The box of many places.

When Arun arrived in her apartment she found both Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore standing by her fire. The Oran Spike was missing.

"Where is it," Arun demanded.

"I could ask you the same," Dumbledore retorted. "The spiders reported to Hagrid that a professor fitting your description was found in the vault, you had a student with you, and the artefacts are gone."

"Let me ask you this Professor, what kind of idiot stores them together?"

Snape hissed air through his teeth and turned away from her.

"Don't start feeling upset because I went off without you Sev."

"Be kind to Severus, he's trying to help you."

"Don't lecture me, professor, you've made this hard from the start."

"Intentionally. I hoped you would see my offer of a job as sincere, and would be able to trust me to deal with the artefacts."

"You've done so well with that, haven't you? How many students were attacked how many teachers?" she jabbed her thumb in the direction of Severus.

"To be honest, you have fared little better yourself."

"Do you realise that Greyback is in the forest? He tried to attack us, but at least I'm satisfied he's not here on the behalf of the Americans. He can be easily swayed though, and I'm certain that they will use his plans to attack you as a cover for their own infiltration."

Dumbledore's mouth went into a very hard line and he seemed to grow a little taller in his anger, "Is that what you were planning? To lead the Americans into the school so you could have all the artefacts in one place and destroy them."

Arun raised an eyebrow, what a good idea. Dumbledore took it as confirmation.

"How dare you! How dare you put us all at risk like that."

"Oh don't be such a hypocrite."

Dumbledore's face pulled down, he looked like he would be sick from disgust. Severus rounded on her. "All the people who want to help you end this and you keep a plan like that to yourself? You really do hold yourself in high esteem, don't you?"

"The more who know, the bigger the problem, Sev, and there is a bigger problem, in that the artefacts can't be stored together. If the Americans do come they won't bring the other four with them."

Dumbledore raised his hand to quiet them all, "What happens when you put the two together?" he asked.

"I saw all the people I had killed. I saw an American man too who I think is the ghost of Grant. The ghosts said something, 'those who seek shall find themselves. Those with the power to claim us will be consumed by us.' I split the artefacts up, it lessened the power of them. I don't expect that a person can harness their power at all unless they have all seven on their person and have given themselves to the curse completely."

Dumbledore ran a hand over his beard and he turned and sat on the sofa. Arun looked Snape dead in the eye and found nothing there. The bastard was blocking her. "Sev," she muttered. "I need the spike back."

"What does this spike do?" Dumbledore asked.

"I have no idea, My sister told me to get it. She's the one who knows how to use it."

"And where is your sister now?"

"I assume taken by the Americans, I haven't heard from her and I should have by now. I've checked with her contacts and I've sent word to her safehouse portraits but nobody's seen her."

Severus went even paler, "You said nothing of this to me?"

"After overhearing you two plotting the other night, of course I haven't," Arun spat.

Dumbledore steepled his fingers, Snape snarled and walked to the other side of the room.

"From this moment forth you are no longer a teacher here, Granville. I suggest you pack that trunk of yours very thoroughly."

Arun put her hands on her hips and practically snarled at Dumbledore, "Helpful as always Headmaster. Can you just for once say what you mean and be done with it."

"If you require me to spell it out for you Miss Granville I shall," he turned very cold, his voice was iced water. "Take the spike, take the artefacts, and get out of my school." He stood up and swept past her. "If I find out that you are playing into the hands of the Dark Lord I will hunt you down and kill you myself." his eyes glinted over the top of his glasses, "I'd happily see your bloodline wiped from the face of this earth."

Arundel was going to say something about Dumbledore showing his true colours, but Severus shot her a look of wounded contempt and left with the headmaster. Nobody had given her back the Oran Spike.

She did as she was told, and packed her belongings into her travel trunk, but when it came time to pack the Artefact she started to mutter to herself. "Pack your trunk very carefully, miss Granville," she sneered to herself, and then she sat on her haunches and started to laugh. "Oh," she muttered. "And I bet you've started it for me already haven't you, you old bastard."

She closed the lid of her trunk, tapped it with her hand and then reopened it. Eight locked compartments looked back up at her. She opened the first and found the Oran Spike. The second was empty and in here she placed the flag. "I don't believe it," she muttered.

"You need to be more careful," Severus told her. She hadn't heard him come in. He squatted down next to her and cast lazy eyes over the trunk. "We both know the Dark Lord will return eventually." When she didn't stop packing he put his hands over hers and demanded her attention. "Albus knows it too. I have to keep my cover Arun, regardless of how I feel about you or him or anybody. I have to keep my cover."

"You play your part too well," Arun told him.

"And what about you?" Severus asked. "Come on, don't pretend you are doing this to protect the dark lord or the ministry, why do you still want to fight?"

"They have my sister, Sev. That's reason enough. I've never lied about my intentions to you."

"What will you do now?"

"I'll recover the other two artefacts in my possession, then I will get my sister back."

"How, exactly, are you going to do it?"

Arun opened her mouth, then exhaled in frustration. Severus gave her a card.

"What's this?"

"A place you can stay."

"Where?"

"It's in London, it's called Black Meadow Villa, the Dark Lord used it as a safe house. I'm a secret keeper."

Arun nodded once, "I don't suppose we'll see each other for a little while."

"It's possibly for the best Arun, until this is over I'm just getting in your way. I'm distracting you."

She nodded once and bit at the skin around her nail, "Will you visit me when you can?"

He nodded and handed her a picture of himself, "so we can talk," he said.

"Thank you," she told him and pocketed it.

Once she had found Jacob, taken his artefact, and shrunk her trunk down to the size of a pendant that she could hang around her neck for safety she left the school. She wasn't too sorry to see it go, but it had been nice to be good at something. For all the effort, teaching was quite good fun, well, some bits of it were. There were certain classes she would never miss but others that had been ok to teach. She wondered if they would miss her, but suspected they would get over it quite quickly. When she stepped out into the night the only person who seemed sorry to see her go was Filch, and he practically had a tear in his eye as he helped her up onto a thestral drawn carriage.

"Don't worry Argus, a day will come where you're appreciated like I appreciate you," she smiled at him wondering if he knew that day was today and she didn't appreciate him at all.

"Oh, Miss Granville, the school will be a sadder place without you." He set the cart off down the road and then he hung back and waved as he closed the gates.

Arun sighed, slid down in her seat and watched the trees go past. Something howled and the thestral bucked as dark shadows walked across the road. "We meet again," Fenrir muttered and he moved to the carriage and climbed up next to her.

"I've got what I came for Fenrir, the school's yours for the taking."

The werewolf started to laugh. "Nice of you as that is, after the centurar's attacking us…" he trailed off. "Another time, what was it the Dark Lord told us? Patience and planning will always win the war."

"Perhaps he should have taken his own advice," Arun muttered and Fenrir roared with laughter. "So what do you want?"

"You mentioned something to me when I was going to kill you and those kids. The Americans? And I got to wondering what you meant?"

"The American Society of Black Wizardry," Arun muttered.

"The American Society of Black Wizardry," Fenrir parroted and he slouched back on the coach seat and lit up a cigarette. "What you got going on with them?"

"They are looking to create a storm in a teacup and I'm trying to stop them. I had thoughts that they had enlisted you to create a diversion whilst they stole some artefacts I'm after."

"Did you get your artefacts?"

Arun looked at him, at once suspicious again, "No," she told him. "Though I did find out that they have been moved from Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore and the Ministry. The American's have taken my sister, Fenrir, they wish to stop me from acting against them."

"What will you do?"

"Get my sister back of course." Arun shook the reins of the cart and the thestral began to move along the path again, it was nervous as it moved and shook its head and rolled its eyes. "I'm going to get her back and I'm going to kill every last one of them."

Fenrir sat forward, "Sounds like your taking on the world Arun, but the thing about the world is it's bigger than you. It seems to me like your small group of friends is getting smaller."

"Oh now, don't be so hasty, you forget I have the Death Eaters on my side."

"What's left of em, the good fighters ended up in Azkaban and the rest are the cowards who talk more than they act."

Arun pouted and looked away, he did have a point.

"And what about the rest of your network ahy, bunch of crooks who won't do a thing unless it's got something in it for them. Who'd stab you as soon as look at you for the right price."

"Are you talking about yourself Fenrir?"

He chuckled, "I have morals, I have a vision."

"A world where wizards don't see werewolves and vampires as a disease? There's a problem though, isn't there, that to be accepted you need a food source nobody laments."

Fenrir grunted.

"What do you want from me Fen? I can't offer you a change of world perspective."

"I want to bolster my forces."

"Do you?"

"I want fighters."

"How are you going to get that?" Arun asked, the coach was coming to the edge of the forest, the trees were getting sparse.

"The prison in Albania, the one for dangerous magical criminals, I want to get inside."

"The one near Curraj? Are you crazy?"

"I might well be, but I am a man with a vision and I will play this game out to the end."

Arun sat quiet, there were things in Albania she wished to avoid, her mother for one.

"Seems to me," Fenrir said, "That we have an opportunity here. I aid you in dealing with these Americans and you aid me in my infiltration of the prison."

"Let me think on it," she told him.

"I'd have your answer now or not at all, if it's all the same to you, I need to move from this forest and I would like a direction in which to travel."

"Head to Egypt then," Arun told him. "To Thebes, I'll try and pick up my sister's trail from there."

Fenrir's smile spread across his face like a crack in lava. He held out a hairy hand and shook on it. "What would you do without me, ahy?" he asked.

She apperated from Hogsmeade to London, and she went to the bank first and withdrew the third Grants Artifact. At all times now, she would wear them around her neck. Dumbledore's adaption to her chest had been a good one, bending space to house the artefacts in different places meant that they didn't react to each other, even though they were stored in the same box. As she left the bank vault the head goblin took her to one side. "Miss Granville, I must inform you, A man was here yesterday who said he was here to collect a package from your vault. I denied him, but later three witches broke into the vaults. Your defences got them, we found their bodies this morning. Whatever you are storing, please take it away."

"Consider it done," Arun told him. "This man, what did he look like?"

"Tall, middle age spread, had a sly look to his face, eyes were small and close together and his chin was large. He had cowboy boots on and an American accent."

So Harold Kirk was in London again. Most likely he had people watching the bank still, waiting for her to come out. "Do you have another exit? I think I may be walking into a trap."

"It's highly irregular to let customers use it, but since you bring us so much custom I will make an allowance."

"Thank you."

The goblin took her into the back rooms of the bank, where she saw a number of barbers chairs. "Have a seat, Miss Granville," he motioned for her to sit and she did as she was told. "This will bring you out into Bakers Street near a goblin bar called the Portkey and Coin. From there you can make your way unobserved. I do wish you good fortune, let me know if you are looking for work in the future, I hear there are new tombs in Thebes just opened up."

Arun cast him a sidelong look, but before she could ask him about Thebes he pulled a lever on the side of the chair and she tipped upside down and fell out the sky into a courtyard by the Portkey and Coin. As soon as she landed she left on foot, and ducked into the Prince Clarence, a muggle pub. She still had her robes on, the muggles turned to look at her as she crossed the bar and went into the toilet, where she opened her travel case, climbed inside and changed into muggle clothes, she also took muggle money, two hundred pounds of it, and up she climbed again. She got herself food, then she took the tube back to the Leaky Caldron where she transfigured herself into a wall and then watched the comings and goings of the patrons.

The hours ticked by slowly, the night turned to day and by lunchtime Arundel was ready to give up. As she was contemplating her next steps Hix walked out of the pub flanked by two men, one with a cowboy hat on, and one who was so wide his arms didn't sit flush to his body. They did not look happy. She tried to enhance her hearing but as soon as she did the noise of London became so deafening that she had to stop. Instead, when they walked away on foot, Arun followed at a distance.

They walked to an industrial part of London near the docks where they were met by a number of reinforcements. Arun hid in the shadows, watching as Hix gave a report to another man she recognised, Mr Lace, who was older with delicate features and a thin pointed nose. He was the only one in wizards clothes, everybody else looked like they had watched one of those late seventies American dramas about secret service cops. It was dull grey Britain and they had sunglasses on. She could count about twenty of them by the docks, so she assumed that there were more elsewhere. Maybe she would be fighting fifty of them in total. She edged as close as she could go, but it wasn't close enough, and she could only hear their voices when the wind blew in her direction.

"She went in…"

The wind changed, she waited.

"How'dy know she ain't still down there Hix?" Lace's accent was Texas oil baron, if he wasn't so dangerous it would have been comical.

"...come out….go…..ground….use the…"

Arun frowned, she couldn't decipher that at all.

Lace looked angry but whatever he said next was lost to her.

"And the bait?" Hix asked.

"We have to find the damn woman first to set the trap Hix."

"Let's use the Malfoys, sir, I keep tellin ya, they might not trust us but they will pass on a message sure as shit."

"The Malfoys are a old pureblood family, we will not disrespect them without good cause. Now, Hix, get your men sniffing her out. She's in London and I want her run out."

Hix nodded, "Very good sir." He turned to leave, but Lace held out a thin hand and stopped him.

"Are they secure?"

"Yes, and well guarded in key locations around that dry as shit city. Ain't nobody cracking them 'jyptian tombs," Hix laughed, Lace nodded and waved his hand in the air. His entourage climbed back into cars and the car's disappeared. Arun saw, as they left, that they were covered in yellow dust. She watched Hix spit on the ground then turn to the remaining group of men. "Get over to Camden and shake down those Rats. You, go back to the Caldron and keep an eye on Diagon Alley, pay the goblins and Borgen and Burke's a proper visit. You're on the ministry, and you five and I will head back to Hogsmeade then on to the Malfoys anyway. She ain't getting away from us. You see her, you try and take her alive, but if you have to kill her don't hold back. It's the artefacts we want not the girl."

After that Arun slipped away, she took the tube to Hampstead Heath and ducked into a corner shop where she brought gin, beer, a box of cereal, some milk and teabags, some ham, bread, tomatoes, eggs, salad and noodles. She wasn't very good at shopping. She asked the man in the shop how to get to Parliament Hill and was given good directions. Then she walked to the very end of the road, where Black Meadow Villa materialised in front of her, the last house on Parliament Hill.

She took the steps up to the front of the red brick house two at a time and found the front door unlocked. That wasn't surprising, only people who knew the house existed could get into it. True to the Death Eater fashion, the house was painted like a dark Victorian parlour, with green and black walls hung with tapestries. As she walked through the house drinking neat gin, the lights and fireplaces sprang into life. She found a sitting room, dining room and kitchen, a library and a study on the ground floor, and then upstairs six bedrooms and three bathrooms. As far as safehouses went, this was a nicer one. She chose a bedroom, the most impressive one with the four poster bed and before she got comfortable for the night she put the picture of Severus out on her bedside table. The painting shifted, blinked at her and sighed.

"What do you want?"

"I've been waiting for hours, hang on," the portrait went blank, and then the real Severus looked out at her. "Why did it take such a long time for you to get here?"

"Hi Severus, good to see you too."

"It's Friday night, it's nearly teatime," Severus complained. "What happened?"

"I was seen going into Gringotts, I was tipped off by the Goblins who helped me escape, and then I doubled back and followed them. It was Hix. I followed him to a raundaveaus with Lace from the American Society. They do have my sister and they are planning to set up a meet to exchange the Artifacts for her. She's in Thebes, either that or somewhere dry in America. But, I know Amber was in Thebes when they took her... so…" she left the assumption hanging and she fished around in her bag for the gin and her cigarettes. She took a swig neet and winced as it burned it's way down then lit a cigarette as a chaser, then had another swig of gin as a chaser for the cigarette. Severus blinked through the painting at her.

"We can use this- Hix will contact the Malfoys once he's finished beating up my other contacts. Lace has ordered him to be respectful to the Malfoys- but that gives me a few days, doesn't it? A few days to come up with a way to fuck them." She took another swig and Severus scratched the back of his neck and didn't look too happy.

"There was about twenty-five of them today, I reckon there's around fifty in total if you count the ones in Thebes too, I need to take them out quickly, maybe I don't need to take anybody out- I could just-" she swigged again. "There must be a stealthier way, right?" she noticed how Snape looked away from her, as if he were ashamed. "What?" she snapped. "Don't you approve?" she waved the bottle at him and took another, defiant, swig then leaned in closer. "I got more tobacco too," she told him and waggled her eyebrows and took a long drag on her cigarette.

"Arun-" Snape started. Then he took a deep breath and looked directly at her. "Do what you need to do but don't make any plans tonight please. You sound-" he breathed through his nose. "You sound unhappy."

"I sound unhappy," she echoed slowly. "What makes you say that?"

"Nead I point out that you are drinking and talking about killing people like you are excited. Your eyes look like the Dark Lord used to look when he felt he had been insulted."

"I am excited. I'm excited to get my sister back and I'm excited to get the artefacts and kill those bastards who are trying to get me."

"You think you can take on fifty of them alone do you?"

"I don't have to take out fifty. I have to take out one, Mr Lace, and the rest will fall away." She waved her fingers at the painting as if they were raindrops.

"You need to be objective, you've seen too much action in too short a time."

Arun's jaw tensed, "Got Albus sitting next to you, do you?"

"Don't start. I'm this close to coming to you."

She leaned in, "That a threat, is it?"

Severus nodded to himself and his painting went black.

"Sev?" she asked. There was no reply.

A moment later her fire flared green and Snape strode out of the fireplace and he took the bottle from her and chucked it into the flames.

"Well, that's a little dramatic don't you think?" Arun protested.

He grabbed her and drew her into a tight hug, resting his head on top of hers. At first, she felt angry with him, but after a few moments her knees went weak and an overwhelming frustration washed over her. He did nothing other than hold her but the effect was shattering. In under a minute she was a crying mess and Severus took her over to the bed and he sat her down on the side of it and held her as she cried. After a little while he helped her undress and put her to bed, and a little while after that he brought her a hot water bottle and a sleeping draft. Before she took it she told him everything that had happened, from the rade on the ministry of magic to finding the vaults. If Severus was surprised by how busy she had been he didn't show it but he did stay with her as she fell asleep.