Chap 2 - Unwanted meetings

Snape clambered out of the bus when it stopped. His slight stumble on the last step he was positive was due to the magical item that he was carrying. 'The faster this is given to them, the happier I will be.' He headed into the building to get rid of his magical payload.

"Professor Snape, what brings you to the Ministry?" Arthur Weasley eyed the other man with trepidation. Normally, he was the harbinger of misfortune. With the professor's job as spy, Arthur hardly ever saw Snape darken his door unless something horrible was about to happen.

Snape pulled the balluster knob out of his pocket. "This was in the muggle world. I'm turning it in to you." The metal capper clunked onto the desk.

Arthur eyed it warily. "We would have come and got it, all you had to do was let us know."

Snape's dark brows crashed down as a frown marred his face. He dropped his voice as he spoke. "I tried and I got a wrong number. I think the phone might have a spell on it as well, but I didn't sense one."

Arthur kept his face blank. He knew that Snape knew how to use a phone properly. He pushed a pad of paper and a quill towards the potion master. "If you would jot down the street name and a nearby street number, we'll send someone out to look into it."

Writing quickly in his small, but precise, handwriting, Snape finished his task quickly. He still had to report to Dumbledore about the dementors, get some sleep and start preparing for classes that would be starting soon. "Bye, Weasley."

Arthur nodded at him. "Until later, Snape."

The dark haired man walked out the door while deciding where best to take a floo to. 'I guess I'll go to Hogsmeade. It would be easy to get up to Hogswart from there.' He headed towards the entry hall with all the fireplaces.

Urd watched the people walk by while she waited on Snape to come back. Everyone was either lined up for a fireplace, or coming out of one. She was settled near the fountain , with her back against the wall. 'This must be the Wizarding Community that I was reading about. They all walk about in robes and pointy hats.' She spotted a guy with a red and black cape with long blond hair stride down a hall that was just past the security check point. 'Well, at least most of them do.' She watched as the people quietly parted before the blond man with attitude. As he stepped into a nearby office, she wondered how powerful he was to have that many people afraid of him. She was just about to go find out, when she felt Snape coming towards her.

Severus walked out of the security section looking for a slightly less crowded fireplace line. She caught his eye instead. Her back was pressed against the wall behind the golden statue, while she had her bare leg crossed over her legging covered one. Both of her hands were tucked behind her back as she blatantly people watched. But she didn't seem to notice, or care if she did notice, the people whispering about her behind their hands. Their eyes made contact, and she flashed a smile that could be taken as a come hither. His frown, which had been fading, came back full force as he strode towards her. "How did you get here?" He made his tone be a whisper, but it was a forceful one.

Urd lowed her eyelashes slightly as she leaned forward, placing one hand on his arm. Then, looking up at him from under her lashes, she smiled with the slightest hint of suggestiveness. "We are bound, you and I, by a thread of Fate that can't be undone. It will keep us tied until the end is reached."

Severus felt a chill run through him at her words. Fate had tied him to so many different things, tying its knots all about him. Contracting about him, choking him. He did not want another collar about his neck. Looking into those dusky purple eyes, he felt the rope tightening its hold. "You apparated here?" He was sure that it was impossible for people to apparate into the Ministry.

Urd tilted her head. "I don't know how to apparate, but I do know that until you tell me what you want, I will always be with you." She leaned closer to him, until she was just slightly pressed against his side.

"Ah! Severus, I did not expect to see you here."

Snape stepped quickly back from Urd as the voice laced with superiority came from behind him. A quick mental glance back told him what he already knew. Lucius Malfoy was enjoying the scene that was being played out before him. Blanking both his face and his mind, he turned to face the blond haired deatheater.

"Lucius." He didn't bother giving him a cordial nod of his head. "I was not expecting to be here either, but things seem to happen that managed to bring me here."

Malfoy smiled icily at greasy haired potions master. "Then it must have been fate. I have been sent to find you, but stopped here to handle a small bit of business."

Urd looked the tall man over. 'He stinks as if he is a demon. He smells as bad as Marla. I wonder what his connections is to Snape.'

Malfoy looked Urd over from head to toe, his condescending gaze telling her just what he thought of her and what he thought she was. "Severus, I didn't expect you to be trapped by the likes of a street walker."

Snape risked a side glance to see what Urd's reaction to that comment. She seemed to be taking it calmly enough. Her eyes were a redder shade of purple than they had been, but other than that she hadn't moved.

'Control... I must have control. Frying someone in the Ministry of Magic building would not be good. Not someone who is demon tainted. I need to find out who he is working with, and then take them both out.' As she studied the aura around him, she hoped she wouldn't need to call Beldandy or the Valkaries in on this one.

Smirking slightly, Lucius decided he had put the girl in her place and had neatly jabbed at Severus' wall that he hid his emotions behind. Pointing with his cane, he called Snape's attention to a nearby nook. "Shall we talk over there?"

Without acknowledging Urd, Snape followed the other man.

Urd leaned back against the wall again, this time her eyes were trained just to left of the nook, gazing with rapt attention at the statue that decorated the wall. With the simplest flick of her finger and one wordless spell later, she was able to hear everything that the statue could. Wind spells might not be her specialty, but this one she worked very hard on to perfect up to the point she didn't need to do a full casting.

"Should we honestly be meeting up like this?" Snape's query made Urd wonder what they were up to.

"His Lordship wants to know where you have been. Your presence has been lacking at some of our get togethers." The coldness of Lucius' tone told Urd he didn't really care what Snape thought, but His Lordship was one he wouldn't dare cross. 'I wonder if that is the demon?'

"His Lordship understands that I am being closely watched, especially while Dumbledore is suspicious. It would not do to have me followed, now would it?"

The blond haired man gave a feral icy smile. "Dumbledore is thought of as a fool by many. Jumping at shadows that aren't there."

Snape frowned slightly."But the ones that watch me believe him. I will not lead him and that brat to His Lordship's doorstep until he is ready for them."

Lucius' smile fell, leaving a bland, haughty expression on the man's face. "I will inform His Lordship why you are abstaining from our outings."

"Let him know that I will attend as many as possible. And now I must head back. Until later Lucius." Turning on his heel, he headed towards the fireplaces on the left hand side of the hall, where the lines were currently short. Completely ignoring the white haired witch that was where he had left her, he headed for Hogsmeade.

Watching him leave by the fireplace, Urd traced his destination. Once she knew it, she strolled up to the fireplaces. 'Wizards actually travel by fire. How nice to be able to do this without to much attention.' As she waited her turn, she noticed that the other people were throwing a powder into the fireplace, creating a green flame, and then stepping into them. When it was her turn, she took a hand full to study later, and then stepped into the fireplace. She didn't hear the screeches from the witch behind her as she summoned up a flame , it was covered by the song of the flame that surrounded her, filling her, and then she directed it to take her to the place where her tough customer had gone to.

Snape looked about as he walked down the streets of Hogsmeade, heading for Hogwarts. He was sure she was here somewhere. If she could just appear in the Ministry, tracing him to Hogsmeade would not be a big deal. Once he got to Hogwarts, he would be safe. She could not just come onto school grounds and there was no way any witch could magic their way there either.