17th of November, 1995, London, Great-Britain

It was absolutely not all right. Not the place, nor the timing and especially not the occasion. It started with the letter, Titus Graves knew about that; Grandmother had sent it yesterday. But was there something else too? Well, that was something he couldn't tell. He was already informed about a lots of things but not all of them.

He knew Lucy Dawlish was in the middle of something which contained various facts such as meeting with strange people, being at strange places (sometimes she completely vanished in the middle of London, appearing somewhere else many hours later) or just simply acting oddly. At first Titus was confused. How could that be possible that someone who works for the rich and famous Gringotts and has meetings with the Minister himself every Friday at the same time, spends her nights fishing for money in the city and sleeps at different places every single night like Merton did when he decided at fifteen that he was going to live like a hobo becouse that was cool. And those meetings with the Minister... Titus frowned. He really didn't want to wonder about it more than necessary.

By now he knew about the tent, the reason of some part of the girl's strange behavior. She had no place to live at but she wanted to hide this from her companions. Grandmother was shocked when she was informed about it. She was right, and she was ready to act immediately. Titus leaned to the wall of a bar at Knockturn Alley with a thoughtful gaze. Grandmother was always kind with motivations sometimes only Grandfather understood and without wanting anything in exchange. But Lucy Dawlish didn't know Grandmother. They've met only once and everything had turned out badly that time. She could have thought Grandmother is up to something against her. This was the reason he decided to continue following her that day, no matter his mission has ended - to know if the girl was in that belief or not. Grandmother would have deserved better than that.

He also got a letter from her that day: she and Grandfather decided to come to Britain after more than fifty years. Was it on purpose? Have all these unexpected and strange things happened becouse of one greater reason behind? Titus couldn't tell. Sometimes Rowan Graves could just see into things, connections and contexts like she was a bloody seer or something, like she'd learned to see like that.

There was a flash of light color in the dark of the night, fluttering of a blonde lock of hair and Titus straightened. She was on the move again.

Of course she had to chose visiting all the bars of Knockturn Alley in a row. The girl was a mess but quite a clever one, going to a place where she couldn't have been followed easily. And with much will, Titus added with a grimace while he was walking after her toward the next place and he checked the small bottle in his pocket. It was only half empty. It can be useful if your wife is a talented potion-maker. he thought. He was never in need of Polyjuice potion although he only used it when it was really necessary and he had no opportunity to avoid it. He preferred using other shapeshifting tricks. Drinking an even not good-looking liquid which contained something (anything) of another person... it was not elegant. But spying on Lucy Dawlish was way much harder than he'd thought. The girl had managed to get some skills in the past years: she was alerted and naturally watchful. Titus was quite sure she'd already noticed that someone was after her in the past few weeks so he had to take the mission much more seriously. And this included using Polyjuice potion beside his other techniques.

Titus knew she'd chosen spending her time at Knockturn Alley in the hope that her mysterious follower was not going to come after her there. The place was famous for its bad reputation and the strange foes wandering there, not speaking about other, illegal facts and happenings. It was no place for average witches and wizards and especially not for important people like him. But Titus Graves was something more than that. During his years as a judge, well-known member of the wizarding law he recognised the importance and opportunities of examining things from every possible points if view. He had his own ways dealing with problems, ways which had led from his office and documents to the world behind the clear facts of his cases, to collecting informations personally... and becoming familiar with all those things others at his position could have never done. He knew the underworld, he had connections, even friends there. And he could gain the style, the look, the attitude. He could 'fit in'.

And he managed to do this by staying clean and every inch a man of law.

So now he just put on a hat like some kind of an old-fashioned MACUSA Auror and walked in.

It was clearly the loudest and most dangerous bar in the alley, he could say that immediately. Not that kind of dangerous where people could be cursed in any minute (although there was a good chance for that) but other kind of dangerous. It was a casino or something like that, with tables with games and drinks and stuff and full of Goblins and other not so friendly guests. A place where Titus would have never risk a single Galleon by himself although he was quite good at gambling. His mission required otherwise though so he made a deep sigh wondering about the reason Joanna would be the angriest with him: stinking from drinks and tobacco, arriving home late, or the loss of the money he was going to suffer at this place. He checked his watch. It has passed midnight (and no new messages from his grandparents) and Lucy Dawlish had a really lucky round at the table. Titus leaned closer to his watch, whispering some short sentences carefully.

"We have to speak as soon as possible. It's important."

He was watching as his words (his message) appeared slowly on the dial of the watch.

And it was the moment he missed, the moment when there was a flash of light and everything had turned to chaos.

"Merlin's fuckin'..."

It was the girl of course. One minute she was ready to win the game and the next she was standing there with her wand in hand becouse the Goblins had realised something was not all right about her being that lucky and all of this led to a fancy bar fight Titus absolutely wanted to skip.

But he couldn't.

"Bloody dragonpiss." he snorted loudly, drawing his wand. This was the last thing he would have chosen as an evening progam. He was tired and he was fed up with all of it, not to mention how unneccesary and dangerous the whole situation was. Seriously? he thought while he used a Full Body-Bind Curse on a wizard in a scarlet cloak then diverted a Hex to another direction with a light wave of his wand. Luckily he had unexpected experience at fighting and that was better than nothing. As highly respected member of the Wizengamot and an important person at the Ministry he could have arrested every single person in the bar who made his night this... improper. But he was in a different situation now and the best he could do was protecting his target (who was clearly, heavily drunken by now) without getting noticed.

At least the girl was not alone. Finally one of her friends appeared from nowhere, dragging her out of the place. And it was also time for Titus to leave - elegantly and posh like someone at his positon does.

He stepped out of the casino with all the guests levitating in the air strangely. He turned back for a moment, checking the effects of his anti-gravitation spell.

"Here." he murmured with a dark smile while he started walking loosely on the narrow street, wondering at what direction the girl and her companion have went. "Eat pixieshit, assholes."

He was totally tired for all of this. Maybe this was the reason the girl noticed his presence later, in another bar. But that didn't really matter; Titus decided not to mention it, at least not that night. There was so much more to speak about.

o ~ . ~ o

the Graves Residence, New York, USA

"You look tired."

It was almost midnight. Rowan Graves looked at his gandson through the magical mirror (another piece of her collection of enchanted things) which was hanging in the living room, next to the fireplace. Titus was massaging his temples, letting out a long, deep sigh.

"It's already dawn here." he said. "And until now I was trying my best to save my little cousin from getting killed at the worst places of the wizarding underworld of London."

"Oh." Grandmother looked a little surprised. "I wouldn't thought you'll keep following her. So she's important for you too after all."

Titus growled, trying to stay as calm as possible. The exhaustion was not helping it.

"Do you have any idea what she did? After drinking that much (in various bars) that would have been enough for a whole Quidditch team who just won the World Cup, she started playing poker with a bunch of criminals. What kind of a shi...ning vomit of nymphs she had in mind?"

"Saying 'shit' would have been enough." Rowan laughed softly but with a clearly visible concern. "And...?"

"Managed to solve it." Titus answered. "Hardly. That girl has a talent at causing chaos. I'll never do this again."

"She is young with noone showing her what responsibility means. When I was at her age... " Grandmother was counting for a moment. "Ugh. Maybe I don't want to go into details. Flying through Manhattan on an illegal magical carpet was only a small part of it. Your Grandfather arrested me more than once. And poof, responsibility had walked into my life. I have a feeling we'll do the same with poor girl when we meet her after Christmas. Merlin, if I were in her situation I would be more than suspicious about our motivations."

Titus was watching her with a tired, thoughtful gaze, getting a little calmer slowly. It's something like being a parent of Merton after all. he reminded himself. The key is to stay calm and chill.

"When will you arrive to Britain?" he asked then. Grandmother bit her lip nervously and there was a short silence. He sensed the tension and tried to make it less stressful. "Joanna can't wait to welcome you here. She's already excited about your visit."

"We'll arrive on the 20th of December." Rowan said. "Your Grandfather and Aunt still have some work with the documents. Maybe you should take a look at the laws and papers about this topic at your country too."

"I will." Titus nodded with a serious expression. "But now I have to go. Joanna gonna wake up soon and I don't want any potion in my morning coffee as a revenge."

Grandmother laughed.

"All right then. And Titus..." she smiled before his grandson's shape vanished. "Thank you."

He disappeared and Rowan Graves was left alone, staring at herself in the mirror. She was frozen for a while, looking into her own eyes, the eyes she saw fear inside, so deep, so clear. She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath then letting it out as a sigh. She was still afraid of meeting the shadows of the past. Was she ready to return? She couldn't tell. Maybe not... but she had no other choice. She didn't want to have.

Author's Notes:

- This scene reflects to the 3rd chapter of Laerthel's story The Cat Among the Pigeons which you can read here: s/13278386/3/