Project Mutare

Chapter 6 - Metamorphosis

It was the utter silence in the street that first gave the pair a hint of there being something wrong. Midday in the middle of Manchester, it should have been packed with people, but no, it was empty. Lucius at first paid no heed to this and turned straight down into the street, heading to the house that the pair had come to visit, that is, until Anchusa pulled him back forcibly by the scruff of his robe.

"What the hell did you do that for?" he shouted indignantly, rubbing his now rather red neck where the material of his robe had caught him.

Anchusa just shushed him with a wave of her hand, she was too busy peering round the corner of a terraced house down the street Lucius had just try to walk down. Curiosity peaked, the young man joined her, peering over the top of her head.

"What?" he asked. Then he saw.

Two figures stood outside the door of a house further along the street. There was no doubt that they were guarding it and the wands they held in their hands made it clear how they had emptied such a usually busy street. Lucius swore; the house the Aurors stood in front of was that which he and Anchusa were supposed to be visiting at that very moment. Anchusa just shushed him again, she knew the two guards fairly well from her days back at the Ministry (how long ago that seemed) and wouldn't risk being found out, especially now when she was so close to returning to the relative safety of the Lab.

The pair withdrew from the corner for the moment to discuss the problem that lay in front of them.

"We need that vial. He's the last one on the list and I want to go home at some point today."

"I know Lucius, however I'm slightly more worried about the fact that the Aurors might find out about our Lord and his plans far more quickly than he'd like if we allow them to interrogate Mr Ames."

Lucius seemed to consider this for a moment before nodding, "True... so what do we do?"

This seemed to stump Anchusa; she actually had no idea of how to sort this situation out. Ideally the Aurors wouldn't find anything there and just leave, but that wasn't likely to happen this side of never. She couldn't really show herself to them for fear of being caught and Kissed but then again she could hardly send Lucius, he was far too young to deal with two fully trained Aurors.

Just at that point the Aurors left their post and entered the house, a commotion coming from inside it brought Anchusa and Lucius back to the corner to watch what would happen next. A few minutes later one of the Aurors emerged dragging a small, black haired man behind him - Ames. The man was clearly Stupefied and his 'guard' was being none too gentle. It was at that point that Anchusa was hit by an idea; she motioned for Lucius to follow her and started to walk boldly down the street toward the lone Auror.

It took a few seconds for Lucius to catch up with her, "What on Earth do you think you're doing?" he hissed urgently at her, they were fast approaching the Auror and his ward but surprisingly he hadn't noticed either of the pair yet.

"Watch, and follow my lead," was all he got in reply.

When she reached a distance of a few metres away, Anchusa raised her hand and called out in greeting to the Auror. "Geoff! Hi!" Taken completely by surprise the Auror, now known as Geoff, dropped Ames and struggled to find his wand. In that brief moment though, Anchusa had already raised hers to point at the man's forehead.

"Imperio."

The man's face went slack; the spell had worked. A voice called from inside the house, inquiring into Anchusa's call. Geoff immediately replied, claiming it to be simply a couple of magpies fighting while Anchusa's lips echoed his words silently all the while.

"Aunty dearest, you are an utter idiot. How could be so bloody stupid as to risk getting caught like this, not to mention getting me into a heap of trouble? How could you be so selfish?" Lucius demanded quietly as he watched the house nervously, expecting one of the other Aurors to come out at any second.

Anchusa however, had already bent down to the prone form of Mr. Ames and had started to go through the pockets of his robes. "That's the pot calling the kettle black, don't you think? Anyway, Geoff here was always slow with the wand-work." She simply ignored his calling her aunty again, giving up on persuading him to not do so. She smiled to herself a moment later, although Lucius couldn't tell if it was amusement at the expression on his face due to her comment or at her finally finding what she was looking for.

Anchusa stood up, holding the haematite vial in her hand. "Right, we've just got to deal with these two and then we can go. Alright?"

"So what do I do?" Lucius asked, folding his arms.

"Clear out that one's memory," Anchusa replied, pointing to Ames, "just Obliviate everything. It'll make it harder for the Ministry to get anything from him later, doing him a favour really. I'll deal with Geoff here."

Lucius shrugged and walked nonchalantly to Ames, who was still unconscious. A small look of pity flickered across his face before he Obliviated Ames with practised ease. He found it so much easier to wipe everything than to take out a single event, it took far less concentration and effort to do so. By the time he put his wand away, Anchusa had wiped the Auror's memory of the pair ever being there and had turned towards the young Malfoy, pulling out a small pocket watch.

"Ready?" she asked, holding out the watch.

"Indeed," Lucius replied and placed his hand on it. The Portkey activated and the pair disappeared, leaving behind them an ex-ally and a rather confused Auror.

A split-second later the pair appeared in the Lab, at the point where they'd first Disapparated out. Lucius, who'd been assigned keeper of the vials they'd been sent out to collect, started off towards the actual lab with Anchusa following behind. She was rather worried about the incident that had just occurred, there were so many things that could go wrong and ruin her Lord's plans. What if the Aurors had already interrogated Ames inside the house, she doubted it though; she'd dealt with them on numerous occasions and knew their methods, they wouldn't even bother with Ames himself until they got back to the Ministry. No witnesses then.

It was because she was deep in thought about this that she didn't notice Lucius stop suddenly and so walked into the back of him just outside the lab door. Jolted out of her thoughts she looked over his shoulder at the scene in front of them both.

Three of the Group were sat around a central table, deep in discussion, but it was not this that made Lucius stop; a woman, an exceedingly beautiful woman, was sat opposite them and she too was part of the talks. It seemed that the others knew her quite well, the only problem was, she hadn't been there when the pair left. It was at her that Lucius had his wand pointed, face carefully blank.

"Who are you?" he demanded softly, his hand never wavering from its aim at her throat.

The woman turned and smiled lazily at him, "Don't you recognise me Lucius?" her smile widened a little more, she obviously found this rather amusing, "I'm Ara Mäher."