Once A Student - Always A Student?

Coventina got to her room and kicked the door shut. Tears were flowing freely from her stinging eyes. Half pain, half anger.

She threw herself onto her bed. "Stop it, pull yourself together," she said angrily.

"You have exactly one hour before your first class and you have something important to do."

Coventina made sure her eyes were an acceptable Muggle colour, and swept her long dark hair back into a respectable bun.

Then, constantly looking over her shoulder, she made her way to the edge of Hogwarts' grounds and apparated. She felt a thousand pairs of eyes watching her every move, and had to convince herself she was being paranoid.

Number 4 Privet Drive.

She double checked the address, and then rang the bell.

A thin faced lady with a false smile opened the door.

"Mrs Dursley? I'm from Avon; I believe you were expecting me?"

"Oh, do come in dear, I've just put the kettle on and I have some lovely cakes from Marks and Spencers."

Coventina followed her into the living room.

"Sit down, sit down," she said, practically pushing her into a chair.

Mrs Dursley looked at her expectantly.

Coventina reached for her bag. "We want to show you our new nail varnish range. It's state of the art. Your nail colour will change to match your clothes and complement your eyes."

Mrs Dursley snatched the nail varnish, eagerly out of Coventina's grasp and put some on.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "It's like magic." Mrs Dursley realised what she had just said and contained her excitement. She was glad Mr Dursley wasn't there.

Coventina squirmed uncomfortably in her chair. "Yeah, you could say that," she laughed nervously.

"Oh, I just have to show Mrs Davies from down the road. Help yourself to some cakes, I'll be right back."

Mrs Dursley got up and hurried out of the front door.

Coventina looked out of the window and watched her go.

For a moment she felt sorry for Harry, she could not imagine living with that vile woman. She shuddered to think what the rest of the family was like.

Then she switched her attention back to what she was supposed to do and ran upstairs. Taking her wand she said 'Harry Potter.' The wand lit a path to a door on her right. Opening the door, she quickly searched through a pile of Harry's belongings, opening cupboard doors and looking under the bed. Finally, she found what she was looking for and put it into her bag. Coventina went back downstairs and picked up a cake. She pulled it in half to make it look like she had been eating it.

A few seconds later, Mrs Dursley and a plump blonde haired woman bounded into the room. "Edith, you have to see this nail varnish, look, isn't it marvellous?"

"How much are they?" asked the blonde haired woman suspiciously. "They look expensive."

"Because you've been such an excellent customer of Avon over the years Mrs Dursley, I'd like to leave you some free samples with our compliments."

"Ooh," both the ladies chorused.

Coventina bent down to reach into her bag, and sat back up again in a jolt. "Sorry," she said, "Just having a dizzy spell. It's the hot weather." She failed to tell them it was the result of a seriously strong magic ointment.

Mrs Dursley showed some mock concern, but wished Coventina would leave the free stuff and go.

Coventina was thinking along the same lines.

"Here you go ladies; it's been a pleasure meeting you. I have some more house calls to make now, so I had better be on my way."

Mrs Dursley followed her out to the door.

"Bye Mrs Dursley."

"Goodbye err..." Mrs Dursley turned to her friend. "Actually, she didn't say what her name was. Oh, there's the phone. Excuse me for a moment, Edith."

Mrs Dursley went to the phone and picked it up.

"Mrs Dursley, I have some bad news. Our Avon representative was tragically killed in suspicious circumstances, an hour ago. As you can imagine, everyone here is deeply upset, and we will not be sending anyone out for the foreseeable future."

"But I don't understand, she's just left..."

***

Coventina glanced quickly at her watch. Her first lesson of the day was due to take place in ten minutes. She knew the meeting with her boss would have to be quick. She had no problem with that. Keeping her head down, she walked quickly towards the Forbidden Forest. He was already there.

"Do you have it?"

"Yes," she reached into her bag and pulled out a blue piece of parchment, "It's Figg, Arabella Figg and Sirius Black. They both look after him. He won't notice it's missing. Someone else must have put it there. I don't think he's even read it... "

He snatched the parchment from Coventina's grasp and studied it. "Black is not important to us. He cannot appear in public and can therefore, cause little trouble."

"But if he escaped from Azkaban who knows what he can..." her voice trailed off as she was silenced by a glare.

"Just concentrate on working out how Figg does it. It's a wonder you were able to get into his house, with her being Harry's protector, and I'm sure Dumbledore has put a charm on the place."

"I guess it's because I'm Hogwarts staff. Maybe it doesn't have any effect on us?"

"Once we get rid of Figg, they will have someone wait at the Dursley's when Harry returns for the summer holidays. And then...."

"What?" she yelled, "You promised. They promised. You all said he wasn't going to be harmed."

Their eyes locked. "Coventina, if you mess with the Ministry, your injuries will be more severe than a scratched arm." His smile was deadly, "Understood?"

"Yes," she replied.

"No backing out?"

"No," Coventina said firmly.

He nodded a dismissal and she returned to the school.

Lupin stared after her with an agonised look. It killed him that someone so young had become tangled up with the dark side of the Ministry, but he also had a job to do, and sadly, his job was to help convict and not help protect