4

Severus stared in disbelief at the boy before him. "What do you mean, she left?"

"She says I'm to give you this note," said Jack. Severus grabbed it and quickly tore it open. It read:

Dear Severus,

I will be gone on business for several weeks. Please keep an eye on Jack for me (you did offer to, and I warned you I would abuse the privilege - I am simply keeping my word). Besides, you are both fond of each other, so it's really no skin off your nose.

Not that my business is any of yours, but I have been commissioned by Alastor Moody to retrieve the previously lost Handbook to Counter Curses written by the Dark Mages of H'Oranidelle. It is not dangerous, so please do not worry for my safety. However, in the event that I do not return, please see to it that Jack is placed in an orphanage in Britain, as I want him to have the opportunity to attend Hogwarts. As you can see, the village is not very sympathetic to his needs.

I must ask that you do not follow me. I know you worry that I will seek a previously mentioned book, but I have decided to forgo all commissions to find it.

Thank you for being my friend.

Yours truly,

M. A. Wyvern

P.S. Please burn this note after reading it - my clients are ensured the strictest confidentiality.

He couldn't believe it. She was dismissing him with a business note, telling him that seeking a book that had killed countless wizards was no more dangerous than a hike in the woods. The possibility that she might not come back struck him more fiercely than it ever had before. She could be killed! What did she think she was doing? He looked at the little boy standing by the front door. "Did Ann tell you to come here?" he asked.

Jack nodded, shifting his suitcase from one hand to the other. "She said to watch the tele until the cartoon ended at noon and then come here to stay with my Uncle Severus."

Severus looked at his pocket watch. It was a few minutes past 12:30 p.m. "And when did she actually leave?"

Jack rolled his eyes up at the ceiling. It took forever for him to answer, "Momma left a bit before nine."

Damn!

"Sirius!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"What?" The other man walked out the hallway, still in his boxers, a particularly ugly pair with grey whales splattered over a dark blue background.

"Get dressed! And help Jack into a guest room, he's staying with us for a while," he snapped. "Ann left - I'm going after her."

He disapparated before the fool could question him further. Severus was immediately on Ann's back porch. He walked into the house and froze. All of the books were missing. He ran into her study. The empty bookcases stared back at him, along with the clean desk that had previously held gigantic quantities of papers. Of course Ann wouldn't risk leaving her notes and books behind where they could be found.

He tried to use a Snoop charm to follow her magically but it died instantly. He cursed. She must have gotten her hands on some pixie dust - just a sprinkle can dispel even the strongest tracing charms.

He found out front that her car was gone. He began to transfigure his clothes to make them less conspicuous. He was going to have to follow her the Muggle way.

Ann yawned. She had stayed up all night packing, but she didn't want to sleep on the plane. All she could see out the window besides her were fluffy white clouds.

He would follow her, of course, but so what? He might be smart, and he might be powerful, but a Muggle he was not. Traveling through the airports and train stations that Ann passed would be slightly harder for him to pull off.

Ann unzipped her knapsack and glanced at the thin attaché case inside. She didn't know what she would do without it. It fit perfectly into her knapsack in into her lifestyle. She had a friend charm it so that she could file away large quantities of books, notes, and important documents during her frequent travels. She now had her entire library in there - it wasn't even that hard. All she had to do was say the name of the book and its author as she dropped it in and it would be filed automatically. To retrieve it, she'd do the same. Of course, that meant she had to make sure she didn't loose the book list she guarded with her life. But she could just dump it over and demand all the books, but she really didn't want to know exactly how many books had floated to the bottom and become lost, mostly cheap Muggle paperbacks that she read once and filed away only to be forgotten. She could also call forth the labels to dig through if she forgot what she was looking for. But she preferred to simply remember since the number of labels was more than she could count. The amount of files she had accrued was enough to make even the toughest librarian cringe. Her attaché case definitely made her nomadic life less of a hassle.

It was habit, of course, for her to pack up everything with her when she left on a mission. She never went back to the same place after one of her book trips. Fearing discovery, it wasn't unnatural for her to more to an entirely different country. She had never owned a piece of property in her life. But she rented with cash only. But this time wasn't the same - Jack was back home waiting for her (and Severus! she thought). It made her feel slightly queasy to pack everything up, as if she were jinxing herself into not making it back. She dismissed the thought; Ann was not a superstitious person.

Ann had bought her tickets in cash. People were suspicious, of course, but what could she do about it? Severus, or whoever else happened to be trying to follow her, couldn't trace her. She had most of her money on her. She was distrustful of banks, except for a select few like Gringotts. A lot of her money stayed in the wallet hidden in her attaché case. The wallet was charmed very much like the container it was in, so that she merely had to call up the amount she needed. She kept a normal wallet in her pocket and refilled it at necessary intervals. It was dangerous, perhaps, to keep so much money in one place, but Ann didn't worry. She had plenty more money, and no one would be able to get inside the wallet anyway - she had taken precautions. The attaché case and wallet were both magiced with the strongest security charms available. Only Ann could open them. Some one could tear both completely apart and not find a single scrap of paper. Ann was fairly proud of her possessions. Their service was well worth the effort of their making.

It was habit for Ann to take a meandering route towards her final goal. She had had all kinds of people try to follow her: goblins, muggle businessmen, even that annoying Rita Skeeter. They inevitably failed. There were dozens of M. A. Wyverns around the world, and she was a muggle and a young woman - much different from the older, male wizard they thought they were following. Ann fancied that even if they had her full name and photo they still couldn't catch her. It was Ann's nature to be slippery when it pleased her. She couldn't survive in the real world of modern society, but she sure as hell could sneak past it. She had to admit thought that as much as the blatant sexism pissed her off, the false image had probably saved her neck on several occasions.

Ann was almost there. After the plane landed, she would be in a city only a day's drive away from her destination. She would take a train three quarters of the way there, and then hide her overnight bag. She would then set off into the mountains that lined the town with only her hiking pack, her valuables tucked inside. It would be straight uphill from there. She would walk the rest of the way.

To be continued..