Author's Notes: Thank you to my one reviewer, Dollar Diamond Ring! I'm glad you think it's interesting and thank you so much for your support! It really meant alot of me.

Disclaimer: I'm not making any money off this story, it is only for fun. The wonderfulness of Harry Potter and his world belong to Jo.

Chapter Two: All Downhill from Here

Alena blinked a few times and felt like she was just waking up. The last thing she remembered was going into a patient's room and then she was staring at a Rita's Water Ice sign. She scanned the parking area and saw the slight figure of a raven haired girl picking her way through the small crowd that had gathered on the warm early summer day. Fawkes. Zephyr Fawkes was the patient she had gone into the room to check on. Without thinking, Alena got out of her car and sprinted towards the retreating figure.

"Zephyr!"

The girl looked over her shoulder and bolted through the crowd. Alena took pursuit, hoping Zephyr could explain how they came to be here. Instead of pushing through people, Alena skirted around the people. She felt some sort of hidden drive come up to the surface as she pursued the young girl. Sure enough, Zephyr pushed her way out of the crowd and Alena was right there.

"Gotcha!" Alena successfully grabbed a hold of Zephyr's shirt but then the strangest thing happened. She felt as if the entire world was spinning and for a very long time. Frightened, she held onto Zephyr's shirt even tighter until the spinning stopped. When things slowed and came back into focus she found herself in a dark alley. The sounds of traffic assaulted her ears but at the moment, it was just her and a very disgruntled looking Zephyr.

"What…Where…"

Zephyr let out an exasperated sigh. "I hate passengers."

"What just happened? Passenger to where?"

"We just apparated," she answer in a bored tone. "I suppose I just can't leave you here, can I?"

"Where is 'here?'"

"London."

"London," Alena repeated. "As in England?"

Zephyr shoved her hands into her jean pockets and blew a strand of black hair out of her face. "Yeah."

"How the hell did we get to England?!"

"I told you," Zephyr was sounded annoyed now, "we apparated."

Alena rolled the word over in her mind. Something told her she should know the meaning of the word. Zephyr was even acting like she should know the meaning. But for the life of her, Alena couldn't come up with a suitable definition. "Is it, like, time travel?"

"Space jumping," Zephyr squeezed her eyes shut and sported a serious look of concentration. "Teleporting, I mean."

"How am I suppose to get back to the United States?"

Zephyr shrugged. "How would you normally get here?"

"By plane."

"There you go," Zephyr started walking away. "Bon voyage."

"However," Alena stated, "to take a plane I have to have money, identification and my passport. All of which are still IN THE UNITED STATES!" She was not one given to fits of rage, shouting or pulling of hair, all of which she was doing at this point. She never exceeded the speed limit, got drunk or even smoked. The idea of being in a foreign country with no passport and no money seriously did not sit well with her. Alena dug the heels of her hands into her eyes and tried not to hyperventilate.

Zephyr felt bad for the woman in front of her but she really didn't know what to do for her. Apparating from the United States to England, with a passenger no less, had left her extremely drained. She didn't have her license which only meant the Ministry of Magic could, and most likely would, be looking for her so staying in one place wasn't going to be an option. She hadn't even used magic in so long it was an true effort to even think of doing a simple calming spell at this point. Not to mention, she didn't even have a wand.

For some reason, though, being around this strange woman calmed her over active mind. The thoughts didn't come so jumbled and Zephyr found herself thinking clearly, or at least clearer than what she was used to. It was most likely due to the fact that a large percentage of this woman's memories were gone or shielded from her. Perhaps she could use this woman's simple mind to help get her thoughts across to her father and Dumbledore. Or Lorien, if the vampire found her first.

"If you want to," Zephyr said, concentrating on each word so it would come out precisely and understandable, "you can stick around with me until you figure out what to do."

The woman lowered her hands from her face and she had that look of someone who had given up trying to make sense of things. Zephyr couldn't decide if this was good or bad but the woman nodded her head in agreement.

"What's your name?"

"Alena. Alena Swanson."

"Okay. Let's go catch a cab."

"We have no money."

Zephyr pulled out a man's wallet. "I lifted it from a guy at that ice cream place."

"Lovely," Alena said but Zephyr had the impression that she meant anything but that. Zephyr shrugged once more and headed out of the alley and noticed that despite Alena's misgivings, she had followed her to the curb. A taxi pulled up immediately and Zephyr opened the back door and slid across to the other side of the back seat. She watched Alena pause before getting into the car as well. As soon as the door was closed, all the doors locked by themselves. Zephyr had been enjoying the lack of so many voices in her head, she failed to scan the cab driver's mind. Alena tried to unlock the door but Zephyr knew it was useless. All she could now was wait it out and berate herself for not being more careful.

"What's going on now?" Alena asked, panic creeping into her voice.

Zephyr gripped the edge of her seat as she stared at the leering eyes reflected in the rear view mirror. She tried to get a hold of his mind was it was completely closed off to her. "Death Eater."

She heard Alena take a shaky breath. "What's a Death Eater?"

The driver let out a wheezy giggle. "You're about to find out, dearie."

Lorien brushed off her emerald green robes as she stepped out from Dumbledore's office fireplace. The portraits that were still awake at the late hour hailed her in greeting. She had been an advisor to many of them, and shunned by some of them as well. But one greeting she didn't expect and didn't necessarily welcome. Lorien noted with a frown that Fawkes' perch was vacant.

A red haired woman was wringing her pale, long fingered hands and fixed her with worried blue eyes.

"It's Zephyr, isn't it? Lorien, tell me what's happened."

"I can't right now, Fiona. I need to speak with Dumbledore."

"He's off at the moment. Securing the new Headquarters. If it has to do with Zephyr it's my right to know."

Lorien tried to calm the pacing woman just as she would have calmed a human victim. She had gotten so good at calming people for the sole purpose of reasoning with them that the temptation to drink human blood no longer affected her.

"Fiona, please," she said in measured tones, "sit down. Everything will-"

"Don't do this! I know what you're trying to do so just stop it!"

"Fine, Zephyr is missing."

Fiona's blue eyes blazed. "How could you lose her? My daughter. My only child."

"Considering who her parents are, I would think you would appreciate the handful she can be at times."

The door to the office opened and both women fell silent as Minerva McGonagall hurried into the room. "What in heaven's name is going on in here?" Her beady eyes quickly took in the scene. "Lorien, I assume you're here to speak with Dumbledore?"

"Yes, Minerva. It is most urgent."

"Urgent?" Fiona burst out, "First my daughter is missing and now it's urgent?"

McGonagall turned towards the red head. "And you, Fiona, you know better than to show yourself without the door being properly warded."

"Minerva, it's Zephyr, she's missing."

"And a lot of good it would do her, you being found out after twenty years of hiding," McGonagall shot back. "Off you go then, back on the perch."

Fiona gave Lorien and McGonagall loathsome looks before transforming back into the scarlet plumed phoenix and settled, quite unhappily, back on the perch at Dumbledore's desk. Satisfied with that, McGonagall turned to one of the portraits. "Phineas."

"Yes, Professor?" came the familiar sly, snide voice. Lorien remembered he was one of the Headmasters who quickly dismissed her from his advisory board. Perhaps he could have been slightly more well liked had he taken her advice of having a personality replacement.

"Could you go to 12 Grimmauld Place and tell Dumbledore he is needed directly?"

He gave a slight sneer and a half bow. "Of course."

Lorien watched him move out of his frame before turning towards McGonagall. "How's Harry holding up?"

McGonagall shrugged wearily. "We sent him home. I suggested to Albus that we allow him to go home with the Weasley's for the summer but he wouldn't hear of it."

Lorien knew why though she wasn't about to say anything in front of Minerva. She had briefly met Harry Potter when he was a three year old. She was in England on business, attempting to forge a trusting relationship between the Ministry of Magic and the American Witches and Wizard's Association. Before she left to return to the States, she had dropped by 4 Privet Drive, posing as someone who had the wrong house number. She had caught a glimpse of him however, peering curiously around his uncle's tree trunk like legs. She could feel the protective charm from two years ago radiating off of him and that was more than enough to satisfy her doubts of the protection.

"How are things in America?"

Lorien welcomed the change of topic. "Very interesting and busy. We're trying to set up satellite offices across the continent but finding magically people to staff these offices has proved difficult."

"Any more Death Eater attacks?"

"Not since the last outbreak five years ago though I have all my Auror's on alert at the moment."

McGonagall pursed her lips. "You know then."

Lorien nodded her head. "Albus and I have already had one meeting today. I'm certain he will not be pleased to see me again."

Just as she spoke the words, the fireplace erupted in green flames and Dumbledore appeared. "Phineas just told me you were here, Lorien. Has something happened?" He went over to his desk and stroked the agitated phoenix who was clicking her beak.

"I'm afraid so," Lorien answered, sitting down across from him. McGonagall took the other vacant seat in front of the desk. "It seems Zephyr has gone missing. She apparently took control of one of the interns at the clinic, who drove her off site where she apparated. We don't know where she went."

"And what of the intern?" Dumbledore asked.

"My Auror's found the woman's car but no sign of her. They were able to track Zephyr to that same location but after that the trial went cold."

"I'll alert some of the Order to her possible presence here in Britain, those who I believe could take her into custody without extraneous force."

Lorien shifted in her chair. It took a lot to make her uncomfortable and this situation certainly did. "There's more, I'm afraid."

"More?" McGonagall exclaimed.

"This intern that Zephyr took with her. When my people found the car, they found the woman's wallet in there as well, along with a photo identification." Lorien pulled the New York State driver's license from her robes and handed it to Dumbledore.

"Surely this isn't the same woman…"

Lorien closed her eyes and took a steadying breath. "I believe it is. She looks exactly like her and the last we heard, Gilderoy Lockhart was going to be interviewing her for his book on the American Death Eater attacks. After it came out that he was taking other people's stories and passing them off as his own by obliterating their memories, it made sense why she disappeared."

Dumbledore passed the plastic rectangle over to McGonagall who gazed down at the picture for a matter of seconds. "Alena Swanson? Wasn't she the head American Auror during the Death attacks?"

Lorien nodded. "The one and same. Apparently, she has no recollection whatsoever of being an Auror. After she woke up with amnesia, I thought it best to let her start her life again. She had seen so many horrible things during that time I actually envied her the loss of those memories." She gave Dumbledore a knowing look. "A fallacy in my judgment. Regardless, however, she needs to be found and quickly. An Auror who doesn't remember she's an Auror and a severely unbalanced legilimens do not make for a quiet traveling couple. They're going to be easy to spot and with the Death Eaters wanting to celebrate the return of their leader, both women would make fine targets."