Sirius had been grateful for the help of the mysterious witch and wizard.
All the same, the conflicts he knew had been confusing enough; he had not needed to be introduced to more. In the past two months, they had joined the search for his brother, who appeared to know something about a 'Goldstein' character, whom they were clearly hunting. The short version was that he had killed someone precious to each of them, and at the very least he could not be allowed to get away with it. What confused them was that his brother, Regulus, claimed unambiguously he had Goldstein in a box, a common method for transporting prisoners in his day. They claim he's some sort of personal enemy to the Death Eaters, so they would be looking for him as well.
The younger wizard was a man named Charlie Weasley, and it was perfectly apparent he was related to Arthur and Bill, whom he had met in passing. The witch who had been in his company was still a student, so Sirius joined him in insisting she return to her studies, and at length she agreed.
"You lost your sister, then? Does your family know?" he had asked.
"They know. I wrote each of them a letter- well, I may have copied sections of it, but I wrote them all."
"They sent you here alone?"
"They have problems of their own. It only takes one person to follow one lead, and that was all we had."
Their conversations going forward were about as long and detailed, if that.
The young man doesn't trust me. What should I expect? He only decided to trust me on a whim, on my decision to escape rather than attack him.
In truth, he knew it was more complicated than that, but Charlie had decided not to share the extent of his reasoning. The pair of them were in Morocco, a northern city on the coastline called Tangier, as the locals had some idea there were Death Eaters around. The two of them had found it easier to convince people they were servants of Voldemort looking for their fellows rather than their enemies looking for targets to follow.
"How is your brother the key to everything?" the red-haired wizard had asked yesterday.
"Albus Dumbledore told me to find him," he said, turning to see an incredulous expression. "I caught his last words as he died in Azkaban."
"That's all you know about why he's important?"
It was not the first time the younger wizard had asked of his brother's importance.
"How important was your sister when you went looking for her?" Sirius asked. "My brother knows things, and may well be the key to the war, Voldemort, or evil itself. His speech might have been given to understatement, but Dumbledore did not take half-measures. We need to stay focused."
He imagined that to the locals, looking for siblings was eventually going to register as a likely story, and after that, 'a likely story'.
Walking on the beach, it was evident there were tourists from across the Mediterranean, but only by the languages he overheard- the people looked about the same on either side due to similar environments and millennia of interchange. Charlie took note of this, commenting that at least they were less likely to stand out.
"They've seen a white person before," he responded, deciding it was necessary to be blunt. "True, as you get into places like Uagadou that have been cursed off the maps, you get a more insular society, but everyone else watches color televisions like the rest of the muggles. Your friend's choice of words suggested she lives among them."
"Well, yeah, Secrecy sort of works differently here."
Sirius had ventured into the nonmagical world as a way of rebelling against his parents a long time ago, but he was painfully unaware of how their society generally worked. He had never been to an alien planet, but it had to be a little like traversing the streets muggles built by hand. He had always viewed them as people, no different than squibs kept in the dark, but their world continued to have an unfamiliarity to it.
In either case, it was better to keep an eye out for dark magic.
From a dubious street stand in the magical part of Casablanca, they had picked up what Weasley called 'a dark detector' or something like it. It was an enchanted oud, not that it was uncommon to have instruments that played themselves, but the peddler said only those who had used dark magic would hear its tune. It was silent to Charlie, so Sirius shrugged and paid the full price, not that he liked the sound of it.
It was fortunate that many people in the streets that passed by as he idly strummed were turning to the sound to look, which he knew meant it was rather common to experiment with dark magic, but it would keep any disguised Death Eaters from picking up on cues from everyone around them. If enough people were ignoring the sound entirely, the rest of them would just go along with it, even if they did not suspect any trick. On the reverse, this meant that he and Charlie had to scan more faces as they turned to the music to look for anything suspicious.
Ever since they realized that Regulus, Said, and Goldstein, captive or otherwise, had left Casablanca, they had relied on the words of passers by for hints of Death Eater activity in the Maghreb, and the younger wizard had been instrumental in asking some of the dark wizards he had met in the summit what they knew on the mysterious servant of the Lord Voldemort, the only one who had not deigned to speak. As it turned out, the infiltrators had not been the only ones to find him a bit suspicious, or at least interesting, as he might have been in an exploitable conflict of interest. He told them a number of different places he was headed next, but one of them was Tangier, and the locals had already told them about the Strait of Gibraltar, though asking around with them was more time consuming.
Asking the dark wizards from the summit had its disadvantages as well, though they came in the form of assassins the two of them had to fight.
Incapacitating their attackers had proved to put them on better terms with the local authorities, who had been searching for a few of them. As they questioned the detainees, they learned little about who had sent them, but they had enough for a conviction and rewarded the oddly helpful foreigners with a few street numbers under which to look for Death Eaters. Patrolling up and down playing the enchanted oud was unlikely to get them anything other than suspicious eyes, but posing as a street performer and one who watches him unseen seemed to be equally ineffective, at least thus far. They heard only a few whispers, and Sirius quietly supposed he had great luck in finding the city, and he might have expected his luck to run out.
A witch lying in the sand took notice of the sound with a soft smile in their direction, eyes hidden by dark sunglasses. She was not one of the locals, to be sure; she was several shades darker. I suppose this place is what Africans think of when they think of going to the beach. For Brits it was mostly the Spanish islands, though for his family this included Antilla, a phantom island as the muggles called it. The Blacks had been among the first to set foot on it, and decided there should be a sunny paradise not polluted by the nonmagical. The real reason was that they found the location was astronomically significant, but there was no need to tell the exploradores.
"Bonjour, belle," he started, still playing. He noticed no particular reaction to his attempt at French. Charlie was pretending to be watching something else, but the younger wizard was not gifted in subtlety. "Have you seen a man who looks just like I do?"
"Perhaps I have. Many a foreign wizard comes to this beach for the same reason I do." I'm getting nowhere.
"Then perhaps you've seen my brother. He prefers the look of a polished gentleman-"
"To that of a stray?" she interrupted, offering the briefest of smiles. "I saw him. He asked me if I knew Bakr of the Draa after he saw me raise a shadow to keep the sun from my eyes." Her head cocked. "Magic is magic, south of the sea... I use it for my purposes, and mine alone. I know nothing of what those wizards do."
He decided not to ask her name, since she seemed to like her mysteries.
"We're looking for Bakr. At least he's a public figure, so more people can point us in the right direction."
"Well, yes, but it's also a disaster that we have a lead, because you don't get to talk to random-" Charlie started as he followed after him.
"It's all part of the search, friend. We should head to town; I get the idea our friend doesn't come all this way to go to the beach."
Quietly he supposed the dark wizard did not come to Tangier to be followed by a suspicious pair of foreigners, made no better by the fact that the Weasley only narrowly managed to convince them that Sirius was a part of the Black Sea Sorcerers, though he had only been pretending to be a part of it himself. Fortunately, he recognized the highly distinct wand of Albus Dumbledore, and recalled a specific spell the previous owner used on one September, 1983. It was an odd date to choose, but it was difficult for the dark wizard with a wand to his throat to form an objection, especially when translating through Wahde. For some reason Charlie's words sounded more succinct and decisive in Arabic than anyone else's sounded in English.
In town they walked along row after row of white buildings. The city lacked a distinct magical quarter, as it was with some cities, towns, and small islands. They asked after Bakr on the appropriate street, which provided more descriptive results than they had received in the recent past, especially after they said he was conversing with the Death Eaters they were searching before. It was getting dark, and he knew Regulus would be out at night, if at all, so he kept his eyes peeled for light charms.
Contrary to their expectations, they saw the Egyptian first.
"Said," the younger wizard started. "I recognize you from the summit. Tell me, what became of Goldstein?" He stepped right into the accent, moderately impressive by Sirius's measure.
"Ah, the young master continues to interest you, then," the dark wizard responded. "Perhaps it would have been better to send a letter, as a secret admirer."
"Stupefy."
The Egyptian dropped immediately. When did he get his wand in his hand?
"That's a groovy trick you have there." The older wizard was checking for anyone at all around them as he spoke. Not once had he stopped playing the instrument.
"It's something I picked up from the genuine article- the real Black Sea Sorcerers. They'll wear a glamour ring and you won't realize they're dropping a wand through the sleeve."
"You learned how to cast a glamour?"
"No, that takes entire classes- I got a ring when one of them, pissed to passing out, stumbled into our neck of the woods. I never picked up much in the way of combative magic, so I thought it'd be useful to nick before notifying the proper authorities, of course."
"He won't miss it in prison," Sirius offered, keeping an eye out as Charlie moved the stunned body to an alley.
"I doubt he ever went. If the law enforcement ever picked him up, 's the court that didn't do the job."
If the court didn't convict him, he might have been innocent. The Azkaban escapee stared long and hard at their unconscious captive, then turned back to his partner.
"I suppose I didn't see this wizard himself, but he might have had a defense. What are we doing with this fellow?"
"I hadn't thought of it before knocking him out." Sirius sighed. "It just seemed like a good thing to do no matter what else-"
"We can't Polyjuice as him and take his place, even if we had any," he started back. He knew he was older than the Weasley, but it hardly felt like he had matured since being thrown in prison, where he was without the normal life experiences most young men had, like getting a job and starting a family. "We don't speak Arabic, and it's going to start looking suspicious if-"
"Okay, okay, we can't do that," Charlie agreed. "Without Wahde here, we don't even know that much about him. We really just need to find where exactly your brother is, so we can wait outside and stun him. What do we do after that?"
I was hoping you wouldn't develop the ability to plan ahead so quickly.
"Regulus likely has some kind of critical piece of information. I know him, though, and he'll try to divert our attention to something else. He's always doing that, always trying to make you think you have what you want. He's a trickster with a trick behind a trick, and I doubt he was ever that loyal to our father, let alone Voldemort."
They put their captive in a leg locker and separated him from his wand, then used a sticking charm to bind his fingers to the featureless white wall behind him, searching his body quickly before waking him up.
"Found something weird-" Charlie started before Said spat some dust out of his mouth. "It's a red mark on his chest..."
"The little bastard cursed me whilst I was sleeping-"
"I thought Anthony was supposed to be... contained, somehow," Sirius said, remembering the pseudo Dark Mark that the young wizard had managed to put on Wahde's brother, or what little she told him about it.
"Him? No, he is free to walk around and whatever else- I have to do his bidding, only I cannot let speak of it to anyone or he will kill me. He can even kill me in his sleep if you can believe it."
"We know. Does he have the other man with you under his little spell?"
"No, he is the one I cannot tell- the pair of you, as it is known, you have seen it and I doubt my life will last much longer-"
"You're not the one who really interests us right now," the red-haired wizard interrupted. "If you help us, you could stand to live a fair bit longer. If we kill Anthony while you're nowhere to be seen, he can't kill you- or at least there wouldn't be a reason." He'll have little choice but to believe us on that one.
"What's your business with Bakr of the Draa?"
"He concluded the experiments. He can cast a dark shield."
The words hung on the air a moment. From what his younger acquaintances were describing, there was work being done on a shield that could block all manners of dark curses, but he had not believed it himself.
"I don't believe it."
"The other man said the same thing to me. He has the same look about him," the Egyptian supplied, some note of interest in his voice. Bakr is trying to sell Regulus a dark shield, and it's going to come at a high cost. Any kind of test to verify its effectiveness he would have to perform himself.
"He and I aren't from a trusting stock. We want you to go in there, lead him outside for some reason, and we'll knock him out. Once we have him, we'll be happy to rid you of Goldstein." Said scowled.
"Don't even think about telling him we're there," Charlie warned. "We're your only way of getting out of your curse. He's not going to let you go. He sees people as assets and defective assets; that's it as long as you're not a threat to him."
If the dark wizard's expression could turn more vexed, it might have. Instead he settled for agreeing and listening to what Sirius had in mind.
Hours later, the pair of them were waiting outside the house to which they had nearly followed Said, before finding a place to hide. Almost certain his brother would not assume a random black dog in the street would be someone he knew, the older wizard adopted the form of a forlorn stray, out looking for scraps now that the sun had set. It would take a long time for anyone to fool Regulus Black, who had been clever enough to disappear after the death of his master, and Sirius was none too disappointed when the Egyptian finally led him outside. The black dog padded after the two wizards, listening to the quiet conversation to determine what manner of trick he used.
"Bakr does not wish me to tell you this, but there are spells the shield cannot block. They came about far from my home, and he assumed I never heard of them."
"I see. I shall be sure to avoid being so trusting in the future." Even Said can tell he's not fooled, and he hardly knows Regulus. "What manner of spell, though- kill the dog behind-" A stunner interrupted the Death Eater just as he interrupted himself, but he was quick to disapparate. Damn- Sirius leaped out of the way of a hostile slash of wind through the air, his reflexes quick enough to see it came from the Egyptian. Bakr- where is he? He whipped his head around to the house whence their targets surfaced, and saw no activity. Can't focus on that now.
"Incarcarus!"
He avoided another spell from their informant as Charlie hit him with the curse, binding him in place. The red-haired wizard rushed over, his teeth showing as he approached.
"Where did he go? Why did you turn on us?" the younger man demanded. "Where the hell is Goldstein?"
Said laughed before answering. I'll remain a dog for a moment. I need to know how he knew.
"I knew Regulus were related to that man from the start. Did you believe he did not realize his brother escaped from prison?"
"You were never being controlled by Anthony, were you?"
"I transfigured my skin. I made a red mark on my chest. You assumed the rest, did you not?" He turned to the dog. "You're that man from before, aren't you? I told your brother you would be looking for him." Sirius transformed.
"Where are Bakr and Goldstein?"
"Bakr of the Draa? You are late. He left a few days ago. Perhaps if you can turn yourself into a younger man-"
"You still haven't explained why you turned on us! You're only in the same position as before!" Charlie shouted.
"You already told me I am not your target," Said managed. "I suppose Regulus fooled me as well, since he said he would help me, but perhaps he only wanted to see who was tracking him. He had prepared to leave tomorrow morning, you know." Why go outside at all? Why not just warn him and then tell us he was gone?
"You're protecting Goldstein, then. Why?" Sirius asked.
"There was nothing to lose in giving him a chance to escape, not while Regulus was with me. I suppose I should have told him there were only two of you. Perhaps he would have been more willing to duel." Regulus avoids every duel that might even be suggested. He takes our ancestor's platitude about not risking your neck to its logical extreme. To some extent, he fancied himself daring, but only in the sense that he was no servant of the Dark Lord, and every Death Eater knew it. Apart from that, Sirius could see how Anthony and his brother would get on.
"That's where you're wrong. You're going to tell us where they went," he decided, pointing Dumbledore's wand. It served, but it needed to accustom itself to him, or perhaps he to it. "Charlie, keep a look out. Crucio."
The Egyptian hacked a cough, caught in the middle of a breath as his body writhed in its binding.
"You can't just- just torture it out of him- he'll just lie about it to get it to stop."
"Crucio. That's what they do first, yes. After that, the responses start getting more interesting."