A/N: Thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming. It's been a good week so I've been able to update more often. Yay. Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from either Charmed or Harry Potter and I'm not making a profit from this story. The eco-terrorist group in this story is fictional and bears no ties to the actual Earth Liberation Front.

Chapter Eleven: Stepping Up

Cole was looking forward to his first-year class on the Wednesday morning. He was anxious to see how different Dominic Malfoy was from his brother. But fate had different plans for him.

It was the Tuesday night and Cole was seated in his office chatting animatedly with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville about their first two days of school and how their classes were going. They were in deep discussion over yesterday's Galeic Magic lesson when, all of a sudden, Lupin's head appeared in the fire, just as Sirius' had done numerous times the year before.

"Cole?!" he yelled out before Cole came into his view, followed by the students, "Oh good. Something has happened and we need to accelerate our plans."

He was trying to be discreet in front of the Hogwarts students, but Cole knew that they needed to speak openly.

"I will be right there," Cole replied and turned to the students, "We'll have to cut our conversation short then, guys. I'll catch you later."

They bid their teacher goodbye and walked back to the Gryffindor common room, excitedly chatting about what Cole was up to this time. Cole turned back to the fire to see Remus' head gone.

"Dalton," he called out as his elf came running.

"Yes, sir?" he said humbly.

"Hey, I need you to go with Julian back to the Manor, at least for a little while," he said softly placing his hand on the elf's shoulder, "I don't know when I'll be coming back and you both will be better off there for now."

"Of course, sir," Dalton answered dutifully.

"Oh, wait up," Cole yelled out as Dalton turned to walked towards Julian's closed door, "I bought you both some clothes. The tailor just got back to me with your clothes."

"Thank you, sir," Dalton replied brightly as he took the brown packages from Cole's arms.

"No thanks necessary. I owe you for helping Piper cook for all of us over the holidays. Phoebe had offered to help otherwise." Cole shuddered at thought of his girlfriend's cooking.

Dalton gave a toothy smile and put the packages into an open suitcase near the entrance hallway.

"I have to go now," Cole said picking up his ready bag, "I should come by the Manor soon, so I'll see you there."

Dalton nodded and Cole walked out the door and towards Hogsmeade so he could shimmer to the Burrow where he knew his friend would be.

oOo



"What is it?" Cole asked as he banged on the front door.

"Cole, is that you?" he heard Remus's voice say.

"Duh," Cole whispered loudly back, "Who else would know that the last time you spoke to Tonks you told her that she should be more concerned with having her heart ripped out by these eco-terrorists than by you?"

Lupin opened the door slowly. "Not nice, Cole."

"Oh, I agree, Remus," Cole replied as he stalked into the dark house, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why would you say something so... so... unRemus-like?"

"I was trying to get her to focus on the case," Lupin answered earnestly, "One mistake, just one, could be fatal for her."

"Right, well that shows how little you know about women then, doesn't it?"

Lupin scoffed, wondering why Cole was debating with him about this when they had work to do. "This is coming from the man who mummified his ex-wife in an effort to win her back."

Cole took a step closer to Lupin, his knuckles white and balled into a fist. "Why are you trying to piss me off?!"

"Can we please just get back to work?" called out a deep voice from behind them. Kingsley Shacklebolt had walked into view and stepped between the two men.

"Sure," Cole said, looking away and walking over to the table to sit down, "What has happened?"

"Preliminary Interpol results have reported two hundred milligrams of Y. Pestis missing from a research lab in the East Scandinavia," Kingsley announced, passing manila folders to Cole and Lupin.

"And how did they make the link to the ELF?" Cole asked as he flicked through the file.

"They were involved in a protest outside the lab," Lupin answered, reading off the file, "Apparently the lab was dumping toxic waste into the river that runs through several local ecosystems."

"Would they really break in and steal a biological weapon when the rest of their group was just outside? Who wouldn't make that link?"

"Unless they were not concerned about us finding out afterwards?" Kingsley suggested, "Perhaps all that they were concerned with was getting access to the virus and they were using the rest of the group as a distraction?"

"The lab was on lockdown," Cole read aloud.

"Only when the protest got violent, not beforehand," Kingsley explained.

"They wouldn't have had enough time to break in, break through all of that security, safely retrieve the biological agent and get back out," Lupin stated, looking incredulously at Kingsley.

"Not if they had someone on the inside," Kingsley answered, "Interpol is looking into it and it's probable that that's how they got in and out so quickly without alerting security until it was too late."

"Okay, not really our problem," Cole said tiredly.

The other two men looked at him strangely.

"Well, it isn't," he defended, "Our problem is what they are going to do with two hundred milligrams of Y. Pestis now."

"Cole's right," affirmed a voice from the other room.

"Bad Sushi," Arlington replied as he walked into view, answering the men's questions as to where he had been for the past ten minutes, "You should accelerate your plans. Is your agent ready to go under?"

"Good to see you again, too, Cody," Cole replied shaking the man's hand, "I believe so, but I still need to meet with our contact inside ELF."

"Your NSA contact?" Arlington asked.

"Yeah," Cole replied, "I'll give Tariq a call and set up a meet. We should be good to go within two days if we work quickly."

"Good," Arlington answered, taking a seat, "The sooner the better. My control officer is getting very weary of these eco-terrorists now."

"Well, I'm gonna go back to San Francisco now. We'll talk tomorrow." And with that Cole shimmered out with his bag.

oOo

"Cole, is that you?" Chris called out, walking into the hallway form the kitchen.

"How did you know?" Cole asked, smiling.

"There's a whirling noise whenever you shimmer. I think it's the change-over of matter." Chris shrugged and followed the older man into the living room.

"You ready to teach?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Chris answered uncertainly.

"Great, you start tomorrow."

Chris gaped his mouth wide open.

"It's fine," Cole said in a calm voice, "First-years in the morning at nine o'clock and third-years in the afternoon at one. Dumbledore wants to see you before you start, though, so I suggest you pack and leave tonight. You can stay in my quarters and I'll let you know when I'm coming back. I've already organised every class' curriculum on my desk and I don't think you'll have any trouble with it."

"Ok, great," Chris replied weakly as he turned to walk upstairs to the attic, where most of his possessions were.

"Cole!" Phoebe yelled out as she saw her boyfriend. He smiled as he put his arms around her and kissed her softly.

Tonks, hearing Phoebe's shriek, got up from reading the New York Times and walked into the living room. Seeing the kiss they shared, she ardently prayed that it would not create another tense moment.

"Tonks," Cole said brightly, breaking his kiss with Phoebe and letting her go, "We need to talk about this investigation."

"Okay," Tonks replied suspiciously, "Has something happened?"

"Yes," Cole said, walking into the kitchen and towards the fridge, "We need to put you under a lot sooner than we expected. I'm going set up a meet with your NSA contact in Paris."

"Great, I can't wait to get into this," Tonks replied with a flawless American accent.

"Well, I've just called my friend and he wants to me with you tonight, so get dressed. We're going to P3."

"As Sophie?"

"No, as Tonks," Cole replied pouring himself a glass of Coke as Tonks took off upstairs.

"Now that I have you alone again," Phoebe said sultrily, putting her arms around Cole's waist.

He pulled away from her. "Sorry, Pheebs, I've got work to do. Is Julian here with Dalton?"

"Yes," Phoebe answered, slightly bitterly, "Julian's sleeping upstairs with Jaxon and I'm not sure what Dalton is doing right now. He enjoys American TV, he's probably watching it in the guest room."

"Okay, I'm going to change and then I'll be off with Tonks to P3," Cole then said. He kissed Phoebe lightly on her lips and walked upstairs, leaving her fuming in the kitchen.

oOo

Tonks felt slightly out of place at the Bay Area nightclub and Cole found himself constantly reminding her to relax. They met with NSA Supervisory Special Agent Tariq Shaheen at ten thirty around the coffee table that one of Piper's mangers, Tia, had secured for them.

"Tariq," Cole said standing and shaking the man's hand, "Good to see you again. This is Nymphadora Tonks."

Tonks found herself shaking hands with an attractive man of Middle Eastern descent, dark brown eyes and a very bright smile.

"Nice to meet you, Nymphadora," he claimed brightly.

She chuckled. "Please, Agent Shaheen, it's just Tonks."

"Well, then Tonks, please call me Tariq," he answered, taking a seat next to her.

Tonks' mind was going at a million miles an hour. So many emotions at one time. She was excited to be going on this mission with a handsome NSA agent to boot.

"So how have wife and daughter been?" Cole asked Shaheen, taking a seat on the other lounge.

'Okay, there goes that idea,' Tonks thought to herself.

"Samira keeps getting bigger and bigger every time I see her," Shaheen answered Cole, laughing, "I feel like we're buying new clothes every week. And Tahirah has been spending her every waking hour with her. I swear if I hadn't cut the umbilical cord they would be inseparable. Literally."

Cole laughed loudly. "I feel that way sometimes with Phoebe and Jaxon, our oldest son. But since we adopted Julian it hasn't been as bad."

"Anyway, as I said on the phone, we need to accelerate our plans," Cole continued, jumping to the subject of work, "Did you get the file I faxed over to you?"

"Yes and I agree with you," Shaeen replied and then turned to Tonks, "Madeleine Keating, my agent currently stationed in Paris, will meet with you tomorrow. I'll give you the details. She doesn't know anything this case or about your world. At all. I've told her that you are an English agent, so she will assume British Secret Service. I suggest that you let her."

Tonks nodded, taking in every word that was being spoken to her and committing it to memory, as she had been trained to do as an Auror. Shaheen handed her a sheet of paper with the location of the meeting with Keating the following day.

"I will be there," she said, folding it and putting it into her handbag.

Shaheen stood up an addressed them both. "I must be going, then. Sorry that I can't stick around but I have reports to finish. We'll talk later, Cole. Miss Tonks."

And he walked away from the table.

"Here we go," said Cole as he helped Tonks to her feet and together they made their way back to Piper's car and drove back to the Manor.