Chapter Two

He wasn't in the mood for this. It may be true that he spent most of his time running around in circles, trying to stay ahead of his pathetic excuse of a life but still, he wasn't in the mood for this.
Severus Snape stood on the edge of an impeccably well kept muggle lawn. The grass trimmed to just the right length, the green grass vibrant and sharp. He wondered why they took the time to make everything look so perfect.

He heard the murmuring of the other Order members as they too shifted about, waiting for the go ahead to enter the seemingly ordinary house. Dumbledore had called in a few members for assistance in a most alarming matter. Though they had all been briefly informed on what was believed to be inside that quiet ordinary house, Severus still had to try to wrap his head around it. He'd never expected muggles would be so stupid and yet so smart to try and turn a muggle into a wizard. It had never been tried, mostly because muggles were so ignorant. But to kidnap a wizard? He didn't think very highly of the man who had allowed himself to fall into crazy muggle hands.

Their task was a simple yet long one. First they would knock out everyone inside, move them to the same room and use the truth potion on them, get them to spill every last detail about their activities. After they were through with the muggles their minds would be wiped and they would keep an eye on them in case someone with more information tried to contact them. They then had to find the wizard that had been captured and destroy all evidence about this 'energy convertor' they had heard about. That was all Severus was needed for. Of course they still had to find out who had authorized the go ahead to create the machine and that would have to been done inside the government. A job for Kingsley no doubt.

Feeling his muscles stiffen again he moved his shoulders back and flexed his arms, not that anyone would notice as they were all currently using a cover spell.

Snape had used a spell that would detect and uncover all muggle monitoring devices within a certain area and deactivate them. There had been numerous gadgets hidden around the outside of the house, motion sensors, heat sensors, the muggles left nothing out. What was strange though, was that they currently had no real guards on the lookout. He could detect no movement inside; this told him something wasn't right. It shouldn't be this quiet.

Finally the signal was given, a mental ring sounded in his mind and they all silently took off. As they had to go in pairs, Severus had been stuck with Arthur Weasley. The man was infuriating. His constant need for talk was, to say the least, maddening, but Severus clenched his jaw shut and they somehow stealthily moved into the bowels of the building.

They easily found a large steel elevator hidden in what looked like a closet that took them straight down, unusual to have an elevator in a house. When the doors opened they stepped into a lobby type waiting room, it had white bare walls with the occasional potted plant to add some colour to the room and some comfortable looking couches pushed into a private corner. A reception desk stood tall in the middle which was currently unmanned and a corridor stretched both left and right, doors lining them.

He walked quickly down the left corridor; Arthur in his wake and with a small spell, the first door flew open unhindered. Again he was struck by the quietness and knew, before the door opened, that it would be void of people. Unless they were all hold up somewhere else, he would guess that the building had already been evacuated, and by the looks of the paper strewn across the floor, quite quickly too.

He glanced at some of the sheets which were scrawled with messy handwriting and little diagrams full of equations. He moved onto the next room and found the same thing.

"Severus!" Arthur called out to him from another room, "I've found someone!"

Abandoning his own room he followed Arthur's voice to the door beside the end door of the corridor. Rushing inside it took a moment to make sense of what he was seeing. A white hospital bed sat in the middle of the room, its occupant hooked up to several muggle medical contraptions. She was pale, young, thin, her jet black hair surrounding her face in tangles. For a moment he watched the slow rise and fall of her chest before finally kicking himself into gear.

"I thought we were looking for a man?" Arthur commented in shock.

"Perhaps we will find him in another room." Snape answered obviously.

"Right, I'll, ugh, keep looking." Arthur stuttered, most likely wondering what each of the machines did as they bleeped and flashed. Arthur had a peculiar interest in muggle technology that most would deem unhealthy.

Snape moved slightly closer to the bed and the unconscious girl, unsure what he should do. He knew little about muggle medical technology except that it was mostly barbaric. Muggles cut people open with knives, poked them with needles and shoved incredible amounts of drugs into their blood, a wizard healers' way was through potions and spells, unobtrusive, giving the body an invasive way to heal. To see a witch or wizard plugged into muggle contraptions was, disturbing and for the unfortunate occupant, would be most alarming. For Snape was fairly certain that she was indeed a witch. He could feel her core magic, weak and faint and wavering, but still there. That was how a witch or wizard could tell each other apart from an ordinary muggle. But still, he felt something odd about her. Something he couldn't put his mind on.

A stumbling noise could be heard as Arthur re-entered the room, his face slightly flushed. "The last room, it's been completely cleared out."

Snape knew then that they were too late. The muggles were gone and they had taken their devise with them.

He headed out the room and back down the corridor they'd come in, Arthur on his heels unsure where they were going. It didn't take them long to find Remus and Kingsley. They were in a cold steel room, a metal slab stuck in the centre and steel doors covering the right side. Several of the steel doors were open but there was one that had a large sliding tray pulled out, a man whose colour had been lost long ago lay unmoving. Snape recognized him immediately as the wizard they had been sent to find. A wizard who had been killed by these muggles.

"There is another witch here." Snape broke the silence and Remus looked at him sharply.

"Dumbledore said only one wizard was taken." He furrowed his brow.

"It would appear otherwise. It would also seem that this place has been evacuated earlier today. The machine is not here."

"But they would leave a witch here?" Kingsley asked, his voice betraying the calm he had managed to impose.

"No doubt they left in a hurry, taking only what could carry. I wouldn't expect them to return." Snape surmised.

"You think try knew we were coming?" Arthur who had been extremely quite at last stepped into the room.

"Yes." Was all Snape could answer with. They had known and he knew then they weren't simply dealing with some power hungry muggles, these people were smart and dangerous, and they were playing a very dangerous game.

Brendan was not a likable guy. He had come to accept this over the years that some might get slightly insulted when he cut them down. Of course in this case he didn't need to do that. He had no more than half a dozen people hidden within the government who knew of the little project he was running. The less people who knew, the less people to screw up.

There were rules. These had to be obeyed at all times or you were out, and not just out of a job.
One of the major rules was contact, which had to be maintained four times a day. Every six hours you had to report in, fail to do so and when you showed up for work the next day, that building would be empty and you would have a very short life span indeed. These rules had been reinforced for security, for Brendan knew of the wizard world. He knew of the spells and potions that could not stop a muggle from hiding any secret. A drop of truth potion here, confess all their sins and then wipe their memory and no one would know, except the wizards and witches that is.

Contact had been broken with one of his supporters. He had failed to call in at the appointed time a full hour out. Of course by the time he did they were long gone. Not knowing how much time they had, all they could take was the machine. The girl and dead wizard and the rest of their minor projects had to be left because there was no going back.

So here they were, in another place, resetting themselves back and adjusting once again. At least this time they didn't have to start from scratch. The energy converter worked, now all they needed was another wizard.