J.
Grant.
Archer Record.
IRE.
Dumbledore.

James sat up, awake well after he ought to have fallen asleep. He held his head up with one hand, elbow on the table, staring blearily at the tiny bit of paper in his hand. Beside his elbow there sat a cup of tea that had been steaming when he started, but was now cold and bleak. His lips moved as he silently read the words - over and over and over again - illuminated only by the soft glow of the stove hood light.

"So you are home then," Lily's voice was sleepy and she yawned as she came into the kitchen, tying the belt of her dressing robe, shuffling in dainty pink bunny slippers. "I was getting worried, you were working so - so late." She yawned again as she walked up and rubbed his shoulders, bending to kiss the top of his head.

"Been home," he murmured absently.

Lily reached for his sad little tea cup, "It's cold, honey..."

"Forgot about it..."

She poured it out over the sink, then drew her wand and two fresh cups of chamomile in the pink rose budded cups. She sat down at the table beside him, scooting her chair to be close next to him, and placed the second cup in front of him. "Drink. It'll help you get some rest." She reached for a file that lay open before him and folded it closed gently, "Whatever this is, you can work on it in the morning." She could see the exhaustion in his eyes.

"Uh huh."

Lily reached up and tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear. "James... love... what is it?"

He absently held the bit of paper up for her to inspect. She took it from his fingers and read it. Then, "What's it mean?"

"Dunno, do I?" James groaned and put his forehead down on the table in defeat. "I don't have the foggiest, even." His voice shook with the mental torture of it.

Lily sighed and rubbed the back of his shoulders and neck comfortingly.

James drew a deep breath.

"Drink your tea," Lily said gently.

"Will it tell me what this rubbish means?" he asked, sitting up and plucking the paper from her hand. "I mean,  bleedin' hell, what was this supposed to even mean?"

Lily pursed her lips, thinking, as she sipped her tea. "Who is it from? It doesn't look like Dumbledore's writing."

"It isn't. That's not a signature. It's a clue," James explained. "It's Underhill who's written it..." He told her about what had happened when he went to the office, how he'd overheard the conversation between the two men and how Underhill had discreetly deposited the note to the floor by his trainers.

"He knew you were there," Lily observed.

James nodded. "Asked me there especially to witness the entire thing, I suspect. He didn't seem to have much else a reason for me to be there, nothing special to work on or anything. Then the first thing he said was to stay down."

Lily mused, "Odd... You don't think he could be working for You Know Who?"

James shook his head. "He called Voldemort weak, Evans. Right in front of the other bloke, who I do think might have been a death eater. Or at least defecting from it. Maybe someone turning over our side? I dunno. Never heard the voice in my life before..."

"Why would Mr. Underhill have wanted you to hear the conversation?" Lily asked. "And why not tell you things to you directly, rather than in this cryptic note?"

"Dunno," James replied. "But its something to do with Marjorie Veigler, I reckon."

He quickly filled Lily in, too, on Sirius's theory that Mr. Grant had been involved in the investigation of Ned Veigler's imperius curse and how he and Sirius were in agreement that Grant himself may have been compromised at one point, when Anne had been sent to the Thickey ward during her hospitalization. "I honestly think its all somehow connected and whatever is going on, there's some reason that Underhill himself can't be the auror on the case. Whatever it is, he can't be involved. I just haven't the foggiest why."

"Why would he say you were gullible, though?"

"Dunno, maybe to throw whoever the other bloke was off my trail?" He rubbed his face over his hands. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know...  blimey, Evans, I've never felt so thick in all my life!"

Lily finished her tea, sighed and shook her head. "I think you need rest, James."

"I reckon you're right," he murmured, and suddenly he sounded profoundly tired, like a tuckered out child at the end of a long day.

Lily waved her wand and the teacups were gone, vanished away, and she pulled James up to his feet, guiding him along to the bedroom. "Come on, Love."

He followed along, head nodding sleepily, hugging onto her for support. When they got to the bedroom, she handed him the folded pair of pyjamas, smiling at the little snitches that dotted the years-old fabric. He took off his glasses and tumbled into bed, sighing with relief as his head hit the pillows. Lily cleared off the books she'd had scattered over the quilt, marking her places and stacking the old handwritten volumes up on the desk.

"Did you solve it then?" he asked.

"Solve what?"

"The runes," James answered. "All the Mazeek Amrywar?"

"Magique Amore," she corrected, then shook her head, "No, but Remus and Sirius were off to bed before I got home. I looked about through the books a bit. What I could read of it, it's not so much complicated as much --" Lily paused, hearing James snore. She turned about and found he was out like a light, mouth wide open, hair a mess on the pillow. She smiled, finished stacking the books, and climbed into the bed, snuggling close to him so that he instinctively turned over, wrapping his arm about her.

"Good night, Potter," she whispered.

His voice was muffled against the pillow. "Night Evans."

"Who the bloody hell writes such a thick book in runes? ...and entirely by hand?!" Sirius's voice rode over the sound of his record player, which was blearing The Beatles from the next room.

"Will you go and dance or else turn that ruddy thing off so we can concentrate here?" Remus asked grumpily.

Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Honestly, you're a bossy wolf...." and off he went to the living room.

Remus rolled his eyes, then turned back to Lily and the books at hand. He ran his hand carefully over the page, squinting at the runes, considering them.

"What do you think?" Lily asked, "Do you recognize any of them? Some of them seem a but familiar, but I think its in the way that some of the Greek letters are similar to English ones, but others are so different."

Remus nodded. "It seems... like an old version of one of the runic codes we learned in class... let me see." He got up and hurried down the hall.

Lily flipped absently through the pages as she waited for Remus to come back, looking over the runes and Professor Laurie's scrawls.

Remus returned quickly, carrying a thick leather bound volume. "Here it is, look here... It's an ancient runic code... The full key isn't in this book, but see... Look at these two runes. Very unique, but... I mean, it looks right to me."

Lily took the book aa he offered it up and compared one of the mysterious runes in the handwritten book against the codex in the textbook. Aside from differences in Professor Laurie's handwriting against an official textbook, the runes were exactly alike. Lily's fingers travelled along the page, matching several other runes against Remus's book.

"Do you reckon there's a full version of this codex at your uni's library?" Lily asked.

Remus nodded, "I can certainly see if there is for you."

"Brilliant."

James suddenly leaned down over Lily's shoulder, kissing her cheek. "What's brilliant, Evans?" he asked.

"Remus found the runes I need for the books," Lily said, turning her face to kiss James back.

"Ah the Remcyclopedia's done it for you again, ey?" James grinned. "Maybe you can solve my latest, too, huh, Moony?" He flicked the bit of paper into Remus's hands. "See what you've got to make of that!" Turning to the fridge, James yanked it opened and bent in to forage.

Remus's brow furrowed. "This is gibberish."

"That is some kind of clue," James said, standing back up and popping a handful of grapes into his mouth, then, talking around the food, "Han-deliffered-by-Unnerhihh-hisseff."

Remus frowned and stared intently at the paper.

The Beatles record had come to an end in the living room, and moments later Sirius came bounding in - in dog form - carrying his leash in his mouth and wagging his tail with enthusiasm.

"Time to take your dog out, Remus," James said.

Remus sighed. "Alright, come on... But I swear to Merlin, if you chase after those bleedin' pigeons again, I'm dropping your leash and walking home without you."

Snuffles barked excitedly and spun about in circles three times with joy as Remus got up and snapped the leash onto the shaggy dog's neck. "If we aren't back in twenty minutes, please accio me!" Rey joked as Sirius all but dragged him out the door.

James popped more grapes into his mouth. "I haven't anywhere to be until after half twelve," he said. "You?"

Lily shook her head. "Nothing particular today. What have you got at half noon?"

"Lunch with Conatance Merriweather - the mediwitch who worked on the night the mystery visitor went to see Annie Veigler." James smirked, "Don't worry, Evans. She's of retirement Age."

Lily laughed, "I wasn't worried."

"Do you want to come, actually? We could have a bit of a duck, investigating and the like," James suggested. "It might actually be good having a second set of ears on what she's got to say."

Lily's eyebrow raised. "What? And how would the ministry feel about you bringing along your fiancée to your first official investigation?"

"Well...." James hesitated, "It's certainly not official, first off. Secondly, I - well, it would add a bit of credibility, really. See, I've sort of told a bit of a fibber."

"Oh?"

James's mouth twisted into the lopsided grin Lily loved so much as his face reddened - only making the smile all the more adorable, mind. "Yeah, see, I didn't want the Ministry to know I was holding the interview, I sort of got her information a bit illegally, and Remus pointed out it might lead to trouble. Especially since I'm sort of doing this whole case under the table anyhow... So when I contacted Constance Merriweather, I told her I was a student in uni, studying medicine, and I had to do a paper which required me to interview a mediwitch that had worked a randomly assigned case the Professor's choosing from old declassified Mungos records."

"James!"

"Yeah. I told her I chose her because my girlfriend's name was Constance as well."

"So if I go with you, you'll be calling me Constance the whole time?" Lily laughed.

"Yeah. Well, what's more is I didn't want my name connected with the interview, so I sort of told her my name was Tibirius Rosenblat."

Silence hung between them.

"Tibirius Rosenblat?" Lily repeated, incredulous.

"Yeah."

"Where the bloody hell did that name come from?" she asked laughing.

James shrugged, "I was thinking off the cuff, I haven't the foggiest."

"Tibirius Rosenblat. You are - something else."

"Why thank you, my dear Constance."

Lily laughed, "And do I have a last name?"

"With a name like Constance? Bleedin' hell, isn't Constance name enough?"

"Constance Kirkkengaard," Lily said.

"Constance Kirkkengaard?"

"Soon to be Constance Kirkkengaard-Rosenblat."

"Right unfortunate, that is!"

"Indeed!"

Suddenly the door of the flat burst open in the other room, and Lily and James got up and went out to see what the matter was. Sirius came rushing in the door as Remus was hanging up his jacket. The collar and leash still hung from Sirius's neck, though he was in human form.

"Oh c'mon, Moonshine, darling, I was only having a spot of fun!"

"I told you no!"

"But the pigeons! They're the most infuriating creatures alive, I swear, I--"

"No! YOU are the most infuriating creature alive, rather!" Remus said rolling his eyes and heading into the hallway to the room.

Sirius slammed the door shut and, barely glancing at James and Lily, ran after Remus, "But, but... MOONMOON, they COOED AT ME! And the way their heads bob - its so... unnatural... how's a dog to resist them?!"

Lily covered her mouth to keep from laughing as they heard the bedroom door slam shut, followed by the sound of Sirius banging on it and trying at the knob.

"C'mon Remuuuus, let me in?" he was whimpering.

Lily looked at James, "Well, Tibirius, it sounds like the perfect time for us to be off while these nutters work out... whatever that is."

"I couldn't agree more, Kirkkengaard," he said, nodding, "I couldn't agree more."