Chapter 7

Julius strongly suspected Mr Potter of informing the Muggles that he was the one most in need of training. There was no other reasonable explanation for the situation he now found himself in. Or otherwise it was just revenge for his minor slip up at the introductions.

'It has got to be an undercover job,' Adam had observed after Mr Pearce had finished speaking. From what he had seen so far, Julius would say that he was not the one in charge, but he was only answerable to Harry Pearce, so his opinion carried some weight here.

'The wife,' Jo nodded. 'Do you really think she has stayed in touch with Simmons, if they apparently split up?'

'She was in Manchester, Jo.' The Myers woman seemed irritated. 'At the time of the debacle. She must have a bloody reason to be there. Can be because she's still in love with Simmons, can be under duress, in which case we might persuade her to work for us.'

Julius didn't like Muggles, but there was something about the way these people looked at things that was not only very familiar, but also reassuring in a way. Of course he would never be heard to say that out loud, but it was good to know that in some ways Muggle spies and Aurors were not that different. No matter how much Julius disliked being here, a fact he didn't even bother to hide from these people, there were Death Eaters out there as well. Contrary to popular belief, mostly voiced by West, he wasn't one of them and neither did he support their goals and methods. Yes, wizards were superior in comparison to Muggles and Muggle-borns, but to kill them because of it was taking things a bit too far. And it made the rest of them look like barbarians. If they were to show their superiority, they had to be above such things.

Jo appeared shocked. 'We can't be using her like that, can we?' She looked at her boss for help.

Naïve, Julius judged, not quite sure what she was even doing in this building if she was so tender-hearted. Muggle or wizard, the job they did required tough decisions and using people to achieve their ends.

'She's the only thing we've got to go on.' The spies' boss slapped down the notion right away. 'All the others are off the radar. We'll need to get close to them before they blow up something else and that woman is our way in.' He stabbed a finger at the woman's photograph to emphasise his point. 'And it will have to be an undercover job.'

'Can't we just bring her in for questioning?' Robert asked. 'Get her to talk and learn everything there is to know from her?'

'I can see why you need the training.' Ros Myers was definitely the woman with the strongest opinion here and she didn't hesitate to share it with the other occupants of the room. Julius got the feeling that she could not care what others thought about her. It just did not interest her for some reason. She worked here, but she was no part of the team yet, not really. An outsider for one reason or the other, much like Julius, who with his beliefs and Slytherin background wasn't made to feel very welcome at Headquarters. Some people thought he might be planted on them by Death Eaters and his application had almost been refused. Strangely enough it had been Harry Potter who had given him a chance. To this day Julius still did not know why.

'They'll have surveillance on her,' Zaf explained. 'If she is seen with MI-5, the suspects will do a runner and we'll be back to square one.'

Reluctantly Julius had to admit that these people knew what they were doing. They just had to use other, far more primitive methods to achieve their goals. The things they had to come up with to compensate their lack of magic were ridiculous, but when it was only other Muggles they were hunting, that could hardly matter to them. They were however unsuited to deal with magical terrorists, as the Muggles called them, making this operation a waste of both time and resources in Julius's eyes.

'Ruth, have you found a way in?' Harry Pearce – he would never be able to think of that man as just Harry – turned to the woman in the skirt who had told them all about the Muggle aspect of the operation.

She went through a sheaf of papers, searching for something. It took her half a minute to find the right one and she held it up with something akin to triumph on her face. 'The flat above hers is for rent,' she announced.

Mr Pearce's face lit up with a grim smile. 'Perfect. Then make sure you rent it. Now, Ruth,' he added when the woman didn't make to leave right away.

'Of course.' Ruth almost tripped over her own feet in her hurry to leave the room. Eager, Julius judged, but thorough as well.

Harry Pearce then turned to Ros. 'How do you feel about moving house for a while?'

Miss Myers gave a curt nod in response. 'Charming.' She made it sound like a consent and a way to convey her own personal opinion on the matter. She wasn't overly enthusiastic, but not too annoyed either. She just seemed to think of it as a part of her job. Dutiful, Julius supposed. Thorough too, but indifferent at the same time. She seemed a strange woman. Why would she do this job?

'And you, Mr Burke?' To his surprise Harry then turned to him and for once Julius had no idea what was asked of him here.

'Excuse me?' It was more than a little frustrating that a Muggle had him this confused, but he had been taught manners and this might be a good time to use them. Ros had already threatened to have him sacked and that was a risk he was not prepared to take, not after he had worked so hard to get where he was now.

'How do you feel about sharing a flat with me for a while?' Ros drawled. She sounded bored, but there was anger there as well. Julius knew he was a good judge of character and this woman absolutely loathed him.

Horrible, would have been the honest answer, but that would cost him his job and he wasn't prepared to risk that. Instead he settled for the untruthful, but very sarcastic 'Great.'

'Good.' Harry Pearce pretended not to notice the sarcasm. 'Get cracking on legends. You'll move in tomorrow and I don't think I need to point out to either of you that if personal matters get in the way of this op…'

'… We'll be out of a job.' Ros sounded singularly unimpressed.

That was the only thing that made Julius put up with this madness, the only reason why he was now sitting on the couch of the Muggle flat he had to share with West and Hamilton, reading the file on the man he was going to pretend to be. From tomorrow on he would be John Lewis, twenty-two years old. He was two years younger than that, but with his height and bearing he would easily get away with it. He was posing as the nephew of Jennifer Lewis. That had been a little problematic at first, since Ros wasn't that old, but the problem was solved by Jennifer's brother and John's father being a good deal older than her. That would make Jennifer the youngest of her siblings, to which Ros had reacted with another 'Charming.'

Ros would be some kind of businesswoman who could work in an office and at home and Julius would be a college student living with his aunt because it was cheap and his supposed family lived in the north of England. He almost growled at the file. There was so much to remember and very little time to learn it. That was leaving the fact that he had to familiarise himself with Muggle habits and machinery at the same time. He almost wondered if it was worth all this trouble to keep his job, but then remembered that he was no quitter. If this was what it took, he would do it.

'How's it going?' Hamilton's voice snapped him out of his musings.

Julius fixed her with a dismissive stare. 'Better if I wasn't interrupted,' he drawled. He never liked the Mudblood girl with her Muggle habits and her know-it-all attitude. 'Didn't you have some cooking to do or something?'

The flat they were staying in at the moment was clearly Muggle. There wasn't a single magical object in sight. Mr Potter had really not been joking when he had said they were to live as Muggles until the operation had been concluded. The flat itself was not too disagreeable, apart from that rather big fault. The Slytherin had just no idea what to do with the Muggle equipment in it. Most of their machinery he had never seen before. There was a chance Muggle Studies discussed the subject, but he had never bothered with that class. And right now he could have been on another planet for all he knew. It unnerved him, although he would rather die than admit to that.

As he had concluded before, Muggles went to the extremes to find ways to live without the use of magic. It made their lives infinitely more complicated than what Julius was used to. All it took for him was one flick of his wand to keep food from going bad, but Muggles had to invent all kinds of machinery to do that for them. And that was just one example out of what he did not doubt would be several thousands. This single flat was already stuffed with Muggle inventions and Julius could not for the life of him figure what he was supposed to do with it all.

Hamilton of course felt right at home with it all, with her Muggle background, and even West seemed to have some knowledge – if not very extensive knowledge – of the things they were surrounded by. For quite possibly the first time in his life Julius Burke was at a disadvantage. He was used to being the one who knew exactly how everything functioned and what was expected of people in society. Being raised as a member of a wealthy and prominent pure-blood family had made sure of that. But here, in the Muggle world he so despised, he didn't know what to do with himself and it put him on edge, very much so.

Hamilton for once was not put off by his cold tone of voice. Normally she would have made a run for it by now, but now, in a world where she knew exactly how everything worked, she was far more certain of herself. 'Look, I know you don't like me very much,' she began. 'But we're here now and we have to learn to work together.'

'Tomorrow I am moving out, Hamilton,' Julius reminded her, pleased with how bored he sounded.

The girl ignored him and carried on as if she hadn't heard him at all. 'I do know a lot about Muggles,' she told him. 'And, no disrespect, but you don't. So, let me help. You are going to need it if you really are going undercover.' The words came out very fast and Julius was convinced that she had rehearsed them in the kitchen of this flat, working up the courage to come to him and say them, although he could not for the life of him work out why she would do that. She had never liked him and he had never liked her. She evaded him if she could, in favour of trailing after West like a lovesick puppy.

But whatever her motivations were, the last thing he needed now was to be bothered by the overenthusiastic Muggle-born. It was bad enough that he had to pretend to be a Muggle from tomorrow on, and only Merlin knew for how long he might need to keep up the whole charade. 'I can study on my own,' he told her brusquely.

From the other side of the room Julius could hear someone snort. 'Don't waste your time, Amy,' Robert West called. To be honest, it was remarkable that he had managed to keep quiet so far, since he never wasted an opportunity to pick on Julius. 'It's how he is. He can't seem to help himself.'

Pot, kettle, black. Robert seemed to be talking about himself. His ego was bigger than the castle of Hogwarts and his arrogance was of matching proportions. Julius couldn't stand the sight of him on the best of days. At worst, he sometimes had to physically suppress the urge to hex the wizard into oblivion or, in this case, throw him out of the window. They were three stories high. He might do considerable damage, hopefully enough for the Gryffindor to be in St. Mungo's for the next couple of months.

He amused himself with that fanciful thought for a few moments before he allowed himself to remember that such a course of action would not only get him sacked, but also locked up in Azkaban and that was not a tempting prospect at all. 'If I recall, Hamilton wasn't talking to you, West,' he called back lazily. How was it possible that wizard was more annoying than the Muggle-born? He never thought he'd live to see the day he would prefer the girl's presence over that of a half-blood. Of course Robert West wasn't just any half-blood.

'My name is Amy.' The Mudblood had jumped to her feet, knocking over Julius's cup of tea in the process. She didn't seem to even realise what she was doing. 'We are all going to be real colleagues one day. Don't you think we should try and get along better, like adults?' That was quite something from her lips, since she was their junior by two years. The fact that she fancied herself to be the most mature was more amusing than anything else.

'I haven't thrown him out of a window yet,' West spoke up, throwing an overly happy smile in Hamilton's direction. 'That's the responsible thing to do, right, Amy.' He seemed to remember something. 'And I don't call you by your surname either.'

Julius sighed in exasperation before burying his nose in the file again, deciding he had better things to do than waste his time with such trivial matters. 'Yes, your behaviour is the school example of how any wizard should behave. Now, do us all a favour and get back to whatever useless thing you were doing before you so rudely interrupted someone else's conversation.' There was not much conversation going on of course, but it was something and at least this gave him a good excuse for telling off the Gryffindor. And with his temper running short, that was something he rather found himself in need of doing.

'I was just reminding you of your manners,' West shot back, devilish smirk on his face. 'Come on, your pure-blood upbringing must have involved lectures on how to behave around women.'

'Stop it!' Amy slammed a fist on the coffee table, sending a glare first at Julius and a less stern one at the object of her affection. Favouritism if he had ever seen it. 'Can you hear yourself talking?' she demanded. 'You sound like a couple of four year olds! The only difference is that four year olds don't usually use such difficult words.' She threw her hands into the air in exasperation. 'How in Merlin's name are we supposed to do our job when the two of you are at each other's throat all the time?'

'Stay away from me,' Julius replied, eyes fixed on the text of his file. He had other and better things to do. If he didn't know the specifics of his new identity by morning that could get him killed. If Ros didn't do it first, then it might happen when he got a detail wrong and said something he wasn't supposed to say. 'And do please find a room if the two of you are so determined to have a little domestic. Good practise. You already bicker like an old married couple.'

From the corner of his eyes he could see Hamilton colour a bright shade of crimson red in what appeared to be embarrassment. West seemed singularly unimpressed with the last few words. 'That's rich coming from you.'

Julius arched an eyebrow with perfected boredom. 'What is that supposed to mean?'

'Have you heard yourself?' West countered.

Julius smirked. West had nothing on him. It was just one of his feeble attempts to drive Julius into a corner and therefore unsuccessful. It was a Gryffindor thing, it would seem: big mouth and a lot of words, but it didn't mean anything at all. Heaven only knew what Hamilton saw in this idiot. Even she, with her Mudblood status and annoying manners, could do better than that fool on the other side of the room.

'Please stop talking,' he told the other wizard. 'It's not as if you've got anything even remotely intelligent to add to this conversation, so please do us all a favour and close that far too big mouth of yours before you can embarrass yourself any further.' This was usually the best way to drive the other wizard completely mad, by suggesting – and in this case he had done quite a lot more than just suggesting it – that he was stupid, which he was, according to Julius. He may be good with spells, but that was just about it. And Julius strongly suspected he was only that good at spells because that meant he could impress people by demonstrating them if he only got as much as half a chance. It annoyed the Slytherin to absolutely no end.

'What are you insinuating?' True to expectations, West had jumped to his feet.

'Nothing.' Julius kept his eyes on the papers, but his right hand crept closer to his wand, just in case his rival decided to try and make things a little more nasty. It was only when his hand arrived at the pocket of his trousers that he realised that there no longer was a wand there, because Mr Potter had taken it from him this morning. Without it he felt naked and exposed, unprotected and vulnerable. 'I just gave you some friendly advice.' He looked at his rival from over his file. 'See, I'm making an effort.' Of course he wasn't, but at least it would shut West and his puppy up. 'Now, if you would please shut your mouth and do something useful, I still have an operation to prepare for.'

Hamilton nodded. 'Right. Just try to stay away from each other, will you?' She seemed to sense that that was the best she could hope for in this case.

'With pleasure,' Julius told her, which wasn't a lie, not by a long way. He would certainly not complain if he would never have to see West in his life ever again. With any luck the Gryffindor made such a mess of things that he would be kicked out. Now there was an uplifting thought.

But until that happy day he had an undercover mission to prepare for. He took a deep breath and went back to his file. This was going to be a long night.


So, I'm back again and I think I've got the plot more or less worked out from this point. I hope you'll like it. Julius is a very difficult character to write and I hope I did a more or less decent job on him. I'd love to hear your opinion about this chapter, so please review? It would mean a lot.