Chapter Ten

The First Mission

Dumbledore watched out the window of Minerva McGonagall's office, a sad expression on his face. It was then that he noticed a soft shadow against the starlight and the waning moon. Had he not been looking for it, he probably wouldn't have noticed it at all.

"There… there she is. She must have a Night Shroud on," he said softly.

"But how, Albus? How could she have possibly been mixed up in this? And so quickly!" Minerva exclaimed as she stepped up to the window, visibly worried. "You must stop this before it's too late, Albus. Surely you see it's not going to end well."

"I cannot stop it. It is already too late. As for the reasons why, that is between her and Severus." Dumbledore sighed. "Perhaps I should not have had her come. Perhaps she would have been safer at Beauxbatons… but how could I have seen this? How could I have suspected that she would have fallen into the same trap that her mother had?"

"You mean risking showing her ability to the Death Eaters?" Minerva asked.

"Yes, that… and much more," Dumbledore said, looking at her from the corner of his eye, then back towards the window. "But I have an idea. If we are lucky, we still have time to implement it. Perhaps there is a way I can give them a tiny ray of hope in this ghastly darkness they have chosen for themselves."

Jennifer pulled the Shroud around her and around her tri-handle broom. Quickly, she locked the long wooden side handles into place horizontally, giving her a little more directional stability.

"Ratfly, trail me, but not too close. If anything happens to me, go straight to Severus, okay, pet?" She paused to give the bat a quick pat and it flew ahead out the window. "Alright then, let's do it."

Her mother had given her the Night Shroud as a graduation present, made to camouflage a flying broom and passenger in the night sky from curious Muggles or unwanted onlookers. It was by no means perfect, but good enough to at least protect her identity and pass for a cloud to any that might look up. Gritting her teeth she pushed off, leaning close to the broom so it took off straight, gripping the side handle bars with whitened knuckles. Skimming over the lake, she soon saw the train station and veered up slightly, knowing that the location was past that. She leaned a little to the right (nearly flipping herself over), until she saw a dark silhouette of trees in the distance. As she got closer she slowly began to descend, and then realized she wasn't descending quite low enough and nearly crashed into a net of tree branches. Flipping quickly over, she put her legs down, landing just shy of the trunk of an oak tree.

"That went better than I expected," she muttered to herself. She took off her Shroud, wrapped it around her broom and shrank them. Putting them in her pants pocket, she looked around for bearings. She saw a light off to the right. Severus had said that they would meet her just inside the woods near there, so she wasn't far. Quickly and quietly she went towards the light, glancing around her as she walked. Then she spotted movement… it was a tall, hooded figure. The arms of the cloak had been rolled up, and as she approached, the man held it out so she could clearly see the Mark.

Jennifer quickly kneeled, keeping her head down, fishing in her jacket pocket. Taking out the small cloth-wrapped mirror, she presented it with both hands and held it out in front of her. After a few quiet moments, she heard a rustling sound as the figure neared and plucked it out of her hands with a gloved one. Then, grasping the prize in one hand, the other came under her chin, pushing it up. Jennifer was careful to keep her eyes lowered, counting her breaths to keep her emotions in check.

"Pretty thing," whispered the Death Eater thoughtfully. "Tell your master it has been received and to proceed as planned." Jennifer nodded.

. Slowly he turned and backed away, and she waited before getting up herself, bowing as she backed up. Once he was out of view, Jennifer took out her broom, careful not to turn around as she threw the Shroud over her shoulders again. She kicked up hard off the ground, harder than she had intended, shooting up above the canopy of trees. It was then she saw that there had been perhaps a dozen more figures, standing to the edge of the wood near the cabin, watching.

Taking a deep breath, Jennifer turned back to the school, wondering if it was safe to pick up the speed or not. She knew eyes were still on her, she could feel them; but she certainly didn't want it to seem like it rattled her. Squinting in the darkness, she could see the train tracks forward and below her, and a twinkle of lights from the windows of the school. Safety. Just a half a mile away, she thought, leaning forward on the broom to force it to shoot forward. But for how long would it stay safe, she wondered, how long?

She sped across the lake, realizing she was going too fast and too low. Throwing her feet back in a panic to slow down, she found her feet in the water. She yanked back on the broom but just a little too late, veering past the tunnel into the school and getting her foot caught on the bank, sending a shockwave of pain through her leg as she went tumbling over with her broom across the length of a small service dock before finally skidding to a stop. Well, that noise must have got the attention of anything awake down here, she thought to herself, quickly grabbing her Shroud and gathering up the pieces of her broom.

"'Alo? Is someone down there?"

Oh swell, Jennifer thought. Suddenly something fell on her head and she nearly yelped in surprise. It was her Hogwarts' cloak! Having little time to figure out where it came from, Jennifer threw it on, tucking her broom in her Shroud and zapping it into size, pushing it into the robe.

Stepping onto the path into the light, Jennifer gritted her teeth, keeping herself from limping.

"Professor Craw?" Hagrid called from down along the shore.

"Oh, hello, Hagrid! I thought I'd heard something and came down to check. It seems to have just been the Kraken in another mood," she said.

"Eh, figgered as much. Dun' wurrae, Professor, I'll make 'im keep it down," he waved. Waving back, Jennifer quickly turned up the stairs, looking momentarily to the sky.

"Great stars help us all," she muttered. Resisting the temptation to run, she tried to ignore the pain as she climbed the stairs to the main doors and then quickly turned down the left corridor toward the dungeon stairs.

Severus was waiting in the doorway of his office, arms crossed, frowning. Not saying a word or even looking at him, Jennifer entered the room. She heard the door close and she collapsed into a chair. Severus stood at the door for a moment longer as if listening before walking towards the chair by the desk.

"What happened to you? Is it done?"

"Yes, it's done. I think it went well. I just had a little accident on the way back is all," she said, rubbing her ankle. Severus stared at her.

"Did anyone see you?"

"Hagrid went to the lake to see what the fuss was about, but I'd got on my robe by then, so I pretended that I was coming down to check out what the noise was too." Severus frowned.

"I thought I told you not to bring Hogwarts clothes on this."

"I didn't! Something threw it down on me. An owl, I think," she explained.

Severus sighed and shook his head in annoyance at that, suspecting at once who might have been keeping an eye on her.

"The meeting itself went as planned. I think…" Jennifer said.

"What did he say to you when you gave it to him in exact words, and what did you see?" Severus asked. Jennifer told him, and watched as Severus' eyes played back and forth, squinting when she told him of how he had looked her over and wondering why he had done that. Deciding to shrug it off for now, he folded his arms thoughtfully. "Well. It could have been less sloppy, but they must have bought it considering you're still alive."

"That's very reassuring." Jennifer muttered sarcastically.

"You had better go tend that ankle and get to bed. It should be a semi-quiet week, I think, for us anyhow. If you have any plans for this coming weekend, however, cancel them. We need you to pass your Apparation test."

"Yes sir!" she saluted mockingly. He blinked at her irritated expression with surprise, but then he sighed.

"I know you have little reason to trust me, Craw, but what I am doing will hopefully insure that you're not troubled again, at least for a while." he said in a low voice. "It is within your best interests to simply follow instructions. What we're doing here is for your benefit, not mine."

His face was not exactly apologetic, but she could tell from his expression that he understood her irritation at suddenly being ordered around. She relaxed then; mad at herself for losing her temper.

"I know. I'm sorry. Long night," she murmured. Severus nodded sharply in return, heading over to his desk.

"Get to bed. Don't forget there will be an investigation tomorrow about your ransacked office. You'll pretend, of course, that you don't know anything about it. They will know I did it so that you would look like less of a suspect in the 'theft' of the mirror. Word spreads quickly to them about anything that happens in this school so they'll be sure to hear about it," Severus warned.

"Right," she said standing up, "Good night, Severus."

"Good night," he said, turning quickly towards his personal lab, writing in a notebook on the same table. When he heard her at the door he glanced back at her, his eyes following her out. He sighed softly and sat down, leaning over his desk broodingly.

Jennifer slipped out and went to her rooms, took a bath to soak her ankle, and lay in her bed wide awake, wishing Severus had offered her a sedative. Had she not known about her office, she would have gone to make one for her own, but she knew that wasn't possible. She fished out her pocket mirror and looked at herself in it.

"So tell me, Jennifer, what do you think of all this?" she asked herself. "Way over your head, eh? Just as I thought. And what about Severus Snape? Do you trust him? Yes? Why?" She stared blankly at what she saw in her face. "You need to be repaired too," she scowled in annoyance, setting it down and pulling her covers over her head.

Well, Dumbledore warned her about truths she didn't want to accept, Jennifer thought, but he never warned her about truths she just wasn't ready for. She had only been there a month and somehow she had gotten swept up in something quite alarming. Somehow, she was going to have to force herself to slow down before she ended up getting killed.