Deception is Like A Poison ((Jake & Perseus))

[Iyashii Mitsuko]

Iyashii stood in the middle of Diagon Alley watching the people walk by chipper and laughing. It sent a wave of nausea over him and he could feel his skin crawl. What were they so happy about? He hated this forsaken place, ever since he was a kid. He tried to love it as much as everyone else, but why on earth was everyone so perky? He scowled and started walking forward, nearly running into a mother and son. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” she smiled brightly, making Iyashii scoff and turn away. He hated being treated kindly; it made him second-guess his motives. Was the world so bad? Did it deserve what he had planned for it? Sometimes…he was not so sure, and he hated that. He picked up his pace and headed to Knockturn Alley, where he was to meet up with Nekura and Shikyo. They had news for him, people he should get in touch with from his former school days. He felt a surge of excitement and smirked, he would need an army. The Leader needed followers.

But then he stopped walking, Don’t meet them…they’ll be in danger…don’t. Iyashii frowned and looked to the skies where he could see a flurry of black feathers. He ducked into a branch of the alley and whistled for the raven that perched on a nearby shop sign. Iyashii scribbled a quick note of apology to his friends and said he would meet with them another time, and that they should return home immediately. Chirigi let out a proud caw to be given such an important mission and flew off as quickly as he came. He never questioned his visions and feelings, as they were ninety-nine percent right. He smirked and turned on his heel and retreated back to Diagon Alley. He would visit the Apothecary and pick up a few much needed supplies for the potions he was going to experiment with.

But…what that panging feeling in the back of his head? Was he being followed? Watched? He set his teeth on edge, just in case. He did not like being followed, but there were too many witnesses in order for him to relay this point. He would wait to see if he pursuer would show his face. He stood in front of the Apothecary and looked into the reflection of the dark glass. When he saw the familiar face behind him, not watching him or following him but just standing in front of the cauldron shop. For now, he would ignore the nagging feeling in the back of his head. Surely, it was directed toward something else.

He walked up to the two men in front of the cauldron shop and coughed into his hand. “Well, of all people I thought I would run into…Perseus Feynman was not one of them.” He narrowed his brown eyes at him; the two were not friends in school, but in the same house. From what Iyashii understood Perseus was working at the Ministry, though he was not sure where. He’d get Neku to look into it later. His face was stoic, cold and shadowed, it was a strange sight. It was no secret that Iyashii trusted no one, but it was certain his army would need powerful witches and wizards; perhaps Perseus was one of them? Then he felt it again, that nagging feeling…
Enough… he thought angrily, he did not have time for his demons right now.
Iyashii turned to the other man, whom he assumed was a friend of Perseus'. He seemed so familiar...then he remembered. "Jake...Raynar, right?" A Hufflepuff...a half-blood...hmph. Since the Dark Lord's fall, you'd see a lot of fraternizing between classes. Iyashii forced a smile on his face, "Nice to see you...both." He did not know anything about Raynar, but a half-blood was better than no blood at all; and the Leader accepted such exceptions, as would he.

[Perseus Feynman]

It was near midday when Perseus finally woke up from a not-so-restful slumber in the Leaky Cauldron room he had rented just two days ago. He got up from his bed and rubbed his sore muscles; he had flown across the Atlantic Ocean on his Firebolt just four days ago from his secret meeting with the United States Wizarding Department of Defense. Frankly, Perseus had never felt comfortable with apparating from one continent to another. Floo powder almost always made Perseus vomit, so he turned that down, there were no portkeys available at the time, and Perseus never liked Hippogriffs anyways. After all, was it not thrilling to be flying across one of the largest oceans in the world at 150 miles per hour on a Firebolt? Perseus was walking toward his trunk full of Auror robes, still rubbing his eyes, when he remembered that he was to dress in plain robes while on duty. His assignment, with several other Aurors, was to guard the Leaky Cauldron in case rogue dark wizards decided to attack it in attempts to weaken the economy. Of course, the economies of the divergent Wizarding countries were much harder to destabilize than the Muggle ones, simply because wizards and witches had magic. Perseus did not see why dark wizards and witches attacked places like Diagon Alley, other than to spread terror, which was getting old real fast.

Perseus stood in front of the mirror of the bathroom, directing his shaving blade with his wand to shave off his mustache and beard. He tried to think of as many ways to silence his mother¡¦s side of the family about the fact that he had become an Auror as he could. It was essential that most of the Wizarding world still think that he was a follower of the Dark Side for his disguise to work. As far as Perseus knew, his father¡¦s side of the family kept it secret that he was an Auror. Although Perseus had been disowned from his mother¡¦s side of the family (the side related, however distantly to Salazar Slytherin), there was no indication that they had spread the news of his becoming an Auror out of shame. That was good news to Perseus¡¦s ears. Perseus shook himself out of his thoughts and felt his smooth chin and skin above his lips. Satisfied that the shaving blade had done its job, Perseus pulled on a pair of Muggle cargo pants, a Muggle golfing shirt, both of which were black, a set of black every-day robes, and finally slipped his wand into the sheath that hung from his black belt. Perseus looked at himself in the mirror and smoothed his long red hair. ¡§Good enough,¡¨ he thought to himself, knowing that nobody would be able to tell that he was an Auror. Being 6 foot 3 inches, however, made him more noticeable than most just because of his height and bulk of the muscles from his martial arts training. Perseus felt that disadvantage physically as he bumped his head into the low-hanging chandelier that was in his room. He cursed under his breath, but brushed it off and exited his humble abode.

The Leaky Cauldron was unusually packed when Perseus arrived in the main lobby. But it made sense, as it was nearing the middle of July when the early shoppers flooded Diagon Alley. Perseus exited the Leaky Cauldron and tapped the bricks in the back, revealing the doorway to Diagon Alley. It was rather sunny and Perseus, having just exited a rather dim place shielded his eyes and waited a second for his eyes to adjust. He looked skyward at the white clouds floating blissfully across a clear blue sky. However, Perseus noticed an aberration; he heard a loud caw from what sounded like a crow or a raven and sure enough, a raven flew off from one of the alleys with what looked like a note attached to its leg. Perseus knew very few wizards that used a Raven as a messenger and the few he knew were former supporters of the Dark Lord. His keen senses told him that something was going on.

Perseus kept his face completely straight and walked toward a familiar cauldron shop, pretending to be looking at one of the gold cauldrons on display. As he looked at the reflection of his surroundings off the polished surface of the cauldron, Perseus recognized that the man standing to his right as Jake Rainyar, a fellow Auror and former school-mate. Perseus was sure that Jake did not know that he was an Auror because Perseus had been instructed to keep his job a secret. Suddenly, Perseus heard a cough to his left and turned around to see another former classmate, Iyashii Mitsuko, who had been in the same house as Perseus while they were in school. They had rarely ever talked at school and all Perseus knew about Iyashii was that Iyashii¡¦s behavior in school was rather peculiar. Perseus often saw Iyashii isolate himself for days, but did not know what he was up to. In fact, Iyashii seemed very much like Perseus; both were loners. Perseus, not sure who Iyashii was loyal to, cleared his mind of all thoughts with techniques learned from his Auror training in Occlumency as well as the meditation skills he had acquired from his martial arts training. Then, Perseus replaced the blank slate that was his mind with a false memory of working in the Ministry as an alchemist. Although Perseus had very strong mental defenses, he was never good at Legilimency, so finding out Iyashii¡¦s allegiance would be difficult. However, Perseus did notice Iyashii¡¦s forced smile, so he knew that something was on Iyashii¡¦s mind. Replying to what Iyashii had said, Perseus said in a friendly tone, ¡§It is nice to see you as well, Iyashii.¡¨ Perseus offered the genial smile he had perfected to diffuse any tension in meetings such as this. He turned to Jake and said in the same sociable tone, ¡§It¡¦s good to see old classmates.¡¨

[Jake Rainyar]

Jake yawned and stretched backward as he felt the soreness from the hard cot slowly pan out. His eyes drifted around the small room he had at the Black Cauldron. Business. That's why he was there. They'd gotten Intel about a group of dark wizards meeting in Knockturn Alley. Of course it was all here-say with the amount of Intel they'd been getting that was wrong. Really they were just flooding the systems, trying to divert them from the actual place of meeting, but Jake was once again sent out to try to investigate. Jake had been out of training at the academy for little less than 4 months, but had graduated from the Auror academy with top grades and being one of the top students, that's why he'd gotten placed into the Auror division of Wizard Safety and Muggle Protection. He didn't mind it one bit. He loved his job and he would do anything to make sure that people were safe.

Jake pulled off his briefs and changed into a clean set of muggle clothes quickly. He had places to check out in Knockturn Alley. He pulled the dark blue button up shirt around him and he quickly made himself presentable as he stuffed his wand into the small sheath that hung from the waist of his jeans. With his appearance at least somewhat presentable he exited his room and took off down the stares, stopping at the counter just long enough to down a strong cup of tea, and then heading out the back door to the small wall. He took out his wand and tapped the corresponding bricks quickly, the wall opening up before him. Immediately his senses flared out as he quickly took in everything and everyone around him. That was his training kicking into gear, now if only he could find the individuals meeting together.

Jake knew it wouldn't be as easy as he hoped it would be and as such he took off down the street casually as if he was just another person looking through the shops as always. His eyes the only thing that seemed to betray him as he intently watched everything. His feet padded softly against the cobblestone as he ducked into Knockturn Alley, eyes wandering over the dark wizards and witches that still liked to hang out there, even though it was full admittance to the Ministry that they were not to be trusted. Jake tried not to pay any attention to them as he continued on with his mission to find the meeting place. However as time went by there was no sign until Jake caught site of a Raven taking off quickly from somewhere in the depths of Knockturn Alley. He moved quickly through the maze of paths, only to find that he reached the place where the Raven was and found nothing, no one. Jake cursed under his breath as he realized that he had probably been made and with that he turned from Knockturn Alley, knowing that all would be lost.

Trudging back outside the dark alley, Jake's eyes fell around him on the smiling faces and happy people. They were oblivious to everything that was happening and it was probably a good thing. Life was never as easy as they wanted to believe it was. Jake of all people understood that completely. He was sent here on one mission and somehow someone had made him, but he wasn't sure how. It wasn't common knowledge that Jake had gone into the Auror Academy and it was definitely not common knowledge that he had actually graduated from the place. No one knew him really and that was what Jake wanted, but if no one knew him then why had that Raven been there? It had to have been used to communicate with the wizards that were supposed to meet there. Or maybe Jake had been wrong?

Jake stopped softly in front of the cauldron shop, ready to go back and try again when a voice interrupted his own thoughts. Jake's eyes fell upon his old classmates Iyashii Mitsuko and Perseus Feynman. Great, it's a reunion for the Slytherins, Jake thought to himself. He nodded his head at both. "Rainyar, Mitsuko, you pronounce it Rainyar. What brings you two to Diagon Alley?" Jake asked nonchalantly as he glanced over the two, weary of both of them. They could very well be part of the group of dark wizards that were suppose to be meeting, if there was a meeting at all. Maybe it had been just another wild goose chase as the others had been.

[Iyashii Mitsuko]

Iyashii narrowed his eyes at Perseus, wondering what the former Slytherin was up to. Something was strange, and Iyashii felt it. He was not one to ignore these feelings, but he had his ambitions and goals on his mind, he would deal with it later. For now, He would let it go, after all, neither of them knew why he himself was in Diagon Alley. If they were not who he thought they were, there was no harm done. For some reason, he was not able to penetrate thoughts; it was never a feat he managed to master. Neku was usually the one who was good at that sort of thing. Now, he wished that he had told her to tag along. However, he could not risk her being spotted by some Auror.

Since the incidents in Sendai, Shikyo and Nekura were quite popular among the Japanese branch of the Ministry. No one knew if they actually killed their families or how either of them did it, so it was basically watching and waiting until one of them slipped. But Iyashii would not let them slip, for it would endanger him as well. In a way, they needed him. But deep down, Iyashii needed their friendship, someone to keep him going, to motivate him. And Rin was not always around. His thoughts were interrupted when the half-blood began to speak.

“Rainyar, Mitsuko, you pronounce it Rainyar…” Iyashii fought back a rude laugh, but smirked a little. “Ahem, sorry about that. Rainyar…hmph, I’ll remember that.” He really did not care, no…no…he would make nice with the half-blood. He had no choice. If he wanted the Leader to recognize his efforts, he would have to swallow his beliefs. He folded his arms, a habit of his to keep people away, and shrugged, “I was just in the neighborhood to pick up some things from the Apothecary. You know, trying some things out. I don’t know if you know, but I’m working in Sendai for now…Japanese Ministry. Department of…well…never mind.”

He was not allowed to talk about his work, training in the Department of Mysteries. He laughed; it was rather silly though, considering whom he was really working for. “Anyway…how has life been…outside of the castle?”

[Perseus Feynman]

((So... I'm sorry for being gone, but things are getting busy and I've got to start preparing for SAT IIs and stuff, but I'd like to continue this post later when I have time and when you guys have time. Have we figured out what will happen in this post yet? I'm not sure where my owl went so you guys need to send me the details if you have figured it out.))