Chapter 2

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The wand was pressed tightly to Emilie's throat and she stared down at it as though it offended her. Which it did. "Now is that any way to treat a woman?" She sneers at her adversary before spinning her hips and planting her foot in his stomach.

The wizard stumbled back, temporarily dazed by the unexpected form of attack. Most witches and wizards dueled solely with their wands and wit. Not with a muggle form of attack. She took advantage of his surprise and swished her wand towards his feet. Chains erupted from her wand and he jumped to the side just in time to avoid them. "I'm not going back to Azkaban! Crucio!" He declares, sending an unforgivable straight towards her chest.

She barely managed to block it and her latest target took off running while simultaneously casting protection charms over himself.

"Stupefy!" She shouts after him, even though she knew it would just bounce off at this point. She was about to take off running but a hand on her arm pulled her attention. She quickly turned her wand on whoever had dared to distract her while she was working.

Scabior put his hands up, unarmed, indicating that he meant no harm. He grinned as her eyes widened.

"You?" She snaps in annoyance, quickly turning back to what she was doing. Before she could take a step further, her target apparated.

"Who was tha', love? 'E looked scared. Remind me to never piss you off." Scabior asks playfully, lowering his hands.

"I would say it's a little late to remind you not to piss me off. Someone should have done that five minutes ago. What are you doing here, Scabior?" Emilie snaps. Fury swelled up inside of her just at the thought of the smugness her target must be feeling at having escaped her. She couldn't remember the last time she lost one that had been standing right in front of her.

"I was lookin' for you. You left before I woke up." Scabior points out, as though it were obvious.

"And your point is?" Emilie presses impatiently, glancing back over to where her target had apparated. She couldn't go chasing him in front of Scabior. Her organization had strict rules about the anonymity of its employees. Chasing down You-Know-Who's followers that had escaped the original round up that had put many of them back into Azkaban was dangerous business, and those over her head were always vigilant about ensure the tables weren't turned on them. If the deatheaters on the run knew exactly who was attempting to track and apprehend them, there were enough followers left out there that they could form their own little tag team and attempt to take out the aurors working against them. It was public knowledge that the department had been formed for this sole purpose, as most of the other aurors were busy simply with the task of restoring peace to the wizarding world and attempting to lessen the tension and make the citizens feel safe again. However, the identities of the aurors themselves were kept secret. Emilie liked it that way. It always surprised her targets when they realized who she worked for. They weren't supposed to get away and have a chance to identify her to others. He wouldn't have been so much trouble if her partner had actually bothered to show up. And Scabior hadn't interrupted her.

"Who said I was finished?" He answers seductively, moving closer to her.

"You did when you fell asleep," Emilie counters easily, taking a step back from him. He smelled nice and it took a lot of resolve for her to be able to look him in the eye and not want to go back with him, but now was definitely not the time for that.

"Even a bloke with my prowess needs 'is rest, pet."

"Needs rest for what?" A light, female voice asks curiously.

Emilie welcomed the distraction as she turned on her heel to face her partner. "Where were you? You were supposed to meet me three hours ago!" Hannah was a few inches taller than me and had broader shoulders, but she was fit. Her dark brown eyes always drooped in a way that made her look like she was about to fall asleep, but she was always alert. She had dark blonde hair that fell to her shoulder blades in waves. She had 'intimidation' written all over her, where as I was always the one underestimated, with my smaller build, green eyes and dark auburn hair. We made a pretty good team when she bothered to show up on time.

"Who's your friend?" She asks, suddenly suspicious.

"No one. He was just leaving." Emilie says pointedly, turning back to face him.

"Was I?" He grins, raising his eyebrows at her, "I 'ad no clue."

"I'm really busy," She insists.

"Alrigh', when will you not be busy?" He pushes, determined.

Emilie sighs. She wasn't going to get rid of him until she agreed to meet with him. "I know where you live. I'll stop by later and we'll talk."

"It's a deal," He agrees, a smirk appearing at the corner of his mouth. His gaze flickers over to Hannah, "'Ave a nice day, pets."

"I'm not a pet," Hannah snaps at him, but he just laughs as he turns on his heel and apparates.

"Who was that?" She demands again, once she was sure he was gone.

"I met him when I was out for a walk yesterday. It's nothing you need to be concerned about. Do you want to tell me why you didn't show up for work this morning?" Emilie asks, still annoyed with her.

"I was at work. I was just pursuing an alternate method of tracking Xanthus." She explains, referring to the target by his surname.

"An alternate method that doesn't involve working with your partner?" Emilie replies heatedly.

"Did you catch him?"

"No, he got away. But you could have bothered to let me know what was going on, rather than just leaving me on my own today." Emilie points out.

"Look, one of us had to be out looking for him, just in case my idea fell through. Now, you can stay mad at me, or we can go get a drink together while my genius does all the hard work for us? Drinks are on me." She offers, trying to make amends.

"We can't drink; we're supposed to be working." Emilie objects.

"My contact won't be back to me until tomorrow, and you know how the boss likes for us to focus on one target at a time. We have nothing to but sit around and wait." Hannah insists.

"Contact?" She questions, narrowing her eyes at Hannah, "What about protecting our identities?"

"He's trust worthy. Everything is alright. Besides, if we chase after the target now that he's expecting us to, he could lead us into a trap."

Emilie hesitated, but Hannah had made a good point. It wouldn't help anything to attempt to follow his apparation trail and stumble into a trap. "Alright, but just one drink."

"Great! I know just the place!" Hannah replies excitedly, grabbing Emilie's arm and apparating them to a small, but crowded pub somewhere close to Diagon Alley.


Scabior slipped through the trees, his eyes scanning the woods around him. He knew Xanthus would be there. It was where they had agreed to meet.

"Fraternizing with the enemy, I see." His lazy voice met Scabior's ears with a prick of irritation.

"I fraternize with everyone, Xanthus. You know tha'" Scabior grins at him. "Tha' was a close one. 'Ow'd you get yourself into a bind like tha'? You're lucky I was there to get you out."

"I was lucky?" Xanthus answers suspiciously, "It seems a little odd to me that I've managed to avoid them ever since the Dark Lord's downfall, and the first time they almost catch me, you show up, Scabior."

"I don't think I like much wha' you're implying, Xanthus. I'd watch myself if I were you." Scabior threatens, towering over him.

"Or what? You'll get your auror friend after me? Not if we get her first, Scabior." Xanthus grins.

"What do you mean we?" Scabior demands, "We agreed to lay low until they backed off us."

Xanthus presses his fingers to his lips, "Did I say that? Oops, I meant 'I'."

Scabior grabs the front of Xanthus' shirt and slams him back into a tree, "What are you hiding?"

Xanthus laughs, "Me? I'm not hiding anything. Just that not all of us agree with your little plan of playing hide and seek with the ministry."

"Alrigh', then let them challenge me for authority. But you leave 'er out of this." Scabior orders, letting Xanthus go as he flexed his shoulders. He hadn't known she was an auror when he'd met her, and truth be told there was nothing in a one night stand that he couldn't replace. But there was something about her that he'd become rather fond of in a very short time.

"There's a new faction in wizarding world, Scabior. I'd tell your little auror friend to watch out if I were you." Xanthus advises him, rubbing his chest where Scabior had grabbed at him.

Before Scabior could reply, Xanthus apparated away from him. Scabior took off towards his house. He had to speak to his small band of snatchers before he got in over his head. If there was someone brewing trouble, he needed to figure out who was on his side and who wasn't.


Emilie leaned back in her chair as she looked around the pub Hannah had chosen. It was crowded enough that she couldn't see the bar where Hannah had gone to get their drinks, but it wasn't one of the safer ones. It wasn't one she herself would have chosen, but she supposed she shouldn't have been that surprised. It was Hannah that she was with.

Hannah sat two mugs of firewhiskey on either side of the table before slumping down in the seat across from her and crossing her legs. "Drink up, my friend. This could be our only day off this week."

"It's not a day off if you spend the entire morning working," Emilie points out, taking a long drink of the firewhiskey that Hannah had chosen for her. She wasn't all that fond of the drink, but it helped relax her.

"Good point, but here's to the rest of it being slow and quiet." Hannah offered, taking a drink out of her own glass.

"So why this pub?" Emilie asked curiously, frowning at her drink. It was stronger than she remembered.

Hannah shrugs, "I came here on a date once."

"It must have been an awful date." Emilie comments, casually, studying their surroundings. The place wasn't all that clean, and neither were most of the people.

"He was an awful boyfriend; his mother hated me just because I was a little rough around the edges." Hannah answers, holding Emilie's gaze as though she were trying to make some kind of point."

Emilie took another drink out of her mug, and before she could reply an owl flew in through the door and landed in front of Hannah, holding out its leg for her.

"Who's that from?" Emilie asks curiously, as Hannah untied the letter and the tawny owl flew away. Emilie's eyes blurred over and she pressed the palms of her hands into them, trying to stay focused.

"My contact." Hannah says. Her eyes scanned the letter before she shoved it into her pocket. "It looks like he had a breakthrough faster than I expected. Come on, let's go." She took another long drink of her firewhiskey as Emilie stood up and immediately stumbled into the table.

Hannah grabbed her arm with a look of concern on her face. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine. I'll be better once I get out of here. Let's go," Emilie answers, shaking her head to clear it and refocus herself.

"Good," Hannah smiles, following Emilie out of the pub.

"Where are we going?" Emilie asks, turning to face her partner. The cool air brushed against her face and helped to clear the fogginess from her mind, but it seemed determined to keep coming back.

"This way," Hannah says, taking Emilie's arm and leading her down the street.

Emilie's eyes blurred over again and she stumbled. "Wait…Hannah," She starts, but Hannah kept pushing her forward, refusing to let her stop, "I'm not going to be of any use like this." The ground spun beneath her and she swayed, stumbling into Hannah again.

Hannah shoved her away, back into an alley way as three dark figures appeared out of the shadows. Emilie's eyes were too blurry to be able to focus on them and her heart started racing as she gripped her wand tightly. "Exp...elliar...mus!" She attempts to disarm them, but her voice falters as she falls back onto the ground, "Hannah!" She groans weakly, feeling hand grasp her wrists and ankles before she passed out.