Chapter Three
Tripp Lee
*********
They
decided to order in something for dinner before going over the rest of the
story. They had ordered some Chinese from Jeff's favorite place down the
street, they actually knew his order the second he gave his address. Chicken in a Brown Sauce and a eggroll
every time. Trevor got Chicken with Cashews and some Wonton soup. The food arrived soon enough and sat
and ate in the kitchen while a CD Jeff put on played in the background.
"So
here is what I know thus far about this particular Death Eater. His name is
Tripp Lee, he is about 25 years old, he studied at Durmstrang Institute where
excelled in the Dark Arts, the Ministry was hoping to get him to be an Auror
but he disappeared soon after graduating and the next time he was seen soon
after the end to Triwizard tournament when the Dark Lord rose again, he had
seemed to be Lucius Malfoys newest lackey. And as Lucius was soon revealed to
have return to Voldemorts side, it was assumed that Tripp joined him."
Jeff,
normally a fast eater had barely take a bite of his dinner. He was hanging on
every word. He could have sworn he was dreaming, this couldn't really be happening he kept telling
himself. Trevor Continued.
"Now
we have it on good authority that Voldemort is much more untrusting then
before, as many of the people he considered loyal to him had turned when he
fell. Lee seems to be the first new Death Eater to join up so Voldemort has be
hard on him wishing to make a point. We believe that he has kept Tripp at a
distance allowing him to prove himself while not letting him in on plans to he
is more assured of Tripp loyalty. So its likely that Tripp is out here trying
to prove himself but I don't have a clue as to why he is do that in the United
States.
Jeff
stared more payed closer attention to anyone in his life except for her, of
course. Years later he still had lingering thoughts about getting back
together. They still spoke occasionally. She had just finished her junior year
at Purdue University, where she was studying psychology. By all logical
reasoning she was out of his league, tops in her class, literally a genius, and
she was the cutest girl he had ever known. She also had a future. All Jeff had was a Death Eater at his
doorstep.
"There
ministry may be in more disorder then ours but their cops don't take any
shit from anyone so it tends to balance out. If they would only allow the
Ministry of Magic to operate here there would be so many less incidents. You
know they have twice as many reported incidents of muggles seeing wizards in
the act then anywhere in Europe…"
"Er,
You know I am and American right?"
"Right,
sorry bout that" Trevor took a bite out of his dinner for the first time,
it had started to go cold, but it didn't bother him. " So tell me
about your self, maybe there something about you that can help us"
Jeff
couldn't possibly imagine what there could be that would help but he told
Trevor his life story. Starting
with the constant fighting with his parents, his break up with his girlfriend,
everything that led to that trip to London. And how since returning he had
drifted away from his friends as he immersed himself in book. How had even gone
as far as to write several papers on it in while at the University. This seemed
to intrigue Trevor.
"Really?
Do you think I could take a look at them?"
Jeff
was thrilled to share them. There were the only papers he had done really well
on it while at school, two A pluses and 2 As. Those were the only As he received while in his studies
though. He went to his bag and
brought back his Powerbook, opened it up on the table between Trevor and
himself, turned it on and found the first of the papers, the one he was most
proud of, and showed it to him, "take your time reading it, I am going to
start to bring in the rest of my stuff from the car." And with that he
left the apartment and headed for his car.
He couldn't believe that
after just a few hours with Trevor he trusted him in his apartment alone. This
was not like the paranoid boy he had always been. But for some reason he
trusted him. It probably had something to do with all that came with knowing
Trevor, the conformation of the book, the whole new world this opened up to
him.
When he got to his car he was in
for another surprise. There was a note on the car for him. It looked similar to
the one from before. Wearily, he
reached across his windshield and grabbed the note, and slowly opened and read
it.
I Know What You Know
I Have Seen What You Have Seen
At any other point in his life, he would have been
scared by threat left on his car but now all he could think was 'Great, a
poets threatening me, and he is not even a very good poet!" And with that
he, grabbed as many bags from his car as he could hold and headed back to his
apartment.
And then he saw something that had to be a dream. At
the end of the block he could her standing there in someone elses arms. It made
him sick to his stomach, but it couldn't be her he kept telling
himself. She lived so far away she
couldn't be right there. And just as suddenly she was gone. He dropped
his bags and ran to the spot where he saw her, and no one was there, no one in
either direction. It had to be a dream, yes just a bad dream he convinced
himself. He went recollected his bags and the note and headed into the
apartment.
Trevor sat in front of the computer still reading
intently; in fact he almost missed Jeff coming in. "Oh there you are, I
hope you don't mind but I found the other papers on here and started to examine
them to though so far I don't think I have found anything
so…what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost?"
"There was another note on my car, here you
go" with that he dropped the
note about a foot away from Trevor.
"And..well, I could have sworn I saw my ex
standing down the block with someone else but…" The sighting
clearly bother him more then the note.
"Oh," Trevor trying his best to be
sympathetic but clearly with no clue what to say just sat there. He noticed a picture from with a
couple in it, Jeff with some girl he assumed was his ex. "Is that
her?" he pointed and asked.
"Oh yeah that's her. I put it up when I
moved in last year, everyone thought it seemed to be alittle depressing to keep
a picture of the girl who dumped in here, but it actually makes me smile. Kind
of like she still here waiting for me" Jeff grinned but it was short
lived, he was still struck by the sight of her with someone else.
"If I may, where does she live if it
couldn't have been her?" Trevor thought trying to keep him talking
might help.
"She lives in New Jersey, we had meet 3 and a
half years ago at a concert in the city. She hardly came out here while we were
together. We would meet in the city or I would drive to her most of the time,
she didn't have a car so it was easier for her. All I ever wanted was to
make her happy."
He sat on the couch staring blankly at the wall.
" Well it is over now. So what do you make of the note?"
"Well there not much to make of it, we pretty
much already got the idea he was after to you but no insight as to why he is
after you."
"The only connection I have to the wizarding
world is that book but only the kid who lost it would have known it was gone
and he seemed to preoccupied to notice me." Jeff went for the scotch
again, if it he didn't watch it he was going to turn out like his father
he thought. Three drinks in one night, this just wasn't like him.
"Well did you get a good look at
him?" It was starting to
seem to Jeff that Trevor was getting frustrated."
"Well
all I remember is platinum blonde hair, it was almost white in fact and pale
skin, that's it." Trevor looked startled for a second, but quickly
composed himself. "So now what?"
"Well
you look exhausted, why don't you get to bed, and Ill meet you back here
tomorrow, say around 10?"
Thinking
about the 12 plus hours on the road that day and what had happened since, 10
seemed way to early. "Better make it 1, I have had a very long day and I
am not a morning person."
Trevor
Laughed. "Yea sure, I'll see you tomorrow." And with that he
left.
******
As
Jeff laid down in bed he was sure this was the strangest day of his life but he
also had a feeling that this was just the beginning. He had a dream that night
that he was back in London on that day and instead of tripping over that blond
kid, he had tripped over Harry Potter himself. He bent over to give him a hand
up and said "I owe you one"