Ann hated to drive into town. The act of driving in itself was pleasant as it was vaguely reminiscent of the traveling she had undertaken all her life. The town was something else. The residents deeply resented her oblivious attitude towards their customs and language. They didn't understand that it was simply her nature - even in her hometown she had been considered odd. While other teenagers headed to a burger joint after school she had gone to the library or hiking by herself in the nearby woods. She had stayed home from her high school prom despite her family's objections.

What Ann hated most about going into town was the people. The residents here were like people anywhere - she was distrustful of people in general. If she was with one person she was open and talkative. With two people she clammed up slightly. If there were more than three people around her she started eying the exits. The crowds in the market place made her slightly nauseous, like those hideous shopping malls back home where there were constantly masses of people pressed close around her. Sometimes crowds made her feel faint. She'd rather be quiet and alone. Being around so many people caused anxiety to gnaw at her stomach.

She was glad Severus had decided to come with her. Other people were put off by her disinterest, but Severus quite enjoyed it. He had told her that no other woman had been able to be friends with him without trying to change him. They would always urge him to use hair potions and wear lighter colors. She responded that he could walk around naked for all she cared. A voice in the back of her head had said, "In fact, feel free to," before she could mentally slap it away. It was precisely these odd things about Severus that attracted Ann to him: his long hair, his dark clothes, his moody silences, and his intense privacy. Ann had been attracted to the mysterious and dangerous as a child - as she still was.

Severus had examined her old Jeep curiously before entering it. He had little contact with the Muggle world - Muggles simply hadn't interested him.

They bounced around on the gravel and dirt roads. Ann could see that Severus wasn't very taken with this mode of transportation. He kept a firm grip on the seat as if he might otherwise be thrown. Ann parked on the side of the main street in the small village.

"This is the post office," she explained, walking towards the small building. "They deliver mail using humans, not owls, so it takes a bit longer."

There was no air conditioning inside. Instead a bulky, clanking fan squatted in the corner like a sulking watchdog. Ann had a bundle of mail waiting for her. She only came into town every couple weeks - with only two people in the house she could get away with it. The same old man as always sullenly handed her the mail that had been waiting. She didn't know his name. It didn't matter. She put the mail in her knapsack.

"This Curse Defense Guide you're looking for, is it dangerous?" Severus asked as they walked towards the food market. Severus had a bad habit of being nosy. He had found one of Ann's cards advertising M. A. Wyvern and immediately knew who she was. She had retrieved Moste Potente Potions for Hogwarts almost seven years ago. She had to track down and swallow the antidotes for nine different rare and deadly poisons to do so. It was dangerous only for those who didn't know what they were doing.

"Not really," she answered, bringing her fishing hat lower over her eyes to block the sun. "It will require more physical stamina than any magic - and your help with the math." She had brought Severus sections of complex Arithmancy problems to check. The other sections were sent separately to various experts she could trust. She never relied on the same person to fit together two pieces of the same puzzle.

"Is that why you've been so athletic lately?" Severus had offered to keep an eye on Jack whenever Ann needed him to, and Ann had taken up his offer rather aggressively. Of course, Jack was a solitary boy and little trouble. And Ann had warned him before that she would abuse his offer, but he wouldn't back down.

Ann had been following a very strange training program for the past month, combining elements of tae kwon do, yoga, rock climbing, and endurance hiking. She would be gone for several days at a time bringing nothing but her knapsack, a canteen of water, and several power bars. Ann would come back dirty and exhausted. She'd rest for the remainder of the week and then set out again. Severus stopped by her house to find her asleep on the porch or on the couch. He would carry her to her room and cover her with a blanket.

"I need to be able to survive for a week," Ann had explained. She expected her next mission to take no more than two days, but she didn't want to take any risks. "If something happens, I'll have a mental and physical edge. I'm not gonna start losing all that prize money now."

Severus didn't like the idea of her trying to survive for several days without food. He didn't think practicing starving herself and covering hundreds of miles in a few days would help. But she insisted there was a method to her madness.

Ann appreciated that Severus never tried to dissuade her from her goal. She thought he must a man who had been through worse. He certainly was a snoop, though. She had become in the habit of locking her bedroom door and her desk downstairs. He had an overwhelming curiosity to know what was going on. She thought he'd probably make a good spy. She imagined him as James Bond, knowledgeable and sexy. Or like Indiana Jones, with longer hair. But he never talked about himself and she didn't press him.

If only he wasn't such a sneak trying to find out about the book she was researching. Privacy was something she valued more than money.

Ann started to buy foods almost exclusively from the freezers in the back of a store. Severus stopped her. "Why don't you buy real food?" he asked.

"I wouldn't know what to do with it - I can't cook," she replied.

"I happen to be an excellent cook." He guided her to the vegetable stands and had her buy arrays of green things she hadn't known even existed. He had her buy strange fruits and small, brightly colored fish and all kinds of ingredients she forgot the names of as soon as he said them.

"What do I need flour for?" she asked. "If you can't sprinkle it on ice cream, I won't be able to figure out what to do with it."

But he insisted.

"I don't like fancy foods," she warned him. "I'm perfectly happy eating jelly sandwiches and chocolates. You'd better not make anything too fancy. I hope you don't have some kind of extravagant, romantic dinner in mind because I'll probably barf it up and switch to macaroni and cheese."

"I intend to enlighten you with British cuisine," he joked. "And a little extra. You have cooked something before, haven't you?"

She squinted up at him. "I can make toast."

Normally Ann protested fiercely if anyone tried to take control of any aspect of her life, but she allowed him to direct her shopping.

As she drove home, she thought about her make-shift family. She thought of Severus poking around her house, complaining of her dirty dishes piling up in the sink and finally doing them himself when she wouldn't put down the book she was reading. She pictured him and Jack on the beach, wading on near the shore, Severus's pants rolled up to his knees. His legs hadn't been as scrawny as she'd thought they'd be. She imagined his cooking for them, staying up late to talk with her after Jack went to bed.

She was happy. It all pleased her.

Severus was glad that Ann had left to go swimming with Jack. She refused to have anything to do with cooking. It gave him time to snoop around.

Severus knew there was nothing he could do to stop a grown woman from doing her job, but he knew that what she did was more dangerous than she knew. He couldn't imagine how she managed to survive. She had somehow managed to brush past death for years now, and every time accounted it to good timing. Severus had to find out everything he could about this book she was currently looking for. It was the only way to help her.

He marveled at her ingenuity. How could a Muggle come up with all of these detailed descriptions of a place where a book was being held that few people even believed existed? He shifted through her papers, trying to find something of value. The problem was that everything of value he had ever seen in her hands went straight into her knapsack. And the knapsack never left her sight.

He didn't blame her for being so secretive. They were extremely valuable secretly, worth thousands of galleons. But most of the things he could determine that she did were illegal. It was illegal for a Muggle to even possess a magical book in the first place, much less to trade them. Not to even mention the other magical items she possessed that ever wizards couldn't own. His biggest concern was a rumor he had heard lately concerning a certain Book. It wasn't the book Ann was working on at the moment, but he feared she would come to it one day. He knew his fears were unfounded - Voldemort was gone. Yet, if he ever did come back...

Severus heard the back door slam shut. He did the only thing he could think of to cover his reason for being near the back room. He ran into the bathroom and lifted the toilet seat.

She poked her head in anyway, oblivious to his biological functionings at the present moment. "You're a godamn snoop!" she said hotly.

"What?" he asked nonchalantly as he zipped his pants.

"You know what I'm talking about. Just happened to be in the bathroom, did you? Just happened to be by my study room?"

He turned around at faced her. She was pissed. There was nothing he could do about that. If he explained she'd take even more offense.

"Get out," she said, walking down the hall away from him.

"What?!"

"I said get out! I don't need your bloody cooking or your ugly face around here!" She ran up the stairs and slammed her bedroom door shut.

His mouth was dry as he headed for the backdoor. He had blown it. He had found a woman he could be friends with as easily as Filch and he had blown it all on some stupid rumor.

Jack stood in the back doorway. "She's mad," Jack said mournfully.

"It's not your fault, it's mine," Severus admitted. Did this mean he wouldn't see Jack again? He enjoyed Jack's company. He admired children that had discipline and potential like Jack.

"It's the letter."

Severus stopped. "What letter?"

"Momma got a letter today with the light in it."

"A light in it?"

"Like the letter she got when we first eat pizza together."

Severus's eyes widened. "You must tell me everything you can remember," he said, peering down into Jack's small brown face.

"An owl brought a letter, and it put the light on her so she couldn't move, so I read it and then burned it."

"And what did it say?" He prayed he was wrong, that it was nothing.

"It say: find Lyrinx."

He shuddered. Lyrinx was the name of an ancient book that was supposed to have been destroyed centuries ago. Legend said it contained knowledge of either bringing mass death, or reversing it. It could wipe out entire countries, so the story went. And, most importantly, its pages contained the key to immortality.

Severus had heard from several colleagues that certain parties were gaining interest in the tome. The rumor had been true. Ann was in more danger than she could even begin to understand. Severus was silent. Lyrinx, The Book of Death. It didn't exist, of course, but then again practically none of the books Ann found did. Who would be insane enough to try to search for it? It must be some kind of criminal who sent those letters for jokes. But the last letter had been serious.

He walked slowly up the stairs and paused outside the bedroom door. It was silent inside. He slowly turned the knob and entered the room.

He stopped short when he felt a knife press into his back. "Drink this." Ann handed him a vial, a clear substance that he guessed was Veritaserum. He hesitated – if not made correctly the potion could be toxic – but decided Ann was smart enough to find a competent supplier. What had he to lose? He had his wand in his sleeve, and taking the potion wouldn't reduce his reaction time; years of serving the Dark Lord and being questioned by the Ministry had given him something of an immunity to its soporific effects. He drank it.

"Did you send that letter?" she asked.

He was taken aback. He hadn't realized his behavior would seem so suspicious to some one observing him. She would have thought that he was trying to steal any knowledge she had of the Book. He shook his head. "No. I admit I was snooping, but only because I've heard rumors. Someone's been searching for the Book of Death. I was afraid you would be foolish enough to try to find it."

"Who did you hear this from?"

"Former Death Eaters." Thankfully, she didn't ask him how he knew them.

"Were you afraid I would be threatened by them?"

He sighed. "I was afraid if you would be confronted with it, you would try to find it. I wanted to discover how much you knew." This conversation was going badly. He knew that if she wanted to find it, she probably would. But he couldn't tell her that. If someone got their hands on her...

"Did you intend to stop me?"

"I'm not sure what I intended. I was worried about you." Damn it, the conversation was starting to turn sloppy. He hoped the potion wore off soon, as she hadn't given him a very large dosage.

She turned away from him. "You think I can't take care of myself." He felt the pressure of the knife withdraw. "Well, fuck you."

He turned around quickly. "I said I was worried. There are people searching for this book that will do anything to find it. I don't want you to get mixed up with them."

She scowled. "What are you? My babysitter? I work alone. No one helps me."

"I could help you," he said suddenly. Was it the Veritaserum, or quick thinking? He wasn't sure.

They stared at each other.

He smelled smoke. "Bloody hell!" he exclaimed. The food downstairs was burning.

A/N: Edit, book title is now Lyrinx – the Book of Death part is a subtitle. The word Lyrinx comes from Ian Irvine's Well of Echoes trilogy. And I changed the last scene to keep Ann more in character – and more bad-ass. Heh.