Chapter 44: Curiosities

The day of Sirius and Eleanor's meeting with Jane Mauss in Kinhaven came before anything could be accomplished on the matter of Regulus' little murder cave, and Sirius left both his brother to finetune his mastery of fire charms and Amanda to bond with Sootie the dying grim.

Kinhaven's public chimney was undergoing repairs after a skirmish between aurors and Death Eaters – as Sirius had learned in the Daily Prophet three days earlier – and thus wasn't accessible for transport. Since Sirius had never gone to that particular mixed village before, he couldn't apparate – the closest place he did know was the Potter Country House, and that was still far enough away – and was thus left with two possibilities: the Knight Bus – which he liked a lot, actually, but was hardly discreet – and a broom – an eight-hours-long ride, because no one rode their broom at top speed over long distances.

Sirius, naturally, elected a third option: the Cross Network, the wizarding railway that linked together all major wizarding hotspots from King's Cross.

Or, to be exact, he'd flooed to Grimmauld Place since there was no mixed village and therefore no train station on the network close to Black Manor, had saluted Elphias Doge and Hestia Jones who were eating something in the kitchen after a night task which had left the old man very tired, had squinted at Kreacher but refrained from saying anything, and had left for King's Cross with his hair carefully tucked under a hat that greatly resembled a fisherman cap – but was a distinctly wizarding model, complete with a set of carved stone marbles that you could switch out on the side band to get the desired effect.

Sirius had never needed the eyecatcher marble, but the discretion marble would come in handy this time, as well as the one that allowed its wearer to sense nearby uses of magic – absolutely useless in crowded magical areas, but definitely a good catch in places where you weren't supposed to cross other witches and wizards.

Besides, the fisherman cap went perfectly with his new leather jacket – muggle-passing clothes would also keep him a tad more anonymous. Sirius hadn't had the time to do more than add a wand holster inside the jacket, but he wasn't, per se, expecting a fight. He'd just rather not be thrown into a surprise encounter with an ill-intentioned murderer on the run, if possible.

The ride to Kinhaven on line 3 ⅚ was uneventful, which did leave him the time to ponder his upcoming acquaintance with a muggle who knew about everything of the wizarding world from personal experience, and who had a better grasp on magical theory than the average wizard.

It would be a novel experience, that much was certain.

He also used his mirror to discreetly call Eleanor and inform her he was on his way.

The Southern Line train was relatively empty that day, with only half a dozen passengers in Sirius' car – and four of them were a family with two small children. There was also, Sirius knew, a patroller from the DMLE sitting at the tail of the train – uniformed policeman, basically, and they didn't use to guard the trains, but Sirius himself could hardly remember a time when the patrollers were absent from the various lines. He'd been too young, before, and he'd spent the last years of peace well away from the Cross Network.

The lack of customers wasn't really surprising. Even if only 60% of the wizarding population of Great Britain had an apparition license and only half of those felt comfortable apparating on a daily basis, if a minority didn't have a floo subscription, if long distances flights were problematic with children and baggage, if the Knight Bus was not for everyone...

Well. There was a civil war going on and what could be called terror attacks were starting up again. Public transportation was an obvious target and people knew it.

Sirius actually fell asleep in his seat for about half an hour – then was woken up by his fisherman cap buzzing against his temple because the mother behind him had her wand out and was blowing bubbles to keep her baby distracted.

Better that way, anyway. The train car could still be attacked, and they were almost to Kinhaven. It wouldn't do to miss his stop and end up in Azmarin. Sirius had nothing against Cornwall, but now wasn't the moment.

Kinhaven was a small mixed village nestled on the southern coast of Devonshire, just out of sight of the nearest muggles towns. It hosted about two-thirds of the wizarding population in the county: the others either lived in isolated houses, like the families up North around Ottery St Catchpole or the Potters to the East – back when... before – or in wizarding neighborhoods – and "neighborhood" was a big word, most of the time – in various muggle cities.

When the train stopped at the station, Sirius hopped off easily, no baggage to slow him down.

The sun was shy, that day – but present behind patches of clouds.

Eleanor had told him she'd wait by the main square – where the decommissioned public chimney stood – so Sirius dutifully followed the streets into the village and quickly saw a blond woman standing in a purple and silver cloak by the small fountain.

"Hello."

Eleanor started.

"...Oh. Sorry. I wasn't expecting you quite yet."

Sirius frowned and took out his gold watch for a moment.

"Well, what do you know... The train was a bit early. I didn't think that actually happened."

"Uneventful ride, then?"

He nodded and Eleanor sighed.

"Were you worried?"

"...No more than for anyone else."

In other words, yes, and she spent enough time lately worrying about everyone. You never knew when someone would end up on the bad end of a wand.

James' much older cousin, Caleb Potter, had been with his parents when they'd become the unexpected victims of a terror strike on a wizarding restaurant in Exeter. They hadn't been the targets – a muggleborn was celebrating her birthday with her school friends that day – but they'd died all the same, regardless of blood status.

It had been only one week before Sirius had bailed from home, and his mother had been furious with the news. There had been a whole speech about how her aunt Dorea had married the good Potter brother, her – as evidenced by the fact that their son wasn't rubbing shoulders with muggle filth all the time – which, uh, Sirius had met Caleb, and while the man wasn't the most dedicated to ending social struggles, he did wander left and right no matter who he met on the way, it was just that he was discreet about it – and if a Potter had to die, better it be the one who was spending so much time with Walburga Black's rebellious, blood-traitorish son.

It hadn't been said in such clear words, but the meaning had been obvious enough.

Sirius had left the room when his mother had started telling Regulus that Death Eaters ought to be more careful with their operations, because we wouldn't want proper purebloods to suffer as collateral damage, would we?

"Anything new on your end?"

The witch shrugged.

"Not much. I was with Alastor Moody yesterday. He wanted to know more about the arithmancy skills necessary for the curse Vance was targeted with. He also asked if I could think of an effective defense against such a curse. I promised I'd think about it."

The image of the rather creepy fabric spider that had risen from Emmeline's very robes made itself known again – and with it the knowledge that Sirius would likely be targeted again, and someone else would get caught up in whatever this was.

"...And you have an idea, now?"

Eleanor gave him a dry look and stood up from her spot.

"Short of everyone walking around naked?"

Sirius couldn't stop a snort as he followed her.

"Alright, maybe not. So, that friend of yours?"

"Jane lives just down the street and she's expecting us."

About two minutes later, Eleanor was ringing a brass doorbell – with an actual bell under the button – while Sirius took in the house itself.

Three floors, including the ground floor. Narrow, in between two other terraced houses. Large windows with shutters that were barely open.

Hmm. He wasn't only here to get to know one of Eleanor's friends, but also to try and see what they could do to make the muggle woman safer from anti-muggle attacks. For that, it was better to know what you were working with. Sirius wasn't a builder – or, more specifically, a master warder – but he did know enough for a basic assessment.

He'd also asked Emmeline for advice before coming – especially on what defenses you could put around a home that didn't require direct magical interaction with the resident.

The door opened quietly, letting them see a tall and thin woman – bordering on unhealthy – standing inside, her tired eyes – like someone who didn't sleep much, and Sirius knew what he was talking about – silently taking them in. She wore a long, thin dress with a pattern of circles that crossed one another, a necklace with a round stone pendant, and you could see discolored scars around her wrists and neck.

She reminded him – broadly, not quite, it wasn't that bad but the general air was there – of people who'd just gotten out of Azkaban after a mid-length stint there. Considering she'd been saved from her captivity seven years prior, Sirius didn't want to know what she'd looked like when everything had still been fresh in her mind and body.

Eleanor gave the woman a small smile.

"Jane."

Jane Mauss' eyes flickered to Sirius for a moment, then to the street outside – she nodded and took a step back.

"Come in."

The inside of the house was mostly papers, books and boxes filled with various objects, most of which Sirius couldn't identify with a single glance. There was a desk by the staircase and not much else – aside from rows and rows of shelves and three tables with, once again, papers, books and boxes on and under them. It seemed Miss Mauss used the ground floor exclusively for work.

The muggle woman closed the door and pointed to the coat hangers with a ghost of a smile.

"Eleanor. I haven't seen you much lately. Even the other day, you stayed only a handful of minutes."

"Sorry. There was... a lot. On my mind and to do."

Miss Mauss nodded, unsurprised. Her gaze shifted quietly onto Sirius.

"...You must be Mr Black. I've heard about you."

Sirius' eyebrows rose, but before he could ask how much she believed in the newspapers, the woman continued:

"I'm not talking about muggle news of your escape or about the Prophet's. I've heard a lot about you from Eleanor, years before you even escaped. The older boy who'd help her out during her first year of school. Did you know she had a hard time getting along with the other students at first? Or rather, she got along with most of them just fine, but there was no one close enough to be called a friend. From what she told me, no one seemed to notice or strongly care when she was having a hard time, but you did, even if you didn't know her at all."

Next to him, Eleanor cleared her throat, unwilling to let that discussion go on much longer.

"You're right, Jane, that's Sirius. As I told you last time I dropped by..."

The muggle shook her head slowly, a larger smile slowly etching itself on her lips.

"You want me to protect the house better, I know. And you're having him meet your few friends, because you hope we'll all like each other well enough and you'll be able to keep him."

This time Eleanor outright blushed.

"...Right. Well. Of course there's that too. Sirius doesn't have many friends left, to be honest, and he really needs more. He's met Armand already, but I guess it was more business than anything else..."

Sirius interrupted lightly:

"Don't be that grim about it, Eleanor! I've gotten the Longbottoms back, and I get along great with Emmeline. The Weasleys..."

The witch threw him a disappointed look – but she'd been successfully distracted from the emotional exposure Jane Mauss had thrown her in without remorse, so there was that.

"The Weasleys are amongst your acquaintances because they care about your godson, not because they are your friends. I'm not saying you can't become friends with them, but I was there with you for Harry's birthday, and I've seen what I've seen. You get along, but that's about it for now."

Ouch, that hurt a teensy bit – and it was true, too. Sirius' links to the Weasleys were all through Harry and the Order, and not because of friendship. He did get along well enough with Arthur – the man's curiosity and utter ignorance of all things muggle were absolutely endearing, and the half-whispered confession that Arthur's mother Cedrella had insisted that her youngest son take Arithmancy and Chants for his future career, whatever that would be, meaning he'd never managed to cram muggle studies in his timetable, that confession explained a lot – and the twins' antics were interesting – close to Sirius' own, once upon a time, and yet not. More... prank-oriented.

Not that Sirius and his friends had never pulled a prank, but they were more focused on exploring the castle itself and getting into trouble for different reasons – busting up the nose of a blood purist muttering insults under their breath, for example, or being up and about well past curfew, or...

But all in all, He wasn't certain you could call what he had with the various members of – that branch of – the Weasleys friendship. There was a degree of care, yes, but.

Sirius frowned at Eleanor – and threw a line, hoping not to catch anything. He didn't think Eleanor would mind, not really; nothing indicated she would, and even if, perhaps, she wasn't quite as used to that as she was with hanging out with – knowledgeable – muggles and squibs, he could work with wariness, as long as it didn't devolve into unjustified distrust.

Still, he needed to know.

"I need to invite both you and Remus at the same time. Remiss of me, really, but I don't think you've ever been in the same room without there being something else going on. And obviously, you've started introducing me to your friends, which means I'm late for those sorts of things, especially as you did already meet mine..."

The witch only raised an eyebrow.

"We'll see about that later, maybe?"

Which wasn't a no, and Eleanor was right that they were here for a reason.

She turned back to her muggle friend.

"So. Jane, Sirius, Sirius, Jane. I thought we could go over the protective measures first, see what you'd be comfortable with, and after that... Well. Whatever visiting friends do when they are visiting. Get lunch. Catch up. Get to know whoever the other brought with them."

Jane's smile twitched into a small smirk, and the woman glanced at Sirius right after she'd agreed with Eleanor's proposition – the witch had just turned her back to put her cloak on the coat hanger.

"She's embarrassed because I know too much about her crush on you."

Loud clearing of Eleanor's throat – Miss Mauss arched an eyebrow, as if to say "see?" without prompting more audible retorts.

Sirius laughed under his breath as they moved to the – indoor garden?

He didn't know why he was surprised. Miss Mauss was probably someone who had a hard time going out, considering, but she'd also spent so long confined inside, it did make sense that she'd want to see plants as often as possible.

They sat at a low table next to a large flowerpot and Eleanor took out a thick square of wood.

Sirius immediately recognized the box for what it was – they'd used something very similar when they'd made the Marauder's Map to keep the parchment from getting folded and otherwise damaged, until they'd worked protective charms within the parchment itself. Mapping parchment was, as a standard, thicker and heavier than writing parchment – you often needed to deeply enchant the map.

Of course, Sirius and his friends had used and abused that quality when they'd worked on the map, and he doubted that Eleanor's was half as complex. Not everyone needed to plot a seven-storey – plus dungeons and basement – castle on a square piece of parchment, enchant it to show the location of everyone on the grounds – that had been a very difficult challenge, as it meant the map had to know the identity of everyone present – and work protective defenses into the thing.

Eleanor opened the map case and revealed, indeed, floor plans.

"I've asked my father for those, since we're the ones renting the house to you, Jane. Easiest way to know what we're dealing with. The plans have all known wards and protective enchantments written in."

This was, after all, Kinhaven. Houses in mixed villages all came with, at the very least, an anti-apparition ward built into the walls, no matter who were the current residents.

Sirius leaned to take a better look.

The village house shared three walls with its neighbors and thus only had windows on the front side. It did facilitate things in many ways and made one of the possibilities of protection – this one Sirius had thought of on his own and was far from common, which meant attackers wouldn't expect it – particularly suited for the house. It wasn't certain that Miss Mauss would feel at ease with the suggestion, but it was worth mentioning.

Jane tapped at the bottom half of the parchment. The ground floor plan shifted into a smaller, one-room map with no windows.

"You can't see it from outside, but there's a very small basement. I don't use it much except for storage. I work on the ground floor, the kitchen and living room are on the first floor, bedroom and washroom on the second floor."

Sirius made a face and took out his wand to touch the parchment with it, revealing the list of built-in protections.

"Anti-apparition, of course. Fireproof walls, makes sense. And, what's that one?"

There was a glowing blue triangle in the middle of the ground floor, by the wall separating the main room and the indoor garden. He might have seen a closet there as they'd come in, but wasn't certain.

Eleanor looked over for half a second.

"Oh, that's the general symbol for extension charms. That's how builders keep the actual shape of the building on floor plans even if there is additional space magicked in. It used to be a pantry, but Jane made it into archives for her work. See?"

She pressed on the triangle for three seconds. A room about as big as the indoor garden deformed the rest of the map, and with it the staircase to the basement appeared, too.

Sirius bit his lower lip for a moment.

"...Alright. So, I did ask a professional builder for advice and she recommended a way out of the house in case you do get attacked, Miss Mauss. You can't fight magic except with your fists, and, don't take it badly, but you don't seem like a brawler."

She looked, to be honest, lean enough to break with a badly-executed punch.

"...You're right. I'm not... Well. I can run a bit, but that's it."

Sirius nodded to himself and moved on.

"In that case, a vanishing cabinet would be best for you. In here, out somewhere else. You'd need a safe exit point, of course, and it's a bit difficult to find a working pair these days. Unsurprisingly, Voldemort had the couple who specialized in making those murdered in 1980. I don't know if anyone took over since then, and amateurish cabinets can be... dangerous, but I could look..."

Jane shook her head slowly and Sirius stopped talking to let her say what she wanted.

"I know someone."

"...You do?"

The muggle woman nodded and gestured vaguely towards the main room – with its flying papers and books and samples of all things magical.

"When Bridget Green and Charlene Dornes were murdered, Green's great-niece Elaine Pedergold and her father decided to try and reverse-engineer the vanishing cabinets. Since neither of them was a dimensional mage like Green, they did the best they could from the woman's notes, and, a few years ago, they sent their conclusions to me to see if the theory held up. They've since managed to compile a proper grimoire entry for vanishing cabinets."

Ah. Eleanor did say the woman worked in theoretical magic, even if she couldn't do any actual magic herself.

"And what about the woodworking? I understand Dornes was the one to make the cabinet and work the charms into the wood back then?"

Vanishing cabinets, on top of being well-made for security, also needed to be lockable. There was no point in having a safe way out if an intruder could just follow you through. The link between the pair couldn't be traceable, either, or people would be able to track your new location – all that to say, building a pair of vanishing cabinets was not only a matter of dimensional magic, but also of expert craftsmanship.

Miss Mauss nodded to no one in particular.

"Lucas Pedergold is a woodsmith by trade, he met his wife through Bridget Green and his work. They have written back to say their attempts at recreating vanishing cabinets were successful and I still have their coordinates. I'll just need to drop by the Owl Post Office."

Eleanor almost said something, but eventually shook her head with a frustrated look on her face. Sirius waited for more, but the witch said nothing, so he focused back on Miss Mauss.

"If you can procure vanishing cabinets, then you need to think of somewhere to put them. For the exit cabinet, you'll have to see with the people you are familiar with. Eleanor might be willing, but also an obvious choice. Family, but only if their house is unknown to wizarding files that might be spied upon. For the cabinet that stays in the house, I'd recommend the basement, since you can easily access it when you are working and it's not the first place people would think to look. If you only use the room for storage, an empty cabinet wouldn't look out of place, either. You might want, however, to have a circling door installed on the last floor, to connect it to the basement, if they attack while you're up there."

Circling doors tricked a building into acting as if two rooms were connected by a wall when it wasn't the case – it was a variation of what allowed the Headmaster's office in Hogwarts to be accessed from all floors, and Sirius suspected that Emmeline's through-room used some of the same theory. There were limitations, of course: the magic got more complex the further away from each other the rooms were, there had to be a physical connection between the walls on which the door was installed – in other words, it had to be in the same building – and damaging the door frame would cut the connection immediately.

Eleanor frowned.

"That could get expensive."

"I'm giving options."

The occupant of the house cleared her throat, reminding them that she was right here and the one who ultimately would make those decisions.

"I'm a successful theorical researcher and cross-referencer with an honorary mage title who is sought out by inventors and academics on a weekly basis, Eleanor. I think I can afford a lot. What I want to know, however, is why you think I'm so likely to need all that protection."

...Right.

The reason Eleanor had asked him to come in the first place: to convince her friend – and suggest solutions, yes, but that... That, she could have asked someone else. Rowle's Acres & Houses employed more than enough builders and other professionals to provide expert advice on wards and other protection measures.

Eleanor took a deep breath:

"I... Jane. I know you don't get out much, and I also think you should look into clothes with perception charms on them for when you do get out, but that's for later. You must, still, know what's going on out there. I know you listen to both muggle radio and the wireless. You are a muggle who understands magic better than the regular wizard, and there's bound to be a Death Eater out there who gets offended by that. They don't need more of a reason to try and kill you, they just have to feel in the mood to hurt someone."

The muggle woman seemed just a tad disbelieving – not of the risk itself, but of the fact that such people existed at all, that someone could want her dead for such a stupid reason – and yet it was obvious that she could accept it.

Jane Mauss had been kept prisoner for years by a wizard who'd thought a human sounding board was enough of a reason to shackle a kid in his attic. She was probably used to ridiculous thought processes that brought pain and suffering.

Sirius added quietly:

"You're also Eleanor's friend, Miss Mauss. If a Death Eater finds out about that... She's refused them already, her own brother wants her dead, and she's quietly but surely positioning herself in opposition to Voldemort. I think it's only fair of her to want you safe and protected, just in case."

Miss Mauss watched her guests silently for a long while, thoughts churning behind her eyes – but she kept those to herself. Finally, she sighed.

"...Go on. I've received a handful of worrying letters during the past months, even one with a stinging hex in it two weeks ago. I suppose this is only going to get worse?"

"A stinging hex? Are you..."

The muggle woman tilted her head at her friend, unconcerned.

"Don't worry, the neighbor helped me out with the swelling. I have been a bit wary of my mail since then, though. I've been told a nullifying letter opener might be a good idea against potential hexes and jinxes, but if you're right and things are going to get worse..."

"What you need is a pet swillotod."

Sirius hadn't thought of cursed letters when he'd been reviewing ways to protect a muggle, but magical animals and their quirks? That he knew.

Eleanor frowned at him, unsure of what he meant, while her friend only looked curious.

"A what?"

"It looks a bit like a toad, but a swillotod is bigger, dark red with three small white horns and a chameleon-like tongue. It feeds exclusively on bad intent strong enough to harm people, so it will gobble up anything from a cursed letter to stray spells and actual poison. We still haven't found anything that could kill a swillotod, and I've once seen one swallow an entire sword that was being used in a murder attempt. The Owling Post Offices and the Ministry's postmaster rely on them to get rid of... aggressive and otherwise dangerous... correspondence."

Sirius took a moment to look around the indoor garden.

"I think you have the right kind of living conditions set up for a swillotod here. Add a small pond in a basin, maybe."

Miss Mauss gave him a doubtful look.

"And what do I feed the magical toad when no murder attempts are made on my person?"

Good question, that. Luckily, Sirius had an answer – and Jane Mauss already had all the necessary "food" in her possession, judging by the round stone with carved waves hanging on her necklace.

Pointing it out wouldn't be very polite, but...

"That's a sodalite marble, right? 'Easy mind, easy sleep, let me pass the hours in peace', I think that was the advertisement?"

The woman tensed up a bit – reached up to protectively grab the pendant – but eventually she nodded. Sirius could only guess that it did work as advertised. Considering the kind of trauma you had to go through to consider wearing such items as jewelry – constantly, always – he didn't think anyone would accept even a mention of it if the enchanted stone didn't, in fact, allow clearer focus and a calmer mind.

"Thought so. I... considered some myself, back before... When I was still on the run. But it would have been difficult to keep a continuous supply, for various reasons. I didn't want to risk depending on it in that state."

The wizard shook his head. There had been more reasons, of course, but this wasn't about him.

"My point, let's get back to that, my point is that maybe 'bad intent' wasn't exactly the right choice of words. Swillotods feed on bad emotions that can hurt people, and that includes your own. Sodalite marbles, in the same vein, are meant to absorb the brunt of nightmares and panic and self-hatred. Regrets, fears. They don't go as far as to erase the feelings, but they make those manageable by stocking up on the excess of negativity. If nothing harmful comes your way, you can always feed your used-up marbles to your swillotod."

Miss Mauss' eyebrows were high and raised.

"...I do have a jar full of cracked stones. This is the first time, however, that I hear about a positive use for traumatic events."

Sirius cracked a smile – swillotods and sodalite marbles weren't secret knowledge, but he doubted people usually thought to use the latter to feed the former. That was the kind of reasoning that had gotten Sirius and his friends to become animagi to help a werewolf: people knew werewolves didn't target other animals, and they knew about animagi, and maybe someone had already transformed to escape from a werewolf's fangs, but no one before had pushed further, no one had had a reason to consider the implications.

"If you need more reasons to adopt a swillowtod, its horns grow bigger and shed layers the more negative emotions they consume. The sheddings are used in potions and sell for three pretty sickles?"

Eleanor mouthed "swillotod sheddings" with a light of new understanding in her eyes. She'd probably never quite wondered what that particular ingredient was exactly – it presented as inch-small, thin white material – and she hadn't taken Care of Magical Creatures in school.

Sirius considered the matter of mail managing done with for now and took advantage of it to jump onto the idea he'd been playing with since Eleanor had asked him to visit her friend.

"To get back on the matter of the house in general, I do have an unusual proposition for you, Miss Mauss. One that relies on magical creatures too, and that will certainly not be expected by anyone because it's far from the usual wards or enchanted objects. Only, I'm not sure you'll be comfortable with it, so I'd understand if you refused to proceed with it?"

The muggle woman only shrugged.

"Go on. I can't tell you what I think of it unless you actually suggest whatever this is."

"I don't expect you to. Just, I wanted to make it clear that you might find that option... inappropriate. Didn't want to surprise you too much."

Sirius leaned back in his rattan armchair.

"There's a pest that's attracted to magical homes called the dowurker. It's not destructive or anything, but it's particularly... curious, and it lurks in windows and mirrors and objects made of glass and it likes watching people do... well, anything, so it can get unnerving for the inhabitants."

"Aren't you guys used to having moving and talking portraits in your homes?"

Eleanor was the one to answer her friend's question with a small shudder.

"Portraits aren't actually sentient, even if they sound like it, and we can chose the rooms they are in. We don't typically put portraits in bedrooms or bathrooms."

Sirius smirked at the thought of Phineas Nigellus the Fake visiting his frame in Grimmauld Place only to find out he'd been relegated to the toilets – it wouldn't be practical at all, but the old grating portrait would be absolutely furious, which almost made his great-great-grandson want to try.

"As Eleanor said, it's different. Getting out of the bath and finding a humanoid shadowy silhouette in your mirror staring at you is problematic. Getting rid of a dowurker means trapping it in one moveable piece of glass with permanent chalk markings so that it can't move around anymore and then you get rid of the object at an ouster's shop."

Miss Mauss nodded along:

"I've been in contact with all the ousters in the country; talking with someone in charge of undoing all the magic in wizarding junk and preventing landfill accidents is the best way to understand the mechanics of charms and enchantments. That said, I don't have a dowurker in my glass panels?"

"Exactly!"

Both women looked at Sirius as if they doubted he'd, in fact, heard what the muggle had just said.

Eleanor pointed it out gently:

"Hmm, what Jane means is, why are we talking about getting rid of dowurkers when there are no dowurkers here and we were on the subject of the house's security?"

"As I said, Eleanor, Miss Mauss. There is no dowurker here, but they make excellent look-outs. They spy on the residents, yes, but they also see on the other side of the windows, and most importantly they grow attached to the people who live in the house. If someone were to fiddle with your door at street-level while you were up in the bedroom, your dowurker would definitely get up there and try to get your attention. If you are down in the basement and someone tries to enter the upper floors with a broom, it will come and warn you. All it needs is a piece of glass to have access to any room in the house, and if you use chalk markings judiciously you can even ban it from specific places such as the bathroom or the window right by your bed."

Sirius paused, took a look at the expression of Miss Mauss' face, and quietly finished:

"...If you can live with a silent, slightly creepy roommate, you'll have a being that will always keep an eye on what goes on in and out of the house. You'd just have to go to an ouster's shop and ask them to sell you dowurker glass, and then we'd figure out how to keep it from being too invasive."

The woman's fingers were still on her pendant. Her face didn't say much.

After a while, she finally closed her eyes and sighed.

"...I'll think about it."

"That's all I can ask of you. I, we're here to try and help you, not to force anything on you."

Yet, at least. For now, Jane Mauss hadn't been openly targetted by Death Eaters, so there was no reason to force anything – but if the danger grew too big and she refused their help...

Sirius was all for letting people make their own choices, most of the time, but that would just be stupidity – something he didn't think was usually associated with the muggle woman.

He clapped his hands and stood up.

"Well, we've gone through the options I had for you, so we might move on to getting to know each other? I think that was how you planned it out, Eleanor?"

The witch was putting the house's map back in its box.

"Sure. It's a bit early for lunch, though."

Sirius didn't mind at all and wandered back towards the door to the main room.

"I, for one, am curious as to what exactly your work as a theoretical researcher entails, Miss Mauss. Any chance you'd let me take a look around?"

Eleanor's friend simply nodded and walked ahead of him, presumably to keep an eye on his curiosity – no one liked their hard work messed with haphazardly – and maybe even to explain a bit of it.

"Call me Jane, please."

Sirius ended up asking a dozen questions and looking at the samples that came with some of the research projects. There were selkie scales and selkie hair, in a study about the various parts of selkie anatomy that allowed them to survive in cold water – from the author's name, Sirius thought there was some non-human ancestry going on there, and the study might be more self-interested and utilitarian than academic – but also magical residue from cauldrons used in various types of potions, a pitcher that the wizard suspected to be filled with muggle-repelling charms – glowing arrows pointed at it on the shelf, to make sure Jane neither forgot nor dismissed it because of the charms, and there was a pair of glasses similar to the ones Amanda had bought the other day right next to it – and several other curiosities.

Sirius stopped short when he spotted the small gnarly stones in a bowl by the window.

Jane came behind him and looked over his shoulder:

"Oh, the salamander hearts? I'm almost done with that job. Garance Prawner wants to commercialize them as quick cauldron cleaners. She needs to coat them in a protective layer, to prevent the fire from spreading too violently. She also needs to find a coating that doesn't interact badly with any kind of potions, or else we'd be looking at toxic fumes."

"...I hadn't seen those since Alchemy class. I can't believe I forgot about the potioner's bane. It..."

A crack resounded behind them and Sirius almost drew his wand – but, no, no need, he knew that particular apparition sound, and they were in a protected house, so it couldn't be a wizard intruding in, it was...

Sterhn stood right there, obsequious as always.

From the corner of his eye, Sirius could see that Eleanor had moved to stand in front of her friend.

The house-elf looked, unblinking, at his master for an instant – and there was only one reason Sterhn would come for him now. Sirius' stomach turned into knots.

It was alright. He'd been waiting for it. It wasn't a surprise, and it meant he and Amanda would get an answer to their attempt. It wasn't good, but it was meant to happen.

"Master Sirius. Mrs Amanda says it is time."

See? Just as he had expected. Back at the manor, Sooty was finally passing away.

Sirius turned around to excuse himself from Eleanor and Jane.