamped. Even though you just finished an undercover assignment, I'll have to send you out again," he said evasively.

"So what's the mission?" She repeated.

Orion took a deep breath. "I've gotten word that the American DEs are on the move. I believe that they plan to join up with Voldemort." He swallowed. "Jade, they're led by Sullivan."

He paused for her reaction, but she didn't move except for the muscles bulging in her jaw.

"I thought about sending a newbie agent for experience, but this case needs someone who knows what they're doing. And you're the best I've got."

"I think you're biased, Dad."

"Jade, I've never shown any favoritism towards you over any other agent. You know that. And I'm telling you honestly; you're the only agent capable for this case... Are you going to be able to handle this?"

"Yeah, no problem," she said in a falsely confident voice.

"All right, I've already rented you a prime location apartment and your equipment will arrive there in London--"

"What?! London? Doesn't the FBI only have US jurisdiction. The CIA is responsible for foreign surveillance--"

"Use your head. There isn't a GMSS in the CIA. Your division's it. But I understand you being nervous about going at Sullivan. Maybe I should have gotten Agent Johnson instead for this case."

"No! London's great. No prob. I'm getting Sullivan, Starboy; no way is Lawrence going to take this case, ok?"

"Good," Orion nodded and sat down behind his desk. "Jade, what happened to you and Agent Johnson? Lawrence seemed a perfect fit for you."

"Starboy, you know how rare it is for two agents in the same division to keep a relationship going," Jade muttered defensively.

"All work and no play make Jade a dull girl," Orion quipped quietly, using a line from their favorite Stephen King novel. But it was mostly true. Jade lived and breathed for the job. She had no social life, no real friends and that suited her fine.

"Don't even go there, Starboy. You are in the worst position to preach about over-working."

"The job is the only thing I have as a steady in my life since you've grown and well...." his tired voice trailed off, but Jade knew what his unfinished sentence referred to: her mother and sister's deaths. Sixteen years hadn't eased his grief while Jade forced herself never to think about it. She worried that going after Sullivan would make her face the past she had been running from.

He continued, clearing his throat. "You sure you don't want a partner for this case? You don't always have to be such a loner."

"I told you already, I work better alone. I don't have to worry about another agent. It's one thing if it's my fault I'm injured and another if it's my fault and my partner's injured."

"Ok, ok, but maybe you should take Kori. Her training's almost complete and this would be a good teaching exercise for her. Not to mention, I think you'd find her very useful."

Jade considered the offer for a moment, then nodded. "Ok, I'll bring the Newfie. If she's half as smart as her grandsire, then she'll come in handy."

"Toby did father some of the most intelligent dogs I've ever seen," Orion agreed.

The agent stood up to leave.

"Your flight leaves in three days, all right?"

"Yeah, perfect."

~*~

"Take care of yourself." Starboy hugged his daughter tightly. His usual professional manner for public was forgotten; even his voice, normally warm and husky with his adopted American accent, revealed traces of his former English origin.

Jade smiled confidently. "You know I will. And I have Kori."

They had cut through red tape and allowed the pup to ride in the main section of the plane instead of underneath. She was as well trained as any seeing eye dog, after all.

"I guess I get to finally see your home country, huh, Starboy," Jade continued. He nodded.

"Please be careful, Jadie. No huge heroics this time," he practically pleaded. Jade was struck by the pet name, Jadie, not having heard it since she was a child. `Jadie' wasn't cool as a teenager, she thought back ruefully.

"Ah, Dad, I love the heroics. Its what I'm best at," she teased.

The last call for boarding sounded over the loud speaker. With one last hug, Jade left her father and joined Agent Johnson who had stood back politely while she made her farewells. He held Kori's leash, which the dog seemed to regard as wholly degrading. Together, the threesome boarded the plane.

In a silent agreement, Agent Wilson and Johnson kept conversation down to a minimum and both slept most of the trip from DC to London. Short of small talk, there just wasn't much else to discuss.

~*~

Almost a day later, Jade inspected the apartment that would be her home for the next several months. It was quite small: one bedroom, a tiny bathroom, kitchenette, and living room area. She had called ahead of time and made sure it was stocked with at least basic furniture like a bed, sofa and a few chairs. The building was rather shabby, in a run down area of downtown London.

But it had more important attributes. It blended in and was hardly noteworthy, perfect for an undercover mission. And even more essential, it was close to....

"Diagon Alley's entrance is through the pub across the street." Johnson's informative voice rolled smoothly from across the apartment.

Jade had been glancing out the window, curiously absorbing as many characteristics of the street below as possible. The news of the famous street caught her attention and her eyes immediately focused on the dirty, inconspicuous "Leaky Cauldron." `Typical name for a magic bar,' Jade thought, `they were always named something that incorporated a magical object: broomsticks, cauldrons, wands. Same in one continent as the other.'

Johnson paced into the living room. "Okay, I've put up the standard equipment spells. Passwords of your decision, silencing charm barrier surrounding the place, non-apparation wards; you know, all the basics. I got the window that exits over the fire escape to let only you and Newfoundlands pass."

Jade gave him a curious glance. "All Newfies? Lawrence, are you getting lazy on me? Do you want to jeopardize my safety to a mob of Newfies?" she teased.

He chuckled deep in his throat and gave a grin that always had a way of making her knees turn to Jell-O. "I know we usually program the spell to match the individual dog, but it's really not necessary. There aren't mobs of Newfies running wild around here, I can assure you."

His face slowly grew serious, his gaze studying her face with a look of regret and longing. An uncomfortable pause settled in the gulf between them as they stood on opposite sides of the den. Starboy had been right, Lawrence was everything she would ever need in a man. But it just hadn't worked out.

"I let it slip away, didn't I?" Jade whispered just audible enough for him to hear, crossing her arms in a protective, manner over her chest.

He gave a crooked, sad smile. "It really was great, wasn't it?"

Growing even more uncomfortable, Lawrence cleared his throat. "Uh, I just have to finish the concealing charm on the windows so no one can spy on you from the street," he stammered over his words in an embarrassed way typical of a Newbie agent instead of the experienced surveillance technician that he was.

She nodded and watched him perform the graceful motion with his sleek wand across each window of the tiny apartment. He finished with the window over the kitchen sink when Jade finally spoke again. "Do you know where the wires and bugs are?"

"Going to the old fashioned way? Yeah, they're in the backroom. You know how those work, though, right?"

She snorted reproachfully, "Yeah, Lawrence, I can manage the muggle stuff, you just mess with the spells."

"They'll be useless if the wizard or witch is smart enough to eliminate muggle devices."

"Well, I'll just have to hope I'll come across an incompetent wizard with a big mouth, I guess."

He nodded briefly and grabbed his jacket and overnight bag. Jade saw him silently to the door. Lawrence gave her his trademark-crooked smile and a quick peck on the cheek. "Good luck, Agent Walker." He turned and headed down the stairs to the front door.

Jade stood in front of the hallway's window and watched as the taxi turned a corner and disappeared from sight. She then turned and went into her room, closing the door to her apartment with a slam. Thankfully, no one lived in the apartment across the hall.

~*~

Jade yawned loudly, waking Kori at her feet. The pup gave her a reproachful shake of the head like a mother, before yawning and flopping onto her side, fast asleep again. Jade didn't blame her. It was a little past 2:30 am.

Rubbing her eyes with her left hand and sipping a cup of coffee with the other, Jade forced herself to stay awake long enough to catch up on what was happening across the ocean back at her home. The laptop's screen burned her eyes and only with conscious effort was she able to type legibly.

Her father had sent an e-mail but she hadn't had a chance to read it all day. It had been a very busy month with little sleep and she longed to hear news from her father

But overall, his e-mail was filled only with words of caution. The point of news that did catch her attention was the recently employed agent into GMSS. When Jade's coworker, Agent Russell, and his team had cornered and captured a DE group planning to attack a muggle shopping center in Norfolk, the Ministry had also shown up. As they normally did, they threw their weight around and forced out the FBI agents. But the silver lining had been that a young Hit Wizard, Marie Costello, was thoroughly impressed with GMSS when Agent Russell explained its purpose. She quit the Ministry and joined his team.

Jade smiled. She loved it when GMSS stole Ministry workers. It was like a taunt to the snobby and racist (more often than not) purebloods. The Ministry was on the other side, definitely not the Dark Side, but not on GMSS's side either.

She quickly started an e-mail to her father; the sooner she finished, then the sooner she could go to bed. Jade tried to keep her eyes open as she relived the last month. She had been very busy indeed, including alerting anonymously the Ministry to two different DE attacks. Not to mention, she had bugged the entire building, every apartment, to collect possible data.

Her apartment was at the moment buried under stacks of tapes to re-listen to and study, codes to decipher, and dozens of dirty coffee mugs. Note pads and scrap paper of translations and decodings were strewn haphazardly. After a week of rarely leaving the apartment (to walk Kori), of only studying and trying to predict terrorist activity from bits and pieces of clues which hopefully would lead to Sullivan, her tiny apartment looked like a tornado had struck.

Jade sighed again. `Mental note to self: Clean up and ORGANIZE in the morning!'

The first attack Jade had warned about had been a lucky shot in the dark. She had just been able to fit the pieces together only minutes before the Death Eaters were supposed to attack. Acting quickly, she scribbled a brief, direct message to the Ministry and sent Kori with it onto Diagon Alley to the post office. The dog relayed the slobbered message to an indignant local-delivery owl.

The next morning, Kori had brought a Daily Prophet that she had swiped in Diagon Alley and Jade had excitedly read about the failed DE attack. The Daily Prophet had mentioned the Ministry receiving a mysterious tip off but didn't elaborate.

After that morning, Jade had sent Kori to the Alley everyday to be her spy and gather newspapers. She herself was playing the part of muggle and it would not do to blow her cover. Instead, the puppy could act like a loveable stray and be ignored. (Kori was smart enough to act like a mindless animal and still avoid being grabbed by the potion ingredient shop owner who would have liked to have had a test subject.)

Kori proved a wonderful spy. Besides bringing the newspapers, she would listen and pick up tidbits of information to relay back to Jade. Starboy had been right; she was a very useful tool.

Unfortunately, Kori became too common of a sight over on the magical side of London, away from Jade's protection. Soon, rumors spread that the friendly puppy was suspiciously attentive to conversations and could be an illegal animagus. Perhaps she was a spy for He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! Caught unaware one afternoon, Kori was cornered by several residents. They cast a spell on her to make her regain human form, if she had indeed been an animagus. But since she hadn't been, the spell had stunned her briefly, but had otherwise left her uninjured. She was, however, very frightened and had fled Diagon Alley, running across to Jade's apartment, tail between her legs. The dog leapt onto the fire escape landing and then through the charmed, bedroom window, her specialized doggie-entrance/exit.

Jade was very shaken by what happened and didn't care to send her pet over there alone again. But Kori rebounded wholeheartedly and insisted on returning to her post on Diagon Alley almost immediately. Jade finally gave in.

A week after this incident, a newly wed couple moved into one of the first floor rooms. Jade had it bugged already and by listening to her recorded tapes, she was able to draw the conclusion that the couple was indeed a witch and wizard. They were young and apparently fairly incompetent because they never did a spell to eliminate the muggle devices. This young couple, the Flints, was Death Eaters, only recently sworn in. And even more fortunate for Jade was the fact that they thought they were safe in muggle London from spies. They openly talked in their "private" apartment about DE missions and plans, never realizing every word was being recorded.

This is how Jade heard about the second attack. A group of Death Eaters were planning on kidnapping the two children of a "muggle-loving" astronomer in Kent. Jade had a week's notice this time and gave the Ministry wizards plenty of time to plan a counterattack.

And again, Jade had learned of the Ministry's success in the following mornings newspaper. The Hit Wizards had been able to ambush the unsuspecting DEs; the astronomer and his family safely relocated. This time, the Prophet gossiped about the second tip given to the Ministry. Could it be an informer within the Death Eaters?

Jade had snorted derisively when she read that speculation. Really, an informer in the DEs? Crazy. But then, Kori had returned and said rumors were flying like wild fire about the "informer" on the magical side of London. Jade could only shake her head in disbelief. `No one ever suspects a muggle' she thought.

Part of her conscience told her she should report Marcus Flint and his wife, Naomi, to the Ministry. But she decided against it, because she knew those clueless DEs were wonderful at sharing inside info. `Let the little fish go to get the big fish later,' she had reasoned. And she had decided that if the Flints became too dangerous or not useful enough, she would simply alert the Ministry again.

Jade was dragged out of her thoughts when Kori gave her cheek a slobbery lick. She snapped her head back in surprise and sleepily realized it was morning. She had fallen asleep at her laptop. Jade rapidly finished her email and sent it.

Rubbing her sore neck from sleeping in an awkward position at the computer, Jade changed clothes and poured herself a strong cup of coffee. She then settled herself on the floor amongst the newspaper clippings and notes, and began to sort all her clues and tidbits of info into an organized system. She collected most of the data on hard disc drive (secured by more passwords than Ft. Knox). Satisfied with her sorted folders and stacks of tapes, she looked for a place to hide them in case her apartment was broken into (a distinct possibility due to the rough neighborhood. Yes, she trusted Lawrence's shielding spells but she liked to have a backup plan if the magic was threatened.)

An idea struck her. She stood in the middle of the cramped den and lifted her arms level in front of her, with her palms facing the couch. Concentrating, she felt an electric charge course down her spine and through her arms, down to her fingertips. The couch instantly swung against the wall without a sound. Jade smiled with self-satisfaction; her telekinetic capabilities always amused her besides proving deadly useful. She then looked down at the bare floor. Again, concentrating, the charge flowed to her fingertips and with an impatient sweep of her arms, the floorboards flew up, nails dangling, and piled up on the couch. The open crater revealed the parallel running structural beams and the first floor's ceiling.

Jade then treaded carefully on the 2x4s as if on a balance beam, enjoying the after effect, tingling sensation still pulsing in her arms. She nestled all the files and folders of data on top of the insulation, careful not to let them fall through the thin ceiling below. When the last bit was stowed away, she replaced the floorboards and couch in the same manner as before. The den looked as it had, not showing a single clue that just under the surface was very important surveillance research.

An expectant bark from the front door called Jade's attention to Kori who sat with a gooey tennis ball in her mouth. Jade chugged the rest of her morning's coffee and then raced out the door, closely pursued by the energetic dog.

It was a bright day, just before noon when Jade and Kori reached the park and began to play fetch. Kori adored the cooler British weather; even in early August, it was still much more pleasant than the humid Virginian summers. Her thick shaggy coat gleamed in the sunshine as she happily jogged after the ball.

With a rumbling stomach, Jade ended the game and quickly bought groceries at the market for making lunch. Kori jogged at her side, contentedly mouthing over the tennis ball like a baby gums up a pacifier. The puppy could be an indispensable spy tool, but she was still a puppy and deserved playtime, too.

Jade dug out of her pocket her key ring while climbing the steps to her second floor room. Even though the door was locked by her password -- Nincompoop, which she muttered quietly while turning the lock -- she felt more at home and comfortable with keys. Besides, she was acting as a muggle so she would pay attention to details like keys instead of passwords.

She pushed open the door and stepped aside to let Kori race pass her, as the pup normally did. But something had caught the dog's attention and Jade turned to follow her gaze. The empty room opposite hers had its door wide open and large moving boxes were beginning to fill up the room. Jade smiled to herself. New neighbors meant possibly more conversations to overhear and more opportunities to pickup clues.

After ushering Kori back into the apartment, Jade pulled out the bags of frozen food and tossed the Stouffer's lasagna in the oven. When the timer dinged, Jade forked out a helping.

"There! Who ever said I couldn't be a Betty Crocker if I wanted to," Jade stated to the dog, displaying the plate. "Let's see...yeah, a little parsley on the side for a garnish..."

Kori rolled her eyes.

Jade frowned. "Stupid mutt."

She covered the food in plastic wrap and crossed the narrow hall to the newly rented apartment. The door was still open and large boxes covered the floor without any true pattern. She hesitated a moment then knocked on the doorframe.

"Hello?" she called cheerfully. She could hear whistling in the back room. Cautiously, she stepped into the main room, realizing it mirrored her own.

~*~

With a flick of his wand, the box popped open and its contents flew effortlessly into the closet. The tiny apartment had only a dozen boxes or so to unpack; Sirius Black simply didn't own many things. Most of the moving boxes held job related tools; his small collection of Auror toys.

He chuckled to himself. Imagine, he, Sirius Black, the most wanted criminal and ex-con working for the good guys. Of course, he had been an Auror before Azkaban, before his life had been shattered. It was ironic that 16 years after being arrested for his best friend's murder, he was rejoining society and taking back his old job.

For the first time since he escaped, he was beginning to feel free. His own apartment, his own job, his own life again. But the situation wasn't all peaches and cream, he reminded himself. He was still on the run from the law, four years since he escaped.

When he had decided to rent an apartment, all his friends had thrown a fit. Remus, Arabella, Dumbledore and even Harry thought he was going crazy. It seemed they thought getting the apartment equaled signing himself over to the Ministry. They didn't realize how sick he was from living a transient lifestyle. He was tired of constantly looking over his shoulder, of living more time as a dog instead of a man, of begging food and a bed off of his few friends. He wanted his own place and to hell with the Ministry.

The prospect of Dementors and being returned to Azkaban still terrified him, more so than he'd ever let on to Moony or even Dumbledore. But after four years of constant change, he had decided to risk getting caught, and convinced his friends with several strong arguments.

The Auror headquarters was on Diagon Alley. This apartment was a perfect location to hear the front news of the Movement against the Dark Side. No longer would he have to wait for a long distance owl to tell him what to do.

Although he was still wanted, since the Dark Lord's return, the Ministry's attention had been focused on the current Death Eater strikes and Voldemort himself, and not on him. The Ministry workers were so swamped with dealings with the DEs, Sirius had begun to believe unless he wore a sign reading "I'm Sirius Black, Wanted Criminal, Arrest Me," they would never catch him, let alone recognize him.

Besides, the pictures of him used in the newspapers and posters were very outdated. They showed him as he was in Azkaban; rail thin, matted long hair, corpse-like. But four years can help a lot for appearances. He had reached his previous weight, wore a youthful haircut to swing loose over his ears and had regained a healthy skin tone. Only if you were trying to find similarities between the two appearances could you identify the present Sirius with the escapee.

But if in fact someone were to figure him out, he could easily wipe his or her memories, muggle or wizard.

Using these persuasions, Dumbledore (head of the Aurors) and the rest of his friends couldn't stop him from renting the apartment and trying to set up a life again.

Sirius finished emptying the box, whistling euphorically while he unpacked. Someone calling in the front room interrupted his thoughts. Surprised, and slightly apprehensive, Sirius hesitated. The Ministry couldn't have found him already, could they? He tucked his wand into his back jeans pocket where he could grab it quickly if necessary.

But it evidently wasn't the Ministry. A young woman had stepped cautiously into his front room, dodging boxes. Under her arm, she held a covered plate.

With an impatient swipe, she brushed her long dark curls from her face and smiled warmly at him. "Hello there! Just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood. Sorry to have intruded; your door was open," she spoke quickly and confidently but without a trace of a British accent. She swung the covered plate from her right hand to balance on her left hip and thrust her right hand towards him. "I'm Skylar Lynn."

He gave a crooked smile and shook her outstretched arm. "Sean Potter," he answered giving his new alias: his father's first name and best friend's last.

She smiled cordially, "It's nice to meet you."

"American?" he asked.

"Yeah it's sadly obvious don't ya think? Here, I made too big a batch of lasagna for lunch and well, had hoped I could share it with unsuspecting new neighbors." She handed him the plate of lasagna under plastic wrap.

Sirius gingerly took the plate. When he looked back up from the dish, he realized her piercing green eyes seemed to be studying him, absorbing every detail of the apartment and his face. Those eyes... they reminded him of Lily when she seemed to see right through him and James....

An eerie, uncomfortable feeling of apprehension came over him again. Was she a spy for the DEs? But in a flash, whatever calculating expression he had perceived vanished, leaving only the warm smile.

"So... do you live in the apartment next door?" he asked, setting the plate on a stack of boxes.

"No, across the hall. So if you ever need to borrow a cup of sugar or anything, just knock."

Just then, a blur of blackness came thundering into his room. In a great bound, Kori had leapt up on his chest and his back thudded against the wall, breaking his fall. Kori excitedly licked his cheek.

Mortified, Jade quickly grabbed the Newfie by the collar and yanked her off of Sirius. Kori was a big puppy and it took Jade a while to free him from the enthusiastic pup.

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry! She's never this badly behaved. Are you ok?"

But amazingly, being assaulted by a shaggy 100-lb. dog didn't upset him at all. With a broad grin and a carefree wave of his hand, he dismissed her apology. He knelt beside the pup that was straining against Jade's grasp on the collar.

"What's her name?" he asked while scratching the dog's ears and causing her to drum her tail loudly against the floor.

"Kori," Jade answered and glared at her dog for misbehaving. "I gather you're a dog person."

`In more ways than one,' he thought ironically. "Yeah. You've got a beautiful pet here" he gave Kori repeated pats on the head.

"Don't say that while she can hear; it'll give her an even bigger ego," Jade chuckled.

"At least she's not one of those yappy little rat dogs," he continued. "Newfoundlands are by far the best dog breed." Kori's tail beat even faster and if it were possible for canines to smile, then she was grinning from ear to ear.

"I know what you mean. What's the point of having a dog smaller than a cat?"

"Exactly my point!" he chuckled. "So.... do you work nearby?"

"Oh, I'm a free lance writer. None of that 9 to 5 crap, you know. How about you?"

"Uh well, I'm still looking around for employment, actually." Sirius gave her the cover story he had planned to use.

"You could work at McDonald's with all the high school students," she teased.

"I hope it doesn't come to that! But if you hear of a job opening for a mechanic, let me know."

Jade nodded. "Sure. I'll keep my ears open."

They paused, looking at each other, not knowing what to say next.

"I hope you don't mind my saying, but you look so familiar." She held his gaze and for a second, he wondered if she had figured he was the fugitive Sirius Black. His hand twitched towards his hidden wand, ready to silence any female scream of fright.

"Male model?" she asked playfully.

This comment forced out any fear of being discovered and relieved him greatly. He burst out laughing.

"Guess not," she finished. "Well, it was nice to meet you and I'll be seeing ya."

He wiped the tears from his eyes from laughing so hard and nodded. "Thanks for the food." She crossed the hall, dragging Kori, and he closed the door behind them.

~*~

Jade entered her apartment with her head buzzing full of rambling thoughts. There was something just beyond her grasp of understanding that pulled at her mind. Something about him that already craved being hunted down and discovered. With wildly running thoughts and adrenaline pumping, Jade was becoming driven to explore and research her new neighbor already.

She uncovered her wiretaps and recordings of transmissions from the entire apartment building. She grabbed a pair of headphones on the currently recording tape from Sean's room. She strained to hear what he was doing via the bugs hidden in his vents, but in the next moment he muttered a few words. There was a sharp snap followed by static.

Jade groaned and threw off the headphones in frustration. He had cast a spell to disable muggle devices. Her bugs in his room were now useless.

"Well, now I know at least he's a wizard, and for better or worse, a more competent one than the Flints," she muttered to herself.

Jade sat down and tried to rationally think him through. He was a wizard, living as a muggle. Whether a DE or average Joe, Jade didn't know yet. He could easily be very powerful.

Within an hour of meeting him, he had become a splinter in her mind. `Sean Potter,' she thought to herself, `that's not your real name, is it?' She may have been jumping to conclusions, but with several years of watching faces when people lied, she had picked up on a number of clues that gave them away. A shift in the eyes, maybe slightly quicker breathing or a little fidgeting were loud signs of dishonesty. While Sean had a wonderful poker face, he reacted a lot like Starboy did when he tried to hide a royal flush in five-card draw.

Even though Jade had pages of codes to break about the DE's movements and research to complete, she couldn't get Sean out of her head. Guiltily, she realized she was a bit attracted to him. After all, he was quite handsome. But Jade brushed those foolish sentiments away to keep her mind on business.

She grabbed her laptop and entered GMSS's program after passing several dozen passwords. Although a young division, they had developed an in-depth catalog of wizard criminals. She typed in `Potter, Sean.' `No matches found,' flashed over the screen. She then began the laborious process of skimming through records for the past several years for anything that could possibly be traced to him.

But after a fruitless hour, Jade gave up. She reminded herself that GMSS did mainly the US.

She sighed and began the work she was paid to do: figuring out the DEs and finding Sullivan. If she wasn't careful, she'd make a better Death Eater than half of the creeps in that clan; she already could practically think like one.

~*~

Sirius finished unpacking and realized how late in the afternoon it was. It had been hours since his early lunch. His stomach yelled angrily at him.

He went into the kitchenette and saw the plate the neighbor girl, Skylar, had given him.

It was cold now, but it still smelled delicious. But there was something odd about its appearance. It looked glossy and shiny. He poked the food with his finger and it quivered at his touch, but no sauce came off on his hand. It looked like a protective ward was over the plate; had she indeed been a witch and was playing a prank on him?

He grabbed his wand and muttered the counter curse of a protective guard. But the smooth lining surrounding the lasagna was left entirely intact. Bewildered, Sirius grabbed a fork and cautiously poised it over the food. In a hesitant stab, he probed his dinner and an indignant `pop' sounded as the fork pierced the lining and sank into the Italian course. He dipped his finger into the food again and this time succeeded in drawing out a sampling.

With a triumphant whoop as if winning a Quidditch game instead of conquering muggle plastic wrap, Sirius repeatedly stabbed the food until a wide opening allowed him to fork out the gooey, cheesy dinner.

"Muggle inventions," he chuckled and shook his shaggy head at the absurd creation. But he admitted to himself that if all muggles were as friendly as Skylar, the DEs and Slytherins were not just unfairly prejudiced but fools to miss out on free Italian cuisine and funky inventions like its stretchy lining stuff.