The FBI's Secret Involvement

Ch. 4

Trying to keep her arm steady, Jade slowly walked towards an all-night clinic. The closest one she could think of was still several blocks away. The pain in her arm was searing and her head throbbed. She would have sold her soul to the devil for a single aspirin.

"This city needs a helluva lot more taxis," she thought angrily in between the constant flow of four-letter words. Six different taxis had already passed and none had stopped when she hailed it.

A motorcycle zoomed by her. A crazy idea fleeted across her mind to rip out her Glock and hijack the bike. "You're losing it, Jade," she moaned quietly to herself.

She stumbled a little further. Another motorcycle passed in front of her. Or was it the same one? Her brain was growing fuzzy. 'Please, no more psychopaths tonight!'

The motorcycle pulled over to the curb in front of her.

"Don't make eye contact," she told herself.

"Skylar?" he called, taking off his helmet.

Her head shot up in shock and she gaped wide-eyed at him. Could that night get any weirder?

"Sean?" she asked cautiously, not trusting herself completely from calling him Sirius. She didn't know what to think of him. She had hoped to avoid him for a couple of days and sort her thoughts out.

"God, what happened?" he asked as he crossed to stand in front of her, staring at her injured arm.

Jade saw his concern and surprise. 'Be the weak, needy female so you can hitch a ride to the hospital,' she commanded herself. 'Milk it for all its worth!'

"Oh, Sean, I'm such a klutz! I slipped and fell. I think it's broken!" she wailed.

"Here, let me help you." He gently laid an arm around her shoulder and led her to his bike.

'Good job, Jade, good job,' she patted herself mentally on the back.

Sirius pulled off a spare helmet and fitted it onto her, smoothing her long curls out of the way. This wasn't the typical behavior of a mass murderer, Jade thought, a bit disconcerted.

"Nice bike, Sean." Jade swung on behind him.

"Thanks. We go way back," he smiled mischievously and pulled his own helmet on. "OK, I'll go more slowly. Try to hold on with your good arm."

Jade wrapped her right hand around his waist. The bike shot forward immediately and Jade wondered if she wasn't better off walking. She clung to his jacket tightly. Could a normal muggle bike go that fast?

He raced down the street and started to lean into a turn. Jade cringed, 'Oh God, we're going too fast; we'll flip!' But Sirius managed the turn smoothly and she breathed again. He could really handle the bike well.

She began to trust him. The cool night air blew across her bare arms and the throbbing ceased a bit. The sound of the motor slowly lulled her and she leaned against his back. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought again how attractive he was. Strong and solid. Tall, dark and handsome. The prince charming rescuing the damsel-in-distress...but only after killing 13 people in the process!

The bike slowed all too soon. Jade opened her eyes and brushed away her daydreams. The bright, fluorescent glow of the medical clinic burned her eyes. Sirius helped her inside, but was really letting her lead the way. He had never been to a muggle hospital before and hadn't the slightest know-how of what to do.

He remembered in his third year at Hogwarts when he had gotten into a fight with Snape and they had both fallen down the stairs. He had broken his left fibula, or so the nurse had said. All he knew at the time was that his leg hurt like hell. But Madame Pomfrey had mended it in almost a minute. He wondered how long muggle doctors took to set broken bones.

Jade finished filling out the registration forms and the nurse began to lead her down the hall. She turned back to face him. "Hey, Sean, thank you so much for the ride. I owe you." Then she went through the doors and was gone.

Sirius stood there a moment, alone in the muggle waiting room, surrounded by sneezes, coughs and antiseptic. Unsure what to do, he left.

~*~

The next morning, Jade awoke early. She was stiff, sore and felt bruised all over. She wasn't sure, but she was beginning to think that sleeping on hospital beds was a lot more painful than crashing into a dumpster after falling from three-stories up.

'Lord, that was insane!' she berated herself as the painkillers wore off. But she came away with loads of info, all for the low price of one broken wrist. Overall, not too bad.

Although GMSS was only interested in muggle safety, Jade had no qualms lending a helping hand to the Aurors. Growing up on bedtime stories about their heroics, Jade had always equated them to the Musketeers (no matter how false that analogy was).

But more importantly, the last puzzle piece of Sean Potter was found. Peter Pettigrew was indeed alive. He was Mr. Rat.

Jade remembered the portraits of him she had roughly sketched and how they had grabbed Sirius's attention. 'Well no wonder, he was looking at his old, dead classmate!'

So then, what had happened in November, sixteen years ago? If Pettigrew wasn't killed, what had happened to him? Did he go to the DEs then?

An idea flashed across her mind. Could Pettigrew have already been a DE and it wasn't Sirius at all that killed the thirteen-- scratch that-- twelve people?

No, wait. An entire street full of eyewitnesses said Black killed them all. And how had Pettigrew escaped from the crime scene? Where has he been for sixteen years?

Does this mean Sirius Black was innocent?

'But he was arrested sixteen years ago. Surely I'm not the first to question this case?!'

Another thought crossed her mind. Why, then, had Black gone to Hogwarts three years ago if not to kill Harry Potter? That was a drastic move for a fugitive hiding from the law. She couldn't think of a possible reason to explain that action.

"I think I have more questions now than before," she moaned under her breath.

A nurse looked over at her from the patient that slept on the other bed. "Can I get you anything, dear?"

"A very strong dose of morphine would help," she muttered bitterly, cradling her head in her free hand. "Do you have any idea how long I have to stay in here?"

The nurse smiled and said she'd try and find the doctor.

~*~

By midmorning, the doctor had checked on her arm. He had decided to use a soft cast instead of the plaster kind. Jade didn't care much either way. The doctor released her and Jade exited into the blinding sunshine, her arm held semi-movable in a nylon sling and ace bandage.

Someone bashed into her.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" she snapped. She had a pounding headache and she hadn't been able to force herself to swallow the hospital cafeteria's coffee. Politeness failed her.

"Oh, Skylar, I was just coming to see how the invalid was." He greeted her with a charming grin, despite her rude acknowledgement.

"Sean, where's your bike? I just want to go home." She squinted in the sun, missing her sunglasses desperately.

"Actually, I walked. It's a nice morning and I needed exercise."

She wasn't in the mood to hear that. Grumbling incoherently, she glared evilly at Sirius.

"Let me guess, Sunshine, no morning coffee?"

"Bingo"

He smiled and began to briskly stride off towards the street corner. Jade stood there, puzzled as to where he was going. A moment later, he glanced over his shoulder and called back to her, "Well, are you coming or not? There's a small restaurant up ahead where we could get some breakfast."

She shuffled up to his retreating figure. "Good. My coffee awaits me." She saw that he had a spare pair of sunglasses in his shirt pocket and she reached over, grabbed them, and slipped them on. The agent sighed.

Sirius watched her arm snatch his glasses without asking. He gazed at her for several steps but she kept a straight expression and refused to look at his face, her new glasses hiding her eyes. He gave a lopsided grin and shrugged.

"Soooo, how long do you have to wear that thing?" he asked as he studied the cast and sling.

"The doctor said about six weeks."

Sirius was shocked. Six weeks?! Lord! He thought crazily about whipping out his wand, doing an easy healing charm on her wrist, and then modifying her memory so she would never remember. Sirius felt exceedingly guilty that this friend of his, because she was a muggle, wasn't privy to better medical treatment. An absentminded thought at the back of his mind wondered if Skylar was always going to be just a friend and not something more. He brushed that thought aside quickly, realizing how childish that sounded. "I don't like you, I mean, I like-like you," was all too much like the dialogue of second year students.

They went in the tiny, corner cafe and ordered cups of coffee, fresh scones and eggs. When the waitress brought their orders, Jade took a long swig of the drink.

"Are you human again, now?" he asked playfully.

"Ha ha, very funny."

The waitress set down the plates unceremoniously. Sirius looked up at her and gave his winning smile. "Thank you very much--" he glanced at her nametag "-- Miss Beanblossom. Have a nice day!"

His cheerful attitude didn't seem to impress the middle-aged, grumpy waitress and without another word she slumped off through the kitchen door, paper hat and all.

Jade snorted, "Beanblossom! What a name!"

"I guess I've lost that animal magnetism," he muttered sarcastically.

"Maybe you're just not Miss Beanblossom's type."

Sirius laughed and dug into his omelet. He didn't have the best of manners; actually, he looked a bit like Kori wolfing down her puppy food, Jade thought.

"Oh, if you thought that name was embarrassing, I know this guy named Cornelius Fudge. Cornelius Fudge!" he repeated with a mouth-full. "I didn't think anyone had used the name Cornelius in over a century." He spat the name out as if it was acid on his tongue.

Evidently, Sirius didn't care for the Minister of Magic in Britain. But the agent took it as a compliment that he freely mentioned the Minister's name in front of her, accepting fully her status of ignorant muggle.

"I think the last name, Fudge, is worse. No one would take you seriously. Man, to be named after something like chocolate..."

Her voice trailed off. Suddenly, the light bulb clicked on in her head. Chocolate. Fudge. Cornelius...corn...maize? Maize and Chocolate. Girl of Maize and Chocolate. It was the line for Voldemort's message! Maize and Chocolate was Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic! Girl of ... did he have a daughter?

"...and you're right, no one does take Fudge seriously--" Sirius stopped talking when he noticed Skylar wasn't paying attention. She had a glazed look on her face and was staring off at something over his shoulder. His glanced behind him curiously but saw nothing unusual. It looked like she was in a trance.

"Skylar? Are you okay?" he asked waving a hand in front of her dazed eyes.

She snapped out of her stupor instantly, blinking her eyes into focus and shaking her head a bit. "Sorry. I drifted into Never-Neverland for a minute. That name, Cornelius Fudge...I thought of a character in my new story for that name." She fibbed, but he looked doubtful.

"Make him a village idiot." He muttered into his eggs. "Hey yeah, and you should name the hero after me!"

Jade smiled. "Hmm...a tad vain, are we?"

"I never denied it."

It was mid-afternoon before Jade locked herself up in her room to examine the letter again.

~*~

"Fudgenutters," Lupin muttered ripping the note out of the inbox, instantly recognizing it. Lupin tried not to use profanity if he could help it and personally he thought that Sirius's nickname for the Minister was appropriate in exchange for most four letter curses. Normally, he picked up the owl letters himself in the morning but the night before had been a full moon. Even with the wolfsbane he had been sick until noon.

The mail boy was the incompetent son of one of the department heads at the Ministry. He hadn't even a clue of the importance of that note, shuffling it right into the other mundane mail.

Lupin opened the letter, written in the untidy scribble that he had begun to worship. Those notes were something like a godsend, alerting the Ministry. At first he had been wary, concerned the tip off was a trap. But it had turned out there was really a guardian angel out there.

"Death Eaters plan to 'disable the Aurors' at their next meeting, 'tomorrow evening, 6 pm,' according to a couple of DEs I overheard in an alley. Good Luck." He read the letter frantically and glanced at his watch. It was 20 minutes after five. If he had just seen the letter earlier they would have been better prepared.

He set off down the hall at full speed. Other Ministry workers jumped out of the way as he thundered by. The Aurors were on the fourth floor on a building beside Gringotts. He didn't have much time...

~*~

The explosion literally blew the roof off the building. Orange flames licked out of windows and shot into the evening sky.

Dumbledore watched the Auror HQ disappear in the smoke with a grim frown. He stood in the middle of Diagon Alley watching the Ministry officials battle unsuccessfully to save what had been his office less than ten minutes earlier. Residents on all sides of the burning building hastened to put fire shields over their homes and businesses.

Aurors were clustered about the street in huddled masses, with not a word spoken. All were despairing the loss of the building and the blatant attack on their lives, but were also offering silent prayers of thanks that no one was killed.

Minutes before their meeting was to begin, Lupin had barreled into the room, alerting them of almost eminent danger. In no time at all, every floor was evacuated. The last person to exit had been Moody, struggling down the several flights on his wooden leg. Seconds later, the blast sounded as the building was engulfed in flames and the windows burst.

Moody limped over to stand beside Dumbledore. "The Ministry found evidence to suggest that a timed explosion curse was planted on the roof. Only a few Death Eaters even know how to perform that advanced of a hex."

Dumbledore nodded once to show he was listening but never took his eyes off the building. "I suppose we will need to look for a vacancy for a new headquarters now." He sighed wearily. "That was a very close call."

Neither Auror spoke for a few minutes.

A movement caught Dumbledore's attention out of the corner of his eye in the fading twilight. "Oh, Lupin, if you have a moment, I'd like a word with you."

The younger man looked up at whom had addressed him then crossed to the Head Auror's side.

"Remus, I wish to hear your account of tonight's incident."

Lupin nodded solemnly, took a crumpled note out of his pocket and handed it to his superior. Dumbledore read it and glanced sharply at the sickly man.

"Here's a copy of the two previous letters the mystery informer sent. I was going to present these at our meeting tonight..." Dumbledore took the other letters, read them and passed them to Moody who stood watchful beside him.

"Any ideas who's on Our Side?" Moody asked gruffly.

Lupin answered, "I've been looking into it for several weeks now. No evidence has shown that any other Death Eater is supporting our cause, except...well, you know."

Dumbledore nodded his understanding of the reference to Snape and reread the most recent letter. "Heard DEs in an alley? It almost sounds like the informant is a bystander and not even in the Death Eater tribe." His eyes twinkled at Lupin's surprise.

"I never considered that."

The three Aurors watched their offices smolder thoughtfully.

"If we ever find this mystery savior, offer him a job as Auror, he's certainly earned it." Moody grunted.

~*~

Snape paid the owl five knuts and took his newspaper to his kitchen table in his small flat.

Propping his feet on another chair, he leaned back leisurely and sipped his morning coffee. There was still a week left of his summer holiday before he had to return to Hogwarts and he planned to relish the freedom. No obnoxious students, no grading abysmal papers, and no Harry Potter. Just him, his coffee and newspaper.

The headline screamed out at him and in shock, he sprayed coffee all over his sterile table. He didn't seem to care that the brown fluid would soil his pristine Formica; Snape was too busy staring at the picture of the burning Auror HQ. Lord, what had happened?!

Frantically, he read the article, getting the gist of the previous night's incident through the emotional reporting. A Death Eater attack? Why hadn't he been informed?

But the bigger question was, who had alerted Dumbledore in time?

Then the report described the Aurors getting an anonymous tip off just in the nick of time. The article proceeded with ridiculous speculations of who the informer might have been, but Snape wasn't reading by then. He couldn't believe what he had just read. An informer in the DEs? Other than himself?!

"Who could it be?" he wondered.

~*~

Sirius paid the owl five knuts and took his newspaper to his kitchenette.

He was exhausted and barely opened his eyes as he stumbled clumsily across the room. He had missed the last night's Auror meeting because he had been assigned a post guarding Harry's house in Surrey so that Arabella could attend the meeting. His godson wouldn't have liked to know they were going to a lot of trouble for him. 'But what he doesn't know, can't hurt him,' Sirius had shrugged nonchalantly.

He had only Apparated back a couple hours ago. Then that blasted owl awoke him at the unearthly hour of 7am. "Who in the name of Merlin wakes up this early?!" he griped.

After pouring a mug of coffee in which most of it spilled over the side of the cup, he plopped down in his laz-y-boy.

The headline screamed out at him and in shock, he sprayed coffee all across his living room. He gaped at the picture of the burning Auror HQ. Lord, what had happened?!

Frantically, he read the article, getting the gist of the previous night's incident through the emotional reporting.

He kicked himself for not going inside Arabella's house to talk about the meeting once he saw her Apparate home. He had just 'popped' back into his apartment and gone to bed.

At least no one was injured, he thought. But he mourned the loss of his desk and his favorite coffee mug (a souvenir from Disney World).

Then he read about the tip off. An informer in the DEs? "Who had alerted Dumbledore in time?" he asked himself softly.

He had a lot of questions to ask the Aurors and he wanted to see those letters from the informer. Sirius prepared to Apparate to the Auror HQ when he remembered, it wasn't there anymore. Instead, he decided his friend Lupin would receive a visit at his Ministry office from a certain Black puppy.

~*~

Kori paid the owl five knuts and took the newspaper in her mouth to relay to Jade. The puppy jogged down the sidewalk, maneuvering professionally to avoid hitting pedestrians.

When she dumped the damp periodical at her owner's feet, the agent pounced excitedly on it. She settled down comfortably on her kitchen counter, sipped her cup of cappuccino and flipped open the newspaper.

The headline screamed out at her and in shock, she sprayed her coffee out all across her kitchen. Kori whose coat was now dripping with the drink, glared unhappily at Jade.

She gaped at the picture of the burning Auror HQ. Lord, what had happened?!

Frantically, she read the article, getting the gist of the previous night's incident through the emotional reporting. In her frenzy, she slipped twice off her perch on the kitchen counter and had to reposition herself.

But when she read that no one was killed, no one was even injured, she sighed deeply in relief.

Then the report described the Aurors getting an anonymous tip-off just in the nick of time. The article proceeded with ridiculous speculations of who the informer might have been. At this point, Jade was laughing hysterically. It was too rich. They all believed there was an informer in the Death Eater tribe. What would they think if they knew it was her, an undercover American agent who lived as a muggle?