Hello everyone ... my apologies for not replying last post ... I love my babies, but they can't be quiet to save their lives and you really can't concentrate on a story when you've got squabbling children and a baby who wants on Daddy's lap every three seconds I'm not complaining soon enough she'll be borrowing the car and I'll be crying because no one wants me to pet them and give them attentions and love but that's for tomorrow. Also, my last post was ... uhm, badly edited. I went back, fixed added ... reread if you like it's nothing major important so if you don't you didn't miss anything just a few spelling corrections and a new sentence or two to show what REALLY good friends Marcy and Solemnity are ... Onto replies and then more story. Everyone is asleep, I can concentrate now ... Oh, and Happy New Year to y'all! I know it's going to be marvelous.

Connie, uhm, they are sweet ... sweetly deceptive, sweetly conniving, sweetly Machiavellian ... it comes of attending The Academy of Sorcerial Arts

Obi Wan, you know I have to have a little itty bitty romance in all my stories I can't help it ... I'm a shipper at heart

Cassandra, thank you for reading. I'm glad you like it. I'm hoping to update more often and add more adventure to this story ... so ... let's get on the way then, no?



"I dunno Gin, I was thinking maybe Mr. Darcy wanted to cultivate that attitude of aloofness so that he could keep himself from actually feeling anything genuine for anyone, didn't you?" Neville remarked as they walked around the charred remains of the manor in the middle of London.

Professor Mandelbrot had sent them to investigate. It was the tenth such fire and suspected burglary of an important wizarding figure in the last month. But for the fact that they were important officials at the Ministry of Magic or powerful wizards Dumbledore and the professor might not have had their suspicious aroused, but there had been the suggestion of arson used to disguise thefts and with the disappearance of a young girl and Calliope still not back at Hogwarts ... perhaps just happenstance but Professor Mandelbrot did not like to think so. The dark coven they were chasing likely lay at the center of all this.

"I'm not talking about the book Neville, I'm talking about this," the red haired girl pointed to something funny on the floor. She moved her foot over the burnt ashes and fallen timbers covering her face to keep the scent of wetness and acrid burntness from going up into her nose and down into her lungs and causing a coughing fit.

"Oh," the boy said.

"Exactly," Ginny replied. "I was thinking more along the lines of someone trying to cultivate a fire spell."

The scorch marks on the marble floor were unquestionably the mark of a fire spell. Ginny bent down. Something even more curioser lay beneath the scorch mark.

"Mighty curious aren't you?" a voice came at them and in front of them where the stairways would have been a wall crumbled and fell to ash revealing three very tall men, dressed all in black with tattoos that covered half their faces.

"I suppose you're all constables?" Ginny asked.

"Aye, you suppose right missy," another voice came from behind them. Ginny did not bother turning around. She turned to look at Neville but it was already too late.

:O



"Stop playing the fool boy, and do your bloody job. If it were anybody else you would have already been delivering the corpse." He taunted.

"I'm wondering how it is I'm supposed to kill him," the boy complained, dropping the spoon and letting it clatter on his plate the echo loud in the quiet little pub.

"Murder making you lose your appetite?"

The boy slammed his hand down causing the spoon to jump on the plate that jumped on the table as he growled. The other patrons inside of The Death of Romance Pub and Grill, looked over to see the boy, behind the counter Madame Alexander kept on polishing the bar top but her eyes had flashed over to the rifle over the bar. She knew her patrons well, and Wolf knew she loaded it with silver bullets.

"You know you're a despicable ..."

"I've heard it all before kid. I'm your friend not your conscience, and most definitely not your client. I just think it's odd you care about her ... still," after a pause he added, "Or is this something to do with Longbottom?"

Wolf wanted nothing more than to jump over the table right this instant and tear the heart out of the gray haired boy sitting across the table from him. They were only friends in the loosest sense of the word. Allies more like brought together by a common affliction not common desires. He belonged to the thieves guild and on occasion he had helped Wolf out, but friends ... that was a stretch.

Wolf stood up abruptly, dropped his napkin on the table and let the sound of his galleons clattering on the wood say his farewell for him. The other boy watched him walk out. The boy really was too serious, but that was to be expected from an assassin one supposed, the life of a thief and rogue was infinitely more fun, the old cat thought to himself.

Minutes had passed before the thief went out for a walk but he did not get far before he realized he was being followed by men in black.

"I knew being friends with you was going to get me killed sooner or later, Wolf," the thief said aloud.



AN: Vagueness ... the fact that Wolf's first name really is wolf but not Hunter and the knowledge that he knows the girl (still not telling you how and Neville too :O at least the cat thief implied it, and who is the cat thief neways, no? And is he really dead?) Obviously, I can answer nothing but hopefully you all will feel a little more of the menace in this story ... I mean it's action and adventure so let's start threatening our characters, no? Hope you like I want to try posting more often and obviously I don't want to lose the whole book club thread. Hope you like, please feel free to tell me if you didn't like something or if you really liked something what it was. I can take criticism and I really do appreciate it. Happy New Year everyone :bubbly: It's going to be fun ... and a whole new decade wow.