Chapter 9: Dinner at Marty's
By the time Kelria left the Hog's Head, Lucius was far up the High Street. She headed his way, following him all the way through Hogsmeade to the edge of town. When he reached the edge, he looked behind him, and then spun on the spot and disapparated. Smirking, Kelria did the same, glad Professor Dragh had taught them how to follow people who apparated in her Stealth and Stalking class.
The place where Kelria ended up was a field in the middle of nowhere, and Kelria was more than a bit perplexed. What in Merlin's name did Malfoy want with an empty field?
Then it hit her. He must have known he was being followed, and had put a change in the spell, to make her go in a different direction from him. And looking around, she couldn't see him anywhere. She cursed loudly, then spun on the spot and apparated back to her cozy living room, where all her study notes were still spread out on the coffee table.
She sighed and sat down for a good three hours of study before she got too hungry to continue, at which point she called Khyana to see if the younger girl fancied a trip to Marty's.
"This late?" Khyana asked, looking at the clock over her mantle, grinning widely the whole time. She herself had had a telephone installed to keep up correspondence with her friends from the University, and Kelria had followed suit ("It makes sense, since you and Lily both have one, and they're really very convenient"). Every time Kelria used the device, Khyana teased her to high heaven.
"Sure, why not?"
"Alright. Five minutes, usual table."
"Sounds good."
Kelria hung up the phone and hurried to put on some of the muggle clothes she and Khyana had bought together when she'd started at the university, the same day they'd discovered Marty's Diner.
Five minutes later, the two friends were sitting in their usual spot at the restaurant, talking jokingly with Jonathan, the cute waiter, and Julie, his sister.
"It's been a while since you two've been around," Julie said.
"Work's been really busy," Khyana said, before Kelria had a chance to say anything. "We just couldn't get away. And we have exams this week. We needed a break from all the studying."
Kelria felt a slight pang at Khyana's words. She knew she really shouldn't be here at all, but should be back home studying, since she hadn't done much earlier in the day, tracking Malfoy and such. She made a firm decision to study harder the next day.
Khyana was still talking with Julie, who was getting rude remarks and gestures from other customers who wanted her attentions to take care of their bills or food.
"Oi! Julie!"
Julie sighed as her boss called to her, gave the two friends an exasperated look, then hurried off to look after her other customers, her hand in her apron pocket.
Jonathan had also disappeared with their orders, and Kelria thought it a good time to bring up the topic of her tracking session with Khyana's brother.
"Andi stopped by my house today," she said nonchalantly.
"Really?" Khyana asked, dipping an onion ring in the sauce. "What'd she have to say?"
"She had some information for me about Malfoy."
Khyana stiffened at the mention of her brother. "Did she now?" she asked indifferently.
"Yeah. Apparently your brother-"
"He is not my brother," Khyana hissed in a dangerous voice that frightened even Kelria, glaring across the table with eyes full of hatred.
"Okay! Sorry. Apparently Malfoy is training mini Death Eaters."
"Oh yeah? Who?"
"Donavan Wilkes, Ben Avery and Joseph Travers."
Khyana got a far-away look on her face as she mouthed "mini Death Eaters…mini Slytherins."
Kelria had no idea what that meant, and really thought Khyana had lost it this time.
"So, Wilkes, Avery and Travers have gotten themselves mixed up with Lucius, have they?"
"Apparently." She paused as Jonathan returned and put their plates in front of them. "Thank you, Jonathan." He smiled at both of them and then moved onto his next table. "Anyway," Kelria continued, "I went up to the school to talk to Dumbledore, and Wilkes was going on one of his little adventures while I was there, so I followed him. He went to the Hog's Head and met with Malfoy. They spoke for about ten minutes, but I was too far away to hear what they said and I couldn't risk getting any closer, not without an Invisibility Cloak. I followed Lucius when he left the inn, but he apparated and he must have known he was being followed, because I ended up in an empty field in the middle of nowhere when I followed him, and he wasn't anywhere to be found. So now I know at least that he's attempting to recruit the younger Slytherins."
Khyana nodded thoughtfully, and took a bite of her burger. "Sounds like it," she replied, shoving bun and meat into her cheek to talk.
Kelria made a disgusted face, and Khyana grinned.
"How are you doing with your investigation?" Kelria asked, stabbing some lettuce from her caesar salad with her fork.
Khyana shrugged. "I'm doing okay. I haven't been able to catch Bellatrix in any of those meetings Andi was talking about, but I've been able to get a few leads. I've been talking to Cam a bit…"
"Cam Jones?" Kelria asked, surprised. Khyana had broken up with Cam Jones in their seventh year, and as far as Kelria knew hadn't spoken to him since.
Khyana nodded. "He works in the Ministry, tracking Death Eater activity. He's not officially an auror, but he does research for them. So I've been talking to him a bit."
"Has his information been good?"
Khyana shrugged, popping another onion ring in her mouth. "Some of it. I think it depends what informant he gets it from. Some of them are better than others, I'm thinking. So I'll just need to discover who gives faulty information and who gives good information, and avoid following leads from the faulty ones."
"But sometimes even the best informant can get faulty info, and the bad ones could accidentally pick up on something good."
Khyana made a face. "I know. It's ticking me off. I can't risk not following a lead because it could prove to be a good one, but they're mostly just nothing."
Kelria nodded her understanding. "Yeah, that's annoying."
"Tell me about it. Especially when you're dealing with someone as slippery as Bellatrix Black Lestrange."
Kelria nodded. She understood, but there wasn't really much she could do to help her friend…
Sunday, Kelria kept her promise to herself. She studied hard all day, and by the time she went to bed she was confident that she would do well on her exams on the next two days. After that…well, she'd worry about those later. She knew Professors Dragh and North would have the toughest exams, and those were her first two.
At seven o'clock Sunday evening, she closed up all her books, and decided to run herself a hot bath.
"If I don't know it by now, I'm never going to know it," she said aloud, cleaning up her supper dishes in the kitchen.
"Don't know what?"
She turned, startled, and saw her boyfriend leaning against the doorframe of her kitchen.
She gave a glad squeal and rushed to him, nearly knocking him over in her happiness.
"Whoa!" He laughed, hugging her tight. "I'm glad to see you too, Kelria."
"How did it go? How are you? What happened? Did everything work out?" she asked, pulling away to look at his face.
Remus laughed again. "One thing at a time, Kelria. It went fine, I'm fine, everything that should have happened, happened, and everything worked out fine."
"I'm glad!" Kelria replied, snuggling close to him. "Don't go away again for a while, okay?"
Remus smiled and put his arms around her tight. "Okay."
A/N: EXAMS ARE SO OVER! WOOT! Anthro was SO easy. Anyway, I'm very excited because my best friend who lives like 2 1/2 hours away is coming for a sleepover on Saturday night, and I haven't seen her since AUGUST! So I'm REALLY excited! Anyway, now I have to go e-mail JT and ask if I can borrow his LOTR movies for Saturday! R&R!