Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum (of EVIL)

"My son and Ms. Vane will be guarding you starting tomorrow."

Crud. This was not good. Harry ignored my increasingly horrified expression, continuing on calmly like he hadn't just completely ruined the lives of two people (okay, so maybe that was being a bit dramatic. But he had completely ruined my day, perhaps even day and three hours, depending on how badly Numberita took it).

"Now, Bones, Edgecombe - follow me. We need to head back to see if Ron's team has sent word yet; Hermione, can you...?"

Ms. Granger nodded briskly, withdrawing her wand smoothly and silently flicking it at the bookshelves situated at the opposite end of her spacious office. Several heavy tomes slid smoothly from their places and flew over, landing with heavy thuds on the glass coffee table beside me.

"Already on it," she said. One of the books - a rather large one bound in red leather - flipped open, and I caught a glimpse of a rather gruesome diagram of a half-man, half-werewolf howling in agony labeled neatly with the words, "TRANSFORMATIONS MOSTE POTENTE."

Harry flashed her a grateful smile before nodding at the two Aurors. The Aurors exchanged looks before leaving their posts and Apparating with two successive pops.

"Right, and Adela?" Harry said, pausing mid-twirl.

"Yes?"

"Don't worry. I'm sure Greyback won't dare to go after you," he said kindly before Apparating with a swift turn of his heel.

That wasn't what I was worried about - well, maybe it was to a lesser extent - but, no, that wasn't my main concern. My eyes drifted over to the pale blue and green eyes glaring at me.

Yeah, the two highly trained Aurors left in the room were ranking pretty high on my "List of Dangers to Awesome Adela."

"Oh, Adela?"

I looked at Ms. Granger readily, glad for the excuse to break eye contact with the two grinches currently hulking beside me.

"Don't forget to keep in touch with Black. Remember - speed is imperative," she said. I breathed a sigh of relief; this, I could handle. Angry Aurors? Not so much.

Eager to get back to some semblance of normality, I decided to just ignore the two Debbie Downers.

"Will do, Ms. Granger!" I said cheerfully, lifting my hand in a salute. What? I told you I still wasn't completely sure how to act around her! The woman was intimidating - it wasn't my fault! I heard a muffled snicker from my right, but when I turned to glare at the offender, only innocent green eyes stared back at me. Git.

I sniffed, lifting my nose in the air, and swept regally out of the room. Or at least tried to - I bumped into the coffee table on the way (how that happened Numberita had no idea - the table was behind me, for Merlin's sake!) and stumbled, hissing muffled curses under my breath, before managing to right myself and continue my exit (albeit with considerably redder cheeks).

As I left the room, two echoing footfalls fell behind me. Great.

"You know, Harry said you didn't have to start until tomorrow. I hardly think you'd want to start earlier than you have to," I pointed out, not bothering to look behind me.

A pause. Then-

"This is the way leading to the exit, Lancaster. The world doesn't revolve around you," came the snide reply. Well. Good to know that Al was back to his prat self. His words stung a bit, and I had to blink back unexpected tears (oh, come on - what was I, twelve? Why was I crying?) at the blatant scorn interlaced in his words.

A sudden thought hit Numberita -

Turning to face the Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum of Evil, I put on my best accusatory expression (Seth always told me that particular one made me look as I was constipated and/or giving birth to a unicorn. I hit him with ol' Bessie the Second...or OBES, for short. Hehe acronyms were fun) and asked, "Well, why didn't you just Apparate away like the others?"

This time it was Vane who spoke, her blue eyes rolling upwards like she was doing me a favor just by talking to me. Bitterweed.

"Because we have an assignment in town. The Wizarding World does not go to a standstill just because some werewolf's broken out with the help of a goblin. We still have work to do," she said condescendingly.

I bristled; from the way she put it, Greyback was child's play and something she clearly thought was not worth her time. This was exactly why Ragnuk and other lunatics were angry - because wizards had underestimated them for years, writing them off as helpless, lesser creatures who couldn't even use wands -

I shot a quick glance at Al; he knew just as well as I did the severity of the break out and the damage Ragnuk and Greyback had caused. Would he let Vane get away with this potentially dangerous misconception?

Something flickered in his eyes, but he set his jaw and looked pointedly away from my gaze. A pang of hurt hit my chest; well, if that was how he wanted it, fine. I'd give him his wish.

From now on, there was no history between Al and me. He was just an Auror that had happened to be assigned to me...not the boy who-

I stopped Numberita before she could go down that painful route. I straightened my shoulders and, tearing my gaze from Al's, turned back around.

"There is no need to guard me. I can handle myself perfectly well without aid, but I understand if you must continue due to your superior's orders. As such, I think it is in both of our best interests to maintain as little contact as possible. Goodbye," I said stiffly. Then, without waiting for a response, I walked swiftly down the carpeted hallway and turned right to catch the lift.

I had work to do - after all, Daisy was still in desperate need of help, and just because Greyback had escaped didn't mean that suddenly her troubles would stop - no, the trial would continue on tomorrow, and I had to let Black know of Dominique's idea before it was too late.

Before heading to the library to do some much-needed research on prior cases (there must be some precedent for such a case!), I caught the back lift (no, I did not avoid the main lift because Al and Vane were there - whatever gave you that idea?) down two floors (okay, so maybe I could have walked down...but I'm lazy. And I have no shame. Two qualities which generally end up with my taking the lift much more than normal people, but hey - that's why I'm Awesome Adela!).

Pausing outside the frosted glass door, I mentally steeled myself for the ordeal ahead of me; what? You think I'm exaggerating? I'm not.

Cain Black is the most insufferable prat in all of existence. He's pompous and self-important. He graduated from Hogwarts seven years before me, and he always liked to talk about the "good old days" before "Hogwarts went downhill with the presence of some hooligans." And then he'd look pointedly at me - like I'd caused any trouble in my Hogwarts days. As if! I was the very picture of a perfect model student.

...Oh, sod off. So maybe I had tackled a few people and been involved in the biggest fight since the Battle of Hogwarts...but that was besides the point.

Okay. It was now or never -

(I kind of preferred 'never' but I had a job to do..)

Sigh. Adult responsibility and all that.

Opening the door, I inwardly flinched when I heard the telling sound of a swivel chair turning sharply. Black, to my dismay, had an even bigger chair than I did (which told you something about the size of his over-inflated ego, the git), all leather and engraved wood and just sheer beaut-UGLINESS. UGLINESS I TELL YOU.

...Okay, so maybe I sort of envied him for that chair. But hey! My chair was perfectly nice.

His was just able to swivel at 1.5x the rate that mine could.

"What is it, Lancaster? I swear, it's like you run your papers through a snowmobile before you give them to me, I've had to spend the last hour trying to decipher one page- a rubbish use of my time, I might add-" he began, his voice cross and his words clipped. He leaned forward, interlacing his fingers and resting his head on his hands, his elbows pressed against the smooth black wood of his desk.

And so it began. I gritted my teeth, ignored his complaints, and plopped myself down inelegantly on one of the two smaller leather chairs without waiting for invitation (I'm rebellious, what can I say).

Black scowled at me but said nothing, which was an improvement - I could almost tolerate him when he was silent. Black was, unfortunately, the head of my division, which focused on the ethical cases more than the financial or criminal ones.

Dominique specialized in the criminal division of the firm, and her division boss was the Richard Bones I'd told you about - you know, the one with the short temper and ruthless manner by which he tackled his cases.

He closed his blue-grey eyes in exaggerated exasperation, sighing dramatically and shaking his head (git). "Well? Are you going to speak or are you just going to just sit there like an idiot? Honestly, your generation just can't seem to think - you lot are too fixated with your newfangled gadgets, I swear-"

Well, I swore that Black was really an eighty-year-old man in a twenty-eight-year-old's body. He'd grown up in a rather proper Muggle family (descending from nobility, as he liked to remind me), and his stilted manner was basically the opposite of my...er, exuberant disposition.

"Dominique came up with an idea for the Vince case - make Daisy the figurehead of the movement against the unjust enslavement of House Elves as a whole. Focus on the evidence of mistreatment - I'm sure we can scrounge up some witness who's seen some sort of abuse. Add that to the fact that Vince is an insufferable jerk - much like yourself, maybe even worse if that's even possible - and we'll have the Council on our side," I said quickly, wanting to get this whole ordeal over with.

Black blinked, leaning back on his chair and regarding me silently. His eyes narrowed at me, but I could tell that his thoughts were elsewhere. To his credit, he was seriously considering my proposal - as arrogant as Black was, he was a Ravenclaw and incredibly good at his job. Besides, as a Muggleborn he had never grown up with the idle acceptance of House Elves ingrained in his mind, and he was uncomfortable with the notion (which was probably a part of the reason why Ms. Granger hired him; she refused to hire anyone who outwardly condoned the practice).

Finally he sighed heavily and reached up to run his hand through his short-cropped dark blonde hair.

"Contact Daisy - ask her for a list of all the people who have visited the Vince household. Make her name as many people as possible. We must be missing someone, some witness who is just hiding out due to fear of punishment from the Vinces," he ordered. Then he looked back down, engrossing himself once more in the stacks of parchments lined neatly across his desk (Black, annoyingly, was a complete neat freak).

Well, I was clearly being dismissed. I resisted the urge to whack him with the wooden bat I'd shrunken and stuck in my small bag, standing stiffly and moving to exit the office.

"Oh, and Adela?"

I froze thirteen inches from the door. I was so close to sweet, sweet escape...

"Yes?" I finally made out through gritted teeth.

"Do try and comb your hair. We can't have that hideous lump you call hair degrading the GW name. I don't know what kind of newfangled fads you young 'uns like to don but honestly, use some common sense - in what world does a matted bush look attractive?" he said snidely.

I was going to kill him.

I glared blindly at the air in front of me, my fingers twitching towards my bat.

"You-" I began, my voice low and venomous. Just as I was about to whirl around and throttle him, however, a high voice called out, "Adela!"

Somewhere through the haze of my rage Numberita recognized the voice - Dominique.

I tried to block out her cries, determined to tackle him -

"Adela!"

ARGH. I sighed, breathing heavily, before forcing my tense shoulders to relax. Without bothering to look backwards, I left the office, making sure to slam the door behind me.

As soon as I rounded the corner, Dominique fairly tackled me in her determination to extract information from me.

"Finally, I've been looking for you for ages - what happened? Why were there Aurors?" she hissed, just barely managing to keep her voice low. I glanced around for eavesdroppers before motioning for Dominique to come closer. She bent her head lower (she was a full ten centimeters taller than me) expectantly, sending a waft of her perfume towards me.

"Greyback's escaped," I whispered furtively. She gasped, letting out a strangled cry. She knew just as well as I did the effects Greyback could have on people - after all, she'd fought on that fateful night as well.

"Ho-how?" she asked as we walked towards the lift. I pressed the down button firmly before turning to her and saying quietly, "They expect he's had aid from outside - probably Ragnuk."

She blinked, her horrified expression transforming to one of confusion.

"Who?"

Right - I'd forgotten that it wasn't common knowledge. To prevent a mass panic, the Unspeakables had ensured that the public only knew that Greyback responsible for the infamous night. They had no idea that Ragnuk - a goblin - was the mastermind behind the whole thing.

Honestly, there was something about the concealment of information that made me a bit uncomfortable, but what was the other option? Say, "Oh, yeah, b-t-dubs, there's a mad goblin - you know, the ones you see everyday at Gringotts? The ones guarding your life's savings? - on the loose, and he's pretty much determined to destroy the entirety of the wizarding population woo but you know yolo."

...

Okay, so maybe I've been reading a bit too many Muggle magazines. But they're strangely addicting! I swear they put some charm on them or something.

"He's the goblin behind it all," I explained. We stepped into the lift, the conversation ceasing when we saw that Bones was in the lift as well. Dominique automatically stiffened, shifting slightly to put me in between her and Bones. Well. So much for Gryffindor bravery.

Being a kind and polite person (oh, stop laughing - I can see you back there), I nodded at Bones. He sniffed and turned away. Well, looked like His Royal Big-Headedness wasn't going to lower himself to our level today. Bones was one step below Ms. Granger, the second most powerful person in the firm. He was very talented, of course, but he was also a bit arrogant. Honestly - this firm had quite a surplus of arrogant people (not including me, of course - I've never been arrogant a second of my lif-oh, sod off).

I shrugged, turning back to face the gleaming golden elevator doors.

When the opened with a smooth whisper of metal against stone, I nodded once more to Bones - ignored, again - and stepped onto the marble floor of the lobby, my shoes tapping softly against the surface.

Hm...I guess I'd have to visit the library later; finding new witnesses was much more important at this point. Making my way to the line of granite fireplaces towards the right side of the spacious lobby, I said to Dominique, "But you can't tell anyone - if the Aurors find out I told you, they'll probably chain me to a troll and throw me to the bottom of the ocean."

She rolled her eyes. "Dramatic as you are, you do have a point - don't worry, I won't tell anyone. But - Adela - what if he goes after you?"

I rummaged through the small bag I carried with me, pushing past the shrunken bat to locate my container of Floo powder. Where was the bloody thing?

Oh - there it was! I brushed aside a spare flask of pumpkin juice - hey, I'd forgotten I still had that! Note to self: drink it before it expires - and retrieved the small velvet pouch. The bag (which was a deep navy blue with glittering bronze embroidery etched around the edges - Ravenclaw colours, of course) had been a twenty-first birthday present from Rose. She'd charmed it with a brilliant Undetectable Extension Charm, and I'd taken to bringing it with me where I went.

Pulling open the bronze thread tying it shut, I said, "Your uncle's assigned two Aurors to babysit me, not that I need it or anything."

She watched me as I struggled to fit my fingers through the tiny hole that had opened at the top. After three seconds she huffed in a very Rose-like manner and, reaching over to grab the bag from my hands, pulled the string so the bag was completely open.

"Honestly, you're so lazy it's a wonder you even get up in the morning - would it hurt you to pull the string a few more inches to open it?"

I shrugged, accepting the now-open bag from her, and poured a handful of glittering ash grey dust into the palm of my left hand.

"Who is it, by the way?" she asked curiously.

Er. Better get prepared for a hasty exit - Dominique was sure to make a scene when I told her which certain green-eyed individual was assigned to me -

Stepping quickly across the metal grate (and only managing to slightly scrape my ankle against the steel prongs - success!), I lifted my palm so that it was parallel to the ground.

"Erm...Eve Vane and Al Potter," I said hurriedly. I dropped the handful of dust quickly, ignoring her muffled splutters, and shouted, "Leaky Cauldron!"

Emerald green flames erupted immediately around me, enveloping my body with a strange tickling sensation, almost as if a million dry wings were brushing against my skin. Screwing my eyes tightly shut - I hated taking the Floo, but I wasn't that good at Apparating (okay, so maybe I'd managed to Splinch off two toenails and half my hair the last time I'd tried) so I had to resort to using it most of the time - I prepared myself for the disorienting sensation of being propelled forcefully through the fireplace chute to a location many kilometers away.

When my body finally ceased to be flung around haphazardly, I stumbled out of the grate, my eyes still firmly shut, and doubled over, my breakfast making a reappearance (yup, I definitely shouldn't have eaten all those brownies) onto the dark stone floor of the Leaky Cauldron.

Gagging slightly and lifting my hand to swipe clumsily at my mouth, I looked up shakily to see the very disapproving eyes of one landlady dressed in a simple cream-coloured apron with black and yellow edgings - a Hufflepuff, then. My eyes moved to her face, taking in the long sandy brown hair and dark brown eyes. I vaguely recognized her from some small article in the Prophet; what had it been...? Numberita struggled for six seconds before latching on to the memory; ah! It had been a wedding announcement for Neville Longbottom and Hannah Abbott.

"Erm..." I began tentatively. Hufflepuffs scared me to no end, and I wasn't ashamed to admit it - seriously, those blokes were scary.

Her scowl deepened, and she looked pointedly at the vomit now staining her floor.

"I like your...pants?" I tried weakly. She didn't blink, still crossing her arms over her chest.

My gaze flicked down; oh. She was wearing a skirt.

Maybe she'd feel better if I cleaned up the mess; I reached into my pocket and yanked out my wand clumsily, sending a shower of neon green sparks cascading onto the stone, where they ricocheted before eventually dissipating against the bed of carefully-tended flowers by the window. The flowers wilted, their colourful petals rapidly blackening before crumpling to dry dust.

Crud.

"Um...I can fix that?" I tried hopefully. When she didn't reply (Merlin, this was more scary than the time Seth caught me 'accidentally' breaking his figurine of the Quidditch star he adored), I began to swing my wand in the motions necessary to cast a quick Reparo, but her hand shot out and held my wand arm firmly at the elbow.

"Out!" She ordered, her eyes now dangerously narrow slits.

Eep. "But...I need to see Daisy, she's my client and-"

"OUT!"

...

I left rather quickly after that - what? You would have too, if you'd seen how scary she looked! I'm telling you, Hufflepuffs are all secretly evil.

Once outside the Leaky Cauldron, I moved to where she couldn't see me and gazed contemplatively up at the fifth floor where I knew Daisy was staying.

Now, how to get up there...

I turned my head, searching the nearby surrounding rapidly for anything I could use. Unfortunately I was on the Muggle side of London and not Diagon Alley, so I couldn't see any broomsticks I could hijac-er, borrow.

My eyes landed on an odd, hideously-yellow machine lying abandoned three meters away. It had a long, sturdy-looking metal attachment with a sort of basket protruding upwards diagonally to rest against the building adjacent to the Leaky Cauldron. Numberita worked rapidly to come up with a plan - okay, I could climb up that long metal thing and reach the basket before jumping to the right one point five meters to that wide window ledge (thank Merlin Daisy's room was one on the very edge) and climbing in through that open window.

My plan set, I pushed past the gaggle of men in odd yellow plastic hats and neon orange vests (odd gear, but who was I to question Muggle style?), ignoring their loud protests and clambering on top of the machine.

I'd climbed trees countless times while growing up - how different could this be?

Yes, I decided, gazing with satisfaction at the long metal attachment rising up in front of me. This would do quite nicely.

So, still ignoring the yells (honestly, Muggles were so loud), I reached up and grasped the first protrusion, resting my foot against the metal before pushing myself up.

Don't worry, Daisy. One highly competent (and not at all inexperienced) Associate was coming to your aid.

Note to self: convince Seth to refer to me as "the Almighty Associate." Eat a brownie as congratulation on my clever use of alliteration.

Brownies were always a good end (and beginning. And middle) to any day.

Author Note: Thanks for reading and reviewing! Seriously, reading all these reviews always makes my day! :D You guys rock!

As always, please review! c: I return all reviews with a teaser of the next chapter ;)