Thanks for the reviews, and welcome both old readers and new. Yeah, the grammar has come up before...I go over them three times and then have a beta reader...so I'll blame him :P Can't fire him though, would complicate my real life (g) Anyhow; intro'ing a new character in this chapter for this series...there will be at least two; the other to come in a following story. In any case, enjoy, thanks, and keep reading! JCWriter.
V
Jennifer knocked a second time, glancing over at Severus who was pursing his lips thoughtfully. Far from their home on Baker Street in a borough on the other side of the river was a small cul-de-sac of houses on Crow's Keeper Lane…a very modest wizard neighborhood simply marked by an iron security gate with what looked to be an electronic entry box with a broken card stuck in the slot.
Beyond it lay a number of cottages laid out upon a cobbled figure-eight road…some more kept up than others; not everyone was keen on putting in too much of their own money on the rental properties. Andrew himself was truly not much on yard work and had promptly but tastefully turned what little outside area he had into a chalk garden, with but a few scattered often-used herbs sitting in pots on his narrow porch. It was there that Jennifer was quickly losing her patience, taking a moment to lean over the rail and look up at a tiny attic window where her owl Dodger sat, turning his head around to look back at her curiously.
"Maybe sending Dodger ahead wasn't such a good idea, polite or not," Jennifer said with a sigh. "I don't see Darwin."
"Draco's suspicions or not, we have little reason as yet to suspect him of anything," Severus said calmly, pulling out his watch. "It says, 'Elsewhere' now. He has definitely left."
"Well, I don't believe he had anything to do with this. Perhaps he simply left before Dodger got here," Jennifer reasoned.
"Or perhaps he's avoiding us," Severus mused. Jennifer frowned at him for speaking what she had obviously been worried about. "So, why don't you take out that copy of his house key I told you not to make, since I know you did so anyway, so we can both disrespect his privacy together." Grimacing, Jennifer dug in her Chest Cloak and brought out the bronze key, feeling a bit guilty as she carefully opened the door and they stepped into the narrow entryway.
Immediately, Severus sniffed the air curiously, pausing to shut the door.
"What an odd smell."
"It's coming from the kitchen. I suppose Hanna's cooking," Jennifer said, but as she moved to head towards it her foot slipped on the floor and she stopped. "How odd! Water on the floor! I hope this isn't a sample of Hanna's housekeeping."
"It's under the coat rack, Jennifer," Severus pointed out. "There must have been something damp hanging upon it, and yet it hasn't rained since last night."
"He might have had a guest who had been somewhere it was raining," Jennifer said, picking up something off the rack itself. "Look, Severus, white hair." Severus took the tuft thoughtfully while Jennifer stepped into the kitchen, careful to look down in case there were any more wet areas. It was that caution which made her notice something else, and she crouched down to touch the waxed wooden floorboards. "Now, this is curious! What in the world has Andrew been doing to his floor? It's as if he's put a bed of nails upside down upon it or something! I'm sure the owner isn't going to like that."
Severus squinted suspiciously, kneeling beside her and running his hand over the floor. Sure enough, it was covered with small holes, some seemingly spaced the same length apart while others seemed closer and very random from the doorway to the center of the floor.
"These were put here recently," Severus mused. "The floor hasn't been waxed since the damage was made." He glanced back at the hallway, his eyes focusing in on the carpet runners before back to the kitchen, following them to the center of the room thoughtfully while Jennifer went over and peered in the oven.
"Nothing in there, but it is warm. I suppose it would be pointless to try to call his House Elf out?" Jennifer said.
"I'm sure if Andrew is hiding something from us he would have already informed her to stay quiet," Severus said. He glanced in the icebox and then paused a moment, going out into the hall as if heading towards the bedroom. A moment later he came back in again and paced over to the kitchen table, picking up a book on Herbology that was lying there.
"But what on earth could he be hiding, Severus? You don't think he really is mixed up in this somehow?" Jennifer asked.
Severus didn't answer. Instead, he snapped the book shut and looked over to a small hutch where one of its glass doors open. Most of the books kept there were cookbooks, but Severus couldn't help but notice a Transfiguration book lying on its side just below them. He opened it up with a frown, shaking his head.
"They're going about this the wrong way," Severus murmured.
"What, Severus?"
"We're going about this the wrong way," Severus said more distinctly, not turning around. "I think perhaps you should go speak with Ginger and see if you can get more information from her while I have some words with Aurelius and see if he's found out anything."
"Right, I'll send Dodger ahead then," Jennifer agreed, but paused by the door. "Severus, you don't think Andrew could possibly…"
"No, Jennifer, not possibly," Severus reassured her, pretending to read the tome in front of him. "There is no motive for him to do something like this, although a twisted prosecutor might try to turn our son's reputation against him. The problem is that so far there is no true cut motive for anyone, whereas I can name dozens who may have had opportunity, considering where it was, not to mention the means of using magic to do something of this nature. Motive is what I need to speak to Aurelius about."
"Well, I have full intention to find out what motive Andrew could possibly have for trying to avoid us," Jennifer said with determination, stopping at the desk in the hall to write a quick note. Severus didn't comment, but waited until she went outside before snapping the book shut and putting it back in place.
In so many ways Ginger Davidson was quite the opposite of Andrew; from her strong, unbending personality to her stylish London flat not far from her job at the Ministry of Magic. She had been one of Jennifer's best Potion students (again, unlike Andrew,) surpassed only for her zeal for Herbology. Jennifer, therefore, had not been at all surprised when Ginger decided to pursue a botanist career in the magical properties of plants, and was soon trained to identify trace elements in potions and poisons for the Ministry's Department of Investigations. But it had rather surprised her that she and Andrew still casually dated so often since they had graduated. What it was that kept the two of them coming back after it became obvious anything long term wasn't about to come out of it rather mystified Jennifer. From Andrew's face, Jennifer gathered for his part it was for reason's of friendship and familiarity; while Ginger's reasons seemed a bit more baffling, for the girl often seemed to simply refer to the whole situation as, 'being Accursed by Snapes.'
Was it just Andrew she's accursed with, or an entire family reference? Jennifer had often wondered about that with bemusement. Rolanda Hooch Archibald and Severus had once had a rather strained chemistry, built on jibes and underlying attraction…and yes, perhaps not completely one-sided, Jennifer had come to realize. But Jennifer was also certain that it had waned because of circumstances before Jennifer had even come along. They had disappeared entirely not long after she arrived, as Rolanda turned suddenly disinterested in anything but offering Jennifer handy advice in areas she had failed at. Well, that was Rolanda, Jennifer remembered with a warm smile.
But unlike Rolanda, her granddaughter Ginger, it seemed, didn't know when to leave well enough alone. Ginger was so convinced that sooner or later Andrew would give in and settle down…that sooner or later he would come around. Jennifer had hoped that as well once, as any mother might. But she had long come to realize that there were many more reasons for Andrew's choice of lifestyle than what there might seem to be on the surface. In that, Jennifer couldn't help but to feel partially to blame.
Clearing her thoughts, Jennifer knocked briskly on the door, which soon swung open to show Ginger's unusually pale face. Wordlessly, she gestured Jennifer inside. After shutting the door behind them, Ginger strode over to a small kitchen area, taking great pains not to look in Jennifer's direction.
"If you're looking for an alibi for Andrew, you've come to the wrong place," Ginger said crisply, pouring them both a drink.
"I'm not really looking for one, not exactly," Jennifer said. "But I am here to talk about Andrew. Have you spoken to him at all since last evening?"
"Oh, he knows better than to come back here," Ginger said. "Especially after trying to lie to me." Jennifer blinked at her in surprise.
"Lie? Andrew?" she asked dubiously. "What reason would he have to lie?"
"Well, that's obvious, isn't it? Apparently when he was out entertaining himself by helping Rel chase about that comely temptress he had not a date with me but some other girl as well! Oh, he tried to deny it," Ginger said, slightly annoyed by the still doubtful expression on Jennifer's face. "But he admitted it in the end. He said he had been gone all day yesterday helping a friend…a friend, but he wouldn't say who. Finally, he gave in and admitted to me it was a girl and barged out of the room. I haven't seen him since and I dare say he had better not try to see me ever again."
"Yes, I've heard you say that before," Jennifer said quietly. Ginger glared at her. "Ginger, I don't think he'd lie to you…he has no reason to lie. Come now, you've known for years Andrew wants only open relationships, and he's always been up front about it."
"Then why did he try to deny it?" Ginger demanded. She folded her arms then began to pace.
"I don't know," Jennifer admitted. "Perhaps whoever this girl was is a friend of his as he says, and if so I'm sure he has a good reason for keeping it quiet. At least I know now that you don't believe for a moment that he had anything to do with this death." Ginger paused and glanced over at her with a sigh.
"No, of course I don't. He would never hurt anyone…intentionally, as blind as he may be to unintentional ones…" Ginger said, pacing again. Jennifer merely smiled knowingly. The girl seemed to set herself up for those. "But I did have to admit to the Ministry that I couldn't account for the time he was gone, and that he wouldn't tell me where he was."
"But he did say he was helping a friend, and that that friend is a girl," Jennifer mused, leaning back. "But who could it be? What could have happened to this friend of his that would be worth putting himself in such an awkward position?"
"I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if no one hears from him until all of this business with the siren is cleared up," Ginger said. "No one can hide quite like Andrew can."
"You need not tell me of that," Jennifer said with a thin but worried smile. "Ginger, about this…relationship of yours…" just then there was a knock, and Jennifer sighed in annoyance as Ginger hurried over to open it.
"Oh, hi, Adler," Ginger greeted him unenthusiastically. Jennifer's face darkened slightly as Ginger let in Thomas Craw's deputy. But hers was not the only one to express intense dislike, for Adler Bosworth seemed no more pleased to see her here than she was to see him.
"Beat me here too, I see," he muttered, and Jennifer raised an eyebrow in response. "I hear that you and your husband just called upon Crow's Keeper Lane."
"Not that it is any of your business, Adler, but my father asked our help on this case," Jennifer said coolly.
"Giving the prime suspect a reason to run is hardly helping the case. As well as the fact you can't help but get emotionally involved," he added distastefully. "I will handle this part of the investigation from now on, if you don't mind? It isn't like Thomas really wanted your help, and you damn well know it. He just knows when you stick your nose in that the Professor will soon follow."
Jennifer got up so quickly that Ginger pushed herself between them.
"Say what you came to say and get out of my house, Adler. She was invited. You weren't," Ginger said pointedly.
"Yes, well, I suppose you women must stick together," Adler said casually. "Professor Andrew Snape is now formally being asked to return to the Ministry for questioning. I trust if he returns here you will do your job and bring him in?"
"I don't expect him to show up here, but I will if he does," Ginger said with a nod.
"As will I, if I see him," Jennifer said.
"Somehow, I doubt that," Adler said.
"Doubt as you like, but my son had nothing to do with any of this," Jennifer snapped.
"So you would believe, mother," Adler said smoothly. "But no man is innocent, no matter what the simple female mind may dupe themselves into thinking. I work on fact, not fiction, and if he is proven guilty, I plan to do my duty no matter whom he is related to. Good day."
"Just get out," Ginger growled at him. With a thin smile and nod, the wizard swept out. Ginger slammed the door so quickly behind him that a part of his cloak was caught. Ginger ignored the knocks and leaned against the door, forcing him to have to rip the cloak to get away. "Simple female mind? At least we think with our brains instead of something else," she said.
"How I hate that vile wretch! Who does he think he is?" Jennifer seethed.
"A Bosworth," Ginger said with a shrug.
"Well, I don't care, I'm a Craw. His dark family history doesn't give him a right to treat people like that. It's no wonder that my father dotes on him so as being the best assistant he's ever had. They're two peas in a pod in many ways," Jennifer said hotly.
"True," Ginger said thoughtfully. "But doesn't Severus like Adler well enough?"
"I think I'd better be going," Jennifer said, pointedly ignoring the question. "Perhaps Severus has better luck than I have had."
"I don't know. Maybe a few years in Azkaban would do Andrew a bit of good," Ginger mused. Jennifer gave her a dirty look.
"Care to come teach Transfiguration yourself?" Jennifer asked testily.
"Good point," Ginger said solemnly. "Good luck."
"Thank you," Jennifer said curtly, making a point to stomp on the piece of black cloth that fell on the floor when she opened the door.