Disclaimer:

All characters in the story are the property of J. K. Rowling and Bloomsbury Books, with the exception of Eleanora Sterling and a few supporting characters, who are my own creations. This story is created purely for the entertainment of myself and other like-minded readers and no copyright infringement is intended.

By mentioning J.K. Rowling in this story I do not intend to present her as a fictional character or to imply that the Harry Potter books are not her own 100% original works.

Any opinions, political or otherwise, on world events, personages or governments expressed in these pages, are the opinions of the characters speaking them and not necessarily those of the author.

Chapter 8: London Calling

Snape woke early the following morning. Nora was still asleep by his side. He raised himself up on one elbow and watched her sleep.

Gods, but she was beautiful. He realized in wonderment that he had never felt this way about a woman before. This relationship with Eleanora had been the most complete love he had ever known in his lifetime, and it put him in awe that in spite of their difficulties, she seemed to love him so much in return. That was why it pained him so to be practicing a deception upon her.

It wasn't that he didn't trust her, but after she had received the letter from Poppy he realized that if Nora wrote back to her friend and mentor at Hogwarts, she was certain to mention what had been troubling her, which was specifically his plans to return to London against Dumbledore's — and her — wishes.

He was aware that she had probably already, to a point, confided in her friend Angie, but this didn't trouble him. While he knew it was very unlikely that she would have told Angie the entire story of Hogwarts and Voldemort, she would have mentioned the substance of it at least, in order to have a sympathetic ear, and would have made up a cover story for the rest of the details. He credited Nora with that much sense at least.

But he could not be sure that Nora wouldn't let something more factual slip to Poppy. He had to make sure that if she did write a letter to Hogwarts, he intercepted it first.

In the meantime, his plan had been to keep her as busy and contented as possible, in order to forestall the inevitability of her reply... and also to keep her from reading the fourth book in the Harry Potter series, and making the connection between something that was mentioned in that story and something he had not been totally honest with her about.

Yesterday's outings had been in the interest of keeping her occupied. During her absence Severus had spent the morning planning the evening's diversion. As soon as Poppy's letter had arrived, he made a dinner reservation at a small, elegant restaurant called Bijoux, a tiny place virtually hidden in a back alley but which had received rave reviews and was had been termed "the culinary gem of the season." Coming up with theatre tickets at such short notice had been another stroke of genius, as he had been able to "influence" the house manager at the Avon Theatre to give up a pair of private box seats normally reserved for VIP's. He had even purchased a new suit for the occasion.

Mind you, it had given him great satisfaction to plan the evening for her. Ever since their arrival, it had seemed that she was always the one taking the lead in anything they did, planning his days and his entertainments for him and always being the one "in the know" about local happenings. To take the initiative for once had given him an unaccountable amount of pleasure, and it was plain that his effort had pleased Nora as well. And if Nora remained pleased with him, she just might forget about making any revelations to Poppy that could eventually reach the wrong ears.

During dinner the evening before, he had even made the suggestion that she should start up her medical practice again. That would certainly keep her days occupied. But she had instantly brushed off the idea, saying that knowing he would want to return to Hogwarts permanently if he managed to bring about Voldemort's defeat, she did not want to put herself in the position of starting up her practice, only to shut it down again.

At least she was finally beginning to accept that his plans might actually go forward and succeed, and he inferred from this that she would be willing to return to the Magical dimension with him.

Nora smiled sleepily as she awoke and saw him looking fondly down upon her. "Mmmm. Good morning, darling," she murmured.

He leaned down to kiss her. "How did you sleep?"

"Very well, thanks. And thank you for last night... that was amazing!"

"Which part of it?" he chuckled wickedly.

"Oh, the dinner, the play, all of it… but especially the part after we got home," she replied, smiling mischievously. Indeed, last night's love-making had started out playfully but had ended up as being particularly intense.

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, dearest. I was just wondering if you would like breakfast in bed?"

"As wonderful as that sounds, I'd miss you too much while you went downstairs to make it," she said, stretching seductively.

"Well, we can either stay right here and go hungry, or we can both go down to the kitchen and see what we can throw together."

They lingered in bed for a while, but once other needs were satisfied, hunger eventually won out. Nora got up and freshened herself in the bathroom. Throwing on their robes, they went down to the kitchen. Nora made a mental note, as she noticed Poppy's letter on the coffee table in the living room, to get around to answering it in the next day or so.

What she did not see was Severus slipping the parchment missive into the pocket of his robe after she had passed it. No sense in leaving such a blatant reminder of her obligations lying about.

* * *

They were partway through eating breakfast when the telephone rang. Nora went into the back sitting room to answer it.

"Severus! It's Remus Lupin on the phone!" she called out excitedly. "Pick up the extension in the living room."

At last, Lupin had contacted them. Snape needed to talk to him alone. How to get Nora off the phone, and out of earshot? But as she would naturally want to hear every word, there was nothing for it but to find a way to contact Lupin privately later on.

"Lupin, how are you? It's good to hear from you," Snape said warmly.

"Is it really, Old Man? I think that's the first time you have ever greeted me so enthusiastically," Lupin replied dryly.

"Ah well, it's been a while since we have heard anything from home. Naturally I'm anxious to hear if there is any news," he said stiffly, as he recovered himself from his uncharacteristic enthusiasm. And was that Remus who snorted with laughter just then, or was it Nora, he wondered?

"I heard from Madame Pomfrey yesterday," Nora put in. "She says you've taken a place in Mundane London."

"Yes, a small flat. Just a pied à terre, really, but as I'm back and forth between both Londons so often these days, it seemed to make sense to set up a permanent address here. I'm happy to report that it looks as though there are no Death Eater activities on the Mundane side, so it can also serve as a sort of safe house for any of our agents who need to quickly disappear from Muggle London."

"Just as long as you are careful not to be followed," Snape cautioned. "We don't want the Death Eaters finding any portals by accident."

"No of course not. And we have taken the precaution of hanging magical tags on all the portals in order to detect anyone who might happen to come through."

"And just how is it that those work, Remus?" Nora asked. "I thought that magic didn't work so well here."

"Yes, I had wondered that myself," Snape asked. "I could understand the tags by themselves, but how are you managing to detect them? Welkin told us about it but he never really explained the whole thing."

"Well, it's quite remarkable really. It seems that the tags give off a certain kind of electro-magnetic signature. What we are using to detect them isn't a magical device at all, it's a piece of Mundane technology that picks up the signal and displays it on a computerized map!"

"Really! That sounds just like a tracking device." Nora exclaimed.

"Erm, yes, I suppose, but using a magical tag gives us an added dimension. Unlike a physical tracking device, they are invisible, virtually undetectable by human senses, and the ones we are using are only triggered by the activation of a portal's aura. So if a Muggle just happened to pass through a structure that served as a portal, it wouldn't attach itself to them. They are very selective little buggers," Remus chuckled.

"Who made the map?" Snape asked. No wizards he knew had the knowledge of Mundane technology necessary to construct such an device.

"Ah. The J.M. Walsh people on Goodge Street apparently have a department that specializes in spy gadgets of this sort. I just attached a tag to a real-looking bit of hardware and said 'Here's the signal it puts out, now give us a way to track it.' They came up with the rest... and the whole thing fits into a pocket."

"Brilliant," Nora and Severus said at once.

"But what news is there of Voldemort and his activities?" Snape asked.

"Not much to report at the moment," Remus replied. "They have been lying very low since the episode at Hogwarts. Though I shouldn't think they are inactive, by any means. I had heard rumours they had sent some agents to North America to see if they could find you and Nora, but of course they have gone to the wrong North America. Won't be much for them to find there."

"Hmmm. Let's just hope they don't stumble onto any portals."

"Remus, I recall Welkin mentioning that there was a Death Eater cell starting up in New York." Nora asked anxiously.

"Yes, we had heard rumours of that but it is as yet unconfirmed. Our operative who went there to find out has disappeared. Though," he added darkly, "his very disappearance would seem to confirm that it is so."

"What operative was that?" Snape asked.

"Ah, well that is very interesting," Remus replied. "Do you remember the unsolved disappearance of Ignatius Weatherby?"

"Yes!" Nora exclaimed. "Don't tell me he was the one who went to New York. Why didn't Dumbledore know about it?"

"It appears he did it more or less on his own initiative. The only other person who had any idea about it was Percy Weasley, another one of Dumbledore's clandestine operatives in the Ministry."

Snape was beginning to respect this Weatherby character: another man who acted on his own initiative.

"But why didn't Weasley report it right away?" Nora asked. She recalled that Dumbledore sent inquiries around London via Hermione Granger, after he disappeared. They were trying to determine if either he or Welkin had been acting as spies for Voldemort.

"It seemed that Weasley knew that Weatherby had been trying to get accepted into the Death Eaters as a spy, and that he was planning to fly to New York to check out the rumour of a cell there, but even though Percy was not directly involved in the planning, he agreed to keep the information from Dumbledore because he knew Albus would never have approved of the scheme - it was incredibly foolhardy."

"Aha! I always thought Dumbledore was too cautious. This just confirms that others think so too."

"That's as may be, Snape," Remus replied, "but do try to have a little more respect for the man. Weatherby seems to have met a bad end, has he not? Albus may be cautious, but for good reason. And he has gotten results."

"Really? Not that I can tell. Voldemort is still at large, Peter Pettigrew has yet to be found, and Sirius Black is still in hiding," Nora retorted. Snape was surprised at her vehemence: he might be able to make an ally of her yet.

"But Dumbledore knows about Weatherby now, does he?" Snape asked.

"Yes, Percy eventually came clean. But I'm afraid he's been suspended from his job at the Ministry, at least temporarily. Albus is very upset with him, and rightly so, in my opinion."

Hmmm. Making a conspirator out of Remus Lupin would be more difficult than he thought. But speaking of Weasleys being in hot water, his thoughts turned to Percy's little sister, and the Harry Potter books debacle… "So, how is old Welkin these days?" he asked smoothly.

Severus… Nora shot a warning thought at him.

"Algernon? He's fine, but I'd heard he's asked to take a brief leave from the Ministry. And at his own request, he's ceasing his activities as an operative in London. He is getting on in years, and I believe is thinking about retirement."

Retirement with all that money he's made off the Harry Potter books, Snape silently conjectured.

"And do we have any idea how the Death Eaters found out about our plans to come to Canada?" Nora asked.

"Nothing concrete yet, Nora. We've been interviewing Ministry employees and operatives pretty thoroughly, trying to discover if there is a mole, but so far we have turned up nothing. At this point we have decided that the Death Eaters must have had one of their own spies following Welkin on the day we met with him, and we do have a couple of half-baked theories as to who it might have been, but at least we are now fairly positive that the leak didn't come from Welkin or anyone else in the Ministry."

So… Snape now knew where Weatherby had disappeared to, but not why; that Welkin had left the Ministry, at least temporarily, and no longer posed a security threat; that is was unlikely (but not impossible!) that there were spies within the Ministry; and that Percy Weasley was suspended. His worries of a security breach were virtually resolved, and it looked as though he might be able to make a conspirator out of Percy, if he could get in touch with him somehow.

"Lupin, we must have a way of getting in touch again. Can you leave us your address and so forth?" Snape asked.

"Of course, but I'll do you one better than that... here is my telephone number and e-mail address…" He supplied these while Nora wrote them down.

"I'll have to get Nora to show me how to deal with the e-mail," Snape said. "I'm sure I'll think of more questions later."

"Yes, no doubt. Don't worry, I'll certainly keep you informed, Severus," Lupin assured him as he rang off.

NEXT: E-Mail and Snail-Mail

A/N - Hope this chapter answers a few questions! No, avocado salad is not very Snape-like. But now you know what he was up to!

- Grey Lady