Project Mutare

Chapter 4 - Revelations

It was a day later and already things had started to move.

The meeting between the Group and the Dark Lord had started well; far better than Anchusa had originally thought it would. She'd found her master to be exceedingly knowledgeable in the areas surrounding the papers, although considering what he'd been researching these past few years, it should have hardly come as a surprise. How well the meeting was going now, Anchusa didn't know; she and Lucius had both been sent out early on to run an important errand for the Group. She'd been given a short list of names and locations along with letters for each of the people she was to search out. "They will know what is required of them," she'd been told by Durell.

So now she had two things to ponder about; these letters and the discovery of who Miss Jahbal actually was and how she fit into the intricate puzzle that was the project.

Curious, Anchusa had asked the woman herself back when the group had first arrived at, for lack of a better name, the Lab. Back when Lyta had first made her odd request. She was more than surprised at the answer she received; no wonder the woman had survived Grindelwald's fanatical purifications and no wonder she had taken up another name for herself to hide from the world - she was sought after far more than any other in that group, for good reason too...

"Theoretician..." Anchusa murmured to herself, as she walked down one of the busier streets of a Midlands town.

"Pardon?" Lucius asked, looking at her curiously while obviously trying to restrain himself from lashing out at the numerous Muggles that bumped into him every few seconds. Anchusa on the other hand, with her years of experience of the hustle and bustle at the Ministry, easily slipped through the crowds.

"Nothing, just talking to myself." Anchusa glanced once more at the list in her hands, at the name almost halfway down the parchment. The pair had visited a number of people that day, each time Anchusa had delivered a sealed letter and each time she'd received a blank look in return. They'd been Obliviated; probably by Aurors sent by the Ministry when the Project was first translated. So Anchusa had thanked them for their time anyway and apologised for bothering them.

"Here we are." The pair stopped in front of a boarded up shop that proclaimed that it belonged to 'Melson & Co.'

"You're kidding right?" Lucius asked disbelievingly, "Who in their right mind would live in there?"

"Magnificently warded isn't it?" Anchusa replied with a smile; she'd caught the flickering of the double image in the corner of her eye. Someone didn't want to be found so they'd hidden in plain sight. Much like the outside set-up of the Lab, she noticed. "Anyway, who said anything about right minds?"

Lucius just gave a little sarcastic laugh at that. "Very funny," he sneered. He moved to the front door and went to knock on the badly painted wood.

Before he could finish the motion however, the door opened, to reveal a young girl in its place. Lucius blinked; the girl was a strange one, even for his world. A sylph-like figure with a child's face, her presence was certainly more memorable than most - it was as if she were not fully present in this world; everything about her was airy. Yet none of these features were her most noticeable; it were her clouded, blind eyes that stared right through Lucius that made him step back a little.

The girl smiled. "I've been expecting you for a while now. Come in," she said, stepping back and beckoning the pair to enter. Anchusa quickly looked at Lucius who shrugged and followed the girl inside; after only a moment's hesitation Anchusa entered too.

The building in which the girl lived in was just as odd as its occupant, if not more so. Scraps of parchment with, when studied closer, what looked like riddles scribbled on them adorned every available space on the walls. In the centre of the room sat a pedestal with a silver bowl that was filled with a black liquid upon it. The girl floated past this and over to where three armchairs were set in a triangle; she took a seat on one of them, nearly being swallowed by it in the process, and motioned for the pair to follow suit.

"Miss Seraphim?" Anchusa asked warily, not exactly sure if this girl was even related to the woman they were looking for. "Is your mother home?" She was still rather taken aback at how easily this child got around without the aid of her sight, not to mention at how she seemed to always know where the pair were in the room.

"Cassandra, please." Lucius smirked a little at the girl's name, "My mother had a rather pointed sense of humour Mr Malfoy, as I'm sure yours did." The smirk left his face, more preoccupied now with the slight than how the girl knew his name. "But I'm afraid you've missed her by a few years, Miss Aderis."

"How -" Cassandra held up a hand, cutting the older woman off mid-sentence.

"It's a family trait. Now, I believe you have a letter for me?"

"We do." Lucius leant over and handed the girl a sealed letter. She took it and promptly stood up and left the room.

Lucius turned to Anchusa and asked, "Shouldn't she be in school? I mean she can't be any older than fourteen, can she?"

Anchusa just shrugged, "I don't know. Her whole family is reputed to be rather ageless; she could be older than you."

He made a disbelieving noise in return, "I doubt it."

"Doubt it all you like Mr Malfoy; it still won't change the truth." Cassandra had re-entered the room whilst the pair were talking, a number of objects held in her arms. "By my calculation, I am a full two years older than you."

"Really? Then why don't I remember you from Hogwarts?"

"I never went. Apparently I don't have enough magical talent in me to warrant a place there. Still, I manage. My talents lie in other and more useful areas, or at least the Ministry think so anyway." She handed several tightly wrapped scrolls to the pair as well as a vial made of black stone; haematite, Anchusa noted. "Here is everything that was asked for, plus something that belongs to your Lord. I trust you will give it him?"

"Of course," Anchusa replied.

Cassandra nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

"I'm afraid we must be leaving you now, my dear. We have quite a few more people to visit today, before our work is done."

"I know," the girl conceded, "and I have something to tell you concerning that very thing." She paused now, as if remembering a message, "Your search will be much more fruitful now. We are new additions and so the Aurors never learnt of us."

With that rather cryptic message the pair said their goodbyes and left, Apparating out to a small hamlet in the Yorkshire countryside.

"Strange person," Lucius commented as he knocked on the door of the next person on the list.

"She's a Seer. They're pretty much all like that," Anchusa replied, just before the door opened to reveal an old man with features that changed from one second to the other.

"'Bout bloody time 'nall," the man muttered before digging into one of the pockets of his robe. A few seconds later he pulled out a black vial and shoved it into Lucius' hands before slamming the door on the surprised pair.

"Nice bloke," Lucius commented, turning the vial over in his hands.

"Indeed. Now come on, we've got a Maggie Mills in Fowey to visit next," Anchusa sighed, all this Apparating was wearing her out.

"How much would you wager this Mills woman's just as odd as these last two?"

"Nothing. It's a sure win for you and I'm strapped for cash as it is. Besides, you hardly need it."

Lucius gave a mock-innocent look in return to this comment. "Oh come on, Aunty Anchusa. Not even a Galleon for poor, little me?"

'Aunty' snorted. "Bad description there Lucius. It's like saying we have a competent, efficient Ministry. And I've told you before, don't call me that." With that, she Disapparated.

Lucius smiled, "Whatever you say... aunty," he said to the air before Disapparating himself.