Gotc: Dear God…what's it been? A month?

Ace: Roughly.

Gotc: Great. Sorry people, I got a new job, and it's kinda had me thrown off my game. My new boss has me doing surgeries (don't get me wrong, I'm way happy about that), but when you're trying to make sure a cat doesn't wake up while the doc is removing its claws, it tends to stress ya out a little.

Ace: Thanks for the image, excuse me while I go hit my head against a wall until I lose consciousness…

Gotc: They have pills for that now. Anyway, I think you all have waited long enough for this so….SQUEAKY!!

Squeaky: Squeak. (What was I supposed to be doing again? Oh yeah, J.K. owns Harry, Takahashi owns Yugi, Gotc owns Ace.)

Gotc: Yep! Off to chappie-land now!

--

Harry Potter and the Order of the Rising Dragon

CHAPTER FOUR: Two-Faced

Ace was sick of owls. There had been no fewer than eleven owls all crowding and hooting, among other things, in his tiny room, coming and going at all hours of the day and night. The floor was strewn with feathers, droppings, and the bones of tiny dismembered creatures that cracked unpleasantly underfoot. He'd tried shutting the window, but somehow they managed to find their way inside anyway. In the end, Ace had resigned to leaving it open, since it kept the room bearably cool in the heat of the summer, and the owls kept coming in a steady stream. Each time one flew in, they brought some kind of package, such as a newspaper or maybe a book or two, many of which were piled on the rickety table that occupied one corner of the room. On top of the heap, was a thick book, Hogwarts: A History, with a letter sticking out of its pages that had been folded and unfolded so many times, that it was ready to fall apart.

An all too familiar rustle of wings caught Ace's attention, as he was inverted in a one-armed handstand. He'd been locked in that position for hours now, with only a thin sheen of sweat covering his tanned skin. His torso was bare, with only a thin silver chain hanging around his neck, while a multitude of scars, marred flesh, and patches of stitched smooth skin criss-crossed his entire body. Each told a story he had committed to memory, the worst being a deep gash that ran from the inner joint of his right shoulder almost to his hip on his left side. The only place on him that a scar couldn't be seen, was where a wide bandage of plaster and tape held his bruised ribs in place.

He cast an irritated eye upward, as a new weight lighted on his foot. Two wide brown eyes stared unblinkingly back at him and gave a soft hoot.

"Alright alright," Ace grumbled, flipping deftly back onto his feet, as the owl flapped to his bedpost.

He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head, before attending to the owl patiently waiting for him. He filled a shallow bowl with some water and set it down on the nightstand next to the bird.. As the bird hopped down to drink, Ace untied the scroll from its leg, and sat down on the bed to read it.

I'll be sending you someone to help you get ready.

-Albus Dumbledore

Ace read it again and flipped the small scrap of parchment over, in a vain attempt to see if there was anything else written. He gave an irritated sigh, and looked up at the owl still gulping water.

"I don't suppose you know when these people are going to come?" He asked the owl, before it flew out the window in a flurry of feathers, "No, I didn't think so."

Ace walked over to the window and leaned on the sill, looking down onto the street below. A couple of cars went by and an occasional pedestrian scurried from shadow to shadow, trying to avoid the worst of the summer heat. At that moment, Ace would have given almost anything to go outside, heat or not, if only to stretch his body and shake off the restlessness that had been growing over the last two weeks. But the rational side of him argued against it. He was in unfamiliar territory, working with a group of people he knew very little about, and he had most likely upset a very powerful wizard by foiling that robbery of the Egyptian exhibit. While he would have almost welcomed a good fight, he knew it wasn't wise to go looking for trouble…at least not until he knew a little more about what he was dealing with.

A sudden pop behind him, had Ace wheeling around in a defensive position to face his intruder. Two hooded figures stood in the center of the room, one slightly taller than the other.

"Lower your fists boy!" A gruff voice said, before lowering his hood, "We're hear on Dumbledore's behalf. Didn't you get the owl?"

Ace narrowed his eyes, but didn't relax his stance as he looked his new guests over. The shorter of the two seemed to be sizing him up too, but with one eye that rotated unnaturally in a man-made socket. The other dropped his hood as well, revealing his pale and gaunt features.

"Ace Cooper I presume?" The taller man asked.

"Yeah," Ace said guarded, "Who are you?"

"Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin," The man with the magical eye said, then after a moment added, "You're taller than Dumbledore described you."

"I'll take that as a compliment…" Ace said lowering his fists, but never took his eyes off of the two, "I guess you're the ones Dumbledore said he was sending to help me get read for the year."

"That's correct," Lupin nodded, "He sends his apologies that he wasn't able to accompany us today, but he had some more pressing business to attend to."

"I saw…Something about that Harry Potter kid, I'm guessing?" Ace recalled, having read some article in one of the newspapers that had been delivered.

"Aye," Moody said scanning the room, "What made you take up here in the Leaky Cauldron? The place isn't exactly hospitable."

"Not sure," Ace shrugged, "Shady places are usually the best spots to pick up some good information. And it seemed like there were a bunch of odd folks coming through here."

Moody looked up at Lupin with a satisfied smirk on his grizzled face, before starting to pull out several small flasks from the folds of his robes.

"I like this one already," Moody said, "Good instincts, and thinks with his head."

Ace raised an eyebrow. These were the "help" Dumbledore had sent him? What kind of school did this guy run?

"Look, not to be rude or anything," Ace interrupted, "But how exactly are you guys supposed to help me?"

"You need someone to teach you the ropes," Moody said shoving one of the flasks into Ace's hands, "Lupin and I were both teachers at Hogwarts at one point. Or supposed to be at least."

"Uh-huh…" Ace said, eyeing the contents of the flagon in his hand. The liquid, if you could call it that, moved with the sluggish consistency of mud and smelled like rotten meat and old socks. "And what about this stuff?"

"You drink it," Lupin said grabbing another one of the flasks, "We're going to be headed to get some supplies, and muggles aren't exactly allowed."

"How's this going to help then?" Ace said, not really wanting to drink the stuff, "Is it going to give me magical powers?"

"Only one way to find out isn't there?" Moody chuckled, taking a swig of his own flask.

Ace eyed the liquid one last time, before putting the edge to his lips and tipping the flask to down a mouthful of the stuff. He had to fight down the overwhelming urge to spit the stuff out again. It tasted even worse than it smelled, and he was certain anything he ate for weeks would taste the same. He managed at last to force it down his throat, all the while keeping the bile in his stomach from bringing it back up. He leaned forward and put his hands on his knees, trying to regain some control over the waves of nausea that kept washing over him. Thankfully, it didn't last long, and he felt the nausea begin to subside, only to be replaced by a strange bubbly feeling that was rapidly spreading to the rest of his body. He looked down at his hands, and watched in horror, as the flesh seemed to boil and reform as if it were made of clay. The scars on his arms vanished, and when he managed to look into the mirror, he was nearly sick again. His face looked as if there were dozens of tiny creatures scurrying just under the skin. His cold cerulean eyes became a warm brown, his hard angular features softened, and his midnight colored hair shrank back to a shorter length and turned a dusty brown.

Ace squinted hard at his reflection, not quite believing that the face he saw looking back at him from the mirror was his own. He flexed his hands a few times, turned around, and pulled at the skin in his face, hoping that maybe the man in the mirror would do something different.

"Quite an odd feeling, isn't it?" Ace heard Lupin's voice say behind him, as a new man examined his features as well. Lupin looked like he'd put on fifty pounds and the wispy hair on his head had disappeared, leaving a balding patch of lightly tanned skin on the top of his head. He threw Ace a spare set of robes and motioned for him to put them on.

"Odd is one way to put it," Ace said finding his voice again, thankful that at least that hadn't changed, "Not the word I would have used….but it works."

"Are you two ladies done gawking?" A much more trim-looking Moody said carefully stowing his eye in his pocket, and heading out the door, "This potion only lasts an hour before it wears off and you need another swig of that stuff."

"Thanks for the warning…" Ace mumbled putting the stopper in his flask, and following after Moody.

The cleaning witch in the hall gave the trio a strange look, but silently went back to her work, as they disappeared down the stairs. As they entered the dim and dusty bar, Ace could swear he could feel the eyes of the man behind the bar boring into the back of his head, despite his newfound appearance. Moody forced open a rusty door at the back of the bar and ushered them into the tiny dead-end alley, before he walked over to the weathered brick wall blocking their way.

"Sooo…," Ace said, stepping over a fallen trash barrel, "Where exactly are we going? Because right now

"Diagon Alley," Lupin said, "Best place to find everything you're going to need."

"So where is it?" Ace asked.

Moody turned away from the wall and looked back at Ace with a Cheshiresque grin on his face, before tapping one of the worn bricks with his wand. It took a massive amount of self-control on Ace's part to keep his lower jaw off of the garbage strewn ground, as the bricks seemed to fold back on them selves and open up onto a bustling street full of witches and wizards.

"I told you I liked your instincts boy," Moody chuckled, clapping Ace once on the back, "You were closer to us than you thought."

Outwardly, it didn't take more than a second for Ace to recover from the initial shock, as they took their first steps through the threshold. Vendors crowded the streets outside of the various shops, each selling goods stranger and more exotic than the last. People crowded the narrow gap between the vendors, bustling to and fro caring all sorts of packages of different shapes and sizes. A young girl scurried by, holding a beaten doll in her hand, black hair up in two pigtails, and eyes twinkling with laughter. Ace paused in his step for a moment, and watched her run by and right to her mother waiting on the other side of the street.

"We don't have time to daydream Professor," Lupin reminded Ace.

"You're right," He said slowly, before catching up with them, "Where to first?"

--

Gotc: Alright, a little shorter than I would have liked it to be, but there was an important little gem in there for those of you who like to dig!

Ace: Why tell them that?! It takes away all the adventure of discovering it later!

Gotc: Cause them it makes this seem more important. Besides, now hopefullyeveryone's wondering what it is I'm talking about. Anyhoo, so sorry for the wait again, new job and all, but I should be posting more now that I've got my new schedule under control. I hope my fans are still out there and will remember to review as always!!